Julia's dance recital

Julia (on right) worked hard to rehearse for her studio's annual recital. The rest of the snaps are here.

Seminordnilap

This is my entry for this Monday's Streetphoto forum bi-weekly Salon. The theme for this fortnight is "Seminordnilap". Sort of like palindromes, but backwards.
Other pics I considered entering are here, together with a better definition of the concept.

Jacob discovers that a camera is a chick magnet (or maybe not)

Yesterday I went to meet my grandson Jacob's class at a farm that allows city kids to meet farm animals up close and personal. When we arrived, he asked me if I had brought his camera with (I gave him one of my "obsolete" digitals a few weeks ago, and he is not yet accustomed to taking it everywhere). I said I had not, and he asked plaintively if I had one of mine that he could use. I cheerfully surrendered a Fuji F11, remembering how much I had enjoyed taking snaps when I was eight (using a Kodak Box Brownie).
I have posted all of his pics here. He did a much better job than I at capturing the spirit of the day.

A new alternative fuel?

Yesterday we pumped up our bicycle wheels and took advantage of the glorious spring weather by riding to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. At the garden I ate a bowl of oatmeal with milk, butter and sugar - cost $1.50 for about an 8 oz serving. Our total riding distance was about 11 miles. So, we got about 11 miles per bowl, which is equivalent to 176 miles per gallon of oatmeal.
This sounds great on the surface - but a gallon of oatmeal would cost $24.00.
A better measure would be cost per mile - the result is:
Oatmeal+Bicycle: $0.136
Gas +Automobile: $0.143
This is a wash - but oatmeal has less impact on the environment, so it wins overall.

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

My daughter Karen (on the right) and her friend Wendy.
We are very proud of Karen and Wendy. This weekend they took part in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Karen raised over three thousand dollars for breast cancer research and treatment. A heartfelt thank you goes to all who contributed to this total.
Karen walked a marathon and a half - 39 miles - over a two day period with her friend Wendy and over three thousand fellow walkers. In all they raised over eight million dollars.
Wendy's mother succumbed to breast cancer fourteen years ago.
Karen's donor page is here if you would like to make a donation.
For more pictures, click here or on the image on the left.

Stratford, Ontario

We visited Stratford, Ontario. Three days. Four swans. Four plays. Coriolanus, Much Ado about Nothing, London Assurance, The Glass Menagerie.
I preferred the swans.

Bush says "bring 'em on" was big mistake

Bush says "bring 'em on" was big mistake

Duh! So now we will be treated a series of "Born Again" confessions.

Sorry -- one does not get redemption by admitting stupidity.

Convergence and divergence on the waist

When I go out, I carry several waist-top technology items. My latest is a T-Mobile MDA - a Windows Pocket PC based cell phone. This device replaced a Treo 600, which was tortured by my grand-daughter until it died a horrible buzzing death. The 5 oz MDA has about the same power as the computer that was my main desktop three years ago. Its screen and keyboard are a tad - OK - several tads - too small, but otherwise it is comparable in everything except disk storage.
I am exploring the possibility that this device could reduce the load that I carry on my belt. Fully equipped for travel, the current waist load that I need/carry is:

• Telephony, messaging, e-mail, games and Internet access: T-Mobile MDA
• Bluetooth headphone for above
  
• Photography and video: Fuji F11
  
• Recorded material (podcasts, music and books): iPod Gen 4
• iPod headphone
  
• Binoculars - Zeiss 10x25
  
• GPS - Garmin eTrex
  

Including cases, their total weight is 2lb 6oz (1.08 kg in the rest of the world) or about 1.4% of my body weight. In my suitcase I need four different chargers plus spare AA batteries.

This of course excludes any SLR equpiment I want to have with me.

No wonder I can't take pictures anymore.

I have become addicted to podcasts - they almost work on the phone. A few more tweaks and I will be able to use the phone in place of the iPod for podcasts.

Clash of cultures

Is is clear that we are caught in the midst of long term confrontation between world views that have no possibility of reconciliation viewed from the perspective of the proponents of each world view. The views may be encapsulated as:

• The truth has been revealed to me and you will believe it or suffer somehow (Islam, Christianity)
• I have my beliefs, leave me alone (Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto, Tao, Hindu, Agnostic, Atheist, and Animist)
• Do what I say, who asked your opinion anyway (the political leadership of most members of the United Nations)
  

Unfortunately, Islam and Christianity now seem determined to fight it out, engulfing the rest of the world in the cross-fire.

Bernard Lewis has a cogent discussion of the issues here:
http://podcast.thestar.com/audio/thestar-2006-05-05-70165.mp3
This 35 minute presentation is worth listening to especially if you are interested in feminist issues.

However, his comments towards the end quoting historical views of Muslims regarding women do not support his case. Many similar comments from all world views could be quoted.

If you have listened to this, you will not be surprised to find that some folk don't agree with him. For example:
M. Shahid Alam: Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
and from a perspective that is not quite as partisan
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.hirsh.html

What do you think?

Salon - Playing with the big boys

Salon - Playing with the big boys
Originally uploaded by chmoss.

This is my entry for this Monday's Streetphoto forum bi-weekly Salon. The theme for this fortnight is "Playing with the big boys". The adjudicators comment is:

"Interpret how you wish. I'm looking for photos that make me think, "DAMN! I wish I had taken that..."

This entry does not meet or exceed that bar but it is the best I have on this theme - so I will go with it.

What were they thinking Department - Coca-Cola BlaK

I tried a pack of Coca-Cola Blak - it appeared to be reasonable proposition. I like Coke. I like coffee. Maybe I could save some time by drinking both together.
Wrong - it is awful. Their speil is here:

Coca-Cola BlaK

Note that it is hard to type BlaK correctly. The "a" has a bar over it, and the first and last letters are capitalized

The Holocaust from the other side

Robert Scoble is a Microsoft employee and prolific Blogger. Sometimes he blogs on personal subjects. This recent post provides an illuminating insight into the Holocaust from the other side.
Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » Disturbing family stories

Reality TV, Me, You and Government Access Programming

American TV now abounds with programs under the rubric of "Reality TV". I have no idea whose reality they are referring to, but it is not my reality, and probably not yours, if can read these words. I do not regard competitions based on:

Who can eat the most disgusting things
Who can sing crappy songs better than others
Who can perform movements called "dance"
Who can run/crawl/slither/slide/yawl/drop/leap/etc faster
Who can complete the x-athlon in less/more time or whatever

as having anything to do with reality.
The most riveting reality TV for me is the local channel that is called in my area "Government Access Programming"
Here is democracy in action. It is our local zoning board. It is our local planning commission. It is our city council. It is real people, with real concerns, trying to make things better for themselves. I may not always agree with them - but I could also be there arguing with/against them, in a forum where I will be heard. I can rant and rave for/against the foreign policy of the US, France, Iran, Israel, or any other country on this blog, and feel that I am "making a difference". But I m not making a difference. All I am doing is venting my spleen.
According to Wikipedia

"The spleen is a ductless, vertebrate gland that is not necessary for life but is closely associated with the circulatory system, where it functions in the destruction of old red blood cells in holding a reservoir of blood. It is regarded as one of the centers of activity of the reticuloendothelial system. Until recently, the purpose of the spleen was not known. It is increasingly recognized that its absence predisposes to certain infections."

WTF do they know? I lost a dear and valued colleague to a senseless accident on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie 30 years ago. Robin from New Zealand was sideswiped by a bad driver, his spleen ruptured, and died with no warning in the Mid-Hudson Valley almost 12,000 miles from home.
So think about stopping your own venting, stop watching "Reality TV", watch your own local government TV channel, find the cause that impacts you, and go out and do something to make a real difference, not a reality difference

Sad News

Ron Bokor - Nancy's wife, Andy's Dad, Lisa's father-in-law, Jacob, Julia and Abigail's grandfather, our mechuten, passed away.

He was diagnosed with chronic but treatable leukemia almost two years ago. However, lymphoma developed, and he was subjected to intensive chemotherapy. An infection developed after surgery to remove a node, and the infection could not be controlled - his defenses were compromised by the chemotherapy. Ron fought bravely but as it became apparent that the treatment was ineffective, he requested that treatment be stopped. His doctors concurred, and Ron passed away two days after he returned home.

We will all miss him.

At the Field Museum

Jacob and I spent last Saturday at The Field Museum. Highly recommended.

Over 700 people slept on the floor of the museum, in everything from basic sleeping bags to pup tents with air mattresses. We slept on the floor, which was little hard, despite the carpeting.

Dozin' With the Dinos
Sue the T. Rex is having a sleepover! Join us for a night of family workshops, tour and performances. Explore ancient Egypt by flashlight, prowl an African savannah with man-eating lions and take a stroll through the Royal Palace in Bamun, Africa. Then spread your sleeping bag amidst some of our most popular exhibitions. The event includes an evening snack and breakfast in the morning.

At last the president and I agree on something

On being asked "What was the most wonderful moment in your terms of being President so far?", President George Bush answered: "I would say the best moment was when I caught a seven-and-a-half pound large mouth bass on my lake."

It is sad, but that really may be the best thing he has done.

The full text may be found here:

Interview of the President by Kai Diekmann of BILD

Chief rabbi says : Buffalo meat kosher

Just in case you were wondering -
Jerusalem Post | Chief rabbi: Buffalo meat kosher

Half my images from our trip to Australia

At last - I have edited some of the images from my last trip to Australia.

The pics are here.

Ask E.T.: PowerPoint Does Rocket Science

This is worth reading - before you review or write your next Powerpoint presentation.
Ask E.T.: PowerPoint Does Rocket Science

My Left Wing :: A Liberal Translation

What they say - saves me saying it - incorporated by reference:
My Left Wing :: A Liberal Translation

The Torn-Up Credit Card Application - A Cautionary tale

The Torn-Up Credit Card Application: "You should probably buy a shredder today.
"

Michael McGuire at Watertower

McGuire showed some very intriguing panorama images. Some of them are collages, which for me lessens their impact. I like things that appear to be photographs to be closer to reality than a collage. Somehow, faking the image after the fact diminishes the impact on my soul. This is odd, because regular painting "art" is completely artificial and faked (hence art?) -- but can appear to be really real, and have great impact. Go figure. 

In the interest of fairness, Abigail and Julia are Jacob's sisters

  

Jacob, my grandson, age 8.

I was playing with my new toy - a Fuji Finepix F11 - and captured this image at ISO 800. Remarkable for this generation of P&S digicams - probably ho-hum standard for the next generation.

Good stuff at the Art Institute of Chicago

Last Friday I visited the Art Institute of Chicago. They had two fascinating exhibits on display - both worth a visit

From Darkroom to Digital: Photographic Variations is a show of more than 40 objects from the permanent collection features variants and alternative prints by Ansel Adams, Tom Arndt, Chuck Close, Patty Carroll, Frank Eugene, Gertrude Kasebier, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, and others.

Girodet: Romantic Rebel is the first retrospective in the United States devoted to the works of gifted French painter Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767–1824). The exhibition assembles more than 100 seminal works (about 60 paintings and 40 drawings) that demonstrate the artist’s impressive range as a painter as well as a draftsman.

Leica and the Nazis

In an article entitled Leica and the Nazis Andrew Nemeth notes:

Some German corporations didn't exactly distinguish themselves during WW2, with many fostering an unnaturally close association with the Nazi regime, as well as ruthlessly exploiting their slave labourers & employees.

I'm sure many of you have wondered: "Where were Leica in all this? How deeply did they get involved? Were they Good Blokes, or Creeps?"

Thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith, George Gilbert and Norman C. Lipton, the good news is that in this particular case, E.Leitz did do the right thing. Not only did they treat their workforce reasonably well, but they also helped many Jews (and others) escape the depravity of the Thousand Years Reich - often at great personal risk.

New bill a potential disaster for working photographers

If you are interested in protecting the rights of independent photographers and other independent visual artists, read this and take action.

ASMP: "Urgent Call for Your Action on Orphan Works"

Under the proposed legislation, a person or other entity who wants to use a copyrighted work is required to make only a "good faith, reasonably diligent search" to locate the copyright owner. If, after making such a search, the user is unable to locate the copyright owner, he/she/it gets an almost free license to use the work. If the copyright owner never comes forward, the user gets to use the work for free. Even if the copyright owner discovers the use and demands payment, the MOST the copyright owner can get is "reasonable compensation," i.e. a reasonable license fee for the use actually made. There is NO possibility of statutory damages or attorneys' fees, even if the work was registered before the use was made without your permission.

So, under the proposed legislation, any organization can pick up a photo of yours and use it freely without your permission. All they have to establish is that they did not know who owned the copyright.

My 'puter had a brain transplant and an unclogging of the arteries

Until last week, my primary computer had a 1.8 Ghz Pentium 4 processor. A few months ago , I bought an Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz processor as a mid-life kicker. I carefully read the instructions, and decided that it was way too risky for me to attempt to install the upgrade myself. The instructions were something along the lines of "remove everything from the motherboard and gently pry the old processor out, taking care not to damage the motherboard".
I put the processor away - and then I noticed a sign at CompUSA - "Parts installation - $29.95". I asked if that included parts not purchased from the store - sure, I was told. Processor chip? I asked - "Sure" I was told. So, last Thursday, I dropped it off on the way to the city.
Yesterday, I picked up the patient, plugged in the three external hard drives, the printer, both scanners, the iPod, the network, the two phone lines, the speakers, and finally the power.
Bingo! It works, and felt snappier. Just to convince myself that it was not an illusion, I went to the Intel site to find the Processor Identification Utility. I came to this page:

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/software.htm#id

and spotted the "Intel Application Accelerator".

The description said:

"The Intel® Application Accelerator replaces the ATA drivers that come with Windows* with drivers optimized for desktop and mobile PCs using select Intel® chipsets. It reduces the storage sub-system bottleneck, enabling the processor and other system level hardware to be more productive and efficient. It is not a requirement for your operating system to work properly."

Sounded like a good thing, so I went ahead and installed it (several steps and checks involved). If you try it, read ALL the "Readme"s and Release Notes to ensure compatibility with your system.
My system really hums now - - I won't need a new one until my major apps support dual processors and Windows Vista has had the bugs shaken out.

Red Lentil Soup - or, How to find happiness in the kitchen

The yummiest and simplest soup I have ever made is a red lentil soup, based on a traditional Jewish recipe. The TV program "America's Test Kitchen" (who advice I usually revere) recently derided and discarded red lentil soup as being too mushy. Pure Northeastern Yankee humbug!

The recipe I used is based on red lentils (1 packet - 16 oz), chopped onion (1 large), chicken or beef stock (7 1/2 cups) and cumin, salt and pepper, with a finish of lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, In its purest form, just simmer the main ingredients for about 30 minutes until the texture is right, add the lemon juice and olive oil, and garnish however you please (chopped parsley is good). Tastes good, looks blah.

To make it great, raid the pantry and fridge and add stuff. The best additions I have found so far are a can of chopped tomatoes (added after about 20 minutes of simmering) and about 12 oz shredded spinach (added 5 minutes before completion). The added colors, textures and tastes are sublime. This is what I cooked last night on the spur of the moment.

This, for me, was a breakthrough. Normally, if I cook something, I plan it with more care than the war in Iraq was planned -- about two days of thinking and making lists. Impromptu cooking is new for me - and very gratifying.

Yes, I know, every working woman does this every day - but I am handicapped - I am a man ;-(

Google throws out US data demand

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google throws out US data demand:
The US government demanded that Google produce data regarding search terms used by Google searchers. Google's response included a phrase that is emblematic of almost everything this administration does:
"This statement is so uninformed as to be nonsensical"
This sums up almost everything GWBs group has said about almost every one of its policy initiatives. I love it. Who said geeks can't write poetry?

Sorry - I could not resist this...

... even though everyone else is commenting. Usually this administration shoots itself in the foot. This time they could not even manage that! Also, I am wondering anyone would want to shoot quail anyway - he no longer wants the VP slot. Slates commentary is below:
Blind Spot - The vice president learns there is no "E" in quail. By Bruce Reed

Just how cold is Chicago?

Not as cold as it used to be. Read on for details of our current balmy winter...
WGN Weather Weblog: SUBZERO TEMPERATURES AT CHICAGO

Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams

So what will we do to fill up the time at weddings?
And our grandchildren will never understand telegram jokes :-(
E.G.
"A cartoon with the caption “Telegram Sex which showed the recipient reading from the slip of paper - DONT STOP DONT STOP DONT STOP STOP
LiveScience.com - Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams

Analog TV shutdown all but set for 2009 - Engadget

Analog TV shutdown all but set for 2009 - Engadget
So start thinking about dumping that box you have somewhere. My study TV is a 20 year old Magnavox. It will have to go :-)

Fear and Loathing and Digital Rights Management

If you have an iPod, and a PC, you need SharePod. This is why:
This morning I opened up iTunes and clicked on a podcast I wanted to hear. Not there. No problem - just listen to another of the thirty or more lined up to for my pleasure. Not there.
Concern!
Check on a music track. Not there. Try another music track. Not there.
Fear!
Open Explorer and look in the folder - empty.
Full blown panic!
Put earphones on iPod - music still there. No problem. About to pop iPod into cradle when memory strikes - DON"T DO THAT. The iPod synch is only one way. Synch now and the iPod is made to match the PC - i.e. empty.
All is not really lost - most of what I put on the iPod is from CDs that I already own - the problem is that I have about 15GB on the iPod - takes forever to load.
OK - go for a file recovery program. It finds nothing.
Go for Google - I find SharePod after many dead ends.
This nifty little program copies everything from the iPod back to your PC. After a couple of glitches caused by file names that are too long, I now have all my music files back on my PC.
Not quite yet. I had bought a couple of tracks from the music store just to see how it works. They have disappeared, as far as I can tell. Good work, Apple. Yay for Digital Rights Management.

The Avalon Project : Hamas Covenant 1988

The Avalon Project : Hamas Covenant 1988

Selfserving bigoted BS - a quote from the "Covenant" above:

"Article Thirty-One:

The Islamic Resistance Movement is a humanistic movement. It takes care of human rights and is guided by Islamic tolerance when dealing with the followers of other religions. It does not antagonize anyone of them except if it is antagonized by it or stands in its way to hamper its moves and waste its efforts.

Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism - to coexist in peace and quiet with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam. Past and present history are the best witness to that."

Free translation - if you are Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Taoist, Parsi, Animist, Shinto - or anything other than followers of the religion of Abraham, you are dead meat. Otherwise, if you are Jewish or Christian, you had better be prepared to live under Islamic rule - or we will kill you in the name of peace and quiet.

January 2006 was Chicago's warmest since 1928

... and I am not complaining. See the details on the WGN Weather Weblog: January 2006: CityÂ’s warmest since 1928

A poll shows 47% of the US population now thinks the US was right to invade Iraq

... and by definition, 50% of the population is of below average intelligence. Odd coincidence? I think not.

Also, the Iraqis have Democratically elected a party ideologically sympathetic to the Shiite lunatic regime in Iran.

Good job, George.

Matis Yahu - Hasidic Reggae hip-hop

For something completely different, listen to this:
Matis Yahu - Jokaroo.com

The Online Photographer: Zeiss ZF Lenses: It's Official

What he said:
The Online Photographer: Zeiss ZF Lenses: It's Official

This "announcement" is so underwhelming it boggles the mind.

iMac - Mea Culpa

I am guilty - I recently purchased an iMac - mostly because it has great industrial design, and fit into the space I had available. I confess - I almost fell for the great lie - Macs work better than Windows PCs. Subsequent posts will explain what problems I have had with the iMac - not worse than a PC, but clearly not better. Before I start on those, some of my Apple history is worth recounting - to establish that I am neither a Windowsphile nor a Macophobe.

I first used Apple computers in the early 1980s, some twenty years after I learned to program. I had an Apple II, packaged up in a large plywood box, with monitor and external disk drives, that I used to schlepp around airports to client sites all around the USA. VisiCalc and VisiPlot were my world.

I went off to Japan for a year, working on planning for big iron, just as the IBM PC was introduced. I used a Wang word processor in Japan the produce our reports.

On my return from Japan, I bought a Commodore 64 for home use. My objective was to understand these little machines at a deeper level. I coded a bunch of stuff in assembler, and got the hardware understanding I was seeking.

At work, I moved on to an Apple III, and build a large model of the operations of an insurance company that predicted staffing levels in various deployment scenarios. The moment of truth came when I had to save the spreadsheet on a 5 1/4" floppy drive, and it would not fit. Main memory was larger than external storage. Great planning, Apple.

Time passed, and my employer standardized on Macs for report production, and on Compaq for spreadsheets, etc. I used both - I was an equal opportunity geek. The Mac was good enough, but the monitor was so small that I could hardly read anything on the screen. And I could crash the Mac as often as my PC, if I installed enough new software -- which of course I did.

I moved on to a new job, new town, no Macs in sight. My eyes could not justify another of the little screens. My mind could not see why I would want to try to do so. As a "user" I left the Apple world for a while.

In the course of my then new working life I regularly met with senior folk in the technology world - many of them my kind of people - geeks with a need to earn a living. One of these was Steve Jobs. He was pitching his view of his operating system and its "object-orientedness". He made the assertion that his version of the OS itself was much more efficient in an object oriented world than any other operating system. I asked why that should be so. He looked at me with disgust, and replied "You just don't understand". I said: "Of course I don't understand. If I did, I would not have asked the question." He also seemed not to understand because he changed the subject and we moved on to other topics.

After the meeting, I heard him commenting to one of his aides "I don't do well with non-technical people". Yeah - right - I am non-technical - I wrote an operating system for the IBM 704; I was one of a team of four that built a time-sharing system that supported 30 simultaneous users on an IBM/360 Model 50 in 1 Meg of "core storage" (now called "Memory") - a machine that was orders of magnitude less powerful than the iMac on which I am now writing this post. I guess I am more technical than most.

Which leads up the my first iMac problem - why does it lose network connectivity every time it goes to sleep? I searched the web for an answer - I was heartened at first when I found a discussion of the problem and a suggested solution. I lost heart when I found dozens of discussions, each with different solutions. I have tried a few of the solutions - none of them worked.

I have been MacSuckered. Thank Turing that this is not my primary computer.

On the other hand, I think that Apple will emerge as a major player in the PC world if Windows will run on their new Intel based computers. They do have great industrial design, even if the software has a way to go. In the interest of full disclosure -- I own Apple stock :-)

Were the Missile Strikes in Pakistan Illegal? - The laws of war, explained. By Daniel Engber

Were the Missile Strikes in Pakistan Illegal? - The laws of war, explained. By Daniel Engber
This whole discussion misses the point, as do most of the discussions of issues like this. If we got the bozo we were going after, of course it is legal and OK - winners declare what is legal. If we missed, of course it is illegal -- it is never legal to kill non-combatants - or to be stupid.

Unfortunately, we, as a nation, have elected an incompetent administration.

Fortunately, we are a democracy, so they will be gone soon.

A new way of posting

To date, I have been circumspect in what I post. I think about it, dilute it, and duck real issues.

This is not in accord with my nature. From now on I will now post what I think, when I think it. If I have second thoughts, I will publish them later.

Why this new approach (as nobody asked)? I do not want to be seen as a spineless wimp by my descendents when they dig up this stuff from the archives.

32 by the Lake - A walk in without sun

The sun has not shone in greater Chicago for two weeks - so I went for a walk by the lake, anyway.

32 by the Lake - a photoset on Flickr

Our Wedding - 1965

Our Wedding - 1965
Originally uploaded by chmoss.

On December 19, 1965, Hilda and I got married. We still are :-)

Cioppino: A Fine Kettle of Fish - and our dinner tonight

Recipes : Cioppino: A Fine Kettle of Fish : Food Network

Without shame, I admit I made a Kosher version of this for dinner tonight, and we liked it. Yes, Rachael Ray is somewhat (more than somewhat) irritating (EVOO! EVOO!). However, she can can cook - way better than I can (so far). So, I made the recipe above for dinner tonight - with a change -- no shellfish. For the broth I used Osem Parve Chicken Style Consomme, for the other shellfish I used white nushrooms -- next time I will use more varieties of mushrooms.

Overall -- we liked it.

The future of computer hardware

Greg Papadopoulos of Sun posted this in his blog Greg Matter : Weblog
His well argued conclusion:

"By 2010 microprocessors will seem like really old ideas. Motherboards will end up in museum collections. And the whole ecology that we have around so-called industry standard systems will collapse as it becomes increasingly obvious that the only place that computer design actually happens is by those who are designing chips."

Now, like all things emanating from vendors of computing related products, this is somewhat self-serving in that Sun is indeed a chip designer, and should be taken with a grain of salt. However, his conclusion is logical.

Streeterville

Streeterville
Originally uploaded by chmoss.

Now I am working on a set that contrasts trees and structures in cities.

700 Sundays

Last night we went to see the Billy Crystal show "700 Sundays". Most of the audience appeared to enjoy it enormously. I got a few grins from it, but no real hearty laughter. The word that came to mind as I left the theatre was "bathos". Realizing that I may be emotionally challenged, I Googled for reviews. The first one that came up was 700 Sundays from nytheatre.com.
I pretty much agree with what the reviewer said -- but maybe not quite so negatively -- so I will say no more.

So now I have another place to show pictures

Originally uploaded by chmoss.

I have stated posting my new pictures on Flickr
http://flickr.com/photos/chmoss/

So, for an almost complete view of where my pictures are, you must now go to all of
http://clive.moss.net
http://www.pbase.com/chmoss/profile
http://clive.smugmug.com
http://flickr.com/photos/chmoss/

Why? Its a long story, best told some other time. In short - the web evolves, storage schemas evolve, group interactions evolve - so I am scattered.

In Memoriam - Gertie Moss - Passed away on Thursday November 3, 2005 (1 Chesvan 5766) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

As she would like to be remembered - Margate Beach - 1957. For more, see here

Google Maps Mania

If you like maps you must check out this website. It tracks applications the are built on top of the open API to Google maps (like this CTA map) , as wells as tools to build more maps..
These applications are a window into the future of web-based applications for we have been waiting for ever so long.
On a similar note, look at what Amazon is doing with maps. Street Photography at its most basic!

The Smoking Gun: Arresting Images

Now -- if you are into portraiture, this is a great site.

The Smoking Gun: Arresting Images

Fall in Chicago...

... seems to be a little late this year -- but some spots are pretty. 

Frapper! - a neat new application

Frapper! is a neat application. It links to Google maps, and lets anyone create a group map. This is the kind of thing that happens when interfaces are opened and made accessible over the web.

I recently came across this "old" picture of Jacob and Julia

Jacob and Julia - about 4 years ago!

Happy New Year to all

May the New Year of 5766 bring a more peaceful world, free from both man-made and natural disasters.

Gina's wedding on Block Island

My first cousin (once removed) Gina got married on Block Island last week.
We traveled there with my sister Beverley and her husband Lionel (who were visiting from South Africa).

Starting to post again

I don't know why it has been hard for me to keep this Journal going -- something of apparently more pressing importance always gets in the way. However, I am going to try again. I am not sure why I want to do this. I think that the driving force for me is that when all is said and done, and my grandchildren have reached retirement age, and are trying to find out about their roots, this journal may be all that is left of me for them to wonder about. Blogger may not be around -- but web archive do seem to keeps everything. I have found things from my old web site that I had forgotten about, logged and stored by some web crawler.

You should read "The Island at the Center of the World" by Russell Shorto

In the interest of labor saving and because I agree with what she says, read the book after reading this review
Bookslut | The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto
The book can be found at Amazon here.

We went to Stratford to see Shakespeare

Last week we visited Stratford, Ontario.
See more pics here

Well ... my windshield is fixed, sorta kinda ...

So, the fixer arrived for the 2:00pm to 4:00pm fix at 6:00pm. He looked at the problem and said something along the lines of -- I am not sure I can fix that one, but I will have a go at it. He was clearly competent at what he did, and knew the limitations of the method he was using. He patched it, and the crack may or may not spread. We will wait and see, and hope that I do not get another $1000 ding soon.

How to get a chip in your auto windshield fixed

On a trip to Stratford, Ontario, I noticed a small chip in my windshield. This being a new car (less than 1000 miles on the clock), I called Lexus. Thus started a long sequence of calls, which I document here to prepare the reader for this ordeal.

1. Call Lexus. Get transferred to service department. Get information that they can surely fix it, no problem. Just bring it in. Warranty coverage, I ask. No, he says. All you need do is pay. No thanks, I say.
2. Call Allstate insurance . Yes, it is covered, but with a $500 deductible. If it is less than that, I should not make a claim.
3. Call Lexus. Get transferred to service department. How much, I ask. $1000 to replace the windshield, he says. AARGH, I say. Less if it can be patched, he says, we have a guy that comes in to do great patches.
   
4. Call Allstate. Make claim. She asks -- is it larger than a dollar? Is it in your line of sight? No, I say. OK, she says, if it can be laser treated, than Allstate will fix it, no deductible. Who do you want to have it fixed by? Here is a list of names. Wait, I say. Can I use the Lexus fixer. Sure, she says, if he is on our list.
5. Call Lexus. Get transferred to service department. Get voicemail. Hang up.
   
6. Call Lexus. Explain that I do not want voicemail. Get transferred to service department. Get voicemail. Hang up.
7. Call Lexus. Get transferred to a real person in the service department. Get the name of their windshield guy.
8. Call Allstate. Give them name of windshield guy. Yes, he is a preferred provider. Get transferred to Estella at windshield guy. She says to call at 8:30 Wednesday to get a time for the appointment.
9. Call Estella. Guy answers. I am calling to get the time of my appointment, I say. Pregnant pause. My name is Clive Moss. Pregnant pause. Can I speak to Estella, I ask. Sure, he says. Pause. Estella on the phone. She says -- I will call you back in 5 minutes. I wait 30 minutes.
   
10. Call Estella. Guy answers. Can I speak to Estella? Sure he says. Appointment is made for between 2 an 4 o'clock today.

Watch this space for the next enthralling episode...

PAW (Picture a week) - Julia at Summer Camp

I have caught up at last! Click on the image to see it larger. If you want to see my cumulative efforts for 2005..Click here

Olympia DualPhone for Skype

Do you want to use Skype like a normal telephone? I have a telephone like handset that plugs into a soundboard that works pretty well, but it has a short cord and no wireless capability. For a better way, look at this.
Olympia DualPhone for Skype reviewed - Engadget - www.engadget.com
And here is another way of doing it for only $69.

My China trip pictures have been uploaded...

... to smugmug. At last I have finished editing the images from our China and Tibet trip. We had a wonderful time, and we can heartily recommend Overseas Adventure Travel as a tour company. If you have never visited China - go now if you can.
This picture was taken at the Sera Monastery in Tibet -- probably the most exotic location I shall ever visit. The whole Monastery has changed very little in past several hundred years -- with the exception of the monks' shoes.

OK -- I am back from China

We returned from our China trip in the middle of June. My first reaction - WOW. I feel like the Europeans must have felt on seeing America emerging as the "New World". The energy and vitality and dauntless enthusiasm of the people and the economy they are fueling are overwhelming. If I could speak/read Chinese I would consider emigrating (if I could persuade my family to follow. I have done it once without family -- that was enough.) Barring unfortunate government action, China will emerge as a major - perhaps the dominant - world economic power.
Modern China, not the USA, stands as the experiment that proves the power of the marketplace. The USA's strength could arguably be ascribed to many independent factors -- the spirit of its large immigrant population, its natural resources, its constitution, democracy, its geographic isolation, you pick your own explanation. In China, we have the perfect controlled experiment. Until 1976, they had a centrally planned economy. They switched to a market economy. Nothing else changed. Bingo -- every thing got better.

PS-That's the Shanghai skyline viewed from the Bundt.

China and Taiwan -- talk about a long term view of the world!

In an article in the economist- Economist.com | China and Taiwan: - it was written:
"He supports the idea of an interim agreement lasting 30-50 years whereby Taiwan would agree not to declare formal independence in exchange for a pledge by China not to attack. Neither China nor Mr Chen has explicitly rejected this, so far at least."

WOW! Deals in the USA often do not survive the next Evening News!

Kupishok: For Eternal Memory

A video of the day that we spent in the home town of Hilda's grandparents has been placed in the National Center for Jewish film. For details, see
Kupishok: For Eternal Memory
Some of the stills in the movie were taken from my pictures. A subset of the pictures from my trip is on my website.

Many more of the pictures are here

Blah and Goodness

Last Thursday we saw a blah performance at the Chicago Symphony. What could have been an exciting evening turned out to be lackluster performances of Stravinsky's Petrushka and the Rachmaninov 2nd Symphony. Maybe it was the Conductor (Valery Gergiev from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg) -- maybe we were not in a receptive mood -- but we came out feeling blah. We had high hopes based on a thrilling performance of Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet that we managed to see in St. Petersburg last July. In retrospect, that was silly. Just because Gergiev uses the same hall does not imply anything. Duh!

OTOH, on Sunday we saw Silk at the Goodman Theatre, by Alessandro Baricco, directed by Mary Zimmerman. Magical goodness.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Click it to find the answer!

OK - so I am four years late - I was busy filing my taxes

I was searching for something when I tripped across this news item.
ABCNEWS.com : PKZip Creator Dies -- April 22, 2000

Katz was they guy that created the Zip format in a flurry of controversy, remembered by old farts like myself, but few others.
The full story is explained in more detail here , here and here.

So, why should I not advertise?

My latest pictures are posted here.
If you like the site structure, sign up by using this link

http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=P9ZOPaIS5snuQ

and we will both get a credit on our subscriptions.

I survived the Ring

After a week immersed in Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs (about 20 hours in the Opera hall, including intermissions), I can now rejoin human society. Despite its ridiculous story involving the intrigues of gods and demigods, it was a wonderful experience. The music, plot and staging combine to stimulate the mind in many dimensions.
This picture is from the curtain call after Walkure.

The Ring at Lyric Opera of Chicago - all week

This week we are focused on The Ring at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Last night we saw Rheingold. Very impressive production (at least, I was impressed).

The most unusual event of the evening was that the line at the men's room before the show were way longer than the line at the ladies' room.

The Surprising New Science of Splashes - who would'a thunk it?

Ever wondered why water splashes? Read on...
The Surprising New Science of Splashes

I am doing my part

Interesting article

The future of blogging | CNET News.com

Lookingglass Alice

Tonight we saw "Lookingglass Alice" at the appropriately named Lookingglass Theatre in the Watertower (the real old one, not the modern ersatz one) on Michigan Ave. Breathtaking acrobatics - a fun time for all. Do not miss it if you are in Chicago -- and take a kid with you if you can. On until April 14, 2005, I believe.

The future

This clip is an interesting view the world of news in 2014. Click it and relax.

EPIC 2014

Kabuki Macbeth

Tonight we went to see a performance of "Kabuki Macbeth" at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater Upstairs on navy Pier. The review in the Chicago Sun-Times was enthusiastic and accurate -- but I felt that the performances trod dangerously close to parody of the kabuki style, and at times crossed the line and became almost campy.

The evening stood in marked contrast to the rest of my day, which was spent on such mundane activities as paying bills, renewing car licenses, tidying my desk, etc, etc, etc.

Theatre of late

In the past few weeks we have seen three good/excellent plays.

"To The Green Fields Beyond" by Nick Whitby was far and away the best of the bunch. It is an eloquent and moving anti-war attack set in the context of the tank warfare of World War I.

"The Story" by Tracey Scott Wilson is well produced acted, but the story did not capture my attention in the same way as the other two plays. It was a tad slick and glib. It raised issues, but skirted around them.

"The Subject Was Roses" by Frank Gilroy is a powerful family drama that brought to my mind the English "kitchen sink drama" movement that emerged when I was in my teens (see -- I have not yet lost my memory). Strong stuff. The venue - the Writer's Theatre at the back of the bookstore "Books on Vernon" in Glencoe - is tiny. Only three rows of seats. Made us feel we were actually in the kitchen.

The quality of theatre in Chicago continues to surprise me. On Tuesday night we are off the see "Kabuki Lady Macbeth". Report to follow.

The Tagine was great and other thoughts

OK, so now I can post again.

I had a call yesterday from an old college friend who now lives in Israel. He was trying out a form of Telephony over the Internet known as Voice over IP (VoIP). The sound quality was terrible!

But at least the chicken was good. The recipe I used was from Cooks's Illustrated. It is not on the net, but here is a close approximation:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_16461,00.html

My recipe was similar, but involved browning the chicken in the spice rub. Do not believe the 15min prep time. It took me ages to prepare and saute the chicken -- which is probably why they skipped that step!

I have been remiss

I stopped posting for a while -- but I am back now.I wish I could say it was by popular demand, but the demand is not great :-)
At least, I am trying to be back! Google's system is not posting. I cannot update this Blog. Of course, if you read this, the problem is fixed :-)

The news for today (friday March 25) is that I cooked a Moroccan chicken dish called a Chicken Tagine.

I will keep posting - if I can :-(

Getting closer to the lost universe

In a previous post, I noted the little problem of modern physics -- we have lost about 95% of the universe. Can't be found anywhere.

Now, we may have found a "dark galaxy" that may contain the missing bits.

Radio astronomers may have found the first ever galaxy that is made almost entirely of dark matter. The "dark galaxy", which lies in the Virgo cluster about 50 million light years away, rotates in the same way as an ordinary galaxy but does not contain any stars (R Minchin et al. Astrophysical Journal at press).

The physicsweb article "Have we seen the first dark galaxy" describes it. The galaxy cannot be seen in the image below. That's why it is called "dark"

I'm baaack...

... from a bad cold. I missed several days. I don't think there is much point trying to backfill.

Today I cooked a super chicken stew from a Syrian recipe. Onions, garlic, wine, coriander, cumin, olives, chicken stock. Yummy. Cures colds.

The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record

This link was posted on one of the mailing lists.
The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated (A Library of Congress Exhibition)

This Library of Congress exhibit contains incredible color pictures from turn-of-the-center Russia. For example:

Amtrak subsidies cut. Why?

OK - so I am few days late in reacting to this:

CNN.com - Bush plan to eliminate Amtrak subsidy faces fight - Feb 9, 2005

The challenge (for me) when assessing proposals made by politicians is to decide among five alternatives:

1. They are right -- the proposal is good public policy (meaning -- I agree with it)
   
If they are wrong, we disagree because:

2. They are stupid, and do not understand the issues
   
3. They are evil, and have a personal profit motive (e.g. meeting their campaign contributors needs)
   
4. They have a different view of "right" and "wrong" than I. This could be based on religion, or some other moral basis. Reasonable people can differ regarding such issues.
   
5. I am stupid, and do not understand the issue.
   

I will always discard 5. as an option that I discuss -- it is for other people to make that case.

In the case of Amtrak, the proposal is clearly wrong. The federal government subsidizes Amtrak's competition (personal automobiles) by maintaining the US Interstate system. Without the Interstate road system, trains would be packed.

It is bad public policy to subsidize the less efficient of competing alternatives. It may even be bad policy to subsidize any private endeavor, but that is another question.

So, the administration is either paying back political contributions, does not understand the issue, or believes it is morally wrong to ride trains. You decide -- I don't know.

Two movies in two days - a record for me!

We have joined a movie discussion group. As a result, we now feel impelled to actually see movies. Saturday night we saw Million Dollar Baby.

This was well made, but boxing turns me off.

Sunday afternoon -- cold and drizzly, we saw Ray.

Interesting story, well acted (probable Oscar for Jamie Foxx playing Ray Charles, but the story was dragged out for too long, and often played too hard at tugging at the heartstrings. (It seemed to work for the lady across the aisle -- she reacted loudly with appropriate sobs and gasps). The director made good use of color saturation as a differentiator between current scenes and flashbacks.

It seems like this is the year of the biography at the movies.

Great photo shows in Chicago

Today I went out with a couple of folk that I met through the Street Photography mailing list.

Despite a lifelong interest in photography, I spent very little time in galleries looking at photographs. In Johannesburg, there were no photo galleries. While working in the USA, time for galleries was almost non-existent. So, apart from an occasional swing by the photographs in the Chicago Art Institute, galleries were not on my radar screen.

Today was an eye-opener for me. We first visited the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College -- a stunning set of exhibitions spread over multiple floors. Next, over to the West Loop area - several commercial galleries with fascinating exhibitions.

For more on galleries in Chicago, see Chicago Gallery News.

An interesting space is the West Loop Art Market.

Its harder than it seems..

... to keep a blog current. I have never kept any kind of journal before, so remembering to say something every day does not come easily to me. Even harder is saying something of significance -- so I will fall back in the insignificant.

We went to the Opera last night night - saw the production of Tosca based on the 1964 Covent Garden production. Magnificent.

We installed a Comcast DVR today - so now, rather than not watching TV. I can have a machine watch it for me. I have set it record a bunch of programs that I always miss -- it remains to seen if I ever get to actually watch the programs. Of course, the tech who installed it did not set it up correctly, so I had to get the manual and set it up for a regular TV -- he had set it up for HDTV.

Monkeys Pay to See Female Monkey Bottoms

Monkeys Pay to See Female Monkey Bottoms

Abstract:

Would you pay to see a monkey's backside? I hope not. Monkeys will, and I guess that's okay, though it sounds awfully close to the sort of thing that lands guys in jail here in the human realm.

A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say.

Hmmm. No need for comment.

On the way to finding the lost universe

I have been a little concerned for some time now that the standard model of physics has some trouble locating 95% of the matter in the universe. It is there, they say - they just can't find it.

Now I discover that about half of the 5% that physicists have found is also missing.

This bad news was delivered to me in the guise of some good news: they have found some of the missing 2.5%. An article on physicsweb describes it.

The situation in physics now appears similar to the early 1900s. Newtonian physics described the known world, except for some minor anomalies that were ignored in polite company. Then Einstein and the quantum gang explain the anomalies and bingo -- everything you ever learned in kindergarten was just an approximation. Next we get nuclear weapons and transistors.

Only fiction writers and politicians can predict what will come next.

Actually, think most of the missing matter is in my filing cabinet.

Picasa for Photo Organizing

Google has bought Picasa

I downloaded it and tried it out, despite my heavy commitment (in time) to Imatch as a photo indexing tool. While its indexing system is not as powerful as a fully fledged image management system, its speed and ease of use are outstanding.

Try it -- you may like it.

It comes bundled with Hello! -- which I like much less. Hello appears to function like a Napster for your pictures. I do not feel comfortable with the idea of opening a pipe to my hard drive from the Internet, and I feel even less comfortable asking friends to install software just to look at my pictures. Its the Luddite in me, I guess.

ATT, Cingular and Frustration

My wife's cell phone is old and almost broken. The calling plan we have from ATT is not as cost effective as newer plans. ATT & Cingular have just merged. Seems like a good time to upgrade the phone and move to a more cost effective plan. So, off to the ATT store we go -- same old store, new Cingular signs.

Youngish guy greets us, asks what he can do for us. We tell him. We want a bar phone (not flip) with blue tooth capability. That's the phone over there, he says -- but its not available anywhere in Illinois -- backordered, he says. You can have flip and Bluetooth, or no flip and no Bluetooth. OK, we say, let's get the new Cingular plan on the old phone until the new one comes in. Can't do, he says. Your old phone is locked to ATT, and we did not want to force anyone to convert, he says.

HUH? The phone is locked to the chip by software. ATT knows how to unlock it. Once again, ATT arrogance comes to the fore, even though the company was bought by Cingular.

The outlook is bleak.

A History of Civilizations

I recently finished reading Fernand Braudel's book with this expansive title and scope.

Absolutely fascinating reading, and highly recommended. It is refreshing to read a book on world history that appears not to have an ideological axe to grind, but tries to present an array of facts in a broadly based context that allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

The conclusion that I was led to is that civilizations evolve based on both their own internal dynamics and their interaction with other civilizations. This is another way of saying that predicting how civilizations will change is beyond current intellectual capabilities -- but change they will.

This is a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. One is left edified, but with few insights that really help to explain current affairs. In hindsight, one can say: this is why it happened. With foresight, one can only say: something will happen.

Nevertheless, the book is still worth reading.

A superb Mozart and Mahler concert conducted by Maazel

This evening we saw the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel playing Mozart Symphony #29 and the Mahler 5th Symphony. Superb.

Our seats for this series are in Row G on the far right. We get a great view of the conductor from the side, so we can see facial expressions clearly. I was struck by the difference in conducting style between Birnbaum and Maazel.

Birnbaum uses a podium with a railing at the back - and he uses every square inch of it. He leans back over the rail. He moves to the side and leans so far over into the violin section that he almost hits heads with his baton. He moves forward and lunges towards the brass to encourage more effort.

Maazel uses no rail - he does not need one. His body movements are expressive, and sometimes explosive, but his feet barely move more than a few inches in each direction. He did, however, launch himself almost six inches into the air with both feet off the ground several times during the Mahler.

The encore was the prelude to Act III of Wagner's Lohengrin.

Overall, a very satisfying evening.

This is why I want a four wheel drive.

It is the exit from my garage!

© Clive Moss

I am thinking of buying a new car.

I will get a four wheel drive of sorts, to combat the Chicago winter.

I find the discussions on this board fascinating.
Acura RL vs. Audi A6 vs. BMW 5-Series vs. Jaguar S-Type vs. Lexus GS - Forums

I drove the Volvo s80 this morning. The Volvo drives OK, but feels tacky compared to the finish of the Lexus or Infiniti.
Last week I drove the new Acura RL. It has great electronic gizmos, but I am underwhelmed by its feel on the road and its bland looks.

The Ultimate Geek Accessory

PaperHub review - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Now this is the ultimate geek desk accessory

So, this is a test to see if I can link to my pictures on pbase. These are my current PAWs (Pictures a Week):
http://www.pbase.com/chmoss/2005q1paw
Now, can I embed a picture? This is my grand-daughter Abigail: