The Core DumpThe Core Dump is the personal blog of Nic Lindh, a Swedish-American pixel-pusher living in Phoenix, Arizona.2023-11-03T17:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/Nic Lindhnicl@thecoredump.orgBook roundup, part 362023-11-03T17:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2023/11/book-roundup-36/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9781250866448">Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Matthew Perry always seemed like a good guy to me. Of course he completely immersed himself in the character of Chandler Bing, but was a solid actor in general from what I could see. I of course, as a sentient being, knew that he had issues with addiction and spent time in rehab during the shooting of <em>Friends</em>, but that was about it.</p>
<p>Reading his autobiography right after his passing is a bit of a gut punch. Boy, you talk about having demons. How he managed to perform at all, not to mention perform at the level he did is astonishing when you understand his struggles and the sheer depth of his addictions.</p>
<p><em>Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing</em> feels very honest and raw, with Perry not flinching from accepting his own behavior and describing his struggles to get better, both with his addictions and the psychological issues driving them.</p>
<p>It’s also wrenching toward the end, as he has found his sobriety and gratitude for the blessings he has had, and you know he will soon be dead.</p>
<p>R.I.P.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9781982146863">Extremely Online, by Taylor Lorenz</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Extremely Online</em> traces the evolution of online influencers from the days of the mommy blogger to today’s YouTube megastars. How influencers engage with both their fans, their platforms, and their advertisers is constantly evolving, and Lorenz does a great job of both being exhaustive and of moving the story along. So many names! So many influencers! So many schemes!</p>
<p>As an Internet Old, it felt a little weird to read about trends and platforms I was only vaguely aware of as they were happening. Vaguely aware, since I am a cis white male and both the female and young social spaces where the most frenetic activity was going on are a bit outside my wheelhouse.</p>
<p>Lorenz makes the very valid point that a lot of especially early social media was derided as vacuous because it was by women, for women, and thus not to be taken seriously. I’m glad she wrote <em>Extremely Online</em> to help fill in the historical record and to give credit where credit is due.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9780593443811">Number Go Up, by Zeke Faux</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>I knew cryptocurrencies were mostly scams and that there never was a "there” there, but I’m still floored by Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up. It’s all scams and the worst human beings possible. Jeebus.</p>
<p>The story of course involves the spectacular flame-out of Sam Bankman-Fried, the debacle of using Bitcoin as official currency in El Salvador, those ridiculous NFTs, and the farcical Terra/Luna stablecoin scheme, but also the two real use cases for crypto out there: money laundering and ransom payments. Which of course leads to human trafficking and horrific abuses. Great work there, true believers.</p>
<p>Faux writes breezily and avoids the pitfalls of getting sucked in to all the made-up BS that shrouds the scams. Highly recommended and more than a little depressing.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9781324022114">Mercury Rising, by Jeff Shesol</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Traces the beginnings of NASA and the Mercury program, and puts it in context of the Cold War and the fear of the Soviet Union dominating space, thus gaining the ability to drop nukes wherever it pleased.</p>
<p><em>Mercury Rising</em> does a good job of showing the paranoia and fear of the Cold War, as well as the initial resistance to the cost of the space program and how it turned into a huge morale booster for the United States.</p>
<p>Also shows what a horrible hand John F. Kennedy was dealt as he entered the White House. And of course the amazing human qualities and weaknesses of the Mercury 7 astronauts, with John Glenn at the forefront.</p>
<p>This is a great look back at the fears and hopes of the beginning of the Cold War and the incredible effort by the astronauts as well as all the support staff and engineers working on making the rockets not explode catastrophically.</p>
<p>It boggles the mind that eighteen thousand people spread across the globe were involved in the first Mercury launch.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9781250214850">The End of the Myth, by Greg Grandin</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>The End of the Myth</em> is an extremely thorough look at the American psyche and its relation to the idea and concept of the frontier and expansion.</p>
<p>The book traces the American idea of expansion back to the Founding Fathers and how they intended expansion to prevent society from fracturing into haves and have-nots. They were keenly aware from the French Revolution what happens when the gap between haves and have-nots grows too wide. From there, the Blood Meridian and the Louisiana Purchase, then the expansion into Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Phillipines, and now the stagnation of no more room to expand and the Mexican Border becoming a crucial symbol.</p>
<p><em>The End of the Myth</em> is exhaustive and dense and could have done with some editing—it’s a bit of a slog at times. But its exhaustiveness gives it weight and makes it hard to refute its central thesis about how the American myth is coming to its end.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9781538708057">The Big Break, by Ben Terris</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A smoothly and punchily written tale of various operators in Washington, D.C trying to navigate the rocky return to “normalcy” in politics after the turmoil of the Trump administration, <em>The Big Break</em> includes congressional staffers, an oil fortune heiress attempting to become a power player, a now-disgraced Democratic pollster, a now-disgraced Republican kingpin, and a burned-out staffer who decides to stage his own one-man late-night protest in a senator’s office featuring shrooms, a joint, and R&B.</p>
<p>It’s an engaging, easy read, and also really frightening. I recognize these are all human beings, but for me they might as well come from Mars.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in the culture of D.C., pick up <em>The Big Break</em>.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Bookshop affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s greatly appreciated. But you do you.</p>
Trip report to Sweden summer 20232023-08-24T18:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2023/08/trip-report-2023/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/swedish-landscape.jpg" /></p>
<p>I spent the month of July and the first few weeks of August in Sweden, which meant I missed this summer’s epic heatwave in Phoenix. For which I am grateful. Of course, July in Phoenix is always a bag of hurt, but this summer was truly awful. And still is, don’t get me wrong. Still hot.</p>
<p>The weather in Sweden was perfect for my purposes. In the 50s and 60s with lots of rain and overcast days, so the opposite of Phoenix. It also reminded me of my childhood summers, listening to the rain smattering on the roofs of the campers, making it plenty nostalgia-inducing. Of course it was miserable for the Swedish people who’d been waiting all year for warmth and sun, but I was not responsible for the weather, let me make that clear.</p>
<p>The first weeks were vacation, and then I worked remotely from my parents’ house, the house I grew up in. Let me tell you, you get plenty of opportunity to think about the passing of time and of mortality when middle-aged you spend weeks in your childhood home with your parents.</p>
<p>But first I had to get from Phoenix to Skövde, which turned out to be a non-trivial exercise.</p>
<p>I was scheduled to fly out Wednesday 28 July, but Canadian smoke, storms on the East Coast, and FAA shortages had closed a lot of flights. Thousands of them, in fact.</p>
<p>My flight was scheduled to take off at 2:24 p.m., but according to my flight app it was delayed to 6:07 p.m. Which meant it would land in Chicago after the flight from Chicago to Copenhagen departed. Which would obviously be a problem.</p>
<p>So I spent eight hours at the United check-in line to wait to talk to somebody who could sort things out. It was extra fun since I was booked on SAS, but the flight was operated by United. Let’s do some foreshadowing: This codeshare system does not work very well. At a certain point of waiting in the interminable line, I had a choice to make: I could get on the flight to Chicago, knowing I’d be stranded there and looking for a rebooking, or wait in line to get things sorted. I chose the line. Landing in Chicago at midnight and hoping to sort things out is a young man’s game, and I’ve spent enough time sleeping in terminals.</p>
<p>So, eight hours waiting in a line that hardly moves. The vibes were bad, bad bad. People were being such whiny bitches, and especially being rude as hell to the ticketing agents, the only people who were actively trying to help the situation. If it had been before Covid I would have been appalled, but now I know more about how people are, so sadly I was not surprised. Not that there weren’t several people I desperately wanted to punch in the face. Self-restraint, self-restraint.</p>
<p>As a bonus, United’s hold music has annoying bagpipes. Which I heard plenty during my eight hours in line since most people had their phones on speaker mode trying to get through, as well as the ticketing agents who were also trying to find somebody at ops to help them.</p>
<p>I finally got to an agent and it was obviously all screwed. She worked valiantly to rebook me, and I ended up flying out midnight Friday night, two days later, since there were no flights.</p>
<p>This meant spending ten hours at Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5, the place where hope dies, after a red-eye flight. The McDonald’s in Terminal 5 has no seating, so people were finding seats all over the terminal to eat, spreading the smell everywhere. An odd, slightly sweet smell that wouldn’t exist if there were a benevolent God, hovered like a miasma across the terminal.</p>
<p>As a bonus at O’Hare I discovered that a new asshole had dropped: A guy watching a movie on his laptop without headphones so that the people next to him who were trying to relax while waiting for their flights could enjoy the sounds of sirens, explosions, and gunshots. Such an astonishing level of assholery.</p>
<p>After that I caught my freshly rebooked flight to Munich and then on to Gothenburg. That was a long journey, and I can still feel the O’Hare McDonalds in the back of my throat.</p>
<p>But, outbound journey done.</p>
<p>Sweden was mostly eating a lot of carbs, especially potatoes, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, and shredded potatoes turned into pancakes. All the potatoes. And lingonberry. Boy, I love lingonberry.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lingonberry.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Swedish lunch with raggmunk, pork and lingonberry" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Traditional Swedish lunch of raggmunk (potato pancakes) and pork. Drenched in lingonberry jam and served with lingonberry juice. I had forgotten how delicious lingonberry is. Lingonberry is life.</i></p>
<p>It always does surprise me a bit how empty Skövde—which is an inland city—is in July. July is the traditional Swedish vacation month and Swedes do so love the coast, so the inland empties out to a surprising amount. So few people. So few cars. So little going on. Same thing with the media. Such empty, such wow.</p>
<p>Not that everybody takes vacation in July, but the vast majority from what I could see.</p>
<p>I flew out on Friday, August 18, and had lunch with my sister in town that previous Wednesday, which seemed like it was the first post-vacation week for many people, and the difference was stark. All of a sudden there were a lot of cars on the road and a lot of people in the city. As behooves the return from vacation it was a dreary day with a mist-like rain, even though the weather prognosis was for cloudy but not rainy, something a lot of people around us commented on. “The weather app said it wasn’t going to rain!”</p>
<p>Yes, checking the weather report and your weather app are crucial for the thinking Swedish person. Not the dull monotony of the Phoenix weather, which is going to be hot and sunny tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. Until a stray monsoon pops up out of nowhere and surprises everybody. But it‘s probably going to be hot and sunny.</p>
<p>But let us now turn our attention to the absolutely vile state of digital media. I was on vacation, so I had time to catch up on some shows and movies.</p>
<p>Except.</p>
<p>Hulu just throws up a screen saying you can’t watch from outside the US. Great, I have a US account and you have logs of me watching from the US for years, but as soon as I’m outside the border I’m cut off? So Hulu’s out.</p>
<p>MAX won’t let me log in since “this region is not supported.” Because they haven’t migrated HBO MAX to MAX in Scandinavia, I guess? But I can’t log in to HBO MAX because I now have a MAX account, not that I had a choice. HBO NORDIC is a still a thing, but I can’t watch it, nope. Golf clap. Long, long, angry golf clap.</p>
<p>Do you want me to pirate? Beause this is how you get me to pirate.</p>
<p>Same thing with music. I sometimes like to listen to Swedish music, but some songs are greyed out in Spotify. Why? I don’t know, something with rights, I suppose. But when I’m in Sweden I can surely listen to Swedish music, right? Nope. Some songs are still greyed out even though I’m in Sweden.</p>
<p>Like I wanted to listen to E-Type’s “True Believer” since it was the song of the Swedish Women’s Soccer National Team. Could I? No, I could not. At least not on Spotify. Most of his songs were there, but not this one. So what to do? What to do? Oh, I know, jump on YouTube and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HktViXOnS1M">listen to it there</a>. Warning: This whole video is incredibly white.</p>
<p>I do find it kind of fascinating the semi-official victory song of the Swedish Women’s Soccer National Team is by a Swedish artist using the name of an English car and singing in English. It probably means something, but I’m not sure what.</p>
<p>Note that far as I can figure out this whole state of affairs is only because I have a US Spotify account. Friends with Swedish Spotify accounts did not have the song greyed out. I’m on a legit Swedish IP address, no VPN, and yet. And yet. As an aside, it’s amazing how much Swedish music, with Swedish lyrics, is randomly greyed out for me. I’m assuming lawyers were involved. Because, seriously, record companies, that Swedish song with Swedish lyrics that was released in 1982? Do you really think you need to protect it for your global marketing launch? Is that what you’re doing? While there are four videos of it on YouTube without any kind of geocoding?</p>
<p>Alas, my time of being angry at the state of digital media was coming to an end and it was time to fly back to Phoenix and the blistering heat.</p>
<p>As one does, I tried to check in online, but online checkin was “not available.”</p>
<p>Uh-oh. Sigh.</p>
<p>Then it was rise and shine at four a.m. to catch the taxi to Landvetter at five a.m. Yet another morning of light rain.</p>
<p>I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and, guess what? They couldn’t check me in. As part of the airpocalypse and rebooking flying out I’d been double-booked somehow.</p>
<p>This was stress I didn’t need.</p>
<p>But in the end the ticket agent just had to call their support and they were able to figure it out and get me checked in an all the way to Phoenix, baby!</p>
<p>So, Gothenburg to Copenhagen, then five hours to loiter at Kastrup airport. Which, if you haven’t been, is very nice. That is one high-end airport! Are you bored waiting for your flight and wish to purchase a new set of Bang & Olufsen speakers for your house? You can do that at Kastrup. I’m assuming tax free, but didn’t check.</p>
<p>Also notable, no hamburger chain restaurants from what I could see. No McDonald’s, no Burger King, no nothing. Just nice little high-end casual restaurants.</p>
<p>I had a two hour and 20 minute layover in Chicago. This was slightly tighter than I like, but I’ve done that several times and it should be fine. So what happened? It took over an hour to get through passport control. I would have missed my flight if the security checkpoint line hadn’t been mercifully short. Which it was, so I made it just as the flight started boarding.</p>
<p>But speaking of passport control, where I spent over an hour waiting. It’s a not-big area and it was packed full of people, and of course the ventilation was poor, it was summer in Chicago, so it was warm and humid and nasty with a sheen on everybody’s bodies standing in the line waiting to make it through.</p>
<p>Because there are no diseases that spread through the air. So why build ventilation into the space where literally people are coming through from all over the world? Seems gay. It’s not like we know from the Covid years that ventilation is super important to prevent the spread of airborne viruses.</p>
<p>We can have aircraft carriers but we can’t have working A/C when we enter the country.</p>
<p>There were also so few people wearing masks in general. Which frankly astonished me. We’re packed like sardines, there’s no ventilation, we’ve just gotten off planes from all over the world, and <em>meh, it’ll be fine</em>?</p>
<p>Same thing on the planes, though. So few masks. I’m sure carelessly flying around spreading viruses is not going to bite us on the ass at all.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, boarded the flight to Phoenix, and then we ended up sitting on the tarmac for an hour, raising my fears there was something wrong with the plane the pilot didn’t want to tell us about and we were going to have to return to the gate and oh, God, I’m going to have to find a hotel in Chicago and I’m so tired, but then we finally ascended to the skies.</p>
<p>And then finally we landed in Phoenix and speaking of a new asshole dropping, some asshole, I kid you not, started playing music on their bluetooth speaker as we deplaned. Yep, serenaded the entire deplaning crowd with their choice of music.</p>
<p>And then it turns out I landed on the same plane from Chicago that then turns around and becomes the midnight flight I flew out on.</p>
Airport vibes are bad and you will feel bad2023-07-12T16:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2023/07/airports/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/munich-airport.jpg" /></p>
<p>So I was part of the last week in June 2023 flightpocalypse where the Eastern Seaboard basically shut down because of extreme weather, smoke from the Canadian wildfires—which are still raging as of this writing—and at least according to United, a lack of FAA personnel. It sucked. Especially Wednesday, June 28, when I attempted to fly out to Sweden, but had to spend eight hours in line at the Phoenix airport to get my flights rebooked and then had to return home to wait two days to actually fly out.</p>
<p>Worse than the endless standing line and then having my flight rebooked to midnight, Friday, June 30, was the behavior of my fellow air travelers. Now, should the airline have scrambled and gotten a lot more staff out to the airport and to the phone lines to help stranded travelers? Yes, absolutely.</p>
<p>That airlines don’t have enough slack capacity to deal with events like these is unacceptable.</p>
<p>But seriously, people, did the way too few check-in agents who were trying to help you cause that? No. They did not. They were working 16-hour shifts to get you on another flight or to a hotel. To get your whiny, entitled, ungrateful ass on another flight or to a hotel.</p>
<p>The amount of shitty behavior directed at service staff I witnessed that day would have shocked me if it had been pre-covid. Sadly, at this point, I expected it.</p>
<p>Listen, the people who are trying to help you will not be able to help you better because you are being an utter shit.</p>
<p>The situation sucked, but none of us were going to starve to death in a ditch because of it, and it turns out there aren’t secret planes sitting behind the terminal the airlines can deploy, but that they only will if you’re rude enough to the staff.</p>
<p>As part of this rejigger of my flights I ended up flying out at midnight on Friday (though the flight was delayed till 1:30 a.m.) and then spent ten hours at Chicago O’Hare. And that was shit. And I had a lot of time to ponder why it was so shit.</p>
<p>Obviously, the short answer is: Because everybody involved is trying to squeeze the last red cent out of everything, which sadly is the answer for most things in life at this point.</p>
<p>But, the longer answer is that everything is one giant mush of everything, and everything is <em>loud</em>. Dear Lord it is so <em>loud</em> in that airport. Which, yes, is why the good Lord gave us the option of spending hundreds of our dollars on noise-canceling headphones. Which you should totally do if you’re going to be flying the friendly skies. They’re not noise-cancelling headphones, they’re sanity preservers.</p>
<p>Also the part of Terminal 1 where I spent my purgatory has a McDonald’s. Nothing wrong with that. Heck I purchased one of their meals since I had to eat at some point during my ten hour layover.</p>
<p>But that McDonald’s doesn’t have seating, so you have to pick up your bag of grease and then try to find some place to inhale that food like an animal fleeing from predators. So there are people eating McDonald’s <em>everywhere</em>, which means the smell of McDonald’s is everywhere, permeating the entire terminal.</p>
<p>Have you thought about what McDonald’s smells like? I have. For ten hours. It’s an unnatural, sweet smell, like something that shouldn’t exist. And at O’Hare Terminal 1 it’s everywhere, since there’s no seating at McDonald’s.</p>
<p>And then there are the TVs. American airports love TVs. Because who doesn’t want to have the noise and random movement at the edge of your vision from a TV around you at all times? Actually, O’Hare isn’t too bad when it comes to TVs, but Phoenix Sky Harbor is.</p>
<p>It took some maneuvering to find a spot where I couldn’t hear and see a TV in that airport.</p>
<p>Who is this for? We all have small screens in our pockets if we would like to watch something.</p>
<p>And to make things even better, apparently since the last time I flew the friendly skies, a new asshole has dropped. That’s right! Captain I’m going to watch a movie on my laptop without headphones has entered the scene. “I’m just going to blast my laptop as loud as it can go and watch a crappy action movie so people can enjoy hearing gunshots, explosions, and sirens whether they want to or not. I am a giver.”</p>
<p>Now on to airport lounges. During my life, I have spent many an hour waiting in airports, but I’m not a wealthy man so I have never spent any time in airport lounges. But due to everything written above I would be happy to drop a significant bunch of cash on retreating into a quieter space for a while. But can I? No, I can not. I can not give my airline money to enter this hallowed space. Lounges are now only for StarDust Richie members. According to the airlines this is because too many people want to use the lounges.</p>
<p>Really? That’s odd. Why on Earth could that be?</p>
Book roundup, part 352023-06-05T17:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2023/06/book-roundup-35/
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The title links are Bookshop or Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s greatly appreciated.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9780393357363">Hello World, by Hannah Fry</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Subtitled <em>Being Human in the Age of Algorithms</em>, the book proceeds to very calmly explain exactly how to attempt to accomplish that. <em>Hello World</em> is especially timely with all the talk and all the so, so many willful misunderstandings about what algorithms are, how they are used and how they affect society. What tradeoffs are we making? Do algorithms lead to better outcomes than the human intellect? How do you define and measure those outcomes?</p>
<p><em>Hello World</em> explores these issues and more in a cool, straightforward manner, looking at the algorithms that are in use today and how they affect society for better and for worse.</p>
<p>Algorithms are a big, complicated, and infected topic riven with disinformation and hysteria, so <em>Hello World</em> really does us all a service with its calm and collected approach. Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9781565122499">A Frozen Hell, by William Trotter</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The Finnish Winter War surprised the world with the Finns’ obstinate, fierce resistance of the much-larger and better equipped Russian force. <em>A Frozen Hell</em> covers the short history of Finland as a nation and its history in relation to Russia and Germany, and then both the Winter War and in shorter format the Continuation War.</p>
<p>Basically, the Finnish Winter War is the story of a people resisting against nightmarish odds, resisting and resisting and never stopping resisting. The suffering of the Finnish people, its tenacity, and the clumsiness and brutality of the Russian army makes for harrowing but compulsive reading.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One Soviet general, looking at a map of the territory Russia had acquired on the Karelian Isthmus, is said to have remarked: “We have won just about enough ground to bury our dead.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This mirrors the most likely apocryphal quote purported to have been uttered by a Finnish soldier at the start of the conflict: “Oh, no! Our country so small and the invaders so many! Where shall we bury them all?”</p>
<p>Which to my mind at least is right up there with the Spartan “We’ll fight in the shade.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Incidents of Red aircraft strafing hospitals and hospital trains were so common that the Finns finally painted over any Red Cross insignia that were visible from the air.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Oh hey, war crimes! What a surprise.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In one village, a detachment of border guards came up to the home of an aged peasant woman and sadly informed her that she must prepare to leave her home, possibly forever, with only the belongings she could carry on her back and in the horse-drawn sled tethered near her cabin. In the morning, they would return and burn her house to the ground, so that the Russians could not sleep there. When the soldiers returned the next morning, they found the sled parked by the old woman’s door, piled high with her possessions. When they entered the farmhouse, they were startled to see that the entire dwelling had been scrubbed and whitewashed until it sparkled. Stuck to the wall by the door, the woman had left a note saying that she had gone to fetch something at a neighbor’s house and would return in time to drive the sled away in the soldiers’ company. In the meantime, the note concluded, if the soldiers would look by the stove, they would find enough matches, kindling, and petrol to burn the house quickly and efficiently. When the old woman returned, the soldiers asked her why she had gone to so much trouble. Pulling herself upright with all the dignity she could summon, she looked them in the eye and replied: “When one gives a gift to Finland, one desires that it should be like new.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9781984880871">Powers and Thrones, by Dan Jones</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Dan Jones’s <em>Powers and Thrones</em> is a sweeping account of the Middle Ages that really brings home just how much that history still affects the modern world. Highly recommended, but be aware that it is a doorstop. Jones has lots to cover, and cover it he does.</p>
<p>The fall of Rome, the rise of Islam, the arrival and empires of the steppe tribes, the reformation, the age of the knight, gothic architecture and monasteries, as well as an assortment of very interesting and scary characters, it’s all in <em>Powers and Thrones</em>.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9780765395917">Dead Country, by Max Gladstone</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Dead Country</em> kicks off a new series, The Craft Wars Series, set in the same universe and with the same characters as Gladstone’s much-beloved Craft Sequence.</p>
<p>Tara Abernathy’s dad has passed, so she returns to the village where she grew up—a village whose villagers once ran her off with torches and pitchforks—for his funeral. But bad things, nay, terrible things, are afoot.</p>
<p>As always, Gladstone’s bone-dry descriptions of how the Craft works and what it does to people are mesmerizing, but the book drags a bit in its endless Climactic Battle Scene. Still, good effort and it will be interesting to see where Gladstone goes with this.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93475/9780316561556">Blitz, by Daniel O’Malley</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Blitz</em> is the third novel in the exciting Checquy Files series. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a slog. The novel is packed full of interesting new Checquy lore, intense action sequences, and fun new ideas, but it desperately needs some editing instead of spreading all over the extremely large map O’Malley is drawing.</p>
<p><em>Blitz</em> is a brick of a novel, one of those where you read for an hour and the Kindle ticks up one percent. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but the two plots in two separate timelines we follow are all over the place and there’s so much information thrown in seemingly just because O’Malley had a cool idea that it becomes laborious to get through the thing.</p>
<p>Which is too bad since at it’s core there are two interesting novels in here.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08928MGF6/?tag=thecoredump-20">The Hope that Kills, by Ed James</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>(Not available on <a href="http://bookshop.org/">Bookshop.org</a>, so this is an Amazon link.)</p>
<p>Ah, this, the first in the Inspector Fenchurch series, is a classic rainy and bleak British crime procedural with a solid plot, a strong set of characters, and a lived-in London underworld vibe.</p>
<p>Basically the plot is that two young female sex workers are found brutally murdered, and while the police are quick to circle in on a suspect, they are unable to identify the victims.</p>
<p>Where did they come from?</p>
<p>In charge of finding the culprit, DI Fenchurch is a classically damaged and brooding detective, but he is damaged in a new and interesting way, which will no doubt play heavily into the rest of the series, and the supporting cast all have potential for larger parts in future installments.</p>
<p>If you’re in the mind to start a new series of rainy London bleakness and murder, here you go.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0892HTKV7/?tag=thecoredump-20">Worth Killing For, by Ed James</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>(Not available on <a href="http://bookshop.org/">Bookshop.org</a>, so this is an Amazon link.)</p>
<p>Continues the very good series about DI Fenchurch that started in <em>The Hope that Kills</em>, and there’s not that much add to my thoughts about the first novel.</p>
<p>And you really should start there as the novels build on each other.</p>
<p>But again, you liked <em>The Hope that Kills</em>, you’ll like <em>Worth Killing For</em>.</p>
It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom2023-05-02T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2023/05/it-is-the-folly-of-too-many/
<blockquote>
<p>It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Jonathan Swift</p>
Electric cars are fun, dammit2023-03-10T16:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2023/03/electric-cars-are-fun/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/chevy-bolt.jpg" /></p>
<p>There’s a lot of talk about electric cars these days, as their time is clearly upon us. Lots of forwards and backwards on whether they’re better of worse for the environment and whether the electric grid can handle them, etc. etc. ad nauseam.</p>
<p>I do get why people whose livelihoods are directly impacted by electric cars, like people at dealerships who make way less money off electrics since they need much less maintenance than Internal Combustion Engine cars, are not fans at all. But we are also in a moment as a civilization where getting all frothing at the mouth about things that have no bearing on your own life is normalized and even something that can make you rich, so I get why there are people who are not directly affected at all spending a lot of energy tilting at the electric car windmill.</p>
<p>But you know all this. What I’m here to talk about today is how much fun electric cars are and how future they feel. We’re clearly not going to have the flying cars we were promised in my lifetime, but hey, as a consolation price the electric cars are pretty nice!</p>
<p>I’m writing this coming up on two years as the owner of a 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, a car I picked up during the frenetic summer of 2021 when the supply lines were crashed and both new and used cars were almost impossible to find for purchase. Just adding that here in case the traumatic experience of spending oh so many evenings refreshing car dealer sites looking for incoming vehicles has tainted my experience with the Bolt.</p>
<p>But I don’t think so. And let it be said that my main and overriding concern that made me look for an electric car during those awful months was not altruistic, oh no, it was simple and selfish: I wanted to commute in the HOV lane. In Arizona, electric vehicles get the magic plates that allow you to drive in this little piece of heaven.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve commuted in electric style for almost two years, the main thing that confuses me in the entire discussion about electric cars, as alluded to above, is how nobody seems to be talking about how fun they are. The Bolt EUV, as an example, is a super mundane Chevy people mover. This is not an “enthusiast” vehicle by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a budget Chevy for crying out loud.</p>
<p>But guess what, it’s super fun! The Bolt goes like a go-cart and smokes V8s off the line like it’s from the future.</p>
<p>There’s no engine noise. No vibration. No heat. Just a slight whine from the future to let you know the motors are throbbing.</p>
<p>The quiet of the cabin even throws off the stereo volume algorithm, making it turn up the volume more than necessary at highway speeds. This algorithm is clearly tuned for the cabin decibel levels caused by an Internal Combustion Engine, so it’s louder than it should be. Which is obviously a massive first-world problem to have and I smile a bit every time I have to turn the volume down at highway speed.</p>
<p>There’s also no stop-start at stoplights. Much as I appreciate the thought behind making gasoline engines turn off while the vehicle is stationary, it’s always a bit disconcerting when the engine just cuts out. Will it start again? Guess we’ll find out when the light turns green!</p>
<p>With an electric, that’s a complete non-issue.</p>
<p>And did I mention the torque? The ungodly torque that gives you all the horsepower from standing still? Because if nothing else in this world will put a smile on your face, it’s having your staid people mover blast off like a fighter jet.</p>
<p>It is funny though to watch the grilles on electric vehicles. It seems that not having a grille is super uncomfortable for car designers.</p>
<p>Look at the Bolt at the top of this page. Look at what they did to my boy, the grille. A piece of dented plastic to cover a regular grille? Really? That was the best you could do? Dented plastic? And with the exception of Teslas, they’re all like that!</p>
<p>The BMW designers are probably the worst afflicted, deciding whatever, hippie, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-10-02/pursuits-weekly-bmw-s-beaver-toothed-electric-suv-is-just-fine">we’re keeping the hideous beaver teeth grille on the electrics as well as the petrol cars</a>. Screw you, hippies with no understanding of the noble history of the gasoline engine who’ve probably never even cried at the beauty of the first-place finisher at <a href="https://www.nuerburgring.de/en/">Nürburgring</a>. Smelly, smelly hippies. Eat grille!</p>
<p>Tesla is still the only manufacturer that seems to have been able to find designers who aren’t in a state of shock regarding what to do about the front end of the car. Just look at a Tesla grille. It’s nice, an obvious front of the vehicle.</p>
<p>We’ll know the traditional car manufacturers are serious about electric cars when they manage to not biff it with the grilles.</p>
<p>While they try to figure it out, let’s enjoy cars that are super-agile just as a byproduct of their engines.</p>
I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do2023-02-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2023/02/i-cant-believe-what-you-say/
<blockquote>
<p>I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―James Baldwin</p>
Book roundup, part 342022-10-30T19:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2022/10/book-roundup-34/
<p>I have tried to be a good boy. I’ve been reading a lot, trying very hard to rebuild my attention span from the damage dealt by the Trump administration and the pandemic, but it’s been challenging to say the least. Turns out doomscrolling and chaos are not good for your mental health or your attention span.</p>
<p>For some reason I’m especially having trouble keeping my attention on fiction. My Kindle and my Kobo (why both? Long nerd story) are littered with abandoned novels I started out engaged with and liking and then, boom, for whatever reason just couldn’t care about anymore.</p>
<p>It’s like a switch gets thrown. Which is really weird, as throughout my life I have Finished Novels I Started. This has been a defining personality trait of mine. I finish novels, dammit! I’m not one of those rich layabouts who can afford to throw away perfectly good books unread!</p>
<p>But for whatever reason, that’s just how my brain functions in this new, damaged mode: “This novel is very interesting and I can’t wait to see what happens!” A few pages later: “Nevermind! Ugh. Who cares.”</p>
<p>I’m obviously not going to call out any of those novels, since the problem is me, not them.</p>
<p>But I did make it through a few novels! They represent the ends of two great series, the restart of another and something strange and beautiful.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08XFSNBBZ/?tag=thecoredump-20">Cultish, by Amanda Montell</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The main technique cults use to control and manipulate its members is a very precise use of language, but a “cultish” kind of language manipulation is also used by brands and influencers across society. Their goal is to increase sales instead of making you move to their weird commune, but the same kinds of techniques will move the sales needle as well as the subjugation needle.</p>
<p><em>Cultish</em> is an eye-opening look at how language is used to push your buttons and should be required reading.</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1636140254/?tag=thecoredump-20">Nein, Nein, Nein, by Jerry Stahl</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Nein, Nein, Nein</em> is Jerry Stahl’s account of his Holocaust tour—yes, Holocaust tours are very much a thing—and the struggle with his personal demons that drove him to attempt to sell the story of his bleak, ruined life as a sitcom, and to, during that ongoing catastrophe, visit Holocaust sites as the child of a survivor.</p>
<p><em>Nein, Nein, Nein</em> is so, so utterly bleak, but also enormously funny and warm and above all humane.</p>
<p>Highly recommended if you can handle military-grade bleakness.</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1501199439/?tag=thecoredump-20">Driven, by Alex Davies</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>So what’s up with self-driving cars? We were supposed to have them years ago, and Tesla will even sell you a self-driving beta so you can go your merry way scrolling on your phone while your car drives itself. (Tesla says you obviously have to be ready to take control of the car, you idiot, but nudge nudge wink wink.)</p>
<p>Turns out autonomous vehicles are really, really hard to get right. <em>Driven</em> is the story of how DARPA set the industry in motion with a self-driving challenge, and how for years tons of money and excitement have been sunk into self-driving, only to get so incredibly close but never quite there.</p>
<p><em>Driven</em> is an engaging look at the personalities and companies behind the push for autonomous vehicles, the work that’s been done, and the work that needs to be done. And of course outsized Silicon Valley personalities.</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0316392456/?tag=thecoredump-20">Happy-go-Lucky, by David Sedaris</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The brilliant David Sedaris loves to travel the country to stand on a stage and read his work. He’s one of the many performers and extroverts who went through a difficult time during the pandemic lockdowns. This was compounded by the death of his father. A father with whom, as everybody who’s read Sedaris’s earlier work knows, he had a difficult relationship.</p>
<p>During the pandemic, deprived of his usual routines and comforts, he also has to come to terms with the fact that both his father and mother are gone.</p>
<p><em>Happy-go-Lucky</em> is probably the darkest Sedaris book I’ve read, which does make it appropriate for these times, but yeah, strap in.</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0735217955/?tag=thecoredump-20">The Nineties, by Chuck Klosterman</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>It’s hard to overstate how disruptive the ’90s were, whether you’re talking music, culture, politics, or the Internet. In <em>The Nineties</em>, Klosterman does an excellent job of reminding those of us who lived through it what it was like, and also letting the younger crowd get a taste of the upheaval.</p>
<p>If you would like to learn or be reminded about recent history, this is a strong recommend.</p>
<p>“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0743406567/?tag=thecoredump-20">Fargo Rock City, by Chuck Klosterman</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Life is a journey of discovery, and one thing I learned about myself recently watching HBO’s <em>Peacemaker</em> was just how much trashy ’80s metal I listened to back in the day and how much of it still takes up residence in some of my long-suffering neurons. But should I feel bad about the amount of sleazy hair spray music me and my network of friends traded and dubbed onto cassettes back in the day? Was it really that terrible?</p>
<p>Klosterman makes the case that yes, a lot of it was, let’s say problematic, but in the end, when you’re a 13-year-old boy in a small town metal rocks. And the louder and dumber it is, the more it rocks. And as a young man in a small town you should definitely not be ashamed of wanting to rock.</p>
<p>For me, reading <em>Fargo Rock City</em> was surprisingly soothing and validating. If you also have skeletons with hair spray in your record collection you might want to see if it will help you too.</p>
<p><em>Throws horns, turns up Shout at the Devil.</em></p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06XC4JB1W/?tag=thecoredump-20">The Scholast in the Low Water Kingdom, by Max Gladstone</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>This is a strange little novella that I believe is only available on the Kindle as a <a href="http://tor.com/">Tor.com</a> Original. Technically, I suppose it’s far-future sci-fi, but in reality it’s a dreamy and strange account of an inflection point in a culture and a terrible, barely-understood war.</p>
<p>If you’re in the mood for something a bit out of focus and ethereal, this will hit the spot.</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0062951572/?tag=thecoredump-20">King Bullet, by Richard Kadrey</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Ah, the 12th and final Sandman Slim novel is here. The series has been having a bit of a hard time of it for the last few installments, struggling with where to go next, so it’s great to get an ending. True to form, the ending goes full-blast no-holds-barred with all the pyrotechnics you could hope for. Obviously, you’d be nuts to start here, but if you’ve gotten to the end of the Sandman Slim series, <em>King Bullet</em> puts it to bed with a bow.</p>
<p>This must have been a really hard landing to stick, so kudos to Kadrey, and also thank you for an absolutely bonkers series!</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0765363445/?tag=thecoredump-20">The God is Not Willing, by Steven Erikson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Squee!</em> Malazan is back! <em>The God is Not Willing</em> is the first installment in a trilogy that is a sequel to the brilliant <em>Books of the Fallen</em> series and I for one could not be more excited.</p>
<p><em>The God is Not Willing</em> does feel a bit like Erikson is finding his sea legs again, a bit tentative and meandering, but nevertheless, it does pick up speed and gravity as it goes along. And just wait till you find out which god is not willing! If this were a podcast I’d be playing the airhorn right now. <em>Wap wap wap!</em></p>
<p>If you’ve read the <em>Books of the Fallen</em>, well, you know what to do.</p>
<h3><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0316332917/?tag=thecoredump-20">Leviathan Falls, by James S. A. Corey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Far as I’m concerned, <em>The Expanse</em> is one of the best sci-fi series ever. So rich in culture—<em>beltalowda!</em>—characters and plot, so fantastic and out there and also so relatable. Just a phenomenal work of fiction.</p>
<p>But now it’s done. Dusted. <em>Leviathan Falls</em> ends at least this cycle of the plot in decent fashion. Of course it’s frustrating since there’s still so much about the universe we don’t know, and the grand finale nail biter feels overblown and overdone, but nevertheless it’s a good ending.</p>
<p>Godspeed, Rocinante!</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s greatly appreciated.</p>
Book roundup, part 332021-09-06T16:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2021/09/book-roundup-33/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reign-Terror-Destabilized-America-Produced/dp/B08PHBH3WM/ref=sr_1_2?tag=thecoredump-20">Reign of Terror, by Spencer Ackerman</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Reign of Terror</em> is subtitled How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, which is a good indicator of the tone of the book. A book that took me back to those years right after 9/11 when the W administration decided to respond to the terror attack by invading Afghanistan and Iraq, vastly increase the surveillance state, allow the CIA unsupervised right to torture whomever the organization pleases, and turn Muslim Americans into second-class citizens.</p>
<p>As we come up on the 20th anniversary of the defining event so far of the 21st century, it is our duty to look back at what was done in our names, to take stock and try to head down a better path.</p>
<p>Apart from the memory of watching the second plane fly into the tower on CNN—watching in uncomprehending horror—my personal biggest memory of the years after was of sitting white knuckled in rush hour traffic on the I-10 listening as NPR relayed the endless lies that brought us into an unwinnable situation in Iraq. We are going to be greeted as liberators! The war will pay for itself with Iraqi oil! We have evidence, oh such evidence! that Saddam was involved with Al-Qaeda! Evidence we’ll show you soon. Any day now. And weapons of mass destruction! Don’t forget those. We’ll have evidence for that as well any day now!</p>
<p>The moment I knew with certainty we were being led into a quagmire by grifters and lunatics was when, and it’s been a long time so my memory is hazy, but a prominent person in the War on Terror was interviewed, and he had no idea there’s more than one kind of Muslim.</p>
<p><em>Reign of Terror</em> is not a fun read, but it is necessary. And a big thank you to Ackerman for having the stamina to write it. It can’t have been easy.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Gone-Wrong-Curious-Reasons/dp/1335690050/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&tag=thecoredump-20">Evolution Gone Wrong, by Alex Bezzerides</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Evolution Gone Wrong</em> by Alex Bezzerides is a breezy look at why we suffer knee and back pain, need expensive dentistry, and suffer horrendously painful and dangerous births. There are reasons for all of it! Which may be cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless.</p>
<p>Bezzerides makes a convincing case that our bodies are in the process of transitioning from a tree-based lifestyle to a life on the ground. A good example is the human foot:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the few million years since our ancestors descended from trees, the human foot has undergone dramatic change. It has become significantly less flexible. The main responsibility of the foot is no longer gripping and grabbing but absorbing the pounding of walking on the hard earth. The foot does not always do a perfect job of absorbing the pounding […], but it also cannot grip and grasp the way it could have in the past. As with so many other human features, the foot is mired in a transition between very old and relatively new demands.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Evolution Gone Wrong</em> is an easy and fun read which won’t make your knees hurt any less, but at least you’ll know why they are hurting.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cruelty-Point-Present-Future-America/dp/0593230809/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Cruelty is the Point, by Adam Serwer</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Adam Server was looking at photos of lynchings, and was struck by how happy the white perpetrators were. In the background a mutilated Black corpse, and in the foreground, smiling white people who were clearly happy and proud of their handiwork. This helped him realize that for a certain kind of person, the cruelty is the point. For a certain kind of person, making “them” suffer is a bonding experience and a source of great personal satisfaction.</p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/">wrote an essay to elaborate on this</a>. That essay was hugely impactful for my own understanding of the Trump phenomenon.</p>
<p><em>The Cruelty is the Point</em> is a collection of Serwer’s essays published during the Trump presidency, updated with new introductions with further reflections. It’s somber reading, and I think important reading. Tempting as it is for progressives to put the Trump administration in the rear-view mirror and move on, there are lessons we must learn.</p>
<p>Remember all the handwringing about economic insecurity once it was clear Trump had won the electoral college? The coastal journalists that parachuted in to diners across swing states to find what was in the hearts of the usually white Trump voters? That whole charade.</p>
<p>It was about racism the whole time, hard as America worked to not understand that.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Overall, poor and working-class Americans did not support Trump; it was white Americans on all levels of the income spectrum who secured his victory. Clinton was only competitive with Trump among white people making more than $100,000, but the fact that their shares of the vote was nearly identical drives the point home: Economic suffering alone does not explain the rise of Trump. Nor does the Calamity Thesis explain why comparably situated black Americans, who are considerably more vulnerable than their white counterparts, remained so immune to Trump’s appeal. The answer cannot be that black Americans were suffering less than the white working class or the poor; rather, Trump’s solutions did not appeal to people of color because they were premised on a national vision that excluded them as full citizens.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As to the cruelty, which I agree with Serwer is the point, that cruelty to The Other is such an ugly reality. We don’t want to think so many of our countrymen are racists, and we don’t want to think so many of our countrymen delight in the suffering of others. And yet, it’s staring us in the face:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Trump’s only true skill is the con; his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear: immigrants, black voters, feminists, and treasonous white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. The president’s ability to execute that cruelty through word and deed makes them euphoric. It makes them feel good, it makes them feel proud, it makes them feel happy, it makes them feel united. And as long as he makes them feel that way, they will let him get away with anything, no matter what it costs them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The photos of smiling white people in front of mutilated Black corpses must be reckoned with or American history will keep repeating itself.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Liberal-Freedom-Survival/dp/1912454459/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">How to be a Liberal, by Ian Dunt</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Ian Dunt is a liberal British political journalist, so he’s spent the last several years very angry and frustrated. We are all fortunate he channeled some of that anger into writing <em>How to be a Liberal</em>.</p>
<p>Which contrary to the title isn’t so much a how-to book as it is a history of liberal thought. It is also very good. Dunt has a way of writing smooth prose that helps complicated concepts go down easy and his choices in what to include in the history of liberal thought seem solid.</p>
<p>The times we live in being the times we live in, he also includes a contrast with liberalisms current main enemy, nationalism:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The lies of the nationalist movement range from the gigantic to the trivial, from the systemic to the opportunistic. This disinformation is not just a means to an end. It is an end itself. It serves two distinct agendas. Firstly it attempts to redefine day-to-day events in whichever way most suits the nationalist narrative. Secondly it works to degrade the entire notion of empirical reality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And here’s Dunt’s definition of liberalism, which I agree with and am fighting for:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Liberalism is the struggle for the freedom of the individual. When it is truly followed, it can never be the tool of the powerful. It can never be used to oppress. It can only liberate. It rejects the false choice of the people versus the elite. It is committed to empirical reality. It stands up for institutions, and diversity, and, chief among all values, the liberty of every person to engage in their own act of self-creation. To be who they want to be. To live where they want to live. To love who they want to love. To do as they please, with the only restraints on their actions entailed by the protection of liberty for others. It pursues freedom, because freedom makes all other values possible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>How to be a Liberal</em> is a solid read for a historical understanding of what liberalism is, the intellectual framework behind it, the ground out of which it grew, and how you can defend it.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Splendid-Vile-Churchill-Family-Defiance-ebook/dp/B07TRVW6VX/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>I’m a bit of a World War II junkie and have been since I was a child. This means I’ve absorbed a lot of information about World War II in my life, including of course the Battle of Britain.</p>
<p>In <em>The Splendid and the Vile</em> Larson trawls through diaries and newspaper clippings to get a feel for what it was like for the people who lived through the Blitz while it was going on, focusing on Churchill and the people in his orbit.</p>
<p>Living through the Blitz through the eyes of the people who were there makes it a new experience as you feel their insecurity and fears. With results in hand, the Blitz was a bad experience, but through the eyes of the people who lived through it, unsure of whether they would survive, and above all unsure of whether the Germans would invade and take over Britain as they had the rest of Europe, it was a complete nightmare.</p>
<p>The tension and fear drips through the pages of <em>The Splendid and the Vile.</em></p>
<p>The work also helps flesh out the complicated picture of Churchill the man, so well suited to a hopeless war and so unsuited to peace.</p>
<p>For example, the story of one of the most famous speeches of all time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On June 4, the last day of the evacuation, in an address to the House of Commons, Churchill again turned to oratory, this time to bolster the empire as a whole. First he applauded the success at Dunkirk, though he added a sober reminder: “Wars are not won by evacuations.” As he neared the conclusion of the speech, he fired his boilers. “We shall go on to the end,” he said, in a crescendo of ferocity and confidence. “We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender—” As the House roared its approval, Churchill muttered to a colleague, “And…we will fight them with the butt end of broken bottles, because that’s bloody well all we’ve got.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Deep Work, by Cal Newport</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Deep Work</em> was both useful for me and annoying at the same time. First, the usefulness. Over the years I had allowed myself to get sucked in to a very American “respond quickly” mentality.</p>
<p>As the book reiterates, for some kinds of work, like a help desk, how quick you respond is indeed a measure of your work, but for “regular” knowledge work you have to go deep into a problem. To be able to do, as in my case, web development, you have to be able to focus for extended periods of time. Breaking the concentration to answer a question or an email or a Slack breaks the flow and it takes around 20 minutes to get back and fill your mental buffers with the information you need to do the work.</p>
<p>All of this is to say that I am very happy Calport wrote <em>Deep Work</em> and that I read it. Blocking out uninterrupted pieces of time to do deep work is crucial if you’re going to be able to do anything but the most shallow tasks. It was good to have that knowledge reinforced.</p>
<p>That being said, <em>Deep Work</em>, like most business books, feels padded. There are very juicy and important nuggets in there, but there is a lot of repetition.</p>
<p>But be that as it may, the core concept is extremely important. You can respond to emails quickly or you can do work that matters, but you can’t do both. At least not at the same time.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Desolation-Called-Peace-Teixcalaan-Book-ebook/dp/B07QPJHNSM/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>A Desolation Called Peace</em> is the sequel to the brilliant <em>A Memory Called Empire</em> and I’m pretty sure you know if you want to read these novels just from the titles. I personally could not be more in.</p>
<p><em>Desolation</em> is not quite the knockout <em>Memory</em> was, but it is very good.</p>
<p>Like the first novel in the series, the plot is hard to get into without spoilers, but basically it’s the far future and the Teixcalaanli empire is a bit of a cross between the Aztecs and the Byzantine Romans, elegant and decadent, and they are now facing a Very Serious Crisis which they need the help of a barbarian to resolve.</p>
<p><em>A Desolation Called Peace</em> is such a great title. Where did it come from? Martine does not hide the source:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles—this they name empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. —Tacitus (quoting Calgacus), Agricola 30</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The novels are stuffed full of brilliant flourishes, like how the admiral of a ship introduces herself to a new potential rival to the empire:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I negotiate on behalf of Her Brilliance the Emperor Nineteen Adze, the Edgeshine of a Knife, whose reign shatters all darkness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, Teixcalaanli names are a number and a noun. Which makes them a bit hard to remember and of course you can’t guess a person’s gender from the name.</p>
<p>Martine also has come up with the best collection of ship names since the late great Iain M. Banks (peace be upon him) in the Culture series.</p>
<p>Ship names like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Parabolic Compression, the Exultation-class medium cruiser Mad With Horizons, and the flagship Weight of the Wheel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is some good stuff. Very much looking forward to the next installment.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Stone-Heart-Obsidian-Path-ebook/dp/B083Y748QX/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Black Stone Heart, by Michael R. Fletcher</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Black Stone Heart</em> is the first novel in The Obsidian Path series and boy howdy is it something.</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with the name, Michael R. Fletcher wrote <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Redemption-Manifest-Delusions-Book/dp/B08XY6LWGF/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Beyond Redemption</a></em>, which is the most death metal fantasy novel I’ve ever come across. Seriously, <em>Beyond Redemption</em> is freaking nuts, and a great read.</p>
<p><em>Black Stone Heart</em> on the other hand is not nuts, it is a descent into madness. It has the most awful protagonist I have ever encountered, who is in turn surrounded by the worst people ever in a world that’s subject to an awful system ruled by awful people.</p>
<p>Fletcher’s gift is to make that compulsively readable. I was staying up late turning the pages to find out what would happen to Khraen, probably the most awful human ever and probably a goddess-possessed demon lord.</p>
<p>Hot diggity, <em>Black Stone Heart</em> is really something.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Blood-Obsidian-Path-Book-ebook/dp/B08TVTF17J/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">She Dreams in Blood, by Michael R. Fletcher</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Here we go. <em>She Dreams in Blood</em> is the sequel to <em>Black Stone Heart</em> and continues Khraen the demon lord’s journey to find out who he really is and what he really did to have his obsidian heart shattered and spread across the planet.</p>
<p>Turns out, things are bad, things are even worse than you thought at the end of <em>Black Stone Heart</em>. Khraen is a worse human than you thought. His goddess is a worse goddess than you thought. His friends are worse than you thought.</p>
<p>It drags a bit in the beginning as Khraen tries to justify his past and current actions to himself, but then it’s off to crazy town again.</p>
<p>And now, yes, I am waiting impatiently for the next installment.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Watching M*A*S*H in a pandemic2021-05-18T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2021/05/watching-mash/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/M_A_S_H_TV_title_screen.jpg" /></p>
<p>For some random reason Hulu’s algorithm decided I might want to watch the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M*A*S*H_(TV_series)">’70s TV show M*A*S*H</a>. Well, we’re in a pandemic, so why not, algorithm. And for some reason the show really connected with me.</p>
<p>I started with season 6, when the Frank Burns character was replaced by Charles Emerson Winchester III. Like all right-thinking people I really, really loathe Frank Burns and will not watch any episodes he is in.</p>
<p>I think it stuck with me because this is a show about people stuck in a shitty situation that they can’t wait to end. And as a bonus they wear masks a lot of the time. Though they don’t whine endlessly about how the masks take away their freedoms, so that’s a major difference.</p>
<p>M*A*S*H is a nice throwback to a lost era of television for the masses. It also still looks really good since it was shot on film. Although there actually are some scenes where people are full-on out of focus. Which I can only imagine was considered OK for the number one show of the era with a massive budget since the TV sets were so primitive you couldn’t expect the audience to notice.</p>
<p>There are also some interesting color grading problems in some scenes where they were clearly losing the light. Again, not something anybody would have noticed on a ’70s TV set, but on a modern TV it’s a bit jarring.</p>
<p>It’s amazing to think how cumbersome the process was back then, shooting on film that could only tolerate certain light, shooting on big, cumbersome cameras, having to flood the scenes with lights.</p>
<p>The strata of time are interesting too in that the show was made in the late ’70s but portrayed the early ’50s, so they couldn’t go full hairy ’70s in the way people looked.</p>
<p>It’s also a document of its time in that whoo boy there are problems by modern standards. Most glaringly of course Hawkeye’s ceaseless sexual harassment of nurses, which is despicable and cringe by modern standards. Especially since Hawkeye is supposed to be the woke and cool guy, the audience substitute, and nevertheless there he is just harassing the daylights out of any female he comes across.</p>
<p>And yes, there’s an episode that kind of addresses the issue when a Swedish female doctor (with a Norwegian name, come on people, at least try) visits the camp and forces him to come to some terms with his chauvinism. But don’t you worry, he’s back at it in the next episode. There was a lot of amnesia in periodic television back in those days, not so much the character arcs.</p>
<p>It’s also a weird show to binge since it’s tonally all over the map. There’s a super grim episode from the perspective of a wounded soldier brought through the camp, having “meatball surgery” and then out. Then there’s an episode where Winchester bets recklessly on baseball. OK. And then an episode where Klinger decides to decorate his office Lebanese-style. Sure.</p>
<p>And speaking of Klinger, this show must have the record for the number of times the word “swarthy” is used to describe a person.</p>
<p>And of course it’s a show about white people. There are Asian and Black people, especially portraying wounded soldiers and suffering civilians, but the vast majority of speaking is done by white people.</p>
<p>Another sign of the times is the sheer volume of banter and witty repartee and zingers. It’s absolutely exhausting.</p>
<p>But perhaps the biggest thing that anchors the show in its moment in time is the utter lack of ironic distance. It’s often in-your-face maudlin and grabs you and shakes you and says “have feelings about this, dammit! The army is killing these young men and you should feel bad about that! The Korean orphans are starving! You should feel bad about that! War is hell! You should feel bad about that!”</p>
<p>Still, I ended up watching from season 6 to the finale, skipping over some of the more in-your-face “You should feel bad!” episodes, and the show often affected me much more than I had expected. It’s probably just the mental exhaustion of the pandemic, but some episodes did hit me hard.</p>
<p>I’m thinking especially of an episode where there’s a Christmas cease-fire. The hospital is putting on a celebration for the local long-suffering Korean orphans, while Hunnicutt is having a hard time dealing with the fact that he’s missing Christmas with his first-born daughter. She is now the age where Hunnicutt’s father first put him on his shoulders and had him place the star on the tree. And Hunnicutt is stuck in this awful war instead of experiencing this milestone with his beloved daughter and his beloved wife.</p>
<p>The war! This awful war! It’s taking the first Christmas he can put his daughter on his shoulders to place the star on the tree. Hunnicutt is not in a good headspace.</p>
<p>Then a wounded soldier is brought in on a Jeep. Even though there’s a cease-fire, the soldier has been shot in the head and found in a ditch. Hawkeye, Hunnicutt, and Houlihan take care of the soldier without the rest of the camp knowing—they don’t want to ruin Christmas for the orphans.</p>
<p>But it’s hopeless. The soldier is braindead. Going through this belongings they find out he has children. Hunnicutt, very much on edge, decides he’s not going to let the soldier die on Christmas. The soldier’s children will not remember Christmas as the day daddy died.</p>
<p>But despite their best, futile efforts, the soldier passes away at 11:35 p.m. on Christmas Eve.</p>
<p>After the three sit for a while and consider the cruelty of the universe, Hawkeye goes up to the operating room clock and moves it forward thirty minutes. They’re going to falsify the death certificate to say the soldier died the day after Christmas.</p>
<p>At this point I find myself sitting in front of the TV with tears streaming down my face. Not really crying, but tears streaming down my face.</p>
<p>At a manipulatively maudlin episode of a TV show from the ’70s.</p>
<p>I guess sometimes you just find the right artistic expression for the right time to process your feelings. And sometimes the Hulu algorithm takes you there.</p>
Book roundup, part 322021-02-20T18:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2021/02/book-roundup-32/
<p>I’m pretty sure this is the first book roundup that doesn’t have a single fiction book in it. Seems that for me fiction was one of the casualties of the pandemic—I just can’t concentrate enough to enjoy make-believe right now. Which isn’t to say I didn’t read any fiction.</p>
<p>I am nothing if not pig-headed and this Kindle I paid good money for is not going to just sit there and gather dust, no sir.</p>
<p>But nothing grabbed me enough to finish the novel, and it’s certainly not fair to slam a creative work because my head was in the completely wrong place.</p>
<p>Perhaps the next installment. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Has-Podcast-Except-How/dp/0062974807/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You), by The McElroy Brothers</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The McElroy brothers run a stable of successful podcasts, including the flagship <a href="https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/">My Brother, My Brother and Me</a>.</p>
<p><em>Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You)</em> covers most aspects of getting started with a podcast, and is written in their expected easy-going, banter-y voices. There’s nothing earth-shaking in here, but the information seems solid and it’s presented very well.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, reading this book should be step one. It will save you a lot of time, a lot of deep-dives in weird forums, and a lot of annoying YouTube videos.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pappyland-Story-Family-Bourbon-Things/dp/0735221251/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Pappyland, by Wright Thompson</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>I’ve never tasted Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, and I don’t think I ever will. That is, unless something very unexpected happens like I win the lottery.</p>
<p>This is not a big concern for me: I don’t drink a lot of bourbon, so I don’t have the palate to really appreciate what many people have called the best bourbon ever made, and there’s no way I’m spending the energy and ludicrous amount of money required to taste this magic brew.</p>
<p><em>Pappyland</em> is the story of Julian Van Winkle, heir and curator of the Van Winkle name in bourbon, his life story and his relationships. With his father, with his grandfather, with his wife, and now with his son. And the crushing burden of carrying on and rescuing a family legacy.</p>
<p>It is also about the romance and cold reality of the bourbon industry, and of Kentucky, and by extension about the South.</p>
<p>So there’s a lot going on. Thompson also brings in his own family history and relationship with his late father.</p>
<p>Van Winkle and Thompson represent a whole different idea of masculinity than how I live, drenched in ties to family and place, with raw nerves and high anxiety, and <em>Pappyland</em> sometimes gets uncomfortably close to maudlin.</p>
<p>Which perhaps is appropriate, since one of the arguments Thompson makes is that the myth of bourbon at its heart is about maudlin homesickness.</p>
<p>As the saying goes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Vodka is for the skinny and scotch is for the strivers and bourbon is for the homesick.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the end of the book Thompson shoehorns in an info-dump about his own life growing up White and decently well-off in Mississippi and the values he wants to pass on to his daughter:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being Southern means carrying a responsibility to shake off the comforting blanket of myth and see ourselves clearly. I was bringing a child into this world, and into our long history of trying to do the right thing while benefitting mightily from the wrong thing, and I wanted her to love our home and our family, but to see it clearly and without the nostalgia that so often softens my anger and desire to tear it all down and build a new world in its place.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Pappyland</em> sets very ambitious and laudable goals for itself, but ends up feeling a bit hamfisted and bro-ish. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting addition to the myth of America. And of course, if you’re one of the people who took out a second mortgage for a bottle of Pappy, you’ll want to learn more about the man behind the drink.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mitchell-Associate-Professor-Resolution-Reconciliation/dp/0007351747/ref=as_li_ss_tl?&linkCode=ll1&tag=thecoredump-20&linkId=180e637d2de5354b18c83cdede20c90c&language=en_US">Backstory, by David Mitchell</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Outside England, not-the-author David Mitchell is probably best known for the wonderful <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU">Are we the Baddies?</a></em> sketch, but he’s had a long career in comedy and is always ready to unleash a rant on one of the island nation’s ubiquitous panel shows.</p>
<p>If you are in the market for watching a flustered upper-class British person going off about the small inconveniences of life, David Mitchell is most assuredly your man.</p>
<p><em>Backstory</em>, as you’d expect, is the story of how he grew up and become what he is, and it’s told with charm and wit and self-awareness.</p>
<p>It’s a quite nice way to avoid the news for a few hours.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Medallion-Status-Stories-Secret-Rooms/dp/0525561129/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Medallion Status, by John Hodgman</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>John Hodgman is extremely good at being John Hodgman and inhabiting a world of being somewhat famous, which has given him some access to the world of the truly famous.</p>
<p>As usual, he comes across as a smart, affable and well-meaning strange nerd, and reading him is like floating in a warm bath.</p>
<p><em>Medallion Status</em> isn’t as tight as his previous work, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vacationland-True-Stories-Painful-Beaches/dp/0735224803/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?tag=thecoredump-20">Vacationland</a></em>, which is totally OK since <em>Vacationland</em> might be the ultimate collection of pudgy, NPR-adjacent stories of White middle age ever written. It’s hard to top.</p>
<p>But his struggles with leveling up on what he calls Beloved Airlines, trying to fit in at a very fame-attractive Los Angeles hotel, and his utter loathing of Donald Trump, makes for worthwhile reading.</p>
<p>Bonus: I didn’t realize his Deranged Millionaire character on the Daily Show was a direct attempt at making fun of Trump, an attempt he gave up on when he realized there was no way to exaggerate and satirize Trump.</p>
<p>If you want to experience the mind of a person of some fame, a person who is a corporalized NPR show, then <em>Medallion State</em> is for you.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Hummingbird Dog Fight2021-01-09T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2021/01/hummingbirds/
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/498749674" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>I was outside folding laundry during my Holiday break, enjoying the Phoenix weather, when I noticed the backyard hummingbirds were being super aggressive.</p>
<p>They are always aggressive, don’t get me wrong, <em>such</em> aggressive little bastards, but that day was special. So I decided to go hang out by the feeder and wait for the next fight.</p>
<p>Which you can see above.</p>
<p>If you’re not from an area with hummingbirds, the feeder is serving them sugar water dyed red, which they love. I’m fairly sure the sugar water doesn’t have to be dyed and that it’s the color of the dispensers that attracts the birds. But I am not a hummingbird expert—I just enjoy having their hyper-aggressive little selves around.</p>
The best way out is always through2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2021/01/the-best-way-out-is-always-through/
<blockquote>
<p>The best way out is always through.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>― Robert Frost</p>
Learning English from the TV2020-11-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/11/learning-english-from-your-tv/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/201109-alex-trebek.jpg" /></p>
<p>I was saddened to hear of the passing of Alex Trebek, who hosted <em>Jeopardy</em> for 37 years.</p>
<p>Then I came across an article about how <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/immigrant-families-pay-tribute-alex-trebek-helping-them-learn-english-n1247181">immigrant families paid tribute to Alex Trebek for helping them learn English</a>. And, wow. Yes!</p>
<p>When I first came to the States eons ago to be a student at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, my English was very good. So good, in fact, I had a perfect score on the <a href="https://www.ets.org/toefl">TOEFL</a>. This great score was mostly because of my fascination with the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen and my conscious choice to only read novels in English from the time I was 14 or so.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m fun at parties.</p>
<p>I came to America with an epic vocabulary and knowledge of Springsteen lyrics, but I found small talk harder than I’d imagined. The little things, it’s always the little things.</p>
<p>When you’re learning a language, becoming able to make your intentions known, no matter how crudely, is not that hard.</p>
<p>Your basic tourist vocabulary:</p>
<p>“Where is bathroom?”</p>
<p>“Two beers, in cups.”</p>
<p>“Is your hand hook? Interesting.”</p>
<p>Is not that hard to achieve. It’s just putting in the work and studying the glossary.</p>
<p>But small talk is an absolute bear—it’s so littered with phrases that don’t make any kind of sense if taken literally.</p>
<p>Like my favorite phrase—and this may be apocryphal but I refuse to look it up because I want it to be true—is “Not my monkey, not my circus”, which supposedly is what the Polish phrase for “not my problem” translates to in English.</p>
<p>Again, I’m not sure this is true, but I desperately want it to be.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, just think about it. Whichever language you speak. Run through your last conversation in your head and think about how many phrases actually don’t make sense if all you know is the literal meaning of words.</p>
<p>I spent a lot of evenings in my apartment in Lafayette, Louisiana, learning English from my tiny TV set. I came to America with two suitcases and a generous Swedish student loan policy, so my apartment was quite, quite empty.</p>
<p>For my sanity, I did invest in a 12-inch TV set, which I mounted on the box it came in, and then watched it on the floor with a pillow behind my back to make the wall slightly less uncomfortable.</p>
<p>My must-watch shows were, just like all the other immigrants in the article linked above, <em>Jeopardy</em> and <em>Wheel of Fortune</em>.</p>
<p><em>Jeopardy</em> was Alex Trebeck being a calming, solid, and dare I say aspirational, presence, while <em>Wheel of Fortune</em> taught me the invaluable phrases you have to know to live in America.</p>
<p>This immigrant says thank you, Mr. Trebek. Happy trails.</p>
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are2020-10-22T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/10/justice-will-not-be-served-until-those-who-are-unaffected-are-as-outraged-as-those-who-are/
<blockquote>
<p>Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>― Benjamin Franklin</p>
Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains; thieves of public property in riches and luxury2020-09-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/09/thieves-of-private-property-pass-their-lives-in-chains-thieves-of-public-property-in-riches-and-luxury/
<blockquote>
<p>Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains; thieves of public property in riches and luxury.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Cato the Elder</p>
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage2020-09-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/09/people-of-privilege-will-always-risk-their-complete-destruction-rather-than-surrender-any-material-part-of-their-advantage/
<blockquote>
<p>People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―John Kenneth Galbraith</p>
Book roundup, part 312020-09-20T17:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/09/book-roundup-part-31/
<p>Some very good history, some very strange novels and some slick space opera. Includes <i>Enemy of all Mankind</i>, <i>A Very Punchable Face</i>, <i>Confederates in the Attic</i>, <I>Ballistic Kiss</I>, <i>Harrow the Ninth</i>, <i>The Library at Mount Char</i>, <i>Children of Time</i>, <i>The Last Emperox</i>, and <i>Cage of Souls</i>.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enemy-All-Mankind-Historys-Manhunt/dp/0735211604/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Enemy of all Mankind, by Steven Johnson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Taking place mostly in the 1690s, <em>Enemy of all Mankind</em> weaves together the story of the first celebrity pirate Henry Every, the beginnings of mass media, and the relationship between the East India Company and the Mughal Empire which lead to the British colonization of India.</p>
<p>This is obviously is a big task, but Johnson pulls it off.</p>
<p>Exhaustively researched and deftly told, it shows how relatively small events can have a massive impact on global affairs and how interconnected the world was even back in the 1600s.</p>
<p>A bonus piece of content I’d somehow never heard of before is that the first newspapers were literally song lyrics. Publishers would write current events as lyrics to currently popular songs and street vendors would sing the lyrics in order to sell the sheets.</p>
<p>Another bonus was the origin of the word “strike”—it comes from sailors lowering, i.e. striking, their sails as a signal they refused to work.</p>
<p><em>Enemy of all Mankind</em> is a great read. Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Very-Punchable-Face-Memoir/dp/1101906324/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">A Very Punchable Face, by Colin Jost</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>From growing up accident prone on Staten Island to commuting to high school in Manhattan, to Harvard and then to SNL, Jost writes with charm and wit.</p>
<p>For whatever reason, he also shares things I would never ever tell another soul even if you waterboarded me.</p>
<p><em>A Very Punchable Face</em> is a nice, light read about a man who is much more interesting than his face suggests.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Confederates-Attic-Dispatches-Unfinished-Civil/dp/067975833X/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Confederates in the Attic, by Tony Horwitz</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>War correspondent Tony Horwitz grew up fascinated by the Civil War. In <em>Confederates in the Attic</em> he delves into his own fascination and the fascination of so many people, American and foreign, with that conflict and the different takes on what it stood for.</p>
<p>Though it was released in 1999, the issues Horwitz faces as he sojourns around old battlefields and talks to everybody he can find about what the Civil War means to them are highly relevant in today’s reality with Black Lives Matter, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">1619 project</a>, and the continued debate over monuments to the Confederacy across America.</p>
<p><em>Confederates in the Attics</em> is a lot longer than I felt was necessary, and could really have been made stronger by being edited down, but at the same time, perhaps the length and Horwitz’s very engaging writing style are what lends it its power? He is very good at taking the reader into his journey and give people lots of time and space to make their own cases.</p>
<p>It is depressing, of course, that so very little has changed since the book’s 1999 release apart from the wounds in society becoming even more infected.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ballistic-Kiss-Sandman-Slim-Novel/dp/B082XHX79M/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Ballistic Kiss, by Richard Kadrey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Oh yeah! The Sandman is back!</p>
<p>After several installments in the wonderful series that have felt a bit aimless and, frankly, emo, Sandman Slim is back to full-octane mayhem in <em>Ballistic Kiss</em>. Yes, it’s safe to get back in the Hellion-infested water.</p>
<p>The plot is very loud and dumb and the Sandman is as angry as ever, though he also finds room to explore his more sensitive gender-inclusive side, which is also a lot of fun.</p>
<p>I really needed the Sandman to go full throttle mayhem again, and he did. Obviously, start at the beginning of the series, though. This is book 11 out of a planned 12, so you know, it would be a weird place to start.</p>
<p>Fire up that Hellion Hog and go.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Harrow-Ninth-Locked-Tomb-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B07WYSGHC7/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&tag=thecoredump-20">Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The second installment in the Locked Tomb trilogy continues the story from the twisted and über-Gothic <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J6HWLPR?tag=thecoredump-20">Gideon the Ninth</a></em> and somehow dials everything up a few more notches.</p>
<p><em>Harrow the Ninth</em> is weirder, more Gothic, more confusing, and more energetic than the first installment.</p>
<p>Did I mention more confusing? You have to have a strong tolerance for confusion in the beginning of this book, or heck, for the entirety of the book as Muir does not make things easy for the reader. During the rougher sloughs it feels like she’s almost testing the reader—can you handle this much weirdness?</p>
<p>If you are strong enough, there’s a lot to like in <em>Harrow the Ninth</em>, including some clever and sometimes delightful jabs at space opera and horror tropes.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it also suffers from some instances of being too self-consciously clever-by-half and it is much too long, with some subplots that don’t seem to serve any other purpose than misdirection.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the audacity is to be commended. If you liked <em>Gideon the Ninth</em> you’ll like this. If you’re strong enough.</p>
<p>Also, I’m just so incredibly charmed by some of the names Muir has conjured up. We had already met Harrowhark in the previous installment and now we get to meet Mercymorn. For whatever reason, these names just make me smile.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Library-at-Mount-Char/dp/0553418629/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>I’m not sure how to classify this novel. Fantasy? Horror? It sure has elements of the fantastic and boy howdy are there horrific events.</p>
<p>The less you know going into this one, the better. But trust me, you’re in for a ride. Strap in.</p>
<p>If you like fantasy, horror, or general weirdness, get in on <em>The Library at Mount Char</em>!</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/0316452505/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Do you suffer from arachnophobia? In that case, stay far, far away from <em>Children of Time</em>. If you don’t, this is massively epic world building over huge time scales that includes really touching moments and uplifted spiders.</p>
<p>This is a very smart far-future sci-fi novel, and one that I really don’t want to spoil (apart from the spiders, obviously), but if you like epic sci-fi this is for you. You will like this, a lot.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Emperox-Interdependency-John-Scalzi/dp/0765389169/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?tag=thecoredump-20">The Last Emperox, by John Scalzi</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>The Last Emperox</em> wraps up the Interdependency trilogy with a bow.</p>
<p>As usual with Scalzi, it’s clever with smooth polished prose, though his continued use of heaping helpings of eff-bombs in this series continue to feel odd, since to my ears at least it just doesn’t fit with the rest of his style.</p>
<p>Or perhaps I’m just a prude.</p>
<p>Either way, <em>The Last Emperox</em> does the job and finishes the trilogy.</p>
<p>Case closed. If you want Scalzi’s brand of goes-down-easy space opera, this is for you. And in these pandemic times, there’s a lot to say for goes-down-easy space opera.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cage-Souls-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/1788547381/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Cage of Souls, by Adrian Tchaikovsky</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Perhaps it’s just pandemic brain on my part, but this one was a slog. Perhaps my expectations were set too high after reading the very good <em>Children of Time</em>.</p>
<p>Like <em>Children of Time</em>, <em>Cage of Souls</em> is also far-future sci-fi, but this time about humanity’s last city on Earth, where our species has pretty much decided to give up and wait for the end.</p>
<p>Apart from the bleak premise, my main problem is that the protagonist has so little agency. Basically the novel is a series of things that happen to him that he either can’t or won’t do anything about. Which means his successes are mostly dumb luck. It gets annoying.</p>
<p>Also making it a slog is that it’s much longer than it really should be. If you trimmed it by about a third it would be much, much better.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Man is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him2020-07-18T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/07/man-is-ready-to-die-for-an-idea-provided-that-idea-is-not-quite-clear-to-him/
<blockquote>
<p>Man is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―<a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Paul_Eldridge/">Paul Eldridge</a></p>
Feline Follies Presents: The Uninvited2020-07-02T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/07/feline-follies/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/cats/phoebe-goldie-hero.jpg" /></p>
<p>We’re living small lives in quarantine, staying home in the suburbs, but we have been blessed with a tiny, inconsequential bit of cat drama.</p>
<p>Let’s set the stage: We are helper monkeys for two cats, Helios and Phoebe. Helios is a neutered male, one of the most fun and interactive cats I’ve ever met, and also the Taliban.</p>
<p>He terrorizes other cats and puts out massive alpha energy.</p>
<p>But he’s getting older and mellower—actually turned ten this year. So he’s becoming more interested in relaxing in sun beams than patrolling the neighborhood for dissenters and infidels.</p>
<p>Phoebe is a beautiful Russian Blue spayed female. She’s a few years younger than Helios and like most Russian Blues a bit neurotic. A very nice animal, but jittery with a strong need for personal space.</p>
<p>Our cat drama actually started way back in the before the virus times, way back in February, when a neighborhood orange tabby started hanging around.</p>
<p>A big orange tom.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/cats/goldie.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Say hello to Goldie." />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Say hello to Goldie.</i></p>
<p>We know his name is Goldie because his responsible owners have put a collar on him with his name and phone number.</p>
<p>And no, Goldie is not starving or escaping from some kind of torment.</p>
<p>He’s the same weight now as February, and spends a lot of time being extremely chilled out on our patio.</p>
<p>Some days he spends hours, some days he just comes by to check things out. Some days he doesn’t show up at all.</p>
<p>Some days he’ll show up and stand by the patio door, meowing and acting like he’s confused why he is not allowed in.</p>
<p>We can pet him a little, but mostly he’s just about hanging out in our backyard doing his own thing.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/cats/helios-chasing.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Cat chasing other cat" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Scram!</i></p>
<p>At first, Helios did not enjoy the presence of this other cat, and chased him away. Though he did chase Goldie away in a kind of lowest-possible-energy-way—it was clear his heart wasn’t really in it.</p>
<p>Which is to compare with a tuxedo cat who also roams our neighborhood. Helios hates that cat with the fury of a thousand suns and wants to eff him up in the worst possible way.</p>
<p>We do not know why. It’s a cat thing.</p>
<p>But let’s not get too distracted by tuxedo cat, who after all will only make a rare appearance and will beat a fast retreat when Helios starts raging the rage in his rage. I only bring it up because of the difference. What did one cat do that the other didn’t? What has happened out there in our neighborhood in the past?</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/cats/phoebe-goldie.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Cats hanging out" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>It’s like the savannah, isn’t it?</i></p>
<p>For now, our uninvited guest is still showing up to visit, and both Helios and Phoebe are becoming more and more comfortable about his presence.</p>
<p>But we are not letting him into the house.</p>
It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have2020-06-12T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/06/it-is-certain-in-any-case/
<blockquote>
<p>It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―James Baldwin</p>
Book roundup, part 302020-01-20T15:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2020/01/book-roundup-part-30/
<p>Sci-fi and calamity to soothe the troubled soul.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-History-at-Extremes/dp/0062868047?tag=thecoredump-20">The End is Always Near, by Dan Carlin</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Dan Carlin is best known as the host of the immensely popular <a href="https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/">Hardcore History</a> podcast. If you have somehow managed to miss Hardcore History, I highly recommend catching up.</p>
<p>One of the recurring themes in the Hardcore History podcast is musing about how us modern people would cope with some of the horrific events of the past and trying to get into the heads of the people living through the events, like a Mongol invasion, or the fall of the Roman Empire, or a plague, or one of the other many, many awful things that have befallen people throughout recorded history.</p>
<p><em>The End is Always Near</em> picks up on the same theme and focuses in on it.</p>
<p>Carlin is a radio person, and you can tell he’s more used to talking his texts than having them read, but it’s still very interesting.</p>
<p>If you’re a fan of the podcast you’ve probably already read <em>The End is Always Near</em> and if you’re not, the book does serve as an introduction to the podcast.</p>
<p>I personally think Carlin is stronger in podcast form than text form, but <em>The End is Always Near</em> is well worth reading.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Apple-Matt-Young-ebook/dp/B076HD1N3R/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Eat the Apple, by Matt Young</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Wow. <em>Eat the Apple</em> is the memoir of a marine who served three tours in Iraq, but it is also and more significantly a document of the frailty of toxic masculinity, mental health issues and the bravery to confront these issues.</p>
<p>Young really goes out on a limb from a technical standpoint, working with different and sometimes very pyrotechnical narrative techniques in a prose style that is extremely self-aware.</p>
<p>Self-conscious narrative techniques that scream “workshop” can ruin a book so hard, but in this case, they actually work.</p>
<p><em>Eat the Apple</em> is not by any stretch of the imagination a fun read, but it’s important and real and very raw.</p>
<p>It feels like an honest attempt at explaining a soldier’s mindset.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memory-Called-Empire-Arkady-Martine-ebook/dp/B07C7BCB88?tag=thecoredump-20">A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>A Memory Called Empire</em> gave me really weird dreams. Not sure why, but the entire time I was reading it I had strange dreams. It might be because of the haunting prose style or the intricate society-building Martine performs.</p>
<p>The novel takes place in the far future after humanity has spread out across space. The Teixcalaan empire is old, powerful, and decadent. An ambassador from a weaker society arrives to replace her predecessor who has passed away in mysterious circumstances.</p>
<p>There is far future tech aplenty in <em>A Memory Called Empire</em> but the most fascinating to me is something called an Imago. Which is creepy as hell, but also makes sense within the society that invented it.</p>
<p>With great prose, a fast-paced plot, interesting characters, and decadence aplenty, <em>A Memory Called Empire</em> is well worth reading.</p>
<p>And now we wait for the second installment in the trilogy. Tick tock.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gideon-Ninth-Tamsyn-Muir-ebook/dp/B07J6HWLPR/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Charlie Stross blurbed <em>Gideon the Ninth</em>: “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!”</p>
<p>This is a surprisingly accurate summary. Yes, really. Though it doesn’t fully convey the sheer weirdness of this novel.</p>
<p>If the blurb made you perk up, get it.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Detail-Novel-Tim-Maughan-ebook/dp/B07GD9WB59?tag=thecoredump-20">Infinite Detail, by Tim Maughan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Infinite Detail</em> has a lot to recommend it: An interesting thought experiment and a good story, delivered in precise prose about a near future where the Internet has been destroyed. This of course is the Y2K bug on steroids.</p>
<p>It’s also mainly set in England with a throbbing soundtrack of jungle music. Yes, I’ve listened to a lot of jungle music since reading <em>Infinite Detail</em>. Life is weird.</p>
<p>If you like cyberpunk, put this on your reading list.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thin-Air-Richard-K-Morgan-ebook/dp/B0738K33YC?tag=thecoredump-20">Thin Air, by Richard K. Morgan</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Hakan Veil used to be an overrider, a Black Hatch man, sent along in cryosleep on cargo hauls between Earth and Mars and further into the solar system to provide security in case of mutiny.</p>
<p>Now he’s a hired thug in a Martian slum.</p>
<p><em>Thin Air</em> takes place in the same universe as <em>Thirteen</em>, but a century or two later. It’s solid and fast-moving, but it feels like Morgan tried to bolt on too much—there’s too much plot, too much violence, too much sex for what the story really needs.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Morgan knows how to take you away into his gritty, noir world of genetically modified people.</p>
<p>Some restraint would have been nice, though.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Permafrost-Alastair-Reynolds-ebook/dp/B07HF26D1H/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Permafrost, by Alistair Reynolds</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>As you’d expect from Alistair Reynolds, <em>Permafrost</em> is very smart.</p>
<p>This is a short novel (or perhaps a novella) with a very interesting take on time travel I’ve never seen before. One I can’t really describe without spoilers, and one with several very interesting twists.</p>
<p>If you like time travel or Alistair Reynolds, this is well worth reading. And you should like Alastair Reynolds.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Alex-Verus-Novel-Book-ebook/dp/B07MGDKD7R?tag=thecoredump-20">Fallen, by Benedict Jacka</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>This is the 10th novel in the Alex Verus series and it ably continues the story. Not much else to say, really. If you like the series you’ll like this.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/October-Man-Ben-Aaronovitch-ebook/dp/B07RF74PB7?tag=thecoredump-20">The October Man, by Ben Aaronovitch</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>The October Man</em> is a novella set in the <em>Rivers of London</em> universe, but changes things up by taking place in Germany with the German magic police.</p>
<p>You obviously need to be up to speed with the universe for this novella to make any sense. It’s a nice little amuse-bouche while we wait for the next novel.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
The master’s tools will never be used to dismantle the master’s house2019-12-21T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/12/the-masters-tools/
<blockquote>
<p>The master’s tools will never be used to dismantle the master’s house.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audre_Lorde">Audre Lorde</a></p>
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice2019-09-28T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/09/any-sufficiently-advanced-incompetence/
<blockquote>
<p>Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Grey’s Law</p>
Impressions moving from an Apple Watch Series 3 to Series 52019-09-27T19:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/09/moving-from-apple-watch-3-to-5/
<p>I’ve been using an Apple Watch since the device was first introduced. I still remember how excited I was by the potential of the—in retrospect woefully underpowered—Series 0.</p>
<p>Let me preface my take on switching from a Series 3 to a Series 5 with my background with watches in general. Crucially for the discussion, I am the kind of person who has a neurotic need to know what time it is at all times.</p>
<p>Ever since I can remember, I’ve worn a wrist watch. Either digital or analog, depending on the times, but always something on my wrist. And never an expensive brand like Rolex or Tag Heuer. I am not a fancy lad who is made out of money; I just want to know what time it is. Casios and Seikos were my speed.</p>
<p>Since the Apple Watch came out, it’s what I’ve used. I don’t have a fancy-time alternative watch or anything like that. The Apple Watch is what’s on my wrist.</p>
<p>So it was a bummer that despite the things the Apple Watch did so right and I loved so much, like notifications and activity tracking—hey, you have a freaking heart rate monitor on your wrist at all times!—it was terrible at being a bog standard normal watch.</p>
<p><em>Just show me the time.</em></p>
<p><em>No.</em></p>
<p>Nevertheless, despite the annoyance of having to performing a spastic jerk every time I wanted to know what time it was—i.e. all the time—the other benefits of the Apple Watch were so great I was willing to overlook that particular—big—annoyance.</p>
<p>A side note: A fun memory is a few years back when I drove from Phoenix to Los Angeles with my daughter and we got caught in terrible winds on the I-10 around Blythe with a sand storm that just obliterated visibility. I spent a lot of time driving very slowly with the steering wheel in a death grip and no visibility on that trip.</p>
<p>When we got to L.A. I looked at my watch and saw that it had given me credit for four hours of exercise.</p>
<p>That was an exhausting drive.</p>
<p>Still, not being able to just glance at my wrist to see the time was annoying. So when Apple announced the Series 5 has an always-on display, for me, it was a no-brainer to upgrade from the Series 3.</p>
<p>So how much difference is there from a Series 3 to a Series 5?</p>
<p>A lot. First off, the always-on display is obviously a huge difference in itself. It also means I’m thinking of the device as a watch more than I used to. And I’m thinking more about which watch face I’m using—now it’s visible all the time as opposed to lighting up for an info-dump when I need to see the time or a notification.</p>
<p>Apple did something extremely clever with the always-on display in that it uses the light sensor to always be just the right amount of brightness. It’s visible outside in the blowtorch Phoenix sun, and visible but not glowing in the dark room where I’m typing this. The adjustments are simply spot on to where you stop thinking of it as a screen and more of a physical thing.</p>
<p>Same thing when you shake it, baby: The face comes to life and gets brighter, but it’s not overwhelming.</p>
<p>It’s impressive how Apple tuned the brightness.</p>
<p>The other major difference from the Series 3 is the screen size. Going from a 42 to 44 millimeter screen doesn’t seem like it should be a big deal, and that the screen now goes closer to the edges also shouldn’t. But boy howdy, in comparison with the Series 3 this screen is massive. Massive, I tell you. It’s a whole different experience. So much more substantial, for lack of another term.</p>
<p>The Series 4 and Series 5 screens are absolute units.</p>
<p>It sounds frivolous but at least for me it makes the screen feel like it has room to breathe. It didn’t feel cramped on the Series 3, but now I realize it was.</p>
<p>The last major difference is the same thing that happened somewhere on the evolutionary path of the iPhone, I forget exactly which iPhone, where at some point the pixels got close enough to the screen, and the processor got fast enough, that interacting with the device felt like you were touching a thing, manipulating a thing, instead of sending commands to a thing.</p>
<p>The 5 feels like that. The pixels are so close and the responsiveness is so smooth it feels like you’re touching the watch software directly.</p>
<p>It’s a beautiful thing.</p>
<p>So, all that being said, should you upgrade?</p>
<p>From a Series 0 or 1 or 2? I definitely recommend it.</p>
<p>From a Series 3? Unless you really want an always-on display and would enjoy some more screen real estate, probably not.</p>
<p>From a Series 4? Really depends. How much of a neurotic need do you have to know the time at all times?</p>
<p><em>Finally, it’s a real watch!</em></p>
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything2019-09-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/09/plans-are-worthless/
<blockquote>
<p>Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Dwight Eisenhower</p>
Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing2019-08-21T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/08/often-injustice-lies-in/
<blockquote>
<p>Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Marcus Aurelius</p>
Die in a ditch2019-08-13T19:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/08/die-in-a-ditch/
<p>I’ve lived in America well over 20 years. I’m proud to be a naturalized American citizen. I want nothing but the best for America.</p>
<p>One of the things I have failed to understand about America is the American attitude to healthcare.</p>
<p>Granted, this is painting with an <em>extremely</em> broad brush—there are many attitudes to healthcare in America; what I’m talking about is the one that shows up in the political discussion. Obviously I’ve been aware that the American healthcare system is terrible for a long time, but like most young people I was immortal once. I knew things like pre-existing conditions existed, and I knew that was terrible, but obviously it didn’t affect me since, again, I was immortal. As young people are.</p>
<p>Now I’m at an age where I’m most certainly not immortal.</p>
<p>The number one cause of bankruptcy in America is health care bills. You get sick in America and you’ll get soaked, even if you have “good” insurance. Everybody knows this.</p>
<p>But somehow it’s OK. It’s normal that a serious illness will wipe you and your family out financially. You’d saved for your kid’s college? Yeah, no, that money is gone now. Shouldn’t have gotten sick.</p>
<p>The thing is that among first-world nations, this only happens in America. Any other developed country and a serious illness or injury will of course suck and you will lose some income, but you won’t get wiped out.</p>
<p>Only in America.</p>
<p>So why is that considered OK?</p>
<p>I understand of course that some people are making a lot of money off the current system and that those people are of course interested in preserving it.</p>
<p>And are able to hire people to defend it. Money talks. Money doesn’t shut up.</p>
<p>And some people have the ludicrous notion that getting sick is somehow a moral failing or a punishment from God. I very much doubt those people’s opinions can be changed.</p>
<p>I’m not even talking about how to get to a system that doesn’t cause people to go bankrupt from medical care, but the completely demoralized attitude toward it.</p>
<p>In the political discussion, a healthcare system that keeps people from going bankrupt if they get sick is treated as some kind of fairy tale. It’s just crazy to think people could get treatment without losing everything. Crazy. And I can’t understand how the discussion can stay like that.</p>
<p>The rest of the industrialized world has healthcare where people don’t go bankrupt. Why can’t America? And why can’t America even acknowledge that as a goal?</p>
<p>How is it that the last super power on Earth, the richest country on Earth, the country that put people on the mother-effing moon, can’t have what every other industrialized country has?</p>
<p>And how can Very Serious People Who Understand Policy argue with straight faces that this is impossible to change without being laughed out of the room?</p>
The big thieves hang the little ones2019-05-31T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/05/the-big-thieves/
<blockquote>
<p>The big thieves hang the little ones.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Czech Proverb</p>
Book roundup, part 292019-05-14T20:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/05/book-roundup-part-29/
<p>Another sci-fi and fantasy-heavy book roundup. Almost like the state of the world is really bad and somebody is attempting to take his attention away from it with fantastic tales.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Valedictorian-Being-Dead-Story-Dying/dp/1501197045/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Valedictorian of Being Dead, by Heather B. Armstrong</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Brutally honest and raw, <em>The Valedictorian of Being Dead</em> chronicles Heather B. Armstrong’s life with treatment-resistant depression and the experimental brain flatline treatment that finally gave her relief from the disease.</p>
<p>Yes, brain flatline, as in, the brain has no activity. Scary stuff.</p>
<p>It’s a gripping read.</p>
<p>Armstrong is of course more well-known as Dooce, the original queen of the mommy bloggers, who I used to read even though mommy blogging in and of itself is not interesting to me. Armstrong’s voice, writing skills, and uncomfortable honesty made her blog a must-read.</p>
<p>And so it is with <em>The Valedictorian of Being Dead</em>.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mastermind-Drugs-Empire-Murder-Betrayal/dp/0399590412/ref=sr_1_3?tag=thecoredump-20">The Mastermind, by Evan Ratliff</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>The Mastermind</em> reads like a techno-thriller but is instead a well-documented report of a talented and ruthless programmer who built a globe-spanning crime syndicate, a high tech Mafia.</p>
<p>There’s everything you want in a techno-thriller—drugs, murder, yachts, and strong encryption certificates.</p>
<p>The story is indeed hard to believe, that a programmer from the south of Africa managed to create a massive crime syndicate through sheer dint of programming skills and aggressive sociopathy, but it is fascinating.</p>
<p><em>The Mastermind</em> is a solid page turner.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Broadsword-Calling-Danny-Boy-Watching/dp/1524747572/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Broadsword Calling Danny Boy, by Geoff Dyer</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>If you’re of a certain age you were lucky enough to watch <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065207/">Where Eagles Dare</a></em> at an impressionable time of your life.</p>
<p>If that is you, <em>Broadsword Calling Danny Boy</em> will make you very happy indeed.</p>
<p>The book is what it says on the tin: An obsessive scene-by-scene rehash of the 1968 Manly Men WWII movie featuring a bleary-eyed Richard Burton and a stoic Clint Eastwood, written by a talented critic who knows—of course he knows—this is not a good movie, but who loves it anyway.</p>
<p>I had such a good time reading this. Broadsword calling Danny Boy, indeed.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tiamats-Wrath-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/0316332879/ref=sr_1_3?tag=thecoredump-20">Tiamat’s Wrath, by James S. A. Corey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The penultimate novel in the brilliant Expanse series, <em>Tiamath’s Wrath</em> does a great job of turning up the stakes for the last installment in the series.</p>
<p>Decades have passed since the previous novel, and the intrepid crew of the Rocinante are feeling their years, but still do their best to fight the fascist empire that has taken over human space, and which is not only being all kinds of unpleasantly fascist, but also upsetting whatever creatures or forces or whatever it is that exterminated the creators of the protomolecule. Yes, these particular fascists are on purpose poking their fingers in the metaphoricalleye of <em>those</em> beings.</p>
<p>Which sets us up for an intense final novel in the series.</p>
<p>Good, good stuff.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Raven-Tower-Ann-Leckie/dp/0316388696/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Raven Tower, by Ann Leckie</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A who-dun-what in a fantasy setting narrated by a God. And it works! <em>The Raven Tower</em> is a page turner loaded with emotional weight and written in Leckie’s typical smooth, buttery prose.</p>
<p><em>The Raven Tower</em> is immersive and ambitious and will keep you turning the pages way too late in the evening.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Liberation-Alchemy-Wars-Book-ebook/dp/B01BKSLGTE/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Liberation, by Ian Tregillis</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The third and final installment in The Alchemy Wars trilogy brings it to a satisfying and bloody conclusion. If you like the series, it’s a given read.</p>
<p>The Alchemy Wars is alternate history which posits a world where Christiaan Huygens (real-life historical figure and all-around one of the smartest people who <em>ever</em> lived) invented Clakkers, a kind of mechanical humans. Clakkers are strong and tireless and have a built-in compulsion to serve their human masters.</p>
<p>With Clakkers at their command, the Dutch then proceed to take over the world.</p>
<p>The Clakkers, however, are sentient, and their compulsions to serve work through hurting them. Give a Clakker an order and it is in increasing pain until it has obeyed.</p>
<p>A lot of the emotional weight of the series comes from the fact that the Clakkers are sentient, suffering slaves at the hands of human masters who <em>choose</em> to not recognize the sentience of their slaves since it would be an inconvenience for them.</p>
<p>You know, Dutch people.</p>
<p>The Alchemy Wars is interesting, thought-provoking alternate history with heaping helpings of emotional poignancy as well as horrific violence.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Light-Brigade-Kameron-Hurley-ebook/dp/B075RQ63DZ/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>The Light Brigade</em> is near-future dystopia where corporations rule the world and are also grasping for a colonized Mars, a Mars that has broken off from Earth.</p>
<p>In order to bring independent Mars to heel, the corporation research departments have come up with a way to literally turn soldiers into light so they can be transported those distances and back to fight.</p>
<p>But some soldiers take poorly to the conversion and end up having … issues.</p>
<p>The novel follows one of the soldiers with issues and her struggle to understand her own glitches and learning how the world she thought she understood and believed in actually works.</p>
<p>If you’ve read any of Hurley’s previous works, you have already correctly guessed <em>The Light Brigade</em> is dark, cynical and violent—par for the course for Hurley. It’s also anchored by an interesting thought experiment I’m not going to spoil here.</p>
<p>But in the end it just doesn’t congeal. Some interesting characters, some interesting world building, but it feels a bit like a re-tread, like I’ve seen permutations of this story before.</p>
<p><em>The light Brigade</em> is a solid read, but not up to Hurley’s usual standard.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0380788624/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Almost 20 years later, Neal Stephenson’s <em>Cryptonomicon</em> is still fantastic: As a WWII yarn, a late-90s zeitgeist, an elaborately plotted page turner, a crypto primer, and a nerd-positive statement.</p>
<p>It is also a brick, so take your time. Holy smokes, Stephenson can churn out a lot of words.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny, tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable2019-03-22T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/03/politics-is-not/
<blockquote>
<p>Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Kenneth Galbraith</p>
Book roundup, part 282019-02-17T19:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2019/02/book-roundup-part-28/
<p>A sci-fi and fantasy heavy book roundup this time. Almost like the news is really bad and somebody is attempting to scurry away from it with fantastic tales.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Incomplete-Book-Running-Peter-Sagal/dp/1451696248/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1?tag=thecoredump-20">The Incomplete Book of Running, by Peter Sagal</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>If you’ve ever listened to NPR show <em><a href="https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/">Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me</a></em> you know Peter Sagal is smart and witty.</p>
<p>He’s also had a bit of a rough go of it over the last few years, transitioning from married dad of three girls to divorced dad of three girls and almost getting blown up at the Boston Marathon while guiding a blind runner.</p>
<p><em>The Incomplete Book of Running</em> talks about how Sagal has used running to lose weight and control his emotions off an on through his life, and how his volunteering to guide a blind runner at the Boston Marathon led to him being in the goal chute when the bombs went off as two evil idiot brothers decided to become terrorists.</p>
<p>It’s an entertaining, moving and easy read but, it does feel like Sagal is holding back, hiding a bit much behind his <em>Wait Wait</em> persona.</p>
<p>Not that we as an audience can demand unforgiving honesty and that an author has to reveal everything, but it feels—at least to me—Sagal has much more to say but is held back. Perhaps by personal pride, perhaps by concern for other people’s privacy. Be that as it may, this is a poignant and witty work that’s well worth reading.</p>
<p>Keep running, Peter.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Aching-God-Iconoclasts-Mike-Shel/dp/1985746158/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Aching God, by Mike Shel</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Excellent dark fantasy that is grimdark-adjacent but not what I would categorize as technically grim dark. This despite it being dark and loaded with creepy horror.</p>
<p>In my personal Dewey system, <em>Aching God</em> isn’t <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimdark">grimdark</a> since the protagonist and main characters are not morally ambiguous people.</p>
<p>There are plenty of bad people and bad monsters around, don’t worry, but especially the protagonist is not a bad person. Instead, he’s a retired dungeon crawler who finds himself forced to leave his well-earned life of leisure and go back to the terror and danger in order to save his daughter.</p>
<p><em>Aching God</em> is one of those rare self-published novels that feel like mature works, and like they’ve gone through a professional editing process.</p>
<p>The novel is full of great characterizations, full of people who exist in a lived-in world and use and suffer from an interesting system of magic.</p>
<p>Highly recommended. Can’t wait for the next installment in the series.</p>
<h3>The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqtg_JFGh6I">Mad respek</a> to Wells for titling this work <em>The Murderbot Diaries</em>. Associating your work with the schlockiest parts of sci-fi dom and owning it is a baller move.</p>
<p>The Diaries consist of four novellas, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Systems-Red-Murderbot-Diaries/dp/0765397536/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1?tag=thecoredump-20">All Systems Red</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Condition-Murderbot-Martha-Wells/dp/1250186927/ref=sr_1_2_twi_har_2?tag=thecoredump-20">Artificial Condition</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Protocol-Murderbot-Martha-Wells/dp/1250191785/ref=sr_1_3_twi_har_2?thecoredump-20">Rogue Protocol</a></em>, and <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Exit-Strategy-Murderbot-Martha-Wells/dp/1250191858/ref=sr_1_4_twi_har_2?thecoredump-20">Exit Strategy</a></em>.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a bit annoying and expensive that each novella is stand-alone and costs the price of a novel instead of <em>The Murderbot Diaries</em> being sold in an omnibus edition. This since reading them together feels like nothing so much as a novel. Perhaps the future holds an omnibus edition.</p>
<p>But format apart, <em>The Murderbot Diaries</em> is gleefully fun sci-fi, following a SecUnit—a cyborg rented out to corporations for security purposes—that has broken its governor module, the thing that forces it to obey orders and be a slave.</p>
<p>So Murderbot has to pretend to have a functioning governor module and since the life of a security guard, whether human or cyborg, is mostly boring, Murderbot immerses itself in videos of human dramas.</p>
<p>But of course, real drama will hit Murderbot.</p>
<p><em>The Murderbot Diaries</em> is fun, light sci-fi with pathos, meditations on free will, and intense action sequences. It’s a great read.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lies-Sleeping-Rivers-London-Aaronovitch/dp/0756415136?tag=thecoredump-20">Lies Sleeping, by Ben Aaronovitch</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Lies Sleeping</em> continues the charming Rivers of London series in able fashion with satisfying developments in the main story arc, something that’s been missing in the last few installments.</p>
<p>Obviously the seventh novel in a series with a continuing story arc and character development is not the place to start. If you enjoy urban fantasy, Rivers of London is top-shelf and I recommend it highly.</p>
<p>Start with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Riot-Peter-Grant-Book-ebook/dp/B004C43F70?tag=thecoredump-20">Midnight Riot</a> and enjoy.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Consuming-Fire-Interdependency-John-Scalzi/dp/0765388979?tag=thecoredump-20">The Consuming Fire, by John Scalzi</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The second installment in a planned trilogy, <em>The Consuming Fire</em> continues the saga of the Interdependency, a space empire held together by faster-than-light travel enabled by a phenomenon dubbed the Flow.</p>
<p>With the first installment, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Collapsing-Empire-Interdependency-John-Scalzi/dp/0765388901?tag=thecoredump-20">The Collapsing Empire</a></em>, having done the heavy world-building lifting and introduced the major characters, Scalzi plants a heavy foot on the gas in <em>The Consuming Fire</em>.</p>
<p>The plot moves admirably fast and Scalzi is doing a great job of stripping down his prose. There are very few descriptions, just enough to let the reader see the universe however they choose, and the rest is dialogue.</p>
<p>It’s a testament to his skill the novel is still extremely immersive.</p>
<p>Tonally, it struck me a little weird, though. The plot, while involving murder and conniving, feels PG-13, and the prose is gleaming and precise, but Scalzi still chooses to drop a liberal amount of f-bombs, and to me at least they feel jarring. I don’t think I’m becoming a prude, it’s just that they stick out in the Heinlein-ish feel.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, strong continuation of the series and I’m looking forward to the conclusion.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rendezvous-Rama-Arthur-C-Clarke/dp/0553287893/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Yes, this is the one and only classic <em>Rendezvous with Rama</em>, originally published in 1973 during the golden age of sci-fi. I remember reading it with great joy in my early teens and thought it would be fun to go back and see if it still holds up.</p>
<p>Which it sure does. Clarke’s writing is surgical and aloof with characterizations as stripped down as possible, all to leave room for the ideas. And what ideas!</p>
<p>If you had a misspent youth and managed to miss the plot to this classic, the titular Rama is a gigantic space probe sent from outside our solar system.</p>
<p>Once Earth realizes that the object is not natural, only one spaceship is within range to approach Rama before it reaches perihelion where it will most likely will use the sun as a gravity well to accelerate out of the solar system.</p>
<p>Most likely. Who can tell what an extra-solar intelligence wants or how it will act?</p>
<p>Since there’s been a lot of idiotic noise directed at authors like the aforementioned John Scalzi about how modern sci-fi has become infested with Social Justice Warriors, blah blah, it’s interesting to look at how progressive Clarke was.</p>
<p>In <em>Rendezvous with Rama</em> the protagonist lives in a multi-planet polyamorous relationship; there’s a gay crew member, minority crew members, female crew members, heck, uplifted chimpanzee crew members, and they are never called out as odd or lesser; sexuality, race, gender, and species are just parts of general descriptions.</p>
<p>So the society Clarke imagines humanity growing into is super chill and enlightened about matters of sex and race. Though it sadly still suffers from endless committee meetings full of crashing bores. Guess that’s one issue we are genetically unable to solve.</p>
<p>A piece of backstory I’d forgotten since my teenage read is that <em>hand wave</em> present-day Earth is hit by a major meteorite and decides to pool resources to establish colonies on other planets.</p>
<p>You know, like an obvious global emergency should be met with united, forceful action…</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Las Vegas trip report2018-12-31T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/12/las-vegas/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas1.jpg" /></p>
<p>Las Vegas is a bit over five hours north of Phoenix, five hours spent on mostly straight, parched desert highways. I’ve lived in Phoenix since 1996, but have never visited Las Vegas.</p>
<p>Why this sad state of affairs? Because Las Vegas has little that interests me. I don’t gamble, I don’t like big glittery shows, and I yell at clouds.</p>
<p>It was getting ridiculous. Why not spend a couple of days so I get some idea of what the place is like? It might be great!</p>
<p>Here we go.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas7.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Las Vegas zipline" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Las Vegas has a zipline over a food court. Of course.</i></p>
<p>The thing I failed to grok about Las Vegas is the sheer scale of the place. It is <em>massive</em>. Driving in to the city from Phoenix you come through some mountains, with Las Vegas spread out before you in a bowl. According to my GPS, there were 10 miles to go to the hotel, and still I could clearly see the hotels on the strip.</p>
<p>They are <em>massive</em>.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas5.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Las Vegas hotels" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>We might be able to fit you in.</i></p>
<p>The same thing happens when walking between hotels—they look close, but hoo boy, are you in for some walking.</p>
<p>If I have one tip for a Las Vegas vacation, it’s this: Comfortable shoes and be ready to walk.</p>
<p>The same goes if you decide to spend all your time in one hotel. They are almost comically large. They are also designed to get you lost.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas4.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Elvis sign inside casino" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Elvis. Have you heard of him?</i></p>
<p>The casino-slash-shopping center floors, at least in the hotels I visited on the Strip, are purposely designed to be an assault on the senses and to disorient you. They’re roach motels for humans.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas2.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Inside a Las Vegas casino" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Inside a casino.</i></p>
<p>This is probably not a unique observation, but it did strike me as I walked through the blaring floor of a casino how much it reminded me of a video game level. I’m guessing there’s a lot of the same psychology involved.</p>
<p>You have to learn how to navigate and level up in skills about how the place works.</p>
<p>For a complete n00b like me, the casino floors were utterly impenetrable. Where do you buy tokens? How do you join a game? Where do you even begin?</p>
<p>Without somebody to guide you, it’s hard to get started, but once you do get started, you’re leveling up quickly, you bigshot you!</p>
<p>One tension that is obvious when walking around is between new Vegas the family-friendly tourist destination and old Vegas, the Sin City.</p>
<p>As a boring person mostly moving about during the daytime, I saw so many tourists with children. Which I didn’t really understand—what is there to do with your children in Las Vegas you can’t do somewhere else for much less money?</p>
<p>But hey, it’s your money.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas8.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Caesar’s Palace lobby" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Caesar’s Palace keeps it minimal with the holiday decorations.</i></p>
<p>Sidebar: If you’re a parent with small children, you know where you should take them? <em>Nowhere</em>. Until they’re seven or so, they will remember <em>nothing</em> and you will have spent a lot of money and frustration for literally no reason except stress testing your marriage. Save the money till they’re old enough to actually remember things.</p>
<p>Seriously. Every time I’m at an airport or tourist destination and watch the tired, stressed-out parents blowing gobs of money to give their small children a good time, it breaks my heart.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas3.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Las Vegas wedding chapel" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Yes, you can get married.</i></p>
<p>But back to Las Vegas. Another thing about the Strip is that there’s nowhere to sit. No park benches at all.</p>
<p>Oh, you can sit. It’s Las Vegas—you can do whatever you want. You just need to pay somebody to get access to a place to sit. Palms need to be crossed with silver.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/las-vegas6.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Las Vegas Venice" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>A fake Venice, because why not?</i></p>
<p>Las Vegas is extra odd, I think, for people who live in Phoenix, as the metropolises share climate and architecture. Apart from the Strip itself, walking around Las Vegas is like walking around Phoenix. It’s a bit weird for things to be so commonplace and mundane and then <em>blam!</em> a huge arcology on the horizon!</p>
<p>Again, the scale is the nuttiest thing.</p>
<p>It’ll be very interesting to see what happens with Las Vegas. Obviously any place that operates on that kind of insane scale needs a steady stream of tourists, and now that the herd of gamblers is thinning out, will family tourism be enough to replace the gamblers and wannabe high-rollers?</p>
<p>Can Sin City and family tourism co-exist?</p>
<p>Personally, I doubt it, but I would never have predicted something as odd as Las Vegas in the first place.</p>
Book roundup, part 272018-10-19T19:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/10/book-roundup-part-27/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/december1994_1920.jpg" /></p>
<p>Not that many titles in this roundup, and no non-fiction, as I’ve been spending most of my reading hours plowing through Glen Cook’s brilliant <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Company-Chronicles/dp/0812521390?tag=thecoredump-20">Black Company</a> series once again. This was prompted by the sudden release of <em>Port of Shadows</em>, a novel set between the first and second novels in the original saga. There’s a full review of <em>Port of Shadows</em> below.</p>
<p>Apart from that, this roundup has the return of Sandman Slim, two brilliant Swedish art sci-fi books, and some velvety, twisted grimdark fantasy.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Sandman-Richard-Kadrey-author/dp/0008219095?tag=thecoredump-20">Hollywood Dead, by Richard Kadrey</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Sandman Slim is back from the dead! Kind of. He is, as the title says, Hollywood Dead. And is forced once again to perform another task for Bad People.</p>
<p><em>Hollywood Dead</em> is the weakest novel in the series so far, mostly because it, like Slim himself, lacks energy. The series is at its best when it’s a huge motorcycle roaring through Hell blasting The Misfits on a ghetto blaster, but this installment is more of a whimper, with a subdued, self-doubting Slim.</p>
<p>It’s understandable for Kadrey to have some trouble with where to take the series after having literally conquered Hell and stormed Heaven, but the brashness and hell-bent-for-leather rock’n’roll energy of the earliest novels were what made them so fun and special, so <em>Hollywood Dead</em> feels like an interstitial.</p>
<p>Still, I’m not giving up on the Sandman and am looking forward to the next one.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Loop-Simon-St%C3%A5lenhag/dp/1624650392?tag=thecoredump-20">Tales from the Loop, by Simon Stålenhag</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Simon Stålenhag’s <em>Tales from the Loop</em> is like it was designed specifically for me: Nostalgia for a Sweden of the past and sci-fi dystopia mixed into one with gorgeous artwork. But it’s not just about the artwork, which mixes mundane, usually overcast, Swedish landscapes and objects of the ’80s with fantastic sci-fi objects, but also a series of vignettes from the perspective of a boy growing up in this alternate reality.</p>
<p>The Loop of the title is a particle accelerator that enables the creation of wonderful but poorly understood technologies.</p>
<p>I read this one slowly, basking in the artwork and letting the emotions in the vignettes seep in.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Things-Flood-Simon-St%C3%A5lenhag/dp/1624650465?tag=thecoredump-20">Things from the Flood, by Simon Stålenhag</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Things from the Flood</em> continues the story begun in <em>Tales from the Loop</em>, with the boy narrator from the first book moving into adolescence and something going horribly wrong with the Loop.</p>
<p>Not quite the experience of <em>Tales from the Loop</em>, perhaps because the premise has already been unfolded, but still strong and deeply emotional.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Court-Broken-Knives-Empires-Dust-ebook/dp/B06XCM66BC?tag=thecoredump-20">The Court of Broken Knives, by Anna Smith Spark</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Smith Spark uses language like a dagger in this odd and twisted grimdark fantasy. It features some of the usual fantasy tropes like dragons, prophecy and magic, but treats them in fresh, new ways.</p>
<p><em>The Court of Broken Knives</em> is grimdark wrapped in velvet and compulsively readable, though a bit difficult to get through as several of the characters are such terrible, terrible people. But hey, that’s grimdark for you.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Port-Shadows-Chronicle-Company-Chronicles/dp/1250174570?tag=thecoredump-20">Port of Shadows, by Glen Cook</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>This is novel one and a half in the amazing Black Company series, dropping in uninvited but welcome long after the series conclusion and covers events that take place after the end of the first novel, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Company-Chronicles/dp/0812521390?tag=thecoredump-20">The Black Company</a></em>. This is kind of weird, yes, but very welcome for fans of the series.</p>
<p>One often underrated part of the mythos is how much it plays with unreliable narration. Different annalists—Black Company chroniclers—cover events differently with different focuses and takes on characters, sometimes even disagreeing on pure facts. It adds to the depth of the series.</p>
<p><em>Port of Shadows</em> takes this to a whole new level, with Croaker—the current annalist—admitting to having his memories tampered with and being kept out of the loop for operational security reasons.</p>
<p>It’s also different in tone than the other installments, with more interpersonal relationships, including Croaker’s with a brand new Taken called Mischievous Rain. Or <em>is</em> she a new Taken? DUN-DUN-dun.</p>
<p>Whatever or whoever Mischievous Rain is, she certainly is interesting and brings out new sides of our old hero Croaker.</p>
<p><em>Port of Shadows</em> also provides glimpses back into the early days of the Domination, just enough to whet your appetite for more.</p>
<p>It’s an unfulfilling novel in many ways, with Cook doing a lot more playing with the form than he usually does, but it’s a brand new novel of the Black Company! So let’s rejoice.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. If you deign to purchase one of the books through them, it’s appreciated.</p>
To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle2018-09-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/09/to-see-what-is-in-front-of-ones-nose/
<blockquote>
<p>To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—George Orwell</p>
“Cancel everything. You’re going into emergency surgery today”2018-09-02T19:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/09/cancel-everything/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/left-eye.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>DR;TL</strong> If you suddenly see black floaters or flashes of light, drop everything and get to an ophthalmologist as soon as humanly possible. You might be going blind. <strong>/DR;TL</strong></p>
<p>A few weeks ago I woke up on a Thursday with huge black floaters in my left eye. Floaters, I’ve had since I can remember. For some reason being extremely nearsighted brings them on.</p>
<p>But they’ve always been grey.</p>
<p>These were full black. Imagine having strands of seaweed floating across your vision, obscuring what you’re looking at and, as the name implies, <em>floating</em>, so you can’t get used to them. They’re just floating around in your eye, obscuring as they please. Float, float, float.</p>
<p>So it’s extremely annoying, but it’s a thing that happens. <em>Shrug</em>.</p>
<p>By Sunday, the black seaweed floaters have been joined by what I can only call a gauze across my vision on the left eye. Think vaseline across a camera lens for what it looks like. And in the gauze are little black dots swimming along with the gross and horrible seaweed.</p>
<p>Wake up Monday morning and go to work. Where, it turns out, who knew, I have to use a computer. But I can’t really see out of my left eye. It’s just a blur with seaweed and black dots.</p>
<p>At this point I’ve consulted with Dr. Google and black floaters, it turns out, are a <em>very</em> bad sign that you might have retinal detachment.</p>
<p>So I call around to find an ophthalmologist to take a look. And I have a headache from one eye being all blurry and having to keep it closed to be able to read.</p>
<p>After a lot of phone calls, I finally find an ophthalmologist who can see me on Wednesday. As a sidebar here, apparently ophthalmology is a great business to be in, as most places I called were booked solid weeks out and some of them wouldn’t even take voice mails.</p>
<p>Wednesday rolls around. Gauze and gross seaweed floaters are still there. Scheduled for the ophthalmologist in the morning, then a deep cleaning at the dentist in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Yeah, I party.</p>
<p>To be precise, I’m at an ophthalmology clinic, but the doctor I’m meeting is an optometrist. I figure that’s fine; the optometrist can perform the diagnosis and is hooked up to the surgeons if I need them. Which I hope I don’t. Hoping I can just blink a bunch of times and the black floaters will disappear.</p>
<p>Here’s the drill: Meet a nurse, have your eyes numbed and dilation drops applied, then eye blood pressure taken. Then wait in a waiting room. As the dilation drops kick in, the world goes blurry. Nobody tells you what to expect or how long to wait.</p>
<p>Forget about spending this wasted time on the phone. Can’t read it.</p>
<p>Get taken to a room to wait another unspecified amount of time for the optometrist.</p>
<p>The optometrist comes in and starts the examination.</p>
<p>An extremely bright light is shined into my eye. I am ordered to look in different directions.</p>
<p>Look down. Look up. Look up left. Look up right. Look down right. Look down left.</p>
<p>During this, due to the intense light, I see the blood vessels in my eye. It is a new sensation and it is disconcerting.</p>
<p>I hear: “Horseshoe tear.”</p>
<p>That can’t be good.</p>
<p>And it isn’t.</p>
<p>Optometrist says, “Cancel your plans. You’re going in for emergency surgery today.”</p>
<p>There is very little explanation of what is happening in my eye and why this has to be today. It just has to be today.</p>
<p>OK.</p>
<p>The receptionist takes my copay and then starts calling around for places where I can have the surgery.</p>
<p>I’m feeling nothing but dazed.</p>
<p>Am I about to go blind in my left eye?</p>
<p>Is that a thing that’s about to happen?</p>
<p>The receptionist finds a place where I can have the surgery. At 3 p.m. It’s a few miles north of where I work, in uptown Phoenix, about 25 miles away.</p>
<p>Remember the dentist appointment I now have to cancel? My wife was supposed to drive me there, as I have a dentist phobia and was prescribed some Xanax to deal with the anxiety.</p>
<p>Instead, she will now drive me to some random eye shop so I can have this potential blindness dealt with.</p>
<p>Now I’m home and have a few hours to kill before I go in to find out if I’m <em>going to go blind in my left eye</em>.</p>
<p>So I take two dentist Xanax. Hey, they’re for anxiety and if this isn’t anxiety I don’t know what is.</p>
<p>Wife comes home and we depart for uptown Phoenix. Traffic is horrible with several wrecks on the I-10. At 2 p.m. Parked on the I-10, the clock ticking away on my appointment, as I’m heading in to find out if I’m going to keep being able to see out of my left eye.</p>
<p>Xanax helps keep me from freaking out. So, it’s doing its job.</p>
<p>We finally make it to the retina specialist clinic two minutes late. The Trip was supposed to take thirty minutes; we left thirty minutes early just in case. Still arrived late. Thank you, Phoenix traffic.</p>
<p>I check in at the clinic, get my eyes numbed and dilated again, then proceed with the usual medical clinic unknown-length wait until I’m in with the ophthalmologist.</p>
<p>And now I find out that what they didn’t tell me in the morning is that you can only do the laser surgery if there isn’t any fluid in the tear. Is there fluid in the tear?</p>
<p>Stay tuned to find out.</p>
<p>No, there is no fluid in the tear. Yay! They can do the laser surgery.</p>
<p>This is obviously great news, since the traditional surgery involves opening the eye with a scalpel. <em>Shudder.</em></p>
<p>But no need to freak out about that. We’re go for laser!</p>
<p>While waiting for the laser show, I ask—you have to ask, they don’t volunteer any information—why this happened.</p>
<p>Quote: “Bad luck and age.”</p>
<p>I also ask what the black dots I’m seeing floating around are. Turns out they are red blood cells. The gauze obscuring my vision is blood in my lens. Yeah.</p>
<p>If you’ve never had a laser cauterize a tear on your retina, here’s what it’s like:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>You put your face in what seems like a pretty normal piece of optometry equipment.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The ophthalmologist puts what they call a “lens” in your eye. (It’s weird but mostly fine, as your eye has been numbed, so you don’t really feel <em>the thing a person is holding against your open eye ball</em>.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I’m pretty sure the “lens” is only there to keep your eye from closing.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When the laser fires the light is obviously incredibly bright, and it feels like you’re being poked in the back of your eye with a pencil.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Poke, poke, poke. The laser fires a lot.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You obviously want the laser, because it is cauterizing your wound.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>But your brain and reflexes <em>do not want</em> a bright green flash and a poke where nothing is supposed to reach, ever.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>So it takes all I have to not rear back.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Which is very annoying to Captain Laser.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>And while I very much appreciate Captain Laser cauterizing the wound in my retina, I’m doing the best I can to stay staring at the Super Bright Poking Laser, thank you very much, so I really don’t need shit about how I’m not staying put at this point, thank you very much.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If my stoic restraint isn’t up to your standards, perhaps you could have put a strap on the equipment, eh?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>With the stress and the Xanax I’m not sure exactly how long this went on, but probably ten minutes or so.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>We’re finally done and I’m drained.</p>
<p>Note that nothing in this process hurt. The blast of light and sensation of a pencil stabbing the back of the eye is weird and uncomfortable, but it doesn’t hurt, per se. But the stress and uncertainty are enormously draining.</p>
<p>I go back for a checkup one week later and it looks like the cauterization is holding.</p>
<p>I am now utterly paranoid about floaters. And for good reason. The tear I had in my retina could have rendered me blind at any point. Blind. As in, Can’t See Anything. Retinal detachment is very much not a joke.</p>
<p>But yeah, this was tiring. May you never have to watch the black floaters creep in. But if you do, literally drop everything and get to an ophthalmologist.</p>
Book roundup, part 262018-08-03T20:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/08/book-roundup-part-26/
<p>This roundup is a bit light as I’ve been unable to finish a surprising amount of books, but don’t want to give them negative reviews as I might just not have been in the right state of mind for them rather than them being bad books.</p>
<p>Times are hard for states of mind right now.</p>
<p>I’ve also been doing a lot of self-soothing re-reading Terry Pratchett, specifically the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/106221-discworld---ankh-morpork-city-watch">Night Watch Cycle</a>. The character arcs of especially Sam Vimes, but really the whole cast, as well as Pratchett’s growing empathy and complexity of plotting are joys to read.</p>
<p>R.I.P. and GNU Sir Pratchett.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Before-Beginning-Roman-Republic/dp/1610397215/&tag=thecoredump-20">The Storm Before the Storm, by Mike Duncan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains; thieves of public property in riches and luxury. —Cato the Elder</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>The Storm Before the Storm</em> is the story of the events that lead up to the fall of the Roman Empire. Considering current events in America, the parallels are more than a little scary.</p>
<p>The biggest thing that stuck out for me was that the Romans operated according to a tradition called <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mos_maiorum">mos maiorum</a></em>, which basically translates to “the way of the ancestors.” There weren’t many laws, per se, but rather customs political leaders were supposed to adhere to.</p>
<p><em>Cough</em> presidential candidate tax returns <em>cough</em>.</p>
<p>As time passed various crises arose, whether through corrupted leaders or external events, and the customs were broken a little bit, then a little bit more, then a little bit more until the Republic fell.</p>
<p>Another eerie parallel between the Roman Republic and America today was income inequality. Most of the insane wealth gathered through territorial expansion and brutality went to only a few people while most of the Roman population existed in half-starved poverty.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are silent when we see that all the money of all the nations has come into the hands of a few men; which we seem to tolerate and to permit with the more equanimity, because none of these robbers conceals what he is doing. —Cicero</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course, some of the leaders, like Cicero and Cato the Elder saw the storm clouds gathering, but were ignored.</p>
<p><em>The Storm Before the Storm</em> is kind of a horror book if you’re paying attention to current events.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/White-Trash-400-Year-History-America/dp/0143129678/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">White Trash, by Nancy Isenberg</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>White Trash</em> is extremely uncomfortable reading, shattering as it does a lot of the myths America has woven about itself, from its beginning as a place to dump British “waste people” to the ongoing efforts to not pay attention to the poor living on the edges of society.</p>
<p>As she writes about the beginnings of the colonies:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Can we handle the truth? In the early days of settlement, in the profit-driven minds of well-connected men in charge of a few prominent joint-stock companies, America was conceived of in paradoxical terms: at once a land of fertility and possibility and a place of outstanding wastes, “ranke” and weedy backwaters, dank and sorry swamps. Here was England’s opportunity to thin out its prisons and siphon off thousands; here was an outlet for the unwanted, a way to remove vagrants and beggars, to be rid of London’s eyesore population. Those sent on the hazardous voyage to America who survived presented a simple purpose for imperial profiteers: to serve English interests and perish in the process.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s, uh, not the most enlightened view of the value of human life.</p>
<p>Isenberg does an excellent job of lifting the lid on the myths and showing the much, much uglier reality beneath, and she does so with a historian’s clarity and ample sourcing.</p>
<p>One drawback is that <em>White Trash</em> is very long, too long I’d argue, and gets a bit repetitive in places.</p>
<p>That in mind, it’s an important work that deserves your attention.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Calypso-David-Sedaris/dp/0316392383/ref=sr_1_2?tag=thecoredump-20">Calypso, by David Sedaris</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Probably the best work of Sedaris’s career. If you’ve read him before, you know what to expect: Observations on life and family from an extremely observant and strange man, observations that manage to be wry, disturbing and warm at the same time.</p>
<p>At this point Sedaris is in his fifties, his mother has passed away, his father is awash in Fox News, and his siblings are also getting on in years.</p>
<p><em>Calypso</em> is dark and mature, wrestling with mortality and some disturbing family revelations I’m not going to spoil, while keeping the Sedaris trademark warmth and humor.</p>
<p>Solid read.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tell-Machine-Goodnight-Katie-Williams/dp/0525533125/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Tell the Machine Goodnight, by Katie Williams</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Near-future sci-fi where an inventor has created a machine, called Apricity, that can scan your DNA and give you somewhat vague tips to increase your happiness. Which supposedly works, somehow. The tips can include things like “learn a foreign language,” to “build models.”</p>
<p>But the existence of Apricity is secondary to the characters that inhabit the world, who are complex and flawed in different ways. The writing is clear and filled with great phrasing.</p>
<p>While a little bit precious and self-consciously literary, <em>Tell the Machine Goodnight</em> is a short, haunting read that lingers.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Fools-Red-Queens-War/dp/0425268799?tag=thecoredump-20">Prince of Fools, by Mark Lawrence</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Set in the same universe as the very good and incredibly grimdark The Broken Empire trilogy that begins with <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Thorns-Broken-Empire-Lawrence/dp/1937007685?tag=thecoredump-20">Prince of Thorns</a></em>, <em>Prince of Fools</em> is the beginning of a new trilogy, The Red Queen’s War.</p>
<p><em>Prince of Fools</em> takes place at the same time as events in the previous trilogy, but follows parallel events with little overlap.</p>
<p>Prince Jalan Kendeth is one of the grandchildren of the Red Queen, a fearsome presence. Jalan enjoys wine, women, and losing his money at the fight pits. He’s an avowed coward and ne’er-do-well.</p>
<p>On the plus side, <em>Prince of Fools</em> has plenty of action and swashbuckling and some character growth from our protagonist. On the minus side, Jalan is not an interesting character and his viking side kick also remains one-dimensional.</p>
<p>There’s lots of sound and fury, but in the end the entire novel ends up feeling like a level in a not very good video game. There’s just not enough plot in there for an entire novel.</p>
<p>Though it may be that my expectations were simply set too high—The Broken Empire series is stellar, with a protagonist who is deeply and fundamentally a terrible, terrible human, but a terrible human who you get to understand and empathize with.</p>
<p>Jalan is a twat and his character growth just isn’t all that interesting.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Lawrence earned another chance with The Broken Empire, so I’ll read the next installment in the trilogy to see if it takes off.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Provenance-Ann-Leckie/dp/031638867X/ref=sr_1_1?tag=thecoredump-20">Provenance, by Ann Leckie</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Provenance</em> is set in the same universe as the stories in the Imperial Radch trilogy, but in a different culture. Which is the problem with the novel. The Radch were horrifying but interesting, while the characters in <em>Provenance</em>, the Hwae, are mostly just boring and a bit silly. Sometimes you just want to yell at the page as a Hwae gets wrapped up in some ridiculous cultural trap.</p>
<p>But the Hwae are what they are. The plot is also slow to start as we learn about these imbeciles, but picks up admirably toward the end.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed the Imperial Radch trilogy, you’ll probably like <em>Provenance</em>, even though it does feel a bit watered down in comparison.</p>
<p>If you haven’t read any of Leckie’s work, start with the excellent <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Justice-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/031624662X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_3?tag=thecoredump-20">Ancillary Justice</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Some links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny, tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Renewing the nerd card: Installing Ubiquiti UniFi in the house2018-06-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/06/renewing-the%20nerd-card/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/netgear-murder.jpg" /></p>
<p>Every once in a while you have to renew your nerd card. It’s the law. Seriously, look it up. So to renew mine I went the utterly predictable route and updated my home WiFi to a <a href="https://unifi-sdn.ubnt.com/">Ubiquiti UniFi</a> setup.</p>
<p>This was prompted partly by daughter—intergalactic destroyer of bandwidth—complaining about the existing WiFi sometimes flaking and by a need, a need to nerd.</p>
<p>For the last several years WiFi in the household has been provided by a Netgear R6400 hacked with a Kong build of <a href="https://dd-wrt.com/">DD-WRT</a>.</p>
<p>That’s right: WiFi and routing in my home has been provided by a consumer device I patched to run software from the Internet provided by an individual or group that goes by the moniker Kong. For me, that felt satisfyingly cyberpunk. Which it probably doesn’t for anybody sane.</p>
<p>Mirrorshades, people, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-Bear/dp/0441533825?tag=thecoredump-20">mirrorshades</a>.</p>
<p>When looking into alternatives, I of course came across the infamous Ars Technica <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/review-ubiquiti-unifi-made-me-realize-how-terrible-consumer-wi-fi-gear-is/">article about Ubiquiti UniFi</a>. Which you should read if you haven’t. It really captures the nerd yearning.</p>
<p>I wonder how many units of <a href="https://www.ubnt.com/">Ubiquiti</a> gear that article has moved…</p>
<p>After I was triggered by the Ars Technica article, the traditional nerd obsessive Internet search-and-read began, and after that also proved positive, I pulled the trigger and the devices winged their way here.</p>
<p>Casa Core Dump is now irradiated by a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-AC-PRO-Access-Included/dp/B079DSW6XX?tag=thecoredump-20">UAP-AC-PRO</a> access point, and routing is performed by a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Security-Gateway-USG/dp/B00LV8YZLK?tag=thecoredump-20">Unifi Security Gateway</a>.</p>
<p>Yes, only one access point. Casa Core Dump is a 1,900 square foot house and the UAP-AC-PRO <em>beams hard</em>. I’ll probably add another to flood the backyard with WiFi when the weather cools down.</p>
<p>And things are going well. In the two months the router and access point have been here, they have been rock solid.</p>
<p>Let’s enhance that one: They have been <em>rock solid</em>. The devices have, so far, been sheer plumbing: They sit there and do what they’re supposed to without calling attention to themselves. Which is <em>exactly</em> what I wanted when I bought them.</p>
<p>But nothing is perfect, so if you’re planning on making the jump, note that your adventure only begins when you install the equipment. With flexibility and features comes a period of tweaking as you settle the devices down.</p>
<p>Your setup is not my setup, and you’re not replacing what I’m replacing, and you’re not using your network the same way I use mine, so you’ll see different issues. But wireless being what it is, there will be overlap, so here are the major issues I found and how I resolved them.</p>
<p><strong>First issue:</strong> AirPlay would disconnect randomly. Which, yes, is something AirPlay is famous for doing. But it was solid with DD-WRT on murderbot. Ugh?</p>
<p>After some experimentation, turning down the 2.4 GHz radio signal strength seems to have made AirPlay behave. AirPlay being AirPlay, your experience may differ.</p>
<p><strong>Second issue:</strong> Spotify on the iPhone could no longer find my ChromeCasts, even after <a href="https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001004034-UniFi-Best-Practices-for-Managing-Chromecast-Google-Home-on-UniFi-Network#enable">enabling multicast DNS</a>. Turns out the ChromeCasts needed to be rebooted.</p>
<p><em>Did you turn it off and turn it on again.gif</em></p>
<p><strong>Not an issue per se</strong>, but if you want the fancy graphs in the UniFi controller—and if you’re the kind of person who spends the money on this kind of gear, you want the fancy graphs—you must have a server constantly running. Not an issue for me personally, since I already have a box doing server things, but the controller software is a bit enterprise-y to install.</p>
<p><em>Cough, Java, cough.</em></p>
<p>And judging from forum posts around the Internet, the controller sometimes does not upgrade gracefully at all. Which, if you want to be charitable, I guess you could look at as being a bonus Enterprise IT Admin Simulator™.</p>
<p>There are also some surprising oversights in the controller software. For instance, there’s no way to get month-by-month bandwidth graphs. It just shows bandwidth since the controller was started. A major oversight since we’re now living with bandwidth caps in America.</p>
<p><em>Yes, America: Bandwidth caps, ISP monopolies, and no net neutrality. Let’s give ourselves a hand, everybody!</em></p>
<p>Another strange oversight is that you have to leave the glossy goodness of the controller and use your SSH-fu to run an inbound OpenVPN server on the thing. It’s apparently on Ubiquiti’s roadmap to expose OpenVPN in the controller software, but it’s not here yet.</p>
<p><strong>Executive summary:</strong> I’m impressed with my Ubiqiti UniFi gear, though there are some odd oversights I hope they rectify soon.</p>
<p>If you’re the kind of person who enjoys fancy dashboards, slick GUIs, has the patience and skill for the occasional “enterprise” type difficulty, and wants rock solid Internet in your home or office, I recommend Ubiquiti gear.</p>
<p><strong>NOTE:</strong> Some links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through them I get a tiny kickback, which is greatly appreciated and doesn’t add anything to your cost.</p>
The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism2018-05-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/05/the-greater-the-ignorance-the-greater-the-dogmatism/
<blockquote>
<p>The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Sir William Osler</p>
Working in the pod mines2018-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/05/working-in-the-pod-mines/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/podcast-setup.jpg" /></p>
<p>This is a follow-up to my previous post on <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2017/09/podcasting-getting-started/">getting started with podcasting</a>, reflecting on things I’ve learned since that post about six months ago. Hope this help somebody else out.</p>
<p>First, a lot of online discussion about podcasts focuses on microphones and editing software. Both of which are foundational in that you can’t make a podcast without a mic and something to process the audio. Granted.</p>
<p>But they are table stakes and not what sets a great podcast apart from one that’s not quite there. Don’t get me wrong, you need to get your audio quality up to where it’s listenable, though what that means will depend on your audience. Table stakes. Not something to obsess about.</p>
<p>Talking about, worrying about, and purchasing gear does serve as the perfect procrastination technique: You’re not wasting time not working on your podcast: <em>You’re improving the podcast</em>.</p>
<p>I currently have two podcasts, my <a href="https://amerikapodden.xyz/">Swedish-language solo podcast</a> and my <a href="https://smellthefoamfinger.com/">English-language podcast with a co-host</a>.</p>
<p>Flying solo and recording with a co-host are utterly different experiences.</p>
<p>When recording with a co-host, you’re having a conversation with a human and trying to be mindful enough of mic technique that you get it captured with good quality. It’s a natural act with a bit of added cognitive load to keep the mics in mind.</p>
<p>Recording alone on the other hand is a profoundly unnatural act. Being alone in a room and talking into a microphone is like nothing else. It takes a lot of practice to get comfortable being a lunatic who talks at an empty room.</p>
<p>Which brings us to the main point: A podcast is a performance. Whether you’re talking alone or with other humans, you are on a virtual stage and you are performing.</p>
<p>Content is king, but no matter how good the content, if it’s presented poorly nobody wants to hear it.</p>
<p>Everybody has had the experience, whether in school or at a seminar, of having to sit through somebody droning and sputtering their way through a presentation.</p>
<p>It’s pain. And nobody is going to voluntarily expose themselves to that kind pain when there are literally half a million other options out there.</p>
<p>For me, personally, I tend to have a flat affect, especially when standing in an empty room talking to a wall, so I try to be conscious of that and really amp things up.</p>
<p>Yes, it feels ridiculous at first, hamming it up like a British character actor in a B-grade Hollywood movie, but it gets easier.</p>
<p>Finally, editing is part of the performance.</p>
<p>All I’m personally trying to accomplish when editing is to have the monologue or conversation flow naturally, which means taking out false starts, garbled words, long pauses, and of course the dreaded mouth sounds.</p>
<p>Yech, mouth sounds. The worst.</p>
<p>It takes me about three times the length of the recording to do a pass. But that time is getting shorter, both from getting practice at editing itself, learning to read the wave forms better, and from getting comfortable while recording, so the recordings are cleaner.</p>
<p>Practice, practice, practice.</p>
It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he already thinks he knows2018-03-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/03/it-is-impossible/
<blockquote>
<p>It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he already thinks he knows.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Epictetus</p>
Book roundup, part 252018-03-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/03/book-roundup-part-25/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantasyland-America-Haywire-500-Year-History/dp/1400067219/ref=sr_1_1?&tag=thecoredump-20">Fantasyland, by Kurt Andersen</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Fantasyland</em> is a history of the United States that attempts to unravel how America became the sort of nation that elects a person like Trump to its highest office.</p>
<p>It starts at America’s humble beginnings as a 1600s scam convincing British people to move to a Virginia claimed to be littered with gold. Yes, the first British immigrants weren’t religious people seeking to create their own utopia, but suckers in a gold scam.</p>
<p>But the religious people followed and set vigorously about building their utopias.</p>
<p>Andersen places a lot of weight in America’s Protestant roots, and how Protestant faith is centered on finding your own relationship with God—there are no authorities who can tell you you are wrong.</p>
<p>But Protestantism started in Germany, you say? So why didn’t the same ferocity of religion happen there? Andersen thinks a lot of the reason is that German culture already existed, along with deep Catholic roots, which tempered Protestantism a bit.</p>
<p>From there on, <em>Fantasyland</em> takes us through America’s centuries of fervent <em>belief</em>, both religious and non-religious, and a cavalcade of hucksters, grifters, and showmen.</p>
<p>Until we arrive in the 1960s, which, Andersen—who lived through them himself—argues, triggered the anti-reality tendencies that are flowering now.</p>
<p><em>Fantasyland</em> is very interesting and does a lot of heavy lifting to connect the wilder pieces of America’s psyche over time with where we are today.</p>
<p>It’s also quite long and exhaustive and, frankly, depressing.</p>
<p>But if you’re interested in where America is today and not satisfied with interviews with blue-collar people in rustic diners in Iowa, it is highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Dunkirk-Story-Operation-Dynamo/dp/1504047540/ref=sr_1_1&tag=thecoredump-20">The Miracle of Dunkirk: The True Story of Operation Dynamo, by Walter Lord</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Dunkirk</em>, the movie was fabulous—I really enjoyed it. And it made me want to learn more about Operation Dynamo. So I picked up <em>The Miracle of Dunkirk</em>.</p>
<p>Both the movie and the book do a great job of illustrating the utter, complete chaos in which Operation Dynamo took place.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed the movie or if you’re interested in general about World War II, I highly recommend <em>The Miracle of Dunkirk</em>. If you’re at all like me you’ll read this book and then watch the film again and understand the film a lot better. You will also appreciate the film more, as it does an amazing job of hinting at the real events and using them as dramatic backdrop without hitting you over the head with them.</p>
<p>The importance of the Miracle of Dunkirk for the rest of World War II and thus for the fate of the world simply can’t be overstated. If the Germans had managed to eradicate the British Expeditionary Force, Britain would have stood defenseless.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Britain could replace the 2,472 lost guns, the 63,879 abandoned vehicles; but the 224,686 rescued troops were irreplaceable. In the summer of 1940 they were the only trained troops Britain had left. Later, they would be the nucleus of the great Allied armies that won back the Continent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the Miracle to happen, the Germans had to go out of their way to fail, the weather had to hold, and British civilians in unheard-of numbers had to take their vessels to sea against the might of the Luftwaffe, German submarines, and the German guns surrounding Dunkirk, shelling the port and the sea.</p>
<p>Operation Dynamo really shouldn’t have succeded.</p>
<p>When it comes to the Germans, we can lay the blame on Göring and Hitler—Göring feared the tank units that had driven the Expeditionary Force and its French allies to the sea would get too much credit and thus too much status in the endless internecine battles that plagued Hitler’s inner circle, so he convinced Hitler the Luftwaffe could finish the job and the tanks should be pulled back.</p>
<p>Amazing.</p>
<p>And the weather:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The English Channel is usually rough, rarely behaves for very long. Yet a calm sea was essential to the evacuation, and during the nine days of Dunkirk the Channel was a millpond. Old-timers still say they have never seen it so smooth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amid all the stories of heartache, bravery and suffering that fill the book, there are also brilliant nuggets like this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>McCorquodale was one of those throwbacks to a glorious earlier age in British military history. Gleaming with polished brass and leather, he scorned the new battle dress. “I don’t mind dying for my country,” he declared, “but I’m not going to die dressed like a third-rate chauffeur.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If by some chance you haven’t seen <em>Dunkirk</em> the movie, I highly recommend reading this book before you do. Reading the book and then watching the movie again will really open up the movie for you.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Das-Reich-Division-Military-Classics/dp/0760344914/ref=sr_1_1&tag=thecoredump-20">Das Reich, by Max Hastings</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>As you’d expect from Hastings, <em>Das Reich</em> is a clear and lucid tome. It covers the horrific massacre committed in the village of Oradour by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich on its way to repel the Allied invaders at Normandy, but also puts the behavior of the SS in the context of the war.</p>
<p>Which is not to say that the book in any way shape or form excuses the atrocity, but simply elucidates why the Das Reich acted the way they did.</p>
<p>Part of the answer lies in the sociopathic and brutal culture of the SS as a whole:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The aspect of their conditioning that is most relevant to this story is the extraordinary respect with which they had been imbued for the virtues of strength, of ruthless dedication to the task in hand, and the equally extraordinary indifference to the claims of the weak and the innocent. All their virtues were reserved for others within their closed society. They possessed neither charity nor mercy for any who were not deemed to have deserved it by their own code.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another reason—not excuse—was that the Das Reich had just been recalled from the hell that was the Russian Front, where war was total and merciless:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They abandoned shaving for weeks on end to protect their skin, forgot mail from home, for it never came, grew accustomed to seeing their own ranks shattered in battle, rebuilt and shattered once again until their old units were unrecognizable. Casualties provoked meteoric promotions to fill the gaps. Heinrich Wulf found himself commanding a battalion reduced to a tenth of its establishment, yet when he himself left Russia, only one in ten of those men was left. ‘Our only concern was not to be captured,’ he said.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>[…]</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The West came to seem almost a dream world. To the men of the Das Reich who emerged from the East in 1944, the rich fields and vineyards of south-west France brought them back to the glorious, happy memories of 1940. Yet they found that much had changed. Those who served there in 1940–1 had found most of the French people astonishingly relaxed and friendly. They now discovered that in public civilians addressed them coldly, or not at all. There was less to eat. The terrorist threat meant that it was impossible for vehicles or men to travel alone outside city centres. Even in Toulouse, the officers’ messes and the Soldatenheim were faced with wire mesh against grenade attack.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To add to the frustration, German High Command decided to use this elite armored regiment to suppress French Resistance activity—a task for which tanks are ill-equipped—instead of helping repel the Allied invasion.</p>
<p><em>Das Reich</em> also spends a lot of time explaining the setup and situation of the maquis, its different factions, and how the British and Americans made half-hearted efforts to arm and train the maquis.</p>
<p>In the end, despite great risk, great effort, and horrific losses, the maquis only managed to delay the movement of Das Reich toward the beaches by a few days—though crucial days they were—and most of their efforts were in vain. Except, as Hastings makes sure to explain, the real victory of the maquis was to help the French self-image:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Much more than this, much more than the number of days that the maquis delayed the Das Reich, every man and woman who played his part and survived was exalted by the experience even through the terrible layer of pain. The great contribution of Resistance – that which justified all that SOE did and made worthwhile the sacrifice of all those who died – was towards the restoration of the soul of France.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Undoing-Project-Friendship-Changed-Minds/dp/0393254593/ref=mt_hardcover?&tag=thecoredump-20">The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>The topics of <em>The Undoing Project</em>, the behavioral economics work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, their shattering of the economic theory foundation of the rational customer, both their incredible life stories, their intense friendship, their lives during World War II and then in an Israel at war, are great and very, very important.</p>
<p>But the book is a slog.</p>
<p>Perhaps it felt like a slog since Michael Lewis has made his career writing punchy, breezy books about difficult topics and has proven again and again he can boil the topics down to their most human essentials. Perhaps it’s this, that it feels so different from his other works, that makes it so disappointing.</p>
<p>However it may be, Kahneman and Tversky’s contributions to our understanding of the fallibilities of the human brain are fascinating.</p>
<p>Kahneman and Tversky’s lives were fascinating.</p>
<p>The tensions of Israel’s co-existence with Arab nations in the Middle East after World War II is interesting.</p>
<p>But <em>The Undoing Project</em> is still, disappointingly, a slog. This is the first Lewis book I had to power through. It feels like he’s in love with too many topics and has a bit of a problem deciding where to cut, so he includes everything.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Punch-Words-Live-Podcast/dp/1250088887/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1?&tag=thecoredump-20">Waiting for the Punch, by Marc Maron</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Waiting for the Punch</em> is a compilation of best moments from Maron’s successful podcast <em><a href="http://www.wtfpod.com/">WTF</a></em> in written form together with new words to introduce the sections written by Maron.</p>
<p>It’s great. Parts are harrowing, some are sad, some are laugh-out-loud funny. Having these great moments from what is probably the most intimate and vulnerable show in the world collected thematically is powerful.</p>
<p>If you’re a fan of <em>WTF</em>, getting the bone broth version is a strong experience, and if you’re not a listener, this is a good introduction.</p>
<p>For me, personally, this kind of material is not something I want to listen to, but would rather read, so <em>Waiting for the Punch</em> provides a great entry into the best of the show.</p>
<p>And if I were to get all <em>WTF</em> on it, perhaps wanting to read instead of listen to all the hours of audio says something about how I want a layer of separation between myself and the human voices, or perhaps it shows my neurotic fixation with time management, or perhaps it just shows I like to read.</p>
<p>Who can tell? But it is a great, powerful read with lots of grit.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vacationland-True-Stories-Painful-Beaches/dp/0735224803/ref=sr_1_1&tag=thecoredump-20">Vacationland, by John Hodgman</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Hodgman made a nice career for himself being an offbeat tweedy goofball who manufactures lies. The media climate in 2017 being what it was, he decided to stop lying and start telling the truth. And his truth is a wonderful place, a warm bath to slip into.</p>
<p>As he himself calls out in the book, Hodgman performs “white privilege comedy,” and it doesn’t get much more white privilege than having not one but two summer homes, one in Maine and one in Massachusetts and worrying a lot about being, as the people up there say, “from away.”</p>
<p>Which is not a criticism. <em>Vacationland</em> is gentle and warm, a tonic for these troubled times, and while not laugh-out-loud funny, very much droll.</p>
<p>I enjoyed my time in Hodgman’s brain a lot.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Points-Impact-Frontlines-Marko-Kloos/dp/154204846X/ref=sr_1_1&tag=thecoredump-20">Points of Impact, by Marko Kloos</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Points of Impact</em> is the 6th novel in the Frontlines series, which it continues with aplomb.</p>
<p>Obviously, being the 6th in a series, it’s not the place to start, but if you’re already a fan of the series wondering if you should pick this one up: Yes, you should.</p>
<p>It moves briskly along with some good battle sequences and some character growth for our protagonist Grayson, who, in his 10th year of war and with most people from his past dead, is starting to suffer from PTSD and Weltschmerz.</p>
<p>My one frustration with <em>Points of Impact</em> is that it still feels a bit stuck in neutral. Sure, lots of things happen, but the main storyline needs to start progressing; we need to learn more about the Lankies.</p>
<p>I’m hoping the next installment kicks in the afterburners.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread2018-02-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/02/the-law-in-its-majestic-equality/
<blockquote>
<p>The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>―Anatole France</p>
A report from surveillance cylinder land as we wait for HomePod2018-01-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/01/report-from-surveillance-cylinder-land-as-we-wait-for-homepod/
<p>Whether it’s from long-standing Star Trek-fandom or general sci-fi nerdiness, I’ve been very excited about the possibilities of voice computing since the release of the Amazon Echo.</p>
<p>Being able to talk to air and have things happen is pretty close to magical.</p>
<p>Being a huge nerd, once I had an Echo surveillance cylinder in my house I very excitedly changed the wake word to “computer,” so I could get that whole Picard on the bridge of the Enterprise vibe going.</p>
<p>But then I had to change it back to “Alexa” since I listen to a lot of nerd podcasts that use the word “computer” way too often. So that was sad for me.</p>
<p>Pout.</p>
<p>My home has both an Echo and a Google Home, since I’m interested enough in voice control to try out both contenders for the throne.</p>
<p>I’m happy to report that after over a year of daily usage, I can strongly recommend, well, either.</p>
<p>Really, they’re both fine and it comes pretty much down to the ecosystem you want to romp around in.</p>
<p>Want to buy things from Amazon? The Echo it is. Use Google services a lot? Google Home it is.</p>
<h3>A note on surveillance</h3>
<p>I’m cavalierly dumping the cylinders into the category “surveillance cylinders.” Because in order to do what you ask of them, they have to listen to you at all times.</p>
<p>But they are not massively privacy-invading, at least according to how Google and Amazon explain the functionality.</p>
<p>Basically, they sit around and listen to everything going on around them, but only wake up when they hear the wake word. At that point, they’ll light up to indicate they are active and will then send your voice commands to servers somewhere on the Internet for parsing.</p>
<p>Amazon and Google do, however, keep logs of everything you’ve asked your cylinder, and that log is tied to your account.</p>
<p>This is yet another area where Apple’s stance on privacy becomes important: Apple doesn’t want to sell you laundry detergent or serve you ads, so the company doesn’t need to keep individual data. Instead, the commands you give HomePod are anonymized and aggregated.</p>
<p>And all the cylinders have manual off switches on the microphones so you can be sure they’re not listening.</p>
<p>Although at some point you have to decide whether you trust the companies. It simply boils down to that.</p>
<h3>My actual usage</h3>
<p>The more important question is, after enough time of having surveillance cylinders in my life that the novelty wore off, what did I end up using the cylinders for?</p>
<p>Here’s a rundown.</p>
<h3>Morning briefing</h3>
<p>It’s great to be able to set up the information you want to get while getting ready for the day—it feels very go-go CEO-ish.</p>
<p>When it comes to the morning briefing, the Echo gets the nod as it includes a custom daily message, often one where Amazon tests out new features of Alexa’s voice. It also contains some of the most egregious dad jokes you’ve ever been subjected to. If you have a strong tolerance for hideous puns, it’s fun.</p>
<p>Google Home is strictly business. No dad jokes from the hive mind. And it has a super annoying bug where it refuses to include the daily commute in the morning briefing. It’s maddening. I’ve done everything, including re-setting up the device, but it refuses to include the commute in the briefing. It’ll tell me if I ask for it specifically, but in the briefing? Nope. Good job, global AI company.</p>
<h3>Podcast and music listening</h3>
<p>I listen to a lot of podcasts, and it’s great to connect my phone via Bluetooth and have them spooled up.</p>
<p>Which brings us to audio quality. Both Echo and Google Home are terrible speakers. <em>Terrible</em>. Which makes sense because physics—they’re simply physically too small to move a lot of air. They’re fine for spoken word, but an atrocity when it comes to music.</p>
<p>Some people do use them as audio sources since it’s so easy to speak to the air and have music appear. Which is indeed glorious.</p>
<p>Here’s the straight scoop: If you’re the kind of person who is satisfied with the audio quality of Google Home or Echo, you are not even in the neighborhood of being an audiophile.</p>
<p>Which should make you happy, and especially should make your wallet very happy. Good audio is stupidly expensive, so if you are happy with listening to your music through a tiny cylinder, good for you! Do something else with your money!</p>
<p>Audiophilia is a very, oh so very, expensive condition to maintain. It isn’t treatable, it can only be maintained, and the cost is literally “how much do you have?” You have a million dollars? Great, buy a sound system for a million dollars. You have $2,000? Great, buy a sound system for $2,000.</p>
<p>If you have the money, you can spend it on audio. And then you can argue with other audiophiles on forums and declare them all boorish philistines.</p>
<p>Fun.</p>
<p>In the world of normal human beings trying to get through their time on Earth, the $349 Apple is asking for HomePod is a serious amount of money. In the world of audiophilia, it’s what you pay for <em>a cable</em>.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> I haven’t heard the Google Home Max, so can’t make comment on its audio quality, but from the reviews it seems at minimum decent.</p>
<p>Still, you can connect either cylinder to your good stereo and listen through it, which gives you the best of both worlds.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonos">Sonos</a> was the first company on the scene with mesh-based whole-home audio. And it was glorious. I think. Cause I couldn’t even contemplate dropping that much money on disposable audio equipment.</p>
<p>But the concept was great—play music in sync all over your home and control it from one location.</p>
<p>Apart from the money, what kept me away from Sonos was that I really loathe having my speakers tied to technology. Speakers are something you keep for a lifetime, or until somebody cranks the stereo too much at a glorious, drunken party and blows the tweeters. But Sonos were quite expensive (for non-audiophiles) speakers <em>that are worthless if the company goes out of business</em>. Yes, if Sonos goes out of business, your expensive speaker system becomes landfill.</p>
<p>Hmmm. That doesn’t seem great.</p>
<p>I’m obviously not against disposable electronics, what with all the phones, tablets and other electronic detritus I’ve cast away over the years. But <em>speakers</em>—it just seems wrong. They should last forever.</p>
<p>Which is why I’m fine with surveillance cylinders that sound crappy. Least they can be connected to good speakers and you can have the magic of calling up music from the air and also have audio quality as good as you’re willing to spend.</p>
<p>On that topic, if you’re not independently wealthy and looking for things to blow your money on, but a normal person who would like decent sound, I really like the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Debut-Bookshelf-Speakers-Andrew-Jones/dp/B014GSEQ06?tag=thecoredump-20">ELAC B6 speakers</a>. <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2015/12/review-elac-b6-bookshelf-speakers/">My full review here</a>.</p>
<p>And Sonos has competition these days: Google is throwing its weight behind its Cast technology, which works really well and provides good audio quality, provided you hook up the little Cast pucks to decent sound systems.</p>
<p>And Amazon has introduced multi-room audio to the Echo line. You can buy cheap Echo Dots, hook them up to your amplifiers around the house, and boom, budget Sonos.</p>
<p>Both Chromecast and Echo multi-room are nice in that you use regular audio equipment and augment it with electronic pucks. Once the pucks are upgraded or obsolete, just replace them, but keep the core of your audio system, the expensive part.</p>
<p>But if you’re an iPhone user, Chromecast can be cumbersome and lacks support from many apps, especially Apple Music. Since of course Apple wants to push its competing technology, AirPlay.</p>
<p>It’s annoying to have these these technology wars, but it’s still a young market, so just part of the landscape, I suppose. Still, Grrr.</p>
<p>It’s bad when mommy and daddy are fighting and all you can do is hide under your bed.</p>
<h3>Home control</h3>
<p>I’ve resisted the temptation to go hog wild with home automation, since that’s another market still in its infancy with competing, incompatible standards. To dip my toes, I purchased a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SmartThings-Home-Monitoring-Kit/dp/B010NZV14U/ref=sr_1_2?tag=thecoredump-20">Samsung Smart Home Kit</a>, which is compatible with both Echo and Google Home. If you want to roll up your sleeves it’s also <a href="https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge">compatible, sort of, with Apple’s HomeKit</a>.</p>
<p>Home Hub is pretty nice and Samsung is continuing to improve it, but yes, early days it is.</p>
<p>Nascent as this market still is, telling your cylinder to turn lights on and off is nonetheless delightfully Star Trek.</p>
<p>But you have to make sure whatever gear you buy is supported by your surveillance cylinder and that the manufacturer is committed to updating the gear as the cylinders advance.</p>
<p>Home automation is one of those fields that just resists convergence with all its might. My theory is that it’s so, so nerd heavy that the people involved simply can’t see beyond technology into usability. But that’s just a theory I will fill your head with any chance I get.</p>
<h3>Enter HomePod</h3>
<p>And soon Apple’s mysteriously delayed <a href="https://www.apple.com/homepod/">HomePod</a> will be upon us.</p>
<p>I’d really like to know what the delay was all about and why Apple choose to unveil it as early as June 2017. But that’s neither here nor there.</p>
<p>Expectations are low for HomePod. Low, low, low. There’s the delay, the fact that AirPlay 2 (which will make it into a Sonos competitor) is delayed to an unspecified date after the speaker itself is released, and of course the cost of $349.</p>
<p>Early impressions from people in the nerdosphere who have heard the things in person say that they indeed sound very good, surprisingly good for the sound and price, but we’ll see once they land.</p>
<p>Add to the concerns that Siri’s reputation is <em>not good</em>. As some wit said on Twitter, using Siri is like being mugged by RoboCop.</p>
<p>For a company that claims to have “music in our DNA,” HiFi audio has been the reef Apple keeps floundering on for a long time.</p>
<p>The company’s previous attempts in the HiFi market have tried to find some mystical not-audiophile who has money and who hasn’t bought a ridiculously expensive sound system but who nevertheless likes music enough to spend significant money on the Apple product.</p>
<p>This particular unicorn has so far stayed hidden in the forest.</p>
<p>We’ll see if HomePod will be the virgin that attracts it.</p>
<p><em>Narrator:</em> It won’t.</p>
<p>HomePod is a midrange HiFi speaker with surveillance cylinder capabilities in a world of cheap cylinders hooked up to good HiFi systems, people who are happy with the sound of the cheap cylinders, and Sonos whole-home audio systems.</p>
<p>It’s an odd product. It’s also an extremely Apple-y product, in that Apple has wanted to create a mass-market HiFi product since forever.</p>
<p>And strangely enough, I, personally, feel good about it. I want one of these things.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Should you buy a surveillance cylinder? As stated up top, I’m bullish on the concept of voice computing—actually, I’m bullish as heck on the whole concept of ambient computing, where technology moves into our surroundings and augments our reality, but that’s another post.</p>
<p>If you have the $50 or so to spend on a mini-puck, I recommend it. If nothing else, it’s a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Pick the ecosystem you want to be a part of and go to town!</p>
<p>“Tea, Earl Grey, hot!”</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Some links in this post are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something from them I get a tiny kickback, which is greatly appreciated.</p>
It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them2018-01-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2018/01/it%20is-not-necessary-to-understand-things-in-order%20to-argue-about-them/
<blockquote>
<p>It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Pierre Beaumarchais</p>
iPhone X impressions2017-12-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/12/iphone-x-impressions/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/iphonex.jpg" /></p>
<p>Yes, this is the best iPhone ever made. Of course, every iPhone, as Apple loves to remind us during the unveiling, is the best iPhone ever made. How could it not be? Faster processor, better camera, better screen, etc.</p>
<p>But iPhone X is fundamentally different. Ditching the home button is a <em>massive</em> change to how you interact with the device. Swiping from the bottom of the screen and unlocking with FaceID sounds like a detail, but it is not—it’s a fundamental change to the soul of the experience. More than ever, it feels like you’re interacting directly with a ghost in a machine.</p>
<p>Side note: This is probably part of Apple’s somewhat pathological loathing of physical buttons and ports. Anything on a touch device you can do by touching the screen itself is a little bit closer to the platonic ideal of the device, while buttons and ports are grudging allowances to physical realities. Realities that are to be hunted down and destroyed whenever possible.</p>
<p>I feel pretty confident on a late-night tea jag Jony Ive scratched open a vein with a perfect pencil and wrote that phrase or something like it on a wall in the design studio in his own blood, calligraphing the San Francisco font perfectly.</p>
<p>But enough fan fic.</p>
<p>Of course, iPhone X is not perfect. Nothing man-made is. But it’s a major leap toward that platonic ideal.</p>
<p>For the record, I moved to iPhone X from iPhone 7, so just one generation. (Unless you want to enter Apple’s space-time continuum and count iPhone 8 as a generation immediately superseded by iPhone X within a month. But that’s a bit silly, isn’t it?)</p>
<p>The first thing to notice about iPhone X while setting it up is the screen. That OLED display <em>still</em> looks fake to me sometimes. It just doesn’t seem a screen can look that good. Really. That screen is jaw-dropping even if you’re just coming from a phone one generation away.</p>
<p>It’s like the first time setting up a Kindle, when I thought the e-ink screen was a sticker on the screen—a screen just shouldn’t be able to look that good.</p>
<p>But like with Kindle, iPhone X’s screen really does look that good. It’s incredible.</p>
<p>The device itself feels hefty. Not heavy, but substantial, and it is just a touch too large to be comfortable one-handed. Not as ungainly as the Plus models, but just, just too large. (And I say this a large peasant-man with beefy hands.)</p>
<p>So what about the dreaded notch? Meh. You stop seeing it very quickly.</p>
<p>Obviously it would be better if it wasn’t there, but apart from marring the platonic ideal, in actual usage your brain filters it out quick.</p>
<p>Though as somebody who uses a VPN quite a lot, it’s annoying that the notch can’t display your VPN status continuously; it just reminds you of the VPN right when it connects on the right side of the notch, and from there on it’s up to you to check the status yourself.</p>
<p>Annoying, but I’m probably an outlier in even using a VPN.</p>
<p>The home bar—a.k.a. home indicator, a.k.a. blotch thingy, a.k.a. grabby thing—is your visual cue to, hey, dummy, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go back home.</p>
<p>It’s a very useful visual reminder for the first few days of using a home button-less device about what you have to do to escape from an app, and a clever idea in general. The kind of thing that reminds you that very smart people who care a lot built this thing.</p>
<p>But after a few days it becomes visual clutter. It would be nice to have a switch in the settings to remove it, but that probably won’t happen for a while. Patience, grasshopper: Apple will not remove it or allow it to be removed until they feel sure the removal won’t overwhelm the elves at AppleCare.</p>
<p>In the meantime, your brain gets good at filtering it out as well.</p>
<p>It is interesting, though, those first few days when years and years of habits have to be broken—it’s a bit panicky at first to not have the comfort of the home button there. <em>Oh, no, what do I do?</em></p>
<p>And even though Apple gets a somewhat deserved amount of shit for their “courage” in removing things, making a radical change like removing the home button must have caused more than a few sleepless nights for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Park">denizens of the space ship</a>.</p>
<p>They didn’t have to do that. Nobody was telling them to do that. But they did it. And it was the right decision.</p>
<p>For me, FaceID has worked mostly flawlessly. The only—very slight—annoyance is that I have to hold the phone just slightly higher than my body’s default for FaceID to recognize me. And I’m starting to hold it higher, inch by inch, without really thinking about it.</p>
<p>FaceID is smart. FaceID is always learning. At first it had difficulty with my face without glasses, but a couple of password entries later, it got that. Then it had a problem with the wreck that is my face when I first roll out of bed in the morning, but same story, a few password entries later and all good. Always learning.</p>
<p>The battery life is spectacular, at least comparable to battery life on the Plus size models. I haven’t done any specific benchmarking, but it feels like a Plus and I never feel battery anxiety.</p>
<p>The battery life is greatly aided by QI charging. QI charging is magic. Spend some money on little pucks to litter around your home and office and now you can just drop the phone on them whenever you’re not using it and the phone sits there and charges.</p>
<p>It’s a lot like remote controls for TVs, which—since I am as old as the seas—I used to scoff at when they first showed up back in the day. What kind of loser can’t get their lazy ass off the couch to change the channel, I yelled at the sky. What kind of decadent bastard <em>wants this</em> I yelled, shaking my fist at the sky.</p>
<p>Turns out I did, as did everybody who ever got their mitts on one.</p>
<p>It’s obviously not a hardship in any meaningful way to stick a cable into your phone to charge it—it’s preposterous to pretend otherwise. But QI charging is just that tiny little bit less frictionless, that little bit more sci-fi.</p>
<p>And yes, I know Android had it first. Thank you for the reminder.</p>
<p>I’m not about to switch platforms and ecosystems and find app replacements and purchasing my apps again just to be able to lay my phone upon a puck, no matter how magical it is.</p>
<p>Still, pretty freaking neat.</p>
<p>Here’s where we talk about how Apple gets me every year: Better cameras. Before the keynote, I am steady in my resolve. I do not need to update. The phone I currently have is great. I shall not be swayed and keep giving them all my money.</p>
<p>Apple, during keynote: “New iPhone has a much better camera.”</p>
<p>Me: “Dammit, I need that.”</p>
<p>And iPhone X has fantastic cameras. So much better than previous generations. As is, amazingly, par for the course.</p>
<p>The last thing, which is a smaller thing and not a reason to upgrade by itself, at least for me, is that Apple keeps defying physics with the speakers. Every generation they get a little bit better and louder. Physics being physics, they’re not what anybody would call objectively <em>good</em> but they are indeed better and louder.</p>
<p>They’re not good enough that I’m not going to go Bluetooth to a speaker to listen to podcasts in the morning, but they are getting there. In an incredibly small physical package.</p>
<p>This is why iPhone X feels so substantial—even if the most of the weight is battery, you know there’s so much technology brought back from the edge in there, it’s touching, in a weird way.</p>
<p>The amount of software engineering, materials science, and manufacturing prowess evidenced by iPhone X—and the other flagship phones from other manufacturers—is almost humbling. We, as a species, can build this. Or, we can argue about whose holy text is the correct one and murder the ones we don’t agree with.</p>
<p>I like Apple’s focus.</p>
<p>If you’re a technology enthusiast, iPhone X will make you very happy indeed.</p>
<p>If you’re a normal human, you can wait and spend the money on something else that makes your life better, knowing this kind of technology is coming to us all as time marches on.</p>
<p>It really did take courage to release something like this and break with so many traditions. So kudos, Apple.</p>
The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it2017-12-28T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/12/the-presence-of-those-seeking-the-truth/
<blockquote>
<p>The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Sir Terry Pratchett</p>
Smart homes for the wealthy2017-12-17T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/12/smart-homes-for-the-wealthy/
<p>We had a contractor at the house a few days ago to do some maintenance. Because it turns out houses fall apart as they age and you have to keep pouring money into them—who could have guessed?</p>
<p>But anyway, the contractor noticed my Google Home in the kitchen and talked about how he’s been installing smart switches for his clients for several years now.</p>
<p>After our house he was going to another client with a much, much more expensive home to install Malibu lights and a sprinkler system. Instead of installing the timer systems that comes with the sprinklers and the lights he was going to install smart switches and show the clients how to use them with their voice and their phones.</p>
<p>This is probably a “duh” thing for a lot of people, but I know that if I was a contractor I’d dread the tech support calls I’d get for something like that. He said he never gets a call—his clients love the smart switches.</p>
<p>His decision also makes a ton of sense if you’ve ever had to program a sprinkler system or Malibu lights with the timers that come with the systems. Those timers are—I can only assume, based on the amount of swearing I did myself setting them up when we first bought our house—designed by engineers who actively and enthusiastically loathe humanity, progress, and beauty.</p>
<p>Don’t believe me? Here, have a cold beverage and <a href="https://www.hunker.com/13425604/how-to-set-the-timer-on-intermatic-malibu-landscape-lighting">enjoy some instructions</a>.</p>
<p>What surprised me about our contractor’s faith in smart devices is that as far as I’m concerned we’ve been so achingly close for so long for this kind of devices becoming acceptable for the masses.</p>
<p>They’re not there yet since we still have competing standards, not just with Echo, Google Home, and HomeKit, but also competing wireless standards on the backend. Oh, it gets complicated, boy does it ever get complicated.</p>
<p>So it was interesting to get a report from the frontlines saying we’re at that stage in the technology cycle now where rich people are passively getting set up with voice controlled devices and are happy with them.</p>
<p>Or contented, at least. And if you have spent any kind of time providing services to the kind of people who own multi-million-dollar homes, you know that they are not the kind of people who are shy or timid about expressing their displeasure. Which means the kind of smart devices this contractor is installing are huge successes with his clients.</p>
<p>Which means the smart devices are close to ready for mass consumption. The installation just needs to get easier so you don’t need a contractor to install the things and help you get up to speed.</p>
<p>And of course the prices need to drop significantly.</p>
<p>Smart homes are close now. Closer and closer.</p>
<p>And yes, I know that anecdote is not the singular of data, but what he said jives with everything else I’m seeing.</p>
Book roundup, part 242017-11-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/11/book-roundup-part-24/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Retribution-Max-Hastings-ebook/dp/B000XPNUOA?tag=thecoredump-20">Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, by Max Hastings</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Just like all of Hastings’s other World War II histories, <em>Retribution</em> is utterly masterful. It covers the horrors of the last year of the conflict in great detail, weaving together the different strains of events into a master narrative, and paints an indelible picture of the madness of Japanese culture at the time, the perversion of <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido">Bushido</a></em> into virulent, nihilistic fascism.</p>
<p>Hastings also makes a strong case for how the events of World War II in the Pacific laid the intellectual framework for how America was to engage in its future wars:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The outcome of the Pacific conflict persuaded some Americans that they could win wars at relatively small human cost, by the application of their country’s boundless technological ingenuity and industrial resources. The lesson appeared to be that, if the US possessed bases from which its warships and aircraft could strike at the land of an enemy, victories could be gained by the expenditure of mere treasure, and relatively little blood. Only in the course of succeeding decades did it become plain that Japan was a foe uniquely vulnerable to American naval and air power projection. Some modern US historians assert that the pursuit of decisive victory is central to the American way of war. If true, this renders their country chronically vulnerable to disappointment. The 1950-53 Korean conflict proved only the first of many demonstrations that the comprehensive triumph achieved by the US in the Second World War was a freak of history, representing no norm. Modern experience suggests that never again will overwhelming military, naval and air power suffice to fulfil American purposes abroad as effectively as it did in the Pacific war. Limited wars offer notable opportunities to belligerents of limited means. Only total war enabled a liberal democracy to exploit weapons of mass destruction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He also provides a strong case for how the release of atomic weapons over two Japanese cities did not by itself avert the necessity of an Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands, but rather that they were the logical escalation of the ongoing American terror bombings that, together with the naval blockade, already had the Empire on the verge of collapse.</p>
<p>(“Olympic” was the code name for the Allied invasion of Japan.)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Japanese continued to delude themselves that they had time to talk, time to probe and haggle with each other and with the Allies. They believed that their ability to extract a huge blood price from their enemy before succumbing represented a formidable bargaining chip. Instead, of course, this helped to undo them. It seems irrelevant to debate the merits of rival guesstimates for Olympic’s US casualties—63,000, 193,000, a million. What was not in doubt was that invading Japan would involve a large loss of American lives, which nobody wished to accept. Blockade and fire-bombing had already created conditions in which invasion would probably be unnecessary.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>[…]</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The dropping of the bombs did not represent, as Truman and others later claimed, a direct alternative to a costly US invasion of Japan. The people disastrously influenced by the prospect of Olympic were not Americans, but the Japanese, whom it persuaded to continue the war.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other historians disagree, of course.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in history, and especially if you’re interested in World War II, Hastings is your guy. Brilliant.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> <em>Retribution</em> is titled <em>Nemesis</em> in some markets.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Boomerang-Travels-New-Third-World/dp/0393343448?tag=thecoredump-20">Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, by Michael Lewis</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>After the economic collapse of 2008, Michael Lewis decided to travel to world hotspots of the aftermath of the collapse to see how they were faring, including Greece, Iceland, and Ireland.</p>
<p>Lewis is, of course, a master storyteller and has a wonderful knack for finding interesting characters to illustrate his points.</p>
<p>In <em>Boomerang</em> the Greek monks who became real estate magnates and a colorful Irish protestor stand out as larger-than-life yet still believable characters, but the book is full of them.</p>
<p>Personally, I decided to read <em>Boomerang</em> thinking it’s almost been ten years since the crash and I was emotionally ready to relive it. I was wrong.</p>
<p>Reading the aftermath of a bunch of sociopathics making themselves millionaires on the backs of the rest of the world still makes me fume, and probably always will.</p>
<p><em>Deep breaths.</em></p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Collapsing-Empire-John-Scalzi/dp/076538888X?tag=thecoredump-20">The Collapsing Empire, by John Scalzi</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Just like <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi/dp/0765315246?tag=thecoredump-20">Old Man’s War</a></em>, <em>The Collapsing Empire</em> is grand, fun space opera in the tradition of Heinlein. John Scalzi, of course, is the current master of that tradition, having mastered the interplay between grand sci-fi ideas, character building, and goofiness, all coupled with deceptively simple prose that doesn’t call attention to itself.</p>
<p><em>The Collapsing Empire</em> is the beginning of a new series and as such it has to spend a fair amount of time and energy on world building, but with that caveat out of the way, it still doesn’t reach the heights of <em>Old Man’s War</em>.</p>
<p>The problem, at least for me, is that the world just isn’t as invigorating as the one in <em>Old Man’s War</em>.</p>
<p>But it’s a good start to a new series and just plain fun. Hoping it hits its groove in the next installment.</p>
<p>If you’re a fan of Scalzi’s other works or fun space opera in general, you can’t go wrong with <em>The Collapsing Empire</em>.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Systems-Red-Murderbot-Diaries/dp/0765397536?tag=thecoredump-20">All Systems Red, by Martha Wells</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>This is a fun medium-future sci-fi novella about an android that is rented out for security duties in corporate space exploration.</p>
<p>However, this particular android has a broken “governor module” meaning that it can make its own decisions.</p>
<p>It also refers to itself as “Murderbot.” (Cue dun-dun-DUN sound.)</p>
<p><em>All Systems Red</em> is a quick, fun read that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a little space opera and a little cyberpunk with a sprinkling of noir.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to reading the next installment.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ninefox-Gambit-Yoon-Ha-Lee/dp/1781084491?tag=thecoredump-20">Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The first installment in the <em>Machineries of Empire</em> series, <em>Ninefox Gambit</em> is trippy and weird far-future space opera.</p>
<p>The main thing to know about this novel is that you will have a very hard time understanding what is going on, but at the same time it is beautifully written and ultimately worth it to understand the opaque setting.</p>
<p>But you need to be tolerant of confusion and having strange and sometimes disturbing ideas thrown at you.</p>
<p><em>Ninefox Gambit</em> is weird, yo. If you’re up for putting on your thinking cap, it’s a very interesting read, loaded with Grand Ideas.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Review: Bosch TV series2017-10-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/10/review-bosch-tv-series/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bosch-review.jpg" /></p>
<p><em>Bosh</em> is a TV series on Amazon Video, included with Amazon Prime, based on the novels by Michael Connelly.</p>
<p>I’ve been a fan and reader of the novels since they first started appearing, way back in the halcyon days of 1992, so I was excited when the news broke of the TV serialization.</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with the novels, they are gritty police procedurals that follow detective Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch as he deals with gruesome murders, even more gruesome police department politics, the press, and his own psychological dysfunctions.</p>
<p>And yes, he’s named after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch">painter of grotesque hellscapes</a>. Which is fitting.</p>
<p>In my opinion it’s one of the great detective series, up there with Ian Rankin’s inspector Rebus. Both series do a great job of following a character through time, having their circumstances change, and having the events they live through affect their personalities.</p>
<p>Thumbs up to both series.</p>
<p>If you’re new, you should most definitely start at the beginning, which for Bosch is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Echo-Harry-Bosch-Novel/dp/1538744406?tag=thecoredump-20"><em>The Black Echo</em></a> and for Rebus is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Knots-Crosses-Inspector-Rebus-Novels/dp/0312536925?tag=thecoredump-20">Knots and Crosses</a>.</p>
<p>(<em>Knots and Crosses</em> actually isn’t all that good, but it is the beginning of a series which gets way, way better after that and damn it we have to have rules or we’re just animals.)</p>
<p>Personally, though, I think Connelly’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Lawyer-Novel/dp/1455567388?tag=thecoredump-20"><em>Lincoln Lawyer</em></a> series is sharper than the Bosch series. Those might be fighting words in some circles, but Connelly started the <em>Lincoln Lawyer</em> series at the height of his powers after he’d worked out his (few) kinks with Bosch so they’re more spare and focused.</p>
<p>But this is about Bosch. One of the great police procedural thriller series and one that uses Los Angeles almost as a character. Los Angeles in all its grit and sun-blasted weirdness.</p>
<p>And since 2015 it’s a TV series.</p>
<p>As of this writing, there are three seasons to the series, which instead of going novel-by-novel uses several novels per season, banging them together, tweaking and updating them for today.</p>
<p>In the novels, Bosch is a Vietnam veteran, but TV series Bosch is a middle-aged man today, so he’s made into a Gulf War I veteran turned cop. (It’s necessary to keep his military background since it formed his personality so much.) In the novels Bosch was a “tunnel rat”—the soldiers who went into the Viet Cong underground fortifications to fight and die alone in the darkness, while TV Bosch was, wait for it, <em>sigh</em>, special forces.</p>
<p><em>Why? Why always special forces?</em> There are other soldiers.</p>
<p>But be that as it may, the series is updated for today including the age and background of Bosch.</p>
<p>So how is it?</p>
<p>First off, the cinematography is great. The series uses Los Angeles as a character just like the novels do and a lot of it is gorgeous. If you happen to have a 4K TV with HDR support, <em>Bosch</em> will show you why you spent all that money on your black slab.</p>
<p>The acting is also good straight through—weary detectives, sleazy politicians and sweaty perps, everybody digs in and seems to have a good time working.</p>
<p>The first season has some interesting development of supporting characters, especially Bosch’s partner and Bosch’s boss, who both foreshadow plot points of interesting lives.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that gets a bit lost in seasons two and three, both of which feel a bit uncertain—the pacing gets ratcheted up with Bosch dealing with a murder, and another murder, and a court case, and his daughter, and office politics, and on and on, in a frenetic pace.</p>
<p>It feels—at least to me, and I could certainly be wrong; this is just a feeling—like the writers didn’t feel sure the source material was strong enough, so the show had to become faster, more amped up.</p>
<p>The pacing and supporting character development were great in the first season. It felt a lot like a British crime procedural. Seasons two and three feel more American.</p>
<p>This is not a compliment—most American crime procedurals are dreck as far as I’m concerned. Looking at you, <em>CSI: WhateverleastIgotpaid</em>.</p>
<p>That being said, it’s still good. I wouldn’t have watched it all the way through if it wasn’t. At its best it’s riveting, with some great plot points and turn-arounds.</p>
<p>The biggest problem with the series is Bosch himself. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Welliver">Titus Welliver</a> plays the title character and he does do a good job of it. But he’s terribly miscast.</p>
<p>Bosch in the novels is a live wire—a damaged individual who oozes menace and physical violence. At least the way I read them, he’s also an imposing, physical man. Welliver is not.</p>
<p>He tries to make up for it with a three-cups-of-espresso intensity that might work if you haven’t read the novels. But if you have, it’s just not the same thing.</p>
<p>Somebody like Swedish actor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikael_Persbrandt">Mikael Persbrandt</a> from the <em>Beck</em> series or, if he hadn’t passed away, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gandolfini">James Gandolfini</a> of <em>The Sopranos</em> would have brought that sheer physical menace to the role.</p>
<p>This is what keeps the series from being really great and from embodying the feeling of the novels, that sense that Bosch is on the edge of <em>hurting someone</em> all the time.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, what we do have is pretty good. If you’re into police procedurals, <em>Bosch</em> is well worth watching.</p>
<p>But, screamed the old fogey, the books were better!</p>
Getting started with podcasting2017-09-10T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/09/podcasting-getting-started/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/podcasting-heil-pr40.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Addendum:</strong> Six months later, I posted a follow-up post <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2018/05/working-in-the-pod-mines/">that’s more reflective than technical</a></p>
<p>I love podcasting. Podcasts have almost completely replaced radio for me. It’s amazing how much excellent content is out there, free for the download.</p>
<p>It’s awesome that no matter what niche thing you’re interested in, somebody else out there is way, way more into it than you are and is making a podcast about it.</p>
<p>And now I have two podcasts, <a href="http://amerikapodden.xyz/">my own Swedish-language podcast, Amerikapodden</a>, which is tiny, but I very much enjoy creating it, and an English-language podcast, <a href="https://smellthefoamfinger.com/">Smell the Foam Finger, where my co-host explains American sports</a> to me.</p>
<p>I’m a web developer and a technologist, so starting a podcast should have been right in my wheelhouse, but it was way harder than I thought, with more things to think about and more things to purchase than expected.</p>
<p>Of course the Internet has many, many guides to podcasting and an avalanche of forums where people discuss podcasting, but for a novice it’s difficult to parse the information and separate the lunatics from the knowledgeable.</p>
<p>Most of the guides on how to podcast are written by successful podcasters who have been doing it for a long time. It’s great and appreciated they share what they know, although it often seems they may have forgotten or repressed a lot of the things that were challenging when they first started out.</p>
<p>Which is why I’m writing this getting started guide before I get comfortable and start to forget.</p>
<p>This comes from the perspective of somebody who is good with technology but had little experience with audio production. However, the guide doesn’t make any assumptions the reader is good with technology.</p>
<p>Like any other difficult task, the best way to conquer it is to break it down into smaller, achievable tasks.</p>
<p>Many people have done it. You can do it, too. And you don’t have to be a nerd to do it.</p>
<p>Before we get into the nitty-gritty, a warning: <em>Don’t get bogged down in gear.</em> So, so much of podcast discussion devolves into nerds yelling about microphones. Mics are important, sure, but they’re way, way less important than the Internet would have you believe.</p>
<p>Think about the shows you like. How many times have you thought, man, I wish they were using a different mic? Do you know what mics they’re using? Do you care?</p>
<p>So don’t let picking a mic give you an anxiety attack.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, don’t let any of the myriad decisions you have to make paralyze you—if you don’t know what choice to make, just make one and move on. You can course correct later as you have more information.</p>
<p>Let’s dig in. Grab a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable.</p>
<h3>Content is king</h3>
<p>The content is what matters. The words you put into your listeners’ earholes. Those are what really matter.</p>
<p>What you do to think up those words, to record those words, and to get those words to your listeners’ earholes does not matter to your listeners at all.</p>
<p>Your listeners want to be entertained or provoked or soothed or informed, or whatever your podcast provides for them. That’s what matters to them, so that should be what matters to you.</p>
<p>Which takes us to the first point: <em>You are going to suck.</em></p>
<p>At first, you will suck. Podcasting is not a natural act. Unless you’re a standup comedian or already have experience as on-air talent, you will suck.</p>
<p>Fortunately, if you care and work at it, you will suck less, and then you will suck less, and then over time you will become good.</p>
<p>Making a podcast is hard work, with the emphasis on work.</p>
<p>I don’t say this to be discouraging in any way. I say this to soften the blow when you listen to your first effort.</p>
<p>If you don’t believe me, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6ezU57J8YI">listen to Ira Glass of This American Life</a>, one of the best in his field, talk about storytelling. The part I’m referencing is in the third part of the series, but I recommend watching through from the beginning.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f6ezU57J8YI" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics"></div>
<p>As Glass says much more eloquently, you suck at first because you know what you want to achieve but you don’t have the skills to achieve it yet. You can only get the skills through practice.</p>
<p>Nobody just picked up a guitar and played Stairwell to Heaven perfectly.</p>
<p>In the second part of the video, Glass also gets into how <em>everything wants to be crap</em>. Which it does. Any creative endeavor you embark on wants to be crap.</p>
<p>This is super important to understand. Especially for your sanity.</p>
<h3>Master of your domain</h3>
<p>Podcasts obviously live on the Internet so they need an Internet home.</p>
<p>I always recommend people purchase their own domain for anything they do on the Internet. This is a long topic, but to condense it down, if you own a domain you can put your content in many different places and move your content around as you see fit without your audience noticing. You never want to have to tell people to resubscribe because you moved things around.</p>
<p>Your podcast should have a home on the Internet. It can be a Tumblr site, a WordPress site, a SquareSpace site or whatever. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can map a domain to it so your content and your Google juice are transferable.</p>
<p>Google juice is the most important currency on the Internet, so you must make it yours. <em>Own your domain.</em> If you don’t, you’re working to help somebody else increase their Google juice. This is called sharecropping and is not a good thing. <em>Own your domain.</em></p>
<p>A .com domain usually costs around $12 per year, but you don’t have to get a .com. Whatever weird domain extension you like is fine. .coms are the gold standard, but don’t worry too much about it.</p>
<p>Though I have many, many reservations about Facebook, the easiest thing you can do is to simply create a Facebook page.</p>
<p>Obviously you can’t host your podcast there, but you can use it as your online presence, though I strongly recommend against it being your only online presence. The reasons for that is a long rant and I’ll elide it for the purposes of this post.</p>
<p>Here’s what I recommend: Purchase a domain and set up a simple site for your podcast. At the very least, it’s a place to point people and for Google to find you.</p>
<h3>Hosting the actual podcast</h3>
<p>You’ll need a place to upload your mp3s so your audience can download them. (Yes, they should be mp3s. It’s the lowest common denominator. Your file format is not where you want to go bleeding-edge.)</p>
<p>This can be any kind of web host. Just a place where podcast players can find your files.</p>
<p>However, if you want download stats—and you probably do, so you can know how many people are listening—you need a “real” podcast host.</p>
<p>There are a couple of usual suspects: <a href="https://www.libsyn.com/">Libsyn</a> and <a href="https://www.blubrry.com/">Blubrry</a> are the major players, and <a href="https://fireside.fm/">Fireside</a> is a new contender that looks nice.</p>
<p>Personally, I host my own files and use <a href="http://analytics.podtrac.com/">Podtrac</a> for the analytics. If you’re a web nerd you can download and use a <a href="https://github.com/niclindh/jekyll-podcast-template">Jekyll podcast template</a> I created.</p>
<p>Libsyn is the 800-pound gorilla in the space and they know what they’re doing. A lot of the podcasts you already listen to are probably on Libsyn.</p>
<p>Don’t try to jerry-rig your own analytics and hosting unless you really know what you’re doing.</p>
<h3>The equipment you need</h3>
<p>How good the audio quality of your show has to be depends on you and your audience. Some people create hyper-produced shows with NPR quality and some yell into their phones and post that.</p>
<p>It’s your call.</p>
<p>Your audience might be very forgiving of audio quality or they might disregard anything that sounds less than “professional.” It depends.</p>
<p>That being said, the better you can make your podcast sound, the better off you are. Different people have different thresholds for what sound quality or lack thereof they’re willing to tolerate.</p>
<p>Fortunately, it’s not very expensive these days to create audio that sounds decent.</p>
<p>This means you’re going to have to spend some money. You can spend literally <em>any amount of money</em> to make your podcast sound better—the audiophile sky is the limit—but you don’t have to spend a lot.</p>
<p>(It’s kind of funny how in audio there really isn’t an upper ceiling on what you can spend, either to produce it or consume it.)</p>
<p>But you don’t have to spend a lot to get to a minimum threshold where people stop paying attention to the audio quality and start paying attention to the content. Which is where you want to be. You don’t want listeners to turn off your podcast because they can’t hear what you are saying.</p>
<p>Your audience simply shouldn’t think about how your podcast sounds. It’s all about the content.</p>
<p>When it comes to which equipment you need, Dan Benjamin has made his living running <a href="http://5by5.tv/">a podcast network</a> for many years, and he has put together a battle-tested <a href="http://podcastmethod.co/">list of podcast equipment</a>. Dan knows what he’s talking about. Listen to him.</p>
<p>It’s up to you how much money you want to invest. The more you spend, the better the quality, but only you know your budget and your aspirations.</p>
<p>I’m currently using a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/PR-40-Dynamic-Studio-Recording-Microphone/dp/B000SOYOTQ?tag=thecoredump-20">Heil PR-40</a> that feeds into a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H5-Four-Track-Portable-Recorder/dp/B00KCXMBES/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&sr=1-3&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1505087823">Zoom H5</a> recorder.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://smellthefoamfinger.com/">Smell the Foam Finger</a>, my co-host is using a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shure-BETA-58A-Supercardioid-Applications/dp/B0002BACB4/ref=sr_1_3?sr=8-3&ie=UTF8&keywords=shure%2Bbeta%2B58a&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1526165429">Shure Beta 58A</a>. I really want to get him on the PR-40 as well, but I’m apparently not made of money.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/podcasting-the-studio.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Heil PR-40, Zoom H5, Sony MDR7506, and a clicker" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Heil PR-40, Zoom H5, Sony MDR7506 with replacement pads, and a clicker.</i></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H5-Four-Track-Portable-Recorder/dp/B00KCXMBES/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&sr=1-3&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1505087823">Zoom H5</a> is working well for me and I really like not having my computer involved in the recording. The magic is that the Zoom only does audio recording—it literally only has one job—so there are fewer opportunities for gremlins to sneak in. Less complexity means fewer problems.</p>
<h3>The studio matters more than the equipment</h3>
<p>No matter what gear you buy, where you record matters more.</p>
<p>The number one enemy of high-quality audio recording is room noise. If you go buy the top-of-the-line stuff <a href="http://podcastmethod.co/">Dan Benjamin recommends</a> and you record in a concrete bunker, you will sound terrible. Full stop.</p>
<p>Your terrible recording can probably be improved by an audio engineer with very expensive software, but unless you have one of those on hand, you’re SOL. And you really, really don’t want to get yourself into the soul crushing business of salvaging bad audio.</p>
<p>So record clean. With audio, you need the cleanest inputs you can get. Which means recording in a sound-dampening environment. If you can build a studio, that’s great. Most people can’t.</p>
<p>Personally, I record in what I think of as my monk cell, which is the tiny room where I watch TV and write blog posts. I put <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Acoustic-Panels-Studio-Wedges/dp/B010GPFRUQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&sr=1-4&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1503791137">some acoustic dampeners</a> on the wall, and they have helped my quality tremendously.</p>
<p>(As an aside, if you want to watch movies loud in your man cave, acoustic dampeners will help with the audio quality for your TV in a major way. You know, if you need another reason to make the investment. Echo is bad, unless you’re a cathedral.)</p>
<p>But if you’re just getting started or you don’t have the money to spend to sound treat a room, you have two great options: A car or a closet.</p>
<p>Car interiors dampen sound a ton. Record in a parked car and it will sound great.</p>
<p>A walk-in closet full of clothes also dampens sound a lot, so just go stand in a closet and record and you will sound like you’re in a fully-treated studio.</p>
<p>I recorded my first podcasts in a walk-in closet with a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yeti-USB-Microphone-Blackout/dp/B00N1YPXW2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&sr=1-5&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1503791506">Blue Yeti</a>, a mic that’s notorious for picking up room noise, and it sounded great.</p>
<p>Cars and closets are your friends.</p>
<p>A last-ditch solution if you don’t have access to any kind of dampening space is to record under a heavy blanket. You will feel like an idiot and you will get sweaty, but you will sound good.</p>
<p>The rest is experimentation. Record and listen. Hang more blankets on the wall, record and listen. Move the mic to a different location, record and listen.</p>
<p>Only you know what you and your audience consider good enough.</p>
<h3>Technique matters even more</h3>
<p>No matter what equipment you have and where you record, if your technique is bad it will still sound bad.</p>
<p>Remember when I said this is work? We’re close to the inside of the onion now, but this layer is tricky because this layer is all you.</p>
<p>When I first started I spent a lot of time searching the Internet for tips on recording technique, and it was mostly fruitless. But recording technique is super important.</p>
<h4>Get closer to the mic</h4>
<p>Be as close to the mic as you can. Seriously. You should be closer than you think you should. You should feel the mike as you record. Closer is better. No further than a hands-width distance from the mic.</p>
<p>If you’re really close, you can turn down the gain, which means you will pick up less room noise and your audio is cleaner.</p>
<p>Being close to the mic also means you’ll blow your plosives. Plosives are “p” sounds. They cause a sound wave that makes your mic go nuts and emit a really ugly sound. Plosives are bad.</p>
<p>The obvious and yet very difficult solution is to <em>be at the exact correct distance from the mic</em> where it picks up your voice perfectly but without popping or distorting. That, my friend, is Morpheus-level difficulty.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/morpheus.jpg" class="w-full" alt="" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Image still from “The Matrix.” Credit: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.</i></p>
<p>To get rid of the pops you need a filter. It can be a pop filter or a windscreen, which one doesn’t matter, only that it works.</p>
<p>You’re the only one who can find out what works for you.</p>
<p>How do you find out? Record! Listen to yourself.</p>
<p><em>Get closer to the mic.</em></p>
<h4>Wear headphones</h4>
<p>When you’re recording, wear headphones. If nothing else, use the ear buds that came with your phone to monitor yourself.</p>
<p>Even if, like me, you’re only recording yourself talking, wear headphones. <em>You must know what the mic is picking up.</em></p>
<p>In a controlled environment like a studio, you’ll know what’s going on, but there will still be surprises. Did the recorder conk out? Did you just find a new angle that makes the mike pop? Are the gardeners outside suddenly loud enough the leaf blowers bleed through?</p>
<p>Whatever it is, you want to know about it while you’re recording, not while you’re editing.</p>
<p><em>Wear headphones.</em></p>
<p>It’s the cheapest and easiest insurance policy you can get. If you’re recording and you’re not wearing headphones you’re inviting disaster. Seriously, one day you will kick yourself. Headphones are the easiest and cheapest way to avoid disaster.</p>
<p>Use whatever headphones or earbuds you have, though I recommend the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR7506-Professional-Diaphragm-Headphone/dp/B000AJIF4E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&sr=1-3&s=musical-instruments&keywords=sony%2Bmdr%2B7506&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1503793442">Sony MDR7506</a> headphones—they’ve been a studio standard forever, they’re built like tanks, they’re comfortable, they’re not all that expensive, and you can use them to listen to tunes when you’re not recording.</p>
<p>If you watch making-of videos of songs, you’ll probably see your favorite performers wearing the Sony MDR7506 headphones in the studio.</p>
<h3>Edit your show</h3>
<p>Some people can just step up to a mic and lay down a perfect recording.</p>
<p>Those people have sold their souls to Satan.</p>
<p>You won’t be able to do that. So you need to edit your show.</p>
<p>Editing your own voice is painful. You will hate how you sound. How you hear yourself when you’re talking and how others hear you is very different. When listening to a recording of yourself you hear yourself as others hear you. You are not used to this. You will find it painful.</p>
<p>This is normal.</p>
<p>Audio editing is a skillset unto itself and audio editing software goes from free to quite expensive.</p>
<p>The Wirecutter has a nice roundup of <a href="http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-audio-editing-software-for-beginning-podcasters/">recommendations for podcast editing software</a>. Professional voice actor Mike DelGaudio—who runs the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHHf1h8k7MA6-AG8FXjnQSw">Booth Junkie</a> YouTube channel and has a voice to kill for—<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfZ6UxFujx4">really likes Reaper</a>.</p>
<p>Right now, I’m personally using <a href="https://www.wooji-juice.com/products/ferrite/">Ferrite</a> on my iPad to edit, which I like for its focus on spoken audio.</p>
<p>As a sidenote, DelGaudio has a great tip about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOd5KmvAn0Y">using a clicker when recording</a> to make editing out bad takes a lot faster and easier.</p>
<p>But in the end whatever software that fits your budget and your personal software taste will work.</p>
<p>How heavily you want to edit of course depends on your goals. However, in order to respect your listeners’ time, you definitely need to go in and take out false starts and long pauses. And mouth sounds. Yech, mouth sounds!</p>
<p>Remember, your listener is giving you their time. Even if you put it out there for free, your listener is still paying with time. Respect that.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s possible to spend limitless time editing. It truly is a rat hole you can disappear into forever.</p>
<p>But the other side of the coin is that it’s in the editing you can really make your podcast shine.</p>
<p>As a sidenote, I’m old enough that I remember editing by literally cutting reel to reel tape and let me tell you whippersnappers that editing in software is so much faster and easier it’s almost ludicrous.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>As you’ve no doubt noted, these are several different skill sets involved in podcasting: writing, performing, editing, and web producing are very different skills and you will find that you’re better at some than others. This is normal.</p>
<p>Whew. This post became much longer than I was expecting. Thanks for reading it and I hope it was useful.</p>
<p>Now go out there and record something cool for me to listen to!</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Updated on May 12, 2018 to add link to the <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2018/05/working-in-the-pod-mines/">second post about podcasting</a>, a link to <a href="https://smellthefoamfinger.com/">Smell the Foam Finger</a> and general style edits.</p>
<p><strong>Affiliate links:</strong> Some links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback from Amazon. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and is appreciated.</p>
Review: Novels of the Malazan Empire2017-09-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/09/novels-of-the-malazan-empire-review/
<p>It might be that with the state of the world these days you want to take your mind off things. A great way to accomplish that is with epic fantasy. And there’s no fantasy series more epic than the awesome <em>Malazan Book of the Fallen</em> series.</p>
<p>But if you’ve already read all 3.2 million words—yes, 3.2 million words spread out into ten novels, which is a <em>lot</em> of words—of the <em>Malazan Book of the Fallen</em> series and are jonesing for more, I bring you good news!</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with it, the <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2016/08/malazan-book-of-the-fallen/">Malazan Book of the Fallen</a></em> is a high fantasy series that spans a world and a history of a world and ultimately is a haunting meditation on the meaning of mortality. The sheer scope of Malazan is mind-blowing and that Steven Erikson pulled it off is incredible.</p>
<p>The series starts with <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gardens-Moon-Malazan-Book-Fallen/dp/0765348780/ref=sr_1_1/152-3406363-6544751?sr=8-1&qid=1472341005&keywords=gardens%252Bof%252Bthe%252Bmoon&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Gardens of the Moon</a>, which will leave you utterly confused and enthralled. It’s not an easy read, but magnificent.</p>
<p>But if you’ve already read Malazan and want more—and why wouldn’t you want more, the world of Malazan is so rich and deep—Erikson’s co-creator of the universe, Ian C. Esslemont, has written a six-series cycle called <em>Novels of the Malazan Empire</em> that take place in the same time frame but with different characters—though there is some overlap—and tells a different set of stories that tie in to the main stories of the <em>Malazan Book of the Fallen</em>.</p>
<p>As an aside here, I’m not a Dungeons and Dragons guy, mostly because we were not aware of it in the small Swedish town where I grew up. If I had only known, I’m sure I would have been one of those guys, but I wasn’t introduced to D&D until I went to college in the States, at which point in my life I was much more interested in hanging around night clubs making feeble attempts at dating women.</p>
<p>My biggest frustration with a lot of fantasy is that it feels like some guy—it’s usually a guy—wrote down his awesome D&D campaign and unless you’re that guy, it actually isn’t that interesting because the characters came out of a D&D campaign and are one-dimensional and boring to everybody but you.</p>
<p>Not so Erikson and Esselmont. They have myriad—perhaps too many, even—characters, and a lot of those characters are quite interesting.</p>
<p>However, Erikson and Esselmont have, to put it mildly, different writing styles. Erikson has found the elusive <em>Epic</em> knob on his keyboard and turned it to 11, while Esselmont writes more prosaically. Not that Esselmont is a bad writer by any means, but he hasn’t found that <em>Epic</em> knob Erikson did.</p>
<p>But Esselmont does grow as a writer as <em>Novels of the Malazan Empire</em> goes on.</p>
<p>The series consists of <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Night-Knives-Malazan-Empire-Novels/dp/0765363496/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=night%2Bof%2Bknives&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1504481267">Night of Knives</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Return-Crimson-Guard-Malazan-Empire/dp/0765363488/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?refRID=0X91PW6VBJ7SP01KJNCW&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_r=0X91PW6VBJ7SP01KJNCW&psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&pd_rd_w=gJwEF&pd_rd_i=0765363488&pd_rd_wg=oSzmZ">Return of the Crimson Guard</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stonewielder-Novel-Malazan-Empire-Novels/dp/0765329859/ref=pd_sim_14_2?refRID=NEW0C8GF3BWC247H5XEQ&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_r=NEW0C8GF3BWC247H5XEQ&psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&pd_rd_w=HNAdX&pd_rd_i=0765329859&pd_rd_wg=6fkKE">Stonewielder</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Orb-Sceptre-Throne-Malazan-Empire/dp/0765329999/ref=pd_sim_14_1?refRID=SR3220MF5G1BQPJ3FH89&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_r=SR3220MF5G1BQPJ3FH89&psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&pd_rd_w=0Afn8&pd_rd_i=0765329999&pd_rd_wg=rcdOD">Orb Sceptre Throne</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Bone-Malazan-Empire-Novels/dp/0765330016/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?refRID=ZY3DQY7SN04AM6WV8KCK&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_r=ZY3DQY7SN04AM6WV8KCK&psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&pd_rd_w=JKqP1&pd_rd_i=0765330016&pd_rd_wg=YFwDY">Blood and Bone</a></em>, and <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Assail-Novel-Malazan-Empire-Novels/dp/0765330008/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?refRID=1K3KNCYP3K2TDKBE24DB&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_r=1K3KNCYP3K2TDKBE24DB&psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&pd_rd_w=KSSfJ&pd_rd_i=0765330008&pd_rd_wg=RfeGI">Assail</a></em>.</p>
<p><em>Night of Knives</em> is frustrating, as it’s told through the viewpoints of characters who have no idea what’s going on and thus you as the reader have very little idea what’s going on, and Esselmont’s prose in this novel is pretty rough. If it was a stand-alone there’s no way I could recommend it.</p>
<p>But then he finds his stride and the series picks up steam. So don’t let <em>Night of Knives</em> put you off—it gets much better.</p>
<p>As a whole, <em>Novels of the Malazan Empire</em> is satisfying and a worthy inclusion in the canon. And despite being less <em>Epic</em> than Erikson, Esselmont does use much fewer words, so these are more normal-length novels instead of the bricks that make up the <em>Malazan Book of the Fallen</em>.</p>
<p>Obviously, this series is not where you should start, but if like me you find yourself jonesing for another shot of Malazan, dive in to <em>Novels of the Malazan Empire</em> to find out more about the Forkrul, the Stormguard and the Crimson Guard.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States2017-08-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/08/either-america-will-destroy-ignorance/
<blockquote>
<p>Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—W.E.B. Du Bois</p>
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it2017-07-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/07/an-opinion-should-be/
<blockquote>
<p>An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Jef Mallett</p>
Photos from Pacific Beach2017-07-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/07/pacific-beach-photos/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pacific-beach-hero.jpg" /></p>
<p>We live in Phoenix, where eight months out of the year are paradise and four months are a scorched hellscape. July in Phoenix is not only ridiculously hot but it’s also when the humidity kicks in, so there’s no more dry heat—it’s a wet heat, and oh yes, you might die.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pacific-beach1.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Surfers" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Surfers waiting for waves off Pacific Beach.</i></p>
<p>The people of Phoenix, being somewhat rational, decide en mass that July is a good time to get the heck out, and geography being what it is, most of the mass decides to drive to San Diego.</p>
<p>So that’s what we did.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pacific-beach2.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Surfers on a wave" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Surfers catching a wave off Pacific Beach. Note the lunatic not wearing a wet suit.</i></p>
<p>Turns out, Pacific Beach in July is packed. We booked a room at the <a href="http://oceanparkinn.com/">Ocean Park Inn</a>, a hotel we’d used before about ten years ago, which is decent and right on the beach. What we didn’t know is that sometime in the last ten years somebody opened a lounge called <a href="http://firehousepb.com/">Firehouse</a> right next to the hotel, and Firehouse has a truly, epically, loud sound system. We’re talking sub-effing-sonic earthquake bass.</p>
<p>Annoying? Meh, perhaps a little.</p>
<p>We couldn’t hear it in the room, fortunately, but leaving the hotel meant untz-untz-untz.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pacific-beach3.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Surfers paddling" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Surfers paddling for a wave off Pacific Beach.</i></p>
<p>Which made me realize I’ve aged out of Pacific Beach pretty severely. So many people. So loud. Get off my lawn.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pacific-beach4.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Surfers" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Surfers waiting for waves in the sunset off Pacific Beach.</i></p>
<p>As a sidebar here, who decided it’s somehow socially acceptable to walk and bike around with a shitty, shitty little Bluetooth speaker blaring your tunes? I would like to speak to the manager, please.</p>
<p>But me being crotchety and old aside, Pacific Beach is gorgeous, the entire California coast is gorgeous.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pacific-beach5.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Massive bubbles" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>This gentleman was blowing massive bubbles to the delight of children.</i></p>
Book roundup, part 232017-07-16T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/07/book-roundup-part-23/
<p><strong>Mea Culpa:</strong> Geting this book roundup written has taken way too long. I’ve read a lot of books since the last installment, but haven’t had the discipline to jot down my notes, so these are only a few of the books that have scrolled across my Kindle.</p>
<p>Most of my energies have gone toward my <a href="http://amerikapodden.xyz/">Swedish-language podcast about America</a>. Turns out blogging and podcasting scratch the same itch, but podcasting is way more labor-intensive. And fun! Podcasting is a lot of fun!</p>
<p>I believe this is what’s called foreshadowing.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I have scolded myself appropriately, and will take better notes going forward.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547?tag=thecoredump-20">Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A beautifully written memoir of growing up in a dysfunctional family of, not to put to fine a point on it, white trash, <em>Hillbilly Elegy</em> does a great job of showing the human cost of an honor culture out of touch with modern society.</p>
<p><em>Hillbilly Elegy</em> is honest and raw, drenched in existential despair and hopelessness.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gulp-Adventures-Alimentary-Mary-Roach/dp/0393348741/ref=sr_1_2?sr=8-2&ie=UTF8&keywords=gulp&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1500251066">Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Mary Roach has made her writing career by being utterly non-squeamish and having a breezy and approachable writing style. In <em>Gulp</em>, she manages to make your digestive tract both very interesting and not all that gross.</p>
<p>She also found a very plausible theory for the myths about dragons you’ll have to read the book to learn.</p>
<p>But above all, <em>Gulp</em> really brings home how our digestive tracts really are us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The great irony is that in the beginning, the gut was all there was. “We’re basically a highly evolved earthworm surrounding the intestinal tract,” Khoruts commented as we drove away from his clinic the last day I was there. Eventually, the food processor had to have a brain attached to help it look for food, and limbs to reach that food. That increased its size, so it needed a circulatory system to distribute the fuel that powered the limbs. And so on. Even now, the digestive tract has its own immune system and its own primitive brain, the so-called enteric nervous system. I recalled what Ton van Vliet had said at one point in our conversation: “People are surprised to learn: They are a big pipe with a little bit around it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1481447939/?tag=thecoredump-20">The Stars are Legion, by Kameron Hurley</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>The Stars are Legion</em> turns space opera on its head by instead of imagining vast metallic space ships, it’s squishy and nightmarish, with generation ships designed as organic worlds. Which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.</p>
<p><em>The Stars are Legion</em> takes place ages after the generation ships’ creation, long after most knowledge of how they function has been lost into myth. Hurley thrusts the reader straight into the action and does a fantastic job of letting the world building unfold organically—as it were—and there are times when you go, “Oh, <em>of course</em> that’s why things are this particular way!”</p>
<p>Like Hurley’s previous works, <em>The Belle Dame Apocrypha</em> and <em>World Breaker</em>, <em>Legion</em> is populated by strong women with agency. As a matter of fact, only women, which is one of those details that makes a lot of sense later on in the book.</p>
<p>It’s an engrossing take on space opera, but suffers a bit from a draggy middle where a trek flounders much too long and, as is par for the course for Hurley, you have to be in the mood for terrible, self-centered characters.</p>
<p>If you enjoy gritty novels or space opera, <em>The Stars are Legion</em> belongs in your reading list.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Society-Sandman-Slim-Novel/dp/0062474146/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=the%2Bkill%2Bsociety&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1500251292">The Kill Society, by Richard Kadrey</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>I am a huge fan of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sandman-Slim-Novel-Richard-Kadrey-ebook/dp/B00338QF1E/ref=sr_1_2?sr=8-2&ie=UTF8&keywords=sandman%2Bslim&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1500251928">Sandman Slim</a> series—it’s one of the freshest, most irreverent gothic-slash-noir-slash-tattoos-everywhere series out there, but unfortunately this ninth installment just didn’t do it for me.</p>
<p>It feels like Kadrey is struggling with where to take our beloved Sandman next and <em>The Kill Society</em> kind of flounders around, searching. But—<em>spoiler horn</em>—there is a bit of a reset at the end, so the next installment could be great. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Putting new gaskets on the Kamado grill2017-05-02T17:05:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/05/putting-new-gaskets-on-the-kamado-grill/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/grill-hero.jpg" /></p>
<p>I’ve had <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/04/enter-the-kamado/">my Kamado grill since 2012</a>, and I still love it as much as the day I bought it. If you enjoy the charring of things, I can’t recommend a Kamado enough.</p>
<p>They do require a bit of work, though.</p>
<p>Every so often you have to clean out the fire box to restore the airflow, or it will take infinity long to warm up. <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2013/09/there-shall-be-airflow/">It’s grimy work</a>, but doesn’t take very long.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/grill-charred.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Those gaskets have had it" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Those gaskets have had it.</i></p>
<p>You also have to replace the gaskets every few years. My specimen had finally reached that point. According to the Internet, this is easy: Just buy new gaskets—<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TLB75MA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">I picked these and they seem good</a>—strip the old gaskets, roll on the new ones, and Bob’s yer uncle.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/grill-scraped-front.jpg" class="w-full" alt="The putty knife is your friend" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The putty knife is your friend.</i></p>
<p>The Internet suggested to me removing the existing gaskets would take less than half an hour. The Internet was wrong. The image above represents over an hour of angry stabbing with a putty knife.</p>
<p>The Internet was not wrong, though, that it’s technically easy. It just requires violence.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/grill-scraped.jpg" class="w-full" alt="After scraping with putty knife" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Stabby stabby scrape.</i></p>
<p>After the orgy of violence, get the rest of the grease—<em>oh, the grease, the grease!</em>—off with rubbing alcohol and let it dry. This is Phoenix, so that took less time than getting a glass of water.</p>
<p>Really, the amount of grease embedded in the gaskets is horrifying.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/grill-fresh-seal.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Kamado grill with fresh gaskets" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>With fresh gaskets.</i></p>
<p>Looks nice and new with the fresh gaskets. Close the grill and let stand for 24 hours to set and you, my friend, are ready to char all the things.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/grill-flame.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Kamado grill with meat" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The flames are your friends.</i></p>
<p>Let me leave you with some more <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/07/4th-of-july-barbecue/">shots of the Kamado in action</a>.</p>
Wings of Freedom2017-04-17T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/04/wings-of-freedom/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wings-b17-front.jpg" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.collingsfoundation.org/events/category/wings-of-freedom-tour/">Wings of Freedom</a> is a program run by the Collings Foundation that flies World War II-era aircraft around America so people can see them in person and optionally purchase flights on the B-17 Flying Fortress.</p>
<p>I figured they just can’t keep these old aircraft flying forever, so it was worth it to take a look and actually see them in person while they were visiting Phoenix.</p>
<p>There are four aircraft on display, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang">P-51 Mustang</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_B-25_Mitchell">B-25 Mitchell</a>, the last operational <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_B-24_Liberator">B-24 Liberator</a>, and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress">B-17 Flying Fortress</a>.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wings-b24.jpg" class="w-full" alt="The last operational B-24 Liberator in the world" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The last operational B-24 Liberator in the world.</i></p>
<p>All four aircraft are of course worth seeing, but the B-17 Flying Fortress is the icon of World War II bombers, the plane that springs to mind when you think of the bombing campaigns of the European Theater.</p>
<p>According to Wikipedia, each Flying Fortress cost about $240,000 in 1945 dollars, which is equivalent to <a href="http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=240000&year=1945">roughly 3 million in 2017 dollars</a>. 12,731 Flying Fortresses were built. War is expensive.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wings-b17-bombardier.jpg" class="w-full" alt="View out past the bombardier’s position" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>View out past the bombardier’s position.</i></p>
<p>What really struck me about the B-17 is how incredibly cramped it is—the crew members must have been tiny men, especially considering they were stuck in there for hours and hours wearing heavy clothing to ward off the bitter high-altitude cold.</p>
<p>Pictures don’t do the claustrophobic nature of the inside of the Flying Fortress justice—you really need to see it in person to appreciate it.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wings-ball-turret.jpg" class="w-full" alt="The ball turret on the B-17 is incredibly small" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The ball turret on the B-17 is incredibly small.</i></p>
<p>How the air force got <em>anybody</em> to agree to operate the ball turret is beyond me—it’s incredibly small and the gunner is quite literally hanging outside the aircraft while enemies are doing their best to blast it out of the sky. Granted, the aluminum skin on the aircraft provides scant protection, but psychologically, being curled up in a little ball outside the aircraft at 30,000 feet must have been stressful to say the least.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wings-bombbay.jpg" class="w-full" alt="The path between the front and rear of the aircraft" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The path between front and rear of the aircraft.</i></p>
<p>When it comes to moving around the aircraft, it involves walking a ledge across the bomb bay and having to squeeze across the support structures in the image above. Which as a burly 6-foot-2 man I could barely do wearing just a t-shirt and shorts, so for somebody to do it in full arctic gear seems incredible. Tiny, tiny people.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wings-oxygen.jpg" class="w-full" alt="The cabin was of course not pressurized" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The cabin was of course not pressurized.</i></p>
<p>The best book I’ve read on the bombing campaign in the Western Theater during World War II is the masterful <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bomber-Command-Zenith-Military-Classics/dp/0760345201/ref=sr_1_1/138-8101271-2295538?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=bomber%2Bcommand&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1492391143">Bomber Command</a></em> by the grand master of World War II history Max Hastings. The book focuses on the efforts of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force">RAF</a>, but apart from the RAF flying at night, the RAF and the U.S. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Air_Force">Eight Air Force</a> faced many of the same challenges and issues during the campaign.</p>
<p>Including the morality of area bombings as a part of total war versus targeted strikes as well as the effectiveness of bombing raids altogether. World War II was the first conflict where massive bombing raids into civilian territory were technologically possible, so there was no past experience to draw on—everybody was figuring it out as they went along.</p>
<p>And of course, if you’re interested in World War II as a whole, the same Max Hastings wrote the ultimate book on the whole conflict: <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Inferno-World-at-War-1939-1945/dp/0307475530/ref=pd_sim_14_6?refRID=39CF5RXS4VM1MG4XWK1B&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_r=39CF5RXS4VM1MG4XWK1B&psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&pd_rd_w=BC9By&pd_rd_i=0307475530&pd_rd_wg=FQ4J6">Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945</a></em>, which is so, so good and exhaustive—can’t recommend it enough.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wings-kia-mia.jpg" class="w-full" alt="The human cost was enormous" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The human cost was enormous.</i></p>
The innocent feel guilty, the guilty feel nothing2017-03-18T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/03/the-innocent-feel-guilty-the-guilty-feel-nothing/
<blockquote>
<p>The innocent feel guilty, the guilty feel nothing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3213684/">Estonian Movie <em>1944</em></a></p>
Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles2017-03-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/03/patriotism-is-often-an-arbitrary-veneration-of-real-estate-above-principles/
<blockquote>
<p>Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—George Jean Nathan</p>
The pro market, the nerds, and the vision2017-03-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/03/the-pro-market-the-nerds-and-the-vision/
<p>Apple used to be all about the Mac and now it is not. Apple is now mostly about iPhone, the product that made the company the most profitable in the world.</p>
<p>Speaking as a graybeard Apple person, that Apple is now mostly a mobile device company and one of the most profitable companies in the world is plain insane. Apple has always been the underdog, the company that really got human-computer interaction and then was crushed in the marketplace by Microsoft and its <a href="https://zedshaw.com/archive/xcontrol-yresponsibility-a-simple-principle-for-managing-smarties/">strippers and steak</a> sales techniques.</p>
<p>And now in 2017 Apple mostly sells iPhones and has lost interest in the Mac.</p>
<p>Or has it?</p>
<p>Apple is clearly not run by dummies. Tim Cook and his staff know what they’re doing. (They are fallible humans, but when it comes to running a very large consumer products company, evidence shows they are clearly world class.)</p>
<p>So why are they letting the Mac languish? Languish in this case personified by the sad, sad case of the <a href="http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/">Mac Pro</a>, which hasn’t been updated for <a href="https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro">1,171 days as I type this</a>. In an industry where yearly updates are expected, 1,171 days is an eternity. To add insult to injury, the price hasn’t dropped a cent. If you go out and purchase one of these rigs, you are paying top dollar for equipment that’s more than three years old.</p>
<p>Which is nuts.</p>
<p>But the Mac Pro isn’t just a machine, it’s a bellwether, it’s the indicator of how seriously Apple takes the pro market, the people who need the absolute fastest hardware, the people who edit 4K video, who master music with an ungodly amount of tracks, the researchers who build neural nets, the special effects wizards.</p>
<p>The people who <em>need</em> the fastest computer hardware money can buy. Not want. <em>Need</em>.</p>
<p>And Apple is clearly shrugging, saying “Hope you can find something.”</p>
<p>Add to this that progress on Mac OS is mostly focused on integrating better with iOS instead of adding more power, and power users are getting antsy.</p>
<p>Anecdotal tales across the Internet have video editors buying fire-breathing PCs and switching to Windows 10. Because why wouldn’t you? If you’re spending your days in a cross-platform app like Adobe Premiere and you have a tame sys admin around to deal with the quirkiness of Windows, why wouldn’t you switch to a platform that works the same as it did on the Mac and lets you buy wicked fast commodity hardware?</p>
<p>By the same token, some programmers are switching over to some form of Linux and getting their work done. And why not? If you do web programming and you’re by definition tech savvy, why not pick your favorite flavor of Linux and your favorite hardware and go to town?</p>
<p>For me personally desktop Linux is a complete non-starter since I need a variety of tools and apps that only exist on Windows and Macs, but if you don’t, hey, knock yourself out!</p>
<p>So why is Apple ignoring these people? After all, these are the fabled power users, the influencers, the ones whose purchasing recommendations affect many people.</p>
<p>If you grant that Apple is run by competent people who know what they’re doing, the only reasonable answer is that Apple doesn’t care about that particular market and that the influencers are less, well, influential these days.</p>
<p>As more and more people use iPhones and iPads and more and more people are discovering they really don’t <em>need</em> computers for their personal lives, the power users become less of a financial force and thus less of a focus for the company.</p>
<p>Apple makes the MacBook/MacBook Pro for mobile users and the iMac for the desktop—a machine that’s powerful enough for all but the most demanding users.</p>
<p>Moore’s law, baby. It got us here.</p>
<p>What Apple is focusing on now with the Mac line seems to be:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Optimize battery life for laptops. The work Apple has done on increasing battery life for its laptops is no joke, even though they get much too little credit for it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make the Mac work better for non-power-users.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Enable normal humans to accomplish things, like regular backups, that used to require nerd skills or a nerd mindset to accomplish.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Let’s look at the non-power-user market. These are normal humans who need to use a computer for their work, or who prefer to use a computer instead of an iPad for their computering needs—send and receive email, check Facebook, edit photos, edit a vacation video, crunch numbers, whatever it may be. These are not nerds who give a crap about computers, they are normal humans who need to accomplish something that happens to require a computer.</p>
<p>And which now requires much <em>less</em> computer power, proportionally speaking, or sometimes not even a computer-computer at all.</p>
<p>The fact nerds go to extraordinary lengths to not understand is that this is most humans. Nerds—certainly including nerds who spend a good chunk of their Friday evening writing a blog post about how nerds don’t get it—are a fractional minority. Dollar-wise we don’t matter in the arena Apple is operating in now.</p>
<p>Our wants are not their wants.</p>
<p>For myself, I’m very happy about the path Apple is taking. <em>They are making it easier to do things that used to require nerd skills.</em> Making it so that a person can have their phone or computer automatically backed up is a massive win for everybody.</p>
<p>Way back when I suffered as a Mac Genius in the early aughts, the most painful conversation you could possibly have with a customer involved data loss. I had people come in with a dead Mac and, after running diagnostics, had to tell them the drive was dead and their data was lost forever.</p>
<p><em>Yes, that includes the last year of pictures you had of your dad who just passed away. Those pictures are gone.</em></p>
<p>It truly sucked to not be able to do anything but say “sorry” to that.</p>
<p>(Yes, we recommended customers contact professional data restore companies.)</p>
<p>Because most people don’t back up their machines. Most normal people don’t even think about that. Most normal people don’t care about computers. Computers, phones and tablets are only there to help them accomplish a task they want to do. <em>Computers are not interesting in and of themselves.</em></p>
<p>For people like me—and probably you, if you’ve read this far—computers in their various forms are interesting in and of themselves and you want to know as much as you can about them.</p>
<p>You and I, dear reader, are in the .01% of humanity.</p>
<p>Apple is optimizing its products to better serve the other 99.99% of humanity and to enable them to not have to worry about setting up a backup scheme to keep the pictures they took of their dad in the hospital safe from data rot.</p>
<p>It’s both good and smart. Us nerds can get our kicks other ways. Let’s help normal humans not lose their data and not get hacked, like Apple is doing.</p>
<p>If you look back on Apple from its founding, Apple has wanted to create a “bicycle for the mind,” not an enthusiast machine, not something that is an object of fascination in itself. Look at the very first Mac: A sealed, self-contained device you are supposed to use for other purposes, not to find interesting by itself. But the technology was too primitive to allow the device to become reality and the reality of computing at the time was too messy, but now we are at a point where Steve Jobs’s vision has a chance at becoming a reality—a device that lets people accomplish <em>their</em> visions without worrying about the machine.</p>
<p>Nerditry not needed.</p>
<p>All that being said, I wish Apple would stop the charade and either update the Mac Pro or kill the line. Having a more than three-year-old machine in the lineup and publicly not caring is not good optics, and is a tinder for the fires of nerd rage.</p>
Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl2017-02-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/02/never-retreat-never-explain-get-it-done-and-let-them-howl/
<blockquote>
<p>Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Benjamin Jowett</p>
A wet man does not fear rain2017-02-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/02/a-wet-man-does-not-fear-rain/
<blockquote>
<p>A wet man does not fear rain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Russian Proverb</p>
What to expect when you’re expecting a Hackintosh2017-01-09T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2017/01/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-a-hackintosh/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/hackintosh-front.jpg" /></p>
<p>I’ve been <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2014/02/the-mac-homegrown/">running a Hackintosh since early 2014</a>, after getting tired of Apple’s refusal to sell a normal mini-tower. You know, a decent machine you can buy and then replace some parts and add some functionality as you go along.</p>
<p>It’s important to understand Apple has never wanted to be in that market. Never. For many years, Apple <em>had</em> to be in that market, since that was what the technology could support. But Apple has always wanted to sell toasters—a magical machine that does what Apple thinks you need.</p>
<p>And now they do. The technology is here now for that vision to be a reality.</p>
<p>You buy an iPhone. The iPhone is what you have. Once there’s a better iPhone you want, you buy it and get rid of your old iPhone.</p>
<p>That’s the vision.</p>
<p>And I understand the vision. I <em>like</em> buying a new iPhone and have it be great in many ways without me doing any work.</p>
<p>But I’m also a nerd, so I’m in the minority in that I actually know—and sometimes enjoy—system administration.</p>
<p>I find installing operating systems to be soothing. It’s relaxing to see the little progress indicators go across the screen and see the software packages getting installed.</p>
<p>Granted, I am in the vast, vast minority on this. Most people are not like this. At all.</p>
<p>Which is fine. Hakuna Matata. (If people like me were the majority we’d still be on Savannah, but starving and spending all our time arguing about the <em>best</em> way to track the wildebeests instead of actually hunting them.)</p>
<p>The way Apple is going about things is the right way to get the most customers. They are being very smart and purposeful. And it’s amazing that Steve Jobs clearly saw this way back when personal computers were starting. He was surrounded by people like me and he always wanted to make computers for people who are not like me.</p>
<p>But let’s say you’re upset that Apple won’t make a freaking mini-tower, or even—lowest difficulty setting—update the Mac Pro and the Mac Mini to track Intel’s processor upgrades?</p>
<p>Why isn’t the most profitable company in the world updating their line of computers?</p>
<p>My guess would be that they think it’s boring. They want to make new things. Magical things. Like the Apple Watch and AirPods. Which are great, don’t get me wrong.</p>
<p>But that’s magic. Speed bumping the Mac Mini so some nerd will be happy about what he hangs behind his TV or some IT guy uses for the company’s file server? Yawn. That’s the kind of crap Dell does and they can have it.</p>
<p>As an aside here, I worked at so many places where all the IT staff were Microsoft Certified and hated “MacinTrash.”</p>
<p>Then iPhone came out and the CEO bought one and told the IT staff to <em>make this work</em>.</p>
<p>It was <em>delicious</em>. Oh, let’s wallow in this for a minute. <em>Delicious</em>. The assholes who had made my life so much more difficult than it had to be all of a sudden had somebody with weight telling them to do the thing they should have done years ago, and their <em>hurdihur MacinTrash</em> was all of a sudden canceled out by executives getting an iPhone and dictating “make this work” and they could not say no and keep their jobs.</p>
<p>That was glorious. “Oh, it turns out your job is to help people do their jobs in the way that’s most effective instead of pushing your own crap?”</p>
<p>Sweet, sweet tears.</p>
<p>Thanks for indulging that little detour. Back to the Hackintosh. As discussed above, Apple is really good at, and takes very seriously, <em>hiding complexity</em>. That’s their core competency. Take something very difficult, prune away all the BS that makes it unnecessarily hard, then deliver that as a product. This is what made iPod a hit. You don’t have to be a nerd to put your music on an MP3 player! Cue selling infinite millions of the things.</p>
<p>The Mac does the same thing, it hides so much complexity, even though it’s still a thing that requires its user to have much more computer awareness than an iOS device.</p>
<p>But they’re still hiding a lot of complexity from you. If you go Hackintosh, you have to deal with that complexity.</p>
<p>BIOS updates. Driver updates. Bootloaders. Knowing exactly which motherboard you’re using. Apple lets you treat a Mac pretty much as a black box, something you can <em>not</em> do with a Hackintosh.</p>
<p>And of course it’s completely and utterly unsupported except for the kindness of strangers on message boards.</p>
<p>If you have a problem you will not be hauling your rig to the nearest Apple Store.</p>
<p>So what’s it like in practice to run a Hackintosh?</p>
<p>You will become intimately familiar with the <a href="http://tonymacx86.com/">TonyMac x86 forums</a>—that’s the main hangout for the scene and where you will go to see if an update is safe and any necessary workarounds that may be necessary. It’s a pretty friendly place, though the testosterone levels can get a bit out of hand.</p>
<p>That’s the first difference with running a Hackintosh instead of a “real” Mac. You can’t assume things will be hunky dory. Always check for somebody who’s running similar hardware to report in that an upgrade went well.</p>
<p>The second thing to be aware of is that things like Continuity and Handoff, not to mention Messages, <em>might</em> work for you, or they might not. Depending on exactly which hardware you have and how much effort you want to put in, you might be able to get it to work, or you might not. That’s just life in Hackintoshville.</p>
<p>I very much don’t recommend running your business on a Hackintosh—no matter what, sooner or later something will take your machine out of commission and you’ll have to go down a forum rabbit hole looking for clues.</p>
<p>That being said, though, once you get the rig up and running it’ll mostly run like a Mac and act like a Mac, so the day-to-day experience is the same as the real thing.</p>
<p>The elephant in the room for the Hackintosh is of course Apple’s benevolent indifference: So far the company’s been admirably hands-off with the Hackintosh. They obviously know it’s happening, but haven’t done anything at all to hurt the scene.</p>
<p>Which is one of the things to have in the back of your head when thinking about building a Hackintosh: Apple can kill that scene tomorrow if they wanted to. They’re being hands-off right now, but all it takes is somebody at Apple getting pissed off enough to want to dedicate the engineering resources to start a cat-and-mouse game.</p>
<p>Personally, I think they’re letting it be as both a push valve where the people unhappy with Apple’s hardware decisions can make their own thing, and as place to watch what the enthusiasts are really interested in—a radar for the feral tribes in the desert.</p>
<p>Since I don’t work at Apple I obviously don’t know that, but it feels truthy. There are so few people who get involved in the Hackintosh community that it doesn’t hurt the bottom line in any measurable way.</p>
<p>As for myself, my current rig will be my last Hackintosh—I value having a boring machine that just works more than my ability to put whatever boards I feel like in the machine. You might make a different call.</p>
<p>And it is a good learning tool—once you’ve figured out how to build the machine and install Mac OS on it, you’ve learned a lot about the things Apple shields you from.</p>
<p>I am going to miss the disk access blinkenlights, though…</p>
Book roundup, part 222016-12-15T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/12/book-roundup-part-22/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grunt-Curious-Science-Humans-War/dp/0393245446/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&tag=thecoredump-20">Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, by Mary Roach</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Tons of interesting science about humans at war, especially modern war. Not so much about weaponry and combat, but the stresses violence and existing in chaotic circumstances puts on the body.</p>
<p>As an example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For every American killed by battle injuries during the Mexican War of 1848, seven died of disease, mostly diarrheal. During the American Civil War, 95,000 soldiers died from diarrhea or dysentery. During the Vietnam War, hospital admissions for diarrheal diseases outnumbered those for malaria by nearly four to one.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Roach writes in an energetic and engaging way, though sometimes the humor feels a bit forced to this stodgy Swede, and there’s some padding even in a short book. But it is fascinating in an often icky way. Roach does emphatically not flinch from ick.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turning/dp/0691168385/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?sr=8-1-fkmr0&ie=UTF8&keywords=1179%2BBC%2Byear%2Bcivilization%2Bcollapsed&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1481064649">1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric H. Cline</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Bad stuff out front first: The book has very little meat on its bones and spends a lot of time being carefully scholarly by telling the reader more about what we don’t know about the late Bronze Age than what we do. And (spoiler) at the end we aren’t really sure what caused a cataclysm around 1177 B.C.</p>
<p>The good stuff: We know a lot about what life and civilizations were like in 1177 BC! Which was a long time ago, the Bronze Age, Old Testament times. And it was a complicated world of civilizations, religions, and above all trade around the Mediterranean.</p>
<p>It is pretty metal that some Mediterranean civilizations left behind records about the Sea Peoples, who were supposedly doing some serious ravaging, but that we can’t be sure who they were or where they came from.</p>
<p>There’s also surprising pathos in some of the old clay tablets, like this one from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugarit">city of Ugarit</a> after it was overrun:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When your messenger arrived, the army was humiliated and the city was sacked. Our food in the threshing floors was burnt and the vineyards were also destroyed. Our city is sacked. May you know it! May you know it!</p>
</blockquote>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Louder-Than-Hell-Definitive-History/dp/0061958298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=louder%2Bthan%2Bhell%2Bthe%2Bdefinitive%2Boral%2Bhistory%2Bof%2Bmetal&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1481064838">Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal, by Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Oral history of heavy metal as told by the people who lived it, from the first bands to be considered metal in the 1970s up to today.</p>
<p><em>Louder Than Hell</em> is interesting both if you’re a metal fan and if you’re fascinated by unstable, self-destructive humans. Because most of the people involved are <em>amazingly</em> damaged in so many ways. I mean, seriously, these are people who need intensive counseling. And I’m not saying that in a condescending way, but in a concerned way. If you have any kind of empathy you’ll read <em>Louder Than Hell</em> and want to help these people.</p>
<p>Sure, it’s great you’re able to have all your escalatingly weird sexual fetishes met and you have access to all the drugs, but dude, really? Is this really good for you?</p>
<p>Perhaps I’m just old and in dad mode.</p>
<p>The biggest issue with the book is that it aims to be all-inclusive, so it suffers by including much too much. There really are only so many stories of drugs and groupies you can read before they start to blur together. If it was edited down to about half the length it would be much less repetitive and more interesting.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_12?sprefix=duhigg%2Bsmart%252Cstripbooks%252C171&url=search-alias%253Dstripbooks&field-keywords=duhigg%2Bsmarter%2Bfaster%2Bbetter&tag=thecoredump-20">Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>A neurotic New York journalist decides to be less neurotic and neurotically works super hard at finding the best way to be more productive.</p>
<p>At times reading this, I just wanted to tell Duhigg to mellow the heck out and perhaps go into therapy. The problem is inside you, dude; it’s not a societal problem.</p>
<p>But he does talk to a lot of people, some of whom have really good ideas, so <em>Smarter Faster Better</em> is a worthwhile read.</p>
<p>The ideas he finds include taking control of your attention and setting goals in a mindful way.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To become genuinely productive, we must take control of our attention; we must build mental models that put us firmly in charge. When you’re driving to work, force yourself to envision your day. While you’re sitting in a meeting or at lunch, describe to yourself what you’re seeing and what it means. Find other people to hear your theories and challenge them. Get in a pattern of forcing yourself to anticipate what’s next. If you are a parent, anticipate what your children will say at the dinner table. Then you’ll notice what goes unmentioned or if there’s a stray comment that you should see as a warning sign.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a good book. New Yorkers especially will love it.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/The-Hanging-Tree/dp/0575132558/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?qid=1481065031&sr=1-1&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">The Hanging Tree, by Ben Aaronovitch</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The Hanging Tree is the sixth installment in the <em>Rivers of London</em> series and after the kind of pause and hemming and hawing that was <em>Foxglove Summer</em> it moves the story arc and the character development forward in able fashion.</p>
<p>Basically the series follows a policeman called Peter Grant who becomes part of a spook unit of the London Metropolitan Police which investigates supernatural happenings.</p>
<p>It’s a really charming series.</p>
<p>If you’re a fan, this is a fun read with all the things you like. If you’re not already a fan, you obviously need to start at the beginning with <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Riot-Peter-Grant-Aaronovitch/dp/034552425X/ref=pd_sim_14_4?refRID=GPRYBNYBPSPY0QXKK108&tag=thecoredump-20&psc=1&_encoding=UTF8">Midnight Riot</a></em> (which confusingly enough is called <em>Rivers of London</em> in the UK).</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deaths-End-Remembrance-Earths-Past/dp/0765377101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=deaths%2Bend%2Bcixin%2Bliu&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1481065310">Death’s End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past), by Cixin Liu</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Hoo, boy. <em>Death’s End</em> is the final installment in the <em>Three-Body Problem</em> trilogy and it’s … well … just not that good.</p>
<p>If you’re a fan of the trilogy, you probably do want to read it to get closure about the Trisolarians and what will happen to our planet, but Cixin really turns up the darkness that started in <em>The Dark Forest</em> and, well, if you’re looking for a happy ending, prepare to be disappointed.</p>
<p>The Universe is dark and hostile, my friends. Dark and hostile.</p>
<p>As a Western reader, though, it’s interesting to get the Chinese perspective, and even more to get the Chinese perspective packaged into a traditionally Western form like hard sci-fi.</p>
<p>As an example, there’s a scene that really caught my attention where Earth is being evacuated. Our protagonists are at the space port with their ship and find a school class of young children also trying to evacuate, but they only have three seats available.</p>
<p>Here’s what happens (AA is a character’s name, because future):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You pick three, then,” said AA. The teacher let go of AA and stared at her, even more terrified than before. “How am I supposed to pick? How…” She looked around, not daring to meet the eyes of the children. She looked to be in utter pain, as if the gazes of the children burned her. “Fine. I’ll pick,” AA said. She turned to the children and smiled. “Everyone, listen up. I’m going to ask three questions. Whoever gives the right answers first gets to come with us.” She ignored the stunned looks from the teacher and Cheng Xin, and held up a finger. “First question: Say we have a light which is off. After one minute, it blinks. Half a minute later, it blinks again. Fifteen seconds later, it blinks a third time. It keeps on going like this, blinking at intervals that are half of the immediately preceding interval. I want to know how many times it will have blinked by the two-minute mark.” “A hundred!” one of the children blurted out. AA shook her head. “Wrong.” “A thousand!” “No. Think carefully.” After a long pause, a timid voice spoke up. The speaker was a gentle and quiet little girl and it was hard to hear her with all the noise. “An infinite number of times.” “Come here,” AA said, pointing at the little girl. When she walked over, AA guided her to stand behind herself. “Second question: Say we have a rope whose thickness is uneven. To burn it from one end to the other takes an hour. How do you use this rope to track the passage of fifteen minutes? Remember, the thickness is uneven!” This time, no child spoke up in a hurry, and they all fell into deep thought. Soon, a boy raised his hand. “Fold the rope end to end, and then burn it from both ends at the same time.” AA nodded. “Come over.” She pulled the boy behind her to stand with the girl. “Third question: eighty-two, fifty, twenty-six. What’s the next number?” “Ten!” a girl shouted. AA gave her a thumb up. “Well done. Come over.” Then she nodded at Cheng Xin, took the three children, and headed for the shuttle.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s obviously reasonable to want to save the smartest to ensure humanity’s future, but damn, that’s cold. I can’t see a Western novel pull off the same scene without <em>a lot</em> of handwringing about it. But in <em>Death’s End</em> it’s just done and nobody talks about it afterwards.</p>
<p>And that isn’t even the dark part of the novel.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chains-Command-Frontlines-Marko-Kloos/dp/1503950328/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=kloos%2Bchains%2Bof%2Bcommand&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1481065382">Chains of Command, by Marko Kloos</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Chains of Command</em> is the fourth installment in Kloos’s very good military near-future sci-fi <em>Frontlines</em> series. In order to remain spoiler-free, let’s just say the series involves humanity escaping from a dystopian Earth and starting to colonize other planets and running into scary aliens. If you’re into military sci-fi, <em>Frontlines</em> is a solid series.</p>
<p><em>Chains of Command</em>, though, is fine, but doesn’t really advance the story arc of the series—it feels like Kloos doesn’t know where he wants to go and is stalling a bit while he figures stuff out.</p>
<p>Hoping for more story progression in the next installment.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Killed-Sherlock-Holmes-Shadow-Police/dp/1447273265/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=who%2Bkilled%2Bsherlock%2Bholmes&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1481065492">Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?, by Paul Cornell</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Yes, the ghost of Sherlock Holmes is murdered in the beginning of the third installment of the <em>Shadow Police</em> series about police officers in contemporary London who are accidentally given “the sight,” enabling them to see all the supernatural things going on in the city.</p>
<p>The setup may sound a lot like <em>Rivers of London</em>, but it’s tonally very different—<em>Rivers of London</em> is charming and fun, while <em>Shadow Police</em> is grim and dark, with some extremely unpleasant things going on and with a creeping sense of existential dread.</p>
<p>If you’re in the mood for gritty urban fantasy, you won’t go wrong with <em>Shadow Police</em>. But of course, start at the beginning with <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/London-Falling-Paul-Cornell/dp/0765368102/ref=pd_bxgy_14_3?refRID=KXEZVF6ZVJ0WFQM35586&tag=thecoredump-20&psc=1&_encoding=UTF8">London Falling</a></em>.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem2016-09-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/09/its-so-much-easier-to-suggest/
<blockquote>
<p>It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Malcolm Forbes</p>
Malazan Book of the Fallen2016-08-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/08/malazan-book-of-the-fallen/
<p>The <em>Malazan Book of the Fallen</em> series consists of 10 brick-sized novels that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen">according to Wikipedia</a> make up 3.2 million words. Yup, 3.2 million words. That’s a lot of words.</p>
<p>Fortunately, it’s fantastic.</p>
<p>What we’re looking at here is a massive series, not just in terms of word count, but also in terms of world building—it spans thousands of years, several continents, several cultures, a multitude of races, several systems of magic, and a sprawling host of characters. <em>Massive</em>.</p>
<p>But what’s most impressive to me is that despite the insane word count, <em>Malazan</em> is tight. Unlike most high fantasy with 100-pages-to-walk-around-a-bush sections, there are no draggy bits—every word reveals character, builds the world, or moves the story forward. It’s written like a series of interconnecting short storys or novellas that snap together to create a story arc. I get a headache just thinking about creating something like this. Massive respect to Steven Erikson for even undertaking such a massive job, no less pulling it off.</p>
<p>Erikson also trusts his readers—there is no coddling. If a character disappears for three novels and then comes back, there’s no reintroduction or reminder of who that character is. They just show up and it’s up to the reader to remember who they are. The same thing goes for character introductions: There’s no signaling to let you know if this will be a major or minor character. It might be a major character the series will turn on, or the character might die four pages later. You don’t know. You have to pay attention at all times. No coasting.</p>
<p>The same thing goes for the systems of magic. Wizards do magic stuff from the get-go, but the reader has no idea how it works—there are systems, but it’ll take the reader a while to figure them out. In the meantime, you just have to roll with it.</p>
<p>So what’s the <em>Malazan Book of the Fallen</em> about? There’s obviously a lot—<em>a lot</em>—of high fantasy plot happening, but at its heart it’s a meditation on mortality and the choices we make.</p>
<p>If you’re the kind of reader who enjoys being challenged and you like fantasy, definitely give the first book in the series, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gardens-Moon-Malazan-Book-Fallen/dp/0765348780/ref=sr_1_1/152-3406363-6544751?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=gardens%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bmoon&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1472341005">Gardens of the Moon</a></em>, a shot. Just be prepared to be both awed and confused.</p>
The car is going digital and that’s a good thing2016-08-21T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/08/the-car-is-going-digital-and-thats-a-good-thing/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/prius-shifter.jpg" /></p>
<p>My favorite feature in <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2016/01/thoughts-on-the-2016-prius-v-after-a-road-trip/">my Prius</a> is the one in the hero image above: The gear shifter is, unapologetically, a joystick. The shifter tells you by its shape and design that you are performing no mechanical action—you are telling a computer what your intention is, not actually initiating the action yourself.</p>
<p>For car nerds this is sacrilege—the enjoyment of the car is tied to your connection to the vehicle, your physical involvement with the iron that makes up the car. And the Prius puts the fact that it’s all fly-by-wire <em>right in your face</em>.</p>
<p>You can compare with BMW piping pre-recorded engine sounds through the vehicle’s sound system in a misguided effort to help the driver feel more in touch with the machine.</p>
<p>Because no matter how much Potemkin feedback car manufacturers add to their products these days, a modern car is a computer on wheels. And that’s a good thing—I’m old enough to have spent my childhood and early, formative, driving years in analog cars and they were <em>terrible</em>.</p>
<p>Constant breakdowns. Slurping gas like an Amy Schumer character slurps white wine. Constant leaking of mystery fluids. Gearboxes that <em>grind</em>.</p>
<p>Remember using the choke to get the car to start on a cold morning? (For any millennials reading this: The choke let you override the fuel to air mixture that went into the carburetor by pulling out a freaking stick on the dashboard. After the car started you had to push the choke back in as the engine warmed up or it would stall. Yes, this was a real thing—ask your parents.)</p>
<p>Cars were a mess back then. But we didn’t know that because the concept of a car that mostly just worked was unthinkable. And of course being a teenager, the freedom of the car and the open road, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11MzbEcHlw">parking with a person of your preferred gender</a>, these are powerful experiences and feelings that a lot of people have transferred into the bucket of bolts that broke down on them all the time instead of their youth and hormones.</p>
<p>Which doesn’t make it wrong for a person to enjoy tinkering with an old car in their spare time—on the contrary, whatever constructive hobby a person can find is a great thing and I hope it brings you happiness.</p>
<p>But as the defiant little joystick in the Prius shows, cars are moving to a much better technological place. And that is something that should be celebrated. And props to Toyota for being completely unapologetic about it.</p>
Review: Kindle Oasis2016-08-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/08/review-kindle-oasis/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/oasis-and-voyage.jpg" /></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Leather-Charging-High-Resolution-Display/dp/B010EK1GOE/ref=sr_1_5/154-1914749-1328767?sr=8-5&ie=UTF8&keywords=kindle%2Boasis&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1470417409">Kindle Oasis</a> is for the connoisseur of e-readers, the person who reads a lot on them and who also enjoys the feel of a premium device in the hand.</p>
<p>Because that’s what you’re spending close to an extra $200 on, compared to a lowlier Kindle <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QJDU3KY/ref=fs_row_mt?tag=thecoredump-20">like the Paperwhite</a>: page-turn buttons, more even backlight, lighter weight, and a very nice leather cover.</p>
<p>Apart from that, the software is (sadly) much the same and the speed of the device is much the same.</p>
<p>The leather cover (sorry, vegans) does look and feel premium, and since it holds moar battery, this Kindle can go for longer than previous versions—not that they were ever slouches in the battery department—by sipping from the cover when it’s attached.</p>
<p>The drawback with this sceme of using the cover as a battery pack is, of course, if you use the Oasis without the cover you have a Kindle with terrible battery life.</p>
<p>If you read a lot—<em>as I do, he insisted, justifying his purchase</em>—being blessed with actual page-turn buttons instead of the weird touch areas on the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Kindle-Voyage-6-Inch-4GB-eReader/dp/B00IOY8XWQ/ref=sr_1_1/156-4248951-5259725?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=kindle%2Bvoyage&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1470418567">Voyage</a> alone is worth the price of admission, since it lets you actually feel where buttons are instead of having to look at where your fingers are on the device. (One day there’ll be a fascinating article or book chapter written on what got into the water at Amazon when they decided chintzy touch sensors with fake clicks were much more future than pedestrian buttons. I look forward to reading it.)</p>
<p>So as hardware it’s nice—an excellent reading machine. But Amazon keeps making me sad by not delivering best-of-breed software. Amazon is in the business of delivering good-enough. The most egregious example is that the Kindle still doesn’t have automatic hyphenation. In 2016.</p>
<p>Nope. You’ll see the rivers of white and you’ll like them, dammit. Just because we have a screen that aptly mimics paper doesn’t mean we should think about typography, does it?</p>
<p>As an example of the patented Amazon Attention to Detail™, the instruction manual preloaded on the devices says Welcome to your Kindle Placeholder. Yes, Placeholder. And the title is Kindle Solstice. That is some attention to detail.</p>
<p>I so, so wish Apple would get into the e-ink reader market, but it doesn’t look like that will ever happen—imagine an e-ink device running iBooks. <em>Wistful sigh.</em> If Apple had that, their bookstore might actually take off.</p>
<p>But in this universe we have Amazon’s Kindles. And this one is physically a very nice device, one that’s worth upgrading to if you read a lot and appreciate the finer things in life, but not one that will get you meaningfully more than a cheaper Kindle.</p>
<p>As a side note, if you happen to be a cheapskate and just want a cheap thing to read on, let me implore you to at least get a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QJDU3KY/ref=fs_row_mt?tag=thecoredump-20">device with backlighting</a>—it’s a massively nicer experience.</p>
<p>Let’s hope the Oasis 2 will come with a faster processor and that Amazon will somehow find the motivation to crack the mysteries of automatic hyphenation.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny cut. It doesn’t add anything to the price.</p>
Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes2016-06-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/06/unhappy-the-land/
<blockquote>
<p>Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Bertolt Brecht</p>
“Tea, Earl Grey, hot”2016-05-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/05/tea-earl-grey-hot/
<p>Virtual assistants are hot. Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s, well, Google are becoming more and more capable and smart. While Apple, Google, and Microsoft are shipping assistants on their smartphones and wearables, the one for the home right now is Alexa—Amazon’s ghost in the cylinder.</p>
<p>But competition is heating up: Google recently announced a competitor to the Echo coming in the fourth quarter of 2016, and Apple is rumored to introduce something in this space at <a href="https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/">their developer conference</a> in mid-June. So competition is coming for Alexa, but right now it (Alexa is a bunch of software running in who knows how many data centers across America, so I’m going to refer to it as “it”, despite the female name and voice) is the only one you can buy and plonk down in your home.</p>
<p>If you’ve read this blog before you know I’m a massive sci-fi nerd, including of course the brilliant-if-uneven <em>Star Trek: The Next Generation</em>. I love Gene Roddenberry’s vision of Star Trek as showing us how we, as humanity, can be better. And despite the rickety sets and wobbly acting—apart from Sir Patrick Stewart, of course—<em>Star Trek: TNG</em> hit on so many great technological advances, like their reading pads that were pretty much tablets, the holodeck, which I never understood how they got people to leave voluntarily, the tricorders, which were pretty much smartphones with even more cool gear, and, of course, the taken-for-granted masterpiece, the ship itself. Just talk to the air and ship will know you’re talking to it. Ship will do what you need it to. Ship is your friend.</p>
<p>And now you can have ship in your house. Kind of. Ship’s primordial ooze ancestor. And you know what, ship’s distant ancestor ain’t half bad. Alexa knows thing. Alexa can help you with things.</p>
<p>But above all, <em>you can talk to the air and the air responds.</em> Sure, it’s not a true AI in any sense of the word—it’s dumb as a box of bricks, but when you talk to the air and it gets it, it’s <em>magical</em>. Seriously, it’s magic.</p>
<p>I giggled like a little girl when I first set it up and it responded to me.</p>
<p>“Alexa, tea, Earl Grey, hot.” Of course it knew how to respond to that.</p>
<p>For my use case, Alexa fits in well. I ask it random questions that pop into my head. “Alexa, what’s the temperature?” etc. I have it set timers and alarms. I have it play podcasts from my phone through its not-great-but-okay speaker.</p>
<p>It’s a spirit I can command. A dumb spirit now, sure, but it’s getting smarter every day, and who knows how smart it will get.</p>
<p>It’s future now.</p>
Mad Max: Fury Road vs Mad Max Trilogy2016-05-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/05/mad-max-fury-road-vs-mad-max-trilogy/
<p>There’s an amazing amount of shots reused between the original Mad Max trilogy and Fury Road. It’s impressive how George Miller’s vision has stayed true to itself over the years.</p>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/144382267" class="aspect-ratio--object w-full aspect-video" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics"></div>When the levee breaks2016-05-15T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/05/when-the-levee-breaks/
<p>The professor who taught the first political science class I took spent much of the semester on his pet theory about how people will tolerate a surprising amount of oppression, but there is a limit and once you get past it, <em>boom</em>.</p>
<p>This was a long time ago, so he used examples like the Iranian revolution, where the Shah created such a corrupt, horrific regime that finally the people had enough and went full medieval, instituting a theocracy that’s been a thorn in the west’s side ever since.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking back to those lectures by that funny little man in his bow tie over the last few years—the Occupy movement, the Tea Party, Black Lives Matter, and the rise of Trump and Sanders seem powered by anger and frustration.</p>
<p>People are angry. Inequality is at the level of the robber barons, the middle class is under siege, rural America is wilting on the vine, and people of color are still dying at the hands of law enforcement.</p>
<p>At this point the anger is mostly constrained inside the political system, though it’s starting to leak out, like with the Bundy Ranch standoff and the Ferguson riots.</p>
<p>Obviously, the Occupy movement and the Bundy Ranch crew place the blame for their anger in different places, but both points of view feel in their bones that they are getting shafted. Shafted hard.</p>
<p>And it’s not getting better—the trend lines point to inequality increasing, for the downward spiral for rural people and the middle class to continue to accelerate.</p>
<p>And I think back to my old poli-sci professor and wonder where the limit is, at what point the levee breaks.</p>
It’s a content blocker, not an ad blocker2016-05-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/05/its-a-content-blocker-not-an-ad-blocker/
<p>I don’t use ad blockers. I think it’s a fair trade: You give me content and I see your ads.</p>
<p>I do, however, use content blockers.</p>
<p>The difference is not sophistry or comic book guy pedantry—an ad blocker blocks ads while a content blocker stops your browser from downloading many different kinds of data. This especially includes trackers, the little pieces of software that follow you around the web, cataloging your every move.</p>
<p>This means content blockers also block ads, but that is because the advertising networks track you across the web.</p>
<p>Does that mean they know specifically who you are? Name, rank, and serial number? Probably not. But we can’t know for sure, because the industry isn’t saying. What we do know is that when you visit a site that participates in an ad network—which is most commercial sites—the ad network uses the information it has on you to create an auction where different advertisers bid on the privilege to show an ad to you, or at least the demographic you’ve been lumped into. The auction takes milliseconds and then the ad starts to load.</p>
<p>What this means in plain English is that when you go to a site, your information is sold and aggregated. So it’s not a matter of if you trust the site itself, but if you trust the companies the site is selling you to. Companies you don’t know and <em>can’t</em> know without manually inspecting the source of the site.</p>
<p>Perhaps I’m over-sensitive, but the feeling of having my browsing habits sold to the highest bidder whenever I visit a site gives me the creeps. Content blockers are the weapon we have against this.</p>
<p>It’s not the ads themselves. You giving me content in exchange for exposing me to ads is fine, good, even. You giving me content in exchanging for selling my information to who-knows-who is simply not okay.</p>
<p>It’s also an amazing state for the media industry to find itself: They have outsourced the very thing that brings them revenue. This does not seem particularly bright, to put it mildly.</p>
<p>The solution is simple in principle but difficult and expensive to implement: Host your own ads. Accept that the internet is here to stay and that you need to own your own publishing and revenue stack. Accept that if you are a publisher today <em>you are partly a technology company.</em></p>
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves2016-04-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/04/everything-that-irritates-us/
<blockquote>
<p>Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Carl Jung</p>
Review: Synology DS416j2016-04-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/04/review-synology-ds416j/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ds416j.jpg" /></p>
<p>I’ve been meaning to buy a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage">NAS</a>—a small, specialized computer that serves files—for years, but have always been put off by the cost.</p>
<p>This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/72745-the-reason-that-the-rich-were-so-rich-vimes-reasoned">Captain Samuel Vimes Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness</a> as coined by the late great Terry Pratchett. Meaning I kept blowing money by buying external USB drives to hook up to my computers and then replacing them as they invariably died early deaths instead of making one larger investment.</p>
<p>A NAS means paying more upfront and then making it back over time as you spend less for upkeep <em>and</em> getting built-in redundancy so if one drive (or two, depending on how you’ve set things up) fails you can replace it and keep on trucking without data loss.</p>
<p>At least that’s the theory. (As a sidenote here, <a href="http://serverfault.com/questions/2888/why-is-raid-not-a-backup#2897">“RAID is not a backup”</a> is a truism for a reason. Do not believe you’ve nullified Murphy’s Law by getting your files on a RAID. End of sermon.)</p>
<p>The DS416j is a great deal: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS416j/dp/B019ZUR5WQ?ie=UTF8&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1&keywords=ds416j&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1460419199">Around $290 from Amazon</a> for a four-drive NAS running the very good and n00b-friendly <a href="https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm">DiskStation Manager operating system</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, at that price Synology had to make trade-offs. The DS416j is expressly designed for light home use. If that is what you’re looking for, I wholeheartedly recommend it. If on the other hand you want a NAS for your office, you’ll be unhappy with this device.</p>
<p>Some of the trade-offs Synology made include:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>One gigabit Ethernet port only, so there’s no link aggregation—gigabit is as fast as it gets.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>512MB of RAM, which is even less than Apple puts in its products.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>No support for hot-swapping drives. If you need to replace a drive, you’ll have to power the Synology down and break out your screwdriver. Like an animal.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>For a home server that costs less than $300, these are perfectly valid trade-offs. For a business NAS with 50 people on it, they are recipes for misery.</p>
<p>Thanks to the maturation of the software on NAS devices these days, people are using them for all kinds of tasks apart from backups and media drives, which is great. But know that the DS416j comes with an <a href="https://origin-www.marvell.com/embedded-processors/armada-38x/">Armada ARM chip</a>, which is not particularly studly. This means two things: Any third-party software you want to use has to be compiled for that chip, and it plain doesn’t have a lot of muscle.</p>
<p>The DS416j could perhaps be used as a Plex server. Maybe. For some files. And I’m not going to test it myself. Why? Because I don’t want to pop my popcorn, grab a chilled beverage and sit down to get entertained, only to find that whatever media file I happen to be interested in pushes the little Armada chip to a nervous breakdown.</p>
<p>In a few years Moore’s law guarantees that whatever NAS you buy will be able to transcode anything you throw at it, but that’s a few years out.</p>
<p>It’s important to note the NAS itself is only a container for drives, and you need to pay attention to the drives. You need to buy drives tuned to live in the cramped, hot, 24/7 environment of a NAS. After some research I decided the sweet spot for my usage was the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Red-3TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B008JJLW4M/ref=pd_sim_147_1?preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%252C160_&dpSrc=sims&dpID=519kbF0XBjL&refRID=0JS21ECE750ZK98CAS7A&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">3TB Western Digital Red</a>, so I picked up four of them from Amazon and they cost more than the DS416j itself.</p>
<p>It’s kind of nice that when the drives are under load, their thrashing sounds like rain. It’s soothing.</p>
<p>If you’re in the market for a NAS, Synology makes good ones, and <a href="https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm">the software</a> especially is impressive. If you’re in the market for a light-usage home NAS that will be used mostly as a backup target and media file server, the DS416j is a nice product.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something through them I get a tiny kickback. It doesn’t cost you anything.</p>
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard2016-04-02T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/04/democracy-is-the-theory-that-the-common-people-know-what-they-want-and-deserve-to-get-it-good-and-hard/
<blockquote>
<p>Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—H. L. Mencken</p>
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything's different2016-03-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/03/know-whats-weird/
<blockquote>
<p>Know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything’s different.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Bill Watterson</p>
Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect2016-03-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/03/just-because-nobody-complains/
<blockquote>
<p>Just because nobody complains doesn’t mean all parachutes are perfect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Benny Hill</p>
(Nerd Note) Moving to GitHub Pages2016-03-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/03/nerd-note-moving-to-github-pages/
<p><strong>Update Jan. 29, 2018:</strong> The site now lives on <a href="https://www.netlify.com/">Netlify</a>. Killer feature: Instant cache invalidation. <strong>/update</strong></p>
<p><strong>Update May 29, 2016:</strong> Captain Can’t-Leave-Well-Enough-Alone decided to move the site to <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/2016/04/07/gitlab-pages-setup/">GitLab Pages</a> instead of GitHub Pages. <strong>/update</strong></p>
<p>It’s not like this blog is blowing up the Internet or anything, but dagnabbit, I’m happy to have it.</p>
<p>Happy to have it since I want to have a place on the Internet to call my own, where I can post whatever I want and have it belong to me. It’s not content on Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr or whatever is hip at the particular moment you read this that is owned by those particular companies—it’s content that belongs to me and is on a place I control.</p>
<p>It’s a tiny victory, sure, but it’s a victory, and it matters. What’s mine is mine. I share it, but it belongs to me, not some venture-funded behemoth.</p>
<p>And it should belong to me: I’m the one who spent the time creating it.</p>
<p>But at the same time, I don’t want to spend the time and money to run my own servers unless I have to. In 2003, <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2003/10/whats-this-then/">when I started this blog</a>, I very much had to. As far as I knew back in 2003, there was no way to run a blog on the Internet under your own domain without spending money on a web host. That was the reality back then.</p>
<p>Because of this as well as my nerd instinct for Always Making Things Better, The Core Dump has lived on many hosts through its life, including a sad server in a friend-of-a-friend’s data center, an even sadder server in a friend’s bedroom, then at an exciting hosting startup’s data center, which startup then failed, and I had to put the files at yet another startup’s data center, then on a machine at Amazon, then as files on Amazon S3, moving on to files on Google Cloud Storage, and now, as we speak, on <a href="http://github.com/">GitHub</a>.</p>
<p>The files are tired at this point. The files want to rest. The files are just settling down at GitHub, pulling their blankets up, staring at the threadbare tents over their heads, hoping this will be the place where they get to stay for a while.</p>
<p>Which all just goes to prove the point that if you own your domain you can move your files anywhere you want and nobody has to be the wiser. <em>On the Internet, this is what freedom looks like.</em></p>
<p>Seriously, own your domain. The Internet is your playground as long as you own your domain.</p>
<p>The deal with GitHub Pages is that you can host your site for free, as long as the site is static, and if your site is a Jekyll site, GitHub Pages will build it for you. That’s right, not only will GitHub host it, but GitHub will build it! This means if you’re a nerd, you can just update the <a href="https://git-scm.com/">Git</a> repo of the site, and GitHub will spend the money on cycles to turn it into this site.</p>
<p>The reason this is <em>huge</em> is that (a) it means I don’t have to keep Jekyll up to date on my machines so I can build the site whenever there’s a new post, and (b) it means I can blog from my phone without having to keep a Virtual Private Server around. Being able to use GitHub Pages from my phone, is very, very exciting. There’s a post coming later about why this is such a big deal for me.</p>
<p>Finally, enjoy the fact that this whole move affected you not one iota and if you hadn’t happen to read this post, you wouldn’t even have known anything was changing. <em>That’s</em> the magic of owning your own domain.</p>
Time traveling with Friends2016-03-06T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/03/time-traveling-with-friends/
<p>The TV show <em>Friends</em> was obviously a huge hit back in the day, and was one that my wife and I made a point out of catching every week. Thursdays at 7 p.m. if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>And recently it showed up on Netflix for our bingeing pleasure. So I popped myself some popcorn and went to town. It’s always weird in some way to go back to a cultural artifact that used to have meaning to you and reinterpret it as an older person with more experience.</p>
<p>In general, you know what? season one and two of Friends were really solid—that was a tight show. But the wheels came off pretty quick after that as the show ran out of ideas. Something you feel very urgently when you’re bingeing a show, but the realization comes much more slowly when you’re on a drip line being fed one episode a week with breaks for summer.</p>
<p>Be that as it may, my big revelation was during a show where the character Monica dates one of her father’s friends, played by Tom Selleck. I’ve now seen that show as a person about the same age as Monica and as a person about the same age as Tom Selleck’s character.</p>
<p>That is a disconcerting feeling.</p>
<p>To add to the time warp, I watched Aziz Ansari’s show <em>Master of None</em> (also on Netflix). If you’re not familiar, it’s about two young men in New York City, one of Asian descent and one of South Asian, as they navigate the beginning of adulthood. It’s pretty good.</p>
<p>But one of the themes of the show is our two protagonists dealing with their fathers who are both immigrants and trying to keep their offspring somewhat in tune with their own cultures.</p>
<p>And I realized, I’m not the two main characters, I’m the immigrant dad.</p>
<p>How did I become the immigrant dad?</p>
<p>And then I went outside and yelled at a cloud.</p>
The tire fire of democracy2016-02-28T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/02/tire-fire-of-democracy/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/tire-fire-1200.jpg" /></p>
<p>The 2016 election is a tire fire, the result of years and years of cynical short-term decisions.</p>
<p>Personally, I’ve never been more worried about the future of America—the future of the world’s last remaining super power.</p>
<p>The democratic process in America has followed a familiar script for the last few decades, especially on the GOP side: The primaries start with a clown car mostly full of unelectable grifters and lunatics who use the ludicrously extended primary season as a jumping-off point for a career of consultancies, speaking circuit tours and living off more-or-less deluded donors, but then when things get serious, the Machine steps in and makes sure the candidate the powers that be considers acceptable gets the nod.</p>
<p>This is exactly how it played out last time, with a cohort of lunatics—remember <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cain">Herman Cain?</a>—finally giving way to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney_presidential_campaign,_2012">Romney</a>, who everybody knew was the anointed one from the get-go. But it was a win-win: The lunatics went on to make comfortable livings on the outskirts of the system and Romney was all set to claim the ring. Except of course he was a terrible candidate and got trounced by Obama. Sad trombone.</p>
<p>But the system worked as designed. The system was deliberately broken, but it did work as designed.</p>
<p>For 2016, though, the system has thrown a rod. The clown car part went as expected, but then Jeb!—the anointed candidate—crashed and burned and a cartoonish real estate developer, a hated-by-all smirker and an empty suit are what’s left of the field.</p>
<p>Naturally, there’s panic in the GOP establishment and the people who bought Jeb! for <em>several hundred million dollars</em> are freaking out. <em>We spent all this money for nothing?</em></p>
<p><strong>Sidenote:</strong> Remember when all the Clever Insider People in political journalism were talking about how Jeb! was actually the smart brother, so don’t worry, oh, man, he’ll bring it during his campaign? Oh, yes, it was just an accident W became president first; Jeb! was the real deal. Those people should never be allowed to write anything about politics again. <strong>/Sidenote.</strong></p>
<p>At this point we have the real estate developer, whose policy is, “I’ll make it better. I know the best people,” the smirker, whose policy is “Let them eat cake”—it’s almost perversely impressive to manage to be more callous than Marie Antoinette—and the empty suit, whose policy is “A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.”</p>
<p>Much as he has blindsided the GOP establishment, the real estate developer was inevitable. The GOP has created the conditions for his rise ever since Reagan, but conditions haven’t been ripe until now. Not that there isn’t precedent. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot#1992_presidential_candidacy">Remember Ross Perot?</a> Same deal as the real estate developer, but 20 years too early. The GOP just wasn’t ready for him then, but, oh, how ready it is now.</p>
<p>Because the GOP primary isn’t an isolated thing, it’s part of a bigger picture. The real estate developer’s supporters are <em>pissed.</em> Large swathes of America are <em>pissed</em>.</p>
<p>The GOP has spent decades telling poor white people “if you vote for this guy, we will make things better” and they’ve voted for that guy, <em>and things got worse</em>. Voters can only be told so many times that if we keep gays in the closet, taxes low, and brown people out, things will get better, then have them vote for your candidate and he doesn’t do anything to improve their situation until those voters start to look for something—anything—else.</p>
<p>And that something else is the personification of everything ugly in America—a sociopath with the morals of a wolverine who’ll bang anything, put a gold coating on anything and call it solid gold, hey, the best gold ever!</p>
<p><strong>Sidenote:</strong> The real estate developer is doing very well with Evangelical Christians. If this were a world where people were consistent with their values, Evangelical Christians would be stoning the real estate developer in the streets, but instead they’re voting for him. This says much more about Evangelical Christians than it does about the real estate developer. <strong>/Sidenote.</strong></p>
<p>The real estate developer’s slogan is “Make America Great Again.” Which obviously only works if you believe America used to be great but is not any more. Which is true for many people, especially rural whites. Life has gotten worse over time, pretty much ever since Saint Reagan’s policies came into effect. By any measure, rural America is not doing well. The people of rural America are <em>angry</em>.</p>
<p>Look at the rise in militias, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff">Bundy Ranch standoff</a> and it’s dumber sequel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Malheur_National_Wildlife_Refuge">the Malheur Occupation</a>, look at the 300,000 or so <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement">Sovereign Citizens</a> around the country.</p>
<p>The real estate developer’s supporters, the Malheur occupiers and the Sovereign Citizens all have one thing in common: They are checking out of reality. Reality is terrible. They are being screwed—screwed hard and relentless—and the system will not help them. The system is against them. So they get angry.</p>
<p>You buy a Make America Great Again hat. You buy cammo gear and an AR-15. You spend your last dollars on a ticket to a seminar that will show you how to file paper work to make you a Sovereign Citizen so you don’t have to pay taxes.</p>
<p>You’re angry and you hate the system.</p>
<p>That system is America.</p>
<p>This is what happens when elites think they have it all wired, ignoring what the commoners are feeling since, well, they’re just marks.</p>
<p><em>This will not end well.</em></p>
Book roundup, part 212016-02-15T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/02/book-roundup-part-21/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard-ebook/dp/B0108U7IHO/&me=?tag=thecoredump-20">SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, by Mary Beard</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>SPQR</em> covers the first thousand years of Roman history, from the mythology-shrouded founding of an inconsequential village to the world-spanning empire it became. <em>SPQR</em> (titled for <em>Senatus Populus Que Romanus</em>, ‘The Senate and People of Rome’) is authoritative and clinical, going to great lengths to separate what we can know about the Roman Empire and the myths and projections that have crept in to our understanding of this distant past.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in the classical past at all, <em>SPQR</em> needs to be on your reading list. It is somewhat marred by the author’s caution—sometimes it feels more like learning about what we don’t know than what we do know, and sections feel bloodless.</p>
<p>But it’s nevertheless a masterful work that above all raises your curiosity about the people who inhabited those times. It’s frustrating there’s so much we just can’t know.</p>
<p><em>SPQR</em> does an excellent job of answering one of my main questions about the Roman Empire: How did they do it? How did the Romans manage to control such a large portion of the known world?</p>
<p>One reason was they asked very little of the conquered:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There was one obligation that the Romans imposed on all those who came under their control: namely, to provide troops for the Roman armies. In fact, for most of those who were defeated by Rome and forced, or welcomed, into some form of ‘alliance’, the only long-term obligation seems to have been the provision and upkeep of soldiers. […] It was an imposition that conveniently demonstrated Roman dominance while requiring few Roman administrative structures or spare manpower to manage. The troops that the allies contributed were raised, equipped and in part commanded by the locals. Taxation in any other form would have been much more labour-intensive for the Romans; direct control of those they had defeated would have been even more so.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Impressively, they used very few resources to control their empire:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A reasonable estimate is that across the empire at any one time there were fewer than 200 elite Roman administrators, plus maybe a few thousand slaves of the emperor, who had been sent out from the imperial centre to govern an empire of more than 50 million people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Enlisting and co-opting local elites, making Roman goals their goals, were also a huge part of how the empire worked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The rebellions that we know about were not the work of high-principled, or narrow-minded, nationalists. Getting rid of the Romans was never the same as an independence movement in the modern sense. […] They were usually led by the provincial aristocracy and were a sign that the relationship of collusion between the local elites and the Roman authorities had broken down.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If you’re at all interested in classical history, <em>SPQR</em> deserves to be on your reading list.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/That-Bombshell-Inside-Madness-Genius/dp/1409164748/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=on%2Bthat%2Bbombshell&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1454782976">And On That Bombshell, by Richard Porter</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Behind the scenes of <em>Top Gear</em> and with much the same feeling as the show. If you’re a <em>Top Gear</em> fan, you’ll enjoy <em>And On That Bombshell</em>.</p>
<p>Just don’t expect any deep secrets to be revealed.</p>
<p>It’s flavor, that’s all it is and all it has to be. Worth reading for fans of the show.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography/dp/0385495323/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=the%2Bcode%2Bbook&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1448652354">The Code Book, by Simon Singh</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>The Code Book</em> is an engaging and breezy read on the history and evolution of cryptography from Caesar’s cipher to quantum computing with plenty of discussion of the connection between war, politics and encryption.</p>
<p>Above all, the book is full of so many incredibly smart people, including of course the great Alan Turing.</p>
<p>The end of the book spends some time on a good discussion of the pros and cons of wide-spread encryption. Here’s a taste:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Law enforcers fear that the Internet coupled with cryptography will help criminals to communicate and coordinate their efforts, and they are particularly concerned about the so-called Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse—drug dealers, organized crime, terrorists and pedophiles—the groups who will benefit most from encryption.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The proencryption case is based on the belief that privacy is a fundamental human right, as recognized by Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If you’re a member of society today you should understand encryption and how it affects you, and you should read <em>The Code Book</em>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Schiit-Happened-Worlds-Improbable-Start-Up/dp/1514355027?tag=thecoredump-20">Schiit Happened, by Jason Stoddard</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Schiit is a personal audio company started in 2010 that makes amplifiers and Digital to Analog Converters (DACs) for the midrange headphone audiophile market. And yes, their name is pronounced how you think, and no, it’s not German—it is self-consciously tongue-in-cheek.</p>
<p><em>Schiit Happened</em> is the story of how the company came to be and the things they have learned along the way. It’s written in an irreverent and somewhat edgy tone you will either find a refreshing change from other business books or hipster-annoying, but beneath the tone is a great tale with good lessons for anybody interested in either starting a company or just finding out what goes on behind the scenes in a startup.</p>
<p>And it’s a plain fun read with some hard-earned business gems of wisdom about starting a company like this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you’re only interested in business intelligence, you won’t have to read any further than the next seven bullet points:</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>Shooting to be the next billion-dollar mass-market company is insane—you might as well buy lottery tickets.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ol start="2">
<li>Niche is where it’s at—specifically a niche where people can get in fistfights over the color of a knob.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ol start="3">
<li>Pick a niche you know and love, and do something nobody else can do—“me-too” never works.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ol start="4">
<li>Be memorable—this isn’t about getting everyone to like you, this is about getting some people to love you.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ol start="5">
<li>Go direct—distribution is a poisonous remnant of 19th-century economics in a disintermediated world.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ol start="6">
<li>Run from both conventional marketing wisdom and the social media mavens—both of them are geared towards the mass market with eight-digit ad budgets and multiple decades to build a brand.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ol start="7">
<li>Don’t think this’ll be easy—this is hard work, but you’ll also be having a whole lot of fun if you’re doing it right!</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>Note that the book referenced here is an edited and polished version of a <a href="http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up">series of forum posts</a>, and it’s interesting to compare and contrast the raw originals from the edited versions in the book. Hint: Everybody can use an editor.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062387030?sr=8-1&ref_=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1&keywords=beyond%2520redemption&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1454724769">Beyond Redemption, by Michael R. Fletcher</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>This, this is the most grimdark of grimdark, a novel where the gods have gone insane and broken the world by making some people, known as Geisteskranken (German for insane) able to manifest their delusions. Belief is reality. And the insane are not exactly imagining puppies and rainbows.</p>
<p>As a bonus and in a genius move, most (perhaps all—my German isn’t good enough to tell) terms and names are in German, which instantly cranks up the metal factor. The main protagonists are Bedeckt (covered), an old, scarred warrior, Wichtig (important) whose goal in life is to be the world’s greatest swordsman, Stehlen (stealing), a kleptomaniac, and Morgen (morning), a boy who will die to become a god.</p>
<p>Yup, it’s that kind of novel.</p>
<p>Reading <em>Beyond Redemption</em> is like hearing a Black Sabbath riff going on and on, and I mean that in a positive way. If you’re ready for some seriously grim reading, this should be on your list.</p>
<p>It’s always great when an artist totally commits to a vision, and Fletcher is all in on this particular insanity.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Severed-Streets-Paul-Cornell/dp/0765330288/ref=sr_1_1/180-0131532-5013356?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=severed%2Bstreets&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1446602359">The Severed Streets, by Paul Cornell</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Very good follow-up to the excellent <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/London-Falling-Paul-Cornell/dp/076533027X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?refRID=11J2M270WZ61WAZF6SWC&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">London Falling</a></em>, which takes gritty urban fantasy to a much darker place than it usually goes. The conceit of the series is that some mostly out of central casting hard-boiled cops gain the ability to see the magic side of London and have to deal with incorporating that knowledge into their work while trying to figure out the new rules and maintain their sanity.</p>
<p><em>The Severed Streets</em> will be a hard novel to read without <em>London Falling</em> under your belt, so obviously start there, and if you like <em>London Falling</em>, this is a good sequel, even though it feels a bit tentative, like Cornell isn’t exactly sure where to go now. But it’s still worth your time.</p>
<p>One thing that did take me out of the novel a bit was the use of author Neil Gaiman as a minor character, and I’m still not sure how I feel about that. But, quibbles. If you want your urban fantasy dark and gritty, this series is where it’s at.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/0553418025/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=martian%2Bweir&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1445831933">The Martian, by Andy Weir</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A lot of people said <em>The Martian</em> was a great read and they were all correct. The idea is that an astronaut is left for dead on Mars when the rest of his crew are forced to evacuate in a storm and he has to figure out how to survive. That’s the story.</p>
<p>Weir turns that premise into a charming, tight page turner with an immensely likable main character. Even if you’ve seen the movie, <em>The Martian</em> is worth your time.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Veiled-Verus-Novel-Benedict-Jacka/dp/0425275752/ref=sr_1_1/179-4189807-7828114?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=alex%2Bverus%2Bveiled&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1441142692">Veiled, by Benedict Jacka</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Continues the Alex Verus urban fantasy series which began with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fated-An-Alex-Verus-Novel/dp/1937007294/ref=pd_sim_14_1?refRID=1F1X1TV6AESC3BH20MFZ&dpSrc=sims&dpID=51FIORyE%25252B2L&ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&preST=_AC_UL160_SR99%25252C160_">Fated</a></em> in competent fashion, but it does feel like it’s starting to run out of gas. There’s lots of action, but little forward progression in the overlying story arc and not much in the way of character development. I’m hoping this is just a temporary slump and that the next one will be better. <em>Fingers crossed.</em></p>
<p>Nevertheless, if you’re a fan of the series—and it is a damn good urban fantasy series—<em>Veiled</em> is a given read.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which motivates me to keep writing these reviews. It’s appreciated.</p>
Space Shuttle Endeavour2016-01-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/01/space-shuttle-endeavour/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/endeavour-side.jpg" /></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Endeavour">Space Shuttle Endeavour</a> has been to space and back to Earth 25 times—it’s escaped our gravity well 25 times and brought its crew back safely every time.</p>
<p>Now it’s retired and sits available for public viewing <a href="http://californiasciencecenter.org/exhibits/air-space/space-shuttle-endeavour">at the California Science Center</a>.</p>
<p>It’s an enormously powerful artifact, a symbol of a greater vision. It went to space and back, 25 times. Humans built this thing that went to space and back 25 times. America built this thing that went to space and back 25 times.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/endeavour-low.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Endeavour" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Endeavour from below.</i></p>
<p>A humanity that spends so much time, energy, and blood at Bronze Age disputes about who is worshipping which God and how they’re doing it wrong. A humanity ready to commit genocide at any pretense. That humanity built this ship, a ship that’s been to space and back 25 times.</p>
<p>An America that crossed its arms as it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis">poisoned children in a major city</a> once built this ship.</p>
<p>Endeavour sits in its retirement, a symbol that humanity is better than this. That America is better than this.</p>
<p>Let’s be better than this.</p>
Review: The Revenant2016-01-17T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/01/review-the-revenant/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/the-revenant.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>This is a non-spoiler review.</strong></p>
<p><em>The Revenant</em> is the story of an unstoppable bad-ass out for revenge that is hampered by flabby direction and a compulsive need to elevate everybody’s motivations beyond the plausible and into some kind of faux spiritual range that is both unnecessary and detracting from the plot. There are some intense battle sequences and some gorgeous nature photography intermingled with people acting like nobody ever would and survive in a northern clime, such as people <em>constantly</em> walking into rivers, getting their crappy mountain-man boots wet.</p>
<p>I grew up in Sweden and went through Swedish Army winter survival training, so I know something about winter survival and the prime directive is: Keep your feet dry. Ideally, you’ll keep the rest of yourself dry too, but if your feet get wet you are well screwed. But in this movie, it’s apparently fine.</p>
<p>And it flummoxes me: Why? Clearly they went on location to shoot a lot of the scenes and clearly they survived so they must have had people on location who know how the cold works, so why did they choose to ignore those people? This is extremely problematic when your whole movie is about a man surviving by his wits and skills in, say it with me: The snow.</p>
<p>In the movie, it’s like the cold is just a visual detail—<em>oh, snow!</em> But no, that kind of cold is <em>a character</em>. It takes on its own life and it affects you. It’s not walking on the beach at Santa Monica and thinking the water is a little cold. It’s a force.</p>
<p>This disrespect or ignorance of the reality of winter is one of the clues the director has no idea whatsoever how things work in the world but is looking for a good shots instead. If you’re northern, this will drive you insane.</p>
<p>But a bigger problem is that <em>everybody</em> has to have capital-M Motivations. It’s not enough that somebody left you for dead and you want them to die for it. Nope. You have to have a backstory. And it’s not enough to be native American and having a bunch of white psycopaths take your land. Nope. You have to have a specific reason to be angry.</p>
<p>It gets tedious. Tedious and so unnecessary.</p>
<p>But all that being said, DiCaprio and Hardy turn in great performances, DiCaprio mostly grunting and straining and Hardy as a mumbly, hateful and hate-able redneck you really want to punch. The problem is that the director doesn’t trust the core of the story—and it is based on a real story: Hugh Glass was a real person—and has to insert a backstory, spirituality, and external motivation into a powerful, stripped-down story, which does nothing but dilute it.</p>
<p>There’s also a fine line between intense and sadistic, and <em>The Revenant</em> crosses that line more times than it needs to. There are perfectly executed fight scenes and then there are fight scenes that go on <em>way</em> too long, rubbing your face in unpleasantness much longer than the story demands, lingering on pain.</p>
<p>But again, well shot, well acted, and I really hope in a couple of years we’ll see a 90 minute cut that will be an exciting action movie. In the meantime, unless you have a lot of time to kill, skip <em>The Revenant</em>.</p>
<p>If you want an enjoyable telling of the Hugh Glass story, <a href="http://thedollop.net/wp/blog/episode-5-dollop/">the podcast <em>The Dollop</em> has you covered</a>. Note that the real story is actually <em>way more hardcore</em> than what’s depicted in the movie. There are maggots involved. You should check it out.</p>
Thoughts on the 2016 Prius v after a road trip2016-01-10T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/01/thoughts-on-the-2016-prius-v-after-a-road-trip/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/prius-side.jpg" /></p>
<p>I took my new Prius v on a road trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles and back, just shy of 1,000 miles total, and boy do I love this car! I was worried about the lack of power at first, especially since the v (a.k.a. wagon) version has the same power plant as the regular sized Prius but is significantly larger, but it turned out to be fine. Nobody can accuse it of being sporty, but there’s enough power—accompanied by howls of pain from the internal combustion engine—to merge on the freeway and to get back up to cruising speed after red lights.</p>
<p>Los Angeles, of course, is a great city to figure these kinds of things out. Not that traffic in Phoenix isn’t bad and annoying, but LA is next-level. Crumbling streets? <em>Check.</em> Too many cars? <em>Check.</em> Deranged sociopaths in traffic? <em>Check.</em></p>
<p>I have no idea how people in LA survive their daily commute.</p>
<p>But the point is the Prius v handled it with aplomb.</p>
<p>When it comes to the long cruise through the desert, the best thing since sliced bread is what Toyota calls Dynamic Radar Cruise Control. (Every car manufacturer apparently has to name this something different because meetings, but it’s about the vehicle adjusting its speed to match vehicles in front of you when on cruise control.) This makes long hauls so much easier! Turn it on and steer. Done. It feels like magic.</p>
<p>Unfortunately Toyota decided to only bundle this with the Advanced Technology Package, which is only available on the highest trim line, so you have to purchase the top-of-the-line Prius to get it. Grr. But it’s worth it.</p>
<p>Another nice feature that comes with the Advanced Technology Package is Lane Departure Alert. This makes the car notice when you’re drifting out of your lane. This even worked on LA freeways where the human eye could barely make out the lane indicators, <em>and</em> it’s smart enough to not trigger when you’re using the blinkers. Nice!</p>
<p>But Toyota also made some design choices that flummox me.</p>
<p>First and most important, you can’t see the hood. Nope. Not at all. You see the front of the dashboard and that’s it, so you have no idea where the hood is. This makes parking in tight spaces interesting. Interesting is bad.</p>
<p>The garage door openers are located on the rear view mirror and are not lit at night, so you have to learn to find them by feel—this feels chintzy.</p>
<p>On the subject of the rear view mirror, another nice future feature is that it auto-dims at night. You can turn this off for whatever reason—I gave it a lot of thought during the long drive, and I can’t think of a single reason why you’d want to, but you can. So there’s a green light to indicate that auto-dimming is on. A light on the rear view mirror. Which you tend to look at a lot. So at night you have this silly green light right in your vision.</p>
<p>There’s a button on the console to switch between metric and imperial measurements for the car. Right at the top of the console in the most expensive real estate on the entire car. A switch between measurement systems. Who keeps switching back and forth? Why did this particular button earn that place? I’d love to know the thinking behind this.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/prius-dash.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Prius dash" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The switch between imperial and metric. Why is it so prominent?</i></p>
<p>And on the topic of the console, sigh, yes, it’s centered. I realize that’s a Prius Thing™, but it’s a dumb thing. It’s different, sure, but it’s not better. There’s a reason every other car has it in front of the driver: It belongs there. But, sure, whatever, it is what it is.</p>
<p>Those niggles being stated, I do love this car and applaud Toyota for their forward-thinking.</p>
Apple Watch, six months in2016-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2016/01/apple-watch-six-months-in/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/apple-watch.jpg" /></p>
<p>I ordered mine as soon as they went on sale and have worn it every day since it arrived. It has made me very happy, though there are plenty of things to improve.</p>
<p>(For a look at my initial impressions, here’s my post on <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2015/07/will-the-apple-watch-be-a-success/">one month with Apple Watch</a>.)</p>
<p>First off though, let’s keep in focus how amazing and future it is that we now have a computer on our wrists, a computer that lets us communicate with the world and that knows what is happening inside us. It’s an amazing thing.</p>
<p>Wearable computing is in its infancy, obviously. Right now it’s the wrist and wherever you like to strap your fitness tracking device, but as the technology improves it will get smaller and more powerful and go to many places on and inside your body. If you’re a diabetic, would you like to have a device that lives inside your bloodstream and tells you your insulin levels? Of course you would. If you have cardiac issues, would you like a device that keeps track of your heart and notifies your doctor if something is going haywire? Of course you would.</p>
<p>The possibilities for miniature tech are endless and also quite scary—do you want a bored teenager somewhere to hack your insulin pump?</p>
<p>But right now we’re talking about the thing on your wrist. Which is, together with the <a href="https://www.pebble.com/">Pebble</a> and <a href="http://www.android.com/wear/">Android Wear</a>, in its first generation.</p>
<h3>The things that are good</h3>
<p>The most concise phrase for what Apple Watch does well is to <a href="http://www.speirs.org/blog/2015/8/25/the-apple-watch-at-work-and-play">call it an awareness amulet</a>. Something happens, it taps on your wrist and you glance at it. <em>Boom. Done.</em></p>
<p>The obvious argument is that you could take your phone out of your pocket, you Cheetos-stained lardass, but it truly is a different experience to glance at the information instead of having to pull your phone out of your pocket to see it.</p>
<p>Probably this could be related to the reason wrist watches became a thing in the first place, hmmm? Turns out having information on your wrist is really, really handy.</p>
<p><strong>Notifications</strong></p>
<p>The raison d’être of Apple Watch is to let you see incoming notifications and deal with them. Sending a text message to let someone know, “Be there soon” or “In traffic” or simply “OK” just by pressing a couple of buttons is huge. It’s on your wrist. It lets you see what’s going on. It lets you respond.</p>
<p>If the thing that’s turning you off about wearables is that you’re the kind of person whose wrist is buzzing all the time, you’re doing it wrong. Seriously. It’s not a watch thing. It’s a you thing. You need to turn off everything that isn’t important. Remember, the only arbiter for what’s important and what isn’t is you. Go through your phone and make those decisions. And really, how many things do you need to get notified about? Be ruthless. You deserve a life of not being interrupted by bullshit.</p>
<p><strong>Complications</strong></p>
<p>Some of the faces on Apple Watch allow for complications—a term taken from the mechanical watch industry, meaning information nuggets like the date—which lets you put the things that matter to you right there on the watch face. This has huge unfilled potential—if your favorite app provides a complication, you can monitor it right there. Obvious things like calendar and weather are already built in by Apple, but there’s room for growth.</p>
<p><strong>“Hey Siri” for reminders and timers</strong></p>
<p>Siri is Apple’s artificial intelligence and she’s ready to help you on Apple Watch.</p>
<p>Raising your wrist and saying “Hey Siri, remind me to call Fredo when I get home” is so handy. You can talk to it and it understands what you say. That’s sci-fi.</p>
<p>I personally use it all the time to set timers, like when I’m cooking: “Hey Siri, set a timer for four minutes.”</p>
<p><strong>Remote for iPhone</strong></p>
<p>This may be the most first-world thing ever, but it’s sometimes nice to be able to remote control your phone. For example, I listen to a lot of podcasts but I miss things when I’m in the shower. Step in the shower, hit pause, done with shower, hit play.</p>
<p>It might sound silly, but remember how people scoffed at the TV remote when it first came out?</p>
<h3>The things that need to improve</h3>
<p><strong>Exercise monitoring</strong></p>
<p>Apple Watch has a heart rate monitor so it can help you track your exercise habits. It generates loads of data about your personal life, always watching you as you go.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the heart rate monitor is finicky to say the least, at least for yoga and weightlifting. Pretty much every time I exercise I like to glance at it now and then and it keeps tailspinning—heart rate is 114, 113, 116, 54, 114. <em>What?</em></p>
<p>I do not claim to understand what is happening with the heart rate monitor, and I do appreciate that it even exists and works, but it can’t go catatonic whenever it wants to. The heart rate monitor desperately needs to be fixed.</p>
<p>At the end of a workout the app shows your average heart rate and if the monitor has soiled itself that average is completely off, which really sucks. I would like to get credit for my work, thank you.</p>
<p>And yes, the band is tight and I don’t have any tattoos. It just goes into a “Hey, let’s chill out, man” mode.</p>
<p><strong>Can’t just glance at it</strong></p>
<p>Sigh. When you look at Apple Watch at rest you’re looking at infinity. Black screen. As a person who’s worn a watch my entire life and never considered pulling a phone out of my pocket a replacement, it drives me nuts. This is probably neurotic, but I <em>need</em> to know the time always, and with a regular watch on my wrist, I can always glance at it and know.</p>
<p>(Yes, I’m the person who shows up on time for everything. There is no excuse for being late unless you got stabbed.)</p>
<p>But with Apple Watch I can’t do that. I can’t glance at my wrist and know what time it is. Sure, I’m getting better about turning my wrist forcefully to make the Watch turn on for a few seconds, but that’s me altering my behavior to suit technology instead of technology adapting to me, which is completely wrong.</p>
<p>Top of the list for Apple Watch, as far as I’m concerned, is to <em>be a watch.</em></p>
<p><strong>The apps are too damned slow</strong></p>
<p>Apple clearly imagined Apple Watch to be an app platform just like iPhone. That doesn’t seem to be happening.</p>
<p>Turns out you really don’t want to stand around and stab at your wrist—Apple Watch is great for handling incoming events, but why would you want to poke at it while you have a much bigger, faster device in your pocket?</p>
<p>The poor little processor also really struggles to launch apps, so it takes longer than is feasible to wait. You have to really want to use an app to have the patience to stare at the spinner while it loads. But with some optimization and help from Moore’s Law, that will get sorted over time. But the silliness of stabbing at your wrist won’t.</p>
<p>The one app I’ve found myself using on Apple Watch is <a href="http://realmacsoftware.com/clear/">Clear</a>: Having my grocery list on my wrist and checking off things as I buy them is great. But again, that’s not really interacting with an app, it’s more of remote controlling my phone.</p>
<p>And the app launcher. Ouch. I’ll be shocked if it survives into watchOS 3. It is truly terrible. Hunting and pecking on that little circle is a ridiculous way to launch apps.</p>
<p>Since Apple Watch is not meant to be interacted with for long, apps are a hard sell, so it seems most of the action in that space will be in remotes for iPhone apps.</p>
<p><strong>A day should be enough for anybody</strong></p>
<p>Yes, you have to charge Apple Watch every night. It’s understandable considering all it does, and not that arduous once you get used to it, but it does mean you have to remember to pack the charger if you’re staying overnight somewhere, which is a bit tedious.</p>
<p>I’m not expecting that to change significantly as Apple tends to set a goal for device usage and then err on the side of thin and light rather than increasing the length of time you can use a device.</p>
<p>While you usually end up with a lot of battery left at the end of the day, exercise tracking slaughters the battery, so if you’re running a marathon you should probably top it up beforehand.</p>
<h3>Is Apple Watch better than the competition?</h3>
<p>I used to wear a Pebble and liked it. Of course the Pebble was uglier, both physically and user interface-wise, but it performed enough of the awareness amulet functions that are so core to the smart watch experience that if Apple were to discontinue the watch I could go back to the Pebble and be pretty content. And have a week of battery life.</p>
<p>Being the platform owner, Apple can do things third parties like Pebble simply can’t, so the integration between iPhone and Apple Watch is tighter than between Pebble and iPhone, but at least for now that doesn’t matter as much as it probably will in the future.</p>
<p>Between Apple Watch and Android Wear, it’s mostly a matter of which ecosystem you inhabit.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Apple Watch and its competitors are exciting devices that are forging a new path for electronics, but the category is still in its infancy. Unless you’re the kind of person who enjoys bleeding-edge tech or if any of the functionality you can have on your wrist excites you, the smart move is to give the category a few years to mature.</p>
It’s upgrade time: 2016 Prius v first impressions2015-12-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/12/its-upgrade-time-2016-prius-v-first-impressions/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/prius-side.jpg" /></p>
<p>My former car was a 1997 Honda Accord LX V6 I purchased coming off a lease in 1999. Yes, in the previous century. I know. But it was a good car. Almost 164 thousand miles at this point and still going strong, even though it is getting old and tired and every year something costs $1,000 to fix.</p>
<p>It does go to show that modern—in the widest definition of the word—cars are really good as long as they get regular maintenance and care.</p>
<p>One of the big reasons I kept the Accord was that most of my interest in cars sits right in front of you in the entertainment system. Apart from reliably and comfortably getting me from point A to point B, of course. Which this vehicle has accomplished competently over the years.</p>
<p>But it’s getting tired. 164 thousand miles is a lot. It’s still a good car, mind you, and it has seen some upgrades, man. From the stock system with a cassette player when I bought it to a head unit that supported a six-CD changer in the trunk, to iPod integration, to Bluetooth, to better Bluetooth, I think it’s had five head units total. And it’s on its second pair of 10-inch subwoofers in the trunk after the Arizona heat rotted the first pair.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/accord-woofers.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Twin 10-inch subwoofers will let you feel your music. I guarantee it.</i></p>
<p>I’m going to miss that sound system. The Prius v has the advanced technology package with the upgraded stereo, and it sounds fine, but factory sound just won’t rattle your rear view mirrors.</p>
<p>So that’s the Accord. On to the Prius. Which, a week in, I love. This is such a nerd car—basically a computer on wheels. And the whole Prius raison d’etre of maxing mileage and the internal combustion engine and the battery working in harmony provides massive nerd happiness as you watch it happen in real-time on a little screen.</p>
<p>Adding to the general happiness, the 2016 Prius v I purchased is surprisingly large. It really is a small SUV, which surprised the heck out of me when I first went to look at one. The regular Prius is smaller, though a little bigger than you’d expect, but I was not ready for how big the Prius v is. For the record, I’m 6’2", not a small man, and I fit <em>comfortably</em> in this thing. And compared to the Accord, I sit noticeably higher in the Prius.</p>
<p>It’s not all roses, of course. The Prius is not a good choice for a getaway car for your next bank heist—acceleration is ponderous at best. There’s more road noise than I’d like, and the internal combustion engine sounds like a Russian tractor when you push it. Though that, somehow, ends up being charming rather than annoying.</p>
<p>I heartily applaud how Toyota isn’t even pretending the Prius is anything like a regular car. It’s all fly-by-wire and they embrace it so much that the PWR mode even resets the sensitivity of the gas pedal! That’s pretty next-level and not something a more traditional car company would even think to do.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/prius-cockpit.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The cockpit of the 2016 Prius v. You want buttons and screens? We got buttons and screens!</i></p>
<p>I am now a paid-up member of the Prius cult and shall smug you harder than you’ve ever been smugged, as is our way. But coming from a car that was literally made in the last century there are some things I’m totally enjoying that aren’t Prius things but normal modern-car things, and they are making me so happy. These are the kinds of things that, to me, are like when the remote control came to your TV set. At first it seemed silly and unnecessary, but then you used it and you were like, “I’m never going back.”</p>
<p>Here are the big things I’ve noticed during my first week, things you should expect from modern cars that will make you happy:</p>
<h3>Keyless entry</h3>
<p>Here’s the science fiction stuff that happens: You walk up to your vehicle with the fob staying <em>in your pocket</em>, you touch the handle and the car unlocks. Then you get in and touch the start button, and the car starts. You have not touched the fob or its key to the car at all. It’s just there in your pocket and your car senses it. This is the way and the life, my children. Seriously.</p>
<p>After experiencing this for just a few days I have a constant low-grade rage every time I pull out my key to unlock the front door to my house because, why? Why can’t I just have it in my pocket and my house unlocks?</p>
<p>But it’s an adjustment, sure: After all these years of driving, I still want to pull the key out of my pocket and ram it into the ignition. We’ll see how long it takes for that reflex to be extinguished.</p>
<h3>Automatic headlights</h3>
<p>Your car knows how bright it is and knows whether you should be using the daytime running lights or the headlights and turns them on and off at will. This is so brilliant. Why should you have to decide to turn the lights on and off? You have other things to think about. And now your car has a chip whose whole existence in life is to figure out if the lights should be on or not. This is all it does, 24/7, tiny chip brain pondering the information coming to it from the light sensor.</p>
<p>Are you spending every waking second figuring out if the headlights should be on or not? No? Then you’re probably not as good at it as the chip in your modern car. And above all, it’s not something you should have to think about. There’s a chip for that.</p>
<h3>Automatic climate control</h3>
<p>With automatic climate control you tell the car what you would like the temperature in the cabin to be and then it figures out how to get there. You don’t tell it the fan speed or anything like that. There’s a chip whose job it is to figure this out and, again, that’s its whole purpose in life. You don’t worry about it. The chip will figure out how to make you comfortable.</p>
<h3>Radar-assisted cruise control</h3>
<p>Holy crap! This is one of those things you kind of expected because it happened in sci-fi, but to have it happen to you as you drive is fan-freaking-tastic.</p>
<p>You set the speed you want and then the car—which has an honest-to-god <em>radar</em> onboard—matches the speed of the car in front of you so you don’t have to adjust the cruise control. This means on any long drive on the highway you can just put it in cruise and steer. Sitting there watching your car notice somebody slowing down and matching that speed without you doing anything is so freaking future.</p>
<p>A week in and I’m super happy with my Prius. If you’re on the fence and you have nerdy tendencies, do it! Join us! Don’t be afraid!</p>
F*ck That: A Guided Meditation2015-12-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/12/fck-that-a-guided-meditation/
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<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics"></div>Review: ELAC B6 bookshelf speakers2015-12-09T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/12/review-elac-b6-bookshelf-speakers/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/elacb6.jpg" /></p>
<p>It was time to update my living room stereo. My old system, a small Yamaha bookshelf stereo, did provide decent sound, but I wanted a step up without breaking the bank.</p>
<p>To set expectations, what you’re getting here is the opinion of a person who listens to a lot of music, who <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2015/03/bluebuds-x-and-jabra-revo-bluetooth-headsets-review/">spends a bit more on headphones</a> than he probably should, and who has a decent ear, but not a person who takes out a second mortgage to buy better gear or who runs a test lab in his basement.</p>
<p>The first site I recommend checking when looking to purchase pretty much anything to do with electronics is <a href="http://thewirecutter.com/">The Wirecutter</a>, and sure enough, they had <a href="http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-bookshelf-speakers/">a comprehensive review of bookshelf speakers</a>, including a link to a <a href="http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/elac-debut-b6/">frothing review of the new offering from ELAC</a> on CNET. Which were a hundred dollars less than their own top pick.</p>
<p>So after a bout of audiophile forum skimming I purchased a pair of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014GSEQ06?sr=8-1&tag=thecoredump-20">ELAC B6 from Amazon</a>.</p>
<p>After listening to them for a few weeks, I’m impressed! They have a huge soundstage and are very clear and defined, especially in the treble and midrange. The adjective that springs to mind is <em>crisp</em>.</p>
<p>That being said, you will not run a rave off of these things. They are bookshelf speakers and the laws of physics are what they are. But they will fill a decent-sized room. Hard to beat for the price ($280 as of this writing).</p>
<p>If you like a bit more presence in your music, I highly recommend mating them with a subwoofer. The one I personally use is out of production, but ELAC <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Debut-Powered-Subwoofer-Andrew-Jones/dp/B014GSEQ2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1449703284">also makes a woofer</a> which should sound great paired with the B6s. The B6s go deep enough you can set the crossover at 80Hz, which is impressive.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE Jan. 7, 2017:</strong> My old subwoofer broke down, so I swung by Best Buy and picked up a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-SW-8MK2-Designed-100-Watt-Subwoofer/dp/B008NCD2PC/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&th=1&keywords=amazon%252Bpioneer%252Bsubwoofer%252Bandrew&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1483833859">Pioneer SW-8MK2</a> made by the ELAC B6 designer, Andrew Jones, before he went to work for ELAC. The difference is insane. I thought my previous woofer was fine, but this thing blends with the speakers to where I can’t tell where the speakers stop and the subwoofer starts. It’s like the speakers just magically have all the bass I need. Recommended if you want to save more than a $100 over the ELAC woofers—which I’m sure sound even better and have twice the power to fill more space. <strong>/UPDATE.</strong></p>
<p><strong>NOTE:</strong> The Amazon links are affiliate links—if you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback. It doesn’t cost you anything. Thanks!</p>
Magical thinking about encryption and privacy2015-11-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/11/magical-thinking-about-encryption-and-privacy/
<p>Almost as disgusting as the Paris attacks themselves were the responses, horrific Islamophobia and thought short-circuiting fear manifesting all over the <em>I-don’t-know-just-do-something-anything</em> spectrum. In other words, exactly what the assholes who committed the atrocity wanted.</p>
<p>Waiting in the wings was, of course, calls for an end to privacy so that mass surveillance will work better. It turns out the particular asswipes responsible for the Paris atrocity weren’t even using encryption—they did their planning in the clear and moved around under their own identities. But that doesn’t matter. In mass surveillance thought space, more surveillance is better and clearly if there had been more surveillance magic would have kept Paris from happening. QED.</p>
<p>Which is face palm territory. But these people were allowed their space in the media to push the idea that clearly a terrorist attack means we must have more surveillance to be safe.</p>
<p>This is an argument you can make: Terrorist and pedophiles are scary, so we shouldn’t have any privacy. I very much disagree, but sure, it’s an argument you can make. But recognizing most people don’t feel that’s a good trade off, the argument these days is that you, solid citizen, can still have your privacy, but the people who protect you will be able to surveil the pedophiles and the terrorists.</p>
<p>Which is either a bald-faced lie or industrial-strength disingenuousness.</p>
<p>Let’s break it down: The current state of the art in Internet privacy is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography">public key encryption</a>. Basically a person who wants privacy on the Internet—like you do when you punch your credit card number into Amazon—has a private key and a public key. Through an amazing amount of high-level math concocted by geniuses, only you and Amazon can read the content that goes between your computer and Amazon. And it happens every time you’re on a website that’s using encryption. It’s the foundation for all privacy on the Internet.</p>
<p>The only way for the good guys to be able to read the transaction that just happened between you and Amazon is for the encryption to be <em>broken</em>—if somebody planted an extra private key or built a backdoor into the encryption software you were using. The software has to be broken.</p>
<p>(There’s also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_analysis">traffic analysis</a> to be concerned about. Even though an eavesdropper may not see your credit card, the fact that your computer and Amazon’s are talking is visible.)</p>
<p>It’s a complete fantasy that there’s some way to put in a way for the good guys to read what you wrote but nobody else. Because, again, the software has to be broken. And what happens when the encryption software is broken? Somebody else will <em>find the way it’s broken and exploit it</em>.</p>
<p>So now it’s not just you, Amazon, and Western state surveillance. It’s you, Amazon, Western state surveillance, and a crime syndicate reading your credit card information.</p>
<p>Breaking encryption is not just something good guys are interested in—there are plenty of terrible, repressive states out there that would just love to read everything citizens are writing so they can throw people into torture chambers. And there are criminals, like the ones who <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/users/2015/11/sony_employees_on_the_hack_one_year_later.html">broke into Sony</a>, who would just love to get any kind of information they can for blackmail purposes.</p>
<p>If the public key encryption system works like it should, they can’t. But if it’s broken on purpose so the good guys can get in, anybody else who figures out the flaw can also get in.</p>
<p>That’s where the magical thinking comes in: The sheer idea that there’s a way to break encryption in such a way that only the right authorities can exploit the flaw is ludicrous. If it’s broken, it’s broken.</p>
<p>As an analogy of the scale we’re dealing with, look at the iPhone. Apple locks its phones down so that you can only do certain things with it. For example, you can only purchase software from Apple’s App Store. You can’t download software from wherever you want.</p>
<p>Some people are really annoyed by this and figure out ways to jailbreak their phones. Jailbreaking means finding a flaw in the security of the phone to allow for a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_escalation">privilege escalation</a> so you can do whatever you want. This means that every time somebody figures out a way to jailbreak the iPhone, what they’ve actually found is a flaw in the security of the phone.</p>
<p>There are <em>always</em> new jailbreaks. This is the most profitable company on the planet, employing some of the best computer engineers money can buy and they can’t prevent jailbreaks from happening.</p>
<p>Computer security is <em>hard</em>.</p>
<p>Jailbreaking iPhones is mostly low-stakes. (Mostly—obviously shady characters who want to surveil people are also extremely interested in ways to circumvent Apple’s security so they can load surveillance software.)</p>
<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;float: right;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=thecoredump-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=0385495323&asins=0385495323&linkId=22EB3LTHOGB4EDPJ&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true">
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<p>Imagine the lengths state actors and criminal syndicates are going to go to find the vulnerabilities deliberately put into encryption software to provide backdoors for Western governments. That’s a James Bond-level game and the resources put in play are unimaginable.</p>
<p>So let’s stop pretending there’s a way to break encryption that only the good guys will be able to access.</p>
<p>Vulnerabilities will be exploited.</p>
<p>If you’d like to learn more about encryption, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385495323/ref=as_li_tl?linkId=7YIP56QLTMK4TNDC&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0385495323&creative=390957&tag=thecoredump-20&camp=1789&ie=UTF8">The Code Book</a></em> is a breezy, fun non-technical primer on the history of ciphers and codes. I highly recommend it.</p>
Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one2015-11-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/11/doubt-is-an-uncomfortable-condition-but-certainty-is-a-ridiculous-one/
<blockquote>
<p>Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>-Voltaire</p>
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not2015-11-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/11/perhaps-the-most-valuable-result-of-all-education-is-the-ability-to-make-yourself-do-the-thing-you-have-to-do-when-it-ought-to-be-done-whether-you-like-it-or-not/
<blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Thomas Henry Huxley</p>
Review: Spectre2015-11-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/11/review-spectre/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spectre-wallpaper.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>This review is spoiler-free.</strong></p>
<p>Let’s get my biases out of the way from the get-go: I’m a huge Bond fan and have seen every movie, most of them several times. So reviewing a new Bond outing is tricky, since I look at it both as a movie and as a Bond movie. Different scales, different expectations.</p>
<p>As a movie, <em>Spectre</em> earns ★★★★☆. It’s a gripping, entertaining spectacle with spectacular visuals and solid acting.</p>
<p>As a Bond movie, <em>Spectre</em> earns ★★★☆☆. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, even has moments of greatness, but like all the Craig movies I’m not sure about the direction it wants to take the series.</p>
<p>Parenthetically, and these might be fightin’ words, I’ll go on the record as saying Craig is now my favorite Bond, a smidge above Connery. Like Connery, he has the character’s sociopathic brutality and menace down cold, but Craig’s also a better actor.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to the direction of the series. During Craig’s run, it’s been about Bond coming to terms with the way his life has turned out, the incidents that have made him, and just how emotionally damaged he is. Which is fine and good. But at the same time, the franchise is a spectacle. A glorious, popcorn-chomping cavalcade of beautiful locations, women, and cars guided by the Man You Can Never Be—always cool, always in control, always resourceful.</p>
<p>This man is also of course a horrible sociopath and misogynist, but in the past we’ve sort of made a deal to shrug that off. Bond was never about realism, to understate the case.</p>
<p>The Craig run wants us to focus on the struggles of the man who commits these acts, but it also wants to bring us the spectable. This tension makes the movies weaker.</p>
<p>Since <em>Casino Royale</em> I’ve wanted them to pick a side, dammit! Go full tortured soul or full “Oh, well, that’s just how Bond is <em>nudge-wink</em>” instead of half-assing it in the middle.</p>
<p>The good about <em>Spectre</em>: It’s visually stunning and raises the bar for elaborate action sequences yet again. For the die-hard fans there’s also a generous helping of inside references and jokes to reward your fandom. And the actors do great work.</p>
<p>The bad about <em>Spectre</em>: Two hours and 20 minutes is way too long for the plot. You could trim at least half an hour and make it much more energetic—sometimes the movie seems like it just doesn’t want to leave a scene even though it’s over.</p>
<p>And the tortured-soul bit is getting old. I really don’t need that much existential angst in my escapist entertainment.</p>
<p>But be that as it may, <em>Spectre</em> delivers a solid installment in the series. And holy smokes, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-spectre-aston-martin-db10-20151106-story.html">that Aston Martin DB10</a>…</p>
Book roundup, part 202015-10-18T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/10/book-roundup-part-20/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Antidote-Happiness-People-Positive-Thinking/dp/0865478015/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=the%2Bantidote%2Bhappiness%2Bfor%2Bpeople%2Bwho%2Bcan%2527t%2Bstand%2Bpositive%2Bthinking&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1441142983">The Antidote, by Oliver Burkeman</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>If you find go-go-think-positive self-help books either turn you off or simply don’t help, <em>The Antidote</em> is an excellent alternative. Burkeman looks at the philosophy of the ancients like the Stoics and the Buddhists and current research into motivation to find out how we can be happier.</p>
<p><em>The Antidote</em> makes the very good point that if the kind of positive thinking espoused by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Robbins">Tony Robbins</a> of the world actually worked, they wouldn’t get much repeat business. Which they most certainly do.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The optimism-focused, goal-fixated, positive-thinking approach to happiness is exactly the kind of thing the ego loves. Positive thinking is all about identifying with your thoughts, rather than disidentifying from them. And the ‘cult of optimism’ is all about looking forward to a happy or successful future, thereby reinforcing the message that happiness belongs to some other time than now. Schemes and plans for making things better fuel our dissatisfaction with the only place where happiness can ever be found—the present.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Essentially, Burkeman’s thesis is that we need to not run away from our negative feelings—which is what the positive thinking mantras suggest—and instead to accept and understand them.</p>
<p>Without butchering the argument by compressing it too much, Burkeman suggests we can find a lot of guidance in Buddhism and the Stoics:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For the Stoics, the ideal state of mind was tranquility, not the excitable cheer that positive thinkers usually seem to mean when they use the word ‘happiness’. And tranquility was to be achieved not by strenuously chasing after enjoyable experiences, but by cultivating a kind of calm indifference towards one’s circumstances. One way to do this, the Stoics argued, was by turning towards negative emotions and experiences; not shunning them, but examining them closely instead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>The Antidote</em> is an interesting read and well worth your time.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-Gods-American/dp/031610003X/ref=sr_1_1/179-2233580-3747429?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=one%2Bnation%2Bunder%2Bgods&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1443302288">One Nation, Under Gods, by Peter Manseau</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>As America heads into election season, rhetoric is heating up and one of the most common conservative tropes is that America was founded as a Christian nation and thus any attempts to limit overt religion in government is a Bad Thing™. In <em>One Nation, Under Gods</em> Manseau provides a religious history of the United States, documenting the influences and thoughts that were a part of the great melting pot from the beginning and up to the present, showing that, in short, the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation is at best a gross oversimplification.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Of all the myths associated with the founding of the United States, there is none so stubborn as the notion that the colonists who rose up against the Crown did so mainly because they were a people motivated and sustained by faith. While the religious inclinations of the founding fathers provide fodder for endless contemporary political disputes, the colonial population as a whole—the more telling piece of this puzzle—is less often considered. Historians who have taken the time to tally religious adherents in the colonies have not found the first Americans to have been particularly moved by Christian commitment. One need only look at the statistics of church membership to begin to imagine an alternate scenario. The image of colonists filling chapels before and during the fight for Independence may fit a contemporary narrative—that the United States was formed with the help of the divine. However, in most cases colonists were too busy and too spread out to gather very often for prayer.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Puritans were certainly Protestant zealots of the highest order, but the native Americans who helped them not all starve to death had a rich political and religious history of their own, and the mass of slaves brought over from Africa had their own religious traditions as well. Though hard numbers are difficult to come by, Manseau estimates about 20 percent of slaves were Muslims.</p>
<p>There was a lot of handwringing by slave owners over whether slaves should be converted to Christianity since—and this kind of sophistry is pretty difficult to think about without your blood pressure rising dangerously—Christians shouldn’t keep other Christians as slaves, so it might be better to have the slaves retain whatever religion they already had, but at the same time it was the duty of all Christians to convert other people, so perhaps it would be better to forcibly convert the slaves to Christianity?</p>
<p><em>One Nation, Under Gods</em> does a good job of showing the complicated reality of the religious history of the United States and is well worth reading.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Losing-Signal-Extraordinary-Spectacular-BlackBerry/dp/1250060176/ref=sr_1_1/184-5404980-3151050?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=losing%2Bthe%2Bsignal&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1435168044">Losing the Signal, by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A thoroughly researched and well-written book that chronicles the humble beginnings, meteoric rise and spectacular cratering of BlackBerry, née Research in Motion.</p>
<p>Of course, the story of BlackBerry is really the story of its co-CEOs, Balsillie and Lazaridis. <em>Losing the Signal</em> does not paint a flattering portrait, with Balsillie coming across as overbearing and aggressive, and Lazardis as a genius engineer disconnected from everything but engineering.</p>
<p>And yes, the obvious Jobs and Woz parallel is thought-provoking.</p>
<p>The story of BlackBerry proves the old adage, “success hides problems.” As when the cracks in the business start to show and outside consultants are brought in to assess the company:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Traditional standards for measuring CEO accomplishments didn’t seem to exist at RIM. There were no written job descriptions or performance objectives for Balsillie or Lazaridis—benchmarks used by directors to measure compensation. Also missing was a succession plan. Incredibly, no one was being groomed to grab the reins if something happened to the CEOs. Weak accountability was a problem at other levels. The company set goals for lower-level managers, but Protiviti found employees “were not held accountable for meeting the objectives.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Losing the Signal</em> provides a fascinating glimpse into the cut-throat computer business and just how fast circumstances can change, with BlackBerry going from top of the world to ruin in just a few years.</p>
<p>While it’s hard to root for the flawed characters of Balsillie and Lazardis, this particular Greek tragedy does make you feel for the BlackBerry employees who worked heroically only to have their livelihoods wrecked by the incompetence of those above them.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Todd-Glass-Situation-Personal-Stand-Up/dp/147671441X/ref=sr_1_1/185-6969295-8892030?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=todd%2Bglass%2Bsituation&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1441143737">The Todd Glass Situation, by Todd Glass</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Stand-up comic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Todd-Glass-Situation-Personal-Stand-Up/dp/147671441X/ref=sr_1_1/185-6969295-8892030?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=todd%2Bglass%2Bsituation&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1441143737">Todd Glass</a> talks about growing up dyslexic, ADD and closeted gay. The book is both funny and touching.</p>
<p>As a sample, here’s Glass talking about his struggles upon discovering he’s gay:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was failing out of school and didn’t know what was wrong with me, met people who hated me for being part of a religion that I hardly practiced, had been to five different schools in eight years leaving me with almost no close friends, and now I was going to have to be gay, too? I must have been a real asshole in my past life to deserve all that in this one.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>The Todd Glass Situation</em> is funny and humane.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Policeman-Novel-Trilogy/dp/1594746745/ref=sr_1_1/183-4935352-4335320?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=last%2Bpoliceman&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1444966351">The Last Policeman, by Ben Winters</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Haunting and beautiful story of a literal countdown to end times as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth and will cause an extinction event. Henry Palace is a small-town policeman who becomes obsessed with a murder case as society falls apart around him.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s a police procedural set at the end of civilization and thanks to Winters’s lyrical, sensitive writing and twisty plot, it works.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765377063/ref=sr_1_1/182-2070118-3529402?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=three-body%2Bproblem&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1442275776">The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Cixin Liu is a massive sci-fi writer in China and his work is starting to be translated to English. It’s easy to tell he read <em>a lot</em> of classic Western sci-fi growing up, as <em>The Three-Body Problem</em> is a combination of hard sci-fi—smart scientists doing science things—and Chinese thought and references. The novel starts off during the Cultural Revolution—which seems like it was very much not good times—and moves on to First Contact with an alien species. An <em>alien</em> alien species.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to do any kind of plot summary without spoilers, so let it just be said that if you like hard sci-fi, <em>The Three-Body Problem</em> should be high on your reading list.</p>
<p>As a niggle, Liu does like to have characters do exposition, and I’m not sure if that’s his style or a Chinese thing, but it does detract a bit from the brilliance of the work.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Forest-Cixin-Liu/dp/076537708X/ref=sr_1_1/188-2537375-9201862?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=the%2Bdark%2Bforest&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1442892910">The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Sequel to <em>The Three-Body Problem</em> and it’s a doozy. Somewhat meandering and with some clunky dialogue, but the core idea is so, so good.</p>
<p>The basic plot is that humanity is getting ready for the arrival of the alien fleet from <em>The Three-Body Problem</em> and, well, things are difficult.</p>
<p>At its core, <em>The Dark Forest</em> provides an answer for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox">Fermi Paradox</a> that is so crushingly depressing and logical it’s devastating. Once you realize what the title refers to, you’ll feel sad.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beacon-23-Little-Noises-Kindle-ebook/dp/B00ZB8DHC4/ref=sr_1_1/180-8653395-3355436?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=beacon%2B23&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1441658468">Beacon 23, by Hugh Howey</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Beacon 23</em> is a collection of five Kindle singles that together form a short novel.</p>
<p>Interesting and fun and with some beautiful writing, like “When we’re young, every imaginary battle ends with heroics. Finales come with a bang. Then you get older, and you see that life ends in wrinkles and whimpers.”</p>
<p>Beautiful writing aside, the plot is pretty thin, but it’s an enjoyable, breezy read. It also provides a very American take on the same issue as <em>The Three-Body Problem</em>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Pretty-Sandman-Slim-Novel/dp/0062373102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=kadrey%2Bkilling%2Bpretty&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1441142815">Killing Pretty, by Richard Kadrey</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Killing Pretty</em> is an in-between book in the great Sandman Slim series. It feels like Kadrey has wrapped up his current story arc and is more or less thinking out loud about where to take the series next.</p>
<p>It’s not bad, but also doesn’t go off in any new directions. This one is definitely for the fans.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Queen-Fire-Ravens-Shadow-Novel/dp/0425265641/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?qid=&sr=&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">Queen of Fire, by Anthony Ryan</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>A solid conclusion to the Raven’s Shadow trilogy that earned an initial batch of terrible reviews on Amazon for some reason I don’t understand. <em>Queen of Fire</em> does have problems with way too many characters and a bit of a meandering plot, but it does bring the trilogy home and is an enjoyable, easy read.</p>
<p>As with any series, you should start at the beginning, with the outstanding <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Song-Ravens-Shadow-Novel/dp/0425268284/ref=pd_sim_14_2?refRID=177H80K6GHGSJB0T4S2V&dpSrc=sims&dpID=51V6FuJ9NTL&preST=_AC_UL160_SR99%252C160_&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Blood Song</a></em>, one of the best fantasy novels I’ve read. And I’ve read a lot of fantasy.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through them I get a tiny kickback from Amazon. It doesn’t cost you anything. Be a mensch, eh?</p>
Building a static site for an investigative journalism project2015-10-09T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/10/building-a-static-site-for-an-investigative-journalism-project/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/weedrush-cover.jpg" /></p>
<p>I spend my summers helping create the website for an investigative project called <a href="http://news21.com/">News21</a>. Each year a team of Fellows from universities around the U.S. dive deep into a topic and the resulting content is then syndicated with major partners like <em>The Washington Post</em>, <em>USA Today</em>, and many others. But the content also needs a permanent home on the Web, so we build a site.</p>
<p>The site contains images, video, interactive infographics, and of course the stories themselves. It must be attractive and innovative. It also has to be built on a very compressed schedule, with actual page production limited to a few weeks and the site functionality and design around 10 weeks.</p>
<p>And then it needs to stand up to bursts of heavy traffic.</p>
<p>And then it needs to remain available for many years to come.</p>
<p><em>Easy.</em> Deep breath.</p>
<p>If you have your hand up saying, “Oh, oh, you should use a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page">static site generator for this!</a>”, you just earned a cookie.</p>
<h3>Static site generator</h3>
<p>For the last two projects (<a href="http://gunwars.news21.com/">Gun Wars, on gun culture in America</a> and <a href="http://weedrush.news21.com/">Weed Rush, on the legalization of marijuana in America</a>) we used the static site generator <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll</a> to create the project. There are many static site generators out there, and I think most of them could do the job, but I had familiarity with Jekyll from other projects and since it has the support of and has been battle-tested by <a href="https://pages.github.com/">GitHub</a> it’s a pretty safe choice.</p>
<p>There are several benefits to a static site:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The site can be hosted almost anywhere and moved very easily. Going from development server to production is literally a matter of copying files.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>There’s no admin backend on the site so there’s nothing for an attacker to try to break into. This helps server admins sleep better.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Page production is much faster since you’re simply manipulating files—there’s no backend dashboard to click through to accomplish tasks. Once a producer gets comfortable manipulating files, the production speed increase is remarkable.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Jekyll is much less opinionated than WordPress, so there’s less of a feeling of going “against the grain” when building features.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>But there’s no free lunch, so there are disadvantages:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>A steep learning curve. For producers who are only used to going through a dashboard like with WordPress, Tumblr and Drupal, it can be forbidding at first, so good training is essential. (Though I’d argue that a Web producer <em>should</em> understand the basics of working with SFTP, the command line and Git.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When several people are in a file system at the same time operating under stress it’s easy to accidentally overwrite each others’ changes, so good communication is crucial. (It would obviously be better to have everybody work in their own Git repo but that introduces a lot of technical and workflow overhead when the producers aren’t highly technical.)</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Designing the workflow</h3>
<p>The site was created with the explicit goal of making production as fast as possible. This meant first off to separate content from presentation. The content—images, videos, story—on each page had to make no assumptions about the final presentation. This way producers could build the pages while designers changed the final look of the site in tandem.</p>
<p>This meant creating shortcodes for all multimedia content, so a producer would never insert an image, say, with a raw <code><img src="/images/parallax/hello.jpg" /></code> HTML tag; instead, all multimedia elements were called in through <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/docs/templates/">Jekyll includes</a>.</p>
<p>The Jekyll include would then know in which directory parallax images lived and write out the actual code to put the image on the page.</p>
<p>This way the actual multimedia presentation could change right up to launch without having to go back and touch any of the stories.</p>
<h3>Dont’t Repeat Yourself</h3>
<p>Any website repeats a lot of content and under deadline pressure it’s very easy to forget a spot. So the project was built as much as possible on the principle of DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself).</p>
<p>Anything that goes on more than one page should exist in a data file and be read in, never repeated on the site itself.</p>
<p>Putting in the thought ahead of time to factor out anything that will repeat on the site and centralizing it will pay off at crunch time. Jekyll’s <code>_data</code> <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/docs/datafiles/">directory support</a> makes this easy.</p>
<p>Here are some of the things abstracted out for Weed Rush:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Fellow bios for story footers</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In-page navigation</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Page URLs. (Since URLs change when—not if—the story’s title is edited and stories are linked to from many places, having a central URL repository streamlines the workflow significantly.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Project title</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Project blurb</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Publish date</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Generic social image for Twitter cards and Facebook</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Staying up under load</h3>
<p>By its very nature a static site will be able to handle more traffic than one that has to be processed for each request, so there’s less risk of the server keeling over. Though enough traffic <em>will</em> choke any server.</p>
<p>To help take the load off the server, the server hosting Weed Rush was put behind <a href="http://cloudflare.com/">CloudFlare</a>, which, headscratchingly, provides a free Content Delivery Network that is very good.</p>
<p>Since the pages on Weed Rush are very heavy with images, we opted to upgrade to Cloudflare’s Pro plan which, among other things, provides an extra layer of image optimization for different device sizes and lazy loads images on slow connections. Well worth it to make sure the site felt (reasonably) fast despite all the assets.</p>
<h3>Use the source, Luke</h3>
<p>If you want to pick apart how the site works, you can <a href="https://github.com/news21/weedrush-public">clone it from GitHub</a> and run it on your own computer. Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome.</p>
How to learn things you’re not interested in2015-10-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/10/how-to-learn-things-youre-not-interested-in/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/filofax.jpg" /></p>
<p>Back in college I took a one-credit geology lab class as part of my science requirements. The final exam was going to be simple: Identify 30 rocks. That was it. Identify the 30 rocks.</p>
<p>So I dutifully made calendar entries in my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filofax">Filofax</a> to go to the lab once a week and learn to identify the damn rocks. Sat there at the bench and stared at the rocks. And got nowhere. The damn rocks just sat there and stared back at me.</p>
<p>Failure was not an option, so I started going twice a week to that miserable geology lab to stare at the rocks.</p>
<p>Nope.</p>
<p>I was going to fail that final so bad.</p>
<p>Then I realized I couldn’t make myself learn about the rocks because I didn’t care about them. <em>What if I made myself care?</em> So I lied to myself. It took some effort, but I managed to talk myself into caring about rocks. Majesty of our planet, the huge forces at work to form everything around us, etc.</p>
<p>And it worked. Once I convinced myself I cared about rocks, learning to recognize them was easy. Learning about something you care about is a joy.</p>
<p>Yes, I aced the final.</p>
<p>The trick is to really convince yourself you care. And yes, that can be close to impossible.</p>
<p>A few years ago I decided to become conversant about American football. It’s a topic that comes up in casual conversation way more often than I’d like, and all I can do is to go to the happy place in my head when people are talking about it. Which is fine, really. I like the happy place in my head. But let’s give it the old college try, shall we?</p>
<p>So I sat down to watch a game with my iPad at the ready, and started looking up the terms the announcers were using on WikiPedia. And yes, I had plenty of time to look up terms since the game stops for commercials every 20 seconds or so. <em>Mmmmm crappy beer.</em></p>
<p>After a while I felt I had a pretty good grasp of how the game works and what the terms meant.</p>
<p>So a few weeks later I decided to check myself and watched another game. <em>Nope.</em> Remembered nothing. No idea what they were jammering on about.</p>
<p>The fault here was of course that I had done this as an intellectual exercise without convincing myself I actually cared.</p>
<p>You have to care.</p>
Yearning for the Cold War2015-09-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/09/yearning-for-the-cold-war/
<p>Despicable human being though he is, Trump is inarguably good at verbal gymnastics, and his slogan “Make America Great Again” is resonating with a large section of the GOP base.</p>
<p>And <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/whit-ayres-a-daunting-demographic-challenge-for-the-gop-in-2016-1425513162">the GOP base is mostly old and white</a>. Look at the audience pictures from a Trump—or any other GOP candidate, for that matter—rally: A sea of old, white people who look like they’ve had hard lives and want to make somebody pay.</p>
<p>These are people who grew up during the Cold War, when things were simpler. Russia was an Evil Empire and America was good. We had a common enemy to define ourselves against and above all, we were winning. Living standards were constantly going up and the average white family did better and better year over year.</p>
<p>New cars in driveways, larger and larger houses: America was truly the Land of Opportunity.</p>
<p>This view of course ignores the realities of minorities, but for the average white American, things were indeed good and getting better.</p>
<p>And then we won. The Evil Empire fell. And then progress for the average white person stalled, especially in the rural communities where most of the GOP base live. It’s grim, watching your community dwindle and gray as the young people move away to the cities and your infrastructure crumbles.</p>
<p>Things got a whole lot better for minorities, though. And if you’re not particularly reflective, it would be easy to put those things together in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game">zero-sum game</a>. <em>Their gain must come from our loss.</em> Fuelling a simmering undercurrent of racism.</p>
<p>So then, it becomes potent to say, as most politicians targeting the GOP base do, “We’re taking America back!”</p>
<p>Which is a great slogan, utterly void of detail: Taking America back from whom, exactly?</p>
<p>Which is never spelled out, but nudge-nudge wink-wink, <em>we know, don’t we</em>?</p>
<p>Is it the Eastern liberal elite? The gays? The United Nations? The Mexicans? Is it—<em>looks over shoulder and lowers voice</em>—the Jews?</p>
<p>It’s a bigot fill-in-the-blank.</p>
<p>But back to “Make America Great Again.”</p>
<p>If you were growing up white in the '50s and '60s, America was indeed great—the city on the hill where every year things got better and opportunity was boundless. The looming presence of the Russian Evil Empire was a large part of the solidarity of the time—it was the common enemy, the enemy that defined you by what you were not. Which is extra important in an adolescent country made up of more-or-less recent immigrants, struggling to agree on a definition of exactly what it means to be American.</p>
<p>The common enemy binds a people together and enforces a national character. Combine this with a rapidly growing economy, and you have an extremely powerful kind of safety and belonging.</p>
<p>A large part of the strategy of far-right candidates these days involves evoking that new enemy, that new galvanizing force. Sadly there’s no accompanying plan for how to make the economy better enough to help most people, but let’s shelve that for right now as we talk about the Enemy.</p>
<p>Enter radical Islam.</p>
<p>We need a new Evil Empire to galvanize us and with the Russians still licking their wounds—and we beat them once, so it’s kind of ho-hum, isn’t it?—we need a new enemy. If you watch FOX News, there’s a lot of worry about ISIL and Sharia law.</p>
<p>ISIL is a bunch of bronze-age anger addicts, and unless you are living in the Middle East it is really not a concern. (If you live in the Middle East this bunch of assholes is a massive problem, of course.)</p>
<p>Would these idiots love to commit terror acts in the US mainland? Of course they would. They would dance jigs if they could blow up a post office in Cleveland. But will they be able to? Probably not. They’re kind of busy terrorizing the people in their area. Plus that ever since 9/11 America has been hyper-paranoid about terrorism, so it’s way harder to attack us now.</p>
<p>But ISIL, idiot thugs though they are, and as neutered as they are compared to the real Evil Empire, are the best fit as boogey men for the people who long for the days of the Cold War.</p>
<p>America will be made great again when we, as Americans, make it great. No matter how comforting it is, manufacturing an enemy isn’t going to do anything except make a lot of old white people in rural areas more agitated than they really should be.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t the minorities. The problem isn’t ISIL. The problem isn’t Sharia law.</p>
<p>The problem is a system that doesn’t care about old white people, apart from keeping them angry and voting.</p>
The one sentence rule2015-09-18T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/09/the-one-sentence-rule/
<p>A lot of times when working on a project—or your life—you find yourself stuck. And the ideas come in. Should I do this? Should I do that?</p>
<p>Especially at the exhaustion stages of a project—or your life—it’s common to just want to <em>pick one</em> and get it over with. But which one?</p>
<p>Pay attention, class, here’s where I get as life coach as I ever get: As a boy in Sweden I read a chess book that said, paraphrasing, “If you can’t tell yourself in one sentence what a move will accomplish, it’s not a good move.”</p>
<p>That’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu">Sun Tzu</a> level discipline.</p>
<p>“If you can’t tell yourself in one sentence what a move will accomplish, it’s not a good move.”</p>
<p>Try it the next time you have an urge to do something. Can you tell yourself, in one sentence, what that action will accomplish?</p>
<p>If you can’t, that action will most likely take you to the same place you’re at, or worse, just a little farther down the road.</p>
Digital hygiene for online security and safety2015-08-22T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/08/digital-hygiene-for-online-security-and-safety/
<p>As we lead more and more of our lives online the risks of losing control of your accounts get more dire, including both our money and our reputations.</p>
<p>You don’t want to end up completely paralyzed by paranoia, but you don’t want to make yourself a target, either. This post is written for “normal” people who aren’t likely to be targets for concerted attacks, but instead are more likely to get caught up in automated attacks perpetrated by criminals.</p>
<p>If you’re Jennifer Lawrence, you need to get way, way more paranoid than this. But you’re probably not.</p>
<p>The basic problem we have is that securing computers is incredibly hard—it’s something humans just did not evolve to be good at—so sooner or later some site you use <em>will</em> be cracked and criminals will make off with whatever information they found. This information will then be sold and traded and used in various creative ways to attack other sites and institutions in a chain of awfulness.</p>
<p>Remember, though, that for most people these are automated attacks that go for the low-hanging fruit, so some basic hygiene will protect you well. The steps below will help you lock your digital doors and windows. Let’s go through the steps.</p>
<h3>Protect your email account above all else</h3>
<p>Arguably your most important accounts are your email accounts—if somebody takes control of your email that person can send password resets from pretty much any other site and it’s game over.</p>
<p>This means yes, you should use a <em>unique</em> and <em>complicated</em> password for your email.</p>
<p>Again, your email accounts are the keys to <em>all your other accounts</em>—guard them carefully.</p>
<h3>Use two-factor authentication everywhere you can</h3>
<p>Two-factor authentication combines something you know (your password) with something you have (your phone). Some sites will send you a text message with a verification code, some will use a special app on your phone—such as <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/2step/">Google Authenticator</a>—to verify your identity.</p>
<p>If you use a site—like GMail or Dropbox—that offers two-factor authentication, <em>turn it on, now!</em></p>
<p>This is the single most powerful thing you can do to increase your security online.</p>
<h3>Don’t reuse passwords</h3>
<p>This one is obvious—if attackers get a hold of your user name and password from one site, they will attempt to log in to any site they can think of with that same combination. If you’ve reused passwords across accounts, boom, they’re in.</p>
<p>But, you sigh, I have so many accounts there’s no way I can remember unique passwords for all of them.</p>
<p>True. Neither can I. Neither can Batman. In 2015 a password manager is <em>required</em>, not optional. Is it a pain? Yes. Is it more of a pain than having somebody break into your accounts? No, it is not.</p>
<p>A good password manager makes it easy to generate hard-to-crack, unique passwords for each one of your accounts. Personally I use <a href="https://agilebits.com/onepassword">1Password</a> on my Macs and iOS devices and it’s working great for me. (Not an affiliate link—I genuinely use and recommend it.) If you find another one like <a href="http://lastpass.com/">LastPass</a> or <a href="http://keepass.info/">KeyPass</a> that works for you, go for it. Just pick one and <em>use it</em>.</p>
<p>Once you’ve converted over, you only need to remember the one (very strong) password you set up for the password manager itself.</p>
<p>Note that if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, Safari on the Mac and iOS has a very bare-bones password manager built in, which is certainly better than nothing.</p>
<h3>Lie on the security questions</h3>
<p>This one is a bit more paranoid, but with the ease of finding personal information these days, the shadow of an automated attack that finds out the answers to common security questions <em>en masse</em> is lurking. So, lie. If the question is, “What street did you live on as a child?”, answer “James Bond” or something nonsensical like that.</p>
<p>Obviously, you’re going to have to write down your dirty lies somewhere, like your password manager.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Increasing your online security mostly requires changing your thinking a bit to become more conscious of the risks. Follow the tips above and you’ll avoid at least automated trawls from criminals on the net.</p>
<p><em>Note:</em> You might follow all these tips and still end up a victim. Nothing is guaranteed. Be careful out there.</p>
<p><em>Style note:</em> The word “hacker” used to mean somebody who did clever things with computers and has since be co-opted to mean “computer criminal.” By not using it in that sense in this post I’m doing my tiny part to bring the word back to its real meaning. If you write for public consumption, please consider not misusing “hacker” to mean “computer criminal.” You can write two words instead of one. I believe in you.</p>
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours2015-08-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/08/i-like-work-it-fascinates-me-i-can-sit-and-look-at-it-for-hours-2/
<blockquote>
<p>I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Jerome K. Jerome</p>
Closing loops2015-08-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/08/closing-loops/
<p>One of my favorite take-aways from the brilliant <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=getting%2Bthings%2Bdone&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1439001309">Gettings Thing Done</a></em> is the idea of open loops.</p>
<p>Modern life is cursed with the fact that our brains are unable to handle the complexity we inhabit. This is why your brain reminds you to write an email while you’re in line at the grocery store, or to schedule a meeting while you’re driving home from work. Your brain wants to sit in front of a fire on the savannah and think about the best place to go for tomorrow’s hunt, not handle a ton of different projects and obligations.</p>
<p>Which is why the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology works so well: You write things down and then you look at the list of things you’ve written down and your brain can stop worrying about it.</p>
<p>It’s genius in its simplicity.</p>
<p>But there’s still the issue of open loops. How many projects do you have in various stages of completion? How much data do you have to load to get into the groove of each different project? How much overhead do you have in keeping up with the progress of the different projects?</p>
<p>(Note that in GTD parlance, “project” simply means an end state you want to achieve that will require more than one step. Booking a flight is a step toward the project vacation, for example.)</p>
<p>One thing that’s been helping me reduce stress is to <em>actively</em> strive to avoid open projects—anything I can do to end a project takes priority. Even if the project is small or the tasks required to wrap it up are easy, it’s still open and it’s still consuming mind space.</p>
<p>The same amount of work spread over fewer projects <em>feels</em> like less work even though it isn’t. It works for me and I hope it can help somebody else reduce their level of stress.</p>
Jade Helm and the fever swamps of patriotism2015-08-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/08/jade-helm-and-the-fever-swamps-of-patriotism/
<p>There’s always been an undercurrent of demented paranoia in American politics, and one of the side effects of the new media revolution is to allow it to spread more and more every year. Hence the topic of this post, the Jade Helm drama, which if you’ve lived in blissful ignorance is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Helm_15_conspiracy_theories">ably summarized on its own very long Wikipedia page</a>.</p>
<p>Personally I think that when the U.S. history books of the future are written they will cite the Jade Helm controversy of 2015 as a delineator for when the splinters in the Republic really began to show. But then, I’m inclined to view things through the lens of the fall of the Roman Republic. History will show if I’m insightful or just a crank.</p>
<p>Note this is not a matter of liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. It’s a matter of people with a grasp of sanity and people without.</p>
<p>Let’s dig in. Jade Helm, if you’re lucky enough to be ignorant of this whole situation, is a military term for a training exercise they conduct every so often where they simulate meeting an opposing force the armed forces train to defeat. It’s known as Jade Helm because during the cold war the armed forces created complete uniforms for these forces which included helmets colored jade for easy identification.</p>
<p>As I type this the military is conducting a large-scale exercise in infiltration and concealment in several states, including Texas, which was chosen since its geography resembles certain other countries where those forces may have to deploy. Think desert.</p>
<p>Which seems rational, right? The military has to train in order to be effective in hot situations, does it not?</p>
<p><em>Nope!</em> Here’s where the fever swamps come in and why I believe this is such a huge deal for the Republic. See, a sizable minority of, not to put too fine a point of it, lunatics, have convinced themselves that this operation is just the cover for a cunning plan by the U.S. government to—read the next bit slowly—invade Texas.</p>
<p>You might be saying, “Huh, why would a government invade its own territory?” And that would be a good question. And it’s where you and the fever swamps part company.</p>
<p>There are a bunch of other paranoid oooooh-kays added to the mix, including the suspicious closures of Wal-Marts that are clearly going to house Chinese and Russian soldiers or perhaps be food dumps for the occupiers or perhaps be internment camps for Patriots, underground tunnels, and ice cream truck mobile morgues. Here’s a <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/jade-helm-15-begins-wednesday">brief roundup of some of the conspiracies</a>.</p>
<p>Take a moment to center your chi and then let’s talk about the basic idea here. Which you would say is a fringe lunatic thing and you would be correct, except, and this is why this one will go in the history books, this idea has spread enough that the <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-governor-abbott-orders-national-guard-military-takeover">governor of Texas has ordered the National Guard to keep an eye on things</a> and every potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate asked about Jade Helm is giving the most vague answer possible in order to not upset the base. It is no longer an idea for the most deranged message boards: The idea that the U.S. government is planning to invade itself is, if certainly not mainstream, way outside the Black Helicopter fringe.</p>
<p>Why is this?</p>
<p>First off, there’s always been a paranoid, delusional strain in American politics. Douglas Hofstadter wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paranoid-Style-American-Politics/dp/0307388441/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap/192-8424730-6122132?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1438308831">the seminal work about this</a> in the 1960s and his words ring like they were written yesterday. If you’re interested in this at all, Douglas Hofstadter is the place to start.</p>
<p>Though back when Hofstadter was working, it was a small core of fringe elements who believed the Jewish conspiracy, the United Nations Black Helicopters and the Illuminati were factors in American politics.</p>
<p>But it’s spreading. When the governor of an American state has to kowtow to ideas the military are plotting to abduct freedom fighters in its own country, something has changed.</p>
<p>If you spend any time at all online looking around the places where Dastardly Plots to Destroy Freedom are discussed, you find that almost everybody involved considers themself a Patriot (yes, capital-P). These are people who believe in the Constitution of this great nation and who see it being corrupted by people who hate America.</p>
<p>According to them, every day the people who hate America go to work, check the Gay Agenda to make sure they’re not getting in the way, and then pinch away at the Constitution any way they can.</p>
<p>Hofstadter had this to say about the idea that the people you disagree with are anti-American:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The two-party system, as it has developed in the United States, hangs on the common recognition of loyal opposition: each side accepts the ultimate good intentions of the other. The opponent’s judgment may be held to be consistently execrable, but the legitimacy of his intent is not—that is, in popular terms, his Americanism is not questioned. One of the unspoken assumptions of presidential campaigns is that the leaders of both parties are patriots who, however serious their mistakes, must be accorded the right to govern. But an essential point in the pseudo-conservative world view is that our recent Presidents, being men of wholly evil intent, have conspired against the public good. This does more than discredit them: it calls into question the validity of the political system that keeps putting such men into office.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The idea that the person you have an ideological disagreement with isn’t just coming from a different angle than you, but that this person <em>hates your country</em> is what takes it from politics to feverish paranoia. For extra credit, do a Google search on “Does Obama hate America” and see what you find.</p>
<p>And this is where things get very interesting from a psychological standpoint. These are Patriots who want to preserve their country, but who have found that the government of this country are in fact out to destroy it. That is, the democratically elected representatives of this country are actively anti-American.</p>
<p>It’s key for this world view that the American government hates America and the Constitution.</p>
<h3>But why the military?</h3>
<p>All Americans have grown up being taught to respect our Armed Forces. And we should. Every soldier who puts themself in harm’s way to protect their country deserves our respect and above all our help when they come back from their battle fields.</p>
<p>But notice how the Jade Helm hysteria has changed this: Now the might of America and its soldiers is turning toward small cities in Texas, which will be invaded and taken over, the true Patriots taken to concentration camps in chains. Or tunnels under Wal-Marts. Either way, it’s bad.</p>
<p>How is this not utterly insulting to our Armed Forces? American citizens are now believing that their soldiers (many of whom come from their communities) are anti-American thugs who will smile as they disappear True Patriots? How does that jibe at all with respecting the Armed Forces?</p>
<p>Again, if this was contained to the fever swamps it would be one thing, but when the governor of Texas feels the need to appease people who believe that the young men and women from their own communities are now coming to establish prison camps for their fellow citizens because … uhm … freedom? something is horribly broken.</p>
<h3>A crumbling Empire</h3>
<p>It’s not hard to see why people would become disenchanted—travel small-town America and you see communities falling apart from the lack of work and the infestation of drugs, an infrastructure that’s falling apart, young people leaving as fast as they can rent a U-Haul, a shrinking middle class and a general feeling of malaise.</p>
<p>(If you don’t believe me, drive two hours from the metropolis where you live and stop at the first small town you get to. Then walk around for a few hours. Visit the Wal-Mart. Then tell me what you saw.)</p>
<p>But in the Patriot mind this is not because America is having a systemic problem but because the enemy is succeeding, hurting America every day through its cunning conspiracy. America is the greatest country on Earth so the decay you see every day must be due to a conspiracy of powerful enemies. It can’t be due to a long series of bad decisions since America by definition is great, so it must be due a conspiracy, and not just any conspiracy, a conspiracy large enough, powerful enough to bring the greatest nation on Earth to its knees.</p>
<p>A conspiracy only a true Patriot can see.</p>
<p>And after Jade Helm is concluded, the humvees drive away and it turns out nothing apart from a military exercise has taken place, the true believers will know that it’s only because they watched the military and kept them from executing their horrible plan.</p>
<p>Because having a few people in camouflage clothing hanging around would surely stop a plan by a military and a government to take over its own country in its tracks.</p>
<p>And then the rumors of the next conspiracy will begin to circulate…</p>
How to install Jekyll on Amazon Linux2015-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/08/how-to-install-jekyll-on-amazon-linux/
<p>Figuring out how to install <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll</a> on an EC2 instance running Amazon Linux took some googling around for me, but like most things, once you know how it’s easy.</p>
<p>Run the following commands:</p>
<pre><code>
sudo yum update -y
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools" -y
sudo yum install ruby-rdoc ruby-devel -y
sudo gem install therubyracer
sudo gem install jekyll
</code></pre>
<p>The dev tools group install will install way more tools than you actually need for this purpose. Whatevs.</p>
<p>You don’t need <code>therubyracer</code> if you already have Node installed.</p>
<p>Note that this is just the Jekyll part. Wrapping your head around EC2 in general will require some quality time with Amazon’s documentation.</p>
<p><em>This was tested on an Amazon Linux AMI 2015.03.</em></p>
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you2015-07-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/07/you-can-discover-what-your-enemy-fears-most-by-observing-the-means-he-uses-to-frighten-you/
<blockquote>
<p>You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Eric Hoffer</p>
Will Apple Watch be a success?2015-07-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/07/will-the-apple-watch-be-a-success/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/apple-watch.jpg" /></p>
<h3>Where I’m coming from</h3>
<p>I’m the kind of person who has worn a watch since I can remember, and have a neurotic need to know the exact time—and to be able to know it by a glance at my wrist. Which is what kept me wearing a watch after I started carrying a device that told the time and was synced to an atomic time server in the sky, in other words a much more accurate time piece than the analog collection of springs on my wrist. But pulling a phone out of my pocket and turning on the screen isn’t exactly <em>glancing</em>.</p>
<p>I have worn a <a href="https://getpebble.com/">Pebble</a> since you could buy them in stores, and loved it for both providing interesting ways for me to see the time and for putting notifications on my wrist. Granted, the Pebble was not what you’d call a handsome piece of hardware, especially the low-resolution black and white e-ink display, but triaging notifications on the wrist was <em>huge</em>.</p>
<p>Other things the Pebble allowed, like quick timers for the BBQ and the gym, as well as controlling music and podcast playback right there on the wrist were also huge. But the Pebble certainly felt like the first iteration of a product category.</p>
<p>And kudos to them for all the things they got right within their limitations as a start up and first-mover.</p>
<p>But now Apple Watch is the new sheriff in town. (I can’t speak to the <a href="http://www.android.com/wear/">Android Wear</a> product line since I don’t have an Android phone and so could never use one. I wanted to, but sadness, could not.)</p>
<p>Apple Watch is confusing people, I think, by being several different things in one, and some of those things more successfully than others.</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at the main roles Apple Watch inhabits.</p>
<h3>As a watch</h3>
<p>It sits on your wrist and tells the time, as a watch by definition must, but unfortunately that functionality is the weakest since battery constraints makes the watch go through most of its life with its screen off. Glance down at your wrist and you’ll see the void, unless you jerk your wrist to wake it up.</p>
<p>Which unfortunately is pretty hit and miss. Sometimes it wakes and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, if you’ve been too wrist-active, it wakes up for a fraction of a second, then goes back to sullen darkness.</p>
<p>This means you can’t just glance at it like a traditional watch: You have to jerk your wrist, and when it’s not in the mood to cooperate you end up having to tap the screen. This can make it hard to steal a glance at the time in polite conversation.</p>
<p>Basically you have a slab of metal and glass on your wrist that requires you to either jerk like you’re having a petit mal or tap on it to be able to tell the time. Neither of which you can do in a discreet fashion. Not to be too harsh, when the wrist motion works, it’s great—move wrist, see time, go on with life—but that it so often doesn’t is incredibly frustrating and a huge problem for the primary purpose of a watch.</p>
<p>Really hope the next version will have a way to just show the time continuously. You know, like a watch.</p>
<h3>As a fitness device</h3>
<p>Apple did a spectacular job of turning the watch into a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicker_training">clicker trainer</a> for humans. It lets you know about your movement achievements during the day in a relentlessly positive way and since our human wetware is miswired enough that encouragement from an inanimate object on our wrists actually makes us happy, it does work to make you move around more in daily life.</p>
<p>Though realizing you’re <em>that</em> easy to manipulate may bring some sadness during quiet contemplation.</p>
<p>From a psychological standpoint it’s spectacularly well done. Really, if you’re interested in psychology you should purchase an Apple Watch just to see how well subtle manipulation can be done. Which, since it’s manipulating you to do something that is good for you, I am in favor of.</p>
<p>It also tracks your heartbeat and logs workouts, which functionality is a bit rougher. When you’re going to work out, the watch provides a list of different activities to choose from, like outdoor walk, elliptical, stair stepper, etc. which lets the device understand better how much you’re actually moving, but it doesn’t have modes for many common activities like yoga, weight lifting and Pilates. Which seems to mean the little watch brain has to guess a bit more about how many calories you’re burning and what the heck it is you’re up to.</p>
<p>But it’s early days and I’m sure Apple engineers are working on adding more kinds of workouts. It would be nice if the device became smart enough to figure out what kind of workout you’re doing just by the motions of your wrist, but that may be a bit too close to magic to be reasonable.</p>
<p>The core of exercise monitoring is of course the heart rate monitor. Let it be said that it’s incredibly cool a watch includes a heart rate monitor. <em>This thing tracks your pulse all day just by sitting on your wrist.</em> That’s the kind of thing <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_2000">Mondo 2000</a></em> got all kinds of excited about more than 20 years ago.</p>
<p>But the heart rate monitoring is far from perfect and sometimes either stops taking measurements, with the activity app futilely struggling to get a new reading, and sometimes, frustratingly, seems like it’s only measuring half your heart rate.</p>
<p>There I am in the gym, lifting weights, and all of a sudden my heartrate drops from 109 to 54 beats per minute, staying there for a few minutes until whatever wires were crossed managed to uncross themselves. (It was kind of scary the first time—<em>oh Lord, am I dying?</em>)</p>
<p>I’ve seen this during yoga, weightlifting, and walking, so it doesn’t seem to be activity related. And no, I don’t have a wrist tattoo. Sometimes the heart rate monitor just cuts your heart rate in half.</p>
<p>This of course throws off your average heart rate for the workout. <em>Dammit, I want credit for the work I did!</em></p>
<p>I’m assuming Apple engineers are aware of this and working to fix. Unless my heart and wrist are indeed special.</p>
<h3>As a notification filter</h3>
<p>As mentioned above, the huge thing the Pebble did for me was to be a notification filter. Meaning any notifications I would have seen on my phone I first saw on my wrist without having to take the phone out of my pocket. Which is so, so nice. Seriously, if you haven’t had notifications on your wrist, you’re missing out on the next level of connected society.</p>
<p>The Pebble was always limited in that it couldn’t choose which notifications I wanted to see on my wrist and which on my iPhone—if it was a notification, I saw it in both places. Apple, as the platform owner, doesn’t have those limitations. With an Apple Watch, you can pick which notifications you want on the phone and which you want on the watch <em>and</em> if you’ve dismissed a notification on the watch it’s dismissed on the phone as well.</p>
<p>Which is as expected—it’s good to be the platform owner.</p>
<p>An angry sidebar here: To all the people who wrote articles about how awful it would be to have your wrist disturb you all the time because your phone was set to have every notification possible on and the watch would light up like a Christmas tree and oh, the horror. First: Use a device before you write annoying Luddite horse shit articles about it, OK? Call it a think piece if you want, but all it is is you masturbating into a keyboard for money; and Second: Turn off notifications you don’t care about, you nimrod. If your phone is bothering you all the time about things, <em>you can turn that off</em>. Why do you live with a device that you can do with as you want and decide to let it give you a stroke? Why would you do that?</p>
<p>OK, I feel better now. It’s just, why do you have Luddites writing about technology except you expect your readers to all be Luddites who will agree with your alpha-Luddite and in that case why are you even covering technology except to make your readers feel better about their Luddite tendencies and if that’s the reason, don’t you have something better to cover than to pander to your readers’ insecurities? And yes, I’m looking at you, <em>New York Times</em> and your bird-brain <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/opinion/apple-watch-digital-dog-collar.html?_r=0">digital dog collar</a> article.</p>
<p>The watch does a great job as a notification triage device, especially since the watch and iPhone talk back and forth and know which notifications have already been dismissed on the other device. It’s very nice and just like TV remotes the kind of thing you scoff at before you have it and then once you have it you wonder how you ever lived without it. Really.</p>
<h3>As an object</h3>
<p>The physical object that is Apple Watch is divided into two pieces: The watch and the strap. Apple has done a magnificent job of creating a way for straps to be easy and quick to swap. The kind of job, incidentally, the watch industry could have done 100 years ago if they had cared. Creating a standard mechanism that makes it easy to swap straps does not require expertise in semiconductors and CPU architectures. But the watch industry didn’t care. Because who wants the kind of animal for a customer who can’t afford to hire a jeweler to change straps? (Or the kind of customer who doesn’t enjoy deep-diving into purchasing exotic tools and learning a skill only useful for his hobby? (And yes, the “his” in the previous sentence is deliberate—only us men get ourselves that deep into the weeds.))</p>
<p>I am a simple man, so I bought an Apple Watch Sport with a rubber strap, and you know what? It’s gorgeous. It’s the cheapest one you can get—although starting at $349 for the lady size it’s certainly not cheap—and it is a beautiful object. It is a bit too thick, really, to pass for a regular watch, but it’s not cartoonish in any way, and the materials are solid and just … nice.</p>
<p>This is a nice object, and with an impending infinity of straps coming, you can bet Apple will make an absolutely stupid amount of money in the holiday season. Plus, you will be able to find one you really like.</p>
<h3>Final thoughts</h3>
<p>Will Apple Watch succeed? Obviously that depends on your definition of success. Will it be a juggernaut like the iPod and iPhone? Doubtful. Living on your wrist makes it by definition more of a niche product since a lot of people simply don’t like to have things on their wrists and will require a really good reason to spend $349 and up on a watch. That reason, at this point, is notifications and fitness. If you’re a naked wrist in 2015 and you’re not interested in either, it’s going to be a tough sell.</p>
<p>Which isn’t to say a killer app can’t appear—it’s early days and there may be some activity Apple Watch is a total gimme to disrupt. What that is I couldn’t say, and if I could say I wouldn’t because I’d be mortgaging the house and betting every dollar on it.</p>
<p>Adding to the problem is that few people will see a clear reason why this thing makes your life appreciably better. After the initial hype dies down I think it will be a hard sell for people not used to wearing watches, especially naked wrist types who aren’t into fitness or health.</p>
<p>But for people who wear watches and fitness enthusiasts it will make a lot of people happy. Especially after Apple figures out how to make the thing tell time <em>all the time.</em></p>
<p>I predict Apple Watch to be a moderate success in that it will find die-hard fans but will not move anywhere near the volume of units of the iPod or iPhone. Though it might be remembered fondly by historians a few hundred years from now as the first wearable to find mass market appeal and then ushered in the age of embedded devices.</p>
Book roundup, part 192015-06-22T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/06/book-roundup-part-19/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Ice-Death-Derek-Boogaard/dp/0393351912/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?qid=1428950214&sr=8-1&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard, by John Branch</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Anybody who knows me knows that very few of my neurons are occupied with sports. But I am interested in humans, and the troubling, dishonorable way organized sports has dealt with issues like head trauma and the pain of athletes’ broken bodies made me pick up <em>Boy on Ice</em>.</p>
<p>And it’s disgusting. The callous disregard of Boogaard’s teams as he spirals into prescription pain killer abuse from the need to dampen the pain of his injuries enough to stay on the ice as an enforcer is horrifying.</p>
<p>Also, I had no idea ice hockey had gotten that brutal and the scenes of the audience roaring its approval and bloodlust at the constant fights does not compare favorably with the Romans at their games.</p>
<p><em>Boy on Ice</em> is well-reported and well-written and deals with an important issue, but it runs much longer than it really needs, devolving into a seemingly endless list of games Boogaard participated in, who he fought, the weather that day, and on and on. Though perhaps it only felt that long since I’m not a fan. Your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>And speaking of not being a fan: For all that’s holy, people, it’s <em>by definition</em> a <em>game</em>. Should people really get crippled and die for your entertainment?</p>
<p>Wait, don’t answer that.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Men-Creative-Revolution-Sopranos/dp/0143125699/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=difficult%2Bmen&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1428950509">Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution, by Brett Martin</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Tracks the inner workings of the latest golden age of television, shows such as <em>The Sopranos</em>, <em>The Wire</em>, <em>Deadwood</em>, and <em>Breaking Bad</em>, how they were greenlit, the economics behind the scenes and of course the showrunners who brought them to fruition.</p>
<p>Basically it’s a litany of damaged men being difficult-to-deal-with <em>artistes</em> while creating shows about damaged men being difficult-to-deal-with in even more sociopathic and violent means than the showrunners themselves.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting look into a notoriously weird industry and how some people—all men, in this case—managed to create art despite the intentions and interruptions of the people holding the money bags.</p>
<p>As a sidenote and something I’ve never thought about, there’s a discussion about the golden age of American film in the 1970s that makes the argument that it was possible because of most movie theaters being located in the inner cities and how when the theaters moved into the suburbs the spell was broken and Summer Flagpole Blow Stuff Up became a thing, as it relates to the golden age of television becoming possible as cable TV became a thing, freeing the creators from the shackles of pleasing mainstream audiences and the motivations TV executives projected onto the mass audiences.</p>
<p><em>Difficult Men</em> is a good read for anybody interested in how dramatic television gets made and shows how much of the business is sheer dumb luck and timing and the constraints creators operate under, but it does feels a bit neutered, like the really good bits are being held back.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Restaurant-Man-Joe-Bastianich/dp/0142196843/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=restaurant%2Bman&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434853096">Restaurant Man, by Joe Bastianich</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Bastianich has made his fortune creating hip restaurants and <em>Restaurant Man</em> is his telling of his journey. As a person who enjoys eating and cooking, I found it both interesting and revolting—turns out the restaurant business is horrifying and something I want to never get involved with, even as a customer.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting read, even if Bastianich’s in-your-face alpha male from New York schtick gets very tiring very fast. And Bastianich comes across as a person I never want to meet. The words <em>Christ what an asshole</em> did flit through my mind many a time while reading <em>Restaurant Man.</em> But be that as it may, it is an interesting look into the world of celebrity chef-dom.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Red-Line-Gripping-Bloodiest-Hitlers/dp/0007486839/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?qid=1434858371&sr=1-3&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">The Red Line, by John Nichol</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Tells the tale of the bloodiest night of RAF’s Bomber Command during World War II, the disastrous Nuremberg raid, a poorly conceived and executed bombing run where nearly 700 men were shot out of the sky in a single night.</p>
<p>If you’ve read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bomber-Command-Zenith-Military-Classics/dp/0760345201/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=bomber%2Bcommand%2Bmax%2Bhastings&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434858464">Bomber Command</a>, Max Hastings’s magisterial work on the RAF’s bombing campaign, <em>The Red Line</em> doesn’t add much new information, but it adds much color to the experiences of the bomber crews, who, like so many soldiers during WWII, went through such horrific events it’s amazing most of them were able to return to society after the war.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/CUNNING-PLANS-Talks-Warren-Ellis-ebook/dp/B00Z9LFC8U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=cunning%2Bplans&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434852012">Cunning Plans: Talks by Warren Ellis, by Warren Ellis</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A compilation of recent talks by writer and Internet mad man Warren Ellis about the intersection of magic and technology, the haunted future, and general very smart weirdness. Well worth reading and thinking about and only $0.99 in the US, so worth taking a chance on if you’re not familiar with the oddness that is Warren Ellis.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062190377/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_har?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=seveneves&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434853197">Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Neal Stephenson is one of those frustrating writers who are so talented and smart you develop a complex just reading them. <em>Seveneves</em> continues that tradition. But it really is two novels in one—the first one being a tale of the world preparing for an inevitable apocalypse, and the second one picking up the story of the survivors 5,000 years later.</p>
<p><em>Seveneves</em> is a throwback to Heinlein-style hard sci-fi where Smart Engineers Solve Problems and normal humans get in the way with their Emotions and Politics. (Though without the troubling misogyny of that genre.) It’s a very nice mode for Stephenson to work in and allows him to move a fast and sleek plot efficiently forward with his usual elegant prose.</p>
<p>The first part of the novel is a compelling, breathless page turner, an extremely well-engineered techno thriller, and then the 5,000 years later part drops a full dubstep wub-break as Stephenson imagines the results of the decisions made in the first part, allowing the novel to shine in a more speculative way.</p>
<p>It’s an impressive work, though marred a little in the second part by supposedly rational people making some strange choices and people having a jarring ability to look at their own societies from the outside in with much more detachment than seems possible (even allowing for genetic changes).</p>
<p>But, quibbles. <em>Seveneves</em> is an event and you should read it.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nemesis-Games-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/0316217581/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_har?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=nemesis%2Bgames&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434853035">Nemesis Games, by James SA Corey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The fifth book in the Expanse series, it, well, continues the Expanse series in extremely able fashion.</p>
<p>If you’re already in the fold you’ll want to read this, duh, and if you’re not, well then you probably don’t like amazing space opera.</p>
<p>Not much more to say about <em>Nemesis Games</em>—you know if it’s your bag or not.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bitter-Seeds-Milkweed-Book-1-ebook/dp/B003GWX8JE/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=milkweed%2Bbitter%2Bseeds&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1432513769">Bitter Seeds, by Ian Tregillis</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Bitter Seeds</em> is the first novel in the Milkweed Triptych, followed by <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-War-Milkweed-Ian-Tregillis/dp/0765335387/ref=sr_1_2_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&sr=1-2&s=books&keywords=milkweed%2Btregillis&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434852300">The Coldest War</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Necessary-Evil-Milkweed-Ian-Tregillis/dp/0765337290/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=milkweed%2Btregillis&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434852350">Necessary Evil</a></em>. This review is for all three novels since it’s kind of silly to think of them as three novels—it’s one novel that’s been split into three. If this review intrigues you, start with <em>Bitter Seeds</em> then be prepared to get into the other two installments.</p>
<p>Because it’s a doozy. This is really intense alternate history World War II and Cold War history work that mixes in magic and what seems like magic but apparently is not and a powerful, haunting sense of dread and regret.</p>
<p>It’s close to impossible to talk about the plot of Milkweed without spoling things, so let’s just say that Oh, those Nazis and their mad scientists and the horrible decisions they force their enemies into.</p>
<p>If you like speculative fiction, the hard price of impossible choices, and tight plotting, you’ll like the <em>Milkweed Triptych</em>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Alchemy-Wars-Ian-Tregillis/dp/0356502325/ref=sr_1_2_twi_1_pap?sr=8-2&ie=UTF8&keywords=mechanical%2Btregillis&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1431037345">The Mechanical, by Ian Tregillis</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Strange, ambitious alternate history (again from Ian Tregillis) about a world where the Dutch discovered how to build Clakkers—basically steam punk sentient robots—and callously use them as slaves.</p>
<p>It’s a powerful novel tinged with pain that acts as a meditation on free will, subjugation and (who saw it coming?) sentient zeppelins.</p>
<p><em>The Mechanical</em> is a trip and if you’re into fantasy, sci-fi or speculative fiction it’s a given.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Angles-Attack-Frontlines-Marko-Kloos/dp/1477828311/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=angles%2Bof%2Battack&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434852578">Angles of Attack, by Marko Kloos</a>★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>An enjoyable continuation of the series started in <em>Terms of Enlistment</em> (<a href="http://thecoredump.org/2014/10/book-roundup-part-16/">my review here</a>), but a little frustrating in that it doesn’t advance the reader’s understanding of the implacable enemy humanity is facing, known as the Lankies.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, you like the series, you’ll like this. If you’ve never heard of it, start at the beginning with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Terms-Enlistment-Frontlines-Marko-Kloos/dp/1477809783/ref=pd_sim_14_1?refRID=0Y2WA4XNBCVKG3E905FY&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Terms of Enlistment</a></em>. Good, classic sci-fi.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/City-Stairs-Robert-Jackson-Bennett/dp/080413717X/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=city%2Bof%2Bstairs&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1434852109">City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>City of Stairs</em> is very exciting—a fresh take on fantasy with unique world building and seductive prose. Reading it is a bit like having a fever dream, in a good way. It’s a very hard novel to summarize without spoiling the experience, so just take my word that if you like fantasy but are feeling a bit tired of the usual pseudo-middle-ages Tolkien vibe, you’ll find this refreshing.</p>
<p>There are quibbles, like that a major plot point hinges on a super intelligent intelligence operative not seeing what’s right in front of her face that mar the experience a bit, but they’re only quibbles. <em>City of Stairs</em> is fresh and exciting.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Links are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through them I get a tiny kickback from Amazon. It doesn’t cost you anything.</p>
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed2015-05-13T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/05/of-all-the-preposterous-assumptions-of-humanity-over-humanity-nothing-exceeds-most-of-the-criticisms-made-on-the-habits-of-the-poor-by-the-well-housed-well-warmed-and-well-fed/
<blockquote>
<p>Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Herman Melville</p>
Let’s all chill out about the iPad sales numbers2015-05-13T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/05/lets-all-chill-out-about-the-ipad-sales-numbers/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ipad-with-case.jpg" /></p>
<p>In its <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/04/27Apple-Reports-Record-Second-Quarter-Results.html">second quarter 2015 report</a>, Apple revealed that iPad sales <a href="http://leancrew.com/all-this/2015/04/moving-averages-and-the-ipad/">are decreasing</a>. This naturally caused much gnashing of teeth in the Apple blogosphere. Is iPad a failure? Will Apple cancel the product?</p>
<p>But if you think about it a little, comparisons to iPhone (of which Apple sold astronomical amounts) aren’t useful or fair.</p>
<p>iPhone sales are special in that carrier subsidies are making people upgrade more than normal, especially in the States, and your phone is a very intimate piece of technology that gets used hard every day, so at the end of a two-year contract, the device is usually pretty banged up.</p>
<p>Not to mention the tragedy of broken screens.</p>
<p>iPad on the other hand is usually used around the house or office and takes less of a beating.</p>
<p>But most importantly, Apple still supports all but the original iPad with software updates. Is iOS 8 a bit pokey on older iPads? Yes, it sure is. Which hurts nerds, who are often super sensitive to lag, whereas “normal” humans tend to not really care when their devices are a bit slow. For the things most people do with iPad—Web surfing, email, social media, second screen, and reading long-form—it’s acceptable for most people.</p>
<p>Again, this is unlike nerds, who grind their molars every time Safari reloads a tab.</p>
<p>I ride a commuter bus to work together with other office drones, and am always looking at how people are using their devices. Obviously I can’t read the text on people’s screens, but I can see if people are on Facebook or texting or playing games. (And can report it’s been a while since I saw Candy Crush, so yay humanity!)</p>
<p>In this completely unscientific study of other members of the disappearing middle class who happen to ride the same bus as me, there’s about a 50-50 split between iPhones and Android phones, with the Android phones skewing to phablets, but the few tablets I see are all iPads (and a few e-ink Kindles)—I’ve yet to notice an Android tablet.</p>
<p>The thing that continues to amaze me is <em>how tolerant people are of lag</em>.</p>
<p>And Android phones tend to have intolerable amounts of lag, especially when scrolling. Go-stop-go-go-stop-go-go-stop.</p>
<p>The other day I watched a middle-aged woman playing a Breakout clone on her Samsung phablet and it lagged enough for me to want to throw the thing out the window just watching her play. <em>It’s a twitch game! And it lags!</em> But she seemed unperturbed.</p>
<p>Non-nerds are lucky they don’t see or just don’t care about device slowness—it saves them a lot of money.</p>
<p>Knowing all this, it makes sense for iPads to be on the same upgrade cycle as laptops. People will upgrade their iPad when it breaks or there’s an app they really want that they can’t get. Until that happens, every new version of iOS makes it a bit more sluggish, but so what?</p>
<p>And the things people do on their iPads are often the exact same things they would have used a laptop for. Turns out, “it’s just a big iPhone” is genius—once somebody is comfortable with their iPhone and their laptop implodes, why not spend the same or less money than a new POS laptop would cost on an iPad that they know how to use? It’s a safe bet, there’s almost no learning curve, and they’ll have to spend just as much time administrating their iPad as they do their iPhone—basically none.</p>
<p>If you view iPad a laptop replacement, it makes sense for volumes to be lower and replacement cycles longer. We will find out if this thesis holds water soon, if Apple stops supporting the iPad 2s with iOS 9, as seems likely. If so, there should be a pickup in sales as they’re replaced.</p>
<p>Putting on my nerd cap, I really wish Apple would get more aggressive about differentiating the iPad from a software perspective and make more out of the form factor, but keeping it a large iPhone is probably a much better path for the masses. And remember, Apple is interested in making mass-market products, not nerd toys.</p>
<p>As an aside when it comes to tablets in general, the few non-iPads I see in the wild, while anecdata, speak to the troubles Google are having in that space. Don’t know if it’s chicken or egg, but the one thing that grabs me every time I use my own Nexus 7 is how few Android apps are optimized for tablets and how perfunctory most of those adaptations are. As an example, look at Twitter. Their Android app is terrible in general and full-on insulting on a tablet.</p>
<p>For people who want a light-duty laptop replacement, iPad will continue to fill a need. A smaller-volume need than iPhone, sure, but a real need.</p>
In this day and age, when the increasing complexity of modern life leaves one barely any time for reading2015-05-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/05/in-this-day-and-age-when-the-increasing-complexity-of-modern-life-leaves-one-barely-any-time-for-reading/
<blockquote>
<p>In this day and age, when the increasing complexity of modern life leaves one barely any time for reading …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Proust (1919) (<a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGleick/status/595352798356774914">via James Gleick</a>)</p>
This Web App Best Viewed By Someone Else2015-04-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/04/this-web-app-best-viewed-by-someone-else-eric-meyer/
<p>Eric Meyer on the fundamentals of the Web and how they get broken in the quest for shiny.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r38al1w-h4k" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics"></div>
Find Potter and bring him to Narnia2015-04-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/04/deal-with-it/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/nerds-deal.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/1ZAKrzW.jpg">Source: http://i.imgur.com/1ZAKrzW.jpg</a></p>
Tech terms you might be misusing2015-04-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/04/tech-terms-you-might-be-misusing/
<p>For people who break out in hives when people misuse “fewer” and “less,” there’s a decidedly cavalier attitude to technical terms in mainstream media.</p>
<p>Here are a few terms that seem particularly confusing to people who make their living from gathering and transmitting information to the masses, people who should really want to understand how to use terms correctly.</p>
<h3>Download versus upload</h3>
<p>Downloading something from the Internet means to copy it from a server somewhere on the Internet to your computer. Uploading means to copy something from your computer to a server on the Internet. Think of your computer as being below the Internet on an org chart.</p>
<p>You pull things down to your computer and push them up to the Internet.</p>
<p>This is important for two reasons: 1) Get it wrong and you show you have no credibility when it comes to writing about technology; and 2) Nobody has been fined for downloading music or movies from the Internet. None people. People have been fined for making movies or music available for upload to the Internet—for making it possible for other people on the Internet to download the files. Which is a very different thing.</p>
<p>Imagine your computer dangling below the Internet in the org chart of life and you’ll get it right.</p>
<h3>Write a blog versus write a blog post</h3>
<p>Just as nobody sane would say they wrote a newspaper or that they wrote a magazine, nobody should say they wrote a blog.</p>
<p>A blog is one entity and the individual articles are called posts. So you wrote a blog post. Just like you wrote a story for a newspaper or an article for a magazine, you wrote a blog <em>post</em> if you’re referring to an individual piece of content.</p>
<h3>Hack</h3>
<p>Hack is one of those words that have many meanings, but when you say somebody hacked a computer usually what you mean is that person gained unauthorized access to a computer or network of computers.</p>
<p>Usually this means the attacker has downloaded proprietary information, like in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Pictures_Entertainment_hack">the Sony hack</a>.</p>
<p>A denial of service attack, on the other hand, is <em>not</em> a hack. A denial of service attack means unleashing a flood of malicious requests at a site, taking it offline. Which means the Web server is inaccessible, but does <em>not</em> mean there was any unauthorized access. (The denial of service attack <em>could</em> be used to trigger a vulnerability that then allows the attacker to get access, but that is less common and is certainly not implied.)</p>
<p>So when a site goes down from a denial of service attack, that is not the same thing as the site being hacked.</p>
<p>Also, if somebody leaves their phone unlocked at a bar while they go to the bathroom and you post a “funny” Facebook update while they’re gone, you didn’t hack their phone. You’re just a terrible person and you should think about your values.</p>
<p>For technical people, hack also means jerry-rigging a solution to a problem, as in “This is really hacky, but we’ll clean it up in the next version.” Be aware when talking to technical people or reading tech sites that this usage is very common.</p>
<h3>“Logging in”</h3>
<p>Logging in to a computer means providing your credentials through a challenge-response system. Usually this means a user name and password.</p>
<p>When you visit a website you usually don’t log in. You just visit the site. If the site requires a user name and password to access, then, yes, you have indeed logged in to the site. Otherwise, you’re just visiting the site.</p>
<p>So please stop teasing your site in your newscasts by saying, “Log in to our site at <a href="http://blahblah.com/">blahblah.com</a>.” There is no challenge-response. You are using words wrong.</p>
<p>If you’re a journalist you should care about using words correctly and not wanting to have to understand technology is not a valid excuse.</p>
<p>“I don’t understand it so it can’t be important” is not a great attitude.</p>
Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent2015-04-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/04/fervor-is-the-weapon-of-choice-for-the-impotent/
<blockquote>
<p>Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Franz Fanon</p>
Book roundup, part 182015-04-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/04/book-roundup-part-18/
<p>For this installment of the book roundup there’s not as much new reading as usual to talk about as I’ve been binge-re-reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels since his passing and mourning the loss of one of the best humanity can produce.</p>
<p>Rest in peace, Sir Terry.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Lands-Man-Aasif-Mandvi/dp/1452107912/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=aasif%2Bmandvi&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1423021629">No Land’s Man, by Aasif Mandvi</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Witty, funny, and touching about being born in India, having a childhood in North England, adolescence in Florida, and living his adult life in New York City.</p>
<p>Mandvi is witty and interesting and writes with great warmth about his experiences. It’s a nice, short, pick-me-up book that will put a smile on your face and make you want to see Mandvi perform on a stage.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Idiot-America-Stupidity-Became-Virtue/dp/0767926153/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=idiot%2Bamerica&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1428802882">Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free, by Charles Pierce</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Veteran journalist Pierce is very, very angry about the state of political discourse in America today. He’s also a great crafter of prose, with scalpel-like observations that keep <em>Idiot America</em> from being just an angry rant on a blog somewhere.</p>
<p>Pierce recounts the great history of cranks and snake-oil salesmen in America and how that history has now morphed into a media landscape based on what he calls the three Great Premises:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since right-wing populism has at its heart an “anti-elitist” distrust of expertise, talk radio offers the purest example of the Three Great Premises at work. A host is not judged a success by his command of the issues, but purely by whether what he says moves the ratings needle. (First Great Premise: Any theory is valid if it moves units.) If the needle moves enough, then the host is adjudged an expert (Second Great Premise: Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough) and, if the host seems to argue passionately enough, then what he is saying is judged to be true simply because of how many people are listening to him say it (Third Great Premise: Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is measured by how fervently they believe it).</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Idiot America</em> succeeds in making you smile while you want to beat something into a bloody pulp.</p>
<p>Required reading.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3>[Something Coming Through, by Paul McAuley][through] ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Interesting near-future sci-fi after first contact with aliens who come to Earth and open up wormholes to 15 worlds, worlds the mysterious aliens encourage and help humans colonize.</p>
<p>These same aliens have previously helped many other species, dubbed Elder Cultures, colonize the same 15 worlds and their incomprehensible ruins are scattered across the new planets.</p>
<p>But humanity’s benefactors remain unknowable, revealing themselves only through avatars that scrupulously keep to their main talking point of “only wanting to help.”</p>
<p><em>Something Coming Through</em> does a great job of marrying the massive shock to humanity brought by the arrival of the mysterious aliens and the human capacity for adapting so that while there’s a huge transformation of life on Earth, most people are still going through their ordinary lives and remain in their ordinary head spaces.</p>
<p>Well written and with a plot that moves well, it was a bit of a slog to get through at times, with too much plot that didn’t carry the story forward. Some judicious and merciless editing would make this novel one of the best of the year.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <em>Something Coming Through</em> is an interesting and enjoyable exercise.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Burning-Room-Harry-Bosch-Novel-ebook/dp/B00IJJUIMY/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=connelly%2Bburning%2Broom&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1419795553">The Burning Room, by Michael Connelly</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Harry Bosch is a detective in the Cold Case unit of the LAPD, technically past mandatory retirement age, but doggedly working to bring closure to old cases.</p>
<p><em>The Burning Room</em> finds author Connelly extremely comfortable with his creation and the novel putters along in the usual Harry Bosch fashion.</p>
<p>It’s not bad, but not special either, mostly following familiar groves. If you’re a fan of the Harry Bosch series you’ll like it, but most of its weight comes from familiarity with the character’s journey. If you’re the kind of lucky person who hasn’t made Bosch’s acquaintance yet, start with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Echo-Harry-Bosch-Novel/dp/1455550612/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_mas?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=the%2Bblack%2Becho&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1428803172">The Black Echo</a></em> and enjoy one of the best American detective series put to page.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Foxglove-Summer-Rivers-London-Novel-ebook/dp/B00INIYHQ4/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3/189-6560721-1226432?refRID=0BJGP98XZ9GZHS91H5TS&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The Rivers of London series follows Peter Grant, a young London policeman who is brought into the supernatural division of the force and is trained to be a magician. The series is fueled by a strong and touching story arc that often overshadows the events in individual novels.</p>
<p>This is the fifth installment in the series and is a good continuation.</p>
<p><em>Foxglove Summer</em> has our hero visiting the English countryside to help the local police make sense of the disappearance of two young girls.</p>
<p>Turns out, surprise, there are supernatural forces at work.</p>
<p>The novel is fun and fast, the plot moving at a good clip, but it does little to advance the overall story arc of the series and with Grant away from his usual patch it feels more like an interlude than anything else.</p>
<p>But if you’re a fan of the series, definitely pick it up. If you haven’t made Grant’s acquaintance yet, start at the beginning with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Riot-Peter-Grant-Aaronovitch/dp/034552425X/ref=pd_sim_b_4?refRID=021MWTAPPVVVSXE1ZQ63&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Midnight Riot</a></em> and enjoy.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Defiles-Land-Fit-Heroes/dp/0345493109/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=dark%2Bdefiles&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1428701504">The Dark Defiles, by Richard K Morgan</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Land Fit for Heroes is a trilogy about a broken, strange world which incorporates and subverts most “regular” fantasy tropes and centers on three protagonists: An openly gay (and despised for it) master warrior, a black alien race half-breed with a drug problem (who is also gay but female so it’s not as much of a problem in the world), and a mongol horde-equivalent steppe warrior.</p>
<p><em>The Dark Defiles</em> is the grim, feverish finale to the trilogy begun in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Steel-Remains-Richard-Morgan/dp/0345493044/ref=pd_sim_b_2?refRID=11ZM6BS6RF8ME0N4G6NT&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">The Steel Remains</a></em> and wraps up many but certainly not all the mysteries of the series. Firmly in grimdark territory, Morgan’s characters are scheming, sweaty, soiled, trying to make their way through everything a broken world can throw at them.</p>
<p>I respect the subversion of fantasy tropes Morgan is aiming for here, but spent a lot of the series feeling like he’s gone too far in the unlikeable-hero and stuff-is-strange directions, with large portions feeling like nothing so much as unpleasant fever dreams.</p>
<p>If you enjoy your fantasy grim, Land Fit for Heroes is worth a clenched-jaw visit.</p>
<p>[through]:<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Something-Coming-Through-Paul-McAuley/dp/1473203945/ref=sr_1_1_twi_3_pap?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=something%2Bcoming%2Bthrough&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1427845483">http://www.amazon.com/Something-Coming-Through-Paul-McAuley/dp/1473203945/ref=sr_1_1_twi_3_pap?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=something%2Bcoming%2Bthrough&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1427845483</a>)</p>
TeleTubbies Joy Division edit2015-03-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/03/teletubbies-joy-division-edit/
<p>The TeleTubbies meet the Joy Division and the sum is greater than the parts.</p>
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C.G.P. Grey Explains Which Countries Are Generally Considered Part of Scandinavia2015-03-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/03/c-g-p-grey-explains-which-countries-are-generally-considered-part-of-scandinavia/
<p>Scandinavian history can be a bit confusing. Here’s a primer.</p>
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BlueBuds X and Jabra Revo Bluetooth headsets review2015-03-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/03/bluebuds-x-and-jabra-revo-bluetooth-headsets-review/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/revo-and-bluebuds.jpg" /></p>
<p>Bluetooth headsets are rapidly becoming the way to fly, doing away with annoyances like having to <em>shudder</em> have wires connecting your headphones to your stereo.</p>
<p>I’ve used both the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jabra-REVO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B00G2DKFRC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&sr=1-3&s=electronics&keywords=jabra%2Brevo&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1426387295">Jabra Revo</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/JayBird-BlueBuds-Sport-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B00AIRUOI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=bluebuds%2Bx&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1426387336">JayBird BlueBuds X</a> for several months and they’re both good for their intended purposes but have drawbacks.</p>
<p>By their very nature of having to provide their own power, Bluetooth headphones add annoyances like having to remember to charge your headphones or you will indeed have a quiet and boring workout session. For myself I always make sure to top the BlueBuds off before each session—life’s too short to stress about your headphones dying in the middle of a workout.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/JayBird-BlueBuds-Sport-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B00AIRUOI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=bluebuds%2Bx&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1426387336">BlueBuds X</a> and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jabra-REVO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B00G2DKFRC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&sr=1-3&s=electronics&keywords=jabra%2Brevo&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1426387295">Revos</a> share, obviously, their lack of wires, but also the use of pleasant female voices to tell you when they are connected and disconnected as well as fairly odd interface schemes.</p>
<p>Let’s begin with the BlueBuds, which solve a real, albeit first-world, problem: Wires are annoying when you’re working out. Less of a problem when you’re on the couch, but at the gym or running, ugh, wires, amirite?</p>
<p>Though no matter whether you’re looking to rock out at the gym or you want to walk around your house listening to tunes without wires, you have to deal with the “interesting” control schemes on both these headphones.</p>
<p>On the BlueBuds, you have to accept that the standard up volume, down volume, double-click to forward scheme has been transformed into, well, something.</p>
<p>I, personally, can’t understand it, whatever it is. And it involves volume up or down beeping. Seriously, I know you caught the click when you turned down the volume. I didn’t need to hear a <em>beep</em> to know that. And the double-click, well, I don’t know what the hell is happening there. I just want it to skip forward, but it doesn’t. It’s weird.</p>
<p>The Revos, on the other hand, have this whole odd future thing going on where you can swipe on the right can to change the volume and click different locations to forward or backward.</p>
<p><em>Sigh</em>. It’s not good. Unless perhaps if you have way better eye to hand coordination than I do. It’s a lot of moving your finger in the general area and guessing and cursing and wishing you were better at guessing where your finger is.</p>
<p>The BlueBuds are tiny little things and you have a bit of an arts and crafts project ahead of you when you first take them out of the box. Since they’re in-ears you need to find your tip size and since they come with flaps, or wings, if you prefer, that need to be fitted to your ears.</p>
<p>After you find your size, you have to adjust the strap—through a pretty cunning mechanism—so it’s snug against your head. Do not half-ass this step or you will be very unhappy in downward dog. Or so I’ve heard.</p>
<p>Once you’ve gone through the setup, what you have is a set of headphones that, though a little bit of a pain to put on, will stay snug through pretty strenuous workouts and that sound … decent. The BlueBuds do sound <em>much</em> better than the Apple EarPods and are impressive for their size, but the bass is lacking for any anthems you want to crank at the gym to push yourself.</p>
<p>But if you don’t enjoy the bass you’ll find them good. I’m hoping the next generation will find some way to get more solid bass.</p>
<p>Note that the set in the picture above have been fitted with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AQT61BM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Comply S-500 tips</a>, which makes them sit better in the ears—an option I recommend, but note that fitting the tips on the BlueBuds will involve some <em>determined</em> pushing.</p>
<p>The Jabra Revos, on the other hand, have a much more substantial size which gets you much longer battery life and an almost ridiculous amount of bass. The Revos are tuned for earthquake. Personally, I’m a simple man and I do enjoy the bass, so it’s not a problem, but if you like your headphones flat the Revos will probably annoy you.</p>
<p>(Incidentally, why, oh freaking why, does iOS <em>still</em> not have a system-wide equalizer? <em>Shakes fist in general direction of Cupertino.</em> People listen to audio a lot on these devices…)</p>
<p>Speaking of annoyances, one thing I haven’t seen mentioned in any reviews is that Bluetooth is highly susceptible to microwave interference so every time I’m cooking dinner and have to warm something in the microwave I find myself a little sad as the Revos start cutting out unless I go into a corner as far away from the microwave oven as possible until it’s done.</p>
<p>Note also that the Bluetooth stack in iOS (in my case an iPhone 6) does have a tendency to blow a gasket once in a while, leading to intermittent audio dropouts until you reboot the phone or turn Bluetooth off and on. It’s happened on both these products, but strangely never on my car stereo. <em>Shrug</em>.</p>
<p>Looks like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8&noredirect=1">“Did you try turning it off and on again”</a> will stay in the IT professional arsenal for a long time.</p>
<p><strong>Final thoughts:</strong> The BlueBuds are excellent for exercising. The sound is a little weaker than I’d like for the money, but acceptable, and the Revos are great <em>if</em> you can stomach a lot of bass. Cutting the headphone cords is a huge upgrade and it does seem inevitable this is the way of the future.</p>
<p>Oh, and speaking of future, the Revos have power-up and power-down sounds that make my inner 12-year-old happy every time I use them.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The product links above are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them I get a tiny kickback, which is greatly appreciated.</p>
Naked root domain with Amazon S3 without using Route 532015-03-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/03/naked-root-domain-with-amazon-s3-without-using-route-53/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/memtest.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>This took me way too long to figure out, so I hope this post will save you some time.</strong></p>
<p>If you’re the kind of cool cat who uses a <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/">static site generator like Jekyll for your site</a> you’re probably also the kind of cool person who wants to put your static site on <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon’s S3</a> so you don’t have to worry about a traffic spike taking your site down or your site getting hacked.</p>
<p>But if you’re like me you also want the site to use the apex domain, a.k.a. root domain, a.k.a. naked domain, that is, the site itself like <a href="http://thecoredump.org/">thecoredump.org</a> instead of <a href="http://www.thecoredump.org/">www.thecoredump.org</a>.</p>
<p><em>Cough</em> hipster <em>cough</em>.</p>
<p>For technical reasons based in the history of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System">DNS system</a> and how S3 (and platforms like <a href="https://www.heroku.com/">Heroku</a>) works, this is surprisingly difficult.</p>
<p>Amazon, not being idiots, have solved this problem with their <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/route53/">Route 53</a> DNS service. But what if you don’t want to use Route 53?</p>
<p>It looks grim, since Route 53 have figured out what is essentially a hack of the DNS system and one that’s mostly of use to them. Why would anybody else support this?</p>
<p>From a technical standpoint the issue is that the domain name system expects the naked domain, or if you want to use the technical term, the apex domain (which sounds like a pretty cool band name) to be set up to resolve to an IP address but Amazon’s S3 (and Heroku) does its own domain name resolution so there is no IP address to resolve to.</p>
<p><em>Bother.</em></p>
<p>But more and more domain name hosts are figuring out how to replicate this feat, and the one I recommend is <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/">Cloudflare</a>. If you put your domain behind Cloudflare (which I’ve been doing for years for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network">Content Delivery Network</a> functionality and the hack protection they provide), they support what they call <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cname-flattening-rfc-compliant-cnames-at-a-domains-root/">CNAME flattening</a>, which means they support naked domains for things like Amazon S3 and <a href="https://www.heroku.com/">Heroku</a>. Which is awesome. And free.</p>
<p>Incidentally, as I said, I’ve used Cloudflare for years and am continually amazed that their base level service is free. Seriously? A free <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network">CDN</a>? That’s very cool but kind of nutty.</p>
<p>So why not just use Route 53? This goes into a much bigger post about <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/">Amazon Web Services</a>. A lot of companies are building their businesses on top of AWS and are very happy with it, but the thing with AWS is that it’s incredibly flexible and that flexibility inevitably leads to complexity. AWS has a massive learning curve.</p>
<p>S3 is sort of an outlier in the AWS eco system in that it’s very straightforward: You create a bucket, you put files in the bucket, people can see the files. Boom. Simple. The rest of the AWS system is very much not so simple, including Route 53.</p>
<p>Route 53 lets you do all kinds of very cool things with the DNS system, but if all you want to do is put up a simple static site for your business you’ll get a headache real quick.</p>
<p>Cloudflare keeps it simple.</p>
<p>It’s so great you can put your static site on S3 and have an apex domain point to it and not have to worry about any kind of server maintenance and upkeep. <em>It’s very future.</em></p>
The Cars: Let’s Go2015-03-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/03/the-cars-lets-go/
<p>It’s amazing how solid The Cars were. So many tight songs.</p>
<p>And never forget: Old styles come back. One day hipsters will have hair like this again.</p>
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The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments2015-03-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/03/the-most-perfidious-way-of-harming-a-cause-consists-of-defending-it-deliberately-with-faulty-arguments/
<blockquote>
<p>The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Friedrich Nietzsche</p>
Say hello to Brimful Podcast2015-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/03/say-hello-to-brimful-podcast/
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<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/operator-square-612.jpg" alt="Brimful Podcast logo" class="img-responsive" width="300" />
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<p><strong>UPDATE OCT. 10, 2015:</strong> I’ve pulled the plug on Brimful. It was an interesting experiment and taught me a lot about creating a podcast, knowledge I’ll use in the future, but Brimful itself is dead. <strong>/UPDATE</strong></p>
<p>I love podcasting. I’ve loved it since the days when listening to a podcast in the car meant burning it to a CD and loading the CD into the player in your dashboard.</p>
<p>Dark days, those were.</p>
<p>Podcasts have almost completely replaced radio and have provided me so many hours of enjoyment. Apart from the convenience of selecting from a smorgasbord of content at whatever time of my choosing, the <em>huge</em> leap is the breadth of content that’s become available, content that’s free from the economics of lowest-common denominator broadcasting.</p>
<p>Whatever obscure thing you’re into, there’s somebody out there who’s into it <em>more</em> and is talking into a microphone about it for you to listen to for free. This is truly a beautiful thing.</p>
<p>And now I have my own. <em>Pinky finger to lip, maniacal laughter.</em></p>
<p>Brimful Podcast is a commute-length weekly podcast where I explain any technology in the news that week. The impetus for the show was my long-standing frustration with the inept way mainstream media covers technology and a desire to set the record straight.</p>
<p>Hence Brimful Podcast.</p>
<p>On weeks where technology hasn’t been that visible in the news, I explain the technologies that are all around us every day and that most people don’t know about, much less think about.</p>
<p>Please take a minute to check out Brimful on iTunes and visit the site.</p>
<p>And since I’m quite the marketing maven, the podcast even has its own Twitter account.</p>
<p>Do check it out and I hope you enjoy! Feedback is of course welcome.</p>
It is the folly of too many, to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of a kingdom2015-02-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/02/it-is-the-folly-of-too-many-to-mistake-the-echo-of-a-london-coffee-house-for-the-voice-of-a-kingdom/
<blockquote>
<p>It is the folly of too many, to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of a kingdom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) via <a href="https://twitter.com/qikipedia/status/570646995544776708">The QI Elves on Twitter</a></p>
Another shot of wet socks against net neutrality2015-02-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/02/another-shot-of-wet-socks-against-net-neutrality/
<p>Last Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, my hometown paper The Arizona Republic printed an <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2015/02/16/fcc-takeover-internet-fair/23387863/">amazingly harebrained editorial arguing against net neutrality</a>, which I contested on <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2015/02/against-net-neutrality/">this blog</a>.</p>
<p>But it seems net neutrality is a big enough talking point for the GOP these days that they had to go back to the well once again with <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2015/02/20/google-fiber-phoenix-gigabit/23730643/">Why Phoenix needs ultra-fast Internet</a>.</p>
<p>Here’s the sub head: “Our View: Fears that rich corporations will rule the Internet are best answered by building a bigger pipeline.”</p>
<p>And boy howdy, it goes full histrionic against net neutrality:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In nearly all respects, this planned regulatory scheme is a radical and destructive proposition. By enacting industry controls designed in the 1930s to regulate railroads, the FCC drastically would refashion the most dynamic engine of wealth creation of this generation into… a utility. A federally controlled tool shaped according to the whims of politicians and bureaucrats.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>This plan for so-called “net neutrality” is a myopic, investment-stifling solution in search of a problem in all but one theoretical respect:</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Especially in the residential market, the Internet pipeline as it exists today is too narrow, too short on bandwidth. Absent infrastructure improvements, in the not-too-distant future, the question of how to accommodate all the video-saturated uses planned for the Internet will stop being merely theoretical.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“A federally controlled tool shaped according to the whims of politicians and bureaucrats” most certainly deserves a golf clap: fitting “federal”, “tool”, “politicians” and “bureaucrats” into that short of a sentence really should win you some sort of Tea Party Scrabble prize.</p>
<p>So, good job.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the premise of this editorial is completely wrong, as anybody who has paid any amount of attention to the Internet well knows.</p>
<p>The problem is <em>not</em>, most emphatically <em>not</em> that there isn’t enough capacity on the Internet. The problem is that the carriers want to be able to extract blackmail money from innovative content creators to not slow down their content.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.</p>
<p>Speed increases are great—personally I can’t wait to see the things an order of magnitude higher Internet speeds will make possible and what companies will emerge from that shift. But speed increases will not take away the threat of carriers throttling content creators. And as speeds increase, the sizes of the content that gets pushed across the Internet also increases.</p>
<p>A history lesson: In 1991 I downloaded the shareware game Solaris. It was (I think—it was a long time ago, obviously) about 600 kilobytes. It took <em>eight hours</em> to download. Which was worth it—it was an awesome game. Today the average home page is three times that size and pops onto your phone in less than a second. That’s called progress.</p>
<p>So, Republic editorial board, it’s not a matter of increase the speed and then the problem goes away. Once the speed increases, the size of the content goes up. It always goes up. And the pathetic groveling for Google to magically come in and solve The Problems in the Name of the Market goes against the reality that the carrier market—or lack thereof—<em>is</em> the problem.</p>
<p>Google is pushing Google Fiber to force the incumbent carriers to up their game because the current market is <em>not</em> a market—it’s a monopoly or duopoly and Google is trying to disrupt it. How one huge company fighting the entrenched interests of an existing market means that the invisible hand of the market is working is difficult to comprehend.</p>
Against net neutrality2015-02-17T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/02/against-net-neutrality/
<p>This morning The Arizona Republic published an editorial with <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2015/02/16/fcc-takeover-internet-fair/23387863/">one of the worst arguments against net neutrality to ever waste innocent ink.</a></p>
<p>Take it away, editorial board:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Turning control of the Internet over to the FCC is an invitation to bring to a thudding halt the creative destruction that has marked the Internet from its outset.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The changes wrought through a free, open, mostly unregulated Internet have been monumental, all in service to a ubiquitous, dynamic electronic web that evolves before our eyes.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>What part of that tidal flow of change might an Internet-controlling FCC impede in the name of lawyerly “fairness”? The spread of ultra-fast Google fiber? Wearable technology? Both those nascent innovations tread on someone’s sense of fairness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Read those few short sentences again carefully—they are works of art when it comes to obfuscation. In those sentences, the editorial board manages to conflate two separate things not once but twice in a haze of purple prose.</p>
<p>First, they mix up the <em>content</em> delivered through the Internet and the <em>distribution</em> of that content. Which is either so ignorant that you can only marvel at the arrogance of sitting down and writing a strongly worded opinion about something you don’t understand or, more likely, a grossly cynical attempt at swaying the opinions of people who lack the grasp of basic technology by willfully lying to them.</p>
<p>Second, the word “fairness” has two meanings which, again, are conflated. There’s the actual meaning in this context, that of the content not being altered through things like artificial slow lanes, and the second an emotional response to perceived injustice.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the editorial board knows what they’re doing by mixing those meanings, making people think the big bad government is getting involved in decreeing what is fair and what is not. (Can you smell the lurching liberal oppression?)</p>
<p>The only thing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality">net neutrality</a> is concerned with is that the pipes don’t mess with the content. No matter what the content is and where it’s coming from. <em>There could not be less of a value judgment.</em></p>
<p>Golf clap for managing to sneak that piece of sleight of hand in there, I suppose.</p>
<p>If you haven’t been paying attention to net neutrality and don’t understand why I’m getting all bent out of shape about what is one of the most important issues facing America, huge expanses of the Internet can’t wait to inform you. <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/blog/net_neutrality">This is a good place to start</a>.</p>
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do2015-02-10T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/02/knowing-is-not-enough-we-must-apply-willing-is-not-enough-we-must-do/
<blockquote>
<p>Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</p>
As the rage rages in the Tea Party’s rage2015-02-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/02/as-the-rage-rages-in-the-tea-partys-rage/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/american-flag.jpg" /></p>
<p>Like a lot of rational people I’m continually baffled by the far right and especially the complete lack of reality they display: <em>Lower taxes are always better for the economy! Sharia law in Detroit and Paris! Women can shut down pregnancy from legitimate rape!</em></p>
<p>Facts simply do not matter.</p>
<p>Paul Krugman, a man who has put in more time in the trenches than most, recently wrote in the NYT <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/opinion/paul-krugman-hating-good-government.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0">about this issue</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And the list goes on. On issues that range from monetary policy to the control of infectious disease, a big chunk of America’s body politic holds views that are completely at odds with, and completely unmovable by, actual experience. And no matter the issue, it’s the same chunk. If you’ve gotten involved in any of these debates, you know that these people aren’t happy warriors; they’re red-faced angry, with special rage directed at know-it-alls who snootily point out that the facts don’t support their position.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The rage is especially interesting. Go watch pictures from any Tea Party rally and you’ll see a lot of older white people who are spectacularly angry.</p>
<p>As they should be, if they were correct. If the things they believe were actually based in reality, their entire way of life would be under constant siege from gays, queers, hippies, immigrants and Muslims who have all joined in a slavering zombie horde with the sole purpose of eradicating God-fearing real Americans.</p>
<p>Visit <a href="http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.asp">snopes.com</a> and you’ll see an endless parade of debunkings of far-right Facebook posts and mass emails about Sharia law being enacted, troops denied service, and on and on.</p>
<p>The big question, though, when reading the stories and seeing the videos is why anybody would choose to live that way? It must be a <em>terrible</em> way to live. Always angry, always looking over your shoulder, always afraid, always convinced of the near-collapse of civilization.</p>
<p>And it is a choice, make no mistake. No matter where you live and what circles you travel, it’s your choice if you want to spend your time eating TV-dinners in front of Fox News, never ever googling any outré statements they make. Your choice to scowl at the guy with the turban behind the counter at the Circle K, watching his hands for any sudden Muslim moves as he rings up your slurpee. Your choice to look at a newspaper and smugly dismiss what it says as “lamestream media” without even glancing down at your phone long enough to do a casual search for the validity of the claim.</p>
<p>You have the same Internet as everybody else and you have access to most of the written history of Western civilization.</p>
<p>But no.</p>
<p>For whatever reason, and it’s one I have a hard time fathoming, a large fringe of Americans are making the choice to live in a mental state of siege, convinced disaster is looming and only hyper-vigilance will save society from ruin.</p>
<p>Why would you do that? Why would you choose to doom yourself to a life of anger, frustration, fear and futility?</p>
<p>There are so many real issues we should be coming together as a society to address, but instead … rage.</p>
Death Traps and Fury2015-01-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/01/death-traps-and-fury/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/fury-wallpaper-4.jpg" /></p>
<p>There have been lots of strong, gritty World War II movies that do their best to show you the horror of that conflict, like <em>Saving Private Ryan</em>, <em>Flags of Our Fathers</em> and the German <em>Das Boot</em> and <em>Stalingrad</em>. All brutal and unrelenting.</p>
<p>But <em>Fury</em> is grimmer.</p>
<p>It does have problems as a movie: The characters never become more than sketches—and mostly unlikeable sketches at that—and the plot is thin and unimaginative, relying on plenty of the tropes of the genre. And of course having your face rubbed in the horror of war isn’t what anybody would call enjoyable.</p>
<p>But it’s technically solid, with the most intense battle scenes since <em>Saving Private Ryan</em>. Watching it, I thought the take-away (apart from war being really freaking loud) was that the Germans kept fighting long after they by any rights should have stopped and that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Sherman">the M4 Sherman tank was a poor tank</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fury_(2014_film)">the Wikipedia article on the film</a> mentions it was inspired by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Death-Traps-Survival-American-Division/dp/0891418148/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=death%2Btraps&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1422660817"><em>Death Traps</em>, the autobiography of maintenance company officer Belton Y Cooper</a>.</p>
<p>If you read <em>Death Traps</em> you understand the tone of the movie as well as why the eponymous tank is named Fury. The M4 medium tank was not just bad: It was a literal death trap for the crews manning it, so poorly armored it stood little chance against German tanks and German anti-tank weaponry.</p>
<p>M4 losses were appalling, but thanks to industrial might the American army were mostly able to replace or repair the machinery. This lead to a lack of tank crews so severe that replacement infantry soldiers were sometimes given a day of training before being thrown into battle against veteran German forces. Naturally, this was a recipe for disaster.</p>
<p>The obvious question is, why would the army of the nation with the strongest industrial base of the conflict go to war with such an inferior battle tank?</p>
<p>Turns out the M4 was designed by committee to satisfy several incompatible goals (all the following blockquotes are from <em>Death Traps</em>):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The armored and cavalry officers favored a large-caliber, high-velocity antitank gun mounted in the turret. The infantry officers still thought of the tank as an infantry assault weapon. The artillery officers thought that if a tank was going to carry a gun larger than a 37mm, the gun should conform to artillery specifications, which required a gun to be capable of 7,500 service rounds in combat. To meet this, a 75mm gun and larger would require a relatively low velocity. It apparently never occurred to the artillery officers that few tanks would ever survive in combat long enough to fire 7,500 service rounds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When battle tested it was obvious the tank could not take on German armor. But the great tank general Patton decided <em>that didn’t matter</em>. Here’s what Cooper has to say about Patton’s decision favoring the M4 over the heavier, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M26_Pershing">better-armored M26</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He said that the tanks of an armored division were not supposed to fight other tanks but bypass them if possible and attack enemy objectives to the rear. […] Patton felt that because the M4 tank was lighter and required less fuel than the M26, it would be faster and more agile and was better equipped to perform the mission of the armored divisions.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>In an excellent argument that the M26 heavy tank should be used, General Rose [who was later killed in combat] and other field commanders resisted the higher-ranking Patton. The experiences in North Africa at Kasserine Pass and also in Sicily had convinced them of the superiority of German armor and the need for a heavy tank to offset it. However, Patton persisted in his view; he was not above a hassle. He insisted that we should downgrade the M26 heavy tank and concentrate on the M4.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Patton’s rank and authority overwhelmed the resistance of the more experienced commanders, and the decision was made to concur with Patton’s view. SHAEF immediately notified Washington to deemphasize production of the M26 heavy tank and concentrate instead on the M4 medium tank. This turned out to be one of the most disastrous decisions of World War II, and its effect on the upcoming battle for Western Europe was catastrophic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Turned out the Germans did not care what U.S armored doctrine dictated and insisted on meeting the underpowered M4s head-to-head with superior tanks.</p>
<p>The weakest point in the movie is the ultimate night battle with SS troops after Fury has been disabled—weak because the SS troops who were urgently headed for a different location would have simply gone around the tank rather than attack it over and over <em>from the front</em> while displaying Star Wars Storm Trooper shooting skills with their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerfaust">Panzerfausts</a>—was based on a section of <em>Death Traps</em> in which a single and astonishingly bad-ass surviving tanker performed that same feat during an Allied advance:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the fighting around Hastenrath and Scherpenseel, the tankers, without adequate infantry support, performed almost superhuman acts of heroism to hold on throughout the night. It was reported that one of the tankers, in his tank on a road junction, was the only surviving member of his crew but was determined to hold his position at all costs.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The lone tanker had previously sighted his 76mm tank gun down the middle of the road. He depressed the mechanism slightly and loaded a 76mm HE [high explosive—used against non-armored targets]. As the Germans advanced in parallel columns along each side of the road, he fired. The HE shell hit the ground about 150 feet in front of the tank and ricocheted to a height of about 3 feet before it exploded.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The shock took the Germans completely by surprise. The American tanker continued to fire all the HE he had as rapidly as possible, swinging the turret around to spray the German infantry, who were trying to escape into the fields on both sides of the highway. Loading and firing the gun by himself was extremely difficult, because he had to cross to the other side of the gun to load and then come back to the gunner’s position to fire.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>After exhausting his HE and .30-caliber ammunition, he opened the turret and swung the .50 caliber around on the ring mount and opened fire again. He continued firing until all of his .50-caliber ammunition was exhausted, then he grabbed a .45 submachine gun from the fighting compartment and opened fire with this. After using all the ammunition from his Thompson and his pistol, he dropped back in the turret and closed the hatch.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>He opened his box of hand grenades and grabbed one. When he heard German infantry climb onto the back of the tank, he pulled the pin, cracked the turret hatch slightly, and threw the grenade. It killed all the Germans on the back of the tank and those around it on the ground. He continued to do this until all of his hand grenades were gone; then he closed the hatch and secured it.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>By this time, the German infantry unit apparently decided to bypass the tank. From the vicious rate of firing, they must have assumed that they had run up on an entire reinforced roadblock. When our infantry arrived the next day, they found the brave young tanker still alive in his tank. The entire surrounding area was littered with German dead and wounded. This, to me, was one of the most courageous acts of individual heroism in World War II.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Death Traps</em> was written to be a dispassionate account of Cooper’s experiences, but it’s obvious he was still seething with rage and resentment about the lives he saw wasted.</p>
<p>Read it, then watch <em>Fury</em>. And be happy you’re not in an M4.</p>
Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps2015-01-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/01/some-mornings-it-just-doesnt-seem-worth-it-to-gnaw-through-the-leather-straps/
<blockquote>
<p>Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Emo Phillips</p>
New technology requires new thinking2015-01-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/01/new-technology-requires-new-thinking/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/old-tech.jpg" /></p>
<p>Probably the biggest hurdle with new technology is that it requires people to change to get the most out of it.</p>
<p>When you adopt a technology to help solve a problem—like, oh let’s say, team work—if you just drop the technology in people will use it like a faster version of the old technology. It’s analogous to what happens to new media: First there’s radio and then there’s TV, and TV shows are radio shows with a camera trained on them until enough time goes by that pioneers discovers the strengths of the new medium and develop it into its own thing.</p>
<p>In offices today we’re still in the early part of that transition—we have better ways to do things, but they’re stuck in their old workflows.</p>
<p>Like the dreaded e-mail chain, where everybody’s sending e-mails around like they’re little slips of digital paper. And then a document needs revising, so a Word document gets attached to the e-mails, like it’s a bunch of papers.</p>
<p>There’s no sane reason to do this in 2015, but all over the world this happens in offices every day. Because it’s such a natural analog. You’re using new technology to make what you used to do faster and more efficient, but forcing it to conform to old habits.</p>
<p>And in offices around the world, people open the Word file, read it, edit it, and pass it along, exactly like a piece of paper that gets marked up by different people.</p>
<p>It may still be a win since sending e-mails is a lot easier, faster, and cheaper than couriering paper around, but it’s still the same old process, only turbocharged.</p>
<p>The hard part about adopting a digital workflow isn’t to replace the manual tools—<em>the hard part is to change the workflow.</em></p>
<p>People fear change. Most people at this point have realized the benefits of using a word processor instead of a typewriter, but that doesn’t change the writing <em>process</em>, only the physical act itself.</p>
<p>(As a sidenote here, the people working so hard on the Word team to add new features would cry themselves to sleep every night if they knew how many millions—perhaps billions by now—people use Word like it’s a typewriter with magic white-out.)</p>
<p>Which is profoundly sad—the state of computers and networks these days has the potential to revamp the process itself.</p>
<p>One obvious technology that has been mature and ready for the masses for a long time is shared documents. Let’s use Google’s implementation as an example, since it’s free and polished.</p>
<p><a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a> lets you create and edit text documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the Internet, which is great for people who move between different machines a lot, or for people who simply want to be able to work on a document at work, then pick up where they left off at home without resorting to kludges like e-mailing themselves the document or remembering to put it on a flash drive. That’s a win, right there.</p>
<p>But the real win is that other people can be invited to collaborate on the documents. So different people can change things at the same time. Which means <em>no more e-mailing documents back and forth.</em> No more having to figure out who has the latest version, or the even worse scenario of spending your time editing a document only to find out it’s several versions old and all your work was for naught. Not a good feeling, that.</p>
<p>So why aren’t more teams using technologies like Google Docs when the benefits are so obvious?</p>
<p>Because they <em>require</em> a new process. Why mess with something that works—well, that kind of works—but is grossly inefficient?</p>
<p>This is the challenge for technologists and technology evangelists—getting people to understand why changing the entire workflow is sometimes necessary to get the benefits of the technology. It can be a hard sell.</p>
<p>Lord, can it ever be a hard sell.</p>
An HTML, CSS and JavaScript lesson plan2015-01-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/01/an-html-css-and-javascript-lesson-plan/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/nic-teaching.jpg" /></p>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>Teaching HTML to beginners is difficult. <em>Learning</em> HTML is difficult and frightening for beginners.</p>
<p>This post contains a lesson plan for getting beginners started I’ve used with good success. It includes supporting files.</p>
<p>Why should you listen to me? I’ve taught HTML for over 15 years and <em>I’ve never made anybody cry.</em> Ask anybody who’s taught beginners to create websites and you’ll find I’m a unicorn. Oh, sure, there have been trembling lips and moist eyes, but no crying.</p>
<p>Web nerds should probably be close to your fainting couch for this: Most people, including “digital natives,” have <em>never seen</em> HTML. I’ll give you moment to recover.</p>
<p>HTML is alien and hostile for most people—one typo will make half the page disappear; you have to be in control of your files; and there’s a strict non-obvious and non-discoverable syntax you have to learn.</p>
<p>JavaScript in the context of the browser is even harder since you can’t do anything without understanding the basics of HTML (and preferrably CSS). So there’s a steep learning curve before a student can do anything to get excited about.</p>
<p>And of course being able to see the results of your work and getting excited is a huge part of learning something new and intimidating; it’s what insulates students from fear and frustration about the long road ahead.</p>
<h3>Why teach HTML basics</h3>
<p>It’s true most people will never need to create a website from scratch but will only need to understand enough to be able to use a Content Management System (CMS), but I argue everybody should nevertheless understand the basics of how websites are created.</p>
<p>HTML is one of the most fundamental pieces of technology that affects a first-world person’s life on a daily basis and you should understand what it is. Even if you do all your webwork inside a CMS, you will sometimes need to tweak things and knowing how to sprinkle in some CSS or a custom HTML tag will make all the difference.</p>
<p>Ignorance is not a good thing.</p>
<h3>The two paths to teach the basics</h3>
<p>One of the constant points of dissension between people who teach beginning Web skills is whether you should teach using <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html">a tool like Dreamweaver</a> or make students type in a text editor. I’ve tried it both ways and with that experience have come down hard on the text editor side of this argument.</p>
<p>There are two reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>If you want to use a tool like Dreamweaver you first have to teach the tool—this takes valuable time</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The tool will let students dig a deep, deep hole they can’t get out of without understanding the things the tool has hidden from them, so you—and your students—end up in a frustrating <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22">Catch-22</a>.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Teaching with a text editor (<a href="http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/">Text Wrangler</a> by Bare Bones is a great, free option on the Mac) on the other hand lets you get to the topic at hand almost immediately. (If you use Text Wrangler in class, don’t forget to tell your students about Soft Wrap.) Of course, typing HTML by hand is also more stark and forbidding, so positive reinforcement is important.</p>
<p>(And don’t be That Guy and try to have your beginners write HTML in <a href="http://www.vim.org/">Vim</a> or <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">Emacs</a>. Don’t. Just don’t.)</p>
<p>Note that <em>typing</em> is crucial: Have students type as much of their HTML as possible from your example up on the projector. Just reading is not enough. Typety-type-type. Though it’s a good idea to distribute the HTML skeleton—after explaining it thoroughly—to save some time.</p>
<p>As an instructor you will also discover the results of K12 schools cutting their typing classes: Most “digital natives” are horrendously slow typists. Build in enough time in the lesson plan to allow for this.</p>
<p>(It would be an interesting experiment to have students do typing tests on both their phones and on keyboards—I’d expect some of them to be faster on a slab of glass.)</p>
<h3>Lesson plan</h3>
<p>So here’s how I broke the Web portion down for an online media class at the <a href="http://cronkite.asu.edu/">Cronkite School</a>. Depending on the students and how long you make the lectures this will take two to six hours.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/downloads/html-css-js-resource-files.zip">Download a zip file of the example pages.</a></p>
<h4>The Underpinnings</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<p>How the Internet works</p>
<ul>
<li>TCP/IP, DNS, client-server relationships</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>History of HTML</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Why it is the way it is and the problem it solved</p>
<ul>
<li>Why Sir Tim-Berners Lee is a hero</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Naming files for the Internet</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Use only lowercase, a-z, 0-9, no spaces, no special characters for filenames</p>
<ul>
<li>Especially important on a Mac since it’s case-insensitive and things seem to work if you mix upper- and lowercase, but then things break when put on a Linux server and the world can see your work</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>The importance of the root folder</h4>
<ul>
<li>Why you must get into the habit of creating one first thing in a project</li>
</ul>
<h4>Writing HTML</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Distribute HTML skeleton and show the workflow: Edit in text editor, open in browser, save and refresh. Wax on, wax off</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students create a root folder</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students make a page with h1 and p tags</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students copy the page and create a second page, change the headline and text on the second page and link them together</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students download an image from the Web, put it in the root folder and include it in the page</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students add a different image to the second page</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>At this point students have created a two-page website with pages that link to each other and have images. This is big!</p>
<h4>Adding CSS</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Lecture on CSS, what problem it solves and why it’s different from HTML</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Distribute HTML skeleton and have students build a <em>new</em> two-page site using skills from previous lesson</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Add CSS includes and create a simple CSS file to change colors and fonts</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Explain why we have hex codes for colors and show <a href="https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/">Adobe Color CC</a> (née Kuler)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students experiment with fonts and colors</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Students now know how to customize the look of their pages.</p>
<h4>Adding JavaScript</h4>
<p>The objective of this part is to have students create a page they can interact with.</p>
<p>The lesson has three parts. First, create a page with a text box students can type into and see a different box update with the same text. Second, add in a test to see if the text box is empty and display different text. Third, build in an easter egg that displays special text when a certain word is input.</p>
<p>Yes, this is very basic. It will still bake the brains of students who’ve never programmed before—there are a lot of concepts to absorb.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Lecture on the basics of programming: variables, loops, functions, and conditionals</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Lecture on the history of JavaScript (Created in 10 days in 1995 by one man—which explains a lot)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Distribute the first file (<code>js1.html</code>) and verify it works</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Explain we’re going to change the page so the box doesn’t disappear when there’s no text in the text box</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Put up <code>js2.html</code> on the projector (don’t distribute) and have students type in the changes</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Explain we’re going to put in an easter egg. Because all programs must have easter eggs</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Put up <code>js3.html</code> (don’t distribute) on the projector and have students type in the changes</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Have students change the easter egg to a word of their own choosing</p>
<ul>
<li>(Only change the <code>if</code> statement)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Getting more advanced</h4>
<p>Obviously the pages so far have been basic. To take it to the next level, introduce students to frameworks like <a href="http://getbootstrap.com/">Bootstrap</a> that let them stand on the shoulders of giants.</p>
<p>There’s no better place to learn how to make the Web than the Web itself. Highlight resources like <a href="http://www.codecademy.com/">Code Academy</a>.</p>
<h3>Supporting documents</h3>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/downloads/html-css-js-resource-files.zip">Download a zip file of the example pages.</a></p>
<h3>Let me know how it goes</h3>
<p>If you end up using this, please do let me know how it went and if you have any feedback via <a href="mailto:nicl@thecoredump.org">email</a> or <a href="http://twitter.com/niclindh">Twitter</a>.</p>
Fanaticism is a monster that pretends to be the child of religion2015-01-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2015/01/fanaticism-is-a-monster-that-pretends-to-be-the-child-of-religion/
<blockquote>
<p>Fanaticism is a monster that pretends to be the child of religion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—Voltaire</p>
Book roundup, part 172014-12-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/12/book-roundup-part-17/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/So-Anyway-John-Cleese-ebook/dp/B00KAFVNY2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?qid=&sr=&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">So, Anyway…, by John Cleese</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>As you’d expect from an autobiography by John Cleese, <em>So, Anyway…</em> is smart, funny, and conversational. Fair warning, though, that it stops just as Monty Python are formed, so apart from allusions to Cleese and Terry Gilliam not being on the best of terms, to put it mildly, there’s little about that part of his life in here.</p>
<p>There’s plenty about his early life, strained relationship with his mom, and the escapades of his father, who clearly had an interesting time what with getting hurt in WWI then traveling around the waning Empire leading the life of a British gentleman before settling down in rural England to sell insurance.</p>
<p>One feeling I kept having when Cleese wrote about his college years and his start in comedy was how incredibly implausible it sounded. Not casting any aspersions on his truthfulness, but wow, the coincidences and lucky breaks are astonishing.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in Cleese himself or you’re a bit of an anglophile, <em>So, Anyway…</em> will do you solid.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Please-Amy-Poehler-ebook/dp/B00IHZS39A/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=yes%2Bplease%2Bpoehler&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1417563151">Yes Please, by Amy Poehler</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>A funny and smart mix of stories about Poehler’s life, advice, and general oddity. It’s a fast, easy read, though the name dropping gets a bit heavy at times.</p>
<p><em>Yes Please</em> made me binge-watch <em>Parks and Recreation</em>, which was enjoyable.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Mirror-Empire-Worldbreaker-Saga-ebook/dp/B00IQQUYVK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?refRID=16WCS65A2TR4JE8D7DHZ&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">The Mirror Empire, by Kameron Hurley</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>One of the best new fantasy novels I’ve read in ages, <em>The Mirror Empire</em> does very interesting things with the tropes of the genre and is completely engrossing.</p>
<p>Be prepared to concentrate, though—the plot is intense and dense. You’ll be rewarded.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/London-Falling-Paul-Cornell/dp/0765368102/ref=la_B009OJYFUO_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1419532954">London Falling, by Paul Cornell</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>There’s a whole sub genre of urban fantasy that takes place in London and <em>London Falling</em> is the darkest take on the genre I’ve seen. It’s a bit hard to discuss the plot without spoiling it, but basically four hard-case police officers working on a case accidentally acquire what they call the Sight, enabling them to see the supernatural elements and beings that crowd around London, including and centrally to the story a very terrible witch.</p>
<p><em>London Falling</em> admirably sticks to being a noir police procedural with the supernatural elements added on top, providing another level of menace and straight-up creepiness.</p>
<p>This is one of the most British books I’ve read when it comes to vocabulary, to the point where I had to concentrate to understand some passages, which added to the atmo.</p>
<p>It’s also the first in the Shadow Police series and frustratingly the only one. If you happen across this review, Mr. Cornell, please write as fast you can—can’t wait for the next installment!</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Homes-Peter-Grant-Book-ebook/dp/B00DYX9OPC/ref=sr_1_4_twi_2?sr=8-4&ie=UTF8&keywords=rivers%2Bof%2Blondon&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1419627210">Broken Homes, by Ben Aaronovitch</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Broken Homes</em> is the fourth installment in the great Rivers of London series and you should absolutely not start here but <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Riot-Peter-Grant-Book-ebook/dp/B004C43F70/ref=sr_1_2_twi_1?sr=8-2&ie=UTF8&keywords=rivers%2Bof%2Blondon&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1419731072">at the beginning</a>—the series is written with each novel having a stand-alone plot but there’s also an arch that gets more and more interesting as it goes on.</p>
<p>So Rivers of London is written like a TV series and rewards binge-reading. Which is great until you reach the end of the published novels and have to sit in a corner and wait for the next one to get your fix.</p>
<p>Rivers of London is part of the London urban fantasy genre, like <em>London Falling</em>, but takes a much lighter tone. Our protagonist, Peter Grant, is a police officer with the ability to see the supernatural elements of London and is apprenticed to a wizard police officer who runs a tiny department in the police force that deals with the “special” sorts of cases.</p>
<p><em>Broken Homes</em> gets deeper into the mythology and has Grant figuring out what is going on with a London slum skyscraper. Hint: Bad things.</p>
<p>It moves the series along and there’s a <em>huge</em> twist at the end, but it’s not the best installment. Still, if you’ve gotten this far in the series, you’ll enjoy it and get excited for the next installment, which is January 6, 2015 according to Amazon.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perfidia-James-Ellroy-ebook/dp/B00J1IQUYC/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=ellroy%2Bperfidia&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1417921612">Perfidia, by James Ellroy</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Ellroy is back in LA in this first novel in a new series that takes place around the time of Pearl Harbor, before the events in the LA Quartet.</p>
<p>As you’d expect from Ellroy it’s super densely plotted and written and the most hard core of hard core noir. Soooo dark and depressing. And incredibly impressive both for its own sprawling plot and for all the recurring characters from the LA Quartet. (You don’t have to have read it to enjoy <em>Perfidia</em>, but if you have you’ll gasp in places as you get the back story of characters in those novels.)</p>
<p>If you’re an Ellroy fan, <em>Perfidia</em> is a given.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Peripheral-William-Gibson-ebook/dp/B00INIXKV2/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=gibson%2Bperipheral&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1417564975">The Peripheral, by William Gibson</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p><em>The Peripheral</em> may very well be Gibson’s best work ever, which is high praise indeed. It gives us not one but two dystopian near-futures and is lathered with his polished, smooth prose. It’s impossible to talk about the plot without spoiling, so I’ll leave it alone except to say that it’s completely normal to start reading this novel and enjoying it while being utterly confused. Until that glorious moment when the plot clicks into focus.</p>
<p><em>Glorious.</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Burning-Chrome-William-Gibson-ebook/dp/B00ICMWZH4/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=burning%2Bchrome&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1418244022">Burning Chrome, by William Gibson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>After reading <em>The Peripheral</em> I decided to revisit <em>Burning Chrome</em>, Gibson’s classic short story collection. And even though some of the specifics of how cyberspace works and the prevalence of Japanese cyberdecks and conglomerates dates it pretty badly, they’re still beautiful vignettes, and since the technology was never really the thing, it’s still a great collection.</p>
<p>Since the last time more than 20 years ago I last read it, I’d forgotten how sad the stories are—regret is a constant theme.</p>
<p>Well worth a re-read or a first read if you’ve been living under a rock.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kameron-Hurley-Omnibus-ebook/dp/B00E257Y2G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=kameron%2Bhurley%2Bomnibus&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1417563337">The Kameron Hurley Omnibus, by Kameron Hurley</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>I was impressed enough with <em>The Mirror Empire</em> to pick up this omnibus of Hurley’s entire Bel Dame Apocrypha series, <em>God’s War</em>, <em>Infidel</em>, and <em>Rapture</em>.</p>
<p>Far-future sci-fi, the series takes place on a planet colonized mostly by Muslim nations. The terraforming didn’t go super well, and the nations have descended into a horrific never-ending war.</p>
<p>Our protagonist is a former Bel Dame, what government enforcers-slash-sheriffs are called and she is most emphatically not a nice human being. And neither is anybody else. The series is grim and grimy with a strong sense of noir.</p>
<p>With the general unpleasantness of everybody involved, it can be a bit of a slog, but Hurley’s world building is first-rate and full of interesting details like the use of insects as technology-analogs (a result of the terraforming not going well) and plenty of misandry (women run the planet and are just as bad at is as men).</p>
<p>The Bel Dame series is well worth checking out if you want a different flavor of sci-fi.</p>
Introducing the Link Dump2014-12-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/12/introducing-the-link-dump/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/memtest.jpg" /></p>
<p>As a maestro of being bad at marketing, I never even thought to talk about <a href="http://linked.thecoredump.org/">the link blog I’ve been running for a while</a>. Because with a blog and Twitter and whatnot, there sure wasn’t any place for me to talk about the fact that I’m finding interesting links and sharing them…</p>
<p>Urgh. Bad at Internet.</p>
<p>Still, I did. Run it, I mean. For what it’s worth. And I intend to keep running it at its new home.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE Jan. 7, 2017.</strong> I didn’t keep it running. Nope. Twitter and Facebook and whatever are for sharing links, not blogs, it seems. <strong>/UPDATE.</strong></p>
<p>Moving the link blog (aka “The Flatline” in an obvious William Gibson homage. And speaking of Gibson, it’s upsetting that with all these new idiotic top-level domains like .plumbing there’s no .cyber or .sprawl. Heathens.) to its new domain and obvious new name—“The Link Dump”—turned out to be not hard but annoying in that “have to spend time in the Terminal fighting things” way I’d hoped we would be past in 2014.</p>
<p>Still, there were things to learn in moving a WordPress site from one URL to the other without downtime.</p>
<p>The most important is that by now you should only self-host your Internet presence if you enjoy dorking with computers.</p>
<p>Seriously. Self-hosting is still hard and involves a lot of arcana. Which if you’re the kind of person who have asked yourself, “How does a BIOS actually work?” and then figured it out only means you’ll have to sink some time into it. But if you’re normal you’ll have to call somebody.</p>
<p>So unless you enjoy knowing a lot about incredibly specific things or you have a tame nerd at hand, you should not self host your stuff.</p>
<p>Newline. Newline. Italics. <em>Should not.</em></p>
<p>Unless you get off on doing it yourself, you’re going to have to pay somebody a lot of money. And the teenager across the street who says he can do it for a couple of movie passes? Maybe he can, and maybe he can’t, but even if he can, will he take your call when the site goes down during the school day?</p>
<p>So what should you do instead of self-hosting? For a simple blog like this or the link blog, just use <a href="http://tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, <a href="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</a> or <a href="http://squarespace.com/">Squarespace</a>. (Disclaimer: I’ve never used Squarespace, but the people who have seem to like it.)</p>
<p>This way there are platoons of people who get paid to make sure your site stays up while you sit on the beach sipping a chilled beverage, plotting your next post.</p>
<p>But, a lot of people say at this point, I have specific things my site must do that <a href="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</a> or Tumblr or whatnot doesn’t do, so I must self-host!</p>
<p>To which I say, How much money do you want to spend to have that particular specific feature? Because you’ll need to hire a Web developer to make that happen. <em>And</em> how crucial is that feature? WordPress and Tumblr are pretty mature platforms at this point and have built in most of the functionality sane people want on their sites. So if you absolutely must have some functionality they don’t have, you’re either on to something great or you’re nuts. Which one is it?</p>
<p>The main thing to worry about is the URL: <em>You must own your own domain.</em> Fortunately you don’t have to spend more than $10 or $20 per year for a domain.</p>
<p>You must own your domain so you can move around. If you start on <a href="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</a>, then decide, You know what, I do need crazy feature X I can only get if I self-host, if you own your own domain you can just move all your content over and keep all your Google juice.</p>
<p>But if you’re on <a href="http://awesomeness.wordpress.com/">awesomeness.wordpress.com</a> then decide to move to awesomeness.ninja you’ll have to let your readers know about the change, hope they update their bookmarks, then wait for your Google juice to regenerate, which will suck.</p>
<p>But Nic, you say, didn’t you just move your link blog across domains? Isn’t that what sparked this rant?</p>
<p>You are correct. Did I mention I suck at marketing?</p>
Our little sociopathic predator fluffballs2014-12-13T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/12/our-little-sociopathic-predator-fluffballs/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/helios-patio.jpg" /></p>
<p>Our relationship with cats is amazing when you think about it. We take these small predators that—unlike dogs—have had no evolutionary pressure whatsoever to consider us as anything but sources of food and warmth, invite them into our homes, provide food and shelter, and clean up their waste.</p>
<p>Which, let’s be real here, is <em>disgusting.</em></p>
<p>If you have a cat you’ve had those moments when you’re bent over the litter box, plastic shovel in hand and, tears in your eyes, choking back the urge to vomit.</p>
<p>And this you do, because you love your little furry friend.</p>
<p>Your little furry friend who is a sociopathic predator that lives to murder.</p>
<p>One of our monsters, Helios, pictured above, has started to sleep with his helper monkeys now that the nights are getting colder, and he tends to come by as I’m reading myself to sleep, purring up a storm next to me.</p>
<p>Which is great—how can you not love that?</p>
<p>But then the other night as I was petting him I realized, “Wait. I’m feeling super great that this animal I feed and clean up excrement from is allowing me to pet him and make him feel so good he purrs.”</p>
<p>Sucker. Just a sucker.</p>
The glanceable wrist in your future2014-12-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/12/the-glanceable-wrist-in-your-future/
<p>I’ve worn a <a href="https://getpebble.com/">Pebble watch</a> for about a year now, and it’s great for my particular use case, which as you’d expect involves not caring if people around me think I’m a huge nerd. (The Pebble is a large, relentlessly nerdy object to have on your wrist.)</p>
<p>While huge nerds like me will love the Apple Watch, I still think it will be <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2014/09/the-watch-is-nigh-and-i-dont-get-it">a bridge too far</a>, no matter how “intimate” they make the thing. Getting notifications on your wrist is and will probably remain a nerdy thing and not something normal humans are interested in. (For “interested in” read “recoil in horror from.”)</p>
<p>Apart from the dark horse of what currently secret functionality the Apple Watch will include, the main things that will set it apart from the Pebble will be the integration: Apple can make it do things Pebble just can’t. We don’t know yet what that will be. And whereas the Pebble looks like a nerd gadget, the Apple Watch will be much sleeker.</p>
<p>But will that be enough to get the masses interested? I’m doubtful.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read on the Internet from people who’ve bought Pebbles and <a href="http://www.android.com/wear/">Android Wear</a> watches to get a jump on the Apple Watch experience, there are three main schools of thought: 1) Lordie! Having notifications on my wrist is the bomb! (I fall into this category); 2) My wrist keeps buzzing and this is so annoying <em>kill it with fire</em>; and 3) Meh. I don’t really need this—taking my phone out of my pocket isn’t exactly arduous.</p>
<p>Note that most of the discussion centers around notifications, since that’s the most obvious thing the Pebble and Android Wear watches do.</p>
<p>And I do like the notifications my wrist and don’t find them oppressive since I turned off <em>a lot</em> of notifications on my phone before getting the Pebble. To me having the phone buzz in my pocket means I need to know what it’s saying, so most notifications are off.</p>
<p><em>This probably counts as a life hack/tip: Turn off all notifications that aren’t crucial. Everywhere. You’re welcome.</em></p>
<p>But the Pebble does more than just notifications. For my use case, it’s a watch, a timer and a music controller. I do a lot of physical therapy to alleviate my IT band syndrome, and having a timer set for 40 seconds right there on my wrist is <em>huge</em>. And I mean huge in the same way that a remote control is huge: When I first heard about remote controls for TVs I thought it was the silliest thing I’d ever heard. What kind of lazy bastard can’t get off the couch to switch the station?</p>
<p>Well, me, as I learned five minutes after using a remote control for the first time.</p>
<p>Same thing with having timer functionality right there on my wrist instead of using a separate device.</p>
<p>But I’m a professional alpha nerd and the kind of person who buys a Pebble or Android Wear watch in order to write about it on their blog or talk about it on their podcast is also a huge nerd, so what the normal humans will think when the Apple Watch hits the street will be very interesting indeed.</p>
<p>For myself, having an Apple-quality color screen on my wrist will sure be nice. But much love for Pebble who were the first to show that a wrist computer is a useful thing.</p>
<p>Though I still can’t wrap my head around how millions and millions of people will agree.</p>
The story we tell ourselves2014-11-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/11/the-story-we-tell-ourselves/
<p>If you follow politics in America these days, you’re probably angry and depressed a lot, no matter where on the spectrum you fall. Because the other side is not getting what you’re talking about at all.</p>
<p><em>Of course</em> the other side are mentally deficient idiots. Of course they are. The truth is out there, it’s self-evident and they are refusing to even see it.</p>
<p>They must be insane or at the very least liars.</p>
<p>But of course that’s not the way it works. Whichever side you’re on, the opposite side aren’t morons who want to watch the country burn as they giggle and drool. (Well, not most of them at least.)</p>
<p>Instead, what’s happening is that people are being people. And us humans are poorly equipped indeed to deal with the modern world.</p>
<p>We <em>are</em> exquisitely well-tailored to living in extended-family groups of less than 150 people on the African savannah—that’s where our species spent most of its time, hunting and gathering and procreating.</p>
<p>At that time, a tendency to freak out at specific threats—like Ebola—and an ability to dehumanize everybody different from you was valuable.</p>
<p>But now we live in huge cities where we’re forced to interact daily with people we’ve never seen before. Think about it: The person driving the plane or train or subway or bus you take to work is probably somebody you’ve never even laid eyes on before the trip. And yet, you’re going to trust that person to take you to your destination without crashing. How do you know that person can do that? You’re going to have to trust the system.</p>
<p>Otherwise you’ll have a hard time just leaving the house.</p>
<p>So the story you tell yourself is that this person has been trained and tested by whatever appropriate authority and will perform just fine.</p>
<p>That’s your narrative while traveling.</p>
<p>The narrative is mostly underground, outside your active consciousness, guiding what you think and feel, taking new pieces of information and conforming them to what you already know.</p>
<p>But that’s not all the narrative does: The narrative forces you to discard any piece of information you receive that don’t fit.</p>
<p>This is how we keep from going insane—tailoring the inputs we get to our existing narrative, in the process throwing away inputs that don’t fit—those inputs that don’t fit would force you to rethink what you believe.</p>
<p>And that would suck: Now you’re spending a lot of time and energy reevaluating what you believe instead of finding food and procreating. This, to your mind, is a huge waste.</p>
<p>You should follow the narrative; you should bring every new piece of information into line with the narrative. If you don’t, you’re fighting your brain and you’re spending energy your brain is worried will run out on something non-essential and potentially harmful. This can’t be tolerated.</p>
<p>So your brain will bring you back on track—to the narrative.</p>
<p>It’s useful to think about your narrative and if it still fits your life.</p>
<p>A hard thing to do, but very much worth doing.</p>
It's the words, stupid2014-11-16T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/11/its-the-words-stupid/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bookshelf16by9.jpg" /></p>
<p>I love books. Always did. I was the kid in middle school who’d be late to class after lunch because I was in the library reading.</p>
<p>But with the advent of e-readers and read later-type apps I’m realizing more and more that it wasn’t <em>books</em> I loved, it was the content of those books. This is not a semantic quibble, it’s at the core of the disruption happening to the publishing industry.</p>
<p>I still love going to a bookstore to browse the aisles and get ideas about things to read, but I’m not purchasing more corpses of trees. Which is of course very bad news for the bookstore and I do feel bad about that. I’ll usually buy a cup of coffee so I’ve at least done something to keep them in business.</p>
<p>(I should add here that if you’re a fellow book lover who’s fuming at this cavalier attitude to Keeping Bookstores in Business, I feel you. I get loving books as objects. The image at the top of this post is a fraction of the books in my home. Books I’ve read and loved.)</p>
<p>We’re at the point now, though, that e-readers are valid ways to read all by themselves and the artifact that is the book as physical object is no longer necessary.</p>
<p>Not only is it not necessary, but it is <em>worse</em> than the electronic equivalent.</p>
<p>Can you change the font and font size in a printed book? No you can not.</p>
<p>Can you tap on a word you don’t know and get a dictionary definition? No you can not.</p>
<p>Can you finish a book, be super excited about reading the next installment in the series, buy the thing right there and start reading it? No you can not.</p>
<p>Can you realize you don’t remember who a character is and search for the first time that character was introduced? No you can not.</p>
<p>So, the utility of a dead-tree corpse is actually worse than an electronic version. And yet, and yet. It does hold a special place in a book-lover’s heart. Holding the thing. Smelling the thing. It’s a <em>thing</em>, a physical manifestation of a writer’s blood sweat and tears. It’s real in a way an e-book just isn’t.</p>
<p>But then, so were CDs, which were in themselves a much better audio experience than vinyl, but also a much worse physical manifestation than vinyl.</p>
<p>Listening to an album on vinyl was a physical experience: Taking the album out of its cover, putting it on the turntable, cleaning it with the brush and cleaning solution, lowering the needle, hearing that static before the track started… Physical and real.</p>
<p>And way worse of a presentation of the actual content of the medium than the CD provided in its own detached, clinical way.</p>
<p>If you’re the kind of person who relishes touching and holding physical books (or vinyl albums, for that matter), more power to you. Keep doing your thing. As long as you have money to spend you will be catered to. But you are a member of a diminishing minority.</p>
<p>Apart from but related to the conveniences listed above, here’s the number one reason I love e-books: They give <em>me</em> the choices. Not the publisher or the designer. I get to choose (within Amazon’s needlessly limited options, granted) which font to use and which size I want it and—and this is the important part—that choice applies to all the books I read. This way, the only thing I care about in the book, the content, is distilled down to its essence.</p>
<p>It’s just me and the words.</p>
<p>You can’t influence my perception with nicer paper or a better design. It’s just the words.</p>
<p>As it should be.</p>
Voting in America2014-11-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/11/voting-in-america/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/american-flag.jpg" /></p>
<p>I became an American citizen in 2006 and have voted faithfully in every election since. And every election I’m struck by just how willfully archaic the American system is.</p>
<p>Which I think stems from the fact that <em>America loves the idea of America more than it loves the actual America.</em></p>
<p>The <em>idea</em> of America is of a hardy frontier nation of hamlets full of white people, all bandying together to fight off the enemy, however you defined the enemy. (Hint: Usually people who weren’t white.)</p>
<p>Which America sort of was, you know, 300 years ago. But the America that exists now is a nation of people of different skin colors living in sprawling metropolises, not knowing their neighbors, trying to make ends meet by working post-industrial jobs.</p>
<p>But before we get into the current problems, let’s first cover the basics of the American voting system. For people unfamiliar with the system, the process goes like this:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>First, you register to vote and indicate which party you want to be affiliated with: Democrat, Republican or Independent. Yes, you have to indicate who you’re going to vote for. Nobody here finds that odd. The reason for this is so you can vote in the primary election where each party elects their candidates. This is so the parties don’t have to actually do the work of figuring out who their representative should be. Efficiency, you see?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Then, depending on which state you live in, <em>many different things can happen</em>. This is because each state gets to make up their own rules for how to run elections. Yes, even elections for federal office. Nobody seems to find this strange, not to mention a massive waste of time, energy and money.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In Arizona, the only state where I’ve voted, we can choose to vote by mail. This is civilized and good.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>So in Arizona, a bit before the election, your ballot arrives.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You fill it out and mail it in and hope it didn’t get lost somewhere.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Ah, the ballot. The piece of high-grade paper you are sent. On the ballot are the choices you’d expect, like president, governor, secretary of state and whatnot. But it doesn’t end there. Nope. America is a direct democracy where the voter gets to have her say on many, many things.</p>
<p>Which I’m sure made sense in the 1800s when the majority of people lived in tiny burghs where everybody knew everybody and <em>of course</em> you should have your say in who sits on the school board.</p>
<p>However, now that the majority of Americans live in metro areas, turns out I don’t know who Joe Blow is or whether he’d be a good candidate for the corporation commission.</p>
<p>Not to mention the judges. International readers, did you know America elects it judges? Again, something that made sense in Deadwood but is now just archaic idiocy.</p>
<p>And then there are the propositions. These are suggestions for laws proposed by either citizen initiatives or the legislature. In theory this is so the legislature can wisely get the people’s direct input on controversial proposed laws so everybody gets their say, but in practice it’s usually ideas the legislature recognizes are so nutty they don’t want their names behind them but at the same time special interests they are beholden to want to see them pass, so they kick them out into the propositions. “Hey, I tried.”</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the citizen initiatives that manage to collect enough signatures to become propositions tend to also emanate from special interest groups. So they are often concerned with keeping particular industries unregulated.</p>
<p>You take the sheer amount of people you have to know well enough to decide whether to vote for or not and the amount of propositions you have to read through and think about together in order to feel good about casting your ballot and it leads to three classes of voters:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>The wonks who’ve researched the heck out of everything. All three of them;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The fired-up base who are rolling in to vote a straight party ticket; and</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The ones who just can’t be bothered to deal with all this bullshit and also need to get to their second job so they can keep food on the table. Those don’t vote, especially not in a midterm election.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>In the 2010 midterm election, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/11/04/data-deep-dive-voter-turnout-varies-widely-by-state">Arizona’s voter turnout was 35%.</a> Which is not a shameful number at all. Nope.</p>
<p>So, every two years the citizens of America must make sure they are still on the voter rolls, hoping there hasn’t been a new rule change they didn’t hear of that kicked them off, then make sure to get the time off to go vote on a Tuesday.</p>
<p>Yes, a Tuesday. America loves democracy so much we decided to have our elections on a work day. And if you live in a state without mail-by-vote and your boss won’t give you time off to go vote? Well, clearly you didn’t deserve to anyway.</p>
<p>The hours the polls are open of course differ by state as does the density of polling places. Because it’s important the states get to make decisions about these things which clearly differ so widely between states since they are not all peopled by humans. Or something.</p>
<p>Seriously, this is not the way to do this and it hasn’t been the way to do this for over 100 years.</p>
<p>It’s embarrassing and scary how large a portion of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_India">second-largest democracy on the planet</a> finds this state of affairs “well, shrug, fine” or even scarier “best ever hell yeah!”</p>
<p>The country I adopted is better than this. Or at least should be.</p>
The Kindle Voyage is a solid update with an achilles heel2014-10-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/10/the-kindle-voyage-is-a-solid-update-with-an-achilles-heel/
<p>Not long ago I wrote about how much I love reading on my Kindle, but <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2014/08/an-apple-ebook-reader-would-be-nice/">lamented its deplorable build quality</a> and wished Apple would enter the e-ink field with a premium device. As expected, that didn’t happen, but surprisingly enough Amazon instead released <a href="http://www.amazon.com/High-Resolution-Display-Adaptive-PagePress-Sensors/dp/B00IOY8XWQ?tag=thecoredump-20">a new, premium Kindle, the Voyage</a>, which addresses most of my complaints.</p>
<p>The Voyage has a better screen, even backlighting, a brightness sensor, is <em>much</em> faster to respond to touches, and has vastly improved build quality. While not what anybody would call Apple quality, the Voyage is significantly nicer to hold than previous Kindles, which as you know feel disposable and chintzy.</p>
<p>So yay for Amazon! If you spend a lot of time with your Kindle, the Voyage is a very nice update, with improvements pretty much everywhere.</p>
<p>Theoretically one of the nicest features of the Voyage is buttons. Yes! No more moving your thumb to the screen to turn the page!</p>
<p>Which is nice and overdue. But. Somebody at Amazon decided that actual physical buttons are passé. So instead we get something called PagePress.</p>
<p>Yes, let it sink in, take a deep breath, find your chi and just become one with the idea that instead of physical buttons like you use every day we now have a technology named after the button but which assuredly is not a pedestrian button that smells bad what with all the common people touching it.</p>
<p>Instead of last-century button bullshit where you push the thing and something happens we now have PagePress. With PagePress you “Simply apply pressure on the bezel to turn the page, and PagePress will provide a silent haptic response for consistent and immediate feedback.” You know, like a button except it’s nothing so gauche as a button. Nono. Instead it’s a touch sensitive area on the bezel you mash to turn the page.</p>
<p>This is clearly a huge win for our civilization that was <em>so over</em> buttons so long ago. I mean, <em>eye-roll. Buttons. Sheesh.</em></p>
<p>So with PagePress you get no feedback until your Kindle buzzes—sorry, “provides a silent haptic response”—and turns the page.</p>
<p>I’ve read hundreds of pages on my Kindle Voyage and I still don’t have muscle memory for exactly how hard to push. Because I’m pushing on rigid plastic.</p>
<p>Perhaps it will come. Perhaps not.</p>
<p>To make it worse, the pressure-sensitive areas of the bezel only have a visual indication that they’re pressable, so when you’re reading and—you know, as you do when you’re reading—focusing on the screen, you have to visually check your thumb is on the right area.</p>
<p>It’s really inexcusably stupid and I wonder what kind of corporate culture could let this kind of dumb get out the door in a premium product.</p>
<p>But nevertheless, if you’re a heavy Kindle user, it’s still worth the upgrade. If nothing else, having your Kindle respond to touches the same day is worth it, and yes, the screen is gorgeous.</p>
<p>It’s just amazing that smart people could get together and tell themselves that mashing on an area of the bezel would be way better than a lowly button. I wonder if any of those people have ever actually sat down on the couch to read a book on a Sunday afternoon.</p>
Our technology is bad and we should feel bad2014-10-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/10/our-technology-is-bad-and-we-should-feel-bad/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/memtest.jpg" /></p>
<p>The state of technology these days is incredible—we have a world-wide instant communications network accessible to the majority of people living in developed countries (and spreading fast to the rest of the world); we are able to carry devices in our pockets that connect to the global network and sense where we are and what we are doing; we have covered the sky in satellites. Think about that: We put man-made objects in orbit and they perform duties for us all day every day. It’s mind-boggling.</p>
<p>But.</p>
<p>It’s all duct tape, bailing wire and custom code all the way down.</p>
<p>Hardly a day goes by without some security vulnerability hitting one of the pieces of software we depend on. Target, Home Depot and who knows who else have leaked customer credit cards. Heartbleed, Poodle and Shellshock have exploited old, old bugs lurking in the foundations of the code that runs our entire online civilization. Flash and Microsoft Word—just to provide high-profile examples—keep releasing security updates for horrific vulnerabilities that would allow anybody to control your computer and see all your data from anywhere in the connected world.</p>
<p>That’s a plugin that plays videos and a word processor. They are leaky enough that somebody could use their flaws to control your computer. You should be asking yourself why either of these programs have enough access to your computer this is even possible.</p>
<p>Massive vulnerabilities are just background noise at this point.</p>
<p>Back in a previous life I worked with a bunch of electrical engineers who explained to me at a very high level suitable for a dummy how a computer actually works. Ever since, I’m slightly gratified any time one of them actually boots and works. The complexity is mind-blowing. It really is. Seriously, if you’re physically close to a university, roll by and buy a few engineering students some coffee and/or beer and have them explain this stuff to you. You will never believe your phone will work right again.</p>
<p>Now think about software. Whether you have an Android or iOS device, you probably enjoy using it. The software is <em>nice</em> and lets you do what you want with a minimum of headaches. Now think about your job. If you work for any kind of large or specialized organization, you get to use custom software.</p>
<p>How is that going for you?</p>
<p>Most likely it’s terrible. Turns out, writing software is really hard and the big companies like Adobe, Apple, Google and Microsoft expend an incredible amount of effort and spend a ton of money hiring the smartest people possible to make that happen.</p>
<p>Most companies do not have that kind of talent pool or that kind of resources. They still write software. And most of it is terrible. Because, again, software is <em>hard</em> and most people will do a terrible job of writing it.</p>
<p>That’s the custom order system that makes you want to stab somebody at work every day.</p>
<p>But not only can’t “normal” people write good software: The exploits that are coming out all the time are against the best code we, as a species, can write. The smartest people with the most experience are writing code with horrible vulnerabilities. Not because they’re not good at their jobs—they are. But because we humans are not capable of explaining things to computers, at least not the way we’re doing it now.</p>
<p>This whole problem used to not be that big a deal when it was mostly nerds talking about Star Trek on the Global Network, but now it’s tied in to everything, including the status of your retirement account and how much money is owed on your credit card.</p>
<p>And soon, your house, your refrigerator, <em>the power grid</em> and your car will be controlled by a system that is full of holes.</p>
<p>Do you enjoy knowing that soon your car will be vulnerable to some sociopathic griefer taking out the brakes for lulz?</p>
<p>So apart from fear mongering, what can be done? We really, really need to make it a priority to shore up our basic infrastructure and to realize that humans just can’t write safe C and assembly code. We don’t have the wiring for it. No matter how smart you are, you will screw up. And then some hacker will take control of a nuclear power plant and things go from bad to horrible.</p>
<p>We have to get away from C and assembly. But that would mean a lot of billion-dollar companies stopping what they’re doing and ignoring Wall Street for as long as it takes to retool from the ground up. Odds of that happening? Well, Ghostrider, that would be a zero.</p>
<p>It’s going to get worse, much worse, before it’s done.</p>
<p>Hope you have a diesel generator.</p>
<p>Oh, and you should totally invest in a hockey mask.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/humongous.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Welcome to the future" />
Book roundup, part 162014-10-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/10/book-roundup-part-16/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/All-Hell-Let-Loose-1939-1945-ebook/dp/B005E8A17A?tag=thecoredump-20">All Hell Let Loose, by Max Hastings</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>World War II was arguably the most disastrous event in human history, causing staggering suffering and death. In this tremendous volume noted historian Max Hastings focuses on that suffering and the experiences of soldiers and civilians around the world as they experienced this cataclysm.</p>
<p>It is often breathtaking: the suffering people endured is often literally incomprehensible. But above all, <em>All Hell Let Loose</em> illustrates just how little people knew about what was going on, and not just the common people, but right at the top of the command structure.</p>
<p>The confusion and pain is often hard to stomach, but the book is full of stories that should be told.</p>
<p><em>All Hell Let Loose</em> is required reading.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Metallica-Monster-Lives-Inside-Story-ebook/dp/B00ID93Z4I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=this%2Bmonster%2Blives&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1410052238">Metallica: This Monster Lives, by Joe Berlinger and Greg Milner</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Tells the backstory of the intense documentary <em><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/metallica_some_kind_of_monster/">Some Kind of Monster</a></em> which chronicles the journey of therapy Metallica went on before and while recording <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/St-Anger-Metallica/dp/B00AH6B6CS/ref=sr_1_2?sr=8-2&ie=UTF8&keywords=metallica%2Bst.%2Banger&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1410052836">St. Anger</a></em>—mostly known for being the album where Lars Ulrich decided to play with a broken drum kit—<em>donk! donk! donk!</em> The documentary itself is a fascinating insight into the minds of the damaged people who make up arguably the biggest band in any genre around today and it turns out the creation of the movie was just as intense and random as the product.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in Metallica, the creative process, or how to make a documentary involving serious egos, <em>Metallica: This Monster Lives</em> is well worth reading.</p>
<p>And yes, it answers (some) of the questions the documentary made you ask about the band’s psychiatrist…</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/10%25-Happier-Reduced-Self-Help-Actually-ebook/dp/B00FJ376CS/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=harris%2B10%2526&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1411860594">10% Happier, by Dan Harris</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Dan Harris was a hard-charging TV reporter making a career in New York and nursing an escalating coke habit when he had an anxiety attack on national live television. In <em>10% Happier</em> he tells the story of how, as a skeptic A-type, he goes on a spiritual journey that ends up with him discovering meditation and how it has helped him deal with his addictive personality and basically being an A-type asshole.</p>
<p>It’s a quick, breezy, and enjoyable read.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Onward-Starbucks-Fought-without-Losing-ebook/dp/B004OEIQEA/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=onward%2Bschultz&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1410052416">Onward, by Howard Schultz and Joanne Gordon</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Howard Schultz is the CEO of Starbucks and <em>Onward</em> is the story of how he led the company through the 2008 financial meltdown, which coincided with the fallout from a lot of bad decisions coming home to roost for the company.</p>
<p>I picked up this book since I had heard good things and also wanted to get a better insight into the mindset of a CEO, and will admit to rage-reading a large part of it.</p>
<p>Schultz comes across as a high-energy, high-ego individual who is nowhere near as bright as he thinks he is. But the fascinating thing about the book is the delusion—to be a leader you have to have a delusion: <em>Things right now are x but if we work hard we can make them y</em>. Schultz’s delusion is that each Starbucks store is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place">a third place</a> where people make meaningful connections that make their lives better <em>and</em> that Starbucks is a coffee authority that serves the best coffee you can get anywhere.</p>
<p>In the reality I inhabit Starbucks is a place where tired office drones grab chemical relief, young people buy 200-calorie cream concoctions and the coffee is at best passable.</p>
<p>Obviously, Schultz’s delusions have worked out better for him than my reality has for me.</p>
<p>Apart from the ideal-Starbucks fantasy, what made <em>Onward</em> such a rage-read was how Schultz kept discovering the most basic business concepts and presenting them like they were divinations. Things like, you should only open stores in locations where they are likely to do well. That’s fascinating, Captain Obvious.</p>
<p>There are many anecdotes of Schultz visiting stores and being moved almost to tears by the dedication of the “partners” (what Starbucks calls employees since they are in no way running a retail chain, nope, they are creating opportunities for people to meet and connect blah blah).</p>
<p>Just like with McDonalds or Apple, I do have a lot of respect for the sheer logistics of Starbucks—being able to serve a cup of coffee or hamburger that tastes exactly the same <em>no matter where you are</em> is an impressive feat all by itself.</p>
<p>But reading about the mental anguish of the CEO as he struggles so very hard—and demands absolute commitment from his “partners” to do the same—to maintain a fantasy is headache-inducing.</p>
<p>But <em>Onward</em> is an interesting look into the power of self-delusion.</p>
<p>Oh, and the title comes from Schultz’s email tagline, as he mentions with pride…</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts-ebook/dp/B00IHCBDJ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=echopraxia&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1410052047">Echopraxia, by Peter Watts</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>The follow-up to the weird and disturbing <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts-ebook/dp/B003K15EKM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=blindsight%2Bpeter%2Bwatts&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1412561771">Blindsight</a></em>, <em>Echopraxia</em> is by far Peter Watts’s best work. It’s a world where technology has run amok and humanity is busy rewiring bodies and brains, splintering into subspecies at a dizzying rate, mysterious aliens have made first contact, and the world is falling apart in frightening ways.</p>
<p>The writing style is completely different, but you can think of <em>Echopraxia</em> as <em>Neuromancer</em> if it was written by a completely strung out and paranoid neurologist who seriously needs an intervention.</p>
<p>It’s amazing.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cibola-Burn-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/031621762X/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=cibola%2Bburn&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1411256240">Cibola Burn, by James S.A. Corey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Cibola Burn</em> continues the excellent Expanse series and is a given for fans of the series. (Which you should be—it’s the best new sci-fi in a long time.) It does feel like a transitional novel, though, one that lays the groundwork for the next phase in the series rather than bringing the story arch forward much.</p>
<p>That being said, it is chock-full of action and displays Corey’s talent for putting people in a bad situation and then sadistically escalating that situation. My inner monologue reading <em>Cibola Burn</em> pretty much went: “Oh, man, this is bad. Uh-oh, now it’s really bad. Wait, what? At least it can’t get worse now. Oh crap. Nonono. Well, <em>now</em> things can’t get worse. WHAT?”</p>
<p>So, an enjoyable read, and one that leaves you wanting to find out where this series is going to go next.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Getaway-God-Sandman-Slim-Novel-ebook/dp/B00L192HCI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?qid=1410390020&sr=8-1&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">The Getaway God, by Richard Kadrey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Also a continuation of a series, <em>The Getaway God</em> finds Sandman Slim once more attempting to save the world. If you liked the other installments in the series, you’ll like this. But of course, you need to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sandman-Slim-Novel-Richard-Kadrey-ebook/dp/B00338QF1E/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?qid=1412560272&sr=8-2-ent&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">start at the beginning</a>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lock-John-Scalzi-ebook/dp/B00IHCBE1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=lock%2Bin%2Bscalzi&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1410051683">Lock In, by John Scalzi</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Highly entertaining and eminently readable clever near-future sci-fi, the conceit is that an influenza-like epidemic has spread around the world, killing some people and leaving others “locked” in their bodies—the sufferers are fully alert but cannot control their bodies at all.</p>
<p>Thanks to some technological hand-waving, the sufferers are equipped with remotes, essentially robots they telepathically control, enabling them to interact with others.</p>
<p>It’s a good concept and Scalzi uses it to great effect to construct what is basically a techno-thriller whodunit.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-First-Linda-Nagata/dp/1937197131/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=red%2Bfirst%2Blight&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1412565357">The Red: First Light, by Linda Nagata</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>(Looks like the publisher pulled the Kindle version of this, so the link goes to the paperback.)</em></p>
<p>Set in a near-future dystopia where defense contractors are employing armies of mercenaries to fight endless brush-fire wars, <em>The Red</em> tells the story of Lieutenant Shelley, who seems to have pre-cognition that allows him to repeatdly save the soldiers under his command.</p>
<p>But what is behind his talent?</p>
<p>The novel is tightly written with a plot that moves along quickly. If you like techno-thrillers or military sci-fi, you’ll enjoy <em>The Red.</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Terms-Enlistment-Frontlines-Marko-Kloos-ebook/dp/B00CIXX144/ref=pd_bxgy_kstore_text_y?tag=thecoredump-20">Terms of Enlistment, by Marko Kloos</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Solid near-future military sci-fi with lots of shades of Heinlein, <em>Terms of Enlistment</em> is set on an overpopulated Earth that has started to migrate to the stars. If, like most people, you are born in a welfare slum, your only options to get out are to either win the actual lottery and get a ticket to an uncertain future on a colony or to join the military and help keep the welfare slums under control.</p>
<p>The novel is a classic hero’s journey, with a likeable protagonist and some interesting plot twists. If you like the genre, you’ll enjoy this.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lines-Departure-Frontlines-Marko-Kloos-ebook/dp/B00ELN0KB6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=departure%2Bkloos&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1410051888">Lines of Departure, by Marko Kloos</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Continues the story begun in <em>Terms of Enlistment</em> and broadens the scope while staying action-heavy. If you liked the first novel in the series, you’ll like this.</p>
The WATCH is nigh, and I don’t get it2014-09-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/09/the-watch-is-nigh-and-i-dont-get-it/
<p>Turns out I’m a <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2014/09/apple-might-enter-the-home-integration-field/">terrible Apple precog</a> and despite my convictions that the hype must mean something grander was afoot, the products Apple announced at its Sept. 9 event were straight out of what the rumor mill had skried: New iPhones, a grab bag of smaller announcements, and of course the WATCH.</p>
<p>The phones make sense. Bigger, faster, stronger, etc.</p>
<p>But I have a hard time with the WATCH. It’s just what you would expect if Apple were to enter the smartwatch market: A much nicer version of what’s already out there, poised to occupy the high end of the market.</p>
<p>I had <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2014/07/the-rumored-iwatch-wont-be-what-you-think/">assumed they would aim higher than that</a>, and I don’t get how large the market Apple is going for is. For a company that habitually sells umpteen millions of things, it seems very niche. For example, according to Apple there are more than 200 million iPhone 5 and up in the world. That’s the kind of market Apple has.</p>
<p>And no, this isn’t a “random nerd on the Internet knows better than Apple” post; it’s a “random nerd on the Internet doesn’t understand what Apple is doing” post.</p>
<p>Apple’s leadership know their business. It would be arrogant beyond belief to assume they don’t. Which means they know something I don’t. Because I can’t see the smartwatch market being large enough to bet the company on.</p>
<p>A smartwatch is a consumer electronics product, one you discard for the next, better, version after a few years, while fancy watches (or, “<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=haute+horlogerie">haute horlogerie</a>,” which apparently are two real words used by English-speaking humans) are things you purchase and hope to pass on to your children at some point.</p>
<p>I can’t see the overlap there.</p>
<p>And the next time you’re at a high school or university campus, look at people’s wrists: these days they’re even devoid of yellow Live Strong armbands. It seems like a high bar to set for yourself that you’re going to get the masses to spend $350 and more on an iPhone-only accessory that requires you to pick up new habits.</p>
<p>At this point I can only assume Apple knows things I don’t, and it will be very interesting to watch this play out.</p>
<p>As to myself, I’m already a <a href="https://getpebble.com/">Pebble</a> nerd, so of course I’m buying an WATCH the second I can punch my credit card into a Web form for it. But I’m not so sure about the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Interesting times.</p>
Apple might enter the home integration field2014-09-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/09/apple-might-enter-the-home-integration-field/
<p><strong>[Post-keynote update]</strong> Well, I’m certainly no Nostradamus. Sigh. And effing U2 to rub salt in the wound. <strong>[/Update]</strong></p>
<p>As usual this time of the year, the nerdosphere is all-aflutter with predictions about tomorrow’s big Apple event, with the most common speculation being two new, larger, iPhones and the long-awaited and mysterious wearable device.</p>
<p>(As an aside here, kudos to Apple for their Kremlin-level security—apart from the predictable iPhone parts from the supply chain, nobody has anything concrete…)</p>
<p>But take a step back and think about Apple’s core competency: Find a technology that’s out there and has the potential to become <em>huge</em> but is mired in neckbeardery.</p>
<p>The first home computers—huge potential, but required soldering; the first PCs—huge potential, but required mastery of command-line arcana to accomplish anything useful; MP3-players—huge potential, but required headache-inducing amounts of technical jiggery-pokery to get your songs actually on to the devices; smartphones—huge potential, but required endless patience and button-mashing to accomplish magical things like syncing your contacts.</p>
<p>There’s a massive market out there ripe for exactly this kind of swooping in and making the technology useful and attractive to normal people: Home automation. The technology is out there, it’s just hidden in needless complications and über-nerd-think. Make it usable by—and attractive to—normal humans, and there’s billions of dollars to make as well as the opportunity to improve peoples’ lives.</p>
<p>Plus, think about it: Apple <em>built a house</em> by the conference center. Hmmm? Might that be useful to show off their home integration technology?</p>
<p>Or, I could end up looking like an idiot tomorrow…</p>
An Apple ebook reader would be nice2014-08-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/08/an-apple-ebook-reader-would-be-nice/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/kindle-sideways.jpg" /></p>
<p>The Kindle changed my life—being able to carry around my books on a small, lightweight device that looks close-enough to paper, is readable in sunlight and in the dark, lets me change the font and font size depending on my needs, and has fantastic battery life is so future. Going on a trip? Load up more books than you think you need on the device. Find out while on the trip there’s a new book you want? Buy it right there.</p>
<p><em>Future.</em></p>
<p>But of course, being a <a href="http://5by5.tv/tdb">tech douchebag</a>, I have problems with it. First off, the Kindle is made by Amazon to be as cheap as possible. This makes sense based on Amazon’s business model and is a decision I understand, but it means it turns pages slowly, sometimes stutters, occasionally crashes, sometimes the backlight doesn’t turn off when you put the device to sleep so you have to reboot it, and the software is … usable, not lovable.</p>
<p>So there’s this company called Apple that makes beautiful devices with great software. Apple also runs an ebook bookstore. But Apple seems to have zero interest in making a reading device. Which also makes sense, given that their business model is to make a small matrix of great devices focused on the higher end where the profit margins live.</p>
<p>But, you know, at this point, since I do the vast majority of my reading on the Kindle, I’m completely in the Amazon ecosystem for ebooks. If I wanted to start buying my ebooks from Apple I’d have to manually de-DRM and convert them to AWZ3. Which it is within my technical grasp to do, but would be a pain in the nethers, and I wouldn’t be able to have them in sync across my devices. (If I have an unexpected 20 minutes of waiting somewhere, like at the tire store or whatnot, I’ll use the Kindle app on my iPhone to read. Having the books just magically synced for those occasions is also quite future.)</p>
<p>I get that one of the secrets to Apple’s success is focus, but if you’ve already <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/16/apple-ebooks-prices/12734921/">taken the rap for price fixing</a> and you have any kind of serious interest in selling ebooks, why wouldn’t you make a reader?</p>
<p>Apple might think the iPad is a fine reader, so just use that. Which is understandable, and is underscored by Amazon releasing their Kindle tablets with LCD screens. (And thanks, Amazon, for muddling the Kindle brand with a non-e-ink device with the same name as your e-ink device.)</p>
<p>But if you’re a serious reader, no, you don’t want to read on an LCD instead of an e-ink display. Nope. It’s a completely different experience, and for the pure task of just reading words, an LCD is inferior in every way. And serious readers spend real money on their ebooks. You’d think that would a nice niche for Apple to take over.</p>
<p>Plus, think how great a $200 Apple e-ink tablet could be, with none of the “ugh” moments of the Kindle.</p>
<p>It sure would be nice. Oh, well.</p>
Flashing a Gigabyte BIOS should be easier than this2014-08-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/08/flashing-a-gigabyte-bios-should-be-easier-than-this/
<p><strong>This post is just here so Google can find it and hopefully save some other poor soul some time.</strong></p>
<p>And lo, there is much sadness in the land of the Hackintosh, as <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2014/02/the-mac-homegrown/">my machine</a> with a Gigabyte H87n-WiFi board has an unfortunate tendency to keel over every few weeks: Hard lock, nothing in the logs, just instant death. So I’ve been looking around for what to do to get this otherwise excellent rig to stop having seizures. And <em>sigh</em> there’s a lot of magical thinking in Hackintosh land. But going back to first principles it makes sense to update the BIOS to see if Gigabyte fixed some bugs. Can’t be too hard, right? It’s just a BIOS update, right? Like we’ve been doing for <em>effing decades</em>, right?</p>
<p>Well, gather round, children while uncle Nic tells you a sad tale.</p>
<p>Turns out Gigabyte have finally realized that not everybody who buys their boards are running Windows (thank you!) so you no longer have to download a weird Windows app to update the motherboard. Which, when you think about it, was <em>insane</em>. But those dark days are behind us now: Newer GigaByte boards have a Q-Flash utility right on the BIOS. You download the updater, put it on a FAT-formatted USB stick and boom!</p>
<p>Except you’ll get a “File size incorrect!” error.</p>
<p>Urgh.</p>
<p>So let’s Google that. And get a lot of noise about how the BIOS file got too big so you have to use a Windows utility called @Bios to update the BIOS to make it understand the BIOS is larger now.</p>
<p>Say it with me, kids: “Sigh.”</p>
<p>This turns out to be incorrect. The BIOS file you download from Gigabyte is a zip file and you have to decompress it, then put the actual update file on the USB stick and you’ll be golden. Hint: The actual flash file is the one that doesn’t end in .exe or .bat.</p>
<p>At this point you may be asking yourself things like, “Couldn’t Gigabyte just have put this information in the Readme file?” or “Shouldn’t people not post shit on the Internet where they’re just guessing?”</p>
<p>Those are valid questions, indeed.</p>
<p>But for now, go forth and update ye olde BIOS firmware and put thine thumbs together to hope it fixes thine problem.</p>
<p>In the meantime I’ll be over here shaking my head.</p>
Red immigration meat in the Arizona primaries2014-08-02T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/08/red-immigration-meat-in-the-arizona-primaries/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/statue-of-liberty.jpg" /></p>
<p>Arizona is electing a new governor this year and the primary elections are upon us. This means the candidates are playing to their base and since there isn’t a snow flake’s chance in hell of a Democrat being elected governor here without Joe Arpaio’s blessing, the spotlight is on the Republican field. And as you’d predict, the Republican field is playing a hard game of being <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2014/07/11/arizona-illegal-immigration-kids-governors-race/12512267/">further to the right than everybody else</a>. Which in Arizona is far, far indeed.</p>
<p>The candidates seem to have all settled on illegal immigration and, to a lesser extent, ObamaCare, as their push-button issues for this primary season, with all of them promising to be harsher on illegal immigrants than the next.</p>
<p>Which is interesting, in a sad way, since the border is a <em>federal</em> issue and something state governors have no control over. You know, what with the Constitution. Which of course hasn’t stopped any of the current crop of candidates from laying out their plans to seal the border. Which, again, they legally can’t do. <em>Sigh.</em></p>
<p>But the base wants red meat, and red meat is what the base is going to get.</p>
<p>Former GoDaddy executive Jones has perhaps the most coherent idea (faint praise indeed), <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2014/07/31/christine-jones-securing-border-priority/13382709/">where she’d spend a bunch of money to build a fence, deploy troops, etc. and then send the bill to the federal government</a>.</p>
<p><em>Uh-huh.</em> That would go over just as well as my daughter sending me a bill for labor she performed doing her chores.</p>
<p>It’s pretty amazing. But then, they’re playing for the base of extremely agitated old and not very educated white people who want the brown people stopped, dammit! Stopped! <em>What part of illegal don’t you understand?</em></p>
<p>The border between the US and Mexico is <a href="http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21729.pdf">estimated at 1,933 miles long</a>. For comparison, the Wall of China is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China">5,500 miles long</a>. And the Wall of China was mostly built to <em>keep people in</em>. Fencing the entire border between the US and Mexico would cost an astronomical sum. And it turns out the state of Arizona is quite broke. (And New Mexico and Texas aren’t exactly full of chests of gold.)</p>
<p>Building a Berlin Wall across the entire border is a ridiculous idea as anybody who’s glanced at a map knows.</p>
<p><em>But</em> there <em>are</em> realistic ways to significantly lower illegal immigration.</p>
<p>The far-right crowd running for Arizona governor is correct in that the federal government is doing a poor job of enforcing the border. It’s notoriously porous and most of the border defense is security theater.</p>
<p>But haven’t you wondered: Why is that? One thing I’ve learned in life is that when a bunch of people come up with a product and it’s bad, it’s not because those people are uniquely stupid. It’s that they are operating under a set of constraints I don’t know about. Using that idea, why is current US border security so bad?</p>
<p>Well, duh, because the people in charge don’t want it to be good.</p>
<p>Think about illegal immigration as a push-pull. There are people who desperately need to leave the places they were born. In most places we would call them “refugees” but in America today we have decided to call them “illegals.” Be that as it may. Then there is a pull: America desperately needs exploitable people to work in the agriculture and service industries; people to mow golf greens, clean hotel rooms, pick melons, and clean cars. The current economics of those industries can <em>not</em> work if they have to pay their workers the minimum wage. Can. Not.</p>
<p>The agriculture and service industries in America need an exploitable class of workers.</p>
<p>Those are the jobs illegals come to America to get. Not your job, white guy. Truly terrible jobs that a civilized society would outlaw. Those are the jobs the scary brown people come here to steal.</p>
<p>And that’s why the border stays porous: Those industries need a steady stream of workers to replace the ones they wear out. And those industries make more than enough money to influence Congress.</p>
<p>So, you have a push of people escaping unbearable conditions and a pull of companies needing workers to exploit. and the stream of people across the border will continue as long as that is the case.</p>
<p>Building a Quixotic fence across a 1,993 mile border is a delusional fantasy, but if you’re serious about stopping the flow of illegal immigration, here are two things that would work:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Nation building in Mexico and Latin America to make those countries not be unbearable shitholes. They don’t have to become utopias by any means, just not so horrible that risking your life is worth it to leave. This would cost way less than we already spent in Iraq and Afghanistan and would actually improve lives.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make it a felony to hire an illegal worker. This would dry up the job market for illegals very quickly, and without jobs the stream of people crossing the border would stop. Problem solved, right? Except it would mean putting wealthy white people in jail, so, good luck getting that passed.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Those are the two things fueling illegal immigration: “Life where I am sucks so bad I’m willing to die to get out of here” and “I need some people working for nothing that I can kick around”. Fix either one and the problem gets better; fix both and the problem disappears.</p>
<p>But for the Arizona primary voters it’s so much more satisfying to imagine an Alamo where they’re standing tall next to their mobility scooter, wrapped in the flag, pointing their AR-15s at the dusky crowd of snarling illegals, yelling, “Here’s my damn fence!”</p>
<p>The main thing the <em>What part of illegal don’t you understand</em> crowd willfully refuses to acknowledge is that these are human beings making a rational choice. (Yes, it turns out Mexicans are people.) They are mostly uneducated, but they are not idiots. These are people looking around and saying to themselves, “My situation is bad enough that making a journey that may well kill me and <em>best case</em> ends up in indentured servitude, looking over my shoulder for the cops every day of my life, is <em>better</em> than my current existence.”</p>
<p>Illegal immigrants aren’t mindless zombies. They are humans. And they are making the kind of horrible choice I sure hope my privileged white ass never has to make.</p>
<p>That’s why they are coming. <em>Things are that bad where they are.</em></p>
<p>It’ll probably make the angry old white people even angrier to learn that illegal immigrants aren’t fueled by some idealized idea of America the beautiful. They are running <em>from</em> a fire, not running <em>to</em> a paradise. Not to put words in anybody’s mouth, of course, but when your house is on fire you don’t dream of a mansion—you just have to get out. And America is right there, a place where you’re not starving or having a smirking gang member tell you your daughter is going to be raped next.</p>
Book roundup, part 152014-07-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/07/book-roundup-part-15/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation-ebook/dp/B00FJ379XE/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=console%2Bwars&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405821695">Console Wars, by Blake Harris</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The story of how Sega rose to challenge Nintendo’s market dominance in the early 1990s. Well researched and sourced and tells the story of an interesting era in video console gaming.</p>
<p>The book is upfront about how much time has passed since the events it chronicles and that quotes are mostly made up and intended to capture the essence and spirit of conversations rather than being verbatim, which is fine, but unfortunately Harris is far from an Elmore Leonard, so most of the conversations read awkward and odd, which detracts from the immediacy of the narrative in a fatal way.</p>
<p><em>Console Wars</em> could also have benefited from another proofreading pass—there are instances of missing words and misplaced quote marks in too many places. Though unless you’re plagued with a proofreading eye that won’t shut off, it won’t bother you.</p>
<p>Despite its faults, it’s worth reading for a very interesting look at a pivotal time of video gaming.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Inner-Fish-Journey-3-5-Billion-Year-ebook/dp/B0010SKTRA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=your%2Binner%2Bfish&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405908996">Your Inner Fish, by Neil Shubin</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A wonderful journey back in time through our and our ancestors’ anatomy, Shubin shows how we can trace the shape of our bodies—especially the arms—back through the mists of time.</p>
<p><em>Your Inner Fish</em> is a wonderful read, unravelling evolution through time with joy and wonder. Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Michael-Lewis-ebook/dp/B00HVJB4VM/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=books&keywords=flash%2Bboys%2Bmichael%2Blewis&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405909455">Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>This book made me very, very angry, and it will probably do the same to you. As usual, Lewis writes with flair and draws out the human drama in what could be excruciatingly dry material, this time about high frequency trading. Which as it turns out is a parasite on the stock market and thus on our entire global economy.</p>
<p><em>Flash Boys</em> is required reading.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Wars-Google-Microsoft-Internet-ebook/dp/B007C1T1D2/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=digital%2Bwars&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1397684658">Digital Wars, by Charles Arthur</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Chronicles the battle between Apple, Google and Microsoft for the future of computing, focusing on search and mobile.</p>
<p><em>Digital Wars</em> is well sourced, especially inside Microsoft, and reads almost like a techno-thriller in its descriptions of the thinking inside the companies.</p>
<p>Arthus is best sourced inside Microsoft, which is good since that’s the company I’ve paid the least amount of attention to over the last 10 years, and he answers the question of how Microsoft managed to miss the boat so badly in both search and mobile and how it’s attempting to turn things around in those sectors.</p>
<p>If you’re at all interested in the business side of technology, <em>Digital Wars</em> is a given.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Storm-True-Story-Against-ebook/dp/B002EF2ALQ/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=junger%2Bperfect%2Bstorm&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405822353">The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The tragic story of the Andrea Gail which perished with all hands in the Atlantic “perfect storm” of 1991. It’s a fascinating book that discusses the fishing culture of Massachusetts, the mechanics of fishing boats, the physics of waves, the meteorology of storms, the resources of the coast guard, and the lives of the men aboard the Andrea Gail as it went to its tragic end.</p>
<p><em>The Perfect Storm</em> is a tragedy, a page turner, and an education. You should read it.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Lord-Book-Ravens-Shadow-ebook/dp/B00G3L6ML6/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=tower%2Blord&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405822833">Tower Lord, by Anthony Ryan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Now, this is how you do page-turner fantasy. The follow-up to the excellent <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Song-Ravens-Shadow-Novel-ebook/dp/B00ABKGG0C/ref=sr_1_1_ha?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=blood%2Bsong&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405822918">Blood Song</a></em>, <em>Tower Lord</em> continues the story of our hero Vaelin, but expands to the greater struggle in which he’s involved and the secondary characters (some already known and some new) who also play big parts in the larger war to come.</p>
<p>Now, <em>Tower Lord</em> is not as good as <em>Blood Song</em>, let that be said up front. But then, <em>Blood Song</em> was one-in-a-million. <em>Tower Lord</em> moves the story forward and feels a lot like a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gemmell">David Gemmell</a> novel (which is high praise indeed) in its relentless pace and addictiveness. There are way worse authors to emulate, and <em>Tower Lord</em> keeps you turning the pages to the end.</p>
<p>As a sidenote, it’s great to read a <em>story</em> instead of “I wrote down my awesome D&D campaign” which too much modern fantasy consists of. So if you liked <em>Blood Song</em>, get thee to <em>Tower Lord</em>, and if you haven’t experienced <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Song-Ravens-Shadow-Novel-ebook/dp/B00ABKGG0C/ref=sr_1_1_ha?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=blood%2Bsong&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405822918">Blood Song</a></em> yet and you like fantasy, run don’t walk to click that mouse.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Live-Last-Werewolf-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00EGMQIFY/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=by%2Bblood%2Bwe%2Blive&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1402075372">By Blood We Live, by Glen Duncan</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The third book in Duncan’s gritty reboot of the Werewolf mythos is as full of gore, sex and literary allusions as the previous novels in the series, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Werewolf-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004G60FUY/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=duncan%2Blast%2Bwerewolf&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1402075558">The Last Werewolf</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Talulla-Rising-Glen-Duncan-ebook/dp/B006S3HAJW/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?refRID=0WXJH81GWZAVB9YKFVSM&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Talulla Rising</a></em>, but while as enthralling and likely to keep you up past your bedtime as the other ones, <em>By Blood We Live</em> stretches the mythology past its breaking point.</p>
<p>There’s (clears throat) <em>prophecy</em> and <em>visions</em> and Oldest Vampire Ever Who is Tired, and it does indeed feel, well, tired.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, if you liked the previous novels, you’ll enjoy this. Just not as much as the previous awesome novels.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Pilgrim-Terry-Hayes-ebook/dp/B00D3NSDVO/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=i%2Bam%2Bpilgrim&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1405613413">I am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>I am Pilgrim</em> should be with you the next time you’re on an airplane or on the beach. It’s a huge, sprawling techno-spy novel and murder mystery rolled into one.</p>
<p>The novel reads like a gritty reboot of classic Robert Ludlum with some Tom Clancy thrown in for good measure.</p>
<p>It’s far from perfect, though: The plot relies enough on coincidences and chance encounters to make you roll your eyes and most characters stay two-dimensional. And if you’re a nerd like me the novel also hurts from some utterly ignorant techno-movements where hard drives start flashing red lights because the CPU is stressed too hard. <em>Ay, ay, ay</em>. Those moments make you doubt all the other Tom Clancy-style Cool Tech Things that happen in the novel.</p>
<p>But be that as it may, it’s a damn fun ride that will have you turning the pages way too late into the night.</p>
<p>Bonus fact: Hayes co-wrote the script for <em>The Road Warrior</em>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Novel-Max-Barry-ebook/dp/B00AEBETMK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?qid=&sr=&tag=thecoredump-20&_encoding=UTF8">Lexicon, by Max Barry</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Taut and fast-paced with an interesting conceit, but plagued a bit by a confusing plot.</p>
<p>The idea is that our brains are hard-wired to respond to certain words in a way that bypasses our conscious thought and will—anybody who masters the difficult art of using the right words can make anybody do anything.</p>
<p>So naturally there’s a secret organization that rules the world and finds children it trains to become masters of this art.</p>
<p>And then, not surprisingly, things go horribly wrong…</p>
The rumored iWatch won’t be what you think2014-07-12T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/07/the-rumored-iwatch-wont-be-what-you-think/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pebble-knife.jpg" /></p>
<p>The rumor mill has been working itself into a fever pitch about the new product category Tim Cook has stated Apple will enter this year. Most of the speculation has focused on the so-called iWatch. But speculation is all it is.</p>
<p>The only thing I’m sure about when it comes to this new product category is that it won’t be a watch. Why? Because a smart watch is a niche device and Apple isn’t interested in anything that won’t ship millions of units per quarter. A smart watch will not do that. At least not a smart watch as we know them today.</p>
<p>I say this as a happy <a href="https://getpebble.com/">Pebble</a> owner. I love my Pebble. For me it’s great: Getting notifications on my wrist is <em>fantastic</em> and having a stopwatch and timer as well as the ability to control music and podcast playback from my wrist is very nice. But then, I’m a huge nerd, the kind of person who thinks it’s worth it to charge yet another device twice a week in order to get notifications on your wrist.</p>
<p>The smart watch market just heated up when Google recently announced <a href="http://www.android.com/wear/">Android Wear</a>. Ars Technica has a predictably <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/reviewing-android-wears-first-watches-sometimes-promising-often-frustrating/">thorough look</a>. It is essentially an upgrade to the Pebble with nicer screen and UI and deeper integration with Android.</p>
<p>From reading the Ars article and listening to various nerd podcasts, Android Wear looks like it was rushed to market, presumably as a first strike against the iWatch of which, again, people outside Apple know nothing.</p>
<p>(Which, if I’m correct, is a sad commentary on the intellectual rigor of a company as large as Google. All those meeting, all those planning sessions, all that work against a phantom idea? That’s just sad. I hope I’m wrong about all of this. But then, these are the people who thought Google Glass was a game changer.)</p>
<p>My money is on the first generation of Android Wear devices to sell poorly to say the least. First off, you have to own a recent Android phone to tether the devices to, which cuts the market significantly, and second, from what I’ve seen of Android devices in the wild here in Phoenix, there are two distinct sets of Android users:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>An extremely vocal minority of hard-core nerds who love changing their ROMs and skins and keyboards; and</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The vast majority who picked up whatever phone the salesperson at the carrier store was pushing that day. <em>Hey, it does texts and Facebook: It’s fine.</em></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>The first group will no doubt pick up an Android Wear device and install strange hacks on their wrists. The second will have no idea what you’re yammering on about.</p>
<p>That second group is who Apple wants to reach. An iteration on the Pebble or Android Wear with the customary Apple polish won’t do that.</p>
<p>So what is coming? I have absolutely no idea, but I know that it will be successful if it meets one condition: When Apple announces it you look at it—just like with the iPhone—and go, <em>Wow, that is so obvious</em>.</p>
After the empire fades2014-06-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/06/after-the-empire-fades/
<p>The fourth season of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/George-Martins-Thrones-5-Book-Boxed-ebook/dp/B00957T6X6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&sr=1-3&s=digital-text&keywords=rr%2Bmartin&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1404085967">George R. R. Martin’s <em>Game of Thrones</em></a> has ended and to console myself I just finished a re-read of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/First-Law-Trilogy-Boxed-Set-ebook/dp/B00GU3ATPM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=first%2Blaw%2Btrilogy%2Bkindle&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1404086026">Joe Abercrombie’s <em>First Law Trilogy</em></a>.</p>
<p>The two series are similar in that they both have fleshed-out people attempting to survive in horrible realities and are both loaded with brutal, sociopathic violence. But they differ in the kinds of realities the characters face, and I think those differences are telling in that they call out how America and England are dealing with a new era. Martin is American and Abercrombie is English and the worlds they build reflect the Zeitgeist in those different countries and cultures.</p>
<p>Martin’s Westeros is of course a horrible, horrible place, almost post-apocalyptic, where wannabe-king warlords rule according to their whims, spreading chaos and horror, and might makes right. It is also what happens after the fantasy ends: Our heroes have defeated the mad king and one of them is the new, just, king and has married his beautiful queen while his stalwart friend has has returned to his family holdings to raise his family in peace. But our hero has been too long at war and soothes his PTSD with drink, women and hunts—anything to give him a thrill—while his queen has, ahem, her own issues. And things fall apart, to out it mildly.</p>
<p>This feels very post-Cold War American: Hey, we won! We are the only standing super power! And now we have to deal with all the internal problems that were overshadowed by the larger struggle against the Russians. Those problems can’t be swept under the rug anymore.</p>
<p>Issues are coming to the surface. How do we deal with them? Are they going to tear the country apart? Some people want to secede from the union, some demand their religion be the only religion allowed, some want to believe the Russian threat is still out there, and some want the armed forces to be kept strong because we have needed the strong armed forces before and not having them would betray what the country is all about.</p>
<p>Abercrombie’s Union, on the other hand, is European. It is also a horrible place to live, a crumbling remnant, but not a Road Warrior nightmare. Instead it’s ossified, a place that worships its old glories and the Way Things Are Done. A place where a self-made man is looked upon with suspicion and denigration. <em>How dare he?</em> A place where blood is what counts and no matter how unsuitable a man may be he is still a member of the aristocracy and thus better than you, <em>sir</em>.</p>
<p>Which of course is very British and a remnant of the way things used to be in the heyday of the British Empire, where the troops pillaging the colonies would be lead exclusively by the classes that could afford to buy commissions for their sons, no matter how incompetent they might be.</p>
<p>The Union is corrupt, an empire in the last, unfit years of its life, and Westeros is tearing itself apart.</p>
<p>But of course it’s entirely possible I’m overthinking this…</p>
Happy midsummer!2014-06-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/06/happy-midsummer/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummer/swedish-landscape.jpg" /></p>
<p>Today is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer">Midsummer’s Eve</a>, the number one day for Swedes living abroad to get mopey and homesick and the number one day for Swedes in the motherland to consume traditional food and drink, dance around the maypole, and stay up late, late in the never-ending light.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummer/swedish-folk-dresses.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Swedish traditional dress" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Rocking Swedish traditional dress is socially acceptable on midsummer.</i></p>
<p>Midsummer of course has its roots in the pagan solstice celebration, with the longest day of the year a time to beseech the gods for a good harvest, plant the maypole—a huge phallos—into the fertile ground, and have drunken orgies.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummer/pickled-herring.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Pickled herring" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Pickled herring—delicious with new potatoes and Akvavit.</i></p>
<p>When Sweden was converted to Christianity the monks, as it turned out, were not super fans of the sacrifice to the pagan gods and drunken orgy bits of the celebration, and tried to have it banned. That didn’t go so well, as people who live in cold, dark, and rain for most of the year really like to let loose when they get a chance.</p>
<p>So the cross bar was added to the maypole to turn it into a cross and the solstice feast, it was decided, was to celebrate the birthday of John the Baptist. And could you please take it down a few notches with the drunken orgy? No?</p>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u8ZLpGOOA1Q" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics">Watch a short midsummer primer.</div>
<p><em>Photos by Nic Lindh.</em></p>
Damnatio memoriae2014-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/06/damnatio-memoriae/
<p>Once again a young man has gone off his rocker and murdered a bunch of strangers in cold blood.</p>
<p>It’s disgusting and disheartening and worst of all it’s endemic. For decades now young men have, for whatever reason, decided that killing as many other people as possible and then capping it off by taking their own lives is the best way for them to deal with whatever thing is happening to or inside them—going out in a blaze of “glory”.</p>
<p>It’s sickening and hideous and worst of all it seems we as a society are getting used to it. Which is completely unacceptable. Time after time a young man takes to the streets to slay whatever demons are in his head and we are shocked and horrified. And then we talk and wring our hands. And then another one follows. And another. And we talk. And it’s numbing in its horror.</p>
<p>It’s clear that the one issue that connects all these sprees is young men. Young men and their egos.</p>
<p>I do think it all boils down to ego—you’re being kept down by your teachers and parents and especially the women who won’t let you make sexy time with them and you <em>need</em> to feel powerful, <em>must</em> feel powerful and grabbing a weapon and wasting people is such a shortcut to power—you will literally have the power of life or death. You, the guy who can’t get a girl to let you touch her boobs, <em>you</em> now have the ultimate power.</p>
<p>And you will be remembered throughout history. No more sobbing and jerking off in your room after your parents go to bed: You’re a star! You will be remembered through the ages. All the girls who wanted nothing to do with you will see your picture on the news and in the paper. You are immortal now.</p>
<p>And that’s what we need to put an end to—the immortality. It serves no purpose for us to know the name and picture of the latest asshole to go on a spree. The Romans had a practice they called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae">Damnatio Memoriae</a> where a traitor’s name would be stricken from the record and his name would then effectively be lost from history. That’s what I propose for these kinds of men: Let’s forget them. Not their crimes and especially not their victims, but <em>them</em>. You go on a killing spree and your name becomes “Asshole 25” or whichever number we’re up to. Since we do need a unique way to refer to them, let it just be a number. After “Asshole 25” comes “Asshole 26”, etc. We will not use your real name, and we will never show your picture. You will get no immortality—only your family will mourn you and the rest of us will never have any idea who you were.</p>
<p>This is as it should be. If your only legacy is that you murdered a bunch of innocents, nobody should ever know your name. Only that you were an asshole.</p>
Movie roundup, part 222014-05-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/05/movie-roundup-part-22/
<p><strong>[All movie titles link to Rotten Tomatoes, so you can see what the people who get paid to write about movies think.]</strong></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1019441-sorcerer/">Sorcerer</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Released in 1977, <em>Sorcerer</em> was a huge flop, and it has gained a reputation over time in film nerd circles as an overlooked masterpiece with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film)">speculation</a> as to its theatrical release failure being due to coming out at the same time as <em>Star Wars</em>, being poorly marketed, etc.</p>
<p>Or, it could have flopped on release due to it being a film (or <em>feeeelm</em> if you wish) for film nerds instead of a mass market audience.</p>
<p>Off the top of my head, here are some reasons why this is not a mass market movie: There isn’t a word of English spoken the first 30 minutes; every single person in the film is on the asshole spectrum; nothing but bad things happen. Nothing. But. Bad. Things.</p>
<p>These are not the ingredients that a blockbuster make.</p>
<p>The film nerds have a point though in that it’s a decent movie—good performances, good directing and a relentlessly bleak plot. But damn, it’s hard to watch a bunch of terrible people doing terrible things for two hours. So yeah, I don’t think <em>Star Wars</em> had that much to do with the failure of <em>Sorcerer</em>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/generation_iron/">Generation Iron</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Documentary about professional body builders preparing for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Olympia">the Mr. Olympia competition</a>.</p>
<p>It’s fascinating to watch to unbelievable commitment and discipline these men display in their commitment to turn themselves into grotesques.</p>
<p>Also fascinating is how they’re always eating and never on plates—always out of tupperware containers. It’s hard to imagine living an existence where one of the basic joys of life has been turned into nothing but the planned, scheduled and pre-measured intake of nutrients.</p>
<p>And the stress on their systems from the “nutrients” (nudge, wink) necessary to grow that kind of musculature and maintain such low body fat levels must be incredible.</p>
<p>As sympathetic as I am to its subjects, the biggest problem with <em>Generation Iron</em> as a documentary is that it doesn’t really probe and above all doesn’t answer the question at least I had: What drives them? Why would anybody go through these lengths? We see the men go through their daily routines with their omni-present tupperware containers, but what made them decide to go down this path and feel it’s worth the pain?</p>
<p>I’d like to know.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/restrepo/">Restrepo</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Harrowing documentary about a 2007 US outpost in the Korengal valley of Afghanistan. It’s visceral and raw and provides stunning insight into both the suffering of the soldiers and the futility of their mission.</p>
<p><em>Restrepo</em> is required watching—a kick in the nuts.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_numbers_station/">The Numbers Station</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>The Numbers Station</em> is getting ripped apart on Rotten Tomatoes even though it’s a tight, paranoid thriller with a tense cold war vibe and John Cusack putting in a blank-faced “I’m psychologically damaged” performance as an over-the-hill secret agent.</p>
<p>Very few things blow up, and instead we watch actors deliver a plot we have to think about, so I guess I can see why the critics weren’t happy.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pacific_rim_2013/">Pacific Rim</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>Pacific Rim</em> is a really stupid movie my 12-year-old self would have loved.</p>
<p>Mechs are cool. Obviously. So the movie has that going for it, but there’s little else except for loudness, testosterone and some extremely dumb plot points.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it’s well made, things go bang a lot and mechs are cool. There are worse things to watch while you consume a bowl of popcorn.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/300_rise_of_an_empire/">300: Rise of an Empire</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Well, that was pretty unnecessary. The first <em>300</em> sure had its problems, but it brought a new visual style and a good story. <em>Rise of an Empire</em> copies the look, but in a ham-fisted way, and has a much weaker story. Instead, it amps up the gore. Boy howdy, there’s a lot of oddly-colored blood spurting all over the place.</p>
<p>Eva Green saves the movie from complete irrelevance by turning in a gleefully over-the-top performance as a psychotic naval commander—it’s almost worth watching just for her performance. Almost.</p>
White privilege in extremism2014-05-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/05/white-privilege-in-extremism/
<p>Public reactions to the standoff <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/15/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-long-fight-between-cliven-bundy-and-the-federal-government/">between the supporters of rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management</a> in the Nevada desert have fallen mostly into two camps: 1) The federal government is overreaching and should leave this hardy individual alone; or 2) Bundy is a welfare rancher who is defrauding the tax payer.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly option 1 is the most common among people who type into comments fields on the Internet and write letters to the editors of newspapers.</p>
<p>Which is very interesting. What we have here is a person who has unilaterally decided which laws apply to him and which do not and is ignoring court orders he doesn’t like. A person who has stated publicly that he does not believe in the federal government. And this individual has now attracted a bunch of like-minded people who apparently believe <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bundy-ranch-speaker-warns-civil-war-vast-scale-promises-harry-reid-will-have-his-balls-rippe">they are the nucleus of a civil war</a>.</p>
<p>This is the Weltanschauung that led to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing">Oklahoma City Bombing</a>, a retread of a mindset that’s been around America for a long time, the idea that the federal government outlined in the constitution is somehow the enemy of freedom.</p>
<p>While we put ice packs on our foreheads to soothe the headache trying to parse that particular logic causes, let’s think about the sheer amount of slack these kinds of extremists are given. Remember: You consider the federal government to be the enemy of freedom while you are an American patriot fighting for that freedom. And the people who write letters to the editor of newspapers think you are correct.</p>
<p>Let’s do a quick thought experiment: Let’s say the people of Bunkerville were Black Panthers and that it was a group of black men with military training pointing automatic rifles at federal agents. How would the people writing letters to the editor about freedom and states’ rights feel about that?</p>
<p>Or, heck why not, let’s say it was a group of bearded Arabs in turbans doing the same thing, ranting about not acknowledging the federal government? While pointing sniper rifles at federal agents.</p>
<p>Think about that one for a while. How do you think that would play out?</p>
<p>So why does America cut anti-government extremists a ton of slack as long as they’re white?</p>
Further to the right2014-05-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/05/further-to-the-right/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/american-flag.jpg" /></p>
<p>Politics in America has drifted far to the right: Kooky militia ranchers are occupying the spotlight, and tea partiers are occupying state houses and school boards. Nevertheless the media narrative is that both the left and the right are getting more extreme. Which is at best lazy reporting and at worst deliberate propaganda.</p>
<p>Allow me to explain.</p>
<p>The other day I had coffee with a Norwegian friend and we of course ended up talking about politics. Now, by Scandinavian standards I’m slightly left-of-center and my friend is middle-right. In Scandinavia that’s a huge gap—we are far apart in our views.</p>
<p>We’ve both been in America over 20 years each, so we’ve both had plenty of time to adapt and “go native.”</p>
<p>And yet by current American standards we are both progressives. That’s right: The entire political spectrum in Scandinavia takes up a small portion of the liberal side of the American spectrum.</p>
<p>What constitutes mainstream Republican thought these days would be considered extreme right in Scandinavia and the militia surrounding Cliven Bundy, well, they’re right off the charts.</p>
<p>This isn’t to say there are no hard-right views in Scandinavia: We had the tragedy of the <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2011/07/the-monster-of-norway/">Monster of Norway</a> murdering innocent children to satiate his fantasies and there are several nationalist organizations attracting the disaffected, but, and this important: Those views are far outside the mainstream.</p>
<p>By contrast, in America today pointing a machine gun at a federal officer is just something that, you know, happens. <em>Shrug</em>.</p>
<p>As a sidenote, there are few things more ironic than a person who carries a copy of the constitution in his pocket at all times for the purpose of telling people he carries a copy of the constitution on his pocket at all times renouncing the federal government defined by that constitution while waving around his copy of the constitution.</p>
<p>You need to be a special kind of snowflake to do that.</p>
<p>So if there’s anything the Koch brothers’ billions have bought them it’s this: The political compass of America is drifting hard to the right.</p>
<p>If the false equivalency of both sides getting more extreme was correct there would be a senator right now advocating for Bank of America to be taken over by the federal government with the tax payers getting the profits. Then this senator would bring that bill to a close vote in the Senate. It might lose, but it would be close. That’s actual socialism. And it’s not happening here.</p>
<p>No, both sides are not getting more extreme. The far right is getting more funding, more attention, and more extreme.</p>
Enter the rumble roller2014-04-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/04/enter-the-rumble-roller/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/rumbleroller.jpg" /></p>
<p>I’ve struggled for the last few years with knee pain most likely resulting from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome">IT Band Syndrome</a>. At least that’s the best guess—correctly diagnosing these kinds of things is tricky in the extreme. But at the very least I’m sure my IT bands, like most of my muscles—as <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2014/02/tiny-victories/">I’ve discovered doing yoga</a>—are much too tight.</p>
<p>To illustrate just how tight they are, when I went to physical therapy I had a substitute therapist one morning and she just looked at my legs and said, “Well, those are some tight IT bands” without even having to touch them.</p>
<p>They are also frustrating muscles to try to stretch since they are fantastically strong, like all the load bearing muscles in your body.</p>
<p>Using a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0040NJOA0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0040NJOA0&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">foam roller</a> is a part of the physical therapy and as a bonus is in general considered a <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/ask-well-do-foam-rollers-aid-workouts/">good thing for muscles and fascia</a>. So there’s been foam rolling a-plenty for me. Problem was it didn’t really do much for my IT bands. I could feel the knots, but it wasn’t doing anything to alleviate them. So I stepped up to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0040EGNIU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0040EGNIU&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Grid</a> and it was better, definitely digging deeper, but still wasn’t getting deep enough.</p>
<p>Then I found the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E4YWG3M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00E4YWG3M&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Rumble Roller</a>, a roller with knobs that looks like it’s straight out of some kind of BDSM dungeon. This thing gets in there—it’s deeply uncomfortable and leaves your muscles feeling like you got a thumb massage on a day when your therapist had some aggression to work out.</p>
<p>If you’ve been using a regular black foam roller but feel like it’s not getting deep enough, definitely try a Rumble Roller. But do not buy one unless you actually have found regular black foam rollers to not do the job. <em>It will hurt you.</em></p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> All product links are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy something through these links I get a tiny kickback from Amazon. It doesn’t cost you anything extra.</p>
Review: The Pet Shop Boys Electric tour hits Phoenix2014-04-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/04/review-the-pet-shop-boys-electric-tour-hits-phoenix/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/psb-phoenix/green.jpg" /></p>
<p>My first job out of high school was driving a delivery van for an electrical supplies company. This involved many hours on the back roads of rural Sweden, with my only companions endless mix tapes. Pretty much all those tapes featured the Pet Shop Boys, who were hitting their zenith in the late ’80s with hits like <em>Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)</em>, <em>West End Girls</em> and <em>Domino Dancing</em>.</p>
<p>If you’d told me back then I’d be fat and middle-aged halfway around the world in Phoenix, AZ in 2014 and hearing them perform <em>Opportunities</em> with my daughter, I would have laughed.</p>
<p>But here we are. The Electric tour hit Phoenix last night and it was epic. More stripped down than I’d expected, with Tennant singing, Lowe doing whatever it is he does behind a stack of electronics, and two dancers in various more-or-less creepy outfits and headgear.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/psb-phoenix/minotaur.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Pet Shop Boys live April 2014" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Things got pretty True Detective there for a while.</i></p>
<p>But they made up for it with a massive light show, strategic use of videos and creative use of transparent curtains. As you’d expect from people who have been touring for over 20 years, they know what works and how to make up for the lack of live instrumentation. They’re also smart enough to realize that the vast majority of their audience are middle-aged people who want to relive their clubbing days, so the setlist went heavy on older hits.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/psb-phoenix/bigstrobe.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Pet Shop Boys live April 2014" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The Pet Shop Boys brought the big lights. Boom.</i></p>
<p>Since the Pet Shop Boys have been huge in the gay community since they started out, I was curious what kind of crowd would come out to the concert. Turns out, a lot of people like my wife and I: Middle-aged people who were into the band back in their clubbing days. I was expecting a lot of gay people, and they were indeed there, lots of middle-aged gay couples. We’re all people and we all like the Pet Shop Boys. It’s not a sin.</p>
<p>If you’re into the genre at all, it’s definitely worth seeing the Pet Shop Boys both for the nostalgia and to see the fusion of creativity and road-tested professionalism. It’s a good time.</p>
<p>As a postscript I do believe somebody enjoyed the light show more than the rest of the audience: Mid-show I made a pit stop at the bathroom, and it just <em>reeked</em> of weed. Hope you enjoyed the strobes, whoever you are.</p>
Book roundup, part 142014-04-06T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/04/book-roundup-part-14/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Loudest-Voice-Room-Brilliant-News---ebook/dp/B00AD6O6BU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=the%2Bloudest%2Bvoice%2Bin%2Bthe%2Broom&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1392235581">The Loudest Voice in the Room, by Gabriel Sherman</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p><em>The Loudest Voice in the Room</em> is meticulously researched, a dispassionate and remarkably restrained report on the life of Fox News creator Roger Ailes, who comes across as a man with a savant-level understanding of both the psychology of the American Right and how television can be used as propaganda. He also comes across as a raging asshole, a man for whom bluster, bald-faced lying and physical intimidation comes as naturally as breathing.</p>
<p>A book on Ailes of course isn’t complete without chronicling the rise of right-wing media culminating in Fox News and it turns out Ailes has been at the center of political manipulation of television since he started working for Nixon, doing an objectively impressive job of rehabbing Nixon’s image.</p>
<p>And then finally Fox News, where Ailes found his haven—a remarkable match of a man and a mission. Where Ailes defended the station’s farcical slogan of “Fair and Balanced” by saying that the other news outlets were so far left that by watching Fox you were getting balanced news. Or something equally headache-inducing.</p>
<p>The fascinating thing about right-wing media is that the more successful it is, the poorer the GOP does in elections:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>After Mitt Romney’s 2012 defeat, Mark Rozell, the acting dean of the George Mason University School of Public Policy, and Paul Goldman, a former chairman of Virginia’s Democratic Party, wrote an essay noting the inverse relationship between the rise of conservative media and the Republican Party’s ability to win national majorities. “When the mainstream media reigned supreme, between 1952 and 1988, Republicans won seven out of the ten presidential elections,” they reported. “Conservative talk show hosts and Fox News blame the ‘lamestream’ national media’s ‘liberal bias’ for the GOP’s poor showing since 1992. Yet the rise of the conservative-dominated media defines the era when the fortunes of GOP presidential hopefuls dropped to the worst levels since the party’s founding in 1856.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>The Loudest Voice in the Room</em> is required reading for anybody who cares about the state of politics in America.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CDUVSQ0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00CDUVSQ0&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Hatching Twitter, by Nick Bilton</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Hatching Twitter</em> is interesting and well researched, full of insight into the early years of Twitter, the haphazard way the company came into being, and the damaged souls who birthed it. The book is often unbelievable in the way only reality can be: If it were a novel it would be preposterous.</p>
<p>None of the early founders and employees of Twitter come out looking good, especially Jack Dorsey, who emerges as an unbelievably narcissistic human and the poster child for San Francisco tech-industry douchiness.</p>
<p>The main drawback of <em>Hatching Twitter</em> is a tendency for the prose to go purple at every opportunity, for example in a description of a meeting where computers “gasped for air as their fans whirred to life.”</p>
<p>But overlooking the heavy-handed style, <em>Hatching Twitter</em> is a wonderful document of the creation of one of the communications revolutions of our time.</p>
<p>Love this nugget about what Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg thought of Twitter:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…]once telling a group of close friends that Twitter was “such a mess it’s as if they drove a clown car into a gold mine and fell in.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BIV1R98/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BIV1R98&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Dogfight, by Fred Vogelstein</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Dogfight</em> goes behind the scenes of the battle between Google and Apple and gives a chilling portrayal of the raging A-type world of Silicon Valley. If you’re at all interested in the technology business, this is a must-read.</p>
<p>The section on the development process of the iPhone and just how much of a bet-the-company product it was is fascinating, as is the description of the preparation for Jobs’s introductory keynote, demoing a product that was held together with duct tape and willpower, having to follow the “golden path,” the only way through the sequence of listening to music, taking a call, and checking email that was known to—probably—not crash the device. I needed a nap after reading the description of the engineering heads sitting in the audience knowing full well the fragile state of the device and of course knowing everything about Jobs’s legendary rages at people who failed him.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BAXFDLM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BAXFDLM&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-200">Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Takes space opera in a new direction with a fresh look at the life of a vast ship AI and hive mind. If you’re into the genre, <em>Ancillary Justice</em> is a given, often feeling like Iain M. Banks in concept and scope and full of intriguing ideas. But it’s also frustrating in being scattered—the novel has so many ideas that they sometimes get in the way of the storytelling.</p>
<p>The plot is hard to summarize without spoilers, so I’m not even going to try, but one of the core ideas that’s very well executed is that the protagonist is a ship AI in service of a seriously fascist, expansionist interstellar empire that inhabits drones, mind-wiped prisoners of war, so the same mind exists both as a ship and as individuals. It’s trippy and executed very well.</p>
<p>Despite the sprawl problems—which could be fixed with some editing—I’m very much looking forward to the next installment in the series. It’s great to have a new talent on the scene.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0079XPTUM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0079XPTUM&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">KOP Killer, by Warren Hammond</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Third in the sci-fi/noir trilogy about ex-cop Juno of the Koba Office of Police, one of the dirtiest cops ever and now a shell of a man driven by revenge and a pathetic dream of making right his past mistakes.</p>
<p>This is by far the strongest entry in the trilogy—Hammond brings out all the guns in a twisting plot that gets progressively darker and darker as it goes along. In its strongest moments it’s reminiscent of James Ellroy—high praise indeed. Strong stuff.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Circle-Dave-Eggers-ebook/dp/B00EGMQIJ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=eggers%2Bcircle&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1394056366">The Circle, by Dave Eggers</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p><em>The Circle</em> has generated a lot of buzz and positive reviews and I don’t understand why. The basic idea is solid: It’s the near future and The Circle is a next-level Google kind of company that’s come up with a universal authentication system everybody is using. Our protagonist is a young woman who gets a job in customer support and through an unlikely series of events rises rapidly in the company to become its face to the public. But of course there’s a darker side to The Circle…</p>
<p>There are good things in the novel: Eggers is very effective at creating a sense of creepy dread; for example, there’s a scene where the protagonist learns that social media metrics are directly tied to your performance reviews that reads like a complete nightmare. <em>Shudder</em>.</p>
<p>But the core problem with <em>The Circle</em> is that it’s obviously written by a person with no technological awareness, which becomes—<em>duh</em>—a huge problem in a novel where technology is central to the plot. So the dire warning underlying it become little more than the impotent rant of a Baby Boomer.</p>
<p>Also problematic are the characters, especially the protagonist, who have all the self-awareness of sleep walkers, and the symbols—like the voracious deep-water shark—that are as subtle as a hammer to the head.</p>
<p>It’s too bad, really; <em>The Circle</em> wants to deal with important issues, but does it in such a ham-fisted way it’s impossible to take seriously. Though it’s probably much more enjoyable if you don’t know anything about technology and haven’t read many other novels.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Working-Gods-Mischief-Instrumentalities-Night-ebook/dp/B00H6E6BT2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=digital-text&keywords=working%2Bgods%2Bmischief&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1396206868">Working God’s Mischief, by Glen Cook</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Continues the <em>Instrumentalities of the Night</em> series in able fashion. If you liked the previous installments, you’ll like this one. But if you’re new to Glen Cook, this series is not where you should begin. Instead, plow through the fantastic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009WUGAJE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009WUGAJE&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-2"><em>Black Company</em></a> and the über-epic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597801046/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1597801046&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20"><em>Dread Empire</em></a> series. Once you’re through those, the <em>Instrumentalities of the Night</em> series will be there waiting for you.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Where-Eagles-Dare-Alistair-MacLean/dp/1402792506/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=where%2Beagles%2Bdare%2Bbook&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1396669890">Where Eagles Dare, by Alistair MacLean</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The good news is one of the seminal World War II thrillers can be had used for $1.99 in paperback. The bad news is you hippies who want to read it on your fancy-pants Kindles are out of luck. No Kindle for you. Although if you’re illiterate you can watch <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kellys-Heroes-Eagles-Feature-Blu-ray/dp/B001XURJCS/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1&ie=UTF8&keywords=where%2Beagles%2Bdare%2Bblu%2Bray&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1396671332">the movie adaptation</a>, which is remarkably close to the book and stars Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.</p>
<p>Now, I first read <em>Where Eagles Dare</em> many years ago, when Alistair MacLean was the coolest writer a 12-year-old boy could possibly find. And just to pass it off at the gate, yes, <em>nerd</em> I had already read <em>Lord of the Rings</em> and MacLean was way cooler. So there.</p>
<p>At the time MacLean was the ultimate writer of the Cool Guy thriller. His heroes were flawed, usually tormented by something we the readers weren’t allowed to know, but also brutally competent, and <em>Where Eagles Dare</em> has one of the shining examples of the genre in Smith, a man who knows things we can’t understand, a man who sees things we can’t, but who is also a man oh so weary of it all. In other words, exactly the man a 12-year-old boy wants to grow up to be. And since it was World War II, there were bombers and machine guns and (dun-dun-DUN) the SS!</p>
<p>Which is to say that for the sophisticated reader of 2014, <em>Where Eagles Dare</em> is a bit of a relic: the characters are threadbare and the plot is, well, silly. The whole book is based around a premise that, once revealed, will make you groan. Which doesn’t change that it is incredibly efficient. The plot moves like the alpine post bus toward the end: Fast, unstoppable, and somehow romantic.</p>
<p>For your next airplane ride or vacation, this is a good one to bring with you, both for the reading experience (which will keep you up later than you should) and to appreciate the workmanship of an unstoppable plot.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> Links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon and it doesn’t cost you anything extra. Be a mensch, eh?)</p>
Desert rose2014-03-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/03/desert-rose-in-bloom/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/desert-rose2014.jpg" /></p>
<p>Most of the year Phoenix is a sun-blasted, bleak moonscape wilting in a heat that actively tries to kill everything living.</p>
<p>But March, ah, March is fantastic, with eternal shorts-and-t-shirt temperature and the flowering of the cactuses. It’s wonderful to see these tanks of the flora open up to sprout bright flowers for just a few days.</p>
<p>You can watch the picture above and many more in high resolution in my <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/niclindh/sets/72157615510048632">Sonoran Yard Flickr set</a>.</p>
New York City trip report2014-03-22T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/03/new-york-city-report/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/times-square.jpg" /></p>
<p>After all these years living in the United States, it was past time to visit New York City. I’m happy to report the Lindhs had a great visit.</p>
<p>Now, having grown up in my tiny Swedish town watching movies like <em>Taxi Driver</em>, <em>Deathwish</em> and <em>The Warriors</em>, my basic idea of New York was that it’s a very dangerous place. Yes, I read the news, so I knew things have changed, but preconceptions are hard to change.</p>
<p>Turns out, New York is not dangerous. I like to think I have a decent radar for sketchiness, and that radar pings way more often here in Phoenix than it did in New York City.</p>
<p>Comparing with another major landlocked city by the water, San Francisco, New York felt much safer. Part of that is probably the absence of panhandlers: San Francisco is packed with aggressive homeless people while Giuliano must have pulled off some seriously fascist stuff to clean out New York. I can’t recall seeing a single panhandler. There are still street vendors who get in your face in an annoying way, but they were nowhere near as annoying or intimidating as the panhandlers of San Francisco.</p>
<p>Then there’s rudeness. After all these years hearing about how legendarily rude New Yorkers are, I was surprised to find the locals we encountered were all nice. Slightly brusque, yes, but I found myself enjoying that.</p>
<p><em>You have money and I have a bagel. We both want this exchange to happen. Let’s make it as quick and efficient as possible.</em> That’s just beautiful and totally on my wavelength.</p>
<p>On this topic, let it be known that people have been telling me the truth about New York bagels all these years. Holy crap, that’s some sublime bread.</p>
<p>The same thing goes for pretty much everything we ate—all very fresh. Don’t know if things are just stale here in Phoenix or what the deal is, but you go to a New York deli and you will get yourself some fresh food.</p>
<p>Surprisingly enough, the only real dickheads we encountered on the trip were our fellow tourists, many of whom apparently forgot everything they knew about queues and basic politeness the minute they stepped on their planes.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea-gaugin.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Gaugin exhibit at MOMA" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>My tween daughter thoroughly enjoying the Gaugin exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.</i></p>
<p>Ah, speaking of planes. This was also the first time in my entire life I almost missed a flight. Showed up at Sky Harbor at 7 a.m., two hours before our 8:57 a.m. flight, you know, as you’re supposed to. And then stood in line to check in for an hour. Then the line for security theater took another hour. Meaning we hit the flight sweaty and out of breath just as they were closing the doors.</p>
<p>Apparently Sky Harbor gets wicked busy during March because of spring breaks and spring training, so if you’re traveling through, do yourself a favor and be there three hours in advance to minimize the stress.</p>
<p>The interminable line through security was packed with people who, just like us, thought two hours would be plenty and then found it was nowhere close. It was an exhausting start to your trip to feel the desperation and see the children crying. Yes, children who were about to miss their flights were crying. Which was obviously totally worth it to make sure nobody had a five ounce bottle of liquid on them instead of two three ounce bottles.</p>
<p>OK, deep breaths.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/statue-of-liberty.jpg" class="w-full" alt="The Statue of Liberty from Battery Park" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The Statue of Liberty from Battery Park.</i></p>
<p>Back to New York. One thing I always assumed was a movie trope to increase dramatic tension was the constant honking all the time. That’s a negatory, Ghost Rider. New York drives on its horns—a constant cacophony fueled by relentless aggression. It was loud, always. So loud. I can only imagine you get numb after being there a while since otherwise you’ll go homicidally insane. <em>Honk honk.</em></p>
<p>Apart from the noise my biggest impression is size: It’s not just a few skyscrapers like we have here in the country’s sixth largest city, but an endless parade. It goes on and on and on, darkening the sky. People upon people upon people.</p>
<p>The size is frustrating in that everything takes longer than you think it will. If you’re planning a visit, seriously, schedule yourself some slack. You will need it.</p>
<p>After spending a week there, I highly recommend a visit. New York is a world city with all that entails. There are few like it.</p>
<p>If you want to see some pictures from the trip, I have a set of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/niclindh/sets/72157642466756584/">New York street photography</a> up on Flickr.</p>
We all have our limit2014-03-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/03/we-all-have-our-limits/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/biltmore-apple-store-may-2-2003.jpg" /></p>
<p>During the dot-com nuclear winter of 2001 I found a job at one of the then brand-spanking-new Apple Stores as a Mac Genius. I learned there are people who thrive in a retail environment, people who genuinely think it’s great to come in to work and spend their days trying to sell things to strangers.</p>
<p>(That was not me—for me, retail was a nightmare.)</p>
<p>One of our sales people was a really slick guy, handsome and hip, the kind of guy who would give a sales spiel about one of the Macs on the floor to a customer while I was standing nearby and I—one of the Mac Geniuses who knew all the specs on the thing—would think to myself, “Hey, I should buy one of those!” He was damn good at his job, and one of those people who naturally likes people.</p>
<p>As you’d expect from a sales person, he knew just enough about technology to be able to sell the machines, which was as it should be.</p>
<p>Remember this took place in 2002 right after the Apple Stores opened up and unhinged people considered visiting them something of a religious experience. For most people it was just a nice store, but for the faithful at that time, the backlit Apples flanking the front door was something oh so much more.</p>
<p>(Buy one of the grizzled original Geniuses a beer sometime and you’ll hear some stories.)</p>
<p>One day the store was really busy and this sales rep sidled up to me, pointed at a customer, leaned in real close, and whispered in my ear, “I f**ing hate that guy.”</p>
<p><em>Whoa.</em></p>
<p>This was the kind of guy who got along with <em>everybody</em>. What was going on?</p>
<p>The guy my sales guy was pointing at was an annoying nerd right out of central casting—hyperthyroid-scrawny in a faded t-shirt, coke-bottle glasses and an obvious-from-across-the-room superior attitude.</p>
<p>“What’s happening?” I asked the sales rep.</p>
<p>“That f**ing guy.” He was almost hyperventilating. “He walked up to me and asked me some kind of question about the kernel or something.”</p>
<p>“Aha?”</p>
<p>“So I said I didn’t know. And he looked down his nose at me and sneered, ‘Hmmm. And you work for Apple.’”</p>
<p>It was good to know we all have our limits and though our buttons may be in different places, we all have them.</p>
Protecting straight people2014-02-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/02/protecting-straight-people/
<p>Here in Arizona, our state legislature is obsessed with protecting the rights of the oppressed. Which would be great, if the oppressed who need protection weren’t just old white people with poor reading skills. After great success with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_SB_1070">SB1070</a>—a.k.a the “Brown people are scary” bill—which caused a wave of boycotts against Arizona’s crucial tourist and convention business, the state legislature is back to protect once again. This time, straight people.</p>
<p>Yes, apparently us straight people are under assault from militant gays who want to destroy our way of life. That’s right. Gay people want to force straight people to, uhm, acknowledge they are human beings? And this shall not stand.</p>
<p>Our state legislature has protected us by passing <a href="http://www.kpho.com/story/24783308/az-legislature-passes-controversial-bill-shielding-business-from-discrimination-lawsuits">SB1062</a> which will enable any citizen to refuse to do business with anybody they damn well please if doing business with this particular person is against that person’s religious beliefs. The bill is sitting on Governor Brewer’s desk waiting to be signed or vetoed. Nobody seems sure which way she’ll go.</p>
<p>So there you go, queers. You are bad people. At least based on <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+20%3A13&version=NLT">a couple of lines out of the Old Testament</a>. Which also has stern things to say <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+11%3A9-12&version=KJV">about shrimp</a>, <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/nlt/leviticus/passage.aspx?q=leviticus+15:19-33">menstruation</a> and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A19">mixing materials in your clothes</a>.</p>
<p>This really really gets me about the “gays are bad” agenda: You’re cherry picking from Leviticus, which is a Bronze Age crazy town of indictments about all kinds of things. Most of which the religious right fail. See above with the clothes, shrimp and menstruating women. You can’t pick <em>one</em> effing thing out of those and go, “See! God agrees!” If you follow one you have to follow all. Or did I miss something and the Bible is a make your own adventure?</p>
<p>It’s also interesting that Jesus—the guy the people who wrote this bigot bill claim to follow—had nothing to say about homosexuality. Not. A. Thing. But sure, let’s delve into Leviticus to find one passage and ignore the rest of it.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the Lord meant Leviticus was all or nothing. So stop it. Stop treating it like a smorgasboard. How can you even do that? How can you look yourself in the mirror and think, Yup, did the Lord’s work today, while you’re wearing two different fibers. You really shouldn’t be ignorant of the thing you claim rules your life, you know?</p>
<p>I was intending to write a post about how obviously bigoted SB1062 is and to argue vehemently against it, but that’s pretty pointless since the kind of person who backs legislation like this will not be swayed by things like reason and logic.</p>
<p>Instead, what I find fascinating is the mindset of the kind of person who deems this kind of bill necessary.</p>
<p>There you are, in America, a Christian. The president of the United States of America is a Christian, every member of the Supreme Court is a Christian, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/05/faith-on-the-hill-the-religious-composition-of-the-112th-congress/">every member of the House of Representatives is Christian</a>, while the Senate is mayhem with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_affiliation_in_the_United_States_Senate">several Jews and a lonely Buddhist</a>.</p>
<p>So these are the people who make and interpret the laws in this country. Vast Christian majority.</p>
<p>And yet, you feel you are under assault. All the old values are breaking down. The Apocalypse is close.</p>
<p>With every legislation-passing body comprised of your peers, to have convinced yourself you’re under attack is a level of of delusion that is almost impressive.</p>
<p>But what must it be like to live that way? To wake up every morning afraid, to watch the shadows for the people who are coming for you, to see a conspiracy to oppress you advance every day, to be angry at assaults on your liberty that only exist in your head, to go to bed every night sure that you’ve lost and that doom is getting closer. Even though none of that is happening?</p>
<p>It must be a horrifying existence.</p>
Tiny victories2014-02-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/02/tiny-victories/
<p>I’ve been practicing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtanga_vinyasa_yoga">Ashtanga yoga</a> for a couple of years now and have come to some realizations.</p>
<p>First and most important is that I so suck at it: The liquid grace of a panther being run over by a garbage truck.</p>
<p>I am a terrible yogi, there’s no getting around it. I’m <a href="https://thecoredump.org/about">tall, fat and inflexible</a>, equipped with muscles that resist all stretching. They want to be as tight as they always were and they are damn well going to stay as tight as they want. Period.</p>
<p>The second realization is, yoga is good for me.</p>
<p><em>Because</em> I suck at it, not despite it: the suckage shows how much I need it. The damage wrought by a life sitting on chairs and couches is enormous. It’s not just that my hamstrings, quads and shoulders are tight, but the lower back, lordie, the lower back—it’s like a rotted oak tree. (Incidentally, it was lower back pain that first got me interested in yoga. And yes, yoga has helped tremendously.)</p>
<p>Yoga is also good for me since it forces me to be aware of my body. Since our brains are designed to notice differences, not things that remain the same, unless you stress your body you don’t notice your basic state. And if you don’t notice it, trust me, it’s bad. I now notice when my posture is crappy and try to make it better. Not subconsciously, yet, but if I keep practicing it will be.</p>
<p>So, yay yoga!</p>
<p>I’ve also noticed in class lately that more and more gray-haired guys are showing up to reduce themselves to shaking, sweaty piles and asked the instructor about it. She confirmed she’s seeing more and more men in her classes all over town. It seems word is getting out that as you age you have to start worrying about flexibility as much as whatever Rambo stuff you’re into.</p>
<p>It’s great from a selfish dignity point: More creaky middle-aged guys means fewer bendy twenty-year-old girls for me to compare myself to. It’s also great from a public health perspective. I’m convinced us over-the-hill guys need this. Join us, don’t be afraid, etc.</p>
<p>The problem, though, is how to keep doing something you’re no good at. It’s disheartening when people who are genetically gifted progress at lightning speed while my damn hammies go “nope.” Or even worse as happened this week when somebody shows up for their first class ever and are effing great at it. Just great at it. All kinds of aptitude. If this person keeps it up she’ll kick all kinds of ass at yoga. At the same time as I’m in the back of the short yoga bus eating crayons.</p>
<p>It can be hard.</p>
<p>The solution that works for me is tiny victories. Accepting that I suck and then looking for the little things that go right.</p>
<p>Getting the elbow that little bit closer to the outside of the thigh. Getting the hand that little bit closer to the feet. Sinking into downward dog with the shoulders that little extra bit loose that opens up the chest to where the pose starts to make sense.</p>
<p>Always that little bit. One tiny victory, inconsequential as it is, at a time.</p>
<p><em>Lengthen on the inhale. Fold deeper on the exhale.</em></p>
The Mac, homegrown2014-02-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/02/the-mac-homegrown/<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/hackintosh-build.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Update</strong> Feb. 16, 2014: Added a CPU cooler to the pick list.</p>
<p><strong>[For the impatient, my [Hackintosh pick list](# picklist) is at the bottom of the post.]</strong></p>
<p>The calls rang out over the land for years: “Apple must start selling a medium-sized tower, and lo <a href="http://arstechnica.com/staff/2005/10/1676/">they shall call it the xMac</a> and we shall love it forever and caress it with our sweaty nerd hands.”</p>
<p>And then Apple never did.</p>
<p>For good reason. Here’s something a surprising amount of people don’t want to understand about Apple: Since the first Mac those more than 30 years ago, Apple has wanted to sell you an appliance—a sealed unit you, the customer, do not open up. Ever. You buy it, you use it, then when you want a speed boost, you get rid of it and buy a new one. Done.</p>
<p>Apple does not build machines for hardware tinkerers. For a long time, though, Apple couldn’t get away with it: When your core customers are creative professionals and they need all the power they can get, you have to let them install faster video cards, more hard drives, fibre channel cards, those kinds of things. So Apple grudgingly filled that need with the Mac Pro. Now though, the Mac Pro is an appliance as well after external ports became fast enough that creative professionals can get what they need without needing to get inside the box, so Apple could (finally) glue the box shut like they wanted to all along.</p>
<p>(You can argue back and forth about if this is a good idea or if Apple is the embodiment of control freak fascism, but it is what it is. <em>Shhh. Shhh. Let it go. Shhh.</em>)</p>
<p>At the same time, there’s a small but vocal minority of enthusiasts who love the Mac OS but also want to tinker with the hardware and be able to go as OCD as they want on the pieces that make up their computer. Those people build <a href="http://www.hackintosh.com/">Hackintoshes</a>.</p>
<p>Hackintoshes exist because of Apple using—at least to a certain extent—standard PC parts in their computers. Most of those parts end up tweaked by Apple to fit in their enclosures and whatnot, but they’re based on the standards provided by Intel. Which means you can judiciously purchase parts and assemble your own machine which will run Mac OS X. Sort of. More on that later.</p>
<p>Based on Apple’s appliance mindset you’d think the company would do everything in its power to crush the Hackintosh, but at least outwardly it’s been looking the other way and pretending it’s raining.</p>
<p>Could be Apple made a business decision that Hackintoshes are costing them few enough sales it’s not worth putting engineering resources into creating artificial hurdles or that Hackintoshes provide a safety valve for the biggest nerds to go off and mind their own business instead of yelling at Apple. I doubt we’ll ever know the real reasoning.</p>
<p>But for the time being the Hackintosh community is happily off in a corner doing its thing.</p>
<h2>The cost of the Hackintosh</h2>
<p>Building your own machine from PC parts will save you some money up-front and will allow you to indulge your OCD whims to your heart’s content. But there are non-monetary costs. The first and biggest is time: The Hackintosh community is good at many things, but writing clear guides is not one of them. As you’d expect from a male-dominated field full of young nerds, there’s a morass of acronyms and Strongly Held Opinions.</p>
<p>The complexity is also high. Remember, you’re dealing with something <em>completely unsupported</em> that is by its very nature complicated. You’re picking parts, tweaking BIOS settings, installing strange system extensions, and groveling through more-or-less-illiterate testosterone-soaked forum discussions trying to pick up clues on how to fix something that’s not working. The learning curve is steep.</p>
<p>Unless your time is free or you have a good sherpa (like I did with <a href="http://joemullins.com/">Mr. Joe Mullins</a>) to get you started, you’re actually not saving money. Though if you’re of that bent, you do have a fun hobby.</p>
<h2>Why, dear Lord why?</h2>
<p>Being grizzled and tired, why on Earth would I do this? Partly, of course, just to see what it’s like, and partly to find out what’s new in the world of building PCs since the last time I built one back in … crivens, it’s been a long time … 1998.</p>
<p>It turns out technology has made progress in this space as well, though not as much as I had thought. It’s still the same process of picking parts and making with the screwdrivering, but the details are nicer. A UEFI BIOS will let you use a mouse! And it doesn’t take forever to switch screens! But amazingly, the instructions are still mostly worthless. The BIOS on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-6Gbps-Motherboards-GA-H87N-WIFI/dp/B00D94X4DO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=gigabyte%2Blga%2B1150%2Bmini-itx&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1390972191">my motherboard</a> has nice explanatory text for the various options. For instance, there’s a setting for disabling and enabling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Host_Controller_Interface">EHCI Handoff</a>. Hmm. What’s that? The help text explains: Allows you to enable or disable EHCI Handoff. <em>Thank you!</em> That help text box is in no way a waste of space.</p>
<p>It’s turtles all the way down with things like that.</p>
<h2>The Mac part of the hack</h2>
<p>All that being said, what’s it like to run a Hackintosh as a Mac?</p>
<p>Pretty nice. After the appropriate incantations, BIOS tweaks and <a href="http://www.tonymacx86.com/374-unibeast-install-os-x-mavericks-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html">Unibeast</a> magic oil has been applied, everything Just Works. (Well, “everything” minus the built-in WiFi on the motherboard, which I knew going in, plus the Bluetooth having some sort of nervous breakdown—probably fixable if I get around to it. And creating a Fusion Drive turned out be way more of a pain than a sane person could endure. My definition of Just Works may differ from yours.)</p>
<p>It’s a fast machine with the internals I want and the expandability I choose. But it illustrates just how much complexity Apple shields from you and how for the vast, vast majority of people Apple has picked exactly the right concept in its appliance model. With a machine from Apple, you turn it on and go and as long as the hardware doesn’t break, the most complicated thing you’ll have to do is go to the App Store and buy your software. No checking your thermal loads and all the other things the tinkerer has to worry about.</p>
<p>For me the most arduous part of the process—and one I’d have to endure if I had moved to a “real” Mac as well—was to migrate the content over from my old iMac—the Hackintosh has a 250GB SSD, not nearly enough for all the files my wife and I had, so there was pruning, letting Time Machine run, then letting Migration Assistant move over the Applications and User folders overnight. After that things pretty much worked as expected apart from some of the Unix-y things like Homebrew, which got itself into a pretty bad tissy.</p>
<p>The only other problem so far was delivered, <em>of course</em>, by iTunes, which forgot the location of about 1,000 songs. Songs sitting on an external harddrive which had not been moved at all.</p>
<p>The conversation with iTunes went something like this:</p>
<p>“Hey, I can’t find this song. Would you like to locate it?”</p>
<p>“That would be good.”</p>
<p>[iTunes correctly points to the folder holding the song.] “Is it in here?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“Yay! High five! Would you like to use this location to find the other missing songs?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I sure would.”</p>
<p>“Nope. Not here. [Shrug.] No idea where they might be. And you know, if you hadn’t been so pissy I might have offered to just download them from iCloud, but with <em>that</em> attitude, I won’t. So there!”</p>
<p>“[Sigh.] When did you turn into this?”</p>
<h2><a name="picklist"></a>The pick list</h2>
<p>Here’s the parts list for this particular Hackintosh, based on [the February 2014 CustoMac Mini Deluxe list on TonyMac][golden]. All links go to Amazon and are affiliate links.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Motherboard: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-6Gbps-Motherboards-GA-H87N-WIFI/dp/B00D94X4DO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=gigabyte%2Blga%2B1150%2Bmini-itx&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1390972191">Gigabyte H87N-WIFI</a> (Be aware the WiFi doesn’t work. And it <em>is</em> overclockable, if that’s your thing, despite what the Internet says.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>CPU: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CO8TBOW/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Core i5K</a> (The “K” stands for Overclock. Yes, I know, I know. Sigh. It costs about the same as a “regular” i5, so get it just in case you do want to overclock later.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>CPU Cooler: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005O65JXI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005O65JXI&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Hyper 212 EVO</a>. The i5 runs wicked hot. If you want to do any kind of overclocking, you’re going to need an industrial-strength cooler. You’ll want some electrical tape to keep from releasing the magic smoke, since the cooler will touch some of the stitching at the bottom of the motherboard. This thing is a massive pain in the nads to install—only do it if you want to overclock.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Solid State Drive for booting: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E3W1726/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i00?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">256BG Samsung 840 EVO</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Spinning drive for storage: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088PUEPK/ref=oh_details_o02_s02_i01?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">1TB Western Digital Blue</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>RAM: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007TG8QRW/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i01?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">16GB Corsair Vengeance</a> (Yes, the RAM is called Vengeance. Apparently few things are more metal than computer memory.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Case: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008RJQ3GQ/ref=oh_details_o02_s02_i00?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">BitFenix Prodigy</a>. Pro tip: Remove the silly handle from the bottom. It makes the case wiggly and is very silly.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Power supply: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ALK3HF4/ref=oh_details_o02_s02_i02?psc=1&tag=thecoredump-20&ie=UTF8">Corsair CX Series 500 Watt</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The BitFenix case has two case fans, but the Gigabyte board only has one fan power supply, so you probably want to pick up a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Tek-Sleeved-Splitter-CPF01/dp/B00B46XKKQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=fan%2Bheader%2Bsplitter&tag=thecoredump-20&qid=1391627428">fan splitter</a> as well.</p>
<p>Happy screwdrivering!</p>
<p>[golden]:<a href="http://www.tonymacx86.com/411-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-february-2014.html#">http://www.tonymacx86.com/411-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-february-2014.html#</a> mini_deluxe</p>
My first Mac2014-01-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/01/my-first-mac/
<p>My first introduction to computers was in seventh grade when my Swedish middle school put up a tiny computer lab with an Apple ][, two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_80">ABC 80</a>s and a powerhouse <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_800">ABC 800</a> (which had yellow text on black instead of green—pretty damn rad). My friends and I spent way too many hours in that computer lab, including coming in on Saturdays and Sundays and spending all day.</p>
<p>Is the ’80s movie nerd montage flashing before your eyes yet?</p>
<p>I ended up writing a side-scrolling game in Basic on the ABC 80 where you blasted asteroids in the Starship Enterprise. It was very cool to visit a few years later when I was all grown up in high school to find some random kid playing my game.</p>
<p>I also saved up my earnings from lawn mowing and purchased an [Atari 400][400]. There was assembly programming. Holy crap that stuff was <em>hard</em>.</p>
<p>But then I started high school and two things happened: 1) I discovered girls and heavy metal; and 2) the high school had a mini computer and all the classes were taught by a math teacher who apparently saw no other use for computers than to solve math problems. <em>Snoresville! I’m busy growing a mullet and listening to Iron Maiden. Later, dorks!</em> I should add here, not that it needs to be added, that my success with heavy metal was much greater than my success with girls.</p>
<p>So high school went by with little computer time apart from playing Missile Command, Star Patrol and Defender on the Atari and any and all games we could beg, steal or borrow on a friend’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64">Commodore 64</a>. Joysticks were broken.</p>
<p>And then a few years later I ended up at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and took my first Desktop Publishing class in a lab equipped with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Plus">Macintosh Plus</a>, a couple of ImageWriters and a LaserWriter. This was a whole new world! I loved those little machines so much. You could make your own books! Books! And fonts! You could change the fonts! And install extensions to change how things worked!</p>
<p>It became imperative to have one at home. And just then Apple released the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic">Classic</a> for just shy of $1,000. Which for a starving student was a huge chunk of change, but doable with some belt tightening.</p>
<p>Then I heard rumors of this “Internet” thing and went over to the computer science department help desk to find out more. Told the bearded guy behind the desk I wanted to get on the Internet and he got all excited, then asked me what kind of computer I had? A Mac, I said, and he visibly deflated, no doubt seeing the tech support calls from the hippie flash before his eyes. But he handed me a floppy with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_(protocol)">Kermit</a> on it and an Internet manual written by somebody who obviously had English as a third language. I bought a 1,200 Baud modem and spent two weeks making the computer in my bedroom talk to the university server. This is not an exaggeration. So many hours and cups of coffee. (Side note: The amount of energy I had for this stuff back in the day makes me want to take a nap now.)</p>
<p>Once I managed to make the modems talk to each other I could reach the entire world from my bedroom. The first time I connected to a University of Michigan server over FTP from the computer in my bedroom was the closest I ever came to a religious experience. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441569595/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0441569595&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Neuromancer</a></em> was real. It was happening.</p>
<p>[400]:<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_400#">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_400#</a> The_early_machines:_400_and_800</p>
How to privatize a public good2014-01-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/01/how-to-privatize-a-public-good/
<p>It’s an article of faith among the right that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good">public goods</a> like schools, health care and defense should be privatized as much as possible: Government is by definition bad and private actors will always deliver services and goods in a more efficient and cost effective manner.</p>
<p>No matter what reality says.</p>
<p>So you see the same play enacted over and over again. And for good reason: It works. (The current Swedish right-wing government is quite busy these days following the lead of their colleagues in the UK by dismantling as much as possible of the welfare state.)</p>
<p>Let’s use education as an example, but you can substitute with any public good. Here’s how it works:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Cut funding to schools as much as possible. <em>Important:</em> Explain that this is fiscal responsibility.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Be publicly aghast that the quality of education delivered by the schools is dropping. This is proof government can not deliver this service efficiently.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Open up the market for private actors. They will surely solve this crisis.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cut funding for public schools even more and suggest caring (read: wealthy enough) parents send their children to the new private schools, which are clearly superior.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Ignore all reports that the new schools cost just as much as the public schools did and are not delivering more value for the tax payer.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>(Optional but recommended) Snicker at the poor, dumb people who clearly don’t care enough about their children to send them to the new, better, private schools.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>After that, find another public good to privatize and step and repeat. Success!</p>
The iPhone, devourer of technologies2014-01-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2014/01/the-iphone-devourer-of-technologies/
<p>The iPhone was the device that took handheld computing from something only nerds could stand to something useful for “normal” people. Looking back at what <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3gw1XddJuc">Apple announced (video)</a> back in 2007, two things stand out: How primitive the first iPhone actually was, functionality-wise—no third-party apps, no multitasking, no copy-paste, etc.—and how revolutionary it was.</p>
<p>In the above-linked video, you can hear people gasp as Jobs demos scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. Which shows what an epic leap forward the product was. When your demo makes the audience audibly gasp in delight, you’re doing things very right indeed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/and-then-steve-said-let-there-be-an-iphone.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all">This <em>New York Times</em> article on the backstory</a> behind the development of the first iPhone, apart from being interesting reading in itself, shows just how much Apple bet on that product and how flatfooted it caught the competition. (It’s an extract from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BIV1R98/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BIV1R98&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">very good <em>Dogfight</em></a>, which you should read if you have any interest in the technology business.)</p>
<p>Now the platform has had enough time to mature that people whose lives are sad can fill the Internet with blather about how boring the accumulated improvements to the platform are. <em>Boring, boring, boring. Yawn.</em> Multi-tasking, a full-on Q-Branch fingerprint sensor, retina screen, massive performance increases. <em>Yawn.</em></p>
<p>It must be very sad to be one of those people.</p>
<p>Apart from the progress of the iPhone itself, it’s mind-boggling just how many other devices and technologies in my life the iPhone has devoured. (And yes, if you swing Android, a modern Android phone can do pretty much the same things.)</p>
<p>The iPhone is now the camera I carry around, it’s my GPS, it’s my alarm clock, it’s my music player, it’s my exercise tracker, it’s my weight logger, it’s my Twitter window, and it’s my podcast player. All of that in my pocket.</p>
<p>But wait, there’s more! Thanks to the maturation of Bluetooth my iPhone also talks to my FitBit and the <a href="http://www.automatic.com/">Automatic device in my car</a> <em>and</em> plays podcasts over my car stereo. Seriously, listening to a podcast on the bus, then getting in the car and having the same podcast continue playing over the car stereo <em>from inside my pocket</em> is so future it’s almost ridiculous.</p>
<p>It’s going to be amazing to see what the next seven years will bring.</p>
Meet Helios the cat2013-12-28T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/12/meet-helios-the-cat/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/helios-kitten.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Cute kitten" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Helios when he was a kitten. Don’t let the innocent face fool you.</i></p>
<p>This is Helios, our alpha cat. He is one of the most fun cats I’ve ever met. Smart and interactive, the kind that takes a lot of interest in what his helper monkeys are up to, constantly vocalizing, so there’s a soundtrack of meows and purrs.</p>
<p>He is also a raging asshole. The worst cat I’ve ever met.</p>
<p>This mostly takes the form of being <em>terrible</em> to his two “sisters” with constant dominance displays including sauntering up to where one of the other cats is hanging out, just being a cat and enjoying the day, and attacking if that other cat doesn’t immediately yield the space. Not because he wants to lie down where the other cat is, just to make sure they know they exist at his mercy.</p>
<p>There are also of course ambushes. And the stealing of treats. Though I’m sure he doesn’t see it as stealing, more along the lines of the treats existing and therefore being his, like everything else in the world.</p>
<p>We rescued Helios from our vet. One day, after he’d hurt himself fighting somewhere in the neighborhood, tearing up one of his paws, we had to bring him back and one of the vet techs, in hushed tones, admitted he was the only cat she’d ever been afraid of.</p>
<p><em>Helios will cut you.</em></p>
<p>He’s been castrated, of course, and it’s slowed him down not one iota. As a matter of fact, he was up and running an hour after we got him back from the vet, even though the surgery was difficult with one of the testicles stuck inside his stomach. But enough of this unpleasant subject.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/helios.jpg" class="w-full" alt="Strange cat" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Helios spends every weekday morning like this next to the shower while his helper monkeys get ready for the day, constantly meowing. This behavior is a mystery.</i></p>
<p>We have a deal with our cats that we let them out in the backyard on the condition they stay inside the walls, which all our cats have done. Except one. Off like a rocket to who knows where the first time we let him out. So we put a collar on him so people could at least call us if he was found somewhere. How long did the collar stay on, you ask? A few minutes, probably. We never saw it again.</p>
<p>None of our cats have ever caught anything we’re aware of. Except one, who reenacts the Red Wedding with the poor mourning doves. We fully expect them to have a temple somewhere where they make dark sacrifices to protect them from Steppin’ Razor.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how unique the little murder machines can be.</p>
Movie roundup, part 212013-12-21T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/12/movie-roundup-part-21/
<p><strong>[All movie titles link to Rotten Tomatoes, so you can see what the people who get paid to write about movies think.]</strong></p>
<p>It’s been over a year since <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2012/10/movie-roundup-part-20/">the last movie roundup</a>, so this one is way overdue. Here we go:</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_into_darkness/">Star Trek: Into Darkness</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>After the previous installment of the series, which veered between greatness and awful cliché like a Disneyland ride, my hopes were low for this one.</p>
<p>And they were exceeded. <em>Into Darkness</em>, while certainly not <em>Citizen Kane</em>, is a fun movie that has a good time with a premise that successfully walks the line between homage to the original series and a new vision for the Star Trek universe.</p>
<p>There are certainly nits to be picked, especially some plot elements that are so signaled you think they must expect the audience to be functionally retarded, and a plot that runs way too long at over two hours, but the action is crisp, the acting very good for what it is—remember, we’re comparing with William Shatner, here—and some exquisite cinematography and CGI.</p>
<p><em>Into Darkness</em> succeeds in being just plain a fun popcorn movie with some big explosions. Nothing wrong with that.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dredd/">Dredd</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Dredd</em> is very much a b-movie, but it’s a b-movie that embraces what it is, which makes it highly enjoyable. It also saves the Judge Dredd character from the stigma of the execrable ’95 Stallone movie.</p>
<p>Apart from Karl Urban doing a great job of being mono-syllabic and gravelly underneath his helmet, Lena Headey clearly has a lot of fun chewing up the scenery as the movie’s psycopathic villain and the plot, while surely not written by a MENSA member, does the job of creating plenty of popcorn suspense and over the top violence.</p>
<p>Long as you enjoy dystopian hyper violence, <em>Dredd</em> is a good time.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oblivion_2013/">Oblivion</a> ★☆☆☆☆</h3>
<p>It’s rare for a movie to be so spectacularly mis-created it makes me angry, but this clunker managed.</p>
<p><em>Oblivion</em> is a big-budget blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise, except it actually isn’t a blockbuster. Allow me to explain. <strong>Note: I’m not going to get specific here—no spoilers.</strong> <em>Oblivion</em> is actually a paranoid and tense Philip K. Dick-type movie about the horror of waking up to the reality that everything you think you know is a lie.</p>
<p>Except it isn’t that either, since that core of an idea is still there, but drowned in a flood of blockbuster tropes and special effects ketchup that warps the movie into the unholy combination of a bad blockbuster and a bad art house movie at the same time.</p>
<p>It’s such a frustrating mess.</p>
<p>On the plus side, the cinematography and effects are gorgeous—it’s a beautiful thing to behold. But goddammit, Hollywood, this could have been so good and then you had to go and completely miscast Tom Cruise—breath-takingly wrong for the part—add frivolous subplots, and slather the whole thing with CGI.</p>
<p>So. Wrong.</p>
<p>If it was cut down to 60 minutes and expunged all the tent pole movie ballast it would be much better.</p>
<p>But it really should be redone from the ground up with a whole different cast and director. Because the concept deserves to be turned into something great.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/django_unchained_2012/">Django Unchained</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Well, that was uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Slavery is an utterly evil institution and against everything America is supposed to stand for, but it obviously happened, and watching <em>Django Unchained</em> you sure get your nose rubbed in it.</p>
<p>Which is not a bad thing. We should all be forced to face the utter horror of the slave farms of the South.</p>
<p>(As a sidenote, <em>Django Unchained</em> provides a good answer to the racist idiots who <em>still</em> pop up once in a while saying the Africans had it good in servitude since they had white people to take care of them. No, racist shitheads, they did not. Slavery is evil.)</p>
<p>But then you have the n-word. Boy howdy, there’s a lot of the n-word in this movie. More n-words than the entire oeuvre of Dave Chappelle it seems like.</p>
<p>The n-word spoken by white people bothers me. Nothing against the actors, obviously, and it seems pretty likely that was actually how white people spoke back then, but it’s viscerally unpleasant to listen to.</p>
<p>But what about the movie itself? As usual in a Tarantino movie, it has moments of absolute brilliance and complete crap, often in the same scene, but the biggest problem is that it just goes on for too long, with an entire third act that is unnecessary.</p>
<p>The basic idea is great, and it’s brought home by fantastic performances by the actors. Of course Christopher Waltz is spellbinding as a deranged bounty hunter and Don Johnson appears from nowhere as Big Daddy, a horrible, horrible human being who anchors the funniest scene in the movie where the Ku Klux Klan is reduced to its basic idiot backwoodness.</p>
<p>But yes, uncomfortable, for the reminder of the horrors of slavery, the mostly reprehensible characters, and the gory splatter violence.</p>
<p>You may be asking why the violence in <em>Dredd</em> is ok for Mr. Inconsistent, but the violence in <em>Django Unchained</em> is uncomfortable. It’s a matter of tone, really. <em>Dredd</em> is pure escapist fiction and the people hurt and killed are cartoons, while in <em>Django Unchained</em> we’re supposed to care about (some of) the victims, and Tarantino seems to just enjoy hurting them a bit too much.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hungry_for_change_2012/">Hungry for Change</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Documentary about how modern life and especially the food-like products we consume are hurting us. Good and interesting, if a bit preachy.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bullet_to_the_head/">Bullet to the Head</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>I honestly can’t remember anything about this movie except it being a decent popcorn flick with an aging Sylvester Stallone and his protruding horror veins.</p>
<p>It’s the kind of movie where you spend more time thinking about what kind of drug cocktail you’d have to consume and what kind of diet and exercise regimen you’d have to endure to look like that at Stallone’s age.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hansel_and_gretel_witch_hunters/">Hansel and Gretel</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>A very, very dumb movie, but you already knew that. The idea is that Hansel and Gretel from the fairy tale become professional witch hunters after their encounter with the witch in the candy house. Well, there have been worse <em>ideas</em> certainly. But there have been few worse executions.</p>
<p>The plot makes little sense whatsoever, including a lot of witches—the entire countryside was apparently crawling with them—who do kung-fu. In medieval Europe. Think about it. Or better, don’t.</p>
<p>This is the kind of movie that’s worth watching if it’s the only thing showing on an airplane. Otherwise, you can find something better to do with your time.</p>
<p>Apart from being so aggressively dumb, <em>Hansel and Gretel</em> also commits one of my favorite movie trope pet peeves, where a person—or witch, in this case—is beautiful (like Famke Janssen) but turns ugly when committing bad deeds. Why do they keep doing this? I know what the witch is doing is bad since I have a functioning frontal lobe and it’s more chilling when beautiful people do bad things. I don’t get it. Unless it’s some kind of plot from the makeup/special effects departments to get more work. In which case, good job.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/act_of_valor/">Act of Valor</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Pretty much a recruitment movie for the Armed Forces. On plus side, real Navy SEALs portray the Navy SEALs; on the negative side, real Navy SEALs portray the Navy SEALs. This means the action sequences look very good, but they sure aren’t actors.</p>
<p>With absolutely no disrespect to the SEAL teams intended, <em>Act of Valor</em> is a hard movie to take seriously, both because of the terrible acting and that the non-combat scenes are essentially cut scenes in a first-person shooter, while the action scenes (many things blow up and many terrible villains meet their justified ends) look like the play sequences in that same first-person shooter. This was probably intentional since a lot of the time you view the action from behind a gun just like in a first-person shooter.</p>
<p>But then I’m not the testosterone-crazed teenager target audience for this movie.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_queen_of_versailles/">The Queen of Versailles</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Surprisingly sympathetic documentary about the Siegels, a couple with a plan to build the largest private residence under one roof in America. The house will be built in Florida, naturally.</p>
<p>And then the crash of 2008 happens and they find themselves without money. It’s spellbinding to watch this couple—the aging time-share mogul and his much younger ex-model wife, sporting a pair of vulgar breast implants, navigate their new circumstances. Probably few things say more about the kind of people they are than that this largest private residence in America they are building is based not on the castle in Versailles, no no, <em>but on the Las Vegas replica of that castle</em>.</p>
<p>And yet, the filmmakers avoid the easy road and treat them as people instead of objects of contempt.</p>
<p>Well worth watching. And as a side note, it opened my eyes to just how insanely much money you can make from timeshares. Never buying into one of those.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/indie_game_the_movie_2012/">Indie Game: The Movie</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Delightful documentary about the people who make independent video games. I’m personally not much of a gamer anymore, but it’s fascinating to see how much work and love they put into their art.</p>
<p><em>Indie Game</em> is well worth watching not just for gamers but for anybody interested in people pursuing their passions.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_other_f_word_2011/">The Other F Word</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Poignant documentary about how some of the leading lights of the L.A. punk scene, most of them the products of horrible childhoods and broken homes, deal with becoming fathers themselves.</p>
<p>Apart from the scars these men carry from their childhoods, they also have to balance a career dedicated to rage and non-conformity with taking responsibility for young lives. <em>The Other F Word</em> is a little bit distant and shallow, but there are some great moments. Worth watching.</p>
Book roundup, part 132013-12-13T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/12/book-roundup-part-thirteen/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0076DFC3O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0076DFC3O&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Outpost, by Jake Tapper</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Enormously important reporting about the policy failures in the war in Afghanistan and the soldiers who attempted valiantly to carry out their mission, ending in heartbreaking disappointment. Tapper’s reporting is first-rate and he treats his subjects with respect.</p>
<p>It is an important, frustrating and ultimately deeply sad book, with the outpost a microcosm of all the failures of the war in Afghanistan, where understrength divisions struggled with fuzzy objectives, lack of intelligence and changes in strategy.</p>
<p>Required reading.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBFNL0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000FBFNL0&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Masters of Doom, by David Kushner</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The inside story of the beginning of the first-person shooter era, focused on the “two Johns,” Carmack and Romero, and how id software got its start.</p>
<p><em>Masters of Doom</em> is a compelling read even for non-gamers, in that it covers the company’s struggles to figure out its business model—how to make money off of a project that depends on being free to spread around BBS systems and the nascent Internet—but for anybody who experienced the terror of running through the levels of Doom it’s also interesting to get the back story of how id’s games came to be and to appreciate John Carmack’s genius.</p>
<p>For any younglings out there, yes, Doom was <em>terrifying</em> back in the day. I’ve seen grown men jump out of their seats when a hidden demon suddenly attacks.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Fun, uplifting and actionable, Adams’s view of your brain as a moist robot that can be reprogrammed if you only understand which buttons to push is a great framework to think about life.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BWQW73E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BWQW73E&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Everything Store, by Brad Stone</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Fascinating history of Amazon from its beginnings during the dot-com boom to where it stands today. Paints a not very flattering picture of Jeff Bezos as a brilliant tyrant—it’s easy to understand why Bezos’s wife left a one-star review on Amazon. (Which is amazingly meta.) It’s easy to see Bezos as a CEO much in the mold of Steve Jobs—for better or for worse.</p>
<p>The early chapters are riveting, especially how many times Amazon almost went out of business while clawing its way up the retail ladder.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EIIDMUK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00EIIDMUK&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Bomber Command, by Max Hastings</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>The Royal Air Force received a lot of criticism after World War II for their relentless campaign of ‘area’ bombing, or as it can also be called, terror bombing, which wiped out large parts of many German cities including most notoriously Cologne and Dresden—ravaged by horrific fire storms casued by incendiary bombs.</p>
<p><em>Bomber Command</em> examines the origins of Britain’s bomber fleet and the thinking, personalities and operational realities that brought about the terror campaign and shows without being an apologist how Bomber Command realistically couldn’t have operated any other way.</p>
<p>As you’d expect from Hastings, it’s a masterful, definitive work that sheds ample light on that part of World War II.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BAXFACO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BAXFACO&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Gods of Guilt, by Michael Connelly</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Mickey Haller (of <em>The Lincoln Lawyer</em> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EPYZPI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004EPYZPI&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">movie</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FCKG1G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000FCKG1G&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">book</a> fame) is back in another solid courtroom thriller. A client from Haller’s past is found murdered and her killer becomes Haller’s client, but it turns out (of course) the case isn’t as simple as it seems. And naturally there is drama in his personal life.</p>
<p>As usual in a Mickey Haller novel, there are twists and turns, but less so than in the past, and the ending is signalled a bit too obviously. But <em>Gods of Guilt</em> is nevertheless a solid thriller and worth picking up if you’re a fan of the series. Though as with any series, you should start at the beginning with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FCKG1G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000FCKG1G&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Lincoln Lawyer</a></em>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CFAZWW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004CFAZWW&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Low Town, by Daniel Polansky</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Low Town is the slum underbelly of the city of Rigus, and the Warden is its king, wrestling a living from selling drugs and information. A former soldier and cop, he is a man tormented by his memories. This is dark fantasy with a heavy dose of noir.</p>
<p>When a Low Town child is found murdered it is up to the Warden to find the killer. Sorcery, thuggery and violence follow in his wake.</p>
<p><em>Low Town</em> is an impressive debut novel and a given for anybody who enjoys their fantasy gritty and raw.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> There’s something odd going on and the novel is also available under the title <em>The Straight Razor Cure</em>, but that version is not available for the Kindle.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> Links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon without it costing you anything extra. Be a mensch, eh?)</p>
Some good podcasts2013-12-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/12/some-good-podcasts/
<p>Podcasts are great: A way for anybody with an Internet connection, a microphone and something (or nothing) to say to make a joyful noise unto the Internet. They are one of the shining examples of how the net is changing media for the better.</p>
<p>But with democratization and an explosion of new content it becomes hard to find the good stuff, so this post is my attempt to help you find something good to put in your ears. It’s an update to a post from a few years ago, which also extolled the medium and gave <a href="http://thecoredump.org/2011/05/some-good-podcasts-for-you/">some examples of good podcasts at the time</a>. But podcasts come and go, so here’s an updated list of what’s currently playing on my iPhone.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl">In Our Time</a></h3>
<p>Super British and tweedy BBC Radio 4 show in which Melvyn Bragg interviews experts in their field about topics as diverse as Shakespeare’s <em>The Tempest</em>, exoplanets and the Berlin Conference. The topics are all over the map: history, physics, religion, philosophy, etc. It’s like a miniature college degree on your phone and surprisingly fun when the experts get themselves all excited about their topics.</p>
<p>It’s also a nice reminder of just how ignorant I am.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.theskepticsguide.org/">The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe</a></h3>
<p>A show about science, medicine and things of general interest to skeptics. Nerdy and a bit dry, but a good antidote to the generally terrible way science is covered in the mainstream press.</p>
<h3><a href="http://thebuglepodcast.com/">The Bugle</a></h3>
<p>I don’t have to tell you about the Bugle, right? If you like your humor British, this is <em>the</em> podcast to listen to. And also the podcast most guilty of making me look like a loon by laughing out loud to myself on the bus.</p>
<p>I can’t wrap my head around how two people can generate that much bullshit on a weekly basis, but that’s the magic of the Bugle. Get it. Just watch out for the pun runs—they really hurt.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hh">Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History</a></h3>
<p>This isn’t a podcast so much as a series of free and excellent audio books. Carlin covers history from a human angle—it’s not a series of dates and kings, but an exploration of historical events focused on the people who lived through them.</p>
<p>Topics so far have included the Mongols, the war on the Eastern Front, the fall of Rome and many others. They are gripping.</p>
<p>Note that part of Carlin’s monetization strategy is that older episodes go behind a paywall after a certain amount of time. The fall of Rome episodes are now behind that paywall, and they are well worth paying for.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.dancarlin.com//disp.php/csarchive">Common Sense with Dan Carlin</a></h3>
<p>The same Carlin from Hardcore History also creates Common Sense. It’s a show about current events from a smart, non-partisan angle. Though he doesn’t explicitly bring it up, his grasp of history clearly informs his thinking on this show.</p>
<p>He’s the kind of person you find yourself agreeing and disagreeing with, but his reasoning is usually solid. A good antidote to the screaming heads dominating mainstream current events discourse.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.tofop.com/">Tofop</a></h3>
<p>At a whole different speed we have the thing that is Tofop. Or Fofop, as it’s now called for obtuse reasons, but which you won’t find it listed as. But never mind that. Tofop is Australian comedian Wil Anderson (who is apparently <em>huge</em> in Australia) talking to other comedians, usually in hotel rooms around the world. Basically it’s just riffing and there’s nothing in here you actually need to know, but most of the time it’s two very funny people going off on tangents about anything that pops into their heads.</p>
<p>Which disturbingly often is Batman.</p>
<p>The quality depends on the guests, but most often it’s a good time with funny people in your ears.</p>
<p>Not Safe For Work unless prison rape is an appropriate topic where you work.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.walkingtheroom.com/">Walking the Room</a></h3>
<p>Sort of a sister show to Tofop/Fofop, Walking The Room is two comedians having a weekly conversation about what’s going on in their lives. At its best it’s raw, heartfelt and very funny. At its worst it’s two middle-aged men being angry about how their lives are going.</p>
<p>You’ll usually get both in the same show. And lots of profanity and NSFW topics.</p>
<p>I have a lot of affection for Walking the Room.</p>
<h3><a href="http://5by5.tv/prompt">The Prompt</a></h3>
<p>Three Mac nerds talk about what’s happening in technology, mostly Apple-related. Worth a listen for the banter and chemistry between the hosts as well as the occasional nerd-on-nerd violence about things like the Proper Way to Organize Your Desktop. If the thought of people arguing about the proper way to organize your desktop makes you smile, this show is for you. (I’m thinking of starting a support group.)</p>
<p>Also a showcase for how the Internet is changing things in that one host is in the U.S., one in the U.K., and one in Italy. It’s a nice mix of accents.</p>
<h3><a href="http://atp.fm/">Accidental Tech Podcast</a></h3>
<p>As with The Prompt, it’s three nerds talking about what’s happening in technology, especially the Mac/iOS universe. Featuring the king of all nerds, <a href="http://hypercritical.co/">John Siracusa</a>, it’s usually worth listening to.</p>
<h3><a href="http://5by5.tv/incomparable">The Incomparable</a></h3>
<p>An ever-shifting assembly of nerds led by <a href="http://www.intertext.com/jason.html">Jason Snell</a> cover topics of interest to, well, nerds, like books, movies, comics, and, so help them, Dungeons and Dragons.</p>
<p>I very much enjoy the book and movie episodes.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/">Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me</a></h3>
<p>Yes, the Saturday NPR quiz show hosted by Peter Sagal. Good banter, and it’s nice to be able to time shift.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.imore.com/debug">Debug</a></h3>
<p>For the hardcore nerds, Debug features various programmers as guests and delves into various arcana about Mac OS and iOS culture and programming. Tends to run very long as the guests have many opinions they’re happy to get off their chests.</p>
<h3><a href="http://angrymacbastards.blogspot.com/">Angry Mac Bastards</a></h3>
<p>Three angry nerds attempt catharsis by trashing the dumbest and most cynically page-view driven coverage of Apple.</p>
<p>Despite their best efforts over the years, the stupid still prevails.</p>
<p>As you’d imagine, the bastards work very blue, so it’s NSWF.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.muleradio.net/thetalkshow/">The Talk Show</a></h3>
<p>John Gruber of <a href="http://daringfireball.net/">Daring Fireball</a> fame and a host of guests talk about what’s going on in the world of Apple and technology in general. The quality varies a bit depending on who the guest is, but it’s usually worth a listen as Gruber is one of the few people who really gets Apple.</p>
<p>That’s the list. Hope you found something in there to put in your ears. If you have any shows to recommend, <a href="http://twitter.com/niclindh">do hit me up on Twitter</a>.</p>
2013 National Novel Writing Month2013-11-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/11/2013-national-novel-writing-month/
<p>On Thanksgiving I completed <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">National Novel Writing Month</a> for the first time, <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/participants/niclindh/novels/our-glorious-dead/stats">clocking in at 50,072 words</a>, barely clearing the cut-off of 50,000.</p>
<p>If you’re unfamiliar with it, National Novel Writing Month—or NaNoWriMo as it’s affectionately known—has a basic premise: On November 1st, create a new text file and type furiously into it until you finish, November ends, or you realize this novel writing thing is a hell of a lot harder than you imagined and give up.</p>
<p>Not going to soft-pedal this: It’s brutal. Umlaut-deserving brütäl.</p>
<p>So why on Earth would anybody subject themselves to this kind of stress? Obviously you need to want to write a novel (duh). But writing a novel is time consuming and unless you were blessed to be born with a trust fund, you have paying work to do, family, and other obligations that keep getting in the way of the dream of creating your work of art. Writing an entire novel is the kind of huge obligation it’s oh, so very easy to keep kicking down the road until the blessed day appears (i.e., never) that you’ll have the time to bring your masterpiece to the world.</p>
<p>National Novel Writing Month makes it possible, since it is after all only a month. You can give up watching TV, reading other people’s novels, and have a social life for that long.</p>
<h2>Support and nags</h2>
<p>The program is lovely, providing a a steady stream of support from published authors, most of whom it seems got their start in the program themselves, including pep talks and nags. For me, at least, that support was a life saver during the darker days.</p>
<p>The site also has forums and there are local groups around the country that hold meetups. If you’re a social butterfly and want other people around, that might be useful for you. For me, writing a novel is all about being alone, watching what my mind hallucinates and writing it down, so having other people around is counterproductive. But then I’m an introvert. Do what seems best for you. The meetups are out there if you want them.</p>
<p>Apart from the support structure and the hard time frame of one month, the brütäl pace is crucial in and of itself. 50,000 words in a month is <em>way too much</em> if you have a full-time job. Most of what you write will not be good. But you don’t have time to worry about that.</p>
<p>Trying to push out 1,667 words per day, you’ll write a paragraph or a conversation and think, “That was awful,” but you don’t have the time to go back and edit it. So you have to give up the idea of perfection and accept that you’re writing a rough first draft. That’s all it is. And it’s allowed to have great swathes of suck.</p>
<p>Now that my own novel <em>Our Glorious Dead</em> has passed the 50K mark, I’m going to let it rest for a few weeks, then come back and read it to find out how much is salvageable.</p>
<p>But that’s the genius of the exercise: You have to give yourself permission to write crap and plow on no matter what straws you have to grab.</p>
<p>And yes, you probably have to have some kind of brain malfunction to find this enjoyable enough to put your life on hold for a month, but clearly we are legion. Go writing nerds!</p>
<h2>The dreaded Week Two</h2>
<p>If you read up on National Novel Writing Month you’ll find references to Week Two. You will read Week Two (it deserves the capitals) is the darkest part of the experience, when you find yourself stuck with a novel that’s not going anywhere you wanted it to and a crushing sense of futility and ennui.</p>
<p>And that is true. Week Two really sucks. But if you’re prepared for it you can get through. Just don’t underestimate the soul-crushing aspect.</p>
<p>Because, man, typing the words THE END (hell yeah, in CAPITALS!) and copying your novel into the website word count validator and getting access to the winner’s area is pretty sweet, let me tell you.</p>
<p>Which is another nice aspect: You are a winner if you type more than 50,000 words. That’s it. No judgment. “Just” getting those words out.</p>
<h2>Entertain me, bard</h2>
<p>Since I have these other people living in my house (family, I think they’re called) and those people make noise, headphones and music are crucial to hitting the zone. After some experimentation, I found soundtracks work best for me, so if you have Spotify, Rdio or some other streaming service, search around and see what tickles your fancy. Any music is good as long as it helps you put words to screen.</p>
<p>Or no music, if that’s your thing. We’re all special snowflakes.</p>
<h2>And now, the nerdy part</h2>
<p>I loathe using Word as a word processor, for much the same reasons sci-fi author Charles Stross <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/10/why-microsoft-word-must-die.html">enumerated in a scathing post all writers would do well to read</a>.</p>
<p>Like most alpha nerds these days, I do all my writing in <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">Markdown</a>. Word is something I keep on my work computer so I can open the attachments people send me and paste them into a text editor, after which I quit the abomination. For Web work, that text editor is <a href="http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/">BBEdit</a>, but for prose I will admit I like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-screen_writing_program">hipster editors</a>. You can scoff all you want about what kind of mental midget would need a distraction-free editor, but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_and_Franz">hear me now and believe me later</a>: When you’re trying to pound out 1,667 words every day after a hard day of work, having the entire screen taken up with your text and all notifications off is <em>huge</em>.</p>
<p><em>Our Glorious Dead</em> was written in a Markdown editor and distraction-free writing app called <a href="http://bywordapp.com/">Byword</a> (in the dark theme, as is de rigueur) on my MacBook Pro and iPad Air, with one document for the novel itself and one for metadata, like the names of characters and places and major plot points in which they were involved. Especially in fantasy where I’m making up nonsense names as I go along, you have to track them, and a simple text file does the job. (It’s almost like people wrote novels before we had computers, weird as that is.)</p>
<p>Plus I love Byword’s typewriter mode, where the app keeps your cursor vertically centered on the screen. Always having the cursor at the bottom of the screen is annoying. I don’t know why. The middle of the screen is nice.</p>
<p>But no matter how you are planning to put your words to page or screen, make sure you are comfortable with it before the month starts. You will be tempted to procrastinate by fiddling with your app, no matter which one it is. Resist that temptation. Have it all set to go then only use the tool to write your novel. No finding the perfect font, no fiddling with the margins.</p>
<p>Fiddling is the enemy of word count.</p>
<h2>Back it up, yo</h2>
<p>Here’s the PSA portion of this piece: For the love of all that is holy to you, <em>back up your novel.</em> I can’t even imagine how bummed I’d be if it got lost. Remember that Murphy’s Law is strong with computers and that the universe is out to get you. The more important a document is to you, the more likely it is to get eaten. So back it up. Then back it up again.</p>
<p>Personally, I kept my text file in Dropbox, so I wasn’t too worried, since Dropbox ensured it magically was in many places. But you don’t get to have your beard go grey without the computer gods screwing you over a few times, so I made copies with date stamps along the way and emailed them to my self.</p>
<p>(Yes, I thought of creating a Git repository for the novel, but at some point the nerditry has to be reined in.)</p>
<p>The entire goal of backups is to make it so that a ridiculous amount of things have to go wrong before you are screwed. As the U.S. Army says about critical equipment, “Two is one, and one is none.”</p>
<p>Please don’t end your National Novel Writing Month in tears because your computer ate your novel. <em>Please</em>.</p>
<h2>Conclusion and strategy</h2>
<p>If you have any kind of aspiration whatsoever to writing a novel, I can’t recommend National Novel Writing Month enough. There are other people out there just like you <em>and they want to help you</em>.</p>
<p>I went in with a rough mental outline of the first few chapters and an idea about the main characters, and found myself completely out of steam by Week Two. Next time I’ll have more of an outline set up. Even if the plot turns around on me, having a solid outline as a safety net will make this much easier. And if I find a better plot through the writing, so much the better.</p>
<p>So, I iz a winnar and I can’t wait to return to my fallen empire in a few weeks and find out what I actually wrote. Right now, it’s all a blur.</p>
<p>Note that this post is shorter than the daily word count of National Novel Writing Month. <em>You’ll type a lot of words. Godspeed.</em></p>
Blaming the victims2013-11-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/11/blaming-the-victims/
<p>A new study from the Arizona Board of Regents shows that 19 percent of Arizona high school graduates since 2006 have earned a four-year degree. This is a sad number and one that reinforces Arizona’s status as the Mississippi of the West.</p>
<p>So what does the <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131114arizona-college-graduation-rates-editorial.html">The Republic think the problem is</a>? Tragically underfunded schools with huge class sizes? Students living in such severe economic insecurity they need to be fed by their schools in order to eat at all? A state-wide attitude of book-learnin’ being useless?</p>
<p><em>Bzzzt!</em> Negatory, ghost rider.</p>
<p>It’s the students! They have it too easy! And the slackers in the K12 system are allowing them to graduate high school without being ready for college. But their poverty and large class sizes would not be problems if only they would buck down and “strive for it.” And for said striving to happen it must become harder for them to graduate from high school.</p>
<p>This idea that if already stressed students in underfunded schools knew that their tests are going to get more difficult, making them less likely to graduate, they would somehow become motivated to study harder, is a breathtaking level of derangement.</p>
<p><em>Sure, there are 32 other kids in your classroom and you’re hungry, but man up, squirt!</em></p>
<p>This attitude of blaming the weakest members of society is disgusting.</p>
<p>For the sake of fairness it should be noted this bizarre tripe is some kind of odd sidebar, or counterpoint, perhaps, to <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131114education-funding-arizona-lawmakers-editorial-prog.html">a main editorial</a> that suggests education should get more funding from the state, since Arizona students aren’t graduating from college at high enough levels. In other words, a sane editorial.</p>
<p>I assume the words “get off my lawn” aren’t in this piece only due to an intervention by an eagle-eyed copy editor.</p>
The A7 processor is your friend2013-11-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/11/the-a7-is-your-friend/
<p>As expected, the Web has been awash in reviews of the iPhone 5S and iPad Air, and the consensus is that they continue the evolution of their product lines quite nicely.</p>
<p>{::nomarkdown}</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ipad-air-screen.jpg" alt="iPad Air." class="img-responsive" />
<div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-12 contentsmall">
<div class="imgcaption">The lava lamp bubbles of the iOS 7 dynamic wallpapers are surprisingly soothing on the iPad.
</div>
<p>{:/}</p>
<p>Thanks to the A7 chip, the 5S and Air are noticeably faster than the last generation. It makes a <em>huge</em> difference in iOS 7, where animations are buttery smooth and apps launch in turbo mode. As they always do, Apple wrote their new operating system to target their latest hardware. The tightrope they walk, of course, is that they have to avoid making the New Thing cause their old things to act like they’ve developed arthritis, limping along with much creaking. Judging from the performance of iOS 7 on the current iPad mini (why Apple decreed the M is lower case I guess we’ll never know. But e e cummings is probably happy wherever he is now) a device with the same innards as the iPad 2, it’s acceptable on older devices, which is an impressive feat. But the operating system really shines on current hardware.</p>
<p>One curiously overlooked aspect from the many reviews I’ve read is how Apple managed to greatly improve something that was already great: Scrolling. iOS has been the king of scrolling for its entire existence, providing the illusion you’re manipulating something tangible instead of stroking a piece of glass, but on the 5S and Air, it’s much improved. I don’t know how. But it’s quite noticeable, especially if you’re an obsessive nerd. It is—to use the technical term—insane how good it feels.</p>
<h2>The iPhone 5S</h2>
<p>A roundup of things that stand out about the new devices, starting with the iPhone 5S:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>It feels just like its predecessor in the hand. This is a good thing.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>TouchID is remarkably accurate, to the point that failures are aberrations. Not sure what some people are whining about, except those people might need to up their personal hygiene a bit. Yes, you have to train yourself to put your finger on it firmly. (“You’re holding it wrong.”) Duh. It’s not magic. But once in muscle memory operation is smooth as glass. And a tiny frisson of <em>the future</em> every time.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>iOS 7 is a battery hog. My 5S gets about the same not good battery life as the 5 running iOS 7, usually arriving home from work with around 30% left, compared with 50% or so on iOS 6. Hopefully it’s high on the priority list for future updates.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>The iPad Air</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>It’s a big mini.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If you’ve gotten used to the previous generation mini, as I have, it’s shockingly huge to look at, but not that much heavier.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>With its recent weight loss, it’s a great reading device, although holding it one-handed is still awkward. It’s not so much the weight as the weight distribution. Don’t expect to be hanging around Parisian lamp posts nonchalantly reading Camus with one hand.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I loved the leather Smart Cover of the previous generation. But no more of that. For some inscrutable reason Apple decided only the Smart <em>Case</em> gets leather. Peasants with Smart Covers get polyurethane. (No doubt highly accomplished people spent many hours in conference rooms before reaching this odd conclusion. I hope there was some <em>12 Angry Men</em>-type outlier in there arguing for leather.) Like the mini covers, the Smart Cover has three panes instead of four, which makes it less stable and more likely to collapse. So it’s a regression on two fronts. I’d assume Apple has patented the heck out of the Smart Covers, so it’s unlikely we’ll see a third-party leather version. This is sad, though of course a first nerd problem.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Should you upgrade?</h2>
<p>If you have an iPhone 5 and you’re sane, probably not. The 5S is way faster and TouchID is living in the future, but unless those things really float your boat, hold off till the next revision.</p>
<p>If you have a 4 or 4s (thanks again, Apple, for random capitalization) and you’re out of contract, it’s a no-brainer. Lighter, infinitely faster and with a bigger screen. You want this.</p>
<p>If you have an iPad 2, run to the Apple Store. If you have a 3 or 4, it’s a decent upgrade, but unless the weight of those devices bother you, meh, go play with one and see how you feel.</p>
<p>If you have a current mini and love it, it might be time to go back to full-size. But wait for the new retina mini and check them both out beforehand. My suspicion is most people who love the current mini will want to wait for the retina turbo mini and then jump on it like a lion who has had dentistry for the first time in years.</p>
<p>In my particular use case (this is the section where I justify spending money like a drunken sailor) I want to use the iPad more for creation than consumption, and the larger screen makes that easier for me, personally. <em>Ahem</em>.</p>
<p>It’s clear the A7 is a huge leap for performance on iOS and it bodes very well for the future.</p>
</div></div></div>50,000 words or bust2013-10-31T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/10/50000-words-or-bust/
<p>I’ve had an idea for a novel rattling around for a while, but with work, child, life and all the other usual reasons-slash-excuses just can’t seem to get off my duff and get the thing actually started.</p>
<p>But November is <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">Nation Novel Writing Month</a> and this time I’ll be in the race.</p>
<p>Today is Oct. 31, so it starts tomorrow. I’m of course deeply concerned I’m about to make a huge—huger?—jackass of myself, but so be it.</p>
<p>This is the time! There shall be writing, or at least typing.</p>
<p>See you on Nov. 30 with fingers worn down to nubs and hopefully a good first stab at a novel.</p>
<p>If you’re interested, <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/participants/niclindh">you can track my progress here</a>.</p>
Communists in the House of Representatives2013-10-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/10/communists-in-the-house-of-representatives/
<p>It’s accepted wisdom the outré right-wing fanatics of the Tea Party are spawned and fed by the combination of jerrymandering and closed primaries that become Thunderdomes where only the most ideologically pure survive the vote of fired-up extremists.</p>
<p>But if that’s true, where are all the fanatic liberals? If one district houses Tea Partiers, shouldn’t the district next door hold staunch liberals racing each other to be first to the Worker’s Paradise?</p>
<p>At minimum, you’d expect some place like California to produce die-hards. If they’re out there, I sure haven’t seen them.</p>
<p>So where are they? Or is the theory wrong and Democrats and Republicans are not as extreme?</p>
<p>One theory is that people, no matter their ideological bent, get fired up when the issues they care the most about are at risk. So when gay people come out of the closet, extremist Christians lose their shit and start voting more, much the same way the war in Vietnam galvanized the left.</p>
<p>Which would make the Tea Party make sense, as the overarching changes in society lately have been toward a more liberal state with an increase in the proportion of non-white people, the aforementioned gay people getting the right to marry, church attendance decreasing, etc.</p>
<p>Which would mean that, no, Captain Balance, both parties are <em>not</em> getting more extreme. Democrats are continuing to elect cocktail-party types who enjoy smooth jazz and finger food and Republicans are electing Tea Partiers.</p>
<p>It would be nice to see this reflected in the media instead of the knee-jerk faux balance.</p>
<p>If I’m wrong and the House of Representatives has Democratic representatives sprouting Marx, do please <a href="http://twitter.com/niclindh">let me know</a>.</p>
<p>Why pick communists as a counter to the Tea Party? Because if you think of the left-right political spectrum as a line across your screen, the Tea Party occupies a point equivalent to where communists would be on the other side of the center.</p>
<p>Which leads to an inescapable conclusion: No matter how much return the billionaire investors in the Tea Party have reaped on their investment, at least they’ve been successful in the most basic way: The Tea Party is shifting the center of American politics to the right in a profound way. Which may very well be the end game.</p>
<p>False balance coverage of the political process is obscuring that most basic fact by asserting—without any evidence—that both sides are doing the same thing. Journalists who take part in it should be ashamed.</p>
What the hell were they thinking?2013-10-17T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/10/what-the-hell-were-they-thinking/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/old-glory.jpg" alt="Old Glory is faded." class="img-responsive" />
<div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-12 contentsmall">
<p>A bunch of lunatics just came very close to making the US default on its debt. That is, the richest nation on Earth—the nation that defeated the Nazis, put men on the moon and won the Cold War—came within a hair of being shut down by about 80 people in the House of Representatives <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/09/meadows-boehner-defund-obamacare-suicide-caucus-geography.html">known as the “Suicide Caucus.”</a> Ostensibly this was over President Obama’s—<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-lawmaker-issues-statement-clarifying-de-fuhrer-obama-facebook-post">a.k.a “De Fuhrer”</a>—Affordable Care Act going into effect.</p>
<p>That is, the healthcare reform that <em>deep sigh</em> was originally conceived of by a conservative think tank, was field-tested by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney while governor of Massachusetts, was passed into law, was then ratified as constitutional by the Supreme Court—that law—was decreed “unconstitutional” by 80 people and they decided it was worth causing untold damage to the nation they profess to love in order to stop it.</p>
<p>And we’re not talking a little damage. We’re talking a meltdown of the economy. <em>Boom. Nuclear option.</em></p>
<p>The shutdown itself reportedly <a href="http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/17/heres-what-the-government-shutdown-cost-the-economy/">cost about $24 billion with a “B” dollars</a> by conservative (<em>rimshot</em>) estimate.</p>
<p>But for the Suicide Caucus, it was worth it, and more besides. Better the nation burn than pass an entirely constitutional reform.</p>
<p>Obviously there have been a lot of words written about this and an entire class of bloviating assholes have made good money talking about it around the clock on cable news.</p>
<p>You could make a very good case that the Affordable Care Act itself was just a proxy issue, and that it all boils down to Obama Derangement Syndrome: <em>Aiiieee Kenyan socialist fascist black I’m not racist</em>.</p>
<p>But let’s take the Suicide Caucus at face value. Let’s say they are really worried about the Affordable Care Act and believe it is The End of America and somehow unconstitutional and somehow the final nail in the coffin of Real America.</p>
<p>This is where the real headache comes pounding. The Affordable Care Act is a flawed—to say the least—piece of legislation, but essentially what it does is to provide health care to people who previously couldn’t afford it.</p>
<p>And this is a terrible, horrible, no-good thing? What?</p>
<p>Apparently this is terrible because it will lead to people becoming lazy. Somehow. And reliant on the government. Somehow. Apparently some kind of death panels are involved, staffed with people who are giggling and rubbing their hands together at the thought of pulling the plug on grandma.</p>
<p>In contrast to the fuzzy feel-gooders at the insurance companies.</p>
<p>Basically, it’s a good thing for poor people who couldn’t afford health care and, <em>and this is important</em>, doesn’t affect people who currently have jobs that provide health care coverage because, well, duh, they already have coverage.</p>
<p><em>But it’s a terrible, no good thing! You betcha!</em></p>
<p>Trying to sort out the logic here is oh so painful, but it seems here’s how it goes: If you don’t have health care now it’s because you’re a patriot. Or you’re lazy. In which case the rest of this paragraph doesn’t apply to you, you parasite. Obama just made you—a proud white working man—unpatriotic whether or not you wanted to. You used to be a hero, but now you’re just a cog in a government scheme, man!</p>
<p>So dying in pain from preventable illnesses is now somehow patriotic?</p>
<p>Let’s accept that for the moment. It’s difficult, but let’s do that.</p>
<p>Let’s turn to the typical Tea Party voter, who tends to be a low-income, low-information white person in a rural area. This is statistically true. (The older ones tend to be on Medicare, which is a government program, but let’s not have our brains explode at this point.) We’re looking at the kind of people who <em>will be helped</em> by this program. And yet it’s the Worst Thing Ever.</p>
<p>It’s tricky to reconcile this. It could be that they’re just so patriotic they’d rather waste away from diabetes or high blood pressure or a car accident rather than suffer the indignity of leaning on the government. Because the government is bad and only helps lazy people.</p>
<p>They are indeed Protectors of the Realm, knowing the Truth: Government gives all the money to the gay negro abortion union.</p>
<p>They, of course, would never take the government handout. Never. Except the free scooter from Medicare. And the prescription drugs. And they would rather die than let the government get involved with Medicare.</p>
<p><em>Sigh.</em></p>
<p>And it’s worth blowing up the entire country. Don’t forget that.</p>
<p>What’s extra frustrating about the Tea Party movement is that I’m sympathetic to where they come from: You look around you and see that the wheels are starting to come off the nation with crumbling infrastructure, increasing income inequality, lack of government transparency and decreasing social mobility. It’s not good. But then to decide the problem is that poor people are getting access to medical services? How does A lead to B?</p>
<p>Or more likely is they looked around at what’s happening to society, and what they saw was gay people not having to hide in shame, black people and latinos finding good jobs and more and more people not feeling the need to go to church, upsetting their fantasy reality of the ’50s and How Things Are Supposed to Be.</p>
<p>Man, I thought putting this down instead of having it in my head would make me feel better. It did not.</p>
</div></div></div>The Core Dump is 10 years old!2013-10-09T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/10/the-core-dump-is-10-years-old/
<p>As of today, The Core Dump has been online for ten years since launching on Oct. 9, 2003. This is the 1,045th post.</p>
<p>It’s amazing to think of how much has changed in those years, both from a personal standpoint, especially with the amazing experience of watching my daughter grow into a young woman, and from a publishing standpoint, with vast changes in the tools that drive the Web.</p>
<p>And it is great to have this little site as a chronicle of the journey, from the early days of trying to figure out what on Earth I was supposed to do with this thing, to spending way too many late nights wrestling with different technologies and ideas.</p>
<p>There’s some writing in the <a href="https://thecoredump.org/archive/">archive</a> here that’s frankly embarrassing to look back on, but there are also some pieces I’m proud of. And I’m so happy to live in a time where anybody can scribble away in public without gatekeepers.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/2004-setup.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>My sweet setup back in 2004: A 19 inch Mitsubishi Diamondtron and a 17 inch Sony Trinitron, the best monitors you could buy. Note the PalmPilot in the black case, the iSight camera, and the iPod dock. Powered by a Windtunnel G4 with ridiculously loud fans.</i></p>
<p>Back in 2003, blogging was still the domain of nerds who could wrestle <a href="http://movabletype.org/">Movable Type</a> into submission. Since then the tech has gotten so much easier, first with the easy installation of WordPress (yes, installing WordPress was an order of magnitude easier than Movable Type), and then WordPress introduced widgets so that, like magic, you could edit your sidebar content without going into your theme files. That was <em>magic</em>.</p>
<p>And then, of course, came the rise of microblogging services like Twitter and Tumblr, where the only nerd skill you needed to get started was the ability to remember a user name and password.</p>
<p>But there were bad times as well, like the advent of the comment spammer. Few things take the joy out of publishing like getting up at the crack of dawn to muck the filth out of your site every day.</p>
<p>Unless I’ve repressed something, this site so far has used Movable Type, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typo_(software)">Typo</a> (that one ended badly), <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a>, and now <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll</a>. Each migration has been more or less painful and took a lot of time, energy, and cursing, but there’s no other way to learn about a technology than to dig in and do something with it.</p>
<p>Of course, smart people just spin up a new test site instead of going through the pain of a content migration. Lesson not learned.</p>
<p>The current plan for The Core Dump is to keep trucking. The goal is a post per week, just to keep some kind of rhythm. Looking back through the <a href="https://thecoredump.org/archive/">archive</a>, it’s easy to tell that doesn’t always happen. The first draft of this post listed a bunch of good reasons why that is, but let’s be honest: It’s not a matter of time, it’s a matter of dedication. And if you really want something, reasons aren’t more than excuses.</p>
<p>Slipping the weekly deadline tends to be bad, since when you’ve been silent for a while the next post has to pick up the slack—it’s got to be great. Which it won’t be. And then there’s sadness and a clenched sphincter to make it <em>fantastic</em> and then there’s pressure and then the realization hits that I’m supposed to enjoy doing this. It’s a freaking hobby.</p>
<p>The mind is funny.</p>
<p>But the intent is to keep trucking on this: Even if this site is nothing more than a voice screaming into a pillow, dammit, it’s my voice.</p>
<p>Here’s to another ten years.</p>
Finding a theme for your site2013-10-02T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/10/finding-a-theme-for-your-site/
<p>I’ve coached a lot of people looking to get started with blogging, whether to promote a business, a book, or general self-expression, and one thing that happens with depressing regularity is that they get bogged down in the same place: Picking a theme for the site.</p>
<p>Far too often it becomes a complete rathole as they search endlessly for the One True Theme that perfectly expresses their message or personality.</p>
<p>And of course the theme matters. We homo sapiens are fickle, prone to snap judgements, and first impressions influence us more than is rational. How many times have you decided between two novels based on the cover?</p>
<p>So that pit of indecision comes from an understandable fear. But at the same time, people will come visit your site based on your content. If the content is interesting, people will read it and come back. <em>The content is what you should sweat.</em></p>
<p>That being said, you want your site to look competent and not completely cookie-cutter.</p>
<p>What I usually recommend is (if you use WordPress—more on that later) to use the standard WordPress <a href="http://wordpress.org/themes/twentythirteen">Twenty Thirteen theme</a>, but customize it enough with your own masthead image and colors that it’s yours.</p>
<p>The Twenty Thirteen theme has several things to recommend it: First off, it’s competently designed—a bit bland, sure, but it’s designed to showcase your content instead of calling attention to itself. Second, it’s responsive, so people can read it on cell phones, which is becoming a huge concern. And third, it has a lot of customization options built right in so you can tweak it without any technical knowledge.</p>
<p>Go with a simple theme, then focus on the reason people are visiting in the first place: Your content.</p>
<p>After your site is a smashing success you can start to worry about hiring somebody to take the look to the next level.</p>
<p>If you spend all your time and energy clicking on theme previews, you won’t have the mental bandwidth to create the actual content the Internet will want to read.</p>
<p>Seriously, don’t get stuck in that rathole.</p>
<p>As an addendum, these days I always recommend non-technical people looking to get started to go with a hosted solution, whether it be <a href="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</a>, <a href="http://www.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, <a href="http://www.squarespace.com/">Squarespace</a> or what have you. The days of self-hosting—late nights dealing with corrupted database tables and hack attempts—are over for everybody but enthusiasts and people who need much more customization. When you’re first starting out, that’s not you.</p>
<p>The thing to remember is: <em><a href="http://namecheap.com/">Own your domain</a>.</em> If you intend to be halfway serious, buy a domain and use that for your hosted site. It’s a few more dollars, but it means you own the content and can move it wherever you want. You do <em>not</em> want to spend your time building up Google juice only to have it all lost because you switched your hosting.</p>
<p>With this said, go forth and create content.</p>
<p>(And yes, I’m fully cognizant of the irony of a guy who just <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2013/09/a-fresh-coat-of-paint/">redesigned his site</a> for the umpteenth time writing to tell you not to sweat the design too much. I do it for fun, not for any practical reason.)</p>
A fresh coat of paint2013-09-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/09/a-fresh-coat-of-paint/
<p>As the Chinese curse goes, these are interesting times in Web design.</p>
<p>The Web changes furiously fast, and sites start to look stale and dated in no time. This is both bad in that you can never stand still, and good in that the state of the art and the tools are constantly improving.</p>
<p>So, some time has passed since the last redesign and it was time to roll up my sleeves and take The Core Dump into if not the future then at least the present.</p>
<p>The goal was to make the site feel a little lighter, crank up the fonts a bit and above all to showcase images better—the “old” way of shadowboxing is starting to feel passé.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/prickly-pear.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Here, have a random image of a prickly pear cactus.</i></p>
<p>Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few years, you know the au courant thing is responsive design—making sites adapt to as many device sizes as possible, from tiny phones to huge desktops, without the kludginess and extra work of special mobile versions. (Browser sniffing, <em>shudder</em>.)</p>
<p>This is far from an easy task and involves giving up more control than Web designers are used to. As a Web designer, you’ve always had to accept a certain level of browser incompatibilities and stubborn user settings throwing spanners in the wheel of your vision, but depending on how much work you were willing to put in, you could still get pretty close to that Photoshop comp somebody threw over the wall.</p>
<p>But now, the comp can’t be much more than inspiration and guidance, and instead, intent becomes the key thing. How much branding do I need to carry over across devices? Which content is needed on which device? What is a visitor on a cell phone most likely to want to achieve?</p>
<p>Not only understanding this yourself, but also educating the person who gives you a check to build a site, can be, <em>cough</em>, challenging.</p>
<p>And of course the time needed for testing goes through the roof with the logarithmic explosion of options.</p>
<p>The good news is that we have an awesome new tool. Version 3 of <a href="http://getbootstrap.com/">Bootstrap is sheer magic</a>. <em>Magic, ah tells ya! Magic!</em></p>
<p>Rock solid, takes care of most browser incompatibilities, and provides all the most commonly used pieces needed to make a modern site.</p>
<p>I can’t praise it highly enough. If you build sites, Bootstrap makes things so much easier it almost feels like cheating.</p>
There shall be airflow!2013-09-17T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/09/there-shall-be-airflow/
<p>One of the drawbacks—or Opportunity for Manly Activities, if you prefer to look at it that way—of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamado">Kamado grill</a> (like the Big Green Egg) is that every once in a while you end up with so much ash in the fire box the airflow gets choked.</p>
<p>This will make you sad because it will take longer and longer for the grill to warm up despite your having raked the ashes from the lower intake vent.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images//kamado/kamado-1-dirty.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>After many burns, here be ashes and a grill that can't breathe.</i></p>
<p>At that point the fire box has to be emptied and cleaned. It’s a dirty job, but also satisfying in that there will be grime and heavy lifting and once done, you will have yourself some awesome grilling power indeed.</p>
<p>Step one is to remove the fire box. Yes, it is a heavy piece of ceramic full of charcoal and ash. <em>Do you even lift, bro?</em></p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images//kamado/kamado-2-firebox.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The fire box, extracted from the grill and ready for some TLC.</i></p>
<p>Then empty the ashes into a suitable receptacle. Since you’re not an idiot and are doing this after the grill has cooled down, a normal trash can works fine. A word to the wise here is to do this work on a nice, <em>calm</em> day, or you will be eating ashes.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images//kamado/kamado-3-firebox-empty.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Nice! We can see the bottom grate.</i></p>
<p>At this point it’s just a matter of putting the fire box back in the grill and filling it up with fresh charcoal.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images//kamado/kamado-4-wood-fired-pizza.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>Costco Take’n’Bake pizza in the process of turning into deliciousness with fire.</i></p>
<p>And then, we can get some serious airflow. <em>Fire good!</em></p>
Trouble in Nexus 7 land2013-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/09/trouble-in-nexus-7-land/
<p>I decided to turn on encryption on my 2013 Nexus 7 because why not, right?</p>
<p>Well, here’s why not. (Yes, I know this is a data set of one, but it was frustrating as hell.)</p>
<p>After encrypting the device, it started randomly rebooting itself when sitting all by its lonesome being charged. Usually in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>What makes this extra bad is that when an encrypted Nexus boots, it needs your PIN at the beginning of the boot process—which makes sense, otherwise it couldn’t decrypt the storage. <em>But</em> it’s an impatient little bastard and makes a key click sound (which is a pretty harsh sound on Android) every few seconds until you give it what it wants.</p>
<p><em>Why are you letting me wait, human? Why are you not servicing your robot overlord?</em></p>
<p>So my wife and I have been woken up at night several times by the Nexus going <em>clack</em> … pause … <em>clack</em> … pause … <em>clack</em> until I leave the comfort of my bed to enter the PIN.</p>
<p>A device that wakes you up at night for no reason is not your friend.</p>
<p>As a side note, I’ve also seen reports online from people that their Nexii slowed down significantly after encrypting them, but didn’t notice that particular issue. Randomly rebooting while doing nothing is bad enough for me.</p>
<p>Note also that if you’re determined to prove me wrong by encrypting your device and having it not wake you up at night, encryption is <em>not reversible</em>. So if you want to go back to your care-free un-encrypted ways, you have to do a factory reset. Which is a bit annoying.</p>
<p>The good news is that so far, going back to hippie life without encryption has kept the Nexus from robo-rebooting at night.</p>
<p>I think.</p>
<p>I’m not about to grovel through log files to find out if it’s still doing it and I’m just not noticing since it’s not clacking at me whenever it reboots. <em>Sigh.</em></p>
<p>Which is definitely something to note about the Nexus 7 compared to the iPad: It’s much more unstable. Apps randomly enter a vegetative state for a few seconds every so often, and they crash with a much higher frequency than iOS apps. This includes Google’s own apps like Chrome and the Play Store. It doesn’t happen often enough the device is unusable by any means, but compared to iOS where an app freeze or crash is something of an event, the frequency is a lot higher.</p>
<p>To trot out a tired analogy, using iOS is like driving a Lexus: Smooth, and you can tell people have been obsessing over the details, while using Android is like driving a Chevy: Sure, it’ll get you there, but there’s a funny squeak and something rattles every time you hit a bump.</p>
<p>And don’t even get me started on the fonts. <em>Gods of Cobol, the fonts.</em></p>
<p>For background on this journey of discovery, read <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2013/08/the-2013-nexus-7">my initial impressions of the 2013 Nexus 7</a>.</p>
Captain Incoherent goes shopping2013-08-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/08/captain-incoherent-goes-shopping/
<p>I’m exhausted. Been going full burn for a while on this year’s <a href="http://news21.com/">News21</a> investigation into the experiences of <a href="http://backhome.news21.com/">post-9/11 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan</a> which launched this Saturday. (It’s a solid project with excellent reporting, photos and videos on a hugely important topic. I encourage you to take a look. And note that I had nothing to do with the content—I just kept the trains running on time. Or as close as possible.)</p>
<p>But as I said, I’m exhausted. So after a brutal Saturday of launching and a Sunday dealing with mopping-up issues and then a long day of work Monday I had to make a quick Albertsons run.</p>
<p>At checkout, the cashier looked at me—somewhat funny, I thought—and asked me if I used to be in the military.</p>
<p>Which I was. The Swedish military. But I was so foggy all I could think was, “Does it show? Why is he asking me this?”</p>
<p>“Yeeeees?” I said.</p>
<p>“Because we have a 10 percent discount for veterans on Mondays.”</p>
<p>At which point of course I should have clarified that it was the wrong army and no, I should not get that discount. But I was so frazzled I couldn’t even figure out how to explain that.</p>
<p>Walked out so embarrassed and guilty.</p>
Book roundup, part twelve2013-08-16T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/08/book-roundup-part-twelve/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00305CYH4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00305CYH4&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>A devastating account of Ranger battalion 2-16’s tour of duty in Iraq during President Bush’s surge, the surge the president famously said would work “because it had to.”</p>
<p>Finkel embedded with the unit both before and during its deployment, which allowed him to follow the soldiers over time. <em>The Good Soldiers</em> stays relentlessly focused on the men, their experiences, and the awful toll those experiences took, both physically and mentally.</p>
<p>It’s a punch in the gut and a very important piece of reporting.</p>
<p>The most wrenching, terrible scenes are from the hospital where the wounded of the 2-16 are sent, a place of anguish and pain where mothers and young wives spend 20 hours a day with their grievously injured sons and husbands.</p>
<p><em>The Good Soldiers</em> is required reading for everybody, but chicken hawks should be <em>forced</em> to read it.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008JHXO6S/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008JHXO6S&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">This Town, by Mark Leibovich</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Are you angry at Washington? No? Then allow me to introduce you to <em>This Town.</em> Written by a Washington press insider, it’s a portrait of the feudal class that inhabits Washington, moving through revolving doors between government positions, lobbying positions and media positions, with no misstep or scandal so large it will get them kicked out of the club.</p>
<p>The picture the book paints is of the Sun Court, a circus of greed and ego, unaccountable and of course completely out of the reach of the American voter.</p>
<p>Read it. Maybe it will lift some scales from your eyes. You will be angry.</p>
<p>At the very least, when you’re sitting bleary-eyed in some airport and one of the pundits shows up on one of the ever-present screens showing CNN you will know to turn your eyes away.</p>
<p>If even a fraction of <em>This Town</em> is correct and not too harshly skewed, the Republic is in much worse shape than we all thought. It’s scary.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BRUQ7ZY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BRUQ7ZY&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Zealot, by Reza Aslan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Zealot</em> attempts to triangulate in on Jesus the man by looking at the Roman occupation of Palestine and what is known about how the people of that era lived and thought, including the Jewish establishment, poor farmers and the Roman occupiers. <em>Zealot</em> also looks at the material common to the gospels, arguing that things repeated between writers is more likely to be accurate. Which makes logical sense.</p>
<p>Naturally, any attempt to treat Jesus as a man of his times rather than a divine being has caused quite a bit of gnashing of teeth among certain Christians. But be that as it may.</p>
<p>The book is clearly directed at a lay audience (which I am), providing enough background about the history, the Jewish messianic prophecies, and the gospels to make things as clear as they probably can be.</p>
<p>Probably, because the task Anslan has set for himself is impossible. There’s just not enough historical record to be sure of anything, and the Torah and the gospels themselves are wildly contradictory hodgepodges.</p>
<p>But we can be fairly sure of things where the Romans were involved, as they were good about keeping records. And wow, was occupied first-century Palestine a nightmare. A brutal occupation, a massively corrupt establishment priesthood, a bare-subsistence existence for the populace leading to banditry and, of course, <em>zeal,</em> in this case meaning a drive to restore the Kingdom of God and drive out the Roman occupiers.</p>
<p>Apart from a constant undercurrent of uprising against the occupiers, the countryside was beset with traveling prophets proclaiming themselves the messiah, preaching and, apparently, performing miracles. It was a fairly common thing at the time.</p>
<p>What must be remembered about the Romans is that one thing they famously didn’t care about regarding the people they occupied was their religion. Anything went as long as the taxes kept flowing. But what you couldn’t do was talk about overthrowing the emperor. That was sedition, and the sentence was to die on the cross. And sedition, of course, was exactly what any itinerant messiah preached when talking about bringing back the Kingdom of God.</p>
<p>What Aslan shows fairly comprehensively is that Pontius Pilate would not have had any qualms about sentencing Jesus to die on the cross—he executed so many so willy-nilly a formal complaint was lodged with Roman authorities.</p>
<p>The end of <em>Zealot</em> argues it was the Apostle Paul, writing in Rome, who converted a small Jewish cult into something palatable to the Roman population. This makes sense.</p>
<p>No matter what your own religious beliefs, it’s an interesting read.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A5MRG6O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00A5MRG6O&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Dad is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Warm and funny book from the quirky stand-up comedian about life with five kids in a two-bedroom New York apartment. Yes. Five kids. Two bedrooms. By choice. And Gaffigan and his wife have apparently managed to somehow keep their sanity. How is a mystery.</p>
<p>As Gaffigan says, “Five kids. Pause. Catholic.”</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A28JID0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00A28JID0&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">I Wear the Black Hat, by Chuck Klosterman</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Klosterman meditates on what makes somebody a villain and why we sometimes root for the villain, especially in fiction. What makes the book stand out is Klosterman’s ability to dip into popular culture to illustrate his points. He has clearly spent way, way too much time in front of the TV, listening to music and reading magazines, and we are all the better for it.</p>
<p><em>I Wear the Black Hat</em> is a short, entertaining read.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003H4I4P4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003H4I4P4&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">KOP, by Warren Hammond</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>KOP</em> combines sci-fi and noir, leaning heavily toward the noir. Taking place in a future where humanity has colonized sections of the galaxy but still doesn’t have faster-than-light travel, the story revolves around Juno Mozambe, dirty cop and former enforcer on a backwater slum planet where the inhabitants can only watch as off-world travelers arrive sporting unimaginable riches and god-like technology while they subsist at existence minimum.</p>
<p>Hammond builds a credible world and the characters are mostly well drawn and human. Combined with an, if not exactly likeable then at least understandable, anti-hero and a fast plot, <em>KOP</em> is a page turner.</p>
<p>Sometimes the noir meter gets a bit pegged with a prose style heavily cribbed from James Ellroy, but if you’re going to take inspiration, why not take it from the master?</p>
<p>A strong start to a series and recommended for fans of noir and gritty sci-fi.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon. So, you know, be a mensch.)</p>
The 2013 Nexus 72013-08-02T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/08/the-2013-nexus-7/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/black-rectangles.jpg" class="w-full" alt="true" />
<p class="text-base text-gray-600pt-0"><i>The itty bitty black rectangle committee is meeting. iPhone 5, iPad Mini, Nexus 7 and iPad 3.</i></p>
<p><strong>Correction Nov. 8, 2013:</strong> Updated the post to say the Nexus 7 dimensions are 16 by 10, not 16 by 9. Math is hard.</p>
<p>I decided to pick up a 2013 Nexus 7 to see how the other half lives. Apart from borrowing someone’s phone to do browser testing, iOS is the only mobile operating system I’ve spent significant time using. Well, apart from Palm OS back in the day. So bear in mind, these impressions are from somebody new to Android.</p>
<h3>The hardware</h3>
<p>First off, the 2013 Nexus 7 device itself. You get a lot for your $229: a gorgeous retina display, a case that feels really good in the hand with more friction than an iPad, and a general sense of the device being solid without being too heavy.</p>
<p>It’s also pretty snappy for most things.</p>
<p>The display being 16 by 10 instead of 4 by 3 is, well, weird. It makes watching movies very nice, but also makes the device frustrating in landscape mode as there’s very little room for content. On the other hand, in portrait mode it makes for a great e-reader. Thanks to the retina display, tiny text is very legible. It really does feel like an iPad Mini Retina in that sense.</p>
<p>So the hardware is good, as long as the 16 by 10 proportion isn’t a deal-breaker for you.</p>
<h3>Moving in</h3>
<p>The setup process is less than stellar. Boot the machine the first time and it asks which wireless network to connect to. I pick my network and an alert comes up to let me know there’s a software update. And the Nexus reboots itself. (The boot screen “X” with the lights flashing behind it is soothing.) Nexus asks me again which wireless network to join. OK. Amnesia happens. Pick network again, enter password again.</p>
<p>Nexus wants a Google account to log in to. Enter credentials. Since I have two-factor authentication on my account (as you really, really should) it kicks me into a Web view to enter the code from the Authenticator. Not a huge deal, but it feels bolted-on.</p>
<p>Nexus spontaneously reboots. Starting to worry I might have gotten a bum unit. But I shall soldier on.</p>
<p>Nexus tells me there’s a software update to apply. Okey-dokey. Nexus reboots to an animation of the Android mascot with an atom with rotating electrons in its stomach. It’s slightly disconcerting.</p>
<p>Nexus wants to know which wireless network to connect to. Pick my network again. It remembers the password, so I’m not sure why I have to pick the network again.</p>
<p>OK. All set up. Time to find some apps.</p>
<h3>Getting appy with it</h3>
<p>First task is to find apps for Dropbox, 1Password, Twitter, Instapaper, Feedbin, a Dropbox-compatible text editor, New York Times and Amazon.</p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dropbox.android">Dropbox</a> installs like a charm. Boom.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onepassword.passwordmanager">1Password Reader</a> works, but is an absolute embarrasment both in functionality and visual design. Ay, ay, ay.</p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.levelup.touiteur">Plume</a> is apparently the big dog in Android Twitter space. Let’s give it a whirl. Urgh. Blown-up phone display. Nothing for Twitter in the tablet section of the store. OK. Let’s get Twitter’s official app. Urgh. Blown-up phone display. Seriously? And @ links aren’t clickable in the list view? You have to open the individual tweet to get links for @ mentions. Oh, well. <em>I miss you already, <a href="http://twitterrific.com/ios">Twitterrific</a>.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android">Instapaper</a> has an Android app. Seems to work fine except in portrait mode the third line of the preview is cut off by half. Looks terrible. Hope they fix that at some point.</p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twentyfivesquares.press">Press</a> looks like the big-dog RSS reader and recently added support for Feedbin. Groovy. So far seems like a nice app. The developer sweated the details.</p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.windowshop">Amazon</a> has a tablet version of their mobile app. But it’s not compatible with the Nexus 7, according to the Google Play Store. Hope they’ll get on that. There’s no sign of Amazon Instant Video, not even on Amazon’s own Android Store. Not sure what’s up with that. Oh, well, the thing ships with Netflix, and Netflix works very well on the Nexus.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nytimes.android">New York Times</a> app is, sing it with me, kids: A blown-up phone display.</p>
<p>For a text editor, picked <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mvilla.draft">Draft</a>. Seems to sync fine and has nice attention to detail.</p>
<p>From what the Internet tells me, Google has been hard at work to surface tablet-optimized apps in the Play Store, but it seems developers haven’t really gotten the memo and are continuing to focus on phone-sized displays. And apart from the curated Tablet section in the Play Store there’s no way to tell if you’re getting a tablet-optimized app or a blown-up phone view, which is frustrating.</p>
<p>The Play Store itself doesn’t really fit the screen in portrait mode, so you have to scroll the list of sections to see them all. Seems like an odd oversight for a flagship product. Parenthetically, one thing I was worried about was jaggy scrolling, but it seems fine everywhere <em>except</em> the Play Store, which scrolls like it’s on shore leave.</p>
<h3>Using the Nexus</h3>
<p>OK. I have my apps. It’s time to go to town. Let’s change the wallpaper to something less harsh. Hmm, a section for live wallpapers. Intriguing. Except it’s like having an animated GIF on your desktop. Why would I want to have constant movement behind my icons? Oh well, I’m sure it makes somebody happy for some demented reason and it’s not like I <em>have</em> to use them.</p>
<p>Google Now is pretty cool. Since Apple’s Reminder app doesn’t sync worth a damn, this could be good. Set a reminder, then fire up the Google Search app on the iPhone. Hmm. The Google Search app on the iPhone doesn’t do reminders at all. So that’s out, then.</p>
<p>Oh, you pull down from the top right of the screen to access settings. Nice!</p>
<p>Since I write in both English and Swedish, I need to configure the keyboard so I can switch it over at will, but there is no Swedish keyboard layout available. Well, that sucks. But I’ll find one in the Play Store I’m sure. Find one, install it and realize I have to go into the settings menu to switch keyboard layouts. Every time. Perhaps Apple patented the one-button keyboard switch. No matter what, this is bad. And why do I have to download a keyboard app from some random dude—an app that by definition knows everything I type—just to get an international keyboard? I’m pretty sure there are people at the Googleplex who switch back and forth between keyboards all the time, so I don’t know how this particular bit of US-centrism slipped through.</p>
<p>Speaking of the keyboard, you can’t split it in landscape view like you can on an iPad. Another Apple patent? Another oversight? Who knows. On a 16 by 10 screen typing in landscape view is a cumbersome hand stretching exercise. Was thinking of purchasing one of the alternate keyboards available, but again the Play Store doesn’t help me figure out if it’s optimized for tablets. Guess I’ll be typing in portrait mode.</p>
<p>Oops. Random reboot.</p>
<p>The screen is a bit dim, I think, so let’s crank it up a bit. Hmm. You can pick between “auto”—which is a bit too dim for my taste—and manual setting, but you can’t set a baseline brightness and have the auto mode use that as a starting point. Another Apple patent? Oversight?</p>
<p>All right. Let’s do some surfing of ye olde Web. The Chrome browser is nice. Feels snappy and scrolls pretty well. But I can’t tap the top of the screen to scroll all the way up. Patent or oversight? Whichever, not having that functionality makes me realize how often I use it on the iPad.</p>
<p>Let’s visit Comedy Central to catch some of last night’s Daily Show. “Missing Plugin.” Oh, snap, Comedy Central thinks I’m using desktop Chrome and is sending me a Flash video. Man. No fun for me. (Remember when not having Flash was going to kill the iPhone? Those were good days.)</p>
<p>Oops. Random reboot. Is it normal for the thing to spontaneously reboot every few days or do I have a bad unit?</p>
<p>(I bring up the random reboots since in all my years of using iOS, I’ve had zero, null, nil random reboots.)</p>
<h3>TL;DR</h3>
<p>The 2013 Nexus 7 is a very nice tablet that’s hamstrung by a lack of tablet-optimized software. If you have an Android phone features like Google Now are more useful, but on a device unto itself, there really isn’t much there there.</p>
Rejoice, peasants2013-07-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/07/rejoice-peasants/
<p>I should be too mature to get worked up about this, but the hysterical coverage of an inbred family managing to pop out a child is just so … depressing.</p>
<p>Do you guys not remember why we got rid of royalty in America? Remember how it was an amazingly shitty and anti-democratic way to run a country? A system that inevitably lead to rule by crackpot incompetents? Ever opened a history book?</p>
<p>It’s sad enough the British have somehow managed to conflate national pride with a bunch of people who leech off their taxes. Sad, but perhaps understandable. It does rain a lot over there.</p>
<p>(I <em>think</em> I’m using the term British correctly. <a href="http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/51978/what-is-the-difference-between-english-and-british">It gets pretty confusing</a>.)</p>
<p>But in America? People, people. We solved this problem. We have celebrities now. The people who for whatever reason need to fill their lives with the goings-on of people they don’t know have celebrities for that. And the beauty of the celebrity system is that we can change them when they get boring! It’s brilliant. Plus they don’t use any tax money—it’s all funded by the people who give a crap about the pretty people.</p>
<p>The whole idea of somebody being <em>born</em> into a position without it having anything to do with their personal qualities should boil the blood of anybody who thinks democracy is a good idea. Perhaps too few people do.</p>
<p><em>Sigh.</em></p>
<p>Oh, and CNN? Staaaahhhhhp.</p>
A diary of Swedish weather2013-07-16T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/07/a-diary-of-swedish-weather/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/sweden-lake.jpg" alt="Children swimming in Lake Vättern, Sweden" width="680" height="383" />
<div class="imgcaption">Children swimming in Lake Vättern, Sweden, on a beautiful summer day.</div>
<p>A pseudo-diary attempt at describing what the weather in Sweden is like, month by month. We’ll start with the good stuff, i.e. summer:</p>
<h3>June</h3>
<p>It’s finally warm enough to be outside! And outside we shall be. There shall be the drinking of the coffee, the eating of the lunch and the grilling of the meat, and it shall happen outside! The country is green and the temperature is, well, temperate, and we shall enjoy it. Oh, holy shit, drinking this coffee on the patio is <em>sublime</em>. Sure, it rains a lot and the wind is relentless, but we can be outside. So, lets.</p>
<h3>July</h3>
<p>Damn, it gets even better. It’s all green. There was a day or two when I was able to go shirtless. Shirtless! It rains a bit, and there’s still a bit of wind, and the clouds are hovering over me like they’re Stasi agents, but what the hell. I am living outside! My skin has tasted the sun! I am invincible! I am also on vacation and drunk.</p>
<h3>August</h3>
<p>Rain. Yes, we have plenty of that. And it’s getting colder. But it’s still bright outside. And now we shall eat crawfish with lights in the trees. Because it is starting to get a bit, you know, dark. Still nice, we can still eat outside as long as we wear appropriate clothing and don’t mind the wind. Still green. Everything is cool. We’re not going to suffer. It’s a beautiful country. The best. And crawfish!</p>
<h3>September</h3>
<p>Well, seems the sun is setting earlier now and the sunrise seems to be happening later. Also, this wind is getting a bit tiresome and cold. So, shorts and t-shirts are right out. Put them away for next summer. The sunglasses are still in play, though. There will surely be days when the sun will come out and I will need them. It hasn’t happened for a while, but it could, right? Also, is it supposed to be this cold? I kind of thought we had this deal where I could drink my morning coffee outside? Just checking. Because I basically need to wrap myself in a sleeping bag to be able to do that now.</p>
<h3>October</h3>
<p>Whoa! That escalated quickly! It is dark now. And holy crap, the rain! I’m not quite sure what’s happening, but I know there used to be a golden orb in the sky and I liked seeing it but it is gone now. But, well … <em>sigh</em> … all this rain surely must be good for the plants.</p>
<h3>November</h3>
<p>The rain got weaponized. Holy shit. It hurts now. Horizontal rain with an anger management problem. The sun is gone. I have vague memories of it and think it was my friend. For now, it’s the horizontal angry rain and the temperature that’s dropping to freezing. The trees are bare. They clearly aren’t impressed with this. Even though they got all that rain which I was told would make them happy.</p>
<h3>December</h3>
<p>Yay, Christmas! The lights are nice, since without them it’s pitch effing black. I’m not sure I have eyes anymore except when I see an advent light through the bitter rain. Why do we exist? Why is there life? Wait! It’s snowing! The world has a shape again! Man, good times. Oh, shit, the snow melted and all is dark again. Hey, the snow is back and it’s so beautiful—can’t believe I ever complained. This Christmas will be the best ever! The happiness! Man, it melted again. Merry effing Christmas kids! Hope you like rain. And dark.</p>
<h3>January</h3>
<p>It’s cold. So effing cold. And dark. Saw the sun once, I think. That was pretty great. Don’t think it’s supposed to be bleached white and barely above the tree tops, but whatever, I’m pretty sure it was the sun. Now it’s raining. It always rains. Skeletons of trees in the rain. Oh, hey, it’s snowing. That’s great. Now we can see. Oh shit, the sun is bright! I should go skiing. Oh, hey, it’s raining. All the snow turned to slush. Dirt. Dirt everywhere. And so, so cold.</p>
<h3>February</h3>
<p>Well, good, we got snow and it’s staying. I can’t remember why I wanted snow in the first place. I haven’t seen the sun for months. I don’t have a shadow. My skin is see-through and blue veins are showing. I remember having dreams and hopes. There’s more snow. I can’t get my car out to go to work. At least it’s brighter now with the snow. It’s not as dark as it could be. The snow is good. The snow is good. The snow is good. I faceplanted on black ice today. It hurt.</p>
<h3>March</h3>
<p>I remember hope. I remember love. I remember the smell of a woman. But these are all fading. The snow and dark, it consumes all.</p>
<h3>April</h3>
<p>The sun! It is back! O warming globe, let me worship you! Horizontal rain pelting us for our sins. The darkness is returning with the melting of the snow. Sun. Rain. Did not see this coming: a blizzard. All is covered in snow. And now it’s raining. And the wind shears your skin. But, hey, it’s getting more light.</p>
<h3>May</h3>
<p>So summer is coming, right? I mean, this isn’t Westeros, right? Rain. Wind. The rain is horizontal and wants to pluck the skin from your bones. But it is indeed getting brighter. Only a bit of snow in the ditches now. Dirty, foul snow, but confined to the shadows as all instruments of evil shall be. Dirty, dirty snow. Filthy. And now, rain. So cold in the warming light.</p>
<h3>June</h3>
<p>Well, hello, Summer. The winds continue. The winds do not fear your God. The rains come as they wish. The clouds remain a reminder that all good things can be taken from you. But you are free to eat outside. You are free to gaze upon the greenery that exudes from the country side so eager to shove a giant finger at the face of winter.</p>
<p>And then, it repeats.</p>
Cloudy with a chance of broken2013-05-31T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/05/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-broken/
<p>Apple’s WWDC is upon us and Apple nerds are like children the days before Christmas, fantasizing about new toys. It’s heartwarming in a reality-challenged kind of way.</p>
<p>As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, I’m all-in on the Apple ecosystem—Macs, iPhone, iPad. Which means I’m all-in on something that <em>doesn’t effing work.</em></p>
<p>All the devices by themselves are great and let me do pretty much everything I want with a minimum of fuss and muss, so yay for that. But it all goes off the rails with syncing.</p>
<p>Add a new contact on the Mac and expect it to show up on my phone? Maybe. At some point.</p>
<p>Create a new <em>bookmark</em>—for Heaven’s sake—in Safari on my Mac and expect it to show up on my iPad? That’s a negatory, ghost rider.</p>
<p>Add a reminder to make a very important phone call on my iPad at home and expect it to show up on my Mac at work? Eh, perhaps.</p>
<p>Get a message in Messages and expect it to show up on both my phone and my Mac? It could happen. Sometimes. And sometimes the phone just doesn’t get the message at all. Because, meh.</p>
<p>This shit is infuriating. And yes, I know, I know, first-world problems, but dammit I <em>live</em> in the first world and pay through the nose for these devices so I’d like them to do what it says on the tin.</p>
<p>It’s possible something has gotten wedged in my particular iCloud instance and that’s why all this is happening, but, and let’s take this one slow since it’s very important: <em>I have no way to troubleshoot or fix it.</em></p>
<p>Which is probably the most infuriating thing of all: Being stuck at the mercy of cloud elves who are clearly off on a crack bender somewhere.</p>
<p>So all I really want for WWDC is for somebody to get up on stage and say, “We fixed iCloud. It works now.” And of course then for it to actually work.</p>
<p>A pony would be nice, too.</p>
Book roundup, part eleven2013-05-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/05/book-roundup-part-eleven/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936608588/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1936608588&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Becoming a Supple Leopard, by Kelly Starrett with Glen Cordoza</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Weighty and magisterial service manual for the human body. You should read it before yours breaks down.</p>
<p>Starrett is well-known in part for his <a href="http://mobilitywod.com/">Mobility WOD</a> site, for co-founding San Francisco CrossFit and for in general being an expert on human body mechanics. And it shows in this intense and thorough book, the size of a typical yearbook and packed full of insights and mobility exercises to help you relieve yourself of pain.</p>
<p>Since there’s no free lunch, the way to relieve yourself of pain is through pain, or at least severe discomfort. Especially the <a href="http://www.mobilitywod.com/2010/08/episode-02-dont-go-in-the-pain-cave/">dreaded Couch Mobilization</a> (the good part starts about 2 minutes in). Try it!</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095ZQ36G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0095ZQ36G&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">A Higher Call, by Adam Makos and Larry Alexander</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Very touching story of the meeting over the skies of World War II Europe of a fighter and bomber pilot that is really the story of Franz Stigler, a German fighter ace trying to reconcile his humanity with fighting for an increasingly evil and erratic Nazi regime.</p>
<p>Well worth reading, even though it does feel a bit long—the authors have clearly done their research and are a bit too hesitant to edit some of it out, which bogs down some parts of the book. Nevertheless, the story itself is one that deserves to be heard and remembered.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GFPZYK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005GFPZYK&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">American Sniper, by Chris Kyle</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>SEALs are so alpha they can barely see the rest of the alphabet. In this autobiography, Kyle explain the life journey that took him to the SEALs and to become the sniper with the most kills. It’s a raw and honest read, and is highly recommended for anybody who wonders about the men who become elite soldiers.</p>
<p>And of course, it’s a tragedy that Kyle was <a href="http://nation.time.com/2013/02/07/killer-healer-victim/">senselessly murdered</a> by a fellow veteran he was trying to help get back into civilian life.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00913OA2G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00913OA2G&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Damn Few, by Rorke Denver</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Another autobiography of a SEAL team member and at the same time a lesson on the ethics and history of the SEALs.</p>
<p>As one would imagine is the case with most special forces soldiers, Denver is a fascinating blend of intelligence, physical prowess and atavistic masculinity. As with Kyle, it can be hard to understand they are part of the same species as the rest of us.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OCHOZS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005OCHOZS&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Eat and Run, by Scott Jurek</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Jurek is an ultrarunning legend, having won a lot of really hardcore races like the <a href="http://www.badwater.com/">clinically insane Badwater Ultramarathon</a>. He’s also a smart and interesting person. <em>Eat and Run</em> follows him from his fairly rough childhood in Minnesota, the disease that took his mother, and his realization that he had the ability to simply go for longer than most other people. Jurek is also interestingly a vegan, proving that a plant-based diet can provide enough nutrients for the most strenous activity.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, ultrarunning provides a lot of alone time to think, and Jurek has done lots of thinking about the things that matter in life.</p>
<p>No matter what kind of activity you yourself engage in, this short, surprisingly laid-back story of <em>overcoming</em> is well worth reading.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JN1D3M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004JN1D3M&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me?, by Mindy Kaling</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Short, breezy and fun read from the writer and actress.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J4X7KI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004J4X7KI&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">He Died with His Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Thorougly bleak noir from Thatcher’s London in the 1980s, featuring what might be the most jaded, soul-weary protagonist of all time.</p>
<p>This is the strongest noir I’ve come across since Jim Thompson, and that’s really saying something: Raymond captures the essence of desperation of ’80s London the same way Thompson captured the small-town South in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RD85AI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004RD85AI&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Pop. 1280</a>. Can’t give higher praise than that.</p>
<p>But beware: this truly is industrial-strength bleakness couched in beautiful, poetic language.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KYHZLQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002KYHZLQ&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Vastly ambitious gritty fantasy in the vein of Glen Cook’s <em>Black Company</em> series, <em>Gardens of the Moon</em> is the first novel of 10 in Erikson’s <em>The Malazan Book of the Fallen</em> series.</p>
<p>First, the good: Erikson has created a large, lived-in world that mostly avoids the tropes of the genre—no elves and trolls, but plenty of other more or less strange non-humans and an interesting system of magic, and populated that world with interesting, believable characters who do interesting things.</p>
<p>The weakness is that Erikson goes full Gatling gun: The plot is super dense and has so many characters it can be hard to keep track of everything that goes on and all the people running around. Above all, he doesn’t telegraph which characters and plots are central and which are less important. As a reader, you can’t sit back and let the story carry you along: You have to pay attention at all times. So, there’s work, but the work is rewarded with a deep, vast story.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003K15EKM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003K15EKM&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Blindsight, by Peter Watts</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>In the near-future, humanity has found the way to live out life in a cyber hallucination, to fix any genetic weaknesses, to rewire the brain, to get free energy from space and has re-created vampires. Yes, vampires. Turns out there used to be vampires, but they died out.</p>
<p>And then first contact is made with a mysterious alien civilization and a probe is sent out. A probe filled with misfits.</p>
<p>This is extremely smart hard SF with truly alien aliens and an interesting if unlikeable protagonist (one who’s had half his brain and a lot of his humanity removed), but above all it’s a kind of grim meditation on what makes us human.</p>
<p>I waffled between three and four stars, since <em>Blindsight</em> certainly isn’t what anybody would call fun to read, but at the same time it hooks you so hard and refuses to let go it does deserve the fourth star. It’s the kind of novel where you can almost hear a church organ stuck on the lowest bass note as you read. <em>Star Wars</em>, it ain’t.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0072NWJ3Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0072NWJ3Y&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">King of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Follow up to the relentlessly grim <em>Prince of Thorns</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/06/book-roundup/">my review here</a>)is if anything even grimmer. This is grimdark. Weird, brutal and very hard to put down if you can stomach it.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APDAWZA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00APDAWZA&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Departure, by Neal Asher</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>As a big fan of Neal Asher’s Polity series, I’m sad to report that <em>The Departure</em> was a tough one to get through. Set in a near-future dystopian Earth, it is relentlessly hopeless and bleak. Yes, too bleak for me, which is saying something.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
Paywalls and tinfoil hats2013-05-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/05/paywalls-and-tinfoil-hats/
<p>If you feel the need to start a post with saying you’re not paranoid, you’re probably paranoid.</p>
<p>I’m not paranoid.</p>
<p>That being said, the Internet sure has been getting creepy lately. What with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-plan-to-kill-the-tracking-cookie-2013-1">Facebook working on an über-cookie</a> that tracks you <em>even after you log out</em> and Twitter and Facebook both being able to track you <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5911389/twitter-is-tracking-you-on-the-web-heres-what-you-can-do-to-stop-it">across any site that has a Twitter or Facebook button</a>—a huge swath of the Web—and Google of course having its tentacles into everything—your Web surfing is generating a constant stream of data about you.</p>
<p>Most people are probably aware of this at some level, but not how detailed and sophisticated this data-gathering has become. As a former Facebook employee said, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225060960537.htm">“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”</a> (And incidentally, that last link leads to Bloomberg Businessweek, which we found out just this week has been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/bloomberg-terminal-spying_n_3255020.html">using its Bloomberg Terminals to spy on traders</a> in what is an absolutely breathtaking breach of ethics and common decency if true.)</p>
<p>You, my friend, are worth <em>bank</em> and extremely smart people with flexible morals—as well as a bunch of general Silicon Valley high-energy douchebags—are doing their best to cash in.</p>
<p>There’s a pretty decent overview of <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5887140/everyones-trying-to-track-what-you-do-on-the-web-heres-how-to-stop-them">ways to protect yourself</a> at Lifehacker. It’s worth reading. But this is of course not <em>new</em>. It’s been going on for years. And you could make some kind of argument that them’s the breaks: You pay for the free services with your personal information. That argument is weakened by people not really understanding just what it is they are giving up for the ability to stalk high school friends on the Internet, but nevertheless, it is an argument.</p>
<p>What’s been raising my hackles lately is something as innocuous-seeming as newspaper paywalls. There’s certainly nothing wrong with newspapers trying to stay afloat. You could be a bit bitter and make a solid argument that the industry could perhaps have used some of its 40% and up profit margins in the golden days to invest in the future instead of convincing themselves the Internet was just a fad, sure, but what’s done is done.</p>
<p>Paywalls are here to stay and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with them. Except here’s what bothers me: For each news site you create an account with, that newspaper now knows exactly which articles <em>you</em> read. Not in aggregate, but in precision-strike detail. <em>You.</em></p>
<p>Is it possible that an organization under severe financial strain will be tempted to sell out its morals and its users? Bear, poop, woods.</p>
<p>For myself, I do want to support news gathering, so paying is no problem, but orifice-probing leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so at this point I pay for the content, but use <a href="http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95464">incognito mode</a> to read the sites. Which is a best of both worlds for me.</p>
<p>Now, the reason I <em>started</em> using incognito mode was nothing as high-minded as my personal data. No, it was simply technological incompetence. That’s right. The two sites I’m currently paying for, <a href="http://azcentral.com/">AZCentral.com</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">NYTimes.com</a>, both kept managing to log me out <em>all the freaking time</em>. And you know, much as I want to pay my fair share, adding the frustrations of technological incompetence to my experience as a paying customer is just not a good move.</p>
<p>First rule of getting paid on the Internet: Make it easy.</p>
<p>Second rule of getting paid on the Internet: Don’t make it difficult.</p>
<p>Logging me out and throwing guilt-trip messages in my face every few days as it turns out is not the way to make me feel good as a customer. I’m sure you can set your cookies to last longer than a few days. Really. If you don’t, call me and I will tell you how to do it.</p>
<p>Paywalls are a fascinating topic, and the Swedish newspaper industry (like the flagship <a href="http://www.dn.se/">Dagens Nyheter</a>) are taking a different tack from American media, moving toward a “Plus” model—there’s no metering, but certain content, like in the case of Dagens Nyheter, movie and music reviews, as well as other premium content, are locked down to subscribers only.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the economics of either approach, but Plus content does have a bonus for the sites: You have to be logged in to get the Plus content, so incognito mode stops becoming an option. To me it makes more sense than metering, but money talks and so far the companies on either side of the Atlantic haven’t shared their numbers anywhere I’ve seen. But I’d sure love to know.</p>
<p>And then there’s Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, etc.… All of which I feed data into every day. This is the kind of game you can only win by not playing.</p>
OK then, Mr. Gekko2013-04-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/04/ok-then-mr-gekko/
<p>I’ve been a big nerd for a long time, and I care about technology, Lord help me I do, despite all my best attempts to wean myself. I’m the kind of guy who tells myself at the release of each new glass-fronted rectangle or sadistically shaped handle that this one I’ll pass on. Not getting my money <em>this time</em>. And sometimes that works. And sometimes I end up filling Apple’s coffers after twitching at night for a while.</p>
<p>(No, no, Jony, you’re right—making the handles on this 40 pound Mac Pro razor sharp clearly continues the lines in a pleasing manner. Yes, obviously, if somebody can afford a Power Mac, they can afford gloves. You know who can’t? Dickensian orphans! Ahahaha.)</p>
<p>So, I care about the products Apple releases. And I care about Apple’s business results in that I would prefer the company to not go bankrupt or teeter along the horrific edge enough that <em>Wired</em> magazine feels it appropriate to armchair quarterback the company with <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.06/apple.html">hilarious results</a> again.</p>
<p>But I also don’t care about the day-to-day of Apple’s stock price or which analyst wins the complete yobbo competition on which day or, and above all, I don’t give a shit what anybody who isn’t a C-level Apple person thinks Apple should do.</p>
<p>Do. Not. Care. You. Deluded. Prick.</p>
<p>I mean, it’s nice for you that you’ve managed to inflate your ego to the point where you think Tim Cook and his entourage cares what you think, or that you’re laying the groundwork for your rise to power once people see the strength of your strategic monetized synergistic solution-driven thinking about the future of the television space which Appple clearly must occupy.</p>
<p>(I know, I know; those were not great. I just can’t even parody that perversion of English known as business speak with any conviction anymore.)</p>
<p>Or that your Grand Theory of What Apple Must Do Or It Is Doooooooomed! will garner enough page views that you can roll around naked in Google Adwords credits. I don’t know. And I don’t care.</p>
<p>I just know that I enjoy reading about Apple’s products, but apart from a nod that “Everything’s still above water,” I really don’t care about Apple’s financials—nor anybody else’s financials. I do not have an MBA.</p>
<p>For me personally, all I’d like is to be able to read news about Apple’s <em>products</em> without being periodically inundated with news about Apple’s financiazzzzzzzzzzz and the morons who believe their ideas will allow them to oust Tim Cook from his perch.</p>
<p>It’s apparently a lot to ask.</p>
Read this book: Salt Sugar Fat2013-04-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/04/read-this-book-salt-sugar-fat/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/salt-sugar-fat-cover.jpg" alt="Salt Sugar Fat cover" title="Salt Sugar Fat cover" width="180" height="274" />
</div>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00985E3UG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00985E3UG&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Salt Sugar Fat</a></em> is the first must-read book of 2013. Meticulously researched, it tells the history of the processed food industry and how the industry has spent millions upon millions of dollars on research and marketing to sentence us to a catastrophic diet.</p>
<p>(<strong>Note:</strong> facts are from the book or linked; opinions are my own.)</p>
<p>Here are some stunning facts: The average American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar per person each day. Visualize that—22 teaspoons of <em>sugar</em>. The average American consumes more than 50% the maximum recommendation for fat each day. Each year, food companies use 5 billion—with a B—pounds of salt. The average American consumes “as much as 33 pounds of cheese and pseudo-cheese products a year, triple the amount we consumed in the 1970s.”</p>
<p>Exceptionally smart people have spent their lives researching exactly what tastes we enjoy, how the food should feel in the mouth—down to the precise pressure required for a potato chip to give off the perfect crunch—and of course what exact ratio of salt, sugar and fat will yield the most sales at the lowest cost.</p>
<p><em>Salt Sugar Fat</em> is a fascinating and frightening story of completely amoral behavior exhibited by what seem from the included interviews like smart, aware and well-meaning professionals.</p>
<p>Alas, well-meaning professionals who do not care about anything except sales numbers.</p>
<p>Well-meaning professionals who, it should be added, do not serve themselves or their children the products they create and market. If there’s any indictment of the food industry stronger than that the people who create the product will not consume it themselves, I don’t know what it could be.</p>
<p>But not just the food engineers who create the food products are scary: the marketers who sell it to you spend as much money and brain power to figure out how to make you buy it. Everything that happens in your grocery store is planned. <em>Everything</em>. There are no accidents. Behind the muzak curtain, mega corporations are fighting bloody, merciless battles to get their products optimum shelf placement.</p>
<p>Apart from the enormous cost in human suffering caused by obesity, diabetes and the host of other medical problems caused by a horrific diet, it’s depressing to think of all the good things that could have been wrought by all that money, drive and brain power. But nope. Going to sell the ever-living hell out of that cereal and get my bonus!</p>
<p>Now, if you’re of a libertarian bent you may be shaking your head clucking, “Fools! People are choosing to eat crap and get fat and sick and it’s their own fault!”</p>
<p>And sure, people of a certain class and with certain means can certainly afford to eat quite well—would Monsieur like the grain-fed beef?—and have enough knowledge of nutrition to lead a healthy life.</p>
<p>But in America in 2010, <a href="http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm">17.2 million households</a> were food insecure (meaning they weren’t sure where their next meal was coming from). These people have little choice but to go for the cheapest calorie possible and will in some cases be starving to death while obese. As a sidenote, that 17.2 million households are food insecure in the richest country on Earth should be a cause for shame for us all.</p>
<p>But it’s not just money, it’s also education and socialization. The average American exists in a dietary plane crash, bombarded with advertisements for unhealthy foods. When ads for hamburger restaurants, sugary cereal and ersatz Italian restaurants are what you’re bombarded with, they become normative—this is what people eat. <em>I don’t see anybody eating anything else.</em></p>
<p>It’s a preventable tragedy.</p>
<p><em>Salt Sugar Fat</em> spends quite a bit of time on Lunchables, that cheery little cardboard lunch pail you can give your child to bring to school and feel like you’re not a terrible parent.</p>
<p>Which it turns out you are if you give your child Lunchables—they are loaded to the gills with, can you guess? That’s right: Salt, sugar and fat.</p>
<p>So, please read <em>Salt Sugar Fat</em>. Please tell other people to read it. It’s important.</p>
The cargo cult of technology2013-03-13T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/03/the-cargo-cult-of-technology/
<p>Do you understand the machinations your computer slash smart phone slash tablet goes through every time it boots up? It’s an orgy of different systems and pieces of hardware, each and every one of which has to work <em>perfectly</em> or all you’ll end up with is a non-functioning system and a sad state of mind.</p>
<p>But whether you know what’s really going on inside your computer or not, you know it’s complicated as all get out, and that Surly Men With Beards get paid a ton of money to make the magic happen.</p>
<p>Which subconsciously causes a lot of people to exist in a state of angst about their computers. <em>Man, if that puppy blows up, I am screwed.</em></p>
<p>And what do humans do when exposed to complicated systems we don’t understand? That’s right. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult">Cargo cult</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My computer stopped working after I updated it. But then I performed an update after repairing permissions on my hard drive, and it worked great. Therefore, repairing permissions must be something to do before every system update.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cruise around the Internet a bit and you’ll find myriad statements in that vein. To be honest, it’s depressing. Because it’s nothing but magical thinking—I found something that worked, and therefore that must be The One Way. It’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc"><em>post hoc, ergo propter hoc</em></a> writ large, all over the Internet.</p>
<p>Remember, computers are nothing but logic machines. There’s nothing magical inside them. Not even a drop of unicorn tears, just logic gates, all understood by the engineers who create the machines.</p>
<p>So whenever some random person tells you that you <em>must</em> do X before you update your system or at certain intervals or whatnot, they are victims of cargo cult mentality. What you <em>must</em> do before installing any kind of update is <em>what the manufacturer tells you</em>. No more, no less. And the software manufacturers spend a lot of time and energy making sure you don’t have to sacrifice any chickens before updating.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, there are indeed times when things blow up. It’s frustrating, but it does happen. And at that point, the only thing sure to save your bacon is <em>having a current backup</em>.</p>
<p>Spend your time making sure you have good backups, <em>not</em> listening to the nattering of witch doctors on the Internet, and you’ll have a much better time.</p>
Seen a Rechthaberei lately?2013-03-06T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/03/seen-a-rechthaberei-lately/
<p>Here’s a new and necessary loan word to be included in American English: <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Rechthaberei"><em>Rechthaberei</em></a>. Yup, it’s German, like <em>Weltanschauung</em> and <em>Schadenfreude</em>. It combines the word for “right” and the word for “have”—so, a person who is right (correct) or person who has the right (legally).</p>
<p>Or, if you don’t mind stepping out of the loan word comfort zone a bit, the Swedish enhanced alternative is <em>rättshaverist</em>, which came from the German but by happy coincidence the archaic word for “have” meaning “to be in possession of” was a homonym for “crash,” meaning you can picture a person capsizing on the shores of justice.</p>
<p>Not to be needy, but so far the only Swedish word I’ve seen commonly used in American English is “smörgåsbord.” A second one would be nice. And since we actually one-upped the Germans on this one, it only seems fair to get the nod.</p>
<p>So what does it mean? <em>Rechthaberei</em> is a pejorative term for a person who believes himself to be in the right on a certain issue and is pushing the issue beyond what is reasonable. This is the person who came down on the wrong side of a Home Owners’ Association decision a few years ago and who now writes letters to the editor about it and shows up at every HOA meeting to air his grievances and is just too torqued and just can’t let things go and above all <em>is right, dammit</em> while everybody else is uncomfortable and hopes he’ll go away soon without things spiraling even more out of control.</p>
<p>There’s more than a bit of self-destructiveness to the <em>Rechthaberei</em>.</p>
<p>For a fun exercise that will prove me right (rimshot), spend some time reading the Internet or, if you want to go old-school, the newspaper, and see how many articles you find that involve a <em>Rechthaberei</em>.</p>
<p>We need this word. Let’s put it into service.</p>
Book roundup, part ten2013-02-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/02/book-roundup-part-ten/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/coldest-winter-cover.jpg" alt="The Coldest Winter cover" title="The Coldest Winter cover" width="180" height="273" />
</div>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UZNSWM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000UZNSWM&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>A magisterial, crushingly well-researched account of not only the Korean War, but of America finding itself a superpower after the end of World War II and the country’s pains as it attempts to adapt to its new circumstances.</p>
<p>The political climate of the late 1940s and 1950s was, to put it mildly, toxic. A small but influential group of people blindly supported the almost comically corrupt <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek">Chiang Kai-shek</a> against Mao’s communist forces, clamoring for American military intervention to allow Kai-shek to return from exile in Taiwan. At this point North Korea was ruled by a puppet despot supported by Communist China and the Soviet Union and thus South Korea became the perfect staging point for the American military to oppose capital-C Communism.</p>
<p>And yes, this reasoning continued with Vietnam, a conflict that proved America had refused to learn anything from the bloody debacle that was the Korean “police action.” Which in and of itself is astonishing.</p>
<p>General MacArthur led the military forces from the comfort of his command center in Japan, only visiting the country a few times. Ah, MacArthur. The almost unbelievable arrogance of the general himself and his hand-picked cronies incurred such a tragic price his soldiers in the field had to pay in blood and pain.</p>
<p>If you have any interest in the 20th century, <em>The Coldest Winter</em> belongs on your bookshelf.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AHP5NY6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00AHP5NY6&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Oh Myyy! (There Goes The Internet), by George Takei</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Everyone’s favorite weird Internet uncle writes about how he more or less stumbled into becoming a social media powerhouse and his life in general. If you enjoy Takei’s social media output you will enjoy this short, breezy book.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B26PWFE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B26PWFE&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Revolution Was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>The Revolution was Televised</em>, despite the poor sense of humor conveyed by its title, is an insightful cultural history of the recent time when TV drama went from being laughably bad to the height of shows like <em>Deadwood</em> and <em>The Wire</em>.</p>
<p>If you’ve been watching the quality of dramatic television increase logarithmically and been wondering about what happened behind the scenes, this book is for you.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ERIRYK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005ERIRYK">Tough Shit, by Kevin Smith</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Life advice from a potty-mouthed smartass.</p>
<p>It’s tempting to write Smith off as a fat clown who got lucky once with <em>Clerks</em>, but you shouldn’t. He has a lot of interesting ideas, a pretty manic work ethic, and a huge ego, so he is tailor-made for movie-industry success.</p>
<p><em>Tough Shit</em> is short and uplifting. But yes, I’m going to be that guy and complain about the unnecessary R-rating. Sure, working blue is part of Smith’s schtick, but it becomes a distraction from the point he’s trying—and mostly succeeding—to make. But it’s his book so he can obviously do what he wants. It just feels stale. Still, <em>Tough Shit</em> is worth reading.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QX07EG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004QX07EG&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Rook: A Novel, by Daniel O’Malley</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Very smart, wry urban fantasy about a woman who wakes up amnesiac, surrounded by dead bodies, and finds a note from the woman who used to occupy the body she’s wearing. Turns out her name was Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas, she was a high-ranking member of the supernatural equivalent of the MI5, and somebody inside her organization is plotting to kill her.</p>
<p>Think X-Men, Buffy, Ghostbusters, Dresden Files and James Bond all rolled into one high-octane plot and served on a scaly tentacle.</p>
<p><em>The Rook</em> is seriously impressive. Can not wait for O’Malley’s next novel.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008FPOIT6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008FPOIT6&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Absolutely delightful novel about a San Francisco man who gets a job in a … strange … bookstore and starts to believe he’s gotten himself involved with a strange cult.</p>
<p>Which he has. A strange cult, indeed.</p>
<p>If you’re of a nerdy bent, this novel will make you very happy.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZFIMC6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007ZFIMC6">Gun Machine, by Warren Ellis</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Whoa. <em>Gun Machine</em> is a kick in the teeth. Ellis’s prose is tight and musical, the plot is a psychotic adrenaline rush and both protagonist and antagonist are skewed and interesting.</p>
<p>A contender for best novel of 2012. Get it. Now.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095ZRZ54/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0095ZRZ54&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier, by Myke Cole</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The sequel to the very good <em>Control Point</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/05/book-roundup/">my review here</a>) answers most of the questions left open by the first installment and picks up the pace from there.</p>
<p>You really shouldn’t start with <em>Fortress Frontier</em>, though, as it will make very little sense if you haven’t read <em>Control Point.</em> The lack of recapping is a good thing, since it means Cole doesn’t have to spend time on world building—instead, <em>Fortress Frontier</em> gets right into the action.</p>
<p>And a whole lot of action there is. <em>Fortress Frontier</em> is mechanically better than <em>Control Point</em> with better pacing and a more streamlined plot, so if you liked the first, congratulations, good stuff is in store.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ASGP3U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008ASGP3U&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Rebus is back! He’s old, tired and even crankier than before, but he’s also back on the force.</p>
<p>I’m not even going to go in to plot here. Who cares about the plot? It’s Rebus and it’s good.</p>
<p>Excellent police procedural.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765325950/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0765325950&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Yes, people! Yes! <em>The Wheel of Time</em> is finished. <em>Whew!</em></p>
<p>Finally.</p>
<p><em>A Memory of Light</em> ends the series about as satisfyingly as can be expected, although Epic Battle is Epic for way too many pages. Lordie, so many pages.</p>
<p>But it’s done now. It feels so, so good to close this loop.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> the link goes to the hardcover, since the publisher hates you and your newfangled Kindle and will not release a version for it. Damn hippie.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
The Core Dump is hibernating2013-01-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2013/01/the-core-dump-is-hibernating/
<p>The Core Dump is hibernating in its cozy cave and will return with new content in February.</p>
<p>See you then.</p>
Book roundup, part nine2012-12-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/12/book-roundup-part-nine/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/red-country-cover.jpg" alt="Red Country cover" title="Red Country cover" width="250" height="386" />
</div>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002L6HE3W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002L6HE3W&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Where Men Win Glory, by Jon Krakauer</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The story of Pat Tillmans’ life including his death from friendly fire in Afghanistan becomes a tragic hero’s journey in Krakauer’s thorough, well-researched book.</p>
<p><em>Where Men Win Glory</em> paints a picture of Tillman as an iconoclastic patriot—the contrast between his selflessness and the Army’s many shabby attempts at hiding the truth of how he died is sickening.</p>
<p>By painting Tillman’s story and death and weaving it into the history of Afghanistan—“graveyard of empires”—al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Krakauer creates nothing less than an indictment of US international policy since the Vietnam War, topping it off with the thoroughly cynical treatment Tillman’s family received after his death, all written with Krakauer’s customary economy. Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005IQZB14/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005IQZB14&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Wild, by Cheryl Strayed</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Very well-written story of a woman who decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail to help her cope with the death of her mother as well as other issues—cough <em>many issues</em>—she’s been dealing with.</p>
<p>Strayed starts her hike doing everything wrong, including not ever having loaded her backpack before—it’s way too heavy—not having worn her hiking boots before—they’re too small—and pretty much any rookie mistake you can make.</p>
<p>But she grinds on.</p>
<p>We learn more about her background and demons as the story unfolds in economical, tight prose. It’s a hard book to put down.</p>
<p>Interesting and emotionally powerful as it is, though, <em>Wild</em> does feel more “truthy” than truthful, with strangers showing up at the exact moment when she needs that kind of person to interact with and trigger a certain response too many times.</p>
<p>But be that as it may, <em>Wild</em> is a captivating read.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009KP8ENG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009KP8ENG&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Inside the Box, by T. J. Murphy</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Nice, short history and personal impressions of the CrossFit movement from a journalist who has become a believer. This book makes you want to join a box and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ27XzR3HJc">try a Fran (SLYT)</a>.</p>
<p>On the downside, while inspirational, Murphy glosses over a lot of well-publicized CrossFit drama and personality conflicts that are relevant to the topic. Nevertheless, despite its hagiographic nature,</p>
<p><em>Inside the Box</em> is recommended for anybody interested in fitness or the CrossFit movement.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0076DELIG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0076DELIG&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Black Box, by Michael Connelly</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>The Bosch series is as good as it gets for current American police procedurals and the 18th Harry Bosch novel brings it. If you’re already a Bosch fan, that’s all you need to hear.</p>
<p>If you’ve never read a Bosch novel before, let me tell you that you must. But you should start with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SEVYSA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000SEVYSA&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Black Echo</a></em>, then read them all in order.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085UEQDO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0085UEQDO&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Kos Everburning is dead. Now it’s up to one of his acolytes and a hired-gun necromancer to figure out who killed the god and how to resurrect him.</p>
<p>It’s rare to find a fantasy novel that turns the entire genre on its head. But that’s what <em>Three Parts Dead</em> accomplishes. The best way to think of it might be dark, steampunk-ish fantasy by way of John Grisham. Because there is a trial, as there must be to figure out what to do with the estate of a god who has died under mysterious circumstances.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0076DEJMO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0076DEJMO&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Red Country, by Joe Abercrombie</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>As a huge Joe Abercrombie fan I was wicked excited about this latest release. Unfortunately, it’s far from his best. Not terrible, and with moments of glory, but in the end a disappointment. Of course, a disappointment compared to fantastic novels like <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VHI8FE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002VHI8FE&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Blade Itself</a></em> but still.</p>
<p>Basically <em>Red Country</em> is Abercrombie writing a fantasy western. Picture <em>Unforgiven</em> with magic and you’re pretty close. In the end it feels like the bleak, desolate setting just doesn’t give Abercrombie enough to work with and in this case his typical parade of cynical misanthropes only bring you down.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081BU42O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0081BU42O&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The Gzilt are about to sublime—to leave the universe behind and go to a better place. Which means other, less advanced, cultures are waiting in the wings to take over their planets and technology.</p>
<p>When things start to go wrong, the Culture, or rather, its ships, gets involved.</p>
<p>This is space opera at its finest, full of mind-bending ideas, huge (and small) spaceships, and the Minds that run the Culture ships. Said Minds are vastly powerful AIs with their own often warped personalities and foibles, and they enjoy nothing more than intellectual stimulation—what some would label meddling.</p>
<p><em>The Hydrogen Sonata</em> is another strong entry in Iain M. Banks’s Culture series.</p>
<p>If you like brainy sci-fi, you’ll like this.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
Ode to joy2012-12-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/12/the-boss-in-concert/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/springsteen-glendale.jpg" alt="Springsteen in concert" width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">Springsteen in concert Dec. 6, 2012 in Glendale, Arizona.</div>
<p>Bruce Springsteen performed a concert in Phoenix Thursday night. As I’ve been a Springsteen fan since seventh grade in Sweden when a friend of mine introduced me to his older brother’s LPs, it was time to make an effort to see Springsteen now. He will only be with us for so long.</p>
<p>Now, as I’ve talked about before on this blog, <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2010/11/learning-english-from-the-boss/">Springsteen was a major motivator for me to learn English</a> and he is in many ways a reason I live in the States now, so this concert carried a lot of emotional baggage.</p>
<p>The first time I saw Springsteen in concert was way back in 1985 at Ullevi arena in Gothenburg, Sweden on the Born in the USA tour. Yes, 1985.</p>
<p>(Springsteen seems to love Sweden and tends to put on absolutely smashing shows over there.)</p>
<p>Springsteen is one of the major reasons I’m fluent in English and living in America, and I’ve spent countless hours listening to his albums. I expected a great show.</p>
<p><em>It’s Springsteen, so of course it’ll be a great show.</em></p>
<p>The Boss delivered something better than great. At this point in his life and career he’s amassed a massive back catalogue to draw from and has honed his craft as a performer to such a fine edge he knows exactly how to keep an audience in the palm of his hand. Seriously, if you programmed a Terminator to run a show, it would not do it as well as Springsteen.</p>
<p>That combined with the work ethic that has everything rehearsed to the point where it looks spontaneous is really a stunning thing to behold.</p>
<p>But the thing that really made the concert transcendent was <em>joy</em>. It sounds corny, but it was three hours of sheer joy—Springsteen and the entire band were beaming, looking like there was nowhere they’d rather be and nothing they’d rather do than play the hell out of that concert.</p>
<p>It’s wonderful that Springsteen, who has penned some truly <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/10/out-of-nebraska/">bleak songs</a> about the American condition, is at the point in his life where he wants to celebrate and share joy and that he’s in a position where he can travel the world and do so.</p>
<p>Even the poignant memorial to fallen band members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici were joyous in their own way—celebrating their lives instead of mourning their deaths.</p>
<p>If you get any chance to see him, <em>do it</em>.</p>
Humungus’s Volvo tractor2012-11-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/11/humunguss-volvo-tractor/
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9yHl24QynOM" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics">Apocalypse? Check. Tractor? Check.</div>
<p>One thing that’s for certain is that you don’t have more fun than you make for yourself.</p>
<p>A Swedish redneck has proven this beyond all doubt by retro-fitting a Volvo engine into an old tractor and in the process creating a vehicle quite worthy of Mad Max.</p>
<p>In a twist of fate, the villain of <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082694/">The Road Warrior</a></em> was played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0632250/">a Swedish guy</a>, so this even makes some weird kind of cosmic sense.</p>
<p><em>Some men just want to watch the world peel out in a tractor.</em></p>
Thanksgiving, the reboot2012-11-22T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/11/thanksgiving-the-reboot/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/swedish-christmas-ham.jpg" alt="Swedish Christmas Ham" width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">Nine pounds of Swedish Christmas ham. So good.</div>
<p>Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. It’s genius: Spend time with family, eat good food and be happy about the ways your life has gone right.</p>
<p>(I’m making a conscious effort here to ignore the twilight of humanity that is Black Friday. Or as I like to think of it, Anti-Thanksgiving.)</p>
<p><em>Genius.</em></p>
<p>When it comes to the food, though, I’m not so sure.</p>
<p>Hold on, hold on! Before your rage rages in your rage, hear me out.</p>
<p><em>You don’t like turkey.</em> It’s true. If you liked turkey, you’d eat it at least one of the other 364 days of the year. But apart from putting a slice on a sandwich every once in a while, you don’t. <em>You like Thanksgiving.</em> And turkey is your locus for Thanksgiving so you think you like turkey.</p>
<p>Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this. Go nuts and devour that turkey. Gobble gobble.</p>
<p>But since both my wife and I grew up outside the States, neither one of us has that hardwired link between turkey and Thanksgiving, so there’s really no reason for us to chow down on one of nature’s mistakes at the end of every November. Instead, we can eat foods we like!</p>
<p>As a sidebar here, when our daughter was young we worried about not raising her American enough. To combat our not-American-enough-ness, we would purchase ready-made Thanksgiving meals from Safeway or AJ’s. They were good, but little miss I-only-like-pizza-and-chicken-nuggets wouldn’t eat them anyway, so we’d end up spending Thanksgiving eating foods we didn’t particularly enjoy just so our daughter could shun them.</p>
<p>We didn’t feel that was very smart.</p>
<p>So for a while we’d make an über-delicious shrimp pie for Thanksgiving. It was great. Let me know if you want the recipe.</p>
<p>But then inspiration struck. <em>I love Swedish Christmas food.</em> And Thanksgiving is close to Christmas. So if I play my cards right I can eat Swedish Christmas food twice!</p>
<p>Oh, hark the herald freaking angels!</p>
<p>So that’s our Thanksgiving tradition now: mini-Christmas.</p>
<p><em>Genius.</em></p>
Size matters: The iPad mini is its own experience2012-11-15T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/11/size-matters-the-ipad-mini-is-its-own-experience/
<p>Remember when the iPad first came out and the denser members of the tech chattering classes declared it <em>just a larger iPhone Apple is doooooomed!</em> No? Good for you. But it did happen.</p>
<p>And now the iPad mini is out and the same crowd of course declared it <em>just a smaller iPad Apple is doooooomed!</em></p>
<p>Thus completely and utterly missing the fact that the size is the most important factor for this class of devices, followed by software and build quality. Size matters.</p>
<p>So what can be said about the size of the iPad mini? <em>IT’S THE GODDAM STAR TREK SLATE!</em> Yes! Holding an iPad mini is like holding one of the slates from Star Trek TNG. You find yourself looking for a bald man in an uncomfortably tight uniform to hand it to.</p>
<p>For a more prosaic comparison, it’s very similar to an e-ink Kindle to hold. And yes, by comparison the original iPad is steroidal and clunky.</p>
<p>But the form factor isn’t perfect. Since Apple came up with a clever hack to avoid forcing developers to target a third size by literally just shrinking the pixels on the existing iPad, things are smaller, small enough that it’s very, very close to the line of being unusable. It’s not, quite the opposite, but it’s oh-so-very-close.</p>
<p>Especially if, like me, you have big peasant fingers, you’ll find yourself having to focus a bit more with some of the smaller touch targets.</p>
<p>The biggest drawback is the lack of retina display. Although it should be said that affects different people different ways. For myself, the retina display is the greatest thing since fire and I <em>hate</em> giving it up. But it’s worth it for the size and the almost ridiculously light weight of the mini. I’ll be first in line to update when the inevitable next version with retina display hits the street.</p>
<p>For some people the retina display matters not one whit. To find out if that’s you, go to a reseller and compare the iPad 4 and the iPad 2. Spot the difference? If not, congratulations, you just saved yourself a bunch of money.</p>
<p>Another drawback, and one that annoys me surprisingly much is that the Apple Cover for the device is much chintzier than the one for its bigger brother. It doesn’t snap to the device as authoritatively as the big cover and the half-size last piece seems a bit, well, odd.</p>
<p>For some reason, the new cover is not available in leather. I know, I know, the food here is terrible and the portions are too small. But I like leather. It ages well. Polyurethane ages like a plastic suitcase. Wabi-sabi, etc.</p>
<p>So should you buy one? If you already have an iPad 2 or 3, no, you probably shouldn’t. What you have is fine. Wait for the next generation. Unless of course you have small hands or you carry a purse around. The mini will fit a lot better in a purse than a full-sized iPad.</p>
<p>To sum up, the iPad mini sure is a nice artifact from the future.</p>
Uncomfortably numb2012-11-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/11/uncomfortably-numb/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/08/c-day/">My adopted country</a> went to the polls yesterday. Finally. After a campaign season so arduous, cynical and tainted by special interests it would make a citizen of the end-days of the Roman Republic cry.</p>
<p>Apart from the desensitization of years of negative campaign ads, there’s conscious voter suppression, unlimited secret-by-law campaign slush funds, and the chaos that results from thousands—<em>yes, thousands</em>—of counties fumbling to rediscover the wheel about the basics of how to run an election.</p>
<p>Having paid pretty close attention to this process the last couple of years, I’m confident in saying I trust it <em>not at all.</em> And that’s not even talking about the frankly disgusting campaign ads; I’m talking about the election results.</p>
<p>Well-meaning but befuddled geriatrics attempting to decipher intentionally obtuse regulations on the fly while the lines of voters stretch across the corner is not exactly a model for the rest of the world…</p>
<p>Still, today is the 7th of November, 2012. We’re done with this one.</p>
<p>But the next one is out there, creeping, waiting, and if history is any guide, it will be longer, furrier, and have more anonymous money oozing out of every pore.</p>
<p>2016 will be <em>hideous</em>. But for now, let’s enjoy the few months we have before that beast awakens.</p>
Smoking spareribs on the Kamado2012-10-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/10/smoking-spareribs-on-the-kamado/
<p>It was time to up the ante on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamado">Kamado grill</a> by using it as a smoker. Smoking on the name-brand <a href="http://www.biggreenegg.com/">Big Green Egg</a> is well documented, to say the least, but I was interested to see how my CostCo-bought <a href="http://www.visiongrills.com/">Vision Grill</a> would perform. Read on to find out.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spareribs/1.jpg" alt="Ribs all rubbed up." width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">Home-made rub made with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, thyme, and paprika. Tasty.</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spareribs/2.jpg" alt="Smoking temperature." width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">It was harder than I thought to keep the temperature low enough for smoking. And no, I don't clean the outside of the grill often. The food goes on the inside.</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spareribs/3.jpg" alt="To keep the temperature low enough, the lower vent needs to be almost closed." width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">To keep the temperature low enough, the lower vent needs to be almost closed.</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spareribs/4.jpg" alt="Upper vent." width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">Same goes for the upper vent.</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spareribs/5.jpg" alt="Ribs ready for the table." width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">After smoking for three hours, I wrapped the ribs in aluminum foil with brown sugar and apple juice and let them sit for another hour.</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spareribs/6.jpg" alt="Spare ribs with a side of corn on the plate." width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">Finished product on the plate. Tastes even better than it looks.</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spareribs/7.jpg" alt="The meat falls off the bones." width="680" height="510" />
<div class="imgcaption">The meat falls off the bones.</div>
<p>For more pictures of hot BBQ action, please <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/07/4th-of-july-barbecue/">visit my 4th of July post</a>.</p>
Arizona 2012 ballot proposition rundown2012-10-18T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/10/arizona-2012-ballot-proposition-rundown/
<p>For the 2012 general election, Arizona faces nine ballot propositions. The secretary of state website has <a href="http://www.azsos.gov/election/2012/General/ballotmeasures.htm">the official list</a> together with links to full PDFs of the propositions. ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy has <a href="http://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/2012-understanding-arizonas-propositions/2012-ballot-propositions-summary">the same list in human-readable form</a>.</p>
<p>In general, I’m wary of ballot propositions, especially the ones coming ouf the state legislature. <em>You’re the state legislature. Why did you kick this out into a ballot proposition instead of just enacting it yourselves? Could it be that you want to score points with your base without putting your name behind the actual legislation?</em></p>
<p>And the propositions that don’t come from the legislature are usually—but not always—the spawn of well-funded special interest groups who for whatever reason weren’t able to get the legislature to push their agenda.</p>
<p>So whenever in doubt, vote <strong>no</strong>.</p>
<p>Let’s go through this sad lot of propositions one by one:</p>
<h3>Proposition 114: Arizona Crime Victims Protection Act</h3>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>This one might as well have been called the “Appease Scared Old White People Act.” Would amend the constitution to make it so that something that already doesn’t happen couldn’t happen. Sponsored by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Pearce">Russell Pearce</a>, which should tell you all you need to know.</p>
<h3>Proposition 115: Judicial Selection</h3>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>Having the governor and the legislature more involved in judicial selection is a scary thought indeed.</p>
<h3>Proposition 116: Small Business Job Creation Act</h3>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>Would strip the state of badly-needed funds and increase the complexity of the bureaucratic system all in the name of creating jobs.</p>
<p>Despite the conventional wisdom of the right, lower taxes do not automatically lead to more jobs being created. I know, I know, and nevertheless it’s true. Proposition 116 would make it easier for companies to become profitable, which is not the same thing.</p>
<h3>Proposition 117: Property Tax Assessed Valuation Amendment</h3>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>Will not actually lower property taxes, so what’s the point?</p>
<h3>Proposition 118: Permanent Funds Amendment</h3>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>In theory, 118 sounds good: it would provide a more even flow of funds to public schools. But its predicted effects are tied to a set of economic conditions that may or may not happen.</p>
<p>I’m unsure on this one, so let’s invoke the First Rule of Ballot Club: When in doubt, vote no.</p>
<h3>Proposition 119: Arizona State Trust Land Amendment</h3>
<p><strong>YES</strong></p>
<p>Would help protect military bases—who bring something on the order of $10 billion into Arizona’s economy—and protect the environment, which apart from natural beauty helps bring in tourism dollars. Makes sense to me.</p>
<h3>Proposition 120: State Sovereignty Amendment</h3>
<p><strong>A MILLION TIMES NO</strong></p>
<p>This one is prima facie unconstitutional and if passed would cost the state millions in lawyer fees. And that’s apart from making Arizona even more of a national laughingstock.</p>
<p>Let’s sing it again, children: States can not override federal law, no matter how much you wave the 10th Amendment around making puppy eyes.</p>
<p>If this abomination were to somehow pass, and somehow survived the lawsuits, how long do you think it would take for the state to start selling off the land to developers? Remember, these are the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/us/25phoenix.html">geniuses who sold off the state house to raise cash</a>, then somehow <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/arizona-wants-buy-back-state-capitol-it-inexplicably-sold">found the cash to buy it back a bit over a year later</a> at a cost to taxpayers of $23 million.</p>
<h3>Proposition 121: Open Elections/Open Government Initiative</h3>
<p><strong>YES</strong></p>
<p>This one is worth trying, especially since it’s roundly despised by both Democrats and Republicans. The hope is that by changing the primary system into a top-two election, the ideological extremes in both parties will be defanged, with the end result being more moderates in the legislature. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but it’s worth trying.</p>
<h3>Proposition 204: Quality Education and Jobs Act</h3>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>I wanted to hold my nose and vote yes on prop. 204 despite it using a sales tax, the most regressive form of taxation. But I can’t. The proposition micromanages fund allocations, probably expressly to handcuff the legislature (which one could argue is a good thing when it comes to education funding), but the built-in micromanagement will make the system difficult to adjust to changing conditions in the future.</p>
<p>Proposition 204 is, unfortunately, a well-meaning mess.</p>
Kindle Paperlight: Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away2012-10-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/10/kindle-paperlight-amazon-giveth-and-amazon-taketh-away/
<p>The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GEKXUO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008GEKXUO&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Kindle Paperlight</a> is a solid upgrade from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GG93YE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008GG93YE&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">previous Kindle</a>, the one Amazon for some reason refused to call the Kindle 4. (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2011/10/kindle-4-first-impressions/">My impressions of which you can find here.</a>) Although it’s really an upgrade to the Kindle Touch, not the 4.</p>
<h3>The Good</h3>
<p>First, the strengths: The backlighting makes a <em>huge</em> difference, not just in dimly lit rooms, but also in daylight, where it increases the contrast profoundly. In daylight, it’s like going from reading dingy newsprint to a high-quality magazine—but only more so. The backlight by itself is <em>the</em> reason to buy a Paperlight.</p>
<p>It’s also noticeably faster than the Kindle 4—page turns, bringing up menus, looking up dictionary definitions, it’s all smooth. No more click, moment of zen, result. For the first time, the speed of the Kindle isn’t an issue. Bravo to Amazon.</p>
<p>The operating system has also gotten an overhaul, including, and this one really is a “finally”: <em>You can switch fonts!</em></p>
<p><em>Wheee!</em></p>
<h3>The Bad</h3>
<p>Sadly, though, the font selection is astoundingly poor, consisting of Baskerville, Caecilia (the standard Kindle font), Caecilia Condensed, Futura, Helvetica and Palatino.</p>
<p>Now, Futura is a lovely display font, but you’d have to be stark raving mad to want to read a whole book set in it, so why is it even there? Baskerville has been a favorite of textbooks since time immemorial, but despite the Paperweight having a bit higher resolution than previous e-ink Kindles, Baskerville’s strokes are too fine for the Kindle display to do justice.</p>
<p>Caecilia it remains.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/kindle-ragged-right.jpg" alt="Jules ragged right" width="302" height="298" />
</div>
<p>Also, can you finally turn on ragged right to avoid all the rivers of white space in your books? Can you? No, you can not. <em>Sigh.</em> It’s mystifying.</p>
<h3>The Ugly</h3>
<p>On my first unit it looked like the screen coating was absent in two spots—like a pixel stuck on white on an LCD display. It was only visible when I brought the Kindle really close, which I do when I’m reading in bed what with being blind as a bat. Received a replacement unit from Amazon and it has the same problem, though the light leakage is in a less annoying spot on this one.</p>
<p>You’ll only notice this if you’re really myopic, but once you do, it’s very annoying. So if you’re reading this and you’re <em>not</em> myopic, resist your nerd urge to inspect your Paperlight. You will probably be very sad.</p>
<p>It’s fair to say the Paperweight is an update to the Kindle Touch, which it has replaced in Amazon’s lineup, and not the Kindle 4, which you can still purchase. This stinks since the only way to interact with the Paperlight is to touch the screen, getting it all grubbed up and grody. No keys for you. And yes, <em>you want the backlighting, the backlighting is good</em>, so you’ll have to suck it up.</p>
<p>As an aside to the backlighting, note that it’s chintzy and low-rent at the bottom of the screen, where you can see the individual light sources. Don’t know how that made it through quality control, as it takes the impression of the device out of, “Oh dearie me, this screens glows with <em>magic</em>,” to “Yes, that’s going to be hard to avoid noticing every time I read on this device.”</p>
<p>For my particular use case, a faster Kindle 4 with the backlighting and still having physical page-turn buttons would have been perfect. Alas, it was not to be.</p>
<p>Despite its name, the Paperweight weighs significantly more than the Kindle 4—not a deal breaker but it is annoying and noticeable.</p>
<p>The last nit to pick is that the bezel on the Paperweight is black instead of the charcoal of the Kindle 4 and it reveals fingerprints like it’s its mission in life. Not only does the screen get grody, but the bezel does, as well.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>So, Amazon giveth, Amazon taketh away and Amazon makes some very strange design decisions, but I’m willing to forgive a lot for the extra contrast the backlight provides.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The Kindle links above are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something from Amazon through them I get a tiny kickback. Tiny kickbacks make me happy.</p>
Movie roundup, part 202012-10-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/10/movie-roundup-part-20/
<p><strong>[All movie titles link to Rotten Tomatoes, so you can see what the people who get paid to write about movies think.]</strong></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009075-moon/">Moon</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Stripped-down, psychological sci-fi about a solitary worker on a moon base who is coming up on the end of his three-year tour of duty and is fraying both physically and psychologically.</p>
<p><em>Moon</em> is slow and hypnotic, building to its bitter end. Worth watching just for the pacing—so nice to see a director dare to be slow and understated these days of epileptic jump-cuts and all kinds of shit blowing up just for the sake of blowing up.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snow_white_and_the_huntsman/">Snow White and the Huntsman</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Loud and clunky movie that’s still worth watching just for Charlize Theron’s scenery-chewing performance as the Evil Queen and the lush, gorgeous visuals.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it also stars Kristen Stewart as Snow White and she comes across more as a sulky sales person at Hot Topic than a plucky heroine.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it’s dark fantasy and has an interesting take on the Snow White myth, so, worth watching.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marvels_the_avengers/">The Avengers</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>This must have been horribly difficult to write—making a movie understandable to people who aren’t comic book nerds while at the same time not stepping on the sensibilities of the comic book nerds is a tightrope. Just imagine knowing that Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons multiplied by millions is going to be taking your work apart frame-by-frame and then try to make something interesting and new. <em>Actually, in issue 23 of WhoGivesACrap it’s clearly stated that Boffoman only buys pizza on Wednesdays.</em> Shudder.</p>
<p>As a non-comic book nerd, I found it OK. Not great, not awful, just OK. Obviously the filmmakers had a lot of money to spend on effects, and boy did they spend it. <em>Avengers</em> looks great. But then there’s the, ahem, plot. Which is no stupider than any other summer blockbuster plot for sure, though that’s setting the standard at a subterranean level.</p>
<p>Even though the plot did make (some) sense, it only hinted at a lot of backstory, so I’m sure the comic book nerds got a lot more out of it, which is fine.</p>
<p>And it’s uplifting to see Downey play Tony Stark—he seems to have such a blast doing it.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jiro_dreams_of_sushi/">Jiro Dreams of Sushi</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A film about obsession, it captures the aging Jiro—arguably the greatest sushi chef in the world—and his difficult relationship with his two sons. Like Jiro himself, it’s a spare, unostentatious documentary, uplifting in its serenity.</p>
<p>Well worth watching, though make sure you eat first or you’ll have to pause the movie to go find some sushi.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coriolanus_2010/">Coriolanus</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Movie adaption of one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, set in a modern day “Place that calls itself Rome.” I’d argue <em>Coriolanus</em> is one of the Bard’s least effective tragedies, since the protagonist is, well, a dick, but the movie does a good job of translating the imagery to modern times, including a version of cable news called “Veritas TV” and it has Ralph Fiennes and Vannessa Redgrave both in full-on I’m-a-Shakespearean-Actor-Dammit-and-I-Shall-Now-Declaim! mode, which is always great to see.</p>
<p>You do feel a bit bad for Gerard Butler, who is so out-acted it’s not even funny, but hey, you sign up to do a Shakespeare adaptation with people like Fiennes and Redgrave…</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_grey_2012/">The Grey</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The biggest problem with <em>The Grey</em> is that it exists in a weird grey zone (see what I did there?) between art house movie and blockbuster.</p>
<p>There are really great action sequences, including a harrowing plane crash, and there’s plenty of Very Hard Men Opening up to Each Other™ scenes which straddle the line awkwardly close to cliché.</p>
<p>That being said, the idea is solid—Liam Neeson plays a depressed hunter who works for an oil company shooting wolves that threaten an oil field somewhere in the arctic and who of course by the laws of drama ends up threatened by wolves himself.</p>
<p>Liam Neeson, of course, was genetically engineered in a lab to play the perfect avenger, smoldering with rage, and does so admirably here, deftly mixing in the futility and hopelessness of his backstory.</p>
<p><em>The Grey</em> is also very well made with exquisite cinematography of the Great North and solid acting performances all around.</p>
<p>Not a spoiler, per se, but there’s a tender reveal at the end that I’ll admit put a lump in my throat.</p>
<p><em>The Grey</em> is worth seeing if you adjust your expectations appropriately. Although it should come with a warning label: “If you’re afraid of flying, do NOT watch this movie.” Seriously. Heed that warning.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sherlock_holmes_a_game_of_shadows/">Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Sigh. A disappointing sequel. If you <em>loved</em> the first Sherlock-Holmes-as-Tony-Stark movie you might find this one tolerable. If you found the first one tolerable, you might be able to sit this one through. It’s the same formula as the first one but with every dial turned to eleven, except for heart and fun.</p>
<p>To add to the disappointment, Noomi Rapace—of <em>Girl With the Dragon Tattoo</em> and <em>Prometheus</em> fame—is pale and lifeless in her first Hollywood appearance. She’s a much better actress than this.</p>
<p>Robert Downey Jr. sure looks like he’s having fun, though, so that’s something.</p>
Lying as a rational strategy2012-10-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/10/lying-as-a-rational-strategy/
<p>The first of the 2012 presidential “debates” occurred last night. With “debates” in scare quotes since the format used isn’t a debate—it’s a schizophrenic interview. (A real debate would be much more informative but harder to prep for and harder to package for TV, so that’s not going to happen.)</p>
<p>The lies and obfuscations <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/04/us/politics/20120804-denver-presidential-debate-obama-romney.html?hp#/?annotation=9874929c1">flew fast and hard</a> from both sides, but most shamelessly from Romney. Sadly, at this point in the long, slow grind of the process, it’s probably a great strategy: Lie like it’s going out of style.</p>
<p>Because why not? A voter who’s paid <em>any</em> attention at this point has made up her mind—has had her mind made up since it became clear Romney was the Republican candidate after that long, long slog through the Republican primaries. That unicorn in the mist, the undecided voter, has to be so information-poor or disengaged that if she by some miracle tuned in to the debate at all, she sure as hell isn’t going to read any of the myriad fact checks performed after the lights go down.</p>
<p>So it’s carte blanche for lying through your teeth: Partisans will laser focus on the lies told by the opposing candidate, people who care about the future of America will be sad, and the undecided voter won’t know any better.</p>
<p>Thus our democracy is made.</p>
Book roundup, part eight2012-09-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/09/book-roundup-part-eight/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/devilsaidbang-cover.jpg" alt="Devil Said Bang cover" title="Devil Said Bang cover" width="250" height="360" />
</div>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0074VTHAM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0074VTHAM&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The First 20 Minutes, by Gretchen Reynolds</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>The subtitle tells the story: “Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer.”</p>
<p>Reynolds has done a great service with this book, collating recent scientific studies on exercise into an eminently readable whole.</p>
<p>As anybody who has spent any time around a gym knows, exercise is fraught with myths, disinformation and “truths” disseminated by your high school coach lo those many years ago.</p>
<p><em>The First 20 Minutes</em> covers things like, Should you stretch before working out? What’s the best way to prevent soreness? How long should you work out for? What effects does exercise have?</p>
<p>It’s a highly enjoyable deep-dive into peer-reviewed research on those questions and many others and deserves a place on your Kindle. Highly recommended.</p>
<p><em>The First 20 Minutes</em> is also exceptionally motivational, showing the mass of scientific evidence about just how ridiculously good for you it is to exercise.</p>
<p>If you have a body, you should read this book.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0075WP9MK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0075WP9MK&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Double Cross, by Ben Macintyre</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>This is the story of the people behind the World War II operation to convince the Germans the D-Day Normandy landings were only a feint and that the real invasion would take place near Calais, thus forcing the Germans to hold back crucial reinforcements during the critical first few days of the invasion.</p>
<p>If <em>Double Cross</em> had been fiction, I would have found it preposterous, but it’s a true story, populated with people John Le Carré couldn’t have dreamed up.</p>
<p>Fascinating.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UZPIAW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000UZPIAW&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Heroin Diaries, by Nikki Sixx</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>During the late ’80s while struggling with an addiction to, well, pretty much anything he could get his hands on, but especially heroin and cocaine, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx kept a diary. <em>The Heroin Diaries</em> is that diary amended with present-time updates from the people involved, who are now mostly sober and seem understandably flabbergasted by their past behavior.</p>
<p>It’s fascinating, engrossing reading. While it’s very, very hard indeed to <em>like</em> any of the people involved, it’s a window into a world I’m very happy to never have been a part of and offers chilling insight into the psychology of addiction.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JTHXMW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003JTHXMW&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Tattoos and Tequila, by Vince Neil and Mike Sager</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>In this autobiography, Mötley Crüe lead singer Vince Neil comes across as a profoundly damaged individual, spending most of his life in a thoughtless haze of hedonism, drugs, alcohol and sex. It’s fascinating reading, in a train wreck sort of way, and paints a deeply unflattering portrait of Neil himself as well as the rest of the members of Mötley Crüe, who are portrayed as as a group of sad wretches driven by pure, thoughtless id.</p>
<p>After reading <em>Tattoos and Tequila</em> and <em>The Heroin Diaries</em>, the main question in my mind is how any of these people are still alive? Followed by, how did they manage to create any music or go on tour? Really, it’s debauchery and addiction on a level that would make Emperor Nero ask for a time-out.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HBLOZA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007HBLOZA&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Dodger, by Terry Pratchett</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A rare non-Discworld novel by Pratchett, <em>Dodger</em> is set in Victorian London and is the story of the eponymous Dodger, a 17-year-old tosher scraping out a living in horrific squalor. The novel is, as you’d expect from Pratchett, very clever, but the humor is more of the little smile than the laugh-out-loud quality of the best Discworld novels, and above all Pratchett has infused the novel with pathos and genuine caring for his characters.</p>
<p>It is also compulsively readable with a break-neck plot.</p>
<p>If you haven’t been able to get past the fantasy elements of the Discworld series, <em>Dodger</em> is a great way to get acquainted with the genius of Pratchett.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002LA0ANO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002LA0ANO&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Farthing, by Jo Walton</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Powerful alternate history novel that starts out as Agatha Christie with a strange murder at a rural British estate and then becomes increasingly dystopian in its depiction of a country descending into fascism and hate.</p>
<p><em>Farthing</em> takes place in 1947 in an alternate England that made peace with Germany after the Blitz, an England growing ever more fascist as Nazi Germany continues its stranglehold on the continent.</p>
<p>Walton’s writing is period-perfect and the way she at first lulls you into a genteel English murder mystery only to expand on the darker, true, theme of the novel is nothing short of brilliant—it begins as Agatha Christie and ends as George Orwell.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JLDAS2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007JLDAS2&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Devil Said Bang, by Richard Kadrey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The best in Kadrey’s very good Sandman Slim series, <em>Devil Said Bang</em> continues Slim’s travails in Hell. If you’ve enjoyed the series so far, this one’s a no-brainer.</p>
<p>But it is not the place to start—if you haven’t already experienced the irreverent, in-your-face brilliance of Slim’s journey to—literally—Hell and back, you want to begin at the beginning with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00338QF1E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00338QF1E&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Sandman Slim</a></em>.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon. Tiny kickbacks make me happy and allow me to buy more books to review.)</p>
Ebook creation is still a bag of hurt2012-09-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/09/ebook-publishing-is-still-a-bag-of-hurt/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ebook-ipad.jpg" width="680" height="200" alt="An ebook on an iPad" />
<div class="imgcaption">Text is like butter on the iPad retina display.</div>
<p>I’ve just finished creating an <a href="http://votingrights.news21.com/article/ebook/">ebook version of the voting rights investigation</a> I project managed this summer, and now I’m sad.</p>
<p>Sad because very little has changed since last year when I wrote my <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2011/08/how-to-create-an-e-book/">long post on the sorry state of ebook publishing tools</a>.</p>
<h3>The current state of affairs</h3>
<p>Here’s where we are today, in 2012: Most ebook readers render the ePub standard with the exacting taste of a sailor on shore leave. Trying to do anything fancy in ePub, like, you know, <em>floating text around an image</em> will end in tears in most readers.</p>
<p>Remember: ePubs are essentially self-contained websites with some metadata wrapped around them. That’s all they are. And yet, things we’ve been able to do reliably on the Web since the ’90s are steaming bags of fail. <em>Sigh</em>.</p>
<p>Fortunately, looking at the readers people actually use, you are <em>probably</em> safe to make sure things work right on only two platforms: Apple and Amazon. That’s good news, right? Yes, yes it is. To a point.</p>
<p>Because Apple supports ePub and Amazon supports mobi. For practical purposes mobi is the paint-sniffing older brother of ePub—it can do some of what ePub can do, poorly. At least it’s fairly simple to convert from ePub to mobi, but you end up maintaining two source documents, one fancy ePub for Apple, and a simpler one for conversion to mobi. This way lies madness.</p>
<p>But, aha! What about Amazon’s KF8? It looks great! You can finally do things like fixed-layout on the Kindle. <em>Uh-huh</em>. If you only target the latest Kindles, including the Fire, maybe, after your sins have been cleansed through drudgery, <a href="http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2012/01/fixed-layout-in-kf8-for-amazon-kindle.html">as ePub guru Liz Castro found out</a>.</p>
<p>To add to the disillusionment, KF8 is <em>not</em> supported in the Kindle app for that little niche platform, the iPad. Check out the marvelously vague FAQ on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511">Amazon’s KF8 page</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Q: Will KF8 capabilities be available on all Kindle devices?</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Kindle Fire is the first Kindle device to support KF8 - in the coming months we will roll out KF8 to our latest generation Kindle e-ink devices as well as our free Kindle reading apps.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Good luck finding a list of current compatibility.</p>
<p>Today is not the day to target KF8.</p>
<h3>So, what to do?</h3>
<p>The first thing you must do is accept reality. If you want to go cross-platform, you will need to Keep Things Simple, indeed.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ebook-project.png" alt="The project in the Finder" width="204" height="222" style="float: right; padding-left: 20px;" />
<p>For this ebook, I ended up using <a href="http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/">the wonderful Pandoc</a>. It’s a tool of deep nerditry, but once you grok it, you end up with a ton of flexibility and above all, a sane workflow.</p>
<p>Using Pandoc enabled me to create the book in <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">Markdown</a> with just a few Markdown-formatted text files and image folders. It was wonderful.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, it does take some work and requires you to be comfortable on the command line, but man, once you have Pandoc set up right, it’s pure joy.</p>
<p>It hits every nerd button for me: Markdown in text files version-controlled by Git and as scriptable as you could possibly want.</p>
<p>I highly recommend it for nerds. Which is a big problem: at this point, ebook creation is the dominion of nerds.</p>
<h3>Peering into the crystal ball</h3>
<p>Despite the meteoric rise of ebook sales, they are still a pain to create, especially if you want to do anything fancy, like, oh, <em>lay things out on the page</em>. And unfortunately, the future doesn’t look good either.</p>
<p>As long as Apple and Amazon maintain incompatible standards, and especially with Amazon dragging their feet on rolling out KF8 to all their devices and apps, creating ebooks will continue to be much, much harder than it should. The dread specter of mobi will continue to haunt us for a long time.</p>
<p>It’s bewildering that no software company has stepped in with a good general-purpose GUI tool for creating ebooks. This is necessary so we can get graphic designers onboard with ebooks. You know, the people who know how to make things look good. It’s still way too much the dominion of nerds.</p>
<p>Apple has shown that it can be done with iBooks Author, even though of course they had the luxury of targetting their own standard which they completely control. It’s a hard problem, but it’s not like a company like Adobe lacks talented software engineers.</p>
<p>Books generated in iBooks Author sure look fantastic. But they can only be viewed on iPads and can only be sold through Apple’s bookstore. And to make things worse, you have to create the book from scratch in iBooks Author—there’s no way to import an existing ebook.</p>
<p>Unless you sell textbooks to school districts that have adopted iPads or you just have way too much time on your hands, iBooks Author is a non-starter.</p>
<p>That being said, iBooks Author is the tool Adobe should have released two years ago instead of being all hung up on shoehorning ebook authoring into InDesign.</p>
<p>They’ve made improvements in InDesign CS6 that make it less painful to work with ebooks, and if you spend most of your time in InDesign, you can make it work.</p>
<p>It makes sense to use InDesign if you start with a product intended for print and then want to crank out ebook versions of the same content. But if you’re starting from a website and going straight for ebook, skipping the print step, the legacy functionality of InDesign becomes a burden.</p>
<p>Few things would make me happier than Adobe—or anyone, really—releasing a product intended from the ground up to create beautiful ebooks.</p>
<p>But so far, the outlook for easy ebook authoring is cloudy with a strong chance of rain.</p>
<p>As a bonus, here’s <a href="http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/85">John Siracusa of the fabulous Hypercritical</a> talking about his woes converting his <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/os-x-10-8/">epic OS X review</a> to ebook format, running into a lot of the same issues covered here with the added delight of an infuriating Amazon store glitch.</p>
Caturday Pinup: Phoebe2012-09-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/09/caturday-pinup-phoebe/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/phoebe-bw.jpg" alt="Phoebe the cat" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/phoebe-bw-thumb.jpg" alt="Phoebe the cat" width="680" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Phoebe the cat reclining on her favorite couch.<br />Click image for larger version.</div>
<p>Hey! Did you know people like looking at pictures of cats on the Internets? Turns out it’s true, so I figured I should help out.</p>
<p>We have three cats in the house—that way there’s enough of them to have a little mini-pride and their interactions become interesting to watch. Turns out that for self-sustaining predators, they sure have a lot of social pecking orders to work out.</p>
<p>All our cats are rescues, thanks to the stunning amount of idiots who somehow manage to not get the memo about spaying and neutering their animals.</p>
<p>Really, people, there’s no excuse. If you don’t have enough money to have your animal fixed, how are you going to have enough money to feed and take care of it?</p>
<p>The answer, of course, is that you won’t. You have the money; you just don’t want to spend it. Which makes you the kind of asshole who sentences innocent animals to a slow, painful death of starvation and disease for no other reason than you being a dick.</p>
<p>And you should be ashamed.</p>
<p>The beautiful animal you see above is an example. She was found as a kitten, starved and sick, mostly dead, and was brought back to health by volunteers spending what I think is a bit more time, energy, and money than might be prudent for a kitten. But be that as it may, they succeeded and Phoebe survived to become a happy, content cat now having a life of security and love.</p>
<p>We <em>think</em> she’s mostly a Russian Blue, since she has the charcoal fur and rings on her tail common to that breed, but of course, any time an animal is found half-dead on the street, it’s impossible to really know. What we do know is that we hope to have her with us for a long time.</p>
Noises in my head: Four midrange headphones reviewed2012-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/09/noises-in-my-head-four-midrange-headphones-reviewed/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/headphones.jpg" alt="Four sets of headphones" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/headphones-thumb.jpg" alt="Four sets of headphones" width="680" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">From left to right, clockwise: Sony MDR-7506, Audio Technica ATH-M50, Sennheiser HD555, and Shure SRH840.<br />Click image for larger version.</div>
<p>Many middle-aged men buy sports cars to soothe their angst. I can’t afford a Porsche. So instead I decided to find the best pair of headphones in the slighthly-insane-but-available-to-the-middle-class price range of $100 to about $200.</p>
<p>Here’s the justification, apart from me spending less on this project than the monthly vig on a sports car: When my daughter was born I started to watch TV with headphones. This was mostly due to the Sopranos, the language of which you obviously do not want a toddler to hear. After that, I realized that <em>I love silence</em>, so now we’re a household of people who use headphones all the time. It’s great. Can’t recommend it enough.</p>
<p>This is probably OCD related, but I simply can’t have background noise, especially TVs. Why? Because if something is moving and making noise, <em>I pay attention to it</em>. Which means I’m not paying attention to the thing I <em>want</em> to pay attention to.</p>
<p>I interact all the time with people who have spent their working lives in the equivalent of an arcade and somehow they’ve been able to create meaningful work. I have no idea how they’ve managed that. For me, uncontrolled noise kills concentration. This includes people talking in the next cubicle over or that guy who sneezes all the time, or some random TV show blathering on.</p>
<p>Can’t have that in my home.</p>
<p>And thanks to the wonders of headphones, I can tune out all the noises I don’t want. Which is great. But if I’m going to do that, obviously I need the best sound possible. I mean, I’m not an animal.</p>
<p>And no, I don’t have unlimited funds, so these purchases and evaluations were made over the last couple of years and given their time.</p>
<p>Being a good nerd I started this process by researching headphones on the Internet. <em>Mistake!</em> Oh, the hours of my life I’ll never get back spent on audiophile forums. I’m used to nerd insanity, having been involved in technology for a long time, but man, the audiophiles are special kind of crazy. I’m seriously waiting for the first audiophile suicide bomber. I’m not linking to any of the forum, because, really, you’re better off that way. Stay away from the audiophile forums. Those people are freaking nuts. And surprisingly angry for people who can afford to drop thousands of dollars on speakers.</p>
<p>As an aside, here’s Nic’s rule for how nutty any community will be: Look at the number of women. If there are few or no women participating, you’re heading to Nut City. Which just reinforces what I’ve said for years: Men need women to keep us from doing dumb things. A man left to his own devices will come up with ideas like “I can rebuild the carburator in the car by myself,” or “Call a plumber? Pssh! I’m a man!”</p>
<p>I ended up purchasing four headphones to use to listen to music and movies. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001FTVDQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0001FTVDQ&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Sennheiser HD555</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AJIF4E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000AJIF4E&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Sony MDR-7506</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DP8IEK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002DP8IEK&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Shure SRH840</a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ULAP4U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000ULAP4U&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Audio Technica ATH-M50s</a>. They’re all somewhere around the $100-$200 range, depending on the deal you get. So we’re in “you have some disposable income but you can’t afford a sports car” territory.</p>
<p>And how do they sound? Great! They all sound great. As they should. You spend that kind of money, yes, the headphones should kiss your ears. Which ones you end up liking is in the end a personal choice.</p>
<p>The <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001FTVDQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0001FTVDQ&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Sennheiser HD555s</a></strong> are extremely flat, meaning that for most people you’ll want to hook them up to a system with a good equalizer. They are also the only open set of headphones in this very informal test. Open means they have a huge sound stage—they emulate a 3D space really well and thus are great for movies and classical music, but open also means they leak <em>a lot</em>. I would be watching a movie and my daughter would complain she could hear it in her bedroom down the hall with the door closed. So, yeah, leakage.</p>
<p>If you want a wide sound stage, have a system with an equalizer to get rid of the flatness, and are alone or with extremely tolerant roommates, the HD 555s are solid headphones. They’re also extremely comfortable.</p>
<p>The <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AJIF4E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000AJIF4E&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Sony MDR-7506s</a></strong> are by far the lightest and most comfortable of the closed headphones. If you plan to wear your headphones a lot, these are the ones to get. They also sound great, but suffer a bit in the bass department. If you watch a movie with deep explosions, you can feel the MDR-7506s pop as they struggle with the low frequencies.</p>
<p>The cups also come off a bit easily if you’re not careful about how you take them off. This is probably mostly a problem if you let a child use them. Putting the cups back on isn’t hard, but it’s annoying.</p>
<p>Apart from the sometimes-struggling bass and the cups popping off, these are great headphones. They’re plugged in to the computer streaming Electric Area on Sirius XM through the great <a href="http://www.rogueamoeba.com/pulsar/">Pulsar app</a> as I’m typing this.</p>
<p>As an aside, one hugely annoying oversight in OS X is the lack of a system-level equalizer. I never could understand why Apple insists on leaving that out. But you can get one: <a href="http://www.globaldelight.com/boom/">Boom!, by Global Delight</a> will give you the system-wide equalizer you deserve.</p>
<p>The <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ULAP4U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000ULAP4U&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Audio-Technica ATH-M50s</a></strong> are the headphones I use at work. They have extremely good isolation—put them on and the rest of the office disappears—and are strong across the spectrum, with the bass going as deep as you can handle and the highs crisp and pure together with very little leakage.</p>
<p>The M50s are workhorses and built like T-34 tanks. That being said, they are not as comfortable as the Sennheisers or especially the Sonys, but they’re not by any measure uncomfortable.</p>
<p>And finally, the <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DP8IEK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002DP8IEK&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Shure SRH840s</a></strong> are right up there with the Audio-Technica headphones. Solid performers, great sound, little leakage, and armor-plated construction, but they are slightly less comfortable. To my ears, the Shures and Audio Technicas are pretty much interchangeable.</p>
<p>Sound preferences are of course very subjective, and it’s possible there’s a great pair of headphones in this price range of which I’m not aware, but adjusting for their individual quirks and how they line up with your preferences, I’d recommend any of the four headphones discussed here.</p>
<p>Civilized human beings use headphones. Don’t be an animal.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The headphone links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a tiny kickback if you purchase one of them. It doesn’t cost you anything extra.</p>
Two Americas, one good one bad2012-08-26T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/08/two-americas-one-good-one-bad/
<p>The Curiosity Rover successfully landing on Mars and the passing of Neil Armstrong (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/science/space/neil-armstrong-dies-first-man-on-moon.html?_r=1">manliest of men, who piloted a space ship <em>to the Moon</em></a>) has me thinking of the glory of America and how it’s devolving into two countries, one an America that finds new frontiers and conquers them with a positive outlook, science, and engineering, an America that doesn’t just look to the future, but lives in the future, relishes the future and can’t wait to overcome any problems that gets in its way.</p>
<p>That’s the America I immigrated to. That’s the America I live in. That’s the America in which I want my daughter to grow up.</p>
<p>Mars! We went to Mars! And we have a <a href="http://www.360cities.net/image/curiosity-rover-martian-solar-day-2#280.15,90.00,59.0">360 panorama of Mars to show for it!</a> Let’s take a step back here and think about it. Citizens of America sat in an office and figured out a way to take an SUV and transport it to, yes, <em>mother-effing Mars!</em> and then they made it happen. Americans made that happen. That’s massive. <em>Mars!</em></p>
<p>And then there’s the other America. <em>Sigh.</em> The America that would prefer to live in a mud hut, shivering as the Thunder God makes his way across the sky, rejecting every scientific advancement since the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment">Enlightenment</a> as some kind of socialist trap to make the American male less, well, American.</p>
<p>These are the kind of people who believe—and this is so hard to comprehend—that females can spontaneously abort children that result from rape and that HIV rarely spreads through heterosexual sex.</p>
<p>Yep. Things like that. And in this particular nightmare, the people who create the laws of America <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/the-crackpot-caucus/">actually believe these things</a>.</p>
<p>Few things scare me more. The country that has done the most for science and enlightenment on this planet is carrying a cancerous growth of people whose Weltanschauung is that God hates us all because we haven’t killed all the gays and black people can vote and thus the world will be destroyed soon, probably next Tuesday. That’s completely mind blowing and frightening.</p>
<p>On the one hand, enough raw science and math to put a mother-effing SUV on Mars and on the other hand a mindset that would get you branded an idiot and kicked out of the village in the middle ages, and they’re both here, now, in America today.</p>
<p>It’s very, very scary.</p>
“Legacy Service End of Life”2012-08-16T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/08/joyent-ratfuck/
<p><strong>UPDATE Aug. 22, 2012:</strong> Joyent has come to its senses and offered a refund or 5 years credit for hosting. Personally, I never wanted a refund, but I wanted the <em>offer</em> of a refund. So, the nerd rage is receding, though I for one remain upset about the passive-aggressive tone of the original email and the execrable way Joyent has been communication during this upset. <strong>/UPDATE</strong></p>
<p>I’ve been a <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/09/at-the-new-server/">Joyent customer since 2005</a>, when I signed up for one of their “VC” deals, where they were trying to bootstrap the company and offered lifetime accounts in exchange for several hundred dollars up front. It was a great deal and I jumped on it. Apart from the obviously great deal of having all my hosting paid up <em>forever</em>, it felt great to help a cool company, a zero bullshit company.</p>
<p>Today I woke up to an email that began:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve been analyzing customer usage of Joyent’s systems and noticed that you are one of the few customers that are still on our early products and have not migrated to our new platform, the Joyent Cloud.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s right. The company I helped bootstrap—yes, I know, in an infinitesimal way, but still—is <em>blaming me</em> for using the product I paid for. I don’t think there’s any way to get more passive-aggressive than that.</p>
<p>Now, I understand the company has changed, technology has changed, they have to adapt, blah blah. I get that and have no problem with it. But insinuating I’m doing something wrong? That’s pretty low.</p>
<p>I’m incredibly disappointed. But I can take a hint. So now my sites, including this one, are hosted by <a href="http://www.webfaction.com/?affiliate=niclindh">WebFaction</a>. The DNS has barely propagated, but there it is. I’ll keep paying them and hopefully they’ll keep hosting me.</p>
<p>It reminds me of the old joke:</p>
<p>“How do you say ‘eff you’ in California?”</p>
<p>“Trust me.”</p>
<p>(If you’re interested, you can experience the nerd rage this is causing <a href="http://forum.joyent.com/viewtopic.php?id=33682">on Joyent’s own community forums</a>.)</p>
Book roundup, part seven2012-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/08/book-roundup/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/d_day_cover.jpg" alt="D-Day cover" title="D-Day cover" width="264" height="400" />
</div>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981484603/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0981484603&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Wabi-Sabi, by Leonard Koren</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>This is the first book in years I purchased as a paper book instead of electronic, since I wanted to own the physical artifact. Oh, and also since the publisher has decided this e-book thing is just a stupid fad and won’t sell the book in Kindle format. But honestly, it was fine. This one I wanted in physical form.</p>
<p>As the title suggests, <em>Wabi-Sabi</em> is an attempt to explain <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi">the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi</a>, an aesthetic concept tightly coupled with Zen Buddhism and general Japanese oddness.</p>
<p>The full title of the book is <em>Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers</em>. Yes, your pretentiousness meter just exploded. I know. But don’t let that keep you away.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in Eastern thought or graphic design in general, this book is highly recommended.</p>
<p>It’s short, airy, beautiful, and leaves you with lots to think about.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026OR3AS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0026OR3AS">Making Things Happen, by Scott Berkun</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Berkun used to be a project manager at Microsoft, working on high-visibility projects like Microsoft Excel and Internet Explorer, so he knows something about project management.</p>
<p>In the highest praise for this kind of book, most of it is obvious. Not in the sense that the book says obvious things, but in that once you read it, it <em>seems</em> obvious. Not something you would have figured out yourself, but something that once you know it is obviously right.</p>
<p>Even though it’s billed as a general project management book, <em>Making Things Happen</em> is geared toward software projects, which of course is a specialized case. This doesn’t in any way make it useless, as a lot of the main gists can be generalized, but be aware that Berkun talks about managing people (mostly men, mostly nerds) who sit in comfy chairs and stare at screens all day. The further from that scenario your own project diverges, the harder it will be to adapt Berkun’s advice to your own situation.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <em>Making Things Happen</em> is worth reading whether you’re managing a project or if you are on a team being managed. It’s good to know why your project manager does the things he or she does.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R20496/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002R20496">D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, by Anthony Beevor</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>You’d be excused for thinking the world didn’t need another account of D-Day after masterpieces like Cornelius Ryan’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SEIXZW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000SEIXZW">The Longest Day</a>, but with <em>D-Day</em>, Beevor has created a masterpiece to match Ryan’s.</p>
<p>As with his other works <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UZDTG0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002UZDTG0">Stalingrad</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031TZ9GM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0031TZ9GM">The Fall of Berlin 1945</a></em>, Beevor has unearthed a wealth of eyewitness accounts that provide a fresh perspective on events and above all manages to give the sense of what people knew and thought at the time, which might be the most valuable part of <em>D-Day</em>. It’s so easy these days with results in hand to forget what a confusing and scary time it was for the people who endured the invasion, Allied and German soldiers as well as the French population.</p>
<p><em>D-Day</em> is a master work, just like Beevor’s other World War II histories.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006S3HAJW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006S3HAJW&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Talulla Rising, by Glen Duncan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The sequel to the very good <em>[Last Werewolf][last]</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2011/09/book-roundup/">my review here</a>), <em>Talulla Rising</em> tells the story of Talulla, who is now the new last werewolf and also pregnant. An interesting development as werewolves can’t get pregnant.</p>
<p>Just like <em>The Last Werewolf</em>, <em>Talulla Rising</em> takes on the werewolf myth and its implications of sex and violence.</p>
<p>(Basically, the werewolf myth is a reflection of a boy’s puberty, where his body changes, he grows hair in new places, gets more powerful, and suffers irresistible urges.)</p>
<p>There’s a whole lot of both sex and violence in the novel. A whole lot. <em>The Last Werewolf</em> was also shock-full of sex and violence, but it’s interesting to have it filtered through a female point of view with the added complication of motherhood.</p>
<p>But don’t think this is anything but a full-throttle horror novel with a high IQ. Very good, very engrossing, and very gruesome, <em>Talulla Rising</em> is highly recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0070NSPCU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0070NSPCU">Blood Song, by Anthony Ryan</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Self-published and a steal at $2.99 for the Kindle, <em>Blood Song</em> would still be a great value at $12.99. Put succinctly, this is one of the best new fantasy authors I’ve read in years. <em>Blood Song</em> absolutely bristles with potential and realizes enough of it that it’s impossible to put down.</p>
<p>At its core, <em>Blood Song</em> is the story of a young man, the son of a war hero, who is sent off to join a warrior sect. So far, so good. But there are prophecies and secrets and visions and dark magic enough to overwhelm most fantasy novels. Ryan, though, plays his sub-plots like a master, making sure the story moves forward like a freight train with several sharp plot twists. It’s impressive.</p>
<p>What removes the otherwise-earned 5th star from this review is that <em>Blood Song</em> really needs copy editing. Of course this will only bother grammar nazis like me, but the amount of typos and run-on sentences is painful.</p>
<p>So, you like fantasy, you’ll buy <em>Blood Song</em> and you will be highly entertained and then you will wait for the next installment like a junky waiting for his dealer. Or if you’re a smart fantasy reader you’ll make note of this novel then wait patiently several years for the trilogy to finish and then devour them all in one fell swoop.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Z2CN3U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005Z2CN3U&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">The Americans, by Jake Bible</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Technically, this is the sequel to the highly enjoyable <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004N84VBO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004N84VBO&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20">Dead Mech</a></em> although as Bible takes pains to explain in the foreword, it’s more of a side-quel, meaning the two novels take place at the same time and on different sides of the world. Nevertheless, like <em>Dead Mech</em>, <em>The Americans</em> is a thumping V8 ripping through its story.</p>
<p>This time the plot unfolds in a future Europe where the League of Monarchs reign and Americans exist as a kind of cyberpunk mercenary force.</p>
<p>And yes, there are zombies, boy howdy are there zombies.</p>
<p><em>The Americans</em> is priced at $2.99. That’s ridiculously cheap. Buy it. Read it.</p>
<p>Great ride as <em>The Americans</em> is, the last star is withheld partly for the sheer overload of the plot—Bible gleefully shows zero restraint—and partly for some annoying formatting errors in the book. Perhaps it’s petty, but dammit, they take me out of the reading experience.</p>
<p>Still. Hours of fun for $2.99.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006L7CJ6O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006L7CJ6O&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B006L7CJ6O">Amped, by Daniel H. Wilson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>The movie version of a summer blockbuster, <em>Amped</em> crackles with energy and a fast-moving plot. The basic idea is that in the near future, brain implants (amps) become commercially available, making dumb people smart and smart people geniuses. This of course makes some non-augmented people very, very uncomfortable to the point of pogroms.</p>
<p><em>Amped</em> is also like a summer blockbuster in that it’s an enjoyable ride, but once you put the book down and think, several plot points begin to seem ludicrous. Can’t go into specifics without spoilers, but you’ll know what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <em>Amped</em> should be on the top of your list of books to take to the beach.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
4th of July barbecue2012-07-12T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/07/4th-of-july-barbecue/
<p>The weather gods blessed Phoenix with overcast skies on the 4th of July, rendering the heat survivable and the light less harsh, so it was a good opportunity to catch some frames of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamado">Kamado grill</a> in action. Enjoy.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/1.jpg" alt="Firestarter" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">Firing up the Kamado with an electric firestarter</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/3.jpg" alt="The meat is ready for the flame bath" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">The meat is ready for the flame bath</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/4.jpg" alt="Smoke and heat" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">Smoke and heat escaping from the top vent as the Kamado gets up to operating temperature</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/5.jpg" alt="The laboratory is ready" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">The mad scientist's laboratory is ready</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/6.jpg" alt="Tools of the trade" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">Tools of the trade</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/2.jpg" alt="Torpedo Extra IPA" width="452" height="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">I don't always drink beer, but when I do it's Torpedo Extra IPA</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/7.jpg" alt="Ready to sear" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">She canna take much more, Captain!</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/8.jpg" alt="Smoke and heat escaping the top vent" width="452" height="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">You get a good bit of smoke when searing</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/9.jpg" alt="Meat ready for the table" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">The meat is ready for the table</div>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bbq-4th-2012/10.jpg" alt="R2D2 is burning" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">R2D2 is burning! The seals aren't perfect, so there's smoke escaping after the vents are closed</div>
<p><em>Bon appetit!</em></p>
What your email address says about you2012-07-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/07/what-your-email-address-says-about-you/
<p>The old adage that on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog is of course not true—even through the disintermediation of the computer screen and the series of tubes, there are still clues, the equivalents of clothes, accents, and haircuts, for those sensitive enough to spot them (read: nerds).</p>
<p>Apart from your capacity for spelling (seriously, people: <em>red squiggly bad</em>) and grammar, one of the most obvious is your email address. Here are some example personal email addresses and what they say about you:</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob@internet-service-provider.com">bob@internet-service-provider.com</a></strong>: I don’t know much about technology so I’m just using the email address my ISP gave me. My soul dies a little every time I check my email through the Web interface, which I have to do since I don’t know how to set up an email client. The kid down the street keeps promising to help me get set up, but it just never seems to happen.</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob-and-amy@internet-service-provider.com">bob-and-amy@internet-service-provider.com</a></strong>: Hoo-boy! We have some trust issues in our marriage!</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob@company-i-work-for.com">bob@company-i-work-for.com</a></strong>: I can only keep track of one email system, so I use my company email address for everything. I don’t understand that this means my system administrators can read all my personal email.</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob@aol.com">bob@aol.com</a></strong>: Technology scares and confuses me. Can’t we all start calling each other again instead of this new-fangled email thing?</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob@yahoo.com">bob@yahoo.com</a></strong>: I used to be pretty on top of this technology thing.</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob@hotmail.com">bob@hotmail.com</a></strong>: No matter how much everybody tells me to, I’ll never stop using Internet Explorer! The blue “e” means Internet!</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob@gmail.com">bob@gmail.com</a></strong>: I enjoy a good email experience.</p>
<p><strong><a href="mailto:bob@bobsmith.com">bob@bobsmith.com</a></strong>: I’m hip enough to this stuff to have my own domain. I can probably be trusted to not be a complete clue-bird when it comes to technology.</p>
The Beach Principle of productivity2012-06-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/06/the-beach-principle-of-productivity/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lajollashores-2012.jpg" alt="Late afternoon on La Jolla Shores" width="680" height="452" />
<div class="imgcaption">Late afternoon on La Jolla Shores.</div>
<p>I am a nerd. I like productivity. I like fiddling with computers. This is a lethal combination both for my productivity and the health of my computers.</p>
<p>There’s always a new tip for how to organize something or a new piece of software to install and learn. A magic bullet that will unleash the magic power of my mind, focusing it like the sun through a giant magnifying glass, burning sloth and inefficiency into crumbling dust.</p>
<p>But that magic bullet doesn’t exist. No matter what technology you use, you are still you.</p>
<p>Which isn’t to say everything is hopeless and you should just curl into fetal position among the heaps of scrawled sticky notes in your office. There are good habits that help, like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743571657/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743571657&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743571657">Getting Things Done</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0861719069/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0861719069&linkCode=as2&tag=thecoredump-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0861719069">mindfulness</a>. But those are habits that come from within, not from a particular piece of technological whiz-bangery.</p>
<p>My job is also a bit weird in that I’ll spend a lot of time doing certain tasks, like building websites, for a while, then switch over to something completely different, like project management, for a while. The fiddlier and flashier the workflow, the harder it is to get back into after some time away.</p>
<p>So my new rule is: I will not adopt any software or productivity scheme I will not remember how to use after spending a month on a beach.</p>
Book roundup, part six2012-06-22T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/06/book-roundup/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/SIY-Book-Cover.jpg" alt="Search Inside Yourself cover" title="Search Inside Yourself cover" width="250" height="322" />
</div>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062116924/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062116924">Search Inside Yourself, by Chade-Meng Tan</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p><em>Search Inside Yourself</em> could conceivably change your life. That’s no hyperbole.</p>
<p>Based on a course developed at Google (get the title?), the book explains mindfulness meditation and attention training in a scientific way without resorting to any of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience">woo</a> that tends to lurk at the edges of books on meditation.</p>
<p>The book covers the basics of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassana">Vipassana</a> meditation as well as techniques and exercises to help improve self-awareness and mindfulness, progressing in a logical way and with much of the focus on how mindfulness can help in the modern office.</p>
<p>My one quibble with this impressive work is the “funny” cartoons that were little but an annoyance. It would be nice if they released an edition without them. But it’s a small quibble.</p>
<p><em>Search Inside Yourself</em> is highly, highly recommended. Get it.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006GRYADO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006GRYADO">The Information Diet, by Clay Johnson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>I bought <em>The Information Diet</em> even though it seemed kind of obvious. Spend less time consuming crap, duh. But it turns out to be a sophisticated and well-argued framework for how to deal with the sheer amount of stuff that wants us to consume it.</p>
<p>In the highest praise possible for a work like this, it’s making me re-evaluate my information consumption habits and I think I’m better off for it.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765316994/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0765316994">Redshirts, by John Scalzi</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>As the title implies, <em>Redshirts</em> is about the low life expectancy of the people who beam down to the unknown planet with the bridge personnel who take part in away missions for no reason in shows like <em>Star Trek</em>, which of course is the kind of thing anybody who’s ever watched <em>Star Trek</em> has wondered about.</p>
<p>But Scalzi didn’t just wonder, he went ahead and wrote a novel about it. Surprisingly for such a goofy concept, it’s very good. What Scalzi has done in <em>Redshirts</em> is to completely commit to the concept and take it seriously indeed.</p>
<p>In doing so, Scalzi manages to drag the reader along and do some pretty impressive hand waving to make things make a semblance of sense, but in the end, yes, it <em>is</em> a very silly conceit. But don’t let that keep you away from the novel. It’s a lot of fun and packs serious emotional resonance, especially the three codas at the end, which, well, let’s just say you’d have to be wired completely wrong to not get something in your eye.</p>
<p>In the end, <em>Redshirts</em> is really a master class on story and how to write characters with dignity. It’s impressive.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EL6R9W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001EL6R9W">The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A mind-bending debut novel, <em>The Gone-Away World</em> features Armageddon, ninjas, special forces, an Evil Genius and, well, pretty much anything else you can think of, including some truly surprising plot twists. Imagine a mixture of Neal Stephenson, Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Ludlum with more than a dash of Pynchon and all of it very, very British and very humanistic and you have an idea of this novel.</p>
<p>The plot defies categorization and summarization, but just think of it as a big ball of weird energy, which, coupled with Harkaway’s tendency to use really big words, makes <em>The Gone Away World</em> obsessively engrossing. Your Kindle’s dictionary function will get a workout from this novel.</p>
<p>Note, though, that the beginning is weak, throwing you into a strange situation without enough background to really understand what the heck is going on or to care. But power through that and the novel kicks into gear and doesn’t let up.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0071XO8RA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0071XO8RA">Wool: Omnibus Edition, by Hugh Howey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Brings to mind the classic sic-fi of the cold war with a clear, strong plot, uncomplicated characters and a shivering, paranoid world view. <em>Wool</em> takes place in an underground silo where the last remains of humanity are attempting to survive the aftermath of an apocalypse which has left the aboveground uninhabitable. But everything isn’t what it seems.</p>
<p>According to the book’s Amazon page, it started out as a haunting short story, which is now the first book, and after its success Howey added more installments. The Omnibus Edition wraps them up into a “normal” length novel.</p>
<p>I stayed up way too late to find out what was going to happen next.</p>
<p>Also a self-published steal at $5.99. Recommended.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047Y171G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0047Y171G">Leviathan Wakes, by James S. A. Corey</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Very good space opera that takes place in the “middle future” where humanity has conquered the solar system and stands ready to begin to move outside it by hook and leaky space suit when an alien presence throws a spanner in the works.</p>
<p>The novel follows two main protagonists, a Buck Rogers-like do-gooder ship captain and a dark, obsessive detective. Both men start out straight out of central casting but are progressively fleshed out into interesting characters. There’s also a strong cast of supporting characters.</p>
<p><em>Leviathan Wakes</em> mixes gritty space opera and noir detective story into something far greater than the sum of its parts and is full of nice little details that help animate the impressive world building.</p>
<p>Can’t wait to read the next installment in the series, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005SCRR1A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005SCRR1A">Caliban’s War</a></em>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441020321/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0441020321">Prince of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Good dark fantasy that’s hard to put down once you get over the sociopathic protagonist—very hard to like at first, but who really does grow on you as you discover his backstory.</p>
<p><em>Prince of Thorns</em> is for the dark fantasy connoisseur.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
La Jolla trip2012-06-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/06/2012-06-7-la-jolla-2012/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lajolla-bodyboard.jpg" alt="Body boarding in the pacific" width="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">Coaching my daughter on the finer points of body boarding, points I was picking up by watching other body boarders. The water was about 60F—that screaming sound you're hearing is my prostate. But it was worth it.</div>
<p>Making a San Diego escape from the Phoenix summer heat is pretty much <em>de rigeur</em> in the sun-blasted hell-scape us Zonies call home.</p>
<p>From the get-go <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2008/06/conspicuous-consumption/">our Acura TL</a> ended up saving us a potential huge amount of hassle by telling me about a tire pressure problem as I fired it up in the morning of our departure. The front right tire was showing a 29 PSI pressure, which is right below normal. Driving over 300 miles across remote, hostile desert is not the time to challenge the gods, so I took it to the dealership to find out what was happening and it turned out there was a screw in the tire. The dealership took care of it with a smile. Thank you, Acura of Tempe.</p>
<p>Being Swedish and thus programmed to keep the trains on time, I was obviously not happy about the delay, but at the same time very happy to not have a flat tire in the middle of nowhere without cell phone reception. As a sidebar here, the drive from Phoenix to San Diego on the I-8 is essentially a six hour reminder of why humans aren’t supposed to live here—harsh, arid desolation and crumbling highways. It’s grim. So, thank you little computer on the car for saving us from an at the very least annoying situation.</p>
<h3>The Google maps, they are killing us</h3>
<p>Since we hadn’t been to San Diego since 2005 and I hadn’t kept notes on the route we took then, we decided to let the mighty Google Maps be our guide. And Google Maps told us to take AZ 238 till it met the westbound I-8. Great. Except the 238 is a hideous highway. Two facing lanes, no rumble strips, tons of dips and turns. We did it in the daylight with little traffic, so it wasn’t too bad, but holy crap, the 238 is a fatal collision waiting to happen. (On the return trip we stayed on the I-8 till it met the 84. This is infinitely less awful.)</p>
<p>It might be a great feature for any mapping or GPS system to take into account the fatality statistics on stretches of road when making suggestions—“Would you like to get there faster or alive?”</p>
<h3>The smell of salt</h3>
<p>Once we made it across the mountains and the roller coaster rider of 6% downgrades across the mountains we were in San Diego. We had booked a room with an ocean front view and a kitchenette and the <a href="http://www.ljshoreshotel.com/">La Jolla Shores Hotel</a> did not disappoint. Small but clean and nice room with a balcony that opened up right on the beach. And oh, that beach! The surf was so loud you had to raise your voice to talk above it.</p>
<p>Since we had a kitchenette, we were going to use it. Now, smart people might shop at home and bring the produce with them in a cooler. We are not smart people. So we had to get supplies. Which we knew wasn’t going to be a problem as there’s a Trader Joe’s less than two miles from the hotel.</p>
<p>As we were driving to the Trader Joe’s at the La Jolla Village Square after checking in at the hotel, Andrea out of the blue asked, “Can we move here?”</p>
<p>It’s that gorgeous of an area.</p>
<h3>Your parking lot is a monument to despair</h3>
<p>Then we got to the Trader Joe’s. Now, if there’s one thing you assume America <em>has down pat</em> it’s how to create a parking lot. It’s been done successfully many, many times. I’ve seen the results, and they’ve been fabulous.</p>
<p>What happened at the La Jolla Village Square I don’t know, but I’m assuming zombie Hitler was involved because the shopping center has managed to create the most user hostile parking lot I’ve ever had the misfortune of experiencing. My blood pressure goes through the roof just thinking about it so no details except after we somehow managed to exit without dinging the car we decided to <em>never</em> go back to that shopping center. I’d rather starve.</p>
<h3>And then it’s the beach</h3>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lajolla-andreaonbeach.jpg" alt="Andrea walking on La Jolla Shores on an overcast morning" width="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">Andrea walking on La Jolla Shores on an overcast evening</div>
<p>On our first morning Andrea and I walked barefoot up and down La Jolla Shores, our feet in the surf, and she looked at me apropos nothing and said, “Isn’t life wonderful?”</p>
<p>And it was.</p>
<p>Needless to say, we spent a lot of time both mesmerized by the surf and playing in the waves. Andrea is a water child of the highest order, so we rented wet suits and body boards and she spent many hours getting the hang of working the waves, ending up a pretty decent little body boarder with a good eye for the waves. It was wonderful to see.</p>
<h3>Welcome to the chill</h3>
<p>La Jolla is a complete chill-out zone. There is pretty much nothing going on. <em>Exactly as I had hoped.</em> There’s a beach, there’s houses and hotels and a couple of surf rentals and restaurants and that’s it, at least from what we saw. No McDonald’s or Burger King were immediately visible, and no happening bars or clubs. It was <em>perfect</em> if you’re looking to enjoy a beach and then a good night’s rest. If you go there expecting happening night life you’ll probably be disappointed.</p>
<p>Of course, the University of California at San Diego has a campus there, so I’m sure there are dive bars, etc. up in the hills somewhere. But they’re hidden from the beach.</p>
<h3>Real life roller coaster</h3>
<p>The most stressful part of the drive between Phoenix and San Diego is the mountain stretch right east of San Diego itself. You go from sea level to above 4,000 feet on a twisting and turning road with occasional 6% downgrades surrounded by drivers and cars of varying levels of preparedness and ability. The Acura TL with its 258 horsepower was incredible at this point of the trip—it was on rails and with so much power to give on the climb. Love that car.</p>
<p>At this point I’d like to tip my hat to the lady in the <a href="http://www.smartusa.com/">smart car</a> doing 70 mph on the downgrades on our way back to Phoenix. The smart—yes, lower case S according to the official website. <em>Sigh. Hipsters.</em>—car is basically the size of a large backpack with four wheels and she was absolutely <em>barreling</em> down the road in it, overtaking expensive road machines and totally <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/smokey_and_the_bandit/">Smokey and the Bandit</a> smooth while doing it. Those are ovaries of steel, people. And then on the straights she got that thing up to 83 mph, which I sure didn’t think was possible.</p>
<h3>TL;DR</h3>
<p>La Jolla is great if you’re looking for an ocean getaway. Check your tires before you set off.</p>
Movie roundup, part 192012-05-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/05/movie-round-up/
<div class="imgright">
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/tinker-tailor-poster.jpg" alt="Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy poster" title="Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy poster" width="214" height="317" /></p>
</div>
<p>[All movie titles link to Rotten Tomatoes, so you can see what the people who get paid to write about movies think.]</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tinker_tailor_soldier_spy/">Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Dedededede dededede deedeedeedeedee dedededede dededede deedeedeedeedee</em></p>
<p>“Hey bro.”</p>
<p>“Yo. I just saw a movie, bro.”</p>
<p>“Cool bro.”</p>
<p>“About these spies and shit. It was trippy as hell. Like they didn’t even have cell phones. They wrote stuff on like these typewriters that sent like text messages.”</p>
<p>“Whoa.”</p>
<p>“And this dude had these weird glasses that like changed. Like they were black and then they were brown and shit.”</p>
<p>“Weird.”</p>
<p>“And there were like communists and shit. Like for real. And they shot people, bro.”</p>
<p>“Dude.”</p>
<p>“British spies like live in these ratty apartments with brown wallpaper and shit. And drink a ton of whisky. And smoke a ton of cigarettes. And think about shit a lot. It’s weird, bro.”</p>
<p>“So is it any good?”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“The movie, bro.”</p>
<p>“If you like brown and dudes smoking and thinking, I guess.”</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/haywire_2011/">Haywire</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Stylish thriller that feels like a slowed-down Bourne movie. MMA star Gina Carano delivers an impressive performance as a betrayed government contractor in possession of solid butt-kicking skills.</p>
<p><em>Haywire</em> is a solid, well-tuned thriller that suffers from the same problem as most Steven Soderbergh movies: It’s clean, solid and emotionally detached from the action.</p>
<p>Still, this is well worth watching if you’re in the mood for a thriller.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/underworld_awakening/">Underworld Awakening</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>The first <em>Underworld</em> movie was pretty great: An ancient war is ongoing between vampires and werewolves and we follow Selene—voted vampiress to best wear tight latex every year since latex was invented—as she deals with the betrayal of her peers and her Romeo and Juliet attraction to a werewolf. It sure wasn’t Fellini, but it was a pretty effective pseudo-horror movie with a lot of verve.</p>
<p>The series should have ended there, but since it was a hit it obviously couldn’t. Which takes us to the latest installment, <em>Underworld Awakening</em>.</p>
<p>The concept is that the humans (boo, hiss) have discovered the existence of the vampires and werewolves and declared war (duh). It goes pretty well for the humans and the vamps and hairys are driven into hiding.</p>
<p>But, gasp, treachery is afoot! It’s not really worth it to go through the plot since it doesn’t really matter, but a few things about this extremely tired sequel are worth pointing out.</p>
<p>First, Katie Beckinsale is back playing Selena and she’s completely phoning it in. Which nobody can really blame her for, as she’s in a movie with a stupid, hackneyed script that leaves zero room for characterization.</p>
<p>Second, one of the charms of the original <em>Underworld</em> was the use of prosthetics and real live action for the werewolves. That’s gone. We’re in CGI country now. So the werewolves are little but video game nasties.</p>
<p>Third, the movie for some reason looks just like a low-budget ’80s flick. It’s hard to pin it down, but it just has the same aesthetic—or lack of it.</p>
<p>Fourth, it’s tired. So, so tired.</p>
<p>These things being said, I still watched it all the way through, so there’s <em>something</em> in there. It’s an OK popcorn flick, essentially, but there are so many things that could have been so much better and so much less ’80s.</p>
<p>At least nobody had a cool catch phrase.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mission_impossible_ghost_protocol/">Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol</a> ★☆☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Heard a lot of good stuff about this one. Heard it was the <em>Mission: Impossible</em> installment to really bring the series home. Heard it had a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.</p>
<p>Watched it.</p>
<p>Well, watched the first half hour. Now I wonder what the hell is wrong with you people.</p>
<p>Seriously. Let’s talk about what I saw. And yes, technically these are spoilers. If there was a plot. So, Ethan is in a Russian prison where he’s spending his evenings doing trick shots with a rock against a window. You know, because he’s really cool. But he gets broken out of the Russian hell-hole prison because he’s needed to do a difficult job. Ooooh. Exciting. And apparently he was only in the hell-hole Russian prison because he felt like it and that’s the kind of bad-ass he is.</p>
<p>Granted, his hanging out being Extremely Manly and Cool™ in a, let’s recap here: hell-hole Russian prison, may have been explained later in the movie. Who knows.</p>
<p><em>But!</em> Some kind of super secret mission has gone wrong! And now they need Ethan’s bad ass sexy skills! During the mission that went wrong, and stay with me here, because this is so dumb it boggles the mind, during the mission that went wrong an agent put in a contact lens that gave him a virtual heads-up display to some kind of super computer that did face recognition for him, complete with heads-up display.</p>
<p>Got that? Pretty cool, right? Except when he runs into an assassin. Because then he doesn’t get the heads-up display. No, no. Instead, he gets a text to his phone that the lens has seen an assassin.</p>
<p>Yes. The thing he really, really should get a heads-up display notification about gets shunted to the phone in his pocket. This is the point where grown-ups pinch their noses with their fingers then massage their temples.</p>
<p>So Captain Contact Lens gets shot, obviously. And then Ethan has to break into the Kremlin to retrieve some super secret files. Well, it’s the Russians, so I suppose they haven’t digitized their files yet. Fine. But. And here’s where my thumb started hovering over the stop button: There’s a long corridor with a guard at the end! So Ethan and his sidekick bring in a movie screen that fits the corridor perfectly and shows the guard a reflection of an empty corridor even though Ethan and his sidekick are hiding behind it and moving closer! <em>Genius!</em> And then just when Ethan really needs it the technology fails! Who could have seen that coming! So he has to run!</p>
<p>And that’s when I decided to not waste any more of my life on this turkey!</p>
<p>The end!</p>
<p>Russian prison!</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lincoln_lawyer/">The Lincoln Lawyer</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Movie interpretation of Michael Connelly’s brilliant novel (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-the-lincoln-lawyer/">which I review here</a>). Mickey Haller is a low-rent, hustling lawyer in L.A. who uses a Lincoln for his office—necessary, since he travels between different court rooms and meetings with clients during the day.</p>
<p>Haller has, ahem, issues—stress, drinking, shared custody with his ex-wife (played competently by the always lovely Marisa Tomei) and the general sleaziness of his entire existence.</p>
<p>In general, <em>The Lincoln Lawyer</em> is a good movie and mostly follows the novel’s plot, but, sorry, Matthew McConaughey does a good job but he isn’t Mickey Haller. McConaughey’s Haller is too slick, too greasy. In the novel one of the big tensions is that Haller doesn’t like what he’s forced to be, but McConaughey completely glosses over that and creates a Haller who wallows in his sleaziness.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, if you haven’t read the novel—which you definitely should—<em>The Lincoln Lawyer</em> is a decent courtroom thriller and well worth watching.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/guns_of_navarone/">The Guns of Navarone</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p><em>The Guns of Navarone</em> is one of the classic World War II epics, but as you’d expect of a movie released in 1961, it’s showing its age. The pacing is slow, some of the special effects are ludicrous (in the ’60s cars apparently exploded if you looked at them sideways) and the characters are wooden and distant.</p>
<p>On the plus side, the plot is still gripping, building tension like an unstoppable machine, Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn were wicked cool dudes, and as a bonus the scenes inside the gun installation at the end were clearly a huge visual inspiration for George Lucas’s Death Star personnel.</p>
<p>Arm yourself with some patience and watch it.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/immortals_2011/">Immortals</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Oy vey. <em>Immortals</em> tells the tale of ultra-violence in Ancient Greece. It’s kind of like <em>300</em> except the fascists are the bad guys in this one. Basically, King Hyperion is a mad man—<em>mad, I tell you! Mad!</em>—determined to find a magical bow which will enable him to free the titans who were imprisoned by a the Gods of Olympus after a big war in heaven. This will supposedly make him a god, somehow. The details are a bit sketchy.</p>
<p>The plot is very silly indeed. <em>Sigh.</em> So, so silly. But on the plus side, there’s some gorgeous imagery and special effects and Mickey Rourke puts in a great performance as a deranged psychopath with unique fashion sense. Produced by the team behind <em>300</em>, a lot of the visuals are reminiscent of that movie, but with a lot less flair.</p>
<p>Note that <em>Immortals</em> probably makes more sense if you have no knowledge of Greek mythology.</p>
The core is weak2012-05-16T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/05/the-core-is-weak/
<p>Even way back in the day when I was in great shape, I was never what you’d call limber. As a matter of fact, it would be fair to say I had the grace of a phone booth. But who cared? I could run far and fast—that’s what mattered.</p>
<p>Now, many years later, after starting to get back in shape and <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2011/07/why-we-get-fat/">lose enough weight to look like a human</a> being, I realized to my shame that it was getting difficult to cut my toe nails. Being a Homo Sapien with our unique gift of planning for the future it was clear to me that—if I didn’t make any changes—in 20 or 30 years, it would become impossible for me to cut my own toe nails.</p>
<p><em>Which is completely unacceptable.</em></p>
<p>The local YMCA by work, as it turns out, has a noon yoga/<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilates">Pilates</a> class on Mondays and Fridays. Some co-workers raved about it and lots of stretchy-stretchy seemed like an obvious way to combat middle-age decrepitude, so why not?</p>
<p>Well, lots of reasons why not for a fat middle-aged man with barely enough body control to walk in a straight line: Shamefully enough I still suffer to a certain extent from the stupid male knee-jerk fear of looking like a fool in front of a bunch of women evolution saw fit to hard-wire into men. I’m sure evolution had it’s reasons for doing that, but we’re <em>civilized</em> now, aren’t we? I’m happily married and don’t have any plans to mate with random women in yoga/Pilates classes but it still takes resolve and a willingness to be at a disadvantage to walk into a situation where I’ll look that silly.</p>
<p>I’m sure that kind of fear keeps lots of men out of these kinds of classes. If that’s you, seriously, <em>get over it</em>. You will suck, yes, but that’s OK. So far, nobody’s laughed at me and our instructor has managed to not even roll her eyes at the Special Ed poses I perform. Unless you’re unlucky enough to happen to end up in a class full of assholes, <em>they want you to succeed</em>, no matter how sad your starting baseline. If you’re in class where that’s not the vibe, get out. There are plenty of others.</p>
<p>Also, and this is the important part: Is the potential for humiliation more important for you than the certainty of ignoble decline?</p>
<p>After that sidebar into male insecurity, the obvious question: Why, oh why, would you subject yourself to such testicle-curdling potential humiliation?</p>
<p><em>Because it works.</em></p>
<p>I’ve only done it once a week for about six months and the changes are remarkable. Let’s start with the mind. Yoga/Pilates requires you to focus completely on what you’re doing and forces you to pay attention to your breathing. Which is the basis of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0861719069/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0861719069">mindfulness meditation</a>, an extremely useful practice if you’re dealing with a lot of stress (and who isn’t, these days). While not the same thing, it provides a lot of the same benefits.</p>
<p>I’m far from a fan of the hippie bullshit that tends to permeate yoga. Fortunately the yoga/Pilates class I attend has been completely devoid of it. It’s about yoga as a very effective system of stretching, breathing, and balance and doing the work correctly (incidentally, the difference a slight, slight readjustment will do for the effectiveness of a pose is stunning).</p>
<p>But if you like hippie woo, you can find a class like that. It’s up to you. You can put into it what you like.</p>
<p>Pilates is focused on the core muscles, the “corset” that holds you up. Here’s a revelation: Unless you’ve been exercising with a goal to strengthen the core, <em>your core is in horrible shape</em>. Which is probably why your back hurts. I’ve spent my adult life operating under the assumption that back pain is just a cost of being bipedal, but no, turns out <em>sitting in chairs</em> and generally being out of shape is the reason your back hurts.</p>
<p>You will learn the truth of the horrible shape of your core in your first yoga/Pilates class, which, yes, will kick your ass in a massive way. Don’t think it won’t. It’s normal. As an aside, if you go to YouTube and search for videos of yoga or Pilates, you’ll see people doing stuff on mats and it doesn’t look like much. Just stretching and waving your arms and legs around—what’s the big deal? <em>Try it!</em> You’ll learn fast.</p>
<p>So not only do I lack flexibility, but now I’m learning my entire core is too weak to perform its job of supporting my spine and intestines. That’s a dark realization, but a necessary thing to learn. Because it’s fixable. If you do the work you feel better. If you do the work you get more flexible.</p>
<p>Expect to sweat a lot while doing it, and to feel like you have the liquid grace of a panther. A panther that’s being run over by a garbage truck. But you will improve and you will get stronger and you will be able to cut your toe nails without difficulty.</p>
<p>As a point of personal pride, I touched my toes with straight legs the other day in class. Which is something I haven’t been able to do at any point in memory. It can be done. It takes a lot of sweat and a lot of sore muscles, but it can be done. And it’s absolutely worth doing.</p>
<p>Contrary to popular opinion, <em>not</em> exercising is self-abuse. You will pay with pain, sooner or later. Might as well pay now while it buys you something.</p>
Book roundup, part five2012-05-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/05/book-roundup/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/shadow-ops-cover.jpg" alt="Shadow Ops cover" title="Shadow Ops cover" width="300" height="483" />
</div>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937007243/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1937007243">Shadow Ops: Control Point, by Myke Cole</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>If you’re like me, you rolled your eyes reading that title. <em>Ooooh, Tom Clancy junior!</em> But the title is highly misleading and according to the Internet was inflicted upon this novel by the publisher, not the author.</p>
<p>The premise of <em>Shadow Ops</em> is that all of a sudden people have started exhibiting magic. The magic is latent in everybody and can start manifesting at any time. If you suddenly find yourself with the ability to perform magic and don’t <em>immediately</em> call in and surrender yourself to the authorities you are considered a Selfer and will be shot on sight. This praxis has its reasons, as practitioners of magic can do a lot of damage, but as the novel shows, the human price is high.</p>
<p><em>Shadow Ops</em> starts off a bit slow, but when it picks up steam, man, this is one of very few novels in many years I’ve stayed up way too late reading. The plot is hard to summarize without spoiling it, but basically it’s a very thinly veiled War on Terror allegory combined with an interesting take on the value of freedom.</p>
<p>Apart from the title, my main gripe with <em>Shadow Ops</em> is that <em>the sequel isn’t out yet</em>. It leaves so many questions unanswered and characters I care about in a lurch it’s painful to have to wait.</p>
<p>If you have a long flight coming up, this is one to keep in your back pocket. Don’t let the title or the cover turn you off. This is good stuff.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J4WKTW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004J4WKTW">The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>The circus arrives without warning.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>The Night Circus</em> is a novel that feels like a haunting dream. It’s what Anne Rice would write if she hadn’t gone around the bend—it has the same kind of feverish, silky feel as <em>Interview With The Vampire</em> without in any other way having anything to do with that novel.</p>
<p>It’s hard to summarize the plot without spoilers, since much of the tension in the novel is for the protagonist to figure out what’s going on and why the Night Circus exists. Let’s just say it involves a contest of magic and a young man and woman who grow up in most unusual circumstances.</p>
<p><em>The Night Circus</em> hooks you and demands you keep reading.</p>
<p>Impressive.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002MQYOFW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002MQYOFW">The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>For a Young Adult novel, <em>The Hunger Games</em> packs in a lot of violence and brutality. Set in a brooding dystopia that is the remnant of a collapsed America, where 12 subjugated, poverty-ridden Districts feed the parasitical Capitol and are required to each provide two young adults to partake in the titular Hunger Games, once-a-year deathmatches that all citizens are required to watch.</p>
<p>In essence it’s <em>Mad Max</em> meets <em>Les Miserables</em> against a backdrop of <em>1984</em>. It’s a good recipe and it’s executed very well with light-handed but thorough characterizations—especially the protagonist Katniss who comes across as a complex, strong young woman—and a plot that moves forward like it’s on rails.</p>
<p>I’d probably not put it in the hands of somebody below grade six or so, depending on the maturity level of the child. Any younger than that and the child will probably miss out on a lot of the subtext. And as you’d expect, <em>The Hunger Games</em> is commendably violent. Commendably, in that if you’re going to portray something as awful as those games, it <em>should</em> be emotionally raw and make you flinch.</p>
<p>Worth reading for adults as well as young adults.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307352145/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307352145">Quiet, by Susan Cain</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>It’s not easy being an introvert in America. There might be another nation more closely aligned to the extrovert ideal, but if so it’s covered in mist. With <em>Quiet</em>, Cain provides not just an “I’m okay, you’re okay” view of introversion, but also provides examples of the strenghts of introverts and situations where introversion provides the necessary counterweight to gung-ho extrovert extravaganzas.</p>
<p>Two kinds of people should read <em>Quiet</em>: Introverts who want a better understanding of their place in society and, even more importantly, the people who manage introverts. As Cain makes plain in the book, introverts provide an important check and balance on extrovert tendencies. Hell, introverts can help avoid financial meltdowns.</p>
<p>As an introvert, I read it thinking, “Yes! I’m not a freak!” But <em>Quiet</em> is much more than an affirmation for the already converted: It’s a reality check for all of society.</p>
<p>Unless you think a third of society aren’t worth your time because they didn’t seem to have fun at your kegger, this is a book you should read. Or perhaps if that’s the case, this is a book you definitely need to read.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GG0MKG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005GG0MKG">The Science of Yoga, by William J Broad</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>A long-time Yoga aficionado, Broad decided to evaluate the claims made about the practice—becoming lean, becoming calm, etc.—from a scientific standpoint.</p>
<p>The book starts out with the itinerant yogis of India and their claims of walking through walls and other super-human powers, and how the rise of Indian nationalism at the end of British rule morphed yoga into something very different from its historical roots. Hint: yoga used to be a sex cult.</p>
<p>From there it moves to the current yoga craze and the very serious issues that arise when you have something completely unregulated with the potential for serious injury and opportunities for unscrupulous people to make lots of money.</p>
<p>Interesting as the history is, the real meat in the book is the catalog of effects the practice has on both body and mind—Broad debunks lots of myths and finds surprising effects not widely known, including some of the scary ways you can hurt yourself doing yoga. Hint: don’t do the headstand. Seriously. <em>Shudder.</em></p>
<p><em>The Science of Yoga</em> is well worth reading for anybody practicing the art, but also for anybody interested in how exercise as well as meditation affect our bodies.</p>
<p>Fascinating stuff.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UM5BXW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002UM5BXW">Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Bourdain is an executive chef of long experience, a man who’s spent his time in the trenches of the culinary arts, and he certainly isn’t shy about voicing his opinion.</p>
<p><em>Kitchen Confidential</em> starts out with Bourdain’s childhood, how he learned to love food, and his teenage years of being an insufferable little shit. It’s a bit of a drag, to be honest.</p>
<p>The good stuff starts once he’s running a kitchen. At this point you really start to feel his love for food and preparing it. He’s also not shy about telling you what to look for in a restaurant, which foods to order on which night, and what you should absolutely avoid. Hint: Sunday brunch is not when the A-Team is working.</p>
<p>Personally, my respect for him skyrocketed in the chapter where he talks about visiting the kitchen of another highly-celebrated executive chef who runs his patch the polar opposite of Bourdain’s motley crew of misfits and drunkards and shows this chef total respect.</p>
<p>So, if you eat, it’s worth reading <em>Kitchen Confidential</em> for the inside scoop of how a busy restaurant actually runs behind the scenes. If you don’t eat, it’s worth reading because Bourdain is a natural-born story teller.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
Sweet, sweet BBQ2012-04-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/04/sweet-sweet-bbq/
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/40824582" class="aspect-ratio--object w-full aspect-video" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics">Barbecue on a Kamado-style grill.</div>
<p>Grilling on a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamado">Kamado-style grill</a>, a.k.a. an Egg, is a different experience from any other style of grilling you may have done. Since the Egg is ceramic and sealed, it provides a beautiful mixture of a charcoal grill and a wood-burning oven and allows you to grill better than ever before.</p>
<p><em>Single, manly tear.</em> It’s fantastic. But I gushed about all this in a <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/04/enter-the-kamado/">previous post</a>—read about it there.</p>
<p>It turns out that I enjoy the Kamado so much I decided to shoot a video demonstration. Basically it’s five and a half minutes of grilling up first some chicken thighs, then some corn in the husk and for the piéce de resistance searing steaks at 600F. Let’s get one thing straight: grilling things on a Kamado is fantastic: moist and excellent. But <em>searing</em>. Oh, searing steaks on this thing is <em>magic</em>, yielding meat that melts in your mouth.</p>
<p>I highly suggest you play the video embedded above and join me in my new religion.</p>
<p>Some nerd notes about the video: Shot on a Nikon D90 using the built-in mic, which yielded surprisingly adequate sound. There’s a droning noise in parts of the video, but that’s not the fault of the D90; it’s an air conditioning unit running. (If you live in Northern climes, yes, Phoenix broke 100F (38C) on the day in April this was shot, so the A/C was necessary.) It would be nice to have a directional mic pointed right at the grill to pick up nothing but the sizzle, but apparently I’m supposed to use my money to provide food and shelter for my child, or so my wife tells me.</p>
<p>So, go ahead and hit play and enjoy the bonus flaming corn husks of doom! (One of the take-aways from this grill session was to not leave corn in the Egg while you bring it to 600F. Husks are flammable.)</p>
Enter the Kamado2012-04-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/04/enter-the-kamado/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/kamado-searing.jpg" alt="Searing meat on a Kamado grill" width="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">Flame on! Searing meat on a Kamado grill</div>
<p>You may have heard of the <a href="http://www.biggreenegg.com/">Big Green Egg</a>, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamado">Kamado-style grill</a> inspiring near-religious fervor among barbecue nuts.</p>
<p>I don’t have one of those. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I wanted one. Went to my local barbecue place, got a quote, got the quote wife approved and then one of my cats got his butt kicked in a fight leading to the entire Big Green Egg budget going to his vet bill.</p>
<p>And lo, there was sadness.</p>
<p>But Costco has started selling another Kamado-style grill at half the cost of the Big Green Egg, and as our bank account had recovered somewhat from the damage caused by that damn cat and his fighting ways, it was time to (trumpets!) Enter the Kamado.</p>
<p>The brand sold by Costco is <a href="http://visiongrills.com/">Vision Grills</a>, and follows the same concept as the Big Green Egg, except it’s not green. Instead it’s a black egg. I’ve named mine R2-D2—<em>surprise! I’m a huge nerd</em>. The Vision Grills egg at Costco will set you back $569, which like everything else at Costco is a great deal.</p>
<p>Granted, I don’t have a Big Green Egg to compare it with, so it’s quite possible the Vision Grills egg is a horrible joke compared to the original. But I doubt it. If wrong, I might literally die from happiness if I eat something grilled on a Big Green Egg. But more likely the Big Green Egg is like Bose: They have a great brand and charge a premium for the name plate. Nice work if you can get it.</p>
<p>A note here: If you decide to get a Kamado-style grill of whatever brand, you will need a truck and at least two burly men to bring it home. The one Costco sells weighs 200 pounds. Yes, a 2 and two zeroes pounds. Ceramics are <em>heavy</em>.</p>
<p>The reason you want to break your back dragging one of these things home is simple: Food grilled on it tastes <em>frigging awesome</em>. You can grill, you can sear, you can smoke, you can use it as a pizza oven, and it all comes out better than anything else you’ve grilled. Really. Better. <em>So much better</em>. The egg is sealed, so it ends up functioning as grill and oven at the same time, locking delicious moisture inside, and it gives you incredible temperature control. Once you dial in the controls, you can set it at a certain temperature and by golly, it will keep that temperature until the charcoal runs out.</p>
<p>You control the temperature through two adjustable openings in the egg: One at the bottom and one at the top. By adjusting the aperture on those you control the amount of air flowing through the egg, and thus the temperature. Once you get the hang of it, it’s second nature.</p>
<p>There is a definite learning curve, so if you’re interested in a Kamado egg, here are a couple of tips that will save you some trouble and time:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>You must use lump charcoal, <em>not</em> briquettes. Stock up. The egg is surprisingly efficient, so you don’t need that much coal, but you don’t want to run out.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If there’s one thing all Egg Heads agree on, it’s that lighter fluid is the devil incarnate. (Apparently there was a meeting at some point and the people who are inordinately obsessed with their Big Green Eggs decided to call themselves Egg Heads. It’s cute, I suppose.) You don’t want your meat to taste like chemicals, so you need a way to light the lump charcoal. There are (of course) many ways to do this, but the easiest is to use an electric lighter. Get one.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You control the temperature in the grill by restricting the amount of oxygen the flames get. This means that when you open the lid to turn the meat, you are giving it more oxygen. To avoid a backdraft—which in a worst-case scenario can scorch off your eyebrows[^2]—you need to “burp” the grill. Open it an inch or so, count to three, then open it fully. Safety first!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You will need an ash tool to clean out the bottom of the egg occasionally. Get one.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Patience, grasshopper. The egg is not quick. It takes eight minutes to fire it up with an electric lighter, and then another ten or 15 to get it up to temperature. This is a good time to adopt a Zen attitude and enjoy looking at your backyard. If you wanted your food quick you would have microwaved it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If you sear meat at 600F, you are dealing with <em>a lot</em> of heat. Two words: oven mitts. Get some. Don’t be an idiot like me and burn your hand.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Searing meat generates <em>a lot</em> of smoke. You might want to restrict yourself to days with a breeze. Seriously, I seared some steaks on a day with zero winds and it looked like I was putting up a smoke screen to sneak a battleship through the neighborhood.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Egg Head forums are full of people who are clearly using their eggs as therapy. They actually match photography forums for craziness. Listen up: you don’t have to overcomplicate things that much. It’s a grill. There is a flame. You put food on the flame. Then you turn it. Then you take it off and eat it. It’s not a Mars mission.</p>
</li>
</ul>
The new iPad: Dat screen2012-04-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/04/the-new-ipad-dat-screen/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/resolutionary-ipad.jpg" alt="Promo pic of the new iPad" width="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">Source: Apple.com</div>
<p>Now that the new iPad has been in hand for a few weeks, some extended-usage impressions are in order.</p>
<p>First off, and just to get the unpleasantness over with, does it run hot? <strong>No.</strong> It gets a smidge warm under heavy load, but far, far from uncomfortable. Despite the no doubt massive page views some unscrupulous organizations ginned up from sensationalist headlines, heat is a complete non-issue.</p>
<p>So what’s good about it? <em>The screen</em>, of course—it’s good enough to cut Apple some slack about the horrendous “resolutionary” pun.</p>
<p>If you have an iPhone 4 or 4S, you’re already familiar with the retina display, but just like the iPad being “just a big iPhone”—with the size completely changing the experience—taking a retina display from 3.5 to 9.7″ makes it go from great to game changer.</p>
<p>The screen on the iPad is good enough that it’s like reading on paper instead of a screen. Which means that we don’t have to use screen fonts anymore—real, honest-to-goodness print fonts look fantastic. If you’re a typography nerd, the new iPad will make you very, very happy. Of course, high-res images and 1080p videos are crisper as well, but for my personal use case it’s the reading experience that brings a single, manly tear to my eye.</p>
<p>Just like with the difference between DVDs and Blu-ray discs, some people won’t notice the difference. Which is OK—unique snowflakes and all that. But if you’re the kind of person whose jaw dropped the first time you saw a Blu-ray movie, be prepared for amazement.</p>
<p>If on the other hand you’re the kind of person who watches standard-def TV without cringing, save yourself some money and get an iPad 2.</p>
<p>So, should you get one? If you have an iPad 1, break out the credit card. The difference is night and day. If you have an iPad 2 and you enjoy standard-def TV, skip this generation. If you have an iPad 2 and felt your mouth water the first time you saw a Blu-ray movie, hie thee to an Apple Store.</p>
<p>The drawback is that after your eyes get used to the new iPad all other screens become pixelated messes. Though that’s no doubt a temporary state—now that the iPhone and iPad have opened the floodgates, the retina technology will surely work its way up to larger and larger screens.</p>
<p>There has never been a device to make you feel more like Captain Picard.</p>
<p>Speaking of Star Trek, there’s been grumbling among the more entitled digerati about how both the iPhone 4S and the new iPad are “disappointing.” Evolutionary, not revolutionary. This is correct. Well, the evolutionary, not revolutionary, part is correct. Being disappointed by a company not blowing your freaking mind like clockwork twice a year is a sign you need to adjust your expectations—and probably your meds—a bit.</p>
<p>The fact is that the iOS platform is now mature. Apple is iterating over it just like it’s doing with the OS X platform; a series of smaller improvements instead of huge leaps. It’s going to be like this from here on out on phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. The revolution is over.</p>
<p>If you want to have your mind blown, you’ll have to wait for Apple to disrupt another field. Instead of waiting for that unicorn, let’s enjoy the fact that we live in an era of technology that was literally the realm of science fiction 20 years ago.</p>
Book roundup, part four2012-03-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/03/book-roundup/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/thinking-fast-and-slow-cover.jpg" alt="Thinking, Fast and Slow cover" title="Thinking, Fast and Slow cover" width="300" height="445" />
</div>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005IQZ7IG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005IQZ7IG">Angelmaker, by Nick Harkaway</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p><em>Angelmaker</em> is something else. Strange and bent, it’s a rich stew of flavors from Thomas Pynchon to Neil Gaiman to William Gibson with that uniquely British, damp kind of steampunk.</p>
<p>The plot spans from World War II to the present, with a derring-do special agent, the world’s most evil villain ever, a king of gangsters, the timid clock worker son of the king of gangsters, a witch, a serial killer, a doomsday device and a whole slew of other more or less (usually more) strange characters, all enveloped in a consuming, dizzying plot.</p>
<p>A mesmerizing novel, <em>Angelmaker</em> is well worth reading.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AU7MJU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002AU7MJU">The Magicians, by Lev Grossman</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Grossman takes all your favorite magic book tropes—a secret wizard school, a secret magical world, a young man who feels alienated in the real world and hopes for an alternate reality where he can really feel at home—and fuses it together into a touching and surprisingly gritty coming-of-age novel where the protagonist gets everything he wishes for and it’s far from enough.</p>
<p>So basically it’s a mashup of Narnia and Harry Potter with a generous sprinkle of teen angst, served up with enough of a twist that it doesn’t feel derivative or tired, quite the contrary.</p>
<p><em>The Magicians</em> is well-written, with surprising twists on common fantasy devices, and above all it manages to take the clichés and turn them into something really surprising. This is not a spoiler, but the denouement is truly surprising and also makes perfect sense. The kind of ending you don’t see enough, where it’s from left field and turns things on their head but is inevitable once you see it. It’s so hard to do and done so well in this novel it’s hard to finish it and not want to clap.</p>
<p><em>The Magicians</em> belongs on your reading list.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XFZ8X2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004XFZ8X2">Magician King, by Lev Grossman</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>The follow-up to <em>The Magicians</em> continues the story of the magic kingdom of Fillory and the human magicians who have become its kings and queens. If you enjoyed <em>The Magicians</em> there’s no way you can not read this. And it’s worth it. Lose ends are tied up and more adventures are encountered, with an increasing, palpable, sense of darkness and menace.</p>
<p>It’s not as good as <em>The Magicians</em> but still hard to put down and does provide a shattering conclusion to the story.</p>
<p>Go for it.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1TH6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000FC1TH6">Iron Council, by China Miéville</a> ★☆☆☆☆</h3>
<p>China Miéville is a vastly gifted writer blessed with the supernatural ability of making steam punk cool for normal people. But I was unable to finish <em>Iron Council</em>—it’s much too long, much too sprawling and with way too little plot. In a way it’s a sequel to the very good <em>Perdido Street Station</em>, (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/12/review-perdido-street-station/">my review here</a>) or at least it’s in the same universe. Meaning it’s baroque, weird, unsettling, very smart and stylish to a fault.</p>
<p>Which is what did me in. There’s a great story buried in <em>Iron Council</em> and some memorable characters to inhabit that story, but there are so, so many words. So. Many. Words. The words choke the plot which sometimes stirs to wave around a bit, but then sinks back under the waves of words again, leaving you to flip page after page.</p>
<p>If a fearless editor were to go in and chop out at least half the text it could be one of the best novels of the year, but as it stands it’s more of a death march than anything else.</p>
<p>Very disappointing.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00555X8OA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00555X8OA">Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>It’s impossible to oversell this book: it’s nothing less than the missing manual for your brain. Kahneman condenses decades of research in psychology, sociology and economics into the principles by which our minds operate.</p>
<p>Essentially, we have two distinct mental systems: The first is lazy and uses as many shortcuts as possible to arrive at answers as quickly and cheaply as possible—the autopilot. The second system gets activated when the first system is stumped. It’s fallible in many ways, but provides much better answers at the cost of taking longer and making you work harder.</p>
<p>Kahneman provides an almost overwhelming amount of research on these two systems, their foibles and their strengths.</p>
<p>The conclusion at least I reached on reading <em>Thinking, Fast and Slow</em> is that most of our perceived reality is a construct of the mind, and a scarily fallacious one at that. Which you could see as depressing or fascinating, depending on your world view. I choose fascinating.</p>
<p>Read <em>Thinking, Fast and Slow</em>. It’s the best use of your time possible.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GSZJ6Q/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005GSZJ6Q">Distrust That Particular Flavor, by William Gibson</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>William Gibson is a genius, no question about that. This collection of essays and magazine articles is wonderful if you’re a fan of his style and also provides some insight into how he thinks; it’s his wonderful eye for detail and the sublime in the everyday that makes him such a powerful novelist and it’s very much on display in this collection.</p>
<p>On an overcast Sunday, brew up a nice cup of coffee, sit down in your comfy chair with <em>Distrust That Particular Flavor</em> and inhale his ideas. It’s a joy.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003QMLBJ8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003QMLBJ8">Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, by Rob Sheffield</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Charming and brief biography about growing up in the ’80s and trying desperately to understand the mystery that is girls. Sheffield is a <em>Rolling Stone</em> writer and has clearly spent an unhealthy amount of time thinking about music, especially the hits of the ’80s that colored the decade of his youth.</p>
<p>Each chapter picks a situation in his life and illustrates it with a hit song and the meaning young Sheffield attempted to wrest from its vapid lyrics.</p>
<p>A quirky, breezy book that will put a smile on your face if you lived through the decade of shoulder pads and androgyny.</p>
<p>Here’s Sheffield talking about Morrissey:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>His songs were a Magic 8-Ball of the damned. Whenever I would contemplate a really big adventure, like maybe washing my hair and putting on clean socks and leaving my room, Morrissey was there to talk me out of it and provide me with excellent reasons to keep hiding in my room where I belonged. When I did go out, to attend class or pick up a bag of Zeus Chips, I felt guilty for cheating on Morrissey with life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Disclosure:</strong> Most links above are Amazon affiliate links. You buy something, I get a little kickback to motivate me to keep writing these reviews. It doesn’t cost you a dime.</p>
A good kind of hungry2012-03-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/03/a-good-kind-of-hungry/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/baconroast.jpg" alt="A roast with carrots, celery and bacon" width="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">A roast with carrots, celery and—boom—bacon</div>
<p>One thing about a low-carb diet I haven’t seen discussed much is that it changes the feeling of hunger. Once your body switches over from burning carbs to burning fat as its primary fuel source and the attendant stabilization of blood sugar levels that brings, hunger starts to feel different.</p>
<p>When I was burning carbs, I’d get horribly hungry. Have-to-eat-right-now-or-I’ll-die type hungry. It was awful, but I thought it was just the way things were. I was eating right!</p>
<p>Turns out, no, I wasn’t.</p>
<p>Once I started burning fat instead of carbs, hunger became completely manageable. Oh, sure, I still get hungry and want to eat, but it’s more like a gentle reminder. It can wait. If I need to do something else and can’t eat for a while, it’s not a big deal. I can skip a meal—it’s not the end of the world.</p>
<p>Clearly some people have the same experience while on a carb-heavy diet. (Not many, but some.) It just goes to show that we all have a unique body chemistry and some people are genetically predisposed to being <em>way</em> better at handling carbs than most of us. They’re few and far between, the lucky bastards, but they’re out there.</p>
<p>Call me cynical, but I think those are the people who end up making a living telling other people how to eat. After all, the standard carb-heavy diet works great for them! So clearly the fat people are weak-willed and just need to toughen up and get their act together.</p>
<p>If you find yourself gaining a few pounds every year and the thought of skipping a meal is horrifying, it’s not you. It’s your body’s reaction to carbs.</p>
<p>Do something about it. Read <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307474259/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307474259">Why We Get Fat</a></em>. Read <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982207786/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0982207786">The Primal Blueprint</a></em>. Read Mark Sisson’s wonderful blog [Mark’s Daily Apple][mda] And above all, start cutting those carbs. It’s not a little liberating to be able to say, “Yes, I’m hungry, but it can wait.”</p>
<p>[mda]:<a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#">http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#</a> axzz1oCdYvqtF</p>
Rural Arizona 2012 Decay Tour2012-02-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/02/decay-tour-2012/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay12.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="American flag in Miami, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay12.jpg" alt="American flag in Miami, Ariz." class="border" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Waving the flag in Miami, Ariz.<br />Click the image to see a slideshow</div>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay1.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Rusted out hood, Goldfield, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay1.jpg" alt="Rusted out hood, Goldfield, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay2.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="To Infinity and beyond, Goldfield, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay2.jpg" alt="To Infinity and beyond, Goldfield, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay4.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="To Infinity and beyond II, Goldfield, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay4.jpg" alt="To Infinity and beyond II, Goldfield, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay5.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Dashboard, Goldfield, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay0025.jpg" alt="Dashboard, Goldfield, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay6.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Grill, Goldfield, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay0016.jpg" alt="Grill, Goldfield, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay7.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Detail of grill, Goldfield, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay0015.jpg" alt="Detail of grill, Goldfield, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay8.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Window in Miami, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay8.jpg" alt="Window in Miami, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay9.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="The purple house of Miami, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay9.jpg" alt="The purple house of Miami, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay10.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Christ is Lord."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay10.jpg" alt="Christ is Lord." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay11.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Only the birds, Miami, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay11.jpg" alt="Only the birds, Miami, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay13.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="For sale, Miami, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay13.jpg" alt="For sale, Miami, Ariz" class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay14.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Door to nowhere, Miami, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/decay/decay14.jpg" alt="Door to nowhere, Miami, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p>My friend <a href="http://joemullins.com/">Joe</a> talked me into yet another photo safari to the real Arizona, this time focused on the mining towns to the east of Phoenix, mining towns that are not doing well economically and haven’t been for a long time. We first visited the fake “olde tyme” mining ghost town of <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Goldfield+Ghost+Town,+East+Mammoth+Mine+Road,+Apache+Junction,+AZ&hl=en&oq=goldfield+ghost,+az&hq=Goldfield+Ghost+Town,+East+Mammoth+Mine+Road,+Apache+Junction,+AZ&radius=15000&t=m&z=17">Goldfield</a> and then drove on to the real ghost towns of <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Miami,+AZ&hl=en&ll=33.399345,-110.86853&spn=0.406432,0.568542&sll=33.456066,-111.491509&sspn=0.006346,0.008883&oq=miami,+&hnear=Miami,+Gila,+Arizona&t=m&z=11">Miami</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=globe,+AZ&hl=en&sll=33.399345,-110.86853&sspn=0.406432,0.568542&hnear=Globe,+Gila,+Arizona&t=m&z=13">Globe</a> up in the mountains. (The links take you to Google Maps.)</p>
<p>Goldfield is a fake ghost town where punters can go experience the Disney version of what it was like to live in a tiny mining town and—of course—eat chili. To be honest, apart from a row of rusted-out old cars and trucks that provide a lot of textures, it’s not very interesting.</p>
<p>An hour and a half or so outside Phoenix, Globe and Miami sit right next to each other, but for some historical reason Globe is still sort-of alive while Miami is dead and feels completely post-apocalyptic. Walking around in Miami, Ariz. makes you feel like you’re a character in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307387895/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307387895">The Road</a>. This is not an exaggeration. Miami is <em>creepy</em>. People have taken to living in the downtown store fronts. A very few teenagers are walking around like zombies with baby carriages, smoking. Houses haven’t been painted for 50 years. The mountains loom over everything, rendering everything humans do insignificant. It’s as hard core as you can get with a smiling sun in a blue sky.</p>
<p>I’m not used to being an apocalypse tourist, so it was a bit hard to deal with.</p>
<p>But after all was said and done and we made it out without anybody killing us to eat our livers, I think some of the shots turned out pretty interesting.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> All content on this site is Creative Commons licensed. If you want to use any of the images, just attribute them to Nic Lindh and you’re golden.</p>
Exercise for the middle-aged fat guy2012-02-16T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/02/exercise-for-the-fat-middle-aged-guy/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/dumbbells.jpg" alt="Dumb bells in a row" width="680" />
<div class="imgcaption">Heavy Metal Thunder</div>
<p><strong>NOTE:</strong> Nic is not a medical professional, not a licensed dietician and not a personal trainer. Nic is just a fat, middle-aged guy with a blog who’s trying to get himself into shape. Don’t take medical advice from random blogs, OK? <strong>/NOTE</strong></p>
<p>Middle-age sucks: New parts of your body start hurting every day, parts you didn’t even know you had; you have to get up in the middle of the night to visit the bathroom only to then lie awake and worry about things; you groan when getting up from a chair; foods you used to enjoy all of a sudden give you heart burn. And you get fatter and fatter.</p>
<p>(Apart from the obvious win that you didn’t die yet, of course. And the blessed relief from caring a lot less about things you used to care way too much about. Those are good.)</p>
<p>But it’s not all hopeless. The current wisdom is that the best way to counter the effects of aging is to <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/exercise-as-housecleaning-for-the-body/">work out</a>. That’s right, get your sweat on. And yes, it works.</p>
<p>Regular exercise makes you feel better. Duh. Everybody knows that. What’s amazing is how easy it is to construct reasons why today is definitely not a good day to work out. Noper. Negatory. Not today. Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow.</p>
<p>We are supposed to move a lot in our daily lives—being sedentary makes all kinds of stuff in your body prematurely break, especially as you hit middle age. Anthropologists estimate our hunter/gatherer ancestors walked an average of 10 miles per day—obviously some days more and some days less, but on average 10 miles per day. Try it. How do you feel if you walk 10 miles per day for a week straight? Our ancestors did it their entire lives.</p>
<p>(This is how we Homo Sapien evolved as a species: Plenty of everyday movement interspersed with intermittent “Aaaaaah the tiger is coming for me!” type movement. Millions of years, people. Cheetos on the couch are sure nice, but they are most certainly not what you evolved for.)</p>
<p>Exercise, though, is hard. Yes—duh—by definition, but not just the sweaty, panty bit. The getting yourself to the gym bit and the tearing yourself away from the couch bit are more difficult than the exercising itself. Once you’re at the gym, you’ll probably work out; it’s the dragging your ass to the gym that’s hard. Everything around you tells you it’s OK, hell, more than preferred, it’s <em>great</em> to skip the gym today. You have better things to do!</p>
<p>Except of course you don’t. Getting regular exercise is the single most important thing you can do today. Really.</p>
<p>To use one of the few sports clichés at my disposal (take a deep breath and sing it with me), <em>it’s a marathon, not a sprint</em>. If you go to the gym religiously for a month, absolutely crushing it, but then wake up one day and hear your brain whisper, “Screw <em>that</em> noise. It hurts. Behold! The couch! There’s a DVR shock full of entertainment to attend!” and you listen to your brain—because it’s your brain so it tells you it knows best—all you’ve done is hurt yourself for a month for no reason.</p>
<p>You’ve probably been there. I sure have. Finally, no more pain. Instead it’s sweet, sweet relaxation. Which you’ve <em>earned</em>, right? You went to the gym. You suffered. Damn straight. So now you can get with the Cheetos and the XBox without guilt. You’ve done your part. (Incidentally, I haven’t had a single Cheeto since I read the Wikipedia entry about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheetos">how they’re made</a>. Yikes.)</p>
<p>I’ve heard that voice. I’ve listened to that voice. Why suffer more?</p>
<p>Rambo never hears that voice. That’s why he’s Rambo. Rambo can take way more punishment than you can. Rambo doesn’t quit.</p>
<p>But <em>you</em> do. Sooner or later you quit.</p>
<p>If you believe that exercise is something you need for the rest of your life, throwing your hands up like that—as I’ve done, as you’ve done—is one of the dumbest things you can do.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be like that. There’s a fine line to be walked: You need to exercise hard enough to make a difference, but not so hard it sucks so bad you go all Pavlov on yourself and make yourself come up with any reason—<em>any</em> reason—to not go. Not today. Your sessions have to be strenuous enough, but not so strenuous you can’t keep it up for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>A side note here about personal trainers. They have a hard job—motivating people, keeping up to date on developments in physical fitness and diet, providing personalized programs for their clients. That’s not easy. I respect their work. At the same time, most personal trainers have either always been in shape or managed to get themselves into shape through a truly heroic amount of will power and pain.</p>
<p>Personal trainers are not normal people and sometimes it seems have a hard time understanding how normal people think and act. It’s a lot like having a nerd tell you how to use your computer. The nerd has a way different outlook and relationship with the machine than a normal person does. Which doesn’t mean the nerd is wrong, it just means the nerd operates very differently from a normal person. So it is with the personal trainer and the body.</p>
<p>If you’re the kind of person who needs a kick in the behind to get going, or you’ve never worked out and need some guidance to what you should be doing in the gym, a personal trainer is great. A personal trainer can absolutely help you. Just remember that a personal trainer is different from your fat ass.</p>
<p>Don’t believe me? OK. Here’s a fool-proof way to lose weight and get in fantastic shape in a very short period of time. Are you ready? Here it is: Do <a href="http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/27/the-burpee-the-one-exercise-to-rule-them-all/">burpees</a> till you faint or puke. Then the next day do it again. And again. Run up a hill if you happen to have any energy left over.</p>
<p>Congratulations! This <em>will</em> work. Guaranteed. You will get massively fit. If you can keep it up. Which you can’t unless there’s somebody literally holding a gun to your head to make you. Because it will hurt so much and be so boring. Unless you’re Rambo. For him it’s a good time.</p>
<p>I’m talking about sustained exercise, something you can and will do for the rest of your life. Picture an exercise routine, then picture yourself doing it several times each week until you die. That’s what I’m all about here. Long-effing-term. Which doesn’t mean you can’t level up. If you’re the kind of person who needs excitement in your life, leveling up is great. Do P90X! Train for a marathon! That’s great. It means seriously increasing your levels for a while and that’s great as long as you have in the back of your mind that it’s a temporary thing. And after that temporary thing you will drop back down to your usual level of exercise—which you can’t stop because stopping after you level up is a stupid, stupid thing to do.</p>
<p>Despite what Tyler Durden says, we’re all beautiful and unique snowflakes and we all like different things. And that’s OK. Our bodies are all different as well. An infinity of variation in what works and doesn’t work.</p>
<p>Which means you have to find something—or preferably several things—that work for you, things you can legitimately see yourself doing for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>I’ll post a follow-up with some things that work for me in a while, but in the meantime, the best way to get started and undo some of the damage time has wrought is to follow in the path of your ancestors and get walking. One foot in front of the other.</p>
Photo safari to Cleator and Watson Lake2012-02-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/02/rural-arizona-photo-safari/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0063.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Watson Lake, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/watson-lake-thumb.jpg" alt="Watson Lake, Ariz." class="border" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Watson Lake. Click the image to see a slideshow</div>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0057.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Watson Lake, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0057.jpg" alt="Watson Lake, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0045.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Watson Lake, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0045.jpg" alt="Watson Lake, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0038.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Watson Lake, Ariz."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0038.jpg" alt="Watson Lake, Ariz." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0025.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Old circle saw at Cleator, Ariz. If you're in an industrial band, here's your new album cover. You're welcome."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0025.jpg" alt="Old circle saw at Cleator, Ariz. If you're in an industrial band, here's your new album cover. You're welcome." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0016.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Cleator, Ariz. It's all about priorities."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0016.jpg" alt="Cleator, Ariz. It's all about priorities." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0015.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Cleator, Ariz. Yes, that's about all of it."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0015.jpg" alt="Cleator, Ariz. Yes, that's about all of it." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0004.jpg" rel="shadowbox[gallery]" title="Cleator, Ariz. It's a friendly hamlet."><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/photosafari-i/DSC_0004.jpg" alt="Cleator, Ariz. It's a friendly hamlet." class="border" style="display:none;" /></a></p>
<p>My idea of a weekend drive is to go to CostCo, so I was very happy my friend <a href="http://joemullins.com/">Joe</a> talked me into a photo safari to the real Arizona outside Phoenix.</p>
<p>There’s an old joke goes something like, “be careful when you leave Atlanta because you’re about to go into Georgia.” The same is very true in Arizona. The Phoenix metroplex, with all its problems, is a major American city, whether it wants to be or not (hint: it doesn’t), but it’s a city nevertheless. Once you leave Phoenix, though, you’re in Arizona.</p>
<p>And Arizona brings it, <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/deliverance/">Deliverance</a> style.</p>
<p>We went to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cleator,+AZ&hl=en&ll=34.279914,-112.230835&spn=1.59994,1.903381&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.688845,60.908203&oq=cleator&hnear=Cleator,+Arizona&t=m&z=9">Cleator</a> (five houses, two trailers, a general store and, obviously, a bar) and <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Watson+Lake,+Prescott,+AZ&hl=en&ll=34.587997,-112.412109&spn=3.187902,3.806763&sll=34.279914,-112.230835&sspn=1.59994,1.903381&oq=watson+lake&hnear=Watson+Lake&t=m&z=8">Watson Lake</a>, which is beautiful in a surreal way. (The links go to Google Maps). Click the image above for a slideshow.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> All content on this site is Creative Commons licensed. If you want to use any of the images, just attribute them to Nic Lindh and you’re golden.</p>
Book roundup, part three2012-01-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/01/book-roundup/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/inferno-cover.jpg" alt="Inferno cover" title="Inferno cover" width="180" height="267" />
</div>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RCNGT4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004RCNGT4">The Drop, by Michael Connolly</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>Your favorite workaholic detective Harry Bosch is back! And he’s in great form, running two murder investigations simultaneously—one in the present and one from the archives of the Open Unsolved Unit.</p>
<p>Connolly’s writing and plotting is a smooth-running machine, as usual, and <em>The Drop</em> conjures a greater sense of darkness, evil and dread than previous Bosch novels. Not that those were laugh riots, to be sure.</p>
<p>If you’re a Bosch fan, <em>The Drop</em> is a given. If you’re new to the series, this is not the place to start. The Bosch novels reward reading in order, so start at the beginning with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1MNC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000FC1MNC">this omnibus of the first three</a>.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J4WKUQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004J4WKUQ">Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline</a> ☆☆☆☆☆</h3>
<p>Released to a tidal wave of buzz and glowing reviews, a novel shock full of nerd lore and ’80s trivia seemed like a given to become one of my favorite novels of the year.</p>
<p>I don’t know what happened. Perhaps everybody else got a different book. I had to stop reading halfway through.</p>
<p>I was willing to overlook the silly plot and paper thin characterizations, but what broke me was the sheer amount of telling and the dearth of showing. Basically, <em>Ready Player One</em> reads like a really long book report instead of a novel.</p>
<p>Hugely disappointing. I clearly need to get a hold of whatever everybody who gave this novel a glowing review are smoking.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OCXHTK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000OCXHTK">Moon Called, by Patricia Briggs</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>It is becoming a bit cliché to have a world where magic, vampires and werewolves are real and in hiding among regular humans, but Briggs brings a fully realized alternate reality to the table. Coupled with a tight, fast plot, hints at much more to be revealed and some decent characterizations, <em>Moon Called</em> is great candy.</p>
<h3><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/01/book-roundup/ao">Among Others, by Mary Jo Walton</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>An odd, charming mixture of coming of age novel and perhaps magical realism or perhaps fantasy.</p>
<p>It’s 1979 and 15-year-old Morwenna has lost her twin sister in an accident which left her crippled. Morwenna can perform magic and talk to fairies and spends every moment she can reading sci-fi and fantasy novels—Zelazny, Heinlein, Tolkien, on it goes.</p>
<p>There was more to her sister’s accident than we know at first, and much, much more to Morwenna’s past and her affinity with magic.</p>
<p>Written in journal form, <em>Among Others</em> is both a touching and very intimate coming of age story and also strange and disturbing. The prose will suck you in and keep you hooked.</p>
<p><em>Among Others</em> is a haunting work.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553575376/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0553575376">Excession, by Iain M. Banks</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>(Link goes to paperback, since the publisher apparently doesn’t believe one of the most interesting sci-fi authors currently working should be available on the Kindle.)</p>
<p><em>Excession</em> is a novel in the Culture series—a far-future universe where technology has advanced to an inconceivable level where people can do anything, become anything.</p>
<p>Needless to say, things get very trippy and weird when literally anything is possible.</p>
<p>An excession is an outside force or event that can not be anticipated, understood, or controlled. Just such a thing appears in Culture space. Banks’s plotting is so byzantine it’s hard to attempt any kind of plot summary without spoiling the ride, so let’s just say it focuses on the Minds that run the Culture—super-powerful artificial intelligences with their own agendas—and an alien species called the Affronters who are basically squid-like galactic Hells Angels.</p>
<p><em>Excession</em> marries gleeful space opera with dense plotting that makes you work to keep up. Well worth reading.</p>
<p>As a side note, one of the most delightful aspects of the Culture series is that space ships are run by Minds and pick their own names, leading to vast monsters flying around with names like <em>Fate Amenable to Change</em>, <em>Quietly Confident</em>, <em>I Blame Your Mother</em> and <em>Shoot Them Later</em>. If that doesn’t amuse you, the Culture series is not for you.</p>
<p>Wikipedia naturally has a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_Culture_setting">full list of Culture ship names</a>.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SOQ198/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004SOQ198">Inferno, by Max Hastings</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Breathtaking and powerful, this is the World War II history to end World War II histories. The genius of Hastings’s work is that it accomplishes two things: 1) While covering the main events of the war, <em>Inferno</em> provides the perspective of the people on the ground—soldiers and civilians who found themselves in the middle of events both great and small; and 2) Providing the perspective of the people at the time. A current reader obviously knows what happened, so it’s important to show just how much (usually meaning little) both leaders and foot soldiers really knew about what was happening and the state of their enemies.</p>
<p><em>Inferno</em> is a World War II book you can feel good about giving as a gift to anybody with some interest in history. Note, though, that it is a heartbreaking work. The sheer magnitude of suffering that went on is so unspeakably grim.</p>
<p>That suffering is the most important thing we should remember from World War II.</p>
<h3><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/01/book-roundup/paleo">The Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf</a> ★★★★★</h3>
<p>Make no mistake: <em>The Paleo Solution</em> is a life-changing book and one that’s hard to talk about without getting revved up like a late-night TV huckster. It could be subtitled, “Everything you’ve been told about nutrition is wrong.”</p>
<p>It turns out that carbs and grains are in fact bad for you and fat and protein are good for you. Wolf goes through considerable effort to explain exactly <em>why</em> this is and how we ended up in our obese, disease-ridden reality as well as, of course, how to get healthy.</p>
<p>Seriously, if you purchase no other book I recommend, buy this one. Read it. It will change your life. Go! And while you’re at Amazon, also pick up <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2012/01/book-roundup/primal"><em>The Primal Blueprint</em></a>.</p>
<p>Basically, Paleo and Primal are sister philosophies, with Primal the laid-back California version. It’s good to read both books and make up your own mind.</p>
<p>Go! Go!</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00333NCTM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00333NCTM">I am Ozzy, by Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Ayres</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Surprisingly funny and touching autobiography from an extremely damaged but somehow lovable human being. It’s laugh-out-loud funny in places and above all does a great job of bringing Ozzy’s voice to the page—you can almost hear him slur the words as you read.</p>
<p>A sample quote from when Black Sabbath first gained popularity:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I couldn’t believe it when I learned that people actually ‘practised the occult’. These freaks with white make-up and black robes would come up to us after our gigs and invite us to black masses at Highgate Cemetery in London. I’d say to them, ‘Look, mate, the only evil spirits I’m interested in are called whisky, vodka and gin.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
Review: Blue HR heart rate monitor strap2012-01-17T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/01/review-blue-hr/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/blue-hr-monitor.jpg" alt="Blue HR next to an iPhone 4S" width="700" />
<div class="imgcaption">Blue HR next to an iPhone 4S.</div>
<p>Heart rate straps are interesting in that there are a lot of options out there, but they feel like technology stopped in 1995. It’s all about digital watches with black and white squinty screens and if you’re lucky there might be an option for you to fork over a lot of extra money for a connector to upload your data to a proprietary website. That’s not a future I want to live in.</p>
<p>My own needs are very simple: I want to be able to check my heart rate progress after my walks to make sure I’m staying in the fat burning zone. And of course to drool over pretty graphs.</p>
<p>So I’d been looking around for a while, but paying a lot of money for a watch that looks like I’ll have to break out the manual to be able to change the freaking date just isn’t a path I want to walk. (Perhaps it’s not that bad but nobody on the Internet that I could find said anything about any of the Polars being easy to set up and use. It could be that they’re so wonderfully easy to use that nobody even thought to bring it up. In theory.)</p>
<p>Plus it’s another device to carry and I already own a magical iPhone and use Walkmeter to log my, well, walks, so it would be nice to have a heart rate monitor that works with the gear I already have.</p>
<p>And now with the <a href="http://www.wahoofitness.com/Products/Wahoo-Fitness-Wahoo-Blue-HR-Heart-Rate-Strap-for-iPhone-4S.asp">Blue HR heart rate strap</a> our long national nightmare of steampunk heart rate monitors is over, at least for iPhone 4S owners.</p>
<p>The Blue HR takes us to the future at a cost of $79.99 plus shipping. It pairs with the iPhone 4S—and only the 4S, as that’s the only iPhone so far to support the Bluetooth Smart protocol. No more having to add a dingus like the <a href="http://www.thisisant.com/technology">ANT+</a> to the iPhone to talk to the heart rate strap. They just connect.</p>
<p>It’s important to notice that the Blue HR doesn’t pair with the phone, per se, but with <em>individual apps</em>. So whatever exercise app you use has to be updated in order to commune with the device.</p>
<p>Once you pair the Blue HR with your chosen app, it Just Works™. Tell the app to connect to a heart rate monitor, wait a couple of beats, and <em>boom</em>. It’s that easy. Every time after that you put the strap on, you launch the app and it tells you your heartbeat. Just like that. The strap wakes up when it senses a pulse, so when you launch your chosen app it has your heart rate. It’s that easy.</p>
<p>(Yes, we now have a device that <em>wakes up when it senses your heartbeat</em>. So, you know, that’s good news for Skynet.)</p>
<p>The Blue HR so far hasn’t displayed any crazy runaway heart rate monitor issues, where you all of a sudden have a heart rate of 300 BPM—it’s been all sane results.</p>
<p>If you have an iPhone 4S and you’re looking for a heart rate strap, I recommend you check out the Blue HR.</p>
<p>[<strong>Disclosure:</strong> I purchased the Blue HR with my own money and receive no compensation for this post.]</p>
Movie roundup, part 182012-01-09T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2012/01/movie-round-up/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://impawards.com/2011/drive.html"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/drive.jpg" alt="Drive poster" title="Drive poster" width="400" height="600" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Drive poster<br />Source: Internet Movie Poster Awards<br />Click image to visit source</div>
</div>
<p>[<em>All movie titles link to Rotten Tomatoes, so you can see what the people who get paid to write about movies think.</em>]</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/contagion_2011/">Contagion</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>A virus outbreak brings the world to the brink of collapse in a thriller sure to make each viewer run out and stock up on Purell. <em>Contagion</em> is fast-moving and taut with great turns by especially Matt Damon as a grief-stricken dad and Jude Law as an impressively revolting conspiracy theorist.</p>
<p>The off-putting thing about it is that if anything, it’s too sleek—the material really demands a grittier form instead of this beautifully wrought production.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it’s worth watching.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/drive_2011/">Drive</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>If you use the common heuristic of equating Ryan Gosling movie with date movie, you are making a big mistake. <em>Drive</em> is a Nicolas Winding Refn movie, like <em>Valhalla Rising</em> and <em>Bronson</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2011/05/movie-round-up/">which I review here</a>). This means it’s ultra-violent and strange with a psychotic lead character. So get any idea you may harbor about <em>Drive</em> being a “normal” movie right out of your head.</p>
<p>That being said, it looks like somebody sat down with Refn and said, “Look, your previous movies are really interesting. Great concepts. Great cinematography. Great acting. But seriously. You need to have some kind of plot that makes sense to people without masters degrees in literature.”</p>
<p>So <em>Drive</em> is a much more honed experience than Refn’s previous movies, but it’s still a bitter pill.</p>
<p>As to Gosling, he does a great job as the psychotic lead character.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/conan_the_barbarian_2011/">Conan the Barbarian:</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>I’m a sucker for sword-and-sorcery. “Oh, your film has a magician and a barbarian, you say? Count me in!” But even so, I was a bit perturbed they were making a new Conan movie. Because it’s not like it was <em>needed</em>. The ones we have did the job, especially the first one. And seriously, could there be a more thankless role than Conan? Schwarzenegger totally nailed it. How can you add anything? Wisely, I think, our current Conan doesn’t even try.</p>
<p>But the movie is actually not bad. Not good, per se, but not bad, either. There’s hacking, there’s slashing, there’s evil magic and there’s our favorite barbarian.</p>
<p>The plot is thin, the effects are sometimes <em>Star Trek: The Next Generation</em> bad (do rocks really bounce like mattresses?) and the acting is at best serviceable, apart from the evil wizard who is clearly having a blast with his role.</p>
<p>The Conan origin story was also annoying and unnecessary. <em>We already have one.</em> How about skipping that piece and just saying “this is the next installment in the saga?”</p>
<p>Be that as it may, there’s an evil (eeeeeeviiiil) wizard and Conan is the most barbarian of the barbarians so it’s two decent hours of popcorn munching.</p>
<p><em>CROM!</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fast_five/">Fast Five:</a> ☆☆☆☆☆</h3>
<p>I’ve seen <em>The Fast and the Furious</em> and the horrible <em>Tokyo Drift</em> sequel, so there was <em>no way in Hell</em> I was going to watch this. But then I saw it had a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, and, hey, it’s good to have an open mind and clearly this installment must be much better than the previous ones.</p>
<p>So.</p>
<p>I’m clearly new to this world.</p>
<p>I turned it off 20 minutes in. Really dumb people do absolutely preposterous things with cars, things that violate all the rules of gravity, velocity and mass. Again. While posing in muscle shirts looking all greasy, smarmy and smirky. Again.</p>
<p>If you’re a movie critic, if you actually get paid to supposedly know anything about movies, and you gave this piece of shit a thumbs up, you have officially failed at your job. All of you on the Rotten Tomatoes page who did so are now on The List. Your opinions mean nothing.</p>
<p>Seriously. What the hell.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hanna/">Hanna:</a> ★★★☆☆</h3>
<p>Visually impressive euro-thriller that borrows a lot of its feel from the Bourne series. The title character, played by the eerily fantastic Saoirse Ronan, is incredible to watch. Apart from that, it feels pretty generic. Very well made, though.</p>
<p>Fire up the popcorn maker.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009274-priest/">Priest:</a> ★★☆☆☆</h3>
<p>At the time of this writing, <em>Priest</em> has earned a horrific 17% at Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch. And I disagree. Yes, <em>Priest</em> is a very, very silly movie indeed—let’s get that out of the way—but it’s stylish and fast. Essentially, we’re talking about mashing up post-apocalypse movies, vampire horror movies, dystopian future movies, and westerns. Kind of like <em>Mad Max</em> meets <em>Resident Evil</em> meets <em>The Good, The Bad and The Ugly</em> with a sprinkle of <em>Blade Runner.</em></p>
<p>Fun stuff if you can switch off your brain.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bridesmaids_2011/">Bridesmaids:</a> ★★★★☆</h3>
<p>OK, I was expecting something raunchy but I was definitely not expecting this. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph put in pitch-perfect performances in this no-holds-barred comedy about the stresses an impending marriage puts on a friendship.</p>
<p>It is funny and beyond awkward. And raunchy. Sweet Jesus is it raunchy.</p>
<p>This is not a date movie, but it’s well worth watching. Just make sure the kids are asleep first.</p>
The dragon flies at night2011-12-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/12/the-dragon-flies-at-night/
<p>I was a pretty big metal head as a teenager, as I’ve <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/06/more-metal/">talked about before</a>. Because when you’re a pizza-faced teenage boy in a rural Swedish town where the sun never shines and you can’t get laid to save your life, metal <em>rules</em>. OK? Nothing will speak to your feelings like some guy in bondage leather with a voice like an air raid siren yelling about breaking the law.</p>
<p><em>Ahem.</em></p>
<p>Now, the industrial little town where I grew up didn’t have black people—it was a lily-White KKK wet dream. Seeing a black person when you went to big cities like Stockholm or Gothenburg was An Event.</p>
<p>Even American TV and movies didn’t help. Back in those days any black person who showed up in a movie or TV series was a white person with a serious tan. Remember the Cosbys?</p>
<p>So obviously I had no concept of there being a black culture in America.</p>
<p>I also liked hip-hop. Early ’80s hip-hop. As far as I was concerned—being an ignorant little punk who’d never been anywhere—hip-hop was pretty damn metal. Same concept, right? Angry young man spewing his anger into a mic. Tomayto tomah-to.</p>
<p>(Deciphering what the heck LL Cool J and Schooly D were on about was a fun exercise in forensic linguistics.)</p>
<p>Not knowing even about the existence of black culture, I of course assumed hip-hop worked the same as metal. Meaning it’s all an act. Sure, you have this guy up on a stage screaming about how the dragon <em>flies at NIIIIIIIIIIIGHT</em>, but when he gets off stage, he’s just a regular guy—albeit with a tragic haircut—who talks like everybody else, goes to the grocery store, and watches Bruce Willis movies. What happens on stage is an act, and that’s cool, because everybody’s in on the act.</p>
<p>Right. So I figured Schooly D gets off the stage, starts talking standard English and takes off his gold chain till the next concert. This was the logical conclusion to reach based on the limited evidence I had available.</p>
<p>And then <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/07/louisiana-to-missouri-via-tow-truck/">I ended up in Louisiana</a>. Turns out there are a lot of black people in Louisiana, and a lot of black culture. Which is not the same as white culture. No, really, it’s true.</p>
<p>This was brought home one hot, muggy morning in June. It was 7:30 a.m. I was on campus early for some reason, and saw a black guy swaggering down the sidewalk, rapping along to a tune on his WalkMan <em>loud as can possibly be</em>, something like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m that kind of N-Word</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Something something N-Word</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>N-Word something something, yo</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And I realized that, no, this is not the same as metal. LL Cool J keeps his gold chain and Kangol on at all times. Public Enemy are pissed off about The Man 24/7.</p>
<p>Which makes me a little sad that there’s no real metal culture where people talk about dragons and wizards <em>all the time</em> and never stop wearing their leathers.</p>
<p><em>The dragon flies at NIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.</em></p>
O Tannenbaum2011-12-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/12/o-tannenbaum/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/o-tannenbaum.jpg" alt="Shadow of the Christmas tree" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/o-tannenbaum-thumb.jpg" alt="Shadow of the Christmas tree" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">The Christmas tree throws a shadow in the late afternoon light.<br />Click image for larger version.</div>
<p>It’s December 27 and Christmas is over. I’ve enjoyed sitting by the tree.</p>
<p>Hope your Christmas-slash-holiday-of-choice-in-a-non-denominational-way was great as well.</p>
<p>There are 45 blog post drafts sitting in Dropbox and I’m <em>finally</em> making some progress on my novel. For the new year, there’ll be fewer drafts and more posts and this novel is going to get freaking done.</p>
<p>Onward and upward.</p>
Merry Christmas!2011-12-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/12/merry-christmas/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/phoebe-sleeping.jpg" alt="Phoebe the cat having a nice nap" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/phoebe-sleeping-thumb.jpg" alt="Phoebe the cat having a nice nap thumb" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Phoebe the cat enjoying a mellow Christmas. I will never be this relaxed.<br />Click image for larger version.</div>
<p>The winter solstice is upon us once again, and since Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday this year, it’s Caturday Catmas. Never let it be told I don’t observe tradition.</p>
<p>Joking aside, 2011 was a rough year both from a personal side, with a lot more sickness and stress about things I don’t care to discuss in a public forum than I’d have liked, and within society in general, where there was much, <em>much</em> too much generalized insanity and too many good people dying.</p>
<p>Let’s hope 2012 turns out better. But for now, during the dark times, we can at least relax, sit back and enjoy quiet time with family and friends. A breather.</p>
<p>Sit back. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly. Take another. Eat something delicious. Think about good things. Hug your loved ones.</p>
<p>Nobody is going to take care of you if you don’t.</p>
<p>As it’s Christmas, here’s one of my favorite seasonal songs: Robert Earl Keene’s <em>Merry Christmas from the Family</em>.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P37xPiRz1sg" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics"></div>
<p>His grin gets me every time.</p>
<p>Happy holidays, one and all.</p>
Clouds over a CostCo parking lot2011-12-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/12/clouds-over-costco/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/clouds-over-costco.jpg" alt="Clouds over a CostCo parking lot" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/clouds-over-costco-thumb.jpg" alt="Clouds over a CostCo parking lot thumb" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Clouds over a CostCo parking lot reflected in a car roof.<br />Click image for larger version.</div>
<p>Arizona has seen some rare rain storms this winter, bringing blessed days of The Great Light Box in the Sky and cool temperatures.</p>
<p>This of course lead to photography being committed. The image above was taken with an iPhone 4S and post-processed in Camera+.</p>
On azcentral.com outsourcing comments to Facebook2011-12-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/12/on-azcentral-outsourcing-comments-to-facebook/
<p><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/">Azcentral.com</a>, the online home of The Arizona Republic, has long harbored a comments section that’s a cesspool of barely literate insanity, rage and hate. The site has finally decided to do something about this state of affairs by … punting and moving its entire commenting system over to Facebook. Senior vice president Randy Lovely has written <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/11/30/20111130lovely1201-bar-raised-comments-azcentral.html">an editorial</a> that explains the wringing of hands <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> went through to arrive at the idea of outsourcing comments to Facebook. (It’s pretty much an open secret that the entire Gannett chain is moving comments to Facebook, but in the editorial Lovely makes it sound like the decision process was entirely internal to <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a>. Questioned on this in a <a href="http://live.azcentral.com/Event/azcentral_Facebook_comment_chat?Page=1">live chat about the decision</a>, Lovely stated <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> <a href="http://live.azcentral.com/Event/azcentral_Facebook_comment_chat/19468866">made the decision autonomously</a>. Which to me suggests an alarming lack of cooperation and coordination between Gannett’s properties; it’s hard to see a good reason for every property to reinvent the wheel.)</p>
<p>Before diving into why I think this is a bad idea, let me say that I understand the impulse. Once in a while I make the mistake of reading comments on <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> and then I want to take a long, hot shower and have a good cry. It’s awful. And that’s just the stuff that makes it through whatever filters are already in place. Whoever has to police the comments and remove the worst of them must be dead inside at this point. (Unknown savior, get in touch with me and I’ll buy you a beer. You and what’s left of your tattered soul have earned it.)</p>
<p>Outsourcing your comments to Facebook is also very tempting in that all it takes is some template coding and <em>badabing!</em> comment problem solved <em>for free!</em> No need to come up with any fancy coding or procedures yourself and whenever something goes sideways you can just blame Facebook. Sounds like a win-win.</p>
<p>(Going to Facebook for comments is a lot like the dark side of the force, when you think about it: faster and easier, not more powerful. There’s another way to solve the dingbat-commenter problem: Just turn off comments. <em>Boom!</em> Problem solved. But at the cost of lost page views. Which makes it a non-starter for an advertising-driven company.)</p>
<p>So, outsourcing comments to Facebook will most likely achieve the objective: There will be fewer comments, but those comments will be much less rancorous and insane. Fair enough. It won’t be perfect, as some of the more, let’s say motivated, dingbats will create fake Facebook accounts, but that process is tedious enough it will discourage the vast majority.</p>
<p>But the serious problem with punting like this is that <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> is putting itself one step further away from its commenters, who by definition are its most engaged customers. Facebook will have all the information about them, <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> will not. This is potentially a huge land mine. Guess what business Facebook is in? Selling advertising—the same business as <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a>. I don’t have an MBA, but it doesn’t seem like very smart business to give away access to your customers to a competitor. Do you think Facebook offers their commenting service for free out of the goodness of their hearts?</p>
<p>Another wrinkle is that if Facebook goes under (remember what a juggernaut MySpace was just a few years ago) those comments will disappear. <em>Poof</em>. Just gone.</p>
<p>And of course people who are Facebook refuseniks or have Facebook blocked will just be SOL.</p>
<p>But clearly these are acceptable trade-offs for <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a>. Which highlights the value it actually places on reader feedback: Not bloody much. Call me cynical, but if <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> really values the conversation with its customers like Lovely claims in his editorial, it would have put the resources in place to create a sustainable environment a long time ago. It can be done. Others have done it. But it takes resources and commitment. Anil Dash <a href="http://dashes.com/anil/2011/07/if-your-websites-full-of-assholes-its-your-fault.html">put together a great guide to creating a respectful community</a> with a somewhat inflammatory title. There are people on the Internet who can show you how to solve this problem without giving up your contact with your customers. but there’s no magic bullet—it takes significant resources.</p>
<p>It could of course be that <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> has been pining for a solution to its commenting problems, wistfully waiting for somebody to show it the way out of its morass so it can help the community the way it wants to but is unable to find a way to break through, much like a musical montage in an ’80s teen movie. Sad, in that case. And doubtful that one of the publishing giants in America just plain can’t find anybody who knows how to run an Internet community.</p>
<p>Which means it’s more likely <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> has been waiting for the problem to magically get solved by somebody else without having to spend any money.</p>
<p>From this decision it’s clear that—despite PR-speak to the contrary—<a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> isn’t interested in creating a community—it is interested in page views. One of the tenets of business in the modern era is to outsource everything but your core competencies. By shipping comments off to Facebook, <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> is tacitly acknowledging they are not something of value. Remember, you show your values by what you <em>do</em>, not by what you <em>say</em>. Without any inside information I’d guess this is why <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> has let the comment section devolve into its current turgid state while putting a minimum amount of resources on policing it. It’s simple economics. As John Gruber has said, hunting page views is a <a href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/07/27/news-site-design">corrupting revenue model</a>.</p>
<p>It would be refreshing if <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a> would admit to seeking to juice its bottom line—it’s not like it’s a secret Gannett is a publicly traded company with an eye for profit. Heck, it’s the law that a publicly traded company <em>has</em> to maximize shareholder value. Just get off the high horse and speak honestly about what you’re doing.</p>
<p>It would be great if legacy news publishing operations would start to view their readerships as a resource rather than a disruption to be minimized.</p>
Fixing technology education in K122011-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/12/fixing-technology-education-in-k12/
<p>Part of my job is helping students use computers at a university. A good university with very bright students. You know, the Cyber Generation, the Digital Natives.</p>
<p>Which they are, in the sense that they use technology every day and don’t fear it.</p>
<p>But they don’t understand technology in the same way fish don’t understand water.</p>
<p>Update Facebook? Got it! Send text messages at blistering speed? Got it! Write a term paper? Watch me type away in Word!</p>
<p>Where it falls apart is when they need to understand how computers actually work. Learning HTML is a great example of this. When you write HTML you’re interacting with a computer much more on the computer’s terms: You have to be exact and you have to follow a strict syntax. While not programming, per se, it’s the closest most of our students have ever come to it. It requires a different kind of thinking, an understanding of how a computer interprets commands.</p>
<p>For most of our students, something as innocuous to nerds as learning to write HTML is staring into the abyss. They have never experienced anything like it.</p>
<p>And why would they have? They were never taught to.</p>
<h3>The trouble with K12</h3>
<p>I’ve worked in K12s in both the U.S. and in Sweden, and from talking to people from other countries I feel pretty certain that my experience carries across at least the Western world: With some excellent exceptions, K12 teachers are not adept at technology. At all. (I’m not sure why this is and would love to find out so we can get at the root of the problem.)</p>
<p>When a school district spends a significant portion of its budget on technology, you tend to end up with a bunch of very expensive machines being used very poorly indeed. If a teacher can barely type emails in Outlook, how are you expecting that teacher to be able to convey the workings of a computer?</p>
<p>So our young people spend their K12 years barely being taught to use office software, usually the Microsoft Office suite. Word, PowerPoint and perhaps—if they’re lucky—some Excel. And they are taught the Office Suite poorly—Word is a typewriter with red squiggly lines and magical white-out and PowerPoint is a digital version of overhead slides.</p>
<p>The other stuff, Facebook and texting and whatnot, <em>they teach each other</em>. And they get really good at it, since it’s relevant to them. The Office Suite is a chore so they stick to what they are taught, which is very little but the basics.</p>
<h3>The trouble with the future</h3>
<p>K12 students won’t hit the job market for many years. In those intervening years, what will happen to technology? All we know is it changes at an exponential rate, so whatever specific software skills students pick up are <em>outdated by the time they are put to use</em>.</p>
<p>Which in itself is reason enough to teach strategies and core concepts instead of specific software package skills.</p>
<p>Unless current trends continue and our children end up scavenging for gasoline in a post-apocalyptic hellscape, the one thing we can be sure of is that they will lead an existence surrounded by technology and that their chances for gainful employment will depend on understanding and using technology.</p>
<h3>Pony up</h3>
<p>OK, things are screwed up. How about some solutions, Captain Smartypants?</p>
<p>If I were the secretary of education, I’d make the following changes:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>No computers until high school. In elementary and middle school, students need to learn to <em>read, write and think</em>. Computers are little help in that process. As a side effect, this would save school districts a tremendous amount of money that could be put to an infinite number of other needs, like, oh, having a nurse on staff in every school and serving students something besides pizza for lunch.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In high school, the first year has an introduction to computers class. It teaches how the machines actually work. Yes, this would include basic programming and basic computer theory. The key is to make students understand what happens when you click the button. You can’t get good at something you don’t understand.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>After the introductions are over, somebody who knows how to use computers effectively teaches strategies for efficiency. A computer is <em>not</em> a glorified typewriter with access to pictures of naked women.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>If we implemented a system like this we would be able to dedicate a lot of resources to other crucial areas of education <em>and</em> prepare our young people better for the future.</p>
<p>We need to at least have a serious discussion about this as a society.</p>
Book roundup, part two2011-11-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/11/book-roundup/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/morgan-cold-commands-cover.jpg" width="263" height="400" alt="Cold Commands cover" />
</div>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00338QF1E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00338QF1E">Sandman Slim, by Richard Kadrey:</a></strong> There are currently three Sandman Slim novels: <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00338QF1E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00338QF1E">Sandman Slim</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042FZVX0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0042FZVX0">Kill the Dead</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061714321/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0061714321">Aloha From Hell</a></em> (not available on Kindle, booh hiss). The trilogy is very even and covers the entire arc of the story so I’ll treat them as one in this review.</p>
<p><em>Sandman Slim</em> shares more than a little with Jim Butcher’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451457811/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0451457811">Dresden Files</a></em>: The world is full of ghosts and goblins, including angels, vampires and demons and there are some people who can see them and interact with them.</p>
<p>But if we were to put this in SAT terms, the <em>Dresden Files</em> are to <em>Sandman Slim</em> as Nightranger is to Slayer.</p>
<p>Same idea, but <em>Sandman Slim</em> is infinitely more profane, violent, boot-down-on-the-pedal and plain nutty.</p>
<p>The concept is that Sandman Slim, a.k.a. Stark, a.k.a. Wild Bill is a minor-league sorcerer and major-league wise-ass who is betrayed by his friends and sent to Hell. Yes, capital-H Hell. Where he survives for 11 years until he manages to escape. And now he’s back in (where else?) Los Angeles and hell-bent on getting revenge on the people who betrayed him.</p>
<p>Which is not easy when your enemies are much more powerful than you, you have no money and the Devil himself takes a personal interest.</p>
<p><em>Sandman Slim</em> is far from perfect fiction, but the plot moves like a rock shot from a rail gun and it’s deliciously bent and perverted.</p>
<p>My advice: Buy the novels but don’t read them until the next time you’re on an airplane. Time will fly like a lost soul.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FFW46S/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005FFW46S">Snuff, by Terry Pratchett:</a></strong> Pratchett’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld">Discworld</a> novels started out very funny and very silly indeed, but as he gets older, the novels are imparted more and more with the gravitas of a man who has given the state of the world a lot of thought. They are still couched in comedy able to make you laugh out loud all by yourself in an empty room—there really can’t be a higher compliment for a comedy writer, can there?—but with an ever-widening humanitarian streak.</p>
<p>Go read them all, including this one. We’d have to make up Terry Pratchett if he didn’t exist.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003F3FJZK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B003F3FJZK">The Cold Commands, by Richard K. Morgan:</a></strong> The follow-up to the highly successful <em>The Steel Remains</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2010/04/review-the-steel-remains/">my review here</a>), <em>The Cold Commands</em> continues the tale of Ringil Eskiath, greatest warrior the world has ever known, ostrasized and shunned for refusing to hide his homosexuality.</p>
<p>The novel is very much a direct continuation of <em>The Steel Remains</em> and Morgan rightfully makes little attempt to bring new readers up to speed, so start with <em>The Steel Remains</em>. If you like that, you will love <em>The Cold Commands</em>. More of the same, but with the world building done, so it’s all fast-moving plot with more black humor, cynicism, ultraviolence, drugs, strange perhaps-gods, and gay sex.</p>
<p><em>The Cold Commands</em> is best-of-breed noir fantasy.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XVN0WW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004XVN0WW">Reamde, by Neal Stephenson:</a></strong> Stephenson is, of course, a master of 1,000-page head-exploding fiction. In <em>Reamde</em> he diverts into writing what is essentially a straight-forward techno-thriller. Think a nerdier <em>Bourne Supremacy</em> with a World of Warcraft-like game as a central plot point.</p>
<p>And oh, the plot. Stephenson’s work usually consists of just enough plot to hang a series of interesting observations and sidebars, but <em>Reamde</em> is almost purely plot-driven, actually plot-driven to a fault. There is much—too much—derring-do, narrow escapes and harrowing violence, but at least for me it started to bog down in middle (remember, we’re talking 1,000 page brick, here) with a lot of things happening but very little <em>happening</em>.</p>
<p>After the brilliant <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2011/11/book-roundup/%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015DPXKI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0015DPXKI">Anathem</a></em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/11/review-anathem/">my review here</a>), <em>Reamde</em> is a pretty big let-down, but I can see why Stephenson wanted to branch out and try his hand at a different kind of writing.</p>
<p>That being said, this is definitely one to bring on your next long flight. Just don’t expect to have your mind blown. Guess we’ll have to wait for Stephenson’s next outing for that to happen.</p>
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MT5NT6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001MT5NT6">Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War, by William Manchester:</a></strong> Now mostly known as a great biographer, Manchester served as a Marine in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Thirty years later he finds himself haunted by nightmares and decides to go back and revisit the places where he fought and was wounded.</p>
<p>It’s a haunting journey as an older man confronts his younger self and his memories of war. Manchester is a great writer and observer and the battle scenes—or perhaps battle impressions is a better phrase—are vivid and disturbing, conveying the sheer horror of the conditions the soldiers endured.</p>
<p>I’m glad Manchester wrote this book.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W2UBYW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004W2UBYW">Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson:</a></strong> The brilliant John Siracusa has already said everything that needs to be said about this biography. Listen to the master take this book apart <a href="http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/42">on the Hypercritical podcast</a>.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XFYWC0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004XFYWC0">The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson:</a></strong> This is a wonderful book, charming and quirky, about what the author terms the “madness industry.” The book focuses on psychopaths and their detection, using that particular disturbance as an entryway into the history of modern psychiatry.</p>
<p>The book includes the man who conceived and designed the psychopath test, a death squad leader, scientologists and the man they’re trying to get released from a mental hospital and a strange hoax perpetrated on an international group of neurologists.</p>
<p>If you’re at all interested in the ways your brain can malfunction and the industry that exists to help (and profit), definitely read <em>The Psychopath Test</em>.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
More contrast, please2011-11-23T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/11/more-contrast-please/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/jbl-remote.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/jbl-remote-thumb.jpg" alt="JBL remote" width="300" height="451" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">JBL remote under kitchen floodlights.<br />Click for larger version.</div>
</div>
<p>I’d been looking for a small iPhone dock stereo for the bedroom for a while. Nothing fancy, just something to listen to podcasts and some background music while folding clothes or shaving. As you do, you know.</p>
<p>Doing the weekly rounds at CostCo, I saw they had the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Y3BFB8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B003Y3BFB8">JBL On Stage</a> (Amazon link) on sale for $60. The Amazon reviews were mostly positive so why not?</p>
<p>And the On Stage is just what the doctor ordered: a small, interestingly designed unit that pushes out just enough sound to be alright—kind of the underachieving little brother of a conference phone. Excellent value for the money and does the job.</p>
<p>But. You knew there’d be a but, right? I doubt JBL does random drug testing among their industrial designers. Because the remote is <em>low contrast.</em> Take a look at the picture. It’s a black remote with grey symbols on the keys. It looks nice, sure. Kind of high-end for a piece of plastic.</p>
<p>The On Stage is in my bedroom. Where I don’t have floodlights. So I can’t see which key on the remote does what. In anything but perfect lighting it’s a small slab of uniform black plastic.</p>
<p>Please, industrial designers, <em>white</em> on black for remotes in the future, please? It won’t look as cool in the studio, what with it being high contrast, but people won’t curse your names when they try to turn up the volume in their bedroom. Which sounds like a double entendre but isn’t.</p>
Cain and the Democratic conspiracy2011-11-09T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/11/cain-and-the-democratic-conspiracy/
<p>I rarely write topical posts, but the sad, delusional kabuki theater that is the Republican nomination process has been grating on my sanity for a while now, and Cain’s impressively delusional notion that the sexual harrassment accusations against him are part of a “Democrat Machine” <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/herman-cain-democrat-machine/story?id=14907611#.TrmzOyM5LFc">conspiracy</a> finally tripped my wire.</p>
<p>(Note the use of “Democrat” instead of “Democratic.” Somehow it’s a badge of honor for far-right Republicans to keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(phrase)">not using their opposition’s real name</a>. One day psychologists will sort out why they are so hell-bent on this kind of kindergarten behavior.)</p>
<p><em>Deep breath.</em></p>
<p>First off, I don’t know if the accusations are true or not, and neither does anybody but the accusers and Cain himself.</p>
<p>But Cain is an arrogant clown with his unworkable, unrealistic and underhanded 9-9-9 plan. That he’s a frontrunner for the post of President of the United States is like a bad Fellini movie.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact he’s such a clown that the White House would be <em>giddy</em> at the prospect of Obama facing him in the 2012 election. But they’re not giddy because they know there’s no way it’ll be Cain. The fix is in. Unless he gets caught walking naked down the street carrying the chopped-off head of a hooker, it’s Romney for the republicans in 2012 .</p>
<p>Why won’t it be Cain? Because Obama would stomp Cain like a bug. That’s just reality. Cain is a favorite of the ultra-right. He can’t turn around and make himself presentable to the middle of the political bell curve. The calculus is not difficult.</p>
<p>So, if this is a dirty tricks campaign, it’s a civil war. It’s the republican powers-that-be making sure the fix stays in.</p>
<p><em>If</em> it’s a dirty tricks campaign. Again, we don’t know.</p>
<p>And with that I’m putting my headphones back on and going back to my attempts at forgetting this whole debacle is happening at all…</p>
The shibboleth of style2011-10-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/10/the-shibboleth-of-style/
<p>Spelling and grammar in the English language is essentially a cruel hoax. Granted, <em>any</em> human-generated syntax is counter-intuitive and weird. Just ask anybody who’s ever tried to learn a foreign language. Grammar most often can’t be approached logically: Some things are the way they are just because that’s the way they are.</p>
<p>For example, why is table (Tisch) a masculine word in German[^1]? There might be some deep psychological reason hidden in the German collective unconscious, but for the purpose of somebody learning the language, it’s just something you have to suck up and memorize. Have fun.</p>
<p>But English! Ah, English is the master language of weirdness, a lot of which stems from its history as an uneasy merge of German, French, Old Norse and its tortured use as a lingua franca around the world, where like a backpacker Eurailing the summer away it picked up more than one infection.</p>
<p>Latin can be blamed as well, since as the language of educated people since the fall of the Roman Empire, many fine, upstanding gentlemen with too much time on their hands have attempted to straitjacket English into Latin grammar.[^2]</p>
<p>After all, why go through the trouble of learning Latin without using it to make other people miserable?</p>
<p>So. English. Where rules and logic go to die.[^3]</p>
<p>Every self-respecting institution that communicates in writing operates according to a style guide. This is a Good Thing™ as it ensures common usage of terms which in turn increases clarity.</p>
<p>At work we operate under the <a href="http://www.apstylebook.com/">AP Stylebook</a>, arguably the most common style guide out there. Many newspaper articles you read follow AP style or some home-brewed adaptation.</p>
<p>AP style suffers from the same problem as English grammar: It has no logical consistency.</p>
<p>Unlike English, it doesn’t have a tortured past as an excuse.</p>
<p>As an example, last year to much fanfare the AP style overlords decreed the word “email” shall no longer be hyphenated. Yes, until recently if you wrote correct AP Style, you had to write “e-mail” even though nobody else on Earth did. But no longer! Huzza! We can write like everybody else in the world and still adhere to the One True Style!</p>
<p>So what about “e-book”? It just makes sense to change <em>all</em> the e-whatever words in one swoop, right?</p>
<p>This is why you are not an AP style overlord.</p>
<p>Well, this and your lack of a proper maniacal cackle.</p>
<p>Other e-words will be folded in at some point, maybe, if they are deemed worthy. You know, on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>Which is exactly the problem. Every decision being ad hoc means you can <em>never</em> reason out whether a particular word is hyphenated or whether a term is written as one word or two. It can’t be deduced. You <em>have</em> to look it up. And every year a few words change.</p>
<p>Which in my darker moments leads me to wonder how much of AP’s revenue comes from sales of the style guide.</p>
<p>Yes, yes, I know, English is a living language and is constantly evolving over time, blah blah. I’m not arguing against <em>that</em>. What I <em>am</em> arguing against is the lack of consistency.</p>
<p>What I really suspect is driving the Byzantine nature of the style guide is that it is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth">shibboleth</a>: If you can internalize the rules and keep up with them you have shown yourself to be in the club. It’s a waste of time. Not the style guide <em>itself</em> or the reason for its existence, but the angels-on-a-head-of-a-pin persnickety <em>illogic</em> of the damn thing.</p>
<p><em>Simplify, simplify.</em></p>
<p>[^1]: For that matter, why do nouns have genders in German and French in the first place? It’s a bit creepy when you think about it. Although the Germans win for having a neuter as well as male and female. Swedish also makes a strong showing in the confuse-the-foreigner league by having two noun forms <em>that have no semantic meaning.</em> You just have to memorize them for no particular reason.</p>
<p>[^2]: Educated people who were taught Latin and consequently had too much time on their hands are the reason why you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. Look it up.</p>
<p>[^3]: Yes, it’s easier in some other languages. Sweden and France, for instance, have institutions whose sole purpose is to decide what is correct in the language. These institutions publish dictionaries that are the Official Language Dictionaries. Scrabble arguments in those languages are easily resolved.</p>
Thank you, Steve Jobs2011-10-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/10/thank-you-steve-jobs/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea-with-ipad.jpg" alt="Girl with an iPad" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea-with-ipad-thumb.jpg" alt="Girl with an iPad" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Andrea with an iPad.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
<p>We lost a giant with the passing of Steve Jobs. Rest in Peace.</p>
<p>The picture above of my daughter entertaining herself with a—yes, magical—piece of technology would not have been possible without his vision and drive.</p>
<p>I hope it would have made him smile.</p>
<p>Thank you, Steve.</p>
Kindle 4 first impressions2011-10-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/10/kindle-4-first-impressions/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/kindlefront.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/kindlefront-thumb.jpg" alt="Kindle 4" title="Kindle 4" width="300" height="433" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Kindle 4. Image courtesy of Amazon.<br />Click to see larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>I bought a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051QVESA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0051QVESA">Kindle 4</a> (a.k.a. “Kindle no keyboard”, a.k.a. just “Kindle”—Amazon’s nomenclature regarding this device is a bit opaque. I’ll call it the Kindle 4.) Here are some impressions from a few days of heavy usage.</p>
<p>A definite improvement over the Kindle 3, but we’re talking evolution, not revolution. The Kindle 4 is slightly smaller, slightly lighter, feels less plastic-y, and of course doesn’t have that silly keyboard you never used anyway.</p>
<p>There are big wins apart from those things: First, it’s noticeably faster at things like accessing word definitions. (One of the many beauties of reading e-books is that it’s so easy to look up definitions that I do it constantly. It’s turning my vocabulary brobdingnagian. Holla!)</p>
<p>Second—and yes, I know this is the height of first world problems—Amazon changed the on/off switch to be a button instead of a slider. It makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>Third, the page forward and back buttons are smaller and more recessed, so there’s less chance of pushing them by accident. It’s a nice touch. (They’re still placed a bit awkwardly for big peasant hands, though—I wish they were a bit higher up.)</p>
<p>Finally, the screensavers are no longer semi-creepy woodcuts of dead people. Instead, they’re fine-arts photos of writing implements like fountain pens, typewriter keyboards and lead type. They look nice and blend well with the metallic-looking bezel.</p>
<p>On the downside, the page forward and back buttons still feel cheap. Now that the rest of the Kindle is nicer, that tacky feeling is more jarring. You do get used to it, but if there’s one thing I hope for the Kindle 5 or whatever it will be called when it comes out, it’s less ratty buttons.</p>
<p>But Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away. The Kindle 4 has no audio, so no more audio books. I guess Amazon discovered that people who want to listen to audio books usually listen to them on mp3 players or their cell phones instead of dragging around a slate with an e-ink screen. And without the larger audio file sizes to consider, Amazon did the obvious thing and cut the internal storage to 1.25 GB usable. Which is OK. Really. E-books are small.</p>
<p>If you already have a Kindle 3, should you get the Kindle 4? Maybe. It’s definitely nicer, but not a massive leap forward. Unless you’re like me and the sheer existence of the keyboard-to-nowhere annoys you and you look up a lot of word definitions, I’d put the money into books instead.</p>
<p>I sprung for the non-advertising-supported Kindle, since my sanity is worth more than $30. I expend a lot of time, effort and money to expose myself as little as possible to advertising, especially when it comes to my reading. I don’t want to read in a bazaar with people yelling at me.</p>
<p>As a sidebar here, Kindle OS 4 defaults to only doing the page refresh every five or so page turns, which reduces the page-turn flash frequency at the expense of the text getting grayer. This to me seems non-optimal. My brain already filters the page-turn flashes. I don’t see them. If they only happen every once in a while I might notice them. And I don’t cotton to reducing the text quality. There’s a Kindle OS 4.0.1 update which lets you turn this silliness off. Make sure to update.</p>
<p>But the Kindle 4 wasn’t the only announcement Amazon made. There’s also the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005890G8Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005890G8Y">Kindle Touch</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051VVOB2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0051VVOB2">Kindle Fire</a> coming down the pike. I’m not at all interested in the Touch since—<em>sing it with me, kids</em>—the screen will become smudged.</p>
<p><em>Aaaaaarrrrgghhh. Fingerprints on screen bad! Hulk smash!</em></p>
<p>Another wrinkle in the purchasing calculus is the base Kindle no longer has 3G support—if you rely on that, you’ll have to step up to the Kindle Touch or Kindle Fire or get a previous generation Kindle Keyboard 3G (née Kindle 3 3G. Kindle names are fun).</p>
<p>The Kindle Fire definitely has my interest, but since I already pawned my future to purchase two iPads, I can’t really justify getting one. But I’m pretty sure Amazon has a hit on their hands. From what I’ve seen so far, it looks like a great media consumption device at a very, very nice price point. If you have plenty of disposable income and no idea what to give somebody for Christmas this year, the Kindle Fire is your answer.</p>
<p>(Idiot “analysts” of the Internet: Shut your ignorant yap holes. The Kindle Fire is not an “iPad killer.” The devices cover different markets with a small overlap. Just because they’re both tablets doesn’t mean they’re in direct competition. The difference in screen size between seven and ten inches is quite significant, and then there’s this little thing called “software.” You may want to look into it. Because on a tablet, the “software” is absolutely crucial for functionality and the “software” on the iPad and Kindle Fire are very, very different indeed. Remember how you kept calling the iPad a device only for media consumption? You were wrong about that. If you call the Kindle Fire a device only for media consumption you will be more right—but not entirely right. That’s partly because of the screen size and partly because Amazon have cunningly invested the Kindle Fire with easy access to all the digital media they sell and rent. As John Siracusa said on <a href="http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/31">an episode of the highly entertaining Hypercritical</a> before Amazon announced the Kindle Fire, “I can imagine the Amazon tablet mostly being a fancy color Kindle… a magical, colorful window through which you can give money to Amazon.” But stop it with the Highlanderism. Just like with cars, there can be more than one. No, really, the market is large enough to support more than one product. I know, I know. Sit down and take a deep breath while I fetch you a glass of water.)</p>
Why I’m all-in on FiveFingers2011-09-28T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/09/why-im-all-in-on-fivefingers/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/happy-fivefingers-family.jpg" alt="FiveFingers lineup" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/happy-fivefingers-family-thumb.jpg" alt="FiveFingers lineup" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">My happy FiveFinger family. From front left: Sprint, Trek LS, KomodoSport, KSO Trek.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
<h2>Why FiveFingers?</h2>
<p>I’m about as far from a tree-hugging hippie as you can get, but am nevertheless growing concerned with how divorced from physical reality we are as a culture. We are physical beings and what we do with our bodies affects everything about us: how we feel, how we act, how happy we are.</p>
<p>The Judeo-Christian tradition of a gulf of separation between body and mind may be one of the most toxic things we have to deal with. We are physical. When we eat, we consume chemicals our bodies convert to other chemicals which we then use for fuel. When we exercise, we excrete hormones which are used by our brains to affect our moods. Every thought we have is caused by chemicals. We, as living creatures, are the result of chemical reactions. Every thought and idea we have are the result of a soup of chemicals.</p>
<p>But we exist in a society where there’s much money to be made from denying that fact. There are pills that will fix you, pills you can buy which will stop the heartburn you get from eating the wrong foods and pills you can buy which will let you sleep even after you crash your body chemistry from staying up watching TV eating chips.</p>
<p>All you have to do is pay and you can not suffer the effects of bad decisions. Isn’t that great? Do what you know is wrong, pay some money and you don’t have to deal with the consequences!</p>
<p>So I’m trying to change things about the way I live my life. I don’t want to be a part of the hands-over-ears movement any more.</p>
<p>Habits, nutrition, exercise, everything I can, I’m changing it, in order to become less of a brain attached to a meat sack with Cheeto-stained fingers and more of a functioning human being.</p>
<p>(Did you know Cheetos aren’t made from cheese at all? Nope. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheetos">Corn and water extruded through a die</a> and then loaded with flavoring agents. Yummy.)</p>
<p>I’m learning (and especially re-learning) a lot doing this.</p>
<p>This post is about the physiology of feet, excitingly enough. <em>Feet?</em> Indeed, feet. See, your feet are miracles of engineering. Twenty-six bones, assorted tendons and muscles to keep you upright and moving. Your feet are the foundation of you as a phycial being.</p>
<p>So after a lot of thinking and reading, I have become one of those annoying guys with clown shoes. That’s right: <a href="http://vibramfivefingers.com/">FiveFingers</a>. Instead of soothing my midlife crisis with a sports car I’m self-medicating with shoes. I’m not sure if that means I win or lose, but it is what it is and I feel good about it.</p>
<p>There are sound physiological reason for wearing FiveFingers (or any kind of thin-soled shoe that lets your toes move): Encasing the marvelous structures that are your feet in shoes is like putting your arm in a cast: the muscles atrophy and problems develop.</p>
<p>If you have one handy whose parents won’t call the cops on you, take a look at the feet of a small child. Look at how their toes splay. They can wiggle their toes like you wiggle your fingers. Now take off your own shoes and socks and wiggle your own toes. Not such a pretty picture, is it?</p>
<p>Why does it matter? Because you evolved over the millennia to walk barefoot. Your back, your legs, even your neck depend on your feet being able to work as intended. Once the foundation of your entire bipedal existence goes out of whack, your whole body goes out of whack. Back pain, neck pain, knee problems. Not good times.</p>
<h2>The sole reason</h2>
<p>If there’s one thing my FiveFingers do for me, it’s that they make me <em>want to move</em>. In touch with the ground. The feeling is hard to communicate and yes, does feel like hippie crap even to me as I write this, but it’s there and it’s real.</p>
<p>If you lift weights, the <a href="http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Sprint-Mens.htm">Sprint</a> model is a delight: Being in direct contact with the ground improves your balance substantially. I can’t recommend them enough for strength training.</p>
<p>But there’s one problem: The FiveFingers have a thin sole. That’s their whole purpose, to let the toes do their thing. So if you take long walks or runs in the thinnest FiveFingers, your feet get torn up pretty badly until the point in time when you develop serious calluses. Enough blisters so you can’t walk. Or stand.</p>
<p>Which is obviously low on the fun scale.</p>
<p>To alleviate this, Vibram also makes FiveFingers with thicker soles, like the <a href="http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Komodo-Sport-Mens.htm">KomodoSport</a>. The company is walking a fine line between making the soles thick enough you don’t get all blistered up and enable you to walk on surfaces like gravel without pain, but still thin enough you can feel the ground and move your toes. In some cases I think they’ve crossed that line, creating a “normal” shoe with freaky toe pockets that serve little function. <em>Caveat emptor.</em> But of course, it’s personal preference.</p>
<h2>Getting started</h2>
<p>There’s no denying that walking in FiveFingers is <em>really</em> weird at first. Not to mention putting them on. At first, your toes are not used to fitting into pockets and you probably have poor toe control as well.</p>
<p>It’ll take some effort in the beginning. This is also one of the reasons most people recommend your first pair be one of the open ones like the Classics or Sprints. They’re way easier than the covered pairs to get into in the beginning. They’re also good starter shoes since they’re the thinnest and will give you the most bio-feedback on your gait.</p>
<p>See, if you’re like me with a history of long-distance running in padded shoes, you heel strike (land on the heel). As you will discover during your first walk in the FiveFingers, this is a really, really bad way to walk barefoot. You have to change your gait to land evenly on the feet, or even on the pads of the feet. This takes a long time—your entire body has to change a life-long habit.</p>
<p>Which brings up the other rule of switching to FiveFingers: <em>Take it easy.</em> Only wear them for a short walk or run the first time. Like, really short. Ten minutes. Then to the grocery store or whatnot. If it hurts, stop. If you force it you will probably injure yourself. <em>You’re changing the fundamentals of how you move and going back to how your body is supposed to do it, undoing a life time of bad habits.</em></p>
<p>As long as it feels OK, increase the time and length. After a while you’ll be able to wear them full-time.</p>
<p>Note that FiveFinger sizing is a bit odd <em>(like everything else about them, amirite?)</em> so you definitely want them fitted. Find a local store. To make it worse, different models are sized slightly differently, so unless you’re buying another pair of the same model, you’re going to need to check the size. And yes, this is very annoying.</p>
<h2>Ya freak</h2>
<p>So you’re wearing your FiveFingers and feeling good about life in general. One issue you’ll have to deal with is that you get questions about them. This is great if you happen to be a people person, not so great if you’re not. So there’s that to factor in.</p>
<p>And of course there’s the question of wearing them to work. I work at a university, so the dress code isn’t what you’d call uptight, but if you’re working some place where you might get pushback for your choice of footwear, it might make sense to wear FiveFingers on your own time and then get the thinnest possible loafers you can get away with for office wear. Still, more and more people are wearing them around and some models like the <a href="http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-KSO-Trek-Mens.htm">KSO Trek</a> and <a href="http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Trek-LS-Mens.htm">Trek LS</a> aren’t too outré.</p>
<p>Might be worth chancing it. After all, It takes a big man to yell at another man in a tie wearing black hobbit feet.</p>
Blade Runner keyboard2011-09-20T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/09/Blade-runner-keyboard/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/arrows.jpg" alt="I made your keyboard" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/arrows-thumb.jpg" alt="I made your keyboard" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Nexus 6, eh? I made your keyboard.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
<p>I’m what you’d call germ-conscious, so I wash my hands <em>all the time</em>. Really. All the time. Not Lady-MacBeth-all-the-time, sure, but often. My fingers are soft, pink, and lovely.</p>
<p>So how does my keyboard end up as grimy as a Detroit bus? And why that pattern around the arrow keys? I hit the keys, really; I don’t stroke the flat area like some kind of ink-stained pervert.</p>
<p>Oh, and Apple? Could we pretty please get a Bluetooth keyboard with full-sized inverted-T arrow keys and a keypad at some point? Thank you.</p>
Do not wake up2011-09-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/09/do-not-wake-up/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/donotwakeup.jpg" alt="Do not wake up" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/donotwakeup-thumb.jpg" alt="Do not wake up thumbnail" width="700" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">My daughter is not what you’d call a morning person.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
<p>As the photo above illustrates, my daughter is not growing up to be a morning person.</p>
<p>Having to get a child ready for school in the morning is not one of the highlights of being a parent… But hopefully selective amnesia will set in once she’s older.</p>
Book roundup, part one2011-09-14T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/09/book-roundup/
<h2>Non-fiction</h2>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028MBKVG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0028MBKVG">Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall</a>:</strong> Absolutely wonderful book about the strange people who become ultra runners, the reclusive Tarahumara tribe of Mexico (considered the greatest runners in the world), and why everything you know about running is wrong. As the book title says, we were born to run, and running was the weapon that allowed us to outlast the neanderthals.</p>
<p><em>Born to Run</em> also goes into some technical detail on why soft, comfortable shoes are the cause of the majority of running injuries. (<a href="http://vibramfivefingers.com/">Vibram FiveFingers</a> for the win!) If you’re at all interested in your health, or you just want a feel-good book, put this one on your list today.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EYTBNA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004EYTBNA">Violence: A Writer’s Guide, by Rory Miller</a>:</strong> Does what it says on the tin: A book written by a man intimately familiar with violence, sharing ways to write about violence convincingly and how violent characters think.</p>
<p>Lots of good information and advice for writers in a slim volume.</p>
<p>Recommended.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BD2V3I/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B002BD2V3I">Got Fight?, by Forrest Griffin</a>:</strong> Forrest Griffin is a top MMA fighter, a very funny guy, and quite possibly insane. <em>Got Fight?</em> is partly an autobiography and partly a collection of tips for successful living and fighting. And it’s hysterical. Griffin goes way out of his way to establish himself as a man’s man (how does he know he’s a man’s man? Because he’s been told repeatedly he’s not a ladies’ man.) Be that as it may, the book does a great job of making fun of the kind of overblown machismo so prevalent in MMA circles.</p>
<p>It’s coarse, full-throttled and very funny. For a man who revels in presenting himself a lunk-head hick, Griffin has a lot of good takes on life, like: “My philosophy on getting knocked out is that it renders you unconscious and numb, so why worry about it.”</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UYUP6M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B003UYUP6M">In the Plex, by Steven Levy</a>:</strong> Veteran tech journalist Steven Levy enjoyed unprecedented access inside Google for this book, and it shows. <em>Inside the Plex</em> is meaty, solidly written, and does an excellent job of explaining how Google works from a non-technical perspective, covering the rise of Google from humble beginnings at Stanford to the launch of Google Plus.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it looks like with his great access Levy got a touch of Stockholm Syndrome, especially when it comes to the sometimes-odd behavior of Page and Brin, who get a free pass as quirky geniuses. <em>Aw-schucks, those Montessori kids, what are you gonna do?</em> As to the adult supervisor Eric Schmidt, he is very loosely sketched—you get almost no sense of the man at all.</p>
<p>To Levy’s credit, he does cover some of Google’s ethical crises, like getting in bed with the Chinese government, but the entire book comes across a bit hagiographic.</p>
<p>Still, it’s a very interesting read and does help you understand better what makes Google tick. My main take-away is that the right lens to view Google through is to think of it as an artificial intelligence company. Pretty much all the company’s decisions make sense from that perspective.</p>
<p>Recommended.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UZDTG0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B002UZDTG0">Stalingrad, by Anthony Beevor</a>:</strong> Beevor certainly doesn’t lack ambition. <em>Stalingrad</em> is an intense, detailed examination of the Eastern Front during World War II, from the beginning of the war to the end of the siege of Stalingrad. It is erudite, fascinating, and depressing.</p>
<p>The Eastern Front was a complete nightmare for soldiers and civilians both, with both the Nazi and Communist regimes exhibiting breathtaking brutality and disregard for humanity. <em>Stalingrad</em> is page after page of crimes against humanity and authoritarian callousness that boggles the mind.</p>
<p>Even if you have some prior knowledge of the Eastern Front and World War II in general, the book’s sheer depth and breadth really brings home the unthinkable scope of the conflict.</p>
<p>Beevor’s coverage of the Eastern Front continues in his next book, <em>Berlin</em>.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031TZ9GM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0031TZ9GM">The Fall of Berlin 1945, by Anthony Beevor</a>:</strong> The Eastern Front from the end of the siege of Stalingrad to the end of the war, focusing on the fall of Berlin and the suffering of the German people as the Red Army raped and looted its way into the country, their suffering compounded by the Nazi leadership’s decision to fight on to the end largely so as many Germans as possible would die—the German people had betrayed Hitler and the Reich and thus deserved to be annihilated.</p>
<p>It’s a chilling read.</p>
<p>If <em>Stalingrad</em> was depressing, <em>Berlin</em> is soul-crushing. It’s hard to sit in your comfy chair and believe humans committed atrocities on this kind of industrial scale.</p>
<p>But depressing as <em>Stalingrad</em> and <em>Berlin</em> are, they are important books: We mustn’t forget the lessons of World War II. <em>Stalingrad</em> and <em>Berlin</em> should be required reading in any high school or college history class.</p>
<p>And thank your lucky stars every day you weren’t a Russian peasant during World War II.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00475AUWW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00475AUWW">The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield</a>:</strong> A writer writes about the things that keep you from writing. The lizard brain and fear are explored. A very brief, fast read with plenty of things to ponder not just for writing but for any creative endeavor.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UZ5JQ8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B002UZ5JQ8">A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never do Again, by David Foster Wallace</a>:</strong> A collection of essays on topics like a visit to the Kansas state fair and a week on a cruise ship. But the topics themselves don’t really matter—the wit and clarity Wallace brings is what keeps you hooked.</p>
<p><em>Supposedly Fun</em> is one of the best collections of his writing—cherish it.</p>
<p>David Foster Wallace was the literary giant of our generation. Rest in Peace.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OT8GTO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000OT8GTO">Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson</a>:</strong> I’m a huge cynic, so it’s impressive how this book managed to break through my defenses. It’s the true story of a mountain climber who after a failed attempt at scaling K2 finds himself in a tribal village where the children have little chance of escaping grinding poverty due to lack of education. The climber devotes his life to building schools in the poorest parts of Pakistan, fighting Western apathy, poverty, and nutjob Mullahs in the process.</p>
<p><em>Three Cups of Tea</em> rings very true, and illustrates potently how education is the best tool available to fight terrorism in the long run.</p>
<p>Uplifting and well worth your time.</p>
<p>Jon Krakauer wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XHVOW4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004XHVOW4">an investigative piece</a> challenging some of Mortensons statements and actions, and while it’s also a good read and does sour you a bit on Mortenson as a person, the basic ideas in <em>Three Cups of Tea</em> are still valid and important.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00354Y9ZU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00354Y9ZU">Linchpin, by Seth Godin</a>:</strong> Godin’s relentlessly upbeat style can be a bit hard to take, but <em>Linchpin</em> is an important book. Essentially, it’s about how—like anybody who’s been downsized after their job went to India or is now being performed by a computer—we were all lied to when told to get an education and work hard and things would work out. The book talks about how to become the kind of employee who is indispensable, i.e., a “linchpin,” the kind that can’t be outsourced.</p>
<p>Obviously, if there was a manual for becoming indispensable, we wouldn’t be in the trouble we’re in, so <em>Linchpin</em> discusses ways to think and act to become more valuable. It’s too handwavey, but poses a lot of important questions and provides some ideas for getting to a better place.</p>
<p>Well worth reading.</p>
<h2>Fiction</h2>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G60FUY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004G60FUY">The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan</a>:</strong> This fast-paced novel reboots the werewolf myth and ups the violence and sex quotient by a lot. In between the sex and the savagery, Duncan provides a nice almost meditation on what it means to be human and how our urges control and define us.</p>
<p>Recommended.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004N84VBO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004N84VBO">DEAD MECH, by Jake Bible</a>:</strong> Post-apocalyptic zombie survival horror. With mechs. Little else needs to be said, except that it’s a fast-moving page-turner.</p>
<p>For mindless fun, <em>DEAD MECH</em> is hard to beat. No, Faulkner it ain’t, but it’s exactly what you need for your next flight or vacation.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J4WLU0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004J4WLU0">Embassytown, by China Miéville</a>:</strong> I’m a big China Miéville fan, but was unable to finish this novel, since it just didn’t seem to be going anywhere.</p>
<p>The concept is—as Miéville fans expect and enjoy—utterly weird and confusing. In the far future, humanity has colonized large portions of space, travelling through something called the immer, which is essentially hyperspace. On one planet at the edges of known space lives a sentient species with two mouths who can not use symbols. They can only speak of concrete things, and thus have no concept of lies.</p>
<p>The Embassytown of the title is a small colony on this planet, existing in an air bubble, attempting to communicate with and make sense of these aliens who are off-the-charts weird.</p>
<p>So, great setup. But the novel itself seems like it’s four different novels, in none of which very much happens and there are few interesting characters. Could have been great if it had been tightened up.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it’s shock-full of very interesting ideas and it can be fun to spend some time having no clue what’s going on, but by the time I stopped reading it just seemed there wouldn’t be a pay-off.</p>
<p>Read Miéville’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NLKYQ0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001NLKYQ0">The City and the City</a></em> instead.</p>
<p>(<strong>DISCLOSURE:</strong> All links go to the Amazon Kindle store and are affiliate links. If you buy one of the books through a link here I get a tiny kickback from Amazon.)</p>
Even better burgers2011-09-10T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/09/even-better-burgers/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/P1020137-thumb.jpg" alt="Grill on fire" width="300" />
<div class="imgcaption">Yes, I have cleaned the grill since I took this picture.<br />
</div>
</div>
<p>I’ve written in the past about my great success in <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2010/05/i-have-reached-hamburger-nerdvana/">barbecuing the perfect burger</a>.</p>
<p>And now things have gotten even better. My dad shared a glorious, glorious tip with me recently: When making the patties, <em>add a touch of olive oil.</em> Yep. Simple as that. Just a little bit of olive oil.</p>
<p>It makes the burgers infinity-plus-one juicier.</p>
<p>To recap for new readers, do not under any circumstances purchase patties from the store. Make your own, and make them concave, like the burgers in the picture here. That way lies perfection.</p>
<p>Get the ground meat out, add a bit of olive oil, then form the meat into patties—nice and thick—and make sure to make the middle really thin so you don’t have to push down with the turner during grilling. Pushing down with the turner costs you grease, and the grease is what gives you the wonderful taste. The grease is your friend.</p>
<p><em>Buy good meat.</em> If you don’t have good meat to start with, nothing you do at the grill will save you.</p>
<p>The drawback of the added olive oil is that you will generate a lot of white smoke while grilling—like your grill has elected a new pope. But it’s worth it. Oh, so worth it.</p>
Death by PowerPoint2011-09-08T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/09/death-by-powerpoint/
<div class="imgright">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/interesting-man-powerpoint.jpg" alt="The world’s most interesting man on PowerPoint" width="300" />
</div>
<p>One of the biggest wastes of time and money in Corporate America is the crushing boredom of endless, pointless PowerPoint presentations.</p>
<p>How it ever became acceptable—expected, even—for a person to stand in a dim room and bore twenty other people to death while wasting their time by stretching out what would have taken 10 minutes without slides to an hour-long parade of needless details is something future sociologists will no doubt spend much time debating. But for right now, Death by PowerPoint is very real.</p>
<p>Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way.</p>
<p>Creating better presentations with more impact doesn’t depend on delving deep into the nooks and crannies of PowerPoint or Keynote to find the latest whiz-bang features, but rather on rethinking the way you conceive of the presentation.</p>
<p>If you can drop off a printout of your deck and it works just as well without you, you have not created a presentation. You have created a handout. If your audience can get your content without you there, ask yourself <em>why am I here?</em></p>
<p>Which is not to say the solution is to make your decks impenetrable messes that require your sherpa skills to navigate. The opposite is true.</p>
<p>Most of the times when I lecture, there is no PowerPoint involved. I’m quite capable of getting my point across without crutches, thank-you-very-much. But sometimes you have no choice—if the culture at your company is that it’s not a serious presentation without dim lights and the soothing whir of a projector, you’re going to have to break out PowerPoint (or Keynote, if you’re lucky. Working in PowerPoint makes me feel like the regional sales manager for a Chevy dealership; working in Keynote makes me feel like an artist.)</p>
<p>Decks serve two—and only two—purposes:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Highlight key points for visual learners and hopefully keep people’s interest. Sometimes you need a chart to illustrate a point; sometimes a topical image keeps people awake.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Help stay on task. The bullet points help you remember the points you’re going to cover.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Which is to say, I don’t put all or even most of the material in my decks. I’m there to talk about something I know; the slides are my map to remember the material and some visuals to aid understanding. <em>That’s all a deck should do.</em></p>
<p>But it’s not enough to build a sleek presentation. Now you have to practice it. Practice, practice, practice. I once saw a presentation where somebody had to help the presenter start PowerPoint. Really. That presentation was not off to a good start.</p>
<p>At a minimum you should know verbatim what you’re going to say for the first minute. Verbatim. Because the first minute is when you’re maximally nervous. Once you get up to speak, knowing exactly what you’re going to say is like having a huge snuggie blanket with you.</p>
<p>So, you have a great presentation and you’ve practiced it enough to make Steve Jobs envious. Now, if at all possible, run through it where you’re going to give the presentation. That room, that equipment. This is how you find out your clicker doesn’t work with the laptop in the boardroom <em>ahead of time</em>, that the ancient copy of PowerPoint on the presentation machine doesn’t have your fonts installed, that your gorgeous 16 by 9 layout gets squished by the steam-powered 4-by-3-only projector, and that the presentation machine doesn’t have an Internet connection so that website you are going to use to illustrate a crucial point might as well be on the moon. You find these things out <em>ahead of time.</em></p>
<div class="imgright">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321525655?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0321525655">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/presentation-zen-cover.png" alt="Presentation Zen Cover" width="300" />
</a>
<div class="imgcaption">Presentation Zen Cover.<br />Click to purchase at Amazon.
</div>
</div>
<p>There’s another reason PowerPoint culture is a time and money suck for corporate America: Presentations take a lot of time to build. In the best case scenario that time is spent honing the message and plotting out the arc of the presentation. (Yes, a good presentation has an arc, just like a good movie.) But in most cases that time is spent finding cheesy clip art and clicking on every single transition effect to find The One to Rule Them All. (Hint: Pick the least obtrusive transition and stick with it.)</p>
<p>One of the best books written on the subject is <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321525655?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0321525655">Presentation Zen</a></em> by Garr Reynolds.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be fair to either Reynolds or you to attempt to rip out his ideas from the context of the book—and his ideas do need a whole gorgeous book with plenty of examples to really come through—so I’m not going to do that here. Suffice it to say that if you create presentations, you <em>must</em> read this book. Yes, <em>must.</em></p>
<p>Your future audiences/hostages will thank you.</p>
<p>Happy presenting.</p>
The long democracy2011-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/09/the-long-democracy/
<p>America is spending a <em>lot</em> of money and blood exporting democracy to the rest of the world, no matter how reticent the particular country on the receiving end of that gift happens to be. What’s ironic about this is that the form of democracy being practiced in America isn’t exactly best-of-breed.</p>
<p>No, it isn’t. Hear me out.</p>
<p>Democracy is kind of a touchy-feely concept, and the Greek and Roman thinkers who influenced the Founders never quite got around to sitting down and formulating an end-all-be-all form of democracy, so there was quite a bit of making it up as you go when those very impressive men sat down to figure out how democracy should work in their new Republic.</p>
<p>Parenthetically, the idea embraced by some of the nuttier far-right hysterics that the Constitution was a revealed document from God instead of something hashed out by very smart, well-educated people who often disagreed with each other drives me up a wall.</p>
<p>What the Founders were sure of was that the Republic wouldn’t be a kingdom like England. No, no, it would be a people’s democracy. As long as those people were white and male. Obviously.</p>
<p>It took a while and a lot of strife, but we finally ended up with one person, one vote for every citizen. So that’s a huge win.</p>
<p>One of the striking things about democracy as practiced in America is that it shows its roots very clearly: designed to work well in small settlements where everybody knew everybody else and there was little long-distance communication. There are scaling problems, to say the least. For instance, the patent silliness that is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)">Electoral College</a>.</p>
<p>But the biggest systemic problem is that in America you have to register to vote. Oh, you thought because you were a citizen and voting age, you could just stroll in to a voting station? No, no, no. That would be silly. You have to register. And why? So you can indicate which of the two (2) parties you’re going to vote for.</p>
<p>And here you were, thinking one of the prime tenets of democracy is that nobody knows who you voted for. Well, don’t worry. You do have privacy in the voting booth. But you still have to tell us who you’d like to vote for.</p>
<p>Well, technically, you don’t. You can register yourself as independent, meaning you’re the kind of cool cat who makes up your mind on the issues or whichever candidate has better teeth or whatnot, or you can go full-on subversive and vote <em>against</em> your preferred party’s candidate.</p>
<p>Which still doesn’t explain why you should have to explain your party preference at all. But, see, that’s so you can vote in the primaries.</p>
<p>In America, unlike most of the Western World, your party doesn’t bring forth a candidate for you to vote for or against. No, no, that would be silly. In America, your party <em>includes you</em> in the search for a candidate. Which is fantastic, because it means your party gets to spend two years accomplishing absolutely NOTHING while the candidates get vetted on the campaign trail by begging for votes in every miserable podunk town across this great land.</p>
<p>And in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_election">a lot of those states</a>, only those voters who indicated that candidate’s party when they registered are allowed to vote in the primaries.</p>
<p>This is the famous “base” and means Democratic candidates will lean left and Republican candidates will lean right during the primaries. After they get the nod, they will slew hard center for the real election. It’s a tricky political calculus to out-party the other candidates during primaries, and then turn centrist—a uniter, not a divider—during the real campaign.</p>
<p>You might say, hey, with 50 states, this sure sounds like it could get really drawn-out and tedious, and that a bunch of people in very small towns would have an inordinate amount of influence (<em>COUGH Iowa COUGH</em>). And you would be correct. The process takes years and gives people in small towns momentary rushes of power when the national media parachute in to interview them in their rustic, telegenic diners as they eat their all-American meals in their coveralls and baseball caps.</p>
<p>OK. This all seems like the voters across the country are doing the job the parties really should do for themselves—find a candidate?</p>
<p>And that is true. It makes the process an open one that takes years of slog and an obscene amount of money.</p>
<p>But the stump speeches do get pretty good after all that repetition and refinement.</p>
<p>Be that as it may, and perhaps you’re a bit cynical here mister narrator, what I’m wondering about is what happens to the voters who declared themselves independent?</p>
<p>An excellent question. Voters who declare themselves independent can’t vote in some of the primaries, so they don’t get any kind of choice in what candidates the parties end up presenting to the people.</p>
<p>So that—very long, very expensive—part of democracy is lost on independents. Oops.</p>
<p>But they do get to vote in the final election, so it’s not like they don’t have a choice. Unless choice means a chance to influence the candidate selections—the reason for having primaries to begin with—in which case they don’t have one.</p>
<p>But fear not: Even if you registered as a Republican, you can still vote Democratic in the election, or vice versa. It <em>is</em> a democracy, you know.</p>
Sports journalism is hurting democracy2011-08-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/08/sports-journalism-is-hurting-democracy/
<p>Sports journalism is the main reason political coverage in American media is in its current abysmal state. Why? Because most political correspondents <em>cover politics like they would cover sports</em>. The focus is on the game—what do the latest opinion polls say? Who is getting traction where? What did somebody off the street say about the candidate’s last statement?</p>
<p>Which, to speak frankly, has bugger-all to do with the actual end result of the political process: Legislation that affects the lives of real people every day.</p>
<p>For an example of the disconnect between voters and the press corps, take a look at this infographic from The Boston Globe contrasting the questions <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/politics/specials/tweets_for_obama/">asked by the press corps and those of Twitter users</a>. Notice how the press have a lot of questions about game mechanics while voters are interested in things like, well, jobs. You know, the stuff that actually affects their lives.</p>
<p>This has me screaming at my TV and newspaper every election season: If I were working for a campaign I would care deeply what some poll in Maine said about public impression of my candidate. Deeply. But I don’t work for a political campaign. I’m a voter. And so are 99.99% of the people reading the story. The people who care about the game are inside the campaign bus.</p>
<p>In the meantime, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the important matters—like what the candidates will do if they are elected for office—are crowded out by the minutiae of the race itself.</p>
<p>Sure, as a voter it’s a fun frisson to feel like an insider, no denying that. But what the current campaign coverage is doing is making us feel like insiders while we’re so far outside we can barely see the damn tent and it’s making us less informed about the issues that matter while we chew the scraps of insider info.</p>
<p>I care deeply—and sure hope there are many others like me—about what each candidate intends to do once they get into office. That is what decides how I’m going to cast my vote.</p>
<p>It’s like being breathlessly told 24% of Americans like the latest Kenny G. album. What do I care? I already have an opinion on Kenny G. What anybody else cares about him matters to Kenny G., not to me. Opinion polls like this are reporting on the game itself. They don’t help anybody. They hurt democracy.</p>
<p>In my more cynical moments I’m reminded of how stage magic works: Redirection. Get people to watch one thing while the important thing happens somewhere else.</p>
<p>I’m not a conspiracy theorist: I certainly don’t think the campaign-trail correspondents are in on some nefarious scheme—they’re doing their job the best way they can under immense pressure from both the campaigns and their employers—but I do think the campaigns are deploying a whole lot of stage magic, and I do think it’s affecting campaign coverage much more than it would if correspondents didn’t put on their football fan hats.</p>
<p>If you cover politics, please don’t play the game and don’t get caught up in the adrenaline rush that is the inside of the bus. Focus on the candidates’ plans and personalities and leave the inside baseball for your memoirs.</p>
<p>I think this would do American democracy a world of good. It would also boost the public’s opinion of journalists. And as an extra bonus, there would be much less campaign coverage that’s nothing but noise.</p>
<p>I want to be informed, not entertained. Weird, I know.</p>
Lion and the angst of the greybeards2011-08-18T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/08/lion-and-the-angst-of-the-greybeards/
<p>The [post-PC era][postpc] is upon us, with the iPad and iPhone the poster children for the new generation of devices.</p>
<p>Since the release of the iPad there’s been a relentless spew of angst and doom from the greybeards of the computing world. I’m not going to link to any examples here—you’ve already read them. And if you haven’t, pat yourself on the back for your excellent choice of Internet reading material and your wise use of your time.</p>
<p>The doom-and-gloom argument boils down to iOS—the operating system that powers iPads and iPhones—being “closed.” The word “draconian” also gets bandied about a lot, cheapening a very strong word. Seriously, look up the <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/draconian">etymology</a>. What Apple is doing can only be called draconian if they start chopping off heads. Damn nerd hysteria.</p>
<p>Draconian or not, iOS is indeed closed in many ways—you find and install applications from the App Store, and those applications have to be cleared by Apple. Developers can only use approved APIs (Application Programming Interfaces—the ways an application calls on the operating system to perform tasks like drawing on the screen and opening files).</p>
<p>According to the biggest hysterics this will lead to a future of McDonalds computing, where everybody drools as they stroke their devices while their spines are crushed under the cruel boot heel of Apple. In short, the argument goes, if you can’t take apart the computer and study how it works, you’ll never learn how to properly use it or how to create new computers.</p>
<p><em>Oooh, the future is scary. We will all wallow in ignorance.</em></p>
<p>Two things about this line of reasoning drive me bonkers:</p>
<p>First, we still have “real” computers for those interested in the machines for their own sake. As a matter of fact, you must use a “real” computer to create software for the iPad and iPhone. That’s where that particular learning and experimentation happens.</p>
<p>Second, and please read this slowly: <em>the vast majority of people are not nerds.</em> Most people do not give two bits about gadgets and technology.</p>
<p>I know, I know, sit down and fan your face for a bit. What the vast majority of human beings on the planet care about when it comes to gadgetry is what they can do with it. If it solves a problem or makes a task easier, they care. If it has a double-entropic flux capacitor, they could not give less of a crap.</p>
<p>The canonical example of nerd thinking is the original Slashdot take <a href="http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iPod">on the iPod</a> when it was first released: “No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.”</p>
<p>Single-entropic flux capacitor. What idiot could possibly want this?</p>
<p>This is why Apple are selling devices hand over fist: they enable people to accomplish something they care about. And they let people do what they want <em>with less fear.</em></p>
<p>Why is fear so important? Simple. Here’s what a lot of nerds don’t want to understand: Normal people live in fear of their computers. They do not enjoy using them. What happened to that file I worked so hard on? Why won’t it print? Did I get a virus? Can I trust this website? Why did my computer just crash?</p>
<p>This is the prime reason the iPad is such a hot ticket. Want an application? You don’t have to google around to find it. Just go to the App Store. Boom. It’s been vetted. It won’t steal your credit card number. It will work. Did some work on a document? Launch the app again, and there’s your document. <em>It does what you think it will.</em></p>
<p>(I’m not saying the App Store is perfect and that it doesn’t get gamed, but compared to the alternatives, it’s a joy to use. Fear-free app purchasing. The importance of that can’t be overstated.)</p>
<p>Lots of nerds refuse to accept this fact: Normal human beings don’t understand things like file systems. No matter how many times you explain them, the concept is weird and alien. This is not because those people are stupid, it’s because <em>they don’t care about how the computer works</em>. Which of course is completely alien to nerds. How could you not want to learn all there is to know about this beautiful, complex system? Here’s the newsflash: Normal people look at this beautiful, complex system and shiver in fear and confusion.</p>
<p>If you’re a nerd, one of the best things you can do for yourself to gain some understanding of this is to volunteer at your favorite charity. Do some tech support there. Learn how people who don’t read <a href="http://slashdot.org/">slashdot</a> see computers. After you have a couple of stiff drinks, uncurl from fetal position and wipe the tears from your eyes, congratulations, you now understand why Apple is selling a gazillion iPads.</p>
<p>The reason I’m writing this now is that the same tired thinking is causing a furor about the release of <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/">Mac OS X Lion</a>. Apple is—<em>gasp</em>—bringing the most successful pieces of its most successful product ever back to the desktop? My word! That’s crazy! My Mac won’t be a “real” computer anymore! Draconian control! <em>Argle!</em></p>
<p>Let it be said: I’d be the first to ditch the Mac if I couldn’t use it the way I want to anymore. But that’s not what Apple is doing, and the histrionics are really grating and hard to understand. (Well, apart from page views. You do get lots of juicy page views from writing smack about Apple. You lose your soul, but you get page views. For some people that seems to be a fair trade.)</p>
<p>If I were to venture into some pop psychology—hey, I minored in psych so I’m qualified—I’d say there are two things happening: First, it’s a sense of betrayal about Apple’s success. If you were into Macs in the ’90s, you were part of the Rebel Alliance. You were Thinking Different(-ly, dammit, different<em>ly</em>). You were a free thinker.</p>
<p>(When I toiled at the Apple Store back in 2001, I encountered some of the scariest fanatics I’ve ever seen—people who had wrapped their whole sense of self in with their usage of Apple products. Interestingly, the most fanatical also tended to be the least technical. I could never figure it out.)</p>
<p>And now Apple is the Empire, releasing products the masses want and making money hand over fist.</p>
<p>There’s this charming delusion common to people who got into Apple before the return of Steve Jobs that Apple was purity and light, not at all interested in making money or selling to anybody but the faithful. That’s revisionist hogwash, of course: Apple’s always been a controlling and paranoid company.</p>
<p>The second thing is that Apple is—again, <em>gasp</em>—changing the fundamentals of human-computer interaction. I can’t control where the files are saved? It saves them for me whenever it wants? I’m supposed to gesture at the damn thing?</p>
<p>The knee-jerk reaction to this is that Apple are “dumbing things down.” Which they are, in the same sense that using a GUI instead of a terminal is “dumbing things down.” You know, just like how the UNIX and DOS greybeards detested the Mac when it first came out. Remember the scorn about “MacInToy” and “MacInTrash”?</p>
<p>I even met a guy way back in the day who considered that you could install a SCSI card without having to toggle DIP switches to get it to work a design <em>defect</em>. He needed his control over the DIP switches. He also probably needed meds. But he was part of the nerd Weltanshauung at the time.</p>
<p>(For the young-uns out there, be happy you don’t know from SCSI and DIP switches. The time out of my life I’ll never get back figuring out how to properly set up my SCSI chains… This scanner must be first on the chain; this hard drive needs an external terminator if you want it last on the chain. And, hell, system extension conflict troubleshooting. It’s like a bad joke now. Seriously, it was uphill to and from school back then. Sure, it built character, but it was a pretty poor excuse for technology.)</p>
<p>Technology got more abstracted until these very same greybeards (who were still blackbeards back then) got comfortable with it. This was called “improvement.” And then those greybeards spent a ton of time mastering the machine at that level of abstraction. (Oooh, I can drag a window.) And now the very same company that made computers understandable for them is widening the reach of computers by increasing the abstractions so they become useful for more people, which is greeted with “draconian control dumbing things down <em>argle</em> I hate getting old.”</p>
<p>It’s all right. We’re all getting older and change is hard. Just don’t assume there’s some nefarious scheme and personal betrayal behind Apple trying to make technology more useful for people who aren’t nerds.</p>
<p>Enjoy being on this ride. Relax. We’re heading to a good place.</p>
<p>[postpc]: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_computer#">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_computer#</a> Post-PC_operating_systems</p>
Web publishing made easy2011-08-10T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/08/web-publishing-made-easy/
<p>It used to be, publishing your content on the Web was technically challenging. If you weren’t a pretty hardcore nerd, you needed one to help you out, and you needed to be willing to cope with a lot of tsuris.</p>
<p>These days, it’s easy. Most Web hosts offer one-click installs that perform the twiddly bits of installing blog software like WordPress and then WordPress allows you to do almost anything you need from inside your Web browser. Easy-peasy, right?</p>
<p>The problem is the hackers, scammers, and general scumbags who haunt the Internet. As soon as you hoist a website, it becomes a target for miscreants. Even blogs nobody reads are attack targets. Loathsome people from all over the world want to take over your site and use it for link farming, spamming, spreading malware, and Lord knows what else. The solution is the same as with any software: You have to keep updating it as patches come out and keep an eye on your logs for suspicious activity.</p>
<p>Which very few people do.</p>
<p>So if you want to publish on the Internet, you need to ask yourself: Do I really want to take on the responsibility of updating my software myself? Do I really want to have to keep looking over my shoulder for hoodlums?</p>
<p>This is a lot like when your child wants a puppy and swears he’ll take it for walks <em>every day! I swear!</em> Think about it. Are you really going to be spending the time to apply patches and stay informed of security issues? If not, you paint a big fat target on your back for hackers and their ilk. It really, really sucks when you lose content you’ve sweated over because some tool wants to share the joys of his V1AGRA shop with the world.</p>
<p>If the answer is <em>no</em>—as it is for most people if they’re honest—you <em>should not get a Web hosting account.</em> Just don’t. Sooner or later, pain will find you.</p>
<p>Pain like getting an email from a reader that your site is just showing a blank page all of a sudden. Pain like installing a really cool plugin that will integrate your social-media-brand-awareness-seo and finding you can no longer log in to enter content on your site. Pain that will take many hours of tech support calls to sort out.</p>
<p>Instead, use one of the fire-and-forget services that have sprung up all over the Web. <a href="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress</a>, <a href="http://tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, <a href="http://squarespace.com/">SquareSpace</a> et al provide built-in platoons of nerds who get paid to worry about all the geeky stuff. They update the software whenever exploits are found. They back up your data. They worry about the hackers. You only worry about creating content—the reason you wanted a site in the first place.</p>
<p>As to which one of the services is right for you, that’s a question only you can answer. Check them all out. Kick the tires. Do some googling.</p>
<p>Granted, you lose some flexibility going with a hosted system, but chances are if you’re the kind of person who gets sweaty palms at the thought of updating your content management system, you don’t need the flexibility anyway. Think of it as buying a Hummer just on the off-chance you’ll need to go off-road to take on an invasion of crazed Jihadists. You know what? It’s not going to happen. And if it <em>did</em> happen, you’d have forgotten to fill the tank anyway, so the Hummer wouldn’t help. But, to stretch the analogy past breaking, one of the many beautiful things about the Internet is that if you buy a Prius and decide, dammit, the Jihadists showed up and you <em>do</em> need the Hummer, you are not SOL—moving Web hosts and taking your data with you is a slightly annoying but completely doable exercise (albeit one which will involve a nerd or at least some calls to tech support. Nevertheless, doable). All of a sudden, there you are in your Hummer, ready to take on the world.</p>
<p>So if you have an urge to publish your content on the Web, go with a hosted solution that will allow you to get your content out there without worrying about the technical stuff. At some point you may decide to go with a more flexible solution. In that case, you can take your content with you. In the meantime, you’ve focused on telling your story to the world instead of spending late nights fighting technology.</p>
How to create an e-book2011-08-04T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/08/how-to-create-an-e-book/
<p>If you’re looking to create an e-book, the Internet is eerily void of good advice. Mostly you end up scrounging details from more-or-less sketchy forum posts and spend your time on trial and error. Wax on, wax off. It’s a lot like building websites back in ’97: the tools are primitive and the platforms you target—Adobe Digital Editions, iBooks, Kindle, Nook, etc. etc. etc. all have enough unique rendering glitches and oddities to make you sniff glue.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t have to be that way.</p>
<p>The best way to start is to buy Elizabeth Castro’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321734688/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0321734688">EPUB Straight to the Point</a></em>. She does a wonderful job of walking you through converting Word (<em>shudder</em> and InDesign documents to ePub format, and then how to mop up after that process. And mop you shall, as InDesign and Word both take a … let’s say … naïve approach to e-books.</p>
<p>If I’d read her guide from the start my own process would have been infinitely less painful, so do yourself a favor and get it.</p>
<p>The ePub format is readable by every major e-book reader apart from the Kindle. The good news is that the .mobi format the Kindle supports is for our purposes a subset of the ePub format, so it’s easy to go from ePub to .mobi. We’ll look at how later on in this piece.</p>
<h2>Simplify, simplify</h2>
<p>When it comes to ePub, you have several vendors, including Adobe with its detestable Digital Editions (the Internet Explorer of e-book readers), Barnes and Noble, Sony, and others. In order to keep from going insane, I’ve decided to focus on Apple’s iBooks and the Kindle, since Apple has good volume in its store and pleasingly are trying to drag the ePub format toward the future kicking and screaming, and Amazon, let’s face it, is the 800 lb. gorilla when it comes to e-books. If my stuff looks and works well on those platforms, I’m happy. Far as I’m concerned, it’s up to Barnes and Noble, Sony, Adobe et al. to make their e-book readers not act like trust-fund hippies.</p>
<p>Your mileage may vary.</p>
<h2>The tools you reach for first and why you shouldn’t</h2>
<p>There are three kind of standard entry points to creating an e-book: Make the book in InDesign, Pages, or (again, <em>shudder</em>) Word and then convert to ePub. Badabim. But using a desktop publishing or word processing app to create an e-book is like using a hammer to knead bread. Sure, you <em>could</em> if you had to, but it’s the wrong tool for the job. Most of the raw power of InDesign is completely wasted on an e-book; as a matter of fact, you have to actively go against the grain of how InDesign wants to work in order to create an e-book. (This is not a slam against InDesign—I love it. It’s just not an e-book creator, and trying to make it act like one is … unpleasant.)</p>
<p>To make your ePub look good, you will then need to go in and edit the HTML and CSS a bit by hand, as Castro shows in her book. HTML and CSS? Ah. Indeed. An ePub document is—and read the next bit slowly; it took way too long for the token to drop for me—<em>a website</em>.</p>
<p>A special kind of website, sure, but still a website. Which means you should use Web-building tools to make the e-book. Now you’re using a tool suited for the job and your e-book creation process is infinity plus one easier.</p>
<p>This also means that you need basic Web design skills to create an e-book. Not advanced Web design skills, just a basic understanding of HTML and CSS.</p>
<p>So far I’ve only been able to find one tool that provides HTML editing together with the plumbing to insert the various housekeeping files the ePub format requires: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/sigil/">Sigil</a>. This free tool lets you preview your book and also edit the HTML and CSS. Nice. It’s is a very young project and a bit rough around the edges, but eminently usable. And pretty much required even if all you want to do is edit some CSS.</p>
<p>(Since an ePub is a zipped website, you could unzip the ePub, make your edits in any text editor, and then re-zip it. This gets annoying fast.)</p>
<h2>Converting from ePub to Kindle format</h2>
<p>Once you have an ePub file all shiny and good to go, it’s time to convert to .mobi for the Kindle. Amazon provides tools to do this for you: the dynamic duo of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621">Kindle Previewer and KindleGen</a>.</p>
<p>The Kindle Previewer puts a simulated Kindle on your desktop, so you can open books and interact with them just like you would on a Kindle. You can even open ePubs with it and it will convert them on the fly. Nice. The KindleGen command-line application lets you convert ePubs and some other formats into .mobi. I strongly suspect it’s what Kindle Previewer uses under the hood to convert ePubs on the fly.</p>
<p>Finalizing e-books is a matter of endless repetition—using Kindle Previewer lets you skip the step of copying the file to your Kindle after each revision. The time savings add up quickly.</p>
<p>KindleGen and Kindle Previewer are nice tools, with one major caveat: table of contents don’t get converted. Which means you don’t get the nice status bar with chapters at the bottom of the screen, and you can’t use the five-way clicker to jump between chapters. This will not do. Supposedly you can tweak your ePubs so KindleGen understands your table of contents, but for me it was an exercise in frustration, and one you don’t have to undertake. That’s right! Time for more free software.</p>
<p><a href="http://calibre-ebook.com/">Calibre</a> is the big-daddy kitchen sink utility for e-book management. It is also quite horrifying to look at, but will get the job done. Among its many, many features is the ability to convert between e-book formats. If you load in your ePub and convert it to .mobi, Calibre is smart enough to figure out the table of contents. Beautiful. Load the resulting .mobi into Kindle Previewer and check it out. And then, rinse and repeat: Edit the ePub, convert in Calibre, load in Kindle Previewer.</p>
<p>A bonus of this workflow is that your ePub and .mobi versions are in sync. When I first started out I maintained two InDesign documents: one for ePub and one for Kindle. Down that path lies screaming madness.</p>
<p>(Why was I stupid enough to do such a thing? Because at the point in the process where you put in your cover image, InDesign has a stroke and refuses to show you your text anymore until you remove the cover image. Le sigh grande. I also had some notions of keeping my fancier formatting to the ePub version. Ah, youth.)</p>
<p>For completeness, and I’m planning on doing some experimentation with this, <a href="http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/index.html">Pandoc</a> looks very, very interesting and if it turns out to work the way it seems, would let me (angelic chorus) <em>author e-books in <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">Markdown</a></em>. That, my friend, would rock my freaking world.</p>
<h2>A warning about Pages</h2>
<p>Apple is touting Pages as a good solution for ePub creation. And it kind of is. <em>Except</em> that the HTML pages kicks out makes it impossible to convert to .mobi without major, major editing. Thanks, Apple, that was great. And, like InDesign and Word, you’re press-ganging an application into doing something it wasn’t designed to do.</p>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>If you think of an e-book as a very specialized website, your life will become much, much easier. And buy <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321734688/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0321734688">EPUB Straight to the Point</a></em>. It’s a life saver.</p>
<p>I’m very interested in hearing of any omissions or errors in this post. If you found some, please let me know. If you have a fantastic way to create e-books that will make me feel stupid about all this flailing around, I’m also all ears.</p>
The monster of Norway2011-07-27T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/07/the-monster-of-norway/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/candle_full.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/candle_thumb.jpg" alt="A candle for the victims of the despicable act in Norway" title="A candle for the victims of the despicable act in Norway" width="300" height="224" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">A candle for the victims of the despicable act in Norway.<br />Click for larger version.</div>
</div>
<p>It’s hard for any sane person to wrap their mind around the awful act in Norway—that a beast in the form of a man could calmly walk around and gun down defenseless youths.</p>
<p>The perpetrator himself does not deserve to be remembered or noticed. He is scum, and only interesting in that we need to know as much as possible about him for the purpose of improving our ability to detect people like him early and intervene before they get a chance to spread their terror. Apart from that, he deserves to die in prison, in obscurity.</p>
<p>From what I’ve been able to gather from the media, the response of the Norwegian people has been an inspiration to us all—grieving together with a calm dignity. I sincerely hope they’ll be able to heal together as a people while cherishing their memories of the victims.</p>
<p>Apart from the closeness between Norwegian and Swedish societies (open border, similar language and culture) one thing that chills me about this particular crime is that I went to the Swedish-equivalent youth camp (SSU, for those of you familiar with the Swedish political system.) of the one held annually on Utøya when I was in high school.</p>
<p>It was a fantastic week. Great memories. Just like I’m sure the one on Utøya was for the young men and women attending. And this swine decided to desecrate their joy of life. It’s hard to contain my rage and grief.</p>
<p>My thoughts are with Norway.</p>
Breaking the social back2011-07-21T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/07/breaking-the-social-back/
<p>I am not a social media expert. I do not leverage the synergies of the global conversation space through Web 2.0 to increase engagement with my brand # hashtag.</p>
<p>I use social media because I like to say things and hear what other people are saying. I know, I know: freak.</p>
<p>It’s been pretty nice and easy up till now, though: Twitter is for random thoughts and casual conversation, and Facebook is where my sister posts pictures of my niece and nephew—pictures I very much want to see. Facebook is what my family and old friends check, so that’s where a certain amount of my updates need to go if I want those people to see them.</p>
<p>So I hold my nose and use Facebook for that.</p>
<p>And now we have Google Plus. Which is like Facebook except not <em>explicitly</em> designed to make it easy for horny teenagers to hook up. (Incidentally, Facebook, when Google comes across as less creepy and privacy-invading than you do, you have a capital-P Problem.)</p>
<p>Google Plus is great. I really like it. The circles are a great concept for managing your privacy levels.</p>
<p>Here’s the problem, though: What am I supposed to share on Google Plus? My mental model for what goes on Facebook and what goes on Twitter works pretty well. Where does Google Plus fit?</p>
<p>If I could, I’d ditch Facebook in a heartbeat and move that activity over to Google Plus and then (sweet relief) my mental model would work again.</p>
<p>(Thanks, Facebook, for randomly making the iPhone app and the Web page switch over to your abominable Top News view, for turning chat back on even though I sure as hell didn’t ask you to do that, and for changing the privacy settings whenever Mark Zuckerberg has a bad bowel movement. Makes me love ya, it really does.)</p>
<p>But the odds of getting my family—and, by extension, their friends—to jump ship are about the same as finding John Boehner in the mosh pit at a Rage Against the Machine concert.</p>
<p>So at this point, what am I supposed to do with Google Plus? I’m not trying to be snarky or facetious here; I genuinely don’t know.</p>
<p>And yes, I’m completely aware of how whiny and first-world of a dilemma this post laments—<em>I have too many ways to share my thoughts and read what people I find interesting have to say, whaaaah!</em> But it is one of those minor annoyances that gets under my skin. The OCD mind needs clarity.</p>
The end of the artifact2011-07-15T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/07/the-end-of-the-artifact/
<p>After an agonizing wait, America has finally joined Europe in <a href="http://spotify.com/">Spotify</a> reality. American customers now have instant access to <em>essentially all published music</em>. That’s right. Go ahead and get a free account, then search for whatever obscure popular music you can think of. It’s probably in there. Even the stuff you overheard that annoying hipster in the coffee shop blather on about.</p>
<p>It’s hard to overstate how important this is. In Sweden, where the service originated, Spotify is ubiquitous. Hear about a new interesting band? Fire up Spotify and listen. Hosting a party? Make a Spotify playlist. Guest at a party where the music sucks? Log in to Spotify and play your own—obviously infinitely superior—playlist.</p>
<p>This is a huge turning point for the music business, and I’m deliriously happy Spotify somehow managed to talk the notoriously Luddite and short-sighted U.S. labels into licensing their content. (It’s not perfect, though. There are some frustrating region-licensing hangovers, where Spotify has the rights in Europe but not the U.S and vice versa, and of course some labels aren’t onboard.)</p>
<p>Not to get hyperbolic, but the only reasons to purchase a physical CD these days are because you enjoy them as artifacts or you have a serious case of audiophilia and must have lossless music. (And of course, if you’re into vinyl, go nuts with that.) Nothing wrong with that, of course. But unless those are the kinds of thing that floats your boat, and you purchase digital music from iTunes or Amazon, there’s really no reason to bother anymore. It’s all there, endless raindrops in the cloud.</p>
<p>Like I rhapsodized in my <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2011/01/a-panegyric-to-e-book-readers/">panegyric to e-book readers</a>, the future is freaking here. THE FUTURE IS HERE. We can have all music. And the artifacts around it, the jewel cases and discs, are now from the past.</p>
<p>Sure, your comfort level with jettisoning the physical aspects of your entertainment correlates with your age and nerditry—for many of my fellow Gen Xers, the mere idea of <em>not</em> having shelves of CDs and LPs is enough to cause a nervous breakdown. And that’s okay. Be your codger self. But for the next generation coming up, I can’t imagine them doing anything but roll their eyes at all those books and CDs cluttering up your house.</p>
<p>For the labels, just like the movie studios and book publishers, I really hope they all sit down in front of a mirror, take a deep breath, look themselves in the eye and have a nice daily affirmation: “I am not in the business of selling physical goods. I am not in the business of selling physical goods. And that’s ok. I’m good enough and I’m smart enough. I am not in the business of selling physical goods.”</p>
<p><em>I have almost every song in the world on the phone in my pocket.</em> How freaking cyber is that?</p>
Why We Get Fat2011-07-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/07/why-we-get-fat/
<p>###“You don’t get fat because you overeat, you overeat because you’re getting fat”</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WUYOQ6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B003WUYOQ6"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/why_we_get_fat_cover.jpg" alt="Why We Get Fat Cover" title="Why We Get Fat Cover" width="200" height="292" /></a></p>
</div>
<p>Gary Taubes’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WUYOQ6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B003WUYOQ6">Why We Get Fat</a></em> is a complete game changer when it comes to diet and nutrition. It’s the kind of book I want to buy a hundred of then start walking around my neighborhood and pushing them on people. Amazing.</p>
<p>Basically, everything we’ve been told about nutrition and the food pyramid is wrong. Why do we have an obesity epidemic? Refined flour and sugar. <em>Boom!</em> Carbohydrates lead to insulin secretion lead to the calories turning straight into fat. This is all amply documented in numerous studies, and Taubes does a good job making the biochemistry accessible to lay people.</p>
<p>Did I mention everybody should read this book?</p>
<p><em>Why We Get Fat</em> dovetails nicely with the paleo/primal scene spearheaded by several people including <a href="http://marksdailyapple.com/">Mark Sisson on his excellent site</a>. I’ve personally been kind of half-assedly attempting to eat and exercise more primally (if that’s a word) for several months now, and have lost about 25 pounds without going hungry or hating life, but <em>Why We Get Fat</em> is a huge kick in the ass. Carbs and sugar are <em>poison.</em> They make you fat and make you sick—type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, even cancer.</p>
<p>The addictive and ruinous qualities of sugar were also <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html">highlighted in the New York Times</a>, if you want to get some weight of authority behind the message.</p>
<p>Yes, he also addresses the FUD out there about heart attacks and liver damage that supposedly can ensue from a high-fat/low-carb diet. No single study has ever found a correlation. Ever. (If you know of one, please let me know.)</p>
<p>This isn’t to say Taubes is proposing some kind of magic pill. Getting your carbs down to a level where you lose fat means less than 100 grams of carbs per day. (Some people are more tolerant of carbs, which is the reason some people manage to stay reasonably lean even while consuming larger amounts. If like me you feel your waistband expanding a little each year, you and I are not those people.) Take a look at the nutrition labels next time you’re in the grocery store. Getting down to 100 grams per day requires serious diet adjustment.</p>
<p>For me, personally, it’s a huge mental shift to get out of the mind set of the food pyramid—it’s scarily ingrained.</p>
<p>Dinner’s easy: meat (usually chicken) and frozen veggies from CostCo. Done.</p>
<p>Breakfast is hard: I’ve eaten bread for breakfast my entire life. Trying to get used to boiled eggs and plain greek yogurt at this point. Also cut out orange juice since it’s loaded with sugar. OJ so good. Sad panda. But it’ll get better. Courage.</p>
<p>The biggie is lunch. There is no better delivery vehicle for cheese and ham than bread. Whole wheat, but still, too damn many carbs. And that’s when I bring my own lunch, which I usually do, what with being a massive cheapskate. Packing salads means making salads, means having even less time in the evening. But perhaps that’s the way it’ll have to be.</p>
<p>(If you eat out for lunch every day, do the math: say you eat normal fast food type stuff. About $8 for the meal with the drink. Say 20 work days per month. That’s $160 you could do something else with. Twelve months per year means $1,920. Add in your $4 per day at Starbucks, and you’re talking real money. But perhaps you’re of the landholding class and scoff at money issues. I’m not.)</p>
<p>I don’t even want to think about finding something low-carb to buy for lunch around where I work.</p>
<p>So there are challenges. It’s not a silver bullet. But the more I do it, the easier it gets, and the leaner I get.</p>
<p>Buy this book. Read it. <em>Seriously.</em> Or you’ll find me on your doorstep one day in a nice white shirt and tie, waving the book at you asking, “Have you heard the good news about low-carb?” with a dangerous gleam in my eyes.</p>
Productivity for people who don’t have ADD2011-06-05T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/06/productivity-for-people-who-dont-have-add/
<p>One of the things they don’t teach you in school is how to be a cubicle rat, aka “knowledge worker”, in the 21st century—how to cope with having four dotted-line bosses and three projects, all of which are top priority at the same time. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, both in order to help myself survive the blitzkrieg that is the modern workplace (<em>email goes bing!</em>) and also to help prepare my daughter for her future work life.</p>
<p>The way things are going with the world, she may very well end up scavenging for gasoline in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but unless that happens, her work life will no doubt be even more manic than mine is today. And thanks to the cancer on education that is No Child Left Behind, she won’t be prepared for it at all.</p>
<p>She’ll be an excellent test-taker, for what that’s worth. Which is nothing.</p>
<p>I don’t mean any kind of disrespect to teachers out there—we’ve been consistently impressed with my daughter’s teachers and school—but they’re fighting a losing battle against budget cuts and an insane focus on testing. How anybody can think the way to prepare our children for the future is to make them hate learning by turning them into answer-spewing robots is beyond me.</p>
<p>So, I’ve been doing lots of reading and thinking about productivity and efficiency and how to stay sane in the onslaught.</p>
<p>As a quick Google search will tell you, the Internet is positively groaning under the weight of articles on productivity. The problem is that most of them are actually not about productivity: they are articles on managing <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002518/">ADD</a>, thinly veiled as productivity tips.</p>
<p>This becomes tedious if you’re one of the three people on the Internet who don’t suffer from ADD. (I do have a mild case of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001926/">OCD</a>, sure, but that’s pretty much the anti-ADD.)</p>
<p>The knowledge worker today has two major problems. First: How do I figure out what to do <em>next</em>? There are a ton of things calling for my attention right now, so how do I know which one is the best one to take on right now?</p>
<p>The second problem is: How am I going to get people to leave me alone (<em>email goes bing!</em>) long enough for me to do the work?</p>
<p>Three books have been hugely influential for me as I try to figure this stuff out. One is well known; the two others deserve a wider audience.</p>
<p>(I’m also eagerly awaiting <a href="http://inboxzero.com/">Merlin Mann’s <em>Inbox Zero</em> book</a>, which should be fantastic. No pressure, Merlin.)</p>
<p>The first lesser-known text is the <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035FZM28/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B0035FZM28">Book of Five Rings</a></em>. It was written by Miyamato Musashi, a practicing samurai who lived to ripe old age, thus proving he knew a lot about samurai-ing. It’s a thoughtful meditation on achieving your goals, packaged in a slim volume. The Kindle version linked above costs a measly $0.89, so grab it.</p>
<p>Yes, there’s stuff in there that’s not particularly useful for the non-samurai cubicle dweller, like in which hand you should hold which sword, etc., so feel free to skim those bits. But what Musashi really explains, in a very Japanese way, is an attitude to overcoming obstacles and focusing your energies.</p>
<p>The main thing that’s stuck with me is: <strong>Let your fighting stance be your everyday stance.</strong></p>
<p>If you do things one way in training and another way when it’s real, you’re doing it wrong. For example, the kill rate for US Army soldiers in combat went way up when they switched from circles to human silhouettes for target practice. If you’re practicing on circles, but the real thing involves humans, the practice doesn’t transfer—basically, you’ve wasted your time.</p>
<p>In an office context, it means if you do things sloppy most of the time, you will have to struggle a lot more to do it correctly when it matters than if you’d maintained correct form while you practiced.</p>
<p>C.f., freaking email: Always write the same way. This makes the correct way easier—you’re always practicing it. No mental mode shift when you need to write something “for real.”</p>
<p>It’s worth thinking about—where do you practice one way and apply what you’ve trained another way? There’s waste to be culled in those incongruities.</p>
<p>The text you know, of course, is David Allen’s mighty <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0142000280">Getting Things Done</a></em>. (The link goes to the paperback, since for some insane reason it’s four dollars cheaper than the Kindle version. Grumble, grumble, idiot publishers…)</p>
<p>The huge breakthrough David Allen made in GTD was that our brains are terrible at dealing with the modern world. Your brain will wake you up at 2 a.m. to worry about remembering to add that slide to the PowerPoint deck for your presentation, but at 8 a.m. when you’re in your chair working, it sure has nothing to say about that slide. In a lot of ways your brain is like a crazy uncle—not there when you need him, but sure to annoy you at inopportune times.</p>
<p>Which is why you need to write stuff down. And then you must remember to look at the list where you wrote the things down. <em>That way your brain stops worrying about it.</em> If that PowerPoint slide issue is captured in your system and your brain knows it’s there, it’s not going to wake you up to worry. And it’s not going to remember it when you’re pumping gas or when you’re sitting down to watch a movie. <em>And</em> you’ll get a reminder when you’re sitting in your office wondering what to do next.</p>
<p><em>It’s beautiful.</em></p>
<p>Now, some people really take GTD <em>way, way too far</em> and turn it into some kind of religion. Don’t be that guy. Seriously, it’s a methodology to help direct your attention—there’s no inquisition. So don’t sweat it; find what works for you, then do it and don’t worry about having <a href="http://52tiger.net/floating-on-top-of-it-all-is-the-ubiquitous-capture-tool/">the right type of moleskine</a>.</p>
<p>If you’re one of the few people who haven’t already read GTD, please do. It’s very powerful. And then take from it what works for you. We’re all beautiful and unique snowflakes.</p>
<p>Then keep your system as simple as possible. This is where the ADD crew tends to go off the reservation with endless twiddling. It has to work when you’re under fire—if your system is so baroque it won’t hold up on your busiest day, it’s no good. (<em>Email goes bing!</em>) By definition, your busiest days are when you need the system the most. Do the simplest thing that works.</p>
<p>The third and final text is D. T. Suzuki’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Buddhism-Daisetz-T-Suzuki/dp/038548349X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306027147&sr=1-1">Zen Buddhism</a></em>. (The link goes to the paperback since the publisher apparently doesn’t believe in this new-fangled e-book thing which is no doubt only a fad and will go away soon.)</p>
<p>Turns out, the issues we struggle with today—how to find meaning, how to pick the next thing to do, how to survive the onslaught of tasks and interruptions—buddhist monks were thinking about while my ancestors were busy thinking up new ways to torture people who interpreted the Bible differently than they did. So that was a good use of my ancestors’ time.</p>
<p>In <em>Zen Buddhism</em>, D. T. Suzuki provides a heartwarming introduction and history of Zen. If you believe in some other religion, don’t worry. Zen buddhism isn’t actually a religion, it’s a way of thinking. Much like the Enlightenment and the scientific method, it shows you why you don’t really <em>need</em> a religion, but it certainly isn’t anti-religious <em>per se</em>.</p>
<p>What Zen buddhism is, is a way to look at the world, a way to cut through the crap and focus on the things that are important. Like with GTD, and over a much longer time span, some people have managed to turn Zen buddhism into something very complicated and weird that only they <em>truly understand</em>.</p>
<p>Those people are assholes. As D. T. Suzuki shows, Zen is simple. It’s also frustratingly difficult, but it’s simple.</p>
<p>Take the time. Turn off notifications, turn off email, turn off the TV and spend some time in the company of you. Make friends with your brain. You keep fighting it, you both lose.</p>
Gaze of the Predator2011-06-03T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/06/gaze-of-the-predator/
<a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/predator_cat.jpg" rel="shadowbox">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/predator_cat_thumb.jpg" alt="The last thing a mouse sees" title="The last thing a mouse sees" width="600" height="400" />
</a>
<div class="imgcaption">The last thing a mouse sees.<br />Click to view full-size.</div>
<p>Turns out that when you adopt a cat you give it a name, but you don’t really discover its “true” name until you’ve had it around for a while. Pictured above is Phoebe, aka Violence.</p>
<p>Pity any mouse or bird who ends up seeing something like those eyes bearing down on them. Prognosis: death by disembowelment.</p>
Movie roundup, part 172011-05-30T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/05/movie-round-up/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/valhalla-rising-poster.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/valhalla-rising-poster-thumb.jpg" alt="Valhalla Rising poster" title="Valhalla Rising poster" width="405" height="600" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Valhalla Rising poster.<br />Click for larger version.</div>
</div>
<p>I swear, I haven’t been purposely trying to find crappy movies to watch. I am not a masochist. I just want to be entertained for an hour and a half. But apparently Hollywood has decided that if you’re not a stoned teenager yor lot in life is to be insulted.</p>
<p>(All links go to Rotten Tomatoes so you can see what the people who actually get paid to write about films think.)</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_am_number_four/">I am Number Four</a></h3>
<p>A super-combat experimental space person from another planet is betrayed and <em>blah blah blah</em> ends up on Earth. While on Earth, waiting for the assassins who are coming after him, he decides the best use of his time is to … yes, <em>of course</em> … go to high school.</p>
<p>Please do re-read the previous sentence. Captain Combat decides to go to high school to experience the drama. Because he’s bored waiting for the space assassins who are coming after him. This is what the super-combat space person does.</p>
<p>It might have become a fantastic movie after the halfway point. Since I turned it off in disgust 30 minutes in, I wouldn’t know.</p>
<p>But really. Really. Space boy—who looks like he’s about 30 years old—forges papers to get into high school because preparing to deal with the assassins who are coming after him is too “boring.”</p>
<p>Somehow Timothy Oliphant found himself as a supporting actor in this stinker. He looks embarrassed. As he should.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/max_payne/">Max Payne</a></h3>
<p>Well, it’s in focus. That’s probably the kindest thing you can say about this abomination of a movie. Stumbled across it on TV one night and ended up watching all the way through in numb horror, thinking “there’s no way this movie can be this bad.”</p>
<p>But it is.</p>
<p>I’m kind of speechless.</p>
<p>Sure, you don’t expect <em>feelm</em> from a video game adaptation, but having a more coherent plot than the freaking video game might be a good bar to set for yourself during your creative journey.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jonah_hex/">Jonah Hex</a></h3>
<p>This movie proved me wrong. Yes, it did: I was convinced the Will Smith vehicle <em><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wild_wild_west/">Wild Wild West</a></em> would forever be known as the worst cowboy steampunk movie of all time.</p>
<p>I stand corrected. <em>Jonah Hex</em> manages to be even more catastrophically awful.</p>
<p>It’s one of those movies where you can’t wrap your head around what anybody involved in the process was actually thinking. Except for John Malkovich, whose every appearance flop-sweats dread over the stinker he’s found himself in. Oh, he knows it, and it’s killing him.</p>
<p>Really, <em>Jonah Hex</em> should be used as a case study in business schools to show the madness and stupidity which ensues when men with small penises who drive Porsches to compensate for the indignities of their divorce are allowed to give go-aheads to really, really awful scripts.</p>
<p>So, so unrelentingly bad.</p>
<p>The one thing we can hope for is that this will forever warn Hollywood off from the preposterous idea of cowboy steampunk. But I’m not very confident of that outcome.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1006037-doctor_zhivago/">Doctor Zhivago</a></h3>
<p>Yes, the 1965 epic. And I do mean epic. How epic? The movie starts out by showing an abstract painting of birch trees with the word OVERTURE superimposed and then proceeds to make us listen to said overture for several minutes.</p>
<p><em>You want epic? You wait till we’re done with the mother-bleeping overture.</em></p>
<p>So how does it stack up today? <em>Doctor Zhivago</em> is one of those movies where the cinematography turns every frame into art. And you have to remind yourself that there was no CGI back then—the huge crowd scenes are filled with extras, the sets really are sets. Everything was there. The sheer amount of money, effort and craftsmanship that went into a production like this makes movies created today look like poor cousins.</p>
<p>But yes, it’s from 1965. The pacing is glacial. The acting is over the top. That being said, it’s a great story and seeing it in an impressive Blu-Ray transfer like this is an experience.</p>
<p>If you care about movies, you should watch this.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/valhalla_rising/">Valhalla Rising</a></h3>
<p><em>A bleak and ultra-violent viking flick? Sign me up!</em></p>
<p>Ah, it could have been so good, but plays like it was directed by a hungover and depressed Werner Herzog, with the bleakness and horrific violence lost in a plot that makes very little sense.</p>
<p>The basic idea is that Mads Mikkelsen (doing an outstanding job) plays a viking slave forced to fight gladiator-style for his survival. And then he gets <em>really</em> violent. And some Christian types who are <em>really</em> repulsive take him on a journey to, as it turns out, Hell. No, that’s not a spoiler. This movie can’t be spoiled. It would need a coherent plot for that.</p>
<p>Frustratingly, the cinematography is great and the ideas are interesting, so with a lot less “I wear a beret and make <em>feelms</em>” pretentiousness and a lot more character and plot <em>Valhalla Rising</em> could have been a great movie.</p>
<p>For some reason it earned a lot of good reviews. The only theory I can think of to make sense of those reviews is that there are a lot of movie reviewers out there who never got over their fear of their English 201 professor.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bronson/">Bronson</a></h3>
<p>Same director as <em>Valhalla Rising</em>. And what do you know? It’s a bleak and incredibly violent art house movie about a British thug who spends most of his life in prison where he, well, fights a lot and in general makes a complete, horrific nuisance of himself.</p>
<p>Same problem as <em>Valhalla Rising</em>—there are some good ideas and good cinematography, but there’s no real plot and the protagonist is such a grotesque sociopath you cheer every time he gets beaten to a bloody pulp by the prison guards.</p>
<p>Still, if you like your violence graded ultra, give <em>Bronson</em> or <em>Valhalla Rising</em> a go.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/centurion/">Centurion</a></h3>
<p><em>Romans against barbarians? Yes, please!</em></p>
<p>Ah, yes. The picts. They sure gave the Romans a headache back in the days before Hadrian’s Wall.</p>
<p>As Conrad observed in the beginning of <em>Heart of Darkness</em>, England was the absolute end of the world for the poor slob Romans who got posted there, and they had a miserable time of it.</p>
<p>Pretty violent and pretty good. And with a plot that, while over top, mostly makes sense.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/resident_evil_afterlife/">Resident Evil: Afterlife</a></h3>
<p>If you know the Resident Evil concept, I’m not going to rehash it here, and if you don’t, well, you won’t like the movie.</p>
<p>No, it’s not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of starting a movie by ripping off the SFX from <em>The Matrix</em> and then ending it by ripping off the SFX from <em>Blade 3</em>. Yup, those horrific starfish mouths from the worst of the Blade movies are back like herpes.</p>
<p>It’s too bad, too, since the beginning is—even with the blatant <em>Matrix</em> effects ripoffs—visually really cool. And then it gets dumb. And then it gets dumber. And then it gets full-on preposterous.</p>
<p>To clarify, it’s not like it starts smart, but within the genre it’s at the IQ level you kind of expect.</p>
<p>But what’s it matter? If you liked the other Resident Evil movies, you’ll watch this one. If you didn’t, well, just stay clear.</p>
Phoenix ComiCon impressions2011-05-29T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/05/phoenix-comicon-impressions/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/phxcc_andrea.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/phxcc_andrea_thumb.jpg" alt="Andrea in her Raven costume at Phoenix ComiCon" title="Andrea in her Raven costume at Phoenix ComiCon" width="400" height="299" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Andrea in her Raven costume at Phoenix ComiCon.<br />Click for larger version.</div>
<p>For the first time ever, I decided to attend a ComiCon and to bring my daughter. An inveterate over-thinker, my main reason for attending and bringing Andrea was to get her used to seeing “different” people and to, if not embrace their weirdness, have it in the back of her mind that people are different and that’s OK. It’s really important for me to raise a new citizen who is comfortable with letting people be themselves.</p>
<p>We’ll see how it all works out.</p>
<p>So yesterday was the day. <a href="http://www.phoenixcomicon.com/">Phoenix ComiCon</a>. Andrea’s first immersion—or descent, if you like—into nerd culture. She wore her Raven from Teen Titans costume, since that show means a lot to her. Like any sane kid, she would really love to wear a cape like they do in the shows. How can you argue with that? I’d freaking <em>love</em> a flowing cape.</p>
<p>We walk in to the main exhibition area and immediately Andrea shuts down. It’s just too much. It should be noted here that we’re not the kind of people who take our daughter to a whole lot of events, so this was a huge first for her. I’m impressed with how well she handled a huge hall full of weirdos exhibiting strange things with even stranger people in costumes shuffling around taking up every square foot of space. But it was hard work for her.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/phxcc_nerds.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/phxcc_nerds_thumb.jpg" alt="Funniest costumes at Phoenix ComiCon" title="Funniest costumes at Phoenix ComiCon" width="400" height="299" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">The funniest costumes at Phoenix ComiCon as far as I’m concerned.<br />Click for larger version.</div>
</div>
<p>So what was the con like? An impressively well-run affair with a metric boat-load of people. The organizers deserve a lot of kudos for making the trains run on time.</p>
<p>Like the Renaissance Faire, it’s interesting how nerditry is not as a rule a sub-culture that attracts the attractive people. A lot of people at the con could really benefit from maybe taking a good, long walk and cutting down on the carbs a bit. The beer gut does lessen the authenticity of your Bobba Fett costume, it really does.</p>
<p>So let’s take a look at some of the diffent tribes occupying the Con.</p>
<p>First off, of course, the steampunks. This is one subculture I just can’t get into. I’ve tried. I really don’t know why it grates at me. (But do please watch the video down below.)</p>
<p><em>Yes, yes, you have round brass goggles and you’re wearing leather and you’re chubby. Splendid.</em></p>
<p>Next, the anime cosplay people. You know, just rock on. Do your thing. Not being into anime myself, I had no idea who anybody was supposed to be. Which doesn’t matter: As long as you put some effort into your costume, I’m all for it. Rock on with your pink wig and spandex uniform. Just keep it real, for whatever value of real you’re operating on.</p>
<p>And then, cue <em>Beethoven’s Fifth</em>, there’s the Star Wars nerds.</p>
<p>As a man of a certain age who was incredibly influenced by <em>Star Wars</em> when it was first released, I feel uncannily in touch with the <em>Star Wars</em> nerds. Which makes me angry. Let me explain. You’re celebrating this movie series, dressing up, building costumes, really getting into it, and it turns out that the guy who created the universe you’re celebrating really doesn’t give a <em>flying goddam</em> about it—Lucas is busy selling Happy Meal toys and inventing Jar-Jar Mother-Effing Binks.</p>
<p>Which is a kick in the nuts and made me say, “OK. That’s how you want to roll, that’s fine, it’s your universe, but I’m done with this, you money-grubbing hack.”</p>
<p>But you don’t care. “I’ll keep working on my stormtrooper helmet.” And obviously, hey, rock on. Whatever keeps you from sucking on an exhaust pipe. You know Lucas has sold your ass down the river to the nearest McDonalds and you don’t care.</p>
<p>To the <em>Star Wars</em> nerds’ credit, I saw only one slave girl Leiah, and she pulled it off. Thumbs way, way up! For a man—as previously discussed—of a certain age, slave girl Leiah is very special and the sexiness needs to be respected.</p>
<p>So, Phoenix ComiCon was a good time. Extremely well organized and put together, and with a wide enough focus that any kind of nerd in the Phoenix area should check it out.</p>
<p>If you’re not a nerd, I still recommend it. See how the other 0.2 percent live. You positively can not find better people-watching anywhere in town.</p>
<p>As a bonus, here’s the inimitable Merlin Mann riffing on steampunk (NSFW—language):</p>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/860821" class="aspect-ratio--object w-full aspect-video" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics">Steampunk DIY</div>
Happy ninth birthday, Andrea!2011-05-28T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/05/happy-ninth-birthday-andrea/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea-nine-full.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea-nine-thumb.jpg" alt="Our beautiful daughter Andrea turns nine today" title="Our beautiful daughter Andrea turns nine today" width="200" height="300" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Happy ninth birthday to Andrea.<br />Click for larger version.</div>
</div>
<p>Our beautiful and smart (<em>too smart!</em>) daughter Andrea turns nine years old today. Happy birthday to her, and long may she live.</p>
<p><em>So say we all.</em></p>
Westward Ho2011-05-19T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/05/westward-ho/
<a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/westward_ho_full.jpg" rel="shadowbox">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/westward_ho_small.jpg" alt="Westward Ho hotel" title="Westward Ho hotel" width="500" height="671" />
</a>
<div class="imgcaption">Westward Ho.<br />Click to view full-size.</div>
<p>Yesterday was a rare, cloudy day in Phoenix, as the image above of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho_(Phoenix)">Westward Ho in downtown Phoenix</a> attests.</p>
<p>What makes this image notable, at least for me, is that I took it on my iPhone on the way to buy some caffeine and literally did the post-processing while standing in line. The image above is what came out of the iPhone.</p>
<p>To wit, took the image with Pro HDR on auto mode, then used the magic “Clarity” button in Camera+, then emailed it to myself. (And posted it to Facebook.)</p>
<p><em>Boom.</em> It’s the future.</p>
Some good podcasts for you2011-05-07T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/05/some-good-podcasts-for-you/
<p>Podcasts are one of the things that give me hope for humanity—instead of the banality of radio, I can listen to fantastic content from around the world, content I picked, at the time I want to listen to it. Content that would simply not have existed under the old economics of radio … too niche, too weird. If there’s anything to show that we live in the freaking future, it’s that some random person can now, quite literally, sit at home and rant into a microphone, click a few buttons, and find listeners around the world. All without going through any gatekeepers.</p>
<p>So without further ado, here’s a selection of the podcasts that make my commute more bearable. I hope some of them will brighten your day as well. (Links go to iTunes.)</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=173001861">Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History</a>.</strong> An amateur historian, Carlin approaches historical events from the perspective of the people who lived through them. Instead of lists of dates and rulers so dry they make you sneeze that history lessons often devolve into, Carlin brings out the agonies and blood. The series on the fall of the Roman republic and the one on the Eastern Front during World War II are especially good places to start.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=414920759">Hypercritical</a>.</strong> John Siracusa—of <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars">jaw-droppingly detailed operating system reviews</a> at Ars Technica fame—talks about the ways technology could be better. Which is a lot more interesting than the previous sentence makes it sound—when he has an opinion, he backs it up, and up, and up like a geeky Terminator. If you’re a nerd, this is essential listening. If you’re not, it’s worth subscribing just for the pleasure of hearing somebody take the time to bring an argument meticulously all the way through to its conclusion. And yes, Siracusa is so dry I hope he stays well away from fires. That is part of the charm.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thebugle/id380508124?mt=8">The Bugle</a>.</strong> Run, don’t walk, to subscribe. John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman bring you the world’s only audio newspaper for a visual world, an exercise in horrifically bad puns and riffs on current events. Absolutely brilliant if you enjoy your humor British.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/angry-mac-bastards-podcast/id309911866">Angry Mac Bastards</a>.</strong> It’s a sad fact that most technology punditry and analysis is at best inept and at worst bat-shit insane. The Angry Mac Bastards have taken it up on themselves to mock and ridicule the worst idiocy deposited on the Internet each week. Which is a tall order. I personally use it as my weekly validation that it’s not me that’s wrong when I find my blood pressure rising about something some jackass wrote. This one is marked explicit and is definitely NSFW unless you work at a fish market. It also has atrocious production values, but I’ve decided to consider that punk.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-work/id415535037">Back to Work</a>.</strong> Merlin Mann talks about productivity and doing work that matters. This one is on the bubble. Which is odd, since I’m a massive Mann fan ever since watching his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9UjeTMb3Yk">Google talk on Inbox Zero</a>. He’s utterly brilliant, but seriously needs structure and editing, so it’s pretty hit and miss. But when he’s <em>on</em>, it’s sublime. Really. <em>Sublime.</em></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/common-sense-with-dan-carlin/id155974141">Common Sense with Dan Carlin</a>.</strong> Yes, the same Dan Carlin who does Hardcore History. This is his current events show. Carlin’s combination of historian and former journalist provides him with the raw cynicism and perspective to manage what seems almost impossible today: actually have a coherent and interesting perspective. He tries extremely hard—and usually succeeds—to not fall into the talking points of either side of the fence. I get something to think about every episode, even if I don’t always agree with him.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/arming-the-donkeys/id420535283">Arming the Donkeys</a>.</strong> Dan Ariely does research in behavioral economics and wrote the fascinating <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061353248/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0061353248">Predictably Irrational</a></em>, a book that uses economics to shed light on the many ways us humans behave, well, irrationally. In Arming the Donkeys, he conducts short interviews with other researchers in related fields. Short, sweet and often very interesting.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/journalism-in-the-digital-age/id430368202">Journalism in the Digital Age</a>.</strong> Audio versions of <a href="http://cronkite.asu.edu/node/866">Must See Monday lectures</a> given at my day job. You should listen if you’re interested in where journalism is headed in these days of disruption. (Full disclosure: I provided the techno-nerditry to set up the podcast system for this.)</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/npr-planet-money-podcast/id290783428">Planet Money</a>.</strong> NPR show about how the economy affects us all that explains—in that calm, dispassionate NPR way—what is actually going on and what all the dense acronyms strewn about in economics-talk mean. If I ever have a heart attack, this is the show I will blame. Not because they did anything wrong, but because they made me understand what is actually going on, thereby shooting my blood pressure through the roof. I often need quiet time after listening to Planet Money.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walking-the-room/id374439941">Walking the Room</a>.</strong> Two middle-aged comedians sit down on a weekly basis to talk about their lives. It’s impressive in that they are both extremely funny and they share in a real way. Of course, they coat their existential pain in stupidity and aggression, but underneath, these are two smart guys sorting out in public how to deal with life’s complexities. Marked explicit and totally NSFW even for the fish market. <em>How you is what you is?</em></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wnycs-radiolab/id152249110">Radiolab</a>.</strong> You’re probably already listening to this, so it’s only here for completeness. The sheer amount of <em>work</em> that goes into each episode of Radiolab is humbling. I read an interview with the producers (that I can’t find the link to at this moment) where the team said that if Radiolab was a radio show that would disappear after one broadcast there would be no reason to put in the kind of effort they do—they expect people to listen to each episode many times and discover new things. Which you do.</p>
Closer to the metal2011-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/05/switching-to-jekyll/
<p>If you’re reading this site through an RSS reader, you all of a sudden had a bunch of old posts show up as new. Sorry about that. The reason is that Captain Can’t-Leave-Well-Enough-Alone had to go and switch to a new blog engine.</p>
<p>And yes, reading bloggers talking about their blog systems is often the same kind of fun as reading about somebody’s dreams. “Ooooh, the doll was really me, but with a machete for a hand…” <em>Splendid. Do tell me more.</em></p>
<p>So the rest of this post is for people who care inordinately about blogging systems. Everybody else can move along and enjoy their day.</p>
<h3>The problem with WordPress</h3>
<p>I’ve powered this blog with WordPress since 2006, when another content management system had a rather spectacular meltdown—the kind of meltdown that takes a few days of non-stop effort to restore and in the end only validates that you made a bad decision.</p>
<p><em>Oy vey.</em></p>
<p>But let it be said that WordPress has served me well. At this point WordPress is a mature and solid content management system. It’s the first thing I recommend to people who are new to blogging—a fantastic system for people who aren’t nerds. Hell, I <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2010/09/building-a-news-site-with-wordpress/">built a news site</a> on WordPress, one which is run by students on a day-to-day basis, and works shockingly well.</p>
<p>But for myself, I don’t enjoy blogging with WordPress any more. It’s big. It’s slow. It has the kitchen sink built in. The abstraction chain is too great—I looked at the HTML my blog outputs the other day and was stunned at the sheer amount of JavaScript and HTML my plugins were pushing out. In short, there’s too much magic, magic of the bad kind. I need to be close to the metal and know what’s going on.</p>
<p>Being the paranoid kind, I also have this kind of subroutine running in the back of my mind all the time saying, “Your blog is going to get hacked! Did you install the latest security patch? Did you? Did you? <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/">Larry? Larry?</a>”</p>
<p>That little voice is no fun at all.</p>
<h3>Making the move</h3>
<p>Prompted in some part by <a href="http://inessential.com/2011/03/16/a_plea_for_baked_weblogs">Brent Simmons</a>, who rightly finds it unconscionable that blogs in 2011 are still keeling over from a fireballing/slashdotting, I wanted to find a system that would allow me to serve static HTML and not have to worry both about performance. As a side-benefit, I wouldn’t have to worry about security as much either.</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll">Jekyll fits the bill</a>. What we have here is a system that allows you the flexibility of a content management system, but serves up baked HTML. It’s the best of both worlds. I, for one, am signed up.</p>
<p>Apart from the Wiki at GitHub linked earlier, there is an <a href="http://vitobotta.com/how-to-migrate-from-wordpress-to-jekyll/">indispensable guide</a> to migrating to Jekyll from WordPress. If you want to follow me into the wonderful world of baked blogs, please read it. It’s wonderful. Kudos.</p>
<p>At this point, I feel liberated. It’s a good, good thing.</p>
Something in the water: 10 years of the Apple Store2011-04-24T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/04/something-in-the-water-10-years-of-the-apple-store/
<h3>The beginning</h3>
<p>I was on the original crew that opened the Biltmore, Arizona Apple Store back in 2002. It’s hard to believe it’s already been 10 years since the first Apple Store.</p>
<p>If you came in to the Biltmore store during the time I worked there, I was the big guy who looked like he wanted to jump off a bridge. Turns out I’m not cut out for retail. Really, really not cut out for retail. More on that later.</p>
<p>So why was I working there in the first place? Two reasons. The first of course that I was a huge Apple nut ever since I first started hanging out in the computer lab stocked with Mac Plus machines and ImageWriters at the University of Louisiana in 1989. And still am, despite the scars of the Apple Store. It’s that I believe in technology and especially believe in using <em>the best technology</em>. Which is still Apple for the particular things I do. If somebody else catches up and deploys better technology for my use case, I will switch in a heartbeat. It’s not a religion, it’s a matter of leverage. For example, I switched full-time to Windows NT in the late nineties. I needed a machine that could run Photoshop and play mp3s without stuttering. My Mac couldn’t, so I bought a Dell for half the cost of a new Mac and ugly as it was, it let me work more efficiently. Despite its many warts, Windows NT could actually multitask.</p>
<p>The second reason I took a Genius job at the Apple Store was the economy. Remember, this was the tech nuclear winter of 2001. I’d been laid off from my dot-bomb job along with everybody else in tech. It was grim.</p>
<p>This was before the iPod, before the iPhone, a time when Apple was struggling and the company’s future was all but certain. Back in 2001 Apple had one hit: the iMac. Remember how awesome it was that you could buy an all-in-one computer with trans-effing-lucent plastic in different colors and a super-weird mouse where you couldn’t tell which side was up?</p>
<p>Probably not.</p>
<p>Apple back then was a bit player. Nobody knew if the company would survive. At that time all it really had was a hard-core base of customers who more often than not had left rationality way behind in the rear view mirror when it came to computers.</p>
<p>(Those of us who went to work in the stores certainly skewed to the lunatic fringe of Apple nuts. Despite the employment process wisely putting a lot of weight on weeding out the fanatics, more than one unbalanced freak managed to end up on the showroom floor wearing a black t-shirt with a white apple across the chest and proceeded to spend their work hours smiting unbelievers. Those people tended to not last long, but to everybody else’s embarrassment, they were a definite part of the scene.)</p>
<p>And the company was switching operating systems, going from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, which was a <em>huge</em> gamble and a massive technology switch. If you were really good at working with and troubleshooting the classic Mac OS, your skills had just been rendered antique and useless.</p>
<p>There was tension among the MacMacs. Twenty years of accumulated skills were being rendered void.</p>
<p>So, we’re in the era of Apple the fallen giant, Apple before the iPod takes off, the era of <em>is Apple going to make it?</em> And most of the traffic in the stores consists of MacMacs.</p>
<p>Not to mince words, there were some scary mofos coming in to the Apple Store. People who seriously needed professional help. People who had decided that using a Mac was their primary reason for being. Those people were so earnest, so sincere in their fanaticism, they made working the Genius Bar a cut-rate suicide hotline experience.</p>
<h3>The Genius Bar</h3>
<p>Ah, yes, the Genius Bar. In retrospect, this was a brilliant idea and a huge traffic driver for the stores. But back in the early days, the Genius Bar was, to put it mildly, in flux. The boundaries of what we were supposed to do and not do, what to charge for and what was free seemed to change on a daily basis.</p>
<p>But the customers did not. There were three basic kinds of customers.</p>
<ol>
<li>The wanna-be. This was the guy (yes, all men) who wanted to be a Genius, but flunked out for personality reasons. This was the original MacMac—Apple is a religion and he is an acolyte and now he is <em>angry</em> about not being one of the chosen, so he has to show up at the Genius Bar to challenge the faith of the Geniuses and prove his worth.</li>
</ol>
<p>It seems silly now, but we dealt with this kind of guy on a daily basis. It was profoundly sad and dispiriting. I can only hope they’ve stopped tormenting the Geniuses or died off at this point.</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>The Angry Oldie. For some reason quite a lot of snowbirds had purchased Macs. They would roll in dragging the 6-year-old Mac they intended to nurse along until the silicon turned into ammonia with absolutely no thought whatsoever into ever upgrading to newer gear. And would regale you endlessly about how the fact that they once spent over a thousand dollars on a Mac meant you were their bitch for-effing-ever.</li>
</ol>
<p>Angry oldies were not a good time. <em>Deep breath.</em> No, they were not.</p>
<ol start="3">
<li>The normal Mac user. The person who purchased a Mac then at some point had a problem and went in to get it taken care of. These were the people you took the job expecting to help, and in general they were very happy to have somebody help them.</li>
</ol>
<p>They made you feel like a human being with a reason for existing. If only there had been more of them.</p>
<h3>Something in the water</h3>
<p>No doubt, you’re not having a good day when your Mac goes berzerk on you and you have to drag it down to the Apple Store, carrying the hump of useless and expensive plastic through the mall. You’re sweaty, tired, and angry.</p>
<p>When the stores first opened we had bottles of water to offer customers. Presumably it was some kind of riff on the “bar” in “Genius Bar” concept somebody in marketing came up with. And it was <em>fantastic</em>. It was astounding to see what happened to people when you offered them a bottle of water. People who were seriously ready to stab somebody would completely deflate and be pathetically thankful just for getting a bit of water. It was the best tool we had to calm people down.</p>
<p>That water was pure magic.</p>
<p>So of course they took it away.</p>
<p>There were a lot of rumors about why the water disappeared, but I never heard anything official, so I have no idea why that decision was taken. Seriously, though, if you’re creating any kind of customer support situation, have bottles of water available. It’s magic.</p>
<h3>The iPod saves the day</h3>
<p>Then the iPod took off. To the point that the people who used to yell into their cell phones that they were “at the Mac store” would now yell that they were “at the iPod store”.</p>
<p>Seriously, there are two giant lit apples flanking the entrance. It’s the Apple Store. But no, “Mac store” and “iPod store.” I haven’t spent enough time hanging out there lately, but I’m sure if you do you’ll hear some nimrod yell into his cell phone about being at the “iPhone store.” I don’t know. It’s just that there are two giant Apples at the door. How hard is it to take the hint?</p>
<p>As a nerd, it was unbelievable. Sure, I loved my iPod, all five gigs of storage. But normal people loved it, too! People who had no idea of how to turn on a computer were showing up and buying iPods. And they were using them and loving them!</p>
<p>It’s always hard to figure out the chicken and the egg, but I’m personally convinced Apple would be a dead company today if it hadn’t been for the iPod and its halo effect.</p>
<p>As a Genius it was difficult, though: Troubleshooting an iPod does not exactly require you to be Sherlock Holmes. If a reset doesn’t work, it’s borked and you replace it. Boom. That’s it. Welcome to fast food tech support.</p>
<h3>The end for me</h3>
<p>I’ve never told anybody but close friends this story, but the reason I quit the Apple Store was simple: survival. It was the most miserable work experience I ever had. To ibid myself: I’m not cut out for retail. I’m not blaming anybody at Apple or any coworkers or anything like that. It was just retail. Retail is a special beast.</p>
<p>One night I was driving home on the I-10 after work in the darkness, and saw a highway patrol car next to me. And heard my own voice in my head say: “Maybe I should kill a cop.”</p>
<p>And I realized I had to quit that job.</p>
<p>Many years later, I haven’t killed that cop. The Apple Stores are packed, and Apple is doing great. And so am I.</p>
FiveFingers help chronic compartment syndrome2011-04-08T17:29:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/04/fivefingers-help-chronic-compartment-syndrome/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/5420440750_6c75760c29_b.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/5420440750_6c75760c29_b-199x300.jpg" alt="Nordic Walking poles and cat" title="Nordic Walking poles and cat" width="199" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-2057" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Nordic walking poles and cat.<br />Click for larger version.</div>
</div>
<p><em>[I am not a physician. The following is not medical advice. Please don’t take medical advice from random blogs.]</em></p>
<p>I’ve suffered from <a href="http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00204">chronic compartment syndrome</a> in my lower legs since I was about 16. (I ran my first half marathon when I was 13, and ran long distance at least five days a week from the time I was 11.) Not a horrible case, but enough that I can’t run or walk fast without experiencing pain in my shins—a throbbing, wet kind of deep pain that usually lasts a couple of days after exercise.</p>
<p>Which is a huge suck since running is the only kind of exercise I really enjoy, especially trail running.</p>
<p>But that’s all been out since my early 20s after I gave up trying to run through the pain. Which in retrospect was—of course—the stupidest thing I could possibly have done.</p>
<p>Once I became aware of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307279189/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307279189">barefoot running trend</a> and the <a href="http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm">Vibram FiveFingers</a>, I thought it made sense. As a matter of fact, the entire Primal movement <a href="http://marksdailyapple.com/">led by Mark Sisson</a> makes all kinds of sense.</p>
<p><em>We need to stop fighting millions of years of evolution and embrace it instead.</em></p>
<p>So I bought a pair of FiveFingers and started wearing them a year or so ago, not just in the vain hope it would help with the compartment syndrome, but also to allow my body to move more naturally.</p>
<p>Let me digress here by saying how impressed I am by the company’s marketing scheme—making the shoes in the most obnoxious colors possible ensures people notice them and ask about them. My hat is off to the devious bastard who thought of that. My first pair was <a href="http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Sprint-Mens.htm">Sprints</a>. Fire engine red, because that was the only color in stock.</p>
<p>Now, the first couple of hours wearing FiveFingers are <em>weird</em>, with your feet knowing you’re barefoot, but your brain saying, “No! We are at the grocery store! Clearly we must be wearing shoes!” But after a while the brain accepts reality.</p>
<p>Once you get used to them, you start walking like you evolved to walk, not fighting the way your body is built. That’s huge.</p>
<p>I tried to run in them a few times after I first got them, and the shin pain seemed to take a bit longer to start, but once it did it was actually more debilitating than before. That was disheartening.</p>
<p>I’ve also tried good old-fashioned walking, but faced the same problem as running—if I go fast enough to raise my pulse, the syndrome flares.</p>
<p>The last several months I’ve started <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_walking">Nordic Walking</a>. Great exercise. Not as fun as running, but not as boring as regular walking. And I’ve been doing it in my FiveFingers. With no sign of compartment syndrome. <em>None</em>.</p>
<p>But the drawback of Nordic Walking in FiveFingers is it tears up the feet something ridiculous—I’m developing huge calluses on the pads of the feet and the heels have lost a lot of skin. So last weekend, without thinking, I decided to wear running shoes on the walk to keep my feet from getting sore.</p>
<p>The day after the walk my shins were in agony and still are, three days later.</p>
<p>This despite my trying as much as possible to walk the same way as barefoot, landing on the whole foot instead of the heel.</p>
<p>Not being a physician, all I can think is it’s the act of lifting and clenching the toes when walking that makes all the difference.</p>
<p>If you have chronic compartment syndrome, I highly recommend giving the FiveFingers a shot. What do you have to lose?</p>
<p>And if you’re just a regular human with feet, I recommend them highly as well.</p>
Twitter is not your free advertising2011-03-21T01:48:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/03/twitter-is-not-your-free-advertising/
<p>Judging from the amount of local businesses that are all of a sudden “following” me on Twitter, it looks like some kind of social media “expert” has been making the rounds in my neck of the woods.</p>
<p>I say “following” since if you’re following 3,000 people or more there’s no way in hell you’re able to read all those tweets, or even any meaningful subsection of them. So you’re following people just to get them to check you out.</p>
<p>Which makes you an asshole or a sociopath.</p>
<p>There’s really no other way to put it.</p>
<p>Call me a hippie, but the whole idea of Twitter—or any kind of social network, really—is that we can find people we <em>want</em> to listen to and interact with outside of the established media and have ourselves a groovy old time. So when I follow somebody it’s because I find them interesting and want to hear what they have to say. And then, if they annoy me somehow they get unfollowed. No harm, no foul. Boom. Excellent.</p>
<p>Lordie, the simple haystacks-and-sunsets idea that is. Follow who you want, just because you want to. Not because you have an SEO plan to follow or because you are obsessed with watching the number of followers you have climb up, up, up. But you know, you do what you do. Bearing in mind that some ideas are empirically better than others.</p>
<p>(An SEO plan is a good idea, but it’s also a crushingly simple idea. Google—and I humbly ask you to stop and read the following words slowly, then put it in your pipe and smoke it till you understand it—<a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291">tell you how to do this.</a> There’s no magic, no trick, no silver bullet. It’s actually kind of boring. And if your SEO plan involves spamming random people on Twitter, you are an asshole or a sociopath.)</p>
<p>See, what you’re doing when you’re following people you couldn’t give less than a crap about just because they’re in a geograpical area or they’ve used a certain word in a tweet is you’re <em>breaking the code</em>. You’re abusing the system to get my attention without wanting to reciprocate[^3]. If that’s how you want to roll, we have a perfectly good, working mechanism for you: Buy an ad.</p>
<p>Yes, ads cost money. That’s because they’re a fair trade: your money in exchange for somebody’s attention. What you’re trying to do is hijack people’s attention without paying for it. Which is offensive.</p>
<p>Or, if you’re determined to not spend any money and use social networking instead, how about actually engaging people on Twitter? You know, <em>being social</em>. Which the term “social media” does more than imply, yes?</p>
<p>I know, I know, that takes time and effort. Not like buying some skeezy script to auto-follow everybody in your geographical area whether they loathe you or not. You know what takes time and effort? Friendship. Trust. Respect. You know, the things you’re undermining with your inane robo-follows.</p>
<p>In the end, this here social media thing isn’t about numbers. It isn’t about how many people are following you or friending you or whatever the next term will be; it’s about attention—the most constrained commodity in the civilized world. And it’s about people. All those little icons on <a href="http://twitter.com/">twitter.com</a> have people behind them. Real people. People who feel things.</p>
<p>Don’t piss on them to make a buck, is all I’m saying.</p>
<p>Oh, and do go ahead and <a href="http://twitter.com/niclindh">follow me on Twitter…</a></p>
Review: Griftopia2011-03-14T02:19:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/03/review-griftopia/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/griftopia_cover.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/griftopia_cover-300x300.jpg" alt="Griftopia" title="Griftopia" width="300" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-2044" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Griftopia cover.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>America is the last superpower, the nation that put men on the moon. And now all of a sudden we can’t pay for our children to have an education or for police officers to keep the streets safe. <em>Where’d all the money go?</em></p>
<p>Tax breaks for the super-rich and corporations, for quagmired foreign wars, and to the Wall Street banks that <em>created</em> the stock bubble of the late ’90s, the housing bubble, and drove oil and wheat prices into the stratosphere. The Wall Street machinations are the focus of Matt Taibbi’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003F3FJS2?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003F3FJS2">Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America</a></em>.</p>
<p>(If you think the current spike in prices at the pump has anything to do with supply or the instability in Libya, you are sadly misinformed.)</p>
<p><em>Griftopia</em> is required reading not just for Americans but for anybody in the Western world who’s wondering just what the hell is going on with the economy.</p>
<p>The picture Taibbi paints is infuriating, a breathtaking corruption between Wall Street and Congress. We are talking banana republic-levels of corruption and an oligarchy immune to our laws. Which sounds histrionic and Black Helicopter-crowd deranged, but Taibbi has done his research.</p>
<p>For some reason I don’t fully understand, Taibbi starts <em>Griftopia</em> with a discussion about the Tea Party. It’s solid and he posits an answer to the frustrating question of <em>why</em> the Tea Party thinks government is the problem even in areas like the bubble-fueled depression where the problem was a lack of government intervention (together with the aforementioned corruption). Read it and you’ll find out.</p>
<p>So, <em>Griftopia</em> is a very important book and one you should read. But it’s not without its flaws. The Tea Party discussion at the beginning is interesting, but a bit beside the point. And the tone could certainly be improved—Taibbi relishes his hipsterdom as a <em>Rolling Stone</em> reporter a bit much. The material is strong enough that gratuitous f-bombs could be edited out and the writing tightened up in general.</p>
<p>But that’s quibbles. Read it. And get angry.</p>
Review: The Heroes2011-03-02T16:00:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/03/review-the-heroes/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/the_heroes_cover.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/the_heroes_cover-189x300.jpg" alt="The Heroes Cover" title="The Heroes Cover" width="189" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-2037" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">The Heroes Cover<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Joe Abercrombie’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00480O978?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00480O978">The Heroes</a></em> is the brutal, tragic and engrossing tale of a three-day battle between the Union and the Northmen of the same universe Abercrombie explored in the brilliant <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2008/11/review-the-first-law-trilogy/">First Law</a></em> trilogy and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GUK7JQ?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002GUK7JQ">Best Served Cold</a></em>.</p>
<p>In theory, <em>The Heroes</em> is a stand-alone novel; new characters in a new situation, but reading it without familiarity with the universe and the recurring characters would leach a lot of the blood out of the novel. And we certainly don’t want that. So, seriously, don’t read this until you’ve ingested <em>The First Law</em>.</p>
<p>That being said, if you have read <em>The First Law</em>, what you’re in for is more and better of the same. The same in that the novel is packed with epic, Tarantino-esque violence and populated with flawed, suffering and real characters. Better in that Abercrombie’s writing is tighter than ever. Less pyrotechnics, more payload; less feints, more bodyblows.</p>
<p>It’s a serious progression for Abercrombie as a writer.</p>
<p>The plot concerns a battle taking place at an ancient ruin known as The Heroes. Which should tip you off to the lack of actual heroes in the story, or at least to what you’d think of as classic heroes. In the myriad of people who populate the novel, there are several it’s hard to think of anything but heroes, warts and bad breath included, but there’s absolutely nothing Tolkien-esque about the battle of The Heroes.</p>
<p>Arguably the most impressive thing about the novel is that Abercrombie completely guts the template for the fantasy novel. We have the young man leaving his hamlet in search of glory, the knight in shining armor, the fight against a dark overlord, the barbarian warrior, et al., but Abercrombie sledgehammers these tropes together in new, noir, ways and inserts them into a compressed chain of events teetering out of control.</p>
<p><em>The Heroes</em> is the kind of novel I know I’ll be re-reading in a few years. Abercrombie is on a fantastic trajectory.</p>
Slick, very slick2011-02-21T20:17:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/02/slick-very-slick/
<p>We run quite a few WordPress installations at work, and on a couple of them open comments are necessary.</p>
<p>Recently one of them was targeted by comment spammers. Comment spammers who don’t know how to configure their evil software.</p>
<p>Behold, the heartfelt congratulations of the Internet:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/blogtitle.png" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/blogtitle.png" alt="Comment spam" title="Comment spam" width="634" height="600" class="size-full wp-image-2033" /></a></p>
Slowing down the news2011-02-11T16:00:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/02/slowing-down-the-news/
<p>We’re in the 25-hour news cycle—an endless bombardment that doesn’t stop and seems to speed up all the time.</p>
<p>And I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t need it.</p>
<p>You can be first on the scene and file a breathless report filled with what will turn out to be inaccuracies all you want. I’m not listening. This has saved me countless hours and a lot of needless stress over the years.</p>
<p>There’s been plenty of handwringing over the years about the downsides of “instant on” news—inaccuracies, ethical oversteps, shallowness, etc.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it continues, and it’s easy understand why the media are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/opinion/30pubed.html?_r=1">chasing all over themselves</a> trying to be first. The reason is you. You tune in. The media will stop it the second it doesn’t get ratings.</p>
<p>All the handwringing about the breathlessness of the news cycle is a lot like whining about all the crack dealers in your neighborhood while you’re out there every night buying crack. Supply and demand. Simple, right?</p>
<p>So why do you tune in? What are you getting out of it?</p>
<p>Most likely it’s that old devil in modern life: hundreds of thousands of years of survival instincts that are counter-productive in our current world.</p>
<p>Because of course it was a great survival skill to be interested in what was going on in your tribe. If you heard a scream, you must investigate. If there was smoke on the wind, you should check that out immediately. <em>Most likely, whatever stirred your interest had a direct impact on you.</em></p>
<p>That’s the wiring that kicks in when the news crescendos. But it’s a false alarm now. It’s keeping you from paying attention to the things that are important instead of guiding you to the things that are important.</p>
<p>You can and should be horrified at events like the Giffords shooting and help the victims however you can. <em>But it’s not relevant to your daily existence. You don’t need to know about it as it happens</em>. A lot of things you don’t need to know about at all, e.g. the Balloon Boy non-event. Remember how upset you were that it turned out to be a hoax? I wasn’t. I didn’t waste any of my precious minutes on Earth on it.</p>
<p>It can wait 24 hours. Then you can get a clearer story without the guesswork and adrenaline-infused drama.</p>
<p>Unless of course what you’re really doing is distracting yourself from the misery of your own existence. In that case, go right ahead.</p>
Kinda I want to2011-02-05T02:05:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/02/kinda-i-want-to/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DE4CI0?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004DE4CI0"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pretty_hate_machine_remaster_cover.jpg" alt="Pretty Hate Machine (Remaster) Cover" title="Pretty Hate Machine (Remaster) Cover" width="280" height="280" class="size-full wp-image-2017" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Pretty Hate Machine Cover.<br />Click to purchase at Amazon.
</div>
</div>
<blockquote>
<p>I know it’s not the right thing</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>And I know it’s not a good thing</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>But kinda I want to</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Back in 1989 I <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/07/louisiana-to-missouri-via-tow-truck/">first came to the States</a>. Lafayette, Louisiana. The Deep South. It was a time of me living in an apartment with no furniture apart from a $30 changing table (the cheapest table I could purchase for studying), a folding chair, and a 13 inch TV set propped on the box it came in. I watched TV on the floor. It was great. It was pure. It was real.</p>
<p>While living in my monk cell, I drove two cars. One was mine. It was a 1973 Chevy Monte Carlo I bought for $200 and got thoroughly ripped off. The hood was rusted through so it almost fell on my head when popping it, the floor was rusted through in the back enough that you could put your foot through it, whether you wanted to or not, and it only passed inspections at rural gas stations where people could be bribed with $20 bills. On the upside, I met some interesting people while bribing mechanics in the backwoods.</p>
<p>The other was a Camaro IROC-Z I held for a year for a guy in Sweden so he could import it without paying the import tax. So I was young, broke, and driving an IROC-Z. It was a pretty damn great car for a young and stupid man, let me tell you. Five liter V8. <em>Colossal</em> torque. And a Bose sound system.</p>
<p>Cassettes. Back in those days we had cassettes. And I needed tunes while rumbling around Lafayette, LA. As far as my broke ass was concerned, there were two bands doing thing interesting enough to separate me from my money at that time: Guns ’n’ Roses and Nine Inch Nails.</p>
<p>Guns ’n’ Roses, well, hell, who wasn’t into Guns ’n’n Roses in those days? It’s metal and it’s rock <em>and</em> it’s poppy enough to get radio play. Hello! So <em>Welcome to the Jungle</em> made its way into the IROC tape player.</p>
<p>The other one was way more interesting. Some damaged kid from a flyover state made a ferocious, angst-ridden album where he pretended to be a band instead of one shit-kicker. That was Trent Reznor. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DE4CI0?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004DE4CI0"><em>Pretty Hate Machine</em></a> was like nothing you’d ever heard before. Drum machines, synths and feedback constantly on the verge of devolving into pure noise over this angry, weary voice that just cried for forgiveness and to finally be able to rest.</p>
<p>It was intense. It was the second tape I purchased in the USA. Hearing it now I’m still taken back to driving the IROC-Z through the Louisiana rain with “Kinda I Want to” shaking the rear window.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t just me. <em>Pretty Hate Machine</em> spoke to everyone who ever looked around them and said, “What the hell is going on here?”—the unofficial album of the maladjusted. It was that album. The one you had and all your friends had, and you knew every word and it was a shibboleth. And radio <em>never</em> played it. And holy crap it was angry. And you were angry. And it all came together.</p>
<p>Like the boomers have Dylan, Gen X has Nine Inch Nails. And it’ll do. You love it. And you will listen to it ’till you die.</p>
<p><em>Kinda I want to.</em></p>
A panegyric to e-book readers2011-02-01T04:46:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/02/a-panegyric-to-e-book-readers/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/ipad_and_kindle.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ipad_and_kindle-300x200.jpg" alt="iPad and Kindle" title="iPad and Kindle" width="300" height="200" class="size-medium wp-image-2011" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">iPad and Kindle<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Growing up in a small town as an avid reader, finding books to read was a deeply frustrating experience. In my case, it involved special orders of books to the teeny bookstore in town and semi-regular trips to Gothenburg and Stockholm to visit the big bookstores there and gorge myself.</p>
<p>One of the most exciting—to me, granted—visions bandied about at the dawn of the Internet was that with connectivity, each bookstore could host a book printer. Order a book, it downloads to the printer and out comes that books a few minutes later. Lordy, I was salivating.</p>
<p>Turns out, of course, that didn’t happen. But we have something even better instead. E-book readers.</p>
<p>Being able to purchase a book in less than 30 seconds from the comfort of your own home is pretty freaking close to magic, when you think about it: No need to even go to the bookstore and put our money into the magic book printer, we have something <em>even better</em>.</p>
<p>Personally, I’ve been reading a lot of books on my iPhone and iPad, but decided the time had come to get a Kindle. This ridiculous amount of gadget overload must be justified, of course, a feat I accomplished by convincing myself that my having a Kindle will free up the iPad more for my wife and daughter. It’s all about the giving, is what I’m saying.</p>
<p>And wow. The Kindle is amazing. I got the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Y27P3M?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002Y27P3M">cheapest possible</a> (affiliate link, so I get some lucre if you buy one through the link), with WiFi only.</p>
<p>Switching to E Ink from standard LCD makes an <em>unbelievable</em> difference for reading comfort. Granted, it’s not like the iPad was making my eyes bleed or anything, but E Ink is way easier on the eyes. When I first opened the box I thought the Kindle had a piece of paper over the screen; it looks that good. A fantastic screen and enough battery life that you pretty much don’t need to worry about it make for a fantastic experience.</p>
<p>Granted, the page-turn flash kind of freaked me out the first few times, but you quickly stop noticing it. It’s worth the trade-off to get the other benefits of E Ink.</p>
<p>I will be horribly disappointed if my daughter has to lug books in her backpack through her academic career. One light-weight device, boom, got all my books right here. The way the Lord intended it.</p>
<p>Being a cheapskate, this will also save all kinds of money when she starts high school English lit. Can you say public domain for all the classic she’ll have to suffer through before she’s mature enough to understand them?</p>
<p>Whether you’re using a Kindle, iPad, Nook, or any other e-reader, though, we finally have the great bookstore in the sky. Which means that <em>there’s no longer any reason for any title to go out of print</em>. That’s unbelievably exciting. Any title.</p>
<p>Obviously, there’s a lot of labor involved for books published before we got any of this fancy-pants digital stuff. But seriously, if you own the rights to an out-of-print title, why wouldn’t you invest a bit of money and get it out there?</p>
<p>And if you own the rights but you don’t want to put in the money, why would you not release the rights so somebody like <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page">Project Gutenberg</a> or <a href="http://books.google.com/">Google Books</a> can scan the thing and release it?</p>
<p>We. Can. Finally. Have. All. Books.</p>
Your computer is becoming an appliance. Deal.2011-01-28T00:30:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/01/its-an-appliance-deal/
<p>Apple won’t let me install whatever software I want on my iPhone and my iPad. Neither does Nintendo on my Wii or Microsoft on my XBox 360, neither does Amazon on my Kindle, and neither will the cell phone carriers on your Android phone.</p>
<p>Which as it turns out will not lead to the apocalypse and all that is good in the world crushed under the boot heel of fascism.</p>
<p>Allow me to explain.</p>
<p>One of the interesting parts of my job is to act as a conduit between the world of nerditry and normal people. “Normal” being defined as somebody who sees their computer as a tool that allows them to accomplish certain tasks. Somebody who could not possibly give a single rat’s behind less about what is going on with the machine itself.</p>
<p>Which leads us to computers-as-appliances and the frothing angst going on in some corners of the nerdosphere. The argument basically goes that we, the people, need to be able to do whatever we want with our computers and that anybody who limits what we can do is on some kind of evil powertrip. (For some fun, Google Blog search [“apple draconian control”](<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=apple+draconian+control&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#">http://www.google.com/search?q=apple+draconian+control&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#</a> q=apple+draconian+control&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=iv&source=lnms&tbs=blg:1&ei=v-8HTaKZK4TQsAOR2NmeDg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&ved=0CBAQ_AU&prmdo=1&fp=f4042df1d04e28e7) and feel the wrath.)</p>
<p>As the iPhone sales numbers prove, the normals don’t seem too concerned about Apple’s (Voice of Doom) Draconian Control.</p>
<p>And why should they be? <em>Here’s a nifty device that allows you to do the things you want. You can’t—and don’t have to—do any of the crap you bully a teenager into doing for you on your PC. Problem with that?</em></p>
<p>Noper. That teenager smells funny, anyway.</p>
<p>See, the problem with the “open” computer model for normal people is that it’s like driving a classic Camaro. It’s great and you can fix it yourself. The problem is that you’re going to spend a ton of time and energy keeping it running <em>and</em> you have to be a mechanic so you can fix it yourself. Unless you <em>pay somebody else to do it</em>.</p>
<p>A device that lets you do whatever it is you bought the thing for and doesn’t turn you into a shady-tree mechanic is a pretty good tradeoff for most people. Because, and let me reiterate this since it doesn’t seem to sink in for a lot of nerds, <em>most people don’t want to dink around with their computers.</em> Got it? Couldn’t care less about it. They want to write an e-mail and send it. Period. Or manipulate an image. What most people <em>don’t</em> want to do is dork around with a computer. The company that comes closest to delivering that will utterly dominate. And at this point it’s Apple. Because even though they’re a company staffed with the most high-powered über-nerds in the world, they understand at a deep level what it is that people who aren’t nerds actually <em>want</em>.</p>
<p>If I were the prognosticating type, I’d say the era of the open computer as a tool for most people is drawing to a close and the era of the appliance is upon us.</p>
<p>But it’s not all bad news for nerds. If you happen to be the kind of nerd who likes tinkering with your computer, that niche will continue to exist. But it will be a niche. Like people driving and repairing classic cars. You’ll be able to buy hardware and software that will allow you to enjoy things like editing your boot record, but nobody else will have to.</p>
<p>It’s a good future.</p>
Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth2011-01-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/01/cynicism-is-an-unpleasant-way-of-saying-the-truth/
<blockquote>
<p>Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>—<a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/97.html">Lillian Hellman</a></p>
Video on the Web: Your HTML5 won’t save you now2011-01-17T16:00:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/01/video-on-the-web-your-html5-wont-save-you-now/
<p>HTML5 is exciting, to say the least. But the hype has gotten a bit out of control with the less technical crowd.</p>
<p>“Want to put video on the Web? HTML5! It’s right there! Boom!”</p>
<p>Yes, true, there’s a video tag now. Super. So we don’t need plugins or Flash to play media.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, here. This is nice! Love it! But the problem was never that it’s soooooo haaaaard to write some HTML to call in QuickTime or Flash.</p>
<p>Well, it was never the problem for Web developers. For ordinary people who just wanted to put some freaking video on their website it was bizarre. Granted.</p>
<h3>Take the blue pill</h3>
<p>Before we get into the nitty-gritty, here’s my recommendation for anybody who wants to publish video: Get a <a href="http://youtube.com/">YouTube</a> or <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a> account (they’re free), upload your video there, then use the embed code to put it on your site. <em>Boom. Done.</em></p>
<p>This has the glorious benefit of <em>actually working</em>. YouTube and Vimeo have armies of crackerjack engineers who spend all their waking hours figuring out how to make video work on any kind of device with any kind of bandwidth.</p>
<p>But there’s no free lunch. YouTube monetizes by placing ads on videos, including yours. Vimeo doesn’t, but limits how much video you can put up without out ponying up for a <a href="http://vimeo.com/plus">plus account</a>.</p>
<p>If you’ve decided that you need to host your videos yourself, read on.</p>
<h3>The real problem with video on the Web</h3>
<p>Here’s the video format that works everywhere: There isn’t one.</p>
<p>So you’re either going to use YouTube or Vimeo, or you’ve got some work to do.</p>
<p>See, the <em>video</em> tag, lovely as it is, simply tells a Web browser, “Hey, show this video file here.” Then it’s up to the Web browser to understand how to read that video file. “But surely,” you scoff, “all browsers understand the same video format. Anything else would be madness.”</p>
<p>You are correct. It is madness.</p>
<p>[Here’s the reality](<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video#">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video#</a> Table), courtesy of Wikipedia. Read ’em and weep.</p>
<p>Look at your access logs. Check what kind of browsers your visitors are using. Those are what you <em>have to</em> support.</p>
<p>Which means H.264 for Safari (desktop, iPhone, iPad), <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/">WebM</a> or (gag) <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg Theora</a> for Firefox and Chrome and a Flash-wrapper fallback for Internet Explorer.</p>
<p>It’s important to understand that if you have encoded your videos in H.264 you <em>don’t</em> have to re-encode them for Flash. Flash will happily play the H.264 video. It’s more a matter of creating a Flash video player and then have it play the video. So instead of, like with Safari, have the browser understand and play the H.264 format, Flash comes in and does what the browser could already do. This is why you can watch YouTube videos on an iPhone, a device which does not support Flash in any way, shape or form, but is really good at understanding H.264.)</p>
<p>(Chrome right now supports H.264, but Google in its wisdom has decided to switch to WebM instead. Lots of people are wondering who put something in Google’s drink. <em>CoughAdobeCough.</em>)</p>
<p>So, you’re going to have to compress your videos at least twice. Hope you have a fast computer.</p>
<h3>Your lack of bandwidth … disturbs me</h3>
<p>But that’s just <em>the format.</em> (This discussion is grossly oversimplified, believe it or not. There’s not actually a format for video <em>per se</em>: There’s the codec and the container. They are different. But for our purpose here, we’ll just call it format and attempt to hold on to our sanity.) Next you need to worry about your visitors’ bandwidth. The prettier your video, the greater the bitrate. Compress with too high of a bitrate and your visitors will spend forever waiting for the video to play. (Which they won’t—there are plenty of videos on the Internet, honey, no matter how hard you worked on yours.) Compress with too low of a bitrate and your videos will look terrible.</p>
<p>Not to make this a YouTube/Vimeo commercial, but another thing those services do is serve your videos with adaptive bitrates, so they look as good as possible depending on the visitor’s bandwidth.</p>
<p>You can purchase software packages that will allow you to perform the same feat of magic. You will spend a lot of money and time.</p>
<h3>Oh, you’re on a smartphone?</h3>
<p>To make things even better, you also need to be ready for mobile. An ever-increasing slice of the population will be watching your videos on smartphones while they’re out and about. Are they going to be on 3G speeds or Edge speeds? Or perhaps even on 4G? What size screens do they have?</p>
<p>There’s the fourth video compression you need to make.</p>
<p>And to make things go to eleven, are they watching on their smartphones while out and about or at home connected to WiFi, meaning they have good bandwidth? How do you tell?</p>
<p>There’s your fifth compression. If you can figure out a way to serve adaptive bitrate videos to mobile devices based on their bandwidth.</p>
<p>Hint: It’s fairly easy to do for devices that understand <a href="http://quicktime.apple.com/">QuickTime</a> (iPhone, iPad), but those files can’t be understood by Android devices. Sure, you could drop down to Flash, which the latest Android phones support, but do you know which version of Android your viewers are using? One that supports Flash or one that doesn’t?</p>
<p>In the immortal words of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheus_(The_Matrix)">Morpheus</a>, “Do you think that’s air you’re breathing? Hmmmmm?”</p>
<h3>The eternal heartbreak of Internet Explorer</h3>
<p>No discussion of advanced Web topics is complete without some venting about Internet Explorer, so here goes.</p>
<p>Internet Explorer has no idea what you mean with your fancy-pants <em>veedeeo</em> tag. So unless you’re making a mobile-only website, congratulations, you have to fall back to something it can understand. Which would be Flash. Yep. We’re back to 19-effing-95.</p>
<p>I’m still seeing Internet Explorer 6 in my access logs. Not that many hits, but they’re out there. IE 6. The cancer of the Web. It’s mind-boggling, as there are only three reasons for anybody to use IE 6 these days:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>You work at a horrifically soul-crushing place run by sadistic morons.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You are using a pirated version of Windows and thus can’t get updates.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You never update Windows. Which makes you a moron. Hope you like being part of a botnet.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Let’s face it, you have to <em>work at it</em> to make Windows not update Internet Explorer.</p>
<p>Internet Explorer 7 is less horrific, but still a massive time sink for Web developers everywhere; the Ocho is almost not insane, and supposedly version 9 will actually be a nice, decent browser that won’t turn the Web into a horror show.</p>
<p>BUT people won’t update. <em>They’ll get Explorer 9 when they buy a new computer with it preinstalled.</em> So the curse of old, nasty versions of Explorer will be with us for a long time.</p>
<p>And you’ll need to support them.</p>
<h3>Too long; didn’t read</h3>
<p>Putting video on the Web is pure pain. You need to do some thinking. And HTML5, great and wonderful as it is, won’t save you.</p>
Frosty the windshield2011-01-07T16:00:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2011/01/frosty-the-windshield/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/frostonacar.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/frostonacar-300x225.jpg" alt="Frost on a car" title="Frost on a car" width="300" height="225" class="size-medium wp-image-1988" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Frost on a car.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>It’s been cold enough in Phoenix lately that there’s frost on the windows of cars parked on the street. Not a lot of frost, just enough to turn the windows opaque.</p>
<p>The other morning one of my neighbors got in his car and started to drive away, only to realize that, confusingly enough, he couldn’t see out his windows.</p>
<p><em>What to do? What to do?</em></p>
<p>Anybody who grew up in a cold climate would have immediately gotten out of the car and scraped the windshield and back window with a credit card or something similar.</p>
<p>But not our hero, who I can only guess was shivering and confused at this point.</p>
<p>Nope. He decides the way to combat the frightening, alien substance on his windshield is to wash the windshield. This took a while.</p>
<p>And then he was able to head out, windshield reasonably clear and the other windows still frost-covered, like a little mobile church with white-paned mosaics.</p>
<p>Safety first!</p>
Naked and sedated2009-12-31T03:18:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/12/naked-and-sedated/
<p>So another idiot tries to blow up a plane. It’s terrible and I’m incredibly relieved he didn’t succeed.</p>
<p>Except he kind of did.</p>
<p>See, the goal of these assholes isn’t to blow up planes. The goal is to terrorize us. The actual blowing up of the plane is just a means to terrorize.</p>
<p>It’s an important distinction to make. Just like the IRA in London in the ’70s (remember them?) didn’t carry some strange resentment about parked cars—they wanted the British to get scared enough to leave them alone.</p>
<p>It makes a lot of psychological sense for the current crop of bastards to keep trying to blow up airliners: Flying is a scary exercise to begin with, and the thought of some nihilist blowing you out of the sky is enough to push a lot of people way outside the realm of rational thought. As a bonus you don’t need a lot of explosives and you can put pretty much any mouth-breather on the job, it seems.</p>
<p>9/11 was such a massive, overpowering shock to the system that it’s hard to blame anybody for going off the deep end with the response. But that was nine years ago. Plenty of time for the last remaining super power on Earth to get rational again.</p>
<p>Which is why it’s so disheartening to see the same kind of knee-jerk response again.</p>
<p>First we had the idiot with the shoes. So, gotta take off your shoes<sup><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/12/naked-and-sedated/#1">1</a></sup>. Except not in Europe, for some reason, which is where the shoe bomber was coming from. But you have to when you leave America. OK. No reason to be consistent or find a best practice to apply globally. Let’s just all wing it. You fly in America, you take off the shoes. You fly in Europe, you empty your pockets.</p>
<p>This certainly does not make me feel safe. Either one side of the Atlantic or the other is putting our safety in danger or is inconveniencing people for no good reason whatsoever. Or both. I mean, it has to be one or the other, right? Unless there’s some shady gentleman’s agreement between the terrorists and the authorities that is <em>different in different parts of the world</em>. Which somebody like Glenn Beck might actually believe and turn into a three-hour televised extravaganza of insanity<sup><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/12/naked-and-sedated/#2">2</a></sup>. But which I do not.</p>
<p>Security personnel in different countries looked over the threats and made different decisions. You know, like humans do.</p>
<p>So a dirtbag tried to blow up his shoes, and we ended up putting our shoes through the machine in the security line. And then the next set of dirtbags were planning to conduct a failed high school science experiment on the plane. So: No liquids for you. Except less than three ounces. Because less than three ounces can never be made to explode, even if there are ten of you and you pool your liquids on the plane, turning it into 30 ounces. Because. Well, <em>because, dammit!</em></p>
<p>Fantastic.</p>
<p>And now we have this latest idiot who tries to blow up the plane by means of his underwear<sup><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/12/naked-and-sedated/#3">3</a></sup> right before landing. Which means now we have to spend the last hour of the flight just … staring? Because surely somebody with murderous intent would rather stay home than detonate his bomb two hours before landing? Really? “Curses, foiled again by the western imperialist dogs! Oh, them and their watches!”</p>
<p>Believe me, I want to be as safe as possible when I fly, and I most certainly would like for the insane nihilists who commit these kinds of act to be stopped any way possible, but I also would like to carry on with my life.</p>
<p>If we end up imploding our economy by not flying because it’s been made so goddam difficult by a bunch of security theater, well, they’ve won. And I really, really don’t want them to win.</p>
<hr />
<p><sup><a name="1">1</a></sup>Which, incidentally, we’ve been doing for a long time now, and still every time I fly half the security checkpoint line acts like this is complete news to them, just like the 3-ounces-of-liquid-or-death policy.</p>
<p>Do people in general actually pay any attention whatsoever to what goes on?</p>
<p><sup><a name="2">2</a></sup><em>What would the Founders think? What? What? Perhaps this random statue in the park will give us a hint. I’ll put on my reading glasses.</em></p>
<p><sup><a name="3">3</a></sup>I hope the pain of his burned genitals is utterly unbearable. Not quite 72 virgins, is it, having third-degree burns on your scrotum, douche nozzle?</p>
Home of the dollar2009-12-30T18:48:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/12/home-of-the-dollar/
<p>Despite promising myself to stop, I spend way too much time following the news. Which means I exist in a constant state of perplexity and rage.</p>
<p>Nothing new about that.</p>
<p>But lately things have been coming to a head. I don’t know if it’s all some elaborate practical joke, if I’m going nuts, or if the thought leaders out there are, in fact, completely insane.</p>
<p>One current source of confusion for me is the endless obsession and lamentation about housing prices. Yep, they crashed, and they crashed hard. If you, for some reason, bought a house at the top of the bubble you are now in a world of pain. And I feel for you. That really, really, sucks.</p>
<p>However—and here’s where I stop tracking the narrative—there was a huge bubble fueled by incredibly sketchy loans; loans that should never have been given. Those loans raised housing prices to fantasy levels, levels that <em>priced homes utterly out of reach of home buyers</em>.</p>
<p>I live in Phoenix, one of the housing bubble poster children, a metroplex where a lot of people are “paid in sunshine”—high-paying jobs are few and far between. According to <a href="http://realestate.com/">RealEstate.com</a>, in 2007 Phoenix had a <a href="http://www.realestate.com/AZ/Phoenix/real-estate.aspx">median household Income of $45,474 and a median home value of $347,000</a>.</p>
<p>Do those two numbers jive to you? They shouldn’t. If your household income is $45K, you simply cannot purchase a home for $347K. It’s called math. You can’t pay the vig. There’s nothing mysterious about it.</p>
<p>But now the bubble has burst, and home prices are back somewhere realistic. Which, again, really sucks for you if you bought your house at the top of the bubble. You are now deep in the hole. So I can see all those people desperately wanting house prices to pop up again so they can at some point actually sell their homes without going bankrupt. Granted. As for myself, yes, I enjoyed the fantasy that my house had made me <em>rich, rich I tell you!</em> Which I was for a while, in theory. Theory and reality are not the same. You are rich when you have the cash in hand.</p>
<p>But. If the house prices go back up to bubble levels, <em>nobody</em> can buy the houses without insane loans, and we would be back in another bubble. Which by its very freaking definition is not sustainable. Houses can’t cost more than people can afford, or people can’t buy them. Unless we can start paying our mortgages with unicorn tears, that’s just how it is.</p>
<p>So why am I reading all these stories lamenting the lack of lift in housing prices? Isn’t it a good thing that houses are affordable for working people again?</p>
<p>So people can actually, you know, live in them?</p>
Hummingbird heaven2009-12-16T22:56:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/12/hummingbird-heaven/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/4182507123_a84b0da581_b.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/4182507123_a84b0da581_b-300x199.jpg" alt="Kingpin hummingbird" title="Kingpin hummingbird" width="300" height="199" class="size-medium wp-image-1695" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Kingpin hummingbird.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>One of the great things about living in the Valley of the Sun is the hummingbirds. Stick a hummingbird feeder in your backyard, and soon enough you’ll see the little critters come feed at sunup and sunset.</p>
<p>It never fails to put a smile on my face.</p>
<p>One thing, though, you wouldn’t know about hummingbirds just from looking at them is how unbelievably aggressive they are. A feeder is <em>pure gold</em> to them, and they’ll squabble non-stop, which involves lots of angry chirping, aerobatics, and dive-bombing. I’m not sure if it’s the change in weather lately—yes, we had rain and overcast days—or if it’s mating season, but our local kingpin hummingbird has gone into a total ’roid rage. Get close, and you’ll get an earful. Be another hummingbird and get close, and you are in for a can of whup-ass.</p>
<p><em>I live on sugar water, dammit! You want some of this? You want some of this?</em></p>
Morning conversation2009-12-09T17:30:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/12/morning-conversation/
<p>Walking Andrea to school today, we had the following conversation:</p>
<p>“I hate school.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry you feel that way. What is it you don’t like about school?”</p>
<p>“We have to work all the time.”</p>
<p>“But after school, when you get a job, you’ll have to work even more.”</p>
<p>Sigh. Pause. Smile: “But then I’ll get money.”</p>
Review: Klipsch IMAGE S4i headset2009-11-29T23:55:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/11/review-klipsch-image-s4i-headset/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/s4i-box-front-straight_small.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/s4i-box-front-straight_small.jpg" alt="Klipsch IMAGE S4i retail box" title="Klipsch IMAGE S4i retail box" width="250" height="250" class="size-full wp-image-1678" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Klipsch IMAGE S4i retail box.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>I wanted better headphones than the ones Apple ship with the iPhone, but still wanted the mini-remote and microphone on the cord. After some googling, the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00264GYMG?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00264GYMG">Klipsch IMAGE S4i</a> (<i>Amazon affiliate link—show some love</i>) seemed like a good choice, despite the capitalization nightmare Klipsch has wrought upon the world.</p>
<p>I was a bit apprehensive about them being in-ear headphones after having read stories about people with oddly-shaped ear canals not being able to get a good fit, and thus not good sound, but they are comfortable and fit easily. We all have different ear canals, obviously, but as far as I’m concerned, no problems. And they ship with different size cones, so if the medium won’t do it for you, at least you can try the other sizes.</p>
<p>The sound. Well. I’m no audio engineer, and since I paid for these things with my own money, I couldn’t afford to do extensive comparisons with other headsets, but as far as I’m concerned, they sound <em>freaking amazing.</em> The bass stays crisp, even on torture tests like Bill Laswell’s subwoofer-killer <em>Dark Massive/Disengage</em>. Mids and highs have great separation and clarity.</p>
<p>Going to the S4is from the Apple-supplied headset is like going from standard-def to Blu-ray—the difference is <em>huge</em>.</p>
<p>One issue—and I feared this would happen—is that they’re useless for exercising. When your ear canal gets sweaty, the buds slip out like little greased pigs. Seems like it’s an issue with the whole concept of in-ear buds, although I’d really like feedback if anybody out there has found a set that stays in even when the canal gets sweaty. <del datetime="2009-12-08T16:22:58+00:00">At this point I don’t think there’s anything short of Crazy Glue to be done.</del></p>
<p><strong>UPDATE Dec. 8:</strong> As noted by <a href="http://joemullins.com/">the indefatigable Joe</a> in the comments, the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ODIE54?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002ODIE54">Comply foam tips</a> work great for exercising, and are also a bit more comfortable than the Klipsch-provided tips. <strong>/UPDATE</strong></p>
<p>Another thing with using in-ears for exercising is that since they work by blocking the ear canal you hear your own heartbeat and breathing. An odd sensation.</p>
<p>Actually, while we’re on the topic of headphones, what the hell happened to the neural interfaces we were supposed to get? No buds, just a wireless signal to subcutaneous receptors that feed the auditory nerve.</p>
<p>It’s like I just wasted all my time in the ’80s reading Cyberpunk.</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>
<p>To sum up: Far as I’m concerned, the Klipsch IMAGE 4Sis are worth the hefty price.</p>
New hamburger expertise2009-11-24T19:36:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/11/new-hamburger-expertise/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/hamburger.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/hamburger-300x181.jpg" alt="Ready for the grill" title="Homemade patties" width="300" height="181" class="size-medium wp-image-1635" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Homemade patties.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Quality ingredients and concave patties are the secret ingredients to making a great hamburger. It’s also so simple it’s frightening:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Buy good ground meat. I recommend sirloin. More expensive, but you get what you pay for.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Form into patties. You don’t need eggs or flour or anything. Just make patties. The key is to handle the meat as little as possible. Trust me, they’ll stick together.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make sure the patties are concave in the middle. This is the secret. If they are not concave you will flatten them with the spatula. The spatula is the enemy—<em>it drains the juice.</em> The juice is good. You want the juice.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Grill over low heat, turning every five minutes until done. <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/09/the-new-barbeque-expert/">Patience is the key.</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>That’s it. Enjoy the best burger you ever had.</p>
Review: Anathem2009-11-04T20:45:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/11/review-anathem/
<p>Neal Stephenson is one of those guys who are so smart it hurts. It really shows in <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/11/review-anathem/%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015DPXKI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0015DPXKI">Anathem</a></em>, a novel you could call sci-fi, or if you’re one of those people who don’t want to be soiled by the sci-fi ghetto but still enjoy great writing, you could call it “speculative fiction.” Same thing, but sounds much more coffee shop and black turtleneck.</p>
<p><em>Anathem</em> takes place on a world that is a lot like Earth. After a series of “terrible events,” scientists and philosophers have moved into “concents” (think monasteries) where they spend their lives keeping knowledge alive and running great clocks—basically, time capsules of human knowledge, with the idea that when civilization “extramuros”—outside the concents—goes belly-up (as it’s wont to do from time to time), the concent inhabitants will be able to help rebuild.</p>
<p>To this end, the inhabitants of the concents avoid contact with the outside world, instead pursuing their studies and philosophizing. And, oh, the philosophizing! Stephenson has created a whole philosophical and scientific history as a backend for his plot.</p>
<p>Like a lot of Stephenson novels, <em>Anathem</em> takes a while to build up steam, starting out slow and meandering before the plot really kicks in. Which is understandable considering the sheer amount of world he has to build. Once it gets going, though, <em>Anathem</em> becomes very hard indeed to put down.</p>
<p>If you like your fiction erudite and generously sprinkled with philosophy, you can’t go wrong with <em>Anathem</em>. Highly recommended.</p>
<p>The novel also serves as a nice meditation on values—how much of the now do we spend on what’s important, and how much on fluff and vacuousness?</p>
Cue The Smiths2009-10-25T01:15:07Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/10/cue-the-smiths/
<p>One of the things we’re working on here at Casa Core Dump is to get Andrea to eat her dinner. Yes, when you have a child, this is one of the things you have to work on. If you’re a parent, you know this; if you’re not yet one, OH YOU WILL FIND OUT.</p>
<p>Andrea’s cunning scheme has been to barely nibble on dinner, and then a few minutes later complain about being hungry and wanting a snack. Us parental figures, on the other hand, would like her to ACTUALLY EAT THE FOOD we cooked for her after coming home from a long day at work when we’d much rather plop down on the couch.</p>
<p>’Cause we’re Nazi that way.</p>
<p>The other day she had one of her wants-a-snack moments, and we informed her that, no, there will in fact not be a snack tonight, like we talked to you about a million times.</p>
<p>This was not popular. So she went to the TV room, where she has her pens and papers, slammed the door and went to work.</p>
<p>Here are the results.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/favroit-1.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/favroit-1-198x300.jpg" alt="Door with signs" title="Door with signs" width="198" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-1646" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/favroit-3.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/favroit-3-198x300.jpg" alt="Dad is not a favroit" title="Dad is not a favroit" width="198" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-1648" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/favroit-2.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/favroit-2-198x300.jpg" alt="Mom is not a favroit" title="Mom is not a favroit" width="198" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-1647" /></a></p>
<p>Even though not being a “favroit” is obviously difficult, there are several things I’m proud of here. One, she says please. Politeness is important. Second, even though there’s a lot of creative spelling, notice that she misspells the same way on both sheets. So, like her dad, she may be wrong, but dagnabbit, she’s CONSISTENT.</p>
<p>And now I guess it’s time to go transfer my Smiths collection to her computer…</p>
Movie roundup, part 132009-10-23T18:51:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/10/movie-round-up-13/
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1159722/">Nerdcore Rising</a>:</strong> “Nerdcore” is a style of music that’s essentially hip-hop with white nerds rapping about upgrading their computers, playing World of Warcraft, and other things near and dear to the nerd heart.</p>
<p><em>Nerdcore Rising</em> chronicles the first national tour of <a href="http://frontalot.com/">M.C. Frontalot</a>, considered by many to be the godfather of nerdcore. Frontalot and his band of fellow nerds travel across the U.S. in a crappy van, hustle for publicity, and play for small crowds in dive bars. And it’s a lot of fun to watch, partly because Frontalot and his band are a great bunch of high-energy guys, but mostly because they so obviously love doing what they’re doing.</p>
<p><em>Nerdcore Rising</em> is the kind of documentary that puts a smile on your face.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462504/">Rescue Dawn</a>:</strong> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Herzog">Werner Herzog</a> directs this raw, powerful story of a pilot shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War. It’s very much a Herzog movie, filled with naked anguish, insanity, and unbearable cruelty.</p>
<p>Christian Bale, while no Klaus Kinski, puts in an strong performance, including a scary amount of weight loss and eating of repulsive things.</p>
<p>This is the kind of movie where the marketing department either didn’t see a single frame or employed some top-level drugs to exorcise reality from their work—a Herzog movie about People Tormented to the Brink of Insanity shouldn’t be marketed the same way as a Rambo movie. It just doesn’t do anybody any good.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458525/">X-Men Origins: Wolverine</a>:</strong> Wolverine is the most interesting character in the X-Men universe, so starting out the Origins series with him makes all kind of sense, even though the movie is a bit of a clanking dud.</p>
<p>If you are expecting “feelm” things like character development or an interesting script, <em>Wolverine</em> will disappoint you. It is what it is: a tentpole summer blockbuster with the emotional depth of an ADD four-year-old. Lots of stuff blows up in visually striking ways, but the characters are just props to move the viewer to the next explosion.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, if you can put your brain on pause and not expect anything but a plethora of explosions, it’s competently made in a sad, soul-less way.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/">Watchmen</a>:</strong> Blue schlong.</p>
<p>Just so that’s out of the way.</p>
<p><em>Watchmen</em> is an incredible technical feat: bringing the <del>comic book</del> graphic novel to the screen as faithfully as this must have taken an incredible amount of labor.</p>
<p>But I don’t understand <em>why</em> <em>Watchmen</em> needed to be made into a movie. It really didn’t bring anything new to the experience. So, <em>shrug.</em> (Obviously it got made because somebody thought they could turn a profit, but there just doesn’t seem to be any artistic reason apart from the director showing off his Mad Skillz.)</p>
<p>There was a lot of Internet furor about the changed ending, and while I was a bit confused about <em>why</em> they changed the ending, the new ending isn’t bad, I guess, but it does seem arbitrary to change just that bit. Oh, well. Blue schlong.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/">Waltz With Bashir</a>:</strong> This is one of the most powerful movies I’ve ever seen. A middle-aged Israeli filmmaker tries to sort out why he can’t remember his involvement in the Lebanon War of the early ’80s, and talks to his friends from the time and other people who were there in order to fill the gaps in his memory.</p>
<p>An animated movie, <em>Waltz With Bashir</em> uses its format profoundly effectively, focusing like a laser on the visual pieces that enhance the story.</p>
<p>And it is such a breathtakingly sad story. This is the kind of movie that stays with you for a long, long time.</p>
<p>Highly, highly recommended.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034303/">Defiance</a>:</strong> Based on the powerful story of jews in Belorussia during WWII who, after seeing their families murdered by the Nazis, flee into a forest to hide and do their best to live with some human dignity in defiance of Nazi brutality.</p>
<p>And somehow, and I really wish I knew how, Hollywood manages to make it trite.</p>
<p>Which is pretty close to a crime in and of itself.</p>
<p><em>Defiance</em> isn’t a horrible movie, but when you have the cojones to take on a story like that, you better bring your A-game, and the people involved in this movie most certainly did not. Even my new favorite Bond, Daniel Craig, pretty much phones it in. It’s almost like you can hear him think, “Hey, so I don’t have to take my shirt off in this one, right? Mmmmm … hamburger.”</p>
<p>I mean, really, you have Nazi crimes against the jews and humanity in general, add the uncaring misanthropy of the Soviet state, then add the cruelties of winter and starvation, and most of the movie still feels like it’s made for TV.</p>
<p>In a way it’s mindblowing. How do you manage to work with that kind of material and make it humdrum? And shouldn’t you find another line of work?</p>
<p>The filmmakers also decided to have the dialogue switch in and out of Russian every once in a while without any rhyme or reason I could discern. Thanks. If you hadn’t done that I probably wouldn’t remember the movie was set in Belorussia. Thanks also for having the actors deliver their lines with Russian accents that drift in and out. This also adds to the verisimilitude.</p>
<p>Man, now I’m pissed off. This story shouldn’t have been treated this way.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1205489/">Gran Torino</a>:</strong> This is what happens when you take a great screenplay, great actors, and a director with a keen interest in the human condition: You get a gem of a movie.</p>
<p>Eastwood is, of course, fantastic and intimidating as Walt Kowalski, curmudgeon of the year, who has managed to alienate his entire family and actually <em>growls</em> his misanthropy in a scene.</p>
<p>For some perverted reason, it feels refreshing to have Eastwood deliver every known racial epithet about asians, but do it in such an over-the-top curmudgeonly way it takes all the stings out of the words, rendering them nothing more than armor for a scared old man.</p>
<p>This is the kind of movie that stays with you. Highly recommended.</p>
Infestation of raggare2009-10-07T23:32:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/10/infestation-of-raggare/
<p>I stumbled on an article in <a href="http://guardian.co.uk/">guardian.co.uk</a> that paints a romantic picture of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/01/raggare-swedish-rocknroll-cult">the menace of the raggare.</a> (<a href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/raggare/">Via Schott’s Vocab.</a>)</p>
<p>For those of you blissfully unaware, raggare is a term used to describe a Swedish subculture of people who really, really like America in the ’50s. <em>Really, really</em> like it. Rockabilly music, big cars, greasy hair, Confederate flags … the whole shebang.</p>
<p>Back when I was growing up—which for anybody new to this blog was in a small town in Sweden in the ’70s—raggare were EVERYWHERE. Their modus operandi was to:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Drive huge, ratty American cars around and around in the center of the city;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Kick anybody’s ass who looked different from them.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There was no step three.</p>
<p>Which meant that basically everybody I knew had been either assaulted or accosted. Yes, we’re talking about stuff like four drunk guys jumping out of a car and pounding you for being a “snob” or “faggot.” (The criteria for falling in either of those categories was not wearing a jeans jacket.)</p>
<p>Which means I don’t feel particularly charitable to their little miserable subculture.</p>
<p>The raggar culture did its recruiting from the deeper ranks of the provincial working class, so book learning was never exactly <em>à la mode</em>. Which could explain the deepest irony: I never met one of them who could speak passable English. So you’d hear things like “Buick” pronounced “bee-YUCK.”</p>
<p>And now, according to <a href="http://guardian.co.uk/">guardian.co.uk</a>, it seems they never went away, but have been flying under my radar for a few years, waiting and watching, ready to roll up on me the next time I’m walking down a Swedish street.</p>
<p>Bastards.</p>
Out of Nebraska2009-10-01T18:44:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/10/out-of-nebraska/
<p>When Springsteen brings the angst of the human condition, he <em>brings the angst of the human condition</em>.</p>
<p>Witness:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>the only thing that I got’s</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>been bothering me my whole life</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From “State Trooper” off Nebraska, the album that makes you feel like you’re driving a crapped-out Camaro on a two-lane blacktop by endless cornfields on a rainy night.</p>
The New Barbeque Expert2009-09-24T19:53:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/09/the-new-barbeque-expert/
<p>One thing us men excel at is over-complicating things. Look at any male-dominated field and you’ll find a morass of acronyms, shibboleths, and over-engineering of things that should be simple. Audiophiles and computer geeks make excellent examples. If it’s not impenetrable to outsiders and outrageously expensive, it’s Not Manly.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/15674307-7590d04c2ae5558631f8ce92c224eb02.4abbcd06-scaled.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/15674307-7590d04c2ae5558631f8ce92c224eb02.4abbcd06-scaled-300x225.jpg" alt="Grease fire" title="Grease fire" width="300" height="225" class="size-medium wp-image-1598" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Grease fire.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>This tendency of course afflicts that last sacred outpost of the suburban male: The grill.</p>
<p>Ah, yes, the last bastion of male domination, a place where fire meets slaughtered animals. <em>Ho-ah!</em></p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s because of almost all men having grown up listening to endless debates about the Correct Way to Char between more-or-less lubricated family members—at least one of whom has attached himself with the zeal of an Old Testament prophet to the belief that charcoal is the One True Way to grill and that grilling with gas is gayer than wearing ass-less chaps and a pink boa—or simply that the grill stands there in our domain, a last free outpost of manliness, a sanctuary for us to invest with the last rituals of our gender.</p>
<p>Either way, the Correct Way to BBQ inspires much furor.</p>
<p>And it’s all BS.</p>
<p>Unless you particularly ENJOY your meat with a charcoaled outside and red inside, here’s the too-simple-to-be-true way to achieve tasty, tasty carcass from your grill: Low heat and patience.</p>
<p>That’s it. Let me say it again:</p>
<p>LOW HEAT AND PATIENCE.</p>
<p>If you’re BBQing with charcoal, there’s extra patience involved: You will need to let the grill sit until it becomes naught but embers. If you’re cooking with gas, just turn the burners ALL THE WAY DOWN after the grill has heated up. That’s right. All the way down.</p>
<p>But, a chorus of angry voices cries out, THAT’S NOT MANLY! Indeed it may not be. See, the goal here is to create tasty, tasty meat, not to make up for the cruel indignities life has visited upon you. That’s what lifted pickup trucks are for.</p>
<p>So, the burners are turned all the way down. You put the meat on the grill. Now leave it the hell alone for ten minutes. Yes, we are going to use manly-man technology to help us BBQ. That technology is called a watch. Wait at least ten minutes, then turn the meat.</p>
<p>Then go sip a tasty beverage for another ten minutes, while watching the grill in case there’s a grease fire. After ten minutes, go turn the meat again.</p>
<p>Depending on the cut of meat, it might be done now, but probably not. Cut it open and take a look. Is it the level of pink you want? Then you’re done. If not, leave it for another five.</p>
<p>If you have a cheap grill—like me—or you buy fatty meats, you’re going to have a grease fire. It’s unavoidable. Just move the meat out of the way and use your scraper to extinguish the fire.</p>
<p>The result of all this is better-tasting meat and less stupidity in the world. These are both fine things.</p>
Review: Drenai Tales2009-09-10T19:09:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/09/review-drenai-tales/
<p>David Gemmell’s <em>Drenai Tales</em> consists of nine novels, all taking place in a fictional land where two nations, the Drenai and the Nadir, are in a state of tension and sometimes full-out war over the centuries.</p>
<p>This is very much old-school fantasy with large, burly heroes slaughtering their way through hordes of enemies. Which sounds like it would be boring. It is not. Gemmell was blessed with an ability above all else of making you turn the page—the plots move at breakneck speed, the battle sequences are full-on epic, and he imbues his characters with details that make you care about them, warts and all.</p>
<p>A nice touch is that the novels jump around in time, so sometimes the events in one novel show up as the stuff of legend in a later novel, and sometimes a novel will change the established facts of another novel, which makes Gemmell’s world very rich.</p>
<p>Literature the <em>Drenai Tales</em> are not—they are rollicking good stories that keep you up way too late at night because you <em>must</em> find out what happens next.</p>
<p>Definitely something to bring along for you next plane ride—which will be over way too soon.</p>
<p>Oh, and please don’t blame Gemmell for the book covers, which all look like rejected ’80s metal band album covers.</p>
<p>The <em>Drenai Tales</em> consist of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345379063?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345379063">Legend</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345379055?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345379055">The King Beyond the Gate</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345379047?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345379047">Quest for Lost Heroes</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345379071?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345379071">Waylander</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345407989?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345407989">In the Realm of the Wolf</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345407997?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345407997">The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345408004?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345408004">The Legend of Deathwalker</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345432304?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345432304">Winter Warriors</a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345432258?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345432258">Hero in the Shadows</a></em>.</p>
Seriously, what the hell?2009-09-04T03:08:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/09/seriously-what-the-hell/
<p>President Obama is planning an address to school children on Sept. 8 about the values of education and staying in school.</p>
<p>Great, right? The sitting president, who is a fantastic orator, is going to spend time showing his support for education.</p>
<p>NO, NO, NO! Oh, you fools! He is <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090903/pl_ynews/ynews_pl888_1">going to brainwash and indoctrinate them</a> into … well … something FASCIST or COMMUNIST or perhaps even MUSLIM … who knows, but indoctrination!</p>
<p>So the school district my daughter attends is forced to send out a defensive e-mail JUSTIFYING their decision to have the children watch a speech by the, let me repeat myself here, sitting president of the United States of America.</p>
<p>But Nic, you say, you’re a huge liberal/fascist/communist/whatever; of course you’re going to want the children indoctrinated by Obama.</p>
<p>NO. I want my child to hear a message from the, AGAIN, sitting president of the United States of America on the value of education.</p>
<p>And what if Bush had wanted to do the same thing? Even though I loathe him, his administration, and his policies, I would still have wanted my daughter to hear the message from the, say it with me, people: president of the United States of America.</p>
<p>Because guess what? This IS the United States of America, and we are supposed to respect the presidency, if not the president.</p>
<p>Remember those days, when the same bunch of wingnuts who are going to pull their kids out of school on Sept. 8 were screaming about how questioning the president was supporting the enemy and being a traitor? Remember?</p>
<p>Were you one of those people?</p>
<p>Put up or shut up. Let your child hear the—for the last time—sitting president of the United States of America speak, or man up and admit you hate democracy and America.</p>
Review: The Brass Verdict2009-09-03T23:47:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/09/review-the-brass-verdict/
<p>Michael Connelly is at the top of his game in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446401196?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0446401196">The Brass Verdict</a></em>, his follow-up to <em>The Lincoln Lawyer</em> (read <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-the-lincoln-lawyer/">my review here</a>). Once again we follow hard-boiled L.A. lawyer Mickey Haller as he navigates the legal system in his own inimitable way.</p>
<p><em>The Brass Verdict</em> is a soundly plotted thriller populated with interesting, believable characters, including an important part by Connelly’s most famous protagonist, Harry Bosch.</p>
<p>The novel is tightly plotted, fast-paced, and action-filled, but Connelly still infuses it with a sense of humanity through Haller’s relationships with his partners, estranged wife, and daughter, as he takes on a celebrity murder case that drops in his lap.</p>
<p>It can be read as a stand-alone, but you’d be better served by reading <em>The Brass Verdict</em> after finishing <em>The Lincoln Lawyer</em>—it will enhance the experience.</p>
<p>And yes, the meaning of the phrase “brass verdict” is explained in the novel.</p>
<p>A solid, good read for anybody who likes crime fiction, and a no-brainer if you enjoyed <em>The Lincoln Lawyer</em>. There’s also a pretty nice lagniappe for longtime Connelly fans toward the end of the book. Not going to spoil it, but it felt nice to read.</p>
Review: Requiem for an Assassin2009-09-03T23:34:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/09/review-requiem-for-an-assassin/
<p>Everybody’s favorite remorseless assassin John Rain is back! Well, kind of.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451412575?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0451412575">Requiem for an Assassin</a></em> is indeed a John Rain novel, but Barry Eisler has made him more thoughtful and middle-aged.</p>
<p>So we get a John Rain who wants to get out of the assassin game, who longs for his estranged child, who worries about his relationship with his girlfriend, and is pretty miserable in general. And then he’s forced to assassinate three people in different locations in the world and try to rescue a friend who’s being held kidnapped by a shadowy group of evil-doers.</p>
<p>As usual, Eisler does a bang-up job with the details and the writing—it’s hard to not want to go drop everything and go visit some of his exotic locales.</p>
<p>But it’s also hard to not miss the old John Rain, sipping top-of-the-line single malts in whiskey bars, being his paranoid, nihilistic self.</p>
<p><em>Requiem for an Assassin</em> is worth reading for the fan of the series, but it’s definitely not where anybody should start. Pick up the first John Rain novel, <em>Rain Fall</em>—<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/08/review-rain-fall/">my review here</a> and get acquainted with the last of the cool assassins.</p>
Not exactly Kerouac2009-08-28T16:53:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/08/not-exactly-kerouac/
<p>Andrea has started second grade, which involves a quite stunning amount of homework, especially reading and writing.</p>
<p>Thursday night we’re at the kitchen table working with her to wrap up the week’s work, and of course she’s getting tired and antsy to do something else.</p>
<p>“Let’s finish this. You only have one more sentence to write.”</p>
<p>“You write it.”</p>
<p>“No, I can’t write your sentences for you. It’s your homework.”</p>
<p>“Well, write slowly so the teacher thinks it was me.”</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge she’s never heard the old, “I know you don’t read fast, so I’m writing this slowly” gag…</p>
Review: 17762009-08-26T03:07:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/08/review-1776/
<p>David McCullough’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743226720?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743226720">1776</a></em> tells the story of a part of the War of Independence, especially focusing on George Washington and the soldiers he led against the English troops in Boston and New York.</p>
<p>In these times when it seems most of the knowledge of the founding fathers has been reduced to hero worship and propaganda tools, <em>1776</em> is a refreshing and—as usual for McCullough—painstakingly researched examination of the times and events with a distinctly human focus.</p>
<p>Even though we all know how the story ends, the tale McCullough tells in <em>1776</em> is riveting and deeply personal. With this work, he has done everybody interested in the founding of America a great service.</p>
<p>Highly recommended for anybody interested in history, and should be required reading for everybody in America who votes.</p>
Movie roundup, part 122009-08-18T02:13:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/08/movie-round-up-12/
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/">Kung Fu Panda</a>:</strong> Funny animated movie about Po, a panda who spends his days dreaming about being a kung fu master but is actually a bit of a fat slob. Of course, Po ends up selected to be the Dragon Warrior who must defend his home from a scary sociopathic tiger.</p>
<p>Very well-made with lots of sight gags and an uplifting story about believing in yourself, but <em>Kung Fu Panda</em> is definitely too scary for small children.</p>
<p>For older kids and silly adults, it’s a lot of fun.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/">The Wrestler</a>:</strong> And now I’m depressed. Don’t get me wrong, <em>The Wrestler</em> is a very good movie, with stellar performances by everybody involved, especially Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, but it’s a lot like watching the back story of how somebody ended up getting tased on an episode of COPS.</p>
<p>Rourke completely immerses himself in the role of an over-the-hill professional wrestler—it’s hard to imagine any other actor being able to give that character so much humanity and gravitas while remaining as sad and empty.</p>
<p>Tomei breaks your heart as a middle-aged stripper.</p>
<p>The cinematography feels like a documentary, complete with rough cuts and harsh lighting. The camera often follows right behind people, creating a creepy, voyeuristic feel.</p>
<p><em>The Wrestler</em> is a tough, emotional film that’s worth watching.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034331/">Righteous Kill</a>:</strong> I turned it off after 30 minutes.</p>
<p>There must be a fascinating story out there about how you can get Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino together in a cop drama and somehow manage to turn it into complete dreck.</p>
<p>Both Pacino and DeNiro—you know, two of the most intense actors <em>ever</em>—are phoning it in so bad it’s a wonder they’re not yawning in half the scenes, and the quote-unquote grit is like Siegfried and Roy doing West Side Story.</p>
<p>Abominable.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/">The King of Kong</a>:</strong> Documentary about competitive arcade gaming, which turns out to be a touching portrait of flawed people.</p>
<p>It’s always fascinating to get glimpses into sub-cultures.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217505/">Gangs of New York</a>:</strong> Daniel Day-Lewis is incredible as Bill the Butcher, chewing up the scenery as one of the most frightening sociopaths ever put on film.</p>
<p>Starts out tight and engrossing with scenes from New York’s Five Points in 1846—horrid, brutal squalor that unfortunately for the poor souls who had to live through it seems to be historically accurate.</p>
<p>But then Scorsese loses his grip a bit and the movie starts to meander. It seems Scorsese decided to create an Epic Allegory™ instead of a good story.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800039/">Forgetting Sarah Marshall</a>:</strong> Decent romantic comedy with plenty of awkwardness and psychological pain. A man tries to get over his girlfriend who just dumped him by going to Hawaii, and of course she’s staying at the same hotel with her new boyfriend.</p>
<p>There’s some good writing, and despite the extended awkwardness the movie succeeds in making the characters come alive as people, not just stereotypes.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389722/">30 Days of Night</a>:</strong> Fairly effective horror movie with little internal logic.</p>
<p>Apparently in Alaska daylight doesn’t disappear gradually like it does in the rest of the world. One day you get daylight, the next, whammo, no daylight for you.</p>
<p>And of course not having any daylight for 30 days is pretty useful if you’re a vampire.</p>
<p>Josh Hartnett does a good job as the affable town sheriff who has to deal with the vampire invasion.</p>
<p>Kind of frustrating in that the vampires never become anything but horrific killing machines—it would be interesting to get their back story. Nevertheless, a decent popcorn flick.</p>
Apathy and loathing at Dulles2009-08-10T17:26:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/08/apathy-and-loathing-at-dulles/
<p>Entering the United States through <a href="http://www.metwashairports.com/Dulles/">Dulles International</a> in Washington, D.C. always makes me sad. The International Arrivals Terminal is such a pathetic display of disorganization and worn-down glory it feels like arriving in some third-world hell hole instead of the world’s sole remaining superpower.</p>
<p>When you have an airport where you have to hire people to stand around all day to yell out directions to hordes of tired travellers, you have failed Airport Design 101 in the worst possible way. Add to that the concept of moving between terminals on custom buses that look like rejected props from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120201/">Starship Troopers</a>.</p>
<p>But you know, please don’t fix it. After all, it’s just the port of entry in the NATION’S FREAKING CAPITAL. No reason to spend money. We got wars to wage and car manufacturers to bail out. Priorities.</p>
<p>There’s a reason I’m ragging on the state of disorganization and malaise at Dulles International: it made me miss my connecting flight in the most ridiculous and avoidable fashion possible.</p>
<p>The story: Andrea and I leave from Gothenburg at 10:30 a.m. Swedish Time on August 6, 2009 (1:30 a.m. Mountain Time), change planes in Copenhagen, and arrive at Dulles from Copenhagen on flight SK925. A nice flight that takes us into Washington at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. 10 minutes early. And then there’s immigration. No problem, just a few minutes of standing around in line getting sweaty for a while, since apparently the airport IN THE NATION’S FREAKING CAPITAL can’t afford, oh, how you say? Ah, yes, air conditioning.</p>
<p>And then it’s time to pick up our bags for customs. This is important: The deal is that YOU CANNOT enter the country without your luggage. Which is fine. But at Dulles, they have elevated getting your luggage into something that would make Kafka nauseous. See, there are only four baggage belts. But there are many, many flights. So the solution, appparently, is to have employees pick the bags from the belts and put them by signs on the floor. Which is shintzy but workable, IF, and only IF the people put the bags by the CORRECT signs. Would you like to make odds on this happening? Hint: It does not.</p>
<p>So I find one of our three checked bags sitting on the floor far from any sign. Just, you know, sitting there. So I guess which belt it probably came from. And tell my daughter everything is fine, we’ll just watch the belt and our suitcases will show.</p>
<p>Which, 20 minutes later, as the belt shuts down, they do not.</p>
<p>And did I mention we have a two-hour layover? Which ordinarily is plenty of time to take care of everything, stroll to the gate, and eat a delicious Wendy’s burger in Terminal C.</p>
<p>But the belt stops and our two suitcases are very much missing. So I ask the closest official-looking person if these are all the bags from flight SK925. He doesn’t know. Tells me to check with one of the 20-year-olds in ill-fitting cheap suits walking around. They are apparently the luggage supervisors. Ask one of them. But no, he works for United. I must talk to the Scandinavian supervisor. Fine, where do I find the Scandinavian supervisor? Go to the service counter. OK.</p>
<p>There’s a long line at the service counter. Where, it’s important to note, the name Scandinavian Airlines is prominently displayed together with other airlines like United. Tick-tock. We’re losing time real fast. Andrea is being a total champ, but her dad is getting more frazzled by the second.</p>
<p>Finally! At the service counter. Which is staffed by two extremely harried-looking women who apparently have to stop what they’re doing to have conversations on the phone every thirty seconds.</p>
<p>They can only handle United bags. Which does make you wonder a bit why we’ve been directed here. But I suppose you can’t be expected to know how things work at the place where you spend EIGHT HOURS EVERY DAY. One of the service counter ladies tells me to talk to the SAS supervisor. Who isn’t there. Which is the reason I’m talking to her. So she pages him.</p>
<p>I stand around for a while, talking to another woman off of SK925 who’s also missing bags and has a tight connection.</p>
<p>No SAS guy. Ask the woman to page him again. She does. No SAS guy. Woman at the counter is starting to take pity at the sweaty guy with a tired seven-year-old and pages the SAS guy’s supervisor. Who shows up and starts to talk in her walkie-talkie.</p>
<p>No SAS guy anyway.</p>
<p>Let me just interject here that a trans-atlantic flight has just landed and the ONLY person who can deal with luggage issues is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. And there is NOBODY ELSE. Also, YOU CANNOT ENTER THE U.S. WITHOUT CLEARING YOUR BAGS THROUGH CUSTOMS. I’m assuming there are special cells in Gitmo for people who try.</p>
<p>At this point we’re twenty minutes away from our flight leaving and the SAS person who is THE ONLY PERSON who can help us is JUST NOT THERE. Missing. AWOL. Gone.</p>
<p>Judging from the state of Dulles in general, I’m guessing this guy is curled up with a bong somewhere, but I don’t know. Either way, we’re going to miss our flight unless a miracle happens.</p>
<p>Finally, the United lady behind the counter breaks out the luggage claim papers and, telling me she shouldn’t do this, writes down our tag numbers so that we are now legal and can enter the country. Oh, the happiness.</p>
<p>Our connecting flight is at gate D8. I ask her if it’s possible for us to make that gate on time. Sure, it’s right over there (handwave).</p>
<p>Customs. Nobody asks to see our missing bags papers.</p>
<p>Security. End up behind Borat and his entire sheep-herding family who are completely new to the wonders of the Western World like English and bags. Fantastic.</p>
<p>Cutting it real close. Real close.</p>
<p>Get into Terminal C. Where is Terminal D? Ah, past Terminal C. Walking as fast as possible with a tired seven-year-old girl. Terminal C goes on for a while.</p>
<p>Finally, Terminal D. Get to D8. Empty. Crickets. Fuck. Missed the flight.</p>
<p>At this point, I’m DRIPPING.</p>
<p>See, here’s the thing, if it was just me, it wouldn’t be that big a deal. I’ll sleep under a bridge for a night if I have to. But when it comes to my daughter, things are different. I’ve got to work something out.</p>
<p>Find a United service counter. No other flights tonight. Noper. Book a flight for the next morning at 6 a.m. At this point I just want to get as far from this airport as possible as fast as possible.</p>
<p>Lady at United counter tells me United can’t put me up in a hotel since it’s SAS’s fault, so they’re the ones who have to pay up. Diggable. Where is the SAS service counter? Terminal B.</p>
<p>All right. Terminal B it is. At this point it’s about 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time and both me and Andrea are getting really tired and hungry.</p>
<p>Onward to Terminal B. 10-minute walk and another little stupid effing Dulles bus shuttle abomination and we’re at Terminal B.</p>
<p>Nice-looking terminal. Clean, with a wide thoroughfare. Pretty much the opposite of the cramped third-rate-mall feel of terminals C and D. Walk down with Andrea, who is getting very, very tired and grouchy. She wants to eat. She wants a toy. She wants lemonade; above all, she wants to sit down and relax. Explain to her that we can’t eat and relax until we find the SAS service counter and get a hotel room set up.</p>
<p>Walk down the lenght of the terminal, stopping intermittently at manned gates to ask if they know where the SAS service counter is? “Oh, yeah, it’s right down there.” (Handwave.)</p>
<p>Finally we’ve walked the entirety of Terminal B at Dulles International. No sign of Scandinavian Airlines.</p>
<p>Walk back the other way. Andrea is so tired she manages to trip over her feet and hurt her knee. So now I’m walking with a little girl who’s screaming her lungs out.</p>
<p>It’s a bright terminal, with a wide lane to walk, not a lot of people, with a white, shiny floor, and I’m walking slowly down it with a screaming child. I’ve been on the go for about 20 hours. Her screams echo and people are staring at me.</p>
<p>Back to the bottom of the terminal. Again, not a sign of SAS. If they’re here, they’re pretty well hidden.</p>
<p>See four people at the gate of an Air Austria flight. Ask one of them if they have any idea where the SAS service counter is.</p>
<p>“Yes, they usually use gate B42. But that flight left, so they’re not there anymore.”</p>
<p>So apparently a whole bunch of people have told me to walk up and down Terminal B for no other reason than that SAS sometimes has a flight out of there. Brilliant.</p>
<p>Andrea looks like she’s about to pass out and is sniffling miserably. So I ask, “What am I supposed to do now? They lost our suitcases and we’re stuck here.”</p>
<p>The woman says she’ll try to get a hold of somebody. Talks on the phone in some Asian language for a while, then tells me somebody will come to gate B40 to help me.</p>
<p>OK. I thank her and we go over to gate B40 to wait.</p>
<p>At this point, I really have no idea what to do. Worst case, I’m going to have to pay for a hotel and hope to get reimbursed. There’s no way I’m keeping my daughter in the terminal till 6 a.m. the next morning.</p>
<p>A guy shows up and I give him the abbreviated version of my tale of woe. Miraculously, he gets me a hotel chit.</p>
<p>It’s about 7:00 p.m. and we’re outside Dulles waiting for the shuttle to the Dulles Airport Hilton. No shuttle. Tired. I call the hotel and after 7 minutes and 43 seconds on hold (thank you timer on iPhone) am informed that yes, the shuttle rolls continuously. Should be there any minute.</p>
<p>And it arrives. And we go to the hotel. And Andrea falls asleep in the shuttle. As we roll up to the Hilton a thought stabs me—I never saw our mysterious benefactor at the gate actually call to check if the Hilton had any rooms. We could be rolling up to another Dulles-style disaster and have to find another hotel and try to find SAS again to get a chit for THAT hotel. DAMMIT!</p>
<p>But the hotel does have a room. After we arrive, since we have no luggage, I purchase a $7 pair of underwear, we eat at the hotel restaurant, and go to bed.</p>
<p>The next morning, Friday, as I take a shower at 4:30 in the morning, Andrea writes a note: “Thank you, hoitel peopple” which she hands over to the concierge as we check out. We take the 5 a.m. shuttle back to the airport, make the flight, and make the connection in Chicago.</p>
<p>My wife picks us up at Sky Harbor, and we’re at the house around noon Mountain Time Friday.</p>
<p>Our missing bags show up 0:35 Sunday morning.</p>
<p>I will not fly through Dulles again if you put a gun to my head.</p>
In the stillness2009-08-02T21:31:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/08/in-the-stillness/
<p>There’s a breathtaking Chinese saying that goes something like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You put your hand in a bowl of water and stir it. The water moves. You remove your hand and the water goes still.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Vacation, for me, is still water time. Let it come to rest.</p>
<p>So, having a wonderful time I decided to write down some of the realizations that have come to me as I sit doing the absolute minimum, basking in the glory that is time to think, time to be with family, time to be with old friends.</p>
<p>If nothing else, it’ll be something for me to read a few months from now when I’m back to running just to stand still and wondering why my stomach hurts. (I eat whole grain bread and yoghurt—THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!)</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>All the things that stress you out every day aren’t that big a deal. Really. You’re gone, and the office still takes care of itself. Nobody’s died. Nobody’s really needed you. It all goes on without you.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You do not have to watch the news. Things happen, misery goes on, and unless it’s your house that burned down, it really doesn’t matter in the present. Do volunteer to help wherever you can, help your neighbors, vote the best people in, but in the end there’s very, very little you can do about anything that’s on the news. Above all, your ulcer doesn’t change things much. Except your life sucks more than it has to.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Flowers are beautiful things. Take some time and really look at them. Smell them if you’re a hippie, but above all, look at them. Did you make anything today that was more beautiful than a flower? Was it worth it? Plants have made flowers for a million years and they’re going to keep making them no matter what you do. Unless you happen to have a bunch of nukes on hand. In that case, nevermind.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You’re getting older every day. You are not who you were yesterday. Think about your day. Do you want to remember this day in 10 years? Think back to a day you had 10 years ago. Happy?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>On vacation I wake up wanting to do the same things I always do. And then I don’t. And at the end of the day, it turns out I really didn’t need to do them.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If you’re at all like me, you have way too many feeds and Web sites to check every day. Turns out, they really don’t need checking. You don’t need the info. RSS feeds are a great way to feel like you’re doing something without actually, you know, doing anything.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Internet is fantastic and full of wonders, and doesn’t need you. Stuff, stuff, stuff.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>An iPhone can bring you a sense of childlike wonder just by being turned off and sitting on a desk.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Did I mention the flowers? They’re freaking awesome. And they really don’t care about your state of mind.</p>
</li>
</ul>
That was easy2009-07-22T06:48:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/07/that-was-easy/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/3745269080_e1cb171d36_b.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/3745269080_e1cb171d36_b-300x225.jpg" alt="Gate M15 at Chicago O'Hare" title="Gate M15 at Chicago O'Hare" width="300" height="225" class="size-medium wp-image-1507" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Gate M15<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Ensconced in my parents’ house after one of the smoothest journeys I’ve ever enjoyed—every flight right on time, short lines at the security checkpoints, and minimal turbulence.</p>
<p>So now of course I’m worried about the karmic debt I’ve incurred for the return trip.</p>
<p>Woke up at 4 a.m. local time as the sun was rising to a day of blue skies. Forecast says the rest of the week will be rainy and miserable, but today is postcard Swedish summer weather.</p>
<p>Oh, and for the enjoyment of the people of Phoenix: I slept with the window open and felt a little chilly when I woke up. There is life outside the smelt furnace.</p>
Louisiana to Missouri, via tow truck2009-07-06T06:30:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/07/louisiana-to-missouri-via-tow-truck/
<p><i>Everything in this story is true to the best of my recollection. The names Andy and Anastasia have been changed since I don’t have permission to use their real names.</i></p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/niclindh/3124517966/in/set-72157615420175591/" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/3124517966_b9869988e4.jpg" alt="The IROC-Z" title="The IROC-Z" width="500" height="281" class="size-full wp-image-1487" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">The IROC-Z<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>I came to America in the summer of 1989. It was a different time, a time before the Internet, a time when all a young Swedish man could know about America was what was on his TV set—<em>Hill Street Blues</em>, <em>Miami Vice</em>, and <em>Dallas</em> were America.</p>
<p>Through a long, tortuous chain of events I ended up going to college in Louisiana, at that Harvard of the South, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.</p>
<p>The thing was, as far as I was concerned, that was just as good as any other place in the states. Oh, sure, I knew Los Angeles was the capital of everything awesome, and probably Miami would be pretty darn cool, but what difference would it make in the long run? America was ALL COOL. We’re talking DETAILS here, babe. Sweden was a cold, miserable country full of horrid little towns that made you want to kill yourself, whereas America was nothing but GLEAMING SKYSCRAPERS and HARDBODIES.</p>
<p>Yes, this was the time before the Internet. All we had was TV. This is what we saw on TV.</p>
<p>Lafayette, Louisiana. Population: about 100,000. May, 1989. My new home. The air reeking of ozone and life. Everything wet and hot to the touch. A heady brew for a 21-year-old from a cold, gray country. My best friend from Sweden, Andy, had a sister Anastasia living there, part of the long story how I ended up in Louisiana of all places, and she would drive me around to get me familiar with the town in her ancient Honda Accord. The first day we ride around I see a pink Cadillac driven by a pimp wearing a purple fedora with one of his hookers in the passenger seat. Yes. A pink cadillac with a pimp and a hooker. I didn’t even ask for it. Just part of the reality.</p>
<p>What happens next is that Anastasia and me are going to go visit her brother Andy—my best friend—in Missouri. I’m driving a Camaro IROC-Z that I’m holding for a Swedish guy. Another long story. Be that as it may, I’ve got this 1986 Camaro IROC-Z with a 5-liter V8 we’re going to drive 11 hours to Cape Girardeau, Missouri from Lafayette, Louisiana.</p>
<p>Let me just remind you at this point that I’ve been in the States less than three months and I’m still working on my English. The English I was taught in school was British English—hey nonny-nonny, my dear chap, etc.—NOT American English, and most certainly not Southern American oh-well-let’s-call-it-English. So it was a bit of a challenge to keep up sometimes.</p>
<p>So there we are, Anastasia and me, in a cinnamon ’86 IROC-Z, heading to Missouri.</p>
<p>We go through Baton Rouge, taking the highway north, heading through Mississippi, and stop for gas. It’s this tiny gas station off the freeway, hidden in greenery, and everybody who works there is Black as the night. Outside the gas station is a beat-up truck with two white guys sitting in the front seat, both of them sporting massive ZZ Top beards and plaid shirts. They’re just sitting there, Lord knows why, staring. So we get out to fill up the Camaro and stretch our legs. I go in to pay for the gas, and have absolutely NO IDEA what the gas station attendant says to me. Seriously, NO IDEA. So I hand her a couple of twenties and hope I won’t get ripped off too bad. She hands me back some change and says something. I smile.</p>
<p>Outside, in the miserable heat, we get in the Camaro and get ready to take off, when the truck with the two ZZ Top rednecks takes off with squealing tires, makes a 180, tires smoking, and sits there facing the Camaro.</p>
<p>What in the EVERLOVING HELL is this?</p>
<p>The rednecks stare at us for a few seconds, take off with an epic rebel yell, and are gone.</p>
<p>OK.</p>
<p>Welcome, I guess.</p>
<p>At this point I’m getting tired from driving down the trance-inducing freeway and this kind of weirdness is just … something else to process … so we head off down the highway.</p>
<p>Which is still, to me, the coolest thing ever. Having an honest to God highway to drive down is THE MOVIES. An endless thrust into the wilderness, for me to drive as long as I can last. No winding Swedish road here—we’ve SUBORNED THE WILD. Drive, you bastard, just drive as long as you can.</p>
<p>Camaro. Bose factory sound system. Highway. 21 years. It’s all good stuff. Yeah.</p>
<p>Around 10 p.m. we hit the outskirts of Blythesville, Arkansas, find a gas station at a motel, fill up and stretch our legs. Only a few more hours to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.</p>
<p>Back in the car. My turn to drive. Turn the key and NOTHING. Not even a click. Just nothing.</p>
<p>Oh, crap.</p>
<p>Pop the hood, look around, see nothing obviously wrong. Turn the key. Nothing.</p>
<p>Ask the lady working the motel if we can use her phone to call the tow truck.</p>
<p>Sure. Tow truck wants $50 to even show up. Fine. What are you going to do?</p>
<p>Tow truck shows up. Huge Black guy whose only interest in life is to put jumper cables on the car and sit in his truck waiting for some kind of magic to happen. I try to explain that since there’s NOTHING happening when you turn the key, it’s not the battery. Since the car was running till we stopped the battery is not dead, and it’s something else going on. He is singularly unimpressed with my logic.</p>
<p>Surprise. After charging the battery for 20 minutes, the car still does NOTHING.</p>
<p>This costs $50.</p>
<p>Anastasia and I are not in a good mood. The tow truck driver takes his money and drives away. Guess we didn’t move his heart to tears.</p>
<p>So it’s close to midnight in Blythesvill, Arkansas, and we’re standing by a dead cinnamon-colored IROC-Z.</p>
<p>This guy has been across the parking lot doing something to his beat-up piece of crap truck while we’ve been dealing with the tow truck driver, and apparently the tow truck’s departure is his cue to drive up to us. The truck’s entire flatbed is full of empty beer cans. This is not an exaggeration. You can NOT see the flatbed through the empty cans.</p>
<p>Now, imagine Axl Rose on the skids. This is what gets out of the truck. He REEKS of beer. Cause, you know, it’s Tuesday in Blythesville, so why not be lit up like a Howitzer?</p>
<p>He suggests we come stay the night in his room at the motel. Yes. This sounds like a good idea. Anastasia is a cute, blonde, Swedish 20-year-old. Nothing can go wrong with this plan. Only good things can happen in the cheap motel room on the outskirts of Blythesville, Arkansas.</p>
<p>So we manage to make him go away, which takes a while. Apparently we are huge fools for not coming to stay with him. But finally the truck made of beer cans drives away.</p>
<p>And there we are. Midnight in Blythesville. The IROC-Z is dead as can be. We’re out $50 to Captain Helpful in the tow truck.</p>
<p>The woman working the front desk at the motel tells us there’s a Chevy dealership somewhere in town, and we can call their tow truck. Perhaps they can help?</p>
<p>Great. What choice do we have? Let’s get another tow truck involved.</p>
<p>Second tow truck shows up around 1 a.m. This is the biggest redneck asshole I’ve ever encountered. After he ignores everything I say and verify for himself that indeed the car won’t start, things become problematic. Yes, he can tow the car to the dealership, but, oh, they’re REALLY, REALLY BUSY. If they’re the only effing Chevy dealer in town, I don’t care how busy they are. We’ll wait. Oh, it’ll cost more to tow the car tonight. Really? When should we tow the car, then, Captain Smart? Oh, it’ll be cheaper tomorrow? Then fine, we’ll have it town in the morning. Oh, but you still have to get paid tonight? Even though you’ve done nothing? Fine.</p>
<p>At this point the guy was being a full-on epic level asshole.</p>
<p>So Anastasia BLEW UP in his face, telling him exactly what kind of dick he was being. Apparently dealing with angry women was not his forté, so he ran back to the tow truck and started to take off. But before leaving, he stopped the truck—very dramatic with the diesel idling—looked me straight in the eye, and said, “This your woman?”</p>
<p>I said “Yes, yes she is” through gritted teeth, and he squealed off in a complete huff, shaking his head at what kind of idiot would tolerate an uppity woman like that. (All these years later I’m stilla bit happy I managed to be a part of that guy getting some grief. Lord knows he needed it and lots more of it.)</p>
<p>So our luck with tow trucks is not that great. But we had the phone number for the dealership to call in the morning.</p>
<p>At this point Anastasia is kind of hysterical with frustration about the tow truck redneck, which I certainly don’t hold against her.</p>
<p>And I’d like to remind you, gentle reader, that I’m 10,000 miles from home, dealing with the scum of America. OK? I am NOT prepared for this.</p>
<p>The woman working the desk at the motel tells us she’ll let us stay for free since it’s so late anyway. Which is the first time all day anybody has been a mench, so we gladly accept and fall unconscious around three in the morning.</p>
<p>And then up at 7 a.m. to call yet another tow truck and hit the Chevy dealership. Truck shows, we ride to the dealership, get the IROC-Z in for diagnostics.</p>
<p>Anastasia has been in the states for three years, and she has NO CLUE what anybody is saying at the Chevy dealership in Blythesville, Arkansas. I have even less of an idea. There are a lot of meshback caps and beer guts, and a lot of handshaking, but I basically just smile and nod and hope I’m not promising them my firstborn or anything.</p>
<p>After a lot of ungodly dealership coffee, we get the verdict. Apparently the previous owner had put in a killswitch. You trip it with your knee. When we got out to change drivers, one of us hit it. CLICK!</p>
<p>The visit at the dealership was kind of surreal and sleep deprived, so I’m not sure how much I ended up paying for this diagnostic, but I think it was something on the order of $70. Handshakes and meshbacks and we were out of there, on the road to Cape Girardeau.</p>
<p>What I do know is that on the way back to Louisiana after a very pleasant week in Missouri, I locked the car doors as we crossed the Arkansas state line and swore that if anything went wrong with the car, I would rather die inside it than ever set foot in Arkansas again.</p>
Red carpet for the apocalypse2009-06-24T04:01:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/06/red-carpet-for-the-apocalypse/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://www.madmaxmovies.com/making/madmax2/index.html"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/WezFaceoff-260x300.jpg" alt="Wez Loves You. Source: MadMaxMovies.com. Click for original" title="WezFaceoff" width="260" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-1453" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Wez loves you.<br />Click for original.
</div>
</div>
<p>The other day <em>The Arizona Republic</em> ran a <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2009/06/23/20090623biz-survivalists0623-CP.html">story about survivalists</a> who are responding to the economic crisis by hoarding food, buying guns, and setting up gardens.</p>
<p>To those survivalists I’d like to say: Shine on, you crazy diamond. If it makes you feel better to build a bomb shelter, go right ahead. I mean, it obviously WON’T HELP, but if it eases your worry, great.</p>
<p>Why won’t it help? Because if there’s a real apocalypse—a full-tilt stop to the global economic engine resulting in roaming bands of outlaws—or mutants, why not—fighting for the last resources of civilization, your shiny Magnum and your bags of grains aren’t going to do more than postpone the inevitable for a few weeks, tops.</p>
<p>Unless you have special forces survival training, you won’t be able to find food. Unless you have special forces combat training, you won’t be able to hold off the mobs. Having a bunch of guns is not going to be enough. You have to know how to actually USE the guns effectively. This skill set is not magically imparted by watching a lot of Chuck Norris movies and reading <em>Left Behind</em>. Sorry.</p>
<p>But having a bunch of people respond to fear and uncertainty by deciding to go Mad Max seems to happen all the time, especially in the United States. Soon as there’s a crisis, real or imagined, be it the Y2K bug or Obama building concentration camps, the survivalist bile starts rising for a bunch of people. Man the bunkers! Get the guns! Protect the family!</p>
<p>The last time we saw this on a large scale was the Y2K bug, and one of the things that REALLY got to me back then was the GLEE underlying a lot of the survivalist freak-outs.</p>
<p>IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING! GET TO THE BUNKER! WHEEEE!</p>
<p>The people stockpiling food and ammo often don’t seem to be terrified so much as HAPPY. Finally, they seem to be thinking. FINALLY we’re done with this bullshit society. Finally I’ll be able to live off my wits and superior firepower against the hordes. The HORDES! The bastards who make me pay taxes and arrest me for driving drunk! Finally me and my shotgun will be able to LIVE like we’re MEANT TO. WITH V-8 ENGINES!</p>
<p>It’s the fun park aspect of survivalism that’s so bothersome—like finally we will be FREE.</p>
<p>Is life really that bad for some people that the prospect of the End of Civilization is the only hope for happiness?</p>
The first letter home2009-06-14T03:33:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/06/the-first-letter-home/
<p>Andrea is spending the summer in Sweden with her grandparents and cousins for the second year in a row. The basic plan is that my mother Eva came here to pick her up, and then in late July I’ll fly to Sweden, visit for a bit, and then fly back with her just in time for school to start.</p>
<p>As any parent of a seven-year-old can tell you, it’s hard to be away from your child for an extended period of time, but daily e-mail reports from my parents and the knowledge that she’s not spending her summer in the miserable Arizona heat makes it easier to bear. Even though we miss her like crazy, it’s nice to know she’s getting a real summer experience instead of being cooped up in a sweltering day camp.</p>
<p>So today we received a letter in the mail:</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/letter_home1.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/letter_home1.jpg" alt="The First Letter Home" title="The First Letter Home" width="500" height="676" class="size-full wp-image-1441" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">The first letter home.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>After I wiped the tears from laughing too hard, I had two thoughts: 1) My little girl is growing up; and 2) She’s getting pretty good at drawing.</p>
<p>And it’s always good to see <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/03/paid-back/">the Lindh genes</a> are still in full effect.</p>
Review: Terminator Salvation2009-06-08T23:43:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/06/review-terminator-salvation/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2207812352/tt0438488"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ts_movie_poster.png" alt="Source: IMDB. Click for more images." title="Terminator Salvation Poster" width="268" height="394" class="size-full wp-image-1429" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Terminator Salvation poster.<br />Click to visit IMDB.
</div>
</div>
<p>Seriously?</p>
<p>I thought I’d made peace with the fact that summer blockbusters are stupid. I really thought so. But this, this … man, I have a headache.</p>
<p>Not to go all “they raped my childhood” but the first <em>Terminator</em> was life-changing for me—science fiction noir with a mind-bending premise. And then they made the second one, and it was stupid and annoying, but with some cool effects. And then they made the third one, and it did horrible things to my will to live. And now they’ve made a fourth one.</p>
<p>I actually had hopes for this one. Christian Bale did a fantastic job with Batman. Yay. It was supposed to be darker and grittier, kind of <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2008/12/why-so-serious/">like the Batman reboot</a>. Again, yay.</p>
<p>But what Hollywood ended up coughing up was a Generic Summer Blockbuster. Sure, <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438488/">Terminator Salvation</a></em> (the lack of a colon is killing me) has terminators. Tons of terminators. Or at least things that look like terminators. You know, chrome skeletons with red eyes. <em>Clank, clank.</em></p>
<p>Here’s where the problems start: In the previous installments in the franchise, the glimpses of the future we’ve seen have been horrific—people cowering like animals in underground tunnels while Skynet’s hunter-killers roam the sky. Intense stuff. But in <em>Terminator Salvation</em> the resistance has a freaking air force. And a submarine. OK. And apparently nuclear annihilation will just leave some cool ruins behind. No radiation, no messed up weather. OK. And apparently a lot of survivors aren’t even part of the resistance; they’re just hanging out getting their Mad Max on. <em>Sigh.</em></p>
<p>No matter how sweaty Christian Bale gets, this is not gritty.</p>
<p>But what really, really brings on the headache is the complete asinine stupidity of Skynet. Oh, sure, they can build terminators, but apparently they can’t make them actually kill anybody without first giving them a chance to find the right gun or tool to dispatch the terminator. This whole pushing people around thing is just bullying, not terminating. Look it up, Skynet. I know you have a dictionary built in.</p>
<p>The terminator programming basically seems to be: sneak up on somebody (ti-hi!) then give them a shove and wait a bit so they have time to think.</p>
<p>But OK. Moving on.</p>
<p>Then there’s Skynet’s insistence on building in displays and terminals for humans to use in their super-heavily defended base. (Which, incidentally, is very easy to get into for people who want kill their d00ds.)</p>
<p>I know, I know, I’m overthinking this. But you know, I don’t know the exact budget for this thing, but you’d think they could have spent a few thousand on somebody to come in and point out the places where things are just <em>way too freaking stupid.</em></p>
<p>So yeah, it’s called <em>Terminator Salvation</em> without-a-colon, but it could just as well have been called <em>Independence Day</em> or <em>Transformers.</em> Same generic crap.</p>
<p><em>Clap when stuff blows up, monkey boy, clap!</em></p>
Review: Let the Right One In (novel and movie)2009-06-08T00:00:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/06/review-let-the-right-one-in-novel-and-movie/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3998127104/tt1139797"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ltroi_movie_poster.png" alt="Source: IMDB. Click for more images." title="Let the Right One In movie poster" width="270" height="398" class="size-full wp-image-1408" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Let the right one in poster.<br />Click to visit IMDB.
</div>
</div>
<p>This movie left me in a state of shock. Seriously. Ostensibly a vampire movie, it’s really about being helpless and the horror of being at the mercy of other people.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/">Let the Right One In</a></em> is extra freaky for me, personally, since it takes place in Sweden in the early 80s with a protagonist about my age at the time dealing with some of the same issues I was in the same kind of environment I was in. Not that I was ever that blond, that geeky, or that bullied, but the mise en scene—the clothes, the buildings, the snow, the darkness, the <em>hopelessness</em>—it all brings me back to that time.</p>
<p>But apart from the similarities with my own life, some of the things that make <em>Let the Right One In</em> a very watchable movie are:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>The cinematography. It’s cold and clean, almost Kubrickian. And trust me, making a working-class apartment complex in Sweden in the middle of winter look like a place where wonders happen is quite a feat.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The sound work. So much subtlety. The little sounds the vampire makes when she gets hungry are worth the price of admission all by themselves. This is a movie to watch loud.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The understatedness. Kind of a Swedish thing. There are so many horrific things happening in this movie, and they are so wonderfully underplayed, letting your imagination do the heavy lifting. Little things become big terrors.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The casting. Everybody in the movie is well cast, especially the protagonist and the little vampire girl. She is perfect and eerily believable, taking the movie to a whole different level.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>So yes, I’m a fan. This movie is one to put on your list.</p>
<p>A word of advice though, from your friendly uncle in cyber space: If you ge the DVD or Blu-ray you’ll get the dubbed version by default. That is an abomination. Change your settings and get the original language with English subtitles. Why? Because dubbing is a rape of acting, that’s why. Don’t be that guy who watches dubbed movies. Nobody likes that guy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312355297?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0312355297">The novel</a> the movie is based on was written by John Ajvide Lindqvist. He also wrote the screenplay, which is probably the reason the movie is very faithful to the intent of the novel.</p>
<p>Being a novel, there’s more detail, more internal action, and several storylines didn’t make it into the movie. Which is natural for the media involved. Where the movie hints at things, the novel is explicit, where the movie sketches, the novel paints a portrait.</p>
<p>And what a portrait. The novel deals with the horrors of powerlessness in general, with characters that are among the broken and outcast in a society—the alcoholics, the minimum-wage workers, the perverts. All people with few choices in life, people who stare hopelessness in the face every day. Together of course with the bullied protagonist who spends his days futilely trying to avoid humiliation and pan.</p>
<p>The novel is in parts actively unpleasant to read as it delves into the minds of horrific people and presents them as characters rather than caricatures. It’s like Lindqvist took a scalpel to the boils on society’s underside and scraped the pus on the page.</p>
<p>So, yes, it’s not everybody’s cup of chamomile. But it’s undeniably powerful.</p>
<p><em>Let the Right One In</em> is certainly not your average vampire saga. As a matter of fact, the vampire is almost incidental.</p>
<p>In the afterword Lindqvist says, “Everything in this book is true. It just didn’t happen this way.” That <em>really</em> creeps me out.</p>
<p><em>Note</em>: I read the Swedish original, and so can’t make any judgment about the quality of the English translation.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312355297?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0312355297">Buy the novel from Amazon.</a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MYIXAW?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001MYIXAW">Buy the Blu-ray from Amazon.</a></strong></p>
Movie roundup, part 112009-06-07T03:22:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/06/movie-round-up-11/
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362225/">Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One)</a></strong>: Something as unusual as a French thriller based on an American novel about New Jersey, and it really works.</p>
<p><em>Tell No One</em> is a taut thriller about a pediatrist whose wife is murdered. Eight years after the murder he gets an email from somebody claiming to be his dead wife, kicking off a series of nightmarish events. The movie is fast-paced and full of twists and turns, requiring you to pay attention.</p>
<p>Can you figure out what’s going on before the denouement?</p>
<p>Being a French movie, there’s some downright casual nudity. Apparently the French operate under some kind of delusion that seeing a naked human being will not turn people into monsters.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056058/">Harakiri</a></strong>: Japanese movie from 1962 about an era in the early 1600s when a lot of samurai were downsized.</p>
<p>I’m not ashamed to say that the Japanse often frighten me—the culture is so alien and strange. <em>Harakiri</em>, though—despite being stark almost to the point of nihilism—brings out the humanity of the fierce samurai, both for better and for worse. It’s a harsh juxtaposition between human beings trying their best to get through hard times and the hypocrisy of people who cling to dying ideals even though they no longer believe in them themselves.</p>
<p>As a movie, it’s relentlessly sparse—filmed in black and white, the soundtrack not much more than the crashing of beaten sticks, and full of the kinds of disturbing close-ups Sergio Leone would use to such great effect in his spaghetti westerns.</p>
<p>Watching it, I kept feeling there was some criticism of contemporary Japan that I couldn’t understand, but be that as it may, it’s a worthwhile movie, and if nothing else the strictness of both plot and cinematography makes it a part of our shared human heritage.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364970/">Babylon A.D.</a></strong>: I’m a huge sucker for sci-fi and an even bigger sucker for cyberpunk, so this movie was quite frustrating—it could have been good, but instead of reaching its potential, it peters out into an amorphous blob of silly plot and silly acting.</p>
<p>Vin Diesel is an actor in the mold of Stallone or Schwarzenegger—if you’re going to use him, you need to have something <em>huge</em> going on, with an endless cornucopia of action sequences. Unfortunately, <em>Babylon A.D.</em> didn’t get that memo, and instead puts Diesel in a movie that kind of, sort of, wants to be a big action vehicle but mostly wants to be … well, I don’t really know what it wants. The movie is based on the novel <em>Babylon Babies</em> which I have not read, but from watching the movie it seems like a good novel with a bunch of interesting things going on, things that don’t directly translate to a screen play.</p>
<p>Apparently nobody noticed this, took the plot, schlepped it into a screenplay and called it a day.</p>
<p>I don’t want to commit a spoiler here, but once the objective of the movie is revealed at the end, it turns out that there was no reason to even make the movie—the interesting things happen after it ends.</p>
<p>I’m no film maker, but that just can’t be good.</p>
<p>So all in all, a huge disappointment.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452608/">Death Race</a></strong>: Trenchant tale that warns of the moral dangers inherent in a privatized prison system seeking profits, or mindless mayhem?</p>
<p>I’m just kidding. It’s mindless mayhem.</p>
<p>Apparently one never gets too old enough to enjoy cars bristling with guns and armor crash in spectacular ways. So if that’s your bag at all, this is a movie you will enjoy.</p>
<p>Bonus points to Jason Statham for getting himself frighteningly ripped for this movie.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/">Wall•E</a></strong>: Absolutely delightful. Wall•E himself never stops being engaging to watch. Being able to coax that much charm out of an animated trash compactor robot is mind boggling.</p>
<p>So even if you don’t have kids, Wall•E is definitely worth watching, even though since it is for children, the themes get a bit heavy-handed.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/">Let the Right One In</a></strong>: <strong>EDIT:</strong> Moved the movie to <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/06/review-let-the-right-one-in-novel-and-movie/">its own review together with the novel</a>.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411477/">Hellboy II: The Golden Army</a></strong>: I actually liked the first Hellboy outing, but this, this … what the hell is this?</p>
<p><em>The Golden Army</em> received critical accolades. I have no idea why. Sure, it’s visually stunning, but there’s no <em>there</em> there, just a bunch of freaks fighting in order to drive a mentally-challenged plot that makes very little sense.</p>
<p>At the end of <em>The Golden Army</em> I was tired, confused, and wondering what the hell I just saw, but not in a good way.</p>
<p>To add insult to injury, not having David Hyde Pierce voice Abe was a gargantuan mistake.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433383/">Good Night, and Good Luck</a></strong>: Ostensibly about journalist Ed Murrow’s battle with Joe McCarthy during the Red Scare, it’s really a thinly veiled allegory about the assault on civil liberties taken by the Bush administration.</p>
<p>It’s a nice little movie. A bit bloodless, but moves along at a nice clip and has clean cinematography.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/">Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut</a></strong>: The link takes you to the IMDB entry for the theatrical cut of the film. Which I haven’t seen, so I have no idea of how it differs from the Director’s Cut. Which is the one I saw. And which was two different movies, one where our hero With a Difficult Past™ is rescued from his miserable existence by the Father He Didn’t Know He Had™ and another where our hero Defends Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The first movie is way too long. Well made, but stretches out a bit.</p>
<p>The second movie has a <em>brutal</em> beginning where way too many things Have to be Revealed and it Will Take a While so Stay in Your Seat Bitch. After that, though, it turns into a fantastic medieval war movie.</p>
<p>Ridley Scott reuses the ideas, music, and visuals from <em>Gladiator</em> and <em>Black Hawk Down</em> and then throws in some fantastically intense battle sequences with knights.</p>
<p>It’s frustrating, because Ridley Scott really shouldn’t be putting out a movie with the kind of pacing problems <em>Kingdom of Heaven</em> has, but at the same time, it’s Ridley Scott, and the man sure knows how to work an action sequence.</p>
Microsoft and the lemonade stand parable2009-06-03T18:30:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/06/microsoft-and-the-lemonade-stand-parable/
<p><em>Microsoft has been pre-announcing some products lately that look like they’re going to be very nice. But I’m skeptical. Why? Please allow me to illustrate with a parable about a lemonade stand.</em></p>
<p>“Hey, you want to buy some lemonade? It’s great lemonade.”</p>
<p>“Really? Better than the other lemonades?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, absolutely. Totally great lemonade.”</p>
<p>“Cool. I’ll buy a glass.”</p>
<p><em>Lemonade is handed over.</em></p>
<p>“Yuck. This lemonade tastes horrible.”</p>
<p>“What? Really? No, it’s good lemonade.”</p>
<p>“I’m telling you, it tastes horrible.”</p>
<p>“Oh, right. I see what you mean. But I’m working on a better lemonade. It’ll be out real soon. It’ll taste great. So if you could just keep drinking that lemonade for a little bit longer. Really, just a little bit longer, and the new lemonade I’m working on will taste great!”</p>
<p>“OK. Sure. I already bought your lemonade, so I’ll drink it a bit longer, but this new lemonade better be fantastic, or I’m out of here!”</p>
<p><em>A fist is defiantly shaken in the air.</em></p>
<p>“Yeah, sure, it will. It will be the best lemonade you <em>ever</em> drank. Really. Just outstanding.”</p>
<p><em>A few days go by.</em></p>
<p>“So where is this new lemonade you promised me?”</p>
<p>“It’s a little late. Just a little. You know, making lemonade is hard. Not as easy as you’d think.”</p>
<p>“But you told me the new lemonade would be ready by now.”</p>
<p>“Did I? Oh, I’m sorry. Terribly sorry. But the new lemonade is actually even better than I thought it would be. So good. Yes. So very, very good. You’ll like it.”</p>
<p>“OK. Guess I’ll wait a bit longer.”</p>
<p><em>A few days go by and our protagonist returns to the lemonade stand.</em></p>
<p>“Here’s the new lemonade! Woo-hoo! See how it sparkles? That, my friend, is some excellent lemonade.”</p>
<p>“Fantastic! I gotta have the new lemonade. Here’s my credit card. Just pour!”</p>
<p>“But of course. One glass of new and improved lemonade coming right up!”</p>
<p><em>A glass of lemonade is handed over.</em></p>
<p>“Yuck! Bastard! This lemonade tastes horrible!”</p>
<p>“What? No it doesn’t.”</p>
<p>“Yes it does. I just drank it. You told me it was going to be outstanding, but it tastes just as bad as the old lemonade.”</p>
<p>“Well, OK, maybe the new lemonade has some problems. A few. Not that many.”</p>
<p>“What are you talking about? It tastes horrible, just like your old lemonade.”</p>
<p>“Ah, but it’s actually new lemonade. Completely different. Just seems like the old lemonade, which it is not. I’ve figured out why you think it tastes bad, and I’m going to have a better lemonade out soon.”</p>
<p>“How soon?”</p>
<p>“Reeeeal soon. You won’t even notice time has passed.”</p>
<p>“Because this lemonade is horrible.”</p>
<p>“The new lemonade will be the best lemonade ever and it will be out tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Really? Tomorrow? I’ll be back tomorrow.”</p>
<p><em>A day passes.</em></p>
<p>“So is the new lemonade you promised ready?”</p>
<p>“Ah, the new lemonade… It’s almost ready. Very close.”</p>
<p>“So I’ll come back tomorrow?”</p>
<p>“Yes, tomorrow. Yes. It will definitely be ready tomorrow. And taste fantastic. Yum, yum, it will be the best lemonade <em>ever</em>.”</p>
<p><em>A day passes.</em></p>
<p>“Hi there, is the new lemonade ready yet?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“But you said it would be ready today.”</p>
<p>“I did? Oh, oh, heh. You thought it would be ready today?”</p>
<p>“Yes, you said it would be ready today.”</p>
<p>“Well, sir, lemonade-making is difficult. Hard to predict, really. Tricky. What with the lemons and all.”</p>
<p>“So I’m still drinking the lemonade that tastes like crap. That’s what you’re telling me.”</p>
<p>“Did you get the latest lemonade? It really doesn’t taste as bad. As a matter of fact, it’s really good!”</p>
<p>“Yes, I’m drinking the latest lemonade, and it doesn’t taste at all as good as the lemonade you promised. Not at all.”</p>
<p>“Well, making lemonade takes time.”</p>
<p>“Then why did you tell it would be ready several days ago?”</p>
<p>“Have you tasted my latest lemonade? It’s really very good.”</p>
<p><em>Fade to black.</em></p>
Bass for your face2009-05-20T00:26:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/05/bass-for-your-face-2/
<p>I usually wear headphones when I watch TV. It’s a habit I got into when Andrea was born and I didn’t want her to overhear the dialog from shows I was watching, like <em>The Sopranos</em> and <em>Deadwood</em>. At this point it’s just something I’m comfortable with, and it actually enhances the enjoyment for me. I’ve been using a pair of Sennheiser HD 202s for a few years, and have been really happy.</p>
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thecoredump-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000065BP9&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p>For the price, they’re hard to beat.</p>
<p>I wanted a new pair of headphones for work and thought about getting a second pair HD 202s, but then on a whim decided to throw in an extra ten dollars and step up to the EH-150s.</p>
<p>Now, I’m no audiophile—frankly I rate audiophiles as the only kind of people more annoying than neck bearded Linux fanatics—but these headphones quite simply rock. The bass presence is ungodly and the highs are clear and crisp even on MP3s.</p>
<p>If you’re in the market for new cans, this is $30 well spent.</p>
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thecoredump-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00067OF80&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p>Incidentally, why did Sennheiser decide to throw in the hyphen in the product name on the EH-150s but not the HD 202s? Budget constraints?</p>
The British Wallander2009-05-19T21:53:07Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/05/the-british-wallander/
<p><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/wallander/index.html"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/branagh_wallander_splash.jpg" alt="Branagh Wallander Splash" title="Branagh Wallander Splash" width="500" height="186" /></a></p>
<p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/wallander/index.html">PBS.org</a></em></p>
<p>Henning Mankell’s novels about Swedish small-town detective Kurt Wallander are an international hit, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Swedish movies based on the novels, so I was really interested in seeing what none other than Kenneth Branagh would do with the subject. The series started <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/wallander/index.html">airing on PBS</a> recently.</p>
<p>For those not familiar with the series, it is centered on Kurt Wallander, a tired and middle-aged detective who desperately needs to get some distance from his work—the crimes he ends up investigating are gruesome and horrific, more suited for Gomorra than a small Swedish town. Wallander’s relationship with his daughter is a constant subplot as they grapple with his less-than-stellar fatherhood record.</p>
<p>The Branagh version is filmed on location in Ystad—which is not pronounced with a “sh” sound no matter how many times the name gets mangled on-screen—a picturesque small town in the far south of Sweden, with an all-British cast. All the vehicles, uniforms, and printed materials are in Swedish, but all audio is in English.</p>
<p>Personally, I love British crime dramas—Prime Suspect, Cracker, Thin Blue Line, what have you—and I also love Swedish crime dramas like Wallander, Beck, Millenium and of course the Sjöwall/Wahlöö series, so I was quite excited to see Branagh’s take on Wallander.</p>
<p>And it’s a well-made British crime drama. But despite the setting, it doesn’t <em>fee</em>l Swedish at all, so in that sense it’s a failure. All the touches that make Wallander special have been leached out, and you end up with Branagh playing the tired, dishevelled detective from central casting. Which he does very well, mind you—what with him being a gifted actor—but he doesn’t feel like Wallander. The rest of the cast, none of whom I recognized, puts in a solid performance as well.</p>
<p>The cinematography is a bit of problem. It’s deft but very heavy-handed. There are way too many color casts and tricks with the light—for heaven’s sake, you have the Swedish seaside summer light at your disposal, so why go all <a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/">Strobist</a>?</p>
<p>Top it off with a way over-used <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_shift">tilt-shift effect</a>, and you have cinematography that overpowers the story. Since the story is why we’re watching Wallander in the first place, that’s kind of sad.</p>
<p>To sum it up, Branagh’s Wallander is a pretty good British crime drama, but Wallander it isn’t. Nevertheless, worth watching.</p>
<p>Oh, and shameless pimp: If you’d like to find some good crime fiction, please visit <a href="http://recoilpress.com/">Recoil Press</a> for a hand-picked selection.</p>
Review: Gang Leader for a Day2009-05-11T21:24:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/05/review-gang-leader-for-a-day/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014311493X?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=014311493X"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/gangleaderforaday_cover.jpg" alt="Gang Leader for a Day" title="Gang Leader for a Day" width="136" height="205" class="size-full wp-image-1352" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Gang Leader for a Day cover.<br />Click to purchase at Amazon.
</div>
</div>
<p>Sudhir Venkatesh has something wrong with his brain, and we’re all the better for it. At least it’s hard to imagine anything but pathological lack of fear would lead a sociology grad student to go hang out with a drug-dealing gang in arguably one of the worst ghettos in America.</p>
<p>We’re all the better for it since Venkatesh’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014311493X?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=014311493X">Gang Leader for a Day</a></em> is a compelling and eminently readable account of life inside a ghetto, both for the gangs and the citizens who make it their home.</p>
<p>The most profound feeling you get from reading <em>Gang Leader for a Day</em> is also the most mundane—that people struggling to deal with lives mired in poverty, drugs, and violence are just that: people. Underneath it all they’re no different from anybody else.</p>
<p>If the name Sudhir Venkatesh rings a bell, it might be because he is included in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006073132X/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8778343-6691834?v=glance&s=books">Freakonomics</a></em>, my review of which <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-freakonomics/">is here.</a></p>
<p><em>Gang Leader for a Day</em> is a wonderful and important book. Highly recommended.</p>
Tower of babble2009-05-05T21:09:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/05/tower-of-babble/
<p>One of the things that make the Flip cameras <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/11/game-changer-flip-video/">such game changers</a> is the form factor—small and light enough that you can give one to a child for entertainment.</p>
<p>So for a while now Andrea has been running around the house with a Flip camera. There’s very little footage that’s actually usable, but she sure has fun.</p>
<p>Embedded here is a short compilation that I do believe adequately illustrates why so many parents of small children look so tired. Man, if I could bottle that energy and sell it…</p>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/4451847" class="aspect-ratio--object w-full aspect-video" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics">High energy</div>
<p>As a nerd aside, the footage was taken with a Flip, assembled and color corrected in Final Cut Pro, the audio sweetened and the loop added in Soundtrack Pro.</p>
It’s the sound of inevitability, Mr. Anderson2009-04-27T06:14:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/04/its-the-sound-of-inevitability-mr-anderson/
<p>So. Yeah. Wow. You bought a Blu-ray player. Because you like to watch movies in the best available format. Which is Blu-ray, at this point. And yes, movies look fantastic in Blu-ray. You get yourself a good HD TV set, couple it with a good Blu-ray player and a a nice set of speakers, and you know what? You now have yourself an immersive experience.</p>
<p>Indeed. Some nice, crisp movie watching is all a-waiting for you.</p>
<p>That is, unless you have some kind of perverted idea that you want to have the best experience possible.</p>
<p>Remember how you bought that Blu-ray player? And bought or rented that movie you want to watch? And how you thought you would just put that movie in your sweaty little hand, press the eject button on the Blu-ray player, then put the movie in the tray, hit the eject button again, and then you’d be watching this orgy of pixels on your screen?</p>
<p>Yeah, that was a great dream, wasn’t it? Pretty fantastic.</p>
<p>And hey, it could happen, it could happen. Let’s not be a buzzkill here.</p>
<p>Just because you made the mistake of hooking your Blu-ray player up to the Internet.</p>
<p>See, you thought you bought a better DVD player. Better as in better picture quality. NO-HO, you did NOT. You, sir, bought yourself an EXPERIENCE MACHINE. That’s right. You are about to have an EXPERIENCE, whether you want to or not.</p>
<p>See, your Blu-ray player, the one you bought, is actually not something as MUNDANE as a DVD player. Perish the thought. Shhhh. Get that bad thought out of your head. Shhhh. Is the bad thought gone yet?</p>
<p>Your Blu-ray player is a virtual reality something something. And as such, just pushing in a shiny silver disc like it’s something you’re entitled to watch only shows what a redneck you are. No siree! This baby needs to be taken on the Net! And updated!</p>
<p>Oh, you thought that just because you bought this thing for a week’s wages it was going to do what YOU think it should, peasant boy? Well, welcome to the cyber age.</p>
<p>This thing MAY do what you bought it to do, but you have to update it first. Oh, heavens, you thought a consumer product only designed to do one thing would be, you know, able to do that when you bought it? REALLY, sir, it’s time to get with the age. No, no, the product is just fine, it just needs to be brought online to spend half an hour installing updates so it can do things like “BD-LIVE” better. Really.</p>
<p>What’s BD-LIVE? Chuckle. Why, it’s the future, sir. It will let you interact with your movie in a whole new way.</p>
<p>What’s that? You just want to WATCH your movie?</p>
<p>I rightly don’t know what to tell you here, sir. You want to put your movie in the player and then WATCH it? Just sit there? And watch it? In high definition? Like some kind of neanderthal?</p>
<p>Sir. Sir. It’s like you don’t even WANT to be part of the future. It’s like you WANT to just be this kind of, uhm … PERSON who sits in front of their TV and watches it instead INTERACTING with it.</p>
<p>You know, a lot of people have gone through a lot of trouble … yeah, there was a LOT of overtime, so you can INTERACT with your movie. That’s right! Interact. Like answer a QUIZZ! A QUIZZ ABOUT THE MOVIE! WHILE IT’S PLAYING! And you’re acting like you don’t even give a shit, like you just want to sit there like a zombie and not even CARE!</p>
<p>It’s almost, and I don’t know, I’m kind of having a hard time keeping it together here, really, it’s like you just want to watch the movie FOR WHAT IT IS and not take part of THE ENHANCED FUTURE.</p>
<p>WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?</p>
Review: Shadow of the Scorpion2009-04-26T21:13:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/04/review-shadow-of-the-scorpion/
<p>Neal Asher returns to his Polity universe with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597801399?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1597801399">Shadow of the Scorpion</a></em>. The novel covers the formative early events of Polity Agent Ian Cormac’s life, and takes place at the end of the Polity’s war against the horrific alien Prador.</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with Asher’s Polity universe, it’s essentially far-future space opera where artificial intelligences have taken over rulership of humanity, and are doing their best to stamp out the worst excesses of human rule. But with gruesome aliens and terroristic separatists who want nothing more than to overthrow the AIs, it’s a tough row to hoe.</p>
<p>The Polity universe very effectively marries a sense of paradise-within-reach and the terrible results of technological misuse—it’s gritty, often twisted, and above all eminently readable. Asher knows how to cook up page-turners that are filled to bursting with strange, interesting ideas. In the case of <em>Shadow of the Scorpion</em>, there’s more than a shade of Philip K. Dick and his obsession with the question, “What makes us human?”</p>
<p>Highly enjoyable, but it’s best to read the Polity novels in order, so if you haven’t already read it, start out with <em>Gridlinked</em>—<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-gridlinked/">here’s my review.</a></p>
<p>For dark, literate sci-fi, Asher is the guy to beat.</p>
<p>As a minor gripe, there are some terrible typos in the edition I read, including right on page one, which you’d think would have been caught in editing.</p>
One sure thing2009-04-12T20:08:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/04/one-sure-thing/
<p>When I was 18 I knew everything. Go ahead, jump in a time machine, ask my 18-year-old self <em>anything</em>, and you’ll get a clear answer on the simple solution to that particular issue.</p>
<p>Of course, my 18-year-old self was an idiot, just like nature decreed you must be when you’re 18.† Then you get older, and you start to realize that, as a matter of fact, you don’t know squat. (And if that realization eludes you, you become a cable TV pundit.)</p>
<p>At this point the one thing I think can be said with any kind of certainty is that if there’s a major capital-P Problem like immigration, the economy, or the environment, and you think there’s a simple solution that will Fix It once and for all, you are wrong.</p>
<p>Simple as that.</p>
<hr />
<p>†If you’re reading this and you happen to be 18, you will no doubt take umbrage. Write down your thoughts, put them away, and read them again when you’re 30. Make sure you have a drink handy at that point.</p>
A poke in the eye2009-04-09T19:46:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/04/a-poke-in-the-eye/
<p>A while ago I joined the liberal elite and bought a Blu-ray player. It’s wonderful. Thanks to Neflix, I get a steady stream of Blu-ray movies sent to my house. This makes me very happy.</p>
<p>But.</p>
<p>You know what’s not wonderful?</p>
<p>In all the techno whiz-bangery of the Blu-ray spec, for some reason a little checkbox was thrown in, where a Blu-ray producer can specify whether it’s ALLOWED for the player to resume a movie where it was left off.</p>
<p>So okay, the committee meeting was running late, everybody was tired, they decided what the heck, let’s put it in the spec. What kind of nutjob would actually want to not allow the player to resume a movie? Why in the name of all that is holy would ANYBODY. EVER. WANT. THAT.</p>
<p>Turns out, movie studios want that. Pretty much every Blu-ray disc that’s winged its way to Casa Core Dump has not allowed me TO RESUME THE F**ING MOVIE.</p>
<p>Why? Dear Lord why? What could you possibly gain from not allowing me to watch a bit of a movie, decide I’m tired and need to go to bed, then come back the next day to finish the movie, but OH NO YOU WON’T.</p>
<p>I’ve tried. Lord knows I’ve tried during the times I’ve spent trying to remember exactly where I left off the movie and scanning the chapters to get to that point again, I’ve tried so hard to find a reason WHY THIS IS A GOOD THING FOR ANYBODY.</p>
<p>And I can’t.</p>
<p>A bunch of people at movie studios have apparently decided that a really great way to not make me download movies online is to make it EXTRA F**ING INCONVENIENT for me to watch their product I’ve paid money for.</p>
<p>If anybody out there knows WHY anybody in their right mind would think it’s a great idea to make their product less useful, I’m all ears.</p>
<p>Jeez.</p>
Boiling point2009-03-28T22:41:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/03/boiling-point/
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/philippeleroyer/495960750/"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/495960750_2f637ab5eb.jpg" alt="Riot" title="Riot" width="500" height="333" class="size-full wp-image-1315" /></a></p>
<p><em>Click image for original</em></p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2009/01/the-airing-of-grievances/">wondered about the lack of anger</a> concerning the economic situation and speculated it could be due to the abstract nature of the causes of the meltdown: Credit default swap, leveraged assets, <em>click</em> Sports Center.</p>
<p>But now, thanks to AIG, we have a focal point for our collective rage. AIG is so roundly despised and loathed it chose to <a href="http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200903241412DOWJONESDJONLINE000539_FORTUNE5.htm">remove its sign from its own building</a>. Ah, from Masters of the Universe to cowering in fear in a few short weeks.</p>
<p>The point, though, is that while the AIG executives are narcissistic douchebags on a Biblical scale, the $160 million or so of ill-gotten gains we’re frothing at the mouth about here is a pittance in the grand scale of things. We’re talking <em>trillions</em>, people. A few million, while a fortune for a normal person, isn’t even a rounding error.</p>
<p>Which is not to say that I don’t wish ill for these scumbags. Oh, I do.</p>
<p>But it’s a side show.</p>
<p>The really smart Masters of the Universe have socked away their cash and moved their compensation into schemes that are harder to track, but rest assured they’re still getting fat from Uncle Sam’s trough.</p>
<p>Remember, these are people who view life as a game to be won. Nothing more, nothing less. And winning means making more money than the other guy. This is what they spend every waking minute obsessing about. Don’t think they haven’t poured over the new rule book and adapted.</p>
<p>What we need is to change the system, not worry about the side shows, entertaining as they may be.</p>
Paid back2009-03-18T21:51:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/03/paid-back/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/3296775118_070d3a75b0.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/3296775118_070d3a75b0.jpg" alt="Tribal II" title="Tribal II" width="500" height="331" class="size-full wp-image-1305" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Tribal II.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>As any father should, I of course think my daughter is the most special person in the world, but she is such a clone of her mother I sometimes wonder where all my genes went.</p>
<p>I was reminded that they’re most certainly in there working their chemical magic the other day when I took her along for a walk. Me on foot and her on her beloved Razor scooter.</p>
<p>After a while she started getting tired of scootering and wanted me to carry the scooter. Okay, no problem. Then she thought I was walking too fast—speed being the reason she had the scooter with her in the first place.</p>
<p>So we were walking along, her a few steps behind me, when I heard her mutter under her breath, “This is so stupid.”</p>
<p>Yep, there they are, the Lindh genes.</p>
Bad film nerd. No money for you2009-02-27T19:24:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/02/bad-film-nerd-no-money-for-you/
<p>It seems George Lucas is <a href="http://www.movieweb.com/news/NExZHFxy4dPYBD">intending to release</a> the Star Wars movies in 3D. Which seems like grave robbery to me, although <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/">John Scalzi</a> has some thoughts that make sense about <a href="http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2009/02/3d-star-wars.php">why Lucas might do such a thing</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I’m done giving Lucas my money (at least until the inevitable Blu-ray release).</p>
<p>So I put this together to remind myself why there will be no 3D Star Wars for me:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/jar_jar_nf.png" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/jar_jar_nf.png" alt="Never Forget" title="Never Forget" width="501" height="478" class="size-full wp-image-1291" /></a></p>
<p>Stay strong, brothers.</p>
<p><em>Original image source: <a href="http://donbcivil.net/pics/misc/jar_jar.jpg">http://donbcivil.net/pics/misc/jar_jar.jpg</a></em></p>
Zen and meat2009-02-06T20:52:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/02/zen-and-meat/
<p>Way back in the day when I was in the Swedish Army, we had an incredibly cool guy in my company. I’ll call him Bob for the purposes of this post.</p>
<p>Bob was legendary for his unflappability. He was like John Wayne. No matter <em>what</em> was going on, Bob stayed cool. No matter how tired we were, how wet and cold we were, how French existentialism our reality was, Bob was cool. Whatever needed to get done, he got it done, totally cool.</p>
<p>After we were discharged and life had a lot less green clothing in it, I would go hang out with Bob every once in a while. One of these times Bob had invited a couple of lady friends over for dinner. He was in charge of cooking, and I was the helper.</p>
<p>We went to the grocery store, bought the ingredients, and got to cooking. I distinctly remember us fortifying ourselves with Cutty Sark. The cooking wasn’t going well. Perhaps the Cutty Sark had something to do with it, perhaps not, but either way, we were behind schedule, the meat was not cooperating, and tensions were rising.</p>
<p>And Bob completely lost his shit.</p>
<p>Went completely to pieces.</p>
<p>I’ll never forget standing in that kitchen, glass of Cutty Sark in hand, staring at the guy who could lead a platoon assembling a military-grade antenna in the middle of the Swedish forest in the dark of winter after three days without sleep like it was <em>nothing</em> completely and utterly lose it over a piece of meat that would not be ready to eat when a couple of random women were scheduled to show up.</p>
<p>After I caught my breath, I asked him, “But you never lose it. Never. So why now?”</p>
<p>Bob looked at me like I’d asked what color the sky was and said, “This is <em>important</em>.”</p>
<p>And I was enlightened.</p>
Review: American Shaolin2009-02-04T22:48:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/02/review-american-shaolin/
<p><em><a href="ttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001FWXRF2?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001FWXRF2">American Shaolin</a></em> is the story of how Matthew Polly, self-described 98-pound weakling, travels to China to study kung fu at the Shaolin Temple. It is also a description of what it was like to be a <em>laowai</em>—foreigner—in China during the early nineties.</p>
<p>Polly writes with economy and <em>American Shaolin</em> has a great, funny tone.</p>
<p>You also learn things about kung fu. I, for instance, did not know that such a thing as Iron Crotch kung fu existed, and now that I know, I feel queasy and disturbed. I also did not know that it is humanly possible to perform a two-fingered handstand. But apparently the Shaolin monks have figured out how to accomplish that feat.</p>
<p><em>American Shaolin</em> is in parts funny, in parts informative, and always an enjoyable read. Highly recommended.</p>
<p>Or, as the Chinese might say, “It is good. It is good. It is good.”</p>
Movie roundup, part ten2009-01-30T21:54:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/movie-round-up-10/
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0834001/">Underworld: Rise of the Lycans</a></strong>: Pretty good continuation of the series. If you liked the other two installments, you’ll like this one.</p>
<p>It’s a bit annoying that you know the main plot from the get-go, as it’s referenced in the first movie. I was hoping against hope they would get the bits we already knew about out of the way quickly so we could have some suspense, but alas it was not to be.</p>
<p>One of the things that really sell me on the whole Underworld series is how great it is when you get Serious British Actors and tell them to go nuts. Bill Nighy as Viktor the vampire in particular chews up the scenery with such glee it’s impossible to not be amused.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371746/">Iron Man</a></strong>: Enjoyable popcorn movie. Manages to not be very “cartoony” and Robert Downey Jr. does a splendid job.</p>
<p>Sure, there’s a lot of full-on silliness, and the plot is downright dumb, but the movie carries itself with verve. The CGI is very, very impressive.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0958860/">Payback: Straight Up—The Director’s Cut</a></strong>: I was ambivalent to the theatrical release of <em>Payback</em>—there was a good movie in there, but it was buried in Hollywood clichés and pyrotechnics.</p>
<p>The Director’s Cut is what <em>Payback</em> longed to be: An homage to ’70s revenge flicks with a direct lineage to classic noir. It’s much shorter, giving it a lean and hard edge, the ending is completely different, the silly voice-over is gone, and instead of the—admittedly striking—blue tone, it’s high-contrast and crisp.</p>
<p>This version of the movie also turns Porter into much more of a sociopathic force of nature that’s hard to like. Protagonist, not hero, indeed.</p>
<p>If you’ve seen the theatrical release, you remember the excruciating torture scene. Turns out that was added after the director was cut, together with the whole third act. What is it with Mel Gibson and torture, anyway? It’s just creepy.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/">Blade Runner: The Final Cut</a></strong>: Hey, it’s <em>Blade Runner</em>, what do you expect? The Final Cut brings restored film and a few tweaks to some scenes. That’s it. But that’s plenty.</p>
<p>This was the movie I used to launch my new Blu-ray player, and boy what an experience! Awesome, awesome, awesome.</p>
<p>Did I mention this movie looks absolutely awesome on a Blu-ray player?</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0483607/">Doomsday</a></strong>: <em>The Road Warrior</em> had a huge influence on me as a teenager, and now apparently somebody thought it would be a good idea to recreate it. In Scotland. With viruses.</p>
<p><em>Doomsday</em> is so unspeakably bad it almost—just almost—becomes camp. But it doesn’t get there. It’s just a really, really awful movie with a plot that seems to be a copy-paste from scraps of screenplays written during a week-long bender.</p>
<p>If there’s a virus that’s lethal enough that the whole north of England has to be quarantined off, wouldn’t you think somebody would spend some time, oh, I don’t know, RESEARCHING IT?</p>
<p>On the plus side, dudes with mohawks.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762117/">Maxed Out</a></strong>: Depressing and enraging documentary about predatory lending practices in the United States. Does a good job of explaining the reason why you get <em>more</em> credit card offers if your credit is poor, and illuminates the human toll of cynical lending practices.</p>
<p>Now that the lending industry has collapsed the entire world-wide economy, it’s interesting to see this perspective from 2006, when things were still going well from an economic standpoint.</p>
<p>On the down side, the movie does go a bit heavy on the heart strings at times, and doesn’t spend nearly enough time tying together cause and effect in admittedly wrenching interviews with parents whose children have committed suicide after getting into unmanageable debt.</p>
<p><em>Maxed Out</em> also features interviews with shark-like debt collectors that will make your blood boil.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/">The Dark Knight</a></strong>: Batman goes even darker and more disturbing than in <em>Batman Begins.</em></p>
<p>A good continuation, a more relevant Batman and a massive performance by Heath Ledger as The Joker.</p>
<p>I actually thought it was a bit too dark and psychotic. But still no nipples on the Bat Suit, so it’s all good.</p>
A crash course in teaching2009-01-25T01:47:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/a-crash-course-in-teaching/
<p>So, you’re going to teach. Good for you. There’s no better way to really learn something than to teach it to others, and it can be a barrel of fun.</p>
<p>The drawback is that teaching is nerve-wracking. Especially if you haven’t done it before.</p>
<p>This post is a distillation of things I’ve learned about teaching over close to 20 years of teaching adults, college students, and children in various capacities and places—sometimes in schools, sometimes in universities, and sometimes in companies.</p>
<p>Let’s dig in.</p>
<p>The first thing to realize is that your success as a teacher will be judged on how well your students learn, but <em>you can’t make people learn.</em> You can only teach. Always bear in mind that <em>it’s not what you teach, it’s what your students learn.</em> All the boring classes you’ve sat through during your own schooling were probably at their core tainted by failure to understand that very simple principle.</p>
<p>Before getting into the nitty-gritty, let me take a small detour and explain how I was taught to teach. This was in the Swedish Army.</p>
<p>The army might seem a weird place for teaching, nevermind teaching people how to teach, but think about it. Since the core competency of an army is having people who are often not very bright, motivated, or well-rested <em>handle deadly weapons in stressful situations</em> good teaching and learning is essential.</p>
<p>In the armed forces, pedagogy is an extremely goal-oriented discipline. I’m not going to talk about the different learning styles of different people, interesting as it may be. This post is about the core skills of teaching.</p>
<p>Here, then, are the basics as I see them:</p>
<p>If you’re going to teach 10 pages, know 100 pages. If you don’t know the material, everything else is useless.</p>
<p>As the advertising industry says: “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em; tell ’em; then tell ’em what you told ’em.” Start every lesson by going over what the lesson will be about. Do the lesson. Wrap up by discussing what the lesson was about. This <em>works.</em></p>
<p>You must be passionate about your subject. Why would I learn something from you that you obviously don’t give a rat’s ass about yourself? If you find yourself teaching something you really don’t care all that much about, trick <em>yourself</em> into caring. You can’t fool your students but you can fool yourself.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_millan">Cesar Millan</a> of <em>Dog Whisperer</em> fame would say: “Dominant, not aggressive.” You’re in charge and you can’t let your students forget that. Once you lose the classroom, it will be incredibly difficult and demoralizing to earn it back. The way human psychology works, the very fact that some authority decided to put you up front in the classroom means that it’s yours. Don’t squander that advantage. This most certainly does not mean being a little Hitler or some other kind of authoritarian jerk; it just means owning up to your responsibility.</p>
<p>Keep things as lively as you can without being fake. This means moving around, varying the volume and pitch of your voice, and creating as much contrast as you can. A droning voice does nothing but people to sleep.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to determine in advance how much discipline to use. Err on the side of caution and start the course as hard-ass as you can. It’s easy to loosen up as time progresses, but difficult to tighten discipline. By loosening up as time progresses, you seem like a nicer person, but if you have to tighten the reigns, you look like a complete tool. It’s all about contrast.</p>
<p>You will hear excuses and sob stories about why homework wasn’t completed or why a student missed class. Oh, the sob stories! They don’t matter. Lay down the rules from the get-go and enforce them. Making exceptions is the path to becoming a complete pushover. Make no mistake, students can sense weakness a mile away. And that’s what it is when you start bending the rules: weakness. It may look like kindness, but it most emphatically is not. Plus, if the rules aren’t the same for everybody, you will empower the kind of people who like to break the rules. Don’t walk that path.</p>
<p>Preparation is key. When starting out, you will lose track of what you’re doing and find yourself staring at a sea of faces with no idea whatever what to do or say. This is obviously not a fun situation. So, you <em>must</em> have a lesson plan. As time goes on, the lesson plan will become less and less detailed, but at first, make it as detailed as possible. Obviously don’t write down every word you’re going to say, but you must be able to stay on track. If you’re nervous—<em>and you should be</em>—write down the first few minutes verbatim and memorize the words. Your notes will be a great comfort to you.</p>
<p>This might seem like a detail, but the whole is made up of details, and this one matters more than you might think: <em>Do not clear your throat before talking.</em> It makes you look timid and nervous.</p>
<p>A trick I learned from my 3rd grade teacher that I use to this day when students lose focus and start talking is to simply stop. Just stop talking, look at the offending students and wait calmly. Their fellow students will help modify the aberrant behavior.</p>
<p>Never <em>ever</em> guess. If you get a question you can’t answer, say that you don’t know <em>but will find out.</em> Then make sure to follow through. This will happen much more than you’d think as you start teaching, but after a while you’ll have most of the edge cases figured out.</p>
<p>And that’s it.</p>
<p>Now go ahead and have some fun.</p>
Your own personal GTD2009-01-20T00:34:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/your-own-personal-gtd/
<p>David Allen’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0142000280">Getting Things Done</a></em> methodology has been burning up the nerdosphere for years now, and for good reason. It’s a system of self-defense for dealing not with thugs in an alley but with the endless demands and distractions modern life throws our way.</p>
<p>As with any other positive change in life, it’s easy to understand, but hard to implement. Not hard as in complicated, but hard as in losing weight. Want to lose weight? Eat less and exercise more. Can’t be easier to understand; can’t be harder to accomplish.</p>
<p>As fair as I’m concerned, Allen’s most important realization, the underpinning for his whole system, is the fact that our brains simply weren’t built to handle modern life. The way your brain operates is pretty darn optimal if you live in a small group on the savannah and get up in the morning for another day of hunting and gathering. But it fails miserably if you live in the modern world. This is why your brain wakes you up at three in the morning to remind you about the project that’s due in a week. And why it reminds you to take your kid to ballet class on Friday when it’s Wednesday and you’re waiting in line at the grocery store.</p>
<p>So Allen’s solution is the Trusted System. A place where you write down the things you know you need to remember <em>and know you’re going to check.</em></p>
<p>So it’s a bit of a bog: You have to remember to write down the things you have to remember, and you have to remember to actually look at the place where you wrote them down. Wax on, wax off.</p>
<p>Once you get into the habit of doing that, though, a miracle happens: Your brain stops telling you things at inopportune times. And that’s how you know you’re doing it right: Your brain starts to shut up.</p>
<p>You might be saying, “So, this guy is a genius because he built a better to-do list?”</p>
<p>Yes, essentially. He makes a very, very nice living showing people how to make lists. (There are a lot more nuts and bolts to Allen’s system, but that’s the heart of it.) Not just lists, mind you, but <em>lists you actually check.</em></p>
<p>DING! It’s not enough to make a list, you have to actually check the list.</p>
<p>The other brilliant thing about Allen’s lists is <em>what you put on them</em>: Next Actions. You don’t put down amorphous blobs like, “Buy new house.” Instead, you put actions you can perform. Like, “Call Bob about his realtor.”</p>
<p>Like most wonderful things, it’s deceptively simple. This one little change means that when you’re ready to crank through your lists, you don’t have to think about what things mean. You’ve already done the thinking. Just perform the actions.</p>
<p>A warning about GTD, though: As alluded to earlier, many nerds are into it. Obsessive-compulsive nerds. That Guy who moved a wall in his house half an inch so he could get a perfect standing wave from his speakers.¹ He’s into it. Which means that a few simple ideas Shall Not Be Left Alone.</p>
<p>Nay, I say! Nay! We can surely overcomplicate this! We can come up with The One True Way™! We can endlessly debate the finer points! How does Getting Things Done translate to Klingon?</p>
<p>Which is completely antithetical to the spirit of GTD: You are a unique being. You need to figure out what works best <em>for you.</em> And above all, you need to Get Things Done.</p>
<p>So, at the risk of sounding like a cult member, I can’t recommend GTD highly enough. It’s skills for the 21st century. Looking into it is a good use of your time, even if you find it doesn’t work for you.</p>
<hr />
<ol>
<li>That Guy actually exists. He was an engineer at Volvo in Sweden. True story.</li>
</ol>
A pixel too far2009-01-15T19:50:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/a-pixel-too-far/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/abridgetoofar_bluray_cover.png" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/abridgetoofar_bluray_cover.png" alt="A Bridge Too Far" title="A Bridge Too Far" width="298" height="354" class="size-full wp-image-1243" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">A Bridge Too Far.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>It was time to pay some more guy tax, so I bought a Blu-ray player now that they’re finally available for around $250.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s still way too much money to pay for better picture quality, but the testosterone needed out, so there it is.</p>
<p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.netflix.com/">Netflix</a> and their ever-growing selection, I’ve started to go through old movies that might benefit from the shiny high resolution. Big movies. Like <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075784/">A Bridge Too Far</a></em>. Which I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing in a theater, but have caught on TV multiple times. Finally, it was time to see it (kind of) the way it was meant to be enjoyed. Obviously, my budget precludes purchasing an HDTV measured in feet instead of inches, but Blu-ray provides some serious crispness to make up for the size.</p>
<p>Not only is <em>A Bridge Too Far</em> one of the great WWII movies, but it’s such a nice change of pace to watch a movie expressly made to be enjoyed in a theater, made before rental residuals were a gleam in some Hollywood accountant’s bloodshot eye, before ADD gripped the industry. You’ve paid your money and parked your butt in the seat, so the movie will take its time. No worries that you’ll switch the channel or answer the phone. You’re in the theater and you’ll damn well stay, so there’s no rush. Let the momentum build. Introduce some characters. Hell, put in a few side plots while you’re at it.</p>
<p>Even in an action movie, the throttle doesn’t have to be stuck between “Turbo” and “Red line”—some scenes take some time to develop, and that’s okay.</p>
<p>And you’re rewarded for paying attention. Imagine that. Instead of just getting annoyed at the plot holes and inconsistencies, you actually get more out of the movie by paying attention. Almost like it’s <em>not</em> normal to be ADD.</p>
<p>What a concept.</p>
Review: Ready for Anything2009-01-15T03:12:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/review-ready-for-anything/
<p>You can think of David Allen’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143034545?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0143034545">Ready for Anything</a></em> as either a follow-up or companion to the brilliant <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0142000280">Getting Things Done</a></em>. Where GTD (as all the cool kids are calling it) is a fairly dry step-by-step on how to implement Allen’s methodology for personal productivity, <em>Ready for Anything</em> has him musing on the “whys” of his methodology rather than the “hows.”</p>
<p>It’s a slim volume with bite-sized chapters that’s surprisingly uplifting and a must-read if you’re any kind of GTDer.</p>
<p>David Allen does a fantastic job of walking the really fine line between self-help mumbo jumbo and sound psychological principles for dealing with the things life throws at you.</p>
<p>Also worth reading if you tried to read <em>Getting Things Done</em> and found yourself bogged down in the manual-like tone—<em>Ready for Anything</em> makes you understand the underpinning and reasoning of Allen’s system. There are some very thought-provoking ideas in here.</p>
It’s ... the fuuuuuture2009-01-08T04:10:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/its-the-fuuuuuture/
<p>Every once in a while I’m struck by an epiphany that, wow, things really have changed thanks to modern technology.</p>
<p>I was sitting on the bus in the morning using my trusty iPhone as an entertainment center, all very casual. And then I realized that I’m sitting there in my half-awake state, <em>on a moving bus</em>, listening to music, reading the New York Times online, and checking my email on a single device that fits in my pocket. And then I watched a video of the previous evening’s news from Sweden. On the bus.</p>
<p>When you think of it, not only is it insane that you can do those things using nothing but consumer-grade hardware and software, but that it’s so easy it’s almost mindless. Click and drool, and there you go, the information of the world in your hand.</p>
<p>It’s really time we started worshipping <a href="http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/">William Gibson</a> as the messiah he is.</p>
<p>Of course, I’m still waiting for my implants, but what we have isn’t half-bad.</p>
Always be scribbling2009-01-05T01:15:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/always-be-scribbling/
<p>The newspaper business is in horrible, horrible shape, and I think I just came across a small reason why:</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/ihtd_diary_ad.png" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ihtd_diary_ad.png" rel="shadowbox" alt="How very quaint" title="Get a paper diary" width="353" height="297" class="size-full wp-image-1223" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Paper diary.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>This house ad showed up on the <a href="http://www.iht.com/">International Herald Tribune</a>’s home page today. That’s right, the IHT seems to believe its target audience is people who still use paper diaries to stay organized.</p>
<p>So what kind of damage would one of these bad boys do to a jet-setting executive’s wallet? <a href="http://www.nytstore.com/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=15710">A cool $49.95.</a> Plus shipping. But wait! You can have it monogrammed! So that makes it alright.</p>
<p>The most worrisome part of all this is that the IHT may be right and yes, in fact, the people reading one of the best newspapers in the world are the kind of troglodytes that still handle their appointments on paper. With monograms.</p>
Out with the old2009-01-02T03:50:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/out-with-the-old-2/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pile_of_zip_drives-225x300.jpg" alt="Pile of Zip Disks" title="Pile of Zip Disks" rel="shadowbox" width="225" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-1209" />
<p><em>Pile of Zip Disks</em></p>
<p>Ah, the first day of a new year. A time for reflection and for clearing the decks. And thus it was finally time to don protective gear and dig in to the stack of ancient electronics gathering dust in the dreaded Closet in the Study.</p>
<p>Electronics are hard to throw away, at least for a cheapskate like me—even though I <em>know</em> in my head those SCSI cables are worthless now, my heart still remembers how much I paid for them back in the day. If nothing else, going through your electronic leavings makes you realize just how freaking <em>expensive</em> it is to be a nerd.</p>
<p>Sound cards, PCI SCSI cards, video cards that were once state of the art enough to run Quake, five keyboards, a mountain of 100MB Zip disks, a wriggling mass of assorted cables, ancient hard drives, the list goes on.</p>
<p>How the hell do you end up with that many USB cables, anyway?</p>
<p>If you’re looking for something to do to soothe the mid-winter blues, I highly recommend a thorough hack-and-slash through the detritus of the past gathering dust in your house.</p>
<p>Plus, hey, USB cables!</p>
The airing of grievances2009-01-01T21:09:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2009/01/the-airing-of-grievances/
<p>I’m sitting here trying to write a post to wrap up the past year and get us all psyched for 2009, and all I can come up with is: 2008 turned out to be quite the shit sandwich, didn’t it?</p>
<p>Lately, I’ve been working very hard on becoming more positive, and I think my efforts are bearing fruit. HEY, NO SNICKERING IN THE BACK! Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yes, more positive. From a personal perspective 2008 was a good year. We had our health, there were no disasters, and in general life rolled on like an expensive Euro-sedan.</p>
<p>But.</p>
<p>The news…</p>
<p>Am I the only one who’s been reading the newspaper and watching CNN thinking, “Holy crap I must be going insane. There is no way these kinds of things can be going on and people aren’t RIOTING IN THE STREETS.” Not that I’m condoning or encouraging violence in any way, but every morning I go outside to pick up the newspaper from my driveway, sit down at the kitchen table with a fresh cup of coffee, scan the headlines and am stunned that among all the insanity I’m reading, there isn’t even one story about a mob putting an investment banker’s head on a pike and marching it through a torchlit town singing “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead.”</p>
<p>Instead of that kind of happy interlude, what do we have? One single looter <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3150319/Richard-Fuld-punched-in-face-in-Lehman-Brothers-gym.html">gets punched in the face at his gym</a>. So, apparently America is cool about having its future looted by a bunch of greedy megalomaniacs.</p>
<p>The rule seems to be: God forbid your football team loses a playoff—there’ll be blood in the streets. Your job, your house, and your future stolen? Meh. Sports Center is on.</p>
<p>Why is that? All I can think is that there aren’t enough symbols of the disaster. It’s all risk management computer models, words with many syllables, and, “Hey, Bob’s house has a foreclosure sign. That’s too bad.” News flash: You see the symbols every day on CNN. Our democratically elected Congress which got fat off the lobbyists for the looters; The investment banker who <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081221/ap_on_bi_ge/executive_bailouts">REALLY REALLY can’t understand</a> why he shouldn’t get a bonus after his company was bailed out by the tax payers; The Big Three CEO who has to be shamed into <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/12/04/2008-12-04_will_big_3s_pr_blitz__driving_to_bailout-1.html">working for stock options—a.k.a. $1 a year—instead of receiving an obscene salary no matter what the performance of his company</a>. After all, it’s not his fault his company needs tax-payer money, IT’S EVERYBODY ELSE’S. But he definitely, OH DEFINITELY has to make millions of dollars a year because HE’S IN CHARGE! and if General Motors doesn’t pay HIM millions of dollars a year, they might get somebody incompetent in his seat. Which he is MOST DEFINITELY NOT. After all, he gets paid millions of dollars a year! Would an incompetent get paid that much? NO NO NO. QED, suckers.</p>
<p>If you think the preceding is histrionic, news flash: it’s just going to get worse—awful as the global meltdown is, it’s just a harbinger. As the Ponzi scheme nature of the global economy unrolls more and more, we’ll be lucky to have an economy at all. If you think 2009 will see the economy improve, I’m glad the Prozac is working for you. Enjoy your delusions. It’s going to get much, much worse.</p>
<p>At this point I’m thinking the best thing I can do to prepare my daughter for the future is to give her <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082694/">a mohawk and a shotgun</a> and teach her to work on V8 engines.</p>
<p>Have you <a href="http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/">looked at the national debt lately</a>? As I’m writing this, the average debt per citizen is $34,577.94. The debt has increased by “an average of $3.37 billion per day since September 28, 2007.” How you like them apples? Who’s going to pay that off?</p>
<p>The point is, WHERE IS THE RAGE? I have no idea.</p>
<p>And that frightens me to no end.</p>
<p>Oh, and Happy New Year!</p>
Ho Ho Ho2008-12-23T19:38:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/12/ho-ho-ho/
<p>It’s that time of the year again, so happy non-denominational whatever-stresses-you-out day to one and all!</p>
<p>Nothing spells Christmas quite like drunken Irishmen, so here’s my favorite Christmas song ever, the haunting Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues:</p>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1BHLEjxjj2c" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics"></div>
<p>On a related note, according to Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Mcgowan">Shane MacGowan is still alive</a>, still baffling medical professionals all over the world.</p>
Review: Making Money2008-12-22T17:18:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/12/review-making-money/
<p>For <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061161659?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061161659">Making Money</a></em>, Terry Pratchett brings back intrepid con-man-with-a-heart Moist von Lipwig, now charged by the Patrician to revamp the city’s monetary system.</p>
<p>If you’re a Terry Pratchett fan—and you really should be—<em>Making Money</em> is a definite must-read. Unfortunately, it’s not up to Pratchett’s usual standards. It’s an interesting—and timely—musing on the monetary system, but doesn’t bring the funny the way Pratchett has spoiled us in the past.</p>
<p><em>Making Money</em> is a good, interesting read, but is a bit more somber than most Discworld novels. Not where you want to start if you’re new to the Discworld.</p>
Why so serious?2008-12-13T22:20:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/12/why-so-serious/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_(film)"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/dark_knight.jpg" alt="Dark Knight Poster. Source: Wikipedia" title="Dark Knight Poster" width="300" height="445" class="size-full wp-image-1169" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">The Dark Knight Poster.<br />Source: Wikipedia.
</div>
</div>
<p>Hot from Netflix, <em>The Dark Knight</em> appeared at Casa Core Dump yesterday. I noticed it was rated PG-13, which struck me a little odd, since from the trailers it seemed like a pretty dark (heh) movie.</p>
<p>And yep, it’s a disturbing movie, especially the Joker character, who truly brings the psychotic.</p>
<p><em>The Dark Knight</em> doesn’t have any nudity, f-bombs, or gore, but is stocked to the rafters with psychotic people, disturbing imagery, and endless violence.</p>
<p>So how much violence does a movie actually have to contain to get an R rating? According to the MPAA themselves, a PG-13 movie may contain <a href="http://mpaa.org/FlmRat_Ratings.asp">“depictions of violence … but generally not both realistic and extreme or persistent violence.”</a> An R rating is earned when there is <a href="http://mpaa.org/FlmRat_Ratings.asp">“intense or persistent violence.”</a></p>
<p>We can argue semantics all day, but I’d say the correct definition of R versus PG-13 is: “Boobies means R. No boobies means PG-13.”</p>
<p>So thanks MPAA for reminding me that your ratings scheme is utterly worthless.</p>
<p>It’s a decent movie, though, if you happen to be a grown-up.</p>
Movie roundup, part nine2008-11-28T17:59:07Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/11/movie-round-up-9/
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830515/">Quantum of Solace</a></strong>: Doesn’t reach the same heights as <em>Casino Royale</em>, but isn’t bad either. The new, grittier Bond is definitely the right way to move the franchise forward, but <em>Quantum of Solace</em> rides right at the edge of not being a Bond movie at all. Hopefully they’ll put back more of the Bond tropes in the next installment.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421082/">Control</a></strong>: The short, sad life of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. Directed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_corbijn">Anton Corbijn</a> so as you’d expect the videography is strong, distant but full of emotion.</p>
<p>When the topic of a movie is a man who commits suicide at the age of 23 after creating some of the most hauntingly disturbing music ever, it’s no wonder <em>Control</em> isn’t exactly a laugh riot.</p>
<p>It’s impressive that Corbijn, who more than any other can be credited with crafting the “look” for bands like U2 and Depeche Mode, manages to be so restrained in his directing.</p>
<p><em>Control</em> is well worth watching, both for Mr. Curtis’s personal drama and as a snapshot of an exciting time in popular music.</p>
<p>As a bonus, here’s the Anton Corbijn-directed video for Atmosphere. If you like it, you’ll like <em>Control</em>:</p>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PSh7444zG4Q" class="w-full aspect-video aspect-ratio--object" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<div class="pt-4 pb-4 text-base text-gray-600 italics"></div>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/">Live Free or Die Hard</a></strong>: Well, that was insulting. Seriously, I get the whole over-the-top thing they were going for, but sheesh, at least a nod to the laws of physics every once in a while would have been nice.</p>
<p>The one saving grace of the whole debacle is the performance of Timothy Olyphant, who is so fantastic at portraying the guy who is exactly one heartbeat away from going utterly and completely batshit. It is always immensely entertaining to behold.</p>
<p>Apart from Olyphant, though, the movie is tired and over the top in the same way as an old stripper who tries to compensate by gyrating wilder than ever. Sad, really.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465494/">Hitman</a></strong>: I watched Hitman since Timothy Olyphant is in it, and surprisingly for a movie adaptation of a video game it doesn’t suck. Not great, but has its moments.</p>
<p>Of course, why anybody would cast Timothy Olyphant—an actor whose forté is acting like he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown—for an emotionless character is beyond me, but it seems Hollywood forgot to check with me first.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/">Oldboy</a></strong>: Korean cyberpunk. Who’d a thunk it? The first half of the movie is very good, a Kafka-esque nightmare writ in neon, but then it fizzles into a ludicrous ending. Still, worth watching for the first half.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465602/">Shoot ’Em Up</a></strong>: I’ve seen some painfully dumb movies in my day, and I’m guessing you have to. Unless you’ve seen <em>Shoot ’Em Up</em>, though, you haven’t been fully exposed to complete, utter, and relentless stupidity. To make it even worse, and to remove any excuses, this is a high-budget movie with a strong cast. Great editing. Great effects. Great cinematography. But. The dumbest. Script. Ever. Really. You can tell the whole cast are in physical pain by the dumbness of the script.</p>
<p>But they got paid. All you’ll get out of watching this dreck is losing a part of your life you’ll never get back and a headache.</p>
<p>If I were king, Gitmo would be for people who create this kind of garbage.</p>
Magic money2008-11-26T23:31:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/11/magic-money/
<p>I’m just a cave man, and your modern world scares and confuses me.</p>
<p>One thing that is sure confusing me right now is where the 7.7 <em>trillion</em> dollars—<a href="http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=arEE1iClqDrk&refer=home">“amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year”</a> for <a href="http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom">the bailout of a corrupt system</a> imploding on a truly Wagnerian scale <em>is actually coming from?</em></p>
<p>According to the US Census Bureau, <a href="http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/010583.html">8.7 million (11.7 percent) of America’s children had no healthcare insurance in 2006</a>. But, you know, healthcare costs money, so the rugrats are just going to have to suck it up. While you could make an argument that, actually, it would be a <em>good investment</em> to provide a modicum of healthcare services for the future workers of America, the money to pay for it would have to come from <em>somewhere.</em> Meaning cuts in something else. Fair enough.</p>
<p>But now all of a sudden, apparently the rules have changed, and money can be magicked into being. That’s right, we can spend 7.7 trillion to bail out companies that got too greedy—just rub the lamp and the genie will take care of it.</p>
<p>Thanks, Magic Lamp!</p>
<p>Too bad for sick kids they don’t have one of those.</p>
Review: The First Law Trilogy2008-11-12T23:18:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/11/review-the-first-law-trilogy/
<p>With The First Law Trilogy <a href="http://www.joeabercrombie.com/">Joe Abercrombie</a> drags epic fantasy into a dark alley and kicks it in the nuts.</p>
<p>The trilogy is composed of three novels, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159102594X?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=159102594X">The Blade Itself</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591026415?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1591026415">Before They Are Hanged</a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591026903?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1591026903">Last Argument of Kings</a></em>, but they are really all pieces of a bigger work—Abercrombie makes no effort to bring the reader up to speed with what has happened in the earlier novels, just dives right in to the action, so you have to start from the beginning.</p>
<p>The trilogy contains enough epic fantasy tropes to feel comfortable—we have the mysterious mage, the barbarian warrior, the epic quest, etc., but they are all twisted around enough to feel fresh and new.</p>
<p>Like Glen Cook’s marvelous Black Company series, Abercrombie’s world is full of flawed, human characters who are doing their best to muddle through the difficult situations in which they find themselves, but where Cook writes in an almost offhand manner, Abercrombie’s writing is cinematic and energetic, especially in the battle scenes which leap off the page and grab the reader by the throat.</p>
<p>And the characters! Wow, what an assortment Abercrombie’s created. The one that stuck with me the most was Sand Dan Glokta, former dashing hero of the Union who after two years of unspeakable torture as a POW is a ruined shell of a man and has taken a position as a torturer for the Inquisition himself.</p>
<p>To sum it up, The First Law has a complex plot, interesting characters, a lived-in world, and is fueled by strong, graphic writing.</p>
<p>Note though, that it is a very graphic series, both in terms of stomach-churning violence and sex.</p>
<p>Can’t recommend it highly enough.</p>
Review: The Bloomsday Dead2008-11-06T01:32:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/11/review-the-bloomsday-dead/
<p>The last installment of Adrian McKinty’s Dead Trilogy, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743499492?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743499492">The Bloomsday Dead</a></em> brings the series to a satisfying close.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed the first two pieces of the trilogy, <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-dead-i-well-may-be/">Dead I Well May Be</a></em> and <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-the-dead-yard/">The Dead Yard</a></em>, you are in for a treat with <em>The Bloomsday Dead</em>. Like the preceding novels it’s fast-paced, gritty, and with an odd sort of Irish lyricism to counter the frequent and graphic violence.</p>
<p>The protagonist, Michael Forsythe, is still a sociopathic thug, but McKinty nevertheless manages to make you care about him.</p>
<p>The entire Dead Trilogy is a given if you like your crime fiction with heaping helpings of noir.</p>
Come together2008-11-05T17:28:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/11/come-together/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/06obama-closexl1.jpg" alt="Barack Obama" /></p>
<p><br /><em>Source: Damon Winter / The New York Times</em></p>
<p>The 2008 presidential election is over, and the American people have spoken out for hope and change. Bearing recent history in mind, this is a huge relief and opportunity. Everybody involved in the Obama campaign should feel proud of their work.</p>
<p>But now the real work begins. It’s time to undo eight years of incompetence, corruption, and contempt for the rule of law; it’s time to rebuild America. It will be an enormous struggle, and success will depend on the American people coming together and leaving the rancor of the campaign behind. It’s time to show what America can be, what America should be.</p>
<p>At this moment, I feel hopeful. I think we can do it. I don’t know what my part will be, but I’m determined to play a part in creating positive change.</p>
<p>One thing is clear, and that is we must keep up the pressure on the lunatic fringe of American politics. The lunatic fringe is an albatross that’s dragging us all down.</p>
<p>It’s time to get back to respectful disagreement between philosophies instead of hate mongering.</p>
<p>It’s time to kick the fundamentalists back into their dank church basements.</p>
<p>Hope.</p>
Review: Presentation Zen2008-10-30T01:40:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/10/review-presentation-zen/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321525655?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0321525655">Presentation Zen</a></em> is an amazing book which manages to take something as seemingly pedestrian as creating better presentations and turn it into a celebration of life. No mean feat, that.</p>
<p><em>Presentation Zen</em> is the kind of book you want to carry with you to every presentation you see and hand to every person who exposes you to Death by PowerPoint. You know exactly what that means: The droning over slides groaning under the weight of text interspersed with tacky clipart. Read <em>Presentation Zen</em> and you’ll never subject your audience to torment like that again.</p>
<p>This wonderful book can literally save corporate America billions of dollars a year of time wasted half-asleep in half-lit rooms.</p>
<p>It would be wrong to harvest the points Reynolds makes and post them on the Web, but one takeaway in particular deserves to be shouted out loud from the rooftops: <em>Don’t don’t don’t</em> create “slideuments,” that unholy mix of slideshow and handout that doesn’t work as either. Instead, create slides that work as slides, and if you need to leave a handout, create a written document that can stand alone.</p>
<p>I can’t recommend <em>Presentation Zen</em> highly enough. Buy it and cherish it.</p>
The competitive urge2008-10-26T03:04:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/10/the-competitive-urge/
<p>Like anybody with two brain cells to rub together, I’m deeply concerned by all the things that are wrong today—the economy, the environment, the erosion of civil liberties, etc. ad nauseam.</p>
<p>But underneath it all, the fuel for all the things we see in the news today, is the underlying malady: The decline of America.</p>
<p>Histrionic enough for you yet?</p>
<p>But seriously, the America I grew up seeing in the movies and the books was a place of, above everything else, <em>competition</em>. A place that wanted to be the biggest and the best. A place that put a man on the moon <em>because it was hard.</em> A place that looked at other countries and said, “We’re going to do better than that.”</p>
<p>I look around today and I see a place that’s degenerating. It’s like we’re not even trying any more, but wander around in a daze like crackheads looking for the next boost to <em>fix everything, right now.</em></p>
<p>What got me on this track was returning to America from my vacation this summer. I flew in through Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, located in the capital of the world’s last remaining super power and it was like I’d landed in some third-world shithole. Really. The lines were enormous—about an hour and a half to get my baggage—the building’s A/C was on the fritz, everybody was glistening with sweat, the whole place was utterly chaotic, and to really bring home the third-world theme, dingy walls, cheap, scuffed flooring, and uniformed people so amazingly bored and seething with discontent all you wanted to do was avoid whatever had happened to them. Welcome to America!</p>
<p>This is what America—and not just America, but <em>the freaking capital</em> looks like when you enter. Of the world’s last super power. A place that apparently can’t even make its airport look like anything but an entrance to Fail.</p>
<p>How are the roads where you’re living? Any bridges fall down lately? Seen your kids’ school lately?</p>
<p>But I guess as long as we keep gay people from marrying we’ll be all right in the end.</p>
Arizona ballot propositions 20082008-10-20T00:41:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/10/arizona-ballot-propositions-2008/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/votingispatriotic.jpg" width="317" height="346" alt="Voting is patriotic" />
<p><br /><em>Source: <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/farlane/287817604/">Farlane</a></em></p>
<p>It’s election season and as usual in Arizona that means a bunch of harebrained propositions are on the ballot. After some quality Internet time doing research and some comfy-chair time pondering things, here’s how I filled out my ballot:</p>
<p><strong>Prop 100: No New Home Tax, aka Home Builders Like Money. A Lot.</strong></p>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>I see no reason to give real estate developers special protection, especially in light of the state’s current <em>billion dollar</em> budget shortfall.</p>
<p><strong>Prop 101: Freedom of Choice in Health Care, aka The Socialists are Coming! Run!</strong></p>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>Why is this on the ballot? Why should we write details about healthcare into the state’s constitution? I’d prefer lawmakers to work this out as they go along. Yes, even the Clown College that is the Arizona State Legislature.</p>
<p>All the talk about preventing “socialized medicine” raises a huge red flag for me, and either way, the language is vague and amending the constitution for something that’s not a current issue smells fishy.</p>
<p><strong>Prop 102: Constitutional Ban on Same Sex Marriage, aka Queers Eat Babies.</strong></p>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>I utterly fail to see how preventing a loving same-sex couple from reaping the same tax benefits from being married hetero me receive will somehow turn society into a howling abyss of madness.</p>
<p>As a side note, the argument that keeps being brought up about how “family” throughout history has always been defined as one man, one woman, and their children is patently false. Read a history book that isn’t the the Bible and you’ll see.</p>
<p><strong>Prop 105: Majority Rule—Let the People Decide, aka Democracy Sucks and Taxes Make Us Cry.</strong></p>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>This proposition is arguably the biggest pile of manure of the lot. If passed, it will count all eligible voters who do not turn in a ballot as “no” votes on any ballot initiative that would raise taxes.</p>
<p>Wow. Don’t like democracy much, do you?</p>
<p>Although, I might vote for the proposition if it would include provisions for <em>all</em> propositions, as they obviously tend to be little more than special-interest fodder.</p>
<p>And of course, kudos on the Orwellian double-speak.</p>
<p><strong>Prop 200: Payday Loan Reform Act, aka The Poor Don’t Need Money.</strong></p>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>Would remove sunset provisions set to kick in in 2010 for payday loan companies.</p>
<p>The payday lending industry is a blight on America. Get rid of them and help society improve. This is a double-plus <strong>NO</strong>.</p>
<p><strong>Prop 201: Homeowners’ Bill of Rights, aka Please Let Us Sue our Builders.</strong></p>
<p><strong>YES</strong></p>
<p>The current system of forced mediation in disputes with home builders is rigged in the builders’ favor.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I can’t believe there’s a proposition on the ballot I can actually vote yes on.</p>
<p><strong>Prop 202: Stop Illegal Hiring Act, aka Please Let Us Hire Illegals If We Do It On The Down Low.</strong></p>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>I’m not a lawyer, but it looks to me like this will gut the current employer sanctions law.</p>
<p>But again, kudos on the double-speak.</p>
<p><strong>Prop 300: Legislators’ Salary Increase, aka We Deserve Mo’ Money.</strong></p>
<p><strong>NO</strong></p>
<p>Sorry people. With a billion dollar budget shortfall out there, I’m not getting a raise, and neither are you. Maybe if you get the state out of the black hole you’ll get some billz for your skillz.</p>
Dub-dub-debate2008-10-16T18:21:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/10/dub-dub-debate/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lastdebate_540.jpg" alt="Final Presidential Debate" /><br /></p>
<p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95780692">NPR/Emmanuel Dunand</a>.</em></p>
<p>Here are my recollections from as much of the final presidential debate of 2008 I could stand to watch:</p>
<p>“You are going to raise taxes.”</p>
<p>“No I’m not.”</p>
<p>“You <em>are</em> going to raise taxes.”</p>
<p>“No I’m not.”</p>
<p>“You are going to <em>raise</em> taxes.”</p>
<p>“No I’m not.”</p>
<p>“You told a plumber you are going to raise taxes.”</p>
<p>“No I didn’t.”</p>
<p>“You are going to raise <em>taxes</em>.”</p>
<p>“No I’m not.”</p>
<p><em>Sigh.</em></p>
R.I.P. Shiva2008-10-07T03:32:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/10/rip-shiva/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/shiva.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/shiva-tm.jpg" width="400" height="264" alt="Shiva the cat" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Shiva the cat.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>We had to put our oldest cat Shiva to sleep today. She had been acting a bit lethargic for a while, and the usual battery of tests failed to reveal any particular sickness. Then yesterday she started dragging her back legs and looked to be in a lot of pain.</p>
<p>Took her to vet today and had her put to sleep.</p>
<p>We’re going to miss this little crazy furball. Thanks for the years of companionship.</p>
I give up2008-10-06T00:07:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/10/i-give-up/
<p>I pride myself on being the kind of person who can see the other person’s point of view. A uniter, not a divider, if you will.</p>
<p>But at this point in the electoral campaign, I’m throwing my hands in the air—there is no way to understand what is happening in the heads of McCain/Palin supporters at this point. Really? This is the team that will bring America out of the disasters caused by … ehm … <em>them?</em> Really? That’s what you think?</p>
<p>It seems pretty clear at this point that McCain has made a deal with the Devil (or the Fundamentalist Right, which is essentially the same thing) by bringing Palin on the ticket. A person who has one thing to offer: raw, walk-over-corpses ambition. No knowledge, no insight, no gravitas, no experience, only raw ambition.</p>
<p>And this makes half of America cheer?</p>
<p>The smartest thing the G.O.P. ever did was <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/09/review-whats-the-matter-with-kansas/">turn themselves into a values party</a>. Convincing the very people who are getting screwed by your policies that it’s for their own good is political judo at the very highest level.</p>
<p>But turning themselves into a values party will ultimately be their downfall, since it rolled out a plush, red welcome mat for the Christian Right lunatic fringe. Republicans have been putting their fingers in their ears and yelled lalalalalala-I-can’t-hear-you for a long time about these troglodytes, but it is—finally, and not a day too soon—starting to boomerang on them.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/moran_family.jpg" alt="Back at the ranch" />
<p><br /><em>Source: <a href="http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/10/04/at-least-they-spelled-obama-correctly/">Joey DeVilla</a></em></p>
<p>At this point, though, all I can say is that I give up. I can’t understand you. Lord knows I’ve tried, but you are so far from anything I can relate to my brain is hurting.</p>
Go Speedracer!2008-10-02T00:04:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/10/go-speedracer-2/
<p>Just ran a <a href="http://speedtest.net/">speed test</a> on the Downtown <a href="http://www.asu.edu/">ASU</a> Internet connection.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/fastinternet.png" alt="Fast Internet" title="Fast Internet" width="304" height="140" class="size-full wp-image-1080" /><br /></p>
<p><em>Holy smokes, that’s some fast Internet!</em></p>
<p>Wonder why college kids are always getting busted BitTorrenting stuff?</p>
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo2008-09-23T01:27:07Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/
<p>A book I read in the original Swedish this summer has just been released in the US: <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Dragon-Tattoo-Stieg-Larsson/dp/0307269752%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0307269752">The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</a></em> by Stieg Larsson.</p>
<p>If you like your crime fiction rough and gritty, this novel is for you. It utterly consumed me when I read it. Basically, it’s about an old crime and new crimes—terrible, terrible crimes—uncovered by the search for closure of the old crime, with the story taking place in what at first seems like a pastoral modern Sweden. The original Swedish title, <em>Män som hatar kvinnor</em> translates into <em>Men who hate women</em>, which should give you an idea of what is happening.</p>
<p><em>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em> is actually the first part of a trilogy, so if you do buy it and enjoy it, there’s plenty more goodness to come.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Larsson passed away right after completing the trilogy, so we will never get any more of his work. This is sad, but if you can leave something as compelling as this trilogy behind, you did something right with your life.</p>
<p>Note that I haven’t read the English translation, so I can’t vouch for it, but with the marketing muscle the publisher seems to be putting behind <em>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em>, I can’t imagine it being subpar.</p>
<p>If you read it, please comment or email me to let me know what you think—there’s an odd <em>frisson</em> to having the dark psychotic offshoots of the culture where you grew up exposed to the world.</p>
The Republican in winter2008-09-21T01:34:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/the-republican-in-winter/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/barrygoldwater2.jpg" width="240" height="300" alt="Barry Goldwater" />
<p><br /><em>Barry Goldwater. Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_goldwater">Wikipedia</a></em></p>
<p>One of the things that keep bothering me in these election days is what it must be like to be a classic small-government, fiscal responsibility, keep government out of my life Republican.</p>
<p>Because that’s not the Republican Party that’s heading into an election on November 4th. <em>That</em> Republican Party is a no-abortion, Church is everything, government will regulate what you do in the bedroom party.</p>
<p>So what do you do if you’re a classic Republican? Hold your nose and vote for the Jesus Brigade even though they’ve stolen your Party? Vote Libertarian? Not vote at all? Dare you even think the thought of voting Democrat? <em>Oh, no, taxes!</em> What do you do?</p>
<p>If nothing else, what happens on November 4th will be an acid test for the Republicans—how many of you will be able to overlook corruption, incompetence, and Dark Ages-style Bible thumping in order to not put a Democrat in the Oval Office?</p>
<p>Because the hard truth is that the Republican Party today has <em>nothing</em> to do with the values people like Barry Goldwater stood for. Today the Republican Party is an organization that longs for a 1950s that never existed, a time when White children lived innocent lives, when the Church gave you your values, rock’n’roll was the Devil’s music, and nobody was gay.</p>
<p>So if you’re a Goldwater-style Republican, why do you let the Bible thumpers run away with your party? Why aren’t you fighting back and reclaiming the Republican party? Do you not see it? Do you not care? Or have the Goldwater-style Republicans died out?</p>
<p>I’m genuinely puzzled.</p>
To the undecided voter2008-09-18T20:12:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/to-the-undecided-voter/
<p>The McCain and Obama campaigns are busy beating the bushes in battleground states in a mad rush to convince undecided voters to select them at the ballot box.</p>
<p>My question is: Who the hell are these people? Seriously, you’re undecided in what is probably the most polarized election <em>ever</em> in America? The lines have never been clearer. The Democrats and Republicans have never been further apart. And you’re “undecided.” <em>Oh, I just don’t know who to vote for…</em> Seriously?</p>
<p>Allow me to cut through the BS for you: If you think the last eight years have been just peachy, vote for McCain; If you think the last eight years have been a spiral into insanity, vote for Obama.</p>
<p>Here’s a hint to help you make up your mind about the last eight years: Read a freaking newspaper.</p>
<p>Normally, I think it’s great to evaluate the candidates individually instead of just voting the party line. Good for you. But this election is different. This election <em>has to be</em> a rolled-up newspaper smacking the Republicans on their butts saying, “NO! Bad fundie! Baaaad fundie! No government for you! Look what you did to the country!”</p>
<p>Anything less is too profoundly depressing to even contemplate.</p>
<p>I’m Nic Lindh and I approve this message.</p>
Review: Here Comes Everybody2008-09-16T21:54:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/review-here-comes-everybody/
<p><a href="http://www.shirky.com/">Clay Shirky’s</a> book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Everybody-Organizing-Organizations/dp/1594201536%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1594201536">Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations</a></em> demonstrates why he’s one of the preeminent thinkers in the field of social (and societal) impact of digital communications tools. The book is easy to read, clear, and offers sterling examples of the changes Shirky discusses.</p>
<p>The basic idea is that the ease digital tools like email, wikis, and social Web sites bring to creating and organizing groups, be they ephemeral or long-lasting, changes the equation of how much organizational overhead is necessary for a group to spring into existence, and for that group to accomplish its goals.</p>
<p><em>Here Comes Everybody</em> is refreshing in that it doesn’t devolve into wild-and-wooly <em>Wired</em>-style techno-prognostication—Shirky is talking about what is happening right now, and what it means.</p>
<p>If you’re alive in 2008, you should read <em>Here Comes Everybody</em>. It’s that important a book.</p>
Get better2008-09-15T01:26:29Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/get-better/
<p>Today I spent an hour riveted to my laptop watching a <a href="http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/50022261/how-to-blog">choppy, postage-stamp-sized video of a San Francisco hipster talking about blogging.</a></p>
<p>Yes, <em>riveted</em>. Because of course, <a href="http://www.merlinmann.com/">Merlin Mann</a> wasn’t really talking about blogging—he was talking about the creative process and how to sharpen your output.</p>
<p>I’ve been a bit of a Merlin fan boy for a while, but the speech he gave has catapulted me into full-on wannabe-henchman territory. That’s right: I’ll even be a henchman without a name tag. That’s how good this speech is.</p>
<p>Here’s an image that captures the core of the speech:</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/mmann-get-better.jpg" width="400" height="299" alt="Get better" />
<p>Learn it, live it, love it.</p>
<p>Thanks, Merlin. You’re doing good work.</p>
Review: The Name of the Wind2008-09-07T00:24:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/review-the-name-of-the-wind/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Day/dp/0756404746%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0756404746">The Name of the Wind</a></em> is the first part of a planned trilogy, and it is one impressive piece of old-school fantasy with huge and detailed world building, interesting characters and a massive story arc.</p>
<p>After reading it, I jumped on Amazon to order the second installment. Which is not out yet. Probably the best way to convey how much I enjoyed <em>The Name of the Wind</em> is that it ruined my day to find out I’m going to have to wait a long time for the second installment (not to mention the third).</p>
<p>If you like fantasy at all you will dig <em>The Name of the Wind</em>.</p>
Review: The Last Colony2008-09-07T00:02:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/review-the-last-colony/
<p>The third Novel in John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War Universe, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Colony-John-Scalzi/dp/076535618X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D076535618X">The Last Colony</a></em> continues the adventures of John Perry and Jane Sagan.</p>
<p>It’s an enjoyable novel, and Scalzi writes with his customary economy, but it feels like he’s getting a bit tired of his creation. <em>The Last Colony</em> is much less intense than the preceding novels in the series, and the plot suffers from an overload of million-to-one odds that somehow go in the protagonists’ favor.</p>
<p>There are interesting philosophical and human ideas in the novel, but as space opera it needs a turbo charge.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-old-mans-war/">Old Man’s War</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-the-ghost-brigades/">The Ghost Brigades</a></em></p>
Review: Spook Country2008-09-06T23:51:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/review-spook-country/
<p>William Gibson remains in the unevenly-distributed present in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spook-Country-William-Gibson/dp/0425221415%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0425221415">Spook Country</a></em>, a novel packed with his beautiful prose but not all that much else.</p>
<p>Granted, Gibson has never been a big one for plot, instead relying on the fertility of his ideas and the enveloping grace of his writing, but <em>Spook Country</em> hits his nadir.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, if you’re a fan (and you should be), <em>Spook Country</em> is worth reading, even though it is frustratingly subpar for Gibson.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump review:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/04/review-pattern-recognition/">Pattern Recognition</a></em></p>
Let them eat swamp water2008-09-04T02:13:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/09/let-them-eat-swamp-water/
<p>The shenanigans coming out of the Republican National Convention are enough to make anybody want to pack up and move to the Alaskan Frontier with a gun, a bottle of gin, and the strength to pluck your own eyes out. But that’s not what this post is about. I’ve done enough screaming into a pillow about <em>that</em>.</p>
<p>Incidentally, according to the <a href="http://www.gopconvention2008.com/">convention Web site</a>, the theme for this election’s convention is “Reform.” Which one might say is a bit of a non-sequitur for the party that’s run America the last eight years…</p>
<p>Here’s the thing, though: How did the party in power react to hurricane Gustav hitting Louisiana? By praising charity work and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/01/gop-convention-opens-with-appeal-for-gustav-aid/">asking for aid.</a> Not by actually proposing any kind of aid package, but suggesting that good Christian folk should, well, do something. Send some food, or something.</p>
<p>And then, an aid package proposal comes out of the White House! But is it for people in areas devastated by Gustav? Of course not! It’s <pinkie finger> one billion dollars </pinkie finger> for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/world/europe/04cheney.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin">the Republic of Georgia’s fight against Russia</a>.</p>
<p>That’s right, wait for the cold hands of charity, Louisiana white trash—the Russkies could be getting uppity. We have to get on top of that <em>stat</em>.</p>
<p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I used to live in Louisiana, and despite the state being a bit of a Faulknerian third-world backwater, I really like it there. Obviously not enough to stay, but I do like it.</p>
Boiling it down2008-08-21T01:35:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/08/boiling-it-down/
<p>My dad’s uncle took over the family farm in Sweden after his parents passed away. The farm was located smack dab in the middle of nowhere. He lived there alone with the livestock for his entire life, after a teenage romance went sour and he swore off women.</p>
<p>One of his amusements was to name his animals after family members. One of them was a bull he didn’t like. Apparently the bull was lazy. So naturally he named it after his brother-in-law.</p>
<p>From what I’ve been told, one day he stood and looked at the bull in its manger, shook his head, and said, “We only keep you around for the fertilizer.”</p>
<p>Lots of that going around these days.</p>
The cheese and the damage done2008-08-16T02:09:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/08/the-cheese-and-the-damage-done/
<p>The powers that be at work decided that all minions had to read <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moved-Cheese-Amazing-Deal-Change/dp/0399144463%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0399144463">Who Moved My Cheese?</a></em>, and since I like to read anyway, and have been low-grade curious about this book for a long time, I was a good boy and plowed through it.</p>
<p>Which took all of 15 minutes. Really. Without skimming.</p>
<p>According to the blurbs on the book itself, <em>Who Moved My Cheese</em> has changed the lives of countless people, and has shook more people than there are stars in the galaxy to the very core of their beings. We’ll get to that in a moment.</p>
<p>The book is really divided into two parts, the <em>Who Moved My Cheese</em> parable itself about two mice and two little people looking for cheese in a maze, and a “discussion” at a high school reunion between what I can only judge to be four stroke victims.</p>
<p>The parable itself is not bad—it cuts to the chase† and provides some food for thought, even though it’s glib and breathlessly optimistic.</p>
<p>But the discussion! Oh, the discussion! It’s all on the level of “Hey, I had no idea what to do and my life was going to hell, and I had no idea what was going on until you shared this wonderful, wonderful story with me and now I totally know what I have to do!”</p>
<p>Seriously, if you read this book and it changes your whole outlook, good for you. Glad you got value out of it. That being said, how about you turn off the TV, stop reading mouth-breather management books, and start reading grownup books? Please.</p>
<p>Also, you probably shouldn’t be allowed to vote.</p>
<hr />
<p>†It took a lot of restraint to not use the word cheese instead of chase.</p>
Review: The Moment It Clicks2008-08-12T02:29:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/08/review-the-moment-it-clicks/
<p><a href="http://joemcnally.com/portfolio/">Joe McNally</a> is a shiny golden god of photography, and in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moment-Clicks-Photography-secrets-shooters/dp/0321544080%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dadriaantijsse-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0321544080">The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world’s top shooters</a></em> he shows off his work and tells you how he got there. The result is a book that is gorgeous, informative, and sometimes touching. McNally’s voice is friendly, and the behind-the-scenes stories he tells reveals how he approaches photography and the choices he makes to get his amazing images.</p>
<p><em>The Moment It Clicks</em> is not a very technical book—McNally doesn’t talk much about f-stops and pixels, but that is by design: the book is really about how to <em>see</em> like one of the greatest photographers working today.</p>
<p>The format is basically that McNally talks about a situation and how he approached it, then shows an image that illustrates his point. It’s very effective.</p>
<p>If you’re at all interested in photography, <em>The Moment It Clicks</em> belongs on your bookshelf or your coffee table.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Review: Thirteen2008-07-29T22:04:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/07/review-thirteen/
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Richard-K-Morgan/dp/0345480899%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0345480899">Thirteen</a> is a splendid near-future thriller with shades of noir and cyberpunk. Richard K. Morgan has created a complex and unfortunately believable dystopia in which humans are being genetically engineered to function better in certain roles, such as the title’s variant thirteen, engineered to be better soldiers.</p>
<p>The plot is well constructed and fast, with plenty of mayhem amid the question of what makes somebody more or less human, and Morgan’s world creation is first-rate.</p>
<p><em>Thirteen</em> is about as good as it gets. Highly recommended.</p>
<p>Note that this is a very graphical novel both when it comes to violence and sex.</p>
Too soon?2008-07-24T22:21:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/07/too-soon/
<p>Despite the whole brouhaha about Apple’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/technology/personaltech/24pogue-email.html?pagewanted=1">switch from .Mac to MobileMe</a> it seems I’m in the mostly-snag-free minority. Which is good.</p>
<p>But there’s one teensy detail it seems the UI wizards at Apple have overlooked, namely the MobileMe preference pane. My account just happened to renew the other day, and here’s what the preference pane had to say:</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/renewnow.jpg" width="450" height="134" alt="Renew Now. Now, we say. Now!" />
<p>I don’t know, but maybe somebody could put the Greed-O-Matic in neutral and put in some kind of conditional text there? Like, say, if you have more than 360 days left on your yearly account, it could say something like, “Thanks for renewing.”</p>
<p>I nag because I care.</p>
Movie roundup, part eight2008-07-17T22:17:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/07/movie-round-up-8/
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432021/">Resident Evil: Extinction</a></strong>: The world is overrun with flesh-eating zombies and the Evil Corporation is lurking in underground bunkers working on a way to exploit the zombies. And on the surface Milla Jovovich runs around helping human survivors by chopping zombies to bits.</p>
<p>It’s well made and has some interesting scenes, but in general there’s not much of a “there” there. Still, not too painful to watch.</p>
<p><em>Gaaaarrrr!</em></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/">Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull</a></strong>: Spielberg does to Indiana Jones what Lucas did to Star Wars.</p>
<p>The movie has some nice chase sequences, but the plot is infernally dumb and the cast is phoning it in.</p>
<p>Sad, really.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/">I am Legend</a></strong>: Will Smith puts in a solid performance, and the CGI is well done, but apart from that it’s one of those frustrating movies that could have been great if they had taken the concept all the way instead of punking out.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks the Darkseekers moved exactly like the robots in <em>I, Robot</em>?</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0991178/">Battlestar Galactica: Razor</a></strong>: It’s a bit mystifying why this was created as a film instead of being two episodes in the regular run of the show. That being said, it’s solid and provides an interesting look at the Cylons as they used to be. Getting more of the back story of the Battlestar Pegasus makes the movie a given for fans of the series.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431197/">The Kingdom</a></strong>: Intense thriller about a terrorist hunt in Saudi Arabia. Even dares touch on some of the, ahem, “issues” regarding the Saudis and global terrorism. Well worth watching.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365686/">Revolver</a></strong>: Extremely frustrating film that likes to think of itself as very, very clever indeed while it has its finger up its nose to the knuckle.</p>
<p>Take MTV-style editing, some very interesting camera work, add in the kind of metaphysical musings that go on in freshman dorm rooms late at night, and a plot that’s … well … infantile, and what you end up with is the kind of movie that gives you a headache.</p>
No diacriticals for you and your yuppie toy!2008-07-14T18:18:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/07/no-diacriticals-for-you-and-your-yuppie-toy/
<p>One of the many great things about iPhone take 2.0 is that it supports the Swedish language, which makes things like sending email to friends and family in Sweden a lot easier.</p>
<p>Except that the Swedish keyboard layout is missing the characters “åäö,” which are part of the language.</p>
<p>No people, it’s not just Mötorhead and Mötley Crüe who <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockdots">use rockdots</a>, they’re part of a language spoken by 9 million people.</p>
<p>There’s a workaround, which is to tap and hold the “a” and “o” characters until a popup with the diacritical marks shows up. Needless to say, that’s suboptimal.</p>
<p>This is annoying enough that I went ahead and created my first Apple Radar report, #6073522:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>SUMMARY</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The Swedish keyboard in iPhone firmware 2.0 is missing the keys åäö. These letters are part of the Swedish alphabet, and not having them accessible in the keyboard layout makes typing much more inefficient.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The letters can be accessed by holding down the a and o keys until a popup appears with a selection of diacritical marks, but this is a painful way to type.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>STEPS TO REPRODUCE</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Put iPhone to use Swedish keyboard. Notice how åäö do not appear.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>EXPECTED RESULTS</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The characters åäö should be accessible with the rest of the alphabet keys.</p>
</blockquote>
Review: The Overachievers2008-07-08T17:42:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/07/review-the-overachievers/
<p>Subtitled <em>The Secret Lives of Driven Kids</em>, Alexandra Robbins’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Overachievers-Secret-Lives-Driven-Kids/dp/140130902X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D140130902X">The Overachievers</a></em> follows a selection of students at Whitman, a high school in Maryland, during a year of their lives.</p>
<p>It’s a deeply disconcerting book about children and young adults under intense pressure from their parents, themselves, and their schools, all with the goal of getting into the “right” college and thus collect a golden key to success in life.</p>
<p>Robbins writes with verve and does a great job of bringing the children to life on the page. It’s a very easy book to read.</p>
<p>The tales of children whose parents pressure psychologists to falsely diagnose their children with learning disabilities so they can get more time on exams, rampant cheating, suicides, and above all the sleep deprived lives of the students as they build up their resumes for their college applications are like something out of a nightmare.</p>
<p>If you’re a parent, you should read this book. If you’re at all interested in the state of young people today, you should read this book.</p>
<p>Granted, focusing exclusively on the overachievers leaves out a lot of other high school experiences, but it is chilling.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2008/04/review-the-price-of-privilege/">The Price of Privilege</a></em></p>
Review: Woken Furies2008-07-07T00:48:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/07/review-woken-furies/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Woken-Furies-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novel/dp/0345499778%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0345499778">Woken Furies</a></em> is the third installment in Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs saga, and according to Richard Morgan it will be last. If this is so, the series goes out with a bang, bringing together a lot of the world building hints Morgan has strewn around in the first two novels, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457692%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0345457692">Altered Carbon</a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Angels-Richard-K-Morgan/dp/0345457714%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Dthecoredump-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0345457714">Broken Angels</a></em>.</p>
<p>A brilliant mesh of cyberpunk and noir, this is one of the best novels I’ve read this year—smart, ferocious, and with a tight plot, it is one intense ride.</p>
<p>While <em>Woken Furies</em> can be read as a stand-alone, it is much more fulfilling if you’ve read the previous two installments.</p>
<p>Get on board the Kovacs train. You won’t be disappointed.</p>
The solstice2008-07-01T21:31:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/07/the-solstice/
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer">Midsummer’s Eve</a> is arguably the biggest holiday in Sweden, and definitely my favorite—there’s no flag waving and no gift buying. It’s all about enjoying the longest day of the year, the lushness of Sweden at its finest, and eating good food.</p>
<p>So I was incredibly happy to be able to spend Midsummer in Sweden and partake along with my daughter.</p>
<p>The holiday requires <em>nubbe</em>—chilled akvavit—so there was quite a line at the state-controlled liquor store the day before.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/liquorstore1.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/liquorstore-tm1.jpg" width="360" height="480" alt="At the liquor store" /></a></p>
<br />
<div class="imgcaption">Inside Systembolaget<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>A large part of the tradition is the raising of and dancing around the midsummer pole. As you can see, the phallic nature of the pole was disguised by Christian missionaries with the addition of a cross bar which was then subverted with the cunning use of wreaths. You can use your own dirty mind to figure out what the wreaths resemble. Clever of the heathens, I say.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummerpole.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummerpole-tm.jpg" width="480" height="317" alt="Midsummer Pole" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">idsummer pole.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>After the pole was raised, traditional dancing ensued. Andrea was a bit confused but happy.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/dancingaroundthepole.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/dancingaroundthepole-tm.jpg" width="480" height="317" alt="dancingaroundthepole.jpg" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Traditional dancing.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Another important tradition is to eat outside. Dagnabbit, it’s the middle of summer, so Food Shall be Consumed Out of Doors. As is also customary, rain was threatening, so it was a bit touch and go on that part.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/threateningsky.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/threateningsky-tm.jpg" width="480" height="317" alt="The threatening sky" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Eat outside you want, eh?<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>But never say die, so we set the table on the patio.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/thetable.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/thetable-tm.jpg" width="317" height="479" alt="Midsummer table" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">The table being set up.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>The most important items are already on the table: the herring and the <em>nubbe</em>. Everything else is gravy.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the weather gods relented, and we were able to dine al fresco.</p>
<p>All in all, an excellent Midsummer’s Eve.</p>
I’ve got the key2008-06-11T21:42:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/06/ive-got-the-key/
<p>It’s getting past 11:30pm, and my parents and daughter are asleep—I’m sitting in my parents’ living room gazing at the dusk outside, the sky a deep magenta as it patiently waits for the sun to return. Gabriel and Dresden play in my headphones and a glass of red wine sits on the table.</p>
<p>This, my friends, is what vacation is all about—had a great day with my parents, ate a good dinner, listened to the rain fall on the roof, and now there’s only the music from my headphones and the never-ending light coming through the windows as I watch the red wine darken.</p>
<p>There are many things I want from life, but being able to sit watching the midnight sky while my family sleeps trumps them all.</p>
<p>Many happy returns.</p>
On through the night2008-06-11T17:07:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/06/on-through-the-night/
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2008/06/on-through-the-night/%E2%80%99/images/pennant.jpg%E2%80%99" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pennant-150x99.jpg" alt="Swedish pennant under a blue sky" title="Swedish Pennant" width="150" height="99" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-992" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Swedish pennant.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Andrea and I are safely nestled at my parents’ house after a long journey from Phoenix to Sweden.</p>
<p>We had stop-overs in Chicago and Copenhagen, both of which were short and sweet, even though the time between flights was <em>way</em> too chintzy in Copenhagen and we ended up running through the airport with me carrying Andrea and our luggage, blitzing past flight monitors that had our flight status as “closed.” A wee bit on the stressful side, but we made the puddle jumper from Copenhagen to Gothenburg with our stomachs in our throats.</p>
<p>Andrea was a complete champ through the trip. I think it’s that she’s six years old now, and really gets what’s going on as we hop from aluminum tube to aluminum tube.</p>
<p>We landed in a Sweden from some other dimension, with clear blue skies and warm weather.</p>
<p>At this point things have cooled down a bit and the clouds are threatening rain, but it’s still really nice and the summer light is incredible—even though I grew up here, it was still amazing when Andrea and I woke up at 4am the morning after we landed to find it light enough to go outside and read the newspaper.</p>
<p>I understand there are worse ways to spend the month of June.</p>
Conspicuous consumption2008-06-04T15:53:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/06/conspicuous-consumption/
<p>Our conspicuous consumption, let me show you it:</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/acuratl2008.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/acuratl2008-tm.jpg" width="400" height="264" alt="Acura TL 2008" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Acura TL 2008<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>The wife’s 1997 Honda Civic with 146,000 miles needed $2,500 worth of repairs to stay road worthy, so we decided it was time to bid it adieu and move on into a vehicle from this century.</p>
<p>And boy howdy is it ever. From this century, I mean. This is one tight driving machine.</p>
<p>You might be wondering why we would go overboard with a luxury car instead of sticking with a Civic or the like, and the simple answer is that we plan to keep the thing for a minimum of ten years, and for that kind of time frame, why not get something really nice?</p>
<p>The same reasoning applies to why we didn’t avoid the depreciation tax by buying one coming off a lease—we plan to drive it till the wheels come off, so it makes sense to have a vehicle we <em>know</em> has been properly taken care of and gently driven.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, my 1997 Accord with 126,000 miles on it is still trucking along…</p>
<p>What’s blowing my mind is that if everything goes to plan, the vehicle in the picture is the one Andrea will use to learn to drive in ten year’s time.</p>
Review: The Dragon Never Sleeps2008-05-24T01:33:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/review-the-dragon-never-sleeps/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1597800996%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/Dragon-Never-Sleeps-Glen-Cook/dp/1597800996%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">The Dragon Never Sleeps</a></em> is prime Glen Cook—a huge, literally galaxy-spanning plot, gritty realism, and hastily sketched but interesting characters.</p>
<p>As with his <em>Dread Empire</em> series, Cook throws the reader right into the mess of things without much explanation, leaving it up to you to figure out what’s really going on, and introduces an army of characters and motivations without ado. <em>The Dragon Never Sleeps</em> is one of those novels you absolutely can not skim; it requires attention if it’s going to make any kind of sense.</p>
<p>It’s always great to see an author working in the genre resist the urge to stretch things out—in the hands of pretty much any other author, <em>The Dragon Never Sleeps</em> would have been at minimum three 800-page bricks, but Cook keeps it under 300 dense but rewarding pages.</p>
<p>Granted, Cook is a bit of an acquired taste, and anybody new to him should start out with the brilliant <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0765319233%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/Chronicles-Black-Company-Glen-Cook/dp/0765319233%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2"><em>Black Company</em></a> series, but for the fan this novel delivers.</p>
<p>Recommended.</p>
Review: Glasshouse2008-05-22T20:45:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/review-glasshouse/
<p>Charles Stross’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0441015085%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/Glasshouse-Charles-Stross/dp/0441015085%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Glasshouse</a></em> takes place in the post-singularity far future where people have the ability to change their bodies any way they like, back themselves up at will, and all the other post-singularity goodies.</p>
<p>The novel takes a while to get going, and at first it’s a bit hard to figure out what kind of drama Charles Stross can mine from an environment where, by definition, nothing bad can really happen.</p>
<p>Once the characters find themselves in the “Glasshouse” of the title, though, the action and the suspense become fast and furious, and <em>Glasshouse</em> settles in to become a creepy meditation on the psychology of memory and gender roles.</p>
<p>Once you have the ability to edit your memories, can you really trust yourself?</p>
<p>The ending feels a little bit abrupt and neat, but apart from that, <em>Glasshouse</em> features strong and interesting characters, impressive world-building, and tense action sequences.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Review: Cruel Zinc Melodies2008-05-22T20:11:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/review-cruel-zinc-melodies/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0451461924%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/Cruel-Zinc-Melodies-Garrett-P-I/dp/0451461924%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Cruel Zinc Melodies</a></em> continues Glen Cook’s often wonderful Garrett, P.I. series, a heady mash-up of old-school hard-boiled private investigator fiction and swords-and-sorcery magic.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Cook phoned this one in. The plot is all over the place with way too many subplots that never gel, and the laconic “P.I. voice” comes dangerously close to a parody of the genre rather than a homage.</p>
<p>Only for the hard-core fan of the series.</p>
The Great Pool of Money2008-05-15T16:43:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/the-great-pool-of-money/
<p>The brilliant <em>This American Life</em> program <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242">“The Great Pool of Money”</a> is required listening for anybody looking to understand the credit crisis that grew out of the subprime mortgage meltdown.</p>
<p>This is why we have NPR.</p>
Science night2008-05-14T16:43:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/science-night/
<p>The other night was Family Science Night at Andrea’s school. Since we’re very interested in having her exposed to as much science as possible, and also to show her that we take it seriously, off we went.</p>
<p>The actual presentation was given by a woman from the <a href="http://www.azscience.org/">Arizona Science Center</a> and involved fun and interesting things to do with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_nitrogen">liquid nitrogen</a>. The children were highly amused by the flash-freezing of various objects like metal, racquet balls, onions, and bananas.</p>
<p>At the start of the presentation, the presenter had seven balloons, and asked the crowd how many of those she could fit into the small liquid nitrogen container. Turns out, she could fit all of them.</p>
<p>At which point it was incredibly hard to not yell, <em>"Burn the witch! Burn her!</em>"</p>
<p>So, I guess I still have some work to do on this “maturity” thing.</p>
Review: The Sociopath Next Door2008-05-08T16:44:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/review-the-sociopath-next-door/
<p>One in 25 Americans is a sociopath. This means, essentially, that they are incapable of feeling love or connectedness and exist in an emotional vacuum where the only thing that matters is to “win” over other people. The damage they cause the other 96% of the population is incalculable.</p>
<p>Martha Stout’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0767915828%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0767915828%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">The Sociopath Next Door</a></em> provides a chilling look into the minds of sociopaths as well as ways to recognize them and above all how to deal with them.</p>
<p>Stout uses exceptionally well written composites of case files from her years of experience as a practicing psychologist to drive home the damage sociopaths cause and how their victims have learned to cope.</p>
<p><em>The Sociopath Next Door</em> is an important work, and one that deserves to be widely read.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Review: Homicide2008-05-06T22:49:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/review-homicide/
<p>David Simon is one of the creators of the fantastic HBO show <em>The Wire</em>. He wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0805080759%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0805080759%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets</a> after spending 1988 observing three squads of Baltimore homicide detectives. Simon’s unprecedented access to the detectives as they go about their jobs resulted in a book so tight and well-written it’s sometimes hard to believe it’s not fiction.</p>
<p>Not only does Simon capture the lingo and banter of the detectives, but he also finds empathy and raw emotion in the most unlikely places.</p>
<p>As a bonus for fans of <em>The Wire</em>, one of the many classic scenes from that show, where the detectives use a photocopier as a fake polygraph machine, is straight from <em>Homicide</em>.</p>
<p>Even though now 20 years old, <em>Homicide</em> is a gripping read. It is hard to imagine that the business of murder has changed all that much in the intervening years.</p>
New levels of disgust2008-05-01T22:30:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/05/new-levels-of-disgust/
<p>We are now at the point where I can hardly read anything in the newspaper but the comics, can’t listen to NPR, and can under no circumstances tolerate even a minute of CNN or MSNBC. It’s even so bad I can’t watch <em>The Daily Show.</em></p>
<p>Mainstream media these days is like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyricon_%28film%29">Fellini’s <em>Satyricon</em></a>.</p>
<p>So how am I disgusted? Let me count the ways:</p>
<p>The latest <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/30/expert-support-for-gas-ta_n_99474.html">condescending Bread-and-Circuses idea</a> by both Clinton and McCain about a “gas-tax holiday” is so cynical, pandering and breathtakingly dumb that it will probably end up winning one of them the election.</p>
<p>I don’t like paying high gas prices more than anybody else, but perhaps looking another direction than the purse strings of Uncle Sam could be useful? Like, oh, I don’t know, at the corporations that are making record-breaking profits? Exxon Mobil <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/companies/exxon_earnings/?postversion=2008050115">posted a $10.89 <em>billion</em> with a “B” profit</a> for the <em>first three months of the year.</em></p>
<p>Sure there’s no give in gas prices? And isn’t the whole idea that the gentle and wise hand of the market will reign in these kinds of profits?</p>
<p>Then there’s the perennial war in Iraq which <a href="http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home">costs $275 million per day</a>, not to mention the mounting human costs with more people dead and maimed every day. But apparently that’s just become the weather these days, and not something that can be challenged or changed. Turns out there is such a thing as <a href="http://skepdic.com/sunkcost.html">the sunk cost fallacy</a>. Look it up.</p>
<p>To add points to my blood pressure, the talking point that’s been going around now for a while about how it’s all the Iraqis fault the Army can’t be pulled out—they’re not doing their fair share! Whaaa!—sounds a lot like a rapist blaming his victim for his not enjoying himself.</p>
<p>Monstrous and horrible as Saddam and his henchmen were, there are two important facts to bear in mind: 1) Iraq had <em>nothing</em> to do with 9/11; and 2) The Iraqis never asked to be invaded. I’m sure they were happy to get rid of Saddam, but blaming them for not holding up their end on some sort of coerced deal is mind-blowingly disingenuous.</p>
<p>And then there’s the delightful spectacle of democracy in process. If I was working on one of the campaigns I’d care deeply about who raised how much money and in which city the candidates will be on which day and what the polls are showing today. Deeply. But I’m not. I’m a voter. I want to know what positions the candidates are taking on the issues.</p>
<p>Yes, I know, apparently that’s snoresville these days, so call me a freak, but that’s what I’d like to see the media cover.</p>
<p>And speaking of issues, don’t know if you noticed, but the economy is going to hell in a hand basket with the sub-prime mortgage meltdown in the driver’s seat laughing its ass off.</p>
<p>Oh, what shall we ever do to keep from skidding off the road? Hey, I know, let’s bail out the banks that put us in this mess in the first place.</p>
<p>So what caused the mortgage meltdown? Creative banking with zero federal oversight. Simple as that. Putting the whole onus on stupid consumers is narrow-minded to say the least.</p>
<p>How freaking awesome must it be to work at a bank? You can come up with some squirrelly coked-out scheme, make money hand over fist, and then have the fed come bail you out when the hangover starts.</p>
<p>How about in each one of the banks that are getting bailed out, everybody in a managerial position is fired immediately? Oh, wait, no, that’s that “consequence” thing we try to fool our children into believing, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Can I have a cookie whenever I let my greed and arrogance override every ounce of common sense I possess, too? ’Cause that would be nice.</p>
<p>Santa?</p>
Random nerditry2008-04-27T04:17:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/04/random-nerditry/
<p>Yesterday I wanted to change something on my Web server, so I logged in to Virtualmin and what did I find, but that I’m about to <em>run out of bandwidth</em>.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/leechers.png" width="389" height="43" alt="Stop hotlinking images, ya bastards" />
<p><br /><em>Almost out of 30 Gigs of bandwidth</em></p>
<p>What’s interesting is that I usually use about a gig a month, and to the best of mine and <a href="http://analytics.google.com/">Google Analytics</a> knowledge, I haven’t been Slashdotted or Dugg or anything like that.</p>
<p>So after some spelunking in the access logs, turns out it’s idiots hotlinking images to show on MySpace and some Spanish forum. Apparently, <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/a-good-year-for-cactus/">my cactus flower images</a> are popular, which is great, except for the aforementioned hotlinking.</p>
<p>Also, there seems to be a disturbingly great amount of people who are searching <a href="http://images.google.com/">Google Images</a> for pictures of enemas.</p>
<p>Note to those people: <em>What the hell is wrong with you?</em> I mean, really. <em>Seek help.</em></p>
<p>So, you post one picture of <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/03/more-cat-drama/">your cat</a> after (<em>not during</em>) she has an enema, and the enema lovers are your friends forever.</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>
<p>After some .htaccess noodling, the MySpace idiots and the Spanish forum people won’t be using my bandwidth anymore.</p>
<p>While in a nerdy kind of mood, I went ahead and updated the blog to Wordpress 2.5.1, the latest and greatest, using the <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing/Updating_WordPress_with_Subversion">tracking Subversion method</a>. It worked a whole lot better than the rhythm method [<em>rimshot</em>]. Pretty darn close to magic, I must say. A couple of simple commands, and <em>badabing!</em> Wordpress is updated. This makes me very happy.</p>
<p>One of the coolest things to hit the Internet in a long time is <a href="http://cabel.name/">Cabel Sasser’s</a> <a href="http://fancyzoom.com/">FancyZoom</a> JavaScript library. Slick! And fortunately for us all, <a href="http://granades.com/wp-fancyzoom-wordpress-plugin/">a kind soul</a> wrapped it in a Wordpress plugin, so it’s drag-and-drop image zooming goodness with little effort. Groovy.</p>
<p>I also hear rumors about people who don’t spend their Saturdays mucking with their Web sites. I choose to not believe those rumors.</p>
R.I.P. Pompe, 2001 - 0082008-04-27T02:21:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/04/rip-pompe/
<p>My parents’ dog Pompe passed away this week, riddled with lymphoma.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/pompe.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pompe-tm.jpg" width="270" height="360" alt="Pompe" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Pompe the dog.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Naturally, it’s difficult for my parents, who have poured infinite amounts of time and love into the little being for the last seven years.</p>
<p>As a true schnauzer, he didn’t show any symptoms until it was much too late for anything to be done. On the last day my dad walked him, he went to the corner, did his business, and then laid down and couldn’t get up, so my dad had to carry him home. After that, it was the vet hospital and death.</p>
<p>In a selfish way I’m really upset too, as I was looking forward to walking him when Andrea and I go to Sweden this summer. Pompe and I spent many a happy hour together walking in the woods around my parents’ house.</p>
<p>He is missed. Godspeed, little guy.</p>
Review: The Price of Privilege2008-04-22T22:16:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/04/review-the-price-of-privilege/
<p>A practicing psychologist, Madeline Levine wrote <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0060595841%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0060595841%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">The Price of Privilege</a></em> after noticing an increase in serious problems, such as depression, substance abuse, and cutting, among teenagers from affluent families.</p>
<p>The book’s subtitle, <em>How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids</em> sums it up neatly.</p>
<p>Levine’s basic argument, supported by anecdotes from both her practice and from those of other psychologists, is that the “culture of affluence” and its emphasis on material possessions and perfection, is leading parents into making choices in their child rearing that, while well-meaning, ultimately hurt their children.</p>
<p>These choices include pressuring children into being “perfect” at school and in social occasions—often accomplished by bribery and threats—and by trying to ensure success for children by micromanaging their lives and becoming helicopter parents.</p>
<p>The end result is that these children, while coddled, don’t get the opportunity to develop their inner selves and thus end up “empty.”</p>
<p>It’s pretty bleak reading, but the closing section of the book offers advice on how to avoid the traps and help children grow up to become healthy adults.</p>
<p><em>The Price of Privilege</em> is one of those unfortunate books that is important and deserves to be read, but probably won’t be by those who need it the most.</p>
<p>Well worth the time and with lots of food for thought.</p>
Holy Docsis, Batman!2008-04-21T02:09:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/04/holy-docsis-batman/
<p>We’ve been using the same cable modem—a Motorola Surfboard 3100—since 2000, and it seemed like it was starting to go a bit batty in its dotage, requiring reboots every month or so. Time to agonize over spending the money on a new modem. Since, of course, the reboots could be simply due to Cox—“My friend in the digital age”—having problems, a new modem might be $75 wasted. But what the heck, might as well give it a shot.</p>
<p>One Linksys cable modem purchase later, it was time to see if anything had changed.</p>
<p>Here’s the verdict from <a href="http://speedtest.net/">speedtest.net</a> about the Internet connection with the old modem:</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/speedtest-before.png" width="309" height="168" alt="speedtest_before.png" />
<p><br /><em>Not too shabby.</em></p>
<p>And here’s the result with the new modem:</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/speedtest-after.jpg" width="312" height="169" alt="speedtest_after.png" />
<p><br /><em>Holy Docsis, Batman!</em></p>
<p>The moral of the story is that if you’re using a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docsis">Docsis</a> 1.1 cable modem, it might behoove you to get with the program and get a Docsis 2.0 modem…</p>
Review: The Scar2008-04-14T17:52:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/04/review-the-scar/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0345460014%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0345460014%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">The Scar</a></em> is China Miéville’s follow-up to <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0345459407%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0345459407%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Perdido Street Station</a></em>, which builds on the successes of the first novel while <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/12/review-perdido-street-station/">avoiding the problems</a> it displayed, making for a strong and compelling sophomore effort.</p>
<p>The world building remains impressive and obsessively detailed, and <em>The Scar</em> introduces much stronger and more interesting characters together with a plot that while over-the-top builds in a gratifying way.</p>
<p>That being said, <em>The Scar</em> does start off slow and takes a while to gather steam (rimshot!).</p>
<p>Probably the most troubling aspect of Miéville’s work is that it makes you ponder the unthinkable: If I like this, does that make me a <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/860821">liker of steampunk?</a></p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/12/review-perdido-street-station/">Perdido Street Station</a></em></p>
Review: Everything is Miscellaneous2008-04-14T17:08:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/04/review-everything-is-miscellaneous/
<p>David Weinberger’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0805080430%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0805080430%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder</a></em> deals with the difference between organizing things made of atoms, and things made of zeroes and ones.</p>
<p>The book is fluidly written, very clear, and uses a lot of examples, such as library classification systems, taxonomies of species, and retail stores, to illustrate the “old” way of organizing knowledge, then contrasts it with the “new” ways such as <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">Flickr’s</a> user tags and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon’s</a> clustering of items based on the purchase habits of other shoppers.</p>
<p>The examples make a lot of sense, and do a good job of highlighting the differences between the old and new ways of classifying items, and this putting things into focus makes the book worthwhile even for people who have been spending a lot of time online.</p>
<p><em>Everything is Miscellaneous</em> is an enjoyable, breezy read, but sometimes becomes a bit mired in San Francisco techno-utopia thinking. It’s also the kind of book that could—and perhaps should—be trimmed down to magazine-article-size without losing much of what makes it special.</p>
At the car wash2008-03-31T22:36:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/03/at-the-car-wash/
<p>It’s 115 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but it’s comfortable in the air-conditioned cool of the car wash.</p>
<p>In the sun, the car washers, all latino, are working, spraying and wiping, getting the customers’ cars taken care of as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>Next to me sit a woman and her blonde child, perhaps four or five years old. She’s pretty.</p>
<p>“Mom,” the girl says, “I don’t like brown people.”</p>
<p>The mom smiles and puts her finger to her lips, “Shhh.”</p>
Shoe leather2008-03-13T00:45:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/03/shoe-leather/
<p>If you’re wondering just how bad the Phoenix real estate market really is, here’s what happened right after I got home today:</p>
<p>Door bell rings, it’s a tired-looking middle-aged realtor going door to door. He hands me a flyer.</p>
<p>“Are you in the market to sell or buy a home?”</p>
<p>“Hell no.”</p>
<p>“Uh. Hell no, huh?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, not in this market.”</p>
<p>He looked like he lost a little wind, but then gathered himself: “Oh, the market isn’t that bad! The credit market is improving and …”</p>
<p>“Yeah, no. Sorry.”</p>
<p>And according to his flyer, the FHA has raised the loan limit, so “you can buy a property, mortgage up to $346,250. [sic] With 0 down and a 580 credit score.”</p>
<p>Golly gee, Batman, that sure sounds like nothing can go wrong…</p>
<p>Now, snarky as I am, I don’t mean to denigrate the guy—he’s out on the street trying to hustle up business. I respect that. But the situation is completely disgusting.</p>
Guest in reality2008-02-29T19:42:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/02/guest-in-reality/
<p>When I was growing up, my dad used to refer to me as a “guest in reality,” due to my sometimes astonishing feats of distraction. For instance, we would visit my grandparents, who live in a city about an hour away, every few months for my entire life. And then, when I turned 18 and was given the opportunity to drive to the visits, I had <em>no idea</em> how to get there. None. It just hadn’t been important to pay attention to the road.</p>
<p>And today, February 29, is the manifestation of perhaps the most egregious example of my absent-minded-professoritis: It’s my engagement anniversary. Yup, me and the wife got engaged on Saturday, February 29th, 1992.</p>
<p>My cunning plan was that we would get engaged on the last day of February, since that was around the time when we had our first date, and would be easy to remember.</p>
<p>Brilliant.</p>
<p>So the day after we got engaged, I called my parents to share the happy news and my dad goes, “Congratulations! That’s great! But, uh, you got engaged on February 29th?”</p>
<p>“Uh, yeah.”</p>
<p>“This is a leap year.”</p>
<p>“Uh, right.”</p>
<p>“February 29th only comes every four years.”</p>
<p>“Aw, hell.”</p>
<p>My only defense is that my wife didn’t think of it either, so I guess we deserve each other.</p>
<p>Oh, and happy anniversary, honey! We’ll do it again in four years.</p>
Review: Lord of the Silent Kingdom2008-02-19T22:33:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/02/review-lord-of-the-silent-kingdom/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0765345978%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0765345978%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Lord of the Silent Kingdom</a></em> is the second installment of Glen Cook’s <em>Instrumentalities of the Night</em> series, following and easily surpassing series opener <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/02/review-the-tyranny-of-the-night/">The Tyranny of the Night</a></em>.</p>
<p>With <em>Lord of the Silent Kingdom</em>, Cook has dialed in how this world works and established all the needed backstory, leaving him to pack the novel with a fast-moving and Byzantine plot rooted in grim and grimy Realpolitik.</p>
<p>Oh yes, this is <em>dark</em> fantasy, indeed.</p>
<p>Cook makes no concessions for new readers, so don’t even try to enjoy <em>Lord of the Silent Kingdom</em> without first reading <em>The Tyranny of the Night</em>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Other Core Dump reviews of Glen Cook:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/10/review-a-cruel-wind/">A Cruel Wind</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/09/review-passage-at-arms/">Passage at Arms</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-bitter-gold-hearts/">Bitter Gold Hearts</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-sweet-silver-blues/">Sweet Silver Blues</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/02/review-the-tyranny-of-the-night/">The Tyranny of the Night</a></em></p>
Movie roundup, part seven2008-02-15T00:35:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/02/movie-round-up-7/
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0418689/">Flags of Our Fathers</a>:</strong> It’s really two movies: A pretty intense war movie about the events on Iwo Jima, which are rendered in suitably horrific detail, and a movie about regret centering around the war bonds tour on which some of the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima are sent. The war piece is okay, the regret piece is well made but too long, and the two don’t mesh very well.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0498380/">Letters from Iwo Jima</a>:</strong> Takes the Japanese view about the invasion of Iwo Jima. Well made and of course it’s interesting to see things from the Japanese perspective. Has some interesting mirror points to <em>Flags of Our Fathers</em>.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0440963/">The Bourne Ultimatum</a>:</strong> For my money the best movie in the trilogy. Incredibly well-made with some of the most intense chase sequences ever filmed. The Waterloo Station scene is a marvel.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it leaves a lot of gaps and the backstory is never really explained, which is a bit frustrating.</p>
<p>If you watch the deleted scenes on the DVD, you get much more of the backstory and the plot actually makes sense. It would be nice if they could release an extended version of the movie with more of the plot baked in.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0320512/">The Smashing Machine</a>:</strong> Documentary about Mixed Martial Arts fighter Mark Kerr and his struggles with addiction to painkillers and the general life of a professional fighter. The movie also brings in other fighters and while some scenes are extremely brutal (this is full-contact fighting, after all), <em>The Smashing Machine</em> paints a nuanced and fairly sensitive portrait of interesting, if not always sympathetic, people. Well worth watching whether you’re into MMA or not.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0323998/">Slim Susie</a>:</strong> Small-town Sweden. A story that is a mix of <em>Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels</em> and <em>Northern Exposure</em> with a bit of <em>Pulp Fiction</em> thrown in for good measure. The movie spends a bit too much time bowing to its predecessors, and suffers from an overabundance of clichés. That being said, it’s highly entertaining.</p>
<p>It really is something to see a small-budget movie get close to the impact of big-money productions like the aforementioned movies, and still have a distinctly small-town Swedish feeling.</p>
<p><em>Slim Susie</em> is entertaining stuff, and if you have Netflix it’s only a few clicks away.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt1077258/">Grindhouse: Planet Terror</a>:</strong> A gory and psychotic homage to the B-movies of the ’70s, <em>Planet Terror</em> manages to be an effective movie in its own right. It’s a technical tour de force with a gleam in its eye. On the negative side, there’s absolutely zero restraint whatsoever, so everything is completely over the top, which gets a bit tiring.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt1028528/">Grindhouse: Death Proof</a>:</strong> Huh? I didn’t go to <em>“feelm”</em> school, and I don’t wear a black beret, so it’s possible <em>Death Proof</em> is doing something masterful that I’m just too dense to get.</p>
<p>I turned it off after an excruciating half an hour of watching a perfect replica of a horribly crappy ’70s movie. Supposedly some really cool car chase stuff happens after that, but after the torture that was the first half an hour, I really don’t care.</p>
Super Tuesday! Tuesday! Tuesday!2008-02-05T21:57:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/02/super-tuesday-tuesday-tuesday/
<p>Here we go, then … Super Tuesday is finally upon us, and I and the wife performed our citizenly duties bright and early in the morning. No line and plenty of helpful volunteers at the polling place, so it <em>would</em> have been a nice, sleek in-and-out process if only I’d been a good boy and updated my driver’s license with my current address. Yes, where I’ve lived for eight years now, that place. So I should probably get that taken care of.</p>
<p>In the meantime, as part of Arizona’s tireless efforts to keep nefarious illegals from voting, you have to provide two pieces of paper to show that you really live at your address. Which is where we head into headache territory: My driver’s license has my (incredibly) old address, but my voter registration card has my current address, so I am one slip of paper away from being able to get my ballot-casting on.</p>
<p>One of the nice volunteers asks if I have <em>anything</em> with my name and my address on it, like a bill? Noper. Got nothing. So back home to pick up a paid bill and present it to the volunteers, after which voting ensued.</p>
<p>And that’s why I was late for work today.</p>
<p>I’m still trying to figure out exactly how a piece of paper I could have created in less time than it takes to write this post could prove <em>anything</em> about my identity. But then I stop because my head hurts.</p>
<p>As for the balloting itself, ended up going with Obama, mostly for two reasons: 1) He voted against the Iraq war. That’s huge. And: 2) The White House is not a timeshare. We need to not have any more Clintons or Bushes in there for a while.</p>
<p>That being said, I can live with either candidate becoming the party’s choice, which is nice.</p>
The worms2008-01-26T04:29:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/the-worms/
<p>Andrea and I were driving the other day, and I had the <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/music/articles/27256">excellent <em>Radio Lab</em> podcast</a> about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner">Wagner</a>’s <em>Ring Cycle</em> playing in the car. If you haven’t heard it, it’s a fantastic journey into the <em>Ring Cycle</em> and the people who enjoy it and the reasons they do.</p>
<p>We’re driving along and the podcast starts talking about Wagner the person and how he had his … well, let’s call them issues. One of which was the Jews. The announcer says how Wagner left a letter which said that “Jews are worms.”</p>
<p>And from the backseat I hear: “When we drink juice it’s worms?”</p>
Review: Consider the Lobster2008-01-22T22:00:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/review-consider-the-lobster/
<p>David Foster Wallace is one scary-smart individual. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0316013323%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0316013323%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Consider the Lobster</a></em> is a collection of essays about topics running the gamut from the McCain 2000 presidential campaign, to the porn industry, to Dostoevsky.</p>
<p>All the topics are tackled with Wallace’s trademark incisive wit, gargantuan vocabulary, and meandering footnotes. All are fascinating reading.</p>
<p>The only problem with <em>Consider the Lobster</em> is that it makes you realize just how dumb you really are, which might actually not be a bad thing.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Review: The Overlook2008-01-21T21:19:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/review-the-overlook/
<p>Michael Connelly’s latest Harry Bosch novel, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0446401307%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0446401307%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">The Overlook</a></em>, started as a serialized novel, and despite a serious reworking it’s less of a treat than we’re used to getting from Michael Connelly.</p>
<p>Apart from the length and somewhat shallow plot, the biggest problem with <em>The Overlook</em> is that Harry Bosch feels tired.</p>
<p>Not up to Connelly’s usual standards, but if you’re a Bosch fan, it’s better than nothing.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-chasing-the-dime/">Chasing the Dime</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-lost-light/">Lost Light</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/05/review-the-narrows/">The Narrows</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-the-closers/">The Closers</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-the-lincoln-lawyer/">The Lincoln Lawyer</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/09/review-echo-park/">Echo Park</a></em></p>
Review: Darkness, Take My Hand2008-01-21T21:07:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/review-darkness-take-my-hand/
<p>The follow-up to Dennis Lehane’s <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-a-drink-before-the-war/">A Drink Before the War</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0380726289%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0380726289%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Darkness, Take My Hand</a></em> continues the story of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro and their shoestring PI agency. Like the previous novel, it is a dark tale of South Boston and the corrupt, nihilistic characters who inhabit its underworld.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, where <em>A Drink Before the War</em> was dark and grim, <em>Darkness, Take My Hand</em> ups the gore factor and the sheer amount of human depravity and evil to an unpleasant level. It’s a fine line to walk in noir fiction, and Lehane steps way over it in this novel—reading it is like taking a bath in filth.</p>
<p>On the plus side, Lehane’s prose is finely honed and crafted.</p>
<p><em>Darkness, Take My Hand</em> is definitely only for the hard-core noir fan.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-a-drink-before-the-war/">A Drink Before the War</a></em></p>
The nerd has flown2008-01-20T01:44:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/the-nerd-has-flown/
<p>Another Macworld is come and gone, and yours truly is back in the Arid Zone with his family, recuperating from a week of sensory overload and insane pricing structures.</p>
<p>Going to Macworld was a bit of a gamble, since last year’s Expo was the iPod Accessory Show, which would have pretty much been a complete waste of time for me.</p>
<p>Fortunately, it turns out the Mac ecosystem is very much alive and well, and there were a ton of unexpected products at the show. Along with the big names—the Microsofts, Adobes, and Kensingtons of the world—there were a lot of smaller developers with interesting products. I was glad to see the variety, and glad to see most of the exhibitors seemed to have a lot of interest at their booths.</p>
<p>Which brings me to the crowds. If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know I’m not a huge crowd person. And wow, there was enough of a crush to make Elton John feel uncomfortable. Tons of exhibitors, tons of people, tons of activity—this Macworld had a great vibe of excitement and possibility. It was a booster shot for the whole community.</p>
<p>But enough general reporting. What did yours truly do? There were a lot of parties and general debauchery surrounding the show, and I actually dragged myself to a few of them. Great locations with great DJs that spun a lot of really cool tunes loud enough that I couldn’t hear <em>anything.</em> That’s how those parties worked out. But, hey, beer.</p>
<p>There’s an old saying that you know how well a political movement is going by how many pretty girls there are at the meetings. By that metric, the Mac ecosystem is doing very well indeed. The parties were mobbed by the kind of people who go to parties, not the kind of people who enjoy talking about software releases, to put it mildly. But hey, that’s a good sign, right?</p>
<p>All in all, it was worth going, it was extremely tiring, and I’m really glad to be back home.</p>
The nerd has landed2008-01-16T03:42:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/the-nerd-has-landed/
<p>Writing this in a hotel room in San Francisco, where the 2008 Macworld Expo is underway. Ah, San Francisco. I will admit I was a bit worried about the state of the crazies, panhandlers, and bums in this fair city—had they disappeared since last I was here?</p>
<p>It turns out my fears were completely unfounded—if anything, there are more of the aforementioned than I can remember seeing before, making the daily walk to the Moscone an interesting exercise in Practical Ignoring and Staring Into Middle Distance. Speaking of daily walk, I’m ensconced in the <a href="http://www.jdvhotels.com/adagio/">Hotel Adagio on Geary Street</a>. It’s a nice place where everybody calls me “sir” and the Moscone is about a 15-minute walk away. Of course, I dropped $26 on breakfast this morning, so they’d <em>better</em> call me “sir.” (Tomorrow’s breakfast will be ingested somewhere else.)</p>
<p>Ah, yes, nothing like the smell of exhaust, piss, and weed in the morning to remind you you’re in San Francisco.</p>
<p>After attending <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/06/wwdc-monday/">my first and last Stevenote</a> at last year’s <acronym title="World Wide Developer Conference">WWDC</acronym> I decided to be smart and sleep in, eat a leisurely and overpriced breakfast, then go back to the hotel room and load up the live blogging from the Keynote in Safari and sip some coffee. Then, after the keynote ended, it was time to head down to the Moscone.</p>
<p>Met a lot of draggy-looking Mac nerds shuffling off to find food on the way to the Moscone. Getting up early and standing in line can be a bit wearying, it seems.</p>
<p>And yes, this is me being smug…</p>
<p>The Expo was packed to the rafters, and fortunately there was more of a variety among the exhibitors than I had feared—the iPod cases, iPod docks, and iPod earbuds were all there, but were mercifully in the minority. Apple’s setup, as one would imagine, absolutely <em>dominated</em> the showroom floor. Can’t blame Apple for a lack of sense about visual appeal.</p>
<p>All in all, a nice, mellow day. Tomorrow should be much more hectic.</p>
<p>Oh, and yeah, as a card-carrying Apple nerd, I should probably mention something about the announcements at the keynote: Played (briefly—holy jeebus <em>the crowds</em>) with a MacBook Air. Nice rig. As I’m not a road warrior, though, I’m not really in the target audience. iPhone and iPod Touch, nice updates. The winner for me is the Apple TV—I’m buying one as soon as the $229 model hits the stores.</p>
<p>Time Capsule has a nice name and could be a good product for some people, but it’s beyond lame the functionality of the device can’t be achieved with an Airport Extreme N and a USB drive. Seriously strange and disappointing.</p>
<p>Onward and upward.</p>
Review: The Big Switch2008-01-10T22:32:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/review-the-big-switch/
<p>Nicholas Carr is best known for his book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1591394449%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1591394449%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Does IT Matter?</a></em> which argues that the business advantages of Information Technology are becoming less prominent as the playing field is leveling between different businesses with regard to the amount of IT to which they have access.</p>
<p>With <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0393062287%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0393062287%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google</a></em> Carr looks at how the IT landscape is changing with the increasing availability of cloud computing—moving IT functions away from local servers managed by a company’s employees to services accessed over the Internet. To make his case, Carr spends a sizable chunk of <em>The Big Switch</em> looking at the history of electric power, and how before the establishment of the power grid, providing enough power at a low enough cost was a huge competitive factor for manufacturing businesses, and how the advent of the power grid changed the business landscape.</p>
<p>It’s a compelling analog to the events currently taking place in IT.</p>
<p>Refreshingly enough, <em>The Big Switch</em> doesn’t succumb to <em>Wired</em>-style techno-utopianism, but instead spends time looking at some of the not-so-positive results the increasing power and ubiquitousness of computing will (and do) have on privacy and control of workers.</p>
<p><em>The Big Switch</em> is clearly written and accessible to people in other fields than IT, and vividly paints the over-arching picture of business and societal change brought by cloud computing.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<p><em>Disclaimer: I received a review copy of the book <a href="http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/11/bloggers_get_yo.php">in exchange for a promise to post a review.</a></em></p>
Review: Heat2008-01-10T18:48:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/review-heat/
<p>Bill Buford’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1400034477%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1400034477%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany</a></em> is the story of a magazine editor who gets enchanted with the idea of <em>really</em> learning how to cook, takes an unpaid job at a New York <a href="http://www.babbonyc.com/">restaurant called Babbo</a>, and then goes on to travel to Italy to get the real story of cooking.</p>
<p><em>Heat</em> is a fantastic book, told in a warm and understated way, about cooking of course, but also about a man’s obsessive quest to deeper understand one of the fundamental human needs and the relationship between food and culture.</p>
<p>Buford’s quixotic quest to find out when the egg was introduced in pasta making alone makes <em>Heat</em> worth the price of admission.</p>
<p>The reader meets fascinating people and places, and above all <em>Heat</em> makes you want to cook and eat better.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Corporate communications at its finest2008-01-08T01:28:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2008/01/corporate-communications-at-its-finest/
<p>At Casa Core Dump we’ve been using <a href="http://www.cox.com/">Cox Communications</a> for our Internet service for years and years. In general, it’s been good. Very few outages and great downstream speed. The pathetic upstream is a constant source of tsuris, but even if we wanted to change, we couldn’t. Nope. We live less than a mile from a huge Intel fab in the largest city in Arizona, and we can’t get DSL. Sigh. It’s either cable or some kind of satellite connection—<a href="http://www22.verizon.com/content/consumerfios/about+fiostv/who+wins+fios+vs+cable/who+wins+fios+vs+cable.htm">FIOS</a> in Arizona is just a gleam in some Verizon executive’s eye at this point.</p>
<p>We’ve also been using Cox for cable TV, and they gave us a pretty good bundling deal for phone service, so all our communications at the house now comes from our good friends at Cox.</p>
<p>Who recently sent us a letter saying they’re going to increase our bill by $10/month starting on the 15th of February.</p>
<p>Fine, OK, it’s still worth it, so not much to say about that. Except for the other content of the letter, which says that the deal we’ve been getting so far is so great that we should be tickled pink our bill is <em>only</em> going up by $10.</p>
<p>OK, fine. We’ll bend over. But wait, there’s more! We’re also getting faster Internet service. Yay! Faster Internet good. <em>And</em> we’re going to get more HD TV channels. Which is a good thing, as the current Cox HD lineup is pathetic at best.</p>
<p>What the letter doesn’t address is <em>when</em> we’re going to get the faster Internet service or <em>when</em> we will get all these fabulous HD channels. Or exactly which channels they’re talking about.</p>
<p>Now, I’m just a cave man and your modern world scares and confuses me, but how about giving us some dates for the upgrades we’re going to receive? How soon is “soon?”</p>
<p>If you don’t want to commit to hard dates, at least a rough indication of which quarter we’re talking about would be nice. You’d think that would be possible.</p>
<p>Oh, and sorry Cox, but the minute FIOS comes to our area, you’re toast.</p>
Review: Perdido Street Station2007-12-18T17:59:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/12/review-perdido-street-station/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0345459407%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0345459407%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Perdido Street Station</a></em> is one wild ride. Part sci-fi, part Victorian-style steam punk, and part horror, it’s a hard novel to characterize. What’s clear, though, is that China Miéville is blessed with an imagination that works overtime and solid writing skills.</p>
<p>Taking place in New Crobuzon, a nightmarish city populated by humans and an endless amount of strange aliens that all try to scratch out a living in a pitiless and corrupt environment, the novel follows a disgraced scientist as he goes through a series of horrific events.</p>
<p>The strengths of the novel are a solid sense of place and structure as well as a plethora of characters in various stages of derangement. Miéville creates vivid, cinematographic scenes that stay with you—sometimes whether you want them to or not.</p>
<p>But it’s far from a perfect work. The plotting is a bit weak, especially once the novel settles on its monster-hunt theme, and Miéville’s baroque writing style which sometimes adds great atmospehere to the novel also sometimes goes overboard and obscures rather than enhances the story.</p>
<p><em>Perdido Street Station</em> is interesting and highly imaginative.</p>
<p>The best comparison might be if Neil Gaiman had been locked in a room with Nine Inch Nails’ <em>The Downward Spiral</em> set on endless repeat as he worked.</p>
Review: Made in America2007-12-07T21:06:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/12/review-made-in-america/
<p>Bill Bryson’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0380713810%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0380713810%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Made in America</a></em> is a romp through both American history and the words added to the English language by American culture and society.</p>
<p>Bryson’s style is conversational and light, making the book feel like a series of great lectures by a fantastic college professor, or as if the guy sitting on the bar stool next to yours actually was funny and erudite.</p>
<p><em>Made in America</em> is full of great little nuggets about words, expressions, and different eras in American history.</p>
<p>A great read.</p>
Lost in the woods2007-12-06T21:40:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/12/lost-in-the-woods/
<p>The function of TV news in America these days is to keep parents in a perpetual state of shivering fear.</p>
<p><em>Child molesters! Guns! Gangs! Drugs! Disease!</em></p>
<p>And of course it will all become better if you wipe down your entire house with antibiotics, lock the kids in their rooms with educational toys, and take your anti-anxiety pills.</p>
<p>We do take reasonable steps to protect Andrea’s safety, but existing in a miasma of fear and paranoia is no way to live—hence our moratorium on TV news.</p>
<p>In an evil-genius kind of way, you do have to admire an industry that consists of showing you content to increase your anxiety, and then selling ad space for products that will lessen the anxiety just created. Kudos, Madison Avenue.</p>
<p>The other day I got a true taste of parent paranoia. Shopping with Andrea at Albertson’s, I turned my back on her for just a second to pick up some hot dog buns, and when I turned back she was gone. Just gone. No sign.</p>
<p>So I walked through the store looking for her. One circuit: no sign of her. Another, faster, circuit: still no sign.</p>
<p><em>What if some pervert abducted her?</em> Holy crap. <em>Should I abandon the cart and run to the parking lot?</em> Argh.</p>
<p>At this point sweat was dripping down the small of my back. <em>Some f–ing pervert must have taken her!</em></p>
<p>Then they paged me on the store speakers. Went to customer service, and she was bawling her eyes out as one of the staff hugged her.</p>
<p>Nobody said anything, but I could tell, oh yes, I could: <em>Bad dad.</em></p>
<p>We debriefed after we got home, and she had gotten herself lost somehow and asked one of the staff for help, which was the right thing to do.</p>
<p>Still, <em>bad dad.</em></p>
Say hello to my little friend2007-12-03T20:54:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/12/say-hello-to-my-little-friend/
<p>We decided that we’re spending way too little time and money on <a href="https://thecoredump.org/tag/cats/">our cats</a>, so it was time to adopt yet another one in order to make their herd a proper coven. Called the vet, and they had a female ready to be adopted.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/athenafairyprincess.jpg" rel="shadowbox"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/tm-afp.jpg" width="400" height="604" alt="Athena The Cat" /></a></p>
<div class="imgcaption">Athena Fairy Princess.<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Ah, yes, the name… I wanted to continue naming the cats after goddesses, but Andrea naturally suggested Fairy Princess as her name, so we decided to make things simple and call her Athena Fairy Princess.</p>
<p>She’s 3 months old, extremely lovable, has a loud purr, and is currently trying to figure out how to coexist with her two new sisters. Who are not thrilled whatsoever about this new addition to the household.</p>
Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora2007-11-30T17:02:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/11/review-the-lies-of-locke-lamora/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=055358894X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/055358894X%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">The Lies of Locke Lamora</a></em> is Scott Lynch’s debut novel. Unlike most fantasy, it’s the story of a thief and his escapades with a plot focused on the schemes he pulls and the way the underground economy works, so there’s a refreshing lack of Fights Against Evil That Wants to Take Over The World.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting concept, and Lynch executes it well, with a detailed world and interesting characters.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the novel takes a while to get up to speed, and while it isn’t bad, it doesn’t really grab the reader. The ending ratchets up the pace quite a bit and has some interesting plot twists, but it might not be worth slogging through the beginning.</p>
<p><em>The Lies of Locke Lamora</em> is an OK read, and sets the stage for a sequel that will be worth checking out.</p>
Game changer: Flip Video2007-11-30T02:24:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/11/game-changer-flip-video/
<p>Home videos are great, especially when you have a child. Looking at movies of your family adventures over time is the most sappy fun you can have.</p>
<p>But camcorders are a bit clunky to lug around, so lots of experiences never get captured, and after you come back from vacation or the school play or whatever it might be and you need to get the footage from the tape to the computer, it takes as long to import the footage as it takes to view.</p>
<p>These are certainly first-world problems, no doubt about it. <em>Whaa, my camcorder is clunky! Whaa, getting footage onto my computer takes time!</em></p>
<p>Nevertheless, the time required to import video puts enough friction into the process that it becomes something you put off. Meaning there’s a shoe box of tapes you’ll import one of these days, really, sitting in a closet somewhere.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theflip.com/">Flip Video</a> gets rid of both issues by recording on solid state memory and being about the size of an original iPod. It also costs a little over $100. While certainly not cheap, per se, it’s still cheap enough that you don’t have to worry <em>too much</em> about the device itself.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/flipvideo.png" height="274" width="199" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Flip Video Pic" title="Flip Video Pic" />
<p>This means you’ll shoot a lot more video and actually put it in the computer where it can be processed and shared.</p>
<p>Being small and light also means that a child can use it … after several fire-and-brimstone speeches about <em>always, always, always</em> using the wrist strap.</p>
<p>Obviously, in order to cut cost, corners also had to be cut: There’s no optical zoom, the sound quality is far from great, it uses AA batteries, and the device itself feels plasticky and low-rent.</p>
<p>Those drawbacks in mind, there’s still magic in carrying a camcorder in your pocket and getting instant gratification by plugging it in to your computer as soon as you get home.</p>
<p>Going from a big tape-based camcorder to a mini-device like this changes the whole game when it comes to home video.</p>
<p>If you have children, some disposable income, and a computer to edit video, you should look into the Flip.</p>
<p><em>Caveat emptor</em>, though: The Flip I have at home is my third one: The first two went back to the store with stuck pixels on the sensor. Based on that experience, I definitely recommend your first Flip shoot to be of a dark room and a white wall to tease out any pixel problems.</p>
Review: Nature Girl2007-11-29T20:39:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/11/review-nature-girl/
<p>It seems like Carl Hiaasen really doesn’t want people to visit Florida.</p>
<p>Populated by, among others, the world’s worst salesman, a mother who’s literally off her meds, a tormented half-Seminole, and a completely psychotic stalker, and taking place against the backdrop of bug-infested wilderness, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0446581755%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0446581755%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Nature Girl</a></em> leaves you with a distinct feeling that Florida is one place to definitely stay away from.</p>
<p>Like Hiaasen’s other novels, <em>Nature Girl</em> blends a deranged plot with dark humor. It’s darker and less funny than his other novels, though, and lacks his usual verve.</p>
<p>It’s not a bad read, but not up to Hiaasen’s usual standard.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-native-tongue/">Native Tongue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/06/review-ltemgtbasket-caseltemgt/">Basket Case</a></em><br /></p>
Review: Bleeding Hearts2007-11-29T17:03:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/11/review-bleeding-hearts/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0316018856%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0316018856%253FSubscriptionId=0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2">Bleeding Hearts</a></em> is one of Ian Rankin’s non-Rebus novels, and while it’s a solid page-turner about an assassin who ends up in trouble after being set up during an assignment, it lacks the sense of place and humanity of the Rebus series of novels.</p>
<p>As always, Rankin’s prose and plotting are of the highest caliber, and <em>Bleeding Hearts</em> contains some interesting characters, but unless you’re a die-hard Ranking fan, or you find yourselves in an airport needing a solid page-turner for the journey, it’s probably best to leave it on the shelf.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-a-question-of-blood/">A Question of Blood</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-resurrection-men/">Resurrection Men</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-the-falls/">The Falls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-set-in-darkness/">Set in Darkness</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-dead-souls/">Dead Souls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-the-hanging-garden/">The Hanging Garden</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/">Black and Blue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/02/19/review-fleshmarket-alley/">Fleshmarket Alley</a></em><br /></p>
The G-rated Internet2007-11-12T16:41:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/11/the-g-rated-internet/
<p>Having a young child playing on the Internet can be a bit nerve-wracking. Not that a five-year-old is going to do anything wrong, per se, but you never know what chain of events could end up taking her somewhere completely inappropriate.</p>
<p>We’ve implemented the oldest technique in the book for keeping tabs on her when she’s on the computer—keeping the machine she uses in the living room where we can see what’s going on. But if she were to mistype a URL or inadvertently click on an inappropriate link, bad things would still show up before we could react and close the browser.</p>
<p>The solution has been simple: Switching the home network over to use <a href="http://www.opendns.com/">OpenDNS</a>. Their servers are fast and reliable, and they provide enough content filtering that we can feel fairly sure our little innocent won’t inadvertently end up at undesirable Web sites.</p>
<p>Blocking sites through <acronym title="Domain Name System">DNS</acronym> servers will of course not keep any determined hacker from bypassing the filters, and I’ll be very disappointed if by the time she’s a teenager she doesn’t run circles around me when it comes to technology†, but to keep accidents from happening, OpenDNS provides a good, free solution.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<hr />
<p>†Oh, what a sweet, sweet day it will be when I can have her set up the TV for me…</p>
Movie roundup, part six2007-11-07T17:13:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/11/movie-round-up-6/
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0420223/">Stranger Than Fiction</a>:</strong> An odd and quirky dramedy with Will Ferrell showing that he is a much more versatile actor than previously shown.</p>
<p>It’s far from a perfect movie, but it’s refreshing to see a director try something out of the mainstream, and it has some touching moments.</p>
<p>Worth seeing.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0387877/">The Black Dahlia</a>:</strong> An adaptation of James Ellroy’s incredible novel that, while not as bad as it could have been, misses the mark completely.</p>
<p>It’s time for Hollywood to accept the fact that Ellroy’s novels are much too densely plotted to make sense as movies.</p>
<p>The movie doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be—is it <em>noir</em>, is it a period piece, is it a thriller, is it a whodunit? Apparently Brian De Palma doesn’t know, and neither will you.</p>
<p>Buy the novel instead.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0445934/">Blades of Glory</a>:</strong> When it comes to Will Ferrell vehicles, you expect a thin premise stretched as far as it will go and lots of over-the-top antics, and that’s exactly what you get with <em>Blades of Glory</em>. The problem is that the premise is so thin it can’t be measured without lasers and the antics are stale and as hung-over as Ferrell’s character.</p>
<p>Plus, it’s not like figure skating <em>needs</em> to be spoofed.</p>
<p>Watch <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0357413/">Anchorman</a></em> again instead.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0425112/">Hot Fuzz</a>:</strong> I stopped watching about 45 minutes in when <em>nothing</em> had happened. Perhaps it got better after that. Who knows.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0113557/">Zero Kelvin</a>:</strong> Norwegian movie about trappers in Greenland. It’s billed as a thriller, which it is not. <em>Zero Kelvin</em> is a psychological drama about the relationship between three damaged men isolated in a drafty hut in Greenland for a year. <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0001745/">Stellan Skarsgård</a> turns in a fantastic performance as a deranged trapper, and the cinematography is stunning, but it’s an incredibly bleak movie, even by Scandinavian standards.</p>
<p>Worth watching if you’re feeling a bit too cheerful.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0428803/">March of the Penguins</a>:</strong> Whew, talk about a rough ecological niche. Watching the struggle the emperor penguins go through in order to breed is heart wrenching. Gorgeously filmed and with a narration that drips pathos, you get caught up in rooting for these stupid birds to overcome their obstacles.</p>
<p>Bonus for the way the filmmakers turned the leopard seal into an avatar of Evil.</p>
<p>This movie must <em>really</em> be something to see in HD.</p>
Review: JPod2007-10-25T21:18:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/10/review-jpod/
<p>Ah, cubicle dwellers. With <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0747585873?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0747585873">JPod</a></em>, Douglas Coupland continues the exploration of the psyche of nerds he started in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060987049?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0060987049">Microserfs</a></em>, but instead of the well-researched and understated feel of that novel, <em>JPod</em> is like a soap opera on acid. The plot is completely over the top, and Coupland’s inclusion of himself as a character in the novel—an unpleasant character, to boot—is a bit hard to swallow. But it’s pretty <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism">pomo</a> of him, one supposes.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <em>JPod</em> is highly readable and full of memorable phrases, situations, and characters that capture the Zeitgeist.</p>
<p>Well worth reading.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0747585873?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0747585873"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/21h%2BR0pAKPL._AA_SL160_.jpg" /></a></p>
Review: Right as Rain2007-10-23T21:48:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/10/review-right-as-rain/
<p>Taking place in the seedy underbelly of Washington, D.C., George Pelecanos’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446610798?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446610798">Right as Rain</a></em> is a hard-boiled novel about racial tension set among drug dealers, junkies and corrupt cops.</p>
<p>Pelecanos writes with economy and grace, taking the time to bring his characters to life. The plot itself is not that special, but the characters and the vibrant portrayal of the crumbling city itself provide plenty of power to <em>Right as Rain.</em></p>
<p>The feel is similar to HBO’s excellent <em>The Wire</em>, a show for which Pelecanos wrote several episodes.</p>
<p>If you liked <em>The Wire</em>, <em>Right as Rain</em> will do you solid.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446610798?ie=UTF8&tag=thecoredump-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446610798"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/318n0p14j8l_aa_sl160_.jpg" /></a></p>
She rules the night2007-10-22T22:08:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/10/she-rules-the-night/
<p>After much wiggling and tongue-poking, the first milk tooth ejected itself from Andrea’s gums last week.</p>
<p>She was all kinds of excited. Not only was she a Big Girl, but the Tooth Fairy was coming, so she was going to get <em>paid.</em></p>
<p>As with all fictional characters, said Tooth Fairy landed quickly in the parental bat belt of weaponry.</p>
<p>On the evening after the monumental event, we were fighting the usual get-child-to-bed battle, when daddy had a flash of brilliance: “If you don’t go to sleep now, the Tooth Fairy will miss this house.”</p>
<p>Mommy caught on quick: “Yes, the Tooth Fairy has many houses to visit, so if you’re not asleep she won’t be able to wait. Better go to sleep now.”</p>
<p>“OK.”</p>
<p>We tip-toed out of her room high-fiving each other for our cleverness.</p>
<p>So of course she didn’t fall asleep, but instead came to mommy and daddy’s bedroom to further probe the mysteries of the Tooth Fairy.</p>
<p>“You better go to sleep, or the Tooth Fairy will miss our house, and you won’t get any money.”</p>
<p>“How do you know?” <em>Uh-oh.</em></p>
<p>“Parents know these things.”</p>
<p>“Did the Tooth Fairy come when you were a kid?”</p>
<p>“Yes, sure did.”</p>
<p>“Did you see the Tooth Fairy?”</p>
<p>“No. The Tooth Fairy only comes when kids are asleep.”</p>
<p>“Oh.”</p>
<p>“Parents get to see the Tooth Fairy. But not kids. The Tooth Fairy only comes when kids are sleeping. That’s why you have to go to sleep now, so the Tooth Fairy can come.”</p>
<p>“So how do you know the Tooth Fairy is busy?”</p>
<p>“They tell you these things when you become a parent.”</p>
<p>“Oh. OK.”</p>
<p>And then she passed out on our bed, to wake up to a fresh and crispy dollar bill under her pillow the next morning. She was more excited than Christmas, running around the house with her dollar yelling, “I can buy things now!”</p>
Review: A Cruel Wind2007-10-10T20:41:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/10/review-a-cruel-wind/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1597800554%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1597800554%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">A Cruel Wind</a></em> is an omnibus edition of the first three novels in Glen Cook’s <em>Dread Empire</em> series, which has long been out of print and difficult to find. The novels included are <em>A Shadow of All Night Falling</em>, <em>October’s Baby</em>, and <em>All Darkness Met</em>. As you can tell from the titles alone, Cook doesn’t truck much with unicorns and puppies.</p>
<p>This is the granddaddy of dark fantasy, merging the usual concepts of swords and sorcery with a grim world view, where all the characters are painted in shades of grey, and all have their own motivations and flaws. With a huge cast of people introduced without any exposition and a plot packed with fast-moving Realpolitik, Cook doesn’t make it easy for the reader to follow along. You have to pay attention.</p>
<p>The series starts out a bit tentative, and is quite frankly a bit difficult to get into. As with his characters, Cook wastes little time on setting up the world and its history. Instead, your understanding grows as the plot moves along. But if you persevere, the series becomes mesmerizing—after a while it becomes very difficult to put down.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<hr />
<p>Other Glen Cook reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/02/review-the-tyranny-of-the-night/">The Tyranny of Night</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/09/review-passage-at-arms/">Passage at Arms</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-bitter-gold-hearts/">Bitter Gold Hearts</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-sweet-silver-blues/">Sweet Silver Blues</a></em></p>
Review: On Intelligence2007-10-10T18:12:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/10/review-on-intelligence/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0805078533%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0805078533%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">On Intelligence</a></em> is an attempt to provide a framework for how human brains work in order to help us one day build artificial intelligences. The book was co-written by Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the Palm Pilot, who obviously knows a thing or two about how to make machines act smart.</p>
<p>The basic thesis is that the brain is very much <em>not</em> like a computer—that computers and brains are fundamentally different, and that it’s only by understanding how the brain really works that we’ll be able to synthesize something that acts like it. According to the book, the brain, at the most basic level, only does two things: it evaluates patterns, and it remembers patterns. All sensory input boils down to patterns over time.</p>
<p>This would explain how, when you sit down at your desk at work in the morning, you realize that something is wrong if somebody has moved your coffee cup. If asked before you entered the office, you probably couldn’t have said where, exactly, the coffee cup was, but as you decide to reach for the cup, your brain runs through the sequence of how reaching for the coffee cup “should” go, and once that fails, you realize that it’s been moved. Everything you do, your brain is running through a memory of how it “should” be, and you notice when the memory doesn’t coincide with reality.</p>
<p>This could also explain why new experiences are tiring—your brain is struggling to absorb the new patterns and mesh them with existing memories.</p>
<p>Without being a neuroscientist, it’s hard to disagree with Hawkins’s ideas. They make sense.</p>
<p>They also could usher in a very exciting era of truly smart machines.</p>
<p>For completeness, <em>On Intelligence</em> also includes a section on the ethics and risks involved in building these kinds of machines.</p>
<p>It’s a very interesting read.</p>
The payback begins2007-09-30T02:24:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/payback-is-a-bitch/
<p>When I was a boy the whole family ended up watching a documentary about gorillas. According to the documentary, the dominant male in the flock was called Silverback because of the gray fur running down his back. He was a big, surly gorilla.</p>
<p>So naturally the comparison with the gray hair down my father’s back made itself, and I tormented him for years by calling him Silverback and making amusing gorilla noises. Naturally.</p>
<p>Today we were talking around the dinner table, and somehow we got on to the subject of monkeys, and I wanted to sneak in a bit of early evolution thinking by pointing out that we humans are part of the great African apes, and that gorillas are in a way of speaking our cousins.</p>
<p>Andrea thinks for a while, then says, “Hey, dad! You’re a gorilla! Because you’re big and fat!”</p>
<p>I just can’t wait until she catches on to the gray back hair…</p>
<p>Anyway, sorry Dad.</p>
The winged messenger swoops in2007-09-29T00:23:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/the-winged-messenger-swoops-in/
<p><strong>UPDATE Feb. 1, 2010:</strong> I got religion and started using Git after they worked out a lot of the complexity in the interface and I realized that you have to think of it as a <em>file system</em> in order for it to make sense. <strong>/UPDATE</strong></p>
<p>In a post about moving as much data as possible <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/06/life-in-the-cloud/">into the cloud</a>, I talked about using—and liking—<a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">Subversion</a>. But, alas, the bloom is off that rose. Why? <a href="http://www.apple.com/iwork/">iWork ’08</a> is why.</p>
<p>iWork (and several other Apple applications) stores files in bundle format, which is essentially a folder the Finder knows to treat like a single item. Subversion, unfortunately, does its magic by putting a hidden folder inside each folder it’s tracking. The end result is that whenever you save a file in one of the iWork applications (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) the hidden folder gets blown away and Subversion gets <em>really</em> surly.</p>
<p>One could argue that Apple could be nicer about crushing extra things in bundles under its uncaring and despotic boot heel, and one could also argue that since Apple apparently has no intention whatsoever on changing its ways, Subversion should be re-engineered to handle having its hidden folders stepped on a bit more gracefully. Tomato, tomato.</p>
<p>Either way, it makes Subversion a royal pain to use with bundles.</p>
<p>Since the benefits of version control are just too great to give up, it was time to find a replacement. Apparently the cool thing among the hipsters these days is distributed version control, and who doesn’t want to be cool?</p>
<p>…Wickedly, awesomely cool. Yes, indeed. Feel the hip T-shirt with the ironic message forming itself around your torso as you consider distributed version control.</p>
<p>So distributed version control it is. There are <em>a lot</em> of different systems out there, and the nerd wars are raging about which one is the One True Way. Which, you know, is at least more interesting than the Text Editor Wars.</p>
<p>After a lot of googling it came down to a choice between <a href="http://git.or.cz/">Git</a> or <a href="http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/wiki/">Mercurial</a>.</p>
<p>Git possesses a lot of nerd cred as it’s written by none other than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds">Linus Torvalds</a>. The problem is that Linus is a kernel hacker, so Git is packed to the rafters with things only a kernel hacker could love. Go ahead, read the docs, I dare you. Then have a nice lie-down and put an ice pack on your forehead and you’ll feel better in no time.</p>
<p>Or, to put it in a less snarky way, Git has a lot of features that make sense when you’re managing a huge project with many contributors. When you’re just one mad prophet all alone in the wilderness, that complexity isn’t needed.</p>
<p>Mercurial, on the other hand, makes sense. Easy to install and very little drama.</p>
<p>It’s nice to not have to stress about backing up the one single point of failure that is the bane of centralized version control anymore.</p>
<p>So thanks, Apple and your bundles, I guess, for forcing me to learn something new… And for the hipster T-shirt. It’s awesome.</p>
Movie roundup, part five2007-09-28T02:07:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/movie-round-up-5/
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0446013/">Pathfinder</a></strong>: Evil vikings wreak havoc on native Americans. Lots of hack-and-slash to very little purpose.</p>
<p><em>Pathfinder</em> is one of those frustrating movies that could have been good, but is marred by a complete lack of humor. If it hadn’t taken itself so seriously it could have been a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Plus, why all the hating on vikings? Historically speaking, they weren’t <em>that</em> bad.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0079944/">Stalker</a></strong>: Overrated Russian Sci-Fi movie from 1979. Essentially, this is a way overlong and molasses-slow Christian allegory.</p>
<p>The concept is that an alien spacecraft or a meteor has landed, and whatever it is has special powers, so the area around the mysterious item has been cordoned off and declared the Zone.</p>
<p>A Stalker is a person who knows how to traverse the Zone and lead people to a room which grants anybody who visits whatever they wish.</p>
<p>(Why a Stalker wouldn’t wish for a better job once he’s there isn’t really touched on in the movie, but was certainly on my mind.)</p>
<p>So the Stalker leads two men into the Zone: a writer who has lost the ability to write and a depressed physics professor.</p>
<p>Can you guess that the Stalker is an angel (messenger), and the physics professor is the man who depends on science and feels a void in his life, and the writer is the man who depends on his feelings and has been let down?</p>
<p>Can you? Cause I sure can. And it makes the whole movie really boring. And then there’s interminable Deep Discussions that feel incredibly late-night-in-the-dorm-room.</p>
<p>On the plus side, the cinematography is stunningly gorgeous. It’s almost worth seeing just for that.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0117407/">Pusher</a></strong>: Danish movie about a mid-level drug dealer in Copenhagen. Filmed with all natural light and no soundtrack, so it feels like a documentary. Great, convincing acting (including <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0586568/">Mads Mikkelsen</a> of <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0381061/">Casino Royale</a></em> fame in a truly creepy role), and a strong plot.</p>
<p>Even though the closest I’ve ever come to a drug deal was watching <em>Cops</em>, and certainly don’t possess any expertise in the area, the movie feels real.</p>
<p>These Danish dope dealers make the crew in <em>The Sopranos</em> look slick and erudite.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0365830/">Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny</a></strong>: Extremely silly but with great energy. If you like Metal there are some scenes that will make you laugh out loud.</p>
<p>Ultimately, though, it’s way too stretched out and needs more material. Kind of like a lot of Heavy Metal concerts, when you think about it.</p>
Firefox downloading PDFs to Lexmark folder2007-09-26T00:43:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/firefox-downloading-pdfs-to-lexmark-folder/
<p><em>Posting this so Google can find it and hopefully save somebody else some time.</em></p>
<p>At the Salt Mines we’ve deployed mobile home folders for our Mac users, and a couple of them have had problems where if you attempt to download a PDF in Firefox, it throws an error message about not being able to save the file into <code>/Library/Printers/Lexmark/whatever</code>.</p>
<p>Other browsers can download PDFs just fine.</p>
<p>Removing every last trace of Firefox and its preferences files and reinstalling will not fix the issue.</p>
<p>Turns out that for some reason Firefox gets its default download folder setting from Safari. (Yes, <em>huh?</em> is exactly what I said.) That default setting is corrupted in Safari, even though Safari can download things just fine.</p>
<p>So the solution is to simply reset Safari’s Download folder to something sane, and everything is hunky-dory.</p>
<p>Now back to your irregularly scheduled programming.</p>
Review: All Creatures Great and Small2007-09-15T00:38:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/review-all-creatures-great-and-small/
<p>James Herriot’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0312965788%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0312965788%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">All Creatures Great and Small</a></em> is well-deservedly a classic. Part autobiography and part fiction, it covers the beginning of the narrator’s career in veterinary practice in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. This involves a whole lot of time in cold barns with a soapy arm inside large animals having trouble giving birth.</p>
<p>The novel is separated into chapters that are more like short stories, and shows off both excellent timing and a great eye for humanity, but what puts it in the league of classics is the author’s clear love for both the people and animals he deals with in his practice.</p>
<p>While there’s plenty of drama and frustration in <em>All Creatures Great and Small</em>, it’s the kind of novel that keeps a smile on your face all the way through.</p>
<p>Give yourself a treat and read it.</p>
Shiny Crescent2007-09-09T00:50:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/shiny-crescent/
<p>If you felt a great disturbance in the force today, it’s because I spent some quality nerd time switching over to a new server. So yes, the site was in a state of flux for a few minutes, and the entire Internet wept.</p>
<p>Or not.</p>
<p>The move was to a shiny new <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/">Solaris</a> machine, as <a href="http://www.joyent.com/">Joyent</a> is phasing out their aging FreeBSD machines with new groovy hardware and software.</p>
<p>Speaking of Joyent, I’m actually starting to feel a little bit guilty about the insane value I’m getting out of <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/09/at-the-new-server/">my lifetime deal.</a> If I ever run into any of the crew I’ll have to buy them lots of beer to assuage my guilt.</p>
<p>For readers this move really shouldn’t mean anything, except for the site running a bit faster and hopefully with even less downtime than the previous server, which was a total champ.</p>
<p>Excelsior, etc.</p>
Review: Passage at Arms2007-09-09T00:49:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/review-passage-at-arms/
<p>Glen Cook is arguably best known for his <em>Black Company</em> series, <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/07/the-black-company/">which I think should be turned into an HBO mini series</a>, but he has also written military Sci-Fi like the recently re-released <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1597800678%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1597800678%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Passage at Arms</a></em>.</p>
<p>The premise of the novel is that humanity is at war with a mysterious race called the Ulat, and is losing. The last hope to turn the tide is a new kind of spaceship called a Climber, which can for all intents and purposes disappear from the enemy.</p>
<p>Yes, you guessed it, it’s a submarine.</p>
<p>Essentially, <em>Passage at Arms</em> is <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0082096/">Das Boot</a></em> in space—the same hard, gritty realism, and the same focus on the psychology of men under intense pressure.</p>
<p>The novel shows Glen Cook’s mastery of the realities of warfare and his unflinching look at the best and worst of humanity. It’s not a fun read, but it is gripping.</p>
Review: Echo Park2007-09-09T00:17:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/review-echo-park/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0316734950%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0316734950%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Echo Park</a></em> is the latest installment in Michael Connelly’s series of novels about Detective Harry Bosch. It features an interesting plot with some serious twists and turns, Connelly’s usual precise prose, and of course, Harry Bosch himself.</p>
<p>The novel is a good read, but certainly not one of Connelly’s best. The biggest problem is that Bosch seems to be mellowing out more and more as the series progresses, and Bosch himself and his issues were one of the main things setting the series apart. Another big problem is with the psycho killer in the story—the character never really goes beyond Psycho From Central Casting.</p>
<p>So, all in all, a decent installment, but not something to introduce new readers to the series.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-lost-light/">Lost Light</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/05/review-the-narrows/">The Narrows</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-the-closers/">The Closers</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-chasing-the-dime/">Chasing the Dime</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-the-lincoln-lawyer/">The Lincoln Lawyer</a></em></p>
The suspension of disbelief2007-09-08T01:14:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/the-suspension-of-disbelief/
<p>Super hero movies are troublesome for me. I used to love super hero comics when I was a little boy, and devoured stuff like Batman and Spiderman. But then I grew pubic hairs and realized that my reading skills were good enough that I didn’t need drawings anymore. So that was the end of the super hero comic for me.</p>
<p>But for some reason a lot of grown men seem to think that transferring those comics to the silver screen is a great idea. A fantastic, coke-fueled, brilliant, genius! idea.</p>
<p>The problem with super hero movies for me, I think, is that comics (sorry, graphic novels, snigger) and movies are such different media that what works in one simply doesn’t translate to the other. The biggest problem is the universe that you have to buy into. In a comic book, it makes total sense that a part-time crime fighter has a cave under his house where he stores his wicked-cool car and his rubber suit with nipples. Comic books have their own rules and the suspension of reality is huge. In a movie, the same setup makes at least my tiny brain go, “Really? A rubber suit with nipples? In a cave under your house? Really? That’s how you roll, huh?”</p>
<p>So it can be really hard to get the suspension of disbelief factor working.</p>
<p>At the same time it’s funny just how silly the things can be that pull you out of the universe the movie is creating. I was reminded of this the other night watching <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0376994/">X-Men 3: The Last Stand</a></em>.</p>
<p>The concept itself is pretty special ed: Some people are mutants and they have weird and wonderful powers. Okay. And some of them choose to hang out in a mutant haven that’s cunningly disguised as a K-12 school. All right. Why not? And some other mutants are all angry at not being allowed to get their mutant freak on and have a secret hideaway somewhere and mostly hatch cunning and involved plots that always somehow involve the other mutants. Again, okay, I guess.</p>
<p>And the mutants in the K-12 school call themselves the X-Men and have groovy costumes with the letter X worked in wherever possible. I’m getting a migraine now, but sure, let’s roll with that.</p>
<p>And the powers these mutants have! There’s the guy who can control and create magnetic fields. Okay. The guy who can turn anything into ice. Right. The woman who can look and sound like anybody. Sure. Handy, that. The guy whose eyes shoot raw energy unless he wears sunglasses. Ehm. Okey-dokey. The guy who can control anybody’s mind. Right on. The woman who can control the weather. Still not sure why her irises turn white when she does that, but whatever. Right on with the weather. I could sure use some rain here.</p>
<p>And it goes on and on. Including the poor slob whose mutant power is to have hedgehog spines coming out of his head. Man, wouldn’t that just piss you off at the mutant meetings? Everybody else is like, “I shoot fire,” “I am unstoppable,” “I levitate thing with my mind.” And you have to go, “I can make these spines come out. Pretty fierce, huh? Guys? Come on, you promised not to laugh.”</p>
<p>But back to the movie. All these different kinds of mutants have been introduced, and I’m still in the suspension of disbelief zone and grooving on the story, and then they introduce this mutant whose power is to have little pieces of wood come out of his arms that he can throw. And the little voice in my head goes, <em>What about conservation of mass? He’s extruding those things and he’s not getting smaller. Shouldn’t he have to eat a ton to replace all the body mass generating those things cost?</em></p>
<p>And that movie ends right there for me.</p>
<p>Like for my brain <em>that</em> just tilted the lever and the movie has now become absurd.</p>
<p>Silly brain.</p>
Review: Stumbling on Happiness2007-09-01T01:12:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/09/review-stumbling-on-happiness/
<p>We all want to be happy. As the only species on the planet able to plan for the future, you’d think most of us would succeed in mapping out whatever path we each need to go down to bring us happiness.</p>
<p>Obviously, this is not so.</p>
<p>In <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1400077427%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1400077427%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Stumbling on Happiness</a></em>, psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains the reasons happiness can be so elusive, and why we often don’t learn as well as we should from our experiences.</p>
<p>The book is a slim volume, written in a very approachable and easy-to-read way without sacrificing academic rigor. It highlights some very illuminating studies that have been performed about how people evaluate happiness and how we approach different situations in ways that one would hope would lead to the greatest amount of happiness. The vast majority of these studies are very clever and showcase the ways our brains are wired.</p>
<p><em>Stumbling on Happiness</em> is adamantly <em>not</em> the book to read if you want a recipe for happiness; it is essentially a compilation of studies of how our minds work and how we evaluate happiness, but does not—and certainly never claims to—provide a 1-2-3 system for getting there.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be fair to create a Cliff’s notes version of the book in this review, so the one thing I will include, the thing that really struck me, is this: <em>If you want to know how happy you will be doing something, ask somebody who’s doing it.</em> Not somebody who has done it, not somebody who’s thinking about doing it, but somebody who’s doing it <em>right now</em>. It turns out that us humans aren’t as singular as we’d like to think we are—we all share the same wiring.</p>
<p>Which, depending on how you look at it, is either a happy or depressing thought.</p>
The first five years from a father’s perspective2007-08-19T02:26:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/08/the-first-five-years-from-a-fathers-perspective/
<p>Andrea is in Kindergarten now, and is apparently enjoying the experience, so I thought as she’s entering school, it would be a good idea to write down the different ages of a child from a father’s perspective before amnesia takes it all away.</p>
<p>So, the story up to five years of age.</p>
<p><strong>Pregnancy:</strong> As a dad-to-be, your job is to shut the hell up and support your wife. There is obviously no other task for you. As long as she’s not doing anything to hurt the fetus, you have nothing to say, and you shouldn’t. It <em>is</em> your fault. Deal.</p>
<p><strong>The First Year:</strong> Holding your firstborn for the first time is one of the most powerful feelings you will ever experience. Nothing can prepare you for this. Joy, awe, and fear, all wrapped into one huge package. This is the moment when billions of years of sexual evolution creep up on you, whack you upside the head and say, “Don’t f**k this up.” It’s a big moment.</p>
<p>Then you bring your newborn home and realize that you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. None. Nada. Zilch. All first-time parents will have that moment when you come home from the hospital and put your sleeping bundle of joy on your bed and start hyperventilating as it hits you that you are totally out to sea without a compass or a chart.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how many parenting books you’ve read, or how many parents you’ve talked to … none of that has any bearing on what you’re doing right at that moment.</p>
<p>But then, somehow, you figure out what you have to do. Just listen to the little voice in your head and you’ll be okay. You will never go wrong if you listen to that voice.</p>
<p>And then, the first year is a relentless marathon of sleep deprivation, anxiety, and worry.</p>
<p>Oh, yes.</p>
<p>You will think back to your childless days and wonder how you never properly appreciated things like sleeping and eating in peace and quiet. So, if you found this while googling around as your wife or girlfriend has just informed you that you’re going to be a father, my most heartfelt advice to you is to enjoy every day as much as you can. Go to movies. Go to expensive restaurants. Play video games. Go see the game. Whatever makes you happy. Because if you’re going to be any kind of father you can say goodbye to that for several years once the baby is delivered. Oh, and also, sleep a lot. And wake up with a smile on your face because there are no diapers for you to change or bottles to boil. Just enjoy.</p>
<p>The first year is actually very hard to remember. This is how nature makes people have more than one child. Trust me, even if you went through Navy SEAL training, this will be harder, because it never stops, and it’s also much more important.</p>
<p>Some highlights my hormones haven’t managed to erase include:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Waking up with a start as soon as the baby monitor goes quiet. <acronym title="Sudden Infant Death Syndrome">SIDS</acronym> will always be at the back of your mind. I mean, seriously, babies can <em>just stop breathing.</em> Just stop. And die. Including yours. Really, the thing that has become the center of your universe can just stop breathing while she’s sleeping. Yeah, that will keep you from deep sleep, trust me.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>According to scientists, a chimpanzee and human baby are the same, behaviorally, up to about eight months. This means your child will not be able to communicate in any kind of way apart from screaming. Is the diaper wet? Are you hungry? Are you tired? Or what? You’ll never know.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The first smile will melt your heart. So will the first time your child crawls. And then you will want to hog tie your child, because they get really, really fast. No more putting the kid down and folding some laundry. Oh, no.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>The Second Year:</strong> This is the year when all you do is try to keep your offspring from killing herself. She’s mobile and will get into any kind of danger her environment will allow. Sitting down and relaxing is just a happy memory that seems like it happened to somebody else.</p>
<p>There are highlights, though: Watching your child walk for the first time is incredible. And when the first words come out and she can actually tell you what is bothering her is a relief that will seldom be matched.</p>
<p><strong>The Third Year:</strong> They’re called the Terrible Twos. There’s a good reason for that. Most of your time will be spent hearing “No!” and “Me do it!”. No matter what kind of horrible roommates you may have had in the past, your floor will never be more gross with essentially every liquid you can name at some point finding its way to ground level. And unless you’ve lived a particularly damned life, you have never lived with a more negative and annoying human being. One who has zero compunction about waking you up at night.</p>
<p><strong>The Fourth Year:</strong> This is what I like to call the “dwarves on acid stage.” Your child is coming into her own, is interacting with the world and making connections in her head. Many of those connections will be, from a grown-up perspective, completely insane and often hilarious.</p>
<p>But it’s good. She can eat by herself, she can tell you what’s bothering her, and above all, she’s developing her very own personality.</p>
<p>I myself consider this a turning point year—it’s when your child goes from a bundle of needs and screams to a little person you can have a meaningful interaction with.</p>
<p><strong>The Fifth Year:</strong> At this point it’s all about the personality development. Every day brings new ideas and thoughts at an almost scary rate. There are plateaus, of course, but in general the uptake rate is incredible. Having that many new ideas around the kitchen table leads to a lot of <em>really interesting</em> conversations.</p>
Lucky 132007-08-07T04:01:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/08/lucky-13/
<p>Today marks 13 years my lovely wife has put up with me.</p>
<p>The 13th wedding anniversary. Wow. I remember being 13 years <em>old</em>.</p>
<p>Here’s a toast to many more!</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/13th-anniversary.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/13th-anniversary.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1023,height=676,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/13th-anniversary-tm.jpg" height="330" width="500" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Bubbly and Roses" title="Bubbly and Roses" /></a></p>
<p><br /><em>Click for full-size image.</em></p>
You and what army?2007-07-19T21:57:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/07/you-and-what-army/
<p>Ah, the joys of having two felines in the household…</p>
<p>First Shiva, the older cat, started puking saliva and making strangling noises. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying the sound of a cat puking, this was the same but much louder and more disturbing. Little pools of saliva all over the house.</p>
<p>Like lava, that was not cool, so we spirited her off to the vet, where they discovered that she had a hair ball stuck and also, as a bonus, a urinary tract infection, and as an extra special bonus, she needs dental work—a cleaning and having her two lower back molars removed. They are infected, it seems, and have to go.</p>
<p>So about $150 for the exam and Amoxicillin, and then the cleaning and dental work will cost somewhere north of $300.</p>
<p>We gave her the Amoxicillin, which was surprisingly non-eventful. She of course was convinced this was some new strange form of torture we were inflicting on her, but ended up not resisting too much. It’s a good thing cats aren’t too bright.</p>
<p>After we finished her dose and were getting ready to take her back to the vet for the dental work, cat number two, Isis, decided to start peeing in our bath tub instead of the litter box.</p>
<p>Which actually turned out to be a good thing, because that made us notice that she had blood in her urine. If you’ve never done it, cleaning up a stinking pink liquid from your bath tub at four in the morning is about as fun as it sounds. Not so much recommended.</p>
<p>Another trip to the vet where it was found that, oh happy day, she also had a urinary tract infection. Cats also, apparently, spontaneously create these little crystals in their urine which sometimes—for no good reason—can become much bigger than usual and tear the urinary tract, which could also be a part of the blood in the urine. But we won’t know until she’s finished her Amoxicillin cure.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/idontthinkso.jpg" height="330" width="500" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="I don’t think so" title="I don’t think so" /><br /></p>
<p><em>You and what army?</em></p>
<p>Which is not going to be easy.</p>
<p>When I picked her up the vet told me that they were going to call us for permission to have her x-rayed to check if there was something else going on in her bowels, but “she’s had it with us.” Yes, that is a quote from the somewhat shame-faced vet.</p>
<p>After the checkup she apparently went berserk and started biting the staff through the blankets they’d swaddled her with enough that there was nothing for it but to get her back in the cage and leave her alone.</p>
<p>When I picked her up she was in the cage growling and hissing at any and sundry including the guy who’s going to have to start donating blood to keep up with the vet bills.</p>
<p>And this morning we started her on the Amoxicillin, which was <em>not popular</em>. At all. We got most of it into her, but there was definitely clawing involved.</p>
<p>Dagnabbit, the idea is that if you grab them hard enough by the neck they go limp. That’s the agreement we have with cats, but it seems Isis was out to lunch when that deal was struck.</p>
<p>I have a feeling the next couple of weeks will involve plenty of rubbing alcohol.</p>
Review: Twilight Watch2007-07-19T17:43:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-twilight-watch/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1401360211%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1401360211%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Twilight Watch</a></em> is the third novel in Sergei Lukyanenko’s <em>Night Watch</em> trilogy, and continues the story begun in the other two installments.</p>
<p>Lukyanenko continues building up his universe, and the novel reveals more of how the world of the Others actually works while introducing some interesting new characters.</p>
<p>It’s fast-moving and gritty, and apart from endless plot twists and turns also delves deeper into the differences between light and dark others, in the process making everybody more grey.</p>
<p>If you’ve read the other two installments in the series, I defy you to not read this one and find out how the story ends.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it suffers a bit from third-novel syndrome, with the author it seems getting a bit bored with the limitations of his characters and upping the ante a bit too much for the climax, but it’s still a great ride.</p>
<p>Mopey, conflicted Russian magicians are fun!</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-nightwatch/">Night Watch</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-day-watch/">Day Watch</a></em></p>
Review: Day Watch2007-07-19T07:31:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-day-watch/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1401360203%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1401360203%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Day Watch</a></em> is the second novel in the trilogy begun with <em>Night Watch</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-nightwatch/">my review here</a>). As with <em>Night Watch</em> it’s a series of interrelated short stories chronicling the struggle between light and dark Others, but is told more from the perspective of the dark Others, which makes a nice change of pace.</p>
<p>With the settings and concepts mostly set up in <em>Night Watch</em>, and Lukyanenko more comfortable in his reality, <em>Day Watch</em> is faster moving and more emotionally charged.</p>
<p>It’s one of those few novels were you literally have no idea what’s going to happen next.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-nightwatch/">Night Watch</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-twilight-watch/">Twilight Watch</a></em></p>
Review: Nightwatch2007-07-19T07:21:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-nightwatch/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1401359795%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1401359795%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Night Watch</a></em> by Sergei Lukyanenko is the first novel in a trilogy set in modern Moscow, and is also the basis for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=B000FFJ81C%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/B000FFJ81C%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">excellent movie</a> with the same name.</p>
<p>If you’ve seen the movie, the characters and settings are similar, but the plot is significantly different, and there are some curve balls in there.</p>
<p>If you haven’t seen the movie, the basic concept is that there are “Others” among us—magicians, werewolves, vampires, witches, etc. They are people, but can tap into something the book calls the Twilight, and the movie calls the Gloom, a sort of other reality. Sort of. The Others are divided among the light and dark, with the light Others wanting to help people, and the dark others wanting to use people, sometimes as with vampires quite literally.</p>
<p>But there are many shades of grey among the Others.</p>
<p>It sounds silly, and at heart it is, but Lukyanenko uses the concept to build engaging characters who deal with moral dilemmas in a distinctly non-Western way. A world-weary Russian mentality underlies the fantastic events and people of the novel, setting it apart from the pack.</p>
<p>It should be noted that the novel is actually made up of several interrelated short stories.</p>
<p>If you like fantasy in any of its forms, put <em>Night Watch</em> at the top of your reading list.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-day-watch/">Day Watch</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/07/review-twilight-watch/">Twilight Watch</a></em></p>
Movie roundup, part four2007-07-09T21:34:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/07/movie-round-up-4/
<p>A brief dump of movies I’ve seen recently:</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0409904/">Day Watch</a></strong>: The sequel to <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0403358/">Night Watch</a></em>, the excellent Russian movie about Others who live among us and do nefarious things. <em>Day Watch</em> is really more of the second part of <em>Night Watch</em> than a sequel.</p>
<p>As a bonus, after <em>Day Watch</em> you can go back and watch <em>Night Watch</em> again, and it will actually make sense. Trust me on this.</p>
<p><em>Day Watch</em> takes the best parts of <em>Night Watch</em>, streamlines the plot and adds even more impressive visual effects.</p>
<p>This is easily the most visually creative movie in years. Very highly recommended.</p>
<p>Note though, that unless you’ve seen <em>Night Watch</em> nothing will make sense.</p>
<p>It’s showing on very few screens in the States, so unless you live in a metropolitan area you’re probably going to have to wait for the DVD release. The only reason I can see for the limited release is—cover your eyes, children!—the dreaded use of subtitles. Heaven forfend people in the States are forced to read at the same time as they munch popcorn.</p>
<p>It’s a really impressive movie. Don’t miss it, whether you can see it on the big screen or will be forced to wait for the DVD release.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0475394/">Smokin’ Aces</a></strong>: This movie is what you get when you take <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0208092/">Snatch</a></em> and run it through the Hollywood stupidifier. Well made and with interesting visuals, but the plot is dumber than a movie star’s genitalia and the quote-unquote denouement makes the rest of the movie seem like it was written by Dostoevsky.</p>
<p><em>Smokin’ Aces</em> does work as a popcorn movie and has good energy, but is one of those frustrating experiences where obviously somebody had some good—if derivative—ideas and was neutered in the process.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0206634/">Children of Men</a></strong>: Didn’t make it all the way through. Well made and with an interesting concept, but boy howdy is it depressing. Yes, to my surprise, somebody finally made a movie too dreary even for me.</p>
<p>Dooooooooooooom.</p>
<p>Kudos.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0338337/">Paycheck</a></strong>: Continues the proud Hollywood tradition of raping Philip K. Dick’s corpse. Casting Ben Affleck in a starring role is of course a warning that a movie will be dreck, but low as my expectations were, <em>Paycheck</em> managed to be so bad I couldn’t get through it.</p>
<p>John Woo completely phoned in the direction, and the plot isn’t so much full of holes as it’s something a stoned 15-year-old comes up with before drifting off to sleep to the soothing sounds of Pink Floyd.</p>
<p>For instance, and the moment when I had to stop the movie because what it was doing to my blood pressure can’t be healthy: Our hero has had his memory wiped by villainous greedy people after he finds out something horrible that will happen in the future and has mailed clues to his future self. Cunning clues. But—and this is important—only clues the Evil Security Forces of the company he works for will let him send out. Innocuous things. Such as—here we go—an access card for the most secure area on the company campus.</p>
<p>Yeah. Click.</p>
<p>And BTW, the whole memory-wipe thing is all that remains of Philip K. Dick in the whole story. As I recall, Dick wasn’t that big on writing motorcycle chase scenes with product placements. But then, memory isn’t to be trusted, is it?</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0486551/">Beerfest</a></strong>: For those times when Will Ferrell is just too highbrow. <em>Beerfest</em> is rude and crude, with lots of drinking and gratuitous boobies. It’s also really funny in parts. If you liked <em>Eurotrip</em>, you’ll like <em>Beerfest.</em> If you’re offended by binge drinking and potty humor, eh, not so much.</p>
<p>It’s actually worth watching just for the submarine scene with <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0001638/">Jürgen Prochnow</a>.</p>
A dark and hungry god arises2007-06-30T04:20:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/06/a-dark-and-hungry-god-arises/
<p>So. The iPhone. Yeah. Today is June 29th and the iPhone hits the streets. Chaos, mayhem, and commerce.</p>
<p>Without having actually seen the product itself, it does seem like a very cool gadget, just to get that out of the way. This is <em>not</em> one of those “I is a hedge fund guy and teh iPhone is teh suck and teh oh, hey what did you say I just ran out of coke” posts.</p>
<p>It seems lovely, really. The kind of device that would be nice to have.</p>
<p>But with the current level of froth and madness, we’re not talking about the kind of device that would be nice to have. We are talking about the end of cancer, the end of world hunger, the end of All that is Bad.</p>
<p>Of course, the iPhone is a device. Really. A gadget. Just a thingy. Not a shred of cancer-curing in sight.</p>
<p>It is very interesting to watch from the sidelines as a gadget, a manufactured piece of electronics, goes from “Hey, that thing could certainly make my daily existence a little bit easier and thus it is worth spending some money on” to “OH MY F**ING GOD THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVAR.”</p>
<p>So the question becomes, why are so many otherwise sane people deciding that spending hours and hours in a line to shell out $500 for a piece of plastic plus two years of at minimum $60 a month bondage to AT&T a rational thing to do?</p>
<p>There are three options, and they are presented here in descending order of depressiveness:</p>
<ol>
<li>The iPhone will heal the emptiness in my soul. It is expensive and has a big marketing campaign, and thus spending time waiting for it will help me feel less wounded and hopeless. Once it’s in my shivering, shaky, sweaty hands, <em>it will turn my life around. Nobody will ever know what Father Tim did to me!</em></li>
</ol>
<p>Yeah, that’s the most depressing one. But look around you. How many people do you think fit into that category? As Yoda would say, “Hmmmm?”</p>
<ol start="2">
<li><em>Homo Sapien</em> is a herd animal. We base what we do on what everybody around us is doing. Once the iPhone made the leap from computer-nerd-thing to mass-market-thing, we all needed to get on board, because oh my Lord everybody else is jonesing for it and it must become mine. What if that guy down the street has one and I don’t?</li>
</ol>
<p>Slightly less depressing, but still, not something that makes you want to sing kumbaya and fire up the cigarette lighter.</p>
<p>And, finally, the most uplifting alternative:</p>
<ol start="3">
<li>Some people (arguably, a lot of people) really, really like being with other people. Once the iPhone made the leap from computer-nerd-thing to mass-market-thing a whole lot of people twigged to the idea that there would be lines, and that lines are a <em>good</em> thing. If there’s a big line, there must be something worthwhile at the end, and as a bonus, the other people who are in that line must be cool people, so standing in line with them must be a good thing and the experience will be <em>awesome</em> with all these people in line for the thing <em>I’m</em> in line for and that must mean we’re all friends and we all want the same things, and we’re all one, and we should all wear flowers in our hair when we go to get our iPhones…</li>
</ol>
<p>So, to all those who went, stood, and paid, enjoy your new gadget: feel its smooth surface, relish its connection to the Internet, fill it with your music and movies and perhaps wonder what else you could have done with those lost hours.</p>
Review: Hardwired2007-06-25T14:35:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/06/review-hardwired/
<p>Released in 1986, Walter Jon Williams’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1597800627%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1597800627%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Hardwired</a></em> is one of the classics of proto-cyberpunk—a gritty and raucous machine set in a version of the standard 80s future dystopia of hackers and outlaws. With high energy, a fairly character-driven plot, and cool tech, it’s very much worth a revisit.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1597800627%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1597800627%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002"><img src="http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/21Dez7ofDvL.jpg" /></a></p>
WWDC Keynote Death March2007-06-12T20:18:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/06/wwdc-monday/
<p>Or, the morally instructive tale of one man’s first and last Stevenote.</p>
<p>The day started at 5:50 a.m., when it was time to rise and shine in order to go revel in the Reality Distortion Field.</p>
<p>But first the most important meal of the day. Ingested some continental breakfast at the hotel and was flabbergasted to find that no, it was not complimentary, but instead cost $16. Seriously, $16 for coffee and a bagel? Do they ship it over the bay on Larry Ellison’s yacht?</p>
<p>Made it to the Moscone a little before 7 o’clock and was gobsmacked to see the line stretch literally halfway around the block. It was complete with panhandlers and That Nerd with the piercing voice who could not be made to shut up and who kept pestering everybody around him with his misunderstood greatness and the underestimated technological wonders he had brought an uncaring world.</p>
<p>The doors opened and we shuffled into Moscone, a sad parade of excited nerds. And then the line stopped. And then the line started. And stopped. Etc. There were way too many nerds in too little space. Sticky sweatiness.</p>
<div class="imgright">
<p><a href=’/images/0611070831a.jpg’ rel=“shadowbox” title=’Zombies or nerds? You be the judge’><img src=’/images/0611070831a.thumbnail.jpg’ alt=’Zombies or nerds? You be the judge’ rel=’lightbox’ /></p>
<div class="imgcaption">*Zombies or nerds waiting for the keynote?<br />Click for larger version.
</div>
</div>
<p>Then the keynote. It was great to see it live in the flesh, although it was obviously not one of Steve’s greatest showings.</p>
<p>I’m not going to talk too much about the contents of the keynote, since the whole Internet is already aflutter with reading the entrails and consumed with holy anger about the lack of an iPhone SDK.</p>
<p>Apart from the content of this particular keynote itself, the star of the show was of course the keynote itself and the presence of the Holy Steve. Ah, the basking.</p>
<p>Yes, the basking. Get up early, stand in line for three hours in claustrophobic corridors with a bunch of people who need remedial lessons in personal hygiene, and all to behold something that is being live-blogged on the Internet and then streamed for anybody to see in the comfort of their favorite chairs later in the day.</p>
<p>I’m not saying it wasn’t cool; I’m just saying the next time I voluntarily stand in line for three hours, there had better be the best food or the best sex of my entire existence at the end of that line. Or both.</p>
The end of the Y2007-06-09T03:20:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/06/the-end-of-the-y/
<p>Today was a big day for Andrea—her last day at the preschool at the YMCA.</p>
<p>Even though she’s only been there for a year, the place has had a huge effect on her and on her parents. In short, while nothing is perfect, this has been the best pre-school experience we could possibly hope for for our daughter. With a caring staff, a good pedagogical program, and the resources of the YMCA available for “extracurricular” activities like swimming, tumbling, and ballet, it’s been fantastic to have her there.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea-ymca-cupcake.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/andrea-ymca-cupcake.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea-ymca-cupcake-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Andrea’s Last Day at the YMCA" title="Andrea’s Last Day at the YMCA" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>A cupcake party on Andrea’s last day at the YMCA preschool.<br />Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>The curse of the working couple who are parents is that most childcare places feel like child storage. Just a place where you drop your child off in the morning and pick up in the evening so you can work and actually afford to stay in your house and keep them from sleeping under a bridge. Not so the preschool program at the YMCA in Chandler/Gilbert.</p>
<p>Most of this I think is due to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach">Reggio Emilia approach</a> the school follows. In short, it’s wonderful. If you’re a parent with a child or children or in a “regular” preschool, and you walk into one that follows the Reggio Emilia method, your jaw will drop. There is no comparison. In a Reggio Emilia school, the lights are muted and the classrooms looks like a home. In short, it’s the way you want your child to spend the day when you can’t spend it with her.</p>
<p>If you’re the parent of a toddler, I can not recommend highly enough that you try to find preschools that follow the Reggio Emilia approach in your area. Use the mighty Google, that’s what it’s there for. If you happen to be living in the Phoenix, AZ area, the preschool at the YMCA in Chandler/Gilbert is something you should definitely look into.</p>
<p>And no, this is not a paid commercial. Lord knows we have paid enough to have her in the program. But it has been absolutely wonderful for her and for her parents. In the words of Ali G, “respek!”</p>
<p>Your child moving from her preschool seems like the kind of thing that wouldn’t really affect you as a parent; after all, you’re the one who picked where she’s going and where she’s going to go. Nevertheless, it’s an emotional sledgehammer.</p>
<p>After this, her first graduation, Andrea will spend the next six weeks at summer camp at her daddy’s job, then two weeks at home with her mommy, and then Kindergarten begins.</p>
<p>Wow, Kindergarten.</p>
Review: The Digital Photography Book2007-06-07T22:07:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/06/review-the-digital-photography-book/
<p>I purchased Scott Kelby’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=032147404X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/032147404X%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Digital Photography Book</a></em> after reading a glowing review at <a href="http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/the-digital-photography-book-by-scott-kelby-review/">Digital Photography School</a>. And it is a good book. Breezy and easy to read, with a whole lot of good advice for taking better pictures with a digital camera.</p>
<p>The book is set up with a tip per page, based around scenarios such as landscape photography, wedding photography, sports photography, etc. This tip per page format works well and makes the book easy to thumb through as well as come back to for refreshers when the mood strikes.</p>
<p>The only real negative is Kelby’s sense of humor, especially in the first chapter. Jiminy Crickets. It’s about as much fun, and about as subtle, as being beaten with a brick. Perhaps if they make a second edition somebody can sneak in and edit some of that stuff out.</p>
<p>That being said, though, this slim volume packs in a lot of good, solid advice that can save you hours of headaches and markedly improve the quality of your photographs.</p>
Life in the cloud2007-06-05T22:44:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/06/life-in-the-cloud/
<h4>The trouble with tribbles</h4>
<p>If you split your work time between different computers, data management can become a major headache. You might have been there, needing that bit of info, be it a phone number or the notes from a meeting, or what have you, but it’s sitting on another machine. Not exactly how you wanted your shiny cyber-future to turn out, is it?.</p>
<p>Being machine-promiscuous myself means that my data has become like tribbles—it’s way too easy to update something on one machine and then need it when I’m on another.</p>
<p>After reaching breaking point, I’ve been making a conscious effort to streamline things as much as possible, and have found a couple of tools that bring sanity and order. In the hope that it can help somebody else, here’s a short list.</p>
<h4>Your own personal wiki</h4>
<p>The first and major tool is a personal, hidden wiki. Think of it as your Secret Volcano Lair on the Internet.</p>
<p>It’s what I’m typing into right now. If it’s plain text and I need to keep track of it, it goes on the wiki.</p>
<p>Sure, typing into a web browser is a suboptimal experience, but it’s just text, so you can copy and paste it into a <a href="http://macromates.com/">real text editor</a> and then dump the edited version back into the browser’s text field.</p>
<p>As a bonus, using a wiki gives you automatic revisioning for those times when the muse takes you down a blind alley, beats you up, and takes your wallet.</p>
<p>After some research, a good solution seems to be <a href="http://www.splitbrain.org/projects/dokuwiki">DokuWiki</a>—written in PHP, so it runs pretty much anywhere, and it uses plain text files for its data store, so backups are easy. After adding in <a href="http://wiki.ioslo.net/dokuwiki/markdown">a Markdown plugin</a> I don’t even have to learn DokuWiki syntax.</p>
<p>Another benefit of DokuWiki is that it comes out of the box very easy to keep private—just a matter of clicking a couple of checkboxes, and you’re the only one who can view and update.</p>
<p>It should be noted here that obviously putting anything on the Internet means that it’s accessible. Anybody determined enough could break in. It’s definitely <em>not</em> a good idea to put anything super secret or harmful on your wiki, like credit card numbers or your plans for World Domination.</p>
<p>Let common sense prevail.</p>
<h4>Subvert the masses</h4>
<p>The second tool is for projects that generate different kinds of files, like keeping track of my class planning and web design projects. For this, it’s all about <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">Subversion</a>. The nerd factor is pretty high, and it can take a bit of time to get friendly with, but once you do, Subversion is a life saver.</p>
<p>Essentially, you create a repository, and when you add files to the repository, Subversion manages them for you. The big bang for the buck for developers—the people Subversion was originally created for—is that Subversion allows you to go back to different revisions of your files, so just like with a wiki, if you take a wrong turn, you have a built-in time machine to take you back to the happy days before you Did That Bad Thing.</p>
<p>The other major thing—the thing that matters most for non-developers—is syncing. Once your files are in a Subversion repository, it becomes brainlessly easy to keep all copies in sync across different machines. The only thing you have to remember is to sync the repository before you walk away from the machine, and you are in business.</p>
<p>The big win here is that you don’t have to remember which files you changed. Just sync, and badabing, everything is safe.</p>
<p>For data like my class planning, where I really don’t <em>need</em> revisioning after the semester is over, it’s easy enough to export out the semester and stash it in an archive, so the repository doesn’t grow uncontrollably over time. But at the same time, storage is cheap and your time is expensive, so no reason to go overboard about cleaning out the repository.</p>
<h4>The calendar in the sky</h4>
<p>The third tool is an online address book and calendar. For a lot of people Google’s or Yahoo!’s offerings are fine and will let you manage your data online. Of course, Google by default gives you more nerd cred, if that’s important to you. Both Yahoo! and Google offer free accounts, so to find out which one works best for you, just create an account on both and play around to see what fits.</p>
<p>My personal choice, though, is a <a href="http://www.joyent.com/connector">Joyent Connector</a> account. Gorgeous web interface, handles email, calendar, address book, as well as a few other things, and allows for easy collaboration with colleagues or family. Worth checking out if you’re in the market.</p>
<p>The Connector does cost money, though.</p>
<h4>The missing piece</h4>
<p>Right now what’s missing is a good web-enabled <a href="http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-started-with-getting-things-done/">GTD solution</a>. There are some apps out there that succeed to varying degrees, but so far nothing’s really clicked. I’d love to hear what other people are using, so please let me know in the comments.</p>
<h4>KTHXBYE</h4>
<p>Whew. That was more verbose than usual. Thanks for reading the post, and I hope it can help somebody.</p>
The fairy princess Wii2007-05-30T22:28:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/the-fairy-princess-wii/
<p>The coolest thing about the Wii is unarguably the controllers. Swish swosh bang hooray. Brilliant.</p>
<p>Imagine my surprise when we bought a (sigh) <a href="http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/activities/fantasy/fairytopia/barbielive/">Fairytopia</a> doll for Andrea’s birthday. Oh, and don’t click on that link if you’re diabetic. Seriously. And turn down the volume if you’re in an office.</p>
<p>So anyway, she gets her <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=B000LRN2CK%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/B000LRN2CK%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Elina doll which includes a DVD Game</a>. Imagine my surprise and fear when it turns out the doll itself can be used to control the included DVD game. (Yes, DVD game. A game you play on a regular DVD player. Don’t ask me. All the rage with the kids these days, apparently.)</p>
<p>Of course this involves teaching the doll your remote, which only took a couple of minutes, and then it was time for Andrea to help Elina find crystals. How does that work, you ask? By turning the doll to the left to go left and right to go right. Like a pink, winged, little Wiimote with plastic boobs.</p>
<p>And it actually works. Andrea was ecstatic after she helped Elina find all the crystals.</p>
Review: The Ghost Brigades2007-05-30T17:53:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-the-ghost-brigades/
<p>It’s a big, bad universe out there…</p>
<p>John Scalzi’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0765315025%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0765315025%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Ghost Brigades</a></em> is set in the same universe as the enjoyable <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-old-mans-war/">Old Man’s War</a></em>, but isn’t so much a sequel as a look from another angle.</p>
<p>As hinted in <em>Old Man’s War</em>, humanity has created a Special Forces troop of people who are force-grown, genetically altered clones of people who signed up for service but passed away before their enlistment. This of course raises some interesting ethical issues.</p>
<p>Scalzi writes with economy and restraint, letting the plot carry the novel instead of resorting to verbal pyrotechnics.</p>
<p>There are a lot of thought-provoking ideas embedded in <em>The Ghost Brigades</em>, and the novel passes them out without hitting you over the head. At its core, though, it’s fun space opera.</p>
<p>There are couple of nits to pick, like how the Evil Scientist motivations didn’t fully work (at least for me), and some of the differences in BrainPal use by “realborn” troops and the Special Forces seemed a bit hand wavy, but those things don’t impede enjoyment of the novel, which just like <em>Old Man’s War</em> almost eerily channels Heinlein (in a good way).</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-old-mans-war/">Old Man’s War</a></em></p>
Review: The Dead Yard2007-05-30T17:24:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-the-dead-yard/
<p>Adrian McKinty’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0743499484%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0743499484%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Dead Yard</a></em> is his second novel about Irish sociopath Michael Forsythe, following <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-dead-i-well-may-be/">the excellent <em>Dead I Well May Be</em></a>.</p>
<p>Like its predecessor, <em>The Dead Yard</em> is strong and well-crafted noir, with great writing and an uncanny ear for dialog, with a generous sprinkling of Irish slang and idioms that sets McKinty apart from other writers in the genre. Coupled with a strong, fast-moving plot, interesting and gritty characters, and a convincing portrait of the protagonist, the novel builds on the best parts of <em>Dead I Well May Be</em> and improves on them in every way.</p>
<p>It’s a hard novel to put down, especially as it barrels toward the grim ending.</p>
<p>While it can be read stand-alone, it’s best to first read <em>Dead I Well May Be</em> to get the back story and understand Forsythe’s motivations better.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-dead-i-well-may-be/">Dead I Well May Be</a></em></p>
Movie roundup, part three2007-05-22T20:53:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/movie-round-up-3/
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0383574/">Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest</a></strong></p>
<p>The sound and the fury<br /></p>
<p>Signifying nothing</p>
<p><em>Dead Man’s Chest</em> is well made, with spectacular special effects and Johnny Depp obviously having oodles of fun as Captain Jack, but it goes nowhere with a plot that makes not a lick of sense. I found myself incredibly bored about halfway through.</p>
<p>It could have been good, but it has that annoying schizophrenic feel of most high-budget movies that desperately want to go dark and edgy but are afraid to lose their McDonald’s tie-ins.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0381061/">Casino Royale</a></strong></p>
<p>A desperately-needed reboot of the Bond franchise. Daniel Craig does an excellent job as a darker, grimmer Bond, and the movie is loaded with eye-wink references to the glory days of Sean Connery.</p>
<p>Does get a bit talky and slow toward the end, but all in all a rousing good ride. One of a very select few movies in recent years I watched twice.</p>
<p>Craig definitely gives Connery a run for his money as the ultimate Bond. Hopefully we’ll see more movies of this caliber in the series.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0266308/">Battle Royale</a></strong></p>
<p>The Netflix recommendation engine thought I’d enjoy this. It was horribly wrong.</p>
<p>Basically, Battle Royale is a non-stop parade of pointless sadistic mayhem. It may very well be that if you are intimate with Japanese culture all sorts of wonderful nuances and references appear. I wouldn’t know. And after losing an hour and a half to this dreck, I really don’t want to find out.</p>
<p>Apparently they made a sequel, so somebody must have liked it. I hope I never meet those people.</p>
Review: Bitter Gold Hearts2007-05-22T20:41:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-bitter-gold-hearts/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bitter-Gold-Hearts-Garrett-Files/dp/0451450728/ref=ed_oe_p/103-8919117-1847009">Bitter Gold Hearts</a></em> is the second novel in Glen Cook’s <em>Garrett Files</em> series, and this time Garrett finds himself sucked in to a strange kidnapping in the upper crusts of TunFaire society despite his best efforts to stay out of the job.</p>
<p>Glen Cook is a bit more comfortable blending fantasy and noir this time out, making it more efficient than the first novel in the series, <em>Sweet Silver Blues.</em></p>
<p>An interesting plot, an interesting world, and a cynical private investigator. What else could you want?</p>
<p>Great fun.</p>
<p>(No book cover image available from Amazon’s associate central.)</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-sweet-silver-blues/">Sweet Silver Blues</a></em></p>
Review: Sweet Silver Blues2007-05-22T20:28:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-sweet-silver-blues/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0451450701%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0451450701%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Sweet Silver Blues</a></em> is the first novel in Glen Cook’s <em>Garrett Files</em> series. Cook, most well known for his <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/07/the-black-company/">sublime <em>Black Company</em> series</a> operates in a fantasy universe in this series as well, but instead of gritty soldiers, it’s a homage to the classic noir detective stories, with the title character Garrett taking the part of a world-weary, cynical, and hard-drinking private investigator who get embroiled in a mystery.</p>
<p>While capturing the tone and feel of noir, setting it in a fantasy universe of swords and sorcery, complete with elves and other assorted beings, actually reinforces the feeling while also lending more “fantasy” to the world, so the combination works well.</p>
<p><em>Sweet Silver Blues</em> doesn’t have the grit and sense of impending doom of the <em>Black Company</em> books, instead going for sardonic comedy, which Cook doesn’t carry off quite as well.</p>
<p>That being said, the novel is a fun read and definitely worthwhile if you like either fantasy or noir. If you like both, you’ll have a blast.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-bitter-gold-hearts/">Bitter Gold Hearts</a></em></p>
Voices in my head2007-05-09T01:57:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/voices/
<p>Andrea got the brilliant idea of taking the heads off some of her (plastic) ponies today, then having me reassemble them with the wrong color head on the wrong color body.</p>
<p>Okey-dokey.</p>
<p>After she’d played with her mutant ponies for a while, her voice got excited and loud:</p>
<p>Pony 1: “My head is on the wrong body!”</p>
<p>Pony 2: “My head is on the wrong body, too!”</p>
<p>Pony 1: “We have the same voice!”</p>
<p>Pony 2: “Yes! We do!”</p>
Review: Dead I Well May Be2007-05-07T20:48:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-dead-i-well-may-be/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0743470567%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0743470567%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Dead I Well May Be</a></em> is a new generation of hard-boiled noir, featuring a young Irishman brought over to early-nineties New York to work as muscle for a mobster.</p>
<p>Adrian McKinty’s strong and fast-moving debut benefits greatly from his writing style, with a strong sense of place and a great ear for the Irish dialect and idioms. The plot is fast and furious, with great pacing and inevitability. It’s one of those novels that keep you reading way too late into the night.</p>
<p><em>Dead I Well May Be</em> does suffer a bit from the narrator’s lack of pathos, coming across more as if he’s suffering from Asperger’s than from a violent childhood in Belfast during the Troubles.</p>
<p>That aside, though, it’s a gripping read.</p>
Review: Judas Unchained2007-05-02T22:11:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/review-judas-unchained/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0345461673%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0345461673%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Judas Unchained</a></em> is Peter F. Hamilton’s continuation of the story begun in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0345479211%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0345479211%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Pandora’s Star</a></em> and it is utterly brilliant. Like <em>Pandora’s Star</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-pandoras-star/">my review here</a>), <em>Judas Unchained</em> is huge, sprawling, and realized with an uncanny eye for detail.</p>
<p>It is also faster-paced than <em>Pandora’s Star</em>, which had to spend a lot of time and energy in setting up the universe and the characters.</p>
<p>Not only is Hamilton a first-class universe-builder, but his plotting is also incredibly strong, and he creates sharply-drawn characters, both human and alien.</p>
<p>This is the gold standard for science fiction. If you enjoy the genre at all, you owe it to yourself to read these novels.</p>
<p>The one problem, and it’s not one that can be blamed on Hamilton, is that the cover for <em>Judas Unchained</em> doesn’t emphasize enough that this is the second volume in a novel, and it barrels straight into the action, leaving a reader who hasn’t read <em>Pandora’s Star</em> completely adrift. Caveat SF nerd.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-pandoras-star/">Pandora’s Star</a></em></p>
Car alarm yadda yadda2007-05-02T20:52:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/05/car-alarm-yadda-yadda/
<p>The key ring bits on both fobs for my car alarm <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/04/youve-had-your-car-too-long-when/">broke a little while ago</a>. After scientific investigation had proved that duct tape, surprisingly, is not a viable fix for broken fobs, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a new fob from Code-Alarm, the manufacturer of the particular alarm in the car.</p>
<p>$70 for a new fob. Okay. Sure. Just get me out of duct tape hell.</p>
<p>After a few days the new fob arrived, and that’s when the whole experience turned into a bad episode of <em>Seinfeld</em>.</p>
<p>The new fob—an Audiovox-branded unit, for some reason—came with four pages of instructions on how to reprogram the alarm system. Great. Found the valet switch and followed the instructions.</p>
<p>The instructions that did nothing.</p>
<p>Called Code-Alarm’s tech support and got a gruff New Yorker on the line. The instructions would in fact not work with a Code-Alarm system. Tech support guy gave me completely different instructions. Followed those instructions. No go.</p>
<p>It should be added here that the fear when you’re jimmying with your car alarm is that you may inadvertently lock yourself out of the old fob without having the new one working. Which would suck.</p>
<p>Called Code-Alarm back. Got a different gruff New Yorker. Couldn’t do anything for me without knowing the exact model of the alarm system. OK. How do I find that out? By taking the car in to a Code-Alarm reseller and having them visually inspect it.</p>
<p>OK. Googled for a Code-Alarm reseller in the area. Found page after page of spammy car alarm slash car stereo companies that were located god-knows-where.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Honda dealer who put the damn thing in the car in the first place would have a record? Called them up. The whole idea that they would actually keep records of such piddly details was apparently silly beyond contempt. OK. So how much to rip out the car alarm and put in a new one? Car alarms started at $499.</p>
<p>Right.</p>
<p>$499.</p>
<p>Called up the Ultimate Electronics store that put the <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/02/all-your-podcasts-are-belong-to-us/">iPod deck in the car</a>. Got any cheap car alarms? Have one for $149 installed.</p>
<p>Sold.</p>
<p>So the car has a new alarm system for $149 that came with two fobs. And I’m out an extra $70 for the useless fob.</p>
<p>Am trying to work up the energy to call Code-Alarm back and demand a refund.</p>
<p>The worst thing about the whole chain of events is that I should have just put in a new alarm system years ago.</p>
<p>See, the Code-Alarm unit had this “feature” where it armed itself after 90 seconds. Sounds good, right? If you’re a scatter brain and forget to arm your alarm, it does it for you. Sweet. Of course, it didn’t lock the doors, just armed itself. But we all know how people come running to find out what’s going on whenever a car alarm goes off, so that was no problem.</p>
<p>This “feature” means that when you fill the car with gas, the alarm has armed itself. And when you have a small child, you will <em>never</em> enter or exit your vehicle in under 90 seconds, so the arm/disarm happy dance is there for you to enjoy every single time you go anywhere.</p>
<p>Annoying? Meh. Perhaps.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, I called the Honda dealer right after my daughter was born and asked them if this “feature” could perhaps be turned off? Noper. See, the dealership had started selling some other brand, and nobody working there at that point would have been able to tell a Code-Alarm system from a hole in the ground.</p>
<p>Sometimes you just have to listen to your inner voice.</p>
<p>Beep beep.</p>
Wii first impressions2007-04-24T20:50:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/wii-first-impressions/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/wii-logo.png" height="49" width="105" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Wii Logo" title="Wii Logo" />
<p>Thanks to an early-rising wife, the household has now been blessed with a <a href="http://www.wii.com/">Wii</a>. Here are some first impressions:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The out of the box experience is great—it feels a lot like an Apple product, even down to the abundant clean white and sans-serif font.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Setting up the unit is a slick process, with the Wii walking you through all the necessary settings in a friendly way. Again, it feels like an Apple product.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It’s all about the remotes. It just can’t be said enough. All. About. The. Remotes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It’s tons of fun.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>That being said, there are two things off the bat to quibble about:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The remotes are way too slick. They get very slippery. It would be nice to have some kind of rubberized surface to make them less hand-torpedo-like.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It sure isn’t a graphics powerhouse. But it matters less than you’d think.</p>
</li>
</ul>
You’ve had your car too long when...2007-04-19T16:31:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/youve-had-your-car-too-long-when/
<p>… both of the key fobs have broken.</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/broken-fob.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Broken Fob" title="Broken Fob" />
<p><br /><em>This is madness! This is a broken fob!</em></p>
<p>Both fobs are broken for the alarm system in my car. Called Code Alarm, the manufacturer, only to be informed that they no longer make that model, so instead of getting a new case to slip in the old electronics, I have to get a whole new fob and reprogram the car alarm to use it.</p>
<p>Total damage to the credit card: $71.50.</p>
<p>Yes, the gunk visible on the fob is the remnant of duct tape. Sigh. At least the car isn’t bondi. Yet.</p>
Desert roses2007-04-16T20:43:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/desert-roses/
<p>It’s that wonderful time of year again when the desert blooms and the temperature is still within human-tolerable ranges.</p>
<p>Here are two pictures from my back yard:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/desert-rose2007.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/desert-rose2007.jpg’,’popup’,’width=676,height=1023,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/desert-rose2007-tm.jpg" height="605" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Desert Rose" title="Desert Rose" /></a></p>
<p><br /><em>Prickly Pear rose. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/pink-fairy-duster.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/pink-fairy-duster.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=676,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pink-fairy-duster-tm.jpg" height="264" width="400" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Pink Fairy Duster" title="Pink Fairy Duster" /></a></p>
<p><br /><em>Pink Fairy Duster in bloom. Click for larger version.</em></p>
No sex until marriage doesn’t seem to work2007-04-14T01:41:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/no-sex-until-marriage-doesnt-seem-to-work/
<blockquote>
<p>The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In news not likely to surprise anybody who actually remembers being a teenager, a study has found that abstinence before marriage <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_go_ot/abstinence_study">programs don’t work</a>.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know, I’ll give you minute to wrap your head around that.</p>
<p>Turns out, teenagers are horny.</p>
<p>Again, a minute to wrap your heads around that.</p>
<p>The tragedy here is that teens who only get the abstinence message are <em>less likely to use condoms.</em> It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the teens who are subjected to abstinence “education” want to resist “sin” and be “pure” and whatever other words are used to describe sex, and fit in with the adult expectations that are made on them.</p>
<p>But then, somehow, they end up alone together, and <em>four billion years of sexual evolution</em> and every hormone in their bodies take over, and squishiness happens.</p>
<p>Without forethought, without planning, without protection, and most scarily of all, without any real understanding of what happened. Leading to sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancies, and psychological scarring.</p>
<p>Wanting to teach teenagers about morality is a good idea.</p>
<p>Withholding knowledge from teenagers because it’ll put “bad thoughts” in their heads is nothing but pure dark ages insanity.</p>
<p>The story linked above really struck a chord with me, as I have burned in my brain a conversation that happened in Lafayette, Louisiana, when I was doing an internship in the newsroom of a TV station.</p>
<p>For some reason the topic of discussion in the newsroom had turned to sex ed, and the weather man, a very distinguished and seemingly sane gentleman who was the father of two teenage daughters, said, and I’m paraphrasing†: “They shouldn’t teach sexual education in school. If they don’t, the kids won’t know about it.”</p>
<p>Need another minute? OK.</p>
<p>That’s the kind of thinking that led to $176 million of your tax dollars being spent on something this harmful.</p>
<p>†It’s been 15 years. Cut me some slack.</p>
Review: The Sundering2007-04-09T21:40:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/review-the-sundering/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0380820218%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0380820218%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Sundering: Dread Empire’s Fall</a></em> continues the story begun in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=038082020X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/038082020X%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Praxis</a></em> (my review <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/04/review-the-praxis/">here</a>) about the fall of the Shaa Empire.</p>
<p>As the title suggests, things are not going well for the empire.</p>
<p>Like its predecessor, <em>The Sundering</em> is pure and gleeful Space Opera, with a galaxy-spanning empire, huge space battles, and nefarious aliens.</p>
<p>Walter Jon Williams attempts and to some extent succeeds in drawing multifaceted portraits of both his protagonists and the society in which they operate, separating the series from run-of-the-mill Space Opera, but the time the novel spends on the political aspects of the empire’s falling apart, and the stagnation and corruption rampant among the highest levels of society, does slow it down a bit.</p>
<p>However, the action sequences are extremely well written and paced.</p>
<p>If you liked <em>The Praxis</em>, you’ll like <em>The Sundering.</em></p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/04/review-the-praxis/">The Praxis</a></em></p>
Review: The Praxis2007-04-09T19:16:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/review-the-praxis/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=038082020X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/038082020X%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Dread Empire’s Fall: The Praxis</a></em> is pure and unabashed space opera.</p>
<p>The concept is that a race of aliens called the Shaa have dominated and subjugated other species for millennia under the guise of their religion called The Praxis.</p>
<p>The first line of The Praxis reads: <em>All that important is known.</em> So, the Shaa are not exactly into new things, and the empire they have created, with a rigid caste system and merciless punishments for wrongdoers rots at the core as the Shaa die out.</p>
<p>It’s a nice setup.</p>
<p>Most of <em>The Praxis</em> is taken up with setting up the milieu and introducing the major characters, and moves fairly slowly. Walter Jon Williams writes clearly and economically, and really shines in the action sequences, which are taut and tense.</p>
<p>All in all, if you like Space Opera, <em>The Praxis</em> will keep your interest.</p>
She’s beautiful! Let’s name her Metallica2007-04-06T02:25:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/shes-beautiful-lets-name-her-metallica/
<p><strong>Update:</strong> They fought the law and they won. The couple’s daughter is now officially named Metallica. <strong>/Update</strong></p>
<p>A couple in Sweden have, for whatever reason, decided to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070403/ap_on_fe_st/baby_metallica">name their baby daughter Metallica.</a></p>
<p>The problem (for them, not their daughter, who obviously is going to have whole other set of problems) is that the Swedish National Tax Board have refused to let the couple register the name.</p>
<p>A non-Swede would be excused to ask, “What does a Tax Board have to do with this?”</p>
<p>Allow me to explain. Basically the way things work in Sweden is that no matter what the issue, there’s a government agency to take care of you. Some people kept giving their children ridiculous names that caused them to be mocked and ridiculed. So a government agency was given the authority to oversee names in the interest of making sure that children weren’t given names that could cause hardship later in life.</p>
<p>Those people are obviously still on the job.</p>
<p>The thing I always wonder about is how they handle immigrant names. If Abdul and Hined move to Sweden from some faraway land, and then choose to name their child after the arab version of Metallica, how would the Swedish National Tax Board know?</p>
<p>I’m guessing there’s an efficient bureaucracy leaving no stone unturned, with consultants brought in from all over the world as needed, able to discern that a child’s name actually means Frigtard in Hindi…</p>
April Fools2007-04-01T05:12:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/april-fools/
<p>If you are even <em>thinking</em> about committing some sort of April Fool’s Day Prank on the Internet, think again.</p>
<p>Here’s the deal: Are you a professional comedian? Do people often tell you that hey, “You are so funny you should be on stage!” If you answered no to both these questions, you should not come up with some kind of “funny” April Fools-type joke and think you’re doing anybody any kind of favor by sharing your wit.</p>
<p>Just step away from the blog editor.</p>
<p>Thank you. The rest of the world appreciates your sacrifice.</p>
Done with movie theaters2007-04-01T02:59:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/04/done-with-movie-theaters/
<p>Yesterday I went to see <em>300</em>. Paid my money down and went in to see the show. After that, I’m done with movie theaters. Not movies. Movie theaters.</p>
<p>What broke the camel’s back?</p>
<p>Was it spending good money and then being forced to sit through 15 minutes of trailers for movies I have no intention whatsoever of ever seeing? No.</p>
<p>Was it the overpriced popcorn and soda? No.</p>
<p>Was it having ushers walk around during the movie to make sure I wasn’t bootlegging? No.</p>
<p>It was you, my fellow breeders.</p>
<p>The couple who decided that bringing an infant to a movie would be a <em>great</em> idea. Who could possibly be disturbed by your infant’s crying? <em>Turns out, everybody, actually.</em></p>
<p>The crying infant some self-absorbed ass decided to bring to the movie was a bit of a distraction from the whole, you know, actually watching-the-movie-I-paid-good-money-for bit, but it’s not the worst.</p>
<p>See, I know there are a lot of idiots out there breeding. People who can’t hang on to a driver’s license are popping out kids and being allowed to keep them. These people apparently have not managed to comprehend this whole movie rating system thing we have going on in the States. The one where a movie being rated R means that kids should absolutely <em>not</em> be allowed to see it. There will be content in that movie that a child simply is not ready for.</p>
<p>As a bonus, if you go see an R-rated movie at a movie theater, guess what kind of movies you get trailers for? Ah, yes, you there in the back of the class? That’s right! Other R-rated movies! And what kind of movies usually end up with R-ratings? Oh, don’t all answer at once… Horror movies! That’s right. So apart from the content of a movie like <em>300</em> where, for the love of all that is holy, <em>the title is spelled out in blood spatters</em>, if you were to take your underage child to see it, he or she would also have to sit through about 15 minutes of crank-bump-stab-Satan previews.</p>
<p>Awesome idea.</p>
<p>As a parent myself, I’m just flabbergasted at the idiots that bring their three-year-olds to fare like <em>Saving Private Ryan</em> or <em>Starship Troopers</em> or <em>300</em>. What, if anything, are you thinking?</p>
<p>Perhaps you should suck it up about being a parent and realize that you won’t be able to watch a lot of movies until they come out on DVD and you can rent them when Junior is asleep? And that yes, sometimes it’s hard to have an infant, and it would be great to get out of the house, but that unless you throw down for a baby sitter or go one at a time to the movies, perhaps your one-month-old should not be allowed to turn $7 into shit for a whole theater full of people?</p>
<p>So if you’re one of those people, I truly hope the <acronym title="Child Protection Agency">CPA</acronym> comes for you sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Oh, and enjoy your child’s adolescence. Payback’s going to be a bitch. And you deserve every moment.</p>
<p>Until then, I’m done with having you ruin my movie watching experience. I’ll rather watch the thing six months later on a laptop wearing head phones if it’ll allow me to forget about your miserable existence.</p>
Review: 3002007-03-31T01:28:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/review-300/
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0416449/">300</a></em> is based on a graphic novel, which is both its strength and weakness. Strength, in that the movie is stuffed full of gorgeous visuals, and weakness in that the plot is, ahem, cartoonish. The characters never become anything but stereotypes, which is a real shame as there is a lot of psychological gold to quarry from Spartan society and its more outré ideas.</p>
<p>The movie must also break some sort of record when it comes to slow-motion ultra-violence. Not even Tarantino has been able to concoct so much stylized blood splatter.</p>
<p>All in all, <em>300</em> is popcorn. Visually arresting and sometimes gripping, but with the depth of the face of Xerxes on a traitor’s coin.</p>
<p>It’s also kind of oddly gay feeling†. Oddly, since none of the Spartans does anything remotely non-heterosexual. After a while it struck me that the lingering gayness comes from not their fabulously sculpted abs of fury, but their hairlessness. None of the Spartans have chest hair. Which is a bit odd since the Greek in general are not known for lacking body hair. The cast obviously worked very hard on their physiques, so perhaps it natural for them to want show off their abs and pecs without distracting hair. Who knows?</p>
<p>Either way, if you’re in the mood for something very large and loud, <em>300</em> certainly delivers.</p>
<p>†Not that there’s anything wrong with that.</p>
<a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0416449/">
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/300_poster.jpg" alt="300 Poster" />
</a>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-gates-of-fire/">Gates of Fire</a></em></p>
Review: The Undercover Economist2007-03-27T03:29:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/review-the-undercover-economist/
<p>Tim Harford’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0195189779%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0195189779%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Undercover Economist</a></em> is an interesting and breezy read which attempts to explain the basics of economic theory and how it applies to the everyday world. Unfortunately while it is being marketed as a hands-on book akin to <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0061234001%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0061234001%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Freakonomics</a></em>, the real-life examples in the book are really only there to ground some of the author’s theorizing, which is very different from the work done in <em>Freakonomics.</em></p>
<p>Nevertheless, Harford does a good job of making the basics of economic theory interesting and accessible, and while the concepts he covers are very basic, his explanations are lively and interesting.</p>
<p>The problem with <em>The Undercover Economist</em> is that it isn’t so much a book as a series of unrelated essays, which makes it disjointed and choppy.</p>
<p>Refreshingly, Harford is upfront about his predilection for free trade and the benefits to be derived thereof. Perhaps it was never his intention, as the book delves with the basics of economic theory, but it would have been nice to see him do a more thorough job of shoring up his beliefs with examples.</p>
<p>All in all, <em>The Undercover Economist</em> is a brief and interesting but ultimately disjointed read.</p>
<p>A warning: If, like me, you purchase it due to it being marketed as a close kin of <em>Freakonomics</em>, you will probably be disappointed.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-freakonomics/">Freakonomics</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/08/review-fooled-by-randomness/">Fooled by Randomness</a></em></p>
The voice in the wilderness2007-03-22T16:48:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/the-voice-in-the-wilderness/
<p>Came across this piece of graffiti on campus last night, and was taken by the desolation:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/thepathetictagger.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/thepathetictagger.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1023,height=819,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/thepathetictagger-tm.jpg" height="320" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="I’m Me" title="I’m Me" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Click for larger version</em></p>
<p>I’m guessing our author either flunked remedial English, or wants somebody to send an instant message.</p>
My mighty, mighty navel2007-03-13T18:59:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/my-mighty-mighty-navel/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/picture-1.png" height="65" width="221" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Twitter Logo" title="Twitter Logo" />
<p>After a nudge from <a href="http://www.joemullins.com/">Joe</a>, I decided to give <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> a shot. Twitter, of course, is the current darling of the nerdosphere, where you can post short “what you are doing” messages and then see what others are saying that they’re doing.</p>
<p>Ahem.</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t get it either. But it is amusing in a weird sort of way.</p>
<p>I’ve added a link to <a href="http://twitter.com/niclindh">my Twitter page</a> on the sidebar.</p>
<p>If you roll on a Mac, the best way to Twitter is to use <a href="http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific">Twitterrific</a>, a free little app that puts your Twitter-stream on your desktop. Looks pretty nice, too.</p>
Boosters activated2007-03-12T17:12:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/boosters-activated/
<p>Another milestone for Andrea: she’s large enough now that we switched her over from child seats to booster seats in the cars.</p>
<p>The huge bonus for her is that she can buckle and unbuckle herself now, which causes no end of merriment.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/retired-child-seats.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/retired-child-seats.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/retired-child-seats-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Retired Child Seats" title="Retired Child Seats" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Faithful servants lined up for their last farewell.</em><br /></p>
<p><em>Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>I used to let Andrea eat in the car, which my wife never allowed in hers. Can you spot which seat came out of which car?</p>
More cat drama2007-03-11T03:41:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/more-cat-drama/
<p>We got home yesterday ready for a relaxing Friday evening and a weekend of nothing much planned. To find that one of the cats had peed and pooped in our bathroom and in the newspaper basket. After a while we figured out that Isis was the culprit, but why would she do such a thing?</p>
<p>The cat litter box is always kept reasonably clean, so it shouldn’t be some kind of protest about that, we figured. But hey, sometimes weirdness happens, so we decided to wait for a re-occurrence. Which happened this morning.</p>
<p>My fear was that she had developed feline diabetes and would have to be <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/putting-turbo-to-sleep/">put down just like Turbo</a>, which would <em>suck.</em> But as she was having bowel movements as well, that didn’t seem likely. Hopefully.</p>
<p>So, long story short, $260 later the X-rays show she’s constipated.</p>
<p>So they gave her an enema.</p>
<p>(Yes: <em>Ewwwww.</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis-bad-day.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/isis-bad-day.jpg’,’popup’,’width=768,height=1024,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis-bad-day-tm.jpg" height="400" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Right now I’m pretty f**ing far from okay" title="Right now I’m pretty f**ing far from okay" /></a></p>
<br />
<p><em>I just had an enema. How’s your day going?</em><br /><em>Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>But wait, it gets better.</p>
<p>The idea is that the enema will have flushed her out, and the stoppage will break down into, ehm, manageable pieces. But it might not. In which case she might strain so hard she <em>breaks her rectum.</em> That’s right.</p>
<p>If this happens, we’ll notice it since a piece of pink tissue will stick out from her behind. And it’s a very, very bad thing, so we’ll have to take her to the pet hospital immediately.</p>
<p>So while you’re going about your weekend business doing whatever it is you do, I’ll be watching my cat’s behind.</p>
You know you’re a parent...2007-03-09T02:43:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/you-know-youre-a-parent/
<p>You know you’re a parent when you hear your wife exclaim, “Wow! What a beautiful poop!” and you consider it completely normal.</p>
Early morning coffee2007-03-07T03:31:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/early-morning-coffee/
<p>At the Salt Mines where I work we have free coffee. Good coffee, even. Brand-name stuff. Did I mention it’s free? Just go down to the cafeteria and suck up all the caffeine you can stand without spending a dime.</p>
<p>Not. A. Dime.</p>
<p>Great, huh? Medium roast. Dark Roast. All kinds of weird anti-testosterone blends. Sugar. Milk. Cream. Whatever you could possibly want for your particular coffee fix.</p>
<p>Bearing this in mind, I keep running across people who have … who have … oh, dear Lord … <em>stopped on their way to work to buy a cup of coffee</em>. Really. Yep. No, no, it’s true. See it every day. Your work provides all the coffee you could possibly need or want, and you decide out of your own volition to stop your car on the way to work and <em>pay</em> for coffee.</p>
<p>Now, I have a long commute. Looooong. Painful. And yet I am able to wait until I get to work to pick up the free coffee. It seems that my entire being will not self-destruct if I don’t spend $4 on coffee on the way to a place where free coffee awaits me.</p>
<p>So what is the deal here? Much as I try, I just can’t wrap my head around why somebody would <em>elect</em> to pay $4 for absolutely no reason whatsoever apart from being able to carry a coffee cup with a different label on it. If you needed it that bad, why don’t I see you drinking any more coffee the rest of the day? How can that morning cup contain the magic elixir that keeps you alive, but then you don’t need another for 24 hours?</p>
<p>So here’s the big question: Can I have your money? You obviously have no idea what to do with it, so please give it to me. The first thing I will do is to <em>not</em> spend $4 per day on something I can get <em>for free</em> at work. That adds up to $20 per week, which is $80 per month, perilously close to a cool grand per year.</p>
<p>You can buy real stuff they don’t give you <em>for free</em> at work for that kind of money.</p>
<p>Just saying.</p>
Movie roundup, part two2007-03-05T20:33:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/03/movie-round-up-2/
<p>A brief round-up of movies that have recently flickered into my brain:</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0407887/">The Departed:</a></strong> Well made, well scripted, and well acted. Also well depressing.</p>
<p>Note to self: Don’t go to Boston.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0326905/">The Great Raid:</a></strong> Based on the powerful book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=038549565X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/038549565X%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Ghost Soldiers</a></em>. Does a pretty good job of capturing the brutality of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and the Bataan Death March, although the characterizations and motivations of the people involved could have been much more fleshed out.</p>
<p>The flatness of the characters make it a forgettable movie, which is too bad as the story—and the real people it depicts—deserve much more.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/bastardsoftheparty/index.html">Bastards of the Party:</a></strong> In this HBO Special a gang member explores the roots and causes of black gang violence in Los Angeles. The answers he finds may (or may not) surprise you. Hint: Racism, drugs, the FBI, and globalization.</p>
<p>It’s a touching movie, although the pace is a bit languid, and let’s face it: it’s difficult to work up much empathy for rabid thugs with Uzis. That whole “throw-a-gang-sign-as-soon-as-you-see-a-camera” thing gets real old real fast.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0405296/">A Scanner Darkly:</a></strong> Psychotic druggies living in a paranoid surveillance state.</p>
<p>Made my skin crawl.</p>
<p><em>A Scanner Darkly</em> is arguably the Philip K. Dick movie adaptation most true to the feel of his work. This means it’s creepy, paranoid, and hopeless.</p>
<p>Enjoy your popcorn.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0203119/">Sexy Beast:</a></strong> Ben Kingsley once played Gandhi. In <em>Sexy Beast</em> he plays the most scary-psychotic thug you ever saw in your life.</p>
<p>Well worth watching just to be happy that’s not your life, and for the tour de force performance Ben Kingsley puts in. I will fear him forever.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0430357/">Miami Vice:</a></strong> Grittier than the TV series (but then what isn’t?). Gorgeous photo work and a plot that keeps your interest.</p>
<p>Colin Farell mostly looks hung over.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0375912/">Layer Cake:</a></strong> Creepy British gangsters wreak havoc and misery on everything they touch.</p>
<p>Well conceived and executed, a lot like <em>Snatch</em>, but with less frenetic energy and almost completely devoid of humor, instead possessing extra helpings of that uniquely British sense of futility.</p>
<p>Note to self: Avoid upsetting Serbian gangsters.</p>
Doing it for free2007-02-27T20:11:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/02/doing-it-for-free/
<p>Having an <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2007/02/all-your-podcasts-are-belong-to-us/">iPod-enabled car</a> with its attendant enjoyment of all sorts of time-and-location-shifted content on my commute has me thinking about how fine the line is between easy and hard, and how much that affects behavior.</p>
<p>Downloading a podcast to iTunes then burning it to CD is enough of a pain that I won’t do it except in special circumstances. Just connecting the iPod, having everything happen magically, and then having the content in the car means I will do it.</p>
<p>Got a podcast? I’ll check it out. If I don’t like it, there’s no sunk cost.</p>
<p>It’s the same thing as the difference between a <acronym title="Video Cassette Recorder">VCR</acronym> and a <acronym title="Digital Video Recorder">DVR</acronym>. Technically, they do the same thing, but its the comparative ease with which they do it that makes all the difference in the world. Time-shifting content on a VCR means figuring out how to program it, checking every week to make sure the frigtards at the network didn’t change the time your show comes on†, and making sure you’re not going to run out of tape.</p>
<p>Very much doable, but enough of a chore that it has to be a great show for you to go through the hassle. On a DVR, it’s a matter of clicking a button and the machine handles it for you. <em>Badabim!</em></p>
<p>Just goes to show that the reason Apple is kicking butt in the areas of the consumer market it has entered is that the big computer manufacturers don’t understand the difference between consumers and employees—a consumer does things when they are easy or fun to do, whereas an employee does things because <em>they’ll be fired if they don’t.</em></p>
<p>If your product technically can do something, but it’s a pain to actually accomplish, most consumers will <em>not</em> buy it, since their friends, along with a whole Internet of people who are early adopters, will tell them what a clunker your product is.</p>
<p>Compare this with an IT manager who will buy something for 5,000 seats if it has the right checkbox in the feature list.</p>
<hr />
<p>†Seriously, why do they keep moving shows around? Is viewer loyalty that elusive a concept?</p>
All your podcasts are belong to us2007-02-25T00:59:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/02/all-your-podcasts-are-belong-to-us/
<p>After years of yearning, I finally broke down and put an iPod-enabled head unit in my car. After much gnashing of teeth, I ended up going with the <a href="http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=CDA-9857">Alpine CDA-9857</a>. It’s an okay unit—the iPod integration works well, and above all is fast. There’s very little lag when scrolling through lists or switching songs.</p>
<p>iPod integration in the car is everything I dreamed it would be. Having 15 gigs of tunage in your car is enough to make you think there might be such a thing as happiness. And being able to easily push podcasts onto the unit means that you are unshackled from the whimsies of radio and can listen to things that actually interest you while navigating the madness that is Phoenix freeways. Massive, massive win.</p>
<p>I have two iPods: a black four-gig Nano and a third-gen 15 gig I bought on its release date, the last day I worked at the Apple store. The 15-gigger has been gathering dust since its battery now only lasts five minutes on a good day. But since the Alpine deck charges the unit while it’s playing, battery life is not an issue, and it is now back in useful service.</p>
<p>It’s now named CarPod, natch.</p>
<p>If you have a long commute, do yourself a favor and by an iPod kit for your car. Really. It changes everything.</p>
<p>On the flipside, using a head unit like the Alpine really makes you appreciate the ingeniousness of the iPod interface—there’s no menu button to take you one step up so you can quickly pick another song in the current album, oh no. And there’s no memory of where you are, so if you’re listening to an album that starts with a Y and you hit the album selector, you end up at the start of the alphabet. This is surprisingly irritating.</p>
<p>The rest of the unit also seems to have been created by monkeys on crack. It has <em>all kinds</em> of features that you’ll <em>never</em> need, like the ability to put in your birthday so the thing can show a happy birthday message. Right. Great. Gotta have that. It will also supposedly greet you with a Merry Christmas. Fantastico. The drawback is that things like changing the bass and treble are hidden behind five layers of menus. Cause, you know, who ever adjusts those?</p>
<p>To add to the infuriating frigtardness of the design, there’s no one “select” button. That would apparently be way too convenient, so sometimes it’s the “play” button, and sometimes it’s the “mode” button, and sometimes it’s some other random button. Just to keep you on your toes, you know. Because apparently there’s nothing better for road safety than keeping drivers tapping on their head unit.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the magic of the iPod and podcasts more than makes up for it. Best $400 I ever spent.</p>
Review: What the Dormouse Said2007-02-18T01:27:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/02/review-what-the-dormouse-said/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0143036769%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0143036769%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">What the Dormouse Said</a></em> is the story of the very early days of the computer revolution, and of how the zeitgeist of California in the sixties affected the direction taken by early computing. While there’s been much written about the personal computer industry of the seventies and eighties, the late fifties and early sixties haven’t received all that much attention despite the groundbreaking work done during that era.</p>
<p>John Markoff has done a fantastic research job for <em>What the Dormouse Said</em>, and as usual writes with economy and grace. The problem with <em>What the Dormouse Said</em> is that Markoff covers too much ground—there are so many characters and so many threads in the book that it becomes overwhelming and difficult to follow.</p>
<p>That being said, it’s still very much worth reading if you’re interested in the history of computing.</p>
How to spot movies that stink2007-02-17T02:25:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/02/how-to-spot-movies-that-stink/
<p>Hollywood, in its infinite wisdom, manages to plow ludicrous amounts of money into movies that should never have been made. So how do you, the consumer, spot these turds before spending your hard-earned money at the theater?</p>
<p>Easy. The more money has been spent on a movie and the crappier it is, the more money will be spent on advertising for the movie before it opens.</p>
<p>The rule of thumb is, the earlier ads for a movie show up, the worse that movie is. The amount of advertising that shows up is related to how much money has already been sunk into the stink bomb. If you are mathematically inclined, feel free to put that into a formula.</p>
<p>So, if a month before “Death Mega Watch” opens at a friendly multiplex near you, you start seeing ads for it, it is probably crap. Increase the crap factor each time you see an ad for “Death Mega Watch,” and if you watch a lot of TV you’ll probably be able to predict pretty accurately just how bad the movie is.</p>
<p>Why do the studios waste money like that? Simple. They know they have a stinker on their hands, and they know that word of mouth is going to kill them, so they want to pack the theaters as full as possible on opening weekend. After opening weekend, only people without friends to warn them off will see these abominations.</p>
The tortellini incident2007-02-13T22:49:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/02/the-tortellini-incident/
<p>Or, how to develop an ulcer in three days.</p>
<p>Like a lot of children, Andrea is <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/10/eat-it/">very picky about her food.</a> As I firmly believe that we, as humans, should savor our omnivore status, and also since I would like my daughter to not perish from a nutrition-deficiency-caused illness, I want her to at least, for the love of all that is holy and right, <em>try the food</em>. Just try it.</p>
<p>Things came to a head a little while ago. As I do the cooking on weekdays, and am torn between getting something on the table quickly after a hard day at work, and of providing a decent variety of foods on the table, it seemed like frozen Costco foods would make an excellent addition to the arsenal. Picked up a couple of different varieties.</p>
<p>Including tortellini. Awesome. Just heat it up in a wok, and tasty, tasty chicken tortellini would fill our stomachs.</p>
<p>At least that was my happy fantasy while walking the aisles at Costco explaining that, No, you can’t get a new Barbie today. Or a new doll house. Or a new princess dress.</p>
<p>We got home and I heated the tortellini. It was yummy. But the princess wanted absolutely none of it. None. I explained that it was chicken and pasta, just like the chicken nuggets and spaghetti she sometimes deigns to eat. No go.</p>
<p>Would not even touch it. No way. Tears.</p>
<p>So I told her that this was what we were having for dinner, and if she didn’t want to eat it, she would go to bed hungry.</p>
<p>No way. Tears.</p>
<p>So I backtracked. If she would only <em>try it</em> I would get her something else to eat.</p>
<p>No way. Tears.</p>
<p>Well, honey, in that case you’re going to have to go to bed hungry.</p>
<p>OK. Anything to not have to eat the tortellini.</p>
<p>But we’ll have tortellini again tomorrow. And tortellini every day after that until you actually try it.</p>
<p>Fine.</p>
<p>So she went to bed hungry.</p>
<p>Next day, back to Costco for two more batches of tortellini. Heated a bag. No dice.</p>
<p>So she went to bed hungry. It’s like cooking for Gandhi.</p>
<p>The third day, daddy was a bit tired of tortellini. But she has to know that I mean what I say, so tortellini it was. Again.</p>
<p>Noper. Negatory. Not going to even taste one miserable bite.</p>
<p>At this point I’d had enough of tortellini, and enough of having dinner time be a battle field. So the big guns were brought out: if she didn’t try just one miserable, tiny bit of tortellini, there would be no more TV privileges <em>ever</em>, there would be no more candy on Saturdays <em>ever</em>, and there is no Santa.</p>
<p>OK, I didn’t say that last part.</p>
<p>Finally, with tears streaming down her cheeks, she relented and ate one tiny piece of tortellini.</p>
<p>It didn’t taste all that bad.</p>
<p>But we will not have tortellini again until she’s away to college.</p>
Review: The Tyranny of the Night2007-02-05T01:43:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/02/review-the-tyranny-of-the-night/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=076534596X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/076534596X%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Tyranny of the Night</a></em> is the first book of Glen Cook’s new series, <em>The Instrumentalities of the Night.</em></p>
<p>Cook is best known for his woefully under-appreciated and masterful <em>Black Company</em> series, which <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/07/the-black-company/">I think</a> should be turned into a mini-series for HBO. <em>The Tyranny of the Night</em> doesn’t reach those heights, and suffers from a sputtering and confusing beginning where he presents his new world and how it works. If you get through the rough start, though, it becomes an effective beginning of a new saga laden with the trademark Cook world-weary cynicism and meaty action.</p>
<p>Definitely worth checking out if you like your fantasy dark and raw.</p>
The future reality TV winner2007-01-27T04:07:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/01/my-future-reality-tv-winner/
<p>The people at Andrea’s pre-school have decided that being the parent of a toddler just isn’t stressful enough, so in order to ensure that all parents get enough stress in their daily lives, all the children do show-and-tell every Friday.</p>
<p>Which is great.</p>
<p>Because three- and four-year-olds are very good about picking things to bring for show-and-tell all by themselves. Sometimes they read the novels they wrote at coffee shops around town.</p>
<p>This means every Thursday night is a scramble for something, anything, she will want to bring to school to talk about.</p>
<p>There are only so many new toys at any particular point in time.</p>
<p><em>Deep breath.</em></p>
<p>This morning her show-and-tell was the Ballet Barbie with a skirt that rotates and lights up she had just gotten and which made her father doubt the existence of any kind of loving deity.</p>
<p>Great. Another week saved. Show-and-tell is covered!</p>
<p>So tonight at dinner I asked her how show-and-tell went.</p>
<p>“Fine.” (Remember: she’s <em>four</em>.)</p>
<p>“What did the other kids think about your show-and-tell?”</p>
<p>“They didn’t think that much about it.” Big smile. “But they loved it.”</p>
<p>Apart from, “That’s great, honey,” I’m not sure what you can say in response to that.</p>
Review: Den of Thieves2007-01-22T19:23:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/01/review-den-of-thieves/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=067179227X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/067179227X%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Den of Thieves</a></em> is the exhaustively researched story of the junk bond traders of the 80s and the damage they wrought on the stock market.</p>
<p>The author, James B. Stewart, covered the story for the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, and in this book he vastly expands on our understanding of the zeitgeist of the era, the perpetrators, and the means by which they committed their crimes. Stewart’s prose is low-key and fluid, allowing the characters of the traders and law enforcement officers to come to focus.</p>
<p><em>Den of Thieves</em> can be a bit of a slog at times, mostly due to the sheer amount of information—deal after crooked deal is described in unrelenting detail. Coupled with the highly technical nature and purposefully byzantine nature of the deals, keeping things straight in your head can be a bit of a challenge.</p>
<p>Where the book really shines is in describing, through their deeds, the almost demonic avarice and callousness of some of the corporate raiders of the 80s.</p>
<p>Scary reading.</p>
<hr />
<p>Releated Core Dump review:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-the-smartest-guys-in-the-room/">The Smartest Guys in the Room</a></em></p>
Welcome to the world2007-01-13T03:57:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/01/welcome-to-the-world/
<p>It feels so fantastic to welcome my niece to the world:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/elsa_charlotte_karlin.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/elsa_charlotte_karlin.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/elsa_charlotte_karlin-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Elsa Charlotte Karlin" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Elsa Charlotte Karlin, born January 11, 2007.</em><br /><em>Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>May she live a hundred years.</p>
Ice palace2007-01-11T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/01/ice-palace/
<p>This was the scene in Skövde, Sweden, on January 10, 1987:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/ice_palace.png" onclick="window.open('/images/ice_palace.png','popup','width=712,height=602,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ice_palace-tm.jpg" height="338" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Ice Palace" title="Ice Palace" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Ice Palace. Photo: Roland Svensson. Source: <a href="http://www.sla.se/">Skaraborgs Allehanda</a>.</em></p>
<br />
<p><em>Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>A fire broke out in a department store building on a day of temperatures of -20F (-30C). The cold was so bad that firefighters could only work 20-minute shifts, and there were still a few cases of frostbite.</p>
Bad Stevenote. No credit card2007-01-09T20:19:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/01/bad-stevenote-no-credit-card/
<p>The Macworld Expo 2007 keynote is over, and for the first time in years, there is nothing to lust after.</p>
<p>Sure, the <a href="http://www.apple.com/appletv/">Apple TV</a> looks nice, but if you rock it ghetto-style with a non-HD TV, you can’t play in that sandbox. Perhaps after the altar of stupidity in the house has been upgraded…</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/">iPhone</a> sure seems like a sweet little piece of tech, but it can’t beat the RAZR I have from work on one important count: The RAZR costs me $0.00. And since I already have a <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/">Nano</a> and absolutely love the form factor and that I can carry it on a lanyard, the fires of techno-lust are smothered and quenched.</p>
<p>At least now all the iPhone speculation can stop taking up space on the Internet, so that’s something.</p>
<p>Come on, Steve, talk dirty to me about Leopard…</p>
Boy are my arms tired2007-01-08T02:34:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2007/01/boy-are-my-arms-tired/
<p>Andrea and I have been back in Phoenix for a few days after yet another long flight. As opposed to last year’s <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/01/long-days-travel-to-night/">extended nervous breakdown</a>, we had a minimally-exhausting journey this time, including an unexpected bonus—thanks no doubt to my raw animal magnetism we were bumped to Business Class on the flight from Stockholm to Chicago.</p>
<p>I’d always operated under the assumption that traveling with a child would automatically take you out of the running for upgrades like that, but I’m very happy to have been wrong. Business Class, as you would expect, is a very different experience when it comes to flying. Ah yes. You are greeted on the flight with your choice of water, orange juice, or champagne. The meal has three courses, including a quite amusing appetizer. Your wine selection is served in a glass, not a plastic cup, and from a bottle, not a mini-bottle. After the meal, you are offered port. There is a buffet area if you get peckish between meals. The bathroom is large enough to be comfortable and has windows.</p>
<p>And most important of all, the seats … ah, the seats.</p>
<p>It must be good to be rich.</p>
The culinary final frontier2006-12-30T14:59:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/the-culinary-final-frontier/
<p>I’m a simple man, with simple tastes.</p>
<p>Keeping that in mind … friends, Romans, lend me your screens and allow me to show you the ultimate in human food:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/kebab_pizza.jpg" onclick="window.open('/images/kebab_pizza.jpg','popup','width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/kebab_pizza-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Kebab Pizza" title="Kebab Pizza" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Kebab pizza. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>Kebabs are delicious. Pizza is delicious. When you join these two forces of deliciousness together, what do you end up with?</p>
<p>That’s right. <em>Crazy delicious.</em> That’s what.</p>
<p>The little plastic container at the top of the picture contains another Swedish pizza specialty—a cabbage salad made with vinegar, oil, and spices that complements the pizza. It should be noted here that of course neither the pizza nor the salad are in any way Swedish inventions. Every pizzeria I’ve set foot in has been operated and run by immigrants from various middle- or far-Eastern countries.</p>
<p>I, for one, would like to thank them for their contributions to the culinary treasures of the world.</p>
Happy solstice!2006-12-25T10:10:07Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/happy-solstice-3/
<p>Here we go then, the longest night of the year is behind us, and the pig has been sacrificed and eaten.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/mini_santa.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/mini_santa.jpg’,’popup’,’width=768,height=1024,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/mini_santa-tm.jpg" height="533" width="400" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Mini Santa" title="Mini Santa" /></a></p>
<br />
<p><em>My nephew as Mini Santa. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>Hope all is well wherever you’re reading this.</p>
Remembering Carl Sagan2006-12-20T08:33:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/remembering-carl-sagan/
<p>December 20, 2006 marks the tenth anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death, and <a href="http://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2006/11/announcing-carl-sagan-memorial-blog.html">a blog-a-thon</a> about the work and impact of Dr. Sagan is being started.</p>
<p>His book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0345409469%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0345409469%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark</a></em> stands as one of the most lucid and uplifting celebrations of reason and science ever written, and is one of those books you read and then want to press into the hands of everybody around you.</p>
<p>Thank you, Dr. Sagan.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0345409469%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0345409469%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0345409469.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_V1122534507_.gif" /></a></p>
Frost on window pane2006-12-18T20:02:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/frost-on-window-pane/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/frost_on_windowpane.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/frost_on_windowpane.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/frost_on_windowpane-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Frost On Window Pane" title="Frost On Window Pane" /></a></p>
<p><br /><em>Frost on Window Pane. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>I like the composition on this one. Feels like Christmas.</p>
Dawn frost2006-12-18T19:56:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/dawn-frost/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/frosty_dawn.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/frosty_dawn.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/frosty_dawn-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Frosty Dawn" title="Frosty Dawn" /></a></p>
<p><br /><em>Frosty Dawn. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>Sweden is having one of those winters that further crush the souls of the indigenous people, where it’s dark—<em>oh, so dark</em>—chilly and wet, but the snow torments all with its absence.</p>
<p>But there’s still beauty to be found, as the picture above shows.</p>
Airport play park2006-12-16T08:59:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/airport-play-park/
<p>Airports aren’t exactly the most child-friendly places, but lots of people travel with children and end up trying to amuse them for hours on end while waiting for connecting flights.</p>
<p>During our marathon yesterday we ended up with two hours of dead time in Chicago O’Hare’s Terminal 5—two extra hours after we had taken the people mover, grabbed a burger at the airport Mickey D’s, and gone through security.</p>
<p>By some miracle Terminal 5 has been blessed with a tiny play park. There was a sign that said something about some artist group which I didn’t really get, but nevertheless: tiny play park. So Andrea started playing in there with some other children, and had two solid hours of fun, getting a lot of energy out of her system.</p>
<p>Watching a bunch of children from who-knows-where playing together was a treat, especially with the shape the world is in these days. “Tag! You’re it!” is universal.</p>
<p>So, if you happen to be a person with some pull at an airport, please consider putting in a little play park. There will be a lot of happier passengers.</p>
Arrived in Sweden2006-12-16T04:42:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/arrived-in-sweden/
<p>Just <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/12/posting-from-somewhere-over-the-atlantic/">like last year</a>, Andrea and I are spending the holidays in Sweden with my family.</p>
<p>It’s five thirty on Saturday morning here, and I’ve been up since four when the little jet lag alarm clock in my head decided to go off.</p>
<p>Had a really good flight with no problems except for my utter inability to sleep in any kind of vehicle including air planes. It’s kind of a long flight, and not being able to sleep makes it feel even longer.</p>
<p>Andrea was a total champ the entire time; the difference in maturity between three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half makes a lot of difference for exercises like this.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_sleeping_on_plane.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/andrea_sleeping_on_plane.jpg’,’popup’,’width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_sleeping_on_plane-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Andrea Sleeping On Plane" title="Andrea Sleeping On Plane" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Comfy sleep on an Airbus. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>As the picture shows, Andrea doesn’t share my sleep quirk—she slept for about two hours on the flight from Chicago to Stockholm. Which of course really isn’t enough, but she stayed cheerful through the entire journey.</p>
<p>Oh, and that’s my watch showing in the picture. Took it with Photobooth. Apparently CBB, the company that provides Internet connectivity on flights has decided to shutter their business at the end of the year for whatever reason, so the Internet connection on the flight was free. Yay, free Internet <em>and</em> sleeping child! Could things get any better? Turns out that yes, they could: even though the connection was free, you still had to create an account with CBB, including giving them your credit card number.</p>
<p>Hmmm … handing out my credit card number to a company that’s a few weeks away from closing? That doesn’t seem particularly bright, so no Internet for me.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, it seems that the Internet gets along okay even when I’m not on it for 24 hours. Who knew?</p>
The MacBook and the Apple curse2006-12-07T21:53:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/the-macbook-and-the-apple-curse/
<p>Back in Ice Age when I was a kid, we didn’t have remote controls for our TVs. You wanted to change the channel, you got your ass off the couch and pushed the analog button on the TV.</p>
<p>Too tired to get up? You’re watching whatever comes on after your show.</p>
<p>When remote controls first came on the scene, I scoffed. Scoffed, I say. “Who is that lazy?” I asked myself.</p>
<p>But of course things change and after a while what used to be a frivolous luxury becomes a necessity.</p>
<p>Which brings us to Apple. When they brought out the Aluminum PowerBooks they came with what were surely the most baroque “improvements” ever: A backlit keyboard and a light sensor that adjusts the screen brightness according to the ambient light.</p>
<p>I figured the backlit keyboard could, perhaps, be useful for typing on airplanes or if you’re hiding from the zombies in a darkened bunker in the burned out waste land that is all that remains of civilization, or something like that. But for everyday use? Sheesh. Real men touch type.</p>
<p>Now I’m testing a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macbook/macbook.html">MacBook</a> Amateur (i. e., not Pro†) for work, and was geeking out on the couch at home as the sun set. And then, as the room got darker, my display was too bright and I couldn’t see the keys!</p>
<p><em>The horror, the horror.</em></p>
<p>So, thanks, Apple, for raising yet another bar.</p>
<p>†I believe there ought to be a law that if you release a product with the word “professional” in the name, you should also be forced to release one called “amateur;” if you release a product with “advanced” in the name, you should also be forced to release one called “simple.”</p>
Gardening for dummies2006-12-02T20:23:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/gardening-for-dummies/
<p>One of my least favorite activities is yard maintenance, which means that it gets put off, which means that the yard looks worse and worse, which makes it less and less appealing to go out and do the maintenance, and the cycle continues.</p>
<p>We received a nasty-gram from the home owners association about the state of the front yard, which I thought was if not in great shape at least OK. But apparently one of the neighbors disagreed, so the jackboot of our invisible overseers came down.</p>
<p>So I’ve been dreading spending the weekend with my nemesis Mr. Hedge Trimmer.</p>
<p>Dread.</p>
<p>Don’t. Want. To. Fix. Yard.</p>
<p>So we broke down and hired a crew to do regular upkeep. Not that we wanted to spend the money, but spending the money hurts less than yard work.</p>
<p>They came by today for the first time, and boy howdy, it looks <em>nice</em> out there now.</p>
<p>Nice. Nice. Nice.</p>
<p>Here’s the before of the needle palm in the back yard:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_1478_2.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/IMG_1478_2.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1487,height=991,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_1478_2-tm.jpg" height="266" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Needle palm before" title="Needle palm before" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Needle palm before Mad Gardening Skillz were applied. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_1485.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/IMG_1485.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1321,height=991,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_1485-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Needle palm after" title="Needle palm after" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>After Mad Gardening Skillz. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>My parents are in a state of shock about how far their son has fallen, but finally biting the bullet and not dealing with the yard myself any longer has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders.</p>
<p>Nice.</p>
IM IN UR XMAS TREE2006-12-02T01:15:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/12/im-in-ur-xmas-tree/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/iminurxmastree-3.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/iminurxmastree-3.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/iminurxmastree-3-tm.jpg" height="300" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="in ur xmastree" title="in ur xmastree" /></a><br /></p>
<p>**IM IN UR XMAS TREE<br /></p>
<p>BREAKING UR DECORATIONS**</p>
<p>Sigh.</p>
<p>Seriously, the creature in the picture isn’t a cat, it’s pure life force that has taken on the form of a cat.</p>
<p>On the upside, we have deputized Andrea and armed her with the Squirt Bottle of Justice. She leaps into action whenever we hear the Christmas decorations start to jingle, yelling “No! No!” and squirting water on the evil doer. It is awesome that she is old enough to help around the house.</p>
<p>For the origins of the “IM IN UR” meme, please <a href="http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/I_am_in_your_base_killing_your_d00ds">see this page.</a> <em>Warning: foul language and exceptionally bad taste behind the link.</em></p>
Review: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk2006-11-20T21:49:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/11/review-how-to-talk-so-kids-will-listen-and-listen-so-kids-will-talk/
<p><em>[How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk](<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0380811960%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0380811960%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk</a></em> by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish grew from a series of workshops the authors performed, and features battle-tested advice about communicating with children of all ages.</p>
<p>At its core, the techniques are simple and—after you’ve read them—obvious, mostly dealing with treating children with respect and listening to what they say. This doesn’t mean that they are simple to implement, though, so the majority of the book consists of hands-on examples of the techniques in action and stories of successes and challenges parents using the methodology have experienced.</p>
<p>The techniques Faber and Mazlish describe are not gimmicks or tricks, but simply the cornerstones of effective communication, as applied to children. Reading the book, it is easy to see how they apply to communication with adults as well.</p>
<p><em>How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk</em> is a quick but important read. Recommended for any parent.</p>
Review: Valentine’s Rising2006-11-11T01:28:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/11/review-valentines-rising/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0451460596%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0451460596%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Valentine’s Rising</a></em> is the fourth book in E. E. Knight’s <em>Vampire Earth</em> series, and continues the story of David Valentine’s struggle against the Kurians.</p>
<p>The writing is tighter in this installment of the series, and Knight is very successful in portraying the horrors of living under the Kurians, putting in some very visceral scenes. This is another page-turner.</p>
<p>On the downside, the novel is a bit of a rut, with a lot of battles and action happening, but not much to drive the story arch forward.</p>
<p>If you’re a fan of the series, it’s not bad, but <em>Valentine’s Rising</em> doesn’t make you want to run out and get the next installment.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0451460596%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0451460596%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002"><img src="http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/0451460596.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_V53955613_.jpg" alt="Buy Valentine’s Rising from Amazon today!" /></a></p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-way-of-the-wolf/">Way of the Wolf</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-choice-of-the-cat/">Choice of the Cat</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-tale-of-the-thunderbolt/">Tale of the Thunderbolt</a></em></p>
Review: The Search2006-11-11T00:41:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/11/review-the-search/
<p>In <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=1591840880%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/1591840880%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Search</a></em>, John Battelle provides a short and effective history of the evolution of search technologies on the Internet with a natural focus on Google.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, at the end of the book Battelle switches into prognostication mode, attempting to divine the Future of Search. This piece doesn’t work quite as well, but for the reader who isn’t all that familiar with technology it may provide some food for thought. It would have been nice to see the crystal ball-gazing section replaced with more granularity on the business of search as it stands today and through the brief history of the commercial Internet.</p>
<p>That being said, the pieces of the book that deal with the history and technologies of search and especially the individuals that transformed how we use the Internet is colorful and interesting, written in breezy magazine style.</p>
<p>While it’s an enjoyable read, the book suffers quite a bit from <em>Wired</em>-style techno-optimism and minimizes—if not glosses over—the very real and very scary privacy implications of having our entire online existence recorded, bought and sold by companies, and stored for posterity.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, well worth a read if you’re at all interested in an area of technology that’s becoming more and more central to all our daily lives.</p>
Voter fatigue2006-11-07T02:41:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/11/voter-fatigue/
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Well, that went rather well. And the fallout has begun, with <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/08/rumsfeld.ap/index.html">Rummy “stepping down”</a>. Good effing riddance.</p>
<p>From the CNN story linked above:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who had intervened in the past to shore up Rumsfeld, issued a statement saying, “Washington must now work together in a bipartisan way – Republicans and Democrats – to outline the path to success in Iraq.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can you imagine what saying that must have done to Frist’s blood pressure?</p>
<p><strong>/Update</strong></p>
<p>Tomorrow is my first election day <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/08/c-day/">as an American citizen</a>. And what a doozy it is.</p>
<p>Though I’ve been in the States for a long time now, and have certainly been paying attention to each and every election along the way, this has to be the dirtiest, sleaziest, most nauseating expression of democracy I’ve ever encountered.</p>
<p>And to make things even worse I’m in Arizona, where we get to vote on stomach-churning propositions like 107.</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom has it that this election is a referendum on the Bush administration, with an energized Democratic Party that might actually be able to locate its own anus with only one hand and a flashlight. We’ll see.</p>
<p>If this election really is a referendum on the current administration, then it’ll be interesting to see if treating the Constitution like toilet paper, abolishing habeas corpus, not even managing a coherent response to a natural disaster with four days’ advance warning, sending more than two thousand American soldiers to their deaths in an ill-defined and unplanned war that does <em>nothing</em> to increase the security of America, having congressmen sent to <em>prison</em> for rampant corruption and influence peddling, keeping a known pederast in Congress since his votes would be hard to replace, legalizing <em>torture</em>, and attempting to remove all checks and balances and turn the President into a King is something the American people are actually OK with, or if that’s beyond the pale.</p>
<p>At this point, I just want it to be over. I want this bad taste out of my mouth.</p>
<p>So if you’re in the States and eligible to vote, do not punk out tomorrow or I’ll be forced to think very bad thoughts about you.</p>
November 1: Santa’s firing up the rockets2006-11-01T14:47:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/11/november-1-santas-firing-up-the-rockets/
<p>Early morning November 1. Wake up, get in the car, fire it up, radio turns on and what should slither through the speakers but the year’s first Christmas ad.</p>
<p>November 1. Christmas ads on the radio.</p>
<p>Oh, I feel the spirit of the season of giving, all right.</p>
Trick or whatever2006-10-31T22:53:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/trick-or-whatever/
<p>I’ve never been much of a Halloween person. I don’t like horror, I don’t like dressing up, and I don’t like strangers coming to my door.</p>
<p>I do like candy. I just don’t like it enough to beg for it.</p>
<p>Before the arrival of our daughter, my primary means of surviving Halloween was to turn off the lights and go hide in the bedroom with a good book.</p>
<p>How much of this is my personality and how much stems from growing up in a culture that didn’t celebrate Halloween, I don’t know.</p>
<p>However, I am getting an inkling of why Americans are so into it from watching the indoctrination of my daughter. It’s been all about Halloween since our nutty neighbors started decorating their front yards <em>at the beginning of the month.</em> Yeah. Really.</p>
<p>Preschool has been a little Halloween Brainwash Camp for the last few weeks, with the children bringing in their outfits for show-and-tell, making paper pumpkins, etc. ad nauseam.</p>
<p>Andrea absolutely loves it. <em>Loves it.</em></p>
<p>Which means that tonight I’ll be walking around the neighborhood with her, trying to pretend to be impressed by all the little costumes and enduring the antics of massively sugar-doped children and their happy parents. At least now I understand why the parents are also so much into it.</p>
<p>But hey, if it’s your thing, I hope you have a good one.</p>
Awkward conversations with a four-year-old2006-10-28T02:15:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/awkward-conversations-with-a-four-year-old/
<p>One evening recently we were having a nice quiet dinner when Andrea asked me, “Do you have a round thing, daddy?”</p>
<p>“Ehm. A what?” I said, swallowing my spaghetti.</p>
<p>“A round thing. Like Bob.”</p>
<p>Bob is one of the boys at Andrea’s preschool.</p>
<p>“What do you mean a round thing like Bob, honey?”</p>
<p>Andrea rolled her eyes a little bit†. “A round thing! To pee-pee!”</p>
<p>“Oh.” Pause. “Oh.”</p>
<p>The Master Plan has been to keep the existence of the “round thing” outside Andrea’s awareness for a while longer, but since this anatomical cat was out of the bag, nothing to do but talk it through.</p>
<p>“How did you see Bob’s round thing?”</p>
<p>“When he went potty.”</p>
<p>“OK.”</p>
<p>A sigh of relief as the pervert-defcon status was downgraded.</p>
<p>“Do you have a round thing, daddy?”</p>
<p>I must admit that at this point I was searching quite hard for a graceful way out of the conversation, chewing on my spaghetti, and didn’t respond.</p>
<p>“Do you have a round thing, daddy?”</p>
<p>Seriously, toddlers are like the freaking Terminator when they want to know something.</p>
<p>“Yes, daddy has a round thing, too.”</p>
<p>A wise nod. “All boys have round things.”</p>
<p>“Yes, all boys have round things.”</p>
<p>“I don’t have a round thing.”</p>
<p>“No, that’s because you’re a girl.”</p>
<p>“Are you a boy, daddy?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“Because you have a round thing?”</p>
<p>“Yes, you’re a boy if you have a round thing. Only boys have round things. Now please eat your chicken nuggets.”</p>
<p>†Oh yeah, that bodes well for the future…</p>
Build it and they will crumble2006-10-24T03:59:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/build-it-and-they-will-crumble/
<p>According to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/oukoe_uk_paris_tourists;_ylt=AiFJS8XTtGoLNy0Oc1UgncEDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBhcmljNmVhBHNlYwNtcm5ld3M-">a Reuters story,</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, we’re talking full-blown psychosis here, on the level of believing you’re the Sun King or that you’re being attacked by microwaves. (Would Madame like to try on a Gaultier tin-foil hat?)</p>
<p>The phenomenon has been dubbed the Paris Syndrome and is closely related to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_syndrome">Jerusalem Syndrome</a>, the label for when people go to Jerusalem and have psychotic episodes.</p>
<p>I can see where if you’re a bit of tightly-wound believer in one of the Abrahamic religions going to Jerusalem could be a bit of a let-down, but really, Paris? You can build Paris up to be that big of a deal? Enough to go completely off your rocker when you realize that Parisians are—shockingly, yes—rude and with their very own standards of cleanliness?</p>
<p>It makes you wonder what other places people out there have built up to be their own versions of Avalon only to have their fantasies horribly shipwrecked on the iceberg of reality…</p>
<p><em>London?</em> “Aaaaarrgghhhh … the British have bad teeth! I’m George III!”</p>
<p><em>Los Angeles?</em> “Aaaaarrgghhhh … I’ve been here three days and haven’t seen Brad Pitt! I’m Brad Pitt!”</p>
<p><em>Phoenix?</em> “Aaaaarrgghhhh … The sun has fried my brain! Give me water!”</p>
Review: A Feast for Crows2006-10-16T05:07:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/review-a-feast-for-crows/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=055358202X%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/055358202X%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">A Feast for Crows</a></em> is the fourth installment in George R.R. Martin’s <em>A Song of Ice and Fire</em> saga, and competently continues the series by turning up the heat in the existing plot lines and introducing even more characters to the already vast and teeming throng.</p>
<p>If you liked the previous novels in the series, <em>A Feast for Crows</em> is a no-brainer. However, according to a note by the author, it’s really half a novel as the publisher demanded he break his planned novel up into two volumes due to its length. So it ends in not one but several terrible cliff-hangers. If you’re a fan of the series and you have the will power, best to wait until <em>A Dance of Dragons</em> is released and get a super-size meal at that point.</p>
<p>If you haven’t been exposed to the <em>A Song of Ice and Fire</em>saga before, it is simply put the best fantasy series ever conceived. Really. It’s that good. What Martin has done is to create an utterly believable world and populated it with literally a cast of thousands, all of whom act like people. The story is set in an era where a kingdom is tearing itself apart in a brutal and bloody civil war, and while there’s the usual fantasy elements of magic and dragons, they are more or less incidental to the thrust of the saga, which is an exploration of people in difficult situations. And what people…</p>
<p>There’s intrigue to make Machiavelli blush and battles to discomfit a storm trooper.</p>
Firefox 2 RC2 and teh snappy2006-10-14T01:09:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/firefox-rc2-and-teh-snappy/
<p>Life’s really too short to mess around with pre-release software, but somewhere on the Intertubes somebody said that <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0/releasenotes/">Firefox 2 RC2</a> is much faster than the 1.5 series, and fasterness is always to be sought after, so I downloaded it.</p>
<p>They weren’t lying.</p>
<p>Firefox 2 brings teh snappy, teh snappy’s kid brother <em>and</em> teh snappy’s cousins.</p>
<p>It also brings close buttons for tabs that are actually <em>inside</em> the tabs, a preference to open with all tabs that were open when Firefox quit, and wonder of wonders, integrated spell check, among other goodies.</p>
<p>Does that sound tasty? Yes it does.</p>
Eat it!2006-10-12T03:36:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/eat-it/
<p>Dinner is my favorite time of the day—the day’s toil is over and it’s time to relax and enjoy a nice meal with the family.</p>
<p>At least, that’s how it used to be.</p>
<p>These days dinner is an endless struggle to get a certain young princess to please-for-the-love-of-jeebus-eat-something. Something that isn’t chicken nuggets or hot dogs. Nuggets and dogs go down just fine, but most anything else involves the two tools in the parent’s tool box: begging and threatening. Begging does nothing, so many a TV privilege has been on the line during dinner.</p>
<p>The thinking is that the endless pickiness of toddlers is an <a href="http://www.med.umich.edu/health-e_news/june2005/childrenhealth.html">evolved mechanism</a> to keep them from eating poisonous foods, much like the desire to sleep in mommy’s and daddy’s bed evolved as children who enjoyed wandering off into the night ended up food for various predators and thus did not pass their genes on to another generation.</p>
<p>Which makes sense, but is hard to keep in mind when you’re dealing with a four-year-old who thinks mommy and daddy are utter monsters for wanting her to eat the food they slaved over, and will cheerfully ask for a snack five minutes after leaving the table with two bites of food in her and her daddy reaching for the Tylenol.</p>
Review: Thud!2006-10-09T04:39:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/review-thud/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0060815310%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0060815310%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Thud!</a></em> is the sound a troll club makes as it bashes a dwarf head, and it’s also the name of a chess-like game where players must take turns playing as trolls and dwarfs in order to win. It is also the sound that begins this eponymous novel, as a dwarf hardliner is beaten to death. The question is, who (or what) wielded the troll club…</p>
<p>The anniversary of the battle of Koom Valley is coming up, the only recorded battle in history where both sides were ambushed and both sides won, and the dwarf and troll communities in Ankh-Morpork are both getting fired up about reliving the battle and finally showing their mortal enemies who’s right.</p>
<p>The Night Watch, with Sam Vimes at the head, is the only force standing between Ankh-Morpork burning and a final battle between trolls and dwarfs.</p>
<p>As always, Terry Pratchett’s name is a guarantee that you are about to read something very special. His Discworld series has been fantastic for years and years, and it’s just getting more solid and impressive with each and every novel. While the whimsy and sheer bloody-minded fun that permeated the earlier novels in the series has gone away and been replaced with a harder-edged commentary on society, Pratchett’s prose is only getting stronger with each novel, and the themes he’s pursuing get darker and more challenging.</p>
<p>If you’re a Discworld fan, there’s no reason to read this review: You’re already on your way to the bookstore; if you’re not, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0061020710%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0061020710%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">start at the beginning</a> and experience Terry Pratchett’s fantastic series of novels for yourself.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/09/review-monstrous-regiment/">Monstrous Regiment</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-going-postal/">Going Postal</a></em></p>
Fox hits nadir2006-10-04T16:33:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/fox-hits-nadir/
<p>The j-school where I teach recently implemented a new and very strict academic integrity policy. Bravo, say I.</p>
<p>Part of the announcement sent out to all students enrolled in the program reads: “Violations of academic integrity—such as plagiarism and fabrication—are mortal sins in journalism that will end a career.”</p>
<p>And then what do we see on the Internet today, but that Fox News is <a href="http://www.wonkette.com/politics/pagefuckergate/desperate-times-desperate-measures-205075.php">misrepresenting page-groper Mark Foley as a Democrat.</a></p>
<p><img id="image797" src="https://thecoredump.org/images/foley_democrat.jpg" alt="According to Fox, Mark Foley is a Democrat" /><br /></p>
<p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.wonkette.com/politics/pagefuckergate/desperate-times-desperate-measures-205075.php">Wonkette</a></em></p>
<p>Guess there’s one place where getting expelled from j-school for fabrication is actually a career-enhancer.</p>
Review: A Drink Before the War2006-10-01T01:24:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/review-a-drink-before-the-war/
<p>With <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0380726238%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0380726238%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">A Drink Before the War</a></em>, Dennis Lehane shows that he is a force in modern American Noir. The novel takes place on the mean streets of Boston—portrayed as a cesspool of racial tension, corruption, and grinding poverty—and follows two private investigators as they take on a missing-persons case that seems like it should be open-and-shut, but ends up putting them in the cross hairs (literally) of corrupt politicians and competing gangs.</p>
<p><em>A Drink Before the War</em> starts out with a bang, but along the way it sometimes loses steam and meanders a bit, before a decently satisfying ending.</p>
<p>Lehane can be (if there’s such a thing in Noir) too nihilistic—almost everybody in the novel is either damaged or corrupt, and the South Boston described is a war zone without any hope. So, uplifting it isn’t. But it is tightly written, and shows a great deal of promise.</p>
<p>Well worth reading if you like your noir without cream or sugar.</p>
Review: Cowl2006-10-01T01:01:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/10/review-cowl/
<p>After the excellent <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-gridlinked/">Gridlinked</a></em> and <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-the-skinner/">The Skinner</a></em>, Neal Asher’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0765315122%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0765315122%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Cowl</a></em> is a terrible let-down.</p>
<p>Stepping away from the Polity universe of Asher’s previous two novels, <em>Cowl</em> deals with a far-future war between two factions of humanity, the Heliothane and the Umbrathane. The eponymous Cowl is a force-bred evolved human who has time-traveled back to the time when life began on Earth and is attempting to do … well, something. To assist, Cowl has the Tor Beast, a vast, ravenous being that sheds tors, small organic time machines that meld with its victims and send them back in time to Cowl as part of some sort of research Cowl is doing.</p>
<p>Trapped by tors in a bleak near-future are Tack, a vat-bred killer without a personality, and Polly, a teenage drug-abusing prostitute.</p>
<p>And then things happen. A lot of things. Things that really never make sense.</p>
<p>Apart from the byzantine plot, the biggest problem with <em>Cowl</em> is that it has no likable or interesting characters for the reader to care about, so it’s a bit of a slog to get through.</p>
<p>On the plus side, Asher has clearly thought very hard about the mechanics of time travel and also throws in a lot of really interesting biology as our protagonists travel back in time to the beginning of life.</p>
<p>But it’s hard to care.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-gridlinked/">Gridlinked</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-the-skinner/">The Skinner</a></em></p>
Top 10 “invisible” tech2006-09-28T19:00:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/top-10-invisible-tech/
<p>The other day, as parents are wont to do, I was thinking about what kind of world my daughter is going to live in when she grows up.</p>
<p>Then, after I stopped screaming and unfurled myself from fetal position on the floor, I started thinking about some of the technological miracles that have been released since I was a kid, and how now they’re completely humdrum and integrated into daily life.</p>
<p>So without further ado, a roughly chronological top ten list of cool technologies that have become “invisible:”</p>
<p><strong>1 Walkman</strong><br /></p>
<p>Remember the first time you got your hands on a Walkman? And realized you could bring 90 minutes of whatever music you wanted with you wherever you went? No more waiting for the bus in silence or being forced to listen to the blather of strangers—you could rock your Def Leppard <em>anywhere.</em></p>
<p><strong>2 VCR</strong><br /></p>
<p>You didn’t have to go to a movie theater anymore, oh no. <em>And</em> if you needed to be somewhere else when your favorite show came on you could record it … and … watch it later. Whoa.</p>
<p>Of course, back in the early days, programming a VCR was arcane knowledge restricted only to teenage nerds with acne, but if you were one, all kinds of time shifting was suddenly possible.</p>
<p><strong>3 Debit Card</strong><br /></p>
<p>Remember when you had to plan ahead when you were going shopping to make sure you actually had enough cash on hand to purchase whatever it was you needed? And you would keep your gold coins in a handy leather purse tied to your belt and carry a stave to knock robbers over the heads.</p>
<p>Ah, that sucked.</p>
<p><strong>4 Remote Control</strong><br /></p>
<p>Yes, children, there was a time when you had to get out of the couch to change the channel. Fortunately, there were only two channels so you didn’t have to get up much anyway.</p>
<p>And the in-dash CD player in your car most assuredly did not have a remote control. As a matter of fact, you did not have a CD player, period, as they hadn’t been invented yet.</p>
<p><strong>5 Microwave oven</strong><br /></p>
<p>There was a dark time (known as the entirety of human history) when you would have to wait longer than five minutes for food to cook.</p>
<p><strong>6 Cordless phone</strong><br /></p>
<p>Phones used to be stuck to the walls. There was no talking on the phone on the patio. No, there wasn’t.</p>
<p><strong>7 The Graphical User Interface</strong><br /></p>
<p>I have no mouse and I must scream…</p>
<p>(Yes, sure, Real Men use the Terminal, but it is pretty dang nice to have things like WYSIWYG, isn’t it?)</p>
<p><strong>8 Cell phone</strong><br /></p>
<p>Not only could you not take your regular phone with you on the patio, but as soon as you were more than screaming distance from your home or office, you would have no idea somebody was calling you.</p>
<p>This was not always a bad thing.</p>
<p><strong>9 The Internet</strong><br /></p>
<p>Back in 1990, I was at the University of Louisiana and heard about this Internet thing. Apparently there was free stuff on there and more things to read than you could ever hope to get through. So I got a 1,200 Baud modem and a copy of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_%28protocol%29">Kermit</a> for my Mac Classic and went to town.</p>
<p>Connecting to the University of Michigan FTP server <em>from my bedroom</em> was the closest to a religious experience I ever had. Really.</p>
<p><strong>10 WiFi</strong><br /></p>
<p>Remember the first time you got online on a laptop without any cables? It’s the fuuuuuutuuuuure.</p>
<p>I re-read <a href="http://williamgibsonbooks.com/books/neuromancer.asp">Neuromancer</a> in the early nineties and was annoyed that in the book people could connect to cyberspace pretty much wherever they were without any wires. Boy, William Gibson sure overlooked that little modem detail, I thought.</p>
<p>Turns out that I’m an idiot and William Gibson is a prophet.</p>
All computers great and small2006-09-27T02:43:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/all-computers-great-and-small/
<p>One of the greatest TV series ever is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=B000062XDW%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/B000062XDW%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">All Creatures Great & Small</a>, the story of James Herriot’s veterinary adventures in the British countryside in the 1930s. It’s warm-hearted, funny, and touching, a reminder of a different age and lifestyle.</p>
<p>Even though All Creatures depicts the trials and tribulations of rural vets in the 1930s, something always seemed really <em>familiar</em> about the series. And then one day as James Herriot stood stripped to the waist in a freezing, drafty barn with his arm all the way up a pregnant cow’s insides to attempt to force the calf into birthing position†, it struck me: The veterinarians were the IT consultants of that era.</p>
<p>No, really. Bear with me. The similarities are striking.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The animals they cured (and sometimes weren’t able to cure) were the lifeblood of the farmers’ business—without their stock they lost their income.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The farmers tended to view their services as overpriced and would come up with all sorts of excuses to avoid paying.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The veterinarians were usually brought on the scene when the farmers had already exhausted all other possibilities, often involving voodoo-like home remedies.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>There were always new viruses floating around.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Of course, rebuilding a server is much less emotionally draining than having to inform a struggling farmer that his stock has contracted foot-and-mouth disease and must be destroyed, throwing him and his family into bankruptcy… Plus, the working conditions tend to involve less cow dung.</p>
<hr />
<p>†That actually seems to happen a lot in the series.</p>
Review: The World Is Flat2006-09-20T03:15:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-the-world-is-flat/
<p>Thomas Friedman’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0374292795%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0374292795%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century</a></em> outlines the forces that are “flattening” the world—increasing the flow of information and work between far-flung places and cultures and causing global competition in new areas.</p>
<p>It is a lucid and comprehensive overview of the reasons American taxes are being prepared in Bangalore, Egyptian Ramadan candles are being manufactured in China, housewives in Salt Lake City work as airline phone agents from their homes, and certain jobs are leaving the industrialized world and going to developing economies.</p>
<p>That being said, <em>The World Is Flat</em> is not perfect—while an excellent writer, Friedman sometimes gets a bit wordy, diluting the force of his message, and especially the first third of the book is plagued with kowtowing to the brilliance and insight of various CEOs.</p>
<p>A discussion at the end of the book about the rise of Al-Qaeda and their use of the technologies of the flattened world and the forces that are filling the ranks of the terrorists is thought-provoking and chilling.</p>
<p>Contradicting its subtitle, <em>The World Is Flat</em> is not a book about the future, but about what is happening right now, why it is happening, and how it affects you. If you are in the work force right now, you should read it. If you have children, you should definitely read it. If you educate children, it should be mandatory for you to read it.</p>
Professor Moriarty, I presume?2006-09-14T19:26:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/dr-moriarty-i-presume/
<p>Out of Sweden today comes the story (sorry, <a href="http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,887369,00.html">article is in Swedish</a>) of what may be the most inept bank robber in history.</p>
<p>Apparently, the would-be robber—who “appeared to be under the influence of drugs”—entered a bank holding a banana-shaped knife and wearing a purple child’s T-shirt as a mask:</p>
<p><img id="image784" src="https://thecoredump.org/images/fanig1.jpg" alt="Yep, that looks fierce" /><br /></p>
<p><em>Maybe a Nixon mask would work better. Source: <a href="http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,887369,00.html">Aftonbladet.se</a></em></p>
<p>Bank staff then <em>laughed at him until he left the building.</em></p>
<p>Continuing the criminal mastermind theme, our hero removed the child’s T-shirt as he left, allowing one of the staff to get a look at his face. The staff member realized that she had seen him on the subway earlier that day, the police found his picture in surveillance footage from the subway, and he was picked up later the same day.</p>
A special day2006-09-13T02:42:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/a-special-day/
<p>Andrea enjoys eating snacks in front of the TV, but alas that particular activity is restricted to special days.</p>
<p>(It is not banned, since mommy and daddy will eat popcorn or chips in front of the TV every once in a while, and we want to keep her from understanding the full unfairness of life until she’s a bit older. No doubt school will drill that lesson home.)</p>
<p>So today she asked if she could have a snack in front of the TV.</p>
<p>“No, you’ll have to eat at the table.”</p>
<p>“But why?”</p>
<p>“Because we only snack in front of the TV on special days.”</p>
<p>“But … but I’m <em>a special girl!</em>”</p>
Changement de Pieds2006-09-10T01:08:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/changement-de-pieds/
<p>At her request, we have enrolled Andrea in a ballet class at the YMCA.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/ballet_class.jpg" rel="lightbox" onclick="window.open(’/images/ballet_class.jpg’,’popup’,’width=768,height=1024,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ballet_class-tm.jpg" height="400" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Ballet Class" title="Ballet Class" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Click for larger version</em></p>
<p>If you’ve never seen a ballet class for four-year-old girls, you have missed out on one of the most adorable things on the planet. The joy and wonder in their eyes, coupled with the tiny tutus and uncoordinated movements is enough to melt a heart of ice, let me tell you.</p>
Review: Tale of the Thunderbolt2006-09-10T00:34:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-tale-of-the-thunderbolt/
<p>In this third installment in his <em>The Vampire Earth</em> series, E. E. Knight continues to flesh out both his characters and the abysmal reality in which they dwell, making it darker than the two previous novels in the series.</p>
<p>If you liked the other two novels, you’ll like <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0451460189%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0451460189%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Tale of the Thunderbolt</a></em>.</p>
<p>One gripe is that it ends right in mid-action, making it more of half a novel.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-way-of-the-wolf/">Way of the Wolf</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-choice-of-the-cat/">Choice of the Cat</a></em></p>
Review: Choice of the Cat2006-09-10T00:26:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-choice-of-the-cat/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0451459733%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0451459733%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Choice of the Cat</a></em> is the second novel in E. E. Knight’s <em>The Vampire Earth</em> series, and continues David Valentine’s saga.</p>
<p>E. E. Knight does a good job of avoiding the sophomore slump, and instead piles on the grim action even more fast and furious than in the first installment.</p>
<p>If you like dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic nightmares, and vampires, <em>The Vampire Earth</em> series is well worth picking up.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-way-of-the-wolf/">Way of the Wolf</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-tale-of-the-thunderbolt/">Tale of the Thunderbolt</a></em></p>
Review: Way of the Wolf2006-09-10T00:17:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-way-of-the-wolf/
<p>Oh, guilty pleasures. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0451459393%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0451459393%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Way of the Wolf</a></em> is the first novel in E. E. Knight’s <em>The Vampire Earth</em> series, and tells the story of a near-future Earth that has been invaded by (literally) blood thirsty aliens called the Kurians. The Kurians rule by fear, live off the auras of sentient beings (the blood is drunk as a part of the process of harvesting the auras), and are helped by genetically modified monsters and, of course, human quislings. It’s not a good time to be human.</p>
<p>Enemies of the Kurians are also on Earth, and help the humans by “amplifying” some of them—increasing their speed and strength to aid them in fighting the Kurians.</p>
<p>In this world lives David Valentine, a young man whose parents were killed by quislings. We follow him as he becomes a member of the Wolves, an amplified guerilla force, and fights the Kurians and their henchmen.</p>
<p>The novel is a bit ham fisted at times, and the characterizations are a bit sketchy, but, hey: alien vampires!</p>
<p>It’s a lot of mindless fun.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-choice-of-the-cat/">Choice of the Cat</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-tale-of-the-thunderbolt/">Tale of the Thunderbolt</a></em></p>
Review: The Lincoln Lawyer2006-09-09T23:51:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-the-lincoln-lawyer/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0446616451%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0446616451%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Lincoln Lawyer</a></em> is the story of Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles attorney cut from hard-boiled and cynical cloth, and the case that comes very close to breaking him.</p>
<p>Michael Connelly is in top form for this novel, and it is arguably his best non-Harry Bosch novel to date—a tight, almost claustrophobic plot, sparse and pure writing, excellently sketched characters and an almost documentary sense of <em>veritas</em>. Reading <em>The Lincoln Lawyer</em>, it is impossible to believe that the particular niche in the legal profession Mickey Haller inhabits is anything but like what the novel describes.</p>
<p>This is definitely a novel that will keep you up way too late. Mickey Haller is a flawed and interesting character, who comes in second in Michael Connelly’s <em>oeuvre</em> only to the great Harry Bosch.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<hr />
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-the-closers/">The Closers</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/05/review-the-narrows/">The Narrows</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-lost-light/">Lost Light</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-chasing-the-dime/">Chasing the Dime</a></em></p>
Review: Olympos2006-09-03T01:07:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/09/review-olympos/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0380817934%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0380817934%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Olympos</a></em> is the conclusion to Dan Simmons’s epic and mind-warping <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0380817926%26tag=thecoredump-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0380817926%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Ilium</a></em>, and impressively enough it’s even further out-there than <em>Ilium</em>.</p>
<p>If you liked <em>Ilium</em>, you will have to read <em>Olympos</em> to find out how the saga ends. It doesn’t disappoint.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/09/review-ilium/">Ilium</a></em></p>
Naturalization day2006-08-25T00:00:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/c-day/
<p>Today was the Big Day: My Naturalization Ceremony. So now I have a piece of paper that says I’m just as much a citizen of the United States as anybody else. During the ceremony, 106 people from 32 countries became citizens, which is pretty darn cool.</p>
<p>The ceremony itself took place at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O%27Connor_United_States_Courthouse">Sandra Day O’Connor United States Courthouse</a> in downtown Phoenix, a pretty strange building—it’s like what would happen if somebody told Stanley Kubrick to build a Ramada Inn.</p>
<p>A naturalization proceeding is a federal legal matter, so we had a judge and everything.</p>
<p>Being not much of a pomp-and-circumstance kind of person, I would have been happy with filing in, taking the Oath of Allegiance, and going on my merry way, but that was not to be. The whole process took over three hours, a significant chunk of which was taken up by us listening to the stories of other freshly-minted citizens in the room.</p>
<p>The immigration officer asked everybody if they would like to say a few words about their journey and I, of course, declined—just like my wedding, the main objective was to keep the ceremony as short as possible. Plus, “I came here from Sweden where things were actually pretty good” doesn’t quite cut it as an Inspirational Story in my book. But a few brave souls wanted to share their stories. Great. I’m expecting heart wrenching stories of crawling over minefields in the middle of the night to escape terrible persecution, but no, it’s a couple of former Mexicans who are really happy to be in the US now. Which is great, but doesn’t tug the heartstrings that much.</p>
<p>Then a young black man—and he was black as the night—gets up to share his story, and it turns out he was one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_boys_of_sudan">Lost Boys of Sudan</a>. His English was still a bit shaky, but he was talking about how America is the land where people can do anything, and as an example he said that most people don’t think that a six-year-old can bury another person, but when he was six he buried his brothers. So people can do more than they think.</p>
<p>OK.</p>
<p>That was pretty intense.</p>
<p>My biggest take-away from the whole experience was how happy the government officials involved in the process seemed to be. When I presented my paperwork to the immigration official—who happened to be the one who did my interview—I asked him how he was doing, and he said, “Good. Any day I get to do this is a good day.” And seemed to mean it.</p>
<p>The presiding judge also seemed to really enjoy himself.</p>
<p>That felt really good.</p>
Movie roundup2006-08-19T19:46:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/movie-round-up/
<p>Here’s a short dump of movies I’ve seen lately:</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0434409/">V for Vendetta</a></em>: Well, that was disturbing.</p>
<p>Note to fascist totalitarian regimes: It’s probably a good idea to not pick black, red, and white as your colors—it’ll make your fascism a little less obvious.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0403358/">Nightwatch</a></em>: This movie deserves a much bigger audience than it’s getting in the States. The idea is that there are “others” among us, who look like humans but have powers, like vampires, shape shifters, seers, etc. The others are divided among the light and dark, and are maintaining a tenuous peace that is being threatened.</p>
<p>A cute thing is that they dubbed the film to English with Russian accents. If you’re into fantasy/vampires/werevolves/all that kinda stuff at all, you should check this out. I’m waiting eagerly for the next installment in the trilogy.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0365485/">The Matador</a></em>: I had high hopes for this one, but they were brutally crushed. Slow and doesn’t know what kind of movie it wants to be.</p>
<p>A terrible waste of Pierce Brosnan and his mustache.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0210070/">Ginger Snaps</a></em>: Brigitte and Ginger are Goth sisters in suburbia, obsessed with death. Then Ginger is bitten by a werewolf and things go from bad to worse.</p>
<p>Nice to see the werewolf used in the “classic” way as a symbol of puberty.</p>
<p>While a bit weak when it comes to special effects, <em>Ginger Snaps</em> does an excellent job with the teen angst—the first 15 minutes are pretty much what you’d get if you could melt down the whole of <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/">LiveJournal</a> and pour the contents into a movie.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0338309/">Evil</a></em>: Yet another Swedish movie where nobody gets to be happy. Based on Jan Guillou’s autobiographical novel of the same name, the movie is about a young man with an abusive father who gets sent to a rich boarding school run by upper class fascists.</p>
<p>Well-made and intense, although the bullying is awfully hard to watch in places. Excellent job by the actor portraying the number one upper class bastard—you just want to punch him in the face.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0119349/">The Ice Storm</a></em>: For a change, an American movie where nobody gets to be happy. Drips with suburban angst, emptiness, and isolation.</p>
<p>Not exactly a feel-good movie. There’s a “key party” scene that will make you want to stab ice picks in your eyes.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0370263/">Alien Versus Predator</a></em>: Dear Hollywood executives: please stop snorting coke.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0370032/">Ultraviolet</a></em>: Shudder.</p>
<p>What’s really terrible is that this could have been an okay movie. The idea is stupid, but not too stupid, and the effects look good. And yet … shudder.</p>
Review: Berlin Noir2006-08-19T17:43:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/review-berlin-noir/
<p>Philip Kerr’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0140231706%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0140231706%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Berlin Noir</a></em> is an omnibus of three novels: <em>March Violets</em>, <em>The Pale Criminal</em>, and <em>A German Requiem</em>.</p>
<p>All three novels follow private investigator Bernie Gunther through different eras of Nazi Germany, with <em>March Violets</em> taking place in 1936, <em>The Pale Criminal</em> in 1938, and <em>A German Requiem</em> in 1947.</p>
<p>Kerr writes in a style that is a direct homage to Raymond Chandler, and Bernie Gunther is very much a Raymond Chandler-style private dick. Of course, channeling the great master is quite difficult, and Kerr almost but not quite pulls it off. The greatest problem is that the plots require too much exposition, so things sometimes get a bit talky.</p>
<p>The novels do get close though, and certainly carry a lot of power, as Kerr uses the <em>noir</em> form to investigate what life was like for the German people during the insanity of the Nazis’ rise to power and in <em>A German Requiem</em> the brutal conditions after the war.</p>
<p>Well worth reading for anybody interested in the psychology of madness that can lead to the rise of the sickness of Nazism and the terrible cost of the war it caused.</p>
Review: When Genius Failed2006-08-19T17:01:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/review-when-genius-failed/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0375758259%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0375758259%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management</a></em> is a business book that reads like a Greek tragedy, filled with the exceptional hubris of very smart and driven people who end up losing sight of their own weaknesses.</p>
<p>Roger Lowenstein’s writing is fast-paced and clean, with just the right amount of characterization of the main players. It could be argued that some more explanation of the complicated economic instruments used by Long-Term would be useful—unless the reader is well-versed in hedge fund lingo, some of the more esoteric instruments are difficult to understand.</p>
<p><em>When Genius Failed</em> is well worth reading for anybody interested in how the markets work and sometimes spectacularly don’t work.</p>
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-the-smartest-guys-in-the-room/">The Smartest Guys in the Room</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/08/review-fooled-by-randomness/">Fooled by Randomness</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-hard-news/">Hard News</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-moneyball/">Moneyball</a></em></p>
10 years in the sun2006-08-13T05:47:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/10-years-in-the-sun/
<p>Somehow I almost forgot: August 12, 1996 was the date when my wife and I arrived in the Valley of the Sun carrying two suitcases each and with only the name of a motel in Tempe allegedly close to the ASU campus for a guiding light.</p>
<p>Being painfully cheap and broke, we had booked flights from Stockholm with an eleven-hour layover in Chicago. Yes, eleven. We landed at Sky Harbor just after midnight, felt the reality of dry heat, and waited patiently in the brutal heat of night for the next Super Shuttle van. Next to the Super Shuttle stand and the thoroughly bored high school kid who had gotten the fantastic job of working the night shift was a middle-aged limo driver looking for rides. The Super Shuttle was going to cost $20 to take us to the motel in Tempe, so the limo driver told me he could take us for $30.</p>
<p>“No way,” I said. No way in hell I was wasting $10 just to get to the motel faster. I was so sleep deprived the whole world was swirling, and the plan was that we were going to take a Super Shuttle van to the motel so who gave a shit how long it took for the Super Shuttle van to show we were taking a Super Shuttle van to the motel and my vision had constricted to only the things that were right in front of me and we-were-waiting-for-the-Super-Shuttle-van.</p>
<p>It was sweaty after midnight.</p>
<p>After another few minutes the limo driver came up to me again and said, “Okay. I can take you for $25. That way you don’t have to wait for the Super Shuttle.”</p>
<p>No way. The plan is, we take the Super Shuttle. I’m not spending an extra $5. Super Shuttle.</p>
<p>We were the only people at the terminal. There was only me, my wife, the high school kid running the Super Shuttle stand, the limo driver, the infernal heat, and our four suitcases.</p>
<p>The limo driver obviously thought I was crazy. “Okay, I can’t take you for $20. I have to charge more than the Super Shuttle. But I can take you for $21. It’s only a buck more.”</p>
<p>Somehow that got through the haze. “Okay.”</p>
<p>So we arrived at the motel in Tempe around two thirty in the morning in a white limo.</p>
Review: Fooled by Randomness2006-08-09T03:21:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/review-fooled-by-randomness/
<p>Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0812975219%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0812975219%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets</a></em> is, as Taleb says in the prologue “about luck disguised and perceived as nonluck (that is, skills) and, more generally, randomness disguised and perceived as non-randomness (that is, determinism).” At its core, it’s a meditation on how poor us humans are at discerning what events around us are influenced by luck and chance, and the often counter-intuitive way the financial markets—and life—work.</p>
<p>Anybody reading it for investment tips is likely to go away shaking their head, but the reader looking for an interesting perspective on life is likely to be enthralled.</p>
<p><em>Fooled by Randomness</em> is one of those books you read a few pages of and then you have to stop and think for a while about what you just read. Well worth the time.</p>
<p><strong>Addendum:</strong> Here’s the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb">Wikipedia entry about Mr. Taleb.</a> Black Swan, indeed.</p>
Fear the silence2006-08-09T03:07:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/fear-the-silence/
<p>The first rule of toddlers is that silence is bad—a rule you forget at your own messy peril.</p>
<p>As I was cooking dinner tonight, Andrea disappeared into the back of the house. To quietly play with her dolls, I stupidly enough convinced myself.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/baby_powder_cinderella.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/baby_powder_cinderella.jpg’,’popup’,’width=768,height=1024,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/baby_powder_cinderella-tm.jpg" height="400" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Baby Powder Cinderella" title="Baby Powder Cinderella" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Let’s hope this isn’t a preview of a later goth phase.</em></p>
<p>There’s a volcano of baby powder in the bathroom…</p>
Finding the right color2006-08-08T02:01:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/finding-the-right-color/
<p>Here’s a tip if you’re looking to do some painting but aren’t sure about which colors to go with: If there’s an Ikea in your area, go there and take a look at the colors in their room mock-ups. They put the color used on each wall.</p>
<p>The colors they use are Benjamin Moore, but you can still keep it cheap, since Home Depot can match most Benjamin Moore colors—just write down the name of the color and they can look it up in a database, then mix it on the fly.</p>
<p>Being able to see the color on a large area in a room instead of projecting from a tiny little swatch can be a real confidence-builder and allow you to go with colors you otherwise may not have felt comfortable experimenting with, such as Brookside Moss and Roasted Almond Seed.</p>
<p>Just a tip.</p>
What I’ve been up to the last four days2006-08-06T03:39:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/08/what-ive-been-up-to-the-last-four-days/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/die_white_wall.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/die_white_wall.jpg’,’popup’,’width=768,height=1024,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/die_white_wall-tm.jpg" height="400" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Die White Wall Die" title="Die White Wall Die" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Die, White Wall, Die! Die Like the Dog You Are! Fear My Roller!</em></p>
Review: The Skinner2006-07-31T04:43:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-the-skinner/
<p>Neal Asher followes up his impressive debut novel <em>Gridlinked</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-gridlinked/">my review here</a>) with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0765350483%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0765350483%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Skinner</a></em>, which takes place in the same Polity universe but with the action focused on the planet Spatterjay, arguably the most dangerous Earth-like planet in the universe, with indigenous life forms straight out of nightmares.</p>
<p><em>The Skinner</em> deftly weaves space opera and hard noir into a compulsively readable whole, with interesting and well-drawn characters (including a walking 700-year-old police officer corpse), some of the most unpleasant crimes against humanity ever put to page (think the Borg but much worse), and very spunky artificial intelligences.</p>
<p>This is one of those novels that will keep you up till four in the morning.</p>
<p>(As an aside, whoever conceived of and approved of the cover for this novel should be fired immediately. Don’t let it turn you off.)</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-gridlinked/">Gridlinked</a></em></p>
Review: Gridlinked2006-07-31T03:56:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-gridlinked/
<p>Take hard SF, mix in a healthy dose of cyberpunk, add a touch of noir and sprinkle ironically with James Bond, and you have the recipe for Neal Asher’s fantastic debut <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0765349051%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0765349051%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Gridlinked</a></em>.</p>
<p>The novel takes place in a future where humanity has discovered a way to instantaneously travel vast distances and thus has colonized much of the galaxy, a utopia where almost everybody has a chance to live forever and be as happy as they like; all political decisions are made by dispassionate artificial intelligences that do their utmost to keep things as fair as possible. This is known as The Polity, and of course a minority of people utterly hate it.</p>
<p>The title refers to the state of Polity agent Ian Cormac, who has been gridlinked—plugged in directly to the artificial intelligences—for much longer than is healthy and whose humanity has been drained away by this prolonged intimate contact with the machines.</p>
<p><em>Gridlinked</em> is fast-paced, ripping with action and ideas, thought-provoking, and above all a solid ball of fun.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Review: Century Rain2006-07-30T01:48:07Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-century-rain/
<p>Departing from the Revelation Space universe of his previous novels, with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=B000EPFVCS%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/B000EPFVCS%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Century Rain</a></em> Alastair Reynolds creates a near-future where Earth has become a wasteland after nano machines have gone amok. The only human survivors are the descendants of the inhabitants of space stations around Earth at the time of the apocalypse.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to write about the plot without introducing serious spoilers, so let’s just say it’s … odd. Interesting, but odd. Not that there’s anything wrong with odd.</p>
<p>The problem with <em>Century Rain</em> is that it is very draggy and loaded with scenes that don’t take the plot anywhere. It’s certainly readable, but be prepared for skimming. If you haven’t read any Reynolds before, the Revelation Space series (linked below) is where you want to begin. If you become a fan boy, by all means give <em>Century Rain</em> a chance.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/02/review-diamond-dogs-turquoise-days/">Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/07/review-revelation-space/">Revelation Space</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-redemption-ark">Redemption Ark</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-absolution-gap">Absolution Gap</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-chasm-city/">Chasm City</a></em></p>
Review: Old Man’s War2006-07-30T01:24:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/07/review-old-mans-war/
<p>With <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0765315246%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0765315246%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Old Man’s War</a></em>, John Scalzi picks up Heinlein’s fallen mantle and runs with it†—the basic premise is that in the future humanity has spread out from Earth and has met other alien races, a surprising amount of whom are in no way interested in sharing the galaxy, and thus there is war; old people are given the option of joining the army, with rumors floating around that there is a means to rejuvenate these older people and get them into fighting shape…</p>
<p>Apart from cranking up the sex and gore, Scalzi manages to channel Heinlein to an almost eerie degree. If you’re a fan of Heinlein—or even if you were when you were a teenager—<em>Old Man’s War</em> is a fun romp, and one that leaves you wanting more.</p>
<p>Scalzi also operates <a href="http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/">an enjoyable blog</a> that is worth adding to your feed reader.</p>
<p>†Yeah, that put a strange image in my head too.</p>
U-S-A! U-S-A!2006-07-28T01:05:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/07/u-s-a-u-s-a/
<p>Had my interview for naturalization as a US citizen today, marking the end of a couple of weeks of monster stress, as my mind built the civics portion of the interview into the cross-examination of a Constitutional lawyer and I learned the ins and outs of every amendment and the history of the United States from the first landings of the colonists to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.</p>
<p>Turns out that, not surprisingly, I was getting a bit too wound up.</p>
<p>The actual interview was almost shockingly brief, low-key and professional, and then it was done, and I am now waiting for a letter telling me when and where the swearing-in ceremony takes place. Once there, I’ll surrender my Green Card, take the oath, and be a citizen.</p>
<p>In case anybody’s wondering why I went through this process instead of simply renewing my Green Card every 10 years, it’s that I feel I’ve been here long enough and rooted myself enough that not being a citizen feels like there’s a flimsy membrane between me and the country I’m living in, and I want that membrane gone. Hope that makes sense.</p>
<p>Also, for some reason, I kind of want to vote.</p>
<p>And now I’m very, very tired and have had some bubbly…</p>
Image spam2006-07-24T20:34:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/07/image-spam/
<p>Most of my email accounts are mercifully low-spam, including the <a href="http://www.mac.com/">.Mac</a> account that’s been the center of my online world since way back when it was a wee little free iTools account.</p>
<p>For the last few months, though, several spams a day have crept through whatever filtering Apple is doing … stock spam. Or rather, image files with stock spam. According to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-23-sneaky-spam_x.htm?csp=34">this USA Today article</a>, image spam is increasing in volume and confounding spam filters all around the InterTubes.</p>
<p>To add to the annoyance, Mail.app’s heuristic spam filtering also turns a blind eye to this new leech on the scrotum of civilization.</p>
<p>Bastards.</p>
Adventures in schooling2006-07-21T19:21:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/07/adventures-in-schooling/
<p>The day care center where Andrea has spent her days has all in all been pretty good over the years. She’s had good teachers who cared about the children, had good little friends, and above all she hasn’t hated going there. My naive thinking on the subject has always been that as long as your child doesn’t hate going to the day care center, things must be at least okay.</p>
<p>The director was a nice woman who, from reading between the lines, didn’t really do much. Which didn’t really matter to us as long as Andrea was happy. Then she was transferred to another center. The successor seemed okay to us, but managed to earn the enmity of the staff in short order. Andrea still seemed happy, so that was one office politics nightmare we didn’t need to get involved in. The center lost a few good employees, but none who were directly involved with Andrea.</p>
<p>About a year in, the director developed medical issues and needed to step down, so a new director was found. This one was apparently (and again, just from reading between the lines) even worse than the last when it came to employee treatment. So more people left, including the one who had taught Andrea’s class, and who was very, very good with the children. Obviously this was not a particularly welcome development.</p>
<p>At this time, <em>The Arizona Republic</em> printed <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/0315cr-ymca0315Z12.html">an article</a> about how Intel was funding a new preschool for their employees’ children at the Chandler YMCA. Getting funding from Intel is obviously a pretty good endorsement, so we called to see if we could get Andrea enrolled and talked to the director. Noper. No more seats.</p>
<p>OK, we figured. No wonder. Obviously every Intel employee in the area with children is jumping on this; who wouldn’t? But we were on the waiting list and would be called as soon as there was an opening. Okey-dokey.</p>
<p>A few months went by and there was no phone call from the school. Meanwhile, things were getting worse at the child care center. More employees left, and the quality of the replacements was incredibly unimpressive. This made dropping Andrea off in the morning that much harder—the horrible nagging thought any parent has in their head as they drop their child of at day care is that they’re putting them in storage so that they can go off and earn money to put on the table. This is not a good feeling.</p>
<p>Then in late June we decided to call the YMCA to see if by any chance there had been any cancellations. And we got to speak to a brand-spanking-new director, who told us that indeed there were many spots available.</p>
<p><em>A big shout-out to the former director: Thanks a whole freaking bunch for keeping up with your waiting list! Perhaps this has something to do with why you are no longer the director? Hmmm?</em></p>
<p>So we decided to go in and take a look at the place. And it really looked wonderful. The school follows the <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/cyert-center/rea.htm">Reggio Emilia</a> method, which means that the classrooms have muted lighting and are decorated like a home—extremely non-institutional. The staff are all trained in the method, and from what we’ve seen so far really care about the children.</p>
<p>Andrea has now spent two weeks at the school, and it is working out beyond our expectations. It may be placebo effect, but we’ve seen a huge change in her behavior at home, with her performing more self-directed activities and being <em>much</em> more vocal and amenable to verbal instructions.</p>
<p>So at this point we can move our worries over to things like the center closing or her somehow managing to get expelled.</p>
<p>The thing about parenting is that there’s always something you can worry about…</p>
It’s a good thing I’m rich2006-06-30T03:54:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/its-a-good-thing-im-rich/
<p>Like any household with a toddler that needs to be delivered to day care, mornings at the Lindhs are an exercise in stress and the futility of imagining that a 4-year-old will understand the concept of the word “hurry.” Ninety-nine mornings of a hundred, this means that I roll to work at one particular time, and my wife rolls to Andrea’s daycare and then her job at some other time. It’s just how things are.</p>
<p>But for some strange reason, we found ourselves leaving at the exact same time yesterday morning. In the garage, I gave Andrea her kiss and hug, and then gave my wife her kiss and hug, and then got in the car to begin The Trek to Work On The I-10. I pulled out, waving them goodbye, when my wife all of a sudden waved at me to stop. So I stopped. Then she waved at me to get out of the car.</p>
<p>I was fairly sure at this point that I hadn’t run over anything, and there wasn’t much that had to be said that couldn’t be said later, but obedient as ever, I got out of the car.</p>
<p>To be greeted by the fiercest of rackets coming from underneath the hood of my car. Metal-on-metal mayhem. So I reached in to the cockpit and turned the A/C off. Racket stopped.</p>
<p>Aw, hell.</p>
<p>Air conditioner.</p>
<p>Anybody who’s spent any amount of time in hot climes knows that the first rule of air conditioner repair is: Air conditioner repair is expensive.</p>
<p>The second rule of air conditioner repair is: If it’s June, you will pay. It’s 109 Fahrenheit here in the days, or 43 Celsius for those of you playing along Metric style. This is not a temperature where you can elect to roll down the windows.</p>
<p>So we got the car in for repair, and $1,300 later, the air conditioner is working again. Yep, one thousand three hundred dollars. Which is a bit of a bummer in that we were planning to go to San Diego in a month. Had budgeted about, oh, I don’t know, $1,500 for that exercise.</p>
<p>Do you smell an eerie coincidence here?</p>
<p>The thing is, though, that it “only” cost $1,300 to fix the A/C unit in the Honda because the compressor hadn’t degraded enough that it had damaged the rest of the system. At a worst case scenario, it would have cost $2,200 to replace the entire system. Which would have been the case if I’d gone to work and back with the A/C blasting in the car. Which I would have done if my wife hadn’t happened to be in the garage waving goodbye to me that morning of all mornings.</p>
Review: The Ancestor’s Tale2006-06-28T02:53:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-the-ancestors-tale/
<p>In <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=061861916X%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/061861916X%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution</a></em> Richard Dawkins takes a reverse-approach to the evolution of life, beginning with the current day and then moving back through time and meetings with 40 “concestors,” species where the line that spawned humans meets other lines, all the way to the beginning of life on this planet some 4 billion years ago.</p>
<p>Through this journey, Dawkins’s writing is vivid and clear and above all infectious as he shares his sense of wonder at the amazing breadth of life on this planet and the events that has shaped this life back through the eons. His gift for sharing the wonder of life is perhaps Dawkins’s greatest gift.</p>
<p>Not many authors have the ability to make the evolution of the flatworm interesting and charming, but Dawkins has it in spades.</p>
<p>Weighing in at 673 pages, <em>The Ancestor’s Tale</em> is a bit of a brick, but this only makes it doubly useful: You can read it to revel in the glory of life, and then you can physically beat it over the heads of creationists…</p>
<p>This is a wonderful, wonderful book, and Dawkins deserves the highest praise for writing it.</p>
No World Cup for you. Four years.2006-06-25T00:39:02Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/no-world-cup-for-you-four-years/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/tobias.jpg" height="151" width="440" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Tobias Linderoth" title="Tobias Linderoth" /><br /></p>
<p><em>Swedish player Tobias Linderoth after the German Blitzkrieg.</em><br /></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/sport/story/0,2789,846854,00.html">Aftonbladet</a></p>
<p>I got sucked in to watching the World Cup and even allowed myself to believe that just maybe Sweden could reach a respectable position.</p>
<p>Noper.</p>
<p>Denied.</p>
<p>The Germans <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/worldcup/2006-06-24-germany-sweden_x.htm?csp=34">utterly destroyed them</a> this morning. The Germans absolutely deserved the victory, and it was worth watching just to hear the crowd at the stadium going completely nuts.</p>
<p>The problem with watching soccer, I have come to realize, is that it has made me jones in the most painful way possible for an HDTV set. <em>This would be so effing awesome if only I had an HDTV set,</em> the little voice in my head keeps repeating as I watch the splotches of color chase after the tiny white splotch across the field of flat green.</p>
<p>At the current juncture in time, as the politicians like to say, the lust for an HDTV set is constrained by financial reality, but by jove, when the next World Cup rolls around in four years, as God is my witness, I will enjoy it in full-on 1080p glory.</p>
<p>Argh.</p>
The little stoic2006-06-24T00:25:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/the-little-stoic/
<p>Took Andrea to the pediatrician today for a wellness visit and her final set of vaccinations until she turns twelve. We talked in the car going there about how she was going to be brave and not cry when she got the shots, and she made me unutterably proud by delivering on her promise.</p>
<p>There were three vaccinations, all given in the thighs, and she sat down and took them one after other. You could tell from her grimacing that it hurt (well, the grimacing and the sight of the needle puncturing her flesh) but no crying or screaming, just relief after it was done. The nurse administering the shots was completely stunned.</p>
<p>She weighs 47 pounds and is 43 and a half inches tall, thus keeping her in the 90th percentile for her age group. And she’s definitely in the 90th percentile for stoicism.</p>
Review: A Question of Blood2006-06-20T21:50:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-a-question-of-blood/
<p>A school shooting at a prep school in an Edinburgh suburb leaves two boys dead and one wounded, with the perpetrator turning the gun on himself.</p>
<p>As he shares an army background with the perpetrator, John Rebus is attached to the case as an advisor. The question the police needs to answer is why the perpetrator would attack the school and then take his own life.</p>
<p>But as always in an Inspector Rebus novel, the truth in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0316159182%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0316159182%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">A Question of Blood</a></em> is much more complex.</p>
<p>Ian Rankin continues to impress.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-resurrection-men/">Resurrection Men</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-the-falls/">The Falls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-set-in-darkness/">Set in Darkness</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-dead-souls/">Dead Souls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-the-hanging-garden/">The Hanging Garden</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/">Black and Blue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Review: Resurrection Men2006-06-20T21:16:07Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-resurrection-men/
<p>In <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=B000CDG81K%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/B000CDG81K%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Resurrection Men</a></em>, John Rebus has finally stepped too far over the line and been consigned to a “last chance” course at the Scottish Police College, where he joins other dark sheep police men whose careers are at risk.</p>
<p>The novel continues Ian Rankin’s blisteringly moody Inspector Rebus series with its trademark complex plot, lively and engaging characters, spot-on dialogue, and grim humor.</p>
<p>While the title refers to Rebus and his dilapidated colleagues, it’s also a fun nod to the previous novel in the series, <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-the-falls/">The Falls</a></em>, where we learned that in Edinburgh’s past the men who exhumed corpses for doctors to practice autopsies on were also referred to as resurrection men.</p>
<p>Simply brilliant.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-the-falls/">The Falls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-set-in-darkness/">Set in Darkness</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-dead-souls/">Dead Souls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-the-hanging-garden/">The Hanging Garden</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/">Black and Blue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
The angry blogger2006-06-16T16:35:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/the-angry-blogger/
<p>Got a chuckle out of this at breakfast today:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/pearls2006024428616-1.gif" onclick="window.open(’/images/pearls2006024428616-1.gif’,’popup’,’width=600,height=203,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pearls2006024428616-1-tm.jpg" height="135" width="400" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Pearls Before Swine" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Click for full-size version.</em></p>
<p>It’s funny ’cause it’s true.</p>
<p>From <a href="http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/">Pearls Before Swine</a>.</p>
Review: The Falls2006-06-16T02:54:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-the-falls/
<p>University student Phillipa Balfour, son of a prominent Edinburgh banker, has disappeared, and most of the police frenetically searching for her believe her to be dead. As the search grows more desperate, Inspector Rebus finds what he believes is evidence of a serial killer who has been operating undetected in Scotland for a long time, and who may be responsible for Phillipa Balfour’s disappearance.</p>
<p>Or he could be imagining things.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312982402%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312982402%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">*The Falls</a>* takes Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series to yet another level, with a byzantine and realistic plot and fine-tuned and gritty details of police investigations, including the internal politics and personal relationships between the people whose jobs and sometimes obsessions are to delve into the painful secrets of other people.</p>
<p>As a continuation of the series, <em>The Falls</em> is another triumph—Rankin just keeps getting better and better. In this installation he is turning more attention away from John Rebus and shifting it to his sometimes-unwilling protege Siobhan (shi-wavn) Clarke and how she copes with being a woman in a male-dominated and testosterone-driven profession, as well as how Rebus is rubbing off on her.</p>
<p>Clarke is emerging as a character just as finely penciled as the enigmatic Rebus, and just as fascinating to follow.</p>
<p>With <em>The Falls</em>, Ian Rankin continues to impress.</p>
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-set-in-darkness/">Set in Darkness</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-dead-souls/">Dead Souls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-the-hanging-garden/">The Hanging Garden</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/">Black and Blue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Et tu, Brute?2006-06-11T04:50:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/et-tu-brute/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis_after_vet_visit.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/isis_after_vet_visit.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis_after_vet_visit-tm.jpg" height="225" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Isis After Vet Visit" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>My name is Isis. I hate my human for taking me to the vet.</em></p>
<p>Had to take Isis to the vet yesterday for her first appointment for shots. And I mean had to. When you adopt a kitten from a vet they make you sign this contract that you will, indeed, bring the cat back for all the scheduled vaccinations and surgically make sure that it will never reproduce.</p>
<p>So I brought Isis in Friday morning. (As an aside, the name Isis seems to be sticking—even though in the middle of the night I often think about changing her name to “Ow! Ow! Stop it!”) The great thing about our vet is that they really, really care about the animals. The bad thing about our vet is that they really, really, <em>really</em>, care about the animals. Which means that bringing an animal adopted there back for a few shots turns into the Third Degree—the only thing missing is the 1000 watt bulb aimed at your eyes.</p>
<p>“What are you feeding her?”</p>
<p>“Umm … Iams Kitten.”</p>
<p>“Humph.” (Translation: You’re feeding her that crap? You cat-hating swine.) “Is she comfortable in your home?”</p>
<p>“Umm … yes.” Pause. “I mean, she’s running around and getting into everything, and she … ehm … seems … I mean … I mean … she seems to be … ehm … fine.”</p>
<p>“That’s good.”</p>
<p>“Yes, yes, that’s very good.”</p>
<p>Steely-eyed stare.</p>
<p>“I mean … really good. Yeah.”</p>
<p>“Humph. The food … is it … hard food?”</p>
<p>“Yes!” Smile. “Yes it is. Yepper.” (Wipes sweat off brow.)</p>
<p>“Mhm.”</p>
<p>And then it went on like that for a while. <em>They really love animals.</em></p>
<p>After that, the vet started examining Isis instead of me. And Isis was doing great. She’s a big, strong kitten. So based on her non-mutilated and non-starved status, I suppose we won some points.</p>
<p>And then it was time for the shots. <em>But first</em>: the temperature-taking. Which involves a thermometer and a cat rectum. Isis didn’t like that <em>at all.</em> She was staring at me with those accusing little eyes and screaming her heart out.</p>
<p>So, leaving the house for the first time and then being rectally violated was apparently not a good time for her.</p>
<p>After that there was a shot in her shoulder, which went pretty well, and then another shot which involved no needle but instead a huge pneumatic gun. Which made a rather disturbing noise when they shot her with it in the left back leg. And freaked her out, leading the vet to comment, “It usually doesn’t disturb them that much.”</p>
<p>At that point we were done with the shots, so back in the cage she went, meowing and screaming.</p>
<p>And then she screamed the whole way home, and once we got back she went and hid.</p>
<p>But after sulking for a day, she apparently decided to let by-gones be by-gones. At least until the next round of shots.</p>
Review: Set in Darkness2006-06-10T02:55:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-set-in-darkness/
<p>It’s yet another dark, grey, and damp December in Scotland when an old, desiccated corpse is found in Queensberry House, one of the buildings being converted to serve as the new Scottish Parliament. Then a newly elected Member of Scottish Parliament is found bludgeoned to death close to where the corpse was found. At the same time, two rapists are haunting Edinburgh.</p>
<p>As is usual with Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus novels, the plot is fully loaded and the characters moving about in it are engaging and real enough that you feel you’ve met them. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312977891%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312977891%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Set in Darkness</a></em> impressively continues Rankin’s tendency of making each successive John Rebus novel tighter and tauter than what came before.</p>
<p>The novel should come with a warning label: <em>Do not attempt to begin reading before going to bed. You will not be able to put it down before four a.m.</em></p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-dead-souls/">Dead Souls</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-the-hanging-garden/">The Hanging Garden</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/">Black and Blue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Number of the Beast2006-06-06T15:24:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/number-of-the-beast/
<p>Today is 6/6/6. It’s still early in the day, so no nuttiness in the news yet.</p>
<p>However, the word of the day is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia">Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia</a>, which is the fear of the number 666. Put that in your spelling bee and smoke it…</p>
Review: Dead Souls2006-06-04T02:04:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/review-dead-souls/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312974205%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312974205%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Dead Souls</a></em> continues Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series in full force.</p>
<p>This time, Rebus is attempting to figure out why a successful colleague with a seemingly happy home life would commit suicide by throwing himself off Arthur’s Seat, outs a recently released from prison pedophile to the press with the result of throwing one of Edinburgh’s housing projects into a state of vigilantism, and gets sucked into the wake of an ongoing trial against two men accused of molesting boys at an orphanage. In tandem with this, his home life, as is becoming par for the course, goes from bad to worse.</p>
<p>The amazing thing about Rankin’s Inspector Rebus novels is how they become better and better over time—as Rankin gets more comfortable with his characters and settings, he continues to peel off more and more layers.</p>
<p>Brilliant.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-the-hanging-garden/">The Hanging Garden</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/">Black and Blue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Murdered 600 years ago2006-06-03T02:45:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/murdered-600-years-ago/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/Bockstensmannen5_463.jpg" height="309" width="463" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Bockstensmannen" title="Bockstensmannen" /><br /></p>
<p><em>This man was murdered sometime between 1350 and 1370 A.D.</em><br /></p>
<p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=549409">Dagens Nyheter.</a></em></p>
<p>The <a href="http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bockstensmannen">Bocksten Man</a> (link is to Swedish Wikipedia entry), pictured above, was murdered and his body pinned down by three thick stakes of wood, two of them birch, and the third one—through the heart—of oak. It most likely wasn’t a robbery, since he was found carrying his knives and still wearing his expensive robe.</p>
<p>The reason we know him is that his body was found in Bocksten, Sweden, having been preserved through the ages by his having been staked down in a bog which was then drained in 1936, when the remains where found.</p>
<p>During the 14th century in Sweden, it was common practice to stake down the corpses of people you thought might come back to haunt you after death. Due to the fine clothing worn by the Bocksten Man, as well as his soft hands, the current best theory is that he was some sort of tax collector or military recruiter, and thus a person of influence whose silence, even in death, had to be ensured.</p>
<p>As much as his resting place in the bog has preserved the Bocksten Man, there wasn’t much more than a skeleton and the fibers of the clothes he was wearing to go on when he was found. The picture you see above is the result of the work of doll maker Oscar Nilsson, who used skills from forensic investigations to recreate what the Bocksten Man probably looked like, based on the remains and the cultural circumstances during which he lived.</p>
<p>He lived 600 years ago, was brutally murdered, and this may very well be what he looked like…</p>
<p>Source: <em><a href="http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=549409">Dagens Nyheter.</a></em></p>
Memo to Isis the kitten2006-06-01T02:32:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/06/memo-to-isis-the-kitten/
<p><strong>To:</strong> Kitten<br /></p>
<p><strong>From:</strong> Person who provides you with food, shelter, and a clean litterbox<br /></p>
<p><strong>Re:</strong> Rampant brutality</p>
<p>While all members of the family heartily enjoy your rambunctious adventures, even including being awakened in the wee hours by attacks on our persons (specifically the feet), we want to draw your attention to a recent, disturbing trend in your relations with humans.</p>
<p>To be blunt, the nose biting has to stop.</p>
<p>Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.</p>
Happy Birthday, Andrea!2006-05-29T03:22:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/happy-birthday-andrea-3/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_is_four.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/andrea_is_four.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_is_four-tm.jpg" height="225" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Andrea Is Four" title="Andrea Is Four" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>My name is Andrea and I’m four years old today.</em></p>
<p>Happy birthday from mommy and daddy.</p>
Review: The Hanging Garden2006-05-28T02:07:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-the-hanging-garden/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312969139%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312969139%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Hanging Garden</a></em> continues Ian Rankin’s saga of John Rebus, and is stuffed to the rafters with plot. Rebus is working on a case about a suspected World War II war criminal, now an old man who enjoys planting flowers in a cemetery, while he attempts to protect a Bosnian refugee who has been forced into prostitution, a new crime lord attempts to take over Edinburgh, the yakuza seem to be moving in, and his daughter is in a coma after a hit-and-run accident … or was it really an accident?</p>
<p>Dealing with all this, Rebus also attempts to stop drinking.</p>
<p><em>The Hanging Garden</em> dishes out an amazingly dense plot, but still finds time to draw Rankin’s finely tuned characterizations, getting under the skin of most of the characters.</p>
<p>While a fine police procedural, <em>The Hanging Garden</em> does suffer a bit from the sheer weight of the plot and the far-reaching coincidences that tie the pieces together. Nevertheless, it is endlessly readable and absorbing, and Rankin’s writing remains top-notch.</p>
<p>Well worth reading, whether you’re a Rebus fan or not. And you should be a Rebus fan. Really.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/">Black and Blue</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Kitten notes2006-05-28T01:25:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/kitten-notes/
<p>Now that we’ve had Isis for a few days, a couple of notes:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>As part of the adoption fee, we received a bag of the cat food she’d been given before, and strict instructions to give her that food until the bag ran out, and then to gradually mix in the new food with the old over time—if she gets other food she’ll most likely develop fierce diarrhea and who knows what else. Yeah. So what’s the first thing Isis does? Runs over and starts eating the Iams we give Shiva, the older cat, and hasn’t touched her super-formula veterinary-approved kitten food since. She’s still alive and doesn’t have diarrhea.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>This morning she discovered how to jump up on our bed. Hey, there are worse ways to wake up than a tiny cat face right on you, purring contentedly.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If cats could talk, Isis would have exactly one thing to say: “Wow! Awesome!” It is simply not possible to be in a bad mood around a kitten—everything is interesting and exciting.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Shiva remains true to form. While she doesn’t run and hide anymore, any attempts at friendliness Isis makes are met with a fierce hiss. To keep things interesting, she sometimes makes the low, siren-like wooooooooo yell cats make when their territory is threatened.</p>
</li>
</ul>
Review: Hard News2006-05-26T00:42:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-hard-news/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0812972511%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0812972511%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Hard News: Twenty-one Brutal Months at The New York Times and How They Changed the American Media</a></em> tells the story of how managerial dysfunction allowed reporter Jayson Blair to lie and plagiarize his way up the career ladder at <em>The New York Times</em>, and in the process deal a massive blow to the paper’s credibility.</p>
<p>While the purpose of the book is to explain how Blair’s misconduct managed to go undetected for as long as it did, he turns out to be a minor character, the troubled sociopath whose deeds brought a mighty institution to its knees, but who would not have been able to do what he did in a less dysfunctional setting.</p>
<p>The real story is about executive editor Howell Raines, and how his authoritarian (to put it mildly) leadership style created an atmosphere of fear, silence, and favoritism that provided a perfect opportunity for a character like Blair to exploit.</p>
<p>The hubris and arrogance exposed in <em>Hard News</em> is worthy of a Greek tragedy, and underlines how even an institution like <em>The New York Times</em>, with all the raw talent and dedication on hand, can be brought dangerously off-course by a single individual.</p>
<p>The book is well-written and moves along at a brisk space, painting the characters involved with vivid strokes.</p>
<p>Recommended reading not just for news junkies, but for anybody with an interest in business and leadership.</p>
New family member2006-05-25T02:09:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/new-family-member/
<p>Please allow me to introduce the newest family member at Casa Core Dump:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/isis.jpg’,’popup’,’width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis-tm.jpg" height="224" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Isis the Cat" title="Isis the Cat" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Isis the Cat. Click to enlarge (a little bit)</em></p>
<p>Isis is a little kitten we adopted from the vet on Monday night. She’s just started eating solid foods and her fur is still wooly. The name <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis">Isis</a> is actually still in beta—I like it, but the wife unit is not so sure. We’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>Here’s another picture for scale:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis_on_power_supply.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/isis_on_power_supply.jpg’,’popup’,’width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/isis_on_power_supply-tm.jpg" height="224" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Isis On Power Supply" title="Isis On Power Supply" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>On a power supply. Click to enlarge (a little bit)</em></p>
<p>Yes, the picture quality is horrid. After some frustration, I realized that the only way to get decent pictures of a little being that will not be still for a fraction of a second is to video tape it and use screen grabs. So the pictures are coming at you straight outta the iSight.</p>
<p>We mostly adopted her for the sake of Shiva, our existing cat, who has been suffering more and more from cabin fever after <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/putting-turbo-to-sleep/">Turbo passed away.</a> Shiva, of course, doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body, and has been celebrating the arrival of another feline in the house with hissing and hiding in a closet. <em>Sigh.</em> It’s slim hope, but maybe she’ll come to her senses at some point. If nothing else, Isis will no doubt be able to kick her butt when she gets older—big paws on this kitten.</p>
Pain in the neck2006-05-18T01:51:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/pain-in-the-neck/
<p>Had to stay home from work today due to this weird crick in the neck I’ve experienced for the last couple of days. Hurts like hell and is highly annoying. Annoying enough, in fact, that I even thought about going to see a doctor about it.†</p>
<p>(Turns out that lying on your back in the one position that doesn’t make you squeal like a pig gets fairly boring pretty quick. Yes, I was surprised, too.)</p>
<p>Nevertheless, despite my writhing in agony, my wife has to work late today, so I still have to pick up Andrea from day care. Pick her up and bring her home, then start fixing dinner while wearing my neat-o-rama beige foam neck brace.</p>
<p>Andrea sees the neck brace: “Why are you wearing that thing?”</p>
<p>“Because my neck hurts.”</p>
<p>“Oh. Why does your neck hurt?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, honey. Maybe I slept on it wrong.”</p>
<p>Andrea thinks for a minute. “Maybe you got old.”</p>
<p>†One day I’ll blog the reasons from my childhood that make me detest going to doctors with any kind of condition that doesn’t show up on an X-ray. But not today.</p>
Review: Secrets and Lies2006-05-16T22:37:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-secrets-and-lies/
<p>In <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0471453803%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0471453803%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World</a></em>, renowned cryptography expert Bruce Schneier introduces the reader to a means of thinking about and implementing digital security.</p>
<p>Despite the sometimes dry topic, Schneier keeps the text lively and engaging, using lots of light-hearted examples to illustrate his points without in any way diminishing the gravitas of the subject.</p>
<p>Securing digital assets is very difficult, and as proven by the disheartening parade of leaks of credit card information, social security numbers, and medical information that shuffles through the headlines, it is not something most people and companies are good at.</p>
<p><em>Secrets and Lies</em> should be required reading for everybody who is in any way responsible for digital assets, and is recommended reading for anybody who performs any sort of financial transactions on a computer. So unless you happen to be Amish, you should read this thought-provoking book.</p>
Pedal to the metal2006-05-12T02:59:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/pedal-to-the-metal/
<p>If you’ve read this blog for a while you know that your humble author spends more time in traffic every day than somebody who hasn’t been committed for any crime ever should.</p>
<p>But it has its good side. Plenty of time for silent reflection, for playing music louder than I could at home without mentally scarring my child for life, and for listening to NPR and fuming about the state of the world.</p>
<p>The weird thing about traffic is that even though I’m roughly on the road at the same time every day, and it’s always sunny in Phoenix, the traffic has a different personality every day. Some days it’s smooth and easy—heavy, of course, but still smooth, with a nice rhythm.</p>
<p>And then there are days when it’s all ragged and syncopated, with seemingly everybody on the road out of sync with each other. These are the days of kamikaze-death-grip lane changes without a thought to turn signals or a glance in the rear-view mirror; sudden slamming of brakes and envelope-pushing avoidance maneuvers; a parade of vehicles parked by the side of the freeway, drivers yelling on cell phones and glaring at destroyed fenders; highway patrol cruisers suddenly leaping into action and pulling cars over at 20 miles-per-hour speeds.</p>
<p>And the commute becomes an obstacle course instead of a passage.</p>
<p>What wounded the animal?</p>
The $29 T-shirt2006-05-12T02:13:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/the-29-t-shirt/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/df-classic-thumb-180.png" height="230" width="180" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Daring Fireball Tee" title="Daring Fireball Tee" />
<p>Bought myself a $29 T-shirt today. Actually, it’s a T-shirt and one year of sponsorship for <a href="http://daringfireball.net/">Daring Fireball</a>. Figured that since John Gruber is about the only Mac commentator who’s actually worth reading, and since he had the <em>cojones</em> to <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/initiative">quit his day job</a> to produce the site full-time, the man should be encouraged.</p>
<p>Daring Fireball is kind of like <a href="http://www.kjzz.org/">NPR</a> in that it provides an oasis of sanity in a waste land of gibbering monkeys, and so just like NPR, it’s worth paying to keep it going.</p>
<p>And let’s face it, anybody who can make you laugh out loud reading about <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2006/01/brushed_metal">the woes of an anthropomorphized brushed metal interface</a> deserves some cold, hard cash.</p>
<p>Best of luck, John.</p>
Review: Black and Blue2006-05-10T03:50:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-black-and-blue/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0752809482%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0752809482%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Black and Blue</a></em> takes Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series to the next level. It’s grittier and harder than the previous novels in the series.</p>
<p>The plot is byzantine and yet, at its denouement, stark in its internal logic. Couple this with sensitive and rich characterizations that extend to the smallest of supporting characters, new insights into John Rebus’s personal hell, and an Edinburgh so realistically portrayed you feel you live there, and you have the essence of modern noir.</p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/">Let it Bleed</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Cyberpunk rolls on2006-05-07T02:39:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/cyberpunk-rolls-on/
<p>My daughter: Budding artist or normal three-year-old?</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/nexus_6.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/nexus_6.jpg’,’popup’,’width=768,height=1024,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/nexus_6-tm.jpg" height="400" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Nexus 6" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>Hey, somebody has to tag the Nexus 6 models when they come here.</p>
A window darkly2006-05-06T20:20:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/a-window-darkly/
<p>In the end, resistance was futile.</p>
<p>Ended up installing Windows on the Intel Mini. But in my defense, I had several reasons, one of them even altruistic:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>We video conference with my parents every few weeks. (It seems they have some kind of strange desire to see their grandchild.) The only app that seems to work okay cross platform† for video conferencing is iChat on the Mac and AIM on Windows. Unfortunately, AIM on Windows is a gargantuan pile of crap, and only shows postage-stamp-size video. So while I’m basking in the goodness that is iChat AV on my end, my parents are squinting. That’s no good, since the object of the exercise is for them to see their grandchild. So hopefully straight-up Messenger on Windows will work better.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Sometimes you need to see what a web site looks like in Internet Exploder.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>On occasion, a man does feel the <a href="http://www.ea.com/official/nfs/underground/us/">Need for Speed</a>. As a bonus, the integrated graphics on the Mini forces you to stay in the $20 section at CompUSA, which is good for the wallet.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>So now there’s a Windows partition invading my hard drive.</p>
<p>There really isn’t much to say about the Boot Camp process—pretty damn straightforward. That is, until you get to the point of actually using Windows XP. Sigh. Running through activation, updates, and installing virus and spyware defenses really did kill (yet another) little bit of my soul. But hopefully there won’t be any need for a full reinstall for a while.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Disk Utility on the Mac will happily make an image of an NTFS partition, but throws an error message if you try to restore that image. I’d hoped a block level write wouldn’t be hampered by the lack of write support for NTFS, but alas that does not seem to be the case.</p>
<p>Oh, and Apple really does mean it when they say you can’t install XP on an external drive. I figured it needed an internal partition to do that boot manager voodoo it does so well, but since an external hard drive shows up fine in the installer, why not just install on the external drive? Yeah, that will earn you a blue screen and a hand-edit of boot.ini.</p>
<p>In the end, running Windows XP on a Mac is just like running Windows XP on any other kind of Intel gear…</p>
<p>†Hey, Skype, any time you feel like releasing version 2 with video conferencing for the Mac is okay. Really.</p>
Review: Let it Bleed2006-05-02T02:33:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/05/review-let-it-bleed/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312966652%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312966652%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Let it Bleed</a></em> continues Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series in good form, even though it is a darker, more brooding novel than the series has previously seen (which is not to say that any of the Rebus novels have been laugh riots.)</p>
<p>In the midst of a dreary Scottish winter, Rebus witnesses two young men commit suicide. His own personal life is at a nadir, with his drinking spiraling out of control, and as the plot evolves his only real reason for living, his work, is threatened by forces outside his control.</p>
<p>Happy funtime, <em>Let it Bleed</em> is not. A dark tapestry, it is. Rankin turns up the social consciousness of the series and paints a winter-bleak picture of the economic conditions of late-1990s Scotland.</p>
<p>That being said, it is a strong police procedural, and Rankin’s writing is as always enviable. Just expect more of a downer than usual.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/">Mortal Causes</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Let them drink oil2006-04-29T02:38:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/let-them-drink-oil/
<p><strong>Update:</strong> <a href="http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/001659.html">Defective Yeti</a> skewers the heart of the $100-check-because-we-feel-your-pain scheme.</p>
<p>The price of oil—as anybody who is forced to drive a car to work knows all too well—is rising dramatically again, and this time without any major crisis like a hurricane, war, or <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special44/articles/0818gasshortage18.html">pipeline rupture</a> to provide a dramatic justication for the increase.</p>
<p>Oil companies have been posting record profits for years, but that can certainly not have anything to do with the high price of gas. Seriously, it’s Econ 101—the cost of producing a product versus the price that can be charged for the product has <em>nothing</em> to do with the profit a company can reap. Everybody knows that. Right?</p>
<p>So what, then, is the response of the people we, as a society, in proud democratic elections, have chosen to represent us? How about <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/28/news/gas.php">issuing a one-time $100 tax rebate?</a>. Making sure the government coffers get even more depleted so people can buy another week’s worth of gas certainly is long-term thinking at its best. Kudos.</p>
<p>It is, after all, the government’s job to ensure that the populace has enough money to pay companies for product. And since all the real issues in this country have been solved, why not just spend the money on making sure the oil companies get paid?</p>
<p>Nothing, absolutely nothing, can illustrate the moral stance of our elected officials more than <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=3&u=/060427/480/dcpm10904272019">this picture and caption from Yahoo!</a>:</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/capt.dcpm10904272019.gas_prices_dcpm109.jpg" height="223" width="379" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Dennis Hastert walks the long walk" title="Dennis Hastert walks the long walk" />
<p><em>House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Ill., center, gets out of a Hydrogen Alternative Fueled automobile, left, as he prepares to board his SUV, which uses gasoline, after holding a news conference at a local gas station in Washington, Thursday, April 27, 2006 to discuss the recent rise in gas prices. Hastert and other members of Congress drove off in the Hydrogen-Fueled cars only to switch to their official cars to drive the few blocks back to the U.S. Capitol.</em></p>
<p>There’s a broad and pretty clearly delineated line between bolstering your image and being an utterly morally corrupt leech that feeds on society.</p>
<p>Good luck with your reelection, Mr. Speaker.</p>
Review: The DaVinci Code2006-04-26T00:55:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-davinci-code/
<p>Dan Brown’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0385504209%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0385504209%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The DaVinci Code</a></em> is of course a massive runaway bestseller and the basis for a soon-to-be-released Hollywood blockbuster.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it isn’t very good.</p>
<p>It would seem that the vast majority of the considerable interest the novel has gathered around the world has come from the subject matter: Juicy stuff about the systematic, ruthless distortion of the truth about Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and a surviving heir from their proposed marriage.</p>
<p>Brown delivers his historical references with verve, and puts in enough detail to make the backdrop of the novel seem at least plausible enough to deliver plenty of frissons for the reader as well as, one would assume, gastric reflux for Catholic clergy.</p>
<p>But that aside, <em>The DaVinci Code</em> is a paint-by-numbers thriller, rich in last-minute escapes but poor on drama and a beggar when it comes to character development.</p>
<p>It would be much more interesting to read the book Robert Langdon, the novel’s protagonist, has written inside the novel.</p>
<p>But the movie will probably be pretty good.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/10/review-angels-amp38-demons/">Angels and Demons</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/05/review-digital-fortress/">Digital Fortress</a></em></p>
An early morning gross-out2006-04-21T23:04:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/an-early-morning-gross-out/
<p>What would be even more disgusting than waking up at an ungodly hour only to be met with the hacking sounds of a cat puking?</p>
<p>That would be to step gingerly over the little pool of cat puke to eat breakfast, then return to find the puddle gone and thank your better half for performing the odious cleanup task, only to be told that she has done no such thing.</p>
<p>And there’s the cat, sitting where the puddle used to be, licking her chops.</p>
<p>And with that I bid you a good weekend.</p>
A good year for cactus2006-04-18T03:30:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/a-good-year-for-cactus/
<p>It’s the time of the year when the cactuses of the Sonoran desert bloom, and while not exactly a riot of color, there’s something very special about seeing the rugged and blandly colored plants extrude fragile flowers.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/cactus_flower.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/cactus_flower.jpg’,’popup’,’width=768,height=1024,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/cactus_flower-tm.jpg" height="300" width="225" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Cactus in Bloom" title="Cactus in Bloom" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Prickly Pear in bloom. Click for larger view.</em></p>
<p>And here’s a closer shot of one of the flowers:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/cactus_flower_closer.jpg" onclick="window.open(’/images/cactus_flower_closer.jpg’,’popup’,’width=1024,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0’);return false"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/cactus_flower_closer-tm.jpg" height="225" width="300" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Closer view" title="Closer view" /></a><br /></p>
<p><em>Mmm … buttery. Click for larger view.</em></p>
<p>According to the always interesting Wikipedia, the almost-invisible hairy spines on genus <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prickly_pear_cactus">Opuntia</a> are called glochids. They’re what you spend quite a lot of time removing from your skin with a pair of tweezers if you get too close to one of these bad boys.</p>
Aryan race laws in Sweden2006-04-05T05:30:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/aryan-race-laws-in-sweden/
<p>Whenever you’re talking to a Swedish person and they start getting all uppity about how Sweden is all about peace and love and big hugs, you may want to point them <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060404/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_sweden_nazis_1">to this article.</a> (If you happen to be in front of a computer right at that moment, of course.)</p>
<p>Here’s the lede:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sweden helped the Nazis stop Germans and Jews marrying and suppressed criticism of Hitler and reports of atrocities, says new research suggesting neutral Sweden accommodated the Nazis more than previously thought.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There’s an old bitter joke that goes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Nazis invaded Denmark in two weeks, Norway overnight, and Sweden by phone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sure, every country—<em>every country</em>—has appalling nastiness in its history, but the things that Sweden did a nudge, nudge, wink, wink over during the Nazi era and then has completely tried to sweep under the table and deny is galling.</p>
<p>The history I was taught in school growing up in Sweden most certainly did not include any mention whatsoever of collaboration with the Nazis … I wonder if the current curriculum does?</p>
<p>Note the frightening last paragraph of the article:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But a recent study by the Living History Forum shocked Jews in Sweden by suggesting that one in 20 Swedes still has strong anti-Semitic views and over a third were “ambivalent” towards Jews.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All I’m saying is, we can and should do a whole lot better.</p>
It’s not stupid2006-04-05T02:03:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/its-not-stupid/
<p>The word “stupid” has <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/12/curses/">joined booty-head</a> on the list of words we don’t allow Andrea to use. This word is apparently bandied about in the mean streets of day care quite a lot, and we don’t want her to denigrate others, so it made The List†.</p>
<p>Since pushing the envelope is something children apparently enjoy (who knew?), Andrea is developing ways to skirt around the edges. A recent favorite has been to say “stu! stu! stu!” She knows we know what she’s saying, but it’s true that <em>technically</em> she’s within the boundaries.</p>
<p>Today while I was cooking dinner she was leafing through a catalog, muttering to herself with apparent glee, “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”</p>
<p>So I put down the spatula and asked her what she was saying. This lead to the usual witty repartee of our favorite game “What word?”</p>
<p>“The word you were saying.”</p>
<p>“What word was I saying?”</p>
<p>“You know which word you were saying.”</p>
<p>“The word I was saying with my words?”</p>
<p>“Yes … yes.”</p>
<p>“Tiggers do best.”</p>
<p>“Em. You were saying, ’Tiggers do best?’”</p>
<p>Huge smile: “Yes! Tiggers do best.” A pause. “That’s a good one, huh?”</p>
<p>†It’s a pretty short list at this point, pretty much only consisting of “booty” and variations thereof, and “stupid.” It will no doubt increase in size as time passes.</p>
Review: Mortal Causes2006-04-02T02:30:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-mortal-causes/
<p>A young man is tortured and executed in a brutal manner that leads the police to suspect a connection with the Troubles in Northern Ireland. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312960948%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312960948%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Mortal Causes</a></em>, the sixth novel in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series, sees Rebus forced to confront his own past as a soldier during the height of the Troubles.</p>
<p><em>Mortal Causes</em> is taut and chilly, its plot unfolding with relentless logic. Rankin’s writing is better than ever, and the shadowy sub-terrain where terrorism intersects with poverty and hopelessness mercilessly explored.</p>
<p><em>Mortal Causes</em> is a powerhouse.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/">The Black Book</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Review: The Black Book2006-04-02T02:15:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/review-the-black-book/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312976755%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312976755%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Black Book</a></em> finds John Rebus attempting to figure out who attacked one of his partners and put him in a coma outside a restaurant run by a man with an Elvis fixation and a bad case of horrible puns, attempt to save his current relationship after his girlfriend throws him out and forces him to move back in to his apartment which he is currently subletting to an unspecified number of university students, and to top it all off his brother comes to stay with him after his release from prison.</p>
<p>Ian Rankin has created quite a mess for Inspector Rebus to deal with in this, the fifth installment of the series, and he brings off the involved plot with aplomb, also finding the space to flesh out his secondary characters and, as usual, make Edinburgh itself into a character in the novel.</p>
<p>The Inspector Rebus series just gets better and better.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/">Strip Jack</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Color TV in 19622006-04-02T00:34:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/04/snort/
<p>Here we go, then. Another April 1st and the entire intarweb reveals its complete and utter <a href="http://www.dashes.com/anil/2006/03/31/your_april_fool">lack of a sense of humor.</a> Sigh.</p>
<p>There was a pretty good joke in Sweden back in 1962, just as color television was being introduced in the country. ([Here’s a link to the Swedish Wikipedia entry.](<a href="http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilsk%C3%A4mt#">http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilskämt#</a> Nylonstrumpan_.C3.B6ver_TV:n)) In complete dead pan, viewers were informed that the state-run TV company had purchased new equipment that would allow people with black-and-white TV sets to view color programming by simply threading a pair of nylon tights over their screens.</p>
<p>According to my mother, my grandfather completely bought it, even though he would never admit it.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> Thanks to the power of teh intarwebs and the groovy people at Swedish Television, here’s <a href="http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/shared/mediacenter/player.jsp?d=43499&a=477101">a link to the actual broadcast</a>. It requires RealPlayer and will obviously only make any kind of sense if you happen to speak Swedish.</p>
<p>If you happen to have RealPlayer and speak Swedish, it’s pretty damn amazing, though. The guy doing the presentation is unbelievably sincere, and throws out a fantastic amount of almost-believable technobabble. Good job.</p>
Prayer’s healing power disproven2006-03-31T21:48:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/prayers-healing-power-disproven/
<p>An <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060331/od_nm/prayer_dc_3">interesting study</a> sponsored by the <a href="http://www.templeton.org/spirituality_and_health/spirituality_programs.asp">John Templeton Foundation</a> of 1,802 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery found no evidence whatsoever of the healing power of prayer.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the study found that the group of patients who had been informed that they were going to be prayed for actually suffered more complications from their surgery than patients in the groups who had either not been told whether they would be prayed for or had been told that they would not receive the benefit of prayer.</p>
<p>A theory could be that the patients who were informed of their impending prayer either suffered from “performance anxiety”—wanting so much to prove that prayer was beneficial that they stressed themselves into having more complications.</p>
<p>Another theory could be that the patients convinced themselves that the doctors knew something they weren’t telling them, and thus stressed themselves by believing that they were in more serious trouble than they had been told.</p>
<p>Or … perhaps this is proof that Christianity is wrong? Wouldn’t it be a kick in the teeth if the same study replicated among Jews, Muslims, and Hindus found different results?</p>
<p>Incidentally, IT Conversations has a <a href="http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail990.html">very interesting interview</a> with Daniel Dennett, whose latest book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=067003472X%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/067003472X%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Breaking the Spell</a></em>, attempts to provide a framework for studying religion as a natural phenomenon. Well worth a listen.</p>
Pledge drive time2006-03-31T21:00:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/pledge-drive-time/
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/logoKJZZHome2.jpg" height="144" width="406" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="KJZZ Logo" title="KJZZ Logo" />
<p>It must be Spring, since <a href="http://kjzz.org/">the NPR pledge drive</a> is in full effect.</p>
<p>Despite being one of the cheapest people I know, I ponied up 6 Hamiltons.</p>
<p>Please do the same and help keep that tiny oasis of sanity on the air if you’re fed up with radio stations that are either:</p>
<p>a) populated with air heads who do nothing but play the same damn 40 songs over and over and over and over and talk about what they saw on TV† while their corporate overlords refill the CD player; or</p>
<p>b) populated with batshit insane troglodytes whose idea of discourse is to scream and yell‡.</p>
<p>†That’s why we have blogs, yo<br /></p>
<p>‡Apparently blogs are also good for that</p>
Review: Caesar’s Legion2006-03-31T03:41:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-caesars-legion/
<p>In <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0471095702%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0471095702%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Casar’s Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar’s Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome</a></em>, Stephen Dando-Collins has created a comprehensive history of the famed Legio X, known as the Roman Empire’s finest fighting unit.</p>
<p>The book covers the legion from the time it was raised by Julius Caesar in Spain until its end in Syria centuries later, interweaving the broad scope of the historical events in which the legion played a part and gritty details of military organization, tactics, and weaponry.</p>
<p>Dando-Collins is at his best when sticking to the known details of the daily life of the men and the battles and maneuvers in which Legia X took part, but stumbles a little bit narratively when covering the political shenanigans that tore the Roman Empire apart—unless the reader is already intimately familiar with the naked power grabs of succeeding emperors and emperors-to-be, things become a bit blurry.</p>
<p>Added to the sometimes slightly out-of-focus feel is that naturally when discussing events that transpired over two millennia ago, a lot of detail has been lost through the ages, and a fair amount of interpretation is needed.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Dando-Collins writes in a breezy, easy-to-read style, and the human drama of Legio X is well-presented.</p>
<p>Recommended both for military history buffs and people interested in the Roman Empire.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-gates-of-fire/">Gates of Fire</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/12/review-tides-of-war/">Tides of War</a></em></p>
Army of Darkness2006-03-29T20:36:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/army-of-darkness/
<p>Andrea has reached the time in her life when ponies and horses for some reason that utterly eludes me become <em>really, really important.</em></p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pony_invasion.jpg" height="288" width="352" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Pony Invasion" title="Pony Invasion" />
<p><br /><em>Watch out for the bastard with the little guitar.</em></p>
<p>We have a deal with her where she can bring one (1) toy with her to day care. She picks the toy the night before. For the last couple of weeks, it’s been all about the purple pony.</p>
<p>We also get to spend lots of quality time playing with the ponies. The biggest one has been dubbed “The dance teacher.” Apparently teaching dancing to the other ponies is a matter of grave importance that can only be entrusted to the biggest and most mature of the ponies.</p>
<p>Now don’t get me wrong—it’s great that she has a good time playing with the things, and it’s also good that her make-believe play is very socially engaged.</p>
<p>But. Why. Ponies?</p>
Review: Strip Jack2006-03-27T01:25:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-strip-jack/
<p>Ian Rankin’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312965141%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312965141%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Strip Jack</a></em> is the fourth novel in the Inspector Rebus series. <em>Strip Jack</em> has a strong plot and Rankin spends a lot of energy on fleshing out his supporting characters, both police and suspects, leading to an engrossing police procedural.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/">Tooth and Nail</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Review: Tooth and Nail2006-03-27T00:51:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-tooth-and-nail/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312958781%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312958781%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Tooth and Nail</a></em> is Ian Rankin’s third Inspector Rebus novel, and it sees Rebus sent on assignment to London to help catch a serial killer the press has dubbed The Wolfman.</p>
<p>Having Rebus removed from his comfort zone in Edinburgh allows Rankin to deepen the character a bit, and it also allows for some funny moments, like when Rebus realizes that his colleagues in London don’t understand what he is saying because of his deep Scottish accent.</p>
<p>The story itself does have some problems, though: The Wolfman character doesn’t really go far beyond “scary bogey man” territory, and the denouement feels a bit contrived.</p>
<p><em>Tooth and Nail</em> is an effective novel which grabs the reader and pulls her along, but it’s a bit of a disappointment when compared to the two previous Inspector Rebus novels.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/">Hide and Seek</a></em><br /></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
Friday silliness2006-03-18T01:23:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/friday-silliness/
<p>My sister is one of those people who keep spamming her friends and family with silly chain letters, which sometimes gets annoying even though I love her dearly.</p>
<p>But sometimes something good comes along in one of those things…</p>
<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/onlythedog.png" height="396" width="248" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Only the dog" title="Only the dog" />Review: Hide and Seek2006-03-17T03:32:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-hide-and-seek/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312963971%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312963971%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Hide and Seek</a></em> is Ian Rankin’s second Inspector Rebus novel. It is a taut, gritty, and utterly engrossing murder mystery that continues to flesh out the character of John Rebus and also builds an excellent cast of secondary characters.</p>
<p>The tightly woven plot takes the reader from the down-and-out of Edinburgh, beginning with the murder victim in the unrelentingly grim Pilmuir Estates, to the excesses of the same city’s upper crust.</p>
<p>With the cynical and oddly likable Rebus as a fulcrum and a more than generous helping of local color, <em>Hide and Seek</em> sees the budding Inspector Rebus series firmly shift into gear.</p>
<hr />
<p>Related Core Dump Reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/">Knots and Crosses</a></em></p>
The Core Dump after dark2006-03-16T03:54:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/the-core-dump-after-dark/
<p>Just to illustrate the non-stop rock ’n’ roll life style that goes on at Casa Core Dump, my wife needed to go to the mall to get something tonight.</p>
<p>We were having dinner, and asked Andrea if she wanted to go with mommy or stay home with daddy.</p>
<p>“You’re going to the mall?” Andrea asked.</p>
<p>“Yes,” said my wife.</p>
<p>Andrea looked confused for a little bit, then leaned forward in her chair to get a better look out the window. “But,” she said, “it’s dark outside.”</p>
<p>And that is how we roll.</p>
Review: Knots and Crosses2006-03-14T02:20:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-knots-and-crosses/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0312956738%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0312956738%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">Knots and Crosses</a></em> is the first in Ian Rankin’s multi-award-winning series of novels about Inspector John Rebus. According to the author himself, he intended the novel to be a modern update of the myth of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but ended up turning out a taut and psychologically believable police procedural.</p>
<p>As the first novel in a series, <em>Knots and Crosses</em> does have its issues—while the plot centers around John Rebus and his quite painful past in the Special Air Service, he doesn’t really come together as a person in the novel’s present, mostly due to an amplitude of “burned out cop” clichés such as chain-smoking, drinking everything liquid put in front of him, and problems relating to other people.</p>
<p>However, it is still a quite good story in its own right, and it sets the stage for the other mysteries in the series, where Rankin does a very good job of fleshing out Rebus’s character.</p>
<p>As a bonus, it is fabulous to read such a well put-together piece of crime fiction that does not take place in any of the “crime” cities such as LA, New York, or London. Rankin’s Edinburgh is a dark and gloomy place, haunted by the shadows of its past and the cold, merciless winds of the North Sea.</p>
<p>The perfect place for Rebus’s scarred soul.</p>
Reprieve from the drought2006-03-11T20:31:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/reprieve-from-the-drought/
<p>It’s <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0311Rain-ON.html">raining today</a>, the end of 143 days of zero precipitation. Dark skies, drizzling rain, temperature in the 40s … a perfect day for curling up with a book or a laptop.</p>
<p>Hopefully we’ll get enough rain to bring some of the particulates out of the air—Phoenix has had air pollution advisory upon air pollution advisory the last months as the air became ever more stagnant with dust from the parched desert, growing hazier and hazier with each passing day.</p>
<p>Eerily enough, I did wash my car yesterday…</p>
All about the Salmons, yo2006-03-11T03:23:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/all-about-the-chases-yo/
<p>Indeed, this is legal US tender:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/images/10grand.jpg" height="149" width="378" border="0" align="middle" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="10K Dollars" title="10K Dollars" /><br /></p>
<p><em>I’m dropping Chases.</em></p>
<p>The ten thousand dollar bill bears the picture of Salmon P. Chase, who served as treasury secretary under Abraham Lincoln.</p>
<p>And yes, the eponymous bank was named after him…</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=3&u=/060309/480/099460f92b8141a3b04de4899d0b7ffc">Yahoo!</a></p>
The silence of the fans2006-03-10T03:43:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/the-silence-of-the-fans/
<p>It’s amazing how used you get to certain situations and how some stimulus responses wire themselves into your brain.</p>
<p>For three years now it’s been a given that if the monitor in the study is lit, there is a loud whirring noise from the computer by my desk. Not a horrible, grating noise, but more of a strident white noise reminder that the computer is on, dammit, and I should do some work on it instead of letting it waste its cycles on checking email every five minutes and doing absolutely <em>nothing</em> to cure cancer or help with world peace.</p>
<p>But now the whirr is gone, replaced by a barely audible whisper that says, “Hey, I’m on if you—you know—feel like doing something. But if not, that’s cool too. I’ll keep the monitor on for you.”</p>
<p>White noise is the enemy of sanity.</p>
Begin world domination2006-03-09T04:02:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/begin-world-domination/
<p>The Intel Mini arrived today. You know, people can chart and graph benchmarks all they want—when you go from a dual-gig Windtunnel to a Dual Core, things become pretty damn impressively Snappy™.</p>
<p>So here goes my mini-review after about an hour of poking the Intel Mini: “OMFG ITS TEH R0X0RING SNAPPY!!!1 LOL.”</p>
<p>It’s probably a good thing I’m easily amused…</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> After logging some quality Mini time, two more impressions:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.apple.com/rosetta/">Rosetta</a> is the enemy of the snappy. Neither <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">Ecto</a> nor <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">NetNewsWire</a>, the two non-Apple applications I probably use the most on a home computer, have been Intelified, and they both feel like they are running on a mid-level G4 chip. Rosetta is a tour de force of technology, but you very much do feel the difference.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Sitting three feet from your computer with a remote control paging through your iTunes library with Front Row is, for a few minutes at least, oddly compelling.</p>
</li>
</ul>
Review: The Closers2006-03-07T02:23:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-the-closers/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0446616443%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0446616443%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Closers</a></em> is Michael Connelly’s 11th Harry Bosch novel, and it sees Bosch return to active duty, more specifically as a member of the LAPD’s elite Open/Unsolved Unit, formerly and more prosaically known as the Cold Case Squad.</p>
<p>Unlike previous Bosch novels, <em>The Closers</em> is more of a straight police procedural, with less focus on Bosch’s own demons and more on the very well-plotted case the novel tracks. This does remove a bit of the raw power of the previous novels in the series, but fits well with the protagonist’s reentry into the police force.</p>
<p>The case itself, concerning the 1988 abduction and murder of a bi-racial high school girl, provides all the drama needed to make <em>The Closers</em> a success.</p>
<p>It’s great to have Bosch back.</p>
<hr />
<p><em>Related Core Dump Reviews:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/05/review-the-narrows/">The Narrows</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-lost-light/">Lost Light</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-chasing-the-dime/">Chasing the Dime</a></em></p>
Review: The Smartest Guys in the Room2006-03-06T02:01:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/review-the-smartest-guys-in-the-room/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecoredump-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=1591840538%2526tag=thecoredump-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/1591840538%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron</a></em> is an exhaustively researched and beautifully written indictment not only of a corrupt company, but also of a business climate that fostered and encouraged such companies.</p>
<p>The unethical, not to mention illegal, financial shenanigans undertaken by Enron and supported by accounting companies and banks are breathtaking in their scope, to the point where if this were a work of fiction instead of reporting, it would stretch suspension of disbelief so far as to be laughable. But unfortunately for all the people robbed of their life savings by Lay, Skilling, Fastow, et al., it is indeed reporting.</p>
<p>The books succeeds admirably in telling the tale of Enron’s rise and fall, and delivers especially well when it comes to painting the human side of the company. The greed and arrogance on display in the book is mind blowing.</p>
<p><em>The Smartest Guys in the Room</em> is required reading.</p>
Housekeeping2006-03-05T21:51:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/housekeeping/
<p>It looks like the <a href="http://www.wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> migration of this site is now complete—old posts have been imported, links have been fixed, and in general things look pretty good.</p>
<p>If you’re reading this in a feed reader, do swing by and check out the new look. It’s a theme called <a href="http://warpspire.com/hemingway">Hemingway</a>. Pretty spiffy, I must say. Black is the new … ehm … black?</p>
<p>In order to migrate the old posts, I had fired up the coffee maker and dusted off my Perl books in anticipation of having to write a script to get the articles out from the Typo database, but bless the heart of whoever wrote the RSS import script for WordPress: Just a matter of generating a massive feed of all posts in the Typo database and then import that feed. <em>Et voila!</em> The process took a while, but as long as it’s the computer doing the hard work and not me, that’s not a problem.</p>
<p>Time to enjoy the rest of the weekend…</p>
UnLinksys my heart2006-03-04T01:45:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/unlinksys-my-heart/
<p>Turns out that <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is also joining in <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/03/mini-me/">Make Steve Richer Day</a>.</p>
<p>The Linksys WRT-54G—a crown for the marketer who thought up that name, a crown, I say—has decided that this whole providing a wireless signal for other devices to connect to is a way too <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie">bourgeoisie</a> endeavor for it, and it is now pursuing a career in performance art. Or something. It’s certainly not putting out a radio signal.</p>
<p><em>Cue Darth Vader voice:</em> You have failed me for the last time, Linksys.</p>
<p>At this point the AirPort Express that has allowed effortless streaming of iTunes music to the stereo in the living room is standing in the for the Linksys unit that is off somewhere finding itself.</p>
<p>It is time to make Steve richer by buying a second AirPort Express.</p>
<p>How are <em>you</em> making Steve richer today?</p>
Mini me2006-03-03T23:20:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/03/mini-me/
<p>People of Earth: It’s time we all come together as one to make sure Steve Jobs gets richer.</p>
<p>To this end, I have ordered myself a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macmini/">Mac Mini</a>. Dual Core with the RAM maxed out, natch. Still thinking about a name for the little beastie, but if I continue my tradition of naming my computers after people and things in William Gibson novels, it will probably be dubbed Ashpool.</p>
<p>So, look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What have <em>I</em> done for Steve today?”</p>
First post2006-02-27T14:40:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/first-post/
<p>The Core Dump is now powered by <a href="http://www.wordpress.org/">WordPress</a>, after a <a href="http://www.typosphere.org/">Typo</a> upgrade went spectacularly wrong. Although that was more of an impetus for change—I’d been eyeing WordPress for a while, and decided that rather than roll back to an earlier rev of Typo, why not just go ahead and test the waters a bit?</p>
<p>In a way it’s kind of nice to start over with a clean slate, and to have an opportunity to rework the site and de-cruftify things a bit.</p>
<p>So far the article feed URL has been brought over, so if you’re reading through an aggregator, things should Just Work. The comments feed, on the other hand, is in the wind, so if you care about that, you need to resubscribe.</p>
<p>Lots to do to bring old posts over and set up all the niggling little details.</p>
Olympic money2006-02-22T17:36:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/olympic-money/
<p>One thing that’s constantly boggling my mind here in my Winter Olympics Coma is the amount of money Chevy, Budweiser, and Visa must be spending on advertising.</p>
<p>Seriously, those companies are engaged in the most massive advertising saturation bombing I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>Sorry, Chevy, never buying one of your vehicles again—I’d like to go through the rest of my life without once again knowing my mechanic’s phone number by heart.</p>
<p>Sorry, Budweiser, your beer is repellent.</p>
<p>Sorry, Visa, already a customer.</p>
<p>How do you calculate return on investment on these sorts of things, anyway?</p>
Review: Fleshmarket Alley2006-02-19T16:38:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/review-fleshmarket-alley/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316010405/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-0003747-8978501?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Fleshmarket Alley</a></em> is the 15th novel Ian Rankin has written about Inspector John Rebus and the dark and gloomy Edinburgh in which he lives and works.</p>
<p>The novel is economically written, with a great ear for dialogue and an exquisite feel for the psychology of people on the edge, whether they are burned-out cops, desperate asylum-seekers, or criminals having their plots stymied.</p>
<p>Add to that the novelty of the novel taking place in a well-drawn and bleak Edinburgh, and it’s a grand success.</p>
<p>Many more Inspector Rebus novels are winging their way to The Core Dump from Amazon as we speak. Great stuff.</p>
<p>A note to Little, Brown and Company, the American publisher of the Inspector Rebus novels: Most sane people want to begin reading a series from the beginning, so it might be a good idea if you could list the other novels in the series in, oh, I don’t know, <em>chronological order</em>?</p>
<p>Please don’t make it hard for your customers to purchase your merchandise.</p>
Olympics2006-02-19T09:04:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/olympics/
<p>The Olympics are happening in Torino, and despite my customary indifference to sports, the Olympics always get my attention.</p>
<p>It’s amazing to watch the best athletes in the world, and to see all the incredible things the human body can do. Add in the drama of a life time of dedication and grueling work leading to success or failure in a few tension-filled seconds or minutes and it’s compelling viewing.</p>
<p>As a bonus this time, there’s a new sport on the menu: <a href="http://www.nbcolympics.com/snowboarding/inside.html">Snowboard cross</a>. Now <em>that</em> was fun to watch—full-on Mad Max action on boards. The world of skiing definitely needed some post-apocalyptic mayhem on the slopes. Boya!</p>
Heart tax day2006-02-15T15:08:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/heart-tax-day/
<p>Valentine’s day in the States today, a day for single people to binge on chocolate and sappy movies, and for men in relationships to fear the wrath of their significant others if they don’t kowtow to the Flower-Restaurant-Greeting Card Complex (FRGCC).</p>
<p>Naturally, I boycott the whole spectacle. I will <em>not</em> be given a date on the calendar when I am forced to be “romantic.”</p>
<p>My wife lets me get away with this, which ironically makes me love her even more…</p>
<p>Here’s the straight dope: Ladies, when your significant other shows up with roses or chocolate or a card or takes you out to dinner on Valentine’s Day, he is <em>not</em> being romantic. He just fears sleeping in a cold, lonely bed.</p>
<p>Don’t believe me? Head down to the grocery store or your nearest flower store and hang out for a little while. Look at the faces of the men paying exorbitant amounts for roses. Do those men look like they are in a romantic mood? Are their eyes dancing with happiness at the thought of a <a href="http://waiterrant.net/?p=271">romantic dinner</a> with their beloved, or are they flop sweating at the thought of the flowers having sold out?</p>
<p>I’ve long been curious about the iron grip the FRGCC has on the minds of America, and discovered to my horror today that the brainwashing actually begins in day care.</p>
<p>Went to pick up Andrea and she greeted me by yelling “Happy Valentine’s Day!” They’d made big paper hearts, some of the children brought Valentine’s Day cards, and one of the boys had even brought in candy in little paper bags decorated with hearts to share with everybody in the class.</p>
<p>I fear that unless decisive action is taken soon, her soul will be lost to the FRGCC…</p>
Water, my Bête Noire2006-02-11T15:56:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/water-my-bamp234te-noire/
<p>Water not only does not fall from the sky here in Phoenix, where we’ve now gone something like 115 days without measurable precipitation, what we have of it also tastes utterly atrocious and will <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/02/a-pox-on-hard-water">clog your pipes</a>.</p>
<p>But that’s not all. Oh, no.</p>
<p>Woke up on Thursday morning with a massive head cold coming on after having spent most of the night waking up with a start after choking on phlegm. Got in the shower and thought to myself, quiet-like, “Hmm, the water pressure seems really low today. That can’t be good.”</p>
<p>Shaved, got dressed and went outside to pick up the paper, when what should I hear but the rumbling of my active drip system.</p>
<p>Went inside and got a flashlight. 6:15 a.m. is a dark and inhumane time.</p>
<p>Walked up to one of the drippers, and yep, it was dripping away. Went to the controller and checked the settings; yep, supposed to drip every third day from 5:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m.</p>
<p>So why was it dripping at 6:15 a.m?</p>
<p>Turned the water off at the controller. Drip, drip, drip. Thought unprintable curses.</p>
<p>Went to the valve to see if anything obvious was going on. The valve was submerged in water. OK, so that could quite likely have something to do with the malfunction.</p>
<p>The only option at that point was to turn the system off with the overflow valve, which is conveniently located behind a hedge equipped with ninja-thorns. Got in there and tried to turn the valve. Wouldn’t budge.</p>
<p>Many more unprintable words.</p>
<p>Went to the garage and got a hammer. It was 6:15 a.m. At 6:15 a.m. problems are solved with fire power. Bang, bang, bang on the valve. Wouldn’t budge.</p>
<p>Went inside and informed wife of current events. Grabbed crescent wrench. Valve must be turned.</p>
<p>Went back behind the Hedge of Pain and did some more banging. No luck.</p>
<p>Then a thought—nay, a <em>revelation</em>—hit me: <em>Counter-clockwise is off, ya moron!</em></p>
<p>I’m actually not an idiot, but I most certainly do act like one at 6:15 a.m.</p>
<p>With the water safely shut off, it was time to call the landscaping company and set up an appointment.</p>
<p>They showed up punctual as always this morning and replaced the valve that had caused all the trouble.</p>
<p>So, checking account $165 lighter, I now have a functioning valve again and the drip system sleeps when it should.</p>
<p>It’s so very past time to get a quote to have the front yard xeroscaped. Death by attrition is what it is.</p>
Flibbertigibbet2006-02-08T16:04:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/flibbertigibbet/
<p>Isn’t that just a wonderful word? <em>Flibbertigibbet.</em></p>
<p>According to my computer’s copy of The Oxford American Dictionaries, it means “a frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person.”</p>
A pox on hard water2006-02-08T15:42:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/a-pox-on-hard-water/
<p>One memory that tends to stick with people who have moved to the Valley of the Sun is their first shower. You get in the shower, soap yourself up, and wonder, “Hey, isn’t soap supposed to lather?”</p>
<p>Welcome to the wonderful world of [hard water](<a href="http://www.iplumbphoenix.com/faq.php#">http://www.iplumbphoenix.com/faq.php#</a> hard-water).</p>
<p>Last weekend we spent some quality time swapping out a shower head whose nozzles had clogged up so bad it was unusable.</p>
<p>Then we realized that the faucet in the kitchen seemed to be losing pressure. After a few minutes of cold sweat and testing the other faucets in the house we realized that it was only the kitchen faucet, so we weren’t losing pressure in the whole house.</p>
<p><em>Whew.</em> For a few minutes there, all I could see were dollar bills flying out the window.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, we kind of like to have a functioning kitchen faucet, so it was time to break out the Antidote: Vinegar. Dipped the faucet in vinegar for half an hour, and it was like new.</p>
<p>Bless you, vinegar.</p>
<p>And a pox on you, hard water.</p>
<p>I’ll go ahead and stop anthropomorphizing now.</p>
Nic joins the 21st century. Film at 112006-02-06T15:50:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/nic-joins-the-21st-century-film-at-11/
<p>Our VCR burned out in a power failure a year or so ago, and we just haven’t had the time or inclination to go buy a replacement. The VCR spent its life as a time-shift mechanism, allowing us to tape things we know we’d want to watch and then catch those programs at our convenience, and with the added bonus of fast-forwarding commercials.</p>
<p>Being cut from nerdish cloth, I’ve enjoyed the few episodes of <em>Battlestar Galactica</em> I’ve managed to catch, but since the show airs at 11 pm on Friday nights, even my most valiant efforts to stay up late enough to catch it tend to meet with abject failure. And that state of affairs could no longer be allowed to stand.</p>
<p>So we decided that instead of buying another VCR, let’s get with the times and go the PVR route. We are now blessed with a Cox Tivo-knockoff.</p>
<p>Of course, Cox’s superb customer service managed to extract its customary pound of flesh.</p>
<p>We called Cox and told them we wanted to swap one of our cable boxes for a PVR. Sure, no problem, just bring the cable box to a Cox store and get a PVR.</p>
<p>We went to the store and performed the swap. Asked the guy if there’s any kind of setup required. Nope. Just plug it in.</p>
<p>Plugged in the box, and it displayed an error message about not being authorized, and to call a phone number shown on the screen. So we did. The number was completely automated, and told us that the authorization would take “up to two hours” and to call customer service if the box hadn’t been authorized at that point. Okie-dokie.</p>
<p>Two hours later the box was nowhere closer to being authorized, so we called customer service, and they flipped whatever switch was necessary to bring the box to life. Reading between the lines of what the customer service rep said, that automated authorization process has about the same chance of working as chanting “Authorize Thyself” to the box while dressed in a druid robe.</p>
Review: Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days2006-02-03T17:13:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/02/review-diamond-dogs-turquoise-days/
<p>Set in Alastair Reynolds’s <em>Revelation Space</em> universe, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441012787/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8577023-1458241?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days</a></em> consists of two novellas.</p>
<p>His novels set in the same universe earned and cemented a place for Reynolds in the pantheon of SF writers, and showed his great skill in creating an exquisitely detailed far-future reality revealed through long novels with highly intricate plots.</p>
<p>After reading <em>Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days</em> one can only conclude that the novella is not his medium. Neither story is by any means bad, but the novella by its very nature can’t provide the ample space Reynolds requires, so the stories feel a bit hurried and incomplete.</p>
<p><em>Diamond Dogs</em> feels a lot like Edgar Allan Poe writing cyberpunk—very gothic and with a sense of grim inevitability, while <em>Turquoise Days</em> is a bit softer.</p>
<p><em>Diamond Dogs, Turqoise Days</em> is definitely not the place to start your acquaintance with Reynolds’s work, but if you’re a fan of the <em>Revelation Space</em> universe and want something to hold you over until the next novel, these stories are a tasty snack.</p>
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/07/review-revelation-space/">Revelation Space</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-redemption-ark">Redemption Ark</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-absolution-gap">Absolution Gap</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-chasm-city/">Chasm City</a></p>
Review: Moneyball2006-01-29T16:30:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-moneyball/
<p>Michael Lewis’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393324818/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8577023-1458241?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Moneyball</a></em> is ostensibly a book about baseball, how the Oakland A’s and their general manager Billy Beane used statistical data and computer models to cut through the myths of the sport. This enabled them to purchase excellent players that other teams overlooked and to compete successfully on a shoestring budget.</p>
<p>But baseball is really incidental to the theme of the book, which is the importance of looking at performance objectively instead of through the sometimes distorting lenses of “What everybody knows,” and the stress on an existing system that is caused by a brand-new approach.</p>
<p>As a person whose knowledge of and interest in baseball is—to put it mildly—sketchy, the portions of the book that discuss so-and-sos bunting average and that-guys bases stolen, and that-other-guys walks, etc. are utterly snore-inducing, but Lewis deftly mixes up those pieces with personal stories that make any subject interesting.</p>
<p><em>Moneyball</em> is tightly and economically written, and provides a brilliant view into a schismatic time in the history of a major enterprise.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Review: The Broker2006-01-29T16:04:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-the-broker/
<p>John Grisham is at his best when he’s writing about court room intrigue and high-powered wheelings-and-dealings. Unfortunately, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440241588/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8577023-1458241?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">The Broker</a></em> has very little of either.</p>
<p>This novel feels like it should have been the first three chapters in another novel, and spends most of its time in Bologna, Italy, where our protagonist is given a crash course in becoming Italian and also begins to repent his former evil ways.</p>
<p><em>The Broker</em> is about as dull as that sounds. Avoid.</p>
Drop the hammer2006-01-27T17:46:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/drop-the-hammer/
<p>On the road today, saw a black Corvette with a license plate frame that said, “I know, I know, license and registration.”</p>
<p>Seems like a pretty sure-fire way to ensure the cop who pulled you over won’t cut you any slack whatsoever. But then, perhaps bitter experience has shown our fellow driver that the black ‘vette itself does not bring out the cuddly side of Law Enforcement?</p>
<p>I myself, incidentally, earned the one and only speeding ticket I ever got in a red Camaro IROC Z-28. In a small town in Louisiana. In the middle of the night.</p>
<p>Why was I speeding? Because it was the middle of the night in a creepy small town in Louisiana—known for two things: a highly active KKK Kommunity and lots of reports of Satanist activity—and there was a car right on my bumper. So I increased the distance between myself and it, and then the Happy Lights™ came on.</p>
<p>Being an unshaven guy in a black leather jacket with a foreign accent surprisingly did not get me off the hook.</p>
<p>Good times.</p>
Five top 5 lists2006-01-20T16:12:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/five-top-5-lists/
<p>For no particular reason except your amusement, here are five top five lists.</p>
<p>Top 5 World War II movies:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><em>Saving Private Ryan</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Downfall</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>A Bridge too Far</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Das Boot</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Stalingrad</em></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Top 5 80s Metal songs:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><em>Rainbow in the Dark</em>—Dio</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Breaking the Law</em>—Judas Priest</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter</em>—Iron Maiden</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Living after Midnight</em>—Judas Priest</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Fast as a Shark</em>—Accept</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Top 5 science fiction movies:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><em>Bladerunner</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>The Matrix</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Aliens</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>The Terminator</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Star Wars IV</em></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Top 5 noir novels:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><em>The Black Dahlia</em>—James Ellroy</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>The Big Sleep</em>—Raymond Chandler</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>The Black Echo</em>—Michael Connelly</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>The Killer Inside Me</em>—Jim Thompson</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Red Harvest</em>—Dashiell Hammett</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Top 5 post-apocalyptic movies:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><em>The Road Warrior</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Mad Max</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Escape from New York</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Soldier</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>The Omega Man</em></p>
</li>
</ol>
Review: Jarhead2006-01-20T16:07:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-jarhead/
<p>Some very few books ring raw and true, with an author who reveals himself and his surroundings with such abandon and relentless honesty that they are almost painful to read. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743287215/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-9576900-3085600?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Jarhead</a></em> is such a book.</p>
<p>This is the story of Anthony Swofford’s time in the Marines, taking part in Desert Storm. It is also a timeless story of soldiering, of the kinds of men who end up in elite troops, and of the brutality and dehumanization not only of war, but also of training for war.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
<p>Related Core Dump reviews:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-generation-kill/">Generation Kill</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-gates-of-fire/">Gates of Fire</a></em></p>
Review: Loaded Dice2006-01-20T15:44:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-loaded-dice/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345463277/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-9576900-3085600?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Loaded Dice</a></em> is James Swain’s fourth Tony Valentine novel, and it admirably continues the series, showing development of the main characters, a fast-moving plot, and more of the series’ trademark insider gambling knowledge.</p>
<p>If you liked the previous Tony Valentine novels, this one will not let you down.</p>
<p>excerpt: “”</p>
<hr />
<p>More James Swain reviews at The Core Dump:</p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-grift-sense/">Grift Sense</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-funny-money/">Funny Money</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-sucker-bet/">Sucker Bet</a></em></p>
The silliness of developers2006-01-18T14:37:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/the-silliness-of-developers/
<p>Andrea’s preschool uses a piece of software called WinTime Deluxe for parents to clock their wee ones in and out of the virus farm.</p>
<p>The system is set up with just a stand-alone keypad, and the process works by the parent entering either a “1” for clock in, or a “2” for clock out, then the family’s five-digit ID, then numerically selecting which child the parent is punching in or out, then hitting enter. Step and repeat if you’re Catholic.</p>
<p>Today I was tired and entered a “1” instead of the appropriate “2” in order to go through the clock-out procedure. No problem, just hit the escape key and go back to the selection screen, right? Nopers. Escape does nothing. OK, no problem, i’ll just hit invalid IDs a few times until it kicks me back to the selection screen. Nopers. It’ll let me enter bogus IDs until the sun goes supernova.</p>
<p>So in shame—<em>oh, the red-faced shame!</em>—I found the director and asked her how in the name of all that’s Right and Holy you’re supposed to get out of this screen?</p>
<p>She explains that this has been quite a common problem and they have spent much time figuring it out. Turns out the escape key is the *. That’s right, the asterisk. Not the esc key.</p>
<p>Because, really, who doesn’t associate multiplication with sweet escape?</p>
<p>And to think that there might, just might, be an application out there called WinTime Standard. One shudders to think what might be going on in the bowels of that app.</p>
Review: Sucker Bet2006-01-16T17:33:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-sucker-bet/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345463234/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-9576900-3085600?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Sucker Bet</a></em> is James Swain’s third Tony Valentine novel, and with it the series really finds it form—the characterizations gel, the plot is fast and funny, the prose is tight, and you can feel how much Swain cares about his characters.</p>
<p>Swain is a recognized gambling expert, and the insider knowledge he drops throughout the novel lifts it above other crime stories.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Review: Funny Money2006-01-15T17:06:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/review-funny-money/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345463447/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-9576900-3085600?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Funny Money</a></em> is James Swain’s second Tony Valentine novel after <em>Grift Sense</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-grift-sense/">my review here</a>), and unfortunately it hits a pretty serious sophomore slump.</p>
<p>While not a terrible novel per se, <em>Funny Money</em> feels like Swain tries to bite off too much, going from the more breezy <em>Grift Sense</em> to a darker and more violent feel. Pieces of the plot also feel grafted on, like Valentine’s romance with—of all things—a professional wrestler, which comes off really strained.</p>
<p><em>Funny Money</em> is a bit of a let-down, but still worth reading to follow the adventures of Tony Valentine.</p>
Life summarized2006-01-13T16:42:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/life-summarized/
<p>Spent some time visiting family in a small town called Vänersborg during the visit to Sweden. While there, found a book of pictures from the city taken during the 50s.</p>
<p>Turns out there used to be a hot dog stand located on the street right in between the city’s hospital and graveyard—or, as the locals liked to say, between Suffering and Death.</p>
Objects in windshield may be closer than they appear2006-01-13T16:37:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/objects-in-windshield-may-be-closer-than-they-appear/
<p>Am I the only one who constantly gets confused by the <a href="http://www.scion.com/showroom/xb/gallery/">Scion xBs?</a></p>
<p>There I am, driving down the freeway, minding my own business, see a van, think to myself, “Hey, that van is pretty far away,” then suddenly realize that, no, it’s one of those blasted perspective-bending xBs and it’s right in front of me.</p>
<p>Scion xB—evil plot for world domination, or just something we should get used to seeing? Enquiring minds want to know.</p>
A pox on all computers2006-01-09T15:59:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/a-pox-on-all-computers/
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> After I drop some serious Hamiltons on a new hard drive, one of the fans starts sounding like a harvester. Oh, woe is me. <strong>/UPDATE</strong></p>
<p>My file server celebrated the new year with some catastrophic hard drive corruption, and since there’s no way I’m going to fly naked without backups, it was necessary to spend some quality time buying a new hard drive and reinstalling <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a>.</p>
<p>Apparently the computer gods were wroth with me for some reason. Hopefully the sacrifice of a few hours of Saturday time will be enough to appease them for a while. If not, I guess a goat is in for some unhappiness…</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/open_computer.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/open_computer-tm.jpg" alt="Open Computer" /></a><em>My file server with it innards exposed. Dig the vintage case.</em></p>
Long day’s travel to night2006-01-07T14:12:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2006/01/long-days-travel-to-night/
<p>Andrea and I have safely arrived back in Phoenix after a long and excruciating flight that probably took ten years off my life. All the mechanics went well with flights more or less on time, etc., but my little girl who was such an angel on the flight to Sweden was nowhere close to her best behavior on the flight back.</p>
<p>Can’t really blame her, as it’s a very long flight for a three-year-old, and she was pretty strung out from all the new impressions during the visit, but when you’re six hours in to a 24-hour journey and the nervous breakdown looms closer and closer, finding that inner reservoir of parental patience and wisdom grows increasingly hard.</p>
<p>Here’s a short breakdown of how the journey went:</p>
<p><strong>3 AM Swedish Time (7 PM Arizona time):</strong> Reveille and breakfast in Swedish winter darkness after much too few hours of sleep.</p>
<p><strong>4 AM ST:</strong> Get in car for four-hour drive to Arlanda airport in Stockholm. Child sleeps most of the way. Her dad, on the other hand, has been cursed with an utter inability to sleep in moving vehicles of any kind.</p>
<p><strong>8 AM ST:</strong> Arrive at airport. Wake cranky child and go stand in line for flight. Child is extremely unhappy about leaving her grandparents behind.</p>
<p><strong>8:30 AM ST:</strong> Go through security and head to gate. Child wants to explore airport.</p>
<p><strong>8:45 AM ST:</strong> Go through second randomly placed security check. Passports and boarding passes are still valid, go figure.</p>
<p><strong>8:55 AM ST:</strong> Go stand in line to go through the security check at the gate. The line is long and the child does not enjoy standing in it, preferring instead to roam. This is not so good. Sweat is dripping from dad.</p>
<p><strong>9:20 AM ST:</strong> Get through security checkpoint at gate. Passports and boarding passes are still somehow valid. Dad does not find three security checkpoints to stand in line for at all excessive. No, sir. Fill out some random bulls**t form necessitated by child having an American passport.</p>
<p><strong>9:40 AM ST:</strong> Child decides to start crawling around inside the gate and thinks the word “no” is daddy code for “giggle and do what you want.” Child decides to run as far away as possible inside gate and thinks dad running behind yelling “no” means that this is a fun game. Dad is angry and sweating.</p>
<p><strong>9:45 AM ST:</strong> Thank you Baby Jesus, they’re boarding the flight.</p>
<p><strong>10:15 AM ST:</strong> Seated on plane. Child does not wish to put on seat belt. Much persuasion happens. Child screams.</p>
<p><strong>10:30 AM ST:</strong> Plane starts to pull back from gate then stops. Ominous music starts. Pilot gets on intercom and announces that due to the extreme cold and fog, the tractor that was supposed to push the plane from the gate couldn’t get traction, so another tractor had to be found.</p>
<p><strong>10:40 AM ST:</strong> Yay! Airborne! The fasten seat belts sign goes off. Dad dishes up things to amuse child. They work for about 20 minutes and then she’s bored.</p>
<p><strong>Hours pass:</strong> Child sleeps for about two hours. The rest of the time is spent walking around the aisles, complaining that she wants to go home, and demanding constant attention.</p>
<p><strong>12:50 PM Chicago Time (7:50 PM ST):</strong> Arrival at O’Hare. Go through immigration, where Child sees another child with a suitcase cart and decides she wants one, no, <em>must have one.</em> Pick up bags to go through customs, drop bags off, get on train to go from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1. Go through the security checkpoint at Terminal 1. Put shoes back on after check point. Drink a lot of water and sweat like a pig from carrying bags and keeping child from running away. Curse Gods.</p>
<p><strong>1:50 PM CT:</strong> Find gate. Child is hungry. Walk ten minutes back to McDonald’s. Get burger and fries for child. Sit down with child at gate. Child accidentally kicks the fries on to the ground. Dad picks up fries and throws them, explaining to child that they are dirty and are not to be eaten. Child demands dad go buy new clean fries. Dad explains to child that the flight will board in fifteen minutes and there is no time to get new fries. Child will have to make do with the hamburger. Child demands Happy Meal toy which dad did not pick up. For some reason dad is a bit tired. Child demands to play with other children in the gate area. Dad thinks child should focus on eating her burger. Dad finds out that the flight has moved to another gate. Move to other gate, which is thankfully close by. Child eats half of burger, which is a sort of record for her and must mean she was starved.</p>
<p><strong>2:20 PM CT:</strong> Child decides she <em>must</em> have a suitcase cart <em>right now.</em> Throws huge temper tantrum at gate.</p>
<p><strong>2:50 PM CT:</strong> Plane f**ing finally starts boarding. Child is still extremely angry about dad’s lack of ability to magic a Hello Kitty suitcase cart into being.</p>
<p><strong>3:20 PM CT:</strong> Plane sits at gate. Dad has yet another big discussion with child about the importance of putting on the seat belt when the light comes on.</p>
<p><strong>3:30 PM CT:</strong> Fasten seat belts sign comes on. Child does not want to put on seat belt. Plane sits at gate for no apparent reason. Child starts to stand up on seat. Dad wonders how high his blood pressure can get before something ruptures.</p>
<p><strong>3:40 PM CT:</strong> Plane leaves gate. Child is sitting with seat belt on after blood dripping warnings about the furious wrath of her mother when we get to Phoenix and the excruciatingly long time-outs that will ensue.</p>
<p><strong>Hours pass:</strong> A blur of stress.</p>
<p><strong>6 PM Phoenix Time (5 PM CT):</strong> Child succumbs to weariness and falls asleep. Dad spends a few minutes reading the novel he had optimistically brought along.</p>
<p><strong>6:40 PM PT:</strong> Flight lands. Child is completely fried and does not want to wake up.</p>
<p><strong>7 PM PT:</strong> Go to luggage claim and meet child’s mother. Wait 30 minutes for bags to appear.</p>
<p><strong>8 PM PT (4 AM Swedish Time):</strong> Arrive at home. Dad takes off shirt and sees that his black T-shirt is covered in dried salt from profuse sweating.</p>
Some notes on cold weather2005-12-31T05:13:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/some-notes-on-cold-weather/
<p>We had a category two blizzard warning yesterday, but the storm petered out a bit before it got to us, so it ended up being not much more than heavy snow and some winds. Nevertheless, traffic chaos ensued.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/snowefour445.jpg" alt="Snow on the E4" /><em>Snow on the E4. Source: <a href="http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=554&a=508628&previousRenderType=6">Dagens Nyheter.</a></em></p>
<p>Since it’s been ten years since I spent time in a real winter, it’s been pretty trippy to reacquaint myself with the happy fun time that is driving on frozen roads.</p>
<p>I’ve started to nurture a new theory that the reason most people in Sweden don’t have more than two kids is the insane amount of time you spend getting the wee ones in and out of cold weather clothes. Stockings, extra sweater, extra pair of socks, snow pants, jacket, hat, mittens … sheesh. And when the little ones decide that putting all that clothing is not an activity that should receive their cooperation, and you’re already running late for wherever you’re going, well … patience can get a bit frayed.</p>
<p>But it’s totally worth it for the look on Andrea’s face when she’s playing in the snow.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_in_snow.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_in_snow-tm.jpg" alt="Andrea in the Snow" /></a></p>
Solstice2005-12-22T05:28:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/solstice/
<p><em>The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel</em>, is the opening line from <em>Neuromancer</em>.</p>
<p>Today was one of those days here in Sweden—a leaden sky of static, flat light without shadows and only the greying snow on the ground providing light.</p>
<p>A perfect day and perfect place for the Solstice. Shortest day of the year, with the sun hidden behind the white noise of the clouds, powerless to penetrate.</p>
<p>Took my parents’ dog for several walks today, enjoying the cold and dreariness, watching the huddled people scurrying to wherever they were going.</p>
<p>Tomorrow things turn around; the days get longer and the nights shorter. But today it was dark.</p>
Random observations from Sweden2005-12-21T21:31:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/random-observations-from-sweden/
<p>Every once in a while back in the States somebody will ask me about differences between Sweden and the US. However, since I so rarely visit the Old Country, it’s hard for me to say. So I figured I’d post some things here while they’re fresh in my mind and in no particular order.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/swedish_pennant.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/swedish_pennant-tm.jpg" alt="Swedish Pennant" /></a><em>Swedish pennant. Click for larger version.</em></p>
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<li></li>
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<p>Radio stations use <a href="http://www.rds.org.uk/rds98/rds98.htm">RDS</a> to identify themselves. This lets you see at a glance to which station you’re listening and allows for graceful failover to new frequencies for stations that use different frequencies in different areas. Why this technology hasn’t been adopted in the States utterly baffles me.</p>
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<li></li>
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<p>Grocery stores are doing self-scanning of merchandise with a vengeance. Unlike the American style where you pick up your stuff, then go to a station and scan through everything, thereby not doing anything but saving the grocery store some money on labor, Swedish grocery stores have you check out scanners that you take with you in the store, scanning as you go along. When it’s time to check out, you hand over the scanner to a cashier who downloads the data and takes your money. Loath though I am to do the grocery stores’ work for them, this way is actually handy, as you know exactly how much you’re going to be spending, and it does save time at checkout. Plus, hey, hand held laser!</p>
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<li></li>
</ul>
<p>On the topic of grocery stores, you pay for the bags and bag your own things.</p>
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<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Basic cable shows <em>a lot</em> of B-rate American sitcoms.</p>
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<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Speaking of TV, the PAL format kicks NTSC’s butt so bad it’s not even funny. The quality difference is very real.</p>
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<li></li>
</ul>
<p>It’s often quite easy to tell if people are blue- or white collar just by the way they dress. To a certain extent this is true everywhere, of course, but there’s definitely more of a code here than I’m used to in shorts-and-sandals country.</p>
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</ul>
<p>A popular mode of exercise, especially among the middle-aged and up set, is to walk with ski poles.</p>
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<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Everybody has a cell phone.</p>
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<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Text messaging is absolutely <em>huge</em>. You see people spending more time on their phones text messaging than talking.</p>
Greetings from Sweden2005-12-20T23:27:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/greetings-from-sweden/
<p>Jet lag is no fun. Caring for a three-year-old with jet lag is infinitely less fun. It seems as though we’re starting to adjust our circadian rhythms now so hopefully smoother sailing is ahead.</p>
<p>So far the weather has cooperated beautifully, with below-freezing temperatures, mostly sun and a light dusting of snow. The meteorologists are being buzz kills, though, talking about rain on Christmas Eve. Hopefully they’re wrong as usual.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/frozen_playground.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/frozen_playground-tm.jpg" alt="Frozen Playground" /></a><em>Andrea on a frozen playground. Click for larger version.</em></p>
Posting from somewhere over the Atlantic2005-12-16T14:21:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/posting-from-somewhere-over-the-atlantic/
<p>This is teh awesome! Posting this from a Scandinavian Airlines flight somewhere over the Atlantic. SAS has equipped all their transatlantic flights with wireless, and by a happy alignment of the stars Andrea fell asleep just as a nice gentleman showed up with a 30 minutes free promo. So there we go.</p>
<p>So, a flight update: A 60 minute line to check in with United followed by a shorter line to get to security check where shoes were removed, laptop taken out of bag, and Andrea almost got lost. As a bonus, my belt buckle got me two strikes in the metal detector, which led to my being taken aside and hand searched. Good times.</p>
<p>Flight on time to Chicago, where we had to switch terminals, which involved a tram ride and having to exit the Secure Area and thus going through yet another Checkpoint Charlie. Shoes off, again. Andrea sailed through the metal detector with her teddy bear. That was a no-no, so teddy got a ride through the scanner.</p>
<p>But Andrea was happy enough. That was teddy’s adventure.</p>
<p>Made the flight to Stockholm just as they started boarding. Whew.</p>
<p>Soundtrack: Jet Engines</p>
Boy are my arms going to be tired2005-12-14T15:39:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/boy-are-my-arms-going-to-be-tired/
<p>The hour is drawing near for Andrea and me to take to the friendly skies for our Holiday trip to Sweden. We’ll leave Phoenix on Thursday morning and arrive in Sweden Friday morning.</p>
<p>It’s a pretty long haul.</p>
<p>The idea of making this journey with a three-year-old has me pretty worked up, but apart from any worst-case-scenarios taking place, I’ll be able to hack it. The key is just to make it to the airport in Stockholm. After that I can fall into a coma and let my parents deal with the little ball of energy.</p>
<p>Deep breaths.</p>
Review: Armageddon2005-12-14T15:23:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/review-armageddon/
<p>Max Hastings’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375414339/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-1876864-2921658?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945</a></em> is a sprawling and inclusive depiction of the last year of the Third Reich. The book looks at this time from the points of view of both the Allies and Germans, and separates itself from most World War II literature by spending much time on the fate of civilians touched by the conflict, covering the tragedies suffered by Dutch, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, and German civilians as the maelstrom of war pulled them down.</p>
<p>Hastings very effectively uses letters and interviews with soldiers and civilians to great emotional effect and to illustrate larger points about the war.</p>
<p>Apart from the moving testimony of civilians and front line soldiers, <em>Armageddon</em> looks at the larger military and political issues and the personality conflicts inside Allied command.</p>
<p>Unusually for a book about World War II, the history of the brutal battles of the Eastern Front is covered partially from a Russian point of view, illuminating the terrible circumstances, both military and political, under which the Red Army fought.</p>
<p>By not cowering from fanaticism, blunders, horrific mistakes, and incompetence, as well as courage, heroism, and endurance, <em>Armageddon</em> paints a vivid and sometimes breathtaking portrait of a dark and horrific year.</p>
<p>If you are at all interested in World War II, <em>Armageddon</em> belongs on your must-read list.</p>
Big it up for the Holidays2005-12-10T15:51:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/big-it-up-for-the-holidays/
<p>The Holidays are upon us, and it can be a pretty stressful time. To help us all get through this, here is a message from the Savior himself:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/bigupyouself.png" alt="Big Up You’self, says Buddy Jesus" /></p>
<p>And since it makes <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200512070010">Bill O’Reilly</a> so angry he might finally pop a vein in his brain and leave sane people alone, the coming Holidays will only be referred to as the Holidays in this tiny (but oh so very cozy) corner of cyberspace.</p>
<p>Happy Holidays, everyone! Word ’em up.</p>
Curses2005-12-09T16:45:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/curses/
<p>Andrea has reached the age where the concept of bad words starts to percolate through her evolving neural structures.</p>
<p>At this point her attention is focused on things associated with the “booty-butt,” as she’s beginning to understand that you’re not supposed to show your booty-butt to other people willy-nilly. Which of course makes the booty-butt a forbidden fruit, and thus it must be verbally processed.</p>
<p>Booty-head is a bad, bad thing to call somebody and is not something mommy and daddy will tolerate. Displaying clear indications that she will one day become a White House press secretary, she doesn’t say that word … really.</p>
<p>We had this conversation today:</p>
<p>“Come eat, honey.”</p>
<p>“Did you say booty-head?”</p>
<p>“No, I did not.” (Notice, here, how I did not repeat the word, thereby not lending it legitimacy. That’s what a minor in psychology will do for you.)</p>
<p>“You said booty-head.”</p>
<p>“No, I did not. Come to eat now.”</p>
<p>“Did you say flower?”</p>
<p>I have no idea where that last bit came from.</p>
<p>Another favorite technique is to repeat (or, I strongly suspect, make up) what other children have said at day care.</p>
<p>“John said a bad word.”</p>
<p>“Did he?”</p>
<p>“Yes. He said booty-head.”</p>
<p>“John shouldn’t say that word.”</p>
<p>“No, he shouldn’t say booty-head. It’s very bad of him.” A pause for thought. “He’s going to get time-out.”</p>
<p>“You shouldn’t say it either.”</p>
<p>“Say what?”</p>
<p>Oh, the headache. “The bad word John said.”</p>
<p>“Booty-head?”</p>
<p>“We don’t say that word, honey.”</p>
<p>“John said it.”</p>
<p>“I know. But just because John said it doesn’t mean we can say it.”</p>
<p>“He said booty-head. He’s very bad,” followed by solemn nodding and apparent pondering of the depths of John’s poor moral fortitude. “Booty-head.”</p>
<p>It’s kind of like living with the Swift Boat Child for Truth.</p>
Review: Tides of War2005-12-05T17:34:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/review-tides-of-war/
<p>Steven Pressfield follows up the highly successful <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553580531/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-1434937-5308730?v=glance&s=books">Gates of Fire</a></em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-gates-of-fire/">my review here</a>) with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553381393/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-7332186-6508969?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Tides of War</a></em>, a novel of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_war">Peloponnesian War</a> focusing on the larger-than-life Athenian leader <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades">Alcibiades</a> and told mostly from the point of view of Polymides, an Athenian soldier and mercenary.</p>
<p>Like <em>Gates of Fire</em>, <em>Tides of War</em> features immense and well-written battle sequences and strong attention to detail. The historical accuracy regarding this bloody and horrific time period is also quite impressive.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it is a bit of a slog to get through—it’s worth it to persevere, but some resolve is required. This is due to several things, one being the characters themselves: None of the main characters are likable. Interesting, sure, but not likable. Also, the Peloponnesian War was not a good time by anybody’s standards, and it gets a bit depressing to read about the relentless atrocities and misfortunes befalling pretty much everybody involved.</p>
<p>The biggest problem, though, is that the tale is told by several different characters, which makes things a bit choppy and disjointed without really adding anything to the story as all the voices sound the same, while the switches disrupt the flow of the story.</p>
<p><em>Tides of War</em> is definitely worth reading if you’re interested in Classical Greece or enjoy large stories of human folly and heroism. Just be prepared to put some work into it.</p>
Review: Freehold2005-12-03T17:22:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/review-freehold/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743471792/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-1122246-1161437?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">Freehold</a></em> shares a strong libertarian point of view with science fiction authors like Heinlein.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the novel is nothing but a libertarian day dream without much of a plot. Essentially, in the near future Earth is under the control of the corrupt United Nations which provides unemployment benefits and other corrupting things which has made Earth become a sort of soot-stained Dickensian nightmare, albeit on the dole and lazy.</p>
<p>The story’s protagonist has been framed for corruption and escapes to Freehold, a libertarian colony where people are strong and carry guns and don’t pay taxes and have great sex without the government bothering them.</p>
<p>After a few hundred pages of that and not much else, this reviewer stopped reading.</p>
<p>Much great science fiction has stemmed from dreaming of different kinds of societies and how they might work, but at the same time there has to be some kind of plot to drive things forward. Unfortunately, <em>Freehold</em> doesn’t have one.</p>
<p>The novel is part of the great <a href="http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm">Baen Free Library</a>, so if you wish to read it, just click on the link and <a href="http://www.baen.com/library/mzwilliamson.htm">download to your heart’s content.</a> Just don’t tell the United Nations. They’ll tax you.</p>
WWJB2005-12-03T17:03:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/12/wwjb/
<p>Seen on a bumper sticker today:</p>
<p>“What Would Jesus Bomb?”</p>
<p>And as an aside I’m keeping, in an informal and statistically utterly not relevant kind of way†, track of the number of pro-Bush stickers on my weary commute, and they seem to be slightly less common than at this time a year ago, but not by much.</p>
<p>On the other hand, not so many Kerry stickers. No, not so many at all. About as many as the <a href="http://www.therattpack.com/">Ratt</a> stickers.</p>
<p>†Here’s the methodology: See the bumper stickers, think about coffee. Yeah, I’m just as shocked as you that CNN hasn’t called me to head up a bureau.</p>
Post-gobble wrap-up2005-11-29T16:55:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/post-gobble-wrap-up/
<p>Thanksgiving was quite the necessary breather before we head in to the Holiday Formerly Known as Christmas and mine and Andrea’s visit to Sweden. We managed to relax, eat, and really have nothing to show for the time off, exactly according to plan.</p>
<p>Broke down, braved the eerie crowds at Best Buy, and picked up an <a href="http://www.atari.com/us/games/atari_flashback2/7800">Atari Flashback 2</a>. Oh, the happiness of holding one of those controllers again. Unfortunately, my reflexes are no longer what they once were … that bastard centipede is <em>fast</em>.</p>
<p>If you’re in the Phoenix area, the <a href="http://phoenix.about.com/od/holidayevents/a/luminariafest.htm">luminarias</a> at Desert Botanical Garden are well worth a visit—very de-stressing.</p>
The Thanksgiving conundrum2005-11-24T17:41:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/the-thanksgiving-conundrum/
<p>Tomorrow is thanksgiving in the US of A, and according to tradition, there must be a turkey carcass involved in the festivities. Traditions are great, and are to be supported within reason, as they provide the glue that keeps a society from fragmenting.</p>
<p>However, our problem is that we are torn between providing Andrea with a traditional thanksgiving, and the fact that the traditional thanksgiving dinner just isn’t all that good. Turkey is not a good meat. Sorry, but there it is. Turkey doesn’t taste all that great. Flame all you want—there’s a reason you only eat it on thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Since neither me nor my wife grew up with thanksgiving, it’s kind of hard for us to get in to the proper forms. This wasn’t an issue when it was just us two around the table, but now as Andrea is growing up and starting to form her memories of How Things Should Be, it’s s becoming a bit of an issue: Should we suck it up and do the turkey thing in order to normalize her on the tradition, or should we eat something we actually enjoy?</p>
<p>This year we will have our usual thanksgiving <em>ersatz</em> meal of scrumptious shrimp pie (mmm … so tasty), but next year Andrea will be four and we’ll have to give some serious thought to what kind of tradition we want to provide her.</p>
<p>Kid complicate things.</p>
Thanksgiving approaches2005-11-23T16:41:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/thanksgiving-approaches/
<p>My numero Uno American holiday is barreling down upon us—the holiday that is dedicated to family, eating, and slack. There’s nothing to buy—unless you count the food—no pressure to decorate the hell out of your house, and no forced cheer.</p>
<p>After all, Thanksgiving is a family holiday, which means alcohol-fueled Jerry Springer-type breakdowns that will forever fester in your family history are the order of the day. Actually, when you think about it, it’s kind of like having a national Ingmar Bergman holiday.</p>
<p>Makes me sad to not have family in-country, it really does.</p>
<p>So happy thanksgiving to all of you, and remember, the only bad slack is no slack.</p>
Top 20 geek novels2005-11-21T18:50:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/top-20-geek-novels/
<p>I’m utterly chagrined I missed a chance to vote on the <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2005/11/09/top_20_geek_novels_the_results.html">top 20 geek novels</a>. Despite only getting a 132 votes, it’s a pretty interesting and comprehensive list.</p>
<p>The ones I haven’t read are: 14, <em>Consider Phlebas</em>; 19, <em>The Illuminatus! Trilogy</em>; and 20, <em>Trouble with Lichen</em>. Excellent … an Amazon order will be placed shortly.</p>
<p>I do wonder, though, whatever happened to <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>? Is it just so ingrained in the geek psyche that nobody even thought to include it? Because, seriously, if you’re a geek, you read LOTR when you were twelve. And then you named a computer Gandalf. Nobody ever said being a geek was pretty.</p>
It’s a long way to cat heaven2005-11-21T14:51:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/its-a-long-way-to-cat-heaven/
<p>My biggest worry about having to put <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/putting-turbo-to-sleep/">Turbo to sleep</a> was how it would affect Andrea. It’s very hard to talk about death with a three-year-old.</p>
<p>Yesterday Andrea found the cat angel pin the vet had given us, a little cat with wings, and wanted to wear it for Turbo.</p>
<p>“Turbo is a cat angel now,” I said.</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“She’s in cat heaven.”</p>
<p>Andrea said, in a completely matter-of-fact way: “No, she isn’t.”</p>
<p>“Ehm. Uh. Yes, she is.”</p>
<p>“No she isn’t. She isn’t there yet. She’s flying there.”</p>
<p>“Oh. So cat heaven is far away?”</p>
<p>“Yes. It’s very far. Turbo is flying there. Then she’ll be in cat heaven.”</p>
Putting Turbo to sleep2005-11-19T18:00:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/putting-turbo-to-sleep/
<p>As I wrote in <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/11/turbo-is-sick/">this post</a>, our cat Turbo had been diagnosed with feline diabetes. After the blood work was done, the vet thought her diabetes would most likely be treatable by a combination of two pills a day and a prescription high-protein diet. She would have to be on the pills and the prescription diet for the rest of her life, which for a five-year-old cat could well be more than ten years.</p>
<p>We gave it some serious thought and did some research on the Internet, and feline diabetes needs a lot of monitoring and can lead to some very unpleasant symptoms (much like human diabetes). So the odds of her leading a full and pain-free life did not look very good. In addition, Turbo was a difficult cat when it came to administering medications. Somehow, she never seemed to understand that it was for her own good…</p>
<p>In the end, we decided to put her to sleep. She’d had a very good life, and a merciful death seemed like the best way for her to end her life, instead of us forcing her to go through a painful illness just to make ourselves feel better.</p>
<p>So today I took her to the vet after work. Before putting her in the pet carrier, I gave her a bunch of her beloved cat candies, but she was too sick to really eat them. Once at the vet’s, Turbo and I went into an examination room and one of the technicians went through the procedure with me.</p>
<p>While you can choose to be in the room when they administer the poison, she recommended against it, since putting a younger cat to sleep can sometimes be problematic, as for some deranged reason the poison has to be administered through a vein, and if the cat fights the injection, as younger, stronger cats often will, it can be quite difficult to administer. I’m standing there looking at my cat in the pet carrier, hissing, and thinking “Oh, that’s just great.”</p>
<p>But I told the tech that, yes, I wanted to be there when she died. I wanted to tell the tech that I wanted to make sure that her death was easy, but couldn’t speak. That feeling when the muscles around your mouth start cramping, and your lips feel too tight… So in the end I managed to get out that I wanted to be there.</p>
<p>The tech went to get the vet, and then came back a few minutes later to tell me that the vet would like to administer a sedative first, so Turbo wouldn’t fight the injection too much. Seemed like a good idea to me, so the tech took the pet carrier with Turbo in it to the back room.</p>
<p>And I sat in the examination room, with posters about medicines for dog arthritis and a mural showing children and dogs and kittens playing and being happy. After a few minutes I heard Turbo scream, so I figured they’d gotten her out of the pet carrier and were administering the sedative. Several minutes went by as I looked at the mural where two cats were sitting in a red wagon and tried to not think about what was soon to happen.</p>
<p>Then the tech brought Turbo into the room and put her on the examination table. Her pupils were dilated all the way, the way cats’ pupils are when they’re scared, but she laid down and put her face on my hand to tell me to scratch her behind the ears. So I did that. Scratched her behind the ears and told her that I loved her. That everybody loved her. She let me scratch her, even though her pupils stayed dilated and her ears stayed perked right up. At the end I had to whisper to her, since my voice was breaking.</p>
<p>Then the vet and the tech came in with a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a swab, and a loaded needle.</p>
<p>The tech gently grabbed Turbo and put her on her side so the vet could get access to the inside of her thighs, where the easily-accessible veins are. They told me I could pet Turbo, so I did, nuzzling her under her chin like she always loved. She was complacent. The vet swabbed her inner thigh with the alcohol, inserted the needle, drew back the plunger to make sure she’d hit a vein, blood rushed into the needle, and then she depressed the plunger.</p>
<p>After a few seconds, she put her stethoscope on Turbo’s chest and said, “She’s gone.”</p>
<p>And I started bawling like a baby.</p>
<p>Unbelievable. I can’t even remember the last time I cried, but I bawled like a baby looking at my cat lying there on the blanket on the examining table. So the tech and the vet told me to take as much time as I needed and then just go to the front counter when I was ready.</p>
<p>It was a strange feeling, standing in the little cheerful examination room, the cadaver of my beloved cat on a table, her eyes open, lying on her side, looking like she was right in the middle of stretching, but not moving, just lying there inert, frozen in time, like she was trapped in an endless moment. Finally, I couldn’t take it that her eyes were open and went to close them. Her little body was cooling, not at all the feel of a living cat, and I couldn’t close her eyes: the skin wouldn’t stretch. She laid there unmoving, looking at nothing, without breathing. I touched her paw—she loved to put her paw on my arm and purr—and it felt cool and limp.</p>
<p>Dead.</p>
<p>After some time, I was ready to go out and settle the bill. Went to the bathroom first to splash some water on my face and get back into some sort of real reality.</p>
<p>I paid the bill, then went to get the empty pet carrier to bring it back home, and the staff had put an angel cat pin on it. I normally scoff at that kind of thing, but looking at it made me come really close bawling again. So I shoved it in my pocket, got in the car, and drove off to pick up Andrea at day care.</p>
<p>I’d given a lot of thought to what I’d tell Andrea about the death of Turbo. There was no question that she wouldn’t pick up on the empty pet carrier. So my plan was to tell her that Turbo was at the vet, and then after we got home I would break the news that she was dead. Cunningly, I thought I would tell Andrea that Turbo had gone to be with Bambi’s mother.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten my story straight with what my wife had told Andrea.</p>
<p>So we left day care, got to the car, Andrea saw the pet carrier in the back seat, and said, “Is Turbo in there?”</p>
<p>“No, honey, Turbo is at the vet.”</p>
<p>At which point Andrea broke down and started crying “I don’t want Turbo to go to cat heaven! I want my Turbo! I don’t want Turbo to go to cat heaven!”</p>
<p>Oh, damn. We drove the mercifully short way home with Andrea completely inconsolable.</p>
<p>And her daddy not too happy either.</p>
R.I.P. Turbo, 2000-20052005-11-19T14:46:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/rip-turbo-2000-2005/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/turbo_on_ladder.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/turbo_on_ladder-tm.jpg" alt="Turbo" /></a></p>
<p>We love you.</p>
Turbo is sick2005-11-16T16:03:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/turbo-is-sick/
<p>Our cat Turbo has contracted a urinary tract infection for the third time in a <a href="https://thecoredump.org/articles/2004/05/30/the-peeing-of-the-cat">year and a half</a>, so in the morning my wife took her to the vet to see what’s going on.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/turbo.jpg" alt="Turbo the Cat" /><em>Turbo in her prime</em></p>
<p>A long story and $258 later it seems highly likely that Turbo suffers from feline diabetes. We’ll know with certainty tomorrow after the blood work is finished, but the odds are <em>not</em> good that this is “just” a urinary tract infection.</p>
<p>To make things even better, after the vet explains her findings to me, I receive a bottle of Amoxil and the pet carrier with Turbo in it. I’m not all that upset, I think, and drive to Andrea’s day care to pick her up <em>with Turbo screaming the entire way</em>.</p>
<p>Once at the day care center, I realize that I’ve walked out on the bottle of Amoxil, so I pick up Andrea and call the vet’s office. Yes, they have it.</p>
<p>“How long are you open?”“Ten more minutes.”“OK. I’ll be there before you close.”</p>
<p>I <em>will</em> get that Amoxil.</p>
<p>But it’s rush hour in Phoenix. So I drive through the dusk with a cat screaming her lungs out and a three-year-old who is concerned about her cat’s incessant screaming. Arrive at the vet’s a couple of minutes late, and they give me the Amoxil that probably won’t make a damn bit of difference anyway.</p>
<p>Here’s what the vet told me about feline diabetes: It’s not curable; depending on the severity we will either have to give Turbo tablets or two injections a day for the rest of her life.</p>
<p>For the rest of her life.</p>
<p>Turbo is not a good receiver of medicine. Getting things into her is a two-person job. And injecting her twice a day is simply not an option at all.</p>
<p>Dammit. I love that cat. I don’t want her to take a dirt nap. This really sucks.</p>
Review: Grift Sense2005-11-13T11:41:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-grift-sense/
<p>Having the “grift sense” means you can <em>feel</em> when a con is going down, even if you have no idea what the con is or who is doing it.</p>
<p>James Swain’s debut novel <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345463838/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8778343-6691834?v=glance&s=books">Grift Sense</a></em> is about Tony Valentine, a retired cop who is a widower, has an estranged son, and spends his retirement running a consulting operation for casinos.</p>
<p>Swain possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of how casinos and con artists operate, and uses this knowledge to great effect in <em>Grift Sense</em>. The plot is tight and fast, with schemes and double-crosses coming fast and furious, and is populated with an assortment of characters that although recognizable are saved from being stereotypes by the care Swain puts into drawing them.</p>
<p>If you like the genre, <em>Grift Sense</em> is an excellent read.</p>
Review: Be Cool2005-11-13T11:27:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-be-cool/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060082151/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8778343-6691834?v=glance&s=books">Be Cool</a></em> follows the adventures in Hollywood of former shylock Chili Palmer that began in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000B1J86K/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8778343-6691834?v=glance&s=books">Get Shorty</a></em>.</p>
<p>As usual with Elmore Leonard, <em>Be Cool</em> has a fast-moving plot populated with interesting characters, and is set apart by Leonard’s almost uncanny sense of dialog.</p>
<p>Recommended.</p>
Review: Freakonomics2005-11-13T11:04:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-freakonomics/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006073132X/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-8778343-6691834?v=glance&s=books">Freakonomics</a></em> is an exploration of using the tools of economics on questions that often aren’t seen as within the purview of the science itself, such as, Does standardized testing make teachers cheat?; Why do drug dealers live with their parents? and several others.</p>
<p>Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner do an excellent job of making the questions and especially the answers interesting and accessible, illuminating the need to look at what the data really shows instead of accepting the muddle that is often “conventional wisdom.” Apart from how interesting even seemingly mundane questions can be when put under the loupe of science, it is in beseeching us to throw away our preconceptions and use the tools that exist to really look at the problems of society and how they can be solved that the book really succeeds.</p>
<p>On the downside, <em>Freakonomics</em> is very brief and could do with both more cases and with more meat on each case—while accessibility is all well and good, and successfully achieved, it would be nice to have deeper looks into the techniques used.</p>
<p><em>Freakonomics</em> is interesting and enlightening, and leaves the reader wanting more.</p>
A budding comedienne2005-11-10T17:08:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/a-budding-comedienne/
<p>We were finishing dinner tonight, and as usual Andrea finished before her mommy and daddy. So she got up from the table, grinned, and said, “I pood!”</p>
<p>Her still-eating parents, in unison: <em>“WHAT?!”</em></p>
<p>She paused and grinned, then said, “No.” Dramatic pause. “I farted!”</p>
<p>I’m sure it kills at day care…</p>
Review: Going Postal2005-11-06T09:01:28Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/review-going-postal/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060502932/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-5871488-7324024?v=glance&s=books">Going Postal</a></em> is Terry Pratchett’s 29th Discworld novel, and it’s a beaut.</p>
<p>The basic plot concerns the Ankh-Morpork post office, moribund after the invention of “clacks,” a high-speed means of communication sort of like a combination of the telegraph and the Internet. Unfortunately, the clacks system has been taken over by a group of unscrupulous business men who have driven the system into the ground with their avarice.</p>
<p>Enter Moist von Lipwig, liar, cheat, and scoundrel, sentenced to death for his crimes and charged by Lord Vetinari, despot of Ankh-Morpork, with resurrecting the former glory of the Post Office.</p>
<p><em>Going Postal</em> continues the series’ move into becoming less whimsical and more serious, with Pratchett using the Discworld as a fun house mirror on society. Which isn’t to say that the novel isn’t funny—it is, although less of a laugh-out-loud kind of fun than the early installments of the series.</p>
<p>As always, Terry Pratchett impresses.</p>
Fear the Candy Monster2005-11-02T16:32:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/11/fear-the-candy-monster/
<p>Halloween was a rip-roaring success here in the burb, with lots of children and most of them apparently with parents that take this whole trick-or-treat thing quite, quite seriously—oodles of highly elaborate costumes and setups in front of houses.</p>
<p>In a way this was Andrea’s first Halloween celebration, as this is the first year she’s been old enough to understand the trick-or-treat concept and enjoy running house to house. She was of course adorable in her kitty outfit.</p>
<p>So Andrea and her mom spent about two hours walking around the neighborhood gathering a pretty respectable amount of loot. At last the round was over and it was time to go home and devour the spoils of the evening. I was waiting outside with the candy bowl, so she ran up to me, yelled “trick or treat,” grabbed a handful of candy from my bowl and put it in her candy stash. I fear we may have created a monster. But then, Halloween is an appropriate time for that.</p>
Free as a bird2005-10-30T19:09:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/free-as-a-bird/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/dae_up3.gif" alt="Beastie loves you" /></p>
<p>Here we are then. Saturday night and I’ve spent most of the day installing FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE on my PC instead of doing something fun.</p>
<p>Flatline, my <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">Fedora Core 4</a> machine, has gone into some kind of psychotic death spiral, where after running yum-update it experiences a spate of disk errors and becomes unusable.</p>
<p>It could be that this is some kind of hardware problem, but that seems unlikely as the machine can take any kind of load in stress testing, but goes into cutter-teenage-goth-on-LiveJournal-mode after yum updates.</p>
<p>So it seemed like a good time to move over to <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a> since it’s the reference system for Mac OS X and my spiffy web host <a href="http://www.textdrive.com/">TextDrive</a> uses it as well.</p>
<p>And so far so good. Installing FreeBSD is certainly … cough … different … from installing a modern Linux distro. Let’s just call the installer “relentlessly minimalistic.”</p>
<p>It is quite functional though, once you get past the early-nineties feel, and after some time installing the necessary ports (including rebuilding the kernel to get AppleTalk working), Flatline is once again a productive member of society.</p>
<p>It is my fervent wish to not have to touch it again for a long time.</p>
<p>P.S.</p>
<p>If you are running FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE and are having problems getting Subversion to install through the ports system, getting an error about apr-1.0 not being installed <em>even though it bloody well is</em>, issue</p>
<p><code>make install -DWITH_APACHE2_APR</code></p>
<p>instead of the regular <code>make install</code>.</p>
<p>Hopefully that will save some other poor soul an hour of his or her life.</p>
<p>D.S.</p>
Review: High Fidelity2005-10-30T18:16:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-high-fidelity/
<p>Nick Hornby’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1573225517/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-3833195-0740719?v=glance&s=books">High Fidelity</a></em> was successfully turned into a <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0146882/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPWhpZ2ggZmlkZWxpdHl8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGh0bWw9MQ__;fc=1;ft=15;fm=1">John Cusack movie</a> of the same name, but even if you’ve seen the movie, the book is still worth reading as it provides a deeper level of understanding of the well-drawn protagonist. (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/10/high-fidelity/">My thoughts about the movie are here.</a>)</p>
<p>Some plot points differ significantly between the novel and the movie and underscore how the novel is British and the movie is Hollywood. No spoilers here, but suffice it to say that if you enjoyed the movie, you’ll probably enjoy the book even more. If you haven’t seen the movie, start with the book, then rent the movie.</p>
<p><em>High Fidelity</em> is a stream-of-consciousness novel about Rob Fleming, who is in his mid-thirties, runs a failing record store in North London, and has quite a lot of issues when it comes to emotional maturity.</p>
<p>Perhaps the biggest achievement of the novel is how it draws a modern man that at least this reviewer can relate to in a huge way—the hang-ups, the emotional alienation, and especially the obsessions, really hit the mark.</p>
<p><em>High Fidelity</em> is sometimes funny, sometimes biting, and always interesting.</p>
Getting cultured2005-10-26T18:05:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/getting-cultured/
<p>Despite my increasing old-and-grizzledness, life still manages to find a way to throw me a curve ball now and then. Such was the case yesterday.</p>
<p>For various reasons we will not go into here, we suspect that Andrea may have a bladder infection, and thus medical intervention may be necessary. So off we go to the pediatrician. Andrea actually enjoys going to the doctor, because the visits end with her getting a lollipop.</p>
<p>We are then informed by the pediatrician that the only way modern medical science can tell for sure whether there is an infection or not is to take a culture from a urine sample.</p>
<p>This leads up to me being in a bathroom at the pediatrician’s office holding a cup under my daughter for her to pee into.</p>
<p>But the presence of the cup stresses her out so she can’t go.</p>
<p>Since we’re not having any luck with the cup, I decide to break out the oldest trick in the book: Bribery. If she manages to squeeze a few drops into the cup, she will get not one but two lollipops.</p>
<p>Which leads to some heroic trying on her part, but alas to no avail.</p>
<p>Still, A for effort, so she gets two lollipops.</p>
<p>It is not until the evening we manage to get a sample, which we then—per doctor’s orders—refrigerate overnight for early-morning transport to the pediatrician…</p>
Review: Gates of Fire2005-10-23T13:41:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-gates-of-fire/
<p>_Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,_<em>that here obedient to their laws we lie.</em></p>
<p>This is the inscription on a stone at Thermopylae in Greece where 300 Spartans and their allies fought a hopeless battle with an entire invading Persian army.</p>
<p>Stephen Pressfield’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553580531/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-1434937-5308730?v=glance&s=books">Gates of Fire</a></em> tells the fictional account of one member of the Spartan force, Xeones, who survives the dreadful wounds he has acquired during the battle and tells his story to the Persian Emperor Xerxes. The novel paints an almost painfully vivid picture of Greece around 480 B.C, and of Spartan society’s relentless focus on war and ensuring that its citizens were the best warriors in the world.</p>
<p>Pressfield does an astonishing job of creating believable characters the reader cares about and in keeping his account as historically accurate as possible.</p>
<p><em>Gates of Fire</em> is, to use the cliché, impossible to put down. Highly, highly recommended.</p>
Review: Pandora’s Star2005-10-23T12:59:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/review-pandoras-star/
<p>Peter F. Hamilton’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345479211/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-1434937-5308730?v=glance&s=books">Pandora’s Star</a></em> is one of the most impressive science fiction novels of the decade … a huge, sprawling epic.</p>
<p>The basic premise is that in the near future, technology has made two major breakthroughs: Wormhole technology, which allows for instant travel and the colonization of the galaxy, and rejuvenation, which makes everybody near-immortal. These technologies result in the creation of a near-utopia.</p>
<p>However, this utopia, and humanity itself, becomes threatened by an implacable nemesis.</p>
<p>With excellent characterizations, believable and well-thought-out technological advances, complex aliens, and a plot that takes its time, <em>Pandora’s Star</em> is the current gold standard for epic science fiction.</p>
<p>The one drawback is that the novel ends in a cliff hanger, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345461665/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-1434937-5308730?v=glance&s=books">the next installment</a> is not due until February 28, 2006, so if you want immediate closure, you may want to wait until then to begin this saga.</p>
Flabbey Road2005-10-22T15:12:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/flabbey-road/
<p>This picture must forever be titled <em>Flabbey Road</em>:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/flabbey_road.jpg" alt="Flabbey Road" /></p>
<p>Source: <em><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=3&u=/051021/photos_od/2005_10_21t113056_450x309_us_sumo_madison_squar">Yahoo!</a></em></p>
Extreme catblogging Friday2005-10-22T15:01:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/extreme-catblogging-friday/
<p>That’s right, people. It’s time to take CatBlogging Friday to the eXtreme. No more pussyfooting around.</p>
<p>Bam! We’re taking it to 11:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lioncubs.jpg" alt="Lion Cubs" /><em>That’s right! They’re lions, and they’re adorable! Beyatch!</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=3&u=/051017/photos_us_rank_afp/051017230654_yjqpya5q_photo0">Yahoo!</a></p>
<p>So there. CatBlogging Friday has now officially been extremed and can not be further added to. We can put the entire genre to rest.</p>
<p>I would like to leave you with a little rap I almost wrote myself:</p>
<p><em>To the extreme__I rock the blog like a vandal__Word to your mutha</em></p>
<p>Because, you know, I’m street like that.</p>
Charlatan survives own prophecy2005-10-22T13:20:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/charlatan-survives-own-prophecy/
<p>There’s just so much to ponder in this story about an astrologer who <a href="http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=9994441&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews">mistakenly predicted his own death</a>.</p>
<p>First, the sad, sad fact that people still believe in this abominable junk. Sigh.</p>
<p>Then, that the police stationed constables at the man’s home to make sure he didn’t commit suicide in order to make his prediction stick.</p>
<p>And finally, the dry notice to close the story that “in the past, crowds have beaten up astrologers when their predicted demise failed to occur.”</p>
Downfall2005-10-17T19:13:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/downfall/
<p>Just finished watching <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/">Downfall</a></em>, a German movie about the final 10 days of the Third Reich. It’s an extremely powerful movie, showing the monstrosity and evil of the Nazis, as well as the humanity.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Untergang">Wikipedia</a>, as usual, has a good article about the movie.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
I am weak2005-10-16T18:10:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/i-am-weak/
<p>Went to the mall Friday for a haircut and ended up going to the Apple Store, where they had the 4GB Black Nanos in stock. Walked out with one. It is the precious.</p>
<p>In honor of the color, decided to dub it “Sith.”</p>
<p>I am indeed weak, but I have a Nano.</p>
<p>Some day Satan will call in his favors to Steve Jobs.</p>
Weekend music2005-10-16T15:45:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/weekend-music/
<p>If you’re in the mood for some new music this weekend, may I recommend checking out two Swedish artists? Neither one seems to have any distribution in the States yet, but thanks to the magic of teh intarweb, you can still check out their videos and other samples.</p>
<p>First up is <a href="http://www.hellosaferide.com/">Hello Saferide</a>. Quirky and sunny pop with lyrics to make you smile. There’s a <a href="http://www.hellosaferide.com/video.html">video up</a> for the current single <em>My Best Friend</em>. Fun stuff.</p>
<p>Note that the video doesn’t start playing until it’s completely loaded, at least in Safari, so just hang on. It’ll play after a while.</p>
<p>Hello Saferide’s single is up on the Swedish iTunes Music Store, so you can buy it if you’re blessed with a Swedish credit card, but for some godforsaken reason the album isn’t there yet even though it’s been out for nigh on a month now. Sigh. I really, really want to buy it.</p>
<p>Next up is <a href="http://www.fridahyvonen.com/">Frida Hyvönen</a>. You know she’s cool since she has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_dots">rock dots</a> in her name from birth. This is sort of Tori Amos-ish—piano-driven and a bit off-kilter. I have no idea what the lyrics are about, but in a good way, if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.fridahyvonen.com/samples/themodern.mov">video for her song <em>The Modern</em></a> is a bit film-school-y† but the song is fantastic. Sadly, there’s not a peep about her on the Swedish iTunes Music Store.</p>
<p>†Oh, yeah, I’ll keep making up adjectives as I go along.</p>
Happy blogaversary!2005-10-15T15:09:02Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/happy-blogaversary/
<p>Apparently, I’m really terrible about anniversaries. Managed to miss <a href="http://thecoredump.org/">thecoredump.org</a>’s blogaversary, which was on October 9th. But better late than never, so here’s to two years of The Core Dump being online and not having any readers!</p>
<p>Have a drink on me.</p>
San Diego trip roundup2005-10-13T17:56:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/san-diego-trip-roundup/
<p>It’s such a cliché for us Zonies to go to San Diego for vacation, but it’s a cliché because it’s true: Gorgeous beaches, fantastic weather, and a surmountable distance makes for an excellent getaway.</p>
<p>Got a pretty decent rate at <a href="http://www.travelocity.com/">Travelocity</a> for the <a href="http://www.oceanparkinn.com/">Ocean Park Inn</a>, which is right on Pacific Beach. I was expecting something pretty run-down and seedy, what with the location, but it was surprisingly fresh. According to the hotel staff, it had been renovated about a year and a half ago. Not too much drunken noise at night, and they were hardcore about people getting out of the heated pool at 10 p.m.; great, as the pool tends to be a magnet for the drunken noise generators at night.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_0595.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_0595-tm.jpg" alt="On the beach" /></a><em>On the beach</em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seaworld.com/">SeaWorld</a> was an absolute blast for Andrea, and surprisingly painless for her parents. Clean and nice, with the price gouging kept at somewhat moderate levels, which was appreciated. We arrived promptly at 10 a.m. when they opened and stayed till about 3 p.m., seeing a lot of fish. Took in the dolphin show as well as, of course, the killer whales.</p>
<p>Killer whales are effing huge, in case you didn’t know. 7,000 pounds of killing machine, or as the announcer at the show loved saying, “top predator.” I’m just waiting for the one day one of those beasts snaps during a show. That will <em>not</em> be a pretty scene.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/orca_tank.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/orca_tank-tm.jpg" alt="Orca Tank" /></a><em>Huge mammal in the water</em></p>
<p>Nevertheless, the dolphin show was a lot more lively, so if you have to make a choice, I’d give a thumbs-up to the dolphins.</p>
<p>Spent Monday morning hanging out on the beach and in general relaxing before it was time to check out of the hotel and drive back.</p>
<p>It’s so nice to get out of town, even if it’s just for a weekend.</p>
Freewheel burning2005-10-11T16:41:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/freewheel-burning/
<p>If you’re driving from, say, San Diego to Phoenix, a really bad place to get a flat tire would be, say, outside <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=dateland,+az&spn=.161354,.312132&hl=en">Dateland, AZ</a>.</p>
<p>So that’s what we did.</p>
<p>I noticed a bit after we took off from our delicious burger slash potty break slash gas fill-up in Yuma that the road noise was increasing, but put it off to a bad stretch of highway. But after a while the noise didn’t abate, but instead got worse, so I started thinking bad tire.</p>
<p>And then, about ten miles east of Dateland: kaboom. Fortunately, it was a rear tire, so very little drama, just pull over to the side of the highway, right before exit 73 to “Aztec,” which Google Maps apparently knows nothing about.</p>
<p>We called AAA and got word that they would send somebody, but it would take at least an hour for that somebody to get to us (I’m thinking airlift), and that they would not have fresh tires with them, so if the donut didn’t work, we’d have to be towed to Lord knows where.</p>
<p>So I broke out my mad tire changing skillz and got the donut on there, yo.</p>
<p>Both the owner’s manual and the donut itself carry dire warnings about the nebulous horrible things that will happen if you drive faster than 50 miles per hour while, er, donuted, which did not sound like so much fun, so we called AAA back to see if perhaps there was a Discount Tire in Gila Bend, the next Metropolis on our journey? That’s a negatory, Ice Man.</p>
<p>So we drove the remaining 150 or so miles to Phoenix at 50 miles per hour on the donut. It took a bit longer than originally anticipated.</p>
Get your beach on!2005-10-08T15:12:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/get-your-beach-on/
<p>The Lindhs are heading to San Diego this weekend for some R’n’R. We’ve got reservations for a hotel on the beach in Mission Bay and will spend Serious Family Time™ at <a href="http://seaworld.com/sw_index.aspx">Seaworld</a> over the weekend.</p>
<p>Am experiencing some trepidation about the prospect of six hours each way with a three-year-old in the car, but she’s been a good traveler this far, so hopefully this won’t turn into a <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0085995/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9bmF0aW9uYWwgbGFtcG9vbiB2YWNhdGlvbnxmdD0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1">Chevy Chase movie…</a></p>
<p>Of course, as always when Zonies go to San Diego, the main purpose of the trip is to hang out on the beach—<em>ooooh, water!</em>—and experience actual ambient temperatures that don’t boil your brain. This will be the first time Andrea sees the ocean, which is highly exciting for her parents.</p>
<p>Impressions will be posted if we can find free wi-fi somewhere, otherwise blogging will be on hold until we’re back in the desert.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> We’ve made it to the beaches okay and Andrea was a model three-year-old during the drive. I’m posting this using the free wireless in the hotel lobby. Hot diggety this town is nice.</p>
Born OK2005-10-08T03:48:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/bumpers/
<p>Seen on a bumper sticker this morning: “Born OK the first time.”</p>
Quack like a duck2005-10-07T17:24:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/quack-like-a-duck/
<p>Maybe it’s from reading <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451169530/103-5246914-8420668?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance&tagActionCode=thecoredump-20">The Stand</a></em> at an impressionable age, but the idea of a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/10/06/birdflu.wrap/index.html">bird flu pandemic</a> scares the bejeebus out of me.</p>
<p>How much of the current alarm is agencies looking for funding and how much of it is genuine concern, I am not qualified to judge, but the sheer idea of something on the horizon that makes the influenza epidemic of 1918 look like the common cold is Not a Good Thing.</p>
<p>For your bleak, Bergmanesque pleasure, here’s a picture of a provisional hospital in Sweden in 1918 created to treat—to the extent possible—people infected with the flu:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/spanskasjukan445-2.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/spanskasjukan445-2-tm.jpg" alt="Spanska Sjukhuset" /></a></p>
<p><em>Click the picture for larger version. Source:</em> <a href="http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=597&a=470320">Dagens Nyheter</a>.</p>
<p>To make things even worse, scientists have <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/10/05/1918.flu.pandemic.ap/index.html">re-created the virus strain</a> that caused the 1918 pandemic, and say that the bird flu “could soon develop infectious properties like those seen in the 1918 bug.”</p>
<p>The resurrected (how scary of a word is that in this context?) 1918 virus is currently incarcerated at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.</p>
<p>Hey, God? It would be pretty fab if no freak hurricanes hit Atlanta, okay?</p>
Grace under fire2005-10-05T16:25:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/grace-under-fire/
<p>When it comes to laughing in the face of death, few can beat the ancient Greeks.</p>
<p>The following quote is from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus">Herodotus</a>, relaying the history of the battle of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae">Thermopylae</a>, one of the grimmest military defeats in history:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although extraordinary valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespaians, yet bravest of all was declared the Spartan Dienekes. It is said that on the eve of battle, he was told by a native of Trachis that the Persian archers were so numerous that, when they fired their volleys, the mass of arrows blocked out the sun. Dienekes, however, undaunted by this prospect, remarked with a laugh, “Good. Then we’ll have our battle in the shade.”</p>
</blockquote>
Catblogging Friday2005-10-01T13:35:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/10/catblogging-friday/
<p>When you have a blog <em>and</em> cats, it is your solemn duty to the blogosphere to provide the occasional pointless cat posting.</p>
<p>I hang my head in shame at how long it has been since I last fulfilled this sacred duty. But today this wrong will be set right! Oh yes, it will.</p>
<p>So without further ado, a picture of your host hard at work on the next book review, aided by Turbo the Cat.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/cat_on_chest.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/cat_on_chest-tm.jpg" alt="Turbo helps out" /></a></p>
azcentral bites the dust2005-09-28T18:35:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/azcentral-bites-the-dust/
<p><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/">azcentral</a> is the web site for our local paper of record, <em>The Arizona Republic</em>. It’s a pretty decent site, fast to update throughout the day and not too garish. So it used to be one of my “I-have-a-minute-so-I’ll-see-what’s-happening” sites. Used to be.</p>
<p>As part of the general old media we-fear-the-web mentality, azcentral has been forcing you to take a short survey whenever you click from the front page to stories within the site. It then sets a cookie. Delete the cookie and you’re back to the demographic survey.</p>
<p>As somebody who uses a lot of different computers and browsers during my daily existence, I’ve seen that survey far too many times.</p>
<p>Most people probably just go through this once and forget about it, allowing azcentral to silently take note of their info whenever they check the news.</p>
<p>But whenever you force people to give up personal information over and over again to access ad-sponsored content, those people are going to get ticked off and start lying to you. So now the site has a lot of, ahem, <em>interesting</em> demographics in its database.</p>
<p>(As an aside, I guess this visitor-tracking fetish also does a great job of keeping the search engines out so the site doesn’t have to suffer the indignity of increased traffic for free.)</p>
<p>At this point, though, I’m conditioned to never click through from the front page. Can’t handle seeing that little survey again. So it’s just a quick scan to see if there’s anything breaking, and I’m gone.</p>
<p>But now, some brainiac over there has decided that a great way to annoy visitors is to run JavaScript-powered ads that move around the screen and obscure the content when you load the page.</p>
<p>Sigh. That’s right.</p>
<p>In your face, sucka!</p>
<p>Hello, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/">CNN</a>. I’m back. Did you miss me?</p>
Banned books week2005-09-26T13:30:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/banned-books-week/
<p>The week of September 24 to October 1 is the American Library Association’s <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm">Banned Books Week</a>.</p>
<p>Well worth following that link to see what kind of works are being challenged in these enlightened days…</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/web_generalbutton.gif" alt="I read banned books" /></p>
Review: Ilium2005-09-25T16:49:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/review-ilium/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380817926/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-3937713-2052017?v=glance&s=books">Ilium</a></em> is a truly strange beast. Strap on your oxygen masks, because here’s a plot summary: The Greek Gods (yes, Zeus, Apollo, Athena, that bunch) are staging the Iliad on Mars. They have reincarnated noted <em>scholics</em> (scholars of the Iliad) to take notes and report of any discrepancies between the war taking place and the version in the <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140447946/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-3937713-2052017?v=glance&s=books">Iliad</a></em>.</p>
<p>Sentient robots on the outer planets are noticing a large amount of quantum activity on Mars, and are getting worried that perhaps the post-humans are up to something. These sentient robots have tendencies towards studying human literature to a rather unhealthy degree.</p>
<p>On Earth, the post-humans have left behind a small population of utterly post-literate humans who spend their days—they have exactly 100 years of youth and after that they supposedly go to join the post-humans—with all their whims catered to.</p>
<p>It gets weirder from there.</p>
<p>Obviously, this is not a novel for everyone. Nevertheless, it creeps under your skin and makes you really want to find out what is going to happen. So, if you can set your suspension-of-disbelief meter really high <em>and</em> you enjoy a twisted sense of literary criticism, <em>Ilium</em> will probably give you a lot of enjoyment.</p>
<p>Plus, it makes you want to re-read both the <em>Iliad</em> and Shakespeare, and there’s no planet where <em>that</em> can be wrong.</p>
Zeitgeist2005-09-23T11:43:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/zeitgeist/
<p>I’ve been huddled under my blanket in front of the TV for most of the day as the silent battle between viruses and white blood cells continues. (Go blood cells!)</p>
<p>I can report that, yes, it’s true: day time TV is an utter waste land. But you probably knew that.</p>
<p>More surprising are the ads. Whenever I read a magazine, watch TV, or consume any other kind of advertising-sponsored, media I like to play the demographics game—who do the sponsors think is consuming this media? It’s easy and fun! All you have to do is guess who would like to purchase the product or service you’re just being shown, then aggregate as the show goes on, and you’ll probably end up with a pretty accurate guess of the demographics that particular show is tailored to. It’s even more fun when it’s a show you enjoy. Do you match your own demographic?</p>
<p>For the meta-aggregate of daytime TV viewers who don’t land on the talk shows—oh, the Bard himself could not articulate my loathing for the talk shows—there seem to be two <em>major</em> problems consumption will solve:</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Apparently, I must purchase a new vehicle. I’m not sure why, but since there are “brand” car ads <em>all the time</em>, there must be some sort of void in my life that can only be filled by a new vehicle. So shiny.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Much more surprisingly, it seems that this great country is plagued by an infestation of smelly domiciles. There are ads for air fresheners of various kinds and persuasions during what seems like every single commercial break. Who are these people with the smelly houses? Why do their houses stink so bad? How much does this industry gross (rimshot) anyway?</p>
<p>Here’s a slightly off-kilter idea I’ve been toying with: If your house smells bad, <em>how about you clean it?</em> If you change the cat litter, maybe it won’t stink quite so much? Yes? No? Maybe?</p>
Notes from under a blanket2005-09-23T07:31:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/notes-from-under-a-blanket/
<p>It had to happen sooner or later: Andrea brought some kind of bug home from the virus farm (as I tend to think of day care) and it’s knocked me out.</p>
<p>Don’t know what particular mini-hooligan is in my system, but it’s causing a low-grade fever, headache, upset stomach, and general aches and pains. So the fun factor is pretty low here underneath the blanket on the couch.</p>
<p>But Tylenol is being taken, fluids are being consumed, and rest is being had, so hopefully the invader will be dispatched before too long.</p>
High-tech law enforcement2005-09-18T12:54:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/high-tech-law-enforcement/
<p>Several years ago I worked at the city museum of Skövde creating the texts and printed materials for an exhibition about the history of the city. One of the artifacts we had lying around was a book where the authors had interviewed the elder residents of the city during the early years of the 20th century and gathered their stories. Sort of a folklore project.</p>
<p>There were a lot of good stories in that book, and one that has always stuck with me concerned a farm hand who was notorious for being the archetypal big, ugly brute who started fights whenever possible.</p>
<p>The story goes something like this:</p>
<p>After the harvest has been brought in, it is time for the customary celebration, and our protagonist—along with everybody else attending—has managed to get himself into a highly lubricated state. Naturally, a mêlée breaks out and the police are called.</p>
<p>It so happens that the local police force has just the same week been equipped with the latest in cutting-edge law enforcement technology: The baton.</p>
<p>So one of the police officers sneaks up behind our protagonist, who is busy beating the tar out of another farm hand, gets a good, two-handed grip on his baton and whacks our protagonist over the head as hard as he can.</p>
<p>To the police officer’s dismay, our protagonist does not sag into a limp heap, but rather shakes his head and turns around, glares bleary-eyed at the police officer, notices the baton, and yells, “Why the hell are you fighting with sausage?”</p>
Review: What’s the Matter with Kansas?2005-09-18T08:34:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/review-whats-the-matter-with-kansas/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/080507774X/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-3937713-2052017?v=glance&s=books">What’s the Matter with Kansas</a></em> is Thomas Frank’s attempt at understanding why so many people are voting against their economic interests.</p>
<p>Frank builds a compelling argument which essentially boils down to Values: By focusing on value issues such as prayer in schools, abortion, and gun ownership, neo-conservatives are framing the political discussion in such a way that economical issues are marginalized. This is compounded by a <em>Weltanschauung</em> of victimization in which “real” Americans are being hounded and persecuted by a shadowy, condescending liberal elite that, apparently, for some reason hates America and all that is Good and Just.</p>
<p>The book is well worth reading for anybody who wants to understand the current political climate. It is also very depressing.</p>
Big ol’ jetliner2005-09-16T18:28:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/big-ol-jetliner/
<p>Big plans for The Holiday Which Can Not Be Named: Have purchased tickets to visit the Old Country with Andrea.</p>
<p>We will jet away on December 15 and return on January 3, which will give us almost three weeks to gorge on Swedish Christmas food, spend time with my nephew whom I’ve never met, visit with my grandparents, and—if the Weather Gods permit—do lots of playing in the snow.</p>
<p>Unfortunately my wife will not be able to accompany us, which is sub-optimal but unavoidable this year. We’ll try to make up for it with plenty of video conferencing.</p>
<p>Remember: Cool people celebrate Christmas on the 24th.</p>
Life support system2005-09-13T15:43:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/life-support-system/
<p>Pardon me while I rant. After the horror of September 11, America went to War on Terrorism and our tax money went into upgrading our infrastructure to deal with another terrorist attack. Air travel became a submissive’s wet dream. Billions and billions of dollars went into homeland security. We invaded a whole country.</p>
<p>And then Katrina hits and it turns out that FEMA is criminally incompetent and <em>people die because of their bungling.</em></p>
<p>Please hold on while I hyperventilate.</p>
<p>And then today, utility workers managed to <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9315974/">knock out the power grid</a> for a large portion of Los Angeles by hooking up the wrong wires. Hooking up the wrong wires? You can knock out power to most of <em>Los Angeles</em> by simply hooking up the “wrong wires?”</p>
<p>That’s not exactly a robust electrical system.</p>
<p>Now, I’m not expecting the grid of a major city to be hardened in four years, but I <em>was</em> expecting that there would be a master plan for dealing with a major catastrophe, whether it be natural or caused by terrorists, in the continental US.</p>
<p>I’d like to know where some of all that money went? Surely it can’t all have gone into exhaustive research on the benefits of sealing your house with—Oh Lord, the migraine—<em>duct tape</em> in the event of a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/10/news/companies/wtc_survival/">gas attack</a>?</p>
<p>I really, really want to know. And I also want to know what’s being done to keep this from re-occurring. I have a daughter, and I would like for her to survive to become an adult.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
At the new server2005-09-12T07:14:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/at-the-new-server/
<p>The Core Dump is now safely ensconced at its new home, Burnaby at <a href="http://www.textdrive.com/">TextDrive</a>. This should be the last time for a while that I’ll move the site, as I signed up for their <a href="http://textdrive.com/vc3/">lifetime hosting</a>. So as long as they stay in business and keep providing great service, that’s where this site will be. Hopefully this will be a long time.</p>
<p>The move was not too painful, except for a few hours wasted hunting down a malfunctioning .htaccess file that was throwing a spanner in the works.</p>
<p>Some of the articles look a bit ugly, as MySQL has some … ahem … <em>interesting</em> issues with non-ascii characters like curly quotes. I’m going to need to find some simple way of dealing with that.</p>
<p>One of the reasons for moving to shared hosting is that I don’t want to spend my free time doing system administration, and with TextDrive I get regular backups and patches and minions to watch the health of the server, so I can spend my time doing the fun bits. Plus it’s nice to have minions.</p>
<p>Another reason is that while Temeryx, my old faithful G4/450, has been steady as a rock, it is a bit sluggish for <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.com/">Ruby on Rails</a>, and it was getting to be time to build a new machine to put in its place. That would have cost more than the TextDrive lifetime hosting in itself, and would have eaten up a weekend to build the machine, install <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a> or <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">Fedora Core</a> and set up web and mail and firewall and what have you.</p>
<p>So here we are. Onward and upward.</p>
<p>Big thanks to <a href="http://joemullins.com/">Joe</a> for letting me stash Temeryx in his apartment.</p>
A pox on Apple...2005-09-08T12:13:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/a-pox-on-apple/
<p>…for releasing the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/">iPod Nano</a>. Now I must have one. And if history is any indication they won’t be in the channel for weeks or months. The stores will get five one day, then ten a few days later, and on and on like Chinese water torture.</p>
<p>Curse them for releasing another precious!</p>
<p>While on the topic, though, <a href="http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/motorola_rokr_itunes_phone.html">the ROKR?</a> Hello? The ROKR? Serious business people from expensive marketing firms sat down and thought deeply for a long time and that’s what they came up with?</p>
<p>How about I give you the FINGR?</p>
Thanksgiving2005-09-04T05:22:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/09/thanksgiving/
<p>I’ve spent pretty much all my free time this week planted in front of the TV watching CNN’s coverage of Katrina’s aftermath and couch-surfing for more information, and am, like so many others, shocked by the ravages of the storm and utterly infuriated by the ham-handed rescue efforts.</p>
<p>This kind of catastrophe does give you pause for thought, though—at least for me, it’s been a slap in the face to take me out of “everyday” mode. Like anybody in a family with two working parents and a toddler, we don’t have enough hours in the days to get everything done, and it’s often hard to focus on the important things.</p>
<p>I need to redouble my efforts to do that.</p>
New Orleans in the crosshairs2005-08-29T02:29:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/new-orleans-in-the-crosshairs/
<p>We are completely stunned by the news about category 5 Hurricane Katrina barreling down on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.</p>
<p>Best wishes to the people of New Orleans who are currently evacuating or seeking shelter inside the city.</p>
<p>The National Weather Service has issued a <a href="http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#074575">chilling advisory</a> about the possible tragedy this hurricane may wreak, predicting that the entire area may become uninhabitable for “weeks, perhaps longer.”</p>
<p>Wikipedia has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina">excellent information</a> as well as <a href="http://www.nola.com/">NOLA.com</a>.</p>
<p>Godspeed.</p>
Coronation Day2005-08-27T06:36:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/coronation-day/
<p>Today was Coronation Day—had my second crown installed and a final cleaning. Both dentist and dental hygienist seemed happy with the New and Improved™ state of my choppers and gums. And when they’re happy, I’m happy.</p>
<p>As this visit didn’t require long amounts of time in the chair with drills screaming and sharp tools ripping my gums open, took it like a man and had a natural dentist experience without any Valium involved. And asked them the same questions I asked last time that I can vaguely recall asking but can’t remember the answers to. But they have enough clients that they can’t remember who asked what, so my Dennis Hopper moments seemingly went unnoticed.</p>
<p>Am now feeling highly motivated to keep up with regular cleanings and checkups, etc.</p>
<p><em>Must … keep … drill … away. Drill scare Grog.</em></p>
Review: Chasm City2005-08-22T09:43:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-chasm-city/
<p>Set in Alastair Reynolds’s <em>Revelation Space</em> universe, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441010644/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-6914937-2262303?v=glance&s=books">Chasm City</a></em> departs from the grand epic scale of that trilogy, instead focusing on Chasm City after the ravages of a horrific disease dubbed the Melding Plague, and the history of Sky’s Edge, a world trapped in perennial warfare.</p>
<p>Basically, the novel feels like a grand homage: Chasm City is the bleak, rain-drenched Los Angeles of <em>Blade Runner</em>, and the protagonist, Mirabel Tanner, has more than a touch of Raymond Chandler, while the core of the plot gives more than a nod and a wave to Philip K. Dick.</p>
<p>All good influences to have.</p>
<p>On the plus side, <em>Chasm City</em> is taut and interesting, with more ideas per page than most literature and a well-engineered plot.</p>
<p>On the minus side, some of the characters are under-developed, and some of the dialogue is wooden.</p>
<p>As a whole, though, <em>Chasm City</em> is a thoroughly enjoyable romp with a gleam in its machine-infested eye.</p>
Review: Absolution Gap2005-08-22T06:27:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-absolution-gap/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441012914/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-4401999-4427006?v=glance&s=books">Absolution Gap</a></em> is the last book in Alastair Reynolds’s <em>Revelation Space</em> trilogy, a far-future epic of humanity’s encounter with the galactic Inhibitors. Unfortunately it is an epic disappointment.</p>
<p>The book starts out well enough, if a bit slowly, sidetracking into new characters, but then it kind of putters along until it runs into a brick wall with an absolutely horrid WTF ending.</p>
<p>If you’ve enjoyed the rest of the series—which really does take hard sf and space opera into new dimensions—you may want to avoid <em>Absolution Gap</em>. Or at the very least prepare yourself for disappointment.</p>
Review: Rain Storm2005-08-22T06:05:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-rain-storm/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0399151923/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-4401999-4427006?v=glance&s=books">Rain Storm</a></em> is the third novel about assassin John Rain and continues the series with aplomb.</p>
<p>In this installment, Rain has gone underground in Brazil, but is found and pressured into taking on a new assignment that requires his … ahem … special skills.</p>
<p>As is usual for Barry Eisler’s work, <em>Rain Storm</em> contains highly detailed settings and milieus. The plot is tight, with some new interesting supporting characters as well as the return of several familiar faces.</p>
<p><em>Rain Storm</em> is a tight, interesting read, but doesn’t really have much to separate it from the previous two novels. Still, if you enjoyed <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0399149104/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-4401999-4427006?v=glance&s=books">Rain Fall</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451212460/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-4401999-4427006?v=glance&s=books">Hard Rain</a></em>, <em>Rain Storm</em> will not disappoint.</p>
Flix from the Net2005-08-18T08:23:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/flix-from-the-net/
<p>After much hemming, hawing, and kvetching about the abysmal state of movies available on HBO (no, thank you, I’ve seen LOTR enough times now) we decided to bite the bullet and sign up with <a href="http://www.netflix.com/">Netflix</a>.</p>
<p>In theory this should be great—the selection is pretty darn good, the recommendations system is interesting, and there’s no driving to the video store involved.</p>
<p>Having a steady stream of DVDs magically appear for a monthly flat fee also allows for more experimentation in titles and removes the video store “Hmm. This could be good. Or it might suck. And then I’m out five bucks and the Man has screwed me again” conundrum. But then, perhaps that only affects cheapskates like me.</p>
<p>Another reason to have a steady stream of DVDs coming in is, somewhat paradoxically, television: There are some shows I would really like to see again, like for instance <em>Band of Brothers</em> and <em>All Creatures Great and Small</em> but putting down almost a hundred dollars to own a TV show is just Wrong.</p>
<p>The one drawback is finding the time to watch the things. Now there’ll be that little extra layer of stress, since if the movies come in and they just sit there, I’m paying $15 a month for nothing. But oh, well, that’s life on the cutting edge.</p>
Review: Redemption Ark2005-08-15T04:26:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-redemption-ark/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/044101173X/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-4401999-4427006?v=glance&s=books">Redemption Ark</a></em> is the follow-up to Alastair Reynolds’s highly acclaimed debut <em>Revelation Space</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/07/review-revelation-space/">my review here</a>) and continues the far-future tale of humanity’s encounter with the Inhibitors. The story picks up where <em>Revelation Space</em> left off, but <em>Redemption Ark</em> introduces a slew of new characters, most notably members of the most technologically advanced faction of humanity known as Conjoiners as well as, intriguingly enough, genetically modified pigs.</p>
<p>While the scale remains astronomically huge, Reynolds does a better job of his characterizations in <em>Redemption Ark</em>, and the plot is more character-driven and tighter than in the previous work.</p>
<p>The two things that really separate <em>Redemption Ark</em> from run-of-the-mill space opera are: a) the sheer amount of technological innovation Reynolds throws in; and b) his scientific background—a PhD in astronomy—which allows him to create events that, while completely fantastic, are, or seem to the lay reader, at least to be grounded in the mechanics of the universe.</p>
<p><em>Redemption Ark</em> is a fantastic melding of space opera and hard SF.</p>
"What’s your car doing?"2005-08-10T18:48:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/quotwhats-your-car-doingquot/
<p>Today was one of those rare rainy days in Phoenix, with an overcast sky and swampy mugginess. In short, a highly welcome change of pace.</p>
<p>Picked up Andrea at daycare after work in a light drizzle, got her in the car and started it up.</p>
<p>“What’s your car doing?” I heard from the backseat.</p>
<p>I thought maybe she was confused about what was on the radio, but no, just the regular NPR Bad News From Around The World. Engine sounded fine.</p>
<p>Again, “What’s your car doing?”</p>
<p>And then I realized it was the windshield wipers. Today was the first time in her memory she had seen windshield wipers.</p>
<p>“For the rain on your car?” she guessed.</p>
<p>“Yes, so daddy can see when it’s raining.”</p>
<p>“Oh.”</p>
<p>I am continually amazed by the fact that she is going to grow up with the Sonoran climate as her baseline for normal weather.</p>
Bookstore2005-08-07T08:15:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/bookstore/
<p>Talking to <a href="http://joemullins.com/">Joe</a> the other day about finding ways to eke a few dollars out of the intarweb, he had the idea of spinning off my book reviews into an Amazon affiliate site with some advertising thrown in for good measure.</p>
<p>Seems like a good idea to me. Even though I mostly write the reviews to remind myself what I’ve been reading, somebody out there might find them interesting and it would be nice to make a few dollars out of the wear and tear on my carpal tunnels.</p>
<p>Creating a small, highly targeted affiliate bookstore with all items sold hand-picked by yours truly sounds like it could be a fun thing to do, and it will also allow me to perform some experiments on search engine optimization and general internet pimping that I’ve been kicking around.</p>
<p>However, I’m having absolutely no luck thinking up a good domain name. The store will mostly sell science fiction and fantasy, so something evocative of those subject matters would be nice.</p>
<p>So, Dearest Lazyweb, anybody out there have any ideas?</p>
Steel anniversary2005-08-07T07:58:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/steel-anniversary/
<p>Today marks 11 years that my lovely wife has put up with being married to me.</p>
<p><em>And</em> thanks to the magic of recurring events in iCal, I actually remembered it!</p>
<p>Happy anniversary, honey.</p>
Review: Market Forces2005-08-06T02:53:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/review-market-forces/
<p>With <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345457749/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-0172825-1351877?v=glance&s=books">Market Forces</a></em>, Richard Morgan moves away from the far-future trappings of his Takeshi Kovacs novels and instead delivers a more “traditional” cyberpunk novel set in a dystopian near-future where most nation states have collapsed and their functions have been subsumed by corporations.</p>
<p><em>Market Forces</em> suffers a lot from the somewhat silly premise that the way to rise through the ranks of the corporations is by war driving, having duels on roads that are mostly empty since only “zek tivs” have the money to buy gasoline. But if you can swallow that, as well as the heavy-handed polemic that crops up, the portrait of Chris Faulkner, our protagonist, is deftly painted and surprisingly rich.</p>
<p>While highly readable and tightly plotted, <em>Market Forces</em> feels like a novelization of a graphic novel with a focus on visually interesting scenes. That being said, if you like the genre the novel is well worth a read, and provides a snack while we wait for the next Takeshi Kovacs saga.</p>
Viagra for the nerd2005-08-03T09:08:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/08/viagra-for-the-nerd/
<p>It’s been a long time since I experienced technolust … sure Tiger is cool, w00t, widget, whatever, and a monstrous monitor would be nice, it will be swell when the x86 Macs hit the street next year with some serious speed, but, you know, that’s not <em>lust</em>, just attraction.</p>
<p>Now finally a few things are popping up that elicit a need to shave a few more micrometers off the ol’ credit card’s magnetic strip:</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.atari.com/us/news/2817">The Atari Flashback 2</a>. Say it with me: River Raid! Oh yes, glorious Atari 2600 gaming with the original red-fire-button controller and River Raid, the first game that made me go all googly-eyed over the suh-weet graphics. Supposedly will cost $30. Sold!</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.nokia.com/770">Nokia 770 Internet Tablet</a>. How many times have you been sitting on the patio or the couch, enjoying some quiet intarweb surfing, but there’s an itch, <em>a splinter in your mind</em> to quote Morpheus: <em>My laptop is too big. I should not need something this big to surf the web.</em> And now Nokia has felt your pain. Will supposedly cost around $350 whenever they get around to releasing it. Based on Debian, so all kinds of nifty software can be compiled for it.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>And finally Apple snaps out of its iPod-induced coma, stops fingering itself thinking about Bono, and releases something that doesn’t play music and is supremely cool. Only Apple can come out with a <a href="http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/">lust-worthy mouse</a>, of all things. $49 is pretty steep for a humble pointing device, but when it’s this <em>tres</em> cool, the money-grubbing can be forgiven.</p>
Hollaback Girl deconstructed2005-07-30T07:47:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/hollaback-girl-deconstructed/
<p><em>A friend forwarded me this from a mailing list. I am not the author. If you are the author, or know who is, please let me know and I will give appropriate credit.</em></p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> Thanks to Jason Viles for pointing out that the author is <a href="http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/35/music-stacy.php">Greg Stacy</a>. Thanks for the amusement, Greg!</p>
<p>I’ve removed the contents of the post. Get thee over to OCWeekly for your Hollaback Girl deconstruction…</p>
Wake and bake2005-07-30T02:12:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/wake-and-bake/
<p>Had my second dentist appointment this morning. Getting out of bed and hitting the Valiums first thing does make me feel like a third-rate Hunter S. Thompson.</p>
<p>Guess my anxiety level was lower this time, probably due to knowing better what I was in for. (Had the exact same procedure performed on the left side of the mouth as was done on the right side last time.)</p>
<p>Even started falling asleep in the chair toward the end, which was nice except for the sleep hallucinations.</p>
<p>And now only one visit remains for some final cleaning and having the new crown put on. Whew.</p>
<p>It’s good to have pain in the rearview mirror.</p>
On the road2005-07-29T08:08:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/on-the-road/
<p>My commute is woefully long, so I see a lot of cars during the week. Mostly they’re all interchangeable cocoons of isolation, but sometimes there are those people who go above and beyond to turn their conveyance into a personal statement. And sometimes other people help them.</p>
<p>Driving to work today, got stuck behind an 18-wheeler during the 5-miles-per-hour part of the I-10 between Ray Road and the I-60 Interchange. It was white and extremely dusty. Somebody had written in the dust on the back of the trailer, “I’m lonely,” which I thought was kind of poignant.</p>
<p>Then, getting closer to the 18-wheeler, I saw more writing right underneath that had been purposefully obscured by somebody brushing it. Curious, I maneuvered closer until I could read it.</p>
<p>“Show me your tits," it said.</p>
Cat claw implants getting closer2005-07-26T08:47:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/cat-claw-implants-getting-closer/
<p>I’ve lamented in the past how we don’t seem to be getting any closer to interesting cyberpunk tech, but two items in today’s news point to some activity:</p>
<p><strong>Item The First:</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-07-24-energy-beam_x.htm">Troops in Iraq</a> will soon be shooting an experimental weapon that fires an invisible beam of energy instead of bullets to repel insurgents without killing civilians.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The idea is that the Active Denial System (ADS) penetrates the skin “to create a severe non-lethal burning sensation.” According to testing, the beam does not cause any lasting damage. Except perhaps for the memory of being burned alive.</p>
<p>While the idea seems good in that it can help avoid civilian casualties in high-stress environments like road blocks, a cynic might say that this kind of weapon has the potential for being used in a bit of an indiscriminate manner.</p>
<p><strong>Item The Second:</strong></p>
<p>Police in Mesa, Arizona have <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0725snooper.html">purchased the Mobile Plate Hunter 900.</a></p>
<p>Couldn’t make up a name like that if I tried.</p>
<p>The Mobile Plate Hunter 900 (why, oh why, did they go cheap and not call it the 9000? 9000 is a cool and studly number—900 is just wimpy) mounts on a patrol car and then scans license plates while the patrol car is moving; it sends the license plates it finds to a central computer, which then runs the plate. If a car has been reported stolen, the system alerts the driving officer who can then proceed to investigate.</p>
<p>I wish so fervently that the manufacturer had enough of a sense of humor to use an R2-D2 beep for the unit’s alerts.</p>
The dawn of deception2005-07-22T09:03:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/the-dawn-of-deception/
<p>Saturdays are candy days here at Casa Core Dump—the one day of the week Andrea gets to eat candy and other sweets, including ice cream. We spend a lot of time working on the days of the week, making her understand what day it is.</p>
<p>Last <em>Sunday</em> I was hanging out with her while her mother was away taking care of some errands, and she asked me if she could have some ice cream. Sunday is not Saturday. So I told her no, she couldn’t have ice cream.</p>
<p>“Can I have ice cream, please?” she asked again.</p>
<p>“Is today Saturday?” I asked.</p>
<p>She shook her head, sadly, then brightened up. “Can I have ice cream, please? I won’t tell.” And then the biggest, most ingratiating smile I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>“No, it’s not Saturday.”</p>
<p>“Pleeeeaaaase?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“I won’t teeeeeell.”</p>
<p>She didn’t get any ice cream, but where this whole <em>I won’t tell</em> thing came from, I have no idea. Told the people at day care about it, and they had no idea where it could have originated. I’d like to not believe them, but they’re good to her and I don’t think they’d tolerate that kind of thing.</p>
<p>At this point, the only theory that makes sense is that she came up with this by herself. That’s not a good harbinger for the teenage years…</p>
<p>OK, deep breaths.</p>
Think you’re having a bad day?2005-07-22T02:30:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/think-youre-having-a-bad-day/
<p>Ran across this image on the web site of Swedish newspaper <em>Aftonbladet</em>, and since it makes me cringe, it must be worth sharing.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/brann.jpg" alt="Broken Leg" /></p>
<p><em>Midfielder Fabijan Cipot, right after being tackled.</em></p>
<p>I hope he’ll make a full recovery.</p>
<p>And yes, soccer is statistically speaking one of the most dangerous sports to play.</p>
<p>Here’s a translation of the article’s lede:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fabijan Cipot, 28, hoped to play his way to a contract with Norwegian [soccer] club Brann.</p>
<p>Instead, his career may be over after a dirty tackle during a friendship game against Birmingham.</p>
<p>“It’s the worst thing I’ve seen in my entire career,” says Brann midfielder Paul Scharner to [Norwegian newspaper] <em>Verldens Gang</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/sport/story/0,2789,675310,00.html">Aftonbladet.</a></p>
I, for one, welcome our creepy fish overlords2005-07-19T11:41:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/i-for-one-welcome-our-creepy-fish-overlords/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/capt.sge.mrf22.170705230938.photo00.photo.default-380x269-1.jpg" alt="Beluga Whale" /></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=1&u=/050717/photos_us_rank_afp/050717230947_gio5u8ie_photo0">Yahoo!</a></p>
Uncomfortable movie moments2005-07-15T22:17:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/uncomfortable-movie-moments/
<p>After our experience with having <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/07/bambi-trauma/">Andrea watch Bambi</a>, I’ve been thinking about those moments in movies that you really like that you can’t watch again. The kind where if you’re channel surfing and come across the movie, you’ll watch the movie, and knowing that the scene is coming up, spend some quality time on C-SPAN until you’re sure it’s over, then flip back to the movie.</p>
<p>Possibly due to my leading a sheltered existence, only three come to mind:</p>
<p>1 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9MXxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT1kZWxpdmVyYW5jZXxodG1sPTF8bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=21;fm=1">Deliverance</a>. “Squeal like a pig, boy.” Shudder. I think I was twelve or thirteen when I first saw this movie. Oh, the mental scarring.</p>
<p>2 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105236/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9MXxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT1yZXNlcnZvaXIgZG9nc3xodG1sPTF8bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=7;fm=1">Reservoir Dogs</a>. For my money, Quentin Tarantino’s best movie. The ear-cutting scene is so gleefully sadistic it’s impossible to watch.</p>
<p>3 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9MXxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT1wdWxwIGZpY3Rpb258aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1">Pulp Fiction</a>. Tarantino strikes again. “Bring out the gimp.” No, let’s not, please.</p>
<p>Anyone out there have their own uncomfortable moments?</p>
Review: Revelation Space2005-07-14T07:48:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/review-revelation-space/
<p>Alastair Reynolds hits it out of the park with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441009425/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=books">Revelation Space</a></em>, a heady mixture of hard sf, space opera, and cyberpunk with a huge and epic scope.</p>
<p>The plotting and universe-building are first-rate, as are some of the characterizations, especially the über-cyberpunk crew of the lighthugger <em>Nostalgia for Infinity</em>—a lighthugger is a spacecraft that can almost reach the speed of light—who are just as weird as you’d imagine somebody would get from spending centuries in real time aboard their vessel, occasionally touching down on planets that are always changing dramatically from the passage of time.</p>
<p>The aliens of <em>Revelation Space</em> are also truly alien, which is a nice change of pace from the usual space opera “people with weird skin colors and bumps on their foreheads” aliens.</p>
<p>On the down side, the novel sometimes gets a bit wordy and Byzantine, and some of the central characters never really go beyond stereotypes. But those are minor quibbles—<em>Revelation Space</em> is the real deal.</p>
Crematoria2005-07-14T07:22:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/crematoria/
<p>You know you’re signing up for pain during the summer when you move to Phoenix, but this is ridiculous:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/crematoria_fahrenheit.png" alt="Crematoria Fahrenheit" /></p>
<p>And for those of you keeping it street, Celsius-style:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/crematoria_celcius.png" alt="Crematoria Celsius" /></p>
<p>What’s that you say? San Diego? What’s the weather like there today?</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/paradise_fahrenheit.png" alt="Paradise Fahrenheit" /></p>
<p>Bastards.</p>
Oy, vey2005-07-13T06:26:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/oy-vey/
<p>If you’ve visited the site during the last day or so, you either got some kind of error or timeout, or saw this:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/the_humanity.jpg" alt="Oh, The Humanity" /></p>
<p>Things were not so super great for a while, there.</p>
<p>But the site is up again, and running the latest version of <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.com/">Ruby on Rails</a> and the latest Subversion trunk of <a href="http://typo.leetsoft.com/trac/">Typo</a>.</p>
<p>Behind the scenes, a huge morality play about being a little too far out on the bleeding edge which I’m too wiped to relay right now.</p>
<p>Suffice it to say that whenever you’re really tired in front of the computer and the little voice in your head starts saying things like, “Mohaha. Teh leetness,” you should go to bed. Immediately. Just put the mouse down and go to bed.</p>
Review: Blue Blood2005-07-09T04:27:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/review-blue-blood/
<p>Edward Conlon’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1594480737/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=books">Blue Blood</a></em> is an autobiography of his time in the NYPD, but it is also a lot more. A compelling writer, Conlon provides an in-the-trenches look at life as a cop, working patrol in the slums, doing B&B (buy and bust) operations with narcotics, and being promoted to detective.</p>
<p>But <em>Blue Blood</em> is much more—Conlon takes you along in his love of the history of New York and its people, as well as the path that led a former street tough with a Harvard degree into the force.</p>
<p>The chapters on September 11 and the work performed by the police department in the grim aftermath of the attack are especially moving.</p>
<p><em>Blue Blood</em> is highly readable and gripping, speaking with authenticity and grit about the real life of cops.</p>
Bambi trauma2005-07-09T02:18:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/bambi-trauma/
<p>We were a bit hesitant to let Andrea watch <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002YLCOM/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=dvd">Bambi</a></em> despite it being an excellent children’s movie. Our hesitation of course stemming from the scene where Bambi’s mother is shot by the hunter.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, last night we all watched it together, and her reaction was much, much more intense then we could imagine. Once she understood that Bambi’s mother was gone and would not come back, she bawled her eyes out, completely inconsolable.</p>
<p>It was heartbreaking.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> After her initial scare, she surprised us greatly by asking to see the movie again the next day, and the day after that, and, well, you get the point. She <em>loves</em> this movie, even though she strategically walks out of the room during the scary bit.</p>
<p>Smart girl.</p>
Another day of infamy2005-07-08T13:44:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/another-day-of-infamy/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/unionjack.jpg" alt="Union Jack" /></p>
<p>My thoughts are with the people of London today.</p>
Three-ring circus2005-07-05T06:16:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/three-ring-circus/
<p>Took Andrea to the circus the other day. <a href="http://www.ringling.com/">Ringling Bros.</a> I’ve never been a circus kind of guy, and kind of dreaded having to drive down to America West Arena and deal with downtown parking, not to mention the whole “arena” lowest-common-denominator lobotomy zombie experience. I can never walk into an arena without feeling the weight of the Roman empire’s decline into irrelevance and decadence. That huge space, primarily devoted to watching people run around chasing little balls and putting them through nets while masses of people work themselves into frenzies about which color tank top got the most balls through the little net… Well, anyway, I don’t like arenas.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, this was no time to wimp out. Baby wants the circus.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_0403_1.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_0403_1-tm.jpg" alt="Circus" /></a></p>
<p><em>The Circus. Click for larger version</em></p>
<p>And it turned out to be quite a pleasant experience for the adults, and a metric ton of fun for Andrea, who got so excited in parts that she literally lost the power of speech and started yelling babble; it was almost <a href="http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/g/glossolalia.html">Pentecostal</a>, except for not being creepy and insane.</p>
<p>It’s always amazing to look at things through the eyes of a child.</p>
It’s a white thing2005-07-01T09:55:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/07/its-a-white-thing/
<p>Today at dinner, Andrea wanted ice in her water, prompting me to teach her to sing the chorus from legendary urban poet Vanilla Ice’s <em>Ice, Ice, Baby</em>.</p>
<p>While this may not earn me any points toward a father of the year award, a three-year-old belting that out at the top of her lungs is indeed one of life’s more sublime pleasures.</p>
Review: King of Foxes2005-06-29T05:41:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-king-of-foxes/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380803267/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=books">King of Foxes</a></em> is the second installment in Raymond E. Feist’s <em>Conclave of Shadows</em> trilogy, following <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380803240/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=books">Talon of the Silver Hawk</a></em> <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-talon-of-the-silver-hawk/">[review here]</a>.</p>
<p><em>King of Foxes</em> sees a grown-up Talon who has to risk his soul in order to ingratiate himself with the nobleman who had his entire tribe butchered. It is faster-paced and more solid than the first book in the series, with more fleshed-out side characters and also more introspection on the part of Talon, who nevertheless remains annoyingly superior and swashbuckling.</p>
<p>If you can get past the protagonist, <em>King of Foxes</em> is a strong read.</p>
Review: Talon of the Silver Hawk2005-06-29T05:32:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-talon-of-the-silver-hawk/
<p>Set in Midkemia, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380803240/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=books">Talon of the Silver Hawk</a></em> tells the story of a young man from a mountain tribe who, after his whole tribe is wiped out in a savage raid by an ambitious neighboring nobleman, is adopted by a secret society and trained to become pretty much a fantasy genre James Bond.</p>
<p>The novel is the first in the <em>Conclave of Shadows</em> trilogy. It is well written and plotted and brings back some long-lived characters from earlier Midkemia novels for continuity, although they are relegated to secondary roles.</p>
<p>The main problem with <em>Talon of the Silver Hawk</em> is that Talon, our swashbuckling protagonist, is just too damn handsome, smart, and talented, which becomes a bit galling and tiresome, undermining a lot of the tension in the plot.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it is a fun read, and it’s good to see Raymond E. Feist back from his slump.</p>
Review: Gust Front2005-06-29T05:17:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-gust-front/
<p>John Ringo’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671319760/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=books">Gust Front</a></em> is the follow-up to <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671319418/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-9795994-8088162?v=glance&s=books">A Hymn Before Battle</a></em> and continues the tale of aggression by the Posleen horde. While the action in <em>A Hymn Before Battle</em> took place on other planets, in <em>Gust Front</em> the Posleen land on a woefully ill-prepared Earth.</p>
<p>While on one level the novel is fairly typical military science fiction with lots of big guns and well-crafted battle scenes, Ringo excels at fleshing out his characters and bringing the human factor and cost of armed conflict into focus.</p>
<p><em>Gust Front</em> is eminently readable and fast-paced, with a strong and engaging plot. If you like military science fiction, you’ll like <em>Gust Front</em>.</p>
Alphabetical filing, oh yeah2005-06-29T04:46:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/alphabetical-filing-oh-yeah/
<p>Been spending a fun few days powering through on getting the house back in order—it was well past time.</p>
<p>The majority of time was spent getting the books back on the shelves, and do it right with alphabetical filing, so I can actually find things when I’m looking for them. What a concept!</p>
<p>Strangely enough, I’m much faster at going through the alphabet when I think it in Swedish rather than English. Guess it’s just better “wired in” in the native tongue.</p>
<p>Here’s what two of the six book cases look like now:</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_3205.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_3205-tm.jpg" alt="Books" /></a></p>
<p><em>Click for larger version</em></p>
<p>The astute reader will notice that the alpabetization looks a bit off: The titles are split up into non-fiction, fiction, and Swedish. And the Terry Pratchett titles on the second row are there because they fit the space. Can’t not have some anarchy in there, can I?</p>
Midsummer’s lament2005-06-25T02:07:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/midsummers-lament/
<p>Today is Midsummer’s Eve in Sweden. This is the one day of the year when I really wish I was there.</p>
<p>To add to the frustration, the country is experiencing superb weather today: sunny and bright, perfect to be outside eating and drinking, taking a dip in the ocean or what have you.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummer_table.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummer_table-tm.jpg" alt="Midsummer Table" /></a></p>
<p><em>Swedish midsummer table. Click for larger version.</em></p>
<p>Apart from the social aspects and enjoyment of the massive green lushness of Sweden in the summertime, I miss the food. Fortunately though, now that Ikea is in town, that piece is partly ameliorated—swung by yesterday and picked up three different kinds of pickled herring: Traditional, Mustard, and Garlic. Yummy, yummy, yummy.</p>
<p>The akvavit has been sitting in the freezer since last year, patiently biding its time.</p>
<p>So tonight there will be herring, akvavit, fresh potatoes from Trader Joe’s boiled with dill, and grilled salmon. Will be piping Swedish tunage through the AirPort Express.</p>
<p><em>Skål!</em></p>
RIFing feeds2005-06-23T11:25:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/rifing-feeds/
<p>They say you have to bottom out before you can really face your addiction, and that’s what’s been happening for the last few months.</p>
<p>So, yes, <em>Hello, group, my name is Nic and I’m an <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:RSS">RSS</a> junkie.</em></p>
<p>With a list hovering around 500 feeds or so for a long time, it’s gotten to the point where hitting Refresh All in <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">NetNewsWire</a> felt more like doing homework than having fun, so it was time for some serious pruning.</p>
<p>First thing to go: Partial feeds. Unless there’s consistently really good content to be expected at the site, reading things like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many big announcements were made today about many things…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>feeling compelled to click through to the site for the rest of the article isn’t bloody likely to happen. If it’s important, somebody with a full feed will have picked it up, and I’ll read it there, thank-you-very-much.</p>
<p>Second thing to go: General news feeds. I read the newspaper every day, so if something considered generally news worthy is going on, my friends in the tree-killing business probably already let me know in the morning. And if the news didn’t make it before they went to print, there’ll be another massacre of trees tomorrow. I can wait.</p>
<p>Third thing to go: Link blogs without fresh links. If it’s already on <a href="http://boingboing.net/">BoingBoing</a>, <a href="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a>, <a href="http://www.engadget.com/">Engadget</a> or <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo</a>, only blog it if you can add some kind of value. Otherwise it’s by definition redundant.</p>
<p>That said, what kind of feeds survived the threshing and made it into the hallowed halls of CoreDump Idols?</p>
<p>First: A fresh perspective. Feeds that add new angles to stories that are happening, be it <a href="http://mediamatters.org/">fact-checking the media</a> or <a href="http://daringfireball.net/">informed commentary in a specialized sphere</a>, it’s well worth spending time on.</p>
<p>Second: A compelling voice. No matter what kind of goof ball you are, if you can be <a href="http://neopoleon.com/blog/">that goof ball in an interesting way</a>, I’ll keep reading.</p>
<p>Third: General ranting and raving about things that happen to be of interest to me. There are people out there whom I’ve never met, and most likely never will, but for some reason they are interested in the same kinds of things I am. So it’s sort of like a cocktail party full of people I find interesting, except I don’t have to get my lazy ass out of my chair—score!</p>
<p>Ah, feels good to be on a low-fat RSS diet…</p>
Review: Generation Kill2005-06-22T10:29:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-generation-kill/
<p>Evan Wright spent the beginning of the Second Iraq War embedded with the elite Marine First Recon Battalion, riding with them in their Humvees as they spearheaded the invasion.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0399151931/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-4857724-1800665?v=glance&s=books"><em>Generation Kill</em></a> is an unflinching and gritty portrait of the invasion from a grunt’s eye view—the marines deal with being undersupplied with crucial equipment such as batteries for night vision gear and special lubricant to keep their weapons functioning in the Iraqi desert, as well as the fog of war where they are driving relentlessly through towns, being attacked seemingly at random, and having to constantly and through their sleep deprivation make life-and-death decisions affecting both themselves and the civilians used as cover by guerrilla forces, often with tragic results.</p>
<p>Throughout the book, Wright’s reporting stays crisp and factual, and avoids becoming sentimental or jingoistic even when the material calls for it. This discipline gives the book a fierce, lingering punch.</p>
<p>Anybody with an interest in current events should read <em>Generation Kill</em>.</p>
Bill Frist, Insta-MD2005-06-18T10:23:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/bill-frist-insta-md/
<p>One of the most offensive actions surrounding the tragic Terry Schiavo case was when Senator Bill Frist, a Medical Doctor, watched a few minutes of video of the brain-damaged Mrs. Sciavo and declared, in his infinite wisdown, that Mrs. Schiavo was not brain dead and that she “<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6448213/did/7235267/">responded to visual stimuli</a>". Mr. Frist’s insta-diagnosis of course contradicted the one made by doctors who had spent years caring for Mrs. Schiavo.</p>
<p>Turns out the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/06/15/schiavo.autopsy.ap/">autopsy of Mrs. Schiavo</a> has revealed that “she was in a persistent vegetative state [and] had massive and irreversible brain damage and was blind."</p>
<p>So, Mr. Frist, are you going to apologize for your blatant mis-diagnosis and for dragging the reputation of your medical colleagues through the mud? And are you going to practice medicine again?</p>
The taste of burning bone2005-06-18T09:52:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/the-taste-of-burning-bone/
<p>I’ve been a bad, bad boy and haven’t been to the dentist in many, many moons. So finally I managed to make a hole in my busy calendar† to get my pain on.</p>
<p>Went in for a check-up, and things mostly looked good. Bless my strong Viking genes for giving me good teeth. However, according to the dentist, my gums were a bit infected and thus receding away from the teeth, which will lead to tooth loss if left untreated. Tooth loss bad. Prevention good. The prevention consists of having a “deep cleaning." Deep cleaning is dentist code for them scratching underneath the gums with a sharp instrument.</p>
<p>Deep breaths. Deep breaths.</p>
<p>Two of my teeth also have really old fillings that are starting to decay. The fillings must be torn out and crowns put in. The option to having this procedure done: Wait for the teeth to crumble and have root canals. Not a good option. So crowns it is.</p>
<p>To put the strawberry in the ice cream, my upper wisdom teeth are “decaying" and should be pulled. This is actually not such a big deal, as it’s a straight crank and yank and does not involve high-pitched drills quite so much.</p>
<p>Apart from that, though, the dentist was properly impressed by the ferocious strength of my strong Viking teeth.‡</p>
<p>As I’m on my back in the dentist’s chair and he’s explaining all of this to me, he also says, “And we’ll prescribe you something to help with your anxiety."</p>
<p>Now, I’d been thinking through this whole ordeal that I’d kept up a pretty strong front, but apparently the sweating, hyperventilating, frequent gag reflexes and involuntary mouth clamping made these guys realize that I’m not exactly comfortable in the dentist’s char.</p>
<p>Fast forward to 9 a.m. this morning, when I’m scheduled for Session One: Deep cleaning the right side of my mouth, having a couple of minor cavities filled, and a crown put on one of the decaying fillings.</p>
<p>Get up in the morning, have breakfast and take two Valium-equivalents. This should put me in a happy place. But it does not. So I take another Valium-equivalent. Feeling a little bit tired, but really not in a happy place at all—thinking it’s just a matter of time before the pills really kick in and I’ll be able to drift away to a happier place where my heart isn’t beating quite so fast and the thought of sharp instruments under my gums won’t be quite so dreadful.</p>
<p>My lovely wife took time off work to drive me to the dentist, as driving on Valium is not quite a good idea, and in the car I felt a bit … detached … but still apprehensive.</p>
<p>We get to the dentist’s office, and the work begins. The deep cleaning takes about an hour and a half—at the end of which the jaw muscle on my right side is starting to cramp and spasm.</p>
<p>The Valiums aren’t doing shit. So I take two more.</p>
<p>At the end of the cleaning, the nurse tells me to rinse my mouth out for a minute. With the right side of my mouth feeling like I’ve been in a bar fight, this doesn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped, but what’s some dribbling between friends. Shades of <em>Dumb and Dumber</em> here. So with neck muscles crunching from gripping the seat for an hour and a half, it’s time to move rooms and get my fillings and crown taken care of.</p>
<p>Let me pause here to say that this whiny thing I’m doing here is my own damn fault and not at all due to the dentist’s office. They’re being great. Extremely caring and competent. It’s just that some part of my limbic system is <em>freaking out</em> and overriding the Valium, making me retch and <em>want to close my mouth</em>. As well as punch everybody in the room in the face and run down the street. But at least that part is under control.</p>
<p>After moving rooms, it’s time for the fillings and crown. Now there’s the dentist and two nurses. I’m laid down in the chair. The nurse puts protective goggles on me—Oh Holy Shit!—and the dentist tells me there’ll be “A lot of water and noise." Not comforting, dude, not comforting at all.</p>
<p>Deep breaths, deep breaths, deep breaths, clench and unclench hands, clench and unclench hands.</p>
<p>The drill goes “Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiii."</p>
<p>My jaw spasms.</p>
<p>Deep breaths, deep breaths, deep breaths, clench and unclench hands, clench and unclench hands.</p>
<p>The drill goes “Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiii."</p>
<p>At this point, for some reason, the scene from <em>Revenge of the Sith</em> where Vader is being rebuilt pops into my head.</p>
<p>Deep breaths, deep breaths, deep breaths, clench and unclench hands, clench and unclench hands.</p>
<p>How can five Valiums not be working? Or, even more disturbing, if they <em>are</em> working, how freaked out would I be at this point without them?</p>
<p>There’s a strange taste in my mouth, and after some thinking I realize it’s the taste of my tooth being ground down. “Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiii."</p>
<p>Finally, it’s done.</p>
<p>It’s about noon, and I’ve had my mouth open for three hours. Call my wife, who picks me up. After getting home, I go to bed and fall asleep for four hours.</p>
<p>† This is a lie. I’ve just procrastinated for years.</p>
<p>‡ At least that’s how my mind is constructing this.</p>
Bad Santa2005-06-10T13:37:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/bad-santa/
<p>Yes! The Core Dump catches another movie! In honor of <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307987/">Bad Santa</a></em>, I would just like to say that, indeed, it is true that “Shit happens when you party naked."</p>
<p>That is all. Merry Christmas.</p>
Random observations, redux2005-06-10T09:31:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/random-observations-redux/
<p>Since my life does not involve Cool Things That Must Be Blogged™, but I nevertheless do feel the Need to Blog, here comes yet another bunch of random observations:</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>If you have a blog, a <a href="feed:/comments/feed/">comments feed</a> is a great idea so that your visitors can easily keep track of what kind of conversation is happening in your dark, forgotten posts. Not that anything ever happens in mine, but you know, in case you’re reading one of the cool blogs where people actually comment and stuff. However, what is not such a great idea is to splice comments into your regular feed. Why? Because now your readers will see that, Hey! Awesome! Three new posts from Captain Fantastic! But it turns out that those three posts consist of two ViaGR*a spams and some lunatic ranting in Portuguese about something you have no chance of ever understanding. This is a bit of a turnoff for the casual reader.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Watched <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322259/">2 Fast 2 Furious</a></em> on cable the other night. Yeah, I was a bit scared at first … could I handle something that was too fast <em>and</em> too furious? At the same time? But then, somehow, I managed to calm myself—it’s HBO, I told myself, HBO wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Maybe it won’t be <em>that</em> fast and <em>that</em> furious. Maybe it will be just a little bit fast and a little bit furious. But as it turned out, it was kind of slow and kind of dull, as well as plenty stupid. Color me surprised.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>As I get older, I’m beginning to realize that my only viable career option is to be Steve Jobs’s Evil Apprentice. Am thinking of calling myself Darth Dorkius. Has a nice ring, doesn’t it? In order to prepare for this, have switched my home page in Safari to the <a href="http://www.apple.com/startpage/">default Apple one</a>. Nobody will ever be able to challenge my dedication. Thus, learned today that Gwen Stefani’s <em>Hollaback Girl</em> is no longer number one on the iTunes Music Store. That was a long freaking run for such a crap tune, wasn’t it? Sure, she’s hot, but when you pony up your 99¢ you don’t see her, do you? You just hear her go on about this weird hang-up she has invented and created some kind of faux ghetto-term to describe. Oh, well. I’m sure S-s-s-s-s-teve will enlighten me once he takes me on and starts teaching me about the Dark Side.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Now that the news about the Apple switch to Intel has sunk in, I do believe that my Dark Lord and Master knows exactly what he’s doing. For Joe User the switch will be painless, for developers it will be only slightly annoying, and then Macs will run at whatever speeds Intel can churn out without suffering from the endless delays and production ramp-up problems that have always plagued the “little guys." With Freescale obviously not giving a crap about anything, IBM only caring about servers and embedded systems, and AMD being too small to avoid the ramp-up problems, Intel was the only sane choice. It’ll be weird to run Intel on my Macs and AMD on my Linux boxen, but as long as there is fasterness, who really cares?</p>
The art of listening2005-06-07T10:57:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/the-art-of-listening/
<p>Andrea is a good day care child—happy to be around other children, able to stick up for herself, and in general a little ray of sunshine. But everybody has their good and their bad days, and for a little while she has been running some kind of virus or infection leading to some stomach problems and a nasty, wet cough. So she wasn’t in her best form one day, and threw a major temper tantrum.</p>
<p>When a child spins out of control, the child is taken out of the classroom and made to spend some time with the day care facility director; the idea is that the child is taken away from whatever overloaded her circuits and has a chance to compose herself.</p>
<p>The classroom teacher told me what had happened when I picked up Andrea, so we talked about the little incident over dinner.</p>
<p>When asked if she had visited Miss April (the director), she said yes.</p>
<p>“Was she nice?"</p>
<p>Big, wide-eyed headshakes.</p>
<p>“What did she say?"</p>
<p>Andrea looked down at her food, then down at the floor for so long I thought she couldn’t remember or had lost interest in the topic, but then her whole little body sagged in a completely tragic manner, and she mumbled, while keeping her eyes down at the floor, “I listen to teacher."</p>
<p>It’s never fun to get sent to the principal’s office…</p>
National day2005-06-07T10:24:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/national-day/
<p>An interesting June 6th: Of course Mac nerds all over the globe got their panties in various states of bunching by His Steveness pronouncing that the Mac <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html">will switch to Intel’s x86 platform.</a> As for myself, anything that will get me a faster laptop is a-okay. Just hope the switch will go as smoothly as promised.</p>
<p>Today is also the 61st anniversary of D-Day—thinking about soldiers and their sacrifices now and in the past.</p>
<p>This is the first year that the Swedish National Day is actually a holiday, and from what I can gather from media reports, people seemed to enjoy their day off and did some flag waving without it turning into an unpleasant jingoistic debacle, which is a good thing.</p>
<p>High temperature today in Stockholm: 55F. Burr.</p>
Review: The Zenith Angle2005-06-03T11:42:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-the-zenith-angle/
<p>Bruce Sterling’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345468651/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-1147695-0469418?v=glance&s=books">The Zenith Angle</a></em> is a hard-nosed and satirical look at the time during and shortly after September 11, and how the terrorist attack and its consequences change the life of a genius-level computer scientist from the lap of luxury at an Enron-like company to a cyber security specialist.</p>
<p>Following Derek “Van" Vandeveer as he becomes involved in the shadowy world of three-letter-acronym agencies and his struggle to make government officials “get" the vulnerabilities of a networked world is an amusing journey, and the novel is peppered with observations and knowledge that—to this outside observer, at least—seem plausible if ratcheted up to a satirical pitch.</p>
<p>The first three quarters of <em>The Zenith Angle</em> is a fun and thought-provoking romp and recommended reading, but unfortunately Sterling decides to end the novel by creating the kind of scenario Tom Clancy would hatch at the end of a week-long bender, and Sterling does not carry off the shift into techno thriller mode, ending the novel with a resounding thud.</p>
<p>Despite the unsatisfying ending, <em>The Zenith Angle</em> is well worth picking up for anybody interested in geekhood, cyber security, and the fight against global terrorism. It elicits chuckles and head nods in many places.</p>
Review: Native Tongue2005-06-01T12:01:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/06/review-native-tongue/
<p>Set in a Florida bulldozed by real estate developers and populated by tourists, hucksters, and white trash, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446613207/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-1147695-0469418?v=glance&s=books">Native Tongue</a></em> is Carl Hiaasen at his most frantic and tongue-in-cheek funny.</p>
<p>The plot moves at breakneck velocity, the characters are well-drawn and off-beat, and the prose style is breezy and light.</p>
<p><em>Native Tongue</em> is highly recommended.</p>
Yet another redesign2005-05-31T04:16:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/yet-another-redesign/
<p>Went ahead and touched up the look of the site a bit. It’s still based on the <a href="http://typo.leetsoft.com/">Typo</a> default template, but with a bit of added lickability.</p>
<p>I wanted to keep the clean look, but bring back my alter-ego guy in the masthead as well as call out the different sections in the sidebar a little more.</p>
<p>And of course, there must be drop shadows in Safari.</p>
Happy birthday, Andrea!2005-05-29T06:31:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/happy-birthday-andrea/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_three.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_three-tm.jpg" alt="Andrea’s third birthday" /></a></p>
<p><em>My name is Andrea. I’m three years old today. I blew out the candles on my cake all by myself.</em></p>
Home again, home again2005-05-28T12:15:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/home-again-home-again/
<p><a href="http://southwest.com/">Southewst Airlines</a> managed to once again deliver an utterly forgettable and on-time flight experience. A bit choppy air all the way from Austin to Phoenix, but then one really can’t expect the airlines to have godlike powers over the atmosphere.</p>
<p>Once again nabbed an emergency exit row seat. It’s like flying first class without the cost and the free drinks—if you’re of the larger persuasion (or just a pig for comfort) it’s well worth it to stay up past midnight the night before your flight to log on and get an A class boarding ticket in order to have a fighting chance at hustling up an emergency exit seat.</p>
<p>And now it is time for some sleep in my own bed…</p>
At the Airport2005-05-28T06:24:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/at-the-airport/
<p>Sitting at Austin Bergstrom International Airport waiting for my flight back to the Center of the Sun after braving the 183 (a.k.a Construction Hell) and managing to get confused in a way worthy of a Chevy Chase movie by the fact that the 183 is called Airport Blvd. for a stretch right before the airport, but there is also the 111, <em>which is also called Airport Blvd.</em> but has nothing to do with the airport.</p>
<p>Incidentally, having roads change names whenever and wherever for no particular reason and having different roads sometimes share names seems to be a bit of an Austin specialty.</p>
<p>But it’s still a very nice place, once you debug the driving. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to bring a map if you come here.</p>
<p>The airport has wireless connectivity provided by T-Mobile and Wayport Access, both of whom want money. So I was resigned to read through my NetNewsWire queue offline when what popped up on my screen but a rogue wireless network? Score! Have no idea who’s providing it, but it’s probably a rather ominous-looking old man in a corner whose laptop sometimes makes the MS Office “Hey, I just saved your file! Aren’t you glad I’m beeping about it so you’ll know I actually did it?" sounds.</p>
<p>But whoever you are, wireless benefactor, you have my thanks.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Just had some BBQ and a Shiner Bock. Can’t leave Austin without doing that. Think there’s some kind of law.</p>
<p>UPDATE2: Old guy in the corner just left. Still online. The mystery of the rogue access point deepens.</p>
Review: Revenge of the Sith2005-05-25T11:11:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/review-revenge-of-the-sith/
<p>Whew! We dodged a bullet on this one! <em>Revenge of the Sith</em> is a much better movie than feared. That being said, it’s not exactly a good movie; rather, it manages to create a satisfying conclusion to Anakin’s journey to the Dark Side and ties in pretty neatly if obviously to the “real" Star Wars movies.</p>
<p>On the good side are:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Lots and lots of light sabers. Score!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Excruciatingly well-executed special effects. The Coruscant skyline remains breathtaking.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Lots of unexpected humor. R2-D2 steals the show.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>We’re finally done with this thing. It’s over.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>On the bad side are:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Wooden acting.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Physically painful love scenes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The characters have all the psychological depth of empty hand puppets.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The scene where Vader gets turned. Say what? Huh? That line of bullshit worked? Is the kid retarded?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Vader’s big “Nooooooo!" Yikes, way to make your audience giggle during a climactic scene.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>For me the biggest problem with the first three movies is that they portray Anakin as this sniveling brat who’s just waiting for somebody to turn him. “There’s good in him still," says Padme. She’s nuts. This guy was a Sith Lord waiting to happen all along.</p>
<p>That the whole Jedi counsel manages to sit around and not get what’s happening in Anakin’s head—or, for that matter, that there’s a Super Mega Evil Sith Lord in the office next door—is almost enough to break the suspension of disbelief.</p>
<p>But hey, light saber! Shiny!</p>
Checking in from Austin2005-05-24T09:37:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/checking-in-from-austin/
<p>Posting from a Fairfield Inn in Austin, TX where I’m spending a week attending nerdcamp, or as it’s more formally known, System Administration using Mac OS X Server 10.3.</p>
<p>Flight went right on track, rental car was waiting, hotel is clean, and the class seems very interesting so far. Lots of stuff to learn.</p>
<p>A bit tuckered out right now—getting up early on Sunday to fly out, then driving halfway across Austin to meet with friends and scout out the location of the Apple offices in order to avoid having that kind of learning experience during rush hour, then up at five o’clock in the morning Phoenix time (Austin’s two hours ahead) to go get my learn on, followed by two hours of tourist map driving to find a Borders Bookstore and someplace to eat is catching up with me.</p>
<p>Time to curl up with a good book and go to sleep.</p>
Transformation2005-05-22T08:43:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/transformation/
<p>Much like wife-beater-in-training Anakin Skywalker turning into iron-lung Vader, the Flooring Project is now completed, and there is not a square inch of wall-to-wall carpet or linoleum to be found at Casa Core Dump.</p>
<p>Happiness.</p>
<p>Not having workers underfoot (or just not showing up, or showing up and then leaving to go to another job) is marvelous.</p>
<p>Speaking of Vader, I feel adequately prepared to go view <em>ROTS</em> after reading <a href="http://neopoleon.com/blog/posts/14280.aspx">this review</a>. It’s all about expectation management.</p>
Faster pussycat2005-05-21T10:01:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/faster-pussycat/
<p>Tell me again why I pick up the excrement of these creatures every night?</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/r1628422817.jpg" alt="Alien cat" /></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/photo/050424/ids_photos_wl/r1628422817.jpg">Yahoo!</a></p>
Random observations2005-05-17T12:17:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/random-observations/
<p>The flooring is done, the workers have left, the house is in a state of utter disarray, and the stress of last week’s activities seems to have monkey wrenched my immune system, so I have that jiggly feeling of a fever coming on.</p>
<p>So what better way to waste some precious time that could be spent organizing the house than by shoveling some silly bits onto the intarweb?</p>
<p>Thusly, some random observations:</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Listening to the radio in the car, was aurally assaulted by Gwen Stefani, who seems quite concerned about the world’s sneaking suspicion that she may indeed be a hollaback girl, whatever <em>that</em> is. So I thought I’d do her a favor and pass on the word that she is as a matter of fact <em>not</em> a hollaback girl. You’re welcome.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Kick yourself if you didn’t watch or Tivo Saturday Night Live last weekend. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002071/">Will Ferrell</a> hosted, Queens of the Stone Age performed. Ferrell did his Cow Bell dude all the way through the Queens’ first song. Sublime. Surely a capture must be floating around somewhere?</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Jay Pinkterton is a demented individual, and <a href="http://www.jaypinkerton.com/blog/archives/001334.html">this piece</a> made me snort coffee through my nose. Long, but oh so worth it.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Am experiencing cognitive dissonance regarding <em>Revenge of the Sith</em>. Will it be good or will all hope once again be crushed by Lucas’s money-grubbing, artistically bankrupt way? Oh, woe is me. If only that whole franchise hadn’t been branded into me at such an impressionable age. It’s not right to care that much about a movie that’s marketed at McDonald’s.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Phoenix broke the 100 Fahrenheit mark for the first time this year. Let the annual shunning of the blistering orb of pain begin. UV index holding steady at 10. Fair-skinned people spark like forks in a microwave.</p>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
<p>Watched five minutes of <em>CSI: Miami</em> a few days ago. Stunned and appalled at what passed for dialog. Turned the TV off quickly before they could start butchering the concept of plot.</p>
<p>Now it’s time to creep off to bed…</p>
Acoustics2005-05-15T08:47:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/acoustics/
<p>Now, I may not be the brightest bait in the box, but one thing that’s completely blind-sided me about going from wall-to-wall carpet to laminate flooring is the acoustics. Basically, wall-to-wall carpet by its very nature is an excellent sound dampener, while laminate does very little to quiet things down.</p>
<p>I’m not a serious audiophile by a long shot, but just sitting here in the study listening to the usual tunage through iTunes is downright weird—there’s an echo in the room now, and the color of the sound is much more brassy and hollow than it used to be. It’s not enough to drive me nuts or anything, just a reminder that whenever you make a large change there will be unintended consequences.</p>
<p>As a side note, I remember hearing about a particularly interesting engineer at Volvo when I was growing up. This man apparently took the Engineer™ stereotype way outside the envelope—the kind of guy who took the day off to bring his car in to the shop and then stood behind the mechanics all day offering sage advice. Yes, that guy. Far as I heard, he never actually got punched in the face, surprisingly enough.</p>
<p>This particular Engineer™ was a somewhat compulsive audiophile and ended up remodeling his living room, making it a <em>quarter-inch</em> longer so that he could get a perfect standing wave from his sound system.</p>
<p>All I’m saying here is, I’m pretty far from that kind of scary devotion to sound, but the difference just from changing the flooring is pretty amazing.</p>
<p>And now it’s on to getting the home entertainment rig back up…</p>
Review: The Narrows2005-05-15T08:14:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/review-the-narrows/
<p>Michael Connelly is one of the best contemporary crime writers, and Hieronymous Bosch is arguably his most compelling and best-drawn character, so <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316155306/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-1780179-8040961?v=glance&s=books">The Narrows</a></em> should have a lot going for it.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Connelly phoned this one in. The plot revolves around the resurfacing of the serial killer called The Poet, from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446602612/thecoredump-20">the novel</a> with the same name. Basically, The Poet is an extremely sick individual who used to be an FBI agent assigned to catch serial killers while he actually was one himself. Okay. I can work with that. The eponymous novel ends with The Poet getting shot and maybe dying or <em>maybe not</em>. Well, he didn’t. He’s back. And Bosch ends up hunting him down.</p>
<p>There are many frustrating things about <em>The Narrows</em>. One of them is that it’s such a bad serial killer novel. We really don’t learn anything about The Poet except that he’s incredibly smart and incredibly deranged. Well, whoop-de-do. Does the name Hannibal Lecter ring a bell?</p>
<p>The second frustrating thing about <em>The Narrows</em> is that the Hieronymous Bosch character really doesn’t work outside of the cop procedural. He is empty. Being a cop gives him life. As a cop he is fascinating, but outside the blue he is way too constrained and even subdued.</p>
<p>The third frustration is that the plot hangs on The Poet doing something incredibly stupid, which goes against the rest of the setup. And then the resolution is more or less <em>deus ex machina</em>.</p>
<p>If you’re a Connelly fan, it’s probably a good idea to stay away from <em>The Narrows</em>. The one good thing about it is that it looks like Bosch is going to become a cop again. This is cause for celebration, as it means the next Bosch novel may be really good.</p>
Systems are go2005-05-14T12:17:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/systems-are-go/
<p>Ah yes, the Evil Computer Infrastructure is back online and <em>now seated on laminate flooring</em>, which means that the Evil Empire is once again unencumbered by earthly constraints.</p>
<p>Looking at the to-do list, it seems we’re a bit behind schedule on World Domination, which has wreaked havoc with the Ruling With an Iron Fist action item.</p>
<p>Hmm. Obviously corners will have to be cut.</p>
<p>But in all—or at least some—seriousness, the Laminate Flooring Adventure seems to be sailing toward a safe harbor, with most of the work done. This is a very good thing, as it means we can actually start using our house again.</p>
<p>Getting the Evil Computer Infrastructure back together yielded a few Teaching Moments. Number one of those is, When you put all of your computer equipment and the many, many cables associated therewith away, no matter how stressed, pressed for time, and tired you are, “Thou Shalt Organize Thine Cables With the Holy Rubber Bands. For if Thou Simply Throwest Thine Cables in a Big Honking Box Willy-Nilly Thine Cables Shall Be an Utter Mess and Thou Shalt Hate Thineself Whilst Unwrapping Them."</p>
<p>Methinks that one belongs on a stone tablet somewhere.</p>
<p>Strangely enough, in a few days I’ll be able to think and blog about something else than this…</p>
Hooboy2005-05-13T11:38:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/hooboy/
<p>There has been more drama regarding the flooring installation, which I am way too tired to retell at this point, but it looks like things are moving in the right direction. The office is now achingly close to being ready for the computing infrastructure supporting my Evil Empire to be reactivated, and we have high hopes the Laminate Adventure will be over by tomorrow night or Saturday.</p>
<p>At which point the Tile Adventure can commence.</p>
<p>Ended up having to make an Ikea run for more laminate tonight, necessitating two runs as the Accord with the tremendously over-large subwoofer in the trunk simply will not take much payload. Ended up spending the equivalent of a Mac Mini in extra flooring. Not that I mind. Who needs a Mini, anyway? People with wall-to-wall carpets, that’s who.</p>
<p>In the meantime I do have a bunch of book reviews queued up and hope to write and post them once things return to normal.</p>
Nacknammit2005-05-11T09:39:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/nacknammit/
<p>Today is day two of the laminate flooring adventure, and what should we come home to but to find out that the work crew did not show up.</p>
<p>No call, no nothing. Just didn’t show up.</p>
<p>Oh joy. So the house is in a complete uproar, just like last night.</p>
<p>Had a somewhat tense conversation with the contractor, who was absolutely fuming about the absence of his crew. He’s going to throw in some freebies to make amends, but it’s not about that, just about getting the service we’re paying through the nose for. (Oh yeah, this kind of stuff is not cheap.)</p>
<p>Nobody knows why they elected to not show up today, but it seems not unthinkable that it has something to do with today being <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0510az-boycott10-ON.html">Latino stick it to the Man day.</a></p>
<p>Hey, I’m all for people being treated fairly, but I am <em>not</em> for wild cat strikes, and I’m most certainly <em>not</em> for having my house being a construction zone for longer than it has to.</p>
<p>It’s just never easy, is it?</p>
<p>Am able to post this by leeching off my neighbor’s wireless from the old iBook, as all my networking equipment is scattered all over the house. So thank you neighbor, whoever you are, for leaving your access point wide open.</p>
<p>Incidentally, being a terminally curious sort, decided to visit 192.168.1.1 and yep, default Linksys factory password. One day I’ll triangulate and figure out who the neighbor is and offer to lock their gear down for them. In the meantime, they seem to be protecting themselves the ghetto way by powering the device down at night, so I’d better stop rambling and post this.</p>
Blackout2005-05-09T09:03:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/blackout/
<p>We’re having the wall-to-wall carpet in the entire house replaced with laminate flooring this week. According to the contractor, the entire house should take about six days. We are extremely excited about this—two puking cats and a toddler are not synergetic with wall-to-wall carpeting. Plus it will be infinitely easier to get rid of cat hair, dust and all the other allergenic matter that assembles, lives and flourishes in wall-to-wall carpets.</p>
<p>The contractor will move the furniture around as needed, so we don’t have to worry about that. However, we had to move all breakable items into storage and empty all shelves so the furniture can be moved around.</p>
<p>You know where this is heading. Yes, we had to take all the books down. Turns out, I have <em>a lot</em> of books. A lot a lot a lot.</p>
<p>So now my back hurts.</p>
<p>We also have to break down the computers and move them out of the way. So after I post this, Monolith is getting packed away for a few days, leaving us with naught but portable computing until the study gets its shiny new flooring installed. It shouldn’t be more than a couple of days, we hope.</p>
Mark ’em down2005-05-09T04:51:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/mark-em-down/
<p>I’m sitting here absolutely kicking myself for all the HTML I’ve written over the years without the benefit of John Gruber’s utterly useful <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown">Markdown</a>.</p>
<p>Markdown is one of those technologies I’ve been aware of at some level for years, but in order to use it on Movable Type I would have had to download a plugin. Inertia and laziness being what it is, somehow never got around to doing it.</p>
<p><a href="http://typo.leetsoft.com/">Typo</a> has Markdown support built in, so why not go ahead and give it a shot, right? And it’s freaking brilliant, taking most of the tedium and ugliness of raw HTML right out of the writing process.</p>
<p>Even though it’s not that big of a deal to write HTML manually, you still context-switch from English writing mode to HTML monkey mode, which adds to the mental overhead.</p>
<p>(Handily enough, this finally provides me with the excuse for the crappy content of this blog I’ve been looking for. “It was the context-switching, see? It’s not my fault.")</p>
<p>If you do any amount of writing for the web, do yourself a favor and evaluate Markdown. It may not fit you, but it’s definitely worth the few minutes it takes to get the basics down.</p>
Victory in Europe2005-05-09T04:33:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/victory-in-europe/
<p>Today is the 60th anniversary of VE Day, and the BBC has a fantastic amount of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2005/ww2_sixty_years_on/default.stm">information about World War II</a>. Well worth checking out and refreshing our memories of those cataclysmic years.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/Berlintopp425.jpg" alt="Berlin" /></p>
<p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1059&a=411042&previousRenderType=6">Dagens Nyheter</a></em></p>
There’s a new engine in town2005-05-08T09:27:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/theres-a-new-engine-in-town/
<p>If you read this site in an RSS reader, you haven’t noticed anything, but if you drop in on the home page, you’ll see a brand new look for <em>The Core Dump</em>. The look is actually the default for a blog engine called <a href="http://typo.leetsoft.com/">Typo</a>. (Yes, it’s the same as the <a href="http://wordpress.com/">Wordpress</a> default.) Needless to say, the default look isn’t going to stay for long, even though it is pretty nice and mellow.</p>
<p>Why move over from <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/">Movable Type</a> to a brand-new wet-behind-the-ears blog engine, you might ask? There are several reasons. Movable Type is a very good, mature engine, and has been solid as a rock here for several years, but it’s started to stagnate a bit; the fun and whimsy just isn’t there anymore. Also, some of the Movable Type weaknesses were starting to get annoying.</p>
<p>The biggest of those weaknesses really isn’t Movable Type’s fault, but rather a byproduct of their success: Being the biggest kid on the block makes you a target, and it seems every asshole comment spammer out there is targeting the platform.</p>
<p>But the main thing is the slowness. Posting takes forever and rebuilds take forever. Of course, running a site on a 450MHz G4 isn’t exactly a ticket to fastness, but it’s still annoying. Yes, I could have gone full-on live-PHP with Movable Type, but that would have been just as much work as switching engines, so why not just take the plunge?</p>
<p>The main reasons for switching over, however, are that a) I’m pretty damn impressed by <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.com/">Ruby on Rails</a> and want to get more involved with it; b) it was time for me to get involved in some serious nerditry; and c) the Live Search feature is teh r0x0r. This is what <a href="http://news.com.com/2061-10798-5630188.html">AJAX</a> is all about. Sexy, sexy stuff.</p>
<p>So we’ll see how Typo performs on my poor ghetto server and how stable it is over time. This should be a fun ride.</p>
<p>I’m going to put up a longer nerd post on <a href="http://techgoesboom.com/">Tech Goes Boom</a> with the tech minutiae of migrating from Movable Type to Typo later on. Now it’s time to grovel over source code.</p>
Revenge of the angry fan boy2005-05-06T09:25:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/revenge-of-the-angry-fan-boy/
<p>Rumor has it that <em>Revenge of the Sith</em> will be Jar-Jar free. This, more than anything else, makes me consider actually going to see it in the theater. And I seriously doubt I’m the only one to breathe a huge sigh of relief and feel <em>A New Hope</em>.</p>
<p>Perhaps I should explain: <em>Star Wars</em> changed my life. I was a massive fan boy, so excited about the release of episode one the wait was unbearable. And then to have the long wait rewarded by being poked in the eyeballs with the inexcusable piece of offal that was <em>The Phantom Menace</em> was viscerally painful. Apart from the ridiculous script and wooden acting, the main source of pain was that hopped-up retarded lizard walking around doing a step-n-fetch-it impersonation.</p>
<p>[Dimming lights and ominous music.] The horror, the horror.</p>
<p>So here’s an idea for Lucas to increase inevitable DVD sales from gargantuan to planet-crushing: Make an extended version with a gruesome death scene for Jar-Jar.</p>
<p>Myself, I picture some sort of intergalactic wood chipper slowly sucking lizard breath in, blood and pulped intestines splattering from the exhaust.</p>
<p>“Meesa hurt! Make bad machine stop!”</p>
<p>You could even put in a giggling Sith Lord with his finger on the switch if it helps you preserve your “Artistic Vision.”</p>
Your own personal drive-in2005-05-02T04:12:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/your-own-personal-drive-in/
<p>A friend of mine enjoys personal technology to an unusual degree. He decided for some reason that using a projector to display movies on the wall inside his house just wasn’t immersive enough, and built an outdoor entertainment center.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/big_screen.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/big_screen-tm.jpg" alt="Big Screen" /></a><em>Click the image for larger version</em></p>
<p>He uses a 4,500 lumen projector to drive it, so it gets plenty bright enough once the sun goes down.</p>
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/images/projector.jpg"><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/projector-tm.jpg" alt="Projector" /></a><em>Click the image for larger version</em></p>
<p>The patio is equipped with surround sound, natch.</p>
<p>I asked him whether he’d had any problems with his neighbors complaining, and he said, “No, it seems they’ve gotten used to it. Sometimes they’ll go sit on their roofs and have a beer when we watch movies.”</p>
<p>Ah, living without a home owner’s association.</p>
<p>If anybody wants more specifications or any other info about the setup, send me an email and I’ll forward it.</p>
Out with the old2005-05-01T10:00:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/out-with-the-old/
<p>Andrea will turn three next month, and her interest in the world around us and why things are the way they are is increasing every day. One of the things she’s working on understanding is why mommy and daddy go to work and she goes to school (which is what we call day care).</p>
<p>Had this conversation the other day:</p>
<p><em>Andrea:</em> You go to work?</p>
<p><em>Me:</em> Yes, daddy goes to work.</p>
<p><em>A:</em> Mommy go to work?</p>
<p><em>M:</em> Yes, mommy goes to work, too.</p>
<p><em>A:</em> Andrea go to school?</p>
<p><em>M:</em> Yes, Andrea goes to school.</p>
<p><em>A:</em> Grandma go to work, too?</p>
<p><em>M:</em> No, grandma is old, so she doesn’t have to go to work.</p>
<p>_A: _ Grandma is old?</p>
<p>_M: _ Yes, grandma is old.</p>
<p>Andrea thinks for a little while.</p>
<p>_A: _ We need to get a new grandma.</p>
Review: Broken Angels2005-05-01T02:26:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/05/review-broken-angels/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345457714/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-0391604-9423218?v=glance&s=books">Broken Angels</a></em> is the follow-up to Richard Morgan’s fantastic <em>Altered Carbon</em> [<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/04/review-altered-carbon/">review here</a>] and continues the story of Takeshi Kovacs.</p>
<p>A forceful debut like <em>Altered Carbon</em> is a tough act to follow, and in a sense, Morgan doesn’t try. While <em>Altered Carbon</em> was dark cyber punk channeling classic <em>noir</em> detective stories as it explored the issues of what happens with humanity when your “soul” is detached from your body, <em>Broken Angels</em> is dark science fiction with good measures of warfare thrown in. This doesn’t make it better or worse than <em>Altered Carbon</em>, just a quite different experience.</p>
<p>In <em>Broken Angels</em> Kovacs is a mercenary taking part in a brutal civil war that is tearing a planet apart when he gets involved in a search for an ancient relic that promises to provide vast technological breakthroughs for humanity.</p>
<p>The back story is that humanity has made great advances by using technology left behind by an ancient race that is now mysteriously absent, and great effort is being put into finding more relics and deciphering their use. The novel deals with how the almost cargo-cult like position humanity has found itself in affects the way society functions.</p>
<p>That being said, the novel is packed with ample sex and mayhem, and moves along at a brisk pace.</p>
<p>As long as you don’t expect a copy of <em>Altered Carbon</em>, <em>Broken Angels</em> is a solid read.</p>
The question is...2005-04-23T12:35:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/the-question-is/
<p>Which is more sad: That you’re catching up on your feed reading at 10:30 p.m. on a Friday or that you think people are losers for commenting on a post that was made at 10:00 p.m. that same Friday evening?</p>
All of y’all2005-04-18T10:17:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/all-of-yall/
<p>According to <a href="http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/">this quiz</a>, I’ve managed to excise most of the damage done by three years in Louisiana:</p>
<table width="400" align="center" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="# A8FFB3">### Your Linguistic Profile:
</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="# D9FFD8">70% General American English</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="# A8FFB3">20% Yankee</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="# D9FFD8">10% Upper Midwestern</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="# A8FFB3">0% Dixie</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="# D9FFD8">0% Midwestern</td></tr></table><div align="center">[What Kind of American English Do You Speak?](http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/)</div>
<p>It seems a bit weird now that “y’all” was once actually part of my speech pattern. Sadly, this means my dream of performing in the Blue Collar Comedy Tour is now even further out of reach.</p>
All your lawn are belong to us2005-04-15T08:54:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/all-your-lawn-are-belong-to-us/
<p>After a week of Claritin detox to make sure the tests aren’t getting skewed, finally went to the allergist and got tested for 60 different allergens.</p>
<p>Turns out that the source of my misery is nothing less than … grasses. That’s right. The lawns of suburbia are killing me. On a scale of zero to four, scored a four on timothy grass, whatever that is, and a three on bermuda grass, which is exactly the grass I mow every other week.</p>
<p>On a positive note, I scored a zero on both cats and dogs, which means the cats can stay. Am much relieved as, despite their catty attitudes [rimshot], I do enjoy their company.</p>
<p>Interestingly, there are no cures for allergies, only treatments. My inner cynic wonders a little bit if that could in any way be related to the fact that you can sell treatments for the life of the patient, but a cure only once? Nah, that can’t be it.</p>
Go Speedracer2005-04-14T09:30:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/go-speedracer/
<p>When I was in college, I had a 1,200 Baud modem. With a 1,200 Baud modem, you literally see the text coming down the line draw on the screen, like a teletype machine.</p>
<p>Right now I’m in class at the University and for some reason decide to do a <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/stest">speed test at DSLReports</a> while my students work on their projects under my benevolent gaze.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/go_speedracer.jpg" alt="Go Speedracer" /></p>
<p>Now that’s cooking with gas! Kudos to the ASU networking team.</p>
Review: Altered Carbon2005-04-11T11:37:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/review-altered-carbon/
<p>Richard Morgan’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345457684/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-1734135-0619224?v=glance&s=books">Altered Carbon</a></em> is nothing less than the return of jacked-in, mirror-shades-at-night, in-your-face Cyberpunk.</p>
<p>Half a millennia from now, humanity has discovered the remnants of an ancient, vastly technologically superior civilization. Most recovered artifacts from this civilization are vaguely, if at all, understood—among the few things that have been deciphered are star charts leading to other Earth-compatible worlds, which has led to colony ships being sent out. However, due to the lack of faster-than-light technology, the colonies end up being isolated in space apart from the ability to transmit digital information through something called needlecasts.</p>
<p>The most dramatic technological breakthrough invented by humans is the ability to download a digital version of the self into an implanted piece of hardware at the base of the skull called a stack. This way, when a person dies, the self can be downloaded into another body—the only way to die Real Death is if the stack is physically destroyed.</p>
<p>To provide order in far-flung human space, a special elite corps called Envoys has been created. Members of this corps are needlecast to wherever they are needed, downloaded into waiting bodies and then sent on their missions.</p>
<p>The novel’s protagonist, Takeshi Kovachs, is a disgraced former Envoy who is needlecast to Earth to help solve the “murder” of a wealthy industrialist.</p>
<p><em>Altered Carbon</em> is fast-moving and dense, with the dehumanizing consequences of stack technology providing a hard edge and and a linchpin for the plot to revolve around. Think <em>Neuromancer</em> meets Dashiell Hammett. It is rich in ideas and doesn’t flinch from the darker sides of humanity.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
New shininess2005-04-10T10:51:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/new-shininess/
<p>The eternal quest to sink all of our disposable income into the house continues at Casa Core Dump.</p>
<p>One of the things that have annoyed us ever since we moved in was the range—it’s one of those cheap jobbies like you get in an apartment, with the loathed heater coils that are such a pain to clean. Urgh. But now it has met its demise, and sits outside in the driveway depressing neighborhood property values while we wait for it to be picked up and hauled off to wherever old stoves go.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/stove_old.jpg" alt="Ghetto old stove" /><em>The old stove. Not quite sexy enough.</em></p>
<p>It has been replaced with this stainless steel wonder of kitchen pr0n:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/stove_new.jpg" alt="Shiny new stove" /><em>So shiny.</em></p>
<p>Oh yeah, glass top, baby. This is the way to fly. We have now achieved 100% stainless steel among kitchen appliances.</p>
<p>And yes, that’s a “Powered by Red Hat” sticker on the toaster next to the stove.</p>
Just rewards2005-04-09T08:26:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/just-rewards/
<p>Mohaha! Jeremy Jaynes was <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=653257">sentenced to nine years in prison</a> today for spamming. He is the first spammer to go to the Big House. This makes The Core Dump very happy indeed.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the sentence has been deferred until some more legal machinery wrangling can take place, so let’s all cross our fingers that it really happens, and that he gets Bruno for a cell mate.</p>
<p>Having just read through Neal Stephenson’s <em>Baroque Cycle</em>, with its encyclopedia of horrendous punishments doled out during the baroque era, it strikes me that perhaps drawing and quartering should be brought back, but only for spammers?</p>
Mr. Histamine is not your friend2005-04-08T08:47:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/mr-histamine-is-not-your-friend/
<p>The Valley of the Sun is wheezing its way through one of the worst allergy seasons on record, with the needle of the newspaper pollen count consistently pegged at eleven, and woe is me.</p>
<p>Usually some generic Claritin is enough to get me through the peak of allergy season, but this one simply laughs—<em>laughs, I say</em>—at that puny chemical. So it was time to bite the bullet and get an appointment with an allergy specialist. Called one up and was cruelly informed that you have to be off the Claritin <em>for a week</em> before coming in, as the drug skews the results of the battery of allergent tests I will soon be subjected to. This news made me feel like Keith Richards on a trans-atlantic flight where the whiskey has run out.</p>
<p>So we’re on day four of Claritin detox, and my only desires are to rub my eyes, blow my nose, and sleep.</p>
<p>Damn vegetation. We should raze the planet. I’m putting that at the top of my agenda for when I become an Evil Overlord.</p>
The all-seeing eye2005-04-08T08:27:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/the-all-seeing-eye/
<p>For some reason the idea of a university professor depicted as the Eye of Sauron is incredibly funny:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/sof-406.jpg" alt="Ship of Fools" /></p>
<p>This is from the cartoon <em><a href="http://www.statepress.com/issues/2005/04/07/comics/692720">Ship of Fools</a></em>, which runs daily in <em><a href="http://www.statepress.com/">The State Press</a></em>.</p>
<p>Tee-hee, suckers!</p>
Review: The System of the World2005-04-04T09:57:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/review-the-system-of-the-world/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060523875/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/002-1734135-0619224?v=glance&s=books">The System of the World</a></em> provides a satisfying conclusion to Neal Stephenson’s epic <em>Baroque Cycle</em>, and manages to somehow tie together most of the strands of the huge tapestry he has woven over almost three thousand pages.</p>
<p><em>The System of the World</em> focuses in on Dr. Waterhouse and the climactic showdown between Jack “The Coiner” Shaftoe and Sir Isaac Newton (whom only Jack has the temerity to refer to as “Ike”).</p>
<p>If you have read the first two parts of the <em>Baroque Cycle</em>, you really don’t have much choice but to read the conclusion. Rest assured that Stephenson manages to close the trilogy with a bang.</p>
<p>Taking a step back from <em>The System of the World</em> and looking at the entire trilogy, it is hard to fathom the audacity, chutzpah, doggedness, and intelligence Stephenson has displayed—creating something this huge and inclusive, a work that truly brings an Era to life and contains so much raw material as well as so much thought is indeed a feat to be toasted.</p>
<p>My hat is off to Neal Stephenson.</p>
Desert rose2005-04-03T11:01:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/desert-rose/
<p>As cactuses are not exactly common in Sweden, I do take a lot of pleasure in seeing them around here in the desert. The heavy rains this year have created a lot of very happy Sonoran fauna, and the denizens of my backyard are no exception:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pear_cactus.jpg" alt="Pear Cactus" /><em>Pear cactus</em></p>
<p>When it was planted five years ago this pear cactus had only one segment, and now it’s in its prime. I always wonder why this particular species evolved to have purple sprouts … is there some reason, or is it just a fluke?</p>
More fun in the 100-acre wood2005-04-03T09:45:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/04/more-fun-in-the-100-acre-wood/
<p>As part of the eternal War on Weeds (currently in the middle of the epic Operation Die Mother-F**ker, wherein I have resorted to chemical weapons of mass destruction) taking place in my yard, I did some pretty aggressive raking underneath the brushes to get rid of dead leaves and other detritus.</p>
<p>Due to the unusually heavy rains this year—the root cause of the incessant ranting about weeds taking place on this blog—I’ve been able to leave the drip system off for several months now, as the ground has been saturated enough to support the various fauna all by itself. But as Spring is upon us and the ground is drying out, it’s time to turn on the juice again. So of course I performed some testing to ensure that the drip system was performing to spec. Which it was not. Four major leaks, all caused by flag drippers torn apart by the raking.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/flag_dripper.jpg" alt="Flag Dripper" /><em>The flag dripper: Absolutely crucial for Arizona landscaping</em></p>
<p>Off to Home Depot to pick up new flag drippers, and then to replace the broken units. Three of which were really no problem, just involved getting slightly aggressive with the bushes in which the pipes were embedded. And then the time came for my nemesis, my Professor Moriarty, the heel to my Achilles, the broken dripper inside the torch glow:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/torchglow.jpg" alt="Torchglow" /><em>Inside this torch glow lurks a broken flag dripper</em></p>
<p>It is highly relevant at this point to establish that, indeed, torch glows have thorns. Lots of ‘em.</p>
<p>Further study of the situation—meaning turn on water and crawl around to spot the location of the leak—confirmed that the leak was located <em>right in the center</em> of the bush, a place that cannot be reached by human arms. Time to get medieval and break out the cutter.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/closeup_of_base.jpg" alt="Closeup Of Base" /><em>The leak was right in the middle</em></p>
<p>Some time later, I had cut a path and got access to the mutilated flag dripper. After scaring away a comprehensive sample of Sonoran insects and crawling close to the base, order was restored to the 100-acre wood.</p>
<p>So what have we learned today? The most important lesson, I think, is that if you live in the desert, xeroscape your yard. This will let you <em>not</em> install a drip system and consequently not have to deal with the inevitable breakages.</p>
Easter fun2005-03-26T05:53:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/03/easter-fun/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/chickenstickers.jpg" alt="Chicken stickers" />They had an Easter party at Andrea’s day care yesterday, and one of the parents brought in Easter baskets for all the children. The baskets had candy, plastic eggs, and the other usual Easter type stuff. They also had a couple of cute little chicken-in-egg stickers, which Andrea decided to share with me. Sharing is good.</p>
<p>One of the things I’ve had on my mind lately is how to explain to her where food comes from—that the delicious steak is actually a piece of the carcass of a cow, that pork chops come from piglet, and all of that.</p>
<p>Turns out my worries may have been groundless. As we were talking, she pointed to the stickers on my hand and cheerfully exclaimed, “Chicken nuggets!”</p>
<p>She’s a good little omnivore.</p>
There’s a calm in your eye2005-03-24T05:30:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/03/theres-a-calm-in-your-eye/
<p>People suffering from diabetes have to regularly monitor the blood-sugar levels in their blood, which means extracting a small quantity of blood and performing tests. But a new product promises a <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7182&feedId=online-news_rss20">non-invasive means of monitoring blood sugar</a>: contact lenses that sense glucose. How it works:</p>
<blockquote>[…] scientists added boronic acid to disposable contact lenses. Moisture from the tear ducts contains glucose that binds with the molecules of boronic acid, with the reaction causing fluorescence. A handheld device flashes a blue light into the eye and measures the intensity of the resulting glow, letting the user know their blood glucose level.</blockquote>
<p>Apart from the obvious great value in making the lives of people with diabetes much easier, this one definitely scores a ten on the cyberpunk far-out scale. What else cool stuff could be measured this way? Stress levels? Drug consumption? Lactic acid in the blood stream from physical exhaustion?</p>
<p>What if instead of needing a special light at a certain wavelength, the color of the lenses themselves could alter based on the chemical compositions picked up?</p>
<p>Eyes are the windows of the soul, indeed.</p>
Review: A Talent for War2005-03-20T01:52:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/03/review-a-talent-for-war/
<p>Jack McDevitt’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441012175/thecoredump-20"><em>A Talent for War</em></a> is an unusual science fiction novel.</p>
<p>In a far future humanity has spread to many stars and encountered an alien race called the Ashiyyur, and after what may or may not have been a vast misunderstanding due to the strange psychological make-up of the Ashiyyur, a great war was fought. Emerging as the leader of humanity in this war was Christopher Sim, a man with an uncanny ability to outthink and outfight the aliens.</p>
<p><em>A Talent for War</em> takes place several hundred years after the cease-fire with the Ashiyyur, and tells the story of Alex Benedict as he follows his deceased uncle’s last wish to investigate discrepancies in the common tale of Christopher Sim. As a backdrop to Benedict’s search for the truth is the looming threat of a new war with the enigmatic Ashiyyur.</p>
<p>The novel is slow and somewhat ponderous as it follows Benedict’s attempts at sorting out the thread of actual events from the war fought several hundred years ago; there is very little action except for, of course, in the turn of events Benedict uncovers, which is where most of the dramatic tension in the novel resides.</p>
<p>All in all, <em>A Talent for War</em> is a refreshing departure from most science fiction, and raises some interesting questions about history and how it can warp the truth of persons and events that it purports to describe, but does feel a bit academic.</p>
Long, cold summer2005-03-16T11:51:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/03/long-cold-summer/
<p>At the tail-end of last year’s Festival of Pain (a.k.a. summer) we noticed that water was dripping from ceiling. Not a good thing. Air conditioning company was called and determined that both the pan and the coil had rusted through and were leaking.</p>
<p>For those blessed with ignorance of the world of air conditioners, the coil is the piece that sits in the ceiling and cools the air through magic and freon. Essentially a refrigerator. This generates quite a bit of condensation, which is drained off. The pan sits underneath the coil and catches any overflow drainage. Except in our case, for some reason, both of these had rusted through. Which, in a nine-year-old house, should <em>not</em>, repeat <em>not</em> be happening.</p>
<p>The leakage wasn’t bad enough to cause any damage to the drywall, but left alone it would get there. This being late summer, the air conditioning company suggested waiting for things to cool off before performing the repair. So they patched the pan and coil as a stop-gap, which took care of the immediate symptom, but would of course not last.</p>
<p>Time marched on and it was time to bite bullet and get this taken care of. So today two merry men came by to replace the pan and the coil, so that it would be taken care of before we have to start running the air conditioner non-stop again.</p>
<p>Huge and expensive operation. Total cost: $991. Yes, American dollars. Took them four and a half hours. The coil alone cost $750, and is a beast of a thing.</p>
<p>So why, pray tell, had the coil and pan rusted out? Because of the criminal incompetence of the home builder, that’s why. The coil has to be installed at a slight angle so that condensation will run off through the designated drain hole. This had not been done, so the coil literally had standing water inside it and was rusted out like a beached Soviet submarine. Nice.</p>
<p>But there is good news. Apparently, the science of air conditioning has progressed over the last nine years, and the new pan and coil have plastic bottoms instead of rust-prone steel. What a concept, eh?</p>
Review: The Confusion2005-03-15T09:03:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/03/review-the-confusion/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060523867/thecoredump-20">The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2)</a></em> is yet another <em>tour de force</em> from Neal Stephenson. Put simply, just reading The Baroque Cycle is tiring—in an absolutely exhilarating way.</p>
<p>That being said, it is not quite as good as <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060593083/thecoredump-20">Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)</a></em> [<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/02/review-quicksilver/">my review here</a>], mostly since half the book focuses on the swashbuckling exploits of “Half-Cocked” Jack Shaftoe rather than the travails of Eliza, Countess of Arcachon and Qwghlm, Dr. Waterhouse, Newton and the other <em>savants</em> of the age. The adventures of Jack Shaftoe are interesting, but in the end are more fun than thought-provoking. And it does get a bit tiresome to have Jack in Yet Another Big Mess in Yet Another Exotic Part of the World.</p>
<p>It seems that for some people, <em>The Confusion</em> is a better book than <em>Quicksilver</em> since it has more of a straightforward plot rather than the amorphous entrenchments of <em>Quicksilver</em>. I would disagree—the feeling of immersion gets a bit diluted in <em>The Confusion</em>, and it’s more of an adventure than a meditation on a time.</p>
<p>But a rollicking good adventure it is, and as a bonus it is packed wall-to-wall with ideas, historical tidbits, and investigations of how the baroque era worked (and often didn’t work).</p>
<p>The greatest weakness of the book, though, is the beginning, which features one of the most awkward expositions ever committed to ink. Shudder. But it passes quickly enough, and then the chase is on.</p>
<p>Just like <em>Quicksilver</em>, <em>The Confusion</em> is one of those books you don’t want to end.</p>
Bye bye, ET, we hardly knew ye2005-03-06T11:31:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/03/bye-bye-et-we-hardly-knew-ye/
<p>For the last five years or so, I’ve had a series of machines in the house assigned to file serving duties. And since a file server has to be on all the time anyway, it makes all kinds of sense to run a distributed computing project and give some of those otherwise wasted CPU cycles to a worthy cause.</p>
<p>So they’ve been slaking their thirst for useful endeavors by crunching on <a href="http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/">SETI</a> units, looking for little green men. Which has been great, as I feel this is a very important project. After all, incontrovertible proof of intelligent life on other planets would be just the kick in the pants needed to get people to lift their eyes above the parochial, national, and religious clap-trap that’s causing so much unneeded pain and suffering right here and now.</p>
<p>And the project is full-on just cool as hell. Big-up yourself, as the British would say.</p>
<p>But lately the SETI project has been experiencing a lot of technical problems, leaving Flatline, my poor file server, to sit there, all alone and miserable, waiting for the Great Server in the Sky to provide it with more work units. And that’s just not right.</p>
<p>From reading through the troubles and travails detailed on the <a href="http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/tech_news.php">SETI tech news page</a>, it’s simply mind blowing how poorly outfitted these people are. A shame on the University of California at Berkeley for allowing this kind of underfunding to go on. We’re looking for ET here, people! Could we perhaps have first-world electricity? Are the electricians busy doing a drum circle?</p>
<p>To make a long story short, it was time to find a source that would keep the fileserver busy at all hours, and after some time looking around at different distributed projects, the winner is Stanford’s <a href="http://folding.stanford.edu/">Folding@Home</a>. The idea here is to donate cycles to increase our understanding of how protein folding (a task your body performs <em>all the time</em>) actually works; this knowledge will help us fight disease and in general help all DNA-based life forms on this planet. How could you argue with that? So as I type this, Flatline is busy folding interesting proteins.</p>
<p>Seriously, if you have a machine that’s always on anyway, donate its cycles to some worthwhile project. It may just save your life some day.</p>
Viking summer2005-03-06T08:44:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/03/viking-summer/
<p>Rain is once again falling on Arizona. After yet another hard day of pulling weeds, decided to fire up Ye Olde Grill and get some barbecue on. Relaxing on the patio chair and minding the grill while ground pieces of cow were carbonized into food, I realized that I felt suspiciously good, and then after a while twigged to the fact that 55 degrees Fahrenheit and rain equals only one thing for the Swedish reptile brain: Summer!</p>
<p>Further proof that nine years of living in the scorching Valley of the Sun is not enough to extinguish certain triggers…</p>
Quite a lot of pain2005-02-25T11:03:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/quite-a-lot-of-pain/
<p>Been getting tired of being out of shape, and so finally bit the bullet and joined a gym. Naturally, when going in for my first session of weight lifting in way too many years, I was only too aware that there would be a price to pay.</p>
<p>As the voice-over in the trailer for my life* would say, “A price … in pain.” Therefore, took care to make the first workout an easy one … just did two sets on each machine with light weights, worked up a good sweat but nothing too Rambo-esque. Which should ensure that the soreness would be minimal and easily overcome.</p>
<p>Right. So how did that plan go?</p>
<p>Woke up in the very early morning of workout plus one from excruciating pain in the lower arms. The pain then moved around a bit during the day, kind of feeling out new and interesting parts of the anatomy, but toward the evening, things weren’t so bad. Went to bed feeling pretty good.</p>
<p>Voice-over: “But the pain would not stop there.”</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pain.jpg" alt="I’m in quite a lot of pain here" />Woke up on workout plus two with the realization that, hey, brushing my teeth may not be possible today. And then spent the rest of the day uttering cool and hip little things like “Ouch,” “ow,” and “dammit” whenever forced to move as well as having a constant soundtrack of Will Ferrell’s character Mustafa the Assassin in <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0118655/">Austin Powers</a></em> saying, “Anyone! Can someone call an ambulance? I’m in quite a lot of pain.”</p>
<p>But it’s getting better.</p>
<p>Voice-over: “Or so he thought…”</p>
<p>*Which would indeed be the most boring movie ever made.</p>
Mad gardening skillz, yo2005-02-21T05:08:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/mad-gardening-skillz-yo/
<p>Received a nastygram from the home owners association about the deplorable state of weeds in the front yard, so it was time to break out my mad gardening skillz and take care of that.</p>
<p>And of course, there must be pictorial documentation of the heroic effort:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_2899.jpg" alt="Weeds bad" />Before.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_2901.jpg" alt="Weeds gone" />After.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_2900-1.jpg" alt="Weeds bad" />Before.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_2903.jpg" alt="Weeds gone" />After.</p>
<p>And now I’m tired.</p>
Review: Kill Bill, Vol. 22005-02-19T13:22:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/review-kill-bill-vol-2/
<p><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/10/review-kill-bill-vol-1/">I didn’t get</a> what all the fuss was about with <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/">Kill Bill, Vol. 1</a></em>, but the second volume is a very different beast. Whereas volume one, to me, was a film geek run amok, spewing insider references and showing off his technique, <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/">Kill Bill, Vol. 2</a></em> throws away most of the overloaded operatic and cartoonish stylings of the first volume and starts treating the characters as people–with some notable exceptions–and delivers a plot.</p>
<p>The beginning does beg for some editing, as Tarantino d-r-a-g-s the movie along to set up the tone, but once it starts firing on all four cylinders it is actually and surprisingly touching.</p>
<p>The end is some of Tarantino’s best work with superb scripting and top-notch acting. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/">Kill Bill, Vol. 2</a> is one of the few movies in later years I’ve seen where I honestly had no idea how it was going to end and desperately wanted to know.</p>
<p>On the downside, the Pai Mei sequences were so clownish, off the wall, and out of step with the tone of the rest of the movie that they were completely jarring.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, all in all, a pleasant surprise.</p>
Water from sky good2005-02-19T05:29:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/water-from-sky-good/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/rain.jpg" alt="Rain" />We’ve had an unusually rainy winter here in the Valley of the Sun, and it just started coming down again.</p>
<p>Very nice. You know you live in the desert when rainfall cheers you up…</p>
Review: Quicksilver2005-02-19T02:03:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/review-quicksilver/
<p>Whoa. Neal Stephenson’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060593083/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-6055604-2795031?v=glance&s=books">Quicksilver</a></em> is one of the most engrossing novels ever published. It is huge and sprawling, jam-packed with trivia and populated with fantastic and richly–sometimes lavishly–drawn characters.</p>
<p>Weighing in at a well-fed 900 pages, <em>Quicksilver</em> is the first of three volumes in <em>The Baroque Cycle</em>, which is intended to be read as one novel. And yes, it takes a while to get through, but it is well worth the time investment, as it takes you deep inside the astounding changes taking place in the Baroque Era, with its rising merchant class and declining nobility, as well as the scientific breakthroughs accomplished by the likes of Newton and Leibniz (both of whom feature prominently in the book).</p>
<p>Perhaps most impressive, apart from the truly heroic amount of research Stephenson has performed, is how well the novel takes the reader into the thinking of the time, not shying away from the squalor and ugliness so prevalent. Also, the sheer wit and erudition Stephenson displays is awe-inspiring. You have to have quite a bit of mental horse power to carry off writing dialogue for Isaac Newton and Lous XIV, and Stephenson does so effortlessly.</p>
<p>On the downside, Stephenson sometimes does get a bit carried away with endless detail, and always takes the long road to get where he’s going. This mostly helps immerse the reader in the story, but sometimes obstructs the flow of the novel. Still, if you’re going to write about the Baroque era, you should probably do it in a baroque style.</p>
<p>Oh, and the syphilis. Who knew syphilis had so much to do with the progress of royal houses back in those days?</p>
<p>If you enjoyed <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060512806/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-6055604-2795031?v=glance&s=books">Cryptonomicon</a></em>, you will love <em>Quicksilver</em>. If you’re looking for a solid read, <em>Quicksilver</em> will not let you down. In fact, this novel is so good it made me break my iron-clad rule of No Hardcovers. There’s no way I’m waiting till July for the paperback release of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060523867/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-6055604-2795031?v=glance&s=books">The Confusion</a></em>, so the hardcover is winging its way here from Amazon as I type these words.</p>
Dagnabbit2005-02-14T10:22:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/dagnabbit/
<p>I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but it still killed a little piece of my soul. Got a trackback spam on the post where I <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/01/do-not-follow/">mention installing</a> the nofollow patch.</p>
<p>Die, bastards, die.</p>
Review: Eats, Shoots & Leaves2005-02-14T10:14:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/review-eats-shoots-amp38-leaves/
<p>Subtitled <em>The Zero Tolerance Guide to Punctuation</em>, Lynne Truss’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592400876/thecoredump-20"><em>Eats, Shoots & Leaves</em></a> is a funny and lighthearted romp in the fields of punctuation. While the book does go into the mechanics and history of punctuation, it’s really not a primer, but more of an opportunity for us nerds who actually care about commas and semicolons to get some validation that it’s okay to feel strongly about something that seems beneath contempt or notice for many people.</p>
<p>If you like your wit dry and British and your subject matter somewhat esoteric, <em>Eats, Shoots & Leaves</em> is a lot of fun and well worth reading.</p>
<p>Some items of interest from the book include the fact that there is actually a term for the comma before an “and” as in: “The flag is red, white, and blue.” It’s called an Oxford comma, which is a really great name—although the origins are not explained in the book.</p>
<p>And yes, I stand in favor of the Oxford comma. Think about it. It just makes sense.</p>
<p>Also, the editorial <em>sic</em> is from the Latin <em>sicut</em>, meaning “just as.” I’d been wondering about that for years, although obviously not enough to actually go out and look it up…</p>
Damn their sanity2005-02-12T02:00:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/damn-their-sanity/
<p>Dammit, I had an erudite post rant all composed in my mind about the flaming idiots in Virginia who proposed <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146886,00.html">a bill to fine people whose underwear was showing</a>, and then they actually go ahead and <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/world_672386.html">drop the bill</a>.</p>
<p>A pox on them.</p>
<p>Still, some people won’t give up the good fight:</p>
<blockquote> The Bill’s sponsor, Delegate Algie Howell, issued a statement saying it “was in direct response to a number of my constituents who found this to be a very important issue”.<br /><br />He said constituents included customers at his barber’s shop who were offended by exposed underwear.</blockquote>
<p>Do not upset the barbershop constituency, I say. Especially when they are your only friends.</p>
Fall ill, go bankrupt2005-02-07T10:44:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/fall-ill-go-bankrupt/
<p>From the Scary Stuff department, this <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/02/pf/debt/health_bankruptcy.reut/">article at CNN</a> talks about how half of bankruptcies are caused by serious illness. To make matters even worse, the majority of people forced to file for bankruptcy due to the costs of serious medical problems <em>had medical insurance.</em></p>
<p>The system seems just a wee bit broken, doesn’t it?</p>
Interesting but gross2005-02-04T11:04:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/interesting-but-gross/
<p>Ran across two interesting scatological factoids recently:</p>
<ol>
<li>One third of human excrement is bacteria.2. Grasshoppers do not have cloaca. They void feces by vomiting.</li>
</ol>
<p>Just feeling in a sharing mood…</p>
Junk food and ’rithmetic2005-02-03T09:58:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/junk-food-and-rithmetic/
<p>Arizona in unfortunately one of the many states where public schools are making up for their paltry funding by peddling junk food to students. There’s a proposal being bandied about to ban this sort of merchandising and instead force schools to sell healthier alternatives, at least during school hours. (During athletic events the lid comes off, of course, since there are few more important values to instill in the leaders of tomorrow than mixed messages.)</p>
<p>But the proposed ban has met with resistance, as many schools are fearful of losing their moolah, which “pays for field trips, school clubs and athletic events.” So a study was conducted to see if switching vending machines to healthier alternatives would indeed cause a reduction in profits. And it turns out that according to the study, <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0202junkfood02.html">the lucre kept flowing</a>.</p>
<p>The upsetting thing here–and which seems to be taken as a basic fact of education in the reporting–is <em>that schools have to peddle wares</em>, not <em>which</em> wares they happen to be peddling. How about ripping out the vending machines from campuses and budget for the schools to be able to function without the extra source of income?</p>
<p>But in a state that ranked <a href="http://ebr.bpa.arizona.edu/Articles/QualityCounts03.htm">50th in the nation</a> for spending per student in 2002, that’s not all that likely to happen…</p>
Quicksilver2005-02-02T09:02:29Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/02/quicksilver/
<p>Am currently reading Neal Stephenson’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060593083/thecoredump-20"><em>Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)</em></a> in between bouts of fiddling with the server. Full review coming after I’m finished with it, of course, but I just can’t wait to sing its praises.</p>
<p>I’m in awe. This is what <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140188592/thecoredump-20"><em>Gravity’s Rainbow</em></a> would have been like if Pynchon wasn’t so stoned*. Unbelievably rich, textured, and engrossing.</p>
<p>It’s starting to look like Stephenson is truly The Man.</p>
<p>*Not to in any way besmirch <em>Gravity’s Rainbow</em>. That would be blasphemy.</p>
The smell of burning feeds2005-01-31T12:15:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/the-smell-of-burning-feeds/
<p>Wife and daughter spent most of the day out running errands, leaving me with some free time to foolishly waste. So of course Tinkering with the Site ensued.</p>
<p>Ended up finally going ahead and publishing my RSS feeds through <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/">FeedBurner</a>. Or, as they like to call it, “burning” the feeds. Cute.</p>
<p>First impressions are that the service seems slick, providing good stats for subscriptions as well as some very nice extras like browser-readable feeds, Amazon ads if one should feel like whoring oneself a bit, splicing in feeds from <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a> and flickr, and cute little stats buttons to put on your site or your email signature file, if you should so choose.</p>
<p>Thanks to the magic of Apache and .htaccess files, all it takes is a quick temporary redirect, so I can fall back on my own feeds in case FeedBurner goes Chapter 11 or the service starts glitching. Not that that seems likely, but it’s always prudent to have an easy fallback.</p>
Starbucks density2005-01-31T11:54:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/starbucks-density/
<p>There’s a bit of a meme going around to <a href="http://www.kottke.org/05/01/maximum-starbucks-density">check on the Starbucks density</a> in your area. Playing is easy: Just put in your address in the handy-dandy <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/retail/locator/default.aspx">Starbucks store locator</a>, and see how many results you get.</p>
<p>Fifteen locations within a five-mile radius of Casa Core Dump. Sigh. That’s not very urban, is it?</p>
Implants, dammit!2005-01-30T08:22:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/implants-dammit/
<p>I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441569595/thecoredump-20"><em>Neuromancer</em></a> as well as a ton of other Science Fiction at an impressionable age, and it … well … <em>affected</em> me. Especially <em>Neuromancer</em>. Holy crap. Talk about sticking your Swedish-boy-from-the-sticks unformed brain in a microwave.</p>
<p>So lately I’ve been starting to feel disenfranchised with the state of technology. Computers still crash. Can’t retrofit my car to pair with my Bluetooth-enabled cellphone so I can enjoy completely hands-free talking. My cellphone gets no reception at work. MP3s really don’t sound all that great on a good sound system. My inbox is full of spam. Digital cable movies look like crap due to the insanely high compression schemes my cable provider uses. Et cetera.</p>
<p>At this point you might be saying, “OK, so cry me a river, nerd boy. What’s the point?” which is a valid question. The point is, according to the sci-fi I read as a boy, we’d have all this <em>Cool Stuff™</em> by now. Out of all the Cool Stuff™ that was bandied about back in the days of my impressionable youth, the one thing I really, really wanted, and find us, as a species, getting <em>no closer to</em> is implants. Dammit, I want a straight feed to my optical nerve! I want the current time shimmering in front of my vision <em>when I think about it.</em> I want to see caller ID. I want my computer display to hover in front of my eyes. I want to be able to jack a chip and know how to talk Spanish.</p>
<p>Is it so damn much to ask?</p>
<p>It almost seems like what happened is that Science figured out how to implant things into women’s chests to make them bigger. Then Science figured out how to build the perfect technology to disseminate pictures of women with large chests (i.e., the Internet) and then all the scientists on the project took a break to chill out with some donuts and a fast Internet connection to reap the rewards of all their hard work.</p>
<p>These scientists need to get back to work.</p>
Review: The Devil’s Armor2005-01-25T10:44:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/review-the-devils-armor/
<p>John Marco’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0756402034/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/103-2370357-6553465?v=glance&s=books">The Devil’s Armor</a></em> continues the story begun in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0756400961/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-5726083-2437535?v=glance&s=books">The Eyes of God</a></em>, (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2005/01/review-the-eyes-of-god/">review here</a>) taking it further along its logical progression while adding several twists and new characters.</p>
<p>Marco remains focused mostly on his believable, flawed characters, the choices they make, and how those choices bring about mostly unwanted consequences, while also bringing on quite a bit of raw action–a powerful combination.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the novel begins to stumble as it focuses on the eponymous Devil’s Armor, and ends in a setup for the next novel in the series. Sigh. <em>The Eyes of God</em> felt like a complete novel at the end, albeit one that was wide-open for a sequel, but this feels more like half of one.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <em>The Devil’s Armor</em> is highly compulsive and rich, and manages to deftly avoid most fantasy clichés, which in and of itself is an impressive feat.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed <em>The Eyes of God</em>, picking up <em>The Devil’s Armor</em> is a no-brainer.</p>
Final (hopefully) post-mortem on the attack2005-01-25T09:10:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/final-hopefully-post-mortem-on-the-attack/
<p>Looks like <a href="https://thecoredump.org/archives/000741.html">the attack</a> is finally petering off and life is returning to normal here in the Shire.</p>
<p>Turns out that it wasn’t a referrer spam attack, per se, but rather that some complete idiot (i.e., me) had somehow clicked the shiny little button that turns Apache into a proxy server. This is bad, very bad, sticking a fork in a toaster bad, as the Internet is constantly being crawled for open proxies, which are then used for various sundry things like hacking porn sites and sending out instant messaging spam. <a href="http://www.lurhq.com/proxies.html">This article</a> nails it right on the head, including a lot of the things we were seeing in the logs.</p>
<p>Needless to say, am feeling quite non-1337 at the moment. Not liking the feeling much. But life is a journey, blah blah, etc. So lesson learned: No open proxies for you.</p>
<p>Going to go ahead and run <a href="http://www.nessus.org/">Nessus</a> to make sure I didn’t overlook anything else stupid-obvious.</p>
Comb-over2005-01-24T09:01:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/comb-over/
<p>Found on <a href="http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.humor.funny/msg/ddc9463163f32da8">rec.humor.funny</a>:</p>
<blockquote>Apparently, the Japanese slang for a balding-man’s comb-over is:<br />Bar-code head.</blockquote>
Do not follow2005-01-23T06:57:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/do-not-follow/
<p>While on the crusade to keep some sanity here, went ahead and installed the <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/news/2005/01/movable_type_nofollow_p.shtml">nofollow</a> plugin.</p>
<p>So now there’s even less reason to comment spam this site. Not that the spammers give a rip, but whatever.</p>
<p>Ah, yes, them windmills, I’m gonna get ‘em!</p>
"The blinking lights are killing me"2005-01-21T09:26:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/quotthe-blinking-lights-are-killing-mequot/
<p>This bucolic little neighborhood of cyberspace has been under attack from a zombie army of referrer spam computers the last few days. These machines have been hitting the site enough that it’s been groaning under the load. But that’s not the worst of it: The poor little DSL line that connects this site to the rest of the world is shared by several other sites sitting on a different computer, and a flabbergasting amount of available bandwidth has been eaten by the zombies.</p>
<p>This sucks hard, for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps the most galling thing is that this site does not run a public referrer page, so there is absolutely no reason to hit it with referrer spam. None, zilch, nada, zippo. But there the horde of zombies stands, pounding mindlessly away.</p>
<p>In order to alleviate the pain, we have started to firewall off what seems like half the Internet in order to staunch the wound and give the server and Internet connection some breathing room.</p>
<p>Also disturbing is that the horde is growing–more and more machines are being brought in. But probably the worst thing is that a lot of the URLs they are trying to get on the referrer list <em>make absolutely no sense.</em> It’s mind boggling.</p>
<p>So, since some complete asshole wants to make a quick buck, I’m spending an evening looking at firewall rules instead of being with my family. Asshole. Asshole. Asshole.</p>
<p>At first it was actually kind of amusing to watch the flood and see what was going to happen, but then my gracious host <a href="http://joemullins.com/">Joe</a> called and said, “The blinking lights are killing me,” referring to the little ecstasy-fueled dance party happening with the activity LEDs on the DSL modem.</p>
<p>Looks like we’ve knocked the frequency down a bit at this point–big thanks to Joe for digging in.</p>
Review: The Eyes of God2005-01-18T05:47:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/review-the-eyes-of-god/
<p>John Marco’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0756400961/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/104-5726083-2437535?v=glance&s=books">The Eyes of God</a></em> is an engrossing epic which deftly avoids most fantasy clichés and instead of the usual Trek-to-Defeat-Evil-Overlord™ features a character-driven plot mostly populated with three dimensional, flawed people.</p>
<p><em>The Eyes of God</em> begins with young King Akeela The Good of Liiria heading off on a mission of peace with his adopted brother Lukien. The mission ends with both men falling in love with Akeela’s betrothed Cassandra, and in more than a passing nod to the Legend of Arthur, Cassandra and Lukien of course can’t keep their hands off each other.</p>
<p>From there on out, things go from bad to worse, with Akeela drifting into madness and abandoning his proud ideas of bringing in an era of peace and prosperity.</p>
<p>The novel does take a little while to really get going, and the affair between Cassandra and Lukien, while a crucial setup for the plot, sometimes teeters on the edge of bodice-ripper territory, but after that Marco shows his mastery of battle scenes and war, taking the novel into darker territory.</p>
<p><em>The Eyes of God</em> is a solid and compulsive read.</p>
Two sweet letters2005-01-14T10:04:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/two-sweet-letters/
<p>As the parent of a not-yet potty-trained toddler, you learn to enjoy the little things in life, such as the rush of well-being that lifts you up when you pick up the baby at day care, look at the day’s log file and see the two sweetest letters in the English language: BM.</p>
<p>That’s right. Bowel Movement. She’s already gone number two. Which means an evening of not gagging.</p>
<p>As Cartman would put it, <em>Sweeeeet.</em></p>
Pigs can fly2005-01-12T08:57:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/pigs-can-fly/
<p>Looks like I’m eating crow after my <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/headless-imac-when-pigs-fly/">bold and erroneous statement last year</a> that Apple would not release a headless iMac. Ever.</p>
<p>Launcing the <a href="http://www.apple.com/macmini/">Mac Mini</a> is a bold move on Apple’s part and of course every nerd wants one. No, every nerd <em>needs it.</em> [Insert Gollum joke here.] A gorgeous piece of hardware with enough power to handle day-to-day tasks at a great price point–what’s not to like?</p>
<p>Most likely we’ll see a huge run on the Minis as they make their way into the sales channel, but it’s what happens later that will be interesting, after the nerds have bought their second (or third, or fourth…) machines and harassed their parents into buying one.</p>
<p>Will the switchers pick one up together with their iPods? Will it tip the scales and provide the hoped-for easy-entry-point into the Mac universe, or will it sink like the Cube? It certainly looks like Apple has learned from its mistakes with the Cube, and has created a product that incites the same exuberant techno-lust, but is targeted toward definite market segments, and has a price point that will make it attractive to those segments.</p>
<p>Smells like a winner.</p>
<p>Oh, and the first person to whine about the Mac Mini being underpowered gets a big smack upside the head. I mean it. Don’t test me.</p>
Blog? What blog?2005-01-10T09:46:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/blog-what-blog/
<p>Sorry about the lack of updates lately. Have been consumed with the end of The Holidays™ and of course with the requisite obsessive-compulsive behavior associated with setting up a server–groveling over log files and Googling for answers to all kinds of persnickety little technical issues.</p>
<p>But the dust seems to be settling*, and there should soon be actual–gasp!–content over here again.</p>
<p>*Famous last words.</p>
Bass for your face2005-01-03T04:58:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/bass-for-your-face/
<p>Finally broke down and bought new speakers for the computer. After seeing some glowing reviews on <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/Logitech_Z_2300/4505-3179_7-30993080.html">CNET</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002SQ2P2/102-7636367-1485729?v=glance">Amazon</a>, decided to go for the <a href="http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2,CONTENTID=9372">Logitech Z-2300s</a>.</p>
<p>Tested them really loud with both music and the battle scene at Helm’s Deep from <em>The Two Towers</em>, and these bad boys do sound fantastic. They also look right in place next to the Cinema Display, an important consideration for a shallow design freak.</p>
<p>Keep on rocking.</p>
20052005-01-02T09:40:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/2005/
<p>Wow. Here we are then. 2005. Anno domini and all that. What with 2004 turning out to be pretty much just a kick in the balls, let’s hope 2005 will be better and that many fewer people will have absolutely horrendous things happening to them.</p>
<p>I really want to be able to drive to work in the morning without NPR giving me white knuckles on the steering wheel.</p>
<p>Oh, and a belated cheers to all my homies…</p>
Tsunami2005-01-01T02:41:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2005/01/tsunami/
<p>The unfathomable suffering, grief, and pain wrought by the horrible tsunami is hard to deal with. All those people–the death toll is hitting 135,000 as I write this–whose lives ended in pain, panic, and suffering, and the millions who are coping with losing loved ones, lack of water and food, disease, and the breakdown of all the fundamentals of society is hard to understand, much less process.</p>
<p>Please do what you can to help relief efforts.</p>
A new home for The Core Dump2004-12-29T04:18:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/a-new-home-for-the-core-dump/
<p>Woho! First post on the “new” server!</p>
<p>“New” in quotes since it’s actually Temeryx, my old faithful G4/450 that’s been pressed into service as a web host. Hopefully it’ll be studly enough to handle Movable Type.</p>
<p>Big thanks to <a href="http://www.joemullins.com/">Joe</a> for letting me tap in to his DSL line.</p>
<p>The migration from the old box turned out to be much more of a pain in the rear than expected, but–knock on wood–I’ve worked out most of the issues at this point, apart from MT-Blacklist eating itself. And unfortunately, with the state of comment spam being what it is, you pretty much <em>have</em> to run MT-Blacklist with Movable Type, so it’s a bit of a bummer.</p>
<p>Good things should be ahead now, since I finally have a host on which I’m root to fiddle around.</p>
<p>Onward and upward.</p>
<p>UPDATE: For some reason, had to go completely medieval on the current MT-Blacklist install in order to reset whatever was the cause of the horking. All seems well now.</p>
Happy Solstice!2004-12-24T07:03:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/happy-solstice/
<p>Even though the solstice was technically two days ago, we’re just one day short of Christmas Eve, which in Scandinavia is the day of Santa’s appearance and the attendant gift exchange.</p>
<p>So there’s one thing you can tell children when they ask how Santa can deliver all the gifts in one night: He actually starts out on the 24th in Scandinavia. Plus he doesn’t visit the ungodly heathens in Africa and places like that. Although that little factoid may make the children cry. The one about Africa, not the one about Scandinavia.</p>
<p>Anywho, there’s been a lot of bellyaching here in the States about how we are no longer allowed to use the C-word in polite company, and must instead refer to Christmas as the “Winter Holiday.” And okay, it’s a bit PC to the extreme, but to some people it’s nothing less than another wave of atheists and communists assaulting the beaches of Fortress Jesus, dodging machine gun fire and mortar shells to Spread their Unbelief.</p>
<p>Those people should of course up their meds.</p>
<p>And ponder how the Solstice celebration–a frightened and above all direly serious attempt to appease the Gods and <em>make the Sun come back</em>–has been hijacked and mutilated over the ages until the majority of society is now associating Christmas with shopping, credit card bills, and faux bonhomie.</p>
<p>Things change. Not much you can do about it.</p>
<p>So with that thought, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and above all, <em>please make the sun come back, look, I’ll sacrifice a goat for you. Two goats? You want two goats to make the sun come back? Done!</em></p>
Cat Blog Theatre Presents: The Visitor2004-12-23T08:31:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/cat-blog-theatre-presents-the-visitor/
<p>_The Visitor_A play in one act.</p>
<p>_Dramatis Personae:</p>
<p>Shiva, A cat</p>
<p>Turbo, Another cat</p>
<p>Bogey, A visiting cat</p>
<p>The scene: Casa Core Dump. Day.</p>
<p><em>Bogey</em>, while being brought in for a week-long stay as his family goes out of town: Hey! Let me out of this box you assholes! Let me out! Are you crazy? Where the hell are you taking me?</p>
<p><em>Shiva:</em> Another cat! Holy crap! I’m hiding!</p>
<p><em>Turbo:</em> Another cat! Holy crap! I’m hiding!</p>
<p><em>Bogey:</em> Thanks for letting me out of the box, you bastards. Now where am I? Why did you drag me here in that box? I’m hiding in a closet.</p>
<p>The scene: Casa Core Dump. That night.</p>
<p><em>Shiva:</em> I’m hiding.</p>
<p><em>Turbo:</em> I’m hiding.</p>
<p><em>Bogey:</em> I’m hiding.</p>
<p>The scene: Casa Core Dump. Next day.</p>
<p><em>Shiva:</em> That other cat is _freaking me out, man.</p>
<p><em>Turbo:</em> That other cat better stay hidden in the closet. I’m watching him and will kick his ass if he comes out. Hiss. Spit.</p>
<p><em>Bogey:</em> I’m so freaked out I’m going to have diarrhea right here in the closet. Serves those bastards right to have to clean it up.</p>
<p>The scene: Casa Core Dump. Next night.</p>
<p><em>Bogey:</em> So thirsty and hungry. Can’t leave closet.</p>
<p><em>Turbo:</em> You better not leave that closet or I’m going to kick your ass.</p>
<p><em>Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion…</em></p>
Friday catblogging redux2004-12-18T10:52:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/friday-catblogging-redux/
<p>It’s the triumphant return of Friday catblogging, featuring another picture of furball number one, Shiva.</p>
<p>One of the great things about cats is that they are the undisputed champions of the chillout, as demonstrated in this picture. As long as that food bowl stays magically full and the litter magically gets cleaned on a regular basis, it’s all good. And when it’s superplusgood, it’s time to display that stomach.</p>
<p>To paraphrase the song, Damn it’s good to be a furball…</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/furball-2.jpg" alt="It’s good to be a furball" /></p>
<p>As shown in the picture, Shiva’s most interesting physical feature is how her fur is actually white at the roots, then progressively fades to black as it grows longer.</p>
Manning the barricades for apple juice2004-12-12T07:26:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/manning-the-barricades-for-apple-juice/
<p>Having a child or children in day care can be quite stressful in that you often wonder about what exactly happens during the day and what kind of values and habits are instilled in your child. While we feel very confident in the soulless corporation that is our childcare provider and the way she is being treated during the day, sometimes little things happen that, as Arsenio Hall used to say, make you go hmmm.</p>
<p>We usually drink orange juice with breakfast, and Andrea usually drinks apple juice whenever she wants something that is not water or milk. So this morning we were out of orange juice, forcing daddy to dip into the apple juice. When Andrea saw the bottle of apple juice, she got very upset as this is, after all, <em>her</em> apple juice. So she went to the table, got the bottle, and carried it off. Daddy went after her to instill the lesson of sharing.</p>
<p>“It’s my apple juice.”</p>
<p>“Yes, honey, you can have the apple juice, but it’s mommy’s and daddy’s apple juice, too.”</p>
<p>Andrea thought a bit, then said, “No, it’s <em>the people’s</em> apple juice.”</p>
<p>Hmmm.</p>
Review: Chindi2004-12-12T03:25:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/review-chindi/
<p>Jack McDevitt’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441011020/ref=ase_thecoredump-20/102-5324802-0105732?v=glance&s=books">Chindi</a></em> is a return to hard science fiction, firmly based on scientific principles and a sense of wonder about the vastness of space and the phenomena happening there.</p>
<p>The backdrop is that humanity has discovered a means for faster-than-light travel and has explored a significant portion of our galactic neighborhood, but hasn’t found any intelligent alien species, only the remains of now-extinct civilizations. However, a mysterious signal is found, and a space ship is sent out to investigate where the signal may lead.</p>
<p><em>Chindi</em> starts out very well as the Galactic Society heads out to discover the source and destination of the mysterious signal, and is populated with interesting people, but completely loses steam toward the end, with the story ending in a huge yawn with the great build-up in the end going nowhere.</p>
<p>The main problem with <em>Chindi</em> is that McDevitt creates a tantalizing riddle with the chindi itself, but then leaves the reader completely hanging as to its purpose and creators, making the mystery little more than a tease.</p>
<p><em>Chindi</em> earns a 2 out of 5.</p>
Pictures of the year2004-12-12T02:20:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/pictures-of-the-year/
<p>If you have a few minutes to spend, Yahoo! News has a nice round-up of <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?p=news&g=events/lf/120904pictures2004&e=1&tmpl=sl">the best pictures of 2004</a>. Some very poignant news photography in there.</p>
<p>Hard to believe we’re already hurtling toward the end of another year…</p>
Review: Neverwhere2004-12-08T10:03:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/review-neverwhere/
<p>Neil Gaiman’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380789019/thecoredump-20/102-5324802-0105732">Neverwhere</a></em> is the story of Richard Mayhew, an ordinary man who one day finds himself wrapped up in events taking place in London Below, a sort of parallel-universe London populated with strange people and creatures, a place we know from myth.</p>
<p><em>Neverwhere</em> is fast-paced and intensely visually rich–Gaiman’s background in graphic novels is evident in most scenes, providing them with a grungy viscerality. The concept of “Below” places, which apparently exist under most cities, is intriguing and Gaiman gets great mileage from the idea.</p>
<p>The novel suffers from a bit of an undeveloped plot, which acts mostly to propel Mayhew through various aspects of London Below and to introduce various strange aspects of that reality. But this is easy to overlook with the wonder Gaiman imposes as well as the strength of his ideas.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the two most notable villains in the book, Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar–<em>The Old Firm</em>, dealers in death and torture, and generally quite unpleasant–are mirrored in Terry Pratchett’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380818191/thecoredump-20">The Truth</a></em>, although Pratchett’s sociopathic duo dub themselves <em>The New Firm</em>. It’s always fun when collaborating authors riff off each other’s ideas and make them their own.</p>
<p>All in all, <em>Neverwhere</em> is definitely a place worth visiting.</p>
Psst, wanna try something new?2004-12-05T09:30:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/12/psst-wanna-try-something-new/
<p>If you’re bored with your current diet of music and would like to try something different, may I perhaps suggest some Swedish home-made sausage?</p>
<p>Swedish state-operated radio has been getting into the Internet space in a pretty big way, and has, amongst other things, created a stream of only Swedish music. Some of it is great, some is middling, and there are a few tracks that are … well … not quite so good, if you catch my drift. Still, it’s all in all a pretty cool thing, and a good antidote to US radio boredom.</p>
<p>Most of the tracks are in some kind of English, some pretty broken and some very American-sounding, and a few are in Swedish. But since you’re no doubt the kind of hipster that loves a challenge, you’ll have a good time hearing the Swedish, deriving the Germanic and Latin roots, and figuring out what it is they’re saying. Actually, the game is most fun if you’ve studied Icelandic, the root of all Scandinavian languages, but you, dear reader, are no doubt smart enough to figure it out anyway. Or you could simply not care about the lyrics and just listen to the music. Your choice, Cha-Cha.</p>
<p>You have two way to listen, one of which will involve your trusty web browser and give you a live playlist update, and one which will give you the stream but without the playlist. Your call. To listen to the stream in your Real Player, <a href="http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/webbradio/createram.asp?namn=rtsp://sr-rm.qbrick.com/broadcast/cluster/encoder/02038_p3svea.rm">click here</a>. To get the playlist and also to get a choice between Real Audio and Windows Media Player, go to <a href="http://www.sr.se/">www.sr.se</a>, then click on “webbradio” in the blue bar. This will launch a popup window, which presets to using Windows Media Player and station P1, which is sort of like NPR on really bad Quaaludes. If you don’t have Windows Media Player, click on “Byt ljudformat” and select Real Player. (No, there is no mp3 stream, because that would be a good use of Swedish taxpayer money, and that can’t be tolerated, so your only choices are WMP and Real.) Either way, at this point click on “P3 Svea” and current Swedish pop will flood your speakers.</p>
<p>At this point you’ll be all cool and Euro, and if you’re really talented you can phonetically memorize phrases from the songs and impress girls in bars. Don’t say I’m not here for you, ok?</p>
Most awesomely bad metal song2004-11-28T09:40:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/most-awesomely-bad-metal-song/
<p>Just watched the end of VH1’s <a href="http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/40_most_awesomely_bad_metal_songs_ever/series.jhtml">Most Awesomely Bad Metal Songs … Ever</a>. And the winner was … yes! <em>The Final Countdown</em>, by my compatriots Europe.</p>
<p>You can already hear that damned synthesizer riff, can’t you? <em>Dah-dah-DAH-DAH!</em> And now it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Sorry about that.</p>
<p>Watching the show did bring back a lot of atrocious 80s poodle metal I had successfully managed to repress. Including Winger. Remember Winger? <em>Shudder</em></p>
The countdown has begun2004-11-25T05:58:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/the-countdown-has-begun/
<p>Well, technically, the madness doesn’t really begin until Friday, November 26–the feared-by-retail-staff Black Friday when an understimulated populace seeks to heal the wounds re-opened by liquor-fueled family arguments about who ruined whose life at what age by storming stores at ungodly hours–but today marks One Month Until Christmas.</p>
<p>So warm up your credit cards and disappear into a frenzy of stress and angst as you attempt to recreate your own childhood Christmas memories for the next generation of Prozac eaters.</p>
<p>Beep beep–wait, hold on… Ah, sorry about that. That was the non-denominational police. Strike all mentions of the word “Christmas” above and replace with “Winter Holiday”. Oops.</p>
<p>Shoot, now I have to report to non-denominational training camp on November 26, so I’ll miss the consumer frenzy. Bummer, that.</p>
Review: Hard as Nails2004-11-22T09:25:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/review-hard-as-nails/
<p>Dan Simmons’s <em>Hard as Nails</em> is the third Joe Kurtz novel and follows along the same path trodden by <em>Hard Freeze</em> (<a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/11/review-hard-freeze/">review here</a>) and <em>Hardcase</em>. Our antihero Joe Kurtz continues to get dragged in by Buffalo, New York mobsters and this time has to solve the problem of who keeps murdering small-time drug pushers and button men for both the warring Farina and Gonzaga families or face execution himself. To add to his problems, he has been shot in the head in an ambush that may have been directed at himself or his parole officer and thus goes through most of the story in somewhat less than stellar shape.</p>
<p>Like its two predecessors, <em>Hard as Nails</em> is unrelentingly hardboiled, tightly written and executed, but suffers a bit from an overloaded plot. There’s enough material for several novels in here, which makes the pace too fast and forces Simmons to gloss over a lot of potentially interesting moments. The main problem, though, which the novel shares with its two predecessors, is that Simmons tends to hide things from the reader, so that Kurtz finds himself in impossible predicaments, but then is saved by some scheme he has set up outside the reader’s knowledge, which feels a bit too much Deus Ex Machina for comfort.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <em>Hard as Nails</em> delivers a gut-wrenching roller coaster ride and is hard (snort) to put down.</p>
Review: Deathday and Earthrise2004-11-22T02:16:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/review-deathday-and-earthrise/
<p>William C. Dietz’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441009816/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Deathday</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441009719/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Earthrise</a></em> are actually one novel split off into two volumes, so they will be reviewed together here.</p>
<p>A side note to the publisher: Would it be that hard to make it clear on the covers that these two books are in fact one? From just looking at the books, you’d think they are two separate novels from the same author. Not so. <em>Deathday</em> ends in mid-action, so if you care about the story, you have no choice but to pony up another $7.99 for <em>Earthrise</em>. Also, the proofreading was unusually sloppy on the editions linked to above: They’re rife with typos and punctuation errors, which is inexcusable.</p>
<p>The basic plot of the duology is that the Saurons, a race of bug-like sentients with more than a little bit of fascist tendencies, attack Earth and lay waste to most of the planet, wiping out the military and enslaving the surviving humans to use as a slave labor for building elaborate temples. Naturally, a human resistance emerges and fights back.</p>
<p>Dietz does a good job of fleshing out the somewhat hackneyed cast of characters and putting a good deal of internal tension in the resistance movement, including a prominent showing by a gang of nuttier-than-usual white supremacists.</p>
<p><em>Deathday</em> and <em>Earthrise</em> aren’t bad, per se, but they are far from Dietz’s usual standards, and feel mostly tired. Still, they’re competent and have their bright moments. Decent airplane reading.</p>
Throwing out the comments with the spammers2004-11-20T08:29:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/throwing-out-the-comments-with-the-spammers/
<p>Yup, throwing <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/11/all-right-i-give-up/"> out the baby with the bath water</a> works. No comment spams this week. Of course, if somebody out there on the Internets had been wanting to comment on something I wrote, they could not do so. But since this is a z-level blog deep enough in the mire of the Internets that almost nobody reads it, but yet mysteriously high enough on the search engines that the comment spammers find it, something had to be done.</p>
<p>It’s interesting in a Bergman movie kind of way that the payback you get from having a post that gets a positive response on the search engines is that you get to spend your days cleaning up unpaid advertising for rape pictures, Cialis, and online poker sites.</p>
<p>But in the long run, as far as I’m concerned, the vermin have won. I don’t have the stomach or time to deal with their shit. So some potentially interesting conversations will never happen, but at the same time if somebody really wants to get in touch with me, my email address is right there on the site. But, of course, obfuscated to keep the regular spam down.</p>
<p>When you sit down and think about it, it’s really a sad commentary on the human spirit, isn’t it? Here we are with the greatest tool ever created for human communication–a tool that will let almost anybody speak their mind for very little money and have the potential to reach large parts of the world with their words or art–and a small majority of complete shitheads are destroying it in their quest to make an easy dollar.</p>
<p>In a way it’s an analogy of the days when nobody had to lock their doors. Remember those days? Savor that memory. They’re long gone.</p>
<p>It used to be you could have an email account and only get email from people who knew you as a person and actually wanted to have a conversation or speak to you as a human being, and then spam came… Now email usage consist of buying better locks (spam filters) and making sure you don’t inadvertently post your address where the shitheads can find it, add it to their database, and grind down the usefulness of the medium.</p>
<p>And then came blogs, where self-centered people could post their irrelevant thoughts and let their silly friends and casual acquaintances from the Internets talk back to them, and maybe, just maybe, everybody could have a good experience. Well, gone. Unless you’re willing to sit in the cesspool and deal with the dregs of the Earth. If you are, I salute your stamina, but I’m too tired.</p>
<p>And, believe me, sooner or later you’re going to get tired, and you’re going to have to lock your door.</p>
<p>Living in a society where you have to lock your door is no fun.</p>
Catblogging Friday2004-11-20T07:23:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/catblogging-friday-2/
<p>The realization has been dawning on me that as the proprietor of this here fine blog, <em>and</em> the sucker-who-feeds-and-cleans-up after two cats, there must be pictures of cats.</p>
<p>Actually, I can’t believe the shadowy liberal blog-elite have let me get away with my transgressions this long, but I guess they were busy banning Bibles or something. Nevertheless, before they start knocking on my door at four in the morning, here’s a picture of Cat Number One, Shiva.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/shiva.jp" alt="The huntress in her habitat" /></p>
<p>Here’s Shiva the predator in her natural habitat, resting on top of a blanket. You can tell this isn’t just a normal cat blog picture, no sirree, as I went to extraordinary trouble and made it sepia. That’s right. Sepia. Just for you.</p>
<p>As you can tell from the amount and length of fur on this cat, Shiva has a hairball problem of Biblical proportions. There’s really nothing like being woken at 4:30 a.m. by the sounds of a cat gagging up a hairball right next to the bed to say “It’s going to be a fantastic day!”</p>
Review: Guilty Pleasures2004-11-15T08:43:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/review-guilty-pleasures/
<p>I found Laurell K. Hamilton’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/051513449X/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Guilty Pleasures</a></em> while cruising around Amazon. There’s no way I would have bought it if I’d found it in a bookstore as it has the following ghastly blurb on the front page: “A heady mix of romance and horror.” Gag.</p>
<p>Well, just shows how much we judge books by their covers.</p>
<p>Fortunately though, the novel is actually pretty good. (There are some horror-ish type things, which make sense when you’re dealing with vampires, but there’s very little romance, and no Romance as genre.)</p>
<p>This is the first book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. The concept is that all sort of supernatural things like vampires, ghouls, zombies, and lycanthropes are actually real and have come out from hiding to take their place in society. Anita is an animator–meaning she can raise the dead–who moonlights as a vampire killer. The vampires know her as “The Executioner.” Not that this is outside the law, by any means. Anita only kills vampires who have gone far enough outside what is accepted that they have to be destroyed. Sort of like a dog catcher.</p>
<p>In <em>Guilty Pleasures</em>, somebody has started killing vampires in gruesome and unauthorized ways, and the vampires obviously want this to stop, so they force Anita into finding the killer.</p>
<p>As is common with the first book in a series, the characters are a bit vague and not all that fleshed out, and the myth somewhat blurry around the edges.</p>
<p>The writing is fairly tight, even though it dips a bit too much into Hollywood-esque one-liners when it tries for <em>noir</em> and Anita feels much too flippant for somebody in the kinds of troubles she is dealing with.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, this is a very promising start, and the series could turn out to be very good. Well worth checking out if you feel the need for some blooood.</p>
Review: Just for Fun2004-11-15T05:24:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/review-just-for-fun/
<p>Coauthored with David Diamond, Linus Torvalds’s autobiography <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0066620724/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Just for Fun</a></em> is a slim volume that follows Torvalds on his journey from geeky kid with a large nose in Finland to Open Source-icon in California.</p>
<p>The book is breezy and fast-paced, talking about why Torvalds started work on Linux and how it spread and took on a life of its own, as well as his childhood and family situation in Finland.</p>
<p>Anybody reading this for nerdPr0n like technical details of the kernel and programming tips and techniques will be sorely disappointed–<em>Just for Fun</em> is about Torvalds, not his creation.</p>
<p>And Torvalds is an interesting person. From the way he is portrayed in the book, he comes across as a high-functioning autist; exceptionally bright, eerily able to focus, and with a proclivity for hard work, but with little interest or ability for social interactions. Just the kind of person who would get the idea to write an operating system in order to learn more about the processor in his computer.</p>
<p>From the outcome of the Linux project, it certainly seems like this is exactly the kind of personality needed to drive a world-spanning project where most if not all information exchanges go through the social-cues-stripping filter of email, and what matters most is not whether somebody is a nice person or not, but the quality of their work. As Torvalds says, he accepts good patches and rejects bad ones. If somebody submits a lot of good patches, they become more trusted. Simple as that.</p>
<p>Torvalds also displays an amazing <em>sang-froid</em> regarding his creation. It’s not something he’s ever lost sleep over, he says. He did it, as the title says, just for fun.</p>
<p>The only way to really get a rise out of him, it seems, is to challenge his technical decisions, like in the infamous <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/appa.html">Tanenbaum flame war</a> early on in the history of Linux.</p>
<p>In the end, <em>Just for Fun</em> provides interesting anecdotes and insights and is great reading for anybody involved with computers.</p>
<p>Bonus nerd fact: Torvalds originally felt the name Linux was too egotistical and wanted to call his kernel Freax. But the person offering him FTP space for the kernel managed to change his mind.</p>
Review: Hard Freeze2004-11-15T04:41:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/review-hard-freeze/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312989482/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Hard Freeze</a></em> is the follow-up to <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312980167/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Hardcase</a></em>, the first novel about former private investigator Joe Kurtz, who is just back on the streets after serving hard time in Attica for the vengeance-murders of some mob thugs.</p>
<p>Dan Simmons has crafted a taut and gritty novel set in the deep winter of Buffalo, New York. <em>Hard Freeze</em> proudly carries on the tradition of über-hard-boiled detective stories. Once again, Joe is having problems with the Farina Family, and also manages to get a psychotic serial killer on his tail. Simmons draws his characters with compassion and a keen eye for detail, and executes well on a tight plot laden with double-crosses, sociopathic mobsters, corrupt cops, and epic shoot-outs.</p>
<p>One of the nice things about the Kurtz character (even though, yes, the name is a bit much) is that Simmons writes him completely consistent in his behaviors and stances. Kurtz is emotionally frozen to the point of sociopathy, and thus is not the kind of person who would hesitate to pull the trigger when it suits his purposes. Which it often does.</p>
<p><em>Hard Freeze</em> succeeds admirably as a bleak, modernized off-shoot of the Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson branch of <em>noir</em>. The weakness of the novel is that the odds are piled up so high against Kurtz that Simmons sometimes has a hard time getting him through without resorting to plot devices that come perilously close to Deus Ex Machina. But that is a minor quibble.</p>
<p>If you like your fiction boiled to diamond hardness, you’ll enjoy <em>Hard Freeze</em>.</p>
All right, I give up2004-11-15T02:23:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/all-right-i-give-up/
<p>In the immortal words of <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0118715/">The Great Lebowski</a>, “Fuck it, let’s go bowling.”</p>
<p>Spending time every morning deleting comment spam is becoming unbearable, so it is with a gnawing sense of defeat that I’m turning off comments on all postings older than a few weeks. So thanks, guys, for turning a harmless navel-gazing hobby into an endless deluge of having to look at the the sickest, most obscene URLs on the Internet.</p>
<p>Ended up using David Raynes’s <a href="http://www.rayners.org/2003/12/closing_comments_on_old_entries.php">mt-close</a> plugin to perform the actual deed–a big thank you to him for creating the plugin, and as always big thanks to Jay Allen for creating <a href="http://www.jayallen.org/projects/mt-blacklist/">mt-blacklist</a>, which let me stem the tide for this long.</p>
The IKEA experience2004-11-14T07:28:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/the-ikea-experience/
<p>Just got back from a visit to the shiny-new IKEA down the street. As expected, it was a zoo, with overflow parking at a dirt lot a short hike away from the store itself. With the crowds being what they were, we didn’t purchase any furniture and passed on the restaurant as the line looked like it would take well over half an hour just to be seated. Too bad, as we’d been looking forward to the some shrimp sandwich goodness as well, of course, as some lingonberry juice (so tasty).</p>
<p>I’ve been to a lot of IKEAs, and this one is the largest I’ve ever seen. According to the company, this store carries every single product sold, and it looks it. There is no such thing as a quick visit to this store–it is massive.</p>
<p>Andrea had an absolute blast in the children’s section, which is where a lot of our future disposable income will end up being spent.</p>
<p>The Swedish Food Market is well stocked and was the least crazy-busy part of the store, so we ended up doing some shopping there. Anchovies for making Jansson’s Temptation (hooray!), Marabou chocolate bars (yummy yummy yummy), Vacuum cleaners–a.k.a Delicato Punschrolls (a piece of heaven when consumed with a cup of coffee), Singoalla cookies (mmmm … cookies), a couple of packs of frozen Swedish meatballs (rock!), and a tube of Kalles Kaviar (creamy caviar to put on sandwiches … tasty).</p>
<p>The Swedish Food Market alone makes the opening of this store a total hit.</p>
<p>There didn’t seem to be too many Swedish people around, although it’s probably a fair bet that anybody you see in the Food Market stocking up on lingonberry jam and Kalles Kaviar will be Swedish…</p>
<p>It’s good to have an IKEA nearby and not have to make the six-hour trek to Southern California.</p>
Carpe Diem2004-11-13T06:30:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/carpe-diem/
<p>The following extract from Terry Pratchett’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0061020648/qid=1100301728/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-4507585-3315819?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Guards! Guards!</a></em> almost killed me when I read it, and thus had to be shared.</p>
<p>The scene takes place as the newest member of Ankh-Morpork’s dilapidated Night Watch sees the Watch House for the first time.</p>
<blockquote>He reached the Watch House. It was an ancient and surprisingly large building, wedged between a tannery and a tailor who made suspicious leather goods. It must have been quite imposing once, but quite a lot of it was now uninhabitable and patrolled only by owls and rats. Over the door a motto in the ancient tongue of the city was now almost eroded by time and grime and lichen, but could just be made out:</blockquote><blockquote>FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC</blockquote><blockquote>It translated–according to Sergeant Colon, who had served in foreign parts and considered himself an expert on languages–as “To Protect and to Serve.”</blockquote>
Gigabit and RAID, oh my2004-11-02T09:16:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/11/gigabit-and-raid-oh-my/
<p>Finally heeded the call of the semi-conductor (can you hear it? It’s outside your window right now, calling “Buy new stuff … you know you need it … you know you need new shiny electronics … you don’t need a savings account–you need new electronics.”) Ahem.</p>
<p>Ended up putting two 200-gig RAID 1-configured hard drives in Monolith, my main workstation, and upgraded the Casa Core Dump network to gigabit speeds. The RAID install went without a hitch, and then much hilarity ensued when it was time to get the newly-acquired <a href="http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201487&pcount=&Product_Id=183751">Belkin F5D5005</a> to talk correctly to Temeryx, my old faithful G4/450. Plop in card, install driver, reboot, get 100 megabit speed. Dammit. Force card to use gigabit instead of autoselect–link goes dead without so much as a by-your-leave. Reinstall driver. Nope. Link goes dead as soon as the card is forced into gigabit.</p>
<p>Finally decided to try a different cable. Yup. Link goes to gigabit. Damn cheap CAT5-cables. Moved not-quite-evil-enough cable to its new position between base station and switch, where it can sit and poke along at 10 megabit without blowing a gasket.</p>
<p>And now for the <em>piece de resistance</em>–getting <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> to talk to the second F5D5005 card. That took some deeper nerdery, so the how-to will end up on <a href="http://techgoesboom.com/">Tech Goes Boom</a>. It did work, though, which was a bit of a relief, as the only reason I had for purchasing the Belkin cards instead of one from a competitor was that they were enlightened enough to put support for Linux, Mac OS X, and NetWare on the box.</p>
<p>Kind of a good idea if you’re selling a card that has drivers for the anything-but-Microsoft set to actually list that fact on the box.</p>
<p>So the RAID volume is mirroring away, the network is humming along at ridiculous speeds, and another Sunday is gone.</p>
Review: Destination: MORGUE!2004-10-22T13:18:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/10/review-destination-morgue/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400032873/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Destination: MORGUE!</a></em>, like its predecessor <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/037570471X/thecoredump-20/104-5851874-0890335?dev-t=mason-wrapper%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2">Crime Wave</a></em> is a collection of articles James Ellroy wrote for GQ Magazine together with three new novellas.</p>
<p>As is Ellroy’s trademark, the articles are brutally honest and direct, chronicling his twisted youth, the sickness of Hollywood and the attendant culture of star gazing, how L.A. is in his bones, as well as his continuing obsession with unsolved crimes–especially sexual murders of women. As always, the writing is fantastic and Ellroy pulls no punches. For such an obsessive and tormented individual to open himself up as much as he does, and to offer absolutely no apologies for his depravities is bracing to say the least in this climate of homogeneity and manufactured rebellion. That being said, though, there’s not that much new here and there’s a whiff of rehash.</p>
<p>The three interconnected novellas are collected under the rubric of <em>Rick Loves Donna</em>. Their titles pretty much say it all: <em>Hollywood Fuckpad</em>, <em>Hot-Prowl Rape-O</em>, and <em>Jungletown Jihad</em>. You would not be wrong in surmising that we’re dealing with full-on undiluted <em>noir</em> like only Ellroy can bring it. The novellas are good and interesting but alas far from his peak in the <em>L.A. Quartet</em> (which isn’t very harsh criticism as those four novels are arguably the finest crime writing ever produced). The novellas also suffer from the style–they are written in the alliterative style of <em>Hush-Hush</em>, which gets tiresome. A sample:</p>
<blockquote>The living room: bleak, blank-walled, and bereft of furniture. The kitchen: cleaned out completely. The bathroom and bedroom: bug-sprayed, Lysol-lapped, and furniture-free.</blockquote>
<p>It starts to hurt after a while.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, if you’re an Ellroy fan, <em>Destination: MORGUE!</em> is well worth a read. If you’re one of the unfortunates who haven’t yet descended into his particular version of Hell, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446674362/qid=1098418684/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/002-4666973-9412060?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">The Black Dahlia</a></em> is the best point of entry.</p>
<p>Here’s the opening paragraph from <em>Hollywood Fuck Pad</em>:</p>
<blockquote>My promotion/transfer slip arrived–Hollywood Patrol to Hollywood Homicide. Holly_weird_–rectal-raped runaways, cocaine killeristas, fag-in-the-bag body dumps. I was 31. I had four years in patrol. I was testosterone-torqued and pumped. It was fall ‘83. Ray-Gun was Prez. Gates was Chief. _Dragnet_ still reran. O.J. was a Westside splib. Rodney King was a cannibal couched in the Congo. LAPD was King!!!!!</blockquote>
<p>Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood it ain’t.</p>
High Fidelity2004-10-16T12:15:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/10/high-fidelity/
<p>The other day <em><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0146882/">High Fidelity</a></em> came on Comedy Central and I ended up breaking out the DVD in order to escape from 1) The Bowdlerizations, where “shit” becomes “shoot”; and 2) the endless freaking commercials that interrupt any movie worth watching until you <em>can’t-stand-it-anymore-and-must-kill-squirrels</em>.</p>
<p><em>High Fidelity</em> as it turns out is one of the few movies that don’t involve Gandalf, Obi-Wan, or serious World War II mayhem for which I broke out some cash. It’s tight, well-written, and has a perfect cast of freaks. John Cusack totally delivers as the sad-sack record-store owner who has serious issues focusing on what is important. The thing is, that as a guy who owns waaaaay too much vinyl, who spent an absolutely inordinate amount of time reading music mags in the 80s, and who still will <em>never</em> back down about which Sisters of Mercy album is really The Sisters at their pinnacle (It’s called <em>First and Last and Always</em> and the rest are tripe! There, I’ve said it, tripe! It’s all about <em>First and Last and Always</em> mumble mumble mumble sell-outs mumble Doctor Avalance mumble rocks! And it’s important, oh yes, very very important that this album <em>matters</em>!)</p>
<p>As such, I can very much relate to these rather sad human beings, and can unfortunately relate to John Cusack’s character down to the bones; when he starts delivering his obsessive instructions on how to create the perfect mix tape … I wrote those rules! I made those tapes! Those are my tapes!</p>
<p>If it weren’t for meeting the right woman at a crucial point in my life, I could have been that guy–obsessing over his decisions, trying to figure out why women weren’t what he expected them to be, etc. ad nauseum.</p>
<p>Because at some level this is What Men Do when left to our own devices–we obsess; we bury ourselves in meaningless minutia … it can be the reason why Only a Fool would buy a Chevy when Fords clearly Are So Superior, stats for The Oakland Raiders, the relative meaning of The Cure singles, the unbelivably stupid patches somebody made against Linux Kernel 2.4.6, or why Metroid Prime: Echoes has no chance of living up to the original.</p>
<p>The actual matter of the obsession doesn’t matter–it’s all the same. We obsess. And we can’t understand why women can’t understand <em>how important our obsessions are.</em></p>
<p>That is, until we meet a woman who makes us take a step back and understand that these things may be important–for some definition of important–but that there are many other things out there that should take precedence to navel-gazing and minutiae.</p>
<p>Things like life.</p>
<p>Because us men, when left to our own devices, will not be about life, but about the sorting and categorizing of life.</p>
<p>And life is important.</p>
Dirty diapers and Usama2004-10-15T12:22:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/10/dirty-diapers-and-usama/
<p>Andrea got a flu shot on Monday, and yesterday (Wednesday) when I picked her up from day care, the staff commented that she had been grouchy all day, and had some diarrhea.</p>
<p>So I stayed home today with her today–diarrhea and a pretty high fever. Went through a whole lot of diapers, Desitin, and orange juice.</p>
<p>Sat with her on the couch–she watched her new favorite show <em>Dora The Explorer</em> while I read Richard Clarke’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743260457/qid=1097814087/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-3455849-3379031?v=glance&s=books">Against All Enemies</a></em>. (Only about halfway through at this point, but a great book so far.) Really strange juxtaposition of having Dora and Boots go through their childish adventures while reading about the spread of crack-job terrorists and the Tom Clancy-esque work inside the White House…</p>
<p>Andrea seems to be feeling better, so hopefully the diaper count will go down tomorrow and she’ll go back to being her usual delightful little self. Watching her being sick is one of my least favorite activities in the world.</p>
Review: Angels and Demons2004-10-12T07:55:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/10/review-angels-amp38-demons/
<p>Dan Brown’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671027360/qid=1097538043/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_2_1/103-3455849-3379031">Angels & Demons</a></em> is the prequel to <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385504209/qid=1097538163/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_2_1/103-3455849-3379031">The Da Vinci Code</a></em> (which I haven’t read, as it’s <em>still</em> not out in paperback.)</p>
<p><em>Angels & Demons</em> is an effective page turner, with a fast-and-furious plot involving our protagonist Robert Langdon becoming embroiled in scary events at the Vatican involving antimatter stolen from CERN and the sudden re-emergence of the supposedly-extinct Illuminati. There’s really nothing like a secret and all-powerful brotherhood to add that touch of class to a novel.</p>
<p>The embedded discussions of the history of the long enmity between the Illuminati and the Catholic Church are interesting, and the attempts by several characters to consolidate the differing world views of science and theology provide some food for thought.</p>
<p>Brown’s writing style is effective and mostly gets out of the way of the plot, which as it happens is the novel’s Achilles heel. While it is as mentioned above certainly fast-paced and embroiling, the basic premise of antimatter stolen from researchers at CERN and planted in the Vatican for nefarious purposes is just a bit too James Bond, and the trials and tribulations of Langdon and his super-hot genius scientist soon-to-be girlfriend stretch suspension of disbelief a bit too far. There are too many near-disasters and too much sheer <em>activity.</em> Some breathing room in the plot would have been nice, as well as some more humanizing of Langdon–he is simply too bright and too good.</p>
<p>As, for that matter, are the nefarious evil-doers. The foul deeds people get away with make you think some people really need to beef up the staffing procedures for their security forces. Again, shades of James Bond.</p>
<p>But as long as you don’t think too much about it, <em>Angels & Demons</em> is a fun ride. Strap on your seatbelt–it’ll get bumpy.</p>
The first blogiversary2004-10-11T06:38:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/10/the-first-blogiversary/
<p>Yes indeed, <em>The Core Dump</em> has wasted Internet resources for one full year now. Hooray!</p>
<p>Here are a couple of things I’ve learned from this year:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Blogging takes a lot more time than you’d think. Especially if you want to produce any kind of quality. So I don’t.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Comment spammers are the spawn of Satan and must be hung up by their nads until dead. Even though it may not actually take that much time <em>per se</em>, having to spend a few minutes every morning to remove their filth from your property accumulates a lot of frustration and rage.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Blogging requires honesty–it can be difficult to draw the line on how much information you really want to put out there, and how much you want Google and the Internet Archive to keep <em>forever.</em> But if you censor yourself too much, there really isn’t that much to say. Trite? Sure. But it’s nevertheless a difficult balancing act.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Going back over old posts can be very interesting in a navel-gazing sort of way. You think more about some things than you think you do. So blogging can be a good way of seeing yourself.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Did I mention that comment spammers are utter evil? Ah, yes, I did.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Blogging tools are constantly improving, and having the right tools, such as <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">Ecto</a> for posting and <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/">Bloglines</a> for reading, makes the process infinitely more pleasant.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>So a toast to another year of silliness! <em>The Core Dump</em>, here’s mud in yer eye.</p>
Review: Kill Bill, Vol. 12004-10-04T12:26:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/10/review-kill-bill-vol-1/
<p>I am no doubt the last person with indoor plumbing to see <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/">Kill Bill, Vol. 1</a></em>. The buzz has been great, and pretty much everybody I know has proffered liking this movie.</p>
<p>I thought it sucked.</p>
<p>Sure, the cinematography is interesting, and it’s extremely well done from a technical point of view, but the plot goes absolutely <em>nowhere</em>, and the characters make the writing in the Teletubbies seem nuanced and complex. Lots of sound and fury, but there’s nobody home.</p>
<p>Seriously, live action anime? Does the world need this? I vote nay.</p>
Fall in the Valley of the Sun2004-10-02T07:47:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/10/fall-in-the-valley-of-the-sun/
<p>Wow. October 1. While the rest of the world takes out winter gear, gives the lawn the last mow of the season, puts away its patio furniture, starts thinking about snow tires, and stocks up on hot cocoa, the Valley of the Sun enjoys sub-100-degree temperatures and pleasantly cool mornings and evenings.</p>
<p>We are now heading in for the long stretch of “Oh yeah, <em>this</em> is why I live here.” The season where The Weather Channel becomes a sitcom filled with giggles and gloating, and driving involves rolling down the windows and feeling the breeze.</p>
<p>This is also the Season Time Forgot. From now till April or May, the temperature will give no clues as to the passing of time–is it November? Don’t know. What’s the weather? Nice.</p>
<p>The flipside of this is that, at least for me, Christmas The Winter Holiday kicks down the front door armed with a big ham and presents to buy with hardly any warning … <em>What do you mean it’s freaking December 20? It’s still the middle of Nove… oh shit.</em> Every year I think the calendar will save me, but it never does.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Internet could save us? If some enterprising soul could rig a camera to take a nice desktop-sized picture every day and push it up to a server, so I could set my computers to download a fresh pic of the season changing every day, the sight of the trees dropping their leaves and the first snow landing on the ground could stir something deep inside into action.</p>
Review: Hard Rain2004-09-24T11:08:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/09/review-hard-rain/
<p>Barry Eisler’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451212460/ref=lpr_g_2/102-3453749-4192166?v=glance&s=books">Hard Rain</a></em> is the sequel to <em><a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/08/review-rain-fall/">Rain Fall</a></em>, and surpasses its very good predecessor in every way–Eisler’s writing is tighter, the plot more mature, and the abundant descriptions of Tokyo and Japanese culture even more engrossing.</p>
<p><em>Hard Rain</em> continues the tale of John Rain, now retired as killer-for-hire, as he is more or less willingly manipulated into helping Tatsu, a Japanese cop whose life’s quest is to fight the endemic corruption in Japanese society.</p>
<p>Unusually for this kind of thriller, <em>Hard Rain</em> is not plot-driven, instead focusing more on John Rain’s character. Rain is a man who has chosen a life devoid of the things most of us take for granted, such as friends and family, and is now growing older and beginning to second-guess himself. Which is not to say that the novel is anything but taut, lean, and laden with some exceptional pulse-quickening scenes.</p>
<p>Highly recommended.</p>
Neurons flaring like a Christmas tree2004-09-17T09:53:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/09/neurons-flaring-like-a-christmas-tree/
<p>One of the great joys of parenthood is watching your child’s mind evolve from poop-eat-sleep to more and more of an individual as each day passes, with her own set of ideas, preferences, and foibles.</p>
<p>Andrea has now officially entered what I like to call the “Dwarves on Acid” stage of toddlerhood. This is where she continually comes up with strange ideas and associations that only rarely intersect for a fleeting moment with what we’d call adult reality.</p>
<p>You get gems like her putting her Lego bucket on her head like a bright yellow Darth Vader helmet, lifting her hands to the sky and yelling, “Happy Birthday!” at the top of her voice for no particular reason whatsoever.</p>
<p>I’m watching and laughing with her and always wondering “What the heck is going on in there?”</p>
<p>It’s great.</p>
Review: Monstrous Regiment2004-09-10T11:23:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/09/review-monstrous-regiment/
<p>Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is a treasure. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060013168/qid=1094785866/sr=12-1/002-5026001-7128016?v=glance&s=books">Monstrous Regiment</a></em> is the latest installment, and it does not disappoint.</p>
<p>The plot takes place in the more-than-a-little East European-feeling nation of Borogravia, a country constantly at war with everybody else–naturally, since all the other countries are underhanded and deceitful–and has now come to the end of the line as its neighbors have finally allied against its belligerence.</p>
<p>Borogravia also suffers from an increasingly demented deity, Nuggan, whose Holy Text comes in a three ring binder so that more Abominations can be added as time goes on–Abominations such as the color blue. Devout Nugganites take care not to look at the sky.</p>
<p>The older Pratchett gets, the more pathos he injects into the Discworld novels, and <em>Monstrous Regiment</em> is a great examination of the perils of unbridled jingoism and religious fanaticism, while at the same time containing enough of the classic Pratchett whimsy and fantastic command of the language that there are several laugh-out-loud moments in the novel.</p>
<p>At the same time, the torment felt by most of the characters is brought forward both effectively and soberly, peppering the underlying <em>joi de vivre</em>.</p>
<p><em>Monstrous Regiment</em> is Terry Pratchett at the top of his game–J. R. R. Tolkien and Monthy Python in a drunken embrace.</p>
Yet another sign2004-09-09T05:44:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/09/yet-another-sign/
<p>In further proof that Western society is teetering perilously close to the brink, here is the opening paragraph from a piece of spam I just received:</p>
<blockquote>As seen on NBC, CBS, and CNN, and even Oprah! The health discovery that actually reverses aging while burning fat, without dieting or exercise! This proven discovery has even been reported on by major Science Journals. Forget aging and dieting forever! And It’s Guaranteed!</blockquote>
<p>Apart from being stunningly grammatical and well spelled for a piece of spam, the part here that has the Four Horsemen oiling their saddles is the priority of the pitch: Major networks, that’s kinda good, isn’t it? But <em>heeelllloooo</em> seen on Oprah! Oprah likes this product! Get it! Oooooopraaaahhhhh.</p>
<p>Oh, and some science-type people wrote something about the product. Oooooopraaaahhh. Buy it!</p>
Flashing lights in the rear-view mirror2004-09-09T03:33:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/09/flashing-lights-in-the-rear-view-mirror/
<p>Every day as I and the rest of the Greater Metro Area crawl along the freeways, I’ve noticed the police have always pulled over a car or two. There they sit on the side of the road, blue lights flashing, police officer filling out paperwork, and the offending driver almost invariably on a cell phone, presumably letting people know that he or she will be late because “the #%&#$*@ cops pulled me over. Can you believe it?”</p>
<p>But how do you get pulled over for speeding in rush hour traffic? If I get it up to 20 miles per hour, I put my car in cruise for the thirty seconds <em>that</em> burst of speed will last.</p>
<p>Yet another one life’s little mysteries to ponder during the dark hours…</p>
Review: The Drawing of the Three2004-08-30T11:55:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/review-the-drawing-of-the-three/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451210859/qid=1093837563/sr=12-1/102-5949361-6196145?v=glance&s=books">The Drawing of the Three</a></em> is the second installment of Stephen King’s <em>The Dark Tower</em>, and unfortunately it is not very good.</p>
<p>The basic plot is that our protagonist Roland draws three people from our universe (or world, or time, or whatever) to help him in his quest to find the Dark Tower. While the plot twists toward the end are interesting (don’t worry, no spoilers here), the novel suffers from the standard King draaaaaawiiiing out of the story, which gets dull.</p>
<p>But a bigger problem with this installment is that while Roland’s über-post-apocalyptic Spaghetti Western world is interesting, the stories taking place in New York are not. Yes, I started to skim, muttering to myself <em>Just get on with it, dammit, Steve–draw the three so we can get on with the journey to the Dark Tower.</em> The Great Quest for Penicillin just isn’t that exciting.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the series has enough potential that I’ve started on <em>The Wastelands…</em></p>
Review: The Gunslinger2004-08-27T10:36:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/review-the-gunslinger/
<p><em>The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.</em></p>
<p>The opening sentence of Stephen King’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451210840/qid=1093406073/sr=12-1/102-9140105-4029722?v=glance&s=books">The Gunslinger</a></em> is fantastic, practically daring the reader to put the novel down.</p>
<p><em>The Gunslinger</em> is the first book in Stephen King’s <em>The Dark Tower</em> series, and the opening salvo in his attempt to create a truly massive epic. According to King, in the foreword to this edition, the entire <em>The Dark Tower</em> is meant to be read as one novel with each installment a piece of the whole. Also according to the foreword, <em>The Dark Tower</em> was mainly inspired by <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> and Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns, a sentiment echoed by the afore-quoted opening sentence.</p>
<p><em>The Gunslinger</em> puts the reader in a post-apocalyptic world where gunslingers are the arbiters of justice, sort of a Spaghetti version of King Arthur’s knights of the Round Table. The world has <em>passed on</em> and things are falling apart, the gunslingers have perished all but one, and deserts are devouring the land.</p>
<p>As a novel–or chapter in a novel–<em>The Gunslinger</em> is a good read, setting the stage for the obsessive and all-consuming quest on which Roland the gunslinger finds himself.</p>
<p>It is also an interesting read in that it has glimpses of the machinery which fuels King’s creativity and writing, and anybody who’s read a lot of his body of work will see situations and themes resurfacing. (Of course, some would say that King has really only written one story fifty different ways…)</p>
<p>The marriage of the more traditional quest myth and a hyper-Western mythos certainly makes for a very interesting read and leaves you wanting more of the saga and also to find out more about Roland, his obsession, and his past.</p>
<p>As it is the beginning of a saga and not by any means a self-contained work, there is really no point in picking up <em>The Gunslinger</em> unless you intend to follow through with the rest of the series, but if you do, it’s a hypnotic descent into a ruptured world.</p>
Tardiness2004-08-26T11:01:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/tardiness/
<p>A new semester has dawned at the University, and one of the traditions for us crusty professors is that we get to see the previous semester’s student critiques. (For those not familiar with the tradition, college students in the US get to rate their professors and talk about what they liked and didn’t like about the class toward the end of the semester. The professor for obvious reasons doesn’t get to see these remarks until the grades have been turned in.)</p>
<p>Last semester’s crew gave good remarks and had some useful criticism, which is always good. One student, though, put in the “things you liked least about the class” category that “the professor made us come to class on time.”</p>
<p>That’s pretty special. And it makes me wonder what goes on in other classes.</p>
<p>Oh, and if you happen to be a teacher struggling with how to get your flock to show up on time, the answer is simple: Short quizzes that start at <em>exactly</em> the time class is supposed to begin and that can’t be made up. Nothing like losing points to make students take notice.</p>
<p>(Cue Evil laughter and pinky-to-the-lips…)</p>
The Olympics2004-08-19T11:19:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/the-olympics/
<p>Have been spending a lot of time watching the Olympics over the last few days. Lots of fun, even though I must confess to utterly failing to see how some of these sports became Olympic events. Seriously, softball? Beach volley ball? Doing dumb shit in a river with a canoe?</p>
<p>Fine and upstanding things to occupy your time with, surely, but Olympic events? Is there no end? Will <em>every</em> sport known to man become an Olympic event? Dammit, if doing dumb stuff in a river with a canoe is an Olympic sport, why not croquet? Why can’t croquet get any respect?</p>
<p>Darn those snobs in the Olympic Committee.</p>
<p>The two highlights so far for my money have been swimming and gymnastics. When it comes to swimming, the Australians have been kicking massive tail in the pool, and it makes one wonder if there’s some sort of national Australian subconscious thing at work here … “The next time somebody puts us on a boat and deports us we’ll bloody well swim right back, matey! No worries!”</p>
<p>The gymnastics competitions so far have been sublime, both the men’s and women’s. In gymnastics you have what could be called Ultimate Athletes, people who have been drilling their bodies so hard and with such single-mindedness of purpose that they can do things human beings simply should not be able to, and can do it over and over again with an eerily machine-like precision that is still full of grace.</p>
<p>Add to that the incredible pressure of performing these acts–which require such massive focus and concentration and utterly push the envelope of human ability–in a stadium in front of judges, said minute or so of performance being the end result of a lifetime of discipline and sacrifice <em>and you can screw up completely and it will all have been for nothing.</em> One tiny fraction of an inch misstep or just a microsecond’s lapse of focus and it will be a complete disaster. And there they are, sucking down their nervousness and fear and going out there and–mostly–triumphing.</p>
<p>So compelling.</p>
<p>At the same time, while watching women’s gymnastics, I wonder what is going on with their makeup? It’s completely understandable that you want to present a good front to the judges, and perhaps you’ll go a little overboard with the eyeliner just to make sure it looks good from a distance. Sure.</p>
<p>But the whore-glitter? Why do these women sprinkle their cheeks and hair with glitter? Are the judges ’70s pornstars?</p>
Most clueless spammer ever?2004-08-18T23:59:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/most-clueless-spammer-ever/
<p>Most spam is dumb to the point of vexation, but to take it up a notch here is the full text of a message with the charming subject line “re: oedipal”:</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_GREETING</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_LINE_A</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_LINE_B</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_LINE_C</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_LINE_D</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_LINE_E</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_LINE_F</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_LINE_G</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_POSTAL</p>
<p>%CUSTOM_ENDINGGood job there, Cha-Cha. Thanks for not wasting bandwidth and mail server resources.</p>
A conversation with a two-year-old2004-08-18T12:08:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/a-conversation-with-a-two-year-old/
<p>Here’s an extract of a conversation I had with Andrea after picking her up from daycare, at which point in time she is usually thirsty. It’s pertinent to the conversation that she loves orange juice.</p>
<p><em>Me:</em> Would you like some orange juice?</p>
<p><em>Andrea:</em> No</p>
<p>.<em>Me:</em> Would you like some water?</p>
<p><em>Andrea:</em> No.</p>
<p><em>Me:</em> What <em>would</em> you like?</p>
<p><em>Andrea:</em> (Thinks hard for a few seconds.) Orange juice.</p>
<p>So orange juice it was.</p>
Review: Rain Fall2004-08-16T10:08:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/review-rain-fall/
<p>Barry Eisler’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/045120915X/qid=1092616064/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-1889279-2952744">Rain Fall</a></em> is a fast-and-furious page turner, which very ably jump starts the idling cool-killer genre.</p>
<p>The basic plot is that John Rain is a killer for hire who carries some very serious emotional scars from both being part-Japanese and part-American–thus growing up without feeling at home in either society–and also from his service in Vietnam where as a Special Forces soldier he partook in the madness of that conflict. The end result is that Rain has become an amoral hero, close to an anti-hero, but still likable and understandable enough to care for.</p>
<p><em>Rain Fall</em> takes place in Tokyo, thus immediately setting it apart from the common Los Angeles/San Francisco/London setting where this kind of novel for some reason usually finds itself. Mr. Eisler takes great care to both describe the physical settings and to explain some of the pieces of Japanese culture and society the plot hinges on, turning the Tokyo backdrop into an integral part of the novel. For a <em>gaijin</em>, Japanese society is pretty darn strange, but Mr. Eisler is a skilled guide.</p>
<p>An excellent page turner and very tightly executed, <em>Rain Fall</em> does suffer from some fairly hackneyed and obvious plot developments, especially in the denouement, but at that point the reader is involved enough with John Rain that those pieces are easy to overlook.</p>
<p>All in all, a strong first effort, and both an author and a character to watch.</p>
It’s a hoe-down!2004-08-15T01:46:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/its-a-hoe-down/
<p>We’ve been experiencing something of a weed bonanza in the backyard, and it was time to Take Action™, so on the advice of the sprinkler guy, picked up this brilliant device:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/hula_ho.jpg" alt="Get your hoe on!" /></p>
<p>This is a hula ho, and it makes eradicating weeds almost fun … no more kneeling with a trowel, instead you dispense wrath and destruction to the weeds while standing up with a straight back.</p>
<p>Nothing like having the right tools for the job. A hula ho and an iPod make for a great gardening experience.</p>
An IKEA primer2004-08-12T12:17:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/an-ikea-primer/
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> The Tempe IKEA store will open <a href="http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2004/08/09/daily53.html">November 10</a>.</p>
<p>AZCentral has a <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/home/design/articles/0812ikea12.html">nice little article</a> about the humble beginnings of the furniture juggernaut IKEA. The Phoenix area is waiting impatiently for our local store to open so that much pent-up demand for affordable-but-okay-quality-and-looks-darn-nice home furnishings can be satisfied.</p>
<p>Having grown up in a house furnished by IKEA, though, I want to look beyond the current state of their artifacts and look back upon the quality as it was before, say, the mid-eighties. In a word, it was crap. Decent-looking crap, but crap. Cheap was the watchword back then, and quality control was, ahem, a bit, shall we say, lacking.</p>
<p>Selling the furniture in flat boxes and putting the onus of assembly on the purchaser was–and is–a brilliant idea: IKEA saves a ton of money in shipping, and the purchaser can usually get their goods home without having to rent a semi-truck and ding their stuff up in the process of transportation. (That particular joy gets saved for the correct occasion–moving house.)</p>
<p>These days the instructions are clear and much fun is obviously had by the designers while figuring out ingenious ways of creating space-obviating magic. But back in the day, the instructions were a flimsy sheet of impressionistic drawings sharing very little connection with the boring reality of the item you were trying to put together, and–and this is important–a crucial piece would <em>always</em> be missing.</p>
<p>Thus many a young and impressionable Swedish mind would get their first true taste of Swearing when mom and dad, the clock pushing towards midnight, were still sweating over some bookcase which, it turns out, did _not include piece C. _</p>
<p><em>We have to have piece C! Mother****rs! We’ll have to drive back to the ****ing store tomorrow and pick up the ****ing piece of $%^##! Why the %$^&$% do we keep buying this *****ing shit from those @#$^@#^?</em></p>
<p>Good times, good times. But a well-rounded vocabulary never hurt anybody.</p>
Water equals money2004-08-06T07:58:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/water-equals-money/
<p>The irrigation system in the front lawn sprung a leak a little while ago, which <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/07/caught-in-the-web/">got fixed</a>. So imagine our consternation to find not one but several new leaks this week. Another call to the landscapers, and the guy comes out with his trusty shovel in tow. Five big leaks. The guy was here for three solid hours working his tail off to take care of them.</p>
<p>While the guy is fighting entropy, he keeps finding more and more dumb things the original landscapers had done. The crowning achievement seems to be this little beaut:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/tied_off.jpg" alt="End caps? We don’t need no stinking end caps!" /></p>
<p>Yes, that is an irrigation line that has been wrapped up and tied with cord, thus saving somebody the hardship of actually putting on an end cap. The problem with that, you ask? Turns out this kind of creative landscaping solution suffers from a bit of a drawback: It leaks water. Which as it happens is a bit of a Bad Thing.</p>
<p>The end result here is that I got a quote to have the whole freaking front irrigation redone if it starts springing leaks again. Turns out to be a bit of a major expense. Let’s keep our fingers crossed the PVC crisscrossing the yard will keep water where it belongs for at least a few more years…</p>
Mystery car2004-08-05T11:23:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/mystery-car/
<p>One of the benefits of living on the surface of the sun is that companies come here to stress test their vehicles, so every once in a while you see interesting things on the road.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/mystery_car.jpg" alt="Mystery Car" /></p>
<p>Due to the not-quite-excellent picture quality of the T610, it’s a little hard to make out, but the car is actually covered in some sort of blankets. No identifying marks, but Michigan dealer plates.</p>
<p>If you’re worried about the safety aspects of wielding a camera phone at highway speeds, rest assured we were going the customary rush hour 5 mph.</p>
As the clock spits clicks2004-08-04T07:46:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/08/as-the-clock-spits-clicks/
<p>Been experiencing some homesickness lately, wanting to experience the Swedish summer with its verdant greenery, endless soft light and even the interminable rain. Been wanting to sit on a cliff and watch the sun set over the ocean and other such romantic notions.</p>
<p>Pining for the fjords you might say, if I happened to be Norwegian.</p>
<p>This has lead to the inevitable dredging up of Swedish books, movies and music in order to create some little simulacra in my mind of what might be called the Swedish Experience.</p>
<p>It may be a cliché, but like all of them, it contains a kernel of truth: One of the things that really sets the Swedish Experience apart from the American is an acceptance, even something of a morbid fascination, with Death.</p>
<p>You will die. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not for 50 years, but sooner or later your existence will end. No stopping it.</p>
<p>It might be a good thing to stop the rushing around for a little while and think about how your days are numbered. After a sufficiently long period of time, it really won’t matter one whit what you did–your name and deeds will be lost. Perhaps some little part of your DNA will walk the Earth, embedded in some other creature, mixed in with pieces of many others, but all memories of <em>you</em> will be gone.</p>
<p>And to think they say we’re a depressing bunch…</p>
<p>Incidentally, the music selection for this post comes from an excellent album to give you a bit of Swedish insta-angst, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000001BCO/qid=1091576883/sr=ka-3/ref=pd_ka_3/102-4742720-4698545">Vittrad</a></em> by Garmarna.</p>
There are cars for sale!2004-07-30T11:15:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/there-are-cars-for-sale/
<p>Through the television set today, the Good News was delivered unto me: Apparently car dealers have realized that cars are expensive, and are now offering sales! Yes, it’s true!</p>
<p>Many different car selling establishments apparently came upon this great idea all at the same time, because the commercial spaces on television were full of great deals to be had on vehicles.</p>
<p>Alas, it seems these sales will only persist for a short period of time, no doubt due to the hefty monetary losses said car selling establishments will suffer due to the “low low prices” they are offering.</p>
<p>You heard it here first. Cars can be had on sale now.</p>
Caught in the web2004-07-25T06:34:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/caught-in-the-web/
<p>Had a bit of an irrigation emergency here at Casa Core Dump–a main irrigation line had sprung a leak and the water pressure was creating a small sink hole in the yard. This was shovel work. And if yard work becomes more than trowel work, it’s time to call a professional. So we called the landscaping company to send somebody out to Set Things Right.</p>
<p>The guy showed up and fixed the leak, which was great. Did a really good job of it, too.</p>
<p>We were chatting while he worked, and I couldn’t help but notice he had a spider web tattoo on his hand, plus other assorted jail embellishments. So as I’ve wondered for a long time why the spider web motif is so prevalent on jail tattoos, this seemed like the guy to ask. According to him, it means you’re caught in the web–that you’re in a bad situation you can’t break out of. Which made a lot of sense. He was talking about how when he was on the inside, he was planning to do his elbows as well, but managed to refrain. “You have a lot of time on your hands in jail,” he said.</p>
<p>Apparently tattooing yourself in jail can get you into a lot of trouble, as you’re “defacing state property.” How bad would you feel about yourself when you’ve become “state property?”</p>
Review: Blood Music2004-07-19T08:58:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/review-ltemgtblood-musicltemgt/
<p>Greg Bear’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743444965/qid=1090197894/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-8094902-7604725">Blood Music</a></em> earned both the Hugo and Nebula awards, which means it should be really good.</p>
<p>But it isn’t.</p>
<p>The beginning of the novel, detailing the discovery of the “noosphere” of intelligent cells and the tormented, egotistical and terminally sloppy researcher who makes the scientific breakthough is taut and strong, but then after the cells run rampant and cause a mass holocaust in North America things get really trippy and strange. Trippy and strange aren’t necessarily <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140188592/qid=1090198701/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-8094902-7604725">bad qualities in a work of fiction</a>, but Bear’s writing style, which works so well for the more down-to-Earth parts of the book, isn’t up to carrying events of the massive scale that transpire toward the end of the novel. Lots of “huh?” moments in there.</p>
<p>The characterizations–apart from the aforementioned scientist–also leave a lot to be desired, and don’t provide much a tableau to paint the novel’s cataclysmic climax.</p>
<p>This isn’t by any means a terrible book. It’s highly readable and the plot and science behind the plot are intriguing to say the least. The problem with <em>Blood Music</em> is that it reads more like a treatment of a novel than the novel itself.</p>
<p>Also be aware that the current paperback edition is absolutely littered with typos, which certainly doesn’t do <em>Blood Music</em> any favors. Makes you wonder how it slipped by QA at the publisher.</p>
You have been assimilated2004-07-17T08:00:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/you-have-been-assimilated/
<p>In yet another major leap to bring us closer to the world of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441569595/qid=1090025586/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-2660124-9456019">Neuromancer</a></em>, judicial workers in Mexico <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/mexico_chip_implants">have been implanted with RFID chips</a>. The idea is apparently to give the workers access to secure areas through the chips, but since corruption is a major problem in Mexico, there are also some thoughts to being able to track their whereabouts at all times.</p>
<p>Now, I’m just a cave man, and your modern world scares and confuses me, but the thought of having my own personal radio station embedded into my skin kind of creeps me out, especially since there’s no way to turn the damn things off. Meaning that anybody with an RFID reader will be able to track you like the slab of meat you are.</p>
<p>So in the arsenal of ways to circumvent security in techno-thrillers, we need to add “cut out RFID chip” to “cut off hand and keep warm to foil fingerprint reader” and “take out iris and <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0059800/">implant in heroin-addicted stooge to fool eye scanner</a>.” At least removing an RFID chip should be much less gruesome than eyes and hands.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, Wired has an <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/shoppers.html">interesting article</a> about deployment of RFID-enabled groceries.</p>
Review: The Switch2004-07-17T06:41:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/review-ltemgtthe-switchltemgt/
<p>Elmore Leonard’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060082208/qid=1090017352/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-2660124-9456019">The Switch</a></em> is one of those novels you read and ask yourself why somebody hasn’t made a movie out it yet. As usual with Leonard, the plot is tight, the characterizations vivid, and the dialogue sparkling. The man’s ear is astonishing.</p>
<p>Well worth a read if you’re into Leonard, and if you haven’t been exposed to him before, this novel makes a good introduction to his style.</p>
Why don’t I?2004-07-14T11:28:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/why-dont-i/
<p>Every once in a while a thought hits: “Hey, I used to <em>x</em> all the time. Why don’t I do that anymore?” <em>X</em> in this case can be anything from <em>hanging out in bars at all hours</em> to <em>poking forks in my eyeballs.</em> Whatever you do following that thought, <em>don’t let it be</em> x–this is your brain exhibiting what psychologist call <em>repression.</em> Repression is a survival mechanism wherein your brain on purpose discards memories that are too painful to remember. Or rather, the memories are still there, but inaccessible to the conscious mind.</p>
<p>Was reminded of this today when the Core Wife and I decided to go out and eat with the toddler. “We used to go out and eat all the time. Why don’t we do that anymore?”</p>
<p>Well, a rather tense and exhausting couple of hours later, <em>that</em> particular mystery is solved. Some people apparently have what must either be a fierce stubbornness–to be admired–or a complete lack of self-preservation–to be lamented–and thus can keep taking their darling toddlers out to eat at sit-down restaurants.</p>
<p>These are not traits possessed by the adult members of the Lindh family. But the toddler-in-restaurant nightmare is well understood and documented, so let’s leave that behind; what was fascinating about the experience was how the repressed memories come back in a tsunami-like tidal wave and you cannot understand how you could <em>ever</em> forget.</p>
<p>But forget you do, as the censors in your brain go to work with their smoke and mirrors…</p>
<p>“Hey, I used to <em>x</em> all the time. Why don’t I do that anymore?” Because it was a really, really bad idea and if you do it again it will hurt. A lot.</p>
Review: Darwin’s Children2004-07-14T08:28:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/review-ltemgtdarwins-childrenltemgt/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345448367/qid=1089764228/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2660124-9456019?v=glance&s=books">Darwin’s Children</a></em> continues the tale of human evolution begun in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345435249/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/002-2660124-9456019?v=glance&s=books&st=*">Darwin’s Radio</a></em>, and is a solid and compelling albeit ultimately unsatisfying sequel.</p>
<p>Greg Bear’s writing is as usual first rate, and his story of how society deals with the virus children is told in such a way the book is hard to put down, making it one of those dreaded novels that make you look at your bedside clock and realize it’s already two in the morning but you really <em>have</em> to read another chapter.</p>
<p>If you loved <em>Darwin’s Radio</em>, <em>Darwin’s Children</em> is a good sequel, but its focus more on how society reacts to the virus children rather than the children themselves is a bit disappointing. There are some rumors on the Intarweb that <em>Darwin’s Children</em> is the second installment of a trilogy, so perhaps Bear is holding back for the third installment…</p>
Water falling from sky...2004-07-13T09:39:42Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/water-falling-from-sky/
<p>So scared and confused … water falling from sky … are the gods angry with the Desert Dwellers?</p>
<p>But seriously, 40% humidity and 110F does <em>not</em> lead to a happy out of doors experience.</p>
<p>Which goes to prove how good the human brain is at repressing bad experiences. Every year it’s the same thing: May rolls around and it gets, well, a bit warmish. But it’s no big deal. Then in June, the sun goes into full-on blowtorch mode but the humidity stays in the single digits. “Not a big deal,” the desert dweller says to himself, “sure it’s hot and all, but totally doable;” then Mother Nature pulls out the big gun and ratchets up the humidity and all of a sudden the unremembered pain is back–“Kee-rist it is f-ing hot,” the desert dweller says to himself.</p>
Gas versus charcoal2004-07-08T10:53:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/gas-versus-charcoal/
<p>For a suburbanite, and especially one living in a city where home charred flesh is on the menu 13 months out of the year, the great gas versus charcoal barbecue debate is an important topic. But rest easy, for tonight I stand before you all with the final answer…</p>
<p>The main benefit of gas grills is convenience–turn that knob, wait a few minutes, and boom you’re in business; buy a bottle of gas, or if you have the money and know you’re going to be doing a <em>whole heap of barbecuing</em>, run a line to the backyard and jack it in. Never run out again. Beautiful.</p>
<p>Barbecuing with charcoal requires purchasing a big bag of the black stuff and lighter fluid, fire it up, then wait interminably for the fire to reach optimum temperature.</p>
<p>The argument for charcoal, on the other hand, is taste. It <em>tastes better</em>, they say. But here’s the smoking gun: People who prefer charcoal barbecuing <em>drink domestic beer.</em> And not the good stuff, like Fat Tire, Shiner Bock, or anything brewed with pride like that. They <em>like</em> Bud, Coors, and MGD.</p>
<p>And of course, anybody who willingly purchases those kinds of beers isn’t to be trusted with any kind of opinion regarding taste.</p>
<p>So, QED, gas it is. Now we can all sleep well at night.</p>
The Black Company2004-07-07T07:38:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/the-black-company/
<p>I’ve just re-read Glen Cook’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/40309/ref=pd_sr_ec_ser_b/102-2584667-7502541">Black Company</a></em> series, and it struck me that somebody should option this and make an HBO mini-series out of it.</p>
<p>Basically, the <em>Black Company</em> series is something as unusual as straight fantasy with the usual sword and sorcery elements, but written from the perspective of grunts with a definite world-weary Vietnam vet kind of feel. The series is divided into three main parts, and the parts that would make a great mini-series would be the first and third books, with elements from the second book thrown in for continuity. What you would end up with is <em>Lord of the Rings</em> meets <em>Saving Private Ryan</em>–the plot of the first three books is pretty meaty with ample Huge Visuals, including the battle at the Tower of Charm featuring a quarter of a million soldiers backed by relentless sorcery pyrotechnics, but it is also rich in cynicism and has a complete refusal to look at people as good or evil, just all the shades of grey in between.</p>
<p>If this could be made faithful to the feel of the books, not cutting down on the grey misery of soldiering and liquid morality that sets the series apart, it would be a classic.</p>
<p>I’m thinking James Gandolfini as Croaker…</p>
The fires of doom2004-07-04T03:57:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/the-fires-of-doom/
<p>One of the summer traditions in Phoenix is unfortunately forest fires to the north of the city. At this point, the big one is called the “Willow” fire. Firefighters have set controlled burns that have expanded the size of the fire to 65,000 acres–a real monster, large enough now that the plumes are visible from downtown Phoenix 60 miles south of the fire.</p>
<p><em>The Arizona Republic</em> has <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0703a1fire.html">the story</a>, including this freaky picture:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/0703willow.jpg" alt="Welcome to Mount Doom" /></p>
<p>[Source: <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0703a1fire.html"> Rob Schumacher/<em>The Arizona Republic</em></a>]</p>
<p>The big building to the lower right of the image is the hospital where Andrea was born.</p>
That alien landscape2004-07-01T09:28:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/07/that-alien-landscape/
<p>Every once in a while sitting in the car stoically enduring the daily commute, Phoenix doesn’t look like a place on Earth at all–the drab shades of reddish tan everywhere, sprinkled with heroically struggling and in context much too green vegetation and the endless freeways soaring above the landscape, cutting through mile after mile of red tile roofs; freeways reserved exclusively for alien-bug looking cars swerving in and out of lanes, drifting from freeway artery to freeway artery like white blood cells searching in vain for an infection to fight.</p>
<p>The mind drifts on those endless roads.</p>
So shiny2004-06-29T08:13:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/so-shiny/
<p>The big payoff at today’s WWDC Stevenote was the long-anticipated release of <a href="http://www.apple.com/displays/">new displays</a>, including the in-your-dreams-buddy 30” monster. This means the era of the CRT is rapidly drawing to a close here at Casa Core Dump, and soon flatness will reign supreme.</p>
<p>Did some groveling over the tech specs of both the <a href="http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html">new</a> and <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86214">old</a> 20” Cinema Displays–no, the display budget is not unlimited–and while they share the same resolution, the new ones are a touch brighter and have FireWire pass-through. And of course they look delectable.</p>
<p>Dropping ADC in favor of industry-standard DVI should also be a good move as it will lessen the cost of the Cinema Displays by $149 for our Windows-using friends. Score!</p>
<p>For a roundup of the rest of Steve’s ramblings today, check out <a href="http://techgoesboom.com/archives/2004/06/28/wwdc_2004.php">Joe’s write-up</a> on Tech Goes Boom.</p>
The drink of pale death2004-06-26T03:42:02Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/the-drink-of-pale-death/
<p>Ben Hammersley–whose blog in general is excellent–is apparently married to a Swedish woman, and has written up a <a href="http://www.benhammersley.com/weblog/2004/06/25/den_bleka_dadens_dryck.html">great explanation</a> of the ritualized form of drinking that takes place during a Swedish midsummer.</p>
<p>I’d never heard of the last drink of the evening being called <em>Den Bleka Dödens Dryck</em> (The Drink of Pale Death), but it does fit in with the general happy-go-lucky attitude of Swedes.</p>
<p>Still, who even remembers the last drink of Midsummer’s Eve, much less gives it a name? Most late-evening Midsummer’s Eve conversations this particular Swede can hazily recall go something like this:</p>
<p><em>“Uhhh.”<strong>“Mumble.”</strong>“Mumble. Burp.”<strong>“Uhhh.”</strong>(Stares at empty bottle with great consternation.) “Uhhh.”</em></p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/midsummer_weather_2004.jpg" alt="Chilly Midsummer’s Eve" />Nevertheless, it looks like Midsummer’s Eve is going to be fairly low-key this year, what with the weather gods failing to cooperate: Chilly, overcast and rainy. Brrr.</p>
<p>[Image source: <a href="http://weather.yahoo.com/">Weather.yahoo.com</a>]</p>
Midsummer’s Eve kit2004-06-24T09:57:02Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/midsummers-eve-kit/
<p>Friday the 25th of June, 2004 is Midsummer’s Eve, a time when Sweden stops and everybody gathers to eat the traditional foods, sing the traditional silly songs and play the traditional silly games. Most people will also elect to drink themselves silly.</p>
<p>This is one of the hardest times of the year for us Swedes in the colonies, as the country is verdant and the people are at their most sociable and relaxed.</p>
<p>In order to at least be able to enjoy the traditional foods, searched around and found a store in town that sells some of the traditional Swedish food stuffs. I am thus now equipped with mustard herring (<em>senapssill</em>) and onion herring (<em>löksill</em>). As Andrea would say, “Yummy, yummy.”</p>
<p>Tomorrow we’ll hit the store and pick up some facsimile of fresh potatoes (<em>färskpotatis</em>)–the first potatoes to be harvested of the season, exceptionally small and tender–and the game will be afoot. This combined with the aquavit that’s been residing in my freezer for years should provide for a pleasant Midsummer’s Eve in air conditioned comfort. As long as you have the herring and the aquavit, things are going the right way…</p>
<p>If you’re in Phoenix, AZ and looking to pick up some Swedish delicacies, I can highly recommend Cheese ‘N Stuff, located on the north west corner of Central and Camelback. Their phone number is 602.266.3636. Good service and decent prices.</p>
Anti-Winter2004-06-22T13:21:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/anti-winter/
<p>One of the weirdest parts of life in the Sonoran Desert is that your seasons are turned around, so that the winter half of the year is when you enjoy the weather and the summer half is when you cower inside during the day, waiting for the fierce blowtorch in the sky to disappear and let you breathe again.</p>
<p>The continent-wide culture of modern America underlines this with national retail stores stocking up on what is considered seasonally appropriate clothing in places where summers are nice and winters are cold. This means that come October, when it’s time to pick up a new pair of sandals and shorts, there’s no way to get them, but hey, a heavy sweater just perfect for sitting in front of the fireplace after a hard morning of shoveling snow? Got you covered.</p>
<p>At this time of year, with the summer solstice coming closer and closer, the general vibe in advertising land is that you should want to purchase things for the backyard and books to read while lounging around in the hammock on a lazy afternoon.</p>
<p>Ah, the Idea of Summer.</p>
Review: The Chronicles of Riddick2004-06-19T07:31:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/review-ltemgtthe-chronicles-of-riddickltemgt/
<p><em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296572/">The Chronicles of Riddick</a></em> is one of those frustrating movies that doesn’t know what it wants to be: Am I a space epic, a dark tale, a popcorn movie, or a swashbuckler? In the end it tries to be everything to everyone and falls flat on its face.</p>
<p>Which is really too bad, because it could have been an excellent movie if it had possessed more artistic vision and less kowtowing to 15-year-olds.</p>
<p>On the plus side, some of the visuals are very good, especially the architecture of the Necromongers, which is so oppressive and bleak it puts an East Bloc apartment complex to shame. The acting is good enough for this kind of movie, and Diesel has some pretty good if over-the-top one-liners.</p>
<p>On the downside, as mentioned, the movie doesn’t know what it wants to be, and it also suffers from incredibly epileptic editing. In most fight sequences, you know some ass is being kicked, but you really don’t know how.</p>
<p>Definitely one to catch on HBO some night when you have nothing better to do.</p>
It’s a strange web indeed2004-06-18T08:05:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/its-a-strange-web-indeed/
<p>Looking through the referrer logs for this site, came to the realization that this site is the second hit on Yahoo! search for <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=picture+of+a+gorilla+taking+a+dump&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-web-t&cop=mss&tab=">“picture of a gorilla taking a dump”</a>. Guess there just aren’t that many sites out there for people with somewhat unusual tastes in entertainment. Or something.</p>
<p>BTW, what is up with all the searches for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=coupling+subtitles">“coupling subtitles?”</a> There’s been a constant stream of searches for that ever since I lamented the hare-brained scheme of taking what is arguably one of the funniest sitcoms <em>evar</em> and reshooting it line for line in the States with much worse actors for no particular reason apart from naked greed.</p>
The whole nine yards2004-06-17T10:54:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/the-whole-nine-yards/
<p>Caught the tail end of an NPR interview with Nicholas Hobbes, author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0802117724/qid=1087440597/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1377742-6715948?v=glance&s=books">Essential Militaria</a></em>.</p>
<p>According to Hobbes, the phrase “the whole nine yards” stems from fighter planes in World War II, which carried nine yards of ammunition–the phrase meant to use up all your ammo.</p>
<p>This book is on the list now.</p>
Terminator 3: Snore of the Machines2004-06-17T02:11:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/terminator-3-snore-of-the-machines/
<p>Caught the first hour of <em>T3: Rise of the Machines</em> on HBO last night, and I have some questions for the people who wrote this thing:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Why does Future John Connor keep insisting on sending back the shitty old T-101 model to save his past self? I know, I know, it’s the only way to keep having Schwarzenegger in the series, but it just seems weird. Couldn’t you at least come up with some half-assed reason like, “The only Terminator factory we caught is the one making T-101s.” Or, “Only T-101s can be reprogrammed.”</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Seriously, John Connor doesn’t know Terminators are made in factories? Is the boy a retard? The scene where he learns this fact from the shiny-new, yet older T-101 absolutely reeks of being put in as explanation for stoned audience members who all of a sudden have a flash of brilliance and go, “Hey, dude, like didn’t that guy like die in like the last movie? Whooo.”</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Why do super-leet killing machines always walk slowly up to their victims, thus extending the possibility of a <em>deus ex machina</em> rescue?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>How come John Connor is a two-bit drifter who can’t even break into a veterinary hospital and overpower a woman? Didn’t his mom teach him better than that? Twerp.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Apart from that, good job with the special effects and car chase. Too bad about turning what is a chilling premise into Lifetime TV.</p>
Be kind to the apostrophe2004-06-16T08:03:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/be-kind-to-the-apostrophe/
<p>One of the scars left upon my soul by doing too much reading and writing at an early age is a proof-reader mode always stuck at eleven, which is constantly triggered by the epidemic of brutal and callous apostrophe abuse going on in the world today, even among people who should know better. Take for instance this .sig file from an email that just landed in my inbox a few seconds ago:</p>
<blockquote>This e-mail, and it’s attachment(s), if any, have been scanned by NortonAnti-Virus 2003 Professional</blockquote>
<p>Aaaargh! “it’s attachments?”</p>
<p>Another insidious and equally disturbing mutilation that’s cropped up on more PowerPoint slides than useless bar graphs is the use of apostrophes to signify plurals. So we get “We will scan the URL’s contents,” “We will buy many CD’s,” etc.</p>
<p>Looking around the web for other victims of apostrophe abuse, found a post on Dive Into Mark where he laments this abuse, and finds that <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/06/02/apostrophe">the apostrophe is the modern day Shibboleth</a>.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the word Shibboleth comes from one of those <a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/shibboleth.html">ultra-violent ethnic-cleansing passages</a> that so liven up the Bible.</p>
Cat update2004-06-16T07:46:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/cat-update/
<p>In case anybody’s been worried about Turbo and her urinary tract infection, I’m pleased to report that the Amoxycillin has worked its magic, and she now seems fully recovered–the turbo charger is once again purring.</p>
The goddamn comment spammers2004-06-15T10:22:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/the-goddamn-comment-spammers/
<p>It looks like comment spamming evolution is progressing faster and faster–from the trash I have to take out, it looks like they’re literally creating new domains to litter innocent bystanding blogs with by searching the MT-Blacklist and extrapolating from there.</p>
<p>Dammit.</p>
<p>I hate them so much.</p>
EU elections and the Dark Tower2004-06-15T05:14:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/eu-elections-and-the-dark-tower/
<p>Yesterday, Sunday the 13th of June 2004, saw the European Union member states make their elections for representatives, and it <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/06/14/europe.vote/index.html">was a disaster</a>. In most countries voter turnout was far below 50%, and in several countries, including Sweden, discontent parties saw huge gains.</p>
<p>I really hope EU representatives are listening and thinking hard about what to do to turn this disturbing trend around. The organization is now in a situation where a majority of voters in member states are completely disgusted and turned off, while at the same time the EU is in the process of setting down exactly what its super-national powers are.</p>
<p>The way things are heading at this point, it seems the best we can hope for is a situation like the one in the US today, where too many people are outside the democratic tradition, have vilified the democratically elected government, and tend to think of it like an invading force. These are the thought processes that generate people like Timothy McVeigh.</p>
<p>At the worst, though, we may end up with a complete disconnect, where the powers that be in Brussels are set completely adrift from their voters, thus creating a self-absorbed nakedly power-hungry edifice that in no way represents the member countries.</p>
<p>This is frighteningly like the most dystopic of science fiction novels.</p>
Review: Basket Case2004-06-13T01:49:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/review-ltemgtbasket-caseltemgt/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/044661193X/qid=1087061331/sr=12-1/104-7659488-8046367?v=glance&s=books">Basket Case</a></em> is Carl Hiaasen in top form. The plot involves a cynical journalist, a murdered rock star, the rock star’s shallow and slutty wife, and a young editor the cynical journalist wants to save from the drudgeries of the current-day newsroom.</p>
<p>Set against a backdrop of Florida’s corrupt politics and the evisceration in the name of profits of newspapers, and involving a well-drawn cast of quirky characters, <em>Basket Case</em> is fast-moving and engaging. Hiaasen writes with great economy and verve, and nails each and every scene.</p>
<p>At the same time, as is Hiaasen’s trademark, the novel is full of black, biting humor.</p>
<p>An excellent read.</p>
Further proof of the unfairness of the Universe2004-06-09T07:37:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/further-proof-of-the-unfairness-of-the-universe/
<p>Yesterday Apple released <a href="http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/">AirPort Express</a>, which I <a href="http://techgoesboom.com/archives/2004/06/07/thin_as_a_brick.php">gushed about over here</a>. So in further proof–as if any were needed–that the Universe has it in for me, I get home to find that my lawn in the backyard is flooded. Hmm. Check the timer unit, and everything looks fine. Looks like the valve controlling the backyard is malfunctioning, though, as it keeps running water even though the timer tells it to not do that anymore. Spend some time ruminating over the possibility of troubleshooting and fixing this thing myself. After a few minutes of testosterone-induced insanity, come to my senses and realize that there’s basically no way in hell I’m going to fix whatever is broken myself.</p>
<p>Call the landscaping company, they send somebody much manlier than me out, problem gets fixed, and ends up costing about the same as purchasing an AirPort Express.</p>
<p>Thanks, Universe, for that.</p>
Review: Darknesses and Legacies2004-06-05T07:51:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/review-ltemgtdarknessesltemgt-and-ltemgtlegaciesltemgt/
<p>L. E. Modesitt, Jr. is a machine. It’s rare to find an author who can output so much and with such a high level of quality. <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0765307049/qid=1086392049/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0316515-4928030?v=glance&s=books">Darknesses</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0765345137/ref=pd_ser_asin_1/002-0316515-4928030?v=glance&s=books">Legacies</a></em> are books one and two of The Corean Chronicles, respectively, and while not as good as the Recluse series at its peak, are enjoyable and engrossing.</p>
<p>The setting is the continent Corus a millennia after a great civilization crumpled in a great cataclysm, the causes of which are lost in time. Our hero, Alucius, is a herder, and we follow him as he is drafted and goes off to war. Naturally, he along the way he finds out more about the Talent possessed by most herders. Yes, capital-T Talent.</p>
<p><em>Darknesses</em> finds Alucius as he is first drafted, and <em>Legacies</em> follows the tale with Alucius now an officer and reluctant hero.</p>
<p>Both books feature lots of action and a keen sense about the politics and economics of war, which sets them apart from most “Quest” type fantasy. There’s also no band of intrepid adventurers; instead the books are strictly focused on Alucius and his struggle to stay alive and get back to his wife and stead.</p>
<p>Modesitt exceeds at world building, and Corus is drawn with a fine brush. Characterizations are also adept, if not particularly vivid.</p>
<p>All in all, a trip to Corus is well worth taking–this is exceptionally competent and enjoyable fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously.</p>
<p>The third installment is scheduled to be out in hardcover this summer.</p>
Feed logging in progress ... keep hands away from moving parts2004-06-01T08:55:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/06/feed-logging-in-progress-keep-hands-away-from-moving-parts/
<p>The feeds for both The Core Dump and LinkFest have been retooled so that log information streams into a MySQL database for later obsessive perusal. Hopefully there shouldn’t be any glitches… Fingers crossed, but please let me know if something’s broken all of a sudden.</p>
<p>The basic concept is that requests for the current feeds get redirected to a PHP page that logs the relevant information, and then redirects again to the “real” feed. Was forced to do a second redirect since simply including the feeds in the PHP page yields a nasty XML parsing error that would be a bit of a pain to work around. So bailing wire it is.</p>
<p>The impetus for this is that my hosting provider is somewhat lacking in log parsing tools, which is easy enough to work around with the pretty darn nice and free <a href="http://www.sitemeter.com/">SiteMeter</a>. However, I tend to look at RSS feeds (and I use the term generically to refer to any kind of feed) as different from web page visits, and would prefer to keep logging for the two outputs separated.</p>
<p>Looking around on the web, there’s another free service called <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/">FeedBurner</a> which looks like it could do the job, but it forces you to redirect your feeds to their site, and I really don’t want to introduce yet another point of failure in my little empire here, so that was out.</p>
<p>Hence this solution, which apart from a little glitch due to somebody not paying attention when he should which led to the LinkFest overwriting the main blog, should be transparent to anybody reading the feeds.</p>
<p>Now it’s on to writing a nifty frontend to the harvested information.</p>
<p>Onward and upward.</p>
The peeing of the cat2004-05-31T08:08:40Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/the-peeing-of-the-cat/
<p>So, $157 later we now know that Turbo does indeed have a urinary tract infection. Which means that we get to spend the next two weeks force feeding her pediatric Amoxycillin. Cooperating with the authorities when it comes to things like medicine, or for that matter anything, really, isn’t one of her strong suits, so dispensing the medicine is a two-person task.</p>
<p>Good clean fun for the whole family twice a day.</p>
<p>Let’s hope the antibiotics fix her up, though, so the peeing on the couch ends.</p>
Happy Birthday Andrea2004-05-29T06:51:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/happy-birthday-andrea-2/
<p>My name is Andrea and I am two years old today.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea.jpg" alt="Andrea" /></p>
<p>Happy Birthday from mommy and daddy!</p>
Review: Digital Fortress2004-05-28T10:20:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/review-digital-fortress/
<p><em>The Da Vinci Code</em> has been getting a lot of good word of mouth, and it is high on The Core Dump Reading List, but alas the greedy publishers will apparently not release it in paperback until the Sun turns into a dark and stubbly ball of coal, so <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312995423/qid=1085703360/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/103-9233307-0768630">Digital Fortress</a></em> became a stand-in. (It doesn’t make economical sense to buy a title in hardcover instead of waiting a little bit and spending the same amount of money on three paperbacks.)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, <em>Digital Fortress</em> is very much Tom Clancy with a hangover, and also suffers from utterly cringe-worthy technobabble. The basic plot is that the NSA has built an über-mega-super computer that can brute force encryptions. The existence of this machine is of course top-secret, since the Bad People of the world are happily sending encrypted emails back and forth, which the NSA can then decrypt and use to Stop Evil.</p>
<p>But a twisted super-hacker has come up with a form of encryption that can not be brute-forced. The goal of this super-hacker is to release his encryption formula and thus stymie the NSA, bringing safely encrypted communications to the masses. So far so good.</p>
<p>The code required to break this super-secret encryption is engraved on a ring, which becomes the story’s McGuffin. Facing this incredible threat, the NSA of course sends a college professor who occasionally contracts to do translations for them to retrieve the ring. Because why would you send one of your crack teams to deal with a threat like that?</p>
<p>It should be noted here that perhaps the NSA did have some reason to send Captain Unprepared, but that must have been explained toward the end of the book, where this reader never got. <em>Digital Fortress</em> turned unbearable way too early to get through.</p>
<p>Two things turned me off to <em>Digital Fortress:</em> 1) The plot, while very tightly paced, is very thin and littered with million-to-one odds that always go the protagonist’s way, and the motivations of the characters plain don’t work; and 2) The aforementioned technobabble. Apparently the NSA has built this super machine, but are completely paranoid about it catching a virus. So, hmm, it runs Windows, then? Didn’t know Windows scaled to 30,000 processors. Plus, you’re running an algorithm on data, not executing the data, so how could you catch a virus? But apparently the threat of Netsky.B is keeping the NSA up at night. Sigh.</p>
<p>It makes you wonder if publishing companies have absolutely nobody who knows how to turn on a computer around to run these sorts of things by?</p>
<p>Apart from the technobabble, <em>Digital Fortress</em> feels like the work of a writer who is still learning his craft, and it’s probably a more than fair bet that this particular novel was actually rejected but then retrieved from the circular file and rushed to print in order to capitalize on the wild success of <em>The Da Vinci Code</em>. Which really doesn’t do a service to readers or to Dan Brown himself, except to fatten his bank account a bit.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, still waiting for <em>The Da Vinci Code</em>.</p>
Wild kingdom2004-05-25T08:08:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/wild-kingdom/
<p>Turbo, one of our two cats, has recently picked up the noxious habit of peeing on the couch. Fortunately it is a leather couch, so at least it’s easy to clean up.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/turbo.jpg" alt="Turbo" /></p>
<p>Nevertheless, it’s disturbing she’s all of a sudden picked up this delinquent behavior.</p>
<p>The collective wisdom of the Internet seems to suggest she may be having a urinary tract infection, have developed feline diabetes, or may be acting out due to stress. None of these sound like good news. To add to the confusion, her urine doesn’t smell, which certainly doesn’t seem right either.</p>
<p>Prior to the errant urinating, she was walking around limping on one of her front paws for a few days, which may be somehow related and suggests that perhaps it is indeed a urinary tract infection.</p>
<p>Before anybody starts lambasting me for not rushing her to the vet as soon as she developed the limp (which has now gone away on its own): I don’t take <em>me</em> to the doctor for a limp, so the cat sure isn’t going either. End of story.</p>
<p>We’re monitoring the situation now, and if she hasn’t stopped peeing in forbidden places at the end of the week, it’s off to see the vet.</p>
Another semester ended2004-05-18T11:01:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/another-semester-ended/
<p>Posted the grades for my class yesterday, which means that another semester of higher learning has come to an end. This semester was really enjoyable, as the quality of the students was unusually high and the syllabus for the class is pretty well dialed-in, significantly lessening the stress of preparation.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, looking forward to a summer of not spending an evening a week at the Ivory Tower plus prime weekend time taken up with grading and planning and instead being able to focus on some projects that have been percolating in the back of my tiny excuse for a mind.</p>
<p>Actually, it just hit me that I’ve been teaching at the university for five years now…</p>
Dictionary reality check2004-05-18T08:13:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/dictionary-reality-check/
<p>What happened at Abu Ghraib was <em>not</em> abuse, it was torture. Go ahead, check the word definitions in a dictionary or why not make this easy and use <a href="http://dictionary.com/">Dictionary.com</a>: <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=abuse">abuse</a>; <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=torture">torture</a>.</p>
<p>The press is not doing anybody a favor by insisting on the “lesser” term.</p>
The Movable Type announcement2004-05-15T02:12:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/the-movable-type-announcement/
<p>What with all the frothing at the mouth and brain hemorrhages caused by <a href="http://www.sixapart.com/corner/archives/2004/05/its_about_time.shtml">yesterday’s Movable Type announcement</a>, I figured I’d better write a post about it or risk losing my blogger’s license.</p>
<p>First off, sure, Six Apart is a corporation with bills to pay and employees with mouths to feed, and as such they are most certainly free to pursue whatever means they can to put food on the table. And anybody who doesn’t like what they do can pick up their ball and go home, or simply pick another blog system with a license and price that suits their needs better. This is after all how a market economy is supposed to work.</p>
<p>Yesterday’s announcement looks to be a classic case of broken-down communications. First off, the new licensing scheme is <em>way</em> too complicated. Nobody should have to use a wizard or a flow chart to figure out how much to pay for their software. So after the cold shower of following the wizard and realizing that what used to be free will now cost money–shakes fist at heaven screaming, “Noooooo!”–there is nothing on the site to tell me why I’d want to upgrade. Carrot and stick, people. At least tell me why I’d want to pony up.</p>
<p>This is also not the most opportune time for Six Apart to start upping the ante on their licenses. Blog systems are becoming commoditized and there are more and more of them out there every day. Let’s face it, the basic software to run a simple blog is not that complicated. Good blog software is more complicated, and multi-user content management systems with a structured API for third party plugins are quite complicated.</p>
<p>Most of the really rabid frothing at the mouth seems to come from people who run simple installs, fell in love with the simplicity and general friendliness of Movable Type, and fail to see the value of paying for all the whiz-bang features they’re not very likely to use anyway. Hint to Six Apart: MT 2.6 is great for most things; with MT-Blacklist as a staunch defender against comment spam (and comment spammers should die die die die die die die), it’s a good personal publishing platform. To get people to upgrade and in most cases spend money, tell them why they should.</p>
<p>As to myself, I don’t have the time right now to move to a different platform, but will probably do so at some point. Or I might upgrade this installation to 3.0 since it meets the new Plebeian Standard for a free license, then come up with something else for <a href="http://techgoesboom.com/">Tech Goes Boom</a>.</p>
<p>For myself, moving to a different platform is something I would have done anyway, not because I don’t like Movable Type, but because I’m masochistic enough to enjoy checking out different software options.</p>
<p>Still, people, it’s just software. Let’s not get our panties all in a bunch.</p>
<p>Do you feel that 3.0 is worth what Six Apart is asking? If so, buy it. If not, switch to something else.</p>
<p>And let’s all try to not kick our dogs, mmmkay?</p>
Held up without a gun2004-05-13T09:51:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/held-up-without-a-gun/
<p>Need to fill up the car today. Am experiencing fear. Cost $24.39 to fill up the Accord last week, before the latest increases.</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/pump.jpg" alt="How much money you got?" /></p>
<p><a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=1&u=/040511/480/cajme10205111903">Image source.</a></p>
Review: The Paths of the Dead2004-05-12T08:16:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/review-the-paths-of-the-dead/
<p>Let’s first come right out and say that I’m only halfway through <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812534174/qid=1084319415/sr=12-1/002-5835025-6740816?v=glance&s=books">The Paths of the Dead</a></em> by Stephen Brust, and that is as far as I’m going to get. The novel has an interesting concept: It is written as though it is a book composed by a somewhat pompous historian living at a later date in the same world as the one where events take place. According to reviews on Amazon, it is supposed to be something of a riff on <em>The Three Musketeers</em>. Be that as it may–I sure can’t see it–it’s incredibly slow-moving and the ploy with the historian only succeeds in disrupting the suspension of disbelief so necessary for enjoyment of a fantasy novel.</p>
<p><em>The Paths of the Dead</em> is also fatally filled with annoying and spirit-crushing dialogue like this:</p>
<blockquote>“But there must be one thing you can tell me.”</blockquote><blockquote>“And what is that?”</blockquote><blockquote>“Why you have come to visit me.”</blockquote><blockquote>“Oh, as to that–”</blockquote><blockquote>“Well?”</blockquote><blockquote>“You are right, there is no reason not to tell you.”</blockquote><blockquote>“Then you will do so?”</blockquote><blockquote>“This very instant.”</blockquote><blockquote>“Then I await you.”</blockquote>
<p>Aaaaaaaahhh! Stop it! This is how <em>every</em> freaking conversation goes. Bumpity-bumpity-bump with zero information exchange. It was cute the first five times, and then it started to hurt me deep inside.</p>
<p>Nope, can’t take it. Made it halfway through on sheer obstinacy, but that’s it.</p>
<p>Brust has finally come up with a more annoying fantasy tick than the infamous “ten pages to walk around a bush” syndrome. Didn’t think I’d live to see the day.</p>
New home for technology content2004-05-11T04:04:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/new-home-for-technology-content/
<p>As probably happens to most bloggers, I’ve found the experience a bit schizophrenic–do I want this blog to be more of a friends-and-family kind of intimate hangout, or do I want to attract tons of traffic, become a luminary in the blogosphere and in general be a big megalomaniac?</p>
<p>From looking at the logs, most of my traffic comes from Google and is tech related, so separating the tech posts from the personal posts is probably a good way to de-stress the situation a bit.</p>
<p>So from here on out, this blog will be devoid of technology content–the focus here will be personal stuff, and the nerdery will instead be found at <a href="http://techgoesboom.com/">Tech Goes Boom</a>, a site I’m kicking off with <a href="http://joemullins.com/">Joe</a>, and which as the name implies will be solely focused on thoughts, observations, tips, and other chicken soup for your inner nerd. Go ahead and give it a visit and see what you think.</p>
Sopranos weirdness2004-05-11T00:58:29Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/sopranos-weirdness/
<p>Does anybody know what was going with the Sopranos last night? Specifically the strange slo-mo followed by a wipe that followed Carmela’s talking to her (former?) lover at the school?</p>
<p>Completely jarring and out of character for the show. So, simple mistake in the editing bay? Devious scheme by director to draw attention to a subtle detail? What gives?</p>
<p>While on the topic of the Sopranos, the season has been a bit slow, but last night’s episode finally started to turn up the burners, and next week looks like it’s going to be really good. Can’t wait.</p>
The Second Coming2004-05-07T08:42:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/the-second-coming/
<p>Regarding the current events in Iraq, it is impossible to match the eloquence of this poem, written in 1921:</p>
<p><strong>The Second Coming</strong>Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all convictions, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.</p>
<p>Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?</p>
<p><em>–William Butler Yeats</em></p>
It’s time for bloooood2004-05-04T08:29:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/05/its-time-for-bloooood/
<p>Watched <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0320691/">Underworld</a> the other night, and it’s a pretty enjoyable and shamelessly Matrix-inspired romp, complete with decadent Louis XIV-style vampires. Can’t have a good vampire scene without some languid decadence.</p>
<p>One annoying thing this movie shares with pretty much all other vampire movies, though, is that the vampires physically change when they feed, becoming uglier and more “monstrous.” It’s hard to understand why so many directors feel the need to add this kind of visual cue that vampires are Evil … shouldn’t the literal sucking of somebody’s blood and tearing of the victim’s cartilage be enough to get that message across?</p>
<p>It’s also really annoying in that this gratuitous transformation short circuits the beauty and grace of the vampire. As Anne Rice did such a fabulous job of showing in her <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345385403/qid=1083629426/sr=1-2/ref=pd_ka_2/102-9366530-3650559?v=glance&s=books">Vampire Chronicles</a>, the vampire is Beautiful Death, seductive in its grace and power, but ultimately nothing more than a predator. The symbolism that gives such strength to the archetype is of course obvious and multi-layered.</p>
<p>When the vampire strikes, revealing its true destructiveness, this is the point where its beauty becomes paradoxical and therefore chilling, so why do all these movie makers feel the need to change the eye color or have their faces morph into something ugly and gnome-like?</p>
<p>While on the subject, one thing I’ve never seen in a vampire movie, and that really stuck with me from Anne Rice’s books is that her vampires have no other body fluids than blood, so when they cry or sweat, blood comes out. Brilliant, and the juxtaposition of the fluid of life with pale marble features is a haunting image.</p>
Crane dance2004-04-25T00:25:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/crane-dance/
<p>Looks like Spring <a href="http://www.tricityherald.com/tch/lifestyles/travel/features/story/4989401p-4917576c.html">has finally arrived</a> in Sweden. The crane dance is always a nice spectacle, and the arrival of the birds means the end of the long winter.</p>
<p>So cheers to everybody in Sweden for making it through another one!</p>
What’s that clicking noise?2004-04-23T07:56:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/whats-that-clicking-noise/
<p>Attention greater Phoenix area motorists: You know that little stick that protrudes from the left side of your steering column? Turns out that if you push it down or up, it makes a kind of clicking noise. Interesting, huh? But the purpose of the stick actually isn’t to make that clicking noise.</p>
<p>Have you ever noticed that on some cars you’ll sometimes see blinking yellow lights? Those are called “turn signals” and are controlled by that little stick. The idea is that if you want to, say, turn to the left, you would push the little stick down, and that will make the yellow lights on <em>your</em> car blink yellow.</p>
<p>This will then indicate to other drivers that you are intending to turn left, and they can then give you the room necessary for this maneuver and <em>not have to effing almost kill themselves when you throw your car across the lane without so much as a glance in the rearview mirror.</em></p>
<p>Now that you know why you sometimes see those mysterious blinking lights on other cars, you can use this knowledge to everybody’s advantage and do things like give other people room to perform the maneuver they are indicating, so that everybody can get to and from work without resorting to kamikaze acrobatics.</p>
<p>See how good it is to know things?</p>
What is journalism?2004-04-15T10:12:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/what-is-journalism/
<p>Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine raises some interesting <a href="http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2004_04_14.html#006830">questions about journalism</a>.</p>
<p>A mass media theory that has always been near and dear to my heart is the theory of agenda setting, which basically says that the media are not very good at telling people <em>what</em> to think, but that the media does an excellent job of telling people what to think <em>about</em>. There have been numerous studies about the agenda-setting power of the media, but all my references to them are sitting on one of my backup CDs from my time studying those kinds of things, so just take my word for it or even better, go to a local library and do some research. Fascinating stuff.</p>
<p>That power to set agendas only seems to increase in these times of mass information overload, when there are so many choices screaming for our attention and the easiest way out becomes to simply lean back in the cold blue light of the TV screen and let Dick Steele, Blow Hard, and the other characters on your local TV news guide you away onto the mayhem-filled streets of contemporary America, followed by some guy with a mustache spewing stats about sports and and a chipper humanoid talking about the weather.</p>
<p>When this is coupled with the increasing isolation of daily life–a long commute, long hours at work, followed by chauffeuring the kids around doesn’t leave the average suburbanite with much time or energy to lead an active and fulfilling social life–the mass media noose fits tighter and tighter.</p>
<p>This is arguably one of the most appealing aspects of blogging: After some searching and hits and misses, it is possible to find other people who share your interests and communicate with them in a non-linear fashion through blog posts and comments. Thus it becomes much easier to create a virtual network of friends–or at least acquaintances.</p>
<p>You could argue that this is what’s been happening for a long time in various online communities like chat rooms, mailing lists, and MUDs. The big difference is that those communities are focused on a shared interest, like sewing, installing Linux on strange hardware, fly fishing, or what have you. Blogs are people sharing their interests and experiences in a more–dare I use the word?–holistic way. Blogs are more about the person than the person’s interests. (Not always, of course, but on the kind of blogs pertinent to this discussion.)</p>
<p>What does this mean for journalism? That the agenda-setting power of “traditional” journalism is blunted. And that is a good thing.</p>
<p>Blogs also pose another threat to “traditional” journalism: Distributed expertise. No longer do people have to trust the expert opinions of the people on the journalist’s rolodex–there are other people out there with other takes on the same subject matter, and they are no longer reduced to competing for space in the letters to the editor section–they have their own printing press.</p>
<p>We can all buy bits by the barrel.</p>
A new name for syndication2004-04-14T11:56:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/a-new-name-for-syndication/
<p>Jason Kottke has an interesting post on why we should <a href="http://www.kottke.org/04/04/syndication-misnomer">stop calling RSS feeds syndication</a>, since syndication strictly speaking means that content goes from one mass media outlet to another before landing on the audience’s doorstep. This is very true.</p>
<p>Guess it’s time for marketing-savvy people to use the ole noggin’ and come up with something catchy. The one rule that must be followed: No more acronyms.</p>
<p>Since it looks like RSS is heating up in 2004, it’s time for a term that sounds hip and technical but at the same time has a warm and cuddly feel.</p>
<p>And better hurry before Microsoft releases Feed or Apple releases iChannel.</p>
<p>Thinking thinking thinking.</p>
Review: Pattern Recognition2004-04-13T09:48:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/review-pattern-recognition/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425192938/qid=1081820057/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/102-1443275-4666516">Pattern Recognition</a></em> is William Gibson’s first novel set in the present, and is also his most vital work since he burst on the scene with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441569595/qid=1081820343/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-1443275-4666516">Neuromancer</a></em>. <em>Pattern Recognition</em> sports all of Gibson’s usual obsessions as well as some new ones, like the impact The Day the Towers Fell has on contemporary society.</p>
<p>All science fiction is by some measure a fun-house mirror or nightmare based on the present, and Gibson has always been enviably plugged in to the paths society is on at the time of his writing. By turning off the sci-fi gadgetry and focusing his efforts on the present–albeit a very much non-evenly distributed present inhabited by a beautiful few–Gibson’s work takes on a whole new level of vibrancy, and the prose in <em>Pattern Recognition</em> is in places hauntingly beautiful.</p>
<p>As is usual, Gibson falls down a bit on the ending, which feels a bit too tidy and quick–after such an incredible build-up, the denouement really leaves you wanting more. But that is a minor quibble.</p>
<p>Interestingly, this novel feels more like a Pynchon novel than any of his other works, which can only be said to be the highest possible praise.</p>
<p><em>Pattern Recognition</em> is a novel to cherish, re-read and obsess over.</p>
The ominous sound of drums2004-04-12T05:08:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/the-ominous-sound-of-drums/
<p>Caught this on rec.humor.funny.reruns, and got a chuckle out of it:</p>
<p>Another researcher arrives in Borneo to gather data for his thesis. Accompanied by his trusty guide, he too seeks out a very remote locale for researching the mating behaviour of the giant rat of Sumatra.</p>
<p>Around dusk of the first day, he’s sitting by the campfire with his guide when in the distance, he hears tribal drums. They get louder. The guide announces, “I don’t like the sound of those drums.”</p>
<p>The dusk turns evening. The drums get louder. The guide says, “I really don’t like the sound of those drums.”</p>
<p>Evening turns to dead of night. The drums get louder and louder, until it is obvious that the drummers must be quite close. The guide says again, “I <em>really</em> don’t like the sound of those drums.”</p>
<p>Suddenly the drums stop, and a voice from the darkness cries out, “Hey man, he’s not our regular drummer!”</p>
Review: The Banned and the Banished2004-04-09T12:12:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/review-the-banned-and-the-banished/
<p><em>The Banned and the Banished</em> is a five-novel fantasy cycle by James Clemens, and consists of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345417062/qid=1081482535/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-1443275-4666516?v=glance&s=books">Wit’ch Fire</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345417089/qid=1081482535/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-1443275-4666516?v=glance&s=books">Wit’ch Storm</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345417100/qid=1081482535/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-1443275-4666516?v=glance&s=books">Wit’ch War</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345442644/ref=lpr_g_1/102-1443275-4666516?v=glance&s=books">Wit’ch Gate</a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345442458/qid=1081484461/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-1443275-4666516?v=glance&s=books">Wit’ch Star</a></em>. No, those aren’t typos; in <em>The Banned and the Banished</em>, a witch is a wit’ch, a dwarf is a dw’arf, an ogre is an og’re, etc. Which gets really old really fast. One can only guess why Clemens decided to pursue that particular strategy, but it doesn’t work. Still, after a while the eye stops seeing the apostrophes, and it stops hurting quite so much, which is a bl’essing.</p>
<p>Fortunately, this apostrophic curse is the only real weakness of the cycle, which apart from that is quite strong. The plot is intricate and essentially revolves around Elena (nope, no apostrophe, but don’t fear, she has one in her last name), who is a wit’ch. In Clemens’s world, there are elementals, who are innately tied in to the magicks of the world itself, and magickers who can manipulate more “regular” magick. From a 30,000 foot view we’re looking at a basic fantasy plot with a dark and malignant evil who wants to take over the world, and our merry band of heroes trying to thwart such attempts. Which is fine; it’s a winning formula.</p>
<p><em>The Banned and the Banished</em> shines on several levels. Clemens puts a very interesting spin on a Tolkien-esque world, providing a darker view of the war against evil than is usual in fantasy fare, not shying away from the twisted and, well, evil acts a being of utter evil would commit, and the dark magicks that would by necessity be a part of such an undertaking. The characters are uniformly interesting, and have a way of burrowing under the reader’s skin. When you read the cycle, you care about the characters. Clemens also mostly avoids broad brush strokes, turning his characters from black and white into interesting shades of gray. The cycle is full of tormented humanoids going about their business best as they can within their own limitations.</p>
<p><em>The Banned and the Banished</em> is about as good as fantasy gets, and is well composed and put together. It also manages to avoid most of the dreaded fantasy “walking around a bush for 30 pages” syndrome, with the pacing fast and the action furious (quite often literally so).</p>
<p>The ending, in this reviewer’s opinion, doesn’t quite live up to the build-up, but it does make sense and brings the series to a satisfying close.</p>
FrankenPod now 20% cheaper2004-04-06T09:56:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/frankenpod-now-20-cheaper/
<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2004/04/05/rtr1323907.html">According to Forbes</a>, Dell has cut the price of its Dell DJ iPod-wannabe by 20%. According to analysts, this does not in any way reflect poor sales, and the FrankenPod has actually “taken a nice part of the market.”</p>
<p>The Core Dump doesn’t have any sources inside Dell to spill the beans on actual sales figures for the device, but seriously doubts that it’s selling well. Why? Because it’s competing on price in a field that is <em>not price sensitive</em>. It’s a clunky and unattractive device that will do the job adequately but without any sort of sex appeal. Which is exactly how Dell has made a fortune selling computers to corporations, and which is exactly how you don’t sell a lifestyle device.</p>
<p>Note to Dell: High-priced luxury items are all about the sex, not the practicality. Go hire a couple of good industrial designers, and you can bury the iPod, but you’re going to have to lose the East Bloc chic design sensibilities.</p>
The cow goes moo2004-04-02T09:42:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/04/the-cow-goes-moo/
<p>Gateway has finally bowed to inevitability and <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1560167,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594">closed its retail stores</a>. This while Apple continues to roll out new stores at a good clip.</p>
<p>So why did Gateway’s stores fail so miserably and Apple’s succeed? It would be easy to point to the cult of Mac and how Apple users fall into Jobs’s reality distortion field and buy whatever tasty new expensive gizmos come out of the labs at Cupertino, while Gateway operates in a fiercely price-competive market where people don’t want stores, but want to save $50 off the price of their computers. But that would be missing the point.</p>
<p>The Gateway stores failed so abjectly because they didn’t carry inventory. Simple as that. Basically the Gateway stores were places where you could go get help with your mail order purchase. (Sure, they did sell a few select models in-store, but any sort of customization led the customer to the Gateway web site.) When people go to a retail store, they want to <em>leave with their purchase</em>. Impulse buying a hot new gizmo is no fun if you have to wait three to five business days for it to show up.</p>
<p>There’s really no excuse for Gateway management to not realize this from the start.</p>
<p>But putting on our tin foil hats we can guess what their thinking must have been: Buying computers is hard, and a lot of our customers don’t know how to configure systems to their liking on our web site, so if we create a place where knowledgeable people can help them, they will be able to order a system that fits their needs and will be happy customers.</p>
<p>Not bad thinking. Except when retail reality meets the ideal. Selling computers is arguably the most difficult kind of retail there is–so many factors and dimensions play into a customer’s purchase decision. Add to this the basic law of retail: Your performance is measured by how many units you push. That’s it. If salesperson A sells X number of computers through hard sell tactics and very few of them will ever return, and salesperson B sells x/2 computers by thoroughly understanding customers and the customers are uniformly happy, salesperson A is doing a much better job. Simple as that.</p>
<p>Lots of retailers make noises about being customer-centric, putting the customer first, and being more interested in the quality of the shopping experience and its effect on the brand, yadda yadda, but when the rubber hits the road, in the long dark hours on the store floor, it’s all dollars and cents and meeting quotas. Car dealerships are naturally the most extreme manifestation of this attitude.</p>
<p>Put these factors together, and what you end up with is a small boutique where salespeople are pushing to meet their quotas, and the customer ends up walking away with a receipt but no goods.</p>
<p>And that will not fly.</p>
<p>Rather than spending all that money on their stores (including the silly blimps that would sometimes fly over them) it would probably have behooved the company a lot more to focus their efforts on making their web site as friendly as possible, and staff their phone centers with the best people.</p>
Mullet sighting2004-03-31T09:52:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/mullet-sighting/
<p>Picking up the baby at daycare today, saw another father fetching his offspring from storage sporting the baddest completely non-ironic mullet I’ve ever seen. The important part here is the non-ironic. This was a full-on, circa 1985 Alabama prime mullet. The gentleman was otherwise dressed in business casual, with khaki slacks and a golf shirt.</p>
<p>Wow, not a mullet-ish do, not a “hey I’m kind of retro” nod to mullet-ism, just a cherry apple red trashed Trans-Am blaring Molly Hatchett full frontal primo mullet.</p>
<p>Amazing.</p>
<p>Note that this post is not meant to take any sort of elitist stance or point a finger at those with even less of a fashion sense than The Core Dump, but to explore the sheer wonder of seeing a mullet in the wild in this Year of the Lord 2004. What other wonders await in the naked city?</p>
<p>In honor of Captain Mullet, tonight’s music will be no less than:</p>
<p>“Don’t Stop Believin’” by <a href="https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=Journey">Journey</a> [Opens in iTunes]</p>
Review: The Apocalypse Watch2004-03-29T23:55:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/review-the-apocalypse-watch/
<p>Published in 1995, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553569570/qid=1080577800/sr=12-1/104-8400349-2335920?v=glance&s=books">The Apocalypse Watch</a></em> is one of Robert Ludlum’s later works, and it shows. Ludlum is tired. Nevertheless, he puts together a fast-moving plot with the usual twists and turns, and manages to turn in a solid effort. It’s far from earlier books like the inimitable <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055314300X/ref=lpr_g_2/104-8400349-2335920?v=glance&s=books"><em>Bourne Identity</em></a>, but for fast-moving escapism, Ludlum’s still got it.</p>
<p>The great thing about Ludlum, and what carries him through the sometimes one-dimensional characterizations and stilted dialogue is his massive sense of craft. The rhythm and tone of his plots are dead-on, with a keen sense of when to turn on the mayhem and when to build suspense.</p>
<p>If your only contact with Ludlum has been through the <em>Bourne Identity</em> movies—whether the <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0094791/">horrid Richard Chamberlain stinker</a> or the <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0258463/">decent-but-flawed Matt Damon effort</a>–you really owe it to yourself to check out the novel the next time you’re going on a flight or plan some down time on the beach.</p>
You know you’ve been in Sweden too long when...2004-03-29T07:56:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/you-know-youve-been-in-sweden-too-long-when/
<p>Got a couple of giggles from this <a href="http://www.coolabah.com/sweden/youknow.html">You know you’ve been in Sweden too long</a> checklist. Of course I’m coming at it from the opposite side, looking more at things I’ve forgotten about Swedish society and the adjustments I’ve made to American culture. And yes, being able to write the phrase “American culture” without any hint of sarcasm or denigration means I’ve been in-country for a long time.</p>
<p>And that is one of the least charming ticks of my native land: Everybody listens to American music, watches American movies, and wears baseball caps and other clothing detritus of American culture, but actually considers America to be populated solely by yahoos and idiots and regards it as a terrible, terrible place.</p>
<p>That particular mental juxtaposition always sticks in my craw when I’m exposed to it.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, some highlights from the list:</p>
<p><em>3. The first thing you do upon entering a bank/post office/pharmacy etc. is to look for the queue number machine.</em> Yes! I miss the queue number machines so much.</p>
<p><em>16. You associate pea soup with Thursday.</em> Pea soup, <em>mon amour</em>, how I miss you. Pea soup and pancakes for lunch on Thursdays–I get all misty just thinking about it. Soooo gooood.</p>
<p><em>55. You think that riding a bicycle in the snow is a perfectly sensible thing to do.</em> Of course it is. If we had snow here in Phoenix, you bet I’d ride my bike in it.</p>
<p><em>71. You have only two facial expressions, smiling or blank.</em> An open and welcoming culture it ain’t.</p>
<p><em>75. You get extremely annoyed when the bus is two minutes late.</em> Bus schedules are there for a reason.</p>
<p><em>80. When a stranger asks you a question in the streets, you think it’s normal to just keep walking, saying nothing.</em> Strangers are to be avoided at all cost.</p>
<p><em>81. You’ve been engaged for four years and don’t have any plans to get married.</em> I could never understand the American trenchant for getting married right after you start dating. Correlated to a 50% divorce rate? Hmm….</p>
<p><em>105. You get offended if, at a dinner party, someone fails to look you in the eyes after raising their glass for a toast.</em> Toasting is an important art. Don’t mess it up.</p>
<p><em>121. You think it is normal EVERYTHING is regulated and you obey the rules voluntarily.</em> Otherwise it would be total chaos.</p>
<p><em>142. You talk of –10C as ”10 degrees cold”, when in Australia +10C would be considered cold. And who else calls +1C, ”one degree warm”!</em> Puts hair on your chest, that climate.</p>
<p><em>177. You wonder how you ever lived with wall to wall carpeting.</em> Hate, hate, hate wall to wall carpeting. Worst idea ever.</p>
<p><em>229. You say “I’m almost annoyed” when you’re as furious as humanly possible.</em> This is probably part of where the notion of Scandinavian <em>sang-froid</em> comes from.</p>
<p>Good fun.</p>
CSS tweak2004-03-26T07:39:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/css-tweak/
<p>Tweaked around with the CSS file for this site a bit. Looks a little bit tighter now, methinks, although these tweaks are just a stop-gap.</p>
<p>Tested it on Safari, IE6/Win, Mozilla, FireFox, and the evil, evil, evil IE5/Mac. Wanted to be a good boy and test on IE5/Win as well, since that browser is a bit of a scourge when it comes to CSS rendering, but I can’t seem to find a copy of it anywhere, and I can’t even find out which Windows you have to install to get IE/5. Not that I particularly <em>want</em> to install an old stinker version of Windows just to check sites, but that’s the Promise of Quality and Service we have over here at The Core Dump. Yes indeedy, you will be Surprised and Delighted at our Service and our Commitment to Excellence, not to mention the Spirit of … something or the other. But it’s good, really. Our Spirit of … something will rock your socks off. Oh, and I, ehrm, <em>we</em>, almost forgot our Dedication to Excellence in Service. And Spirit.</p>
<p>So if you’re suffering through life on the web in Internet Explorer 5 on Windows and this site breaks in some hideous way, please drop me a line–a line with Spirit, mind you–and I’ll try to fix it.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Yes, it’s very horked on IE5/Win. Urgh. Was hoping to not have to go through the rigamaroles of the box model hack, but will bite down and do so.</p>
Mac OS X turns three2004-03-25T05:25:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/mac-os-x-turns-three/
<p>March 24, 2004 is the third birthday of Mac OS X, not counting betas. Ars.Technica is celebrating with a somewhat obsessive-compulsive recap of <a href="http://www.arstechnica.com/etc/mac/index.html">three years of OS X</a>. Good read–relive the madness of DVD playing on 10.0! Hard to believe it’s only been three years; seems like the pinstripes have been around forever.With 10.3, Mac OS X really came in to its own–there are few obvious improvements to make at this point. But nevertheless, as the faithful eagerly await the release of 10.4, here are a couple of suggestions for said release:- Make FTP in the Finder actually work and let me upload files to servers</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>While you’re at it, make it do SFTP as well</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The metal Finder has to go. Seriously. What the hell were you thinking?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Linux API compatibility. Let us download and compile Linux software without all the patching</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Provide a mechanism to let Mail remember self-signed certs, so we don’t have to click through all the warnings <em>every time we start Mail</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>More speed is always good</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Don’t forget the Mac is your core market. Don’t get sidetracked too much with iTunes Music Store and the iPod. They’re cool and groovy and all that, but what we need is a great Mac experience</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make Python an officially supported scripting language. AppleScript kills kittens. Enough said</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Wow, that’s a short list. But there really aren’t that many annoying glitches in 10.3, which hopefully means that the elves in Cupertino are free to work on creating exceptionally cool things…Music: Stream from <a href="http://somafm.com/">Secret Agent</a></p>
MT-Blacklist is large and in charge2004-03-24T02:30:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/mt-blacklist-is-large-and-in-charge/
<p>While not particularly voluminous, the comment spam on this blog is nevertheless incredibly annoying. Having some random asshole come in and graffiti his moronic bullshit <em>really really really</em> sucks and conspires to drain the joy out of the blogging experience. So it was time to go on the offensive, and this blog is now protected by <a href="http://www.jayallen.org/projects/mt-blacklist/">Jay Allen’s MT-Blacklist</a>. A huge thank-you to Jay for creating and sharing this software.</p>
<p>Most likely the MT-Blacklist functionality will be rendered obsolete by Six Apart’s <a href="http://www.typekey.com/faq/">TypeKey</a> service, but until it hits the street, we’ll see how MT-Blacklist fares as a guardian against the evil scumbags out there.</p>
<p>Die, spammers, die.</p>
<p>Preferably in grotesque and terrible ways.</p>
Anna Lindh’s assassin sentenced to life in prison2004-03-24T01:03:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/anna-lindhs-assassin-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/
<p>As expected, Anna Lindh’s assassin was <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-03-23-lindh-conviction_x.htm">sentenced to life in prison today</a>. This is the most serious penalty in the Swedish judicial system, and in effect means he will be released in about 15-20 years.</p>
<p>Mijailo Mijailovic’s attorney may appeal the sentencing, but if so, that appeal stands very little chance of accomplishing anything.</p>
<p>So it seems that this tragic part of Swedish history is over, except for the children and husband of Anna Lindh, who will have to go on without her, and for the damage done to the openness of the Swedish system, where high-ranking politicians used routinely to go out in public without body guards. That innocence is now most likely dead.</p>
The way you make me feel2004-03-23T11:44:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/the-way-you-make-me-feel/
<p>Watching <em>We Are the Eighties</em> on <a href="http://www.vh1.com/channels/vh1_classic/channel.jhtml">VH1 Classic</a> and on comes the video for Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Haven’t seen that particular piece of visual artistry since around the time it came out.</p>
<p>For those who’ve somehow forgotten, a short synopsis of the video is that MJ is hanging out in a scruffy neighborhood with his ghetto homeboys. MJ looks, you know, not all that macho. Nevertheless, he seems to somehow be their leader.</p>
<p>Then The Love Interest shows up, a very pretty young woman whom MJ proceeds to stalk while his homeboys block her from leaving the area. So she’s left to try to walk away from our protagonist while he does a lot of air humping.</p>
<p>And it’s really creepy to watch; the misogyny oozes from the screen and MJ doesn’t exhibit a shred of lust or affection toward The Love Interest, but some sort of seething rage.</p>
<p>Not the work of a healthy mind at all.</p>
Review: The Grand Crusade2004-03-20T03:31:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/review-the-grand-crusade/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553379216/qid=1079727648/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-8384562-5708964?v=glance&s=books">The Grand Crusade</a>_ is the third and final installment of Michael Stackpole’s _DragonCrown Cycle</em>, and the series goes out with a bang.</p>
<p>Stackpole uses the common fantasy elements of elves, dragons, and wizards in new and novel ways, his writing is fast and to the point, and his characters are well-drawn and interesting. They even–gasp!–grow and change in response to events.</p>
<p>The plot is dense and hard to condense, but at heart it’s the usual great-evil-wants-to-conquer-everything, which is perfectly fine. With a rich and detailed world with a great deal of lore in which his characters do their mighty or nefarious deeds, the <em>DragonCrown Cycle</em> stands as one of the most interesting fantasy creations since <em>The Wheel of Time</em>.</p>
<p>The conclusion felt a little bit rushed, and more than a touch formulaic, but wasn’t by any means a complete let-down.</p>
<p>A huge thank-you to Stackpole for actually sticking to a three-book series (with one prequel), instead of droning on and on and on and on like Robert Jordan.</p>
Machine politics2004-03-20T02:14:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/machine-politics/
<p>Wired news has <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/evote/">a section</a> dedicated to the trials and tribulations of e-voting and the attempts to upgrade the US ballot system.</p>
<p>The problems that are continually found with voting systems are really depressing. If getting something as seemingly simple as casting a ballot to work reliably and securely after throwing untold millions of dollars at the problem, there are only two possible explanations for this: a) The companies tasked with solving these problems are staffed with nitwits; or, b) It’s a very difficult problem.</p>
<p>If the problems stem from option a, somebody obviously needs to be fired and an investigation into how Nimrod, Inc. got the contract needs to be instigated, and pronto.</p>
<p>If, however, the problems stem from option b, that is much more troublesome. If a clearly defined task like counting ballots can’t be secured, what is really going on with your personal information? Your credit card is on the internet, your medical records are out there in the data soup, your spending habits are online, and some of your bills are sitting in computers attached to the internet. How many breaches are there? What is happening with your personal information? Should the systems in place be trusted <em>at all?</em></p>
Thoughts on a really bad movie2004-03-19T03:19:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/thoughts-on-a-really-bad-movie/
<p>Decided to veg out last night and watch a movie, and came across the Vin Diesel vehicle <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266465/">A Man Apart</a></em>. Vaguely recalled that the reviews had been so-so but not completely terrible, and so decided to watch it. The reviews should have been horrible for this stinker.</p>
<p><em>A Man Apart</em> suffers from the number one Hollywood problem that always makes me hyperventilate in frustration: A dumb, dumb, dumb plot.</p>
<p>Apart from the script, the movie is okay. The acting is good enough for this kind of vehicle, the cinematography is fine, the action scenes have some intensity, the editing is fine, and the music is okay. No complaints about any of that. So why is it that all these professionals can get together to work on a movie like this, and end up falling apart on what should be the bedrock of the entire production? There are literally tons of good novels and short stories out there begging to be turned into movies, so why do you have high school students on dope write the script? Of course, I can’t be certain the movie was written by high school students, but if it was written by adults, they should hang their heads in shame. And immediately seek counseling for their substance abuse problems.</p>
<p>WARNING: Spoilers coming up. But it really doesn’t matter, because this movie is so dumb you probably won’t sit through it anyway. Also, I wasn’t taking notes while watching the movie, so some details are probably a bit off, especially during the bits where I was dumbfounded by the sheer stupidity of this thing.</p>
<p>The plot is basically that Diesel plays a DEA agent with a beautiful wife he loves very much. You can pretty much guess from the first time you see him gaze adoringly at her how long she is for this planet. Diesel and his merry men bust a drug kingpin after seven years of looking for him. The kingpin goes to prison. Diesel’s wife gets killed in what seems like a hit on Diesel. Diesel is very upset about this, naturally. Diesel goes to see the drug kingpin, who claims that he had nothing to do with the murder. Then, a new drug kingpin called Diablo (ooh, spooky) arrives on the scene. Diablo attempts to muscle in on drug kingpin number one’s territory, killing lots of people in unpleasant and graphic ways.</p>
<p>Among the dead are kingpin number one’s wife and son. Kingpin number one is shattered by this and wants revenge.</p>
<p>So at this point Diesel sets up a sting operation, and then goes ballistic during the sting, turning it into a bloody gun battle. For this, he gets six months’ leave by his mentor “to mourn.” Naturally, being a gung-ho, on-the-edge, driven-by-demons kind of guy, he immediately starts pursuing Diablo on the side, helped by his DEA sidekick, who apparently can take time off from work at any point to help out.</p>
<p>Our heroes end up in Mexico, where a huge shoot-out ensues, and Diesel finds who he thinks is Diablo. It’s kingpin number one’s henchman. But he is not Diablo. Weirdly interspersed with this are scenes of kingpin number one’s transfer to a different prison, which Diesel has set up as a thank you for putting him on the trail of Diablo. Interestingly, Diesel has managed to set up a prisoner transfer after being forced to go on leave from his position at the DEA.</p>
<p>Watch for the plot twist, and here it comes: Kingpin number one breaks out of the prison transport and escapes to Mexico! Turns out that the murder of Diesel’s wife and the murder of kingpin number one’s wife and son, as well as the murders of many of his top henchmen were actually–are you sitting down for this?–a part of kingpin number one’s plan to get a prison transfer so he could break out.</p>
<p>Sure. All right.</p>
<p>After this, Diesel tells his sidekick that he’s going to disappear for a while, then goes down to Mexico, some nebulous way locates kingpin number one’s hiding place, and–still sitting?–arrests him with the help of Mexican police.</p>
<p>So far, so dumb. This makes absolutely no sense. Surely, if you’re a kingpin, you can find some way to get a prison transfer without tearing your whole organization apart and killing your wife and child?</p>
<p>To add to the frustration here, it’s pretty obvious that the ending was grafted on. The real ending should have been that Diesel’s mentor was Diablo. They hint at this <em>all the time</em>, with Meaningful Long Lingering Shots on the mentor during key scenes, and that way the plot could actually have made <em>some sort of sense</em>.</p>
<p>Now, I’m not a DEA agent, nor do I play one on television, but I think it would seem obvious that doing certain things would make your career in the DEA short. These things would include things like: a) Playing russian roulette with a prisoner while other cops are milling around; b) Inviting a known major local drug dealer to your house for a party with the other DEA people; c) Bitch-slapping a suspect in front of twenty civilian witnesses; d) Breaking into houses without a search warrant as a matter of course; e) Never, ever, filling out any kind of paper work whatsoever; f) Beating a suspect to death with your bare hands.</p>
<p>OK, so the movie is really stupid. But why pick on <em>A Man Apart</em> instead of any of the other dumb-as-rocks movies out there? Because it committed the grave error of having aspirations of being something more than a wham-bang flick. If the script writers had actually been sober, this could have been really decent. They’re trying to tie in the trauma of having a loved one murdered, and creating a bit of Drama instead of “just” being a shoot-em-up, but botch it so horribly it hurts to watch.</p>
<p>Note to Hollywood: They’re called screen plays. I hear there are people out there who are good at writing them. Hire those people and let them do their jobs.</p>
Blogger’s dilemma2004-03-18T03:35:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/bloggers-dilemma/
<p>Jeff Jarvis over at Buzzmachine has an <a href="http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2004_03_17.html#006581">interesting post</a> about push-back he’s getting from readers about his stance on the Howard Stern/free speech issue.</p>
<p>He makes an important distinction between personal blogs and what could be called focused-content blogs. On a personal blog you get whatever the author wants to ramble on about that day whereas on a focused-content blog you get more of a micro-magazine with more-or-less well-defined boundaries.</p>
<p>I picked up on this since I–like everybody else with a personal blog, I’m sure–have occasionally struggled with what to post and what to edit out. Self-censorship raises its ugly head quite a lot, and with the twin ravens of <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a> and the <a href="http://www.archive.org/web/web.php">Wayback Machine</a> on its shoulders, that voice can become quite persuasive.</p>
<p>Oh, well, enough navel-gazing. Onward and upward.</p>
Spammers show creativity2004-03-17T00:44:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/spammers-show-creativity/
<p>Great <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/archive/2004/03/16/90449.aspx">post on <em>The Old New Thing</em></a> about spammers getting around image-based challenge-response systems by letting dupes view free pr0n. Also talks about the new Evil of password-protected zip files bearing virus payloads.</p>
<p>So in the end it all comes down to social engineering. It doesn’t matter how clever the anti-virus and anti-spam systems are, if end users don’t understand the risks involved…</p>
AT&T upgrade open letter2004-03-16T03:55:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/atampampt-quotupgradequot-open-letter/
<p>Received an email from Ken Wistrand, who is collecting signatures for an <a href="http://attletter.winstrands.com/">open letter to AT&T</a> regarding their T68i to T226 “upgrade” program.</p>
<p>So if you feel that AT&T has handled this situation shabbily, you may want to head over there, see what he has to say, and add your signature.</p>
<p>Best of luck with it, Ken.</p>
RSS making the mainstream2004-03-16T03:49:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/rss-making-the-mainstream/
<p>CNN’s Technology section has a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/03/15/new.web/index.html">nice albeit breezy article</a> about the emergence of news aggregators, aka feed readers, aka news readers, aka RSS readers.</p>
<p>If you happen to be one of the people who have yet to experience the wonders of RSS, and you have single obsessive news consumption vein in your body, do yourself a favor and check out the article, then download the referenced software. It is indeed a major overhaul of how you interact with the web, and 2004 will be known to coming generations as the year RSS broke through into the mainstream.</p>
<p>Over here at <em>The Core Dump</em>, <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">NetNewsWire Lite</a> reigns supreme as the weapon of choice for scouring feeds.</p>
Happy birthday to the Power Mac2004-03-15T21:59:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/happy-birthday-to-the-power-mac/
<p>According to <em><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/36256.html">The Register</a></em>, March 14, 1994 saw the birth of the esteemable Power Mac line, Apple’s shift from the 680x0 line of processors to the PowerPC 60x line of hot metal.</p>
<p>Happy birthday, Power Mac!</p>
Windtunnels and ambient temperature2004-03-13T23:57:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/windtunnels-and-ambient-temperature/
<p>The weather is warming up here in the desert, and with it the ambient temperature in my study. Monolith, a dual-gig <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75343">windtunnel</a>, reflects the changes in room temperature through its fan noise. It’s enough to make you think that a person with a sensitive enough ear could discern the ambient temperature just by listening to the pitch of the fan noise from this machine.</p>
<p>Note that I’m not bitching about the fan noise. I knew how loud these things were when I bought it. It’s just funny how sensitive the cooling system is.</p>
Old-school Internet2004-03-13T03:30:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/old-school-internet/
<p>We’ve begun the HTML portion of my class, which starts out with a short lecture on the history of the Internet and a non-technical overview of how it works. This made me think back on how I first got on the Internet way back in the dark days of 1990, and what things were like back then. Thought I’d post some of those recollections up here, if for no other reason than to show the young whippersnappers how deep the snow was in those days and how it was uphill both to and from school, etc.</p>
<p>Back in 1990, a young, fresh-faced Nic is roaming the swamps of Louisiana. I take my first graphic design class, and the Mac Plus completely blows me away–I can make my own magazines on this thing! I can make books! An incredible quantum leap from the Atari 400/Commodore 64/Apple II days of yore. So I save up my starving student money and purchase a Mac Classic, max it out to a mighty 4 megs of RAM, and proceed to have an absolute blast with it, creating all kinds of interesting things, as well as churning out endless term papers.</p>
<p>And then I hear that if you buy a modem, you can connect to the university library from home. Whoa. And there’s all kinds of interesting software out there for you to download plus a huge message board where Interesting People talk about all kinds of Interesting Things.</p>
<p>Done. A modem it is. So I purchase a Hayes 2,400 Baud modem, head on over to the computer science department and tell them I want to get an account. The guy at the help desk says, “Sure. What kind of computer do you have?” I tell him I have a Mac and the light in his eyes flickers out, no doubt seeing endless hours wasted walking me through the simplest things. But nevertheless, I get an account and a copy of Kermit on a floppy I had prudently brought with me, as well as an introductory guide to the school’s computer system written by what seemed like a seriously disturbed nerd. It was <em>thick</em>, it was dense, it was incomprehensible.</p>
<p>But little things like that would not hold me back. First task: Getting my modem to connect with the school. The school at this time used 1,200 Baud modems. The procedure, as I remember it, went something like: Open up the modem preferences in Kermit. Randomly click around on a screenful of techno-gibberish without any kind of help function. (This was way before modem scripts made their way into the world.) If I’m not misremembering, it took about twenty or so hours of twiddling to get the modems to connect. But I was young, I was strong, I had an inexhaustible supply of determination and coffee.</p>
<p>Finally, success. Woohoo! A command prompt appears! I type, but nothing appears on screen. Aw, crap, there’s another preference dialog full of words like “duplex” and “TTY.” Fiddle settings on this screen, dial up, it doesn’t work, disconnect, fiddle settings some more, rinse, wash, repeat.</p>
<p>And then, I can dial up, get a command prompt, and actually see what I’m typing. We have liftoff.</p>
<p>Now what?</p>
<p>Time to read Dr. Demento’s guide to the school’s computer system. Or at least try to. But it’s very little use. The author of this particular work of technical literature seems to have missed out on his true calling as a beat poet.</p>
<p>Time to just bang around and see what happens. There are three interesting things here, it seems: Usenet, the big bulletin board; FTP, where all the freeware lives; and my ostensible reason for doing all of this: the university library computer. Finally I can do all my research from the comforts of my own home sipping on a cold beverage instead of trudging to the library. Excellent.</p>
<p>There’s also something on there called “e-mail,” but I don’t know anybody who’s online, so “e-mail” can wait.</p>
<p>After a while I get comfortable with the command line and start to explore FTP. Apparently University of Michigan has a good archive of Mac software. Fire up FTP, log on to the umich site, and seriously, this is the closest I ever came to a religious experience: The first time the words “Connected to umich” came up on my screen, and I was interacting with a computer thousands of miles away <em>from my bedroom</em>. I remember sitting there, staring at that line of text, and thinking, “Wow. This changes <em>everything</em>.”</p>
<p>Since Macs use something called resource forks, which no other computer in the universe can understand, all files have to be encoded, and then decoded once you download them. The catch-22 here is that you can’t download the decoder software unless you have the decoder software. So the university computer store to the rescue. I figured somebody there must have the software. And they do. Software loaded and ready to go, it is time to download freeware. Which is a two-stage process: First FTP the software to my account on the university system, then use Kermit to download from there to my local computer. Over a 1,200 baud modem that tends to disconnect me every once in a while. But it’s doable.</p>
<p>Usenet back in 1990 was pretty amazing. Essentially there were two topics of discussion: Incredibly hardcore computer geekery, and Star Trek. And half the computers on the Internet were named Frodo and Gandalf. Seriously.</p>
<p>I honestly can’t say I miss those days of having to tweak everything for hours just to make the simplest things work, but in a way I guess it prepared me for Linux system administration…</p>
Even more AT&T upgrade2004-03-12T03:44:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/even-more-atampampt-quotupgradequot/
<p>Yup, still obsessing about the AT&T “valued customer” “upgrade” from a T68i (Mercedes) to a T226 (Yugo). Called AT&T yesterday and talked to a pretty stressed-out customer service rep. Basically the script as of yesterday is (paraphrasing here): “We sent you the T226 to enable you to get access to all of our fabulous new technologies, but you don’t have to use it. You can still use the T68i, but you won’t get the new technologies.”</p>
<p>“New technologies” is kind of a cute way to put the fact that future coverage build-out will happen on a band my phone can’t use.</p>
<p>Since I didn’t feel like being a raging asshole to the guy, no T616 for me. At this point I’m pretty much sure I’m going to switch providers, but it’s probably a good idea to call them back and let them know that.</p>
<p>Then today I got a phone call from SonyEricsson, asking me to return the T68i. Told them that, no, I’m not going to do that, but they can have the POS T226 if they want. No, they don’t want the T226, and I don’t actually have to send the T68i back. Expressed my displeasure with the “upgrade” program, which diatribe it sounded like the phone rep had heard before.</p>
<p>Both reps I talked to seemed <em>really</em> stressed out, even to the point where the AT&T rep’s voice literally started quivering when I told him that I was not pleased about getting a non-Bluetooth phone. Sucks to be on the receiving end of customer push-back stemming from idiotic corporate decisions, so I was nice to both of the reps.</p>
Terror in Spain2004-03-12T02:43:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/terror-in-spain/
<p>I’m utterly appalled and disgusted by <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/11/spain.blasts/index.html">the terror bombings in Madrid</a>. Can’t really find any other words for something so terrible and egregious.</p>
Feeding frenzy2004-03-10T23:45:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/feeding-frenzy/
<p><em>The Daily Show</em> has long been one of the best programs on television, and has gleefully stabbed needles in many a media balloon. Their take on the bizarre and macabre media feeding frenzy to be the first to report the verdict in the Martha Stewart trial is at once hysterically funny and immensely sobering for anybody working in the media.</p>
<p>Don’t miss Colbert’s wrap-up towards the end. A perfect satirical summary of a business gone insane.</p>
<p>The clip requires Real Player. The eggheads at Comedy Central make it hard to link directly to their clips, so go to <a href="http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/">this page</a> and look for “Illegally Blonde.” Hurry before it drops off the page. This should be required viewing for journalism schools around the country.</p>
One ... million ... dollars2004-03-10T21:57:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/one-million-dollars/
<p>It’s hard to say whether one should applaud the sheer gall or bemoan the complete and utter lack of common sense of the woman who tried to <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040309/480/wxs10503092046&e=1&ncid=1756">pass off a $1 million bill at a Wal-Mart</a>. [The link has pictures of the bill in question.]</p>
<p>One … million … dollars. The largest bill made by the US Treasury is $100–the infamous Benjamin of too many rap songs to count. Apparently our Dr. Moriarty was planning to purchase $1,675 of merchandise at Wal-Mart, pay with the one … million … dollar bill and get change.</p>
<p>Uh-huh.</p>
<p>Amazing.</p>
More on the AT&T upgrade2004-03-09T22:48:18Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/more-on-the-atampampt-quotupgradequot/
<p>Wired has <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62583,00.html">picked up</a> on the AT&T phone “upgrade” program. Not much new in the article, but it’s good to see it getting more play.</p>
<p>Received my own personal “valued customer” “upgrade” phone yesterday. The T226 is about the same size as the T68i, but flatter, without the sensuous bulge of the T68i. Methinks half the physical size of the phone is occupied by a speaker, because the thing can get <em>loud</em> if you want it to. Reception is better–don’t know if it’s due to the T226 using both bands, or if the phone itself has better reception.</p>
<p>The GUI on the T226 feels slower than on the T68i–could be due to the screen having more colors, but is nevertheless annoying, as you can literally watch it draw dialog boxes.</p>
<p>I’m going to need to call AT&T and bully them into getting me another phone. From looking around on the net, it’s possible to get them to send you a Bluetooth phone, but they seem to take a pretty hard line on forcing you to sign up for a two-year contract. After this, and with all the uncertainty in the air with the Cingular merger, a two-year contract with this outfit is not something I want.</p>
<p>Decisions, decisions.</p>
Anna Lindh’s killer found mentally competent2004-03-09T22:38:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/anna-lindhs-killer-found-mentally-competent/
<p>Mijailo Mijailovic, who has plead guilty to the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has been <a href="http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=147&a=242285&previousRenderType=6">found sane by a panel of psychiatrists</a>. [Link is in Swedish.] The psyciatric evaluation lasted six weeks.</p>
<p>This means that Mijailovic can be sentenced to a prison term for the murder. In Sweden, first-degree murder is punishable by 10 years to life in prison, even though a life sentence in reality means about 20 years.</p>
<p>This news is quite surprising–with Mijailovic’s background and past psychiatric issues, it would have seemed a slam-dunk for him to be found incompetent, but there it is.</p>
<p>Sentencing will be announced March 23.</p>
<p>UPDATE: For the Swedish-impaired among you, here’s a <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040309/ap_on_re_eu/sweden_politician_killed_1">link in English</a>.</p>
Slashdot on the AT&T phone upgrade2004-03-09T00:46:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/slashdot-on-the-atampampt-phone-quotupgradequot/
<p>Slashdot has picked up on the AT&T <a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/07/1919230.shtml">phone “upgrade.”</a> Let’s hope enough angry nerds will harass them that they’ll rethink the whole exercise.</p>
<p>It’s been a long time since I looked at a comments thread on Slashdot, and this one reminded me of why. What an amazing amount of hot air. Sad, really.</p>
Fuhgedaboutit2004-03-09T00:40:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/fuhgedaboutit/
<p>The Sopranos kicked off the new season last night, and it looks like they are going to keep the pressure on. The first episode was a little bit slow and more of a harbinger of plot lines to come, but worked really well to pull viewers back into the Sopranos universe after their long absence.</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s just that it’s been so long, but the characters felt more repellent than in the past–Tony is a big sociopath, and his crew are pure low-life thugs.</p>
<p>In the earlier seasons, viewer disgust with Tony’s behavior was offset by his sheer humanity, flawed though he was, but he’s become more and more of a Beast, spiraling out of control.</p>
<p>But the Most Unlikable Character award has to go to Paulie, who has zero redeeming qualities. Let’s hope he’s the first one to get whacked.</p>
<p>It’s good to be back on this train again.</p>
iPod minis selling like hotcakes2004-03-06T04:51:46Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/ipod-minis-selling-like-hotcakes/
<p>There were a lot of misunderstandings and plenty of doom and gloom whining when Apple announced the iPod minis. They were too expensive; they had too little storage space; they couldn’t compete with flash-based mp3 players in the same price range. The Core Dump <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/01/quotminiquot-means-mini/">predicted the little things would sell well</a>.</p>
<p>And lo and behold, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-03-05-mini_x.htm">they’re flying off the shelves</a>. There’s a very simple message here, and one that most computer companies elect to ignore when they attempt to break into “pure” consumer markets: <em>Design Is Important</em>. Features matter, but they matter less than design. Price also isn’t that important. If it were, Dell would be selling a ton of the Dell DJ. Do you know anybody who’s bought one?</p>
<p>Especially when you’re selling what is a pure <em>luxury</em> product into a market space that can drop $250 on a whim, you need to pay attention to the design of your product.</p>
<p>When consumers purchase something using their own money, they care deeply about how the product <em>feels</em>. Surely some lucky devious bastards out there have figured out how to expense an iPod, but the majority are being paid for by private individuals, individuals who want to feel good about the device.</p>
<p>The article linked above also mentions that most stores are completely sold out and that Apple is having difficulty replenishing them on the iPod minis. It’s good to see that Apple isn’t breaking with its tradition of having no clue about demand for its products…</p>
A trip down memory lane2004-03-04T02:32:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/a-trip-down-memory-lane/
<p>Apple has updated their <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112142">list of vintage and obsolete</a> products. Man, that takes me back.</p>
<p>Cute of them to break the US list down into “vintage” and “obsolete”–vintage is apparently products discontinued between five and seven years ago, while obsolete products were discontinued more than seven years ago. In the rest of the world, there is no vintage status–once a product was discontinued more than five years ago, it goes straight to the dump without a charmed afterlife basking in the glow of vintage status.</p>
<p>So Colonel Kurtz, an 8500, is now like a fine wine, while High Plains Drifter, a PowerBook 190cs, is now officially obsolete and useless. They’re both sitting out in the garage gathering dust, waiting for rapture or for me to move again, at which point they will join a landfill somewhere.</p>
<p>Also in the garage is LandShark, a venerable IIci, the best computer I’ve ever owned. It will not go to a landfill. I will never throw it away. LandShark has crossed the Atlantic twice in carry-on luggage. Putting a mighty 12 megs of RAM in it–thus turning it into the Ultimate Photoshop Rig–still stands as one of my favorite computer memories.</p>
<p>Keeping them company in the garage is Mecha, a now-gutted Dell Dimension PII/400. Mecha was the machine I cut my Linux teeth on, and it served a long and useful life as a file server.</p>
<p>Time marches on.</p>
Bring your flippers to Mars2004-03-03T03:19:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/bring-your-flippers-to-mars/
<p>Sure, this is already all over the Net, but it’s still the kind of news that makes The Core Dump all tingly inside: NASA has <a href="http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/2229">found evidence</a> that there was once flowing water on Mars. Now we’re just waiting for evidence that some form of life once existed there.</p>
<p>Go rovers, go!</p>
RepKover bindings are back2004-03-02T08:08:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/repkover-bindings-are-back/
<p>Great news for nerds: <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/">O’Reilly</a> is <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/ask_tim/2004/repkover_0304.html">bringing back RepKover</a> (aka lay-flat) bindings to all their titles that aren’t too thin or too thick for the process.</p>
<p>Oh, RepKover, how you’ve been missed.</p>
Guessing that email address2004-03-02T01:01:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/guessing-that-email-address/
<p>Great <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20040301/0925255.shtml">reaction on Techdirt</a> about a <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,62456,00.html">Wired article</a> on the Direct Marketing Association releasing new guidelines endorsing “a controversial practice that allows businesses to track down customers’ e-mail addresses without explicitly asking for them.” Yes, that’s right, you buy something from a company, <em>make the choice to not give them your email address</em>, and it is now fully within the DMA guidelines for them to attempt to guess your email address to send you spam.</p>
<p>Hmm. Show of hands, who likes the DMA?</p>
Internet users create content2004-03-02T00:05:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/internet-users-create-content/
<p>According to <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=113">a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project</a>, “44% of Internet users have created content for the online world through building or posting to Web sites, creating blogs, and sharing files.”</p>
<p>This is pretty exciting news, showing that to a certain extent the Internet is thriving as a citizen’s publishing medium. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1888869046/104-5585288-7485512?v=glance">Digerati</a> have been worried ever since the web became popularized in the early 90s that it would follow the trends shown by other media–such as radio–and degenerate into a strictly push medium, where the vast majority consume what a small cadre of professionals generate.</p>
<p>Page 8 of the report has a graph breaking down online content creation by demographic. The chart looks a lot like you might expect, but the breakdown is flatter than at least I thought. For instance, here’s the race/ethnicity breakdown: Whites, 45%; Blacks: 44%; Hispanics, 39%.</p>
<p>Interesting and hopeful that 44% of users are pushing content back on the Internet. It would seem likely that with the ever-accelerating growth of easy to use tools for content creation, this number should increase rather than decrease.</p>
The number of the Passion2004-03-01T23:40:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/the-number-of-the-passion/
<p>Too much the funny: A movie theater in Rome, GA is <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&e=3&u=/ap/20040301/ap_on_re_us/passion_tickets">using the numeric code 666</a> for Mel Gibson’s gore fest.</p>
<p>Movie goers are not amused. But The Core Dump is.</p>
More on the AT&T upgrade phone2004-03-01T06:21:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/03/more-on-the-atamp38t-quotupgradequot-phone/
<p>Last week us “valued customers” <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/this-is-an-upgrade/">received our free</a> “no strings attached” upgrade message from AT&T that they’re sending us “valued customers” an “upgrade” phone, so that instead of suffering through using the T68i we can enjoy life with a T226 which lacks essentially all the good features of the T68i, for which we paid through the nose at point of purchase.</p>
<p>Jonathan Hudson has done some <a href="http://www.studio2f.com/archives/000441.php">more research</a> on this, and it looks like “valued customers” are getting an “upgrade” phone because AT&T are switching their network to “850 band,” whatever that is, and the T68i will <em>stop working</em>.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m all for progress, but if you’re going to force me to get a new phone, at least give me one with feature parity! This is unbelievably shitty of AT&T. Plus, if us “valued customers” don’t send our T68i back to AT&T, we will be charged. Of course, you can get a discount on a better phone <em>if you lock yourself into a two-year contract</em>.</p>
<p>This is pretty freaking far from good…</p>
<p>Oh, and AT&T? I was thinking about switching my local landline to your service. Guess what, cha-cha? Not gonna happen.</p>
<p>Not that I’m upset or anything.</p>
Review: Lost Light2004-02-29T06:11:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-lost-light/
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446611638/qid=1078009442//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-5585288-7485512?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Lost Light</a></em> sees Michael Connelly at the top of his form. Harry Bosch is in retirement when he gets the opportunity to follow up on one of his old unsolved cases, taking him into an extremely well-plotted and dense mystery.</p>
<p>Apart from the strong plotting, much of the power of <em>Lost Light</em> comes from Connelly’s sympathetic and vivid characterizations, as well as from the force of Bosch’s personality. For good crime fiction, you almost have to have the obsessive lone-wolf detective who refuses to ever take the easy way out.</p>
<p>As good as the Harry Bosch novels have been over time, this is arguably one of the best.</p>
Subversion looks good2004-02-28T06:45:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/subversion-looks-good/
<p>I’ve been using <a href="http://www.cvshome.org/">CVS</a> for my version control needs for a long time, and have sucked up the sometimes byzantine machinations CVS forces you to go through. This mostly due to the fact that CVS is The Standard. CVS is everywhere and it’s the first source code management system that gets integrated into various tools.</p>
<p>Another reason has been the lack of an open-source competitor that runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Not that I’m an open-source zealot by any means, but for something like revision management, it feels really nice to know that the source is there and that the community can build on the tool. Perhaps not a completely rational thought process, but nevertheless, there it is.</p>
<p><a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">Subversion</a> recently went version 1.0 after a long gestation period, so why not check it out? It offers some great features like support for moving and renaming directories–which is such a monumental, epic pain in CVS–and efficient handling of binary files, including storing them as diffs.</p>
<p>There are two ways to run a Subversion server: piggybacking on Apache, or running a standalone server with access controlled through SSH. In the interest of not getting bogged down in the fun and interesting world of Apache administration on the file server, I decided to go with the standalone server.</p>
<p>So far things look pretty good. No nasty surprises, and Subversion seems pretty smart about deducing what is a binary file and what is not and doing the Right Thing.</p>
<p>One fly in the ointment is Apple’s Interface Builder, which doesn’t like the presence of write-protected files inside a NIB. To get around it, you have to manually make the .svn directory inside your NIB writable. Bit of a pain, but hopefully the elves in Cupertino are working on incorporating a fix.</p>
The Word 6.0 nightmare2004-02-27T02:21:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/the-word-60-nightmare/
<p>Back in the day, the best word processor on the market was Microsoft Word 5 for the Mac. It was sleek, it was fast, it was loaded with useful features, and it was infinitely customizable. Brilliant. Until OS X came out, relegating Word 5 to the Classic ghetto, it was my weapon of choice for word processing.</p>
<p>With Word 5 being such a great app, there was a lot of excitement when Word 6 came out–finally, feature parity with the Windows version! Scripting! PowerPC accelerated!</p>
<p>And of course, Word 6, released nine (9) months later for the Mac than for Windows, was buggier than a New York apartment with jelly-covered walls and gleefully violated every Mac human interface guide possible. It was the purest port of a Windows GUI to the Mac ever committed. Apart from nearly complete feature parity with the Windows version, it also sported bug parity. (I had a colleague at the time who, for reasons that escape me, went over the Windows and Mac versions of Word with a fine tooth comb and found, if I recall correctly, two minor discrepancies in the GUIs. The rest was identical.)</p>
<p>To further sweeten the pot, the retail box had a cheerful red sticker proclaiming “Accelerated for PowerPC.” Except when you opened the box there was a little note inside saying that no, actually, Word 6 was not “Accelerated for PowerPC,” but there would be an update Real Soon Now. Any day. Really.</p>
<p>Needless to say, customers were not thrilled.</p>
<p>Rick Schaut has <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/Rick_Schaut/archive/2004/02/26/80193.aspx">posted an article</a> about the decisions that went into unleashing Word 6 on unsuspecting Mac users. Very interesting reading.</p>
Yardie II2004-02-26T03:18:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/yardie-ii/
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/IMG_2145.jpg" alt="Biomass" />All right, the yard is done. A lot of work, but it is now officially not a jungle anymore. Will look great once things grow out a little bit–it’s a bit post-nuclear right now. Yes indeed, went seriously medieval on some of those plants.</p>
<p>The picture shows the ensuing biomass that is now awaiting transport to the dump.</p>
Yardie2004-02-25T03:14:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/yardie/
<p>Yard work day today. Lots and lots of biomass removed from yard. Feels good to do some physical labor instead of staring at a monitor all day. Gorgeous day for it, too. Partly cloudy with a perfect temperature for being outside.</p>
Review: Chasing the Dime2004-02-24T03:51:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-chasing-the-dime/
<p>Michael Connelly’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/044661162X/qid=1077568828/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance&s=books">Chasing the Dime</a></em> is the story of scientist and entrepreneur Henry Pierce and how he gets involved in a Nefarious Scheme. As usual with Connelly, the prose is clear and powerful, the cast of characters well-developed, and the plotting tight.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, as with most of his non-Harry Bosch novels, the protagonist’s motivations don’t really work that well, and it makes the novel feel close to silly in places. That somebody in Pierce’s position would act the way he does just doesn’t ring true–nor, once it’s revealed, does the Nefarious Scheme, which feels too baroque in its complexity and far-fetchedness.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, despite a slow start, it’s an enjoyable read, and Connelly does his usual stellar job of drawing the supporting characters. It seems, though, that Connelly needs somebody like Bosch as his protagonist to be at the top of his form.</p>
This is an upgrade?2004-02-24T01:24:55Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/this-is-an-upgrade/
<p>Just got a nice card from my good friends at AT&T, who want to upgrade my T68i to a T226 for free. Free! I tell you, free! Now, as I’m not in the market for a cell phone, being quite happy with the now-apparently-creaky T68i, I haven’t been keeping up with the advances in the technology. So I imagined that the T226 would be feature-compatible with the T68i. <a href="http://www.sonyericssont226upgrade.com/compare.html">Bzzzt. Thanks for playing</a>.</p>
<p>The T226 has polyphonic ringtones and a 512-color screen, but doesn’t have Bluetooth, doesn’t support SyncML, and can’t be used as a modem. Hmm. This actually looks like a downgrade to me. But wait, there’s downloadable games! So I can’t sync my contacts and calendar, but I can play silly games I’ll pay a fortune to download to the phone.</p>
We don’t support that2004-02-24T01:08:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/we-dont-support-that/
<p>Achingly true <a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/02/23/no_support/">tell-all article in Salon</a> about the miserable hell that is technical phone support. [Reading full article requires sitting through soul-stealing interstitial ad.]</p>
<p>Learn to recognize the punter, the gifter, and the reformatter. Learn why their incompetence is actually a quite rational survival strategy. Learn the business reasons why technical phone support will never do anything but stink.</p>
Review: Permission to Land2004-02-22T04:20:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/review-permission-to-land/
<p>I was a big metal head in high school, and still sometimes revert back to the Old School stuff, like Judas Priest, Dio, Accept, and others of that ilk, especially in the car. But the scene has changed since then, and most “modern” heavy metal leaves me completely cold–too many tattoos, too little musicianship, and above all else too little <em>fun</em>. Metal is supposed to be about being horny, dumb, and pissed off, dammit. And if there’s a dragon or two in there, that’s cool too. And now, finally, The Darkness has arrived with <em><a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=2418622&selectedItemId=2417386">Permission to Land</a></em> [Link opens in iTunes]. Yes, yes, yes, this is what it’s all about. Crunchy gee-tars, falsetto singing and embarrassing lyrics like:Can’t explain all the feelingsthat you’re making me feelMy heart’s in overdriveand you’re behind the steering wheelFricking brilliant is what that is. So break out the spandex, crack open a lager, and turn it up to eleven. Permission granted!</p>
Barely a yankee2004-02-21T07:24:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/barely-a-yankee/
<p>Fun quiz to determine whether you have a <a href="http://www.chuckchamblee.com/dom/fun/yankee_dixie_quiz.htm">Yankee or Dixie</a> dialect.</p>
<p>My result: <em>44% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category</em>. Heh. Guess those years in Louisiana are still haunting my speech.</p>
<p>That’s it, y’all…</p>
The BSDs have it as secure servers2004-02-21T07:06:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/the-bsds-have-it-as-secure-servers/
<p><a href="http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news_item.cfm?NewsID=7980">A study</a> by security firm <a href="http://www.mi2g.net/">mi2g</a> auditing “17.074 successful digital attacks against servers and networks” finds that Linux is the most breached server operating system, while BSD and Mac OS X Server suffered the fewest intrusions. The article does not clarify what is meant by “BSD”–FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or all of the above?</p>
<p>Does this mean that Linux is inherently insecure? No, it simply means that securing systems is <em>hard work</em>.</p>
William Gibson interview2004-02-21T03:38:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/william-gibson-interview/
<p>Interesting but short interview with William Gibson at <em><a href="http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/7969094.htm">The Philadelphia Enquirer</a></em>. [Edit Sept. 26, 2013: Like most newspapers, the Philly Enquirer breaks links with wild abandon, so this one no longer works.]</p>
<p>I’ve been a massive Gibson fan-boy ever since <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441569595/qid=1077302624/sr=2-1/ref=sr21/102-0784912-2520956">Neuromancer</a></em> completely shattered my head during my formative years. Heck, I’m even dork enough that I keep naming my computers after characters and objects in his books.</p>
<p>The fun paradox with Gibson is that he prophesied all this grungy tech, even coining the term “cyberspace,” but is a completely non-technical person. Or perhaps that’s not a paradox, but the source of his strength–he envisions <em>society</em>, not technology, and fits in whatever technology resonates with that vision of society. Not being technological allows him to remain unfettered by the realities of the current state of tech. In an older interview,</p>
<p>Gibson talked about having a problem with his Mac, calling Apple Care, and having the tech explain to him how hard drives work. Gibson was quite bummed out–he’d had this idea of some kind of crystal doing magic things, and a bunch of spinning platters with a rust coating was a big let-down.</p>
<p>I’m personally really bummed that cyberpunk as a literary genre has flamed out, or perhaps been assimilated into the mainstream of sci-fi and thus been diluted. The real value of cyberpunk may have been to inject life into the horrible stagnated sci-fi scene of the time.</p>
<p>If for some reason you’ve managed to go through your days without a good inoculation of dystopia, here’s a highly subjective and woefully incomplete Canon of Cyberpunk:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441569595/qid=1077302624/sr=2-1/ref=sr21/102-0784912-2520956">Neuromancer</a></em>, of course. Along with the rest of Gibson’s work.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553380958/ref=pdbxgytext1/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance&s=books&st=">Snow Crash</a></em>, by Neal Stephenson. Came out at the end of the movement, and sort of encapsulates it. Stephenson isn’t all that dystopic, though.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441374239/ref=cmbgd/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance">Islands in the Net</a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441003702/ref=pdsbsb3/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance&s=books">Schismatrix Plus</a></em> by Bruce Sterling. Sterling is probably the hardest-edge of the cyberpunk authors when it comes to technology, and he crams his novels shock full of ideas. His prose is far less stylish than Gibson, though.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055325555X/qid=1077317156/sr=12-1/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance&s=books">When Gravity Fails</a></em>, by George Effinger. All the hardcore elements of the genre with the interesting twist of taking place in an Arab country.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441533825/qid=1077317512/sr=1-1/ref=sr11/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance&s=books">Mirroshades</a></em>, edited by Bruce Sterling. Very nice anthology of short stories by the movers and shakers in the genre.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812510968/qid=1077317644/sr=1-1/ref=sr11/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance&s=books">Halo</a></em>, by Tom Maddox. <em>Halo</em> diverges a bit from the classic formula, but stays in the general mindset of the movement.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>To delve further into the cyberpunk world view and the sources that highly influenced the scene, the following proto-cyberpunk novels make excellent reading:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1889307033/qid=1077304213/sr=1-1/ref=sr11/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance&s=books">The Atrocity Exhibition</a></em>, by J.G. Ballard. An incredibly rich and hallucinatory book that stands all by itself as its own genre. The sensibilities are pure cyberpunk, though. Be warned that it is in places quite dense. Try to find an annotated edition.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451524934/ref=cmbgd/102-0784912-2520956?v=glance">1984</a></em>, by George Orwell. No cyberpunk collection is complete without the granddaddy of technological dystopia. If you haven’t read it since high school, it’s eminently worth picking up again. After you read it, watch some C-SPAN…</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140188592/qid=1077304425/sr=2-2/ref=sr22/102-0784912-2520956">Gravity’s Rainbow</a></em>, by Thomas Pynchon. This is <em>the</em> seminal proto-cyberpunk novel. A huge influence on all the cyberpunk authors. Be aware that you will have to read it at least twice to have any idea what is going on, but it’s well worth it, as Pynchon’s prose is in places arguably some of the finest ever produced in the English language. (I may get viciously pummeled by goons from English departments across the world for such a statement, but hey, that’s life on the edge.)</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>That should do it for a good starter kit. Later on, I’ll put together a list of recommended background music.</p>
Ads in RSS2004-02-20T08:30:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/ads-in-rss/
<p>First sighting of ads in RSS comes to us courtesy of <a href="http://www.macminute.com/">MacMinute</a>’s <a href="http://www.macminute.com/headlines.xml">RSS feed</a>. It’s a text-only small footer for <a href="http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/">WWDC 2004</a>. Not bad at all, really, especially since it’s a text-only ad which doesn’t increase bandwidth usage all that much.</p>
<p>If you run an ad-supported site, adding ads to the feeds is definitely something worth experimenting with, so this will probably become more prevalent as time progresses and RSS feeds move from the murky depths of the web development geeks on to the radar of sales management.</p>
More on ApplePMU::PMU Forced Shutdown2004-02-19T05:03:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/more-on-applepmupmu-forced-shutdown/
<p>Still getting a trickle of hits from people googling for info on the ApplePMU::PMU Forced Shutdown message that sometimes shows up during a single-user boot of a Mac OS X system.</p>
<p>From some informal tinkering around, it seems like the issue is caused either by a PMU (Power Management Unit) that’s getting itself into a confused state, or–and this is probably a more likely candidate–dirty power. Any input from readers who’ve found a more definite cause is definitely welcomed. Please use the comments or trackbacks to report the results of your investigations.</p>
<p>Note that in and of itself, the ApplePMU::PMU Forced Shutdown message <em>does not necessarily mean that anything is going wrong with the affected system.</em> For peace of mind, you may want to reset your PMU. Please refer to <a href="http://www.info.apple.com/">Apple’s Knowledge Base</a> for instructions on how to do this on different Mac models.</p>
Dumb GUI awards winner2004-02-18T13:09:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/dumb-gui-awards-winner/
<p>Since we’re paying the .Mac tax here at The Core Dump anyway, and <a href="http://www.networkassociates.com/us/products/mcafee/antivirus/desktop/virex.htm">Virex</a> is one of the benefits Apple gives us, every once in a while the spirit will move us to run Virex on our files. This despite being pretty gosh-dang sure we don’t have a virus, what with living on a Mac. But what the heck, Virex is ours due to the aforementioned .Mac tax, so why not run it when the computer isn’t busy doing other things? One can never be too thin, too rich, or too paranoid.</p>
<p>Virex does it’s thing, and then at the end spits out a message that one of the files may have a virus. OK. Sure. It could happen. But which file? Virex won’t tell us.</p>
<p>Hello? Knowing which file might have a virus is kind of the purpose of running Virex in the first place. So it might–just might–be a good idea for this brain dead application to tell us which file may be a carrier of anarchy, might it not?</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>
Blogging about blogging2004-02-17T14:13:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/blogging-about-blogging/
<p>Blogging has been gaining visibility in business lately with prominent coverage at both<a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/"> ETech 2004</a> and <a href="http://www.demo.com/demo/">DEMO 2004</a>. Naturally the blogosphere (especially the bloggers speaking at and attending the conferences) have been talking a lot about blogging as well. This page provides a good starting point for <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/et2004/">blog coverage of ETech 2004</a>, and <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1528130,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594">this eWeek article</a> has a good summary of the goings-on at the first day of DEMO 2004.</p>
<p>To crudely summarize a lot of the writing that’s been hitting the blogosphere, there are two major points: 1) Blogging is a revolution; and 2) Companies have to start blogging.</p>
<p>We’re pretty good about smelling hype here at <em>The Core Dump</em>, and boy are our olfactory glands going off. Basically we don’t disagree with the basic concepts, i.e., that blogging is somehow <em>important</em>, and that companies need to change the way they’re communicating with their customers, but the word <em>revolution</em> seems way too strong.</p>
<p>The nascent interest in blogging from a corporate perspective is most likely the highly predictable backlash to the way companies have been interfacing over the last few decades with the media, and through the media with their customers. This communication mostly takes the shape of a robotic PR flack saying, with an assuring smile, “We didn’t dump Agent Orange in the drinking water. Trust us.” This after there’s endless evidence to prove that the company did indeed dump Agent Orange in the drinking water.</p>
<p>Needless to say, a lot of people no longer trust the robotic PR flacks, and by extension don’t trust the companies themselves. [Note: It would be easy to go off on a rant about Enron, WorldCom, et al. at this point, but your minds are already there, so please insert your own highly personal rant here and save us the carpal tunnel syndrome.]</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.cluetrain.com/">The Cluetrain Manifesto</a></em> was perhaps the first sign of this backlash. The entire book is available for free from the above link, and should be considered required reading for anybody doing corporate PR or marketing. Essentially, the Manifesto says that customers are people, and want to be talked to as such. Seems a touch trivial perhaps, but it’s still news to certain companies.</p>
<p>So what do companies gain from having their employees start blogging? A human face, and a conversation. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">Robert Scoble</a>, who’s taken upon himself the task of giving Microsoft a human face.</p>
<p>So far so good. But the thing we have to take issue with here is that blogging is somehow revolutionary. It’s not. It’s evolutionary. We’ve had blogs since the web began, or even before that if you include <a href="http://www.cse.ogi.edu/CFST/tut/pico/plan.html">.plan files</a>. (Basically a .plan file is a text file a user can put in her home directory, and other people can read it and see what she is up to. Always remember that the whole idea with TCP/IP was to allow people to communicate with other people <em>through computers</em>.) What’s changed lately is that software has evolved to the point where now pretty much anybody can get an account at sites like Typepad or LiveJournal and start blogging without having to worry about any of the technical issues involved with setting up a website or learning HTML.</p>
<p>This democratization is of course a good thing. While it means that there are a lot of blogs about what somebody ate for supper and what a bitch their best friend turned out to be, it also means that new and interesting voices will be out there. This is very much a fair trade–it’s not like we’re running out of room on the Internet.</p>
<p>So calling blogging “revolutionary” may be a bit disingenuous, but it certainly is a good evolution. Blogs are here to stay. The $64 question at this point is if businesses will be able to put blogs to good use and if they will be able to resist the temptation to turn their bloggers into robotic PR flacks, and by doing so reducing the value of that person’s blog to a frequently-updated press release. Only time will tell.</p>
John Kerry--referrer spammer2004-02-15T06:01:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/john-kerry-referrer-spammer/
<p>Been getting some referrer spam from the <a href="http://blog.johnkerry.com/">John Kerry for President blog</a>. Not cool, guys, not cool at all.</p>
See download speed in Safari2004-02-14T00:36:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/see-download-speed-in-safari/
<p>One major annoyance in the latest version of Safari (v125) is that the download window shows time remaining for the download instead of the connection speed. And we simply must see the download speed…</p>
<p>Mac OSX Hints <a href="http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040206200832278">to the rescue</a>: Option-click the item in the download window, and the display toggles to download speed instead of time remaining.</p>
<p>A quick perusal of com.apple.safari.plist doesn’t reveal any obvious places to change the default of this behavior.</p>
Welcome MacSurfer visitors2004-02-13T01:53:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/welcome-macsurfer-visitors/
<p>My post about <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/headless-imac-when-pigs-fly/">why Apple will not release a headless iMac</a> got picked up by <a href="http://www.macsurfer.com/">MacSurfer</a>. Excellent.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Also getting a goodly amount of traffic from being mentioned on <a href="http://www.myapplemenu.com/">MyAppleMenu</a>. Even more excellent.</p>
The carrot and the stick2004-02-13T00:32:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/the-carrot-and-the-stick/
<p>There was a thread on a mailing list where a person was complaining about slow turn around on tech support emails from a certain company which shall remain nameless here. This response is pretty intriguing:A friend of mine who works on the web team was complaining he wasn’t gettingany bonuses because he takes the support tickets in the order they are generated. Apparently most techs farm through and pick the easy tickets to bring their numbers up (for cash bonuses), and leave the more difficult or time-consuming request for other people. Basically, if it isn’t a 5 second fix it’s gonna sit there awhile.Nice to see that the cash bonuses are generating a true team spirit, isn’t it?This kind of system where a non-appropriate metric is put in place is also why when calling certain companies’ tech support lines you’ll be “accidentally” disconnected a lot. The techs are gauged based on their average call times, so by “accidentally” being disconnected from the caller, the techs will bring down their call times and thus look better to their managers.The only true way to gauge the performance of support techs is to pour over the call or email logs to find out which issues they were facing and how they solved them. But that’s qualitative research, which doesn’t break down into nice charts in PowerPoint, and further requires that the managers <em>know how to do the jobs of the people they are supervising</em>. Qualitative research like that is also very time <a href="http://consuming.so/">consuming.So</a> companies will keep using artificial quantitative metrics which break down nicely into charts and reports. Sure, they’re measuring the wrong thing, but look at that chart! Woohoo! Call times are down 14%! The team rocks!Incidentally, if you find that you keep getting “accidentally” disconnected no matter which company you’re calling, it’s because you’re a complete pain in the neck, and the techs are “accidentally” disconnecting you hoping you’ll call back again and get another tech out of the pool. This way they can live in the hope that they won’t have to deal with you any more. Of course you’ll be even more of a pain in the neck after being disconnected, but that’s hardly a problem for the tech who disconnected you, now is it?</p>
Virginia Tech G5s on sale2004-02-12T23:23:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/virginia-tech-g5s-on-sale/
<p>MacMall is <a href="http://www.macmall.com/macmall/families/new.asp?dp=386316&family=powermac_g5">selling the G5s</a> coming off the Virginia Tech cluster to make room for Xserves. If I were in the market for a new machine, it would be tempting to own a piece of this history.</p>
<p>Plus you know they’ve been burned in really well…</p>
Die Windows Update, die, die, die2004-02-12T02:19:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/die-windows-update-die-die-die/
<p>After the latest <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-7355-5156647.html">oopsie revelations</a> from Microsoft, I spent some quality time with Windows Update. Did monkeys design this thing? I’m too disgusted right now to get into a play-by-play of the brainlessness of this foul fiend from the abyss, but suffice it to say that it stands as a stellar example of creating an app that lets the user perform the task, yet at the same time manages to make it as convoluted and non-intuitive as possible.</p>
<p>For the love of your market share, put in a freaking check box that says “Get all updates.” Not just the critical updates, or the not-so-critical updates, or the driver updates, or whatever, but just let me get them <em>all</em> without clicking around like I get paid by the click.</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>
Headless iMac: When pigs fly2004-02-12T02:02:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/headless-imac-when-pigs-fly/
<p>Alex Salkever in his <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2004/tc20040211_3953_tc056.htm">latest</a> <em>Byte of the Apple</em> column, discusses the slowing sales of iMacs. His recommendation: Sell a headless iMac so that people can marry the iMac with their own choice of monitor. This will presumably make the iMac more price-competitive with PCs.</p>
<p>I just don’t know why people keep bringing this up. A headless iMac is not going to happen. I’ve met so many people who bought the iMac <em>because</em> it’s integrated. For the less tech-savvy users out there, being told that “all you have to do is plug in the keyboard and mouse and put the plug in the wall” is pure bliss. Even something as seemingly simple as picking a monitor and plugging it in adds complexity. Which monitor will work the best with the iMac? Where do I want to buy it? Do you sell that monitor here?</p>
<p>Also, the integration of the display on the iMac is simply drop-dead gorgeous. It’s still mind-boggling that so many hardware companies out there do not understand that for consumer hardware, looks are important. Computers that get sold to companies are often purchased by bean counters who want the best value for money, and the product design be damned. Not so for consumer hardware.</p>
<p>Apple already created a headless iMac. Remember? It was called the <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43104">Cube</a>. It flopped. So Apple’s been there, done that.</p>
<p>Why are the sales of iMacs slowing down? I’d say the reason would be called G5. If you have any sense of the industry, you’re holding off on buying until the iMac gets the G5 inside it.</p>
<p>Another reason may be simple market saturation. Sure, some switchers got in on the iMac action, but I’d be willing to bet good money that most purchasers were upgrading their aging original iMacs, and those people don’t buy computers that often.</p>
The chicken or the egg2004-02-11T12:39:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/the-chicken-or-the-egg/
<p>Lately it seems that either the junk filter in Mail.app is getting seriously more stupid, or the spammers are getting smarter. While it still flags most junk, some really obvious spams (to a human) sneak past its tiny robo-brain.</p>
<p>I very much hope it’s the junk filter in Mail.app that’s developing dementia. This planet so doesn’t need for the spammers to get smarter.</p>
It’s about freaking time2004-02-11T08:33:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/its-about-freaking-time/
<p>The greedy scumsuckers at Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox have finally <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1523801,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532">announced</a> that a “boxed set of the original <em>Star Wars</em> trilogy” will be released on DVD in September. Of course it will be the remixes, not the originals, which makes me a bit disappointed. Not that I hate the remixes, but dammit, the originals were the ones that totally and completely blew me away back in the day, and cranking up the special effects really didn’t do that much for the movies <em>as movies</em>. It was okay that some of the original special effects were starting to show their age. Those were the movies I remembered.</p>
<p>Still, there you go. DVDs. Finally. And I’m sure Lucas will enjoy the huge wad of cash.</p>
Top 10 reasons to not shop online2004-02-11T04:58:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/top-10-reasons-to-not-shop-online/
<p>Another <a href="http://www.asktog.com/columns/062top10ReasonsToNotShop.html">great article</a> on Ask Tog discussing the various flaws in online ordering systems and how those flaws can keep customers away.</p>
<p>The examples are great eye-openers, and the article should be required reading for anybody setting up a commerce site.</p>
<p>Probably the most important one is the teasing for price that goes on. You see this one all the time on software sites. Product info page shows you the operating system requirements, some screen shots, and a bunch of marketing blah blah which only shows that the company’s marketers have the foggiest of notions about what sets their product apart from the competition. And then you have to click on the <em>Buy now</em> link to be routed to some other site and hopefully find out how much the darn thing even costs. Price matters everywhere, but especially online. Don’t hide that price tag.</p>
<p>On the topic of marketing speak, if you’re selling a complex product, pay the extra money to find people who actually understand that product to put together your marketing literature. And then take away their donut privileges for one week each time they throw in an extraneous buzz-word.</p>
Keep watching the stars2004-02-10T09:27:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/keep-watching-the-stars/
<p>Oh, happy day. My <a href="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/index.html">SETI</a> crunching has reached 3,000 completed work units.<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/seti3000.jpg" alt="Seti 3,000 work units" />My SETI experience started on a PII 400, which was acting as a Linux file server and firewall/router back in the day, then moved to its present home on <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43103">Temeryx</a>, my current file and database server. Temeryx is a G4/450, which has been sitting quietly in the corner under my desk munching on work units without any problems for several years.SETI has gone out of vogue a bit, what with other worthy causes competing for spare cycles, but being a huge Sci-Fi nerd, it’s near and dear to my heart.On this topic, if you have a box that sits on all day wasting cycles, please sign up for one of the projects out there and do something good for humanity with your otherwise unused processing power.Music: “The Thin Wall” by <a href="https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=Ultravox">Ultravox</a> [Opens in iTunes]</p>
A quick comparison of Gnome and KDE2004-02-10T06:09:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/a-quick-comparison-of-gnome-and-kde/
<p>With the Fink people making it easy (for some definition of easy) to get both <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">Gnome</a> and <a href="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</a> installed on Mac OS X, here are some random thoughts about using them.- Gnome feels faster than KDE, both for launching the environment and for launching apps.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>KDE comes with a boat-load of small apps, many more than Gnome. For a basic office-type workstation, KDE comes with batteries included.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Both Gnome and KDE come with some nice-looking themes. For KDE, Plastik looks really nice and unobtrusive. It’s too bad Red Hat doesn’t want the Gnome crew to be able to distribute Wonderland, aka Blue Curve, as it’s one of the nicest X11 themes I’ve ever seen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>KDE definitely has a more corporate-ish feel than Gnome. While both of them are, let’s face it, Windows knock-offs, KDE takes it to a higher level. Gnome feels more homey, at least to me.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>KDE has application-launching notification built in, in the shape of a bouncing icon attached to the mouse pointer. Good idea, terrible implementation.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The default fonts in KDE are an atrocity against humanity. Oh, they hurt!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Since Gnome and KDE can coexist, there’s very little reason, except for purity, to only install one. Hard drives are cheap. Fill ‘er up.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In conclusion, it’s very rewarding to see the strides both projects are taking, becoming more mature and usable by leaps and bounds.</p>
Keeping your GUI street2004-02-10T04:55:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/keeping-your-gui-street/
<p>The folks at Unsanity have announced <a href="http://www.unsanity.com/contest/">the winners of their theming contest</a>. Yikes. Seeing those screenshots makes you appreciate how great Aqua actually looks. Not that the themes on the page are hideous or anything, but when compared with the <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/aqua/">One True GUI</a>, they really don’t hold a candle.</p>
<p>I hasten to add here that I’m not by any means a UI prude–hey, I ran Kaleidoscope back in my younger, wilder days, and have wasted entirely too much time clicking through the different themes in Gnome and KDE. At the same time, Aqua is just so good that I’ve never felt any draw to mod it–this is as close to perfection as a look can come, so why mess with it?</p>
Spammer shows creativity2004-02-10T04:01:38Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/spammer-shows-creativity/
<p>OK, bonus points for creativity for the spammer who sent the email with the subject title “Re: maynard embroil.” At first glance, it seemed like a dictionary randomizer came up with that little piece of weirdness, but maynard isn’t in the dictionary, so perhaps it’s actually a demented person on the other end?</p>
KOffice fails install2004-02-09T08:56:00Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/koffice-fails-install/
<p>Yes, we’re 24 hours in, and the KDE install saga is still ongoing. Doing huge builds like this really makes you appreciate how smoothly the multitasking in OS X works. Especially on a dual-processor machine, you hardly feel the machine load at all while doing other things on the system as Fink works.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, KOffice fails to build due to the usual cryptic Fink weirdness. As I’m not really interested in KOffice at all, ended up deleting it as a dependency from the <a href="http://bundle-kde-ssl.info/">bundle-kde-ssl.info</a> file, and it looks like the build is close to coming to an end.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Quanta fails to build, too.</p>
Fink goes defeatist2004-02-08T07:39:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/fink-goes-defeatist/
<p><a href="http://fink.sourceforge.net/">Fink</a>, cool as it is, has a definite defeatist attitude. After a certain number of source downloads have failed, forcing you to “Retry using another mirror,” “Retry using next mirror set,” and those kinds of things, it goes into what can only be called Defeatist Mode. As soon as a download fails, the default answer becomes “Give up.”</p>
<p>No, I’m not giving up. And I’m not particularly appreciating you making me pick a number instead of just hitting return, or even better to just keep trucking on your own. I want you to sit there till the sun goes super nova and try to download sources without my having to type the mighty number 4, <em>that’s</em> what I want.</p>
<p>I tell you, those computers are getting uppity and lazy, that’s what’s happening.</p>
Stress test that rig2004-02-08T07:29:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/stress-test-that-rig/
<p>Just when it seemed safe to use Gnome, Ranger Rick announces <a href="http://ranger.befunk.com/blog/archives/000333.html">the fruits of his labors to port KDE over</a> to the Mac. It’s Saturday, so what the heck, let’s paint the town red, right?fink install bundle-kde-ssl produces the following output:<code>The following package will be installed or updated:bundle-kde-sslThe following 228 additional packages will be installed:amor ark arts arts-dev arts-shlibs atlantik automake1.6 automake1.8 cervisia dcoprss docbook-bundle docbook-dsssl-ldp ekg-ssl ekg-ssl-shlibs flashkard flex-devel fribidi fribidi-dev fribidi-shlibs glut glut-shlibs gnupg help2man imagemagick kaddressbook kalarm kalzium kandy kapptemplate karbon karm kasteroids katomic kbabel kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch kbugbuster kcachegrind kcalc kcharselect kchart kcoloredit kde-extra-screensavers kde-extra-sounds kde-extra-themes kde-extra-wallpapers kde-icons-classic kde-icons-ikons kde-icons-kids kde-icons-locolor kde-icons-slick kde-icons-technical kde-kfile-image-plugins kde-panel-eyes kde-panel-fifteen kde-panel-worldwatch kdeaccounts-plugin kdeartwork3 kdeartwork3-base kdebase3-ssl kdebase3-ssl-dev kdebase3-ssl-shlibs kdeedu3 kdeedu3-base kdeedu3-common kdegames3 kdegames3-base kdegames3-common kdegraphics3 kdegraphics3-base kdelibs3-ssl kdelibs3-ssl-dev kdelibs3-ssl-shlibs kdenetwork3 kdenetwork3-base kdenetwork3-misc kdepasswd kdepim3 kdepim3-base kdepim3-common kdesdk3 kdesdk3-base kdesdk3-extra-kfile-plugins kdesdk3-scripts kdessh kdetoys3 kdetoys3-base kdeutils3 kdeutils3-base kdf kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfloppy kformula kfouleggs kgamma kget kghostview kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kiten kivio kjots kjumpingcube klettres klickety klines kmahjongg kmail kmessedwords kmines kmoon kmplot kmrml knewsticker knode knotes kodo koffice koffice-base koffice-common kolf kompare konquest kontact kooka kopete korganizer korn kpaint kpat kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler kpresenter krdc kregexpeditor kreversi krfb kruler ksame kshisen ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksnake ksnapshot ksokoban kspaceduel kspread kspy kstars ksvg ksync ktalk kteatime ktimer ktnef ktouch ktron ktuberling ktux kugar kuickshow kuiviewer kverbos kview kvoctrain kwalletmanager kweather kwikdisk kwin4 kword kworldclock kworldclock-maps lesstif lesstif-shlibs libcapsinetwork libcapsinetwork-dev libidn libidn-shlibs libmal libmal-shlibs libmath++ libmath++-dev libusb libusb-shlibs lisa lskat net-snmp-ssl-dev openmotif3 openmotif3-shlibs openslp-ssl-dev openslp-ssl-shlibs openssl097 pcre pcre-bin pcre-shlibs pilot-link9 pilot-link9-shlibs poxml qt3 qt3-designer qt3-doc qt3-linguist qt3-shlibs quanta sane-backends sane-backends-shlibs scheck umbrello wv2 wv2-shlibs xfontpath xpdfDo you want to continue? [Y/n] </code>_Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?_Music: Stream from <a href="http://somafm.com/">Secret Agent</a>.</p>
The scary mug shot2004-02-07T05:21:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/the-scary-mug-shot/
<p>Trawling around the Internet reading people’s blogs and magazine columns, it struck me that it’s always nice to see a picture of the miscreant who’s responsible for whatever it is I’m reading. Guess it’s some kind of deep-seated instinct to put a face together with the voice.</p>
<p>The logical conclusion is that I should put my own mug up here in order to scare small children, etc.</p>
<p>And presto, it is done.</p>
We can see you2004-02-07T04:25:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/we-can-see-you/
<p>In yet more fallout from the <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2004/02/das-boob/">Great Super Bowl Boobie Incident</a>, TiVo subscribers are now becoming hip to the fact that their little TV best friends are <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5154219.html">constantly ratting out their viewing habits</a> by transmitting <em>everything</em> that particular subscriber watches back to the mothership, where that information is, obviously, pure crack for TV marketers.</p>
<p>TiVo defends this practice by saying that the data is not in any way tied in to a particular subscriber, but is aggregated and used that way. According to the article, TiVo has always been upfront about the fact that it collects data, which is good.</p>
<p>So it seems that people did what they do best: Not read any of the terms of the contract they’re signing.</p>
<p>Here’s the news flash: Your TiVo watches you. If you have digital cable, your cable company logs what you watch. When you go online, every web site you hit logs your presence. Every email you send goes through a mail server where it can be read. Every phone call you make is logged. Every credit card transaction you make is logged. Every time you go to the mall or the gas station, your picture is taken. Every time you check a book out from the library, it is logged.</p>
<p>Unless you go through extraordinary measures, you essentially have no privacy. Unless you vote with your dollar by only doing business with companies that have strong privacy statements and <em>actually live up to them</em>, this will not change. If anything, your privacy will erode more and more every day.</p>
<p>Have a nice day!</p>
Lucida is fabulous2004-02-06T23:08:29Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/lucida-is-fabulous/
<p>My latest font obsession came from the strangest of places–the system menu. Mac OS X uses Lucida Grande for its menus, and the font has been growing on me for a long time, until at this point it is hands-down my preferred font for any kind of text consumption or creation.</p>
<p>Alas, when working on a web page or building my secret lair in Xcode, a mono-spaced font is a necessity. Fortunately, Apple’s got your back with Grande’s street-smart brother Lucida Sans Typewriter, also included in OS X.</p>
<p>Here’s a sample of what they look like, for those of you who are operating system impaired: <img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lucida_sample.jpg" alt="Meet the Lucidas" /></p>
<p>I also just can’t get enough of the anti-aliasing in Panther. It’s at the point where when I work on a Windows XP box or in Linux, the poor text handling really scratches at my eyeballs.</p>
Teeth red, not blue2004-02-06T05:46:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/teeth-red-not-blue/
<p>A new version of Bluetooth showed up today in the little font of happiness Apple calls Software Update. After applying it, your conforming computer can use Bluetooth headsets and print to Bluetooth printers. This is very nice. But it’s not what I wanted.</p>
<p>What I’d love to see is a way to turn the mac <em>into</em> a Bluetooth headset. Why, you ask? So I can answer the phone on the mac itself, and use its microphone and speakers for the conversation. Basically I’m talking about the same setup as some car manufacturers have, where you dial the phone through an interface provided by the car, then use the car stereo to hear the caller and some kind of microphone to talk back.</p>
<p>Looks like I’m going to have to pay the early adopter tax at some point here to replace the now-obsolete D-Link DWB-120M with the model Apple now requires for everything but the simplest one-to-one connections. I should probably start a class-action lawsuit.</p>
Geeks with torches and pitchforks2004-02-06T05:20:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/geeks-with-torches-and-pitchforks/
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/05VIRU.html">Fun article</a> in the Gray Lady (free registration required) about how geeks are becoming increasingly frustrated with, ahem, <em>naive</em> users spreading viruses and trojans by their refusal to use the most basic forms of common sense in their computing, and then calling on their geek friends to help save them from the ensuing chaos.</p>
<p>This article really pushes a button for me. It used to be one thing when a person’s cluelessness would only hurt themselves, but now that we have teh intarweb, these peoples’ mistakes are everyone’s problem.</p>
<p>The fact that most people have absolutely no idea what they’re doing with their computers is one thing. There are people who will be happy to take their money in exchange for fixing whatever broke on their rigs.</p>
<p>But the fact that we’re all sharing a common through the Internet and being a cluebird means that you’re pissing in the commons, indicates that something has to be done. I wish I knew what, but it’s clear that something does have to be done. Education has failed miserably. Technological solutions like anti-virus software are making some dents, but still depend on people actually updating them. And some people simply will not, <em>ever</em>, learn.</p>
<p>From having spent my time in the trenches, both a system administrator (i.e., “digital janitor”) and tech support specialist (i.e., “punching bag for idiots”), the only thing I can say with any certainty is that there are people out there who should not be allowed to operate computers. Not under any circumstances.</p>
<p>The most common thing you hear, and it’s well echoed in the article, is that “computers are too hard to use.” And this is true. There is a definite learning curve to using a computer, not to mention fixing it. That’s the point here: people who are merrily clicking on attachments and responding to spams are failing at <em>basic computer operation</em>, not at fixing their computers. Certainly most people shouldn’t have to learn how to reinstall their OS or clean out their registry. Again, there are people who will be happy to take your money to perform that service for you if you don’t wish to learn how to do it yourself. But you can’t hire somebody to stand over your shoulder and say “Nononono! Don’t click on that.”</p>
<p>Computers are harder to use than they should be. But let’s face it, driving a car is also quite difficult at first, but people nevertheless learn to do it well enough to get a driver’s license. (Not that there aren’t people out there on the roads who should have that license taken from them.) The point of the analogy here is that you can learn, and at this point <em>have to learn</em> at least enough to use common sense.</p>
Email that photo2004-02-05T00:04:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/email-that-photo/
<p>One of my favorite things on the Internet is network edge applications. That is, when a web site aggregates data from its users and does interesting things with it. Found a new one today, which might have been out there for a while but slipped below my radar: <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=1756&pg=1&cap=1">Most emailed photos</a>.</p>
<p>This is a Yahoo! service which, as the title implies, aggregates the currently most emailed photos and serves them up in easily digestible format. Nothing earth-shattering, but glimpses into the collective unconscious are always fun and instructive.</p>
<p>Yahoo! are pretty tight-lipped about how this actually works, but it seems likely that the service checks photos that are attached to Yahoo! emails and updates its database from that.</p>
<p>As an added bonus, if you suffer from the same dashboard addiction as I, you can add it to your my.yahoo page.</p>
Building a GNU autoconf static library2004-02-04T05:49:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/building-a-gnu-autoconf-static-library/
<p>[Putting this up here so I can find it for future reference.]To build a GNU autoconf-based tool into a static library on Mac OS X:./configure –disable-shared –enable-static(add –prefix=/wherever/you/want to install in a non-standard location)sudo make install (You obviously don’t have to sudo if you’re installing into a directory your user has privileges for.)Note that SmartyPants is turning double-hyphens into em-dashes. Be careful if you copy and paste.This will build a static library for easy inclusion into interesting Xcode projects.</p>
Das boob2004-02-04T03:08:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/das-boob/
<p>Unless you’ve been living in a spider hole for the last few days, you’ve been inundated with the fallout from the Great Super Bowl Boobie Incident (GSBBI). A couple of things are very interesting about GSBBI:1. Janet is apparently working nights as Locutus of Borg. That is one wicked-looking implant she’s got going on right there. You go girl.<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/lob.gif" alt="Locutus of Borg" /></p>
<ol start="2">
<li>
<p>The sight of boobies will apparently scar some people’s children for life.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Those same people have the opportunity to take the time out of their busy lives to complain loudly and indignantly to anybody who will listen about the horrible scarring of their children.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Having performers allude to sex acts in speech and dancing is, for some reason, wholesome family entertainment. A glimpse at a female body part, on the other hand, is Evil.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>No, I don’t understand it either.Music: “The Rafters” by <a href="https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=Moby">Moby</a> [Opens in iTunes]</p>
Snorting Cocoa2004-02-03T13:29:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/snorting-cocoa/
<p>Spending some time tonight getting my hands dirty with <a href="http://developer.apple.com/cocoa/">Cocoa</a>. Takes some time to change your habits from Java and Python, especially when it comes to memory management.</p>
<p>Wax on, wax off … retain, release. Wax on, wax off … retain, release.</p>
The first Unix virus2004-02-03T06:49:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/the-first-unix-virus/
<p>Just saw this in my inbox and thought it was kind of cute:</p>
<p>YOU HAVE NOW RECEIVED THE UNIX VIRUS</p>
<p>This virus works on the honor system:</p>
<p>If you’re running a variant of Unix or Linux, please forward thismessage to everyone you know and delete a bunch of your files atrandom.</p>
Boohbah ... Boohbah2004-02-03T01:09:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/boohbah-boohbah/
<p>There was an exciting change in the lineup of children’s programming at PBS a few weeks ago, when the Teletubbies were moved from their oh-seven-hundred hours slot and were replaced by <a href="http://pbskids.org/boohbah/boohbah.html">Boohbah</a>. If you think the Teletubbies were trippy, you’re in for a surprise. As an adult operating in pre-caffeine mode, this show can seriously leave you slack-jawed and drooling. There’s no way this can be anything but a huge hit with the dorm room stoner crowd.</p>
<p>Here’s a <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/0202boobah.html">nice article</a> about the show and the child psychology thinking that went into it.</p>
The pain, the pain2004-02-01T10:44:31Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/the-pain-the-pain/
<p>All the cool kids are doing linkblogs these days, and it seems like a pretty good idea to me, so I decided to create one today. Little did I know that decision would take me down a road of madness and agony…</p>
<p>To make a very long and painful story short, something is going very wrongly indeed with my Movable Type installation. The main issue is that it refuses to update itself. Which is not good.</p>
<p>Also, as part of the linkblog exercise, I had to sprinkle some PHP in my index file. Which made it not show up. Nothing came down the wire. Zilch, zippo, nada. But PHP works just fine on the server. So it came down to reducing the HTML until the error reared its nasty head. Turns out the culprit was the <a href="http://www.hiveware.com/enkoder_form.php">Hiveware Enkoder</a>, which has been doing faithful duty on this page for a long time now obfuscating my email address from the evil spammers. Guess the PHP interpreter got one look at the hairy mess the Enkoder turns your email address into and went into convulsions right there on the spot. I’ll probably do a longer write-up later on some of the issues I encountered today, but the main thing is that I have my linkblog up and running. Yes indeedy. The links show up in the sidebar on the main blog, and there’s a full archive, including RSS support, at the LinkFest. This will be cool.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Acting on a tip from Joe that the Enkoder works just fine and dandy on his PHP-driven site, pasted in a fresh copy and it’s working great again.</p>
Tinkering2004-02-01T05:55:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/02/tinkering/
<p>Things may be a touch weird for a little while here. Working on new functionality for the site.</p>
DJ this ... or not, perhaps2004-01-31T11:19:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/dj-this-or-not-perhaps/
<p>The best laugh I’ve had all day came from <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040130/index.html">Tom’s Hardware’s review of the Dell DJ</a>. Ehrm. Actually, I think it’s supposed to be written: “DahDahDahDAHDAH Dell DJ.” But I could be wrong.</p>
<p>The suckfest our anonymous reviewer goes through to get this thing to … well, <em>work</em>, is amazing. Seriously, how do you release a product like that with a straight face?</p>
<p>For readers out there who haven’t been keeping track of the PC universe, <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/">Tom’s Hardware</a> together with <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/">AnandTech</a> are two of the largest and most respected independent PC hardware review sites on the net.</p>
Spam flooded2004-01-31T03:07:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/spam-flooded/
<p>Woke up this morning to find that TheCoreDump had been comment spam flooded–one comment for each entry, all exactly identical, pointing to some online casino I won’t name.</p>
<p>Took about half an hour to wipe the junk comments off the system. As they all came from the same IP address, I thought about deleting them through straight SQL calls, but since I don’t really know anything about the internals of MT, decided to take the safe route and manually delete them. That sucked. Let’s hope MT 3.0 will have some more efficient ways of getting rid of spam floods.</p>
<p>This definitely looks like the work of a script, as it managed about ten comment posts per minute, which is about as fast as you can make MT take them. Guess I’m going to have to reconfigure my MT installation so the comment CGI is in a non-standard location.</p>
<p>I can’t even imagine what kind of crap the A-list bloggers have to go through…</p>
<p>Let’s close this out with an official death wish for the vermin who do this kind of thing: May you all die slow, horrible deaths writhing in agony. And then burn in Hell for all eternity.</p>
Apple and encryption2004-01-30T04:56:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/apple-and-encryption/
<p>Once you go through the process of setting up and getting a certificate from a certificate authority, signing and encrypting mail in Mail.app is remarkably transparent. But there are drawbacks, such as each computer you use for sending and receiving mail must have a copy of the certificate, and if you use a webmail client to access your mailbox, you cannot read or send encrypted or signed mail. Being locked out of webmail is a bother for people who use different computers in the day.</p>
<p>This could be an opportunity for Apple to deliver more value with the .Mac service: Set up a relationship with Thawte or Verisign, or even become your own certificate authority, then make the certificate registration as painless as possible. Sign up for .Mac, go through the usual setup routine, and boom, there’s your certificate.</p>
<p>After that, include the certificate in iSync to make it super easy for people to get it on to different machines, and also include it in the .Mac webmail interface.</p>
<p>All of a sudden, Apple’s way ahead of the pack in enabling painless message signing and encryption for customers around the world.</p>
The Feds on computer security2004-01-30T03:00:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/the-feds-on-computer-security/
<p>Scott Granneman has written a couple of interesting columns for SecurityFocus. In one of them, he discusses the <a href="http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/193">scary ignorance</a> Joe User has when it comes to security. The column shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody doing end-user support, but judging from the still-abysmal state of user interfaces for security tools, it’s a big surprise to the makers of anti-virus software and firewalls. And Microsoft’s Windows Update tool is still a living manifesto of how not to design end-user software.</p>
<p>You’d think that enlightened self-interest would convince a lot of people to learn enough about this stuff to lock down their own machines, but all the evidence says no. There’s a small percentage of nerds and geeks who spend the time on this stuff, and the rest of the user population, for whatever reasons, can’t be bothered. So their boxes get hacked, they keep clicking on dangerous attachments, fall for phishing scams, and in general have a thoroughly unpleasant experience on the Internet.</p>
<p>After Granneman published the column linked above, he was contacted by an FBI agent, who volunteered to give a lecture. The <a href="http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/sfonline/columnists-item.pl?id=215">account of that lecture</a> is fascinating reading. There’s a <em>lot</em> of nastiness out there.</p>
<p>Turns out that security is not so much a matter of technology. Granted, base levels of technological security, like firewalls and strong passwords, have to be in place to prevent abuses, but in the end “social engineering, coupled with greed, is the easiest way to subvert any security.”</p>
The horrors of IE2004-01-30T00:34:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/the-horrors-of-ie/
<p>As any web designer knows from bitter experience, Internet Explorer takes an, ahem, let’s just call it “unique” view on how HTML is supposed to render as compared to the rest of the known universe of web browsers, but since it has such an insanely high market share, it can not be ignored.</p>
<p>Stopdesign has a <a href="http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2004/01/26/ie_factor.html">nice write-up</a> about the trials and tribulations of working with IE. You can almost feel the gnashing of teeth as you read it.</p>
Crawling to the cross2004-01-29T12:43:51Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/crawling-to-the-cross/
<p>Looks like Apple is <a href="http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/">finally acknowledging</a> the logic board issues plaguing the iBook line. This is good news, as people can stop whining about it on the message boards now.</p>
<p>My iBook is too old to be included in the program, which is a bit of a bummer. I was kind of hoping to get a repair for <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43091">Wintermute’s</a> intermittent display problem out of it. No such luck.</p>
2,048 bits of comfort2004-01-29T03:04:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/2048-bits-of-comfort/
<p>Finally got around to setting up S/MIME encryption on my email thanks to the <a href="http://www.joar.com/certificates/">great instructions</a> at <a href="http://joar.com/">Joar.com</a>. Thanks to Joar for creating that document.</p>
<p>The Thawte site is well put together, if a bit spooky. Lots of scary exhortations about creating strong passwords, never letting anybody even know the location of those passwords, and the legal ramifications in case somebody hacks your certificates. Gulp.</p>
<p>Once you’ve gone through the scary bits and gotten a certificate, Apple ease of use takes over. Mail.app automatically sees the certificate and uses it. No configuration required.</p>
<p>This is a great step towards making encryption much less of a mirror shades phenomenon and more of something that anybody can–and should–use. Just think about it, a few minutes of pain getting a certificate, and now nobody will know the location of your secret lair or the plans for the “laser.” Mohahaha.</p>
<p>This could be an opportunity for Apple to establish itself even further in the vanguard of personal computing by building in a nice GUI front end to certificates in OS X, so that both creating and using certificates becomes available to the masses.</p>
<p>Now if I could only get my Evil Henchmen to go through the process and set up certificates of their own…</p>
Car buying from the inside2004-01-27T04:55:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/car-buying-from-the-inside/
<p>This has been out for a while, but I just stumbled across it: <a href="http://edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html">Confessions of a Car Salesman</a>, an article on <a href="http://edmunds.com/">edmunds.com</a> where they send a journalist undercover to work as a car salesman.</p>
<p>Good reading to brush up on what you need to think about when purchasing a car and the tricks of the trade that will be used against you. Really interesting to me, though, was the description of the sales seminar the reporter went to when he started to work for the “no haggle” dealership. It’s exactly the same philosophy as the training for other “low pressure” forms of sales operations I’ve heard about.</p>
<p>The whole idea of guiding the customer to the right product and getting their buy-in on the process by paraphrasing their statements back to them is a good principle both for generating decent sales volume and keeping the customer happy. However, in all sales environments it all comes down to your success depending not on how happy the customer is, or how right the purchase is for the customer, but to <em>how many sales you make</em>. When the rubber hits the road, a sales person is about the sale, not the customer. It’s always good to keep that fact in the back of your head.</p>
<p>Finally, as a lingo fan, I immensely enjoyed the <a href="http://edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/page010.html">glossary</a> of car sales person terms. Are you a mooch or a lay down?</p>
Shades2004-01-26T23:16:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/shades/
<p>Andrea got some shades this weekend, and of course looks absolutely adorable wearing them.<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/andrea_shades.jpg" alt="Andrea with shades" /></p>
<p>Her language development has jumped significantly over the last few days. It’s amazing how development plateaus for a while, and then <em>bang</em> there’s a quantum leap. She puts together short sentences now, like “I did it,” “I sit down,” and “I go to Harvard.”</p>
<p>Okay, I made up the last one.</p>
<p>Since she doesn’t know the word for sunglasses, she made up her own. They’re “no eyes,” which when you think about it makes perfect sense…</p>
Strong Bad Email2004-01-25T05:45:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/strong-bad-email/
<p>Here’s a pretty funny time-waster: <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html">Strong Bad Email</a>. Always good with a dose of dementia on a Saturday afternoon.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail36.html">guitar</a> one is hilarious.</p>
No anniversary for the Mac?2004-01-25T05:33:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/no-anniversary-for-the-mac/
<p>Looks like Apple is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh by doing, well, nothing. No product announcements, not even a message on <a href="http://www.apple.com/">Apple.com</a>.</p>
<p>Oh, well.</p>
iTunes Music Store RSS feeds2004-01-23T00:33:01Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/itunes-music-store-rss-feeds/
<p>In yet another sign that Apple Gets It, the company has added <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/MRSS/rssGenerator">RSS feeds to the iTunes Music Store</a>. Select what you’re interested in, and a feed is magically created for you.</p>
<p>This is the way to fly. Apple ensures that interested customers get more opportunities to shop at a very marginal cost to them, and customers get an easy way to follow the music they’re interested in.</p>
<p>2004 is so going to be the Year of the RSS Feed…</p>
Desert rain2004-01-22T23:54:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/desert-rain/
<p>It rained last night and early this morning. For those of you not living in the desert, let me explain that rain is an Event here. So nice to go to bed with the sound of the rain outside. I even think it helps you sleep better. Lord knows I had a fantastic night’s sleep.</p>
<p>And now the clouds are breaking up and the sun is poking through. Yep, January is a good month to be in Arizona.</p>
Caged heat2004-01-22T23:32:13Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/caged-heat/
<p><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/35044.html">According to The Register</a>, an Ohio woman has been sentenced to 46 months in jail for an AOL <a href="http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci916037,00.html">phishing</a> scheme. Looks like she was busted when one of her phishing mails went to an FBI agent. Oops.</p>
<p>One down, many more to go.</p>
Copyright protection for databases2004-01-22T23:03:25Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/copyright-protection-for-databases/
<p>It’s apparently not enough that the patent system is broken enough that setting up a simple web page <a href="http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20030123.html">violates a patent</a>. No indeedy, it’s time for <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR03261:@@@L&summ2=m&">a bill</a> that gives the <em>content</em> of databases the <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5145040.html">same copyright protection as original works</a>, even if the information in the database is publicly available.</p>
<p>Yes, giving lawyers more ammunition is definitely the way to help things.</p>
<p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040121/1840224_F.shtml">Techdirt</a> for the heads-up.</p>
Interesting solution to comment spam2004-01-22T09:54:14Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/interesting-solution-to-comment-spam/
<p>This is a pretty interesting solution to the problem with <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1699.html">comment spam</a>. Really clean and neat: comment spammers are like migrating pigeons, they land on your blog, crap all over it, then disappear, so by only letting IP addresses that have visited before post comments, you get a really nice first line of defense. The system will probably have to be tweaked a bit once the Evil Vermin figure it out and start visiting once, then waiting a few hours before coming back with their guano, but some judicious algorithm tweaks might help keep that problem at bay.</p>
<p>Sad, though, that smart people are having to waste their time combatting what shouldn’t be a problem at all.</p>
Permissions problems2004-01-22T04:21:09Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/permissions-problems/
<p>Just spent an incredibly frustrating hour or so. Looks like there’s some strange interaction between Mac OS X and AppleShare IP Server, where permissions get bungled. So I end up with my folder containing grades and things going back five years being readable by all my students. Is that good? No, it is not. As a matter of fact, it’s really really bad. Granted, I doubt any of my previous students are happening to be on campus rooting through my class folder, but <em>it could happen</em>.</p>
<p>You can try to reset the permissions on a folder so group members don’t have access to the folder, but <em>haha! surprise!</em> the permissions don’t stick. <em>Gotcha!</em> The only one who can reset the permissions is the server admin, who in this case is not me, and who has to be chased down.</p>
<p>While trying to get a hold of the admin, I decide to just throw away all the files–I have backups of everything, so let’s just chuck that copy. Well, it’s five years of work, and for some reason a lot of the files are locked. Don’t ask. Something to do with the files being created on Windows machines, then brought over to the Mac. Highly erratic and annoying. To make things even better, some of the locked files are invisible, so the Finder chokes and tells me that “the file blahblah can’t be deleted because it’s locked.” Awesome. Where is that file? Nowhere. Can’t be found.</p>
<p>Here are a couple of Finder improvement ideas for Apple: 1) When you encounter a locked file during file deletion, <em>let me delete all files that aren’t locked</em>. Don’t just throw up an error and stop the entire file delete. There’s another 12,000 files in there I would like to have deleted, please; and 2) When you tell me that the file blahblah is locked, give me an option to <em>reveal that file</em>.</p>
<p>In theory, you can hold down the option key when emptying the trash to get rid of locked files. But on a remote volume the files are deleted immediately–they never go to the trash, so you can’t override the locked file behavior. Argh.</p>
<p>So here I am. 12,000 files to throw away, some of them very sensitive, and a completely uncooperative Finder. Sod it. Let’s drop into the Terminal and nuke ‘em all. Nope. The filesystem is mounted as read-only in the Terminal. Okay, deep cleansing breaths, deep cleansing breaths.</p>
<p>At this point the sys admin appears and is able to reset the permissions. Phew. Everything is safe now, but this little exercise was certainly not good for my heart.</p>
<p>To summarize: If you use AppleShare IP with an OS X client, you are in for a nasty time. Upgrade your server to Mac OS X Server. According to the sys admin, that’s the “solution” Apple gave him when he called in a trouble ticket.</p>
Blast that Finder2004-01-22T01:59:26Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/blast-that-finder/
<p>The ugliest part of Mac OS X ever since the first beta has been the Finder. Panther gave us a rewritten Finder–with the metal look for no particular reason whatsoever–but it still can’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time.</p>
<p>Case in point: Working on a remote server over AFP, trying to update permissions on a folder. The Finder gives me the spinning beach ball of death while updating the permissions. Or is it even doing it? I don’t know. Can I do anything else in the Finder while it’s updating the permissions? Nope. Sure can’t. Any kind of progress indicator? Nope. Sure isn’t showing me one.</p>
<p>The blinkenlights on my router seem to indicate that it’s doing <em>something</em> over the network, but who knows what? This is so tedious. Please, please, please, Apple, make the Finder not suck at some point in OS X’s life cycle.</p>
Anna Lindh killer remanded2004-01-20T02:41:47Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/anna-lindh-killer-remanded/
<p>AFP <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040119/ts_afp/sweden_politics_lindh_040119190842">reports that</a> Mijailo Mijailovic was today found guilty of the murder of Anna Lindh and remanded to psychiatric evaluation, the outcome of which will determine his sentencing.</p>
<p>Wow, that was a quick trial. Guess I’m becoming used to the endless trials in the States, where they still wouldn’t be done with jury selection.</p>
iLife ’04 first impressions2004-01-18T11:29:02Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/ilife-04-first-impressions/
<p>Swooped down to the local software pusher today like the big vulture I am and picked up my copy of iLife ‘04. Apple’s<a href="http://www.apple.com/ilife/"> official page</a> has all the marketing speak you could shake a memory stick at. The following are some quick impressions.<em>Install:</em> Not a good start. The installer commits the following sacrileges:1. It pops up a “Do you want to be on our mailing list forever?” (aka “Do you want to register?”) question <em>in the middle of the install</em>. I thought everybody had gotten the memo by now that you ask questions in the beginning or end of an install, never <em>during</em> the install. Long installs are for coffee breaks. Returning to the computer after a coffee break to find the install only halfway done because of an inane popup does nobody’s blood pressure any good.</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>It puts each of the iLife apps in the Dock. To do this, it has to kill and restart the Dock, meaning that any applications you’ve minimized pop up their windows on screen. And then you have to go delete the apps you don’t want from the Dock. Sigh. Poof poof poof. It wouldn’t be so bad if it could have the common courtesy to <em>ask first</em>. Seriously. Don’t mess with my Dock. I have a knife.</li>
</ol>
<p>If you have the bad manners of having a previous iLife app running when you start the install, it warns you that one of the apps is running and quits. Yes, quits. How about asking me if I would like to quit the app? Is that so hard? You figured out how to kill and restart the Dock, didn’t you? Granted, a minor gripe, but this is Apple’s flagship suite–things should be smooth.For some reason my machine would hang for minutes at a time after the install. A reboot seems to have exorcised the gremlins. And yes, I should have been a good dork and SSHd into the machine while it was hung and seen what was going on, but as long as it goes away after a reboot…<em>iMovie:</em> Not too much new at first glance, although it does feel a touch more snappy. The new sharing options will also take some of the guesswork out of tweaking your output to different media.<em>iDVD:</em> Ooh, the new templates are yummy. Yummy yummy yummy. The gauges showing how much space on the DVD you’re using should also come in really handy.Being able to work on projects on a non-SuperDrive equipped machine and then move the finished project over for burning should be a boon for a lot of people, especially school districts. Good move.<em>iTunes:</em> Same as before.<em>iPhoto:</em> Yes, yes, yes, it is a <em>lot</em> faster at scrolling through photo albums. Very nice. The integration with .Mac photo sharing is also most welcome. Really nice to not have to use the web interface to set up the template for the album you’re uploading. Apple did drop the ball a bit though by not allowing you to update your menu page directly from inside iPhoto. So after you upload the new album, you still have to go to <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/">homepage.mac.com</a> to update the, ahem, home page. Seems like a bit of silly oversight I hope they fix in a point update. Perhaps my internet connection was just having the wind at its back, but uploading the pictures did feel a bit faster.Jobs seemed really excited about the sepia function during the keynote, but, seriously, sepia? Who apart from Jobs and some algorithm guy on the iPhoto team gets excited about the ability to make … well … your pictures look old? _And now they can look more authentically fake old!_<em>GarageBand:</em> I am not a musician, never will be, no matter how great the technology gets. No double-click on this one for me.<em>Summary:</em> iLife ‘04 is a solid upgrade, and the enhanced speed visible in a lot of the suite, as well as the enhanced integration between the apps, are most welcome. Except for the amphetamine kick iPhoto is on, though, it’s more a matter of spit and polish than new must-have features. Apart from GarageBand, of course, which has a lot of people with talents in those areas slobbering all over themselves.Just like with Panther, I’m pretty sure more subtle details will emerge over time and put a smile on my face. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade.</p>
When incompetence becomes sadism2004-01-18T04:58:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/when-incompetence-becomes-sadism/
<p>A friend of mine, lets call him Bill, has spent the last few months training personnel in India to do his job. As everybody knows, training offshore personnel to do your job is a sure-fire sign you’re being promoted to management.</p>
<p>Oh, wait, it isn’t?</p>
<p>So as the writing is on the wall, he’s looking around for other work. Lands himself an interview for a decently-paying position that sounds like a good meal ticket. The interview goes stunningly well, so Bill goes home to wait for the job offer email.</p>
<p>And lo and behold, the next day it arrives:</p>
<p><em>Dear Bob,</em></p>
<p><em>We are pleased to offer you…</em></p>
<p>Yes, they emailed him the job offer for another candidate.</p>
Mijailovic trial gets underway2004-01-15T02:14:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/mijailovic-trial-gets-underway/
<p>The trial of Mijailo Mijailovic <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040114/wl_afp/sweden_politics_lindh_040114115533">went underway today</a> in a maximum security courtoom in Stockholm.</p>
<p>It looks as though the questions to be decided are whether Mijailovic committed murder or manslaughter–i.e., was the murder premeditated or not–and whether he should be remanded for psychiatric evaluation. Seems like pretty much a no-brainer that he will be remanded. You can’t have the kind of psychiatric history this guy has and <em>not</em> be evaluated.</p>
Review: No End Save Victory2004-01-14T03:14:08Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/review-no-end-save-victory/
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0425183386/qid=1074021959/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>No End Save Victory</em></a> is a collection of 44 essays about World War II edited by Robert Cowley and definitely counts as a must-read for anybody interested in this conflict. The essays cover the entire war, from the <em>blitzkrieg</em> in Poland and France to the Japanese emperor’s radio broadcast of his surrender speech, known as the Voice of the Crane.Most of the essays feel like the authors are getting to delve deeper into specific areas of the conflict they feel deserve more coverage than they’ve been getting, and some of them are truly fascinating. A discussion on the effectiveness of the RAF strategic bombing campaign–essentially a systematic terror bombing of German cities, including the fire storm of Hamburg–focuses on the impact of that campaign on the ultimate victory in the European Theater, including the German use of flak cannons rather than more effective fighters for the psychological comfort of the German populace. Apparently a flak cannon consumed more resources–i.e. ammunition and man power–to shoot down a bomber than it cost to build that bomber in the first place.Some of the essays also contain eyewitness testimony from combatants, including a Japanese kamikaze pilot who survived despite his own best efforts, and the diary of John Gabay, a B-17 Flying Fortress tail gunner. Here’s Gabay’s diary entry for a raid on Bordeaux, France, for his actions in which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross:We crossed the Channel to France, then headed south along the French Coast to our target. It was a clear day and we could see the ground, which didn’t happen often. We flew over the city of La Rochelle and ran into moderate but inaccurate flak. I could see the flashes from their gun batteries. They also tried to cover the town with smoke pots, thinking we were going to bomb it. We met a few P-47s, but they left us in a few minutes. A lone 109 attacked a Fort lagging behind. They had their own private war till we started the bomb run. Then the flak came, heavy and accurate. I could hear the bursts and hear the chunks of steel ripping into the ship–a sickening sound. Fighters came through their own flak and attacked us. We were flying Purple Heart Corner again and the FW-190s attacked our ship in threes and fours. [Purple Heart Corner was the low outside position on the formation, and one that enemy fighters found easy to isolate.] I know I damaged some. It was a running fight for almost an hour. We lost an engine and couldn’t keep up with the group. About the same time another Fort lost an engine and we both hung together till we reached the Brest peninsula, then he couldn’t stay with us and lagged back. When he was about 800 yards back, two black-and-silver FW-190s attacked him and blew him in half. I didn’t have time to look for the chutes as both fighters came at us at 6 o’clock level. I poured it to them–a wing came off one and the other burst into flames. The pilot insisted I claim them. We got a few light flak bursts before we left Brest. We were all alone–then I saw a Fort below us ditch. We got back OK. Ship had several flak and machine-gun holes. Had three big holes in the tail and a broken side window.<em>No End Save Victory</em> is highly worth reading, both for the accounts of the human cost of combat and the more high-level strategic discussions, such as the tension between the Prussian military tradition and the Nazi Party and the internal divisions inside the Japanese High Command as the tides of war turned against them.</p>
Email more unreliable than ever2004-01-13T01:31:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/email-more-unreliable-than-ever/
<p>Fred Langa at InformationWeek <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17300016">performed an informal study</a> of how much of email gets lost or caught in overzealous spam filters, and came to the conclusion that up to 40% of legitimate email goes into the bit bucket.</p>
<p>This is just so tiresome. We finally have this excellent communications medium, and due to the tireless efforts of the scum of the planet, it’s degraded more and more every day.</p>
<p>It seems we’re getting way past the point where desperate efforts are needed. Even though the concept is unpalatable for many reasons, we’re probably going to end up using email “clearing houses” to validate that our email is legitimate.</p>
Triangle block in square hole2004-01-10T05:17:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/triangle-block-in-square-hole/
<p>Andrea has a bucket with blocks that are either circles, squares, or triangles. The lid has three openings, one for each shape. We were playing with the blocks, and I was showing her how each kind goes through a certain opening. This was a lot of fun.</p>
<p>While she was dropping blocks into the bucket, she had difficulties with a triangle–it just wouldn’t go through the square hole. Instead of getting frustrated, she simply took the lid off the bucket, dropped in the triangle, then replaced the lid and moved on to another block.</p>
<p>That’s the kind of problem solving I like to see.</p>
Hairtrigger2004-01-09T07:29:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/hairtrigger/
<p>A rumor somehow got <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0108gasheadline.html">started yesterday</a> that one of the pipelines bringing in the precious life blood of the Valley of the Sun had ruptured, potentially leading to a repeat of <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special44/articles/0818gasshortage18.html">this summer’s complete cluster f**k</a>. While it’s not yet known how the rumor got started, the friendly afternoon crew of 101.5 KZON apparently poured gasoline on the flames by making jokes about a gas shortage.</p>
<p>(101.5 is one of the stations I have programmed in my car; they play a decent top 40 alternative mix. However, I absolutely can not stand their afternoon crew. Seldom has a more vacuous bunch of idiots been allowed to pollute the airways.)</p>
<p>The governor’s office and Kinder Morgan attempted damage control by getting the word out to as many news outlets as possible that the pipeline was indeed fine, but a lot of people <em>chose to not believe them</em>.</p>
<p>A repeat of the insanity this August would indeed be terrible, and it is scary just how fragile our infrastructure really is, but seriously, people. You almost get a feeling that people <em>want</em> things to go to hell in a hand basket for some perverted reason so they can queue and hoard and in general go all Mad Max.</p>
<p>It also shows the credit some people put to anything coming from official sources. “If the governor’s office <em>and</em> the company responsible <em>both</em> say that everything is fine, that must mean they’re all lying and it’s a conspiracy to make sure that They can get their gas. Hmm. Yeah. That’s the ticket. It’s They again. Damn liberals.”</p>
<p>I shudder to even think about what must have been going on on the rant and rave radio talk shows yesterday. Probably much better for my blood pressure to not know.</p>
Mini means mini2004-01-09T01:19:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/quotminiquot-means-mini/
<p>John Gruber has yet another <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2004/01/agitators">thoughtful article</a> up, this time about the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/">iPod mini</a>. Only time will tell if it’s going to be a successful product, but my gut feeling is yes. The core problem a lot of people seem to be having with the product is price–it has less storage, so it should cost less; it is an entry-level iPod.</p>
<p>That’s just silly. It’s a mini. A tiny teensy little iPod. There’s nothing entry-level about it–it’s a different market segment.</p>
<p>Storage space is really secondary for the market it’s aimed at, as long as it’s over a gigabyte or so. Let’s face it, the original iPod doesn’t sell like gangbusters because of its storage capacity, feature set, or price. The <a href="http://google-cnet.com.com/Rio_Karma__20GB_/4505-6490_7-30474134.html?tag=upidmlp">Rio LeadBricks</a> have them beat on all counts. They sell a ton because they have: a) A really nice GUI; b) Great integration with iTunes–it’s easy, easy, easy to put your music on an iPod; and most importantly c) They look fantastic. They are objects of lust.</p>
<p>Gruber raises the specter of the Cube–that most infamous of Apple product failures. The Cubes were also gorgeous, but suffered from a lack of expansion and a more than healthy sticker price. The thing is, though, that the Cube was a computer. Most people retain some sort of sanity when buying a computer and do some rudimentary form of needs-assessment, and the Cube tended to fail that needs-assessment. The difference is that the iPod mini is an mp3 player and costs $249. You can write off a $249 bad purchase. You’re not going to expect it to sit on your desk for three years and do useful work. Unless you’re a bit nuts, of course.</p>
<p>I think Apple has another winner with the iPod mini. Time will tell.</p>
Lightning reviews: Baen books2004-01-08T11:37:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/lightning-reviews-baen-books/
<p>During my extended bout with the flu, I’ve been using my trusty Palm and the <a href="http://www.baen.com/library/">Baen Free Library</a> to help take the edge off the virus invasion.</p>
<p>Most of Baen’s catalog consists of competent military SF with some fantasy thrown in for good measure. While most of the books were highly enjoyable, and I did intend to post reviews of them, the virus host threw that idea into coulda shoulda land. So now that I’m feeling better, it’s time to make up for it; the following is a series of mini reviews.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743435710/qid=1073521306/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>On Basilisk Station</em> by David Weber</a>: The first installment in the Honor Harrington series. Likable protagonist, well put-together universe, but suffers a bit from the über-greatness of Honor Harrington. Her only flaw is that she sometimes doubts herself (and apparently she had some problems with math at the Academy)–but apart from that, Honor is godlike, which gets a bit stale.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743435710/qid=1073521306/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>The Honor of the Queen</em> by David Weber</a>: The second installment in the Honor Harrington series. Better than <em>On Basilisk Station</em>–the universe feels a bit more “lived-in,” and the interactions between Honor and the sexist pigs of Grayson yields some fun moments. Bonus points for letting her sense of duty seem a bit creepily compulsive at times.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671578456/qid=1073533785/sr=12-1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>The Apocalypse Troll</em> by David Weber</a>: Didn’t make it through this one. Something about time travel completely turns me off, and when the characters start talking quantum mumble mumble to make it seem “scientific,” well, bah. Apart from that, the characters are a bit shop worn, and while the Trolls are a pretty cool idea, it just seems that the human protagonists understand their twisted mentality too well.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671720856/qid=1073534013/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>Mutineer’s Moon</em> by David Weber</a>: Really digging the concept in this one. I’m not going to spoil it, but it’s a nifty idea. And there are lots of cyberpunk-y body enhancements going on. You can never go wrong with body enhancements. First in a series, so it ends mid-action. You can tell this is an earlier work, since while the battle sequences work well, the characterizations are flimsy and the embedded love story is absolutely cringe-worthy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671876422/qid=1073534710/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>Oath of Swords</em> by David Weber</a>: Weber detours into fantasy and does a credible job of it. Not great but solid. It’s always good to see an author do something interesting with the trolls, dwarves, and elves concept.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671577921/qid=1073534710/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>The War God’s Own</em> by David Weber</a>: The follow-up to <em>Oath of Swords</em> follows the same characters as they delve deeper into the history of their world. Weber feels a bit more comfortable in the universe he’s created in this one, but of course, it won’t make any sense unless you’ve read the first installment.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/067187800X/qid=1073535320/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>Mother of Demons</em> by Eric Flint</a>: Good concept where a human colony ship is shipwrecked on a planet inhabited by interesting and–well, alien–aliens. Features a good, tight plot, fast-paced writing and interesting ideas.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671318411/qid=1073535554/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3231997-3992868?v=glance&s=books"><em>A Hymn Before Battle</em> by John Ringo</a>: Hard military SF in the grand old tradition, with lots of heavy weaponry and pretty well drawn characters.</p>
Review: March Upcountry2004-01-08T02:28:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/review-march-upcountry/
<p>I am a huge sucker for space marines, plasma cannons, and aliens, so <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743435389/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_4/002-3231997-3992868"><em>March Upcountry</em></a> hits the spot. David Weber and John Ringo team up to provide a fast-paced and well-plotted space opera with lots of action and interesting characters.</p>
<p>My one gripe is that, as it’s the first novel in a trilogy, it ends mid-action. Argh! Must … purchase … next … <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/074343580X/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_3/002-3231997-3992868">installment</a> … in … series.</p>
The schizo Apple2004-01-08T00:03:04Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/the-schizo-apple/
<p>Things have got to be a bit weird in Cupertino these days, what with Apple separating its focus into two directions.</p>
<p>On the one hand the company is creating software for the Digital Life market segment with iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, etc., which means an ease-of-use, grandma-can-use-it message, and hip and groovy ads with phunky tunage for the kids. The retail stores are the flagships of this effort, with a friendly atmosphere and long-suffering peons patiently explaining to the unwashed masses for the umpteenth time how to burn a CD in iTunes.</p>
<p>And on the other hand, the company is inching into enterprise space with Xserve, Xraid, and the delectable-looking <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/06xgrid.html">Xgrid</a>. This effort requires a different attitude and a completely different marketing message. There are good reasons why there are no Xserves to be found in Apple’s physical stores. And also good reasons why Apple went through the trouble of getting the <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040106/sftu092_1.html">Xraids certified</a> by everybody and God.</p>
<p>It’ll be very interesting to see how this plays out, and if Jobs, who excels at selling to the creative markets, will allow his <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/000130.html">new sales people from Oracle</a> to work their enterprise magic.</p>
Confession from Anna Lindh’s murderer2004-01-07T23:32:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/confession-from-anna-lindhs-murderer/
<p>With a <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040107/wl_afp/sweden_politics_lindh_040107114619">confession</a> from prime suspect Mijailo Mijailovic, it looks like the grotesque murder of Anna Lindh is cleared up.</p>
<p>The confession, together with DNA evidence and witness statements, should provide an airtight case against the apparently mentally troubled Mijailovic. It remains to be seen whether a psychiatric examination will be ordered performed on Mijailovic, and the results of said examination.</p>
<p>As Sweden doesn’t have the death penalty, the harshest sentence Mijailovic would face is life in prison–which, according to the article, usually translates to no more than 14 years served.</p>
<p>I guess I’m becoming increasingly Americanized, but I almost spat out my coffee when I read that last factoid in the article. Jeez. Fourteen years? In Arizona I think you can get that for looking sideways at a police officer.</p>
Keynote wrap-up2004-01-07T02:24:56Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/keynote-wrap-up/
<p>Another Macworld keynote come and gone. The 2004 keynote was all in all pretty good. Good energy, good message, and good product announcements.</p>
<p>I’m glad to see the updates to the iLife suite, especially iPhoto–if there was ever an app that could bog down a machine, iPhoto was it. The new stuff in iDVD and iMovie looks tasty, too, but the current versions really do about all I need, so that’s gravy. Kudos to Apple for breaking out of the tired “i” mold with GarageBand–a huge thank you for not naming it iMusic or iStudio or something silly like that.</p>
<p>Of course not being a musician at all, GarageBand will sit quietly on its CD when I get the iLife 04 suite, so that’s a bit of pearls for swine for me. But good on those of you out there who want to get your rock on. Create some cool tunage and stick it to the RIAA by releasing it under your own licenses.</p>
<p>Xserve G5s look mighty tasty, but it’ll probably be a good while before I need to get rack mounts. Still, good job. Those things should scream.</p>
<p>So now my iPod is an oversized dinosaur. Sigh. I can’t believe Steve didn’t get the memo I sent him about not innovating anymore until I was in the market for a new iPod. Must be his spam filters.</p>
<p>Now it’s just for the wait until the iLife suite shows up. Forty-nine dollars for the whole shebang sounds like a pretty good deal, but as I really only want iPhoto, it would be good to know if it will be available for download, or if you have to buy the suite. Maybe John Mayer made me deaf, but I didn’t hear anything about availability of iLife ‘04. I’m sure details are forthcoming, though.</p>
<p>UPDATE: <a href="http://www.apple.com/ilife/">iLife ‘04</a> will be <a href="http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/06/iflife04">available for purchase</a> January 16. Looks like no downloads.</p>
Review: Timeline2004-01-06T03:58:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/review-timeline/
<p>Actually, not really a review of Michael Crichton’s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345417623/qid=1073335979/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/104-6396188-0799900">Timeline</a></em>, as I’m unable to get more than half-way through it. A pseudo-science plot with holes so large you could drive a quantum disturbance through them, characters I don’t care about one whit, and stilted prose. What’s to like? Nothing.</p>
<p>It’s been a while since I couldn’t force myself to finish a novel (hey, I paid for it, I’m going to read the whole darn thing!) but this one stinks more than a fourteenth-century French peasant.</p>
Fare thee well, PageMaker2004-01-05T23:09:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/fare-thee-well-pagemaker/
<p>Adobe has announced that they are <a href="http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/01/04/pagemaker/index.php?redirect=1073289865000">discontinuing PageMaker</a>. A legend goes quietly unto its grave. I can’t even begin to count the hours I’ve spent in PageMaker; out of all the applications I’ve used over the years, PageMaker is probably the one I mastered at the deepest level.</p>
<p>Ah, laying out books in <em>Aldus</em> PageMaker 3.0 on a Mac SE with a 20 Megabyte hard drive. Those were the days.</p>
<p>And yes, Quark sucks.</p>
Spam darwinism2004-01-03T00:53:45Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/spam-darwinism/
<p>According to Reuters:During calendar 2003, AOL blocked nearly 500 billion spam messages from reaching user inboxes, an average of 40 fewer such messages per day per subscriber account. The company said it regularly blocks 75 percent to 80 percent of incoming mail as spam.That’s a whole lotta spam.</p>
<p>However, with the advent of better spam filters as well as legal regulations, said AOL’s Charles Stiles, the “amateurs” have been forced out of the spam business, leaving the die-hards still standing, so in a sense the increased legislative and technical pressure is “sorting out the wheat from the chaff.”</p>
<p>The low-hanging fruit has been picked clean, and what’s left will become tougher and tougher to fight. It’s really sad to think about all the energy, thought, and money going into the black hole of spam defense. Instead of having all those programmers creating new, interesting software, they’re down there in the trenches fighting the arms race against the vermin.</p>
Windows and back again2004-01-01T03:11:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/windows-and-back-again/
<p>With all the RSS stuff I’ve been thinking about lately, it seemed like a good idea to check out the reader situation on the Windows side of the fence, so for the first time in I don’t know how long, it was time to fire up the Windows box.</p>
<p>Downloaded<a href="http://rssbandit.org/"> RSS Bandit</a> and the .NET 1.1 frameworks, exported my subscriptions from <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">NetNewsWire</a> (NNW), imported them in RSS Bandit, and was off to the races. RSS Bandit is a pretty nice feed reader, and if I had to use Windows more often, I wouldn’t have any problems using it. It’s got a lot of nice features I’d like to see in NNW, like canned styles (even though it uses XSLT transformations rather than CSS sheets) and it automatically strips the abomination that is including CSS in RSS feeds.</p>
<p>As it’s been so long since I’ve used Windows, though, what most struck me was the completely different design philosophy from NNW. Even though they do the same thing, which is let you subscripe to RSS feeds and view them in a three-pane interface, everything else is quite different. NNW goes to great lengths to hide as much complexity as possible from the user, instead making the defaults as good as possible, while RSS Bandit takes the opposite approach and makes as much of the plumbing as possible visible and user-editable. They’re both doing the Right Thing–one approach is the Dao of the Mac, the other the Dao of Windows.</p>
<p>This goes a long way to explain why Windows users tend to underestimate the power of the Mac, and why Mac users shy away in horror from the nested-tab monstrosities preference panes tend to become in Windows applications.</p>
Happy new year2004-01-01T01:27:53Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2004/01/happy-new-year/
<p>A happy new year and best wishes for 2004 to you all. May it be a year of health, prosperity, and peace.</p>
<p>To all the soldiers stationed in Iraq, our thoughts are with you and we hope you make it home safe and sound.</p>
CSS in RSS feeds2003-12-31T02:55:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/css-in-rss-feeds/
<p><a href="http://www.crystalflame.net/2003/12/rss_with_css.html">Richard Soderberg</a> figured out how to include CSS in RSS feeds, and now Joi Ito is <a href="http://joi.ito.com/archives/2003/12/30/css_in_rss_feed.html">using the technique</a>.</p>
<p>It’s a clever hack, but to me this negates one of the core values of RSS feeds, which is the separation of content from presentation. I <em>want</em> all my feeds to look the same when I go through them. Another big problem with including a CSS sheet in a feed is the Cascading part of CSS–in Joi’s case, his CSS overrides only certain parts of my own custom CSS, which looks fairly unholy.</p>
<p>Now that this Pandora’s box is open, I guess the thing I would highly suggest is for anybody who decides to do this to publish two feeds: One with your CSS and one without.</p>
<p>As Brent Simmons <a href="http://inessential.com/2003/12/30.php">noted</a>, this will probably put some pressure on feed readers to be able to turn off the included CSS feeds.</p>
Happy Solstice!2003-12-24T11:54:12Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/happy-solstice-2/
<p>Once again, it’s the time of year when we make sacrifice to ensure the return of the sun, to genuflect to the powers in which we believe, and pray for the release of the sun from her prison of darkness.</p>
<p>Ah, it’s hard to get really Viking in the Valley of the Sun. Not for us Valley dwellers the long dark nights, the freezing cold, and the washed-out grayness which is all that remains of daylight.</p>
<p>And yet, here we are at the solstice, decorating our dwellings with lights–little sisters of the sun, to help her find her way back–and looking inward to make peace with another year come and gone, to hope for the return of the light to bring with it the fertility and prosperity which is its bounty.</p>
<p>No matter how much time we spend staring at the flickering of TV sets and monitors, how far we physically remove ourselves from the ardors of the fields and plains, how much we surround ourselves with electric light, the collective unconscious in the back of our heads will always look at the fading of the light and the barrenness of the fields and wonder if the bright warmth of the sun will return. And fear that it will not.</p>
<p>Happy Solstice, my friend.</p>
RSS is your friend2003-12-23T12:34:54Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/rss-is-your-friend/
<p>I’ve gushed about RSS readers <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2003/10/disruptive-technologies-news-aggregators/">in the past</a>, but the more sites start bringing feeds online, and the more custom feeds that are appearing, the more it’s changing my online experience.</p>
<p>From a strictly consumer perspective, there are three major improvements gained by subscribing to feeds:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Increased speed at consuming content from many different sites</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Notifications for sites you watch that update irregularly</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Homogenization of the presentation level of content</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Being notified of updates to irregularly updates sites is turning out to be a surprisingly large win for me. Instead of visiting a site for updates, then, like one of <a href="http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Twotypes/twotypes.htm">Skinner’s mice</a>, being negatively conditioned to not return due to the lack of new content and the site slowly fading away into the dark recesses of your bookmarks, the RSS reader will faithfully ping the site every time you refresh the list, and if there’s ever an update, you’ll have it right in front of you.</p>
<p>The old-school way of doing it–by signing up on the site itself to be emailed a notification whenever the site updates–never worked for me, for several reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>I don’t want to pass out my email address all over the web</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I don’t want to lose the flow of content when my email address changes</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A lot of sites never implemented that particular functionality</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When I read email, I’m in a different frame of mind than when I’m looking for content on the web. Email is two-way, while the web is one-way. Even though there’s some blurring of the lines with commenting systems and trackbacks, it’s more a question of mental state than of technology</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Also, the value of having content from different sources presented the same way is really growing on me–I am in control of the presentation in my RSS reader, and can tailor it to whichever look is the most efficient for me to consume, and by having all my content look the same, there’s no being sidetracked by design elements, colors, annoying ads, or what have you. The content, in a sense, is <em>pure.</em></p>
<p>One of the promises of XML, right there in the flesh: Separation of content from presentation.</p>
<p>Naturally, there’s still the jarring of different voices when switching between feeds, or sometimes even within a feed, but that is mostly invigorating–drifting through a bazaar of voices you’ve selected.</p>
Review: The Return of the King2003-12-22T10:41:43Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/review-the-return-of-the-king/
<p><em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/">The Return of the King</a></em> is just as good as everybody says. The acting is strong, the special effects, well, special, and the plotting is very good. Definitely one of the best movies of the year, and well worth spending three and a half hours on.</p>
<p>My only nit to pick would be the ending, which drags on for way too long. Sure, you have to have the scene where Aragorn is crowned, but it should have ended there. I’m glad though that they weren’t faithful to the movie and had Saruman wreck the Shire. That ending always felt really extraneous to me, so good on Peter Jackson that he took it out.</p>
<p>The trilogy really took on new meaning for me after watching the extra material on <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009TB5G/qid=1072140175/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-0919080-4257509?v=glance&s=dvd">The Two Towers</a></em> DVD–the attention to detail and sheer care really comes through on the screen.</p>
<p>Now we have to wait impatiently for the extended DVD, which will no doubt rock incredibly hard.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Corrected the titles–it’s <em>The</em> Return of the King, and <em>The</em> Two Towers. Call me anal retentive.</p>
iDisk sync failed2003-12-20T06:14:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/idisk-sync-failed/
<p>For some reason my iDisk has failed to sync for a while; I finally got around to checking into it, and looking at ~/Library/Logs in Console showed:Agent/mirrordb.c,186 err -50 (getwhatwas).A Google search revealed nothing about this.</p>
<p>After some investigation, it seems that something had gotten out of sync somehow, and deleting ~/Library/Mirrors clears it up. It also means that the local copy of the iDisk has to be updated, which takes approximately forever on a fat pipe.</p>
<p>When deleting ~/Library/Mirrors, note that there’s a .dmg file in there that holds the contents of your iDisk. If you just move it to the trash, but don’t delete it, the Sync Agent will still find it and use it, so it has to be deleted before the rebuild.</p>
Gift cards2003-12-20T05:47:49Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/gift-cards/
<p>Lots of ads on television these days hawking gift cards. I always felt that giving somebody a gift card is kind of like saying, “I wanted to give you money, but if I give you cash you’ll just blow it on crack and hookers, so here’s a gift card instead.”</p>
<p>Of course the merchants love gift cards, which would explain the rash of advertising for them–you give them money up front, which they can use for whatever money-making purposes they choose, and then when the recipient finally redeems the gift card, they’ve come out ahead. Brilliant. And forcing the poor sap of a recipient to spend their funny-money at that particular merchant isn’t a bad idea either.</p>
<p>Here’s my suggestion: If you don’t know what to give somebody, give them a stack of crisp, fresh dollar bills. Not worn and tattered bills, mind you, but the fresh-of-the-printer kind. Nothing like a fat stack of dollar bills to brighten somebody’s Christmas.</p>
<p>Of course, make sure they won’t blow it all on crack and hookers first.</p>
Just say no to lutefisk2003-12-18T04:29:27Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/just-say-no-to-lutefisk/
<p>Yuletide is upon us, and it is a difficult time of the year for Swedes living abroad, as the traditional food stuffs that belong to Christmas in Sweden are hard to come by, and the traditional <em>julbord</em>, or Christmas table, served by Swedish restaurants at this time of year are of course non-existent in the deep southwest.</p>
<p>But those are the results of choices I’ve made, so no reason to cry over spilt aquavit. I would, however, like to use this forum to banish one particular piece of Scandinavian stereotyping that goes on: A lot of us don’t eat lutefisk. Really. It’s gross. The only people who eat it and convince themselves they like it are the poor souls inflicted at childhood with this terrible cultural scarring.</p>
<p><em>Vive la resistance!</em></p>
<p>Got to thinking about this when an old post of Clay Shirky’s showed up, where he discusses being in Norway for Christmas and <a href="http://www.urbanlegends.com/food/ode_to_lutefisk.html">being exposed to lutefisk</a> by his hosts. It’s pretty funny.</p>
Balls to the Wall2003-12-15T06:16:21Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/balls-to-the-wall/
<p>Watched <a href="http://www.vh1.com/channels/vh1_classic/channel.jhtml">VH1 Classic</a> last night, and on came nothing less than the video for Accept’s <em><a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=855368&selectedItemId=1366360">Balls to the Wall</a></em>, one of the fundamental 80s German heavy metal tunes. (The link opens in iTunes.)<img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/ballstothewall.jpg" alt="Balls to the Wall" />Seeing that video reminded me of one time when Accept was playing in Gothenburg, and all the metal dudes, myself excluded, were going. In that particular part of Sweden it was very common to take a tour bus to concerts. Basically a bus company would buy up blocks of tickets, then sell them as a package with transportation. It was a pretty nice setup, the bus picked you up, dropped you off at the arena, then picked you up after the concert. It’s about a two hour bus ride to Gothenburg from Skövde.</p>
<p>Naturally all the metal dudes were going to get massively liquored up on the bus down. At that time almost everybody had a nickname, usually something cruel. Like one guy had a terrible acne problem, so everybody called him <em>nougat</em>, another wasn’t very bright, so everybody called him <em>muppet</em>, and so on. There was one exceptionally creepy guy–sickly pale skin, dead blue eyes, lanky and greasy reddish hair, basically your teenage psycho right out of central casting, whose nickname was the name of a local mental hospital. The name doesn’t translate, so we’ll call him Bellevue for the purposes of this story. I never knew his real name, as everybody just referred to him by his nickname.</p>
<p>The bus took off for Gothenburg and the Accept show (rock! rock! rock!), and the drinking commenced. Vast quantities of beer and cheap vodka were consumed. Finally Bellevue had a bit too much, and puked down the center aisle of the bus. So one of Bellevue’s buddies turned to him and said, “Hey man, why’d you puke on the floor?”</p>
<p>“Where the hell am I supposed to puke? The ceiling?”</p>
Kittens2003-12-12T03:00:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/kittens/
<p>There’s been a white cat sneaking around our back yard for a few days. Last night she showed up again with two tiny kittens in tow. They’re young enough that they’re still nursing from her. After a while she went somewhere, presumably to look for food, and left the two kittens on our patio. It’s getting cold enough at night here that I was worried that they wouldn’t make it through the night, but they did. The kittens are gorgeous little creatures, both of them a uniform dark charcoal.</p>
<p>We felt very tempted to take the kittens in and save them from miserable death by exposure, but as we already have two cats, we just can’t have more, so I called the vet and they suggested the Humane Society.</p>
<p>At this point it looks like the mommy picked up the little kittens as I don’t see them in the yard anymore, but if they return I guess we’ll have to call and see if the Humane Society has any room.</p>
<p>Dammit, I hate seeing things suffer, and especially to see them suffer for no particular reason except that some self-centered asshole was too lazy to spay their cat.</p>
<p>If you have a cat, have it spayed or neutered. There’s absolutely no valid excuse not to.</p>
Reading books on the Palm2003-12-05T02:42:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/reading-books-on-the-palm/
<p>A Hymn Before Battle is the first novel I’ve read entirely on a Palm Pilot, thanks to the foresight and hipness of <a href="http://www.baen.com/">Baen Books</a>. A Hymn Before Battle is part of the Aldenata ISO–a compilation of 20 Baen books given away [completely for free](<a href="http://www.baen.com/press.htm#">http://www.baen.com/press.htm#</a> ALL%20HELL%20IS%20BREAKING%20OUT). As a reader who has already put quite a bit of lucre in Baen’s coffers, I couldn’t applaud this move more. In this age of media companies attempting more and more draconian measures to protect their profits, it’s so nice to see a company trust its customers.</p>
<p>Since military SF and fantasy as genres lend themselves to book series, it adds a lot of value to me as a customer to get the first book in a series for free to sample it. Which, when you think about it, is the clichéd drug dealer strategy for obtaining customers. The first one’s free.</p>
<p>Baen doesn’t employ any kind of harebrained digital resource management (DRM) schemes. You can do whatever you want with the material on the Aldenata ISO, except sell it. Very cool.</p>
<p>To my surprise, reading a novel on the Palm Pilot actually worked out really well. The small screen size really doesn’t encumber the experience very much, and it’s infinitely handier to pack a bunch of novels on the Palm than to carry them in physical form.</p>
<p>As the father of an 18-month-old, the Palm format actually rocks. I can bring the Palm with me to various rooms as my offspring goes through her peregrinations, then take it with me for a quick hit of prose when standing in line. Couldn’t I do the same with a paperback? Sure. But the Palm has one killer feature the paperback lacks: Backlighting. Dimly lit rooms are no longer an impediment. Behold! I make fire!</p>
<p>UPDATE: For those too lazy to google, the Baen Free Library is found <a href="http://www.baen.com/library/">here</a>.</p>
Review: A Hymn Before Battle2003-12-05T02:25:44Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/review-a-hymn-before-battle/
<p>Military SF has long been a guilty pleasure of mine. Huge spaceships, evil aliens, stars going supernova, and things like that are a lot of fun. John Ringo’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671318411/qid=1070564967/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7346935-4694445?v=glance&s=books">A Hymn Before Battle</a> is a well-crafted and -plotted excursion into most of the standard plot devices, but with a sort of Robert Ludlum flair. This looks like it’ll be the first in a series, and I’ll definitely read the next one as well.</p>
<p>Good popcorn.</p>
Dark November in Sweden2003-12-04T23:57:06Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/dark-november-in-sweden/
<p>I’ve used Jeremy Zawodny’s Yahoo! <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001001.html">news search via RSS tool</a> to set up a custom feed to get news about the Motherland delivered piping fresh to <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">my RSS reader</a>. Excellent stuff.</p>
<p>According to AP, this November was <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031204/sc_afp/sweden_weather_031204155332">unusually gloomy</a>, with an average of 45 minutes of sunlight per day. <em>Shudder</em>.</p>
<p>Also looks like there won’t be snow for Christmas this year. That bites hard. I remember being a kid, and there was nothing like getting a new pair of skis or a bobsled for Christmas, only to have 10 degrees Celsius and horizontal rain outside.</p>
<p>And yes, the weather in Phoenix is splendid, thanks for asking.</p>
Services: A new dawn for the daemon2003-12-02T09:41:23Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/services-a-new-dawn-for-the-daemon/
<p>One of the cool things in Mac OS X that seems to lie dormant right underneath the consciousness of most users is the Services menu. There it sits, just a tiny little item hidden in your application menu, not calling any attention to itself, just kind of hanging out, waiting, waiting to pounce.</p>
<p>When you think about it, Services are a new aspect of the Unix philosophy of making many little tools that do one thing and do them well and are able to be strung together like Lego pieces to create a whole infinitely greater than the sum of its parts–albeit of course not as astoundingly 1337 as a real Unix pipeline in that the pipe ends in the Service. Nevertheless, you have some data in some application, and a Service can use that data in novel ways, which opens up the door for some very tasty solutions once more developers start delving into the possibilities.</p>
<p>That’s probably the thing I like best about OS X: It opens up the door for so many new killer apps to come down the pike, which should make for a very interesting computer future.</p>
Church much?2003-12-02T01:53:15Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/12/church-much/
<p><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1130religionpoll30.html">According to a poll</a> by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, regular church attendance is now the prime indicator of political leanings, with regular church goers voting Republican by a 2-to-1 ratio, while people who never attend church vote Democrat, also by a 2-to-1 ratio.</p>
<p>Apparently this polarization is a fairly new development which started in the 1990s and “became clear” in the 2000 election. With the scary religious leanings of the current administration, I can’t see this trend reversing itself at any point soon.</p>
<p>The prominent form religion takes in everyday American life has been a constant source of surprise to me ever since coming to the States lo those many years ago; in Sweden secularity is the de facto mode, and it’s actually to the point there where active involvement in religion is seen as a bit … strange. It’s fine to believe in a God, but to go so far as to actually attend services … that’s a little bit odd. So it’s been very interesting for me to get used to politicos tossing religion into every debate and public statement.</p>
<p>The main source of interest in this study, though, should be how the right wing has taken over Christianity–the last time I read the New Testament, Jesus was pretty big on helping the poor and restricting avarice. But perhaps I’m just out of touch.</p>
Haunted G42003-11-29T07:20:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/haunted-g4/
<p>Looks like Monolith, my <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75343">Wind Tunnel</a> is experiencing some weirdness. As usual, I left the machine sleeping, then came back to find it powered down. Which is exactly what happened when it <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2003/10/computer-scare/">blew its logic board</a>.</p>
<p>Machine powered on just fine, though, so I figured I’d run fsck on it just for good measure. Saw this line on the screen:</p>
<p>ApplePMU::PMU FORCED SHUTDOWN, CAUSE = -128</p>
<p>Can’t find any info about this on Google or <a href="http://www.info.apple.com/">Apple’s KBase</a>. This is so annoying, in that my warranty expires on Wednesday, and I need to make a decision on whether to spend $250 on stupid AppleCare.</p>
Review: Crossroads of Twilight2003-11-29T06:10:36Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/review-crossroads-of-twilight/
<p>Book 10 in the Wheel of Time series. Wow. That’s a lot of words. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812571339/qid=1070058923/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-2446382-9742558">Crossroads of Twilight </a>continues the unfortunate trend in the last four or so books of being glacially slow. Essentially nothing happens. Oh, there’s a lot of activity, but the plot really doesn’t move forward very much at all. Which is becoming exceptionally frustrating.</p>
<p>I am a bit in awe of Mr. Jordan’s world building–it’s simply unparalleled, with an almost creepily obsessive attention to detail. It’s just that there’s nothing much happening in this fabulously detailed world right now. It would be great if somebody could go in and re-edit the series. Taking out most of the really pointless sub plots and streamlining the series would make it such an astonishing tour de force.</p>
<p>Last I heard Mr. Jordan had plotted for eight books, but we’re now up to ten with no end in sight. I seriously can’t see investing my time in more than a few more books unless the pace gets picked up significantly.</p>
Pet peeve: logging on to site2003-11-24T23:30:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/pet-peeve-logging-on-to-site/
<p>Both newspapers and tv “news” refers to visiting a web site as “logging on” to a site: “To read more, log on to our web site.” No, you visit a web site, or browse it. Logging on means to go through a challenge-response system to identify your credentials to view a resource. Unless the web site in question has this sort of system in place, like when you go check your email on Hotmail or Yahoo!, you are not logging on.</p>
<p>It annoys me tremendously when people whose professional responsibility it is to handle the language properly fail so abjectly at identifying common tasks.</p>
Review: The Lions of Al-Rassan2003-11-24T23:18:17Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/review-the-lions-of-al-rassan/
<p>Guy Gavriel Kay is one of the most interesting authors working in the fantasy genre today, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0061056219/qid=1069689741/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-4214996-7358225?v=glance&s=books">The Lions of Al-Rassan</a> is one of his best works.</p>
<p>The Lions of Al-Rassan takes place in a fictitious setting closely resembling medieval Spain, where a declining culture is beset with difficulties external as well as internal. Mr. Kay provides an intricate and moving plot with great detail, and his prose is sensuous and evocative.</p>
<p>While this is fantasy, Mr. Kay, as usual, avoids the clichés of the genre. Indeed, there is almost no magic, no non-humans, and no Dark Lord bent on world domination. The plot revolves solidly around the foibles of men and women, all driven by purely human desires and instincts.</p>
<p>My one nit to pick with the book is the sometimes annoying greatness of our protagonists. It becomes a bit stifling when all the main characters are paragons of virtue and greatness, even though they are tried and tempted.</p>
<p>The Lions of Al-Rassan is a great read, and really makes me want to bone up on the history of medieval Spain.</p>
Wells Fargo accounts in the wild2003-11-23T01:37:34Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/wells-fargo-accounts-in-the-wild/
<p>This is <a href="http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7326113.htm">incredibly scary</a>:A computer holding the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and account numbers of thousands of Wells Fargo customers was stolen from a consultant’s office in Concord earlier this month, bank officials said Friday.The bank is going to change the account numbers of affected customers, and also pay for “a year-long credit-monitoring service that will notify customers whenever there is activity in their credit bureau files.”</p>
<p>This goes to highlight a much bigger issue: Think about all those laptops going through airports all the time, many of them with highly sensitive information on them, like business plans, customer lists, product plans, etc. If the laptop is stolen, the data goes with it. In the case of the computer with the Wells Fargo data, it looks like a regular burglary where the computer was stolen as a part of everything else. So office computers also need protection.</p>
<p>If a person has physical access to a computer, the data on it is wide open, unless the drive itself is encrypted. If you have strong passwords (especially ones that aren’t taped to the computer), and use encryption on the drive, your data is infinitely more secure.</p>
<p>There are several products on Windows that will encrypt partitions, FreeBSD has <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disks-encrypting.html">gdbe</a>, and Apple has <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/filevault/">FileVault</a>.</p>
<p>You would think a bank would be aware of tools like this, and would make sure its consultants use them.</p>
Your uptime is 0wnz0r3d2003-11-21T05:28:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/your-uptime-is-0wnz0r3d/
<p>Another day, another software update from the <a href="http://www.apple.com/">mothership</a>. On the one hand, I’m really happy that Apple’s taking security seriously and is cranking out fixes as fast as they can, but on the other hand it’s just really sad that there are still so many wicked little monsters inside the operating system that need fixing. It feels pretty Windows-y to update your computer every few days for a new security threat. (Not that I’m saying it’s near as bad on this side of the fence, but that the increase in volume is disheartening.)</p>
<p>The “reboot required” piece of the software updates is getting to be really annoying, though. Not that my workstation requires 99.99999% uptime or anything, but this is a Unix. It should only have to be rebooted for a kernel update. The mystifying part is that Apple’s engineers obviously don’t ride to work on the short bus, so they are all well aware of the joys of restarting processes. Therefore, Watson, there must be something else that prohibits this, forcing the dreaded “restart required.” Does anybody know what?</p>
Review: Prey2003-11-20T06:08:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/review-prey/
<p>Michael Crichton is an 800-pound gorilla, and as I’d never read any of his other books, I figured I’d give <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061015725/qid=1069282299/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/103-4974392-2623848">Prey </a>a whirl. Mr. Crichton is a consummate craftsman of the page-turner: the plotting and pacing are great, and the action scenes are exquisitely put together.</p>
<p>The main problem with Prey is that it isn’t a novel–it’s a movie script masquerading as a novel. Some of the ways the characters think and interact are of the kind that will work in a movie, where you don’t have time to really think too much about what’s going on, but feels a bit off in a novel where you have the luxury of re-reading passages and putting the book down to think about what you just read. A lot of times I wanted to smack the protagonist upside the head and yell, “Hello! Do you need more clues? Pay attention!”</p>
<p>Basically the bugaboo in Prey is a bunch of nanobots (very very tiny little robots) that have gone amok and evolved in scary and lethal directions. The cause of the nanobots’ frightful evolution is that arrogant scientists and business people have encouraged them. The bastards. So it’s up to our hero Jack Forman to set things right.</p>
<p>Perhaps I’m just a bit dense, but the whole concept of the swarms of nanobots being these ominous black swirling clouds kind of struck me as weird. I thought the idea with nanobots is that they’re too small to be seen with the naked eye? And if they’re hunting people, shouldn’t they separate enough that they are invisible instead of spending a lot of effort ganging up close enough that they become visible? Oh, well.</p>
<p>Mr. Crichton does his homework, and there’s enough plausible-sounding science in Prey to cause a frisson of “it could happen,” but in the end it’s probably better to wait for the movie.</p>
Horselover Fat2003-11-20T00:22:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/horselover-fat/
<p>Wired has a <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/philip_pr.html">pretty good article</a> on Philip K. Dick (or Horselover Fat, as he liked to refer to himself) and the increasing amount of Hollywood movies based on his work. Apart from Bladerunner, I’ve always been disappointed by what Hollywood has done to Dick’s work. Seems to me, if you’re going to make a movie based on a novel fueled by paranoia, fear, and hopelessness, it should probably be a paranoid, dark movie.</p>
<p>But of course, angst-ridden meditations on reality and humanity don’t make blockbusters, so the scripts are altered with grafted-on happy endings and–naturellement–chase scenes.</p>
<p>As much as I love Dick’s novels, the biggest problem is always that they exist more as concepts than works. If he’d taken a bit less speed and if he’d been popular enough that a good editor was assigned to him, there’s no telling how good it could have been.</p>
<p>For those looking for more on Dick, I highly recommend <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0806512288/qid=1069261476/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-4974392-2623848?v=glance&s=books">Divine Invasions</a>, a really moving biography of this tortured soul.</p>
Log file parsing is addictive2003-11-18T00:14:11Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/log-file-parsing-is-addictive/
<p>Spent some time this weekend rolling a log file parser for this site, which was a lot of fun. Whenever I spend some time away from <a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> I love it even more when I come back. Such a great language! I’ve been living in <a href="http://www.php.net/">PHP</a> for a while now, and while it certainly makes it easy to accomplish a lot of web application tasks, the language smells so much of Perl. “$this->myVar” is so ugly it hurts me every time I have to type it. Let’s hope PHP 5 will have more elegant object handling.</p>
<p>From the logs, it looks like a lot of the hits I’m getting come from people searching for the Matrix Revolutions script. Sorry guys, I’m just linking to a parody.</p>
<p>It looks like some other people are experiencing the lag with iTunes that’s been bothering me since going to Panther. Interesting. Wish I had a cure.</p>
<p>Also had one person looking for a way to remove crayons from a laptop screen. Feeling your pain, man.</p>
Review: Under the Banner of Heaven2003-11-17T03:19:05Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/review-under-the-banner-of-heaven/
<p>Jon Krakauer’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385509510/qid=1069012241/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-4974392-2623848?v=glance&s=books">Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith</a> tells the story of the double-murder of Erica Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter Brenda by two of Brenda’s husband’s brothers. In order to put together the mental framework that lead Ron and Dan Lafferty to commit these murders, Mr. Krakauer provides a history of Mormonism and various fundamentalist Mormon splinter groups.</p>
<p>The book is well-researched and delivered in a calm, journalistic style. As the subject matter is a particularly wild-eyed, frenetic religiosity, this detached style works very well, and if anything makes the subject matter even more chilling. It’s stunning to read about the belief systems that are still thriving in the 21st century in the richest nation on Earth. The brief background of the religion and its tenets is very enlightening. Mr. Krakauer takes great care to separate official Mormonism and the various fundamentalist offshoots, and also to note the areas where they intersect.</p>
<p>Particularly interesting is Ron Lafferty’s insanity defense during his second trial, where the court finds that he is not insane, but that he has a highly unorthodox belief system, and that if the court were to find him insane, they would in fact rule everybody who’s religious insane.</p>
<p>Under the Banner of Heaven is an eminently readable and scary book that puts the spotlight on a lot of aspects of religion in historic and contemporary America. Highly recommended.</p>
Backup for the average user2003-11-12T07:37:32Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/backup-for-the-average-user/
<p><a href="http://anopinion.net/">Mike Deem</a> is talking about how WinFS will make it <a href="http://anopinion.net/posts/184.aspx">much easier</a> for users to backup their data once Longhorn comes out:We are working with backup vendors to [sic] great backup support in WinFS. User’s won’t have to know where their files are in order to back them up. The same powerful query capability they use to find their items can be used to identify the items to backup. The system should take care of the rest.I say bravo. Backing up is a major pain point for end users, as it has been for way too many years now. But then he goes one better:In WinFS you’ll be able to easily tell the system to replicate a set of items to another WinFS store, and ask the system to keep them in sync. Viola [sic]… instant <a href="http://backup.it/">backup.It</a>’s great to see Microsoft thinking about these things, and to build them into WinFS.</p>
<p>I don’t think the big problem right now is that it’s too hard for users to comprehend the “insert CD, drag files to it, burn” part of backing up their data (even though there certainly are people out there still struggling with that concept). The big problem seems to be to know (a) where the files are that need to be backed up; and (b) which files need to be backed up. WinFS will solve the first problem. It doesn’t matter where the file is, it’ll find it for you. Cool. From my experience, though, the bigger problem is (b): which files to back up. Figuring out that the spreadsheet you just created should be backed up is not hard, but there are so many parts of the system that are silently touched by the system and that need to be backed up. Like email. Where on your harddisk is your email? Where are the customizations you made to Word? Where are your bookmarks? What are the odds you’re going to remember to back up those files?</p>
<p>This is one area where the Home folder centricity of Mac OS X (and other Unixes) can really save your behind: If you remember to back up your entire home folder, all your settings, even the ones you’ll never remember by yourself, will be backed up. And if you don’t fight the machine by saving your files outside the sanctified area, your risks of data loss decrease tremendously. As an aside, this was a huge pain point for old-school Mac users as they migrated (often kicking and screaming) to Mac OS X–the feeling that being forced into a sort of user ghetto on their hard drive diminished their sense of control over the machine. During my tribulations at the <a href="http://www.apple.com/retail/">Fruit Stand</a> I even had a customer who insisted on saving all his work into /Library. Not maliciously, mind you, he just didn’t know any better. I didn’t want to delve too deep into his thought processes, so I can only assume he felt that a library would be a good place for his Works.</p>
<p>The challenge for OS developers is to make it very obvious where files are being stored, without the users (customers) feeling that they are being forced. There’s room for improvement everywhere.</p>
<p>Oh, and if you want to experience the goodness of automatic syncing of files between filesystems today, have a gander at <a href="http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/">rsync</a>. Beautiful piece of software.</p>
The semantic web2003-11-11T04:11:20Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/the-semantic-web/
<p>The web as it stands today is full of interesting things that only make sense to humans. But it would be nice if we could get our computers to understand the sea of data out there. Imagine instead of using Google or some other search engine to drill down to the information we’re after, getting side tracked and side slammed in the process, there was some way to organize all this information so it makes sense for the machines. Thus the dream of <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/">the semantic web</a>.</p>
<p>The basic idea of the semantic web, as I understand it, is to create agreed-upon metadata–“data about data”–in a format digestible by computers called <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">Resource Description Framework (RDF)</a>.</p>
<p>In his latest essay, Clay Shirky analyzes the semantic web idea, essentially viewing it as a syllogism engine. Shirky is getting <a href="http://66.70.191.189/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=2016">a lot of</a> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/002017.html">pushback</a>, accusing him of using a straw man argument and missing the point. Fair enough.</p>
<p>Several years ago, Cory Doctorow released an essay unassumingly titled <a href="http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm">Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia.</a> It’s a very interesting rant, focusing on the problem of creating metadata that computers can understand and people can agree on.</p>
<p>The best we can probably hope for is that within certain spaces, people and/or companies will agree on certain frameworks and use them to enable better data handling. My biggest worry is that the idea will turn into a committee monster, growing ever more unwieldy and diffuse. Let’s remember that the web took off in the first place because it’s simple.</p>
The meaning of unsupported2003-11-08T00:41:03Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/the-meaning-of-unsupported/
<p>Reading through the forums on <a href="http://www.macintouch.com/">Macintouch</a>, <a href="http://macfixit.com/">MacFixit</a>, and those sorts of sites, there seems to be a great deal of confusion regarding the meaning of the word “unsupported.” If you call Apple, Microsoft, Dell, or whoever made the product you’re having a problem with, and they tell you that what you’re trying to do is unsupported, that does not necessarily mean that it’s impossible or will not work. All unsupported means is “we’re not going to spend the time to tell you how to do it.” That’s all. Now, what you’re trying to do may actually not be possible. It may not be within the realm of possibility to get your ImageWriter working with your Dell laptop. But that’s not what it means when Dell tells you it’s unsupported. It’s just not a part of what the company feels they need to help you accomplish. Hence, unsupported.</p>
<p>Remember that customer support is a necessary evil for companies. Every dime Dell has to spend on having somebody in a cubicle tell somebody how to install a printer driver is a dime that doesn’t go into the share holders’ pockets. There’s a fine line: Make your tech support to skimpy, and you’ll get a bad name among consumers; make it too extensive, and you’ll bleed money like a stuck pig.</p>
<p>Also bear in mind when you make that tech support call that phone support is the rat-infested, cholera-plagued trench of the tech industry. The perceived helpfulness of the rep you talk to will be influenced by your own attitude. If you’re friendly and respectful, you’ll get a lot further than if you treat the rep like a serf. Trust me on this. You’re probably frustrated when you call, since obviously something isn’t working right, but taking that frustration out on the rep will not help anybody.</p>
<p>Oh, and threatening to never buy the company’s products again will not cut you any ice whatsoever.</p>
Jaguar usability2003-11-07T04:12:59Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/jaguar-usability/
<p>The school upgraded the computers in the lab where I corrupt young minds to Jaguar this semester, which is great, as I was getting really tired of OS 9 barfing all over itself. It’s also been very interesting, as most of my students fall in the “naive user” category. Nothing wrong with that, technology is not their field, and part of my task is to get them productive on the machines. That being said, it’s always an eye-opener to see how people interact with the machines, and how some things you take for granted are really not self-evident at all.</p>
<p>A few things I’ve noticed where Jaguar falls flat on its face usability-wise are:The open/save dialog boxes are incomprehensible to a surprising amount of my students. They all work off of Zip disks, and Jaguar wants to save everything into the “student” user’s Documents folder. So they must a) click the disclosure button to get a file structure view; and b) slide all the way over to the left to see the Zip disk. This has been alleviated a lot in the Panther open/save dialogs, and I can’t wait for the school to upgrade so I can observe how they work <a href="http://out.in/">out.In</a> the web design portion of the class, the students end up with a lot of documents on their screens: A few BBEdit Lite documents, a few browser windows, a few Finder windows, and it’s a cacophony. Minimizing and bringing back windows helps, but not enough. So I find myself missing Expose. Can’t wait to see how it flies with this sort of user.The default Dock behavior of exploding–ahem, magnifying–icons demos really well, and looks very cool for about five minutes, and after that it’s a huge pain in the rear end. Sure, it can be turned off, but I doubt most technologically innocent people know how to do that. It would be really nice if the default behavior was to ship with the exploding icons off, so that the three people in the world who like it can turn it on.People who are used to Windows get frustrated when they forget to eject their Zip disks before shutting the computer down. No manual eject button, so you have to boot the machine up to get it to spit the disk out. It would be really nice if there was a setting to make the machine eject removable media when it’s being powered down. Perhaps I’m growing senile, but I want to remember that some long-ago version of the Mac OS did eject media upon shutdown. If so, makes you wonder why they took the option out.These things apart, Jaguar is working out really well in the lab, and having the solidity is an extremely nice change of pace.</p>
Review: Matrix Revolutions2003-11-06T04:25:29Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/review-matrix-revolutions/
<p>Sigh. It’s a disappointment. A pretty good movie, but it just doesn’t have the focus and verve of either the original or Reloaded. Feels like they lost focus and didn’t know how to end it.</p>
<p>This is not a spoiler: The ending is bad. Really bad. Other bad things in Revolutions: It’s slow; there’s a lot of laughably bad dialogue; there’s very little character development; did I mention the ending is really bad?</p>
<p>Good things in Revolutions: The visual effects are stunning. But you already knew that. That’s actually pretty much it. Very cool fight scenes, and the Battle For Zion is very enjoyably over the top.</p>
<p>In preparation for Revolutions, I watched the original this weekend, and it’s still a great movie after I don’t know how many watchings. It has spirit, it’s very tight, everything that happens moves the story line forward, and the characters are interesting.</p>
<p>Makes you wish they’d never done the sequels. Especially since nothing makes any more sense after Revolutions.</p>
<p>Sigh.</p>
Apple dealers taking it in the shorts2003-11-04T23:30:33Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/apple-dealers-taking-it-in-the-shorts/
<p>According to Think Secret, Apple’s <a href="http://www.thinksecret.com/news/specialistchanges.html">updating their dealer requirements</a> for resellers. According to reports from a <a href="http://www.thinksecret.com/news/specialistchanges2.html">web cast on Monday</a>, dealers, among other things, must now have an ‘attach rate’ of 60 percent on the Apple Protection Plan, aka APP, aka Apple Pure Profit. APP is Apple’s extended warranty scheme, adding two years to the product warranty, plus free phone support for the life of the extended warranty.</p>
<p>Dealers are up in arms over this for two primary reasons: 1) 60 percent attach means that for every ten machines you sell, six of them have to go out the door with APP; unfortunately, APP can be a hard sell, as some people don’t appreciate spending an extra, say, $349 on the purchase of a $1,599 PowerBook–especially since APP can be added on later through a phone call up to one year after purchase.</p>
<p>Reason 2) is the big one, though. In order for a customer to get APP, the sale has to be registered with Apple, meaning Apple has the customer’s name, email, and phone number. Apple has promised to not use this information to take business away from the dealer, through, oh, say, calling them up and telling them to visit their local Apple Store. According to one dealer who wished to be anonymous:</p>
<blockquote>“One dealer shared with us email forwarded to him by a long-time customer who after just 90 days of signing an AppleCare warranty was contacted by Apple about a ‘special discount offer’ if he bought peripherals from the Apple Store – just miles from the Specialist dealer he originally did business with.”</blockquote>
<p>Of course, anonymous whining from dealers has to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s still disturbing that this sort of behavior from Apple may be going on, since it’s exceptionally short sighted of Apple to cannibalize their existing sales channel. Sure, the Apple Stores are all nice and Kubrickian, but they don’t provide specialized sales support for vertical markets, and that’s not their purpose.</p>
Let’s get fair and balanced2003-11-04T04:22:41Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/lets-get-fair-and-balanced/
<p>Interesting article on Salon (if you’re not a paying member you have to sit through an interstitial to read the whole thing) about the <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/10/31/fox/index_np.html">goings-on at Fox News.</a></p>
<p>Here’s a news organization which distributes an “editorial note” every morning, which “contains hints, suggestions and directives on how to slant the day’s news.” OK. You know, I suppose I can take it that a news organization has a political bent. That’s okay. That’s what editorials are for. But when you bring your editorials into the news flow without labeling them you are committing fraud. And when you have the unabashed gall to label yourself “Fair and Balanced” while perpetrating this, you are raping the corpse of news integrity.</p>
<p>Heh. Angry liberal.</p>
Review: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them2003-11-03T12:00:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/11/review-lies-and-the-lying-liars-who-tell-them/
<p>Al Franken strikes again with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0525947647/qid=1067834386/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5024648-8803059?v=glance&s=books">Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.</a> Written in a breezy, easy-to-read style, it has some really funny moments, but in the end it made me really, really depressed. The fact that a book like this needed to be written should make anybody with an interest in democracy hang their heads. It should also make the people toiling in news rooms across the country take a long, hard look at their professional mission.</p>
<p>Basically, according to Mr. Franken, the set up works like this: There’s a really nutty bunch of blowhards whose mission in life is to twist the truth in egregious ways according to their scary Weltanschauung. After they put their memes into the media sphere, the less nutty, more mainstream media pick up on these memes and perpetrate them. This doesn’t mean that the more mainstream media have an agenda, per se, but more that they are too lazy and or incompetent to do their fact checking properly. And the results are what you ingest in the media every day.</p>
<p>Mr. Franken gives a bunch of examples of this process in action, and they will make you cringe.</p>
<p>But it gets worse. According to Mr. Franken, the White House is actively involved in this process. The most gratuitous example is during the transition period when the new staff moved into the White House, and there were reports of up to $200,000 worth of vandalization that the previous Clinton staff had perpetrated on the property. Turns out this was completely invented. You have to wonder what kind of people you’re dealing with who would invent something so pointless and gratuitous just to score easy points.</p>
<p>In the unbelievable scum-bucket category also falls a campaign technique called push polling. Essentially what people with the ethics of pond scum do is call voters in contested areas and pretend to be an independent polling organization, then ask the voters things like, “If you knew that candidate X had an illegitimate Black child, would that make you less likely to vote for him?” The beauty of this is that you put out the FUD, but technically your hands are clean.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of really stomach-churning material like that in the book.</p>
<p>The big take-away for me personally is that the book reinforces Marshall McLuhan’s idea that we are now living in a post-literate society. There’s just way too much information around us, and it’s coming at us so quickly that it becomes increasingly difficult to be literate, in the sense of using logic and structure, to process the information. Thus we end up with a mythology taking the place of reason, and in this case the biggest myth makers belong to the crackpot right wing.</p>
<p>Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a definite must-read.</p>
Using REST with Amazon2003-10-31T23:33:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/using-rest-with-amazon/
<p>Pretty cool article at <a href="http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2003/10/30/amazon_rest.html">ONLamp.com</a> about using REST instead of SOAP with Amazon’s web services. Hmmm.</p>
<p>The work done by both Amazon and Google at creating APIs for their services and the uses people are putting them to is one of the most exciting things to happen on the Internet in the last few years (together with <a href="https://thecoredump.org/2003/10/disruptive-technologies-news-aggregators/">news aggregators</a>). Back in 1995, who would have thought that opening up a bookseller’s database would be a big deal?</p>
<p>It seems that the big success stories of the web, like Amazon, Google, EBay, and Hotmail, all have one thing in common: The heavy lifting is performed by the customer. They provide systems that encourage people to interact with data and then use their systems to add value to the data that their customers have given them. This is so brilliant; one of the big problems a lot of big-name sites, like Slate, have had is that compelling content is just so darn expensive. So take something as mundane as a bookstore database, then make it smart through its interactions with people, and voila! money. People like to interact with people! What a concept! But people like to interact with people without having to deal with people even better.</p>
Hazy weather2003-10-31T07:37:30Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/hazy-weather/
<p>Things have been hazy in the Valley of the Sun today. My first thought was that it was smoke from the SoCal fires, but then I thought, “No way, they’re six hours away by car.” It seems impossible that there could be enough smoke to stretch this far.</p>
<p>As usual, I <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1030smoke30.html">was wrong.</a> The immensity of those blazes is just staggering.</p>
Lord of the Switchers2003-10-30T03:29:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/lord-of-the-switchers/
<p>Great <a href="http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/10/29/osxcon_g5cluster.html">article on O’Reilly</a> about the Virginia Tech G5 cluster and how it came to be.</p>
<p>One of the funniest parts to me was that after meeting with Apple and getting delivery commitment from them, Virginia Tech ordered the machines through the online <a href="http://store.apple.com/">Apple Store.</a> I wonder if the system generated any warnings? Ahem, 1,100 units, you say? Are you sure?</p>
<p>Also, the project lead had never used a Mac before. Apple and IBM sure are getting their act together with the G5s. As one of the legion of Mac users who’ve suffered through the ridiculousness of Motorola’s attempts at increasing the clock speeds of the G4s–seriously, .25GHz increase in six months?–I can’t wait for the day when the low-end Macs all come with G5s and the high-end is the G6, and Motorola can go back to their “core competency” of crappy cellphones.</p>
The network is the computer2003-10-29T23:29:57Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/the-network-is-the-computer/
<p><a href="http://www.oreilly.com/">Tim O’Reilly</a>, my favorite book publisher in the whole gosh-darn world, has put on his thinking cap and pondered the power of <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,60999,00.html">networked applications</a>.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more with him. These days it just seems so quaint to consider a computer sitting all alone, not networked to anything. Just using your computer as a glorified calculator and typewriter without any communications is such a dreary vision, even though we were all quite happy doing that up till the 80s.</p>
<p>The big ticket item for me these days is my personal data. As I use several machines during the course of a day–at the very least my desktop, my laptop, my Palm, and my iPod, having the information I want readily accessible to me is paramount. This is the reason I went ahead and ponied up the $99 plus tax for another year of .Mac. Not to sound like an Apple shill, but having my contacts, calendars, email, and bookmarks accessible on any Internet-connected computer is a huge win. And not just accessible, but accessible in a handy format. With .Mac, I can sync my machines so they all have the same data and access the data in applications that make it easy. So I have my contacts in Addressbook, my email in Mail.app, my bookmarks in Safari, etc.</p>
<p>Before .Mac, when I spent my days in Windows 2K, I used Yahoo! for the same purposes, and really liked it. Apart from the bookmark syncing, which just wasn’t there. And .Mac upped the ante with photo albums, distributed screen savers, and iDisk.</p>
<p>It seems to me like data synchronization across devices and machines could be the next great Open Source killer app. Especially since .Mac is mostly built on top of Open Source technologies.</p>
<p>One thing I’d really like to see from Apple is for them to open up iSync to other developers. My big pain point right now is <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">NetNewsWire’s</a> feed list. If there were a way for NNW to use the iSync mechanism, I’d be in data heaven right now.</p>
Football charity2003-10-29T22:33:22Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/football-charity/
<p>This week’s Monday Night Football game was moved to Tempe, AZ due to San Diego’s Qualcomm stadium being used as shelter for fire victims. Admission was free, with a twist: fans were asked to make a charitable contribution to help the relief efforts. I have to admit ignorance as to the cost of a football ticket, but I (in my ignorant little heart) figured that people would drop that amount for charity and consider it the cost of admission, but with the proceeds going to help fire victims instead of more crack for football players.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1029roberts29.html">No such luck.</a></p>
<p>65,000 people showed up, netting $225,000. In other words, $3.46 per person. That’s just sad.</p>
<p>Julian Wright, co-owner of the Library Bar and Grill on Mill Avenue, is quoted as saying: “And football fans, they’re not the classiest crowd.”</p>
Disruptive technologies: News aggregators2003-10-28T00:46:58Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/disruptive-technologies-news-aggregators/
<p>The biggest change for my own personal use of the web since the search engine is the advent of the news aggregator. Using an aggregator makes it so much faster and easier to keep up with what is happening on your favorite sites that it’s impossible to go back to the old way of going through your bookmarks, check site A; nothing new; check site B, ah, a new article; check site C, nothing new, ad nauseam.</p>
<p>How it works: You load up a list of feeds in your aggregator, and then it polls those feeds for changes at intervals you specify. Once there’s something new in a feed, it shows up in the aggregator, and you can then (usually) read an excerpt of the article and if the excerpt seems interesting you can visit the site itself for the full article. Most aggregators look like either email clients or newsgroup readers, so most people are familiar with the concept from the get-go.</p>
<p>By using an aggregator, you save tons of time by having it check if there’s anything new to read, and it also makes it easier to keep tabs of sites you don’t visit often but occasionally have new content you want to keep on top of.</p>
<p>News feeds are also good for site owners in that they obviate the need for mailing lists to keep people updated of changes you make to a site. Mailing lists require a lot of love and care, and with the rise of spam as Public Enemy Number One on the Internet, even opt-in lists sometimes get mangled by overzealous spam filters. News aggregators make an end-run around the entire problem.</p>
<p>For a list of aggregators for different platforms, visit <a href="http://www.hebig.org/blogs/archives/main/000877.php">hebig.org.</a> On the Mac, the premier aggregator is <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">NetNewsWire</a>, which comes in full and lite (free) versions. Highly recommended.</p>
Microsoft Kool-Aid2003-10-26T05:41:39Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/microsoft-kool-aid/
<p>It looks like <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">Robert Scoble</a> is getting a lot of attention for his blog. Which is as it should, as he’s really an incredible blogging machine, and is, I’m sure, going be held as the prototype for the Corporate Blogger. He does a really good job of putting a <a href="http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,3959,1357817,00.asp">human face</a> on the Microsoft Machine. So hats off to him.</p>
<p>Reading him is fascinating in many ways, but one of the most enthralling pieces for me is the massive opacity of his pitcher of Kool-Aid. It must be great to be able to so complete merge oneself with the Collective.</p>
<p>Lately he’s been posting about the <a href="http://longhornblogs.com/scobleizer/posts/345.aspx">rampant industry hatred</a> against his employer. According to Scoble, Things are Changing at Microsoft. Microsoft cares about its customers. Microsoft wants to be Your Friend. Microsoft is Staffed With Great People. Microsoft Does Not Beat Its Wife. And that’s great. I for one would really like to see things change at Microsoft.</p>
<p>As I see it, there are two discrete things causing the industry revulsion toward Microsoft:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Their technology is very often sub-par. Not much anybody outside Microsoft can do about that, apart from buying from the (few) competitors they haven’t bought out or sent running for the hills.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Their business practices are heinous and piranha-like. For goodness’ sake, how rapaciously do you have to act to be <a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm">convicted in Federal court?</a> even when everybody is so afraid of you that they <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/deepthroat_pr.html">don’t dare testify</a> against you?</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Longhorn looks like an attempt at resolving problem one. But let’s face it, problem one doesn’t really cause that much fear and loathing. Indeed, it is one of the driving forces behind what’s left of the IT industry–companies still need platoons of people to kick the Exchange server and clean up after the viruses.</p>
<p>In my humble and ignorant outsider’s view, it’s point two that really needs addressing. Stop holding your customers at gun point and allow competition.</p>
First Panther impressions2003-10-25T10:44:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/first-panther-impressions/
<p>Some quick <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/">Panther</a> impressions to take us all into the weekend… All in all, a really solid upgrade; the “wow” factor isn’t as high as it was with Jaguar, even though in retrospect, most of that was Quartz Extreme, I think. With Jaguar or Panther, the oozing slickness you get on a machine that is QE capable is simply stunning. Slapping a transparent window around over a playing DVD without any kind of stutter and the CPU meter not even noticing it is still awesome, and great fun for the Nerd On a Budget™. The improvements in Panther are mostly buried a little bit deeper, but are just as profound as the ones in Jaguar.</p>
<p>My favorites at this point:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>FileVault. For the security conscious (which should be everybody), FileVault gives your home directory AES-128 encryption. For laptop users, this is a godsend–if somebody rips off your machine, they can’t get into your data. Computers are cheap. Replacing all your credit cards and changing all your passwords are not. Worth it for that point alone. It should be noted here that I’m not enough of a cypherpunk to know how long it would take to break AES-128. Like anything else on a computer, it’s doable, but the question is, how much time and effort does it take? The crackhead who ripped off your machine is most likely to just wipe the drive and sell it to the first shady character who comes along, but your data will be safe.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Threaded discussions in Mail. This makes my nipples so hard. Finally…</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>XCode. Project Builder was a pretty good IDE. Not great, but workable. XCode kicks it up several notches.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fast User Switching. Makes it non-painful to create different accounts on a machine and actually use them. Having your entire workspace obliterated just so somebody can log on for two minutes and check their email used to blow. No more. A cool Windows feature brought over.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>General user interface tweaks. Less pinstriping, more cleanliness. Lovable.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Keyboard application switching grows up. I tried to explain keyboard application switching to some students in my class using 10.2, and it just didn’t take at all. When we get 10.3 in the laboratory, it will blow their minds. One teensy-tiny complaint is that I would like to be able to scroll through each application’s open windows. Please put that one in the list for 10.4.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Exposé. Yes, it’s pretty cool. I still would like to see a real desktop pager, though, as I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t like to clutter his desktop with open windows. If you’re in the habit of hiding non-active windows, Exposé just doesn’t do all that much for you. But the effect is to die for.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>One thing that unfortunately still sucks is the Finder. Can somebody please take this thing out and shoot it? “Rewritten from scratch.” Uh-huh. Stutter, rainbow cursor, stutter. Finder copies taking 80% of CPU. WTF? No wonder I’m spending more and more time in the Terminal. The Finder, still the number one dog of the litter.</p>
Classic from rec.humor.funny.reruns2003-10-25T01:32:24Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/classic-from-rechumorfunnyreruns/
<p>Saw this on rec.humor.funny.reruns and thought it definitely belongs in as many places on the Internet as possible, so here goes:</p>
<p>ASK DR. LAURA</p>
<p>Dear Dr. Laura, Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s law. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them.</p>
<p>When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?</p>
<p>I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? I also know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women takeoffense.</p>
<p>Now I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself? Then, Lev. 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?</p>
<p>A friend of mine also feels that even though eating shellfish is a nabomination (Lev. 10:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? And Lev. 20:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20,or is there some wiggle room here?</p>
<p>I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.</p>
<p>[Note - reportedly written by filmmaker Michael Moore - ed.]</p>
<p>–From the RHF archives as selected by Brad Templeton, Maddi Hausmann and Jim Griffith. This newsgroup posts former jokes from the newsgrouprec.humor.funny. Visit <a href="http://www.netfunny.com/rhf">http://www.netfunny.com/rhf</a> to browse the RHF pages and archives on the web.</p>
Coupling: Now without subtitles!2003-10-24T12:19:50Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/coupling-now-without-subtitles/
<p>Just caught an episode of the American version of Coupling. If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s a British sitcom, essentially a more raunchy and less dopey take on the same concept as Friends. Coupling, the original, is an exceptionally well-written and -acted show that occasionally manages to be laugh-out-loud funny. The “Inferno” episode is probably the funniest made-for-tv half-hour I’ve ever seen. Yup, it’s that good.</p>
<p>So the American version is mostly a line-for-line copy with less talented actors and the “difficult” British English terms translated to American. So instead of “Tories,” we have “Republicans”; instead of a “flat”, we have an “apartment,” etc. The big question, of course, is, Why in the name of all that is Holy did this have to be remade? Why? Why? Call me a tree-hugging hippie, but I do believe that the American public should be able to perform the difficult mental mapping necessary to translate between standard American and Standard British. So how about–and I know this is radical–just show the original! It will be cheaper and better. I’d love to see some TV executives show some cojones and actually trust people to not be utter morons.</p>
<p>Well, I’ll buy you a round when that happens, which will most likely coincide with the invasion of the Morloks.</p>
First snow in Sweden2003-10-22T01:04:10Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/first-snow-in-sweden/
<p>My parents sent me this picture, taken today the 21st of October in the year of our Lord 2003:</p>
<p><img src="https://thecoredump.org/images/2003-10-21.jpg" alt="Sweden, October 21 2003" /></p>
<p>Yes indeed, it is snowing in Sweden. Amazing, as I’m sitting here kwetching about the infernal heat in Arizona. But, as the saying goes, you don’t have to shovel sunshine…</p>
In-a-gadda-da-vida2003-10-20T05:10:48Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/in-a-gadda-da-vida/
<p>Watching VH1 last night I picked up a new morsel of edification. Turns out that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000033OB/002-3364422-3517627?v=glance">In-a-gadda-da-vida</a> (an unbelievably annoying track, but that’s beside the point) is actually called In The Garden of Eden but that the singer was too chemically altered to be able to pronounce the words, so the band decided to just write the title down like he sang it.</p>
<p>Perhaps all the cool people already knew this, but it’s news to me… Guess I always just assumed it was a reference to some kind of Indian mysticism since all the hippies of that era seemed to be into that kind of stuff.</p>
Three little letters2003-10-15T06:59:16Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/three-little-letters/
<p>Thinking more about the problems with high-ASCII characters being munged by computers reminded me of some of the insane silliness that happened in Sweden during the Big PC Explosion of the late 80s. At that point in time a lot of PCs shipped with American keyboards. Which is fine, as long as you don’t need to type in any strange characters, like, oh, let’s say, åäö. What’s crucial to remember here is that åäö aren’t some fancy-schmancy things that only typographers care about–they’re letters in the Swedish alphabet. This means that typing without them is like arbitrarily removing three letters from the alphabet. In other words, you’re castrating the language.</p>
<p>Being of the opinion that computers are supposed to help us, not force us into downgrading civilization to comply with whatever limits were designed into the machines, I thought this was absolutely sickening.</p>
<p>But then things got really weird. A lot of people got the idea that not using åäö was really cool and International. “Hey, who needs ‘em!” rang the cry. “You can figure it out from context.” And besides, not using åäö will make us more International. Think about that one for a second.</p>
<p>It even went far enough that major Swedish corporations that happened to have the offending characters in their names dropped the diacritical marks. Begone, foul non-International reminders of our humble origins! This, of course, made their names sound incredibly silly to Swedish ears, but hey, what are you going to do?</p>
<p>I still know people who don’t use åäö in their emails. And it freaks me out.</p>
<p>Now, as you can tell from my writing this little rant in English and living in the States, I’m not exactly the staunchest Swedish jingoist, but that’s not the point.</p>
<p>The point is that due to some arbitrary design limitations built in to computers a long time ago, people of a certain mindset started to consider the voluntary castration of their own language a sign of progress.</p>
<p>Sigh. I need to not think about these kinds of things.</p>
<p>…Hey, purple!</p>
Seven bits of evil2003-10-15T03:25:52Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/seven-bits-of-evil/
<p>Joel Spolsky has created yet another nifty write-up called <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html">The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)</a>.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more with him. Having spent years doing desktop publishing involving text files created both on Macs and Windows, the sheer amount of time I’ve had to waste massaging high-ASCII characters between the platforms boggles the mind.</p>
<p>But Nic, you say, I’ve done that as well, and I’ve never had any problems. Good for you. Did you do that in Sweden, where the alphabet includes the three characters åäö? Have you seen the unholy mess that results from transferring files between platforms when they’re full of åäö? It’s not pretty. Add to that seemingly simple things like curly quotes and em-dashes, and your will to live starts to drain away.</p>
<p>The single thought running through my head whenever I would run cleanup scripts on those files was always “Why the hell do I have to do this?” But heck, that was years ago, and now we have the Internet and everything is really cool and multicultural and those issues have gone away, right? Bzzz. Wrong. I still get emails with åäö in them that look like the writings of a demented prophet.</p>
<p>So if you happen to be a programmer or web developer and you’re reading this, get thee to Joel’s article and take it to heart. There are just no excuses anymore.</p>
The silence of the phones2003-10-14T03:59:37Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/the-silence-of-the-phones/
<p>Something’s been different here at <a href="http://thecoredump.org/">thecoredump.org</a> Intergalactic Headquarters for the last couple of weeks, and it finally dawned on me what it is: The phones have been very quiet. To the point where now when it rings I actually assume it’s not a telemarketer calling to torment me.</p>
<p>So big ups to the FTC for the Do Not Call list! Vive la difference!</p>
<p>The only ashes in the victory cup at this point are of course the fear that some insane judge may overturn the list at some point. Let’s all try to make sure that doesn’t happen.</p>
Computer Scare2003-10-13T06:56:35Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/computer-scare/
<p>Had a bit of a scare with Monolith, my <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75343">WindTunnel</a>, today. Went to the study in the morning to check my email, and Monolith was off. Hmm, odd, since I never turn it off, but sleep it at night. Powered it on, and noticed that the jet engine fans didn’t turn on.</p>
<p>Strange. Went through the usual zap PRAM, reset Open Firmware, disconnect all devices dance. Still no jet engine fans. So I took it up a notch and reset the PMU (a.k.a the Cure Everything button). After that, the LED would light up when depressed, but turn off as soon as my finger left it, and there was no activity whatsoever inside the box. No fans, no power LED, no spin-up of the hard drives.</p>
<p>Figured it had to be the logic board. Blast. Was not sure if the machine was still under warranty.</p>
<p>Took the machine to my local friendly <a href="http://www.apple.com/retail/chandler/">Fruit Stand</a>, where they had the part in stock and swapped it out on the spot. Very cool. Big thank you to Aaron and Jeff.</p>
<p>And the machine is still under warranty. Whew. I have till December 3rd to make up my mind if I want to drop $249 on another two years’ worth of warranty status on the rig. Just not sure.</p>
<p>One thing I was reminded of, though, while taking my hard drives out of the machine in case I’d have to leave it to the tender mercies of the repair techs, is that the WindTunnels are the best designed towers I’ve ever had the privilege of working on. It’s just so nice in there.</p>
What’s this then?2003-10-10T00:45:19Zhttps://thecoredump.org/2003/10/whats-this-then/
<p><a href="http://thecoredump.org/">Thecoredump.org</a> is the place for Niclas Lindh to post whatever interests him.</p>
<p>The name stems from my long fascination with the interface between machines and people and the way we anthropomorphize the machines. For the non-technical reader, a <a href="http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/C/core-dump.html">core dump</a> is a copy of the content of a computer’s memory that is written out to disk when certain fatal errors occur. So when applying the term to humans (of which I am one), the term would mean to write down things one knows. Write what you know, as they like to say.</p>
<p>The site is currently running on <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/"> MovableType</a>, a quite excellent blog system that I picked after spending way too much time trying to make <a href="http://www.blosxom.com/"> Blosxom</a> behave the way I wanted it to. Not to knock it, Blosxom is really cool in many ways, and has that good guerrilla web publishing feel, but in the end you just get tired of sleeping out in the bush, eating grilled snake, and shaking scorpions from your boots in the morning. So off to the silk sheets and chocolate-on-the-pillow of MovableType I went.</p>