2009-12-17 07:46 | fche blog tech unencrypted drone videos
It is so unbelievable that it might just be true: some US military drones operating over iraq/afghanistan uplink their video data unencrypted. What could possibly go wrong
2009-12-13 12:55 | fche blog politics cap & trade & lobotomize
This is a breathtaking story of how cap & trade in the eu conspire to kill industry — and have people pay for the privilege.
2009-11-28 12:34 | fche blog stuart tough discipline
A transcript of a conversation with the 2.9 year old follows.
Read more...2009-11-26 18:24 | fche blog tech smug & smugger
Smug: installing a replacement wall oven in one’s kitchen, including minimal electrical & carpentry work.
Smugger: celebrating the failure of the previous oven’s installer to kill us all by his neglect to electrically ground the thing
2009-11-23 19:51 | fche blog politics great moments in socialized medicine
We found out today that the nurse-practitioner who has been looking after our two little ones has moved onto bigger and better things than serve young kids in the area. She is to be a nurse-practitioner for people at large in the city. Considering the pathetic scarcity of family doctors / GPs in the province, this means that to maintain non-emergency care, we must follow her to her new office, and sign up the kids for her new clientele waiting list. We were told that it will help our application if we state on the form that we are healthy people.
In other words, the routine canadian socialized health system works great … as long as you’re healthy and don’t need it.
Nice job, Canada Health Act, Section 12, ‘‘where and as available’‘ .
2009-11-09 12:26 | fche blog flying difficult question
What’s better? A 75-minute flight to the nation’s capital, with a huge smooth tailwind? Or a serene 120-minute night flight back, passing high by the nation’s largest city, seeing city-sized mosaics of yellow and black?
2009-10-30 07:44 | fche blog tech querying future time zone changes in linux
A recent screwup involving forecast time zone changes made me hack together this little ditty.
Read more...2009-10-23 00:40 | fche blog enun-dorsals national treasure
The National Film Board of Canada has started releasing their vast library of canadian classic documentaries and films for free online viewing. Among my favorites: The Log Driver’s Waltz, The Railrodder, The Sweater
Read more...2009-10-16 14:20 | fche blog politics dark skies II
2009-10-16 09:48 | fche blog seriously in other words VIII
event: Blog Action Day 2009 against “climate change”
in other words: “globally warming up computer seats”
2009-10-14 17:53 | fche blog stuart cruising
Moments ago, 2.8-year-old says:
I’m ready to go downstairs. I’ve got everything I need: the toy lawnmower, the truck, the biplane. I want to play the racing game – the two-player one. Let’s cruise!
2009-10-14 10:13 | fche blog politics we are going to let you die
Rarely is the left so blunt.
On the other hand, see also.
2009-10-09 07:36 | fche blog politics in good company
The credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize committee is rapidly retreating to ridicule. Maybe it’s like the old Star Trek movies: every alternate selection stinks.
2009-10-07 17:28 | fche blog seriously in other words VII
headline: Scientist re-creates Turin Shroud to show it’s fake
corrected: “... to show it might be faked, like he faked his fake”
2009-10-05 10:58 | fche blog eric distraction
Our 4.9-year-old boy is easily distracted, and he knows it.
Read more...2009-09-29 10:41 | fche blog politics nursey state
Whoa, I had no idea our friends to the south were already on their way toward the nationalization of their health care information.
Read more...2009-09-25 12:24 | fche blog seriously educashun
OK, it may not be fair to use a second-hand quote, but ….
He said he is going to spend more time with his 17-year-old son, Trevor, who is a 6-foot-5 quarterback and has to decide whether to go to college for football or baseball.
So that’s what college is for.
2009-09-24 20:12 | fche blog politics dark skies
On the present course, such pleading will soon become thunder.
2009-09-16 13:49 | fche blog stuart more bees
Following in his brother’s footsteps, 33-month-old Stuart spelled “lancaster” for us today, just for the asking. What a team they make.
2009-09-04 10:20 | fche blog seriously taking responsibility
Taking responsibility for mistakes does not merely consist of uttering the words “I take responsibility.”
2009-09-02 10:00 | fche blog tech congratulations, alex
Alexandre Oliva’s two-year-old code baby has been merged. It was a long and controversial project, but it seems to be the right next step for GCC. This should make systemtap and debugger users happy.
2009-08-26 07:46 | fche blog stuart intended heartbreak
2.5-year-old Stuart spake thusly:
Go away, Frank!
(Are you serious?)
Yes.
(Why?)
Because I don’t like you.
(Really?)
Yes.
(time passes)
Help me put on my shirt!
2009-08-20 17:14 | fche blog tech sendmail SPF hints
Little tech hints. As a part of reinstalling my home server recently, I switch from exim to sendmail (horrors!). I have been trying to reestablish all the spam-related filters, but it has been a pain. "milters" for clamav, dkim, not too bad. Having to read up on sendmail's configuration language, well, an eye opener. Read more...
2009-08-16 17:14 | fche blog seriously line of the day
A tasty tidbit in defense of self-defense.
When the bad thing comes and seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
2009-08-14 08:32 | fche blog eric young offender
A few days ago, 4.5-year-old Eric and I went shopping to a local Staples store. The boy has been using computers for half his life, and enjoys trying out the others on display. He was foiled by all the Vista log-on screens that asked for a sales guy password.
Well, he was not foiled for long. As he poked around the logon window, he came across the helpful “password hint” popup, into which the store staff had helpfully placed some text. Eric said “let’s try that!”, typed it in, and of course it turned out to be the real cleartext password. He poked around the broken-into machine a bit then moved on.
I reported both of us to the nearby cashier, as criminal and accomplice.
2009-08-08 18:54 | fche blog stuart looking back
Over the dinner table, I wondered aloud about what it would be like to be so young as to have as few memories as a little person. Stuart asked what I was talking about, so I had to explain by contrasting all my decades of memories versus his twoish years.
Read more...2009-08-04 16:55 | fche blog seriously in other words VI
Headline: facts are stubborn things
Keywords: “.. disinformation … rumours … casual conversation … if you see something … that seems fishy, report it to flag@whitehouse.gov …”
In other words: Report on your neighbours directly to the federal executive.
This is so asinine it gets a “seriously” tag.
2009-08-04 08:48 | fche blog politics lamenting socialism
A quick riposte at the glittering allure of socialist utopia, whose ultimate corollary is such simply predicted fascism.
2009-08-04 08:42 | fche blog politics rape abortion
A few days ago, a friend disbursed some wisdom obvious to the Gen-X class or whatever: that Sarah Palin sounded like an idiot on Couric, that creationists are idiots, and that christians are fools. That latter one was because the don’t accept the blatant appropriateness — nea, the very necessity — of abortions in the cases of rape/incest.
While it’s good fun to see such jolly regurgitation of the political “facts” of the day, that last one needed a bit of a response from your humble scribe. I pointed out that one reason people might oppose abortion even in these cases is because it kills a proto-person who’s not personally guilty of the crimes of the rapist/incestivizor. The argument need not even rely on christian souls or supernatural phenomena. One can try to think about it in terms of crime & punishment.
2009-07-23 16:25 | fche blog politics beneath the dignity of the office
2009-07-21 10:16 | fche blog eric, stuart silence in the morning
A few days ago, there was one of those quiet mornings in the house that parents of young kids both delight and dread.
Read more...2009-07-11 22:17 | fche blog seriously in other words V
headline: Cab Driver Cuts Own Head Off In Suicide
understatement: “Officers attended and the driver was found dead inside the vehicle.”
in other words: “... parts of the dead driver were found inside and outside the vehicle.”
2009-07-10 15:07 | fche blog enun-dorsals what a people
2009-07-07 00:10 | fche blog politics self-correcting in the long term
This article over at the Belmont Club blog observes that some of those in charge of designing the utopian revamp of the U.S. health care system have already planned out how to handle the inherent scarcity of socialized medicine.
Read more...2009-06-15 22:34 | fche blog eric talent, such as it is
I present some spontaneous family poetry from this fine evening for your contrasting pleasure.
Read more...2009-06-11 10:31 | fche blog flying good landing
My mom sent over this picture in a new episode of her periodic “look at what I found on the internet” emails.
Looking at the bird’s upper inboard wing surfaces, one can see the little feathers starting to poke up, as the airflow of the wings is starting to separate. In other words, the bird is just about to stall. Perfect for a landing.
2009-06-10 16:19 | fche blog enun-dorsals in other words IV
joke transcript: ... perhaps you saw it on the highlight reel … Sarah Palin’s [14-year-old] daughter was knocked up …
in other words: “I have no class at all, won’t someone fire me please?”
2009-06-08 12:11 | fche blog seriously military melancholy
Our family attended the Stoney Creek Battle re-enactment yesterday.
Read more...2009-06-06 12:36 | fche blog politics taxes: a necessary evil
Reading this comment made me wonder whether proponents of “progressive taxation” (or fans of taxation in general) think of taxes the same way normal people do.
That is that taxes are not per se good or desirable, but a necessary evil to fund governments. As such, a moral person should attempt to minimize the infliction of this evil on others, and not express glee at how much “the rich” can be made to pay.
2009-06-03 12:48 | fche blog politics unhappy anniversary
Tonight is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The Chinese Communist government is still scared.
2009-06-02 19:39 | fche blog seriously in other words III
headline: WHO official says world edging towards pandemic
punchline: Fukuda told journalists. “The future impact of this infection has yet to unfold.”
in other words: “duh”
2009-05-29 10:27 | fche blog flying airline safety
This is a sad thought-provoking summary of what has happened at the lower tiers of the airline industry. (I don’t know to what extent it applies to Canada.)
2009-05-28 17:29 | fche blog politics in other words II
Headline: Stimulus projects bypass hard-hit states
Punchline: “... amounted to only about $7.42 per person on average …”
In other words: Citizens now owe $3630 each, to fund the $1,200,000,000,000 stimulus bill.
2009-05-27 20:00 | fche blog enun-dorsals one laugh per technical minute
I come to praise Brian Hayes’s book Infrastructure.
Read more...2009-05-24 06:57 | fche blog seriously in other words
Headline: Student Builds Tiny House With Big Sustainability
In other words: “Student camps in someone’s backyard in shed.”
2009-05-17 20:26 | fche blog tech open source body count
This is a response to my colleague Michael Tiemann’s blog posting. Despite the “add a comment” link over yonder at opensource.org, I have yet to see any comment actually published, so here we go.
Read more...2009-05-16 08:50 | fche blog stuart name game
Heard from the 2-year-old this morning:
I want to change your name from Frank to Frankie by adding “i” and “e” to the end.
2009-05-06 16:37 | fche blog enun-dorsals, flying avidyne press release follies
Those one or two of you that got excited about this Avidyne press release may save yourselves the anticipation.
Read more...2009-04-22 13:59 | fche blog eric sentimentality
Sometimes, we don’t notice time passing.
Other times, we see others become aware. Our 4.5-year-old boy has just started cataloging his experiences into years. “We first visited this place in 2007.” “In 2008, my favorite number was one hundred, but now it’s nine.” And so I realize how much he remembers, how to him his life already seems long. Yet he has only the barest inkling that it’s finite.
And sometimes, it’s personally painful. Perhaps one has to get close to middle age in order to become teary at the loss of talented strangers one never met, like Joe Raposo and others. Maybe it’s only the generation immediately before – the ones who informed one’s childhood and hammered a golden nail of permanent reverence into one’s brain – whose gradual passing seems so damn tragic.
2009-04-01 19:07 | fche blog seriously april fools
The yearly gags in the IT business are becoming tiresome. Sure, it’s hard to be funnier than last year. Plus because of the Terrible Economy™, no one is even allowed to spell “wit” any more.
My humble proposal: surprise by refusing to participate.
2009-03-22 10:40 | fche blog politics so long and thanks for all the money
Here’s an antidote to the belief that The Government™ can just spend more, to save the children|peace|GM|whatever.
2009-03-04 13:49 | fche blog seriously Open thread
The floor is yours – humble readers, say whatever you like. Aloud.
2009-02-14 13:22 | fche blog flying multimodal go/no-go
It is a cliche in space movies to show the controllers’ “go”/“no go” roll call around launch time. Presumably, each station can veto a flight upon adverse conditions.
Read more...2009-02-04 21:14 | fche blog enun-dorsals fallen star
John Mashey is a well-known and well-respected greybeard in the computer business. It was a treat to read his many articles on comp.arch. He has forgotten more than I will ever know. But such flattery needs to be tempered by his forays into the global warming debate.
Read more...2009-01-27 15:12 | fche blog eric, stuart should listen closer
Some recently overheard exchanges between wife and boys:
Read more...2009-01-26 14:40 | fche blog enun-dorsals access at ontario science centre
We joined the mob of stroller-wielding families this past Saturday, visiting the OSC. It was fun enough, except for the small matter of getting around the six-story building. Read more...
2009-01-16 11:41 | fche blog seriously the feds can't do a thing to stop her
According to this story, some young woman is auctioning off her virginity. How quaint. But what earned the headline-writer’s attention is in the suffix … “and the feds can’t do a thing to stop her”.
Now that gets me excited!
Consider how tragic it is when the first instinct of an onlooker of some clearly voluntary, safe, if distasteful display is to ponder … “why doesn’t someone stop this?” And further, why that someone shouldn’t be The Federal Government™ – the ideal arbiter of good taste and morality — as opposed to this lady’s friends or family. Have we/you surrendered so much of your personal authority to judge?
Besides, the headline is wrong. “The feds” could put in the highest bid and then fail to collect the prize. Or lump it into the mother of all bailouts — there’s certainly demand. Heck, if the “feds” are about to load more debt onto the kids, the least they could do for them is to get them all laid.
2009-01-14 19:22 | fche blog politics stick a sculpture in their eyes
I’m an avid reader of EU Referendum to track the transnational encroachments upon country and liberty over at the mother continent. This awesome sculpture by Czech artist David Cerny follows brilliantly.
2009-01-04 18:06 | fche blog eric, stuart opposite boy
In several ways, our brats Eric (age 4) and Stuart (age 2) are matched. The little one has learned enough to find sport in systematic contradiction of his big brother. Whether that’s arguing over the same toy, saying “yes” whenever the other says “no”, or a slew of others.
Today, during an exploratory drive of our area, Stuart fell asleep about an hour into it, so Eric and Juimiin stepped out to visit a local museum awhile. When they returned, Stuart wriggled from his slumber as the doors slammed shut. Leaving the parking lot, I asked my passengers about which way we should turn now.
Eric: “left”.
Stuart: “right”.
A few seconds before, Stuart was asleep. Only a few seconds later, Stuart was asleep again. This suggests that his contradiction skill is substantially reflexive. He doesn’t even need to be fully awake. A brainstem thing perhaps.
2009-01-01 14:33 | fche blog tech good repair of dead dino consumers
I knew we had several internal combustion engines in our family’s possession, but the total count is impressive.
Read more...