By
anders pearson
30 Oct 2001
yesterday, one of my coworkers killed a fly that was sitting the number pad on my keyboard. it pretty much exploded all over it. i never knew that flies had so much stuff in them. he promised that he’d clean the keyboard for me later since he made a mess of it.
<p>i come in this morning and go to log into my workstation but find that the keyboard is unplugged. so i climb under the desk and plug it in. when i look at it, sure enough, it’s nice and clean.</p>
<p>a good 20 minutes later i happen to glance down at my keyboard while i’m writing some email. something’s different. my homerow is now a-n-d-e-r-s.</p>
<p>i’m glad i can touch-type.</p>
By
kurtis
25 Oct 2001
Details inside of my journey in the shadow of the light from a black sun.
By
anders pearson
24 Oct 2001
i’m not much for working out, but i’ve discovered that the most effective abdominal exercise is as simple as getting a nice cold that sends you into prolonged, uncontrollable coughing fits.
<p>damn. i’ve got a sixpack now.</p>
By
quiet
23 Oct 2001
Going to further prove that those of us from Maine are just different.
<p>“In July, in Lewiston, Maine, a 17-year-old boy, who had been arrested earlier in the evening for assault at a convenience store, escaped briefly by chewing through the the metal chain of his handcuffs.”<br />
From News of the Weird.</p>
By
heather mascianica
19 Oct 2001
what ghoulish escapades have you all cooked up for this halloween? and for devil’s night – my new favorite holiday ;)
By
anders pearson
17 Oct 2001
i just ordered one of these Ergo Audrey internet appliances. they used to sell for about $500 but 3com stopped making them and they’re being liquidated for $89 now.
<p>a friend of mine got one and spurred me into ordering mine. it’s basically a little web-browser/email device with a 640×480 12-bit colour touch screen and a wireless keyboard. it’s designed to connect via a phone line to a <span class="caps">PPP</span> account but with the right <a href="http://shop.store.yahoo.com/compuvest/nc-3c19250.html">adaptor</a> you can use it on an ethernet network (ie, you can use it with your cable modem or dsl). either way, just plug it in and it works. it runs the <span class="caps">UNIX</span> derived <a href="http://www.qnx.com/products/os/rtos6.html"><span class="caps">QNX</span></a> real-time OS.</p>
<p>the real joy of the audrey though is that it is pretty simple to <a href="http://www.audreyhacking.com/">hack</a> and make it do all sorts of other cool things. you can get a terminal, run <span class="caps">VNC</span> on it, play mp3s off a network mounted samba drive, and basically make it do anything that the <span class="caps">QNX</span> OS can do. </p>
<p>based on the response in my office (pretty much everyone who saw it went out and ordered one) i think 3com, sony, or any other company can learn something from this: internet appliances <em>can</em> sell, but they have to be reasonably priced for what features they have. 3com gave up on the audrey because no one was willing to spend $500 on one. sony recently dumped their internet appliance too because it was similarly high priced. if they could market a device with functionality equivalent to the audrey for under $100 i think they would have no problem reaching the consumer market who want web and email access but don’t want the complexity of a PC.</p>
By
jp
14 Oct 2001
a few colleagues (I guess they’re friends of mine and/or classmates, but it sounds cooler when I say that) just got back from the Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Response meeting in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. they brought back some not-so-good news, which will most likely NOT be presented in any popular media. so here it is, more or less. don’t shoot the messenger:
<p>so Ron Atlas, the chair of the american society of microbiology (<span class="caps">ASM</span>) was the keynote speaker and honored guest at this meeting. he is also interestingly the biological adivsor of some important sort to the president and congress. his news was less than good. </p>
<p>not only did his office, lab, and home recieve multiple mailings of anthrax spores, but congress is off and running to do some serious damage if they’re not stopped. first off, we’re most likely not going to be hearing about these anthrax attacks in the news; they’re at a high level of both academic and political importance. this fella is the link between all of our current biomedical research regarding pathogens and potential bioterrorism weapons and capitol hill. not to mention he’s the head of the nation society for all microbiologists (of some personal import to me). whoever is doing this stuff knows where to hit us. </p>
<p>second of all, congress is going apeshit in all the wrong directions. they want to do several things, and have legislation being argued on the floor <i>right now</i> which is aiming to do mainly two things: first, limit the ability of anyone to add drug resistance or additional pathogenicity to existing infectious agents, and second, to basically prevent any and all resident aliens from ever touching another strain of an infectious microbe. </p>
<p>this is bad. really, <span class="caps">REALLY</span> bad. </p>
<p>firstly, the resistance thing. this is fine and well, if and only if you want to bring <span class="caps">ALL</span> current microbiological and biomedical research, as well as pharmaceutical and biotechical production to a grinding, skidding, e-braking halt. adding resistance markers (a gene that allows a bug to resist an antiobiotic) is the main (only) way we have to select for genetically altered bugs; if we’re trying to stick a new gene or swap out an existing gene from a bacterium, the way to do it is tack on a gene that encodes a protein which allows the critter to survive an antibiotic. this way, only the ones (out of the trillions you start with) that do get (or lose) the new gene of interest remain on your culture plate. these markers are in every strain currently used for pathogen research, and borne on every plasmid (little loops of <span class="caps">DNA</span> we use to stick in and pull out genes) currently in use. in short, there is simply no way to do molecular microbiology, molecular biology, cloning of genes, bulk protein isolation (anyone need insulin?), or just about any other area of research involving little fragments of <span class="caps">DNA</span> without these. you can see how this might stress me out; the aforementioned list more or less constitutes my everyday to-do items. aside from there being NO <span class="caps">POSSIBLE</span> <span class="caps">WAY</span> to regulate this stuff, due to it’s complete saturation into research labs worldwide, we would have no way to continue producing most of the non-chemical drugs currently needed by million, no way of producing vaccines, no way of continuing any biotechnological or academic research of any kind that utilizes the techniques above. I could go on, but hopefully this paints the picture. </p>
<p>reiteration: this is bad. really, <span class="caps">REALLY</span> bad. </p>
<p>the other thing was basically to make every lab that has the capability to grow over 5 liters of a pathogen (I’ve done this several times) register all personel, equipment, and current projects with a central governmental source. right. fuck that. does anyone have any idea how many people would need to be in such an agency? it’d be bigger than the <span class="caps">FBI</span>, <span class="caps">NSA</span> and <span class="caps">CIA</span> put together; you’d have paperwork flooding in from all over the country, probably at the rate of 10 reports per every faculty in every biomedical department in each school in each state per day. at least. the math gets staggering. not to mention, what the hell would this accomplish? all someone needs is a microliter (1/1000 of a liter, less liquid than a pencil point) of a culture to produce literally metric tons of a pathogenic bug. even if all this was registered, would anyone ever know if something this untraceable was missing? clearly the only answer is government-sponsored door locks on all higtened biosafety level 2 and above labs. in addition, they want to make it such that anyone who is not born an american cannot handle, posses or transport a pathogenic bug. considering, on average, 1/5 people (at the <span class="caps">BARE</span> minimum) in every biomedical lab is not american (I’ve been in labs where only 1/5 is american), not to mention labs run by foreign-born PI’s (some of the best labs in the country fall into this category), this is preposterous. not only would you crush an entire community of good, dedicated, hard working academics, but again, the field would be shut down. </p>
<p>I can appreciate the need to somehow limit the availability of pathogens to the global community. but this is fedunkulous. considering things such as anthrax are naturally occuring, repeat, <span class="caps">NATURALLY</span> <span class="caps">OCCURING</span> (i.e. found in nature and all over animals) microbes, is it at all feasible to try and regulate them? nope. can we be as arrogant to think that we can eliminate the availability of types of organisms that compose well over 50% of the entire biomass on the earth? no way. put all labs that have anthrax strain in steel chambers 20 miles underground with retinal scanners, and all some wacko needs to do is swab a horse and grow themselves a few liters of spores in their own kitchen or greenhouse. </p>
<p>I realize we’re a panicked, frightened nation, but this is, in my opinion, fucking stupid. and something that we’d all regret. no one is weighing what can realistically be done vs. the impact of what can legally be done. we have the power, because we’re such a bully of a nation both domestically and internationally, to do alot of harm by shutting things down. but again, the nation’s classic flaw shines through – we get all obsessed as to wether or not we could, as opposed to wether we even should. </p>
<p>please, use whatever means this democracy gives us all to ensure that we don’t do something that would do more harm than good. with this or any other issue.</p>
By
Matthias Dittgen
08 Oct 2001
After Anders has , beside the sketches, no graphics at thraxil, how about to develop a logo/symbol/icon/banner for thraxil? This idea came suddenly to my mind, and I just wanted to share the idea. Perhaps we should make a kind of contest, but I have no idea what the winner gets. ;-)
Symbols are often something people can identify with. A good symbol and the easy-to-remember name “thraxil” together could bring this website a step further to it’s “secret” goal of cooperate world domination…
By
jp
03 Oct 2001
got my paws on my OSX 10.1 update this week. and man what a difference. my powerbook runs X as fast (if not faster) than classic OS 9.2.1, even with all the sexxxy bells and whistles turned on.
<p><span class="caps">DVD</span>s are finally supported, buring from right within the finder is a cynch, the new pack-in version of IE rips, and it comes will full japanese language support and character sets right out of the box. </p>
<p>and I can still play zork in the terminal.</p>
By
anders pearson
01 Oct 2001
got back from my weeklong trip to maine yesterday. it was good to get out of the city for a while. nothing exciting happened but here are some random notes and observations from it:
<p>cj and i made each leg of the trip from alexandria, virginia to dexter, maine (roughly 670 miles) and back in roughly 10.5 hours each way. no speeding tickets. i’m impressed.</p>
<p>my sister just bought a house in dexter. it’s old and needs a lot of fixing up but it’s a fairly nice two-story house with lots of big rooms, a garage, and some land. her mortgage payments are less than a quarter of what i pay for rent for my little one bedroom apartment in manhattan. and she gets to keep hers when all is said and done.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dextershoe.com/">dexter shoe</a>, the company that originated in dexter and employs about 500 people from there and surrounding towns (ie, a <em>huge</em> percentage of the local population) announced last week that they’re closing the dexter factory and moving operations overseas to save on labor costs (i believe they’re planning china this time). the company <a href="http://www.dextershoe.com/custserv/company_behind_shoes.asp">prides itself</a> on the fine new england craftsmanship. a while back, dexter shoe was bought by <a href="http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/">berkshire hathaway, inc</a>, a big investment company run by <a href="http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/08/31/buffett/">warren buffet</a>, who has never even set foot in dexter. they’ve started factories in puerto rico and mexico before and discovered that the workers they’re paying 12 cents an hour don’t produce high enough quality shoes and they’ve had to send huge shipments back to dexter to get repaired at an overall loss for the company. so it looks like the end result will be that dexter shoe will probably have a better bottom line and happier shareholders at the cost of producing lower quality shoes and decimating the small town that supported and nurtured it for over 40 years. way to go warren.</p>
<p>after not studying any chinese for two years, i can only still recognize about 200 characters (it was about 1500 or so at my peak). </p>
<p>i think i’ve become allergic to cats and/or dogs. we always had pets when i was growing up and it never bothered me but going home this time, i found myself sneezing up a storm whenever i was in a house with pets.</p>
<p>interesting graffiti seen in the men’s room at the vince lombardi rest area on the garden state parkway: “rednecks are gay and suck dick”</p>
<p>my dad tells me that <a href="http://www.hgd.com/alison/">alison arngrim</a>, the actress who played the mean character nellie olsen on the little house on the prairie tv series made an appearance in the rosebowl parade during the time the series was running (and she was about 13). she was booed, spit on and had things thrown at her for the entire route because people are too stupid to realize that there is a difference between a fictional character that isn’t likeable and the little girl who plays her on tv. my dad had heard that she later went on to a career in porn but this doesn’t appear to be true (on her website it mentions that she’s now a comedian and does aids awareness education but i can’t find anything about porn). </p>
<p>lani met me at the train station in virginia with a bag lunch that included a note and stickers. thus reinforcing her sainthood in my book.</p>
<p>a week is too short.</p>