Ottomans

I saw a good show on the History Channel yesterday, "Ottoman Empire: The War Machine". It traced the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, and focused specifically on the many military conquests of the Empire. Of greatest interest to me were the Empire's effect on Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire; Topkapi Palace; and the Islamization of the Balkans.

The Rapture....

is in 4 days and 4 hours. I'd suggest packing carefully, especially no liquids or gels :-)

Hello, Mr. Ahmadinejad

A joke for you:

Q: What is the most common Google search term used this week in Arak?

A: Whiteman Missouri

It is approximately 6881 miles from Whiteman to Arak. Anyone who thinks that flight path has not been examined a zillion times in recent weeks, should stand up and leave the room now. Its 3221 miles from Diego Garcia to Arak. Anyone who thinks that flight path has not been examined a zillion and one times in recent weeks, should also leave the room.

If you're not getting the connection, click here and then here and then finally here.

Link here if you want to do your own pre-war flight planning.

Fuel cells

After surfing the Internet to educate myself on ethanol, I recalled a previous hype-cycle about fuel cells, which occurred during the early 2000's. After excessive blathering on the topic, the press and the public lost interest, but various commercial and governmental endeavors have continued, and the technology has advanced considerably over the last 5 years. Google for yourself and you will find commercial power plants, experimental laptop batteries, military marine uses, backup power generators, residential power sources, automotive systems, and public transportation.

Honda's technology in particular looks very interesting. In addition to a very advanced fuel cell car, they have produced technology for installation in the home to solve the considerable re-fueling issues that surround the use of fuel cells for autos. Perhaps another 10 years of expensive R&D, and one or two more hype cycles in between, will result in some significant uses.

Look here for an interesting and somewhat related article on the hydrogen economy.

He's mastered all the English he needs

You gotta love this guy. Yusaku Miyazato, who speaks no english, aced two par 3's in the Reno-Tahoe Open. While his caddie served as interpreter for him, Yusaku was able to describe for himself his celebration plans for his incredible, record-breaking feat:

"Drink much beer. Big party," he said with a wide smile.

Click here for the full story.

Thank god the Republican Party had the foresight to invent the TSA

Thank god that President Bush had the foresight to recognize and react to the security threat to our air transportation system, and form the TSA in 2001. And double thank god that he and his party are such effective administrators that they have honed the TSA into a finely tuned, gel-confiscating machine. Nothing gets by these guys! Click here and here for examples of how the TSA has turned the skies into the starry blue equivalent of Fort Knox.

Ubuntu - Part 5 and final

I signed into the Ubuntu support forums, and searched on the word "resolution". A couple of minutes of scanning the search results lead me to an entry about using some obscure command to start the X configuration program to modify the video resolution. I followed the directions and was able to change the desktop to 1024x768. Success! I then downloaded a copy of BOINC to help the world fight AIDS etc., and it works great. The Ubuntu developers did a beautiful job with the graphics and widgets, albeit I am unhappy with the sort of rusty reddish-brown default color theme. But I won't bore my vast blogging audience with my future attempts to download some new themes :-)

Ubuntu - Part 4

Wifi setup was a breeze. Ubuntu recognized my SSID and let me select it from a drop down in the networking tools. After entering the encryption key, it connected immediately and worked perfectly. I used the update manager to install the available patches, and moved on to the desktop resolution, which the installer had set to 640x480. Unfortunately, Ubuntu does not seem to recognize that my laptop has several other video modes, and for the life of me I have no idea where this is set - it must be in some obscure X configuration file, and in fact, I haven't any idea which flavor of X is in this distro. Time to start googling for help!

Ubuntu - Part 3

Its not unusual for Linux installs to turn into a bit of an adventure, and this one has been no different.

• The first installation failed due to a "coaster". If you're familiar with using .iso's, you know a coaster is what you get when your CD burning software tells you it created the CD correctly, but really didn't, which you discover when it won't boot correctly. Place that useless CD under your coffee mug and voila its useful.
• The second installation (after another burn) failed due to a DUE (Dumb User Error). Don't you hate it when you're required to actually look at the screen and think? In this case, the Ubuntu boot CD gives you an option to "Start or Install". I assumed selecting this would later allow me to choose between starting and installing. But what it really does is boot a full Linux desktop off the CD, and there is an icon on the desktop to run the install to your hard disk. I didn't see the icon, and assumed I had somehow hosed the install.
• The third installation failed with some obscure error message about a filesystem missing. I suspect this was related to the previous Fedora Core 5 partitions that were on the hard disk. Since this install got thru reformatting the disk...
• The fourth installation...worked!

I've had worse adventures than that, and overall I would rate Ubuntu's install as above average. Needing only a single CD (not counting the coaster!) is a major advantage. Next I need to finish some basic setup tasks, like configuring my wifi, fixing the screen resolution, and obtaining any outstanding patches.

Ubuntu - Part 2

It took about 2 hours to download the .iso via the torrent, and about 20 minutes to burn it to a CD using Sonic Recordnow (apparently my optical drive is none too speedy). In part 3, I'll try the install on my aging but still mostly-functional spare Thinkpad R30. Its got 256 meg of RAM, a 20 gig drive, and a broken LCD. After kid #3 dropped it and broke the LCD, I never was able to get Windows working again, despite hooking up an external LCD. But Linux has worked just fine on the external monitor.

Ubuntu - Part 1

I like messing with the Linux operating system. For me, its a geeky hobby that reminds me of the good old days when I did real computer work, as opposed to my current daily email blizzard. Lately I have mostly used the Fedora distro, with an occassional crack at the Suse Lizard.

But recently I've heard a lot of good press about Ubuntu. I had tried this distro once before, but the weird rootless result totally confused me and I erased it faster than you can say grep.

Fedora, like many distros, comes in a set of five CDs that are downloaded for free from the Internet; usually there is an option for a single DVD download for those technologically advanced enough to own a DVD burner (I do not). Ubuntu varies from this as it comes in a single installable CD. The current version of Ubuntu is 6.06.1, "Dapper Drake". Linux distros normally have a cutesy name, like Breezy Badger, Humpy Hamster, and the like.

So earlier this afternoon, I googled on "Ubuntu torrent" to find the bittorrent file, and saved it to my Windows desktop. I loaded it into uTorrent, which should take a couple hours to download the .iso file, so I'll burn the CD later and process the install.

Got backup?

Most people have no backup of their PC hard drive. I do - about once a month I blast a copy onto my Buffalo NAS. But I still worry about a disk crash wiping out my data and causing me days of reconstruction. I recently installed this app for early warning, and maybe you should too...

Ethanol

I had the opportunity recently to travel to Brazil on business. One topic of conversation with my Brazilian hosts was the use of ethanol in their country. Roughly 40% of their gasoline usage has been replaced by ethanol, and the country is energy-independent, at least in the specific category of gasoline usage. This discussion encouraged me to do research on ethanol production in the US after I returned.

What I found was that ethanol production is booming in the US. Production increased 135% from 2000 to 2005, with roughly 90 plants operating during 2005. A typical plant might produce 40 to 50 million gallons per year, and cost $50 to $100 million to build. In 2006, there are 33 plants under construction, 8 undergoing significant expansion, and many more being considered. Click here for a sample news story.

Will this enable the US to drive (pun intended) towards energy independence from the turbulent Middle East? Opinions are somewhat divided, but the answer appears to be: not likely.

Why? Some of the reasons are clear, others less so.

1. Whereas Brazil produces its ethanol from sugar cane, in the US the primary source is corn. Corn is substantially more difficult to distill than sugar cane, increasing the required investment in plants, and increasing both transportation and raw material (corn) costs.
2. Due to both the size of the US market, and the effective conversion rate of the corn, a very large percentage (exact number under debate) of the total arable land would be required to displace even a small percentage of gasoline consumption.
3. Infrastructure. Ethanol plants generally need to be located near the crop source, and the finished product is difficult to transport.

The economics of ethanol are also murky. Considerable government subsidies (along with the elimination of MTBE) have helped fuel the current boom. But some scientists (in the minority) claim that the energy required to produce ethanol is greater than the energy produced by the ethanol. This contrarian opinion is also balanced by the fact that the efficiency of ethanol production has been increasing rapidly, and that this trend may continue or even accelerate.

For the next few years, the likely scenario is that ethanol production will continue to soar, lifted by high oil prices and government intervention. US automakers (especially GM) have a marketing advantage, in that they have invested heavily in both production and marketing of ethanol-enabled cars ("E85"). As ethanol production continues to grow, and as retail locations selling ethanol proliferate (especially in the Midwest), the true economics may begin to become clearer. If a few more charismatic leaders jump on the bandwagon, the current boom could become an investment frenzy that reminds of the 90's dot.com boom.

Click here for a list of retail locations in Illinois.

Protein disk

The October issue of MaximumPC (one of my favorite geeky mags) has an article about protein-based optical disc recording, which amazingly (I am not making this up) is projected to provide up to 50 terabytes of storage per disc. The Harvard (I am not making that up either) research stipulates a thin coating of light-activated proteins over a substrate. For me, it conjures up images of stuffing a burger into your disc tray...

PGA

Luuuuuuuke. Dude, get a new putter...seriously, it was good to see an NU grad in the final pairing in a major. Better luck next time.

Most awaited album of 2006

Joyce Cooling's new CD will be available next month...save up your $12 and splurge on this jazz guitar virtuoso's work. Her last album, This Girl's Got to Play was awesome...

I'm old....

I had one of those horrible aging moments today. During a discussion with my kids, I realized:

1. They do not know what a "record album" is. You mean a CD??
2. They do not realize cars used to have manual windows.
3. They do not realize there was a time before calculators.

For those of you who do remember #3, you can go back to the future here. Personally, I think anyone who learned to do advanced math using a slide rule and a Chemical Rubber Company book of tables is twice as smart as anyone who didn't.

The state of Maine is a hateful, bigoted place

I was shocked and saddened to learn today that in the State of Maine, I would be considered a hardened criminal fit only to be incarcerated. It amazes me that in the USA of the 21st century, attitudes like this are allowed and apparently encouraged by local governments. I don't even need to Google to be sure that Maine is controlled by an evil Democratic cabal that should be swept from office by the will of the people, and the rights of all its inhabitants restored.

The Rapture is coming

8/31. 6:30 PM Central. The enlightened amongst us will be elevated to a new and better plane of existence. Be nice to me and maybe you can come with.

Hamster action

#2 kid's hamster does...well...nothing. It clumps in a corner of its cage like a furry ball and never moves. Why couldn't she get one like this?

The situation in Cuba...

Merits the closest of watching. The 45-year diplomatic and commercial embargo of Castro's communist regime imposed by the USA in 1963 could end as the regime changes. This would lead to startling and amazing events which will improve the lives of millions. Details here.

TGIF

TGIF and meet my best friend for the weekend.

Between work, the kids, and the 4 double scotches I had last night, it was hard to decide if I was sluggish or paralyzed this morning. Waking up in the morning is a major chore, and my raging addiction to caffeine does not help. I have one of these high tech coffee machines, and I found myself sweating and hopping from foot to foot while it ground the beans and clanked and gurgled thru its cycle. Can I really continue doing this every morning? You know the old saying, Leaders confront and solve problems. Or, they just paint a little makeup on the pig to make it look better, which is my plan. So kudos to the genius who invented this stuff.

Picture

I've always avoided having pets. Walking a dog? Are you kidding me - I'd rather pound nails into my skull than do that every morning. Cats? Who thought those up? They don't even like people, and they do their duty in a box. But a couple years ago I got tricked into building a fish pond in my back yard, basically as a replacement for a more standard landscape decoration like a bush or a weed. I didn't know it at the time, but this started my hellish descent into being over-run with pets.

As pets go, the pond fish are great. They live outside. They are silent. They eat whatever crap I throw in the water. They occassionally get eaten by a raccoon or giant bird, but they don't complain about it. Basically, its like having pets except they never hassle you.

Recently one of my kids found a turtle had taken up residence in our pond. Where exactly this turtle came from, is beyond me. Spontaneous generation? Immaculate conception? Who knows. But of course the kid thought this was the greatest thing ever, to have a turtle to keep our fish company. My only thoughts were...that damn thing is gonna rip a hole in the pond liner and flood me out. So of course I solutioned this by telling the kid we would need to rub out Mr. Turtle, which surprisingly, she did not take well at all. So Mr. Turtle took up residence in a bucket in my house.

Kid #2 was of course enraged that kid #3 had been permitted to have a pet. So to shut her up, I agreed to a hamster. I figured that's pretty painless, its basically the same as a mouse that sneaks into your house for free, except the pet store calls it a Panda Bear or Speckled Bear or some such cutesy name and charges you $20 for it.

So now I have fish, a turtle, and a hamster, and there's still one petless kid left. We have a turtle tank, a hamster cage (who knew they made leashes for hamsters?), and all sorts of weird foods to feed them (Petco says turtles love dried worms). I plan to bargain with kid #1 - your choice baby, college or a pet. Pick the one you want more...