--timball

bbq NC -> ATL

This event was to commemorate that on 1/20/09 President G.W. Bush makes like a tree and falls out of the white house.

Shelby from the band frodus did the razzle dazzle.

The evening was tres cool.

--timball

end of an era 1/20/08

co-worker said "I'm in a band come see the gig." I did. they rocked out.

--timball

bottles and cans -- r&r hotel 2/21/08

Which brings us back to the “why bother” question and how we might better answer it. The reasons not to bother are many and compelling, at least to the cheap-energy mind. But let me offer a few admittedly tentative reasons that we might put on the other side of the scale:

If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. (Just look at the market for hybrid cars.) Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an S.U.V. or eating a 24-ounce steak or illuminating your McMansion like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them. And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behavior from others — from other people, other corporations, even other countries.

All of this could, theoretically, happen. What I’m describing (imagining would probably be more accurate) is a process of viral social change, and change of this kind, which is nonlinear, is never something anyone can plan or predict or count on. Who knows, maybe the virus will reach all the way to Chongqing and infect my Chinese evil twin. Or not. Maybe going green will prove a passing fad and will lose steam after a few years, just as it did in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan took down Jimmy Carter’s solar panels from the roof of the White House.

An idealistic though thought-provoking take on "going green." Be more proactive -- consume less and plant a garden.

-janelane, sign me up

The Green Issue - Climate Change - Environment - Energy Efficiency - Consumption - New York Times

I gave a talk at roots camp DC on the following things:

nginx. The nginx wiki

varnish

memcached. The memecached wiki

pound

stunnel

Billy's Book

DBpedia

The title of the talk was "Speed Kills: How to make your webpage load in 500ms or less, ask me how!"

The talk consisted of seven yellow note cards and one physical copy of Ajax Security.

--timball

RootsCamp wiki - The password has been reset.

Here are some electronic circuits that I have designed and published. I have attempted to include a number of fairly unusual circuits, with an emphasis on useful applications instead of simple toy circuits. The majority of the circuits can be built with readily available discrete components. Only a few of the circuits rely on microprocessors. Micros can greatly enhance the power of a small circuit, but the specialized development tools can put the project out of reach of many hobbyists.

Other web pages have numerous circuits for LED blinkers, timers, miniature FM bugs and such, follow the links at the bottom of this page for examples.

Most of the circuits on this site have been drawn with an open-source circuit drawing program called xcircuit, xcircuit runs under both the Linux operating system and Windows. See below for links to the Xcircuit page and a review of the software.

Forrest Cook has some really neat circuit doodles on his webpage as well as awesome explanations of circuit implications and usages.

--timball

FC s Electronic Circuits

We primarily use data reported via the World Meteorological Organization's Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) program to provide a snapshot of current weather conditions at sea, worldwide. This data can also be used to track the progress of ships at sea. Many ships do not report their weather observations to WMO, or report only sporadically; these ships will not have records in our database. Additional information comes from the YOTREPS network of cruising yachts; YOTREPS positions are updated only once per day.

This site tracks all (friendly) ships at sea... including freight liners.

--timball

Weather observations and positions of ships at sea

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf

If you want to buy an ibm laptop you should only look at tabook.pdf

--timball

tabook.pdf

For at least six years, as I've become increasingly frustrated by the Bush administration's repeated betrayal of constitutional -- and conservative -- principles, I have defended Vice President Cheney, a man I've known for decades and with whom I served and made common cause in Congress. No longer.

I do not blame Dick Cheney for George W. Bush's transgressions; the president needs no prompting to wrap himself in the cloak of a modern-day king. Nor do I believe that the vice president so enthusiastically supports the Iraq war out of a loyalty to the oil industry that his former employer serves. By all accounts, Cheney's belief in "the military option" and the principle of president-as-decider predates his affiliation with Halliburton.

What, then, is the straw that causes me to finally consign a man I served with in the House Republican leadership to the category of "those about whom we should be greatly concerned"?

Mickey Edwards (fmr R-OK 6th district) was in the house leadership w/ VP cheney back in the day. The best quote from the article:

It is Cheney's all-too-revealing conversation this week with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz. On Wednesday, reminded of the public's disapproval of the war in Iraq, now five years old, the vice president shrugged off that fact (and thus, the people themselves) with a one-word answer: "So?"

"So," Mr. Vice President?

Policy, Cheney went on to say, should not be tailored to fit fluctuations in the public attitudes. If there is one thing public attitudes have not been doing, however, it is fluctuating: Resistance to the Bush administration's Iraq policy has been widespread, entrenched and consistent. Whether public opinion is right or wrong, it is not to be cavalierly dismissed.

Just read the thing.

--timball

Mickey Edwards - Dick Cheney's Error - washingtonpost.com

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The canuck band the Bare Naked Ladies used to sing about what they would do w/ a million dollars... If I had a million dollars I'd buy 10 of these things (and kraft dinners).

--timball

Agilent | DSO81304B 80000B Series Infiniium High Performance Oscilloscope: 13 GHz