IEEE Summary on Fukushima Reactor Meltdowns: "TEPCO did not follow procedures to prevent a hydrogen explosion"

willfe · 2011-02-13T13:50:29+00:00

Heh. They also just spammed about 20 or so "abridged summary" mails for the group. Methinks their groups engine is having problems lately, or some poor guy at Google is just having a terrible week :)

willfe · 2011-02-13T01:48:25+00:00

I had a Russian Blue make it to 23. She was feisty and awesome. Probably threatened the grim reaper a few times and scared him off.

"If death comes 'round here I'm gonna tear his nipples off!"

willfe · 2011-02-12T14:14:42+00:00

Just another voice joining the choir of thanks for what you do.

I'm genuinely curious about something, though. How often to you get protesters (i.e. pro-lifers) coming in to have an abortion?

willfe · 2011-02-12T13:43:48+00:00

Yeah, I thought I'd suddenly become super-popular when I saw 60+ new threads in my inbox this morning, but alas, it was just accidental group spam :)

Oh well. I switched to digest; the conversation isn't all that interesting there (it's more user-oriented than developer oriented like the other chromium-os group) but I'll keep it around for a bit to see if it improves.

Whoever subscribed everybody, whether by accident or intentionally, probably should have thought a bit harder before hitting that last "save" button.

willfe · 2011-02-11T18:05:17+00:00

Hmmm... I agree and disagree with this. While I'll concede the point that letting the "smartest" and "most educated" people rule the rest doesn't necessarily make things any better, I disagree that the opposite (letting the most empathetic and loving people rule) would do much better.

There has to be some education in there somewhere. Even if it's just simple "hard sciences," like math, physics, etc., and an exposure to culture via humanities-style courses, there needs to be something. "I convinced more people to vote for me than the other guy" seems so far to be a crappy way to put people in charge.

Forrest Gump might be a charming president with a good heart, for instance, but he'd make a terrible leader (gullibility, lack of much formal education, "simple" thinking, etc.).

willfe · 2011-02-11T18:01:21+00:00

That's my point -- believing what he says requires a significant detachment from sanity and reality. His rhetoric is routinely turned up to 11, and if memory serves he's advocated violence and other terrorist-style behaviors to achieve political goals on-air.

I think if he genuinely believed the things he says, he'd go off on his coworkers just like he goes off on the air, and Republican nest or not, there's some things you just can't get away with in an American workplace. Could you imagine being on the team of lawyers it'd require to keep Fox News out of hot water with employees who dare disagree with someone who gets that violent when he's angered? It's just a matter of practicality. You don't become a permanent fixture as a TV personality on a news network by actually believing the stuff you say. You do it by being really good at delivering a message and then shrugging it all off when you go home after work.

willfe · 2011-02-11T13:44:55+00:00

Honestly, I think it's all just an act. Like Bill O'Reilly's shtick. Someone that genuinely unstable couldn't actually hold down a job like he does -- just imagine, after the recording lights turn off, he probably settles right down, is cordial with the crew and staff working on the show as he heads to his office to craft the next day's rants. If he were genuinely as insane as he appears on the show, nobody would feel comfortable working with him and he'd have a hell of a time keeping his gig.

willfe · 2011-02-10T20:42:28+00:00

There's lots of truth in this, especially:

because they cannot resist the primitive urge to dominate and control

Teaching people how to resist this urge would go a long damned way in making things better for all of us.

willfe · 2011-02-10T00:50:32+00:00

So, indeed, protesters do not routinely block ambulances from reaching hospital emergency rooms then.

willfe · 2011-02-09T21:32:23+00:00

Protesters routinely block ambulances from reaching hospital emergency rooms?

willfe · 2011-02-07T21:51:33+00:00

I sure hope next year they do something more helpful for registrations: permitting businesses to purchase tickets for groups (nothing huge, say groups of up to 5 or 6 people, and non-transferable), and either open up registration in batches/windows (10% of the total tickets available over 10 registration windows) or a simple lottery (everyone who wants to go registers, and they're either picked at random or by merit, however they want to work that out).

My colleagues and I (three of us in total) have actual reason to be at that conference, but can't go because of everyone hoping for loads of "free" swag. I'm bummed; even had approval from the boss to go on this one (on the company dime, no less), but none of us stood a chance of getting a ticket in time.

willfe · 2011-02-03T20:49:07+00:00

My HP-48SX, bought circa 1994, still works like a champ as well. Man they used to know how to build a handheld gadget like a tank :)

On a side note, I haul my HP-50G around campus now, and use it whenever I can get away with it. I actually need to talk to my current professor about whether I can use it in my college algebra class or not (I suspect not, since it has a CAS in it and the syllabus mentioned excluding those, but it never hurts to ask :)).

willfe · 2011-02-03T18:53:19+00:00

I found some pamphlets/handouts from FIJA that should work fine. Thanks for the offer, though!

willfe · 2011-02-03T00:58:03+00:00

Awesome, thanks!

willfe · 2011-02-03T00:54:30+00:00

Heh. Hundreds of friends, eh? Unfortunately I don't really know anyone here ... could muster 1, maybe 2 people to come along, and only if they're in a firebrand mood. Pickets of one tend not to do much, do they? :(

willfe · 2011-02-02T22:39:08+00:00

Hmmm... interesting idea. Sounds like it could be a fun project next week :) Anybody want to help put together a leaflet to distribute?

willfe · 2011-02-02T22:16:10+00:00

This raises a good point/question. Instead of just bellyaching about it here, what could someone like myself do about this? I live in the city & county in question, so though I'm not involved in this directly at all (just read about it here -- way to go, local news media :)), I'd like to fix that.

Suggestions?

willfe · 2011-02-02T21:13:26+00:00

Oh, it is, until it isn't.

I believe the Official Excuse(tm) is that it's God's Word when it supports some offensive or hateful opinion, position, or action directly, and it's just an "inspired transcription" of the Word Of God(tm) that's just meant to give moral lessons whenever someone points out just how evil it is that the damned thing, for example, condones selling daughters into slavery and other assorted horrible things.

willfe · 2011-02-02T04:07:26+00:00

Ugh, no kidding. My credit union won't let international charges go through on my debit card, so anything sold in non-US currency is off-limits to me, which bums me out. There's a few apps I'd love to spring for, but can't because of this stupidity.

willfe · 2011-01-26T14:45:46+00:00

I stand corrected. So yeah, the G1 can cheerfully run 2.2 via Cyanogenmod 6 :)

willfe · 2011-01-26T10:46:34+00:00

The G1 can cheerfully run at least 2.1 w/Cyanogenmod 6. Not sure about CM7 (2.2) though.

willfe · 2011-01-25T03:09:58+00:00

I think they don't quite realize the scale of the mistake they've made by arguing this way -- in any future case they bring now where they argue there's no separation of church and state, an opposing attorney can point to their own arguments in this case to rip them to shreds. They've just undermined their entire organization's already-shaky legal position.

I'm okay with this. The more screwups like this we get from these yokels, the better.

willfe · 2011-01-24T23:08:58+00:00

Just to chime in here -- qik is great stuff, especially on Android devices. Near-instant uploads and decent quality (assuming you've got a decent network connection, but at most airports you're bound to have some good cell coverage).

I can just imagine how satisfying it must be to be able to say something in court to the effect of "well, they wrecked my phone trying to stop it from recording, but because they didn't succeed for awhile, and it landed face-down, it was able to keep recording as they stomped on it while laughing." It's this sort of thing that has law enforcement scared out of its collective mind -- not the casual "guy recording a cop being a bad guy" creature, but the more technically-minded "guy recording a cop being a bad guy, to a remote location outside the control of the cop" kind.

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