This is a rather strange, rambling essay about the state of the computer industry, historical accidents, and Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux, favoring Linux. Written in 1999, it has not aged well. Stephenson has a fas­ci­na­tion with the command line and a disdain for GUIs.

By using GUIs all the time we have insensibly bought into a premise that few people would have accepted if it were presented to them bluntly: namely, that hard things can be made easy, and com­pli­cat­ed things simple, by putting …continue.

In last week’s newsletter from the Irish Heritage Club, I read about a survey of Irish-born residents of Washington state.

SEATTLE-NEWS@IRISHCLUB.ORG, FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 2007, PART-1

IRISH SURVEY - Irish-born residents of Washington State are being asked to complete a 32-question survey in connection with a PhD. research project sponsored by Seattle’s Irish Im­mi­gra­tion Support Group. The goal is to take a snapshot of Irish-born people living in the Seattle area who left Ireland in the 1900s, mostly those who left Ireland after WW-II. If you or someone you know is willing to par­tic­i­pate, please contact Melissa at 206-229-8512 or melissae@irishclub.org.

I filled it out and emailed it back to her; it …continue.

Inspired by Drinking Liberally, I’ve founded my own little pro­gres­sive movie club. It will meet at my house on the first Wednesday of every month. We show a pro­gres­sive film, followed by a discussion. Typically, these will be political doc­u­men­taries, but you can also expect to see non-political doc­u­men­taries, fiction, and even the occasional right-wing piece for contrast.

The first film will be shown this coming Wednesday. Here’s the an­nounce­ment that I just sent out:

We’ll show ONE of the following movies on Wednesday, February 7th. Those who show up will make the choice.

• Jesus Camp. A growing number of Evan­gel­i­cal Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to …continue.

This is the second mystery featuring Nora Gavin, an American forensic pathol­o­gist living in Ireland. The body of a ritually murdered Iron Age man is found preserved in a bog, and Gavin is called in to examine the body. Shortly thereafter, another similarly murdered body is found in the bog, but this one is wearing a wristwatch.

Hart writes lean, clear prose, with believable characters, and a not-completely improbable plot. Her Irish characters sound and act like Irish people, rather than refugees from a Lucky Charms outtake.

My main complaint with …continue.

My laptop scared the crap out of me last night. I came home to find it in a completely un­re­spon­sive state: it would not wake up. The hard disk LED was a solid green. I power cycled it and it refused to boot.

It did, however, boot from a Kubuntu Edgy CD, but it did not recognize the hard disk. In des­per­a­tion, I booted into the BIOS and played with the disk-related menus. That fixed the problem, but I don’t know what went wrong, and my faith is shaken in the re­li­a­bil­i­ty of this system.

I bought the laptop just over three years ago, shortly before I quit Microsoft, as a re­place­ment for …continue.

I got a reply from Maria Cantwell’s office, regarding the email that I sent about Attacking Iran. Clearly no brain cells were used in sending out this form response.

Dear Mr. Reilly,

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns for the de­vel­op­ment of nuclear weapons in Iran. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you may know, in­ter­na­tion­al nuclear inspectors continue to monitor whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Such a program would be in con­tra­ven­tion to the nuclear non-pro­lif­er­a­tion agreement that Iran has signed. In November 2004, the countries of Britain, France, and Germany negotiated an agreement with Iran, in which Iran agreed to …continue.

Michael Pollan, in a long article in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, writes about Nu­tri­tion­ism

In the case of nu­tri­tion­ism [an ideology], the widely shared but unexamined assumption is that the key to un­der­stand­ing food is indeed the nutrient. From this basic premise flow several others. Since nutrients, as compared with foods, are invisible and therefore slightly mysterious, it falls to the scientists (and to the jour­nal­ists through whom the scientists speak) to explain the hidden reality of foods to us. To enter a world in which you dine on unseen nutrients, you need lots of expert help.

…-

Another po­ten­tial­ly serious weakness of nu­tri­tion­ist ideology is that it has trouble discerning …continue.

Via Digby, a warning about the Bush Ad­min­is­tra­tion trying to gin up a case for war against Iran. Arthur Silber and Scott Ritter have things to say.

I just sent the following letter to my Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, my Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Jim McDermott, and to Senator Russ Feingold.

Senator:

It is quite apparent that the Bush Ad­min­is­tra­tion is working up to provoking a war on Iran. We went through this before, in the leadup to the Iraq war in 2002.

I hold no brief for Iran. They are bad actors in the region. Clearly, they have worrisome nuclear ambitions. And they have little love for the U.S.

But somehow, we survived more than 40 years …continue.

This is the seventh volume of the Camulod Chronicles, Jack Whyte’s sprawling retelling of the Arthurian legend. Whyte is consumed by the backstory of the legend, so much so that the sixth book The Sorceror Meta­mor­pho­sis ends with young Arthur drawing Excalibur from a stone. The first two books, The Skystone and The Singing Sword, tell of the founding of the Colony of Camulod by two far-sighted Romano-Britons, Caius Bri­tan­ni­cus and his brother-in-law Publius Varrus, who foresee the collapse of the Roman Empire. The third book, The Eagles’ Brood, tells of their grandsons, Caius Merlyn …continue.

I recently learned about string pods and chain pods. In essence, they are pocket-sized monopods. You screw a six-foot string into the tripod socket of your camera, step on the other end of the string, and pull it taut. The tension on the string reduces camera shake.

My string pod tutorial shows how I made the string pod, as well as some before and after shots.

Before now, I used to try to find a handy surface or wall to brace the camera, when taking photos without flash. Often there isn’t such a surface. I have a little 3-inch pocket tripod that I carry with me all the time, but I haven’t used it much.

A …continue.