Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m getting ready to launch (or, more properly, relaunch) my podcasts, so I added the MTEnclosures plugin and one of my favorite dance songs as a test.

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Presented for those of you who think that Perrysburg is boring, this story from the 10/11 Blade:

A pep rally at Perrysburg High School yesterday prompted complaints from students who were upset that a teacher displayed a dead cat at the event.

Two parents called the school district to complain about the dead cat on behalf of their children, who are students at the school, Perrysburg Superintendent Michael Cline said.

“We will be doing a thorough investigation on Monday,” he said.

“The teacher is willing to talk to those students who were upset by the situation and will make an apology to them sometime Monday.”

The pep rally, held during the end of the school day, preceded a football game between Perrysburg and Maumee high schools. The schools are longtime rivals.

The cat symbolized the Maumee mascot, which is a panther, Mr. [He’s a Ph.D, folks — Ed] Cline said.

The teacher, who Mr. Cline declined to identify while the district is investigating the incident, got the dead cat from the biology lab. The cat was a dissection specimen.

The teacher tied the dead cat to a rod and waved it around at the rally.

“That was a bad idea, and not a humane example to kids as an educator,” said Susan Maxwell, spokesman for the Toledo Area Humane Society. [But I s’pose it’s OK to torture participles, huh?]

Oddly, searching the Blade’s page for “perrysburg dead cat” didn’t turn this up, but Google News did.

either when a) you pry it from my cold, dead hands or b) when there’s a similarly capable product that can record and play back HD content. Gartenberg says it’s time to drop TiVo in favor of the Windows Media Center Edition. MCE has some undeniably cool features, but it’s still expensive relative to TiVos (although it can do some stuff that TiVo presently can’t). Something to look at as I consider whether to buy the new Dish PVR (which does HD and also acts as both a satellite and over-the-air HD decoder), the announced-but-still-vaporware HD-capable TiVo, MCE, or nothing at all.
In other TiVo-ish news, there’s a cool blog focusing on personal video recorders; lots of news if you’re interested in that sort of thing. (Hat tip: Gartenberg).

ACM‘s got a terrific interview with a fellow named Jim Gray. Those of you without computer science backgrounds may not have heard of him (he helped develop the original TPC benchmarks for measuring how fast databases can operate), but you might still be interested in his interview. Imagine having a 20-terabyte disk attached to your computer– now imagine that, if you follow the current progress of disk access times, it would take you about a day to read or write the contents of that one disk, and that’s best-case. Fascinating stuff. (Hat tip: Jeremy).

If you like Neal Stephenson, go read this now, but allow some time: it’s a long article.
In other SF news, my copy of this year’s edition of The Year’s Best Science Fiction anthology is on its way! I’d forgotten about preordering it, but Amazon helpfully mailed me to tell me the good news.
Update: Hat tip to Mike Strock for pointing out my broken link. Spackerhood runs in the family.

While I was aboard the USS New Orleans, I came to heartily loathe the Arlo Guthrie version of the song “City of New Orleans“. Why? Well, first off, I’ve never liked Guthrie’s nasal whining or his politics; second, hearing the freakin’ song every 15 minutes (well, actually, it only seemed that often) would make anybody hate it. However, iTunes just served up the Willie Nelson version, and suddenly I like it a lot better.

When Charlie Stross, the most excellent SF writer, calls someone a freak, it bears investigation.

This morning, I woke up early, got dressed, checked out of the hotel, and hit the speaker lounge to get some work done. Of course, I ended up talkin to several MS folks, including some for whom we’re now doing work, so it wasn’t entirely productive in terms of the number of pages I wrote. I had a good visit with the folks from Solid Data, who make a cool solid-state disk for speeding up Exchange recoveries, and I got some cool swag for the kids– always a key objective at these events.
After a couple more vendor visits (including with the fine folks at Good Technologies, who had darn well better come out with a PalmOS device so I can buy one), it was time to deliver my session. Mark Mortimore of TechNet fame suggested some additional topics, which I totally forgot about once I got on stage. I was completely in the groove, even though I went about 15 minutes long; the whole session was pretty much a blur. People who’ve been to my presentations in prior years can testify that 15 minutes isn’t all that long; at least this time I wasn’t scheduled right before lunch. I got to see several friends (hi, Darcy, Kevin, Kim, and whoever else I couldn’t see while blinded by the stage lighting!)
The session seemed to go really well, but I guess my eval numbers will tell the tale. Jesper Johansson was telling me that he was surprised by the eval numbers– the high session got an 8.4/9.0, and even luminaries like Don Box were hovering around 8.2. My high session last year at the MEC was a 7.9, so I’ll be interested to see whether my numbers this year hold up. Of course, since I totally forgot to tell people to fill out their evaluations, I may get a big fat zero!

Next Tuesday, the installoid is coming to put in my HDTV box. The local provider has HBO, Showtime, Discovery HD, and the local CBS affiliate. This is kind of disappointing; I don’t watch anything on CBS, so I’d much rather have ABC and Fox. Supposedly, they’re coming soon, along with ESPN-HD. (However, ESPN is broadcasting in 720p, and I am too cheap to buy a 720p TV at this stage of HD’s maturity, so when I do get it it’ll be upconverted to 1080i).
Because this is just a test, it’s too early to tell how much Buckeye will charge, what other channels they add, and so on. I figure that if I really like the HD content, I’ll be better able to stomach buying an over-the-air tuner for local channels and an HD-capable satellite receiver. Then again, maybe not. I also have to budget for a progressive-scan DVD player; my three-year-old Zenith 2550 has component out, but no p-scan. I need to find someone with a p-scan player and a conventional TV and horse trade with them, probably.

I wonder how long it’ll take for eBay to remove this Instant Girlfriend kit from auction.

Happy Mardi Gras! For breakfast, Arlene made beignets and bacon. For supper, it’s crawfish étouffée, red beans and rice, and all the trimmings– the beads are hung, and the boudin balls will be on the snack platter a bit later. We’ve even got a midnight snack planned. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Stop what you’re doing and go read Confidence. I wish I could write like that.