OS X Safe Sleep

I've often wondered why OS X doesn't have an analogue to Windows' hibernate mode. Turns out that newer Macs have the feature, called Safe Sleep, and that it can be enabled on some older Macs as well.

• A how to enable Safe Sleep on legacy Macs.
• An Apple help document depicting a Mac coming out of Safe Sleep.
• A description of the feature.

Minute Man Range

Back on 3/31 I ventured over to the Minute Man Range. Mostly because I wanted to shoot and it was raining, and I wasn't aware of any other indoor ranges near town. It took about 30 minutes to get there, driving through some real country. The drive was kind of nice, actually, except that would've been about a gallon and a half one way in my car.

I took one of my guns and rented a Glock G21 from the shop. Previously I was skeptical about Glocks, but the one I'd shot before was a G19, and 9mm I've found is pretty lame for accuracy, at least relative to .45. The G21 was nice. The range was nice, except their ventilation could've been better. That's a perennial problem with indoor ranges, though.

Seattle Mariners

The wife's father wants to go see Ichiro play at the Mariners' home ground. Thus, we're doing some checking into tickets and such. First there's the Mariners' website. A map of the Safeco Field seating helps pick out where to park it. The "Terrace Club" area looks good, if not spendy. Maybe one game in the lower box and another in the Terrace Club would do. There's a Field A-to-Z Guide, a collection of FAQs about the field. Interesting tidbits include the custom jerseys available for purchase, and that if one shows up during batting practice before the game one might be able to get an autograph. Cool!

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

I had occasion to look up on Wikipedia Chris Rock's No Sex (In the Champagne Room), for background on all that good advice. (I particularly liked the part about "don't go parties with metal detectors", and the humor of the pierced tongue part.)

What I didn't realize that was it was a parody of the "Wear Sunscreen" song. I'd heard that on the radio before too, but either had forgotten about it or figured the latest trend was to give random advice accompanied by music. The column that song was based on, apparently often the target of Internet hoaxes, is actually quite good. Especially for a column. Thus, I bookmark it here.

Anna Nicole Smith's Autopsy

I'm sure that this is in poor taste, but CNN posted Anna Nicole Smith's autopsy on the web. Out of sheer prurient interest, I checked it out. It's pretty twisted.

Most Digital Content Not Stable

Further rationale for doing analog backups of select material, e.g. photos to negatives or slides. Gotta keep collecting these articles....

File Sharing a Threat to Children and National Security

Actually, yes, it is. Parents these days don't teach their kids right and wrong, and file-sharing is definitely in the gray area. You just know that even 50% of files swapped are legal! Plus, less than bright employees could put such applications on government machines, and misconfigure them such that confidential material gets shared. (Of course top secret machines shouldn't be connected to the Internet, but still.)

I haven't read the paper yet, though. It's rather long.

The No Asshole Rule

Now this looks like an interesting book. There used to be an asshole in my group at work, but fortunately, he's gone now. Now only if my job were better....

Wisdom from Chris Rock

"Those are the choices in life: You can be married and bored or single and lonely," Rock said in his 2004 HBO special "Never Scared." "Ain't no happiness nowhere."

Amen, brother. ;-)

Sarah McLachlan Lyrics

I've been a mini-fan since college, but I only bought a couple of her CDs, notably Mirrorball, which is close to a best compilation, just live. Anyway, some of the lyrics are open to interpretation so it helps to have the lyrics handy. I just found out that on Sarah McLachlan's website, the discography contains links to lyrics pages. That's rather nice of her.

Trust and Attachment

The Four Stages of Trust
Attachment in Adults
Jealousy

Not Quite Mr. Fusion

On /. a few days ago, there was a bit about a mobile biorefinery that takes garbage and produces electricity. Sounds cool, but how's it for pollution?

Censorship Alive and Well at Universities

Apparently it's not acceptable to have a conservative-leaning viewpoint at some schools. City Journal has an article regarding this phenomenon. The piece is long, but worth the read.

Seems like the Right and Left in this country keep getting more and more polarized. We're heading for serious conflict, possibly civil war. This time, it's not going to be about slaves, it's going to be about freedom: whether you can say what you want without censorship, or keep weapons to keep the government in line.

Minute Man Gun Range

I'm going to have to go check out this range one of these days. This time of year, it's hard to go shooting at an outdoor place!

Found the link via Packing.org. They don't list SMSC among the area gun ranges. Odd.

Here's an omake link. It came up in the search for "minuteman", with a rather unfriendly quote by Ahnuld.

Faux Weed and "Tokyo Mango"

Check out this artificial marijuana plant for sale in Japan at Nodaya Denki.

Actually, I got that from Lisa Kitayama's "Tokyo Mango" blog, linked to from Wired News. Pretty funky, but just being in Japan leads one to lots of funky stuff. Something's wrong with one who can't find junk like that over there!

Lately

Recently I've been blogging more political items on my link blog. That's largely because the commentary is news-driven. Sometimes I need to just jot down what I thought when I read a given article. Furthermore, on my main blog, I don't use as much profanity, whereas I don't have such restrictions on my link blog. Here, I can call it like I see it!

Sick Educators

This country's in the toilet and ready to be flushed. Or at least Massachusetts is. First read the article, then my diatribe.

People can do that stuff in private—they're free, at least to the extent people are "allowed" now. But try to shove it down my kid's thoat as normal, and I rip them a new one to play with.

What really pisses me off is that these are the kind of idiots who bitch about teaching kids about guns, but then they force their own ultra-liberal agenda on 5 year olds. Well, I suppose hypocrisy on the part of the political correct fools is to be expected. The right to bear arms is a demonstratably important freedom; further, it's in our Bill of Rights. The "right to teach kids how to be homosexual" is not.

Lest I come off as a homophobe, I do know some gay people, and have no problem with them choosing to live their lives in the way they decide—as long as the effects on others are acceptable (i.e. no torture, homicide, etc.). They can present their ideas to me, and of course I have the right to refute them. (Democracy is about open discussion, not censorship according to a politically-correct agenda.) When the ultra-left crowd starts dictating education to birth future supporters of their agenda, however, is where the shit hits the fan. The whole concept of "King and King" is just fucked up. If we have to quit using romantic fairy tales in the classroom entirely so be it: the genre is too sappy anyway!

Who's to Blame?

CNN had a link to an article from Time regarding what should be considered rape. Out-and-out sexual assault is pretty clear: man wants woman, woman doesn't want man, man takes woman anyway. Consent on the part of the woman is central in this case. But what if the woman initially gives consent, then withdraws it during the act?

The Time article notes a case where a man and woman began sex consensually, then she asked him to stop, which he did. The article made it sound like that although the guy stopped almost immediately and did not ejaculate, he was found guilty of rape and sentenced to five years in jail. If the facts are correct, that's just wrong. Guy and girl start banging, girl says stop, guy does without blowing his load, and yet that counts as rape? Bullshit!

Obviously, true rape is a brutal mala in se crime. However, "withdrawal-of-consent rape" doesn't seem to be of the same level. A woman has the responsibility of judging who she lets in her bed. If she changes her mind partway through, then she's relying on the man to be honorable enough to stop. She did the screening, and should accept responsibility for such decisions. From a moral perspective, if a man doesn't stop, I'd say that makes him a scumbag, but not necessarily a criminal.

Of course that's discussion at a theoretical level. Saying that a woman is fully responsible is not acceptable because men could easily claim that she gave initial consent. I've read that some rapists seem to actually believe that their victims wanted the act. Plus, not punishing the man for continuing after 'stop' would accentuate the date rape problem. On the other hand, making it too easy for women to blame men after the fact, i.e. having consensual sex and then due to some later event, such as the discovery of other sexual partners, changing her story and declaring rape, is a disservice to men as well. (Promiscuity may be immoral, but it is not a crime.)

Ejaculation doesn't seem like a good criteria, either, because in the case of a "minute man", the woman might stay stop just a second too late; or in the case of a "marathon man", going against the woman's will would be a protracted assault!

The notion of a "consensual sex contract" is legally on-target, but practically absurd. Who would have sex with someone that asked for a signature first?

The bottom line is, in my opinion, that rape should only be used to describe a forced non-consensual sexual act, where the whole affair is from the start against the victim's will. If initial consent is given and later retracted, then it becomes simple assault. The former should carry much greater penalties than the latter, because the intent behind each act is very, very different. Of course either way, as with any disagreement between a couple, the issue will degenerate into a bout of he-said, she-said.

Ellen Feiss & Street Fighter

Another /. piece of news: an interview with Ellen Feiss, the "stoner" in the Apple "Switcher" ads. She's kind of cute now that she's 18. But now that she's shot down the stoned-while-shooting rumor, people going to latch on to comments she made in the interview that imply that she might be gay. That's what she gets for going to France! Just kidding. From the interview, she sounds pretty cool, actually.

There was a post about some Street Fighter thing on /. also, but what I found hilarious was the link to an amateur flick parodying the SF characters, like "where are they now?" The shorts are pretty well done—I want to see more! (Although predictably they mispronounced "Ryu" and he appears to be played by a Chinese guy.)

Chavez is a Turd

When I first heard about his antics in the news, I thought it was kind of funny, like a cheap circus act. Then I realized he was serious.

While it'd be nice if one of his own citizens would cap him in his fat head, if Chavvie wants to play hardball with expelling the U.S. envoy and reallocating other countries' investments to "the people" (i.e. him), then he can have it his way.

We pull out our people, and embargo the country. If they start procuring WMD, then we have license to go in and kick their asses!—after we pull out of Iraq?

Yeah, the Iraq war has been a fiasco not in that it got some soldiers killed—callous to say, but those are the casualties of war and the consequences of soldiering—it's reminded the world of the U.S.'s previous failure in meddling with another country's politics: Vietnam. It's also been a reminder that the American Military Might isn't all that it's cracked up to be, and all of a sudden all these little shitty governments like Iran and Venezuela are clamoring for a piece of the spotlight. As long as they're waving their cheap AK-47 clones, I don't really care. It's all about the nukes. If they decide they want to dance, maybe the world needs another demonstration of what happens to stupid dictators and their followers when they mess with their betters.

The Bridge HT and Why Consoles Discolor

Fringe news from /.
Where No Home Theater Has Gone Before
Plastic Discoloration in Classic Machines

Kiuchi Beer

MRG just sent me another note with a link to an article about a Japanese beer called "Hitachino". Looks interesting, but the price tag is pretty steep.

Hotel California

MRG forwarded me a note by a Japanese guy asking what the lyrics to Hotel California mean. How the hell should I know? Does anyone? Here are some opinions:

From Song Facts,
From The Straight Dope,
From Niniane,
And there's always Wikipedia.

Travelstar

From the intranet front page at work there was a link to an article on Hitachi infringing on a Chinese trademark. An older article gives more info about the battle. What they didn't say was when the BTHC registered their trademark and when IBM/HGST first used the mark in China—seems to me that would be most saliently relevant.

In Japan, the U.S. maker Logitech has to use the mark "Logicool" because another maker in Japan has the name "Logitec". Certainly if Logitech didn't enter the Japanese market before Logitec was formed, then they don't have the right to use the mark.

Law is fraught with peril.

Pizza Deliverators

I think I was looking for info on how much to tip the pizza guy online, and came up with these links to the adventures of "pizza deliverators". (Think Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash.) [1] [2]

Not sure whether to pity them for enduring pitiable treatment, respect them for bringing me fresh za, or to think that I've probably got it worse!

And every time I hear "pizza man", I think of the song "Super Orgy Porno Party", which starts out with a dude delivering pizza....

Japanese ok on Windows Mobile 5

I was looking at MDAs, thinking Sachie could use something more like a Japanese cell phone rather than one of the lame setups we have in the U.S. The Danger Hiptop (Sidekick) is cool, but doesn't support Japanese according to Katie and what I've read. T-Mobile had a couple phones that use Windows Mobile, which seems much more likely to support Japanese add-ons.

After some searching, I found out that it is possible to install a Japanese IME on Windows Mobile 5. Sweet! Now it's a matter of plunking down for a $400 phone and signing an onerous contract....

Condom Depot

B&E got the wife and I a condom sampler for Christmas. Apparently it was purchased at Condom Depot, in case someone out there needs to make a gift purchase.... "Condom Depot"—like Office Depot, except for condoms instead of office supplies!

Fat Bitch

Not only is Rosie O'Donnell a hypocrite—bashing firearms rights on TV when her kid's bodyguard was packing a piece—she's a racist, too. From the CNN article:

Karen Lincoln Michel, president-elect of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc., said O'Donnell's remarks "really didn't sound like an apology to me."

...

"You know it was never (my) intent to mock," O'Donnell said on Thursday's show, "and I'm sorry for those people who felt hurt or were teased on the playground."

"But I'm also gonna give you a fair warning that there's a good chance I'll do something like that again, probably in the next week -- not on purpose. Only 'cause it's how my brain works."

Yeah, that's not an apology. "I'm sorry for those people who felt hurt or were teased on the playground" and how she's probably going to do it again. I guess I don't care if she apologizes or not. I'm still going to call her a hypocritical, racist, fat bitch.

Rich Dad, Dipshit Author

I just found an article on the Web debunking Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I must say, it was quite eye-opening.

When I read the book, I found it pretty inspirational. It gelled with the questions I had about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, so I started thinking about doing my business and such. The thing that I didn't like about the book was that it seemed to imply that everyone could be rich, which is physically impossible due to the laws of economics, like supply and demand. If even janitors have a million bucks, then the million bucks ain't worth much. If everyone is trying to shift real estate for a profit, then we get a real estate bubble like the one that just burst. The point about capitalism is that it rewards people who work hard and innovate, but indeed, it depends on wealth differential to maintain that motivating factor.

John Reed's thrashing of Bob Kiyosaki basically describes Kiyosaki as a charlatan and multi-level marketer (MLM). From the facts from multiple sources (such as Wikipedia) that would appear to be the case. If one claims to be an expert, then they better damn well give evidence to that fact, especially if they're selling advice. The problem with self-help books is that they tell people what they want to themselves believe, and thus prey on people's insecurity. I rather liked the blurb entitled The Fallacy of Success by a G.K. Chesterton that basically calls success books ego masturbation by the authors. If one is going to be successful, then one should go do it. Of course we'd like a how-to manual, but if it really worked, then people would catch on and the definition of success would change. So what is success? Getting what you want. That can only happen when someone else doesn't get what they want. We're all competing for resources, after all.

Indeed, Kiyosaki seems quite like an MLM con: taking advantage of the pyramid scheme of "everybody can get rich", which is impossible. Everyone joins, everyone pays forward, and the ones at the top get rich and the ones at the bottom go nowhere. On the other hand, when one thinks about it, that's essentially what modern capitalism ends up being—a pyramid scheme. How depressing. In that regard, perhaps Kiyosaki is somewhat truthful. If one finds the formula and milks it before others catch on, then move to the next thing, then some benefit is possible.

For the rest of us who would rather not play into the scheme, there's always dreaming of doing what one is passionate about. Get educated about business and do it rather than read bullshit self-help books. While it's important to think about changing oneself, it's important that oneself is the one doing the changing, not some scheming con artist. Motivation is the hardest thing to come by, which is why success remains a rare condition. Well, you never know till ya try, but as a wise green Jedi master once said, "Do. Or do not. There is no 'try'." Or something like that.

Hopefully this hasn't degenerated into a completely Nihilistic conclusion....

Rochester Gelande

(In Japanese, a ski slope is called a "gerende", apparently from German "gelande". The German word has an umlaut over the 'a' it seems.)

One of these days I'll have to check out Welch Village's ski slopes. I figured it was just a dinky little hill, but it's got 1000-some feet of height to it, which is good enough. There's also the Elm Creek Park Reserve, which has a Burton-affiliated snowboard education program. Perhaps if I have time to hit the slopes often, I'll have to buy my own board....