Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Author: Jon

  • Ice capades

    Our little trip to Portland over the weekend went well, except for the ice storm that hit Saturday. We stayed indoors the whole day with our friends (who we were staying with, fortunately, otherwise we’d have really worn out our welcome), and pretty much any other plans we’d had were shot.

    On the other hand, our friends introduced me to the BBC comedy The Office, which is insane but entirely plausible—I’ve known people (and offices) that are exactly the same way. It’s hilarious, check it out. Amazon has it for about 42 bucks.

    Our drive back Sunday was uneventful; the ice was already breaking up in Portland and the farther out of town we went, the better it got—even over the mountains. Back in Bend, you wouldn’t even know anything had happened. All’s well that ends well, they say.

  • Back to the Rose City

    Seems like we just can’t get enough of Portland; we’re heading there tomorrow (Friday). It’s part follow-up to our son’s eye surgery, part vacation-y trip. Always fun. I’d like to get in a trip to Powell’s Bookstore, but I don’t think we’ll have the time unfortunately.

  • As You Like It

    Via Boing Boing this evening comes the mildy disturbing story that Shakespeare may have been afflicted with one or more venereal diseases.

    Mentions of the “pox,” the “malady of France,” the “infinite malady,” and the “hoar leprosy” in his writings seem to indicate that the Bard knew—perhaps from personal experience—how torturous venereal disease could be. “Shakespeare’s knowledge of syphilis is clinically precise,” said John Ross, MD, author of the study. A line in Sonnet 154, “Love’s fire heats water,” apparently refers to an STD causing burning urination.

     

    In Shakespeare’s time, one of the treatments for syphilis, inhalation of mercury vapor, was worse than the disease. Dr. Ross suggests that Shakespeare’s tremulous signature on his will, his social withdrawal in later years, and even his baldness might all be due to a mild degree of mercury vapor poisoning.

    Well, they do say to write what you know.

  • Null

    Gah, there’s nothing worse than sitting here trying to think of something to write, and getting nothing. I have some ideas for things, but nothing that seems particularly illuminating while I’m sitting here tonight. I just got tired of seeing too many days going by on that calendar there on the right and felt like I should write something down.

    Interesting; look at my post from January 9th of last year. It’s very nearly the same.

  • The Book Barn

    I stopped in at The Book Barn in downtown Bend today, looking for a particular book or two, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed. They have a nice space (formerly occupied by the Chelsea Lane wine shop), but it just seemed, I don’t know, sparse. I can’t really quantify it more than that, but it’s not the Book Barn I remember of yesteryear, when they were across the street (Minnesota street), occupying two stories, and were about three times as big.

    At least they’re one of the “old time” businesses that are hanging on downtown, though.

  • Emergent

    This is interesting: Sims 2 hacks spread like viruses, where hacks that people have made to their Sims 2 game has unintentionally spread among unsuspecting users. In-game virus?

    Entire neighborhoods of Sims are being mysteriously graced with eternal youth, while some characters are finding all their needs fulfilled by a single shot of magic espresso. Others no longer need to empty the toilet after potty training their toddler. Some Sims are being abducted by aliens when they glance through their telescope — every time, instead of just occasionally, which is normal.

     

    All this mayhem is the work of a community of experimenters wielding hex editors, custom programs and reverse-engineering skills who began mastering their own Sims 2 worlds immediately after the game’s release last September. The hackers share their weird science with one another through public websites and forums.

    The article also goes on about how the hackers have created a type of antivirus software to scan for and remove the hacks. That’s cool.

    An odd thought struck me as I was reading about this: it must seem to people getting these hacks that their games (their Sims more specifically) are starting to exhibit emergent behavior. (You know, emergence. New patterns or behaviors from complex systems…) How spooky would that be? Just wait til the first hacked Sims figure out they’re merely simulations in someone’s computer…

  • Jury duty recap

    Jury duty was interesting—I skirted being on a DUI trial by that much. How it works is about 30 people show up for the jury summons. Of those, 12 are randomly selected and interviewed. I was one of the 12. Several potential jurors were excused, and after an hour of jury interviews they finally selected the final six.

    Two things stand out. First, the courtroom was cold, like air conditioning was on or something. (Hello, it’s like 20 degrees outside!) Second, the defense attorney was just a kid, a young guy who looked like he’d just graduated from law school. He spent a good 45 minutes interviewing us, and asking the randomest, strangest questions. Total newbie.

    I don’t have to go tomorrow, and I don’t know yet about Friday. After that, I’m done for whenever I get summoned again. Mark off another milestone in life.

  • Jury Duty

    Yup, that’s what I got tomorrow. Never been summoned for jury duty before, so I’m anxious to see what it’s like, but I hope I don’t end up on some big trial or a sequestered jury or anything like that.

  • Bend Centennial

    Happy birthday to Bend! Today is the 100th anniversary of Bend, Oregon, marking the beginning of the year-long Bend Centennial celebration. Just a quick post while I’m thinking about it; I might have more to say later.

    Also, check out Bend.com’s article from November.

  • Ebook notes

    A couple of things related to ebooks. First, Palm Digital Media—the main ebookstore for the Palm Reader format ebooks, and the one that offers (offered?) up the tool for making your own ebooks for free—is now apparently eReader.com. What’s the difference? Well, eReader.com is entirely commercial, it seems; they offer their “eBook Studio” for a nominal price; also, I don’t know if these ebooks are compatible with the Palm Reader software.

    The Palm Digital Media site is still up albeit sporadically. I can’t tell if the software and pages for making ebooks is still there, and if it’s free; what a shame if it isn’t. If that’s the case, I may offer the appropriate software to download here.

    Also, I wanted to thank everyone who filled out the request form on my free Palm ebooks page over the past year. I got a lot of hits, and I didn’t respond to most of them just because I didn’t have the time to get to each one. Rest assured, I put all requested books that I can convert on my list. And, to everyone who requests current books (like Harry Potter books, Dan Brown’s books, Tolkien, etc. etc.), sorry, but I can’t legally get them for you. Anything that was published in or after 1923, unless released by the author, is still under copyright and only available via legal means (read: commercial means). Yes, I have to cover my ass.

    Basically, I’m converting books from Project Gutenberg, and looking for current books that authors like Cory Doctorow have released online for free. So, a good bet if you’re requesting something is to check and see if it’s on Gutenberg first, and let me know.

    And, I’ve just tonight released James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer in ebook format. Go to my ebooks page and check it out!