I am always amazed, and appalled, when I fire up a packet monitor and watch the continuous flow of useless junk that arrives at my demarcation routers' interfaces.
That background traffic has increased to the point where it makes noticeable lines on my MRTG graphs. And I have little reason for optimism that this increase will cease. Quite the contrary, I find more reason to be pessimistic and believe that this background noise will become a Niagara-like roar that drowns the usability of the Internet.
I like the round hay bales we see up here in the Rockfish Valley. Today I made a little visual essay of them, not great art but what the heck it Hay.
A friend pointed me to this site with a beta SIP client for Mac. Now we can play with voice over IP. I'm hoping Apple will wake up and roll this functionality into iChat AV... but, not gonna hold my bre
information architecture, noun
A vital component in the development of Web sites, used to round the budget up to the next hundred thousand dollars.
The Voice of the Shuttle began in late 1994 as an introduction to the Web for humanists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. VoS became publicly accessible on March 21, 1995, when the Humanitas server on which it resided opened to global Web access. From its origin to October, 1999, VoS stayed at the same address on the Humanitas server. It grew in that period to over 70 pages of links to humanities and humanities-related resources on the Internet. Its mission has been to provide a structured and briefly annotated guide to online resources that at once respects the established humanities disciplines in their professional organization and points toward the transformation of those disciplines as they interact with the sciences and social sciences and with new digital media. (See such pages as Cultural Studies, Sci-Tech and Culture, Cyberculture, and Technology of Writing.) VoS emphasizes both primary and secondary (or theoretical) resources, and defines its audience as people who have something to learn from a higher-education, professional approach to the humanities (which in practice has included students and instructors from the elementary school, high school, and general population sectors).
The Culture of Information
ENGL 25 - Winter 2002, Alan Liu
This course studies contemporary information culture from the viewpoint of the humanities. We ask the basic question: "what is information, and why is the concept now so important that it not only affects much of our economy, politics, and society but also our sense of culture (the culture of "cool," it has been called) and our arts (the new literatures, arts, music, games, and media). .... [more]
Folklore and Mythology | Metafilter
Here's a MetaFilter posting with pointers to a number of sites with Folk Tales and Fairy Tales. There are about 6 responses at the moment with some more pointers.
Folklore and Mythology E-Texts A multicultural collection classified according to types and variants. See also the SurLaLune Fairy Tales Pages (portal with annotated tales, tons of illustrations), Folk and Fairytales From Around the World (not updated since 1997, unfortunately), Hans Christian Andersen (tales and illustrations, plus additional links), Fairy Tales by the Grimm Brothers (German and English, with some illustrations), the Grimm Index Page (a complete set), Red Riding Hood: A Multimedia Edition (exactly what it sounds like; those with sensitive eyes should be warned that the page is, well, red), and Tracey Callison's extensive Sources for the Analysis and Interpretation of Folk and Fairy Tales (scholarly bibliographies).
thanks to Thomas J Wise
We came to Wintergreen to batten down our hatches here for Isabel. Woke up this morning to lots of leaves and branches on the ground with full electricity and water. So, we lucked out considering the "eye of the storm" was within miles of here.
Art Watch - September 7, 2003 - MP3s Are Not the Devil - The Ornery American
. . . it's pretty hilarious to hear record company executives and movie studio executives get all righteous about copyright. They've been manipulating copyright laws for years, and all the manipulations were designed to steal everything they could from the actual creators of the work.
this is a good read from Orson Scott Card who is a writer and, as he says, depends on copyright to protect his own works.
Use Sept. 11 for personal growth and forgiveness, Dalai Lama urges
While I didn't make the event last week, there is a video of the Dalai Lama's address online. Here's an excerpt from the Cathedral's web page:
The interfaith service blended Buddhist and Christian chants, and prayers for peace were offered in English and Sanskrit. Bishop John Chane and Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, exchanged Tibetan khata – white scarves that represent purity – as a gesture of blessing at the start of the service, and Bishop Jane Homes Dixon read from The Beatitudes.
The Dalai Lama urged those present to exercise discipline in the practice of their religion – whatever their religion was – and to make an effort to move in a positive direction, despite the negative events of Sept. 11.
"I believe the promotion of compassion, forgiveness, contentment and self-discipline – these things I believe are the most important,” he said, as around 3,000 people listened in respectful silence.
Here is more information about Flag Etiquette. With the help of Jeff from FlagandBanner.com I tracked down a compy of the US Code online. I've copied a couple of the issues that are more relevant to what upsets me, plus I copied the reference to use with a casket in answer to an earlier question.
UNITED STATES CODE
TITLE 4 - FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES
CHAPTER 1 - THE FLAG
Sec. 7. - Position and manner of display.
...
(b) The flag should not be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back of a vehicle or of a railroad train or a boat. When the flag is displayed on a motorcar, the staff shall be fixed firmly to the chassis or clamped to the right fender.
...
(n) When the flag is used to cover a casket, it should be so placed that the union is at the head and over the left shoulder. The flag should not be lowered into the grave or allowed to touch the ground.
Sec. 8. - Respect for flag
...
(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.
...
(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.
Economist.com | Open-source software
Across the globe, governments are turning to open-source software which, unlike proprietary software, allows users to inspect, modify and freely redistribute its underlying programming instructions. Scores of national and state governments have drafted legislation calling for open-source software to be given preferential treatment in procurement. Brazil, for instance, is preparing to recommend that all its government agencies and state enterprises buy open source.
On this the second rememberance of the events of September 11, 2001 it is good for us to reflect on Ben Franklin's words:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
c/o John Bartlett, comp. 1919. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed.
Merlyn's Pen: In Defense of Hades: A Closing Argument
This is a link to a story that Sarah-Scott, my elder daughter wrote when she was in 8th grade. As she pointed out to me, it was translated into about 5 different languages. What a Kid!! errrr, I guess now I should say, What a Lady! What a Writer!!