Epistemic Ingemination

This year’s Pwnie awards have been announced at the Blackhat Convention. (These are for worst bugs in computer code every year.) Sony takes the big prize, with its epic failure and meltdown(s) in the Playstation and Online Entertainment divisions. Epic Ownage goes to the Stuxnet worm.

More Google Earth geekery. If you want to play around with the same computer modeling that NOAA uses to predict hurricane paths, they live over here, added in real time as they become available. A very nice service; your government at its best.

I think that Google Earth is one of the neatest pieces of software ever written. When you try to imagine all of the interlinked technologies that had to exist to make it possible, it is nothing short of amazing. I use it as a recreational diversion quite often.

But as with all things that we get used to, I discovered some aspects that disappointed me, too. To be specific, I wanted river names to pop up in my explorations. Enter the Geonames Features Network add-on. It rocks.

This little KML file adds configurable name data for just about everything. Mountains, rivers, streams, canyons, springs, mesas, stock tanks, caves, factories, airports, railroads, etc, etc, etc. Highest recommendation on this one. It easily enhances the joy of exploring around by an order of magnitude for me.

Open up Google Earth, and then click the following to add Geonames to your setup. (When your browser asks you what to do with the file, tell it to let Google Earth open it.)

http://www.geonames.org/kml/feature-networklink.kml

If you like it, then drag it out of “Temporary Places” in Google Earth up into “My Places” in the left panel. That will make it a permanent feature. Enjoy.

When you’re trying to do a gcc make with a standard “configure”, and hoping to get them to do shared libs with each other, on any of apache1/mod_ssl, apache2, openssl, java, resin, ImageMagick, mysql, mm, jikes, gd, jfef, jpeg libs, ghostscript, php5, proftpd, and whatever else — and especially on a Redhat 64 bit EL4 OS — do this:

CFLAGS=”-fPIC” ./configure (etc)

…on all of them. You will be much happier. They’ll be able to talk, and you will not be a tragic person trying to frantically debug things at 5:00 AM on a school night. It’s the Position Independent Code flag. [Management intervenes, explains that the only reason that this post is here is so that some lonely sysadmim will find it on google sometime and save a bunch of time. Management also obviates that "-fpic" is not the same as "-fPIC". And apologizes for the noise.]

Mark Jason Dominus’ extraordinary “Higher Order Perl” is now available for free online, bless his heart. It is a twisty, turny maze of wonderfulness, a text (sometimes) about how to write programs that write programs, and will make your brain strong (and possibly drive you nuts, falling down an infinite-recursion hall of mirrors.)

Highly recommended, in a sort of applied Gödel, Escher, Bach sort of way.

Site Here.

PDF here.

You’ll never look at lexical closures and variable suicide problems in the same way again. Heh.

CNN is replaying the debate in about 25 minutes. Since I haven’t seen it yet, I’m going to do an experiment and blog as I watch it. If I turn out to be really lame at it, I can always delete it, and we’ll pretend you never saw this, okay? Oh – and I am going to do it in chronological order, not reverse order like everyone else who does this. Harrumph.

I will say one thing up front. I saw a few moments of the debate last night on a Hi-Def television at Threadgill’s. McCain’s makeup was not only visible, it was obvious that his eyebrows had been slightly darkened and his eyes were pretty well pancaked. I’ve read that Hi-Def is killing the retail pornography industry, which I think is hilarious. I understand why now.

9:00 – Heh. McCain really doesn’t like Obama. The handshake was as stiff as a board and the smile as false as a snake’s.

9:03: McCain: Fanny & “Freddy Mae?” McCain wants to buy bad mortgages and renegotiate ‘em. Yeh! That’s it! Let’s use the money to eliminate bad decisions. Great.

9:05: Obama’s natural cadence is kind of start-and-stop. You’re going to hear eight years of impersonators taking this to the bank…

9:07: Nice zing by Obama. “We both want to cut taxes. The difference is who we want to cut taxes for.” McCain’s answer? Obama wants to “spread the wealth around.” Socialism!

9:11: McCain: 35% business tax rates! He neglects to mention that the number of deductions brings it down to right around the average world tax rate.

9:15: At least we have two candidates who can pronounce “nuclear.” (Of course, Palin says “nukular.”)

9:17: McCain wants a line-item veto. Obama doesn’t jump on it, and should.
Obama addresses the “earmarks” bugaboo. 1/2 of one percent of the budget. Good perspective.

9:19: Oooo. John-boy gets Snippy. “I am not president Bush. If you wanted to run against Bush, you should’ve run four years ago.” This oughta be good. Obama: If I mistake your policies for George Bush, it’s because you’ve supported them.

Man. McCain is getting mad. He’s blinking two or three times a second and has a pasted on grimace that’s supposed to be a smile…

9:24: McCain still won’t tell Obama anything to his face, even when invited to do so. “We will run a truthful campaign.” Yeah, right.
Obama: (looking McCain in the eye) “100% of your ads have been negative. 100%.” Nice jujitsu. McCain has steam coming out of his ears.

9:29: What is it with Joe the plumber again? If Joe the plumber wants to buy a business, of course he’s going to be exposed to more taxes. He also gets a wheelbarrow full of deductions. Every business owner does. He also gets a chance to make a buttload of money. Let it go, for cripes sake.

9:30: Obama looks at McCain and says “People are saying ‘terrorist’ and ‘kill him’ about me at your running-mates rallies.” Very, very good. McCain completely goes off the tracks, spewing about patriotic veterans at his rallies and how they are being impugned. Obama wisely lets it lay there like the merde that it is and takes it back to issues.

9:35: Obama laughs out loud at McCain’s characterization of ACORN as “voter fraud.” Good. Points out that it is voter registration fraud perpetrated upon ACORN. McCain still pushes it. Bad move. Obama wins this one hands down. McCain: “My campaign is about getting this economy back on track.” Obama laughs again. Seems to work, even if it’s a but disrespectful.

9:42: “Why would your running mate make a better president than your opponents?” This oughta be good. Obama lists Biden’s CV quite nicely.
McCain: “Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin: she’s a model for the women of America. A reformer through and through.” And she has a kid who has Special Needs. Puhl-eeze.

Heh. Sweet and subtle moment. Schieffer calls time on McCain, but Obama indicates that McCain should be allowed to keep talking. Let him keep on digging deeper, please Bob.

9:50: McCain: 45 New Nuclear Plants will save the country! Drill baby drill! Obama: we have 4% of the reserves and we use 25% of the oil. Gut check. McCain: Drill drill drill. Free trade with Columbia! Obama: labor leaders are being assassinated in Columbia. Let’s stop that first.

9:57: Obama: retool auto plants for fuel efficient vehicles, and help auto makers do that. McCain: Obama doesn’t want free trade with Columbia and wants to kiss Hugo Chavez and North Korea and Iran and everybody bad everywhere….

Man. Every time CNN does a split screen, looking at McCain is like looking at Ilie Năstase play tennis in the old days. You wonder when he’s going to blow. McCain is, quite simply, a schoolyard bully. I feel that I know exactly what this guy is about; that’s the only thing that I see here.

10:02: McCain: Joe the plumber again. Obama: Joe the Plumber — here’s what it costs you: Zero. Nada. Nit. McNăstase blinks at a rate of four times a second. Obama: McCain taxes your health care for the first time, ever. “This is your plan, John.”

BlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlink. McCain says “spread the wealth” again. Right-wing code talking for socialism, I presume. John: a hint — you’re not talking just to the wingnuts here, and ‘spreading the wealth’ around looks pretty damned good to the rest of the country right about now.

10:11: Roe v Wade. Obama: personal decision, and the constitution has a right to privacy, not subject to state legislation. Ballsy, and very good. McCain: we have to change the culture of America. Another hint for ya, John-boy: No, you need to join the culture of America.

10:15: McCain: Obama voted “present” on abortion in Illinois. Not a bad little hit. Obama: There was already a law on the books, and many republicans and democrats voted against or “present” on that one. I support a ban on late term abortions, except where the mother’s life is endangered and that was the sticking point. That’s why I voted “present.” McCain: I adopted kids.

10:19: Education. Obama: invest in early education. A pennies on the dollar investment. We need an army of new math and science teachers. McCain: BlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlink. McCain: education is the “civil rights issue of the 21st century.” Wow. I agree 100%. Good for him. McCain: vouchers vouchers vouchers. Let ex military people teach in our schools without having to be certified. (What?!?)

10:23: Obama: “No child left behind is a start, but unfortunately they left the money behind.” Nice little zinger there. If teachers can’t hack it, get rid of ‘em. “Youth are not an interest group. They are our future.” Nice. McCain: D.C. parents want vouchers! Reform Head Start! My running mate will fund autism! Obama: McCain wants to increase vouchers in D.C. by 2000. There are fifty other states.

10:29: Closing statements. McCain: America needs a new direction. (Doesn’t he realize that this is an absurd thing to come out of his mouth?) Can you trust Obama? I’ve spent my entire life in public service.

Obama: We have to invest in the people of this country. We all have to come together to tackle this. I ask for your vote. I’ll work on your behalf.

McCain: BlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlink
BlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlink

…

This was fun; I doubt that I’ll ever do it again. I think Obama not only won; Obama mopped the floor with McCain. I think McCain proved beyond a doubt to more people than me that he does not have the temperament to be President. He is a very angry man.

…

Final thought: Anyone who is an “undecided voter” at this point is an unserious person who should be ignored as unworthy; they certainly don’t deserve any attention whatsoever from the engaged citizens of this nation.

Here you go. The 50 best cult books.

Lyrics, sorted by the word, alphabetically. See if you can guess ‘em. I got about 75%.

Really kind of fascinating in an off-beat way; you can definitely get the feel of the song in question. Kind of makes the geek in me want to do a historiographical map of the frequency of words in popular song lyrics. Or sumpin’.

(Some are gimmes; not many songs that have the word “colitas” in ‘em out there, after all…)

Anyway. Enjoy.

“And Great Lyrics Quiz Rock Roll The” by Matthew Baldwin – The Morning News

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Chicken Little post, but there seems to be a fine amalgamation of doomsday reports appearing this week. Just thought I’d pass along a couple that I’ve noted over the last few days. These things seem to come in bunches. Let’s see here…

From the London Telegraph: The Federal Reserve’s rescue has failed. The Port Authority of New York is having to pay 20% on short-term loans. Home values are dropping all over the civilized world and some folks are beginning to worry about the unity of the Euro. Looks like a global depression awaits unless something drastically goes in the opposite direction soon.

From the Guardian: The guy who discovered Global Warming in the 70′s says that we’re past the tipping point. James Lovelock figures that we have about 20 years until everything goes haywire for everybody everywhere. The money quote: “But he fears we won’t invent the necessary technologies in time, and
expects “about 80%” of the world’s population to be wiped out by 2100.”

Just food for thought. I expect that the truth is a little less drastic on both – but not much.

1. Go to Wikipedia.

2. Click on the random article button.

3. Read for a while.

4. Goto #2.

I have this set up as my browser home page. Celebrate your Inner Nerd!

Coolness. The first version of my personal favorite of a programming language was released twenty years ago today. It would be difficult to gauge just how many caffeinated all-nighters I’ve spent in the company of this fine critter. Thanks, Larry.