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September 30, 2002
Jhai Foundation
Welcome to the Jhai Foundation is a group doing some great things with ultralowcost computing. I envy it. THey have a remote IT project which gives cheap and robust computers to villages that have no electricity or phone, and they're hooked up to wireless (like airport) networking to all the villiages. Then the farmers can find out, by email, if the price of grain is high enough to warrant the 30km walk into town to sell it. WOW!"
Posted by jason at 10:18 PM
Gotta love technology
Some of you, up early and regularly reading this blog, may have noticed, along with a bunch of Roger Kuin's English 3150 students, and perhaps some KMDIers, that Edublog suddenly became unavailable last night. I quietly panicked and made my way in this morning to see what had blown or crashed. Luckily I have years of experience with things going wrong. So I wasn't shocked to find that the server was running, and started poking about. First I found out that though the server was running, it couldn't find the internet either. The ethernet connection to the hub was flashing properly, but just for the hell of it, I unplugged the ethernet cable and plugged it back in. Nothing looked strange, but of course that fixed it. Loose cable. Not even a broken one. Just a slight jiggly connection. Almost wrecked my morning, but it didn't. Gotta get better backups though. I'm doing them manually, as OSX doesn't have a good backup system that I can use yet, but I'm testing backing up the machine to an old iMac I've called Pollen. Happiness."
Posted by jason at 10:07 AM
September 29, 2002
Rochelle published and she never tells me.
The Harrow: Mermaid was published this month. Rochelle wrote it. It is in a journal that I edit poetry for. I found it at random. Strange the I found it at random. Enjoy!"
Posted by jason at 03:16 PM
September 28, 2002
Hildegarde/Rochelle
Rochelle has a new blog: Love Me. Everyone must love her and despair."
Posted by jason at 10:35 AM
September 27, 2002
cyborg42.pdf a big honking PDF
The $*@#^@!~!! Sousveillance paper is finally done and submitted. I just like the file name, cyborg42.pdf, and the fact that it has the number 42 as a version number. It is a big honking 1.2meg pdf file, but it is ever so pretty. The editor has it now, and hopefully it will be in print sometime this fall. Special thanks to Salmoon and Rhonna for proofreading help. You're both mentioned in the acknowledgements."
Posted by jason at 06:59 PM
September 26, 2002
Ah... truth and the fictions of science.
From the ""It's just one bad apple that spoils it for the others, or is it?"" department Panel Says Bell Labs Scientist Faked Discoveries (free login required) The case also raises questions about the core of the scientific process, in which scientists critique each other's work for errors but rely on trust that the data is honest. If the panel is correct, Dr. Sch%uFF9An pursued his fabrications in one of the hottest areas of research, working with a revolving cast of co-researchers, and managed to continue the charade for several years."
Posted by jason at 07:19 AM
Too cool OSX software
Bombich Software has virtual desktop, harddrive cloning and delocalizing. Just what you need for OSX. And it is free."
Posted by jason at 06:26 AM
September 24, 2002
??
Posted by jason at 08:45 AM
New US mystery weapon?
Mystery carcass 'something new to science..."
Posted by jason at 08:35 AM
Dark Humour
BUSINESS: Things could be worse %uFFD1 just look at Japan"
Posted by jason at 08:31 AM
September 23, 2002
3 bruces
Met a guy named bruce today when getting a coffee from Nick's coffee truck in front of the Bahen centre. Not the Bruce with an umlaut, but another one. Friend of Fred. He worked with the bands Toronto and the Headpins, and toured with them twice, doing roadmanaging stuff... I wonder if Kenny's reading this, and gets what it is all about. We talked about those bands, downchild, Saga, MaxWebster. Blast from the early 80s."
Posted by jason at 10:14 AM
September 22, 2002
Essentialized Blogging
My copy of Essential Blogging is in the UofT bookstore. Gotta get it today. There are going to be problems with it, I can tell, from looking at the authors. But I need it. And I want it. And I got something to write for barry on the topic sort of soon."
Posted by jason at 09:30 AM
"Ah, my stressed out childhood it the reason..."
The Globe and Mail: Breaking News As many as one-third of his teen patients come to him complaining of stomachaches or headaches, but usually he is able to rule out any organic problem. Stress is what's making them feel sick.Many children wind up with weight problems - such as the seven-year-old boy who had chicken nuggets washed down with Coke for breakfast. His father was a guy who lived on the edge, who gets financing for a new car and then immediately gets it repossessed. The kid knows about the financial problems, and eating is his way of dealing with it. As well, poor children appear to be more stressed than rich kids.It's no secret that social status has a direct impact on health. People with low incomes suffer from much higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and a host of other lifestyle-related conditions. They also have a markedly lower life expectancy. Dr. Lupien also has found intriguing evidence that stress may make it harder for children to learn because it shrinks part of their brain. In several experiments with adults, she established that cortisol plays an important role in memory. But at high levels over long periods of time, its role reverses. It impairs memory and learning by actually reducing the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that turns short-term memories into long-term ones."
Posted by jason at 09:05 AM
September 19, 2002
hey
MOVABLE TYPE :: Personal Publishing System"
Posted by jason at 12:53 PM
TORONTO POET WINS TOP PRIZE
Maureen Scott Harris of Toronto has won the 2002 Poem of the Year"" contest, it was announced today in Ottawa. The prize, sponsored by Arc, Canada's National Poetry Magazine, carries a cash award of $1,000. Harris's poem, ""Be the River,"" won over approximately 1300 entries. Her first book of poems, A Possible Landscape, was published by Brick Books in 1993."" Maureen is a dear friend who helped me teach ENV321 for a number of years. Congratulations Marueen!!!"
Posted by jason at 10:53 AM
"kewl, eh?"
Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers"
Posted by jason at 07:36 AM
September 17, 2002
Stella Awards
Roger Kuin tipped me off on this one: Stella Award Nominations. Almost as fun as the Darwin Awards."
Posted by jason at 10:43 AM
"North Korea Apologizes to Japan for Abductions"
From the too wierd for words department: PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- In an astonishing concession at a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il confirmed Tuesday that North Korean spies kidnapped Japanese citizens decades ago, and said at least four are still alive. [login required.]"
Posted by jason at 08:22 AM
Wanna see what I'm doing?
I've been playing with iCal from apple. And no, it is not a diet drink. It is a calendar program. It's way better than what I was using before. Strange thing is that you can see my calendar online, just by clicking on me: jason. It is a little scary, but I've doubled the locks on my door at hom, and there's no indication where I am for these meetings, home/online/office, so it may not be a total privacy invasion. We'll see."
Posted by jason at 08:03 AM
September 16, 2002
Workstudy
Yay! Had a meeting with my first workstudy student this year... Shelby! She was in my ENV321 class last year. I hope she gets 'permission' to participate in the workstudy program. If all goes well, she's going to help with library work on the Newburgh/Map 12thC vampire stuff, Ben and my 'Anne of the Undead' paper (both mentioned below), and perhaps even Pollen... if there's something to be done. Good start to a happy day."
Posted by jason at 12:25 PM
Blogging the Critics.
I've not got 36 blogs set up for English 3150 The Writer-Critic that Roger's teaching up at York. It will be an interesting experiment in using MT (moveabletype.org) as a class tool. I've used Twiki and Blogger.com in the past, and this one has had some neat advantages and disadvantages. So far, Twiki tops my chaotic list... though I miss comments in Twiki."
Posted by jason at 10:01 AM
"Digital Frame"
I found this James Roos article on via Powerpage via SlashDot called ""Building a digital picture frame from a PowerBook Duo 270c/280c"". And I was wondering what ever became of that Powerbook 180c that I'd lent to someone. Lo! And did I not get an email from Ben ""puckish lad"" Lefebvre asking me if I wanted my 180c back? I'll explain why he might feel over teched after brekkie. So, no I can turn my 180c into a picture frame, which was the reason I got it in the first place a couple of years ago. Wheeeeeee."
Posted by jason at 07:27 AM
September 15, 2002
I love Sundays.
Crazy day. Not only to I have to finish writing my lecture for next thursday's KMD1000, and have to clean up the apartment, and have to take Ben to get a new laptop and printer, cause UofT's oh so much cooler a place to buy a laptop than anywhere else. But after that I get to feed Ben, Yuka, EvaB, and Elizabeth Miller. Life doesn't get much better than this.
To continue... Ben showed up around 2pm at the UofT Computer shop where we picked up his new iBook and printer. I got to pay for it cause you just can't take that much money out of a bank machine any more. Good fun, as ben would say. I let him carry everything down to my place, stopping on the way so I could get some veggies for dinner, where Yuka had been cleaning the apartment (read lounging and chatting on the phone). Some how the apartment was wonderfully clean despite all her cleaning, when we got there, so I didn't have much to do. (Cleaning had been my job.) I cooked, yuka helped, while ben installed software on his BuddyJr (read iBook). Until EvaB and Elizabeth ""bloofer lady"" Miller got there. This was the first time Elizabeth had met any of my friends, but since Evab's an ex-vampire fan, and ben and I are writing a paper on 12th C English vampire stories written in Latin for a conference she's organized in Romania... so it was good that they all met. I got forced to explain my ""Anne of the UnDead"" thesis (why Anne of Green Gables is really a Vampire) to general agreement, and we discussed how Elizabeth's going to move her famous Dracula's home page from Memorial University to Toronto, when she moves to Toronto full time this November. Finally everyone puttered home, and I fell over in a heap."
Posted by jason at 09:18 AM
Where's Jason
Twice in one week I have been stalked. Catspaw and Jon Pipitone both showed up at my office. They didn't know where it was. They didn't know what building it was in, but they were smart... both bloody CompSci and CogSci program types. Figures. They searched my blog and found the address posted long ago. So, to stop this from happening, and to help all of you who are not as methodically wierd, I put the contact information at the bottom of this page. You may now return to your regular morning reading and coffee drinking."
Posted by jason at 09:11 AM
September 13, 2002
Flylight!
Cool, eh? I just got one. I like to work in the dark, or with very low lighting, and I always have trouble seeing my keyboard. This solves it. I bought one just now. I guess it would come in handy if you have to give a presentation in a dark room, because of the projector or something. Or taking notes in a movie. I'm happy."
Posted by jason at 02:09 PM
September 12, 2002
blog humour
Catspaw found this at http://www.somethingawful.com/inserts/articlepics/goldmine/google//luckyglauber_blog.jpg and thought of me. Sweet."
Posted by jason at 08:39 AM
September 10, 2002
I'm back.
Ok. I've finally fixed MT, after I destroyed my OS X folder on edublog.com recently. I'll explain later. I'm off to salmooooon's to return some stuff."
Posted by jason at 06:15 PM
September 05, 2002
"Slightly sad, but relieved"
I just cancelled my trip to Japan. The university admin at Larry's school couldn't get it together and just kept asking for more information. When the administration runs things in Japan, things fall apart. We'll try again for January, perhaps. I'm happy that I'm at the stage when I'm willing to turn things down, rather than accept and give in. I'm too old to compromise, and I just don't care about making everyone happy any more..."
Posted by jason at 09:57 AM
LiveJournal too
I set up ComplicityTheory's LiveJournal as part of my KMDI teaching this fall. Not that you care, but I thought I'd share."
Posted by jason at 09:35 AM
My AIM is true.
Ok. I got an AIM account. And I'm using it. The name is ComplicityTheory. There you go.
Posted by jason at 09:08 AM
Surreal really!
Went to the AGO with Yuka, Salmon and BillyBear to see Andr Masson Inside/Outside Surrealism. I was less impressed with the bits I knew than the ones I didn't. And the automatic writing, and nightmare images did more for me that squirrl beer glasses. Like salmon, we were all caught up by some 15th to 17th century surreal images. I can't wait until she finds out more about them."
Posted by jason at 07:26 AM
September 02, 2002
Tired: Twlight of the Idylls
Catspaw's Guide to the Inevitably Insane really says it all when it comes to September. She always does. It is september 2nd, 4:39am, and I'm up staring at the screen hoping that my allergies subside enough to get back to sleep. Yes, it is that time of the year. Fall asleep at 9 or 10 because you're exhausted, wake up between 1 and 3 because you start sneezing. Have a scotch... flip through the channels, and hope you go comatoast quickly. Since it has only taken 2 hours, it is not that bad. But tomorrow will be the same... for a couple of weeks. This is a million times better than it was growing up, so I'm not complaining, just tired. Then I'd be stuffed 24x7, and never get any sleep. And the Kleenex people loved me. So this is a minor inconvenience,but it does play hell with my system. And I'm behind in my work. NO shock, but I thought I didn't have any work to do. Almost a dozen poems to review for the Harrow, and then coordinate with the other reviewer, then decide if we should publish them, then do the html work... KMD1000s starting up, and there's work to do that I promised to do this weekend. I wonder what else there is too do. I did get something accomplished this weekend. Setting up yuka's new iMac... the white one with the twisty screen. She didn't want it because it was ugly, but she loves it because it is fast, has a massive harddrive, burner, 384 megs of ram, and the screen tilts. So, something good was done. I think I can sleep now... [You may have noticed that I cut out the comments section on this site. It was too depressing to see all the zeros.]"
Posted by jason at 04:42 AM