The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Opinion

  • Happy First of April Day

    Bubbles Fun

    April Fool’s Day has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. Part of that is because I’ve never been into practical jokes; I’m not a fan of being on the receiving end which translates into not wanting to offer them up to someone else. Plus I always feel obligated to help clean up if someone gets a messy prank played on them (such as filling an office cubicle with shredded paper).

    That being said, I’ve been a huge advocate for the tongue-in-cheek reporting that comes out today. I just saw a posting for Google acquiring nuclear weapons and a few years ago NPR had the story of the exploding maple trees of Maine (I want to be a professor of arboreal thermodynamics). Those, I think, are near the pinnacle of jokes/entertainment because everyone gets to enjoy them, including the victims.

    I’ll be listening to NPR today to see what they come up with.

  • Marathon, Concerts, Presentation

    It’s been a busy few days. Lots of stuff going on.

    But let’s start with something funny that I have in common with this girl who ran the ING Georgia Half Marathon today.

    Runner with Her Tongue Out

    Let’s Compare!

    Sticking my Tongue Out!

    That was last Friday while I was giving a presentation on Diverging Diamond Interchanges (Soon to be a podcast at Talkingtraffic.org!) Sticking my tongue out when I concentrate is a habit I’ve been trying to break for years. This is incentive.

    What else did I do? Oh yes: I gave a presentation to the Georgia section of the American Society of Highway Engineers on something that is near and dear to me, professionally, right now.

    Diverging Diamond Interchanges

    A diverging diamond interchange is, well, Talking Traffic is going to cover that in just a few and ’til then you can hit Wikipedia.

    The presentation went very well and I got a lot of good questions from the other engineers and planners in the audience.

    Dimitri and Aelus

    On Saturday I ran the sound board and recording setup for The Extraordinary Contraptions. Pictures of that concert, and one this morning are at my flickr stream. This was at Momocon, which is a free convention put on at Georgia Tech. It’s an anime and cosplay and steampunk convention. Much fun was had.

    North Atlanta Multisport Club

    On Sunday I grabbed my bike and my MARTA pass and headed to downtown to cheer on the other people in the North Atlanta Multisport Club who were running in the ING Georgia Marathon and Half Marathon. I also got some good pictures while following the race route.

    It’s been a good weekend!

  • This is why I'll Never Use OnStar

    From Bruce Schneier:

    More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.
    […]

    Ramos-Lopez’s account had been closed when he was terminated from Texas Auto Center in a workforce reduction last month, but he allegedly got in through another employee’s account, Garcia says. At first, the intruder targeted vehicles by searching on the names of specific customers. Then he discovered he could pull up a database of all 1,100 Auto Center customers whose cars were equipped with the device. He started going down the list in alphabetical order, vandalizing the records, disabling the cars and setting off the horns.

    Reading the linked story, it turns out that this system is installed by the dealer for making reposession easier. It would not disable a moving car but it does allow someone to turn off your ability to start the vehicle and can honk the horn remotely. I wonder how many of the customers were aware this little device was installed?

    I for one was never a fan of the OnStar commercials that showed the cops tracking your car and disabling it remotely. Sure, that’s great if your car is stolen, but people are people and by that I mean, people lie, cheat and steal. Some of them even hack into computers they’re not supposed to be in.

    I’ll never allow a remote disconnect or control in my car beyond my keyless entry.

  • Socialism is good for…

    This quote from a CNN Tech article (which is a further quote from another location) amuses the hell out of me:

    Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society.

    The article in question is about five silly slogans for tech companies. Check it out.

    I especially agree that Google’s slogan of Don’t Be Evil isn’t exactly the slogan of a for-profit company. I don’t see how Google can not be evil, for some values of evil. Check the onion for related content.

  • This is Progress

    When we got married, my wife and I decided that she would keep her last name. There were a lot of reasons for this but one of the most important is that the concept of a wife taking her husband’s name can be taken a bit far, in our opinion. For example, if Jenn had taken my name it would have been proper (but not acceptable by us) for Jenn to be referred to as Mrs. William Ruhsam. This eliminates all but one bit of her identity: her marriage to me. So, instead of being Dr. Bowie, she becomes my appendage. We wanted to make sure that did not occur.

    We have joked at times that it would almost be more proper for us to be Dr. and Mr. Bowie, but I digress.

    Where am I going with this? I was doing an ego-search today and came across the following engagement announcement: Capt. Ruhsam, Fiancee Plan Wedding in China:

    A January wedding at the home of Maj. Gen. and Mrs. John P. Lucas, Nanking, China has been planned by Miss June Mewshaw and Capt. Harry Erwin Ruhsam, grandson of Mrs. William Ruhsam, New London, Wis.

    The bride-to-be, daughter of Col. and Mrs. Harry C. Mewshaw, Nanking, is a graduate of the University of Arizona, where she affiliated with Kappa Alpha Theta. Capt. Ruhsam is a member of Alpha Sigma Phi and a graduate of Iowa State University.

    The couple will honeymoon in Hong Kong and live in Nanking.

    In it, there are seven people mentioned: three men and four women. The only woman who receives the benefit of a name is the bride-to-be. Everyone else is Mrs. Husband’s-name.

    For contrast, here’s an announcement I just now pulled from the AJC:

    Ben and Paula Team of Snellville, Georgia, are proud to announce the engagement of their daughter Stacey Elizabeth Team to Robert Vincent Scott, son of George and Betsy Scott of Alpharetta, Georgia. The couple became engaged on November 28, 2009 at their favorite park in Milledgeville, Georgia where they both attended Georgia College and State University.
    Robert is the grandson of Mary and Vincent Bode of Raleigh, North Carolina and the late Robert and Dorothy Scott of West Union, Iowa. Stacey’s grandparents are Ben and Helen Team of Lexington, South Carolina.
    The couple will wed in early fall in the company of family and friends.

    This is progress. Let’s keep it up, people.

    By the way, Congratulations to Stacey and Robert!

  • Hugo Awards 2010

    The 2010 Hugo nominations closed last night. The categorical selections for final voting will be announced on April 4. I’m excited! At least, a little bit.

    Last year, I had the privilege of randomly having read three of the five nominated novels. I made up the other two in quick order. This year, I haven’t read much that might get placed on the ballot. The only book I’ve read that I would consider for this year’s Hugo nomination was Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan, but we’ll see. I hear that China Miéville’s The City & The City is worthy, but the Library does not have a copy yet (I’ve also been making an effort to cut down on the number of purchased books. I love paperback swap!)

    Once the nominations come out, I’ll either hit up my friends around here who might have the novels, or do some more intensive library searching. After all, I believe I have friends and acquaintances who live in every county and city in the Atlanta Metro area. I can probably convince someone to borrow me a copy of the novel I’m looking for.

    On another note, my Hugo Novel Reading Project is coming along. I’ve read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin (didn’t like it) and To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer (liked it, but not enough to read the sequels). I also added Gateway (liked it) by Frederick Pohl to the list. Then there was Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman. I’ve got no idea why that book won the Hugo. I mean, it was an ok novel, but best novel of 1998? The competition (none of which I’ve read) must be terrible. Then there was Hominids by Robert Sawyer which I just thought was weird (and preachy). I started to read the Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon but couldn’t get into it. I’m very strict nowadays about books that don’t engage me.

    I’ve had a good run of past-year’s Hugo novels this year. Hopefully I’ll be able to add this year’s Hugo Nominated books without too much trouble.

  • On Publishing Contracts and Why You Should Not Write Contemporaneous Fiction

    Charles Stross has a nice description and discussion of the Book Publishing Contract of Doom! over at his blog today.

    It struck a chord with me at this paragraph:

    The fourth chunk [of the contract] is about publication dates ….The publisher is required to publish the book within 24 months of the date of acceptance of each book. There are a handful of loopholes (for lawsuits, labor disputes, or government intervention), but if they don’t publish within 24 months I can yell at them in writing: they then have six months to publish, and if they can’t manage that, I get to terminate the agreement, take my rights back, and keep the advance.

    I’ve read some novels in the last decade that were written and set in a post 9-11 world. Re-reading them, they seem so quaint with their “I was written in January 2002” attitude. Things have changed a lot since that time; things have been, charitably, in flux. Basing novels on contemporaneous events1 can make them seem a bit dated when rereading them at a later time, and based upon the paragraph above, your novel might not even see the light of bookshelves before 2 years after acceptance, much less first draft.

    Beware.

    1: Tom Clancy’s stuff is notorious for this

  • Good Reason to Use Credit Cards

    Jenn and I use a credit card almost exclusively for everyday transactions. This began as an effort to win Delta Skymiles (and is well worth the bookkeeping effort) but now seems like a good idea in general, unless we go back to cash.

    In the past, thieves used devices on the outside of gas pumps to get PIN numbers and information from cards. They installed tiny cameras and card skimmers to steal the information and then dip into a victim’s account. In this case, somebody had placed devices inside gas pumps. [ed. emphasis]

    There’s just no way to defend against something like that.

    If you use a credit card and there is a fraudulent transaction, the credit card issuer will refund you the money and go looking for the perpetrator. In my experience I’ve never had a credit card company question my declaration of fraud.

    I am more leary about debit cards because of the ability of a fraudster to remove actual money from your actual account, rather than just use the card to purchase things. Again, in my own experience, I’ve had Bank of America refund us approximately $100 due to someone swiping Jenn’s debit card info, but that was not a cash withdrawl.

    Scary. Not so much that I feel like I’d go bankrupt but who has the time to deal with this sort of crap?

  • Another Late Race Report: 2010 Walton Raider Chase

    Race Start

    I participated in the 2010 Walton Raider Chase, at Walton High School in East Cobb, GA, on January 30. It was a damp and cold day, yet I still set a personal record of 22:59.7! That is 37 seconds faster than my previous PR.

    The course was a hilly and twisty one starting and ending at the high school track. In between in wrapped around and through the neigborhoods surrounding going up and down the hills. Pine Street, if you’re familiar with that very steep hill, is a significant downhill segment just before the second mile marker. Be ready to get those feet moving in order to take advantage of the downhill.

    Unfortunately, the downside to going down on a loop course is that you have to go back up. About half to three-quarters of mile 3 is uphill heading back to the track. Be ready for that, too.

    Overall, this was a fun race that I would do again. It helps that it’s a 5 minute drive from my house.

  • The Nerd Parade

    The Nerd Parade,

    Through the good offices of our friends at The Extraordinary Contraptions, we were introduced to The Nerd Parade. I first hear them about a year ago or so and bought their most recent album, The Span of a Life. Having enjoyed that album, I recently acquired A Delicate Bashing (2007)and can say that I’ve enjoyed it as well. It’s (*I* think) very different from A Span of a Life which I liked very much indeed, but I’m still listening to it, so it must be appealing to something.

    The Nerd Parade is off on an East Coast Tour this spring. I know at least a few people at their various stops. You should make an effort to go see them!