Postcards from the Bleeding Edge
Friday, November 04, 2005

  Rooting for spacedev

I am rooting for spacedev's efforts so hard I may just have to buy stock in the company.

Why? They are innovating in every endeavour of space development they've yet entered - among other things, using Linux in a series of small satellites... and the CEO truly "gets it" about the value of asteroid exploration:

Bonus Link: Some information about hayabusa

Labels: , , , ,

 

  wondering at the sun

I just saw the missing data (the rectangles in this image) and thought of 2001 (not just the movie... but what actually happened in the real year 2001). . And also thought: Isn't the sun beautiful? Isn't it amazing how we can heliograph so many different ways now?

Later on, while catching a bit of that sun, I had a nagging suspicion that I'd mis-used the word heliography, thinking: "Helio" (meaning sun) and "graphy" (as in geography). Sure enough, I had. I'd meant to express "the study of the Sun")... but the word meant: photography!

And I wondered: Did Sol have to wait until 1826 for someone to take a picture of it?

I found another site preserving heliography as "the art of using mirrors for communications".

Heliography is alive and well - and means all these things at the same time! Just look at how we can capture the sun today.

 
Thursday, November 03, 2005

  Scan them all!

The Doc endorses Scanning them all! - and so do I. Every book, every publication, everything ever published - should be on the Internet. Only by doing this will our collective IQ increase to sustainable levels. We need a new library of Alexandria to survive the coming century.

Clicking around from home I am always awed by how far the Net has come... and then I go stand inside a magnificent library, like that of UC Santa Cruz - and weep - because 99.99% of the information contained in that single multi-story building - is not on the internet yet.
 

  "Free" speech and politics

Dear Dennis Hastert:

I note that your attempt to railroad the "Paid Political Internet Splogging Act" through the House was just defeated.

If you truly favor free internet speech, well, Denny, open up comments on your blog!

Can't you do that? Or is there some sort of franking rule that would prevent an open dialog of this sort? If so - don't you think that's more of a problem than freeing paid political bloggers from FEC requirements?

Sincerely,

Michael Taht


The canned email reply from Denny's office:

 
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

  Riots in Paris; the MPAA sues yet another innocent

Two last things for today, then back to my build.

Paris Burns... and the MPAA sues a grandfather. Jerry Pournelle shared some invective (which I would hope is covered under that online speech and freedom act - 'cept that I actually spent 5 seconds reading the darn thing this morning):
 

  Online Speech and freedom act

Dear Denny:

Thank you for blogging about the Online Freedom of Speech Act.

If you'd put up a link to the proposed bill's text - and invite others in the blogosphere to comment... you might prove to me that you're "getting it", and might actually be fit to legislate in this matter. I mean, this particular bill is kind of short, and I would hope that the typical blogging taxpayer might be able to read and understand what this bill is really about.

Bloggers don't all suffer from news attention deficit disorder.

Sincerely,

Me
 

  Bread and Circuses

Found via the Taxprof:
The Tax Foundation has released a fascinating report showing which states benefit from federal tax and spending policies, and which states foot the bill.


US 50 States MapThe report shows that of the 32 states (and the District of Columbia) that are "winners" -- receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes -- 76% are Red States that voted for George Bush in 2000. Indeed, 17 of the 20 (85%) states receiving the most federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Red States.
 
Tuesday, November 01, 2005

  Sign of the times




Personal outlays increased $169 billion (7.7 percent) in the third quarter, compared with an increase of $146.6 billion (6.8 percent) in the second
. The personal savings rate -- saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- decreased from 0.1 percent in the second quarter to a negative 1.1 percent in the third. This means that Americans on average in the third quarter actually dipped into their already accumulated savings instead of placing more money into their accounts.
 
David Täht writes about politics, space, copyright, the internet, audio software, operating systems and surfing.


Resume,Songs,
My new blog, NeX-6, My facebook page
Orgs I like
The EFF - keeping free speech in the world
Musical stuff I like
Jeff, Rick, Ardour, Jack
Prior Rants - Sharing your home network better in a time of covi... Designing for the disconnect Email lists going down the memory hole Instituting saner, professional source code manage... Wireless and Wifi in 2015 - not what I dreamed of Saving wifi! Fixing Bufferbloat! Fighting the vend... Virgin Media - Fixing the epidemic of bufferbloat ... 49... and trying to find my navel Wheels down on mars! Tracking the landing of Curiosity, from Seattle
Best of the blog:
Uncle Bill's Helicopter - A speech I gave to ITT Tech - Chicken soup for engineers
Beating the Brand - A pathological exploration of how branding makes it hard to think straight
Inside the Internet Mind - trying to map the weather within the global supercomputer that consists of humans and google
Sex In Politics - If politicians spent more time pounding the flesh rather than pressing it, it would be a better world
Getting resources from space - An alternative to blowing money on mars using NEAs.
On the Columbia - Why I care about space
Authors I like:
Doc Searls
Where's Cherie?
UrbanAgora
Jerry Pournelle
The Cubic Dog
Evan Hunt
The Bay Area is talking
Brizzled
Zimnoiac Emanations
Eric Raymond
Unlocking The Air
Bob Mage
BroadBand & Me
SpaceCraft
Selenian Boondocks
My Pencil
Transterrestial Musings
Bear Waller Hollar
Callahans
Pajamas Media BlogRoll Member

If you really want to, you can poke through the below links as well.

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