dsandler.org

I’ve often found that if I go down the list of “liberal” issues with people who say they’re Republican, they are quite liberal and not in sync with the Republicans who run the country. Most don’t want America to be the world’s police officer and prefer peace to war. They applaud civil rights, believe all Americans should have health insurance and think assault weapons should be banned. Though they may personally oppose abortion, they usually don’t think the government has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body.

There’s a name for these Republicans: RINOs or Republican In Name Only. They possess a liberal, open mind and don’t believe in creating a worse life for anyone else.

From the first of Michael Moore’s dispatches from the Republican National Convention.

On the first night of the Republican National Convention, there were a lot of things that nobody heard. In almost four hours of speeches – speeches devoted almost exclusively to the attacks of Sept. 11 – Osama bin Laden wasn’t mentioned once. [Salon]

So, yeah, the new iMac is out. I think I still like the old design better. Update: Cult of Mac has probably the most concise summary of the design progression that led to the first flat-panel iMac, and now the second.

Via the much-ballyhooed GMailFS we discover FUSE, a userland layer for playing with filesystems under Linux.

The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect ‘domestic security.’ Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent.

—SCOTUS, redacted by the Justice Department and removed from the public record.

Cute: a subclass of str which includes regular-expression operator overloads (e.g. to match, restr("wombat") / "...$").

Printer: phast@rhea ‘HP LaserJet 9000dn in DH3058′
 Rank   Owner/ID                  Class Job Files                 Size Time
active dsandler@firebird+666        A   666 (STDIN)            4699558 08:28:28

Read this interview Bush gave the NY Times. Or, read the Slacktivist rehashing, if you’re short on time. “Showing none of the alarm about the North’s growing arsenal that he once voiced regularly about Iraq, he opened his palms and shrugged when an interviewer noted that new intelligence reports indicate that the North may now have the fuel to produce six or eight nuclear weapons.”

The Seattle Times editorial page on Friday: “Four years ago, this page endorsed George W. Bush for president. We cannot do so again � because of an ill-conceived war and its aftermath, undisciplined spending, a shrinkage of constitutional rights and an intrusive social agenda.” [courtesy joe palmer]

Finally! Virtual desktops (or “workspaces” or what-have-you) for OS X in the form of Desktop Manager.

I was looking forward to an inspired analysis of pop culture, audience anticipation, and other factors which contribute to M Night Shyamalan’s near-success as a filmmaker, but once I got past the abstract I discovered that this Kuro5hin article on what’s holding Shyamalan back is simply a list of clauses matching the pattern, “The critical problem with (insert movie) is that, it’s, like, so retarded.“ Brilliant. You may return to your typewriter now, monkey boy.

This story about debugging Microsoft Word (which you probably saw on Slashdot) is a good read, but I must confess that it tickles my PTSD from debugging a certain Very Badly Behaved Application at my previous job. As I read through the story, one subtle bug cascading into the next, it is all too easy for me to imagine my own adventures in Heisenbugs, each lasting for days at a time, as I slowly narrowed down a bizarre interaction of code that translated into disaster for the user.

*twitch*

Some static subversion clients newer than those I found a while ago. (For linux, macosx, and solaris.)

The fourth (!) IEEE conference on peer-to-peer ends today. (Program of talks.)

Wow! I finished making a Paperformer, and it really works: I was able to transform an hour into a stupid boxy paper model of Bumblebee! By the halfway point I was ready to use the X-Acto on myself instead of the car, but I stuck with it because I am a stubborn bastard and wanted to see if I could get to the end.

This thing should be included in some kind of bootcamp for Archis. Seriously, it could be some sort of Elmers-and-X-Acto Endurance Test, to be taken by first-semester students. The jury would use a loupe to inspect your cuts (the kerf of a razor blade comes into play!) and points would be taken off for edge gaps on folded boxes. (Add 16 fl. oz. each of vodka and orange juice for the “extreme” second-semester version.)

(Previous: Part I, Part II)

I’m trying my hand at one of these Paperformers. First lesson learned: It would be better if, instead of a hand, I had a robotic multi-tool with a laser scalpel and millimeter-wide forcep fingers. That ought to be listed as a requirement, frankly.

Following up on his thoughts last year, George Lakoff offers more insight into conservative languagecraft.

Paperformers: More origami than meets the eye.

Adam looks for the other shoe: “… after all the buildup about how incredibly mind-pummeling law school supposedly is, either I’m doing just fine because I’m exceptionally gifted, or I’m not only not doing just fine, but I’m doing so badly that I cannot recognize the danger signs.”

Economics research paper repositories: IDEAS (U. Connecticut); EconPapers (RePEc). [courtesy muxway]

By the way, I meant to mention that much more distressing than the recent closure of the great big Schlotzky’s on Kirby is our recent discovery that Butera’s is also turning away new business. We drove up Montrose a few days ago and saw empty windows and for-lease signage, and fondly recalled summers of sandwiches piled high, Dr. Brown’s Root Beer in a can, local art on the walls, and dire contention for streetside parking. Anyone know why they closed (or if, as this review suggests, it was once part of a chain)?

Rod finds this great The Morning News article on Tricks of the Trade. If even a quarter of these are authentic, then this is well worth your time reading it.

Darryl finally remembers that he has a website. Stop by for a handful of updates. (Or catch this Atom feed I made for him, because I can’t leave well enough alone.)

Figure 1. Optimization.

I’ve been kicked out of my office; it’s being painted today, apparently three weeks late. (Good thing I have nothing to do but read papers.)

Hmm, having trouble with the dsandler.org email gateway today.

A visit from the niece sends Armand underground.

I guess they’re starting to delete my accounts at my old job. First to go: source code access.