DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

I'm hooked on a soap opera. It's not what you think, though. My daughter (she's 2) and I watch Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet. It's the real story of a family of meerkats living on the edge of the Kalahari in Africa. Meerkats have a matriachical social structure and have family (intra as well as inter) issues worthy of the Sopranos. As an added bonus the show is narrated by Samwise Gamgee.

WORK, PLAY...WORSHIP??

This week was the annual Lotusphere confab in Orlando. For those who operate in the IBM/Lotus orbit (as I often do) Lotusphere is the event to go to. It’s hard to believe that the last time I attended was 10 years ago. I had a blast then. By all accounts Lotusphere is a fantastic show. It combines exhibitors with product evangelization and real education. Partly based upon my experiences at Lotus tradeshows, my friend Steve and I came up with the idea for Religion 2.0. It was to be a wholly open-sourced religion with pay to play strategies and certification exams. Religion 2.0 also had a supplemental package, whereby one could subscribe/ascribe to "R2.0" in conjunction with his/her existing religion. Play nice, we always maintained. Additionally, Religion 2.0 would lay its profit motives out for all to see, thus removing the stain of corruption from the narrative (as it exists in other organized religions.) Alas, we got bogged down on the selection of a supreme leader. Candidates included William Shatner (my personal favorite) David Hasselhoff and Steve Jobs. Beers were drunk and plans were laid (Kathleen even signed on to be the certification minister) but more realistic pursuits got in the way.

BURNING QUESTION DEPARTMENT: Who were the players in last week's SNL sketch "The First Person in the History of the World to Dance?"

QUICK TAKE

Demitri Martin = (the late great) Mitch Hedberg + eye contact

HERO FOR A DAY

Every now and then a story of a simple individual just doing the right thing restores my faith in humanity, if only for a little while. Here's one of those stories. (And here it is in PDF format if it times out on the NYTimes website.)

STOP THE PRESSES!

Christopher Walken to play Ozzy Osbourne in upcoming Motley Crue autobiographical movie!

GEEK POST

I took to uninstalling Sage (RSS reader) from my Firefox installation because it gave me to easy an out for switching from productive work mode to wasting my time scanning feed mode. I split my feeds into strictly work related material: and hosted those on my Google Reader account. I imported my leisure feeds into BlogBridge, which I only fire up once or twice a day now. So far, I’ve been more productive and get to really “dogfood” some new RSS apps and get a feel for different aggregation memes to boot. Oh, Google Reader is cool, with lots of neat AJAX tricks, but it seems to have slowed down as of late. BlogBridge is a nice Java-based client app that’s slick, quick and installed via Java Web Start, of which I have a special place in my heart for.

Been messing with Netbeans 5.5 with the Visual Web Pack and deploying test apps to the Glassfish application server. So far, neato, but even with support for EJB 3.0 and slick dependency injection baked in, there’s still no easy way to map Domino’s scheduled agent functionality to the EJB world. Yes, I know there’s the Timer Service, but it’s not easy. Don’t even get me started on full-text indexing. Mad scientist that I am, I continue to plug away at a solution that will make this easy and repeatable to the non-rocket scientist app developers out there (present company included) in need of a Java enterprise development solution. I hope to one day assemble a package of tools into a coherent narrative that I can impart for, ah, compensation.

FRIDAY BRAIN DUMP

Been busy not being busy these last few weeks. I wrapped up my latest client engagement last week and I’m looking forward to a few months’ respite. Professionally, I intend to delve into the pain points faced by the transition between Lotus Domino development and Java Server Faces (JSF/J2EE) development. Hopefully, I can learn something and come up with enough material to create a seminar. Otherwise, I may just throw myself back into the consulting field or cast my net for full-time employment (egads!)

I’m hearing that Microsoft’s next version of Windows (Vista) doesn’t allow you to save to the desktop. This sucks for me as saving my current work to the desktop is a part of my work habit –I “archive” my work to its eventual permanent location when I’m done.

Getting our eldest into a quality playgroup for next fall meant making decisions and placing a deposit this week –a traumatic experience for Casa Del Gimlet as we now have to contemplate sending our little poozle out of the nest and into the world. It’s still the better part of a year away, but sobering, nonetheless.

I still pine for the day Sprint releases the Q on its network.

My friend M runs the marathon for the umpteenth time Sunday, go Bodie!

Do Whiskyfest tickets come with a designated driver? Tune in Tuesday morning for the answer.

Welcome to the right coast, Ellen, Stuart and Judah. We look forward to making introductions all around and catching up. Ellen, for ye uninformed, was with me from the beginning.

Mennu is a mensch. (crazy shades notwithstanding) visit his blog. Heed his advice. Listen to his mix.

ODDS 'N ENDS

Recently, I made the observation that, based upon advertisements, it seems Animal Planet’s core demographic is people with low self-esteem.

The fact that this concept video will be a reality to paying customers (app. $200,000) in about two years is nothing short of amazing.

Star Wars buffs (even those disappointed –deeply disappointed) by the Flannelled One’s abominable latest three chapters will want to check out the Wookiepedia (hat tip: Ned.)

RANGEL AND PELOSI GET IT RIGHT

Credit where credit is due: Rangel blasts Chavez for his insane ranting at the UN yesterday. Nancy Pelosi sticks up for W.as well. (?)

PERSPECTIVES

Last week my family and I returned from a two week trip to Israel. The pretext for going was my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah in Beit Shemesh, but we stayed for two weeks -which is way longer than the festivities. We started our trip in Jerusalem, moved to Beit Shemesh from Thursday night through the weekend, sojourned to Tel Aviv for two days of R & R and time with my second sister Bena (not as diametrically opposed as some in my family would believe!) on the beach and then returned to Jerusalem. We even decided to cut short our Tel Aviv portion to focus more time on Jerusalem. With two kiddies, it took us a lot of time to get ourselves out the door in unfamiliar territory (especially the first week of jet-lag days) so we gave ourselves an extra day in Jerusalem to accomplish more of what we had originally set out to do. Lots of time was spent at the Kotel (wailing wall) and in the Rova (Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.) We did a lot of shopping in Mea Shearim for Judaica, gifts and art. Exploring the Jewish “shuk” (open air bazaar) of Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem was a blast. We brought back fresh spices, candy and nuts from there. (Unfortunately, we got your message to bring back some of Marzipan bakery’s famous rugelach too late, Mennu –but they were delicious!) Discovering the quaint neighborhood of Nachla’ot behind the “shuk,” exploring it and letting Basya (our twenty month old) frolic in a playground we found was a special treat. So was visiting my step-aunt’s beautiful apartment in Jerusalem’s oldest Jewish neighborhood outside of the old city –Yemin Moshe- basking in the glorious view of the old city from her balcony, and picking out a piece of artwork from her collection as a belated wedding gift to us (a Braque.) (For the record, we turned down a Matisse and two Chagalls in the mix because we thought they were –ah- not to our taste.) Our second Shabbat was spent at my sister’s house in Beit Shemesh, where I finally got to spend some quality time with my eldest sibling and her family and she got to spend some time getting to know my family. (The last time we saw each other prior to this trip was at my wedding.) Too soon, Sunday was upon us and we had to return to the 'States. The weather upon landing was dreary and wet, which pretty much summed our feelings about leaving Israel and returning to our regular workaday lives.

BOMBERS AND BARBEQUE

Today I watched the beautifully restored Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress “Yankee Lady” World War Two era bomber go through preflight, light up its four monstrous Wright Cyclone engines, taxi away and roar off into the blue yonder. We were so close that the propwash blew us back a bit. With me on this adventure was Uncle Robbie and his oldest, Jonathan. The few decent shots I was able to get off through the fence are here. Bonus shot is of a NASA T-38, presumably the steed Astronaut Scott Kelly rode in on.

Came home to a feast of barbequed chicken, (hot) dogs tube steaks and, of course, cow on the bone. Mmm. mmm. good.

Good times, these.

LISTEN UP

The next time the dentist tells you not to eat anything until after the novocaine wears off, listen! I chewed through my lip without realizing it last week and it still hurts like the dickens.

If you ever use PayPal to purchase anything, make sure you click on the tiny "More Funding Options" link before you approve your payment to make sure that the money is being debited from the right account (credit card or bank account.)

R.I.P. Bruno Kirby.

DHS FREEBIES

You get the feeling the latest terrorist plot is really a cover for some people in the airline security industry to get their hands on some free toiletries?

TWO JOOS

Watched Gene Simmons, Family Jewels last night. My impressions? The NYTimes had it right. The show isn’t too compelling and the most interesting characters are clearly the remarkably well adjusted kids – similar to the Osbourne paradox. Of note: I can’t get over how much the aging KISS frontman looks and sounds like Jackie Mason. Well, not exactly, but his overall comportment puts him in the same category mentally for me. I suppose it’s due to their similar background stories. Oh, and his Mom (on the phone with Gene at the end of the episode) sounds like a typical ortho yiddishe mama, which -as I understand it- she is.

Joe Lieberman lost the democratic primary Tuesday. If the margin turns out to be something that could have been bridged by an effective e-campaign, than Lieberman has noone but himself to blame for being hacked on the eve of the election with no backup. That’s unfortunate. I can’t say I know enough about Connecticut politics to add my two cents as to why he lost, although it certainly appears that he was a victim of anti-war backlash and cozying up to a controversial president. If that’s the case, that’s too bad. Too bad for Connecticut, to bad for the Democratic party and too bad for the good ole’ U.S. of A. (Or U.S. and A-ya as Borat would pronounce it.) I sincerely hope this doesn’t portent a slide into irreverence for the Democratic Party as many insinuate. Cheney stating that Lieberman's loss sends a message to terrorists is dubious, though. To think that anything we do sends a message of any consequence to people who sincerely believe that there are seventy-two virgins waiting for them in the great beyond and -worse- that we should predicate our actions in a partcipatory democracy based upon this premise is absurd.

DILBERT'S GUIDE TO WORLD PEACE

Scott Adams takes a shot at solving the Middle East...

MIDDLE EAST POLITICS

I despair of the worldview coming out of the Middle East these days. Of course, Lebanon is a mess. I really hope that the dogs of war can be leashed again there and soon. There’s definitely something to be said for the military (any military, IMHO) believing that that every problem is a nail that their hammer can fix. I wonder if Israel is at the limits of what military options can achieve. Of course, I’m not suggesting there was any other choice but to raise the stakes in Lebanon. Contrary to what the big fuss is about – rockets- I believe the stakes were raised for one reason alone: kidnapping. If the one-two punch of targeted kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in Gaza and the Lebanese border were tolerated, kidnapping would have become the new normative situation. This is what the state of Israel cannot, under any circumstances, tolerate. The price for such behavior must make this option be removed from the table by Hezbollah and Hamas. The limited rocket attacks could have continued to be tolerated in the interest of allowing the nascent Lebanese democracy to take hold. Pity the war-torn Lebanese normal people; they are hostages to the situation as are the Israelis. Shifting gears slightly, I can’t abide or understand any attempt to equalize Hezbollah, it’s leadership or tactics with that of Israel, a sovereign state with a proper chain of command and a healthy, vibrant public discourse on all aspects of its political actions -healthier even than, say, the U.S. To somehow insinuate that Israel is acting wantonly and immorally regarding her latest actions is to truly believe that Israel and the U.S., with their respective moral compasses, are as bloodthirsty and chauvinistic as the enemies who foisted the fight upon us.

IRAQ is a an unqualified mess. Civil society – in the capital at least- has been completely rendered asunder. Regardless of the outcome, it’s clear to me that the insurgency/terrorists/anarchists have won this battle: the have succeeded in turning Iraqi society against itself. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, the uranium has gone critical on this one, people. Whatever happens next in Baghdad would fall under the category of fixing what’s (very) broken and no longer preventing the fracture in the first place. Even the hawk Ralph Peters ponders whether Pandora can be put back into her box. Unfortunate. Let the blame game begin. While I support our President’s moral compass and feel he got the big picture right, Mr. Bush and his inner circle seems to lack the ability to adjust meaningfully to the situation on the ground. Of course, credit must be given to Iraqi (lack of) leadership as well for this, but the U.S. was in the unique position to recognize the vacuum and do something about it.

DEAN: I'm not neccesarily saying he's wrong, just that he's an idiot (for saying it). In a nutshell, Howard Dean is symptomatic of a Democratic party that can't get it's act together. Troubling. We need a healthy two-party system to survive and the inept Democratic party leadership isn't helping. It sometimes seems the rational wing of the DNC is waiting for Prince Obama to grow up. We can't wait that long, Rome is burning folks!

UPDATE: If you doubt the importance of transparency and healthy political discourse in society, here's an interesting contrast: An Arab "Peace" Demonstration (their left) vs. an Israeli peace demonstration.

THE CLOSER

Watched an episode of “The Closer” last night on TNT. Overall, not a bad cop drama, but no new ground broken over the myriad other cop dramas available. Is the whole show designed to lead up to when Kyra Sedgewick’s character gets her suspects into the interrogation room and games them into giving themselves up? Clever, but not enough to keep me as a return viewer. In sum: good, but doesn’t rise above the crop for me to add it to my DVR program schedule.

ANTI-FOLK

This morning I played connect the dots. Follow along: I’m reading about Microsoft’s pending new music arrival “Zune” that will directly target the iPod juggernaut. The article on news.com specifically mentions a whimsical teaser site for Zune, which I dutifully visit. The site is cute, but the tune playing, “Us” by Regina Spektor, is catchy. I’m hooked. Her voice sounds a lot like Bjork’s. I google Regina Spektor. It turns out Ms. Spektor is a Russian-Jewish émigré from New York City. Wikipedia says that she has prodigious songwriting talent and –as is often the case with former Soviets- possesses excellent classical chops and musical parents. I’m listening to the full version of “Us” and “Survival Guide to Soviet Kitsch” on her website now. (Click on the video section of the site.) For some reason (actually, I know the reason, can you guess?) I wonder if Ms. Spektor and Mila Kunis have ever met. Reading her wikipedia page, I see that there’s something called the “New York Anti-folk scene.” There’s an anti folk movement? I need to read more about this! Well, there’s a link to the anti-folk wikipedia page. And, of course, the obligatory antifolk.net. (I suppose antifolk.com would be too deliciously ironic.) This is fascinating. I think I may delve into this musical genre some more. Stay tuned…

BIRD 911

Prompted by this vignette.

Unfortunately, bird rescue never worked for me. When I was nine, I tried to save a baby sparrow that I found. I even called the Bronx Zoo (THE zoo if you live in New York) for tips on how to feed it. When it died I was so devastated that my Dad (OB"M) promised me I could have a parakeet for my tenth birthday if I so wanted one. [Parenting lesson: insist on a cooling off period before pet ownership for a child.] On the day of my birthday (around six months later) I made him take me to the pet store (Erev Shabbos) and we bought Sir Chirpalot. He lived five years and died about a month after my Dad passed away.

WORST PREDICTIONS COME TRUE

When the current crisis in Israel and Gaza erupted, I feared that kidnapping would become the preferred new terror tactic. This morning it appears that the nightmare has become true. My predictions: For Israel to make any impact regarding the Lebanon affair, they'll have to push through the border area which is a no man's land controlled by Hizbullah into the Lebanese heartland, where the government holds sway. That's the only way to pressure Lebanon into reigning in Hezbollah, which by Michael Totten's accounts (if memory serves) most Lebanese regard as the crazy cousin that they let roam free in the border area and try to ignore.

BOOK TITLES

I've had a longstanding fascination with a fictitious book title I made up many years ago: The Rapes of Grath. I haven't been able to come up with a treatment (industry speak for basic script plotline) but I've always been in love with the title. I've just added a new title (sans plot) to my repertoire: Neil Before God. Talk amongst yourselves.

TWO WORDS REDUX

So, this weekend my lower right quadrant (of my mouth) started aching and even I, layman that I am, could clearly see a hole in my molar that I could drive a car through. Sigh, time to visit the dentist again. After much injecting of the novocaine and drilling of the enamel, the verdict was in: yet another root canal -this one even more severe than the first. Apparently, the decay was so bad under an old filling that, when done, the tooth will end below the gumline, neccesitating some reconstructive gum surgery to prepare for an eventual crown after the pulpectomy is done. I feel like the unlucky homeowner that starts having his bathroom replaced only to learn that -natch- the floorbeams are cracked and need to be replaced (true story, that, ask my Mom.) Then the contractor leaves with a gaping hole in the living room ceiling with a beautiful vantage point of porcelain, only to disappear for three weeks without a forwarding number. (Same true story.) When I'm done I at least hope the good doctor has the decency to name a wing in his office after me. Or tell his kids who paid for their fancy tuition.

FUNNYMEN

He's alive, and I chuckle whenever I see his picture. He's dead, and he's missed. (Hat Tip: Digg.)

VERY COOL: NASA footage of shuttle rocketing away from discarded booster from booster POV (point of view)

ZOOTOPIA

Took my family to the Queens Zoo yesterday. Nice little park. The theme for the park seems to be endangered species, which is a bit of a downer. For some reason there seemed to be more going on with the local fauna than the animals on display, which were mostly dozing in the noon heat. Except for the sheep, that is. They were lining up with military precision for some mysterious reason and bleating away. The rabbits and birds hiding in the bushes, though, were far more animated. Behold the amazing Oreo Cow!

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP DEPT.: Brooklyn: Crowd Attacks Driver After Accident (NYTimes, free registration req'd. Article will/may expire.)

LIFE IMITATES ART DEPT.: REAL LIFE APPALACHIAN E.R.

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass light bulb in his anus.... You can't make this stuff up...

FLASHBACK WEEKEND

Some (IMHO) classics from my past that I'm bringing up for review: CHILDISH. SOBER. ODD. PRESCIENT. PRESCIENT 2. MEA CULPA. MARRIED BY THE MOB. RETURN FROM HIATUS 1. THE IDEA.

ALSO: Shout out to all my peeps enjoying themselves at Savard's Summercamp '06. Burn the candle on both ends dudes. Light my lamp. Raise your cups to Towelie and don't forget to lime (liberally) after use.

HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS

Do you remember the book from when you were a kid? Now it's going to be a movie! (So's Charlotte's Web.)

REMEMBER

Russel asked me to pass this on...

DEAR SASHA

An open letter to Sasha Baron Cohen:

Mr. Cohen,

When you inhabit one of your personas, are you totally in character during and after the performance? Do you remain in character in between takes? (In other words, do you get all Andy Kaufman on us?) Where you inspired to do Borat from Mahir? What do you make of the "Throw the Jew Down the Well" episode? I understand there's (at least) latent antisemitism in the room, do you think its more vicious than that? Or is it just good-natured bad taste gone wild? (Case in point: Hadji girl.) When the light bulb goes on in your, ah, victims' tiny little heads, do they realize that they're being played or do they just think that your character's an idiot? Do they then play along or become defensive? For each good clip, are there many "interviews" that don't pan out comedy-wise? Are there interviews that are just plain not entertaining that don't make the cut? If so, what is the average ratio of good to bad that you encounter?

If you're ever in New Jersey, would you come to us for a Shabbos meal?

Regards,
Jake

MOBY DICK UPDATE

The sage Richard Aboulafia weighs in on the magnitude of the Airbus A380 disaster that is shaping up.

HUZZAH!

Futurama returns!

RANDOM

My daughter's friend has a blog. What can I say, Basya's not quite the wordsmith.

Airbus' bad news just keeps getting worse. It's about time the laws of economics and every old saw about free markets comes home to roost at this European make-work project's doorstep.

Read IAGBlog. It's not as good as the dearly departed enplaned, but it will have to do for my daily fix.

The space shuttle's replacement takes shape -and not a moment too soon.

VIRTUAL COFFEE

WTF? If I saw this after drinking my morning cup 'o joe, you can bet I'd wean myself off the caffeine right quick! (hat tip: boing boing.)

CHASING SKIRT...

Steak, that is. Shout out to my buddy Russel, who introduced us to the wonders of grilling a juicy cut of skirt steak marinated in Jerk or Teriyaki, Mmmm, mmmm, good!

TWO WORDS

Two simple words: root and canal. Benign. Banal, even. Put them together, though, and they conjure up more fear than Al Qaeda. I feel like a series of small bombs just went off in my upper left quadrant. Oy.

THANK YOU

To the dudes that leave newspapers neatly tucked away in the myriad corporate commodes I have visited in my consulting career. You are the wind beneath my wings.

HOLIDAY

I don't usually celebrate the death of one of G-d's creatures, but when a genocidal, racist and -generally speaking- medieval maniac is finally tracked down and turned into Texas chili by some well placed explosives delivered courtesy of the U.S. Air Force, well, that's a good thing. Finally something to cheer about in Iraq. Rest in pieces Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

UNRELATED: Wanna buy a house? Three?

CLOUDS

It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that "cloud" computing is the next big thing (If indeed it isn't already the current big thing.) What I term cloud computing is the utilization of service clouds for our everyday computing tasks. More and more we turn to Google's cloud for watching and sharing videos, searching (of course,) mapping and such. We also use Amazon's cloud for retail transactions of any kind. (A great many of the retailers we use piggyback on Amazon's cloud to provide merchandise to their customers. Retailers such as Toys 'R' Us.) Amazon isn't just a store, it's a provider of e-store technology to other stores. The other great clouds of our time are Yahoo! and -in distant fourth- Microsoft. Yahoo! is the original cloud and has a hard time defining exactly what it does better than anyone else -the AOL of our time. Still, Yahoo! does many things well (search, mail, pictures and mapping) and is constantly trying to reinvent itself to latch on to a permanent niche -one it hasn't really had since Google took over the search crown so many years ago. Microsoft, via its MSN and Live properties is a poor provider of service -witness its lackluster search and mail offerings- but has the ability to steal revenue from the aforementioned pure web plays by virtue of its desktop markets hare. Also, Microsoft's map service Windows Live Local (who ever thought of that name?) is a brilliant but little known also ran in the mapping field.

What's next in cloud computing? Mashups. Mashups combine services from multiple sources into meta-applications. The services are exposed via public interfaces (API's) and enable sophisticated applications to be developed without purchasing or hosting much of the data componentry that does the heavy lifting of the application. Popular mashups include adding functionality to public mapping services such as Frappr and Cheap Gas which rely on Google's mapping API. A plethora of mashups exist for Amazon's cloud of API's and services as well. Future mashups will make greater use of Amazon's S3 Simple Storage Service to provide diskless data hosting services. I, in fact, intend to pursue this option for my next generation of application development research and development.

BLEAK

Fareed Zakaria paints a scary picture. Unfortunately, this scenario seems all too likely.

Que Sera Lee, watching you self-destruct in last night's Apprentice was tragic:

1. You picked a terrible team.
2. You handed Sean an advantage by not forcing the Englishman with 2 women and a Mensa snob to handle a hockey game instead of a Barenaked Ladies concert.
3. You really looked and sounded like a child in front of your task sponsor and in front of the Donald's lieutenant.
4. Pepi? Pepi?
5. Has Lenny contributed anything thus far?

Shout out to Isaac and Bara!

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Sun Micro should concentrate more on services. They'd make a killing selling their superior stack to IBM shops if they half tried.
• I officially declare the Iraq intervention a failure. Mind you, I don't think it was a bad idea, but we can't seem to prevent the country from devolving. And no, I don't think the Democrats would have done a better job of it either.
• I don't see the point of Pontiac. Sure, the Solstice is nice and the G6 coupe is a stunner, but otherwise GM should probably let the division go quietly into the night.
• By personal experience, Chimney Tuna is Good Eats!

BY POPULAR DEMAND

The amazing Dancing Basya!

TOO MANY COOKS

<geekpost>I read with interest the latest in a spate of flame wars and “informed opinions” regarding the Java IDE brouhaha between the folks who like to code using the Eclipse IDE and those who think that NetBeans is the bee’s knees. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m both an Eclipse and a NetBeans user, although I’ve been using NetBeans pretty exclusively as of late.)  In Too Many Cooks Spoils the IDE, Robert Thornton posits that Eclipse’s successful nature is causing it to be a less capable IDE than NetBeans. While there’s some truth to the argument that the confusion of all the Eclipse plugins and such hampers usability, that’s pretty much admitting that Eclipse is a victim of its own success. I don’t hear anyone complaining that Linux’s myriad packages makes it a less appropriate operating system than, say Windows, although the exact same argument can be made. When (says I) the confusion of Eclipse packages and “personalities” (an Eclipse-ism) becomes an overwhelming issue (and I suspect it will, soon) subprojects will form to steer specific personalities into convenient distributions to alleviate the pain of the problem. It’s childish to complain that the phenomenal rate of Eclipse adoption amongst third party tools vendors gives it a distinct disadvantage, although clearly NetBeans’ simplicity and pretty much single-vendor involvement does give it more of a “designed under a single roof” feel. My take on the whole Eclipse vs. NetBeans war? In a nutshell, there’s room for two competing IDE’s but Sun needs to figure out what its value proposition is for its entire app dev and deployment stack is. Giving it all away doesn’t add to the bottom line and whatever strategy they are pursuing isn’t either.</geekpost>

2 QUIET

Two of my frequent reads seem to have gone silent as of yesterday. Benador Associates, a conservative think-tank and enplaned, a blog about the aviation industry both seem to have shut their doors at some point over the weekend. I hope it's only temporary in both cases, but I fear the worst. Sigh.

FALCON DOWN

SpaceX’s revolutionary inexpensive rocket, the Falcon 1, was lost 25 seconds into its inaugural flight. I got to watch the video feed of the launch and saw the rocket camera roll before losing the feed. Since it was just before the Sabbath, EST, that the launch took place, I had to turn off the computer and couldn’t find out conclusively what happened. Que Sera, although it’s worth noting that all the major rocketry attempts suffered from poor track records at their inception. At 6.7 million a copy, the Falcon is certainly cheap enough to plug on and keep trying. Keep the faith, SpaceX, you'll get there!

SCOOPED

Was watching Domestic Disturbance the other day (fell asleep & never got through it) with wifey and noticed yet another role in which Steve Buscemi gets bumped off. It’s become his M.O. Been meaning to blog about it. Sure enough, this morning the New York Times beats me to the punch. Read: They Keep Killing Steve Buscemi, but He’s Not Complaining (NYTimes, free registration req’d, will time out after a few days.)

ALL YOUR DOG ARE BELONG TO US*

This Popular Science article about “BigDog,” a U.S. Army sponsored, Sherpa-style robot built to accompany soldiers on patrol carrying several hundred pounds of gear is neat. The accompanying video, through, is outrageously cool. You’d think you’re watching some crazy Blue Man Group sketch or something. The legs on this beastie are uncannily human.

*Play on the All Your Base Are Belong To Us internet phenomenon, circa 2001-2002

QUICK NOTE

Baby Bayla Golda (after my wife’s great-grandmother) was born Sunday night, March 19 (20 Adar, 5766) Mother, daughter and big sister Basya are all doing great! Ecstasy tinged with chaos reigns for now.

FORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCE

I wonder if anyone has caught on to the happy circumstance that many of our reservists fighting in Iraq have extensive law enforcement experience. It seems that this type of experience should be quite valuable fighting the “asymmetric” war we seem to be caught up in. Also, David Ingatius comments on our military’s increased competence in executing the war.

WHAT OUR PARENTS KNEW

My father, OB”M, when he would sing to us as children, changed the ending to the song “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.” Instead of “perhaps she’ll die,” he sang “Perhaps she’ll get sick!” which seemed perfectly natural to me and my siblings when we were little and perfectly hilarious when we got older. As it turns out, my wife’s mother did something similar with “It’s raining, it’s pouring.” Instead of “he went to bed and bumped his head and couldn’t get up in the morning” she sang “he got up late in the morning.” Which I just used as further proof that Lorraine and I were truly meant for each other…

OOH! LET'S WHISPER!

Because that’s what passes for being romantic these days. (At least according to the Bachelor/ette.)

FUNNY: If Microsoft designed the box the iPod came in. (Hat tip: Ned)

WHAT KIND ARE YOU?

When I break apart a pair of chopsticks I rub together the ends that were attached. Those are the ends that have splinters that can embed in my palm as I eat my food. My wife, on the other hand, sands the eating ends. She claims that it reduces her chance of eating wood. Despite this onerous disagreement, we manage to get along and inhabit the same space amicably. Last night, as we were watching In Her Shoes, Mark Feuerstein’s character broke open a pair of chopsticks and promptly began sanding my way. Triumphantly, I turned to my wife and proclaimed something along the lines of: “Hah!” Fittingly, the very next shot had Toni Collette’s character break open her pair of chopsticks, turn them around, and sand them as my wife would. The debate rages on.

GAY RODEO: I just watched the episode of King of the Hill, “My Own Private Rodeo” where Dale reconciles with his father, Bug, the star of the gay rodeo. Has to be one of the all-time great KOTH episodes, up there with “Aisle 8A.”

OVERHEARD: Heidi Klum’s guest character on Spin City: “We have a saying in Germany: Better to have loved and lost than to engage in a land war with Russia in the winter.”

LAST CARTOONGATE POST, I PROMISE

While my friend Scott and I agree totally that the correct response to the cartoon controversy is NOT rioting, destruction and death, there is -it appears- more to the story than meets the eye. Andrew Sullivan links to this counterpoint and this interesting fact. Scott led me to this article, by Pat Buchanan (not a man I’m otherwise inclined to agree with,) which casts the cartoons in a more provocative light. It seems clear to me that the recent unrest has been sparked by some pretty nefarious political actors. It also seems that the original publishers of the cartoons are less than innocent, though. What struck me most, though, is how hard one has to dig to fully flesh out the story. Our regular media channels increasingly don't seem to do the important topics justice.

NEWS FLASH: FRENCH SHOW SPINE

I must not draw Muhammed. Read Andrew’s previous post to see the depths of hypocrisy regarding this issue.

PALESTINIAN ELECTION IN RETROSPECT: Taheri, I believe, gets it right.

RSS AS A SYSTEM SERVICE

This is very cool. Once again, it has taken Microsoft to figure out the potential of an OS-level service for a commonly used internet device.

NEW BROWSER ON THE BLOCK

The Internet Explorer 7 public beta has been released. First impressions? Slick, though slower than IE6 on equivalent hardware (although that may be due to debug code.) Mainly I see it as a catch-up play to the current browser king, Firefox. Actually, surprising how many Firefox features have been incorporated into IE7.

THE POWER(POINT) OF THE DARK SIDE.

JUST WONDERING...

Am I the only Malibu Maxx owner who actually thinks his car is pretty handsome?

A THOUGHT...

Why does throwing out old flowers always make me feel a little sad?

STOP THE PRESSES!

Thomas Lennon, the bookish advertising sidekick to Matthew McConaughey who reminds me of nothing more than a pint-sized, younger Charles Grodin in How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days (not bad) is non other than Lieutenant Jim Dangle!

PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS

While I’m no fan of Hamas, I can certainly understand why they did so well in the Palestinian election. Fatah (the current ruling party) is its own worst enemy. At best inept and at worst (more likely) a criminal enterprise that would make Tony Soprano blush, Fatah has does nothing for its constituents. While the same could be said of the Nazi party and Mussolini’s Fascists –hey, they did make the trains run on time- at least Hamas provides social services, doesn’t have the stink of corruption nor does it have the taint of running things further into the ground (amazingly even possible) that Arafat’s erstwhile party has.

So, here’s to hoping that there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud. It’s been said that nothing tempers a radical group like the requirement to actually govern. This maxim has proven to be patently untrue –as has every other political colloquialism- in the Middle East. Let’s hope (however futile) that the metaphorical Nixon can go to China on this one. (If that’s too obtuse for my readership, let me know & I’ll elaborate.)

UPDATE: This Jerusalem Post columnist makes many of the same points.

WITH HIS HANDS AND HIS FEET

SNL Digital shorts do it again! Young Chuck Norris. Sublimely ridiculous.

EAST COAST VS. WEST COAST: Lazy Monday.

SUBTEXT: Youtube rocks!

FECAL (AND OTHER) MATTERS

I’m not a regular viewer of the Daily Show. As of late my right-leaning tendencies have been at odds with Mr. Stewart’s regular lampooning of the current administration. It’s not that I disagree; I just don’t need to be reminded of our country’s political incompetencies on a regular basis. To be fair, his show is on Comedy Central and not, say, CNN, but my idjit-box time is limited and I’d rather watch pure escapist drivel such as My Name is Earl on the DVR than the quasi-news/comedy shows -no matter how funny or topical. But I digress, the point I started out making is that I’ve been flipping channels and catching Mr. Stewart interviewing –on separate occasions- Former CIA Director James Woolsey and, today, Former Administrator Paul Bremer. Both are pitching books (Funding Evil and My Year in Iraq, respectively.) Both were engaging, witty and enjoyed an excellent rapport with Mr. Stewart. I was impressed by the level of the dialogue and only wished the interviews lasted longer. Way longer.

SIDEBAR: Why can’t my upstairs neighbor get a handle on the physics of toilet use? I’m getting tired of –literally- cleaning up his crap.

NON SEQUITUR: Teller, of Penn and Teller, on an encounter with a Dolphin. (Hat tip: Ned)

THE FUTUR(AMA) LOOKS ROSY

According to Billy West (the voice of Fry, Farnsworth and Zoidberg) Futurama will be back in the form of four full-length movies for DVD release. Woohoo! While I don’t own any of the series DVD’s, I’d definitely ante up for some of these.

The phenomena of DVD sales and alternative channels (read: iTunes video sales)  means that fans of marginally popular shows such as the erstwhile canceled Firefly, Family Guy and now Futurama can have a prospect of new material. It seems the key ingredient (besides quality) is low production and (re)startup costs. Cartoons fit the bill especially well because voice actors get paid a lot less than live-action actors and -well- cartoon characters don’t age. [Plug for a voice talent that I know here.] Mark my words (or any other media pundit, for that matter) the future is in these alternative channels. I’ve always maintained that the real reason George Lucas (AKA the Flannelled One) made the new Star Wars films is to foot the bill for a massive investment in digital filmmaking. Digital filmmaking is key to the future of low-cost, live action productions. Expect to see more of niche shows that have marginal followings on scheduled television slots but make up for the shortfall in the alternative channel.

ALSO: Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet deliver surprisingly soulful performances in A Lot Like Love.    

FOR GEEK EYES ONLY

A technical discussion on BigTable, a homegrown component in Google’s arsenal that helpes make some of the Google Magic happen.

HAT TIP: Ewan Silver

Serenity

Serenity was good. Real good. The Star Wars prequels should have been half this good, good.

LOOK TO THE SKIES

As of late my infomania has directed its attention to the airline/aerospace industry. Those who know me know that I have always been fascinated by airplanes since an early age and, in fact, had dreams of being an aerospace engineer that were only thwarted by reality and my apparent lack of spatial reasoning ability. In particular, the blog enplaned is a fascinating read on the airplane/airline business. Some salient points that interest me at the moment:

• The upcoming Boeing 787 Dreamliner, by virtue of its all composite (read: plastic) construction will have a game changing customer experience. Think: panoramic windows (possible due to the higher strength of the fuselage) space-age design flourishes and –most importantly- a higher atmospheric pressure cabin (again, due to the higher strength of the composite fuselage) that will translate into higher cabin humidity levels and the attendant greater comfort and lower incidence of getting sick from the ride. Also, the plane’s efficiency should allow for lower ticket prices overall. I, for one, can’t wait.
• Contrary to those who look at the mess that is the domestic airline industry and point the finger of blame all the way back to the Carter administration’s deregulation -deregulation has been a good thing. As enplaned points out, the point of the whole exercise was to rescue the consumer. Who can argue that airplane travel has increased exponentially in the past quarter-century or so while inflation-adjusted prices have only gotten lower and lower? The relative health of the European market carriers only points to the looming shakeout they will experience as they deregulate –which is happening in fits and starts- and not the superiority of their business model.
• The Eclipse 500 VLJ (Very Light Jet) marches on towards getting its expected type certification this year. This plane is another game changer that, when certified, will be mass produced by the thousands. At a measly 1.5 mil a pop for a twinjet that seats 4 and flies from the tiny municipal airports that dot the landscape around this great country of ours, the dream of being able to charter an air taxi for a point to point trip to anywhere for about the price of a business-class seat is about to become a reality. Goto Dayjet or Pogo for reservations… Prediction: if this market takes off, expect Honda to jump in with its own mass-produced VLJ. For now, the market belongs to the aforementioned Eclipse and the Adam 700. Potential fly-in-the-ointment: the FAA’s creaking air-traffic control system may hobble the concept.

As you can tell, I’m juiced about the aerospace business. I firmly believe that aviation and aerospace –with the recent democratization of space access- will be a big growth area in the not too distant future. Credit goes to Rich Karlgaard and an article about Eclipse a few years ago (that I can't find anymore) for my resurgent interest in the field.

DULY NOTED: I've switched my blog posting toolkit to the (free) Blogger for Word add-in. Try it!

KRAZY KARMA

I was just about to post about how the Lazy Sunday, a.k.a. the Chronic...(what?)...cles of Narnia, SNL short has taken on a life of its own on the internet when Newsweek beat me to the punch.

BLUE: In an odd premonition, our Betta, Blue, died last Thursday. Today I learn that Actor Patrick Cranshaw, who played Blue in Old School has passed. "You're my boy, Blue!" RIP.

SHOUT OUT to my "big sister" Wendy in Chitown. Vendela? what's with the guy holding the Beagle? Nu? (asked to the tune of Madonna playing Linda Richman's friend Liz Rosenberg.)

TWO MUSICAL JEWS that live in my 'hood (and pray in my synagogue): Mennu (blog) and Seth.

HERE'S THE THING

I was watching the Adam Corolla Project and I have to say that Adam is quite an amusing character. His banter always puts a grin on my face. He digressed into musing that the next leap forward in dentistry will be the preemtive darting of patients. Basically, if you have, say, a root canal coming up, you'll be hanging out with your friends and whap! you'll feel a sting in your neck and wake up a few hours later with you mouth packed full of gauze. Presto! no more worrying about going to the dentist as the final pain barrier to dentistry comes down. In other television related observations, David Spade's Showbiz Show is quite funny. Ridonculous, as he puts it.

OTHERWISE: Kat braves the strike in NYC. Damien braves the wrath of Lotus Notes developers. Airbus builds the biggest white whale ever.

WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?

At what point did every single squeezable consumable item in my refrigerator switch to upside-down packaging?

C. MONTGOMERY BURNS, The Forbes Profile

DANE COOK, SNL

Watched Dane Cook on this week's SNL. Wife & I were struck by how much he resembles a cross between Will Ferrell from the show with a little bit of Ryan Reynolds thrown in. (And a touch of Nick Swardson.) I wasn't crazy about the long monologue/stand-up bit, but his sketch with the itchy turtleneck was priceless -perhaps the most original sketch of the season. It doesn't surprise me that Dane was considered for a castmember last year, not after watching him writhe in agony under a huge hairy turtleneck at a holiday party.

A GOOD IDEA...

...Long overdue. A decent proposal by Mssrs. Obama & Lugar.

INSPIRED PIECE OF OFFBEAT COMEDY: A witty employee of Sun Micro penned this...

TWO YEARS

Today is our two year anniversary. As I sat watching our wedding video DVD with Lorraine it hit me: It's been a fairy tale where the clock never strikes twelve. What a ride!

UNRELATED: What happens when professional automotive engineers get into soapbox car racing...

CAN'T HARDLY WAIT

Ordered a new couch, finally. Gonna replace this ratty old futon with this splendid edifice for our collective posteriors. Yay!

PICTURES OF PLASTIC FRUIT

As promised, pictures of the succah taken shortly before the start of the holiday. I only wish I could photograph it as it was filled with food and people over the last two days.

PLASTIC FRUIT

So I finished putting up a succah (temporary dwelling) last night for the upcoming festival of Succot (Tabernacles) which begins tonight. Correction: I finished putting up THE succah. THE succah that has been in my family for twenty-five years. THE succah that kindles fond memories of my family and extended family's (grandparents and first cousins) sharing meals and life together every fall season: Memories of making bird's egg decorations with my Bubby (OB"M) for the succah. Memories of my father (OB"M) whacking his head on a hanging bamboo chime every time he entered. Memories of all the kids oohing and ahh-ing when Aunt Perri brought out her annual Boston Cream Pie for dessert the second night (my father -her brother's- namesake ushpizin night.) Memories of cowering in fear of the inevitable lone bee that strayed inside and the associated memory of my Uncle Wes (OB"M) insisting that if we'd just be patient bees always rise to the top. (Sidebar: We always had a hard time telling fact from fiction with Uncle Wes.) Of course, there was the singing. My G-d, the singing. My sisters and cousins were so melodious we'd have requests shouted at us from succahs down the block. Mostly, I have memories of our close-knit extended family sharing each other's company and feeling secure that we would spend every Succot together the same way. Unfortunately but inevitably, those days came to an end. This year, though, I'm putting together the succah for the first time in my own home and for my own family. I'll be hosting my in-laws and -for different meals throughout the holiday- a great many family and friends. Life has a way of coming full circle and I look forward to the beginning of the holiday tonight with greater anticipation than I've felt in years.

When we bought THE succah, it was state-of-the art. Now, twenty-five years later, it's a pain by contemporary standards to erect, thus no one in my family really wants it. Whatever, it's mine now and I'm not giving it back. After putting the finishing touches on the succah, tightening all the rigging, nursing my rope-burned, bamboo splinter-scarred hands, dusting off and hanging the last of the old decorations, all I could think of was: "Wow, we had a lot of plastic fruit."

GOOGLE TOOTH, STUPID

The best reason yet (IMHO) to get a job at Google. Google Tooth!

FASTEST MEME COMING AND GOING: "Don't get stuck on stupid!," General Russel Honore's classic line when admonishing reporters in the aftermath of Katrina/Rita was poised to become the next Mother of all internet catchphrases. Then it didn't. What happened?

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (NOT REALLY)

A sweet little vignette from a cardiac surgeon on the operating table with an elderly Orthodox Jewish patient. (NYTimes, free registration req'd, may be restricted after a time)

ALSO: What all the fuss about bird flu is about.

LEWIS ON NOLA

A hilariously funny, poignant piece on Pre and Post-Katrina New Orleans (NYTimes, free registration req'd, will evetually timeout.) From the writer of Liar's Poker (a Wall Street classic.)

IRAQ (AGAIN)

The Iraqi constitutional referendum is coming up and I have an opinion I'd like to share:

I think that the federal system the referendum espouses is fair and probably makes the most sense given the demography of the land. I can understand Sunni worries -despite constitutional guarantees of revenue sharing- that their central "statelet" gets shortchanged in a federal arrangement since the oil is in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south. On the one hand, the disenfranchised Sunnis are reaping the fruits of their unfortunate decision to boycott the previous general election and their subsequent underrepresentation in the current government. On the other hand, they do seem to have gotten on board the election bandwagon now and the Sunnis (clearly) can act as spoilers in every arena if their concerns aren't addressed.

My synopsis is as follows:

If the referendum fails, the Sunnis will at least feel that they have been empowered by the new Iraqi democratic model and their resistance to the whole national agenda should suffer a blow. In such a scenario, the constitutional committee goes back to the drawing board and the result probably resembles the initial attempt, with some more unified precepts to tie the Sunni provinces closer to the rest of the country. (The Kurdish region has been pretty much autonomous for the better part of a decade.) The defacto eventual look of the country (barring a return to a more totalitarian regime) will resemble the federal model anyways.

IN OTHER, VERY COOL NEWS: The DARPA Grand Challenge, a goverment sponsored race to develop a vehicle that can autonomously navigate a 131 mile course has been won. Pending an official announcement, the team from Stanford University crossed the finish line in around eight hours. The eventual goal of this program is to have robotic vehicles deliver supplies for American troops in risky environments without exposing personnel to the hazards (roadside bombs, ambush) of the job.

ANTICIPATION

If you know me at all, you'd know that I posses a keen interest in all things avionic. I've loved airplanes since I was a kid (what boy hasn't?) but followed it up with a voracious reading appetite for all things airplane and airplane related. As a boy of ten or so, I'd read accounts of World War II air battles and memorize the planes, pilots and events. I'd dutifully check out the latest Aviation Week & Space Technology periodical at the local library and study the contemporary aerospace industry. Mind you, AW&ST is not light reading for a ten year old, it's more of a trade rag for a very sophisticated industry. I LOVED IT. To this day I still check out the AW&ST website a few times a week, although they've recently put their juiciest content behind a paid subscription service so the knowledge I glean from them is waning. [Sidebar, shame on you AW&ST and double-shame on you NYTimes online, for same offense]

So what am I anticipating? I just got two 1/72 scale P-40 Warhawk kits in the mail. I plan on building them together with my 9 year old nephew. He's a precocious little kid and seems more inclined to enjoy such intellectual pursuits as building and learning about the historical significance of this grand old warbird than bouncing a rubber ball. It's a fitting substitute for what was supposed to be my birthday present for him: A trip to Teterboro airport to see the visiting B-17G "Yankee Lady." The visit, unfortunately, was cancelled due to airport construction. In my perfect world, we'll patiently talk about the plane, the Flying Tigers and other World War II related topics as we lovingly craft accurate miniatures for him to hang from the ceiling of his bedroom. In reality, at least my sister will be happy to get my nephew out of the house and doing something creative for a few hours a week.

ALT.MISC

Last night wifey & I sat through pretty much all of the Emmys. I was amazed. Amazed that I sat through the whole thing and amazed that the show marked perhaps the most entertained I've ever been watching an awards show. Ellen DeGeneres was a witty host, and the Emmy Idol shtick was hilarious. I voted for William Shatner and some Mezzo Soprano I've never heard of's rendition of the theme from Star Trek, purely on kitch value, but Donald Trump and Megan Mullaly's Green Acres won. To be fair, I cheated. Having a DVR allows me to be able to fast forward through commercials, take breaks and skip the dull awards. Conan O'Brien's attempt to belt out the theme from Charles in Charge during his presentation was funny, as was his writing team's micro-sketch (an innovation from last year that was well-received.)

In geek news, I've finally licked the devilish BIOS problems that prevented me from successfully upgrading my Mom's circa-20th century PC's hard drive. I snapped in a supposedly new 40 gig unit to upgrade the existing 10 gig drive but needed to upgrade the computer's BIOS to recognize drives larger than 30 gigs. (A common problem in systems of that vintage.) Anyhoo, refreshing the BIOS was way more difficult and time consuming than it should be, owing in no small part to the generic, white-box construction of the unit. Major manufacturers package this kind of support much better on their web sites. I had to do lots of serious hunting for files and reading of esoteric message boards on the peculiarities of this BIOS manufacturer. An interesting side note is that the "new " hard drive I purchased actually had loads of someone else's data on it. Egads.

REALLY SHORT MOVIE REVIEWS

1. The Jacket: Good
2. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Bad
3. Miss Congeniality 2, Armed and Fabulous: Ugly

HHR

I was all set to dismiss the new Chevy HHR as a Johnny-come-lately to the retro-cruiser market. Pictures of the vehicle made it look like a poorly styled knockoff of a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Then I saw one in person. Let me tell you, it looks way better in the metal than it does on paper. This is one sweet little car. Nice job, Chevy.

CLARIFICATION

My post on Katrina didn't intend to indemnify the Federal handling of the disaster. I merely (thought I) was pointing out that the recriminations began to fly within 24 hours of the hurricane hitting land and the way the complaints were handled smells of incompetency and buck passing. I have no doubt that upon a thorough investigation errors will be found in the handling of the hurricane and its aftermath throughout the chain of command, but that initial haste to blame the feds smacks more of political opportunism to me than anything else. In a nutshell, with regard to the local and state officials of New Orleans and Louisiana respectively, people in (extremely fragile) glass houses should not be throwing stones.

USS MINNOW, CREWLESS

Gilligan and Skipper are bunking on top of each other again in the great hammock in the sky.

RIP, Bob Denver

KATRINA

Oy, everyone is talking about Katrina, how to help, the tragedy and the dimension of the aquatic holocaust. Beyond that, the big question going around is Whom to blame? Clearly, local authorities, who had first crack at the problem at who should be closest to the ground for disaster planning and recovery, need to have their feet held to the fire for the complete malfunction of civil order and services. I see more grandstanding by Mayor Nagin in an effort to pass the buck than I see leadership. Clearly, he's no Rudy. Also as clear, is that New York City's largesse and civic professionalism had me -as well as the rest of the U.S.- spoiled. Let's face it, New York is rich and important with a budget and civil sector that surpass many not-so-tiny countries'. Any attempts to cast the wider net of blame at this time should be treated as speculation and deleterious to the overall business of disaster relief. Frankly, reports that the Bush administration is to blame for this mess are irresponsible and premature at best. It's actually gotten to the point that German pols have seized upon the notion that Bush's policies on the environment are a direct cause of this tragedy. This canard doesn't even smack of junk science -it's flat out lunacy, and should give rational Americans (and human beings) a reminder how quick some people are to demonize us for no apparent reason. This Tech Central Station article (admittedly from a conservative viewpoint) is the most balanced piece on the Lake Pontchartrain levee malfunction I've read to date.

UPDATE: Free Will agrees with me.

Ben Stein (THE Ben Stein) weighs in as well.

ALL YOUR POOL ARE BELONG TO US*

An amazing story about how a computerized pool monitoring system saved the life of a little girl. A complete photolog of the event is atatched to the story.
*see wikipedia article for explanation

I FINALLY FOUND IT

The totally awesome Malibu Rum "The Bus" ("you're late") ad. Also, the "melons" ad.

TANOREXIA

Addiction to tanning. Nice. Suge Knight got shot? No way.

BUMP

I hit my head on a shelf over the changing table when diapering my daughter yesterday. Now, when I touch someone, an electric jolt courses through me, I launch into a poor imitation of Christopher Walken and can tell whether the person I touched had a bowel movement that day.

TRAGEDY

Today in the Hebrew calendar is the ninth of the month of Av, (Tish'a B'Av) in which we commemorate the destruction of the first and second Holy Temples, over two thousand years ago. This day is earmarked as an intense day of mourning and reflection on the tragic events as well as the failings of our nation that caused us to merit these calamities. It is also a day of fasting. Interestingly, Tish'a B'Av is one of two fast days on the Jewish calendar that begin at dusk the evening before -as opposed to sunrise of- the day itself. As Tish'a B'Av falls out during the height of the summer months, this means that it is usually the longest fast of the year. As I am a notoriously bad faster, I dread this day for this corporeal reason about as much as for its spiritual significance.

While my personal feelings towards the Gaza withdrawals are that they are a necessary political step, I moan the tragedy of uprooting families and communities that forged their existence out of blood, sweat and tears. It's prophetic that this action's first concrete steps are taken on this day of national mourning for the Jewish people.

UNRELATED TRAGEDY: I read today of a 737 crash near Athens (Greece, not Georgia) it sounds like a catastrophic decompression that caused the pilots to lose consciousness. How could they not have gotten their oxygen on in time to stave off a blackout? Interestingly, the news reports that Greek F-16s scrambled when the plane entered Greek airspace without making radio contact and shadowed the plane as it drifted into a hill. I'm actually impressed that the Greek Air Force reacted so quickly and effectively (as it were) to an airspace violation. How many times do we hear about airspace violations that go glaringly unchallenged even in the mighty good ole US of A?

IT'S NOT RELATIVE

When a Jewish terrorist strikes, the abhorrent act is immediately condemned by all facets of Jewish and Israeli life. The perpetrator is a terrorist and branded as such by Israeli, Jewish and world media. Mind you, despite dire predictions, this sort of thing only happens once in a blue moon (the last incident was around ten years ago) and the last two cases involved clearly unhinged individuals. So don't argue that we're all the same and we resort to the same (terror) tactics as our enemies. That lament just doesn't ring true.

PERFECT

Today's launch of Discovery and America's return to manned spaceflight was picture perfect. The new tank-mounted real time camera provided a spectacular view of the tank separation event from space. Spectacular though it may be, here's to hoping that NASA will get serious about a safer shuttle replacement this time and retire the aging beast as scheduled in 2010.

Word of the day: Nominal. NASA bureaucrats are congenitally incapable of exuberance. In this vein, a perfect launch is termed "nominal." Usage: "Wow, we just launched a 4.5 million pound Roman candle into space with a terminal velocity of twenty-five times the speed of sound. I feel nominal!" In a nutshell, this word sums up why manned spaceflight can, should and will be in the hands of private enterprise.

ADDENDA: The F-22 Raptor is America's primo warplane of the future. We paid a gazillion bucks for these things. Here's a pic of the first operational spec plane. At least it looks cool. Hat tip: Blackfive.  (The F-35 is the cheaper companion plane to the Raptor. It's not yet fully baked.)

LINKZOOKERY

Middle East for Geeks (hat tip: Tim Bray)

Google Maps goes hybrid (hat tip: Ars)

You do not want to light a match near this house. (Michael Yon)

Mowing the lawn with an Autistic son (hat tip: Ned Batchelder)

I will never get any closer to a Polar Bear (hat tip: me)

 

RANDY TRAVIS

Anyone see the King of the Hill episode where they attend a country music festival? It turns out Randy Travis is a schmuck -very funny. No offense to Mr. Travis, but the episode was hilarious.

RIP Scotty. The Lord hath beamed you up.

THE ARISTOCRATS

As a fan of the comedic arts, the movie the Aristocrats looks like a must-see. Watch the trailer here. Precious few movies that delve into the subject matter exist. Seinfeld's the Comedian was a noteworthy exception. Before that, I believe you have to go as far back as Punchline, with Sally Field and Tom Hanks. The small screen always has been and probably will continue to be a much better window for what fuels the creative process of a comedian with such fare as Dave Attell's Insomniac and Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

NYC SURVIVAL TIP (1 OF ??)

Muni meters are those big-box replacements for the ubiquitous parking meter. You can load up a muni meter receipt with pretty much as you want, and leave your car on a street parking spot in, say, the theater district for roughly 1/4 the price of a garage. The trick is having 6 to 8 bucks in change to feed the muni meter. For this I recommend keeping a stash of Sacagawea (or Susan B. Anthony) coins in your glove compartment. Alternately, going into a local shop and asking for change is a lot less offensive if you ask the shopkeeper for dollar coins. While proprietors may be reluctant to part with quarters from their register, they are usually more than happy to swap dollar coins for bills.

ALTERNATE MUSINGS: Are bullet points evil?

ON HUMOR

Wife & I made it out to see Mike Birbiglia last night at Caroline's.  It was billed in his advance newsletter as an experimental hourlong session with lots of new material, so we were excited to go. Plus, we never seem to get out anymore what with the baby & all. Mike didn't dissapoint, IMHO. Some notes:

• The bit on everything these days also having a built-in camera got us laughing. Reminded us of the Malibu Rum ad we just saw with the melons. Those Malibu ads are hilarious, I wish they were available on the 'net -they're some of the most original and funny ads out there.
• I forget the joke, but Mike made use of what I've called the 2-5 progression. Basically, jumping from the number 2 to the number 5 seems to be funny, as in: "Sex between two people is wonderful...between five it's fantastic" -Woody Allen, Standup Comic (sometime in the '60's.) I've heard that progression used in comedy before and it's a good one.
• The guitar sketches are new and quite funny. I hope this doesn't mean Mike's becoming a prop comic, though. I wonder, does the atheist's menu choices (bagel, cream cheese) indicate Jewish origin?

Sure fire way to initiate a monsoon in your neighborhood: Start watering the garden.

Peace out.

FASCINATING TIDBIT

David E. Davis Jr., former editor of Car and Driver magazine and founder of Automobile Magazine wrote ad copy for Automotive News in the '50s alongside Elmore Leonard. The Elmore Leonard. The master was just embarking on his career as a novelist at the time. Man, what a lucky break for DED.

SLICE OF LIFE

I haven't been posting as of late because all that's on my fragile little mind that I feel like writing about it technical in nature, and we all know how that pans out for my loyal reader(s).

Basically, life's been good, even though my muse seems to have left me for the time being. We watched "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" last night, which is a cute ditty of a movie with a surprisingly good cast. Topher Grace is, well, Topher Grace. He basically plays Eric Foreman in everything I've seen in him so far, with the notable exception of playing a long-haired Topher Grace trashing a hotel room in a fit of romantic rage in Ocean's Twelve. Honorable mention goes to Gary Cole, Lumbergh of Office Space fame, for the movie's best line: "Have her back by dawn. And NO COCAINE!"

The little one continues to grow in size and capabilities each day. She -amazingly- gets cuter every time I lay eyes on her.

We are having a farewell barbeque for my big sister Bena this Sunday , who's leaving to Israel for time period undefined. I will miss her something fierce.

TIP OF THE DAY: Watching the grenadine dissipate in  a Tequila Sunrise is neat. Drinking said concoction can cause temporary loss of consciousness, though.

NOTES, SECOND ACT

Another geek post.

I do a lot of work with IBM/Lotus Notes/Domino. That's IBM as in the purchaser of Lotus and Notes as in the core service that also provides Domino web applications. It's been my bread and butter since I graduated from college. I've been looking for alternative technologies that could provide similar services to what I do for a living with this combination for a long time. My criteria is:

• Ease of development- The Notes Designer is unparalleled in its ability to quickly get a secure robust application deployed on the internet -Bar none.
• Ease of integration with existing data sources -Notes can interface with relational data and its getting easier with each release. It's still not as simple as using the native Notes data store, though.
• Substantially lower cost of entry. A Notes server runs somewhere in the $8k range. This is just enough to trigger bells in large enterprises that don't have existing Notes infrastructures and usually beyond the budget of the SMB market I'd like to target more.
• Decreased vendor-dependence.
• Easier component segregation (i.e.: LDAP for security, RDBMS for data, Apache for presentation)

I've looked at several possibilities including:

• IBM Workplace, definitely doesn't lower the cost of entry or equal ease of development yet. I wouldn't be surprised if IBM improves on the product and offers an SMB solution as Workplace matures and gains traction.
• Zope. Pros are it has a rich object extensability and Jon Udell like it. Cons are that its pretty much a web browser development environment, which is a royal pain in this day and age.
• Struts/Tiles/insert "rogue" Java web framework cutesy name here. Aside from Struts, which is showing its age but seems to be the de-facto leader in mindshare for now, there's no standard that everyone can agree upon here. I worry about committing to a possible orphan product. Also, there aren't any acceptable GUI-ish drag and drop development environments for these tools (that I know of)
• J2EE. No way Jose.
• PHP. Cool, but lacks a good IDE. Dreamweaver sorta does PHP, but not really. (IMHO.)

Which leaves me with my current contender for the crown: Java Server Faces. JSF is a JSR standard, which reassures me that it will have acceptance. It's based upon existing JSP technologies, which are NOT J2EE (whew!) and don't require full J2EE software and support (It can be used/mixed with J2EE, though.) JSF has at least one competent drag 'n drop GUI IDE (Suns' Java Studio Creator) with more on the way. In particular, Sun's Java Studio only costs $99/year for developers and the apps are free (as in beer) to deploy. JSF has a component model that should encourage third-party developers to create widgets that can be easily incorporated into any JSF IDE/project. Still to come is better security control inside the development environment and components that utilize the AJAX principle for outstanding application interaction.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE: This interview with Rob Smigel, my current obsession, is illuminating and, yes, funny. Here's a classic Smigel bit as Triumph, the insult comic dog.

WORD OF THE MOMENT: Folksonomy

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