Monthly Archives: May 2011

I thought I was going for a nice long skate in the beautiful weather. My heart, lungs, and left (lift) knee had other plans, and cut me off at a little under 30 minutes. I didn’t realize I was that … Continue reading →

Posted on 2011-05-08 by pappp | Leave a comment

CNC Update

Posted on 2011-05-07 by pappp

I’ve been in a very mechanical sort of mood for the last couple days, no doubt owing to the all-software (and intangible even for that – what does that thing you’ve been working on do? – well, if I were sure it was working it would verify that an input sequence is valid in this language I made up…) sorts of things I’ve been doing of late. So, I pulled out my pile of mechatronics parts and started fiddling with it.

I’ve previously documented some of this elsewhere, and this isn’t a finished project, but I need a brain dump to package up various information, so I’m going to do a fairly thorough write up.
Continue reading →

Posted in Computers, DIY, Electronics, Entertainment, General, Objects | 2 Comments

Hundreds of dollars of parts, hours of fiddling and “Hey! It almost drew a circle!” (I’ve been playing with my CNC parts pile again – more later)

Posted on 2011-05-06 by pappp | Leave a comment

Wikileaks on Facebook

Posted on 2011-05-02 by pappp

It’s popping up all over the place, but to repost, Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ human lightningrod/figurehead, on Facebook:

” Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented. Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations and the communications with each other, their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to US intelligence. Facebook, Google, Yahoo – all these major US organizations have built-in interfaces for US intelligence. It’s not a matter of serving a subpoena. They have an interface that they have developed for US intelligence to use.
Now, is it the case that Facebook is actually run by US intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that US intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure on them. And it’s costly for them to hand out records one by one, so they have automated the process. Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies in building this database for them.”

Admittedly, [Citation Needed], but Assange has an amazingly good track record about having information to back up his claims, and this sounds entirely plausible. The terrible thing is, I’m less concerned about unscrupulous world governments having access to that sort of thing than I am about various unaccountable corporate entities having the same (and really, generally, less concerned about unscrupulous world governments than I am about various unaccountable corporate entities). I’m sure most people don’t care, but this kind of shit is why I don’t have a facebook account, and am careful to only deal with social websites in contexts where I want everything they know about me shared with everyone (With the semi-reluctant exception of Google, who knows everything about everyone anyway, opt-in or not, and provides excellent services for opting in).

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Osama Bin Laden is dead

Posted on 2011-05-02 by pappp

…and man, the internet is making a party of it. Media shitshow party points:
* Bunch of the news sites (and forums, etc.) crashing.
* Hilarious notes that this is eight years to the day after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech.
* He was killed by assassins in Packistan, completely ancillary to our $400Bn war in Afghanistan.

Sadly, this isn’t going to amount to much. The Patriot Act will still be in place. The TSA will be fucking shit up. The various wars in the middle east will continue. Ideologically similar/sympathetic assholes may even get riled up for a while. At least something was accomplished, small though it may be. Maybe we can pull one of these and wrap it up quickly afterwards?

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