So here I am on Friday at 4:50 trying to push my poor computer to the edges of its abilities. Currently :
1. I'm compiling Gentoo Linux in 64-bit mode on one processor in VMWare
2. running Parallel's Desktop with Windows XP and SAS open to do some statistical analyses
3. I've got iTunes open playing some Howie Day
4. Net Station is processing ERP data for a paper
5. Microsoft Word 2004 is open with the beginnings of a paper being written up on my research
6. iChat is open where people are sending me the occasional message
7. my Email client is open receiving and occasionally responding to messages
8. and finally my web browser is open
All and all - my computers getting a decent workout. I'm a bit jealous though since I only have two processors and today I got to play with a computer that had 8. Oh well. Coming up on my last weekend in New Haven...
Friday, June 22, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Politicians panter to the right...
Even though American TV is already greatly censored, more could be on the way!
So basically the point of view is that the government must protect everyone from indecent material on TV. I get the idea, it's kind of screwed up b/c the easiest way to protect your children from bad programming goes something like this:
a) don't get cable
b) if you do get cable, don't get channels with questionable content (Cinemax, HBO, or others that you explicitely pay more for)
c) If you do get cable and those channels that cost extra, try locking your TV set with a code that will lock your children out of watching those channels that might have questionable content
d) if locking your cable seems too difficult - call Best Buy - they will sell you a cable box that is pre-configured with questionable content locked out and even teach you in the store how to use it.
It's not the governments responsibility to protect children from everything. It's the parents responsibility. While there are some avenues that sure would be eaiser if the Government helped out (drugs and guns perhaps), programming that may not be suitable for younger audiences is one of those that is easily solved by parents just not buying multiple TVs or even just not getting cable! Similarly, if you're worried that your child might be in a crash on his or her 4-wheeler while mudding with friends, the easy solution is to not get your 6-year old a 4-wheeler. We don't need laws for everything - but I guess with a big election coming up people will do anything to win the votes of those people who fear their children watching something they're not supposed to.
So basically the point of view is that the government must protect everyone from indecent material on TV. I get the idea, it's kind of screwed up b/c the easiest way to protect your children from bad programming goes something like this:
a) don't get cable
b) if you do get cable, don't get channels with questionable content (Cinemax, HBO, or others that you explicitely pay more for)
c) If you do get cable and those channels that cost extra, try locking your TV set with a code that will lock your children out of watching those channels that might have questionable content
d) if locking your cable seems too difficult - call Best Buy - they will sell you a cable box that is pre-configured with questionable content locked out and even teach you in the store how to use it.
It's not the governments responsibility to protect children from everything. It's the parents responsibility. While there are some avenues that sure would be eaiser if the Government helped out (drugs and guns perhaps), programming that may not be suitable for younger audiences is one of those that is easily solved by parents just not buying multiple TVs or even just not getting cable! Similarly, if you're worried that your child might be in a crash on his or her 4-wheeler while mudding with friends, the easy solution is to not get your 6-year old a 4-wheeler. We don't need laws for everything - but I guess with a big election coming up people will do anything to win the votes of those people who fear their children watching something they're not supposed to.
Monday, June 11, 2007
WWDC and such
It's always encouraging when doing an experiment to get results roughly along the lines that you were expecting... More on those when I finish writing the paper!Beyond having cool pictures from my data, Apple launched it's World Wide Developer Conference today and showed off the next version of MacOS X. Some cool stuff... if I weren't still in the midst of my Sprint contract I'd be camping outside of an Apple store to get an iPhone on June 29th.
Spent the weekend in Boston. Would have pictures to show... but it was raining and foggy for a good chunk of the weekend so that didn't really encourage me to take my camera out. Back to data analysis to make sure these pretty pictures are statistically significant. I have to present this data at 9:30 tomorrow morning, so hopefully it is!
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Why always the good shows?
It seems like an unwritten rule that those TV shows that I find truly great get cancelled. Sure, there are plenty of shows that I watched that made it to the 7 year (West Wing) or even the 10 year mark (Friends). And yet it seems unfair that days are not getting longer (still just the 24 hours), and the proportion of "reality tv" shows is increasing. Does anyone remember when MTV used to play music? It amazes me that people would rather sit around and watch couples go to a fantasy island where they'll be tempted to cheat on their significant other. I mean come on now!
In any case, this year was a bad year (2006-2007) for my tv shows. Among the cancelled:
1. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
2. The Loop
3. Veronica Mars
4. Love Monkey
5. Drive
There's more if you include shows cancelled last year like Alias and the West Wing. The odd thing is that Studio 60 was cancelled even though it brought in roughly 7.7 million viewers. And that doesn't count the people who TiVo it or download it or watch it online. It's apparently the most recorded TV show. It'll probably be replaced with a version of the apprentice focused on opening up BabyGaps around the world.
In any case, this year was a bad year (2006-2007) for my tv shows. Among the cancelled:
1. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
2. The Loop
3. Veronica Mars
4. Love Monkey
5. Drive
There's more if you include shows cancelled last year like Alias and the West Wing. The odd thing is that Studio 60 was cancelled even though it brought in roughly 7.7 million viewers. And that doesn't count the people who TiVo it or download it or watch it online. It's apparently the most recorded TV show. It'll probably be replaced with a version of the apprentice focused on opening up BabyGaps around the world.
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