Staticfree Blog

Every time I hear someone mentioning "balancing a checkbook" I realize that it's one of the many tedium tasks that I've managed to escape ever having to do. Technology has revolutionized my life in ways I don't even realize at times. Here are a few things which I've never had to do that my parents did, due to technology or modernization.

I have never:

Balanced a checkbook

Online banking and electronic bill payments pretty much got rid of this. I've written perhaps 10-15 checks in my life and they were mostly for rent and payment to friends. I'm still not entirely sure what it means, though I've got some notions and am glad I won't need to do it any time soon.

Gotten cut while shaving

The ads have some merit: never get cut again. Well, I haven't yet. Electric razors don't really cut, nor do the three-bladed ones; that's all I've ever used.

Sent taxes via postal mail

I've filed all my taxes electronically. This is definitely a good thing as it reduces the amount of people in the system considerably.

Used a typewriter for work

They're still used for filling out forms on occasion, which I've only ever done electronically (most of my College applications had magical type-in PDFs).

Sent a fax

OK, this is just a silly thing that I'm glad I never had to do. I've only heard bad things about fax machines, yet somehow a faxed signature is legally-binding. I don't get it.

Used a print encyclopedia

This is a bit of a lie, way back in my childhood, I would occasionally look through the one we had for fun. But I've never used a print encyclopedia for any real work.

What have your parents (or that generation) had to do that technology has saved you from?

I just upgraded this blog's RSS feed from RSS 0.91 to RSS 1.0. I'm hoping this means smoother syndication, as all the entries are now timestamped. I just implemented an RSS story count limiter, so only 5 stories should exist on the RSS feed. Sorry 'bout the aggregator spammage if any occurs; this should be the last time.

Additionally, I updated the code over at my blog such that it avoids a number of bugs in Internet Explorer 6. Of course, it's uglier now if you're using IE6. If you don't like how it looks, note that I'm using standards-compliant code and that you can simply get a better browser. It's also been improved a bit to work better with Lynx, screenreaders, and other non-graphical browsers.

I think I've determined one of the main problems with laws in the United States these days: there're too many superfluous laws. Take for example §61-1-6 of West Virginia Code: "It shall be unlawful for any person to have in his possession or to display any red or black flag, [ctd.]" What is the reason for this? Why is it there? And if it's superfluous, why should it remain? Or how about §61-10-25: "Engaging in work, labor or business, etc., on Sunday - - Prohibited." That's a bit arcane and is highly abused in these modern times. Why should it be permitted to exist still as actual law?

In the same way that both parties in a trial get defendants, in the same way that you free() your malloc()s, in the same way that republicans and democrats constantly battle, you need to balance out the dichotomy. Politicians spend their days creating new jobs and modifying old ones that come up, but what about the cruft? I believe that if you were to have someone who was paid to remove laws like this (mind you, through the same amount of debate that brought it into being in the first place) we'd have the potential for a more successful government.

Not to say that it would happen, but if you could decimate the set of extraneous laws, I've a feeling more people would actually bother to read the laws and realize what they are and aren't entitled to do. As they are, they're dauntingly numerous: a good few hundred laws that could probably be thinned down to effectively 2/3 to 1/2 as many. With fewer laws, the set of laws as a whole would be more manageable.

Paralleling laws to source code (which in a way they are: the code of conduct and organization of a complex system), programmers will often optimize or even rewrite entire sections of code in order to make the system work better holistically. Let's not just remove old, useless laws, let's consolidate! When programming, if you end up copying and pasting the same bit of code more than 2 times, you should probably turn it into a subroutine. The same should apply for laws: let the chapters parallel subroutines and tie them together better. The legal language is certainly robust enough to handle it and I'm sure lawyers would love it too.

I've mentioned this idea to others before and the main cause of concern they brought up was that the laws are there and not harming anyone, why not just leave well-enough alone? Well, the same reason a programmer will remove un-used subroutines from a program: there's no point in leaving it there and it only adds to the bloat. I say, hire someone to act as that programmer and clean up the mess. After all, it's only our laws we're talking here; it's not like they matter in our daily lives at all.

I'm presently sitting in the Trident Cafe with Allyson connected via the free wireless connection here. Allyson didn't bring a computer, so we have to share µ's net connection. I also forgot my cellphone at home, so I can't go online with my Palm. What do I do? I set up a ppp connection over bluetooth from my palm to my laptop and do NAT to get it online. I've a caching DNS server running on µ that serves anything that connects to it via NAT.

Internet gateway → Trident ISP --802.11a→ Airport --802.11b→ µ --PPP over bluetooth→ Palm

And the best part is that it's all wireless and it works. I ♥ wireless.

I moved my blog to a new engine, Blosxom. As much as I loved all the XML of my engine, it got quite out of hand dealing with a single large unicode XML document. Editing it in Emacs would periodically cause Emacs to not want to save it at all. I figured I'd have better success finding someone who has already done most of the dirty work for me, so I don't have to re-invent the blog-shaped wheel.

Blosxom is nice as it's very simple: each .txt file is a blog post; the first line is the title, the rest is the body. Categories are created by making sub directories (the one downside to this is that something can't be in multiple categories easily).

It'll take a bit to make everything work smoothly. I've so far put all the posts into categories (check out /blog/tech/bots/ for example) and set up the comment system. I've yet to move old comments to the new engine, but will as soon as I write a conversion program.

I don't tend to post news here, but this is just awesome. Massachusetts will be providing equal legal protections in civil-unions for gay/lesbian couples as well as straight ones. This is a wonderful, glorious step in the right direction. Congratulations to all who have been fighting for these rights, it's about time the government catches up with the people it represents.

Update: macabre_grrl notes that it's not over yet.

I wonder how much E someone was taking to come up with this twisted combination: digital watch + lighter + LED bling. Impressive. Grab that, show your Jesus-pimpin' pride with your "magnetic flashing rave cross", and make absolutely sure they know you're a candy raver by putting a flashing LED pacifier around your neck. Geeze, and I thought the electroluminescent wire that I wore to a club once was tacky.

A local Rochester church has decided to make their way into the information age by putting up an entirely different type of steeple. I'm sure the Minister appreciates that his audience gets full cell reception during his sermons, ready to interrupt his dramatic pauses with ill-timed electronic hails.

Well, like an RIT construction project gone terribly wrong, Winter hit Rochester like a sack of bricks. Starting with 45mph winds and topping it all off with horizontal, vertical, diagonal and other snow, a near blizzard started and then vanished in a few hours. All that remains are tattered trees and a suspicious cold, white residue on top of most things exposed to the outdoors.

I grabbed some photos here and there, even grabbing a shot of the finals-week coffee shop drum circle.

Java's is a good coffee shop. Not a clean, well-lit place - but a more homey, humanistic type of atmosphere. Where poets, signing and missing words into mics, while flocks of sleep-deprived students poke the plastic keys of their laptops, away in their own worlds. Where an all-nighter is curled up in a dark corner on a couch, stealing a few hours where they can.

FOAF is a keen system for creating distributed social networks. Think of it as a distributed Friendster, where social connections are tied together by URLs and email addresses.

How do you play? It's simple! Go over to the FOAF-o-matic, fill out the form, and put the generated code on your web page. Once it's online, hop by the FOAF Explorer and see who else is available. A more complete getting started guide is also available.

My FOAF file is available if you want to poke it for some reason. I'll be adding more friends as more people start using it. So... use it! There's a bunch of nifty things you can do once you put one together. This is one of those "critical mass" toys that isn't so useful if only small number of people use it. Unlike Friendster, though, it's not nearly as viral as it should be. Tell you friends!

steve@warehaus:~% grep -ce '^feed' ~/.rawdog/config
38

Yes, 38 RSS feeds. I'm starting to feel a slight tingle in a certain corner of my brain, like the buzzing of 1,000 humming birds somewhere very far away. You know they're there, doing their timeless dives into the center of a buttercup; you can see it in your minds eye, buzzing like that little region of my mind. Thirty eight feeds, 21,600 words, news of the world and the metaworld.

So much signal, but with so much more noise.

Now if someone could only invent a way to turn these feeds into food. I'm at Java's still and all the restaurants that Compusfood has have already closed. I guess that leaves vending machines, ordering out for pizza, or taking the 30 minute hike over to Subway.

Awhile ago, I got a Linuxfund MBNA credit card. Ryan had been reminding me that I should start building credit and that his Linuxfund card got the chicks in grocery store checkout lines. Well, got smiles from the chicks anyhow. So I applied for one and some time later, got both a magical sliver of plastic in the mail and a cute little stuffed Tux.

Today in the mail I got another stuffed Tux. You can see him sitting on top of the little penguin bath toys Care got me recently. I'm not sure why they sent it, but I don't mind having another cuddly cute thing in my possession. You can never have too many cuddly cute things.

I also got a new 3800mAh battery for mu, as I've always been paranoid about the main battery giving out after awhile. This also means that I can go on bus rides and not worry about trying to minimize power consumption: 12h of actual battery life isn't too shabby.

I also improved my vocoder network a bit to use my joystick (USB Gravis Gamepad) as a keyboard. The network now uses the buttons on the joystick for notes and the voice will "sing" those notes. Hear µ "sing" my rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Two black men and a little black book
came knocking on my door.
They wanted to sell me their ways and ideals
and to read me some o' their lore.

I was quite sad that I was running late and couldn't stay to talk to the Jehovah's Witnesses who came by this morning. I've never really had a good opportunity to talk religion with a fanatic besides my mom, and she doesn't really count (Flower child → found Jesus → rediscovered her hippie ways).

Unrelatedly, I think a religion based on the wisdom of fortune cookies would be pretty nifty. When posed with a moral dilemma, one would go to the Holy Chinese Restaurant and take an offering from the fortune cookies. "My teenage son is not talking to me, and calls me a 'controlling bitch'. Oh scrumptious Fortune Cookie, what should I do?" "Love is hard work; and hard work sometimes hurts!" "I see now. Thank you, Fortune Cookie."

Even those without a Holy Chinese Restaurant nearby could participate thanks to the wonders of technology. I think it could work.

Awhile ago, I found this site on some memeblog: The Church of Virus. It's an interesting site that talks about organized religions as memes for spreading ideals. I'm a firm believer in this and this site tries to play upon that, being a meme in itself. I believe the site says it best:

Goal

Virus was originally created to compete with the traditional (irrational) religions in the human ideosphere with the idea that it would introduce and propagate memes which would ensure the survival and evolution of our species. The main advantage conferred upon adherents is Virus provides a conceptual framework for leading a truly meaningful life and attaining immortality without resorting to mystical delusions. (source)

I got myself a vocoder. Well, a vocoder plugin. With it, I can sound like a robot.

You've probably heard a vocoder, but not heard of a vocoder. They're quite popular in electronic music, used heavily by bands like Kraftwerk and Freezepop. It's a audio filter that takes two sources, the carrier and the formant. The formant is the human voice source and the carrier is commonly a simple waveform, say an 80Hz sawtooth wave. Parts of the formant is filtered out and replaced by the carrier, weaving the natural and the generated sound sources into one synthetic-sounding voice that retains most of the voice's pronunciation.

I put together a little network in Galan that had both "analog" and simple wave carriers. I put a cross-fader between the two carriers so they could be changed or combined. I found with an equal balance of an 80Hz sawtooth carrier and a 350Hz "analog" triangle-wave carrier produced a pretty decent robotic voice.

I used the vocoder on my red-robot costume for Halloween. Unfortunately, my laptop speakers weren't loud enough to drown out my voice and so I just sounded incomprehensible with it. I'll have to get some battery-powered speakers and a USB joystick to manually control the carrier frequencies for next time.