Archive for September, 2009
Humans Swimming
Are you a human? Do you like to swim? How about free-diving? How about static free diving?
Skoal Kodiak
The sounds these guys make are made to be experienced live and man, look out because the grooves powered by Brady’s bass and Freddy’s drums carry the audience off to dance land.
The clip below does their thing little justice but after their set @ the 501 Club last night, I had to mention them here – it was unforgettably good:
The Great Battle of Internetâ„¢ (continued)
Condoleezza Rice’s missive to the EU
By Kieren McCarthy
Published Friday 2nd December 2005 09:07 GMTThe World Summit in Tunis last month was overshadowed by the global argument over internet governance.
Its biggest controversy came with the proposition put forward by the EU a month earlier that there be a new inter-governmental body that oversee ICANN. The US government – which currently enjoys unilateral control over the internet infrastructure – was furious and launched an enormous lobbying campaign, both public and private, across the board to retain its position.
Most significant among all those lobbying efforts was a letter sent from the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the UK foreign minister Jack Straw acting in the role of presidency of the EU.
In the letter, Rice used strong language for a diplomatic missive, to stress how seriously the US administration was taking the issue and how determined it was to retain ICANN in overall charge of the internet. European diplomats privately confessed that the letter had a significant impact on their position.
The result was that the EU never raised its inter-governmental forum again in World Summit meetings, and the end agreement stuck with the US position.
This is the first time time the full text of that letter has been published:
7 November 2005
To:
The Right Honourable Jack Straw MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, London
Dear Foreign Secretary,
The governance structure and continued stability and sustainability of the Internet are of paramount importance to the United States. The Internet has become an essential infrastructure for global communications, including for global trade and commerce, and therefore we firmly believe that support for the present structures for Internet governance is vital. These structures have proven to be a reliable foundation for the robust growth of the Internet we have seen over the course of the last decade.
As we approach the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), we should underscore the vast potential of the Internet for global economic expansion, poverty alleviation, and for improving health, education and other public services, particularly in the developing world where Internet access remain unacceptably low.
The Internet will reach its full potential as a medium and facilitator for global economic expansion and development in an environment free from burdensome intergovernmental oversight and control. The success of the Internet lies in its inherently decentralized nature, with the most significant growth taking place at the outer edges of the network through innovative new applications and services. Burdensome, bureaucratic oversight is out of place in an Internet structure that has worked so well for many around the globe. We regret the recent positions on Internet governance(i.e., the new cooperation model) offered by the European Union, the Presidency of which is currently held by the United Kingdom, seems to propose just that – a new structure of intergovernmental control over the Internet.
The four principles the United States issues on June 30, 2005, reinforce the continuing U.S. commitment to the Internetâ„¢s security and stability, including through the historical U.S. role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file. At that time, we also expressed our support for ICANN as the appropriate private sector technical coordinator of the Internetâ„¢s domain name and addressing system. We believe that ICANN is dedicated to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities and to developing policy through consensus-based processes. We have also expressed our interest in working with the international community to address legitimate public policy and sovereignty concerns with respect to country code top-level domains (ccTLD). We wish to underscore that, in our statement of June 30, we supported ongoing dialogue on issues related to Internet governance across international forums.
The United States and the European Union have long worked together toward the goal of global access to the Internet. The WSIS offers us the opportunity to reaffirm our partnership to spread the benefits of the Internet globally. At the same time, the security and stability of the Internet are essential to the United States, the European Union, and to the world. We firmly believe that the existing Internet system balances the stability and security we need with the innovation and dynamism that private sector leadership provides.
The history of the Internetâ„¢s extraordinary growth and adaptation , based on private-sector innovation and investment, offers compelling arguments against burdening the network with a new intergovernmental structure for oversight. It also suggests that a new intergovernmental structure would most likely become an obstacle to global Internet access for all our citizens. It is in this spirit that we ask the European Union to reconsider its new position on Internet governance and work together with us to bring the benefits of the Information Society to all.
Sincerely,
Carlos M. Guiterrez Secretary of Commerce
Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State
Hats off to Cox and Forkum for the comic
On Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing: Sound as Image
translating information from one sense into another, especially sound to image, is one of the things technology does well
case in point is Close Encounters of the Third Kind
is this captivating? in the case of Close Encounters it is. however, personally, i can only say that in other cases, such as the one below, watching the patterns go by while experiencing the familiar audible sensations of this music is sometimes satisfying and sometimes not. it surely depends on multiple factors. sometimes my eyes want to be free of this structure, preferring to let the imagination wander around and let the sound just be it’s own thing. sometimes yes, sometimes no
the idea of translating the input of one sense into or through another…hmmm…
brings up questions. sometimes, though, my own nature seems to want to focus on just one complete sense or at least in bursts of intensive focus. for example, to the music and let the other senses waft the in-between moment in
senses can be wrestled. this meditation is about giving each attention with care, rather than throw jumbled mass at them all without consideration. that’s sure easy enough to take for granted, too
cheers to Kurt Vega for the link:
Solution Evolution
Over the years, I’ve had many different backup solutions in place in my home to back up the now >3TB of data I deem worthy of the trouble. I’ve used RAID levels 0, 1, 5 and 6. I’ve used complete solutions and DIY on all the major platforms, as well as Linux flavors like Debian, Yellow Dog and Slackware. I’ve automated these processes, backing up crucial data online, offline, near-line and off-site, and de-automated them whenever I’ve slacked off on my documentation and have forgotten what’s backing up to where and when. Through this experience, I have a decent idea of what works well and what doesn’t.
To bolster available storage to these various configurations over time, I’ve added both internal and external drives, using LaCie almost exclusively for the external side of things. I’ve purchased dozens of these drives over many years and, up until the last couple, have had good experiences with them.
Case in point: yesterday morning, I woke up to find that backups had failed overnight, making this the third set of their products (I always buy them in pairs) that have failed me in the last 2 years. Over the last two years, I’ve lost 6 total, in each case just days after the manufacturer warranties expired. I purchased these drives based on logic that by spending $300-$400 on each, I was getting an acceptable level of reliability for less than it would cost for an enterprise-class solution costing significantly more. Note, it’s not the hard drives that fail, rather the enclosures LaCie builds around them. I end up using the drives in other ways, as noted below.
Thus, I found myself slowly starting to wake up from more than a good night’s rest. I started to realize that I have all of my critical project data in only one location. I had to decide how to proceed in order to keep it safe. Unsatisfied with my past methodology, I set out for some solution evolution.
After spending the morning reading reviews, again comparing complete vs. DIY solutions, I purchased a DroboPro:
Here’s the front:
Internal pic:
Back:
Yes, you can see a USB 2 port, 2 Firewire 800 ports and indeed that’s a Gigabit Ethernet port for iSCSI : )
The DroboPro was $1,289.95
The new drives: 4 x $119.99 = $479.96
Total cost: $1,769.91
That may seem steep, and it is, however, compare this to the cost of 6 failed drives over two years @ $300 each. And my time and worry.
The logic is that spending $1800 on consumer-grade hardware, while thinking it a less-expensive route, is actually more costly as time spent installing, configuring, maintaining and replacing these *solutions* is far more pricey than spending more upfront on a solution that will stand the test of time and allow for more flexibility, security and reliability.
You can count on me sharing my thoughts here on the DroboPro after it’s been in place in my studio for a few months.
* thanks to Chris Connaker @ Computer Audiophile for the images
=
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Still My Guitar Gently Weeps
Just imagine the collective talent and experience onstage at one time here:
Jorden and Bret : Home
Our pals have at last found a home for themselves in our old neighborhood of Juneau, Alaska.
Jorden and Bret close on this sweet pad on the 14th.
Congratulations!
Maurice Sendak : Where The Wild Things Are
Spike Jonze worked with Lance Bangs on this new documentary about Maurice Sendak, who wrote and illustrated Where The Wild Things Are, which is in post-production having been directed by Jonze. Click on the image to see the trailer for the documentary.
Rags to Riches : Jay DeMerit
Our pal’s brother, Jay DeMerit, has overcome seemingly impossible odds, triumphantly making it to the big time:
JOHANNESBURG — On an unlikely United States national soccer team, there is no more unlikely player than defender Jay DeMerit, whose nickname is Rags to Riches and whose adventurous career path to the Confederations Cup involved van rides on boxes of socks and underwear, living in an attic and being hugged by Elton John.
Jay DeMerit played tenaciously on defense for the U.S. in its win over Spain in the Confederations Cup semifinals.
“I’m probably the most improbable of all the improbable events going on,†the chatty DeMerit, 29, said.
He grew up in Green Bay, Wis., played three sports in high school and went to the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he did not remind anyone of Franz Beckenbauer. Some young players refine their skills at the academies of Barcelona and Manchester United. DeMerit played summers for Green Bay 7 Up.
He designed the team logo and spent most of his time as a groundskeeper for the local school district. “One year, I graduated from cleanup crew to lawns and hedge clippers,†DeMerit said.
Eventually, he played with the developmental team of the Chicago Fire, but went undrafted by Major League Soccer upon graduation in 2003. His closest contact with the big time, DeMerit said, came one day when DaMarcus Beasley of the Fire walked into the bar where he worked.
“Nobody in here knows you, but I do,†DeMerit said he told Beasley, handing him a free drink. “Good luck with your season.â€
Beasley was soon headed to Europe, and DeMerit would even beat him there, but Beasley’s career was flying first class while DeMerit’s was stowed in baggage. He had a gnawing feeling that he could be a professional, but while Beasley ended up first at PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands in 2004, DeMerit alighted in 2003 at Southall, a semiprofessional team outside of London. If Dante had a seventh circle of soccer hell, this was it.
DeMerit lived with a soccer-playing friend, Kieron Keane, in the attic of Keane’s mother’s house. Bed was a mattress on the floor. The pay was about 25 bucks a week. Practices were held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and games were played on Saturdays. On Sundays, they played in a pub league.
Each Saturday morning, the Southall manager picked up DeMerit and Keane in a blue minivan with no rear windows. During the week, the van was used to haul dry goods for sale at a market stall. The human cargo had to make do.
“We used to play paper, rock, scissors,†DeMerit said. “The loser had to sit in the back on top of boxes of socks and underwear.â€
And the winner?
“He got to sit in front while the manager rolled his own cigarettes,†DeMerit said.
Five or 10 people tended to stray past for each match.
“It wasn’t Lambeau Field,†DeMerit said.
In 2004, Southall’s assistant moved up a few rungs on the English soccer ladder to Northwood. DeMerit followed. He thought his style of defense was perfectly compatible with the English game: aggression without anger.
He relied on speed, strength and agility as a defender. He did not particularly need skill, he figured, only a determination not to let those with skill get a kick on the ball.
During a preseason match for Northwood, DeMerit impressed the manager of another club, Watford, which played at a level just below the English Premier League. An audition with Watford led to a contract for the 2004-5 season. DeMerit’s career began to ascend, as if he were a small-town singer who found his big-city voice on “American Idol.â€
On May 21, 2006, Watford met Leeds United in a playoff for promotion to the Premier League. Before the match, Aidy Boothroyd, the Watford manager, told USA Today that DeMerit was brave and essential in defense.
“He will put his head where other people are not even prepared to put their feet,†Boothroyd told the paper.
As it happened, DeMerit put his head onto a corner kick, directing it into the net for the game’s first goal. Watford won, 3-0. Still, the United States did not offer him a spot on its 2006 World Cup team.
If DeMerit had not stirred Bruce Arena, who was the coach of the United States team, he had caught the attention of Elton John, an inveterate soccer fan and Watford’s former chairman.
During training for the 2006-7 season, DeMerit said that John arrived and said, “Where’s the American?†He wanted to talk about football, but the N.F.L., not soccer. “He wanted my opinion on whether Brett Favre should leave the Packers,†DeMerit said.
John, according to DeMerit, wore two Super Bowl rings, saying he was friends with the Kraft family, which owns the New England Patriots. “He threw one at me and said, ‘Have a feel of that,’ †DeMerit said.
Occasionally, John would helicopter in to Watford’s training site, DeMerit said, and sometimes awakened at 5 a.m. in the United States to watch Watford’s games on television.
“It’s pretty crazy when you get hugs from Elton John,†DeMerit said.
Last fall, John abruptly resigned as Watford’s president for life, upset with the club’s drooping fortunes. DeMerit’s career has proceeded with more equanimity.
After niggling injuries, he finally got a start with the United States national team in 2007. And when Carlos Bocanegra was sidelined with a hamstring injury at the Confederations Cup, DeMerit eagerly slipped into central defense, playing superbly against Spain in the semifinals.
“He has a good balance between being hard and aggressive and still making good decisions,†Coach Bob Bradley said.
Now comes a rematch with Brazil, which defeated the timid Americans by 3-0 in group play. DeMerit said he would approach Brazil on Sunday the way he has always approached soccer.
“I understand where I am and where I need to go,†DeMerit said. “It comes with being patient and waiting for an opportunity and not being daunted by the task ahead.â€
via the NYT
Joie de vivre
I read this today in the Business Insider:
A new survey from UBS has shown that the French continue to work the least amount of hours per year in the world. Once again, the French have blown away the competition.
People work an average of 1,902 hours per year in the surveyed cities but they work much longer in Asian and Middle Eastern cities. People in Lyon and Paris, by contrast, spend the least amount of time at work according to the global comparison: 1,582 and 1,594 hours per year respectively.
Upon seeing this data, some might criticize the French for being lazy, but that misses the point completely. The real message here is that the French are likely some of the most productive people in the entire world.
Think about it. Nationmaster ranks France as #18 in terms of GDP per capita, at $36,500 per person, yet France works much less than most developed nations. They achieve their high standard of living while working 16% less hours than the average world citizen, and almost 25% than their Asian peers as per UBS. Plus, if you visit France you’ll also realize that their actual standard of living is probably much higher than GDP numbers would indicate.
Thus, if one were to divide France’s GDP per capita by actual hours worked, you’d probably find that the French are achieving some of the highest returns on work-hours invested. Labor Alpha, if you will.
We can actually calculate this Labor Alpha using statistics from Nation Master.
France has $36,500 GDP/Capita and works 1,453 hours per year. This equates to a GDP/Capita/Hour of $25.10. Americans, on the other hand, have $44,150 GDP/Capita but work 1,792 hours per year. Thus Americans only achieve $24.60 of GDP/Capita/Hour.
This puts the French Labor Alpha at about $0.50 GDP/Capita/Hour over the US. It may sound small at first, but add that up across millions of people, and a few decades. Now you’ve built a lesson for the rest of the world to learn.
Winning is not about working hard. It’s about working smart… and less. As the French know well.
Boston
Things Wikipedia teaches us about Boston:
It’s the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the US. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial “Capital of New England”. Boston city proper had a 2008 estimated population of 609,023, making it the twenty-second largest in the country. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region includes seven Massachusetts counties, all of Rhode Island and parts of New Hampshire; it is home to 7.5 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the US.
In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late 18th century, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred within the city and surrounding areas. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. After American independence was attained Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history now helps attract 16.3 million visitors annually. The city was the site of several firsts, including America’s first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and the first subway system in the United States.
With many colleges and universities within the city and surrounding area, Boston is a center of higher education and a center for medicine. The city’s economy is also based on research, electronics, engineering, finance, and technology—principally biotechnology. Boston ranks first in the country in jobs per square mile ahead of New York City and Washington, D.C. The city has been experiencing gentrification and has one of the highest costs of living in the United States, and it remains high on world livability rankings.
More interesting facts via Yelp
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Yacht Rockers live on!
If there was ever any doubt that Yacht Rock would live on, may it be quashed by this and this and have a listen for yourself:
satellite browser
NASA hopes we enjoy J-Track 3-D.
Clicking on the thumbnail below or here or there will activate JTrack3D and it will appear in its own window and begin loading a database of over 900 satellites.
What you will see (presuming the system you’re on supports Java) is a plot in 3-dimensions showing the position of these satellites. Choose them all from the pull-down menu.
If your system isn’t currently supporting Java, skip the conniption, there are also some satellites that can be viewed without it:
