August 7th, 2009

Security: Subject: Science is awesome Time: 06:24 pm

First test of Kepler planet-finding telescope is successful. So very cool.

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August 5th, 2009

Security: Subject: No BoN Time: 01:00 pm

I will not be at BoN tonight.

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April 30th, 2009

Security: Subject: Call the damn travel Time: 09:29 pm

Last night's discussion of basketball notwithstanding, I decided to watch the end of tonight's Bulls-Celtics game. More overtime, very tense. Still, the end result was simply a reminder of why watching basketball sucks. Seriously, if a guy shuffles his feet, multiple times, without putting the ball on the ground, it's a travel, every time (and I saw it several times in 10 minutes of play). There's no room for interpretation here. Make the damn call. And I'm not even complaining because my favored team lost. Game's still going, 3rd overtime.

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April 5th, 2009

Security: Subject: 'Dollhouse' call signs Time: 04:52 pm

The forced amnesiacs in Dollhouse seem to be assigned military phonetic alphabet codewords as their 'names'. ( Some of these are more amusing than others. )

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March 11th, 2009

Security: Subject: Rainy days, people Time: 05:10 pm

Half of Americans couldn't cope financially if they didn't get paid for a month. Damn. Doesn't affect me, I've got that covered for way longer. But still, damn.

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February 13th, 2009

Security: Subject: Analog electronics are annoying Time: 01:38 pm

Resistors are resistors. They retain their resistance across basically all frequency, current, and temperature ranges, up until the point where the current is too high (at which point the resistance goes to infinity, permanently). Capacitors retain their capacitance across a wide range of frequencies and current (which isn't to say that the effects aren't dependent on frequency, merely that the capacitance value doesn't change). However, the capacitance changes considerably with temperature change. Inductors retain reasonably constant inductance over temperature variations. However, the inductance varies widely (and non-linearly, so far as I can tell) with frequency and current variations. I am finding the latter 2 somewhat vexing at the moment.

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January 30th, 2009

Security: Subject: Critical thinking skills Time: 12:51 pm

Given how I sometimes despair at the seemingly dismal level of critical thinking abilities of the average person, I found this article interesting, and a bit further depressing. Disclaimer: Due to being a summary, this article doesn't have nearly enough information; I'd like some median and standard deviation information in addition to a simple mean. Still, interesting.

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December 16th, 2008

Security: Subject: Miscellanea Time: 02:22 pm

1) A prime example of why Flash is bad. The actual content is also so absurd it's hard to believe it's not parody/satire. (Yes, it requires Flash. Turn it on briefly, just as a reminder of why you turned it off in the first place. Also, be sure to open it in a new window; it will try to resize your current window. Yes, it is that evil.) 2) An amusing illustration of just how far automobile technology has progressed.

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November 25th, 2008

Security: Subject: Motorcycle pics Time: 01:44 pm

Went to the motorcycle show in Houston last weekend. Took some photos. Have a look, or not.

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November 21st, 2008

Security: Subject: Your vote, it matters Time: 07:42 pm

For anyone out there who is of the opinion that voting isn't necessary because a single vote doesn't matter, go take a look at how the Minnesota Senate election recount is shaping up. There are going to be a lot of Minnesotans kicking themselves for staying home Nov 4, one way or the other.

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