Explodiblog

Aggressively neutral on the Wisconsin walk-out

2011-03-04T13:45:00.002-05:00

A few people have asked me what I think about the Wisconsin collective bargaining rights walk-out, so I'll just tell the world my thoughts on the matter here.

Unions cause monopoly pricing in a market. What this means is they cause a "deadweight loss" - the union gains less of a benefit than the buyers (governments in this case) lose; the market loses overall efficiency. The exception is when there is only one entity buying all the labor - although this is true for some government positions, most (police, firefighters, teachers, etc) can work for a nearby town instead.

But when it comes to labor, there are other considerations besides pure efficiency in one market. If labor prices drop too low, people who can't support their families will simply turn to crime, or take dangerous risks to solve immediate problems. Put simply, poverty has a cost too. Efficiency in the labor market isn't always worth it overall.

EVERYONE, not just union members, deserves a life free of poverty, but unions are not the best way to do it. Governments can subsidize food, shelter, health care, etc, and provide it more efficiently through taxes (land taxes for example have no deadweight loss) than unions can.

So here's why I'm aggressively neutral. The proposed union-busting legislation does nothing to address how union members will be worse off afterwards. No raise to the minimum wage, no health care reform, no improvements to the working environment. It was entirely possible for the Republicans to propose something that helps literally everyone but they did not. They know better, too, but the tea party will not accept any socialism whatsoever, even if it merely guarantees what union members already have in a less disruptive way.

This is why we can't have nice things, people.

What I've been up to lately

2010-09-27T20:32:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I never feel like blogging at home, so here's what is up from my phone:
* Moved from Hartford to Los Angeles.
* Working a new job at a forge. Doing well.
* Have made barely any progress on that e-voting program. I've learned a good amount about SQL databases, though.
* Magen continues to be awesome.
* Encouraging all of you California folks to vote YES on Prop 19.
* Biking to the train, then to work, then back both again every weekday. Finally back below 200 lbs and feeling healthier. I'm on the train right now.
* The new apartment is starting to feel "ours". Also: rent controlled.

I am less of a beast now.

2010-02-06T18:32:00.002-05:00

Delegated Democracy - Part 7

2009-10-01T12:22:00.008-04:00

After bouncing the idea off a few people and thinking about it for a while, I've got the next iteration of my voting idea. I'm thinking we could use GnuPG to handle all the cryptography since it's free (as in speech), open source, stable, secure, and widely adopted. Here's how it works.

Three groups

Everyone involved in the process falls into one or more of the following groups:

The polling authority is the entity in charge of administering the voting process, and in this case would be a political party.
The voter is anyone eligible to vote, but not necessarily a member of this party. They choose a delegate to vote on their behalf. All voter information is confidential.
The delegates are entities that have been given authorization by voters to vote on their behalf. They can be people, computer programs, corporations, other political parties, or whatever else the voter chooses. All delegate-related information is public.

Step 1: Delegate registration

Anyone or anything wishing to serve as a delegate can submit a name, email address, and public key to the polling authority. An encrypted confirmation email will then be sent to the delegate. Once confirmed, the delegate is added to the key server. The public will have read-only access to the key server.

Step 2: Voter registration

A voter travels to the polling authority with an accepted form of identification and registers to vote. The voter then types in the email address of a delegate who has registered in Step 1. The voter can optionally specify multiple delegates, so if the voter's first choice delegate does not vote, their second (or third, fourth, etc) choice will be used instead. As a courtesy, voters can notify their delegates when selected or removed, but this can't be done by the polling authority without risking voter coercion or bribery. For most voters this step can be automated for complete privacy, but we'd also provide assistance on request.

Step 3: Call for votes

When it's time to vote, the polling authority publishes notice on the party website and mailing list. For example, a poll could look like this:

Poll 123456: "What will we have for dinner?"
001 Pizza
002 Salad
003 Toothpaste

Step 4: Votes submitted

The delegates who had registered in Step 1 would then:

Rank the choices from Step 3 in order of preference,
Save those rankings to a file,
Tamper-proof the file by digitally signing it, and
Email this ballot to the polling authority.

Since an unscrupulous attacker could block a delegate's registered email address during this step, we'd have to allow ballots from any address so long as the registered one is mentioned and the signature passes verification.

Step 5: Votes tallied

After a set amount of time has passed, the polling authority verifies all submitted ballots and tallies the votes. I'm a fan of the Schulze method, but there are some other good electoral systems out there for determining the winner. The winning choice and every other choice that has been ranked by over 1% of all votes will be displayed on the party website. The ballot from each delegate will also be publicly visible.

Other ideas

I've been thinking about Coriolinus' tagging idea from the last post, but I can't think of any good way to make it work properly. Everything I've got so far either introduces the risk of gaming the system or just wouldn't prioritize issues perfectly for everyone. I'm open to the idea, but I'm not 100% sure how I could make it work.

Totally my next vision upgrade

2009-09-17T19:00:00.001-04:00

Color blindness CURED in monkeys!

"Ultra-experimental hacks that confer light- and color-perceiving powers on cells used in other aspects of sight would be that much closer to reality."

Delegated Democracy - Part 6

2009-01-11T15:48:00.001-05:00

I've been working on that idea for an online delegated voting system. Here's what I've got so far:

Three groups

The polling authority would be in charge of the voting process, and in this case would be the party.
The voter decides which options they like best for a given vote, and either vote on their own or delegate a third party to do it for them.
The delegates can be people, computer programs, Google, whatever you want. All that matters is that they've been given authorization to vote on behalf of someone. If you vote on your own, you are your own delegate.

Two types of ballot

The blank ballot is effectively your power of attorney with regards to delegating your vote. If you want you can give it to someone else, or you can use it yourself to make filled ballots (see below). It consists of three bundled elements, together encrypted with the polling authority's public key:

Your username,
Your password, and
A random number used once.

A filled ballot is what is actually submitted to the polling authority, and it says who you are and how you vote. It consists of three bundled elements, together encrypted with the polling authority's public key:

A blank ballot,
The vote number, and
Ranked options for the vote.

When the polling authority receives a filled ballot, it publishes the rankings and a cryptographic hash of the (blank ballot + vote number). If the username and password are valid, it counts the vote towards the final results, otherwise it is not counted. When polling has closed, the winning options and close runners-up are published.

Since you know what your blank ballot is, you can check how your vote was used once it's published, and if it's different than what you expected due to a security breach, you or your delegate can send an email to the polling authority telling them to blacklist that particular blank ballot.

You'd have to be physically present at the polling authority headquarters when you chose your username and password, but other than that the whole thing could be done online.

Thoughts?

Delegated Democracy - Part 5

2008-12-29T13:43:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on that idea of mine, but after discussing the last iteration of the idea with Coriolinus I've been trying to refine the idea. Generally, here are the requirements of the system I have in mind:

Secret ballot - The citizen should have no way of proving to a third party how they have voted.
Delegation - The citizen should have the option of allowing a third party to vote on their behalf, who should be able to delegate the vote to a fourth party, and so on. The voter should be able to choose their own software or service to do this, rather than a single limited/bloated application.
Online voting - Voters should have to register in person with valid identification, but from that point forward should be able to vote from anywhere.
Voting records - The citizen should be able to check how their votes have been cast, and exit polls should be optional.
It should be as simple as possible.

Blog JUST for the engagement/wedding

2008-12-29T12:00:00.002-05:00

Magen and I have started a shared blog just for information regarding our engagement and wedding: You Have That Effect On Me.

It's official!

2008-12-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

Magen and I are engaged!

Massachusetts Marathon

2008-10-24T22:45:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow Ralph Nader is going for the world record of most campaign stops in one day, in MA. Sorry to anyone who reads this too late, I only found out recently. Here are the times and locations, I'm planning on dragging a bunch of friends to the 5:40 stop in Auburn.

Robbery

2008-10-05T15:21:00.014-04:00

In the wake of the bailout, something I've been thinking for a long time has become much more important. By now it's clear that the representatives in Washington are not representative of the will of the people, but in reality believe they know better than we do. I'm not going to get into how this is trickle-down economics with a scary sense of urgency, but instead focus on the real problem; the republic.

In this day and age of instant communication and mind-blowingly fast computation, why are we willing to settle for anything less than direct democracy? I don't know about you folks, but I want my individual interests to be represented just as much in government as anyone else's. With Obama and McCain unwilling to discuss direct democracy and electoral reform, it boils down to two options:

Vote for a candidate who supports the voting system that gave us George W. Bush and supports the "representation" that gave us the bailout, or
Vote for a third party candidate who supports voting system reform and direct democracy. If that's not Nader that's fine by me, but please don't vote for "good enough" or "lesser evil" when you have the opportunity right now to actually support governing ourselves.

If you disagree with me on this, please let me know, because I am honestly baffled as to why intelligent people are content with what we have now.

Freedom is participation in power. - Cicero

Fuck tactical voting

2008-08-28T18:14:00.010-04:00

Up until recently, I've been a Barack Obama supporter. Generally, it was because I agree more with him than I agree with John McCain, and I was fool enough to think he would actually stand up for what he believed in, to represent me "closely enough".

After he voted for retroactive telecom immunity, that idealistic bubble burst, as he had previously stated that he would filibuster any bill that included the retroactive immunity provision. The reason this bothered me so much wasn't because I disagreed with his vote, but because he made promises that he would not keep. It calls into question everything else he promises; where else will he meet the neoconservatives midway? Torture? Health care? The war?

More recently, he selected Joe Biden, a man who is "pro-RIAA, pro-FBI", and "anti-encryption", as his running mate.

Fuck this, I've had enough. Barack himself is willing to meet tyranny midway, and if something happens, the guy who steps in is even worse. At this point, it's painfully clear that there are few real distinctions in the Republicrat machine, and those differences will fade more and more if and when Obama takes office.

I used to think that I'd be making the most difference by voting for whichever of the top two candidates agreed with me the most. Well the joke is on me. There are no top two candidates, there's just the one, and he's for sale.

If there's a direct democracy presidential candidate, please let me know. In the meantime, I'm going to vote for the only candidates who acknowledge the failure of the plurality voting system: Nader/Gonzalez. Call me an asshole for not voting tactically if you want, but the system is fucking broken and I refuse to game it any more.

Delegated Democracy - Part 4

2008-05-31T16:19:00.007-04:00

I've been discussing delegated democracy with Coriolinus and Yev here and at Coriolinus's blog, and think I've got a good next iteration of the idea. The entire system as I originally proposed it was extremely overcomplicated, and now have a three-part process that I think cuts to the core of the idea.

Part one: Registration

Citizen enters the party HQ, checked for bugs & weapons.
Citizen registers, gets a username and provides a passphrase, then leaves.
Passphrase -> cryptographic hash function -> key generation function -> decode key, stored at party HQ.
Voters would also have the option of providing their own decode key directly, in the event that they want a higher entropy or don't trust the polling authority with their encode key.

Part two: Email

Citizen composes vote, then runs encryption program, entering passphrase, stored briefly in memory.
Passphrase -> cryptographic hash function -> key generation function -> encode key, stored briefly in memory.
Vote is encrypted with encode key, saved, then passphrase and key are wiped from memory.

The voters mentioned above who opted to provide their keys will skip straight to the encryption step.

Encrypted vote is emailed to party HQ.

Part three: Votes counted

Party HQ receives citizen's email.
Email is decrypted with decode key. If successful, this verifies the citizen's identity and that (s)he was not coerced.
Vote is added to tally for given question.

In essence, it is just an implementation of electronic direct democracy, but reduces the problems of

scale,
voter fatigue,
complexity, and
manipulation by time framing.

It does not address the problems of

demagoguery, which I think exists now in any form of democracy (direct or otherwise), and
self-interest, of which I also think everyone, including present-day politicians, is guilty.

People who do not have regular internet access would have the option of using several third parties to cast their votes for them, only one of which has the correct passphrase. This would allow for a great deal of automation, thus opening the doors to voting by phone, fax, snail mail, or in person at a third party location. Eventually the party could also support these alternative methods itself, and I think this idea could work for the elderly, disabled, or technologically disinclined.

Delegated Democracy - Part 3

2008-05-22T15:15:00.002-04:00

Coriolinus got me thinking about my delegated democracy proposal after my last post, with his security through obscurity point. Even though there would be no sure-fire way to prove which feed was yours, people could narrow them down based on opinions you've expressed in public and determine your entire voting record with near certainty. Not good.

So to give people the option of complete privacy in their votes, I think the party server should give the option of encrypting all communication with the "first delegate" servers. It unfortunately means three things:

Participating voters would have to memorize at least one more password per entry,
Increased complexity in the computer software, and
It's another thing the party would have to agree on.

Not as perfect a solution as I had hoped, but I still like it, and think I'm going to explore it a little more.

Delegated Democracy - Part 2

2008-04-21T15:54:00.012-04:00

Ok, I've come up with a few ideas that might reduce the problems I highlighted in my previous post, starting from a simple party-run computer system.

Authentication: When you first register your identity with the party, you use a computer at the local party headquarters. While using this confidential voting station, you can input a list of URLs, with one "used" entry, and an unlimited number of "dummy" entries.

No one will have to be a registered member of the party in order to input their list and participate in this system. The ultimate goal is to have elected officials who best represent the desires of the entire voting public, not just their own party.
You will be able to update your list at any time should you be in some way coerced (see below) or decide to use a different first layer of delegation.
(Update) Each URL would need the option of a password for encryption later in the process.

Delegation: Those URLs point to vote "feeds", which can be run by anyone in any way. For instance, you could simply delegate your vote to a feed controlled by one of your friends.

Another example for the more particular: you could delegate a private service anywhere on the internet that categorizes bills, which then accordingly delegates your favorite experts for each issue.
This means there are no limits as to how you determine your vote; any crazy method of your own devising is fine.
You could even publish your own opinions and convince people to delegate your feed. Keep in mind how you actually vote is still private, you just cannot hide what you openly endorse.
(Update) The feeds with passwords would encrypt all communication with the first proxy. From there, the voter could have any sort of privacy settings up to and including completely secret votes.

Resolution: When it's almost time for the party's elected official to vote, the party server queries all listed URLs, including the "dummy" entries. The final results (except of course for voter identities) are then made public.

This is to prevent intimidation and bribery - even if someone forces you to list a computer they control that logs hits, they have no way of knowing if theirs was your "used" entry or not.

Votes cast: The elected party representatives check to see what the winners were for each bill, and vote accordingly. Like in Senator On-Line, representatives will have to commit in writing that they will vote in accordance with the party view.

There's a good chance I'm missing something critical, so if there's something I haven't addressed or problems with my idea, go ahead and comment away.

Delegated Democracy - Part 1

2008-04-15T17:49:00.007-04:00

So lately I've been reading a lot about voting and election systems. One that's caught my interest as of late is a form of proxy voting called "delegated voting" - in short, a voter is allowed to designate a proxy to vote on his/her behalf, and that proxy can also designate someone else, and so on. The reason I like this is because I think it has the potential to be used on a much wider scale, even at a national level as a method of implementing a working direct democracy.

However, I have serious doubts about the existing delegated voting experiments.

One issue is anonymity in voting, which projects like World Parliament Experiment do not have and I think is critical in order to prevent coercion through vote buying and threats of violence. The basic problem is that you either have the right to see where your vote goes (which exposes your delegate's choice) or your delegate has the right to anonymity, which means you can't even see your own vote!
The second problem is that of security. With any internet voting system (like the WPE or Demoex), there is a vulnerability to man-in-the-middle attacks, hacking people's home computers, and to a lesser extent the voting server.
Even a delegated voting system can be restrictive. By being forced to select a single delegate, you cannot instead delegate the average of your three most political friends, the result of your own crazy formula, or any other automated method.
Delegated voting systems can also cause recursion problems. If you select a friend as your delegate who selects you, or there is any other chain that ultimately goes full circle, there is no clear way to determine the vote.
Complexity can also be an issue - in addition to the security implications of rising complexity, the more complex the software the harder it will be to get people to agree on it.

The concept is still a damn good idea, though. I've got a couple ideas as to how this can be improved, so I'll post more on that later. For now I just want to get back in the habit of writing here...

lolz

2008-03-28T00:05:00.001-04:00

Yes, I am breaking my long silence for this. In case you haven't already, you should subscribe to my Google Reader feed to the right, since I share on that more often than I post new stuff here. I'm assuming you're using RSS by now or there is NO way you are still reading this.

St. Thomas

2007-12-24T06:26:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm right about to board the plane for St. Thomas, so nobody think I'm ignoring you for the next couple weeks... I'll be incommunicado.

My Activities as of Late

2007-11-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted, so I might as well outline how a few things have been going. In case you still manually check blogs for updates, you REALLY should try out RSS for your friend monitoring needs.

Physical improvements:

My eyes are pretty much all better, and I've adapted to life without vision devices.
I've joined an awesome gym and have lost five pounds in the last two weeks. While that is not amazing, it is hopefully the start of a healthier lifestyle.
Since I started going bald again, I've started using Rogaine, which will hopefully keep my head warm.
I've also started doing Yoga. It's fucking hard!

Woman: Magen and I have been really hitting it off, and it's now less than a month until our big vacation in Saint Thomas! w00t!
Computers: My ancient desktop I've had since high school has finally died in inexplicable ways, so I'm going to buy a new one that's just as fast for $120. Best part - no Windows tax. Worst part - original computer cost me 10X as much.
Gaming: If you haven't played Portal, I strongly suggest that you try it. Loads of fun.
Thanksgiving: Chris, Josie, Magen, and Ty all came over to visit my family with me. Good times were had by all!
Piracy: Ok, Relakks kinda sucks, at least for me. I can't keep a stable connection while downloading big files, although there's a chance Comcast may be censoring my internet. I really gotta switch to an ISP that actually gives me my money's worth, and find a good anonymous proxy.
Friend monitoring needs: Ok, maybe I'll try Facebook. More to come on that.

Relakks

2007-09-20T19:40:00.000-04:00

So now, THE MAN won't trace me quite so easily. I've signed up for Relakks, an encrypted broadband proxy in Sweden, a country with nice privacy laws. In addition to keeping my own government from watching me, (which it most likely doesn't) I also won't have to worry about getting sued by any big nasty artificial monopolies here in the states.

Hooray for importing additional freedoms! To the right is my new "location", next to beautiful Stora vänsjön.

For anyone else who uses Kubuntu, here are the directions I used to easily set it up.

Charity

2007-09-13T23:57:00.000-04:00

So, I don't normally give to charity, what with being selfish and liking video games, but this week I've managed to get involved in three:

My old friend Sergei Golos is doing a bike tour in NY to fight multiple sclerosis,
My frat brother James Roumeliotis is attempting a world record in pogo jumping to fight scleroderma, and
Magen and I are doing the American Heart Association Heart Walk in Hartford. Get it? HARTford! lolz!

I don't mean to pressure anyone into contributing to one or all of them lest karma inflict you with a similar ailment, but they're all worth checking out if you're going to be in any of the areas at the time. Especially the pogo record, as they're going to have bands and everything.

Self-improvment is masturbation.

2007-08-27T19:49:00.000-04:00

So lately I've been playing BioShock, which is so far the most atmospheric game I've played since Doom 3, and quite a bit of fun. In this game, your character can obtain plasmids which modify your body to give you super powers. Naturally, I wanted to get me some of that.

After a small amount of research, I discovered that real plasmids do not work that way. However, I still like to improve myself inside and out, so today after work I stopped by the local eye doctor to watch a live LASIK surgery. The whole thing took 10 minutes, and the patient seemed to be enjoying a healthy dose of Valium. The biggest thing I'm scared of is the whole cutting into my eyeball while I'm awake thing, but the guy said he didn't even feel it.

So, I've scheduled an appointment for the 15th to find out if I'm eligible, and if I am, to get preliminary scans for the operation. It will be nice to see outside while it's precipitating and look into borescopes without adjusting them.

I am stalking you.

2007-08-18T09:39:00.001-04:00

Ok, I've started using Google Reader again. The sharing capability still kinda sucks, but it's a very convenient way to keep track of everything and never re-read anything with my home computer, work computer, and phone. That, and Google is not blocked from work while some of the sites I like to read are, so this can circumvent the problem.

Another thing I have enabled is what I like to call "Auto-Stalk". Basically, I just run a Google News search on someone, and it makes an RSS feed just for that search. Since Google Reader doesn't have a limit on how many feeds I can have and it's not my computer that's slowing down, I just searched for basically everyone I know and subscribed to their feeds. So now, if anyone I know shosw up in the news anywhere, I'll see it. Marriages, funerals, arrests, major accomplishments... you name it. Unfortunately, no one I know has actually done anything newsworthy yet. But when they do, I'll know!

This is a great song.

2007-08-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

Xbox 360

2007-05-30T18:05:00.000-04:00

I got me an Xbox 360! First and foremost, let me answer the questions you, my only reader, must surely have.

Why now?

I haven't had a console system since my Sega Genesis, and having skipped two generations of video game systems, I figured I was due for a new one.

Why not the Wii? The Wii is fun and cheap!

More of my friends have Xbox 360s, and the games I want are on the Xbox 360.

Why not the PS3?

The PS3 is an overpriced box of shit.

BUT IT'S MICROSOFT!

I want the best system for my money, and there is no free gaming alternative (other than an expensive PC and a lot of work with WINE.)

Aren't you bothered by the DRM, or the fact that modding an Xbox 360 may get you banned from Xbox live?

Nope. I don't tolerate DRM on my computer because it does my thinking for me, and I demand that my computer obey me. My gaming console is just for fun. I don't have a problem with modding restrictions on Live either, because I just want to play an online FPS again without aimbots and wallhacks.

What's your login on Live?

Explodicle. Email me or leave a comment if you want me to add you to my friends list.

You've got Oblivion, right.

Obviously.

I need to learn how to play a musical instrument.

2007-05-23T23:59:00.000-04:00

I hope that someday everyone has their own television station.

2007-05-03T19:05:00.000-04:00

This is just one example of the sweet home-brewed TV stations popping up, fueled by YouTube and other video sites that encourage leeching. On a similar topic, I've been having great fun with the last.fm client; I like the idea of media where I just give it a thumbs up or thumbs down and it figures out the rest. This sort of stuff foreshadows the replacement of television and radio stations as we know them... something I wouldn't mind at all.

Squeek!

2007-04-28T20:04:00.000-04:00

Slashdot | Mouse Brain Simulated Via Computer

This might not sound like a big deal, but mice actually have pretty advanced brains in the grand scheme of things. Once they have the capacity to simulate an entire mouse nervous system, I'd like to see if they could somehow create a "postmouse".

Kubuntu 7.04

2007-04-22T13:03:00.000-04:00

I've got Kubuntu 7.04 running on the laptop, so now I just need to upgrade the desktop. I still need to set up my laptop media keys (those didn't work in previous versions either) but otherwise it's all set up. I think it's a WAY better release than 6.10, but this time I just reinstalled and copied over my home directory instead of upgrading.

The big pluses I've noticed so far:

The Wi-Fi support doesn't suck cocks any more. There's a simple and effective internet connection thing on the bottom right, and WPA support.
Now, when I want to install MP3 support (or apparently other codecs) I don't need to install weird programs or jump through hoops... it just asks and installs automatically.
You can configure Wine with all the other stuff in System Settings, instead of having to use the painful winecfg program.

Universal Health Care

2007-03-25T20:02:00.000-04:00

I recently had an interesting discussion regarding universal health care. This discussion was 100% based on economics - although it's very sad when people don't get the care they need, the money that pays for that care has to come out of the pockets of hard-working citizens, and they have troubles of their own. People will get sick and die naturally, and although nature is my bitter enemy, I don't think the government should be involved unless it would result in a profit for the arithmetic mean citizen.

I once thought that the free market would handle medical care in the most efficient manner - people who contribute the most to society would be kept healthier for longer, while people who had nothing significant to contribute would not consume valuable medical resources. However, that is an idealistic and short-term way of analyzing the situation; it does not take into account the "investment" society could be making in potentially productive people, or the market failure caused by insurance companies who will charge people unfair rates.

I'm not advocating socialized health care. A government monopsony is no more desirable than a private monopoly, and in addition to its theoretical likelihood of paying a non-equilibrium price, would realistically result in government bureaucracy and inefficiency. If you think the wait at the doctor's office is bad now, wait until no one has to worry about paying. Without a market mechanism, the inability of the health insurance industry to support the poor would only be replaced by the inability of the government to support anyone.

So here's what I'm thinking, split into two parts:

Eliminating the right of any insurance company to charge differing rates based on factors outside of a client's control. This will only redistribute the cost towards people without such factors, but keep in mind that there is no point in providing an incentive to do something impossible.

Currently, factors such as hereditary illness or gender are fair game for price discrimination.
Ideally, only choices such as smoking or vegetarianism would factor into one's insurance pricing.
I think this policy should be applied to all forms of insurance that are government mandated (like vehicle insurance) or sponsored, but that's off topic.

Government funding towards an insurance plan of the recipient's choice, of equal value for all citizens.

If the government simply paid doctors and pharmacists for a citizen directly, then one of two problems will arise:

The government determines what gets funding and what doesn't. As impressive as the government's decision-making ability has been thusfar, I don't think they'd do a very good job.
The government just pays for what anyone can get a prescription for. Wait, why am I arguing against this? THIS IS A GREAT IDEA!

Private insurance has market pressures to reduce overhead, accurately assess the needs of patients (or risk losing business), and advertise to the right groups.
As opposed to completely socialized health care, we could gradually transition towards this system, allowing individuals with enough money to buy more expensive coverage if they so desire.

Google Reader

2007-03-12T21:58:00.000-04:00

Since I frequently just post links to other blogs that I read, I've added a Google Reader sidebar to the right. I'm going to see if I can better integrate this with Firefox.

UPDATE: Ok, I'm taking it off. I can't make it not display my real name when you click the "read more", and I can't add commentary.

UPDATE AGAIN: Bah, fuck Google Reader. I'll stick with my RSS ticker.

I just found this out

2007-03-11T18:28:00.000-04:00

Those Tennessee BASTARDS! I'll show them by being even MORE irreverent while I'm there! Drugs! Booze! Sex! Rock & Roll! YEAH!

THE FOOLS!

2007-03-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

NO GOOD WILL COME OF THIS

Upgraded!

2007-03-05T20:27:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've finally upgraded to Blogger 2.0. In keeping with the upgrade spirit, I'll shamelessly copy Jeff and start posting more often.

In case anyone actually cares about what I've been up to, here's the whole story:

Work: You know how in Dilbert, the boss promises the moon and the burden falls on his employees? That actually happens. I'm due for a raise soon, and if it's not enough, I'm going to start looking around. I'm getting kinda sick of Hartford anyways.
School: HORRIBLY FAILING MISERABLY. Perhaps I should have said to myself, "hey, maybe computer and systems engineering master's degrees are intended for people who know anything whatsoever about computers or electronics." If/when I flunk out of grad school, I'll look into distance learning elsewhere, which may better suit my addled mind.
Physical: I'm still as fat as ever, and am only going to the gym twice a week or so. I've been eating low-fat/calorie food, but in high volumes it doesn't help as much. I think the problem is that I spend so much time sitting in front of the computer and not running around. Since I'm unwilling to part with the internet, I'm thinking about:

Switching to a gym that has treadmills and Wi-Fi. Might be tough, since not many people are both nerds AND care about fitness.
Stealing my parents' treadmill that they have in their basement and collects dust.

If I ever use this, my laptop, and my bluetooth headset at once, my apartment will look pretty much like this.

Chicks: Tara and I broke up a while ago, but we're still getting along very well, and we're still going to Bonnaroo in about 100 days.

I'm really looking forward to this: my vacation last year in Colorado was the bomb, so I'm hoping Tennessee kicks ass as well. We've got elite VIP tickets, which allow us to shower and generally act like we're better than the other hippies.

Tool is playing. Anti-drug laws are practically unenforced. Enough said.

No, not enough said. DRRUUUUUUUGGGGGSSSSS!!!!!

Now that I'm single again, I'm playing the field as ineptly as always.

Pet Projects: Lots of almost started projects, little actually done. Just like I like it.

I'm working on a script to automatically record internet radio with streamripper and then load it onto my iPod with GNUpod every night, providing me with a constant supply of new music.
I still lie awake at night dreaming about how awesome the Codex project could be if I did it well. Doing so will take a lot more time and effort than I originally thought.
Oh yeah, scelest.us. About that. I... um.... I'm waiting for Ubuntu 7.04 to come out before I mess with my server. Yeah... that's it.
I've been using the ZCorp Spectrum 510 3D printer extensively at work, and am trying to think of a better method for solid freeform fabrication with common metals.

Someone back me up on this...

2007-02-12T20:55:00.000-05:00

The Xenu story does NOT count as a straw man argument. The religious beliefs of Scientologists are just as valid and deserve just as much respect as anyone else's.

For those of you...

2007-02-09T13:13:00.000-05:00

Who loved The Parking Lot is Full and are also nerds, I COMMAND YOU TO VISIT XKCD.COM.

Blockbuster Online Sucks

2007-01-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

I had Netflix for a while, and decided to try Blockbuster Online. It was slower, frequently sent me the wrong DVDs, and the website is worse. Now I'm switching back... If you're unsure which one to use, go with Netflix.

Those BASTARDS

2007-01-22T16:34:00.000-05:00

Slashdot | Scientists Find 'Altruistic' Center of the Brain

I'm imagining "Gattaca" meets "A Clockwork Orange".

Ghatanothoa

2007-01-02T18:33:00.000-05:00

Here are pictures of Tara and I meeting an octopus.

During my trip to Colorado, I spoke with a friend of mine about what might happen to Earth if a nuclear war completely annihilated all life anywhere near the surface. I speculated that octopuses, the most intelligent invertebrate and possibly the most intelligent deep-sea animal, might evolve into a new sentient species. Having returned home with visions of a futuristic cephalopod civilization, I read a bit about them on Wikipedia and then proceeded to rant at Tara about how cool they were.

Later, Tara was planning cool things to do during my trip to New Jersey, and booked us a visit to the aquarium. I got to meet a mysterious and alien intelligence - the North Pacific Giant Octopus. It was like a dog from Europa, very friendly yet unnervingly different from ourselves.

So, I dusted off the old family photos, in an effort to find out where we split up. Our most recent common ancestor was a creature in the subregnum Bilateria, who had two kids that differed during the embryonic stage of development. One of them developed the mouth first, and the other one developed the anus first. One led to the North Pacific Giant Octopus. Guess which one led to us.

(pause)

That's right, the ass baby! Judging by the fact that we're the ones who imprison them, I can scientifically conclude that anal is best before oral. Therefore, this will be our new motto:

Humanity: Proudly marching ass-first into the future!

Tragedy of the Commons

2006-12-26T16:42:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been thinking about the current Intellectual Property situation, from an economics standpoint.

(If you're already familiar with the economics of intellectual property or just don't give a damn, click here to skip down to my proposal.)

In many cases, such as works of art, the market is in monopolistic competition, so there is a high degree of variety and prices are what most consumers would consider "fair". Although an artist has a monopoly on his own product, the current intellectual property system works well enough because:

There are millions of other good artists to choose from, and
You almost never have any dire need for a particular work of art. (Exception: Hedonism Bot)

However, with patents and software copyrights, there is often no substitute, and the market is a plain old monopoly. Microsoft, for instance, has a monopoly on operating systems that can run DirectX 10, so if your business needs software that requires it, you'd better shell out whatever price Microsoft asks. More importantly, if you suffer from a deadly disease for which the treatment is patented, your demand for the product is extremely inelastic. This system can lead to serious problems, such as:

Price gouging
Deadweight losses (see image, right)

This is where the current intellectual property system is broken - it ceases to be a free market. It is very inefficient in terms of total surplus, and if you're some pansy who cares about human life, you should know that many people die because of the current system.

My Proposal

Although hippies may argue on this, we cannot simply eliminate all patent legislation and call the problem fixed. Without some legal structure, businesses who spent money on R&D would face a disadvantage when competing with those who just mooched. This is called the "free rider problem", and it's the main reason we created the intellectual property system in the first place.

However, there are other, possibly better options. This is my exceedingly complex idea - please tell me what you think, especially if anything similar has been used (successfully or not) in the past.

In order for businesses to conduct research, they must have a monetary incentive to do so. Since the creation of public information is a positive externality that effects everyone with access to that information (or products that can be created due to it), I think its funding should be handled by the government. I think it's safe to assume that now warning lights just flickered on in your heads, since the government is notoriously less efficient at the distribution of money than the free market. Who decides what gets funding? Who decides how much would be fair? That's by far the most difficult part of this problem, since the value of an idea is impossible to gage objectively.

First, there is the matter of who. I think the only fair way to decide this would be in a democratic manner:

One option would be to poll a statistically significant number of people selected from the same pool as used to select juries. It would have to be a limited number, because polling all voters every time would result in massive voter fatigue. Granted, the average person is a clueless dipshit, but I think that the truly ignorant would pass on their right to vote and allow interested citizens to make the decision, much like they do already.
Another option would be a panel of elected officials. This reduces the dipshit problem, but increases the risk of corruption, so transparency would be of the utmost importance.

Next, there's how much. Ideally, every voter would suggest a reward, and the median value would be the one used. This way, the vote would not be ruined by some idiot who thinks an invention should be worth a million bajillion dollars or negative double infinity dollars. If the majority of people vote "zero", it is voted down.

Ok, now there's the issue of when to vote. I think the vote should take place at least two times:

First, when someone nominates a desired invention. This would be similar to a software bounty, serving as the minimum reward for the effort of research and reducing the risk involved for a business interested in developing intellectual property.
Second, once the work is complete.

For inventions that had been initially requested, this would be a bonus for going above and beyond the previously stated requirements. A bonus of $0.01 would just verify that the invention had satisfied the request.
For inventions that no one had requested, this would typically be much larger, since no minimum reward had been agreed upon previously. If you invent something that no one likes, you might get burned by a low payoff.

Sometimes, the value of an invention isn't clear until long after it's been released to the public. In those cases, voters could nominate it for an additional bonus after a certain time has elapsed since the last vote. At all stages, there would need to be a clear public record stating how much a party has already been rewarded. For a continually useful invention, the money would keep coming for as long as people appreciated it.

Now, we have a completed invention, the rights for which are shared by the constituency. These rights could be licensed to other nations or foreign businesses to recoup some of the expenses. The remaining costs would have to be raised with traditional taxes, which would hopefully be less inefficient than the monopolies I'd like to avoid. I'm personally a fan of the land value tax, but that's a whole other debate entirely.

Why My Proposal Will Probably Never Happen

First off, this idea is a blatant violation of international law (although without our support, this law would probably die).
Secondly, although this idea would result in a more efficient economy, it hurts big business, and for some strange reason the law tends to work in their favor.
Thirdly, a drastic and sudden change in the way we conduct business would seriously harm the economy in the short term, and I'm not sure how a progressive transition to this system could happen.
Finally, I'm not a real economist, and there's probably some major stuff I've overlooked. Put me in my place and point out my ignorance with a cutting comment!

EDIT 01/01/07: A problem has come to my attention - if we were to respect the IP laws of other countries, then it would be advantageous for businesses to conduct research in other countries, so they can enjoy a monopoly. If I think of a good fix, I'll post it.
EDIT 01/02/07: I think the problem is that I'm assuming monopolies should be allowed to do business without any repercussions. The import of their products would have to be taxed to the point of eating up the monopoly surplus. The EU is already doing something like this to Microsoft.

Astronomy is kewl

2006-12-24T14:45:00.000-05:00

Me: "Ah, the winter solstice. This time of year is the best of all for looking out at the universe and all its beauty."
Christians: "WRONG! WHO LIKES LIGHTS? LIGHTS ALL NIGHT! WOOHOOO!!!!! LIGHTS!"
Me: "Well, at least those will go out after Christmas, allowing me to clearly see the stars then."
Christians: "WRONG!"

Slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.

2006-12-17T19:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I looked around, and decided I'd like to get some IKEA furniture. Tara and I headed down to their store in New Haven, and I hooked myself up with a Grankulla & Munkarp combo. I got a red Munkarp Filken (to filken my Munkarp) because it matches my Foofarp Stinkin.

More fucking Lieberman

2006-12-14T18:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we've established that I dislike Lieberman. As if intending to increase this distain, he and McCain sent me a petition in the mail for the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act. Now, I'm in favor of the act. But that is irrelevant. Lieberman sent me two petitions, one for Christopher Dodd, (my favorite CT senator) and one for himself.

That's right.

Joe Lieberman sent me a petition to fill out and mail back to him, encouraging him to keep pushing his own goddamn act. Here's an excerpt:

Thank you for your leadership on this issue. Please keep up the good work! I'm a fucking moron!

Ok, I added the last sentence. But that part is implied.

AN END TO YOU, FAN

2006-12-14T18:19:00.000-05:00

I finally replaced that computer fan that was louder than a jet engine. I'm kinda going to miss the noise - it was soothing, in a rattling, grating sort of way.

I got in!

2006-12-06T17:12:00.000-05:00

WOOHOO!!!

Exit Mundi and Navigation Popups

2006-11-30T19:27:00.000-05:00

Exit Mundi ... A Collection Of End-Of-World Scenarios

I'm a big fan of "ZZZ-ZZZZ!" and "......!", since you very well might be reliving this post for the bazillionth time. My apologies.

Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation popups

If you use Wikipedia and have ADHD, these things WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

I downloaded over a gig today.

2006-11-29T21:33:00.000-05:00

Slashdot | Russia Agrees To Shut Down AllOfMP3.com

Yes, I'm one of the people who tagged it "nooooooo".

Download download download while it still works!

Irony

2006-11-28T17:39:00.000-05:00

While reading the news at work:

UPDATE 12/5: I filed a complaint, and they unblocked it today! The system works!

Click

2006-11-23T22:19:00.000-05:00

That fucking does it. I am never seeing another fucking Adam Sandler movie ever fucking again. I keep thinking he'll produce classic humor like Opraman or "they're all gonna laugh at you!" But every time, he gives me more simplistic moral lessons, more shameless product placement, and more sappy endings with lobotomized Barbie-doll women.

He has stolen hour after hour of my life away, actually paying to see this crap. But I deserve it. I deserve it for forgiving Adam Sandler, and giving him another chance... time and time again. Well that's it, Sandler. You're dead to me.

Beryl

2006-11-19T16:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, I finally got Beryl to work on my laptop, with AIGLX. It now looks all kinds of sexy, but I still can't get it to start automatically and work fine every time. It's still beta and not perfect, but at least now I'm on the same graphical level of a Mac.

Reaffirming what we already know.

2006-11-16T17:23:00.000-05:00

Heh.

Update: DAMMIT! He had to go and make friends!

Well, at least it was funny for a little while.

NO, I'm not going to give in and use myspace. GET OFF MY LAWN YOU DAMN KIDS!

Borat

2006-11-12T23:26:00.000-05:00

One of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Go see it now.

MY TREE!!!

2006-11-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

I came home to Orange to vote tonight. FUCK YOU LIEBERMAN. However, upon returning home, I saw my favorite tree dismembered in the back yard! THAT WAS THE BEST TREE!!! I climbed it one last time, for closure.

It had apparently been ripped in half by the wind, and my folks decided to put it down. Ryan and Ty will remember it as the tree further up the hill that they were forced to rake for.

My Vacation

2006-11-04T15:31:00.000-05:00

This has been a badass vacation up here in Colorful Colorado. Some of the highlights of my trip:

Attended a Halloween party as a loud, drunken mime.
Learned how to shoot from an ex-marine (who before this trip I knew only as a wizard from an online D&D game.)
Lost horribly in Apples to Apples, managing to anonymously insult everyone present.
Had an inebriated discussion about the octopus people of the future (after our nuclear apocalypse) with Rowe.
Hung out with Helen and James... BUT IN A DIFFERENT STATE!!!
Caught a horrible western illness from the people here, despite accusations that I am the one who introduced it.
Traveled to Thompson Springs, Utah - the furthest West I have ever been.
Sketchily hung out in the shadows with Ty and Rowe, plotting... Plotting.
Went insane, caught fire, and met a watery grave in Call of Cthulhu.
Went geostationary-orbit-high up the mountains with Ty's father, Bill. In case I haven't mentioned, Colorado is remarkably beautiful.
A slightly early Guy Fawkes Night party (which hasn't actually started yet but will surely be a highlight.)

And GODDAMMIT, I have to get that new site up! This blog SUCKS!

To Colorado

2006-10-28T06:54:00.001-04:00

Ok, I'm going to update this post as my journey progresses.

4:00 AM

Got up, got dressed, ate breakfast.

5:00 AM

Took a taxi to Bradley airport in Hartford. A little bit early, but I didnt' know how long the lines would be at the airport.

5:30 AM

Arrived at the airport, tipped the driver, and got my tickets.

5:30-6:00 AM

Stood in line for security.

6:00 AM

Took off my shoes, emptied my pockets, and made sure I didn't have any fluids, gels, or silly putty. LITTLE DO THEY KNOW I HAVE CHAPSTICK!!! BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

6:00-7:00 AM

Hung out at the terminal, getting Kubuntu 6.10 to work properly and IMed my dad. Also, started overly detailed and uninteresting blog post regarding the trip itself.
Ok, time for me to board. Incommunicado!

Kubuntu 6.10

2006-10-27T20:01:00.000-04:00

DO NOT INSTALL IT. It SUCKS. A whole bunch of stuff won't work on my laptop, and my desktop won't even start up!

Update: Ok, now my desktop boots. NO THANKS TO KUBUNTU 6.10.... it's just because I cynically back up my xorg.conf every time it works because (K)Ubuntu likes to shit in it.

UPDATE: I am not the only one. However, it's apparently fine if you're installing from scratch, not upgrading.

We got some spinners for your elbow, dawg!

2006-10-11T08:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, remember the Open Prosthetics Project?

The Open Prosthetics Project - Pimp My Arm

I kid you not. A great quote from their site:

Adam is interested in pushing the bounds of prostheses, and working with someone who wanted something unusual, maybe a prosthesis that “receives and displays text messages from friends, plays mp3s and videos or perhaps acts as a flamethrower.” We liked the flamethrower. Then we could go to Burning Man without having to do any more dressing up.

Or here's another good one:

your dream of having an arm with a built-in impact wrench (besides your buddy who says “that’s the worst idea I ever heard”)

At the moment, too stupid to set up a DNS server.

2006-09-23T14:33:00.000-04:00

Slashdot | Open-Source Prosthetics - It's good to see that people who have suffered a traumatic loss will have more options available to them. No part of anyone's body should belong to anyone else, including the intellectual property rights.

THOSE BASTARDS

2006-09-07T19:05:00.000-04:00

I just got a letter from the Democratic National Committee, starting with:

Dear Fellow Democrat,

Then for two pages

Yada yada yada I'm a crazy pinko blah blah blah

Peace and Love,
Governor Howard Dean, MD

Needless to say, I was unhappy with this development. I've never been a Democrat and never intend to be, and don't like the idea that even by mistake I could be affiliated with them. I called the Democratic National Committee, and they said it will take four to six weeks to completely remove me from the system. Hell, if I had fucking SYPHILIS I could get rid of it in one day. Leave it to politicians to take six weeks to delete a goddamn name from a list.

Yes, I'm still working on making that other website. I think I need to run a "DNS" program on my server. I got a lead from some Linux guy, but it was in nerdeese and I'm not quite sure how to fix it.

Part 1 in our series: "Making J0kerr 1% More Tolerable!"

2006-07-20T23:32:00.000-04:00

How to add hyperlinks in 3 easy steps!

Start with whatever text you would like.
I want to be like President Bush when I grow up!
Find the URL you would like to include.
http://tinyurl.com/p27le
Now, type
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/p27le">
right before what you want linked, and afterwards, a simple
</a>
So the whole thing looks like
I want to be like <a href="http://tinyurl.com/p27le">President Bush</a> when I grow up!

Now, you have a link! W00t!

I want to be like President Bush when I grow up!

I want one!

2006-07-17T20:24:00.000-04:00

Slashdot | Cheap, Open-design Humanoid Bot - Runs Linux, Too!

Update:

Slashdot | Linux-powered Robots From France? Oui!

IT'S ROBOT PARTY WEEK!

The Holocene Extinction

2006-07-04T16:57:00.000-04:00

I'm still working on getting scelest.us working, namely that I can get GoDaddy to forward to my IP, but the IP displays on the address instead of the domain name. I can still link to subfolders and such. More on this later.

I've been reading up a lot about global warming lately, and how it is potentially a threat to all life on Earth. Now, don't get me wrong - all this nastiness is unnecessary, and I'd rather the globe didn't warm. However, I think the idea that we could wipe out all LIFE on Earth is somewhat conceited. In the grand history of life, we are not special, and not capable of wiping out all life even if we wanted to.

To use a historical example, I would compare the Holocene extinction event (the current one that's our fault, otherwise known as the Sixth Extinction) to the Oxygen Catastrophe 2.5 billion years ago. The first Cyanobacteria evolved, and started recklessly spraying Oxygen all over the place. Before this, not only did organisms not need oxygen - but it was a deadly poison! Imagine the jerk sitting next to you starts farting HORRIBLE POISON GAS. And this is happening all over the world. That's why they call it a catastrophe.

So now, we're farting poison gas that seems to be killing everything, and people think that not only is this something new, but it's the end? The Proterozoic eon was started with the Oxygen Catastrophe; the Sixth Extinction could be a new beginning, rather than the end. An artificial life form could flourish in this toxic world we are creating, and it could be as important a step forward as the multicellular life spawned during the Proterozoic eon.

BUSH DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR A CHANGE!

2006-06-28T20:50:00.000-04:00

Executive Order: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People

The End of Explodiblog

2006-06-25T22:03:00.000-04:00

So, I was removing the broken link to The Worst Hour in Radio History from my sidebar (which is now a bottombar), and accidentally fucked up my template and didn't have a backup. Rather than going to the trouble of figuring out what is wrong and fixing it, I think I'm going to get my own domain and host it myself, much like A Parallax View. So now, I have to think of:

A good name for my blog (since "Explodiblog" is kinda lame, and I'm getting sick of it).

I think I might change my handle, too.

A corresponding domain name - my full name and full name with middle initial are both taken, and I like to stay obscure on the internet anyways.

This is why I don't have a myspace account.

I stopped using orkut because I don't speak Portugese. That was my only social networking endevor.

Yeah, I know they segregated the groups by language. Too little, too late; no one wanted to leave the groups they were already in. They should have put the language variable on the threads, and kept the groups multilingual. That way I could elect to see only English and Spanish threads in a worldwide group.

This bullet is further right than Internet Reality! *ba-dum-CRASH!*

A good, flexable software to run it on. Something open source I can plop on an Apache webserver would be ideal.

Gattaca

2006-06-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

irishhealth.com - Parents can select healthy embryos: Cool! If I ever have a kid, it hopefully won't have to worry about diabetes and heart disease like I do.

This week: Stuff.

2006-06-13T20:30:00.000-04:00

So, I finally have internet of my very own! I've got cable TV too, but I have no television, so I have to watch it through my monitor that I apparently slightly damaged during the move. I'll be getting myself a projector this weekend, so if anyone's interested in buying a slightly used ATI TV Wonder Pro TV-in card, send me an e-mail.

Also, after months of feeling sorry for myself, I've started chasing women again. I've turned into a whole different animal since last time I did this; I actually care what complete strangers think of me, and clean myself prior to going out. I'm ashamed of myself... I've even been using the AXE Snake Peel they tried to assassinate Jeff with.

This week will no longer be boring.

2006-06-04T19:32:00.000-04:00

So, my internet continues to suck, and I'm still not getting internet of my own until Saturday. However, with the new version of Kubuntu and a fresh install of Wine, I can PLAY DIABLO II ONCE MORE!!!

I've got SPIDERS UNDER MY SKIN!

2006-05-31T18:09:00.000-04:00

I've finished with the move to Hartford, but my cable and internet will not be up until the 10th. So, from now until then, the only way to contact me is with the telephone. Even my neighbors don't have internet yet, so I've got nothing to steal from my apartment. I'm typing this from the Hartford Public Library, in some remote corner of the media wing. (I'm that sketchy, unshaven guy with an even sketchier, less shaven laptop.) This place closes at 8:00, so I only have two precious hours of net until I go back into withdrawal.

It's a paradox, you see. If I had friends in the city, I would be able to mooch internet off them. And if I had internet, I would have a much easier time meeting people who might eventually become friends. So far, I've just met a few people at the Irish pub around the corner from my apartment, and I think I may have creeped out my sexy neighbor, who I may have been staring at.

ITS EYES

2006-05-09T22:31:00.000-04:00

We're all DOOMED! DOOMED I SAY!

You know, someday when we're living underground with nothing but the dogs to warn us of terminators, kids will ask me "didn't you SEE there was something wrong with them? It was obvious!" I'll lie and say "there was no way we could have known! Seriously!"

8 Months of Progress...

2006-04-26T18:38:00.000-04:00

... apparently go a long way. I just bought a laptop, the Toshiba M65. I went to install Kubuntu 5.10 on it, and it FUCKING SUCKED. I had to bust my ass on it all night to get the damn window system to work, and then set up the wireless card. After restarting, the wireless card DISAPPEARED. It was still physically there, but Kubuntu denied it existed. I was very angry.

So, I downloaded the sneak preview of Kubuntu 6.06. It set up my graphics and wireless automatically while I ate a sub, smoked, and watched Star Trek. I am now very happy.

Leaving Worcester

2006-04-16T10:49:00.000-04:00

Well, it's time I get ready to leave Worcester for good. My degree is complete, my apartment lease is running out soon, and most of my friends have moved on already.

I'll be moving to the Hartford, CT area. My job is near there, and I'm planning on taking grad courses at the RPI campus nearby for a robotics MS. It's a shitty, polluted, corrupt city... so I should feel right at home. I had been hoping to move to the Boston area instead, but I guess I'll postpone that plan a few years for when I'm ready for a PhD. Union Aerospace and most other big tech corporations will pay for my continued education, so I might as well take advantage of them.

This certainly isn't how I expected things to turn out. When I first got to WPI, I expected to leave exactly four years later with a Catholic fiancée, a high-paying job, and a down payment on my white picket fence. Sex, drugs, and industrial music were forbidden mysteries, God was just bashful, and the world consisted of Good Guys and Bad Guys. Things are a little bit different now.

All things considered, though... I wouldn't have it any other way.

Next Party

2006-03-22T18:27:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, April 8th, Gabe and I will be having a party over at his place for our common birthday. He lives close to where I do - call me if you need directions.

Good news everyone!

2006-03-19T11:01:00.000-05:00

A couple sweet things I just read about on Slashdot:

Slashdot | Futurama Returns - 26 new episodes! EDIT 3/20 - No, there won't be. I just thought you would enjoy that for a moment.
Slashdot | Super-Strong Synthetic Muscles Developed - Transhumanist applications aside, I would love to have this stuff at my disposal professionally.

Party!

2006-03-13T22:18:00.000-05:00

At my place, this Friday @ 10:00. If you don't have a moral imperative against hedonism, you're welcome to come.

More on Exercise

2006-03-03T17:47:00.000-05:00

So, apparently there's a gym in the building I work in, between the wind tunnel and the monorail to Delta Labs. Who would have guessed it? Monday, I'm going to start going there instead of the craptastic WPI gym.

Otherwise, the job goes well. The rest of the design team and I are working on a bunch of big rings that get really hot, and I'm learning to use the bugs in NX to my advantage. NX, for those of you who are unaware, is the most god-awful, shitty piece of SHIT shit ever successfully compiled. And they charge thousands of dollars for a license. I've added "useful CAD application" to my list of open source coding projects I will start once I have more free time - the stuff they have now is not so hot.

WTF?!?!

2006-02-20T17:59:00.000-05:00

Today, I went "jogging". Apparently, since I exercised last, little gnomes took out muscles, turned them into phlegm, and stuffed it into my lungs... all without my knowledge.
???
PROFIT!!!

Single Again

2006-02-18T13:29:00.000-05:00

Tonight: Excessive drinking and smoking!

Goobuntu!

2006-01-31T17:49:00.000-05:00

w00t!

MP3 Playa

2006-01-13T18:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've decided to get an MP3 player. I went to Best Buy and got an iRiver, but it didn't work - apparently with the T30, they dropped Linux support. So I exchanged it for some other player that also didn't work and I also returned.

For a little while the other night, I considered getting an iPod Nano, but they're just too expensive. I want one of the cheap knock-offs.

So, now I'm trying the novel idea of checking which ones work on Linux, and THEN buying one. I found this list with Linux-happy MP3 players, and I'm trying to decide which one... leaning towards the Creative Zen series. Which one do you think I should get?

UPDATE: I got the black 30GB iPod. W00t!

JEEOORRRRB

2006-01-12T21:32:00.000-05:00

Having a job is a double-edged sword. On one side, I get a bunch of money. On the other, I have to do stuff for it.

Different Codex Address

2005-12-28T13:09:00.000-05:00

Charter went and changed my IP on me, so here's the new link to the coding wiki I've been working on. Hopefully once I start getting paid, I can afford a domain name for it.

Next Batman villains

2005-12-25T14:45:00.000-05:00

Who do you folks think should be the villains in the next Batman movie? I'm hoping for Bane (like in the comics, and not lame like in Batman and Robin) and/or Clayface. I know what you're thinking: the new Batman series is more serious and less cheesy, and has no room for characters such as Clayface. Considering that the next Batman movie will be undoubtedly high-budget, I think Clayface could be CGI rendered as a "normal" person even when not doing cool shape-shifty things, just to put him in the "Uncanny Valley".

For the uninitiated, the "Uncanny Valley" I refer to is when a CGI character or realistic android looks very CLOSE to human, but not quite. You see that something is wrong, but can't put your finger on it... It's just not human, and creeps the hell out of you. Imagine something like this glaring right at you with a big fake smile. Now, imagine it on the big screen, splitting off automata and plotting to kill Batman.

Latest Developments

2005-12-22T18:04:00.000-05:00

I just got me a Jetta!

Also, I think my internal IP in Worcester changed, so the wiki is down and I can't log into the VNC.

Orange 'til 2006

2005-12-17T10:43:00.000-05:00

Now that WPI is (hopefully) over and done with, I start work at Pratt & Whitney on Monday. I'll be working for just one week, and then the holiday vacation starts. During this time, I'll hopefully get a car, and be able to drive back to Worcester for New Year's.

Harris Levels

2005-12-07T16:44:00.000-05:00

In about 10 years playing Doom, I still had yet to play the infamous Harris levels. So, I downloaded UAC Labs, the last one Eric Harris made before he decided to shoot up Columbine high school. He didn't want the file spread around, and now I can see why.

IT SUCKS HARDCORE BALLS. At first, I was outraged at the whole mass murder thing. Then, I was outraged again by the resultant attempts to censor video games. Now, six years later, I am FURTHER outraged that all of the anti-Doom backlash (that prevails to this day) was caused by such a SUCKTASTIC level.

So I'm going to stick it to him. From now on, every year on 4/20, (the anniversary of the massacre), I pledge to celebrate the ideals of freedom and peace that Nazis like Harris hated. Who's with me?

SO SEXY

2005-12-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

I got Caty to play DOOM II!!!

That's right. She played up to level 11, and is proficient with everything from the chainsaw to the BFG 9000. I can now proudly say that my girlfriend has killed a Cyberdemon.

This has been my fantasy since I was 13.

School Sucks... as usual.

2005-11-30T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well, WPI continues to piss me off. Currently, I'm having a bitch of a time getting my degree requirements squared away. I can't wait until this ordeal is over, and I'm outta here. Of course, with that line of thinking, I'll always be looking forward to an easier future that never comes. So, in the interests of good mental health, I'm going to focus on enjoying the present.

For a while I've had Wine, the program that allows me to run Windows programs. Up until now, I kept getting strange errors in dorkineese, and it wouldn't work. Recently, however, I found WineTools, which gives me a usable interface to configure the damn thing. So now, I can run most Windows programs, although a few of them don't like being run off Wine. My first task, of course, is getting Diablo II to work.

EDIT: Has anyone seen my Diablo II CDs?

The wiki project is progressing kinda slowly. It's up and everything, but right now there is just one real program (courtesy of Coriolinus), and one has to copy it into a file manually. One person actually thought the project was supposed to be a search engine, and others have thought it was supposed to be version tracking software; I think this implies that perhaps I should improve on the project description and design documentation. Unfortunately, school has kept me too busy lately to do too much work on it. At least the project isn't getting WORSE, so even if I work slowly, at least it's something.

Drunken Master

2005-11-27T00:03:00.000-05:00

Ever notice how it's easier to walk over random patches of ice while drunk?

More DooM Nerdage

2005-11-18T16:24:00.000-05:00

Doom 3 wasn't enough. It's a good game and all, but it takes time to play. First, you gotta load the game, then load the save, and then spend half your time shining the flashlight around before you finally get to kill something. And when you do, it's usually only a couple of them.

So, I decided to install classic Doom II for when I just need to shoot a lot. Since I use Ubuntu now, I couldn't install the regular Doom II, so I installed PrBoom for Linux and used the game file from my old Doom II CD. However, I still have all the old levels memorized, and didn't really feel like doing them over again.

To spice things up, I got SLIGE and doomBSP, to randomly generate levels. Then I made a little icon and set it up so that when I click it, my computer randomly generates 32 levels and throws me in the thick of the unknown with nothing but a pistol, all in under 6 seconds. It's like playing minesweeper, but with guns and demons. Actually, it's not at all like minesweeper. But it's got GUNS AND DEMONS!

Time to get your GAME face on.

2005-11-09T15:53:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been struggling to find any GOOD games for Linux. There aren't many, if any. It's mostly:

Penguin Slide Racer
Friendship Sharingtime Happyland
Fuzzy Bunny and the Capitalist Pig-Dogs

A shortage of eye candy to be sure, and a DISGUSTING lack of blood and violence.

So, I decided to install Doom 3 for Linux. This time, I knew what I was doing, so I didn't break Ubuntu. Id makes the whole thing look more complicated than it is on their site. You run the program, copy all the big Doom 3 files from the CDs to wherever you installed, and then type "doom3" to play.

Unexpectedly, Doom 3 runs faster on Ubuntu than it does on Windows XP Pro! Now I can turn up the graphics and play the game the way it was meant to be played.

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

2005-11-02T17:46:00.000-05:00

IT LIVES! (click it)

If you want to help, create an account and then e-mail me for admin privileges. If you want, you can edit anonymously without an account.

The WIki Hits a Snare

2005-11-02T00:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been making progress on it this thing, but now, when I surf to the wiki, I get this window:

So I tried editing the configuration file to include "#AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml" as to send any .phtml files through the php interpreter. That didn't work. Then, I realigned the dilithium matrix and flushed the core exhaust out through the jeffries tubes, immolating an ensign in the process. That didn't work either.

What matters for today, though is that I have SOMETHING on the internet. Nothing good, but SOMETHING.

PROGRESS

2005-11-01T15:49:00.000-05:00

FINALLY, I've got the damn thing serving. On to the next step.

Step 1: Set this fucker up.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-28T16:21:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm fully aware it's not Halloween yet. But we're having our party tonight and the house is having its tomorrow, so close enough.

Now, before anyone complains about being offended, I would like to point out that I am already a reverend (proof) of the Universal Life Church. Like many, many other people, but a reverend nonetheless.

Ka-switched!

2005-10-20T03:05:00.000-04:00

My first post using Ubuntu! I've also got 50% more hard drive, 100% less hard drive suck, and a better surge protector!

About Damn Time

2005-10-17T18:56:00.000-04:00

I finally bought an uninterruptable power supply - the Tripp Lite SmartPro UPS. It normally costs $210, but I got it at Costco for $100. It slices, it dices, it keeps my fucking computer from catching fire. So far, my monitor, power supply, and hard drive have all died, all in manners consistent with power problems. That, and the lights in my old apartment flickered, and the power in this one has gone out so many times that Jeff and I have adopted the "not it!" system for who has to reset the circuit breaker. So hopefully this will solve the problem.

Also, Caty is giving me a ride up to Worcester on Wednesday. I'll be back in time to party with Rowe and the gang for the second half of fall break.

Newbuntu

2005-10-13T23:42:00.000-04:00

Hey, the new version of Ubuntu Linux is out! This week, I will make the big switch.

Could it be?

2005-10-08T11:32:00.000-04:00

I've enjoyed my hiatus of phone, but if this means what I think it means, I may be in contact with the n00b world soon enough. I shudder to think of my voice mail.

Update: Ok, I've managed to call some people. The voice mail wasn't bad - it was chiefly "I met Billy Corgan!" and "Uh.... what's up.... and stuff....." from various people. The phone will probably work intermittently until it is fully charged.

Open Source Wiki

2005-10-07T14:47:00.000-04:00

So lately, I've been thinking about open software. For starters, I'm going to switch to Ubuntu Linux when I replace my hard drive over break. Also, I've been thinking about starting a wiki for GPL software development. That is, I download the wiki software, set up a server, and make a few tweaks like section editing on loops, a "download it!" button, etc. I'm aware of Wikisource, but the code there is public domain, not GPL, so I can't just take preexisting GPL code and add it. I'd want to to take full advantage of the momentum the GPL has already gathered. Not that I've got anything against BSD, but it's not shiny enough for me.

Some things I'm pondering before I start the project...

What legal issues might arise out of this?
How might I address the security weakness of public wikis? I'd imagine that people wouldn't be willing to run programs that had malicious code some scum added on.
Has anyone tried this with GPL code yet? If so, how did it fare?

How viable do you folks think this idea is? Any suggestions?

UPDATE: Apparently, contributions to Wikisource are under the GNU FDL, not the public domain. Unfortunately, the GNU FDL is incompatible with the GNU GPL used by Linux. I'd want the whole site to use the same licensing scheme, so project code snippets could be quoted in discussion and then moved back, etc. So now, I have even MORE questions!
Can I license non-code discussion pages under the GPL? Can I just slap a dual license on the discussion pages?

I like the idea, but this red tape is giving me a headache.

Hair!

2005-10-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

You know, I was thinking about getting a haircut, but then I said to myself, "Justin, someday you will be bald." So, I'm enjoying my youth, and letting it grow for a little while before I get the crew cut again. I've got a big job interview in a couple weeks, and plan to whore out as much as possible.

Also: Yesterday, I got into PTN! Go me! Now, I get to rant to the new guys about back when "the house was a house".