Archive for the 'Babble' Category

Obama Refused Tenure

thane March 28th, 2008

Thanks to Senator Clinton, we now know that, not only was Senator Obama a professor, he was offered a tenure track position multiple times.

From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. The title of Senior Lecturer is distinct from the title of Lecturer, which signifies adjunct status. Like Obama, each of the Law School’s Senior Lecturers have high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching. Several times during his 12 years as a professor in the Law School, Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time tenure-track position, but he declined.

Thank you, Ms. Clinton, for clarifying that.

Can’t Talk

thane February 7th, 2008

Apologies to everyone about not posting. I have had some stuff going on that I don’t want to blog about which is pretty much occupying my entire brain.

New Day For Data?

thane February 2nd, 2008

Much like apenwarr, I had heard about git and effectively ignored it. As he, I watched Linus’ video and was skeptical. He, however, took the time to analyze it and came to an interesting conclusion.

Git was originally not a version control system; it was designed to be the infrastructure so that someone else could build one on top. And they did; nowadays there are more than 100 git-* commands installed along with git. It’s scary and confusing and weird, but what that means is git is a platform. It’s a new set of nouns and verbs that we never had before. Having new nouns and verbs means we can invent entirely new things that we previously couldn’t do.

He then produces a litany of difficult projects that he has worked on which git makes trivial. He points out that git moves files faster than cp, and does it checksummed. That git can be used for backups, or for a distributed file system, or for package distribution, or installers, or or or. If it had been written by anyone but Linus Torvald, I would continue to be skeptical. However, he has a track record of writing quickly things that change the face of software. I am going to have to take a closer look at git.

Idle Hands

thane January 9th, 2008

from Noodlesoft

It can be annoying to get an alert about a new version when you are working. A new version is not a “drop everything and deal with this now” type of alert. With this patch, when a new update is found, it will check the user’s idle time and hold off showing the panel until a certain amount of time has elapsed. This minimizes the chance of the user being in the middle of something when the alert comes up.

This is someone who gets it. What a wonderful idea for notifying the user. Nod to Daring Fireball for the link.

Utilikilt Mocumertials

thane December 29th, 2007

How awesome is this:

http://www.utilikilts.com/?page_id=10

Biblical Law

thane December 29th, 2007

I saw this cartoon about christians, and it shows the problem with taking the bible too literally. It also gave me an idea. Anyone who wants to pass legislation founded on their reading of the Bible should have to pass the tests of Mark 16:17-18.

Passage Mark 16:17-18 (New International Version)
17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

I am willing to forgo most of these tests, however, you must drink a glass of the following:

  1. 500 ml water
  2. 5 mg tetrodotoxin
  3. 10 g potassium cyanide

After you have finished the glass, if you can read the text of your bill, I will vote for it.

P.S. It should be noted that I hold no grudge against legislation inspired by the Bible (or any book). However, if you cannot back up your arguments with something stronger than “because it says so”, then I think that this rule should apply.

Republican Campain Ads

thane December 21st, 2007

If you are still trying to make up your mind in the Republican primary election, these might help.

Mad Scientist Teaches Brain in Petri Dish to Fly Plane

How many Christians understand Jesus’ teachings?

thane December 12th, 2007

From http://lrs.moonstar.com regarding this picture:
Jesus washes world leaders feet

No, the outrage is from so-called Christians themselves, people who claim to be Christian but in their quest to toss around Bible verses manage to miss the entire point of His incarnation. I found a good example of such mind-numbing idiocy at The Jawa Report:

Sorry, I aint that kind of Christian. My Jesus would use nunchucks on Osama bin Laden. Or maybe rip his still beating heart out, Temple of Doom style.

Scientists have a saying when they encounter far-fetched theories based on wildly incorrect ideas; it’s referred to as being not even wrong.

Pentagon: Wasting Money So You Don’t Have To

thane December 11th, 2007

I love this quote from the clip:

With good financial oversight, we could find $48 billion dollars in loose change in that building.

« Prev - Next »