Silicon Valley Redneck

Noooooo!

Doubleplusungood!  I've got to do better (worse?) than this.  Anyone know of an Evil Academy around here?

You Are 20% Evil

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm. Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

How Evil Are You?

Test via The Jawa Report.  Looks like Rusty Vinnie's a lot better at this evil stuff than I am; he scored 82%!

On further reflection, though... it's not really a good test.  A lot of the questions have to do with petty malice or weakness, not with true evil, and I'm just not into petty malice (which is a distraction from greater things), and, while I have my weaknesses (what villain doesn't?), they don't match the ones on the test.

More uses for home biotech

Pondering further on the subject of genetic engineering's progress into the realm of plausible activities for a small, even hobby-level, lab, an idea I had back in the 1980s starts sounding close to reality:

How practical would it be to splice hemp genes into oregano?

It doesn't have to be hemp and oregano, of course.  It could be white poppies and California poppies, or magic mushrooms and market mushrooms, or even coca and cola.  Just so you get a plant which looks just like something that's commonly and legitimately cultivated, and which incidentally produces an illicit drug.
It seems that such an enterprise would be profitable enough to justify the investment, assuming that it could actually be done.
Probably not on the drug lords' radar is the notion of splicing dope-producing genes into an otherwise innocuous strain of E. coli - "here, eat this, and it'll keep you hopped up for the rest of your life."  (On the other hand, bacterial dope production, using bacteria not suited to such resident production, would have advantages; bacterial cultures are a lot easier to hide than poppy fields.  You just have to watch out for nasty suspicious people who might think you were using those supplies to grow anthrax.)

A belated link

Found linked at SSDB: Why Lincoln Stopped Blogging.

Fascinating, and alarming.

Paul Boutin (via Instapundit) reports on an experiment in DIY gene meddling.  He'd wanted to try making smallpox from scratch, but settled for making glow-in-the-dark yeast - easier, and much safer.
It's amazing what equipment and techniques have sprouted in the past few years.
One passage caught my attention in a non-obvious way:

Getting yeast to sport blue genes takes the same skills and gear as adding the genes for something toxic. DNA is just the stuff that tells cells what proteins to make—the only real difference between being able to insert a single gene and inserting all the genes that make  a virus is experience.

Hmmm... the starting assumption was that a terrorist would want to reproduce an existing pathogen.  This, however, is not necessarily the case; a brand-new pathogen would be just as good, and possibly better.
So, suppose we take something harmless and ubiquitous - Lactobacillus acidophilus, say, or a common strain of E. coli - and splice in a gene sequence for a toxic protein?  Ricin comes to mind, but surely there are others.  Actually, ricin might be a good choice, since it acts fairly slowly, so the victims don't start dying for a few days beyond the incubation period.
Now, these particuar bugs wouldn't be much good for biowar, as they're not highly contagious; you'd have to get them into the food or water supply on a large scale (though even on a small scale, this could cause a panic).  Still, it's a conceptual starting point.
No, I don't think I'll take up bioweapons as a hobby.  It's not like you can set them off on the Fourth of July or anything.
Er... wait a minute.  Professional display fireworks.  Imported.  Things that go up in the air, and go bang, dispersing stuff, most of which burns brightly.  While large numbers of people are outdoors, in the vicinity, watching.  Um... encysted infectious agents distributed on the rice hulls used in making firework shells?  A higher-than-normal rate of "dud" shells, which actually turn out to be bio-dust with a weak bursting charge?  I think we have a potential importation and dispersal mechanism here.

Eep.

Updates:
1. If you want something that'll spread, the common cold seems like a good starting point.  Splice in a gene sequence to make it produce, say, cobra venom, and you've got a real nasty.  Or... ragweed with horribly toxic pollen?  (Didn't I see that on Star Trek, way back when?)
2. Is there a song in here somewhere?  "I went to buy some smallpox; they said they wouldn't sell..."

Random thought

Do Coffeetarians kneel to Mocha five times a day?

Awwww... no snow yesterday.

Yesterday was the occasion of one of my South Skyline Loop hikes: starting from Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve, we loop through Monte Bello OSP, Upper Stevens Creek County Park, Long Ridge OSP, and back to Skyline Ridge, skirting a Christmas tree farm toward the end.  (The summer edition goes the other way around, to avoid slogging up an exposed fire road in the heat of the afternoon.)
With the unregionably wintry weather we've been having lately, I'd kinda hoped to find snow along the way.  Snow at the Christmas tree farm would have been perfect!  Alas, it had all melted.
(There had been a fair bit of snow falling in the area - up at Borel Hill, anyway - around 3:30 Saturday afternoon.  It was rather wet by the time it reached ground level, and melted soon after landing; something to do with the air temperature being about 10 degrees F above freezing.)
Apart from the lack of snow, it was a good, if slightly weird, hike.  I lost one carload of followers on the way there; I guess somehow they all got in the car without anybody having caught the directions.  On the other hand, I gained a like number at the trailhead.  Then at the first trail junction, my count came up one short of what I thought I had back at the cars... but nobody identifiable was missing, so I must have miscounted initially.
The mosses and mushrooms were out in force.  So was the mud, but that's only to be expected.  Stevens Creek was running well, but wasn't too deep to ford easily: those of us with confidence in our boots simply splashed across, while the less-confident looked for dry-foot routes over log or stones.
Weirdness resumed as we passed the tree farm; the official trail was blocked by a large fallen tree, and, as we sought a way around it, part of the group ended up going straight ahead, through the middle of the farm, instead of veering left to meet up again with the trail.  It turns out that was a shortcut, though steep and slippery in parts.
Total distance according to GPS was 9.35 miles with the shortcut, which suggests about 9.5 miles for the official route - rather more than the 8 miles I'd estimated by adding up the official numbers on the map.  Oh, well - everybody made it, and it was a decent amount of exercise.

Life imitates science fiction, again

It seems that Olympic skiers are wearing flexible body armor: flexible when the wearer is moving normally; rigid on impact.
Wasn't Purple wearing something very much like this in The Flying Sorcerers?
(Via Slashdot.)

So that's Apple's new business plan!

Various people around the blogosphere have been linking to Robert Fulghum's website (which, alas, lacks any sort of permalinks), in reference to his recent post on "players" - people who respond imaginitively to impromptu off-the-wall suggestions.
This example of a non-player non-character set me a-thinkin':

Example: Early morning. Lady standing at a bus stop. All seven people waiting with her have wires coming out of their ears. Radios, I-pods, Walkmans, or something. All seven are in a zone - nodding heads in time to music or staring off into space. As I pass, I say to the lady: "They're all alien robots, you know. Their souls have been sucked out of them." The lady gives me a hard look and moves closer to the curb.
Not a player.

So... iPods are soul-sucking devices?  Makes sense.  If cameras can suck people's souls out, a little at a time, from a distance, surely something that's hooked up directly to the victim for 10 hours a day can do a really good job of soul-stealing.
This is great for Apple!  First off, the victims pay good money to Apple for the privilege of having their souls extracted and uploaded to iTunes - what do you think is happening with all that upstream bandwidth, anyway, while you're downloading your music?  Then, Apple can sell the souls to Satan.  Probably not at full price - this is wholesale, after all - but they've got low overhead, so that's OK.
This is actually an important public service.  Since Satan can now get souls wholesale, cheap and easy, from Apple, there's no need to go around trying to persuade the non-wired to sell their souls.  If you don't listen to MP3s, chances are you won't be bothered by Satan's minions.
This leaves but one question: in what coin is Apple being paid?

Did I mention tinfoil hats?

On Tuesday, while I was visiting Tinga at the vet's office (she's staying there for another few days, to grow some feathers back), I had a call on my cellphone.  This got a bit difficult, with Tinga and the phone both trying to talk into the same ear.
This let to a characteristically warped train of thought which led to an idea for a parrot cellphone.  After all, the phone and Tinga are about the same size....
Now, via Althouse, comes news of an animatronic squirrel phone!
I like my idea better.  Talking to a parrot perched on one's shoulder is normal.  Talking to a squirrel is just weird.
Hmmm... gotta visit Tinga again today.  It's her hatchday!  Also the anniversary of the sinking of the Housatonic.  ("We will break their back and bellies as we slip beneath the waves, when that little boat the Hunley breaks the Yankee blockade.")

How not to be offensive

Just to be on the safe side, I've decided to take the initiative in Not Being Offensive.
Here, therefore, is Not An Image Of Mohammed.

Remember, this is Not Mohammed.  No blasphemy has been perpetrated here.  Nobody is to stone anybody until I blow this whistle.

Reminder

To all those who hope that Cheney will be forced from office (perhaps after being indicted on a charge of failing to hold a prompt press conference after winging that lawyer), remember this:
Many members of the VRWC have, for a couple of years now, been looking for an excuse for Cheney to leave, though the original plan called for him to leave several months before the 2004 election.
The reason?  Well, if Cheney is gone, that post of VP will have to be filled... and perhaps Condi could be talked into taking it, putting her in an ideal position for that 2008 run that she still hasn't agreed to.
(Mind you, Condi doesn't really have the right qualifications for VP.  The VP's job, apart from attending funerals, is to preside over the Senate, and this calls for someone with a background in teaching kindergarten.  And perhaps a lobotomy.)

Bazz fazz!

So, here I am, working in my home lab, running some tests for a client.
It seems like capturing an oscilloscope trace would be useful at this point.
Grab a fresh floppy from the box that's been on the shelf these many years... no go; the 'scope won't write a file to it, nor format it.
Try another floppy.  Same thing.
Try formatting either of them on this PC (the only one in the house with a - working last time I checked - floppy drive installed).  Error verifying track 0.
Grrr... have the disks gone bad in storage, or have both the floppy drives gone bad?
Plugging in a USB floppy drive doesn't help, as the kernel I'm running on this system doesn't seem to like it, and besides, I assume fdformat wouldn't work over SCSI emulation over USB.
Let's see if there's anything else around here that speaks floppy... or if one of these used floppies on my desk can be recycled.

I seem to recall something like this happening at work, back around 1998, and the problem was contageous: it seemed that one drive got the floppy pox, and any drive subsequently attempting to use an exposed disk would come down with it too.

Update: there was a floppy next to the scope... one I'd used for capturing screenshots last time I was doing such things, not too long ago.  The scope wouldn't write to that one either.  So, I guess it's a bad drive - or maybe the heads need cleaning?
Anyway, I pulled the skin off the scope, and the drive isn't a standard one, but it's not a Textronix-branded custom jobbie, either.  The label says TEAC FD-05HF, and a quick Google turns up a couple of places that claim to have them in stock.  Not cheap, but not an arm and a leg either.  Hmmm... looks like used ones are available pretty cheap, too.  I think the ones on the market are the same thing (doesn't look like quite the same part number - suffix 8630 or 8653, vs. 230 for the one in front of me - but the specs for the FD05HF8630 look, at first glance, right (including the flat-cable connector).  Could be that J. Random Laptop-Floppy would work; I've never really paid attention to the connectors on laptop floppy drives.  Have to have a look at what's available... or just order a couple of these guys, one for now and one for when that one flakes out.

More on those cartoons

I just noticed something....

Not having cable TV, I didn't see CNN's now-infamous pixellated Mohammed.  I have, however, seen the horribly controversial Bok cartoon poking fun at CNN for it:

I'm not convinced, however, that Bok's interpretation is correct.  Mohammed looks more like the viewer is on acid, or perhaps like CNN is on acid.  Or... perhaps he looks like... could it be...?

Yes, it's The Color Out Of Space!

Update: I can see another way a pixellated Mohammed might be offensive.
My dictionary doesn't include "pixellated," but it does define "pixilated" as "1. Slightly eccentric or mentally disordered. 2. Amusingly whimsical, prankish, silly, or the like."  I note that Porky Pig used this as a euphemism for "drunk," back before anyone had heard of a pixel (1943?).  Thus, a pixellated Mohammed might actually be pixilated, i.e., drunk, which would surely be an offensive characterization.
Afterthought to the update: Actually, Porky might not have meant "drunk" after all; he might have meant nuts, or even looney-tunes.

A random thought:

Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that someone wrote a 1000-word description of Mohammed (peanut butter upon him).
Would that be as bad as a picture?

Dick, repeat after me...

...I must learn the difference between a quayle and a whittington.

This is a quayle.

This is a whittington.

Don't shoot whittingtons!

Yeah, I know... it's not like rich lawyers are an endangered species.  It's still bad form to shoot them unintentionally.

Marcus???

I seem to recall taking this test when it was first making the rounds (before I had a blog, so I didn't record the results), and I think it said I was Picard.  Marcus is a little closer (in the hair department, if nothing else), but still pretty far off.

Marcus Cole

An honest and chivalrous adventurer that pursues just causes, you would sacrifice much to help others.

I am a Ranger. We walk in the dark places no others will enter. We stand on the bridge and no-one may pass. We live for the One, we die for the One.

Ah... now, looking at the list of possible results, I note (as before) that it includes neither Michael Garibaldi nor Tom Bombadil... either of whom would (in one sense or another) be a much better match.

Avian Intervention II

Tinga has been persistently short of feathers the last several months.  Her vet is concerned for her health (the raging hormones can cause serious problems, beyond the unsightly bare belly), and, since she's got a whole bunch of new feathers trying to grow in (if only she'd refrain from pulling them out), it's time for her to go stay at the vet's place for a while.
Last May, I guess she stayed with the vet for about 4 days.  Maybe this time she should stay a little longer.  If she starts behaving herself (to include not plucking feathers), perhaps she'll get to go to Consonance next month.

No surprise here.

There's yet another quiz making the rounds: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different.  Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 81% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 69% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 69% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 63% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 63% SG-1 (Stargate) 56% Moya (Farscape) 56% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 50% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 44% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 44% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 44% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 38% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

Quiz via SSDB.
And now, back to work....

I need a better tinfoil hat

I have this tradition... I come up with a great product idea, find no time nor resources to do anything with it, and a year later IBM announces essentially the same thing.
This time it wasn't IBM, and it took more than a year, but still....

Quite some time ago - possibly 3 years - I was pondering ways to reduce the dangers of high-speed police chases.  This was brought on by yet another crash during such a chase, perhaps in San Francisco (I don't recall exactly).
My idea was a 12ga, or perhaps 37mm (or whatever caliber police tear gas grenade launchers are), RF tracking tag.  GPS receiver, tracking transmitter, and shock-activated battery, wrapped up in a jacket of sticky pods.  Fire it at the bumper of a fleeing car; the shock of firing wakes up the battery; impact breaks the sticky pods; read the serial number off the fired shell casing and call it in to Dispatch, and as long as the tag is out where the radio will work, it can be tracked.
Having a full-time day job at the time, I didn't do anything with this idea.

Not it appears that somebody's gone and implemented something similar.  Uses a dedicated, vehicle-mounted, compressed-air launcher (so probably no shock-activated battery; the dedicated launcher can include a charger).
(Via Slashdot.)