Philip

This Borsch Took Over Six Months to Make

2010-06-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Our collection of vegetable scraps was taking over the freezer (it had been several months since I last made stock), and we had just received our first box of produce from our CSA, so it was time to make a soup.

Last night I made the vegetable stock from the veggies in the freezer (see my previous post on vegetable stock). I discarded some of the celery and the carrot peels, because they were looking pretty bad. I used salt, black peppercorns, and bay leaves.

Today I made the borsch. Of course there are a bazillion recipes for borsch. I checked with More-with-less, which has two borsch recipes (really, only two!?), and cooked some combination of the two. I started with the stock, a bit of vinegar and the beets. After that had cooked for a while I added tomato sauce, cabbage, potatoes, onions, onion stalks, beet greens, dill and a tea ball containing red pepper, black peppercorns and bay leaves.

File server and backups

2010-04-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

So I bought this cheap little network-attached storage (NAS) device the other day (http://bit.ly/dns-323). It's got a 500MHz ARM processor and 64MB memory. There's a nice wiki (http://wiki.dns323.info/) with howtos for the power user.

It includes a web interface, UPnP server, iTunes server, FTP server, Samba server, and add-ons from D-Link that you can install. The latest firmware runs a 2.6.12 kernel. I installed a debian chroot onto it and so now I can ssh into it and run a bittorrent client.

I've read that with both drives spinning, it will will use roughly 25W.

So, I store almost everything on the file server and access files over the network.

RAID is for redundancy, not backup! Therefore, I opted to format the drives separately and backup one drive to the other. I heard about a nice idea to buy another drive, store it offset, and rotate it with the backup drive every month. I might consider doing this in the future.

My beef with Linux RAID

2010-01-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

I have used software RAID in Linux in the past, via mdadm. I believe it has resulted in lost data more times than it has saved me from losing data. I have since switched to ZFS (on FreeBSD) and have survived many situations that could have resulted in lost data.

I'd like to be able to switch back to using Linux, so I have been doing some research on Linux RAID. Today I came across this article, which contains the following text:

For a RAID-1 config with two disks...If both blocks were readable (i.e. were read from the disk, without the disk indicating any sort of error condition), but there was a mis-compare, then the data from the highest-numbered disk is copied to the other disk. This results in a 50-50 chance that good data was over-written by bad. Furthermore, this is done silently: no syslog messages indicate either a mis-compare, or that a repair action was taken.

That's right! mdadm doesn't checksum your data to prevent this from happening! ZFS does. So, for example, you could write random data to one of your drives:

cat /dev/random > /dev/hda1

In ZFS, no problem! In RAID-1.... fail?

Baby Food

2010-01-29T16:18:00.001-08:00

This is the time when Ada begins trying food. She has shown the signs that she is ready: sitting up, grabbing everything and putting it in her mouth, gagging; these skills develop simultaneously in babies. Also, she just turned 6 months old, which is a common time for breastfed babies to start trying food.

This period is all about tasting. She eats very little. She plays with her food. This is baby-led weaning.

Ada has tried apples, grapefruit, lemon, carrot, squash, celery, tomato, and avocado. She is eager to taste anything. She puckered up when she tried lemon, but kept going back for more.

When appropriate, we give her whole chunks of food. Otherwise, as in the case of squash, we cook the food. We place the food in front of her and let her grab it and put it in her mouth. If she wants to grab the food but has trouble, we will either place it on a spoon and hand the spoon to her (when the food is mushy) or hold the food in front of her and let her guide our hands to her mouth (when the food is slippery or hard to handle).

Her two bottom teeth enable her to scrape off bits of the hard food (apples, celery, etc.). She works the food around in her mouth a bit, tasting it. Usually the food makes it way out her mouth again (that's a reflex that babies have). She swallows some food, somewhat by accident, and that passes through her without being digested.

YouTube Offers Experimental Opt-In HTML5 Video

2010-01-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

Click here to opt-in to the HTML5 beta on YouTube. I tried it out and found that with HTML5 enabled, my CPU utilization is 1/3rd.

YouTube Offers Experimental Opt-In HTML5 Video: "bonch writes 'YouTube is now offering the experimental option to view all YouTube videos using HTML5 in H.264 format. Supported browsers are Chrome, Safari, and the ChromeFrame plug-in for Internet Explorer. Captions, ads, and annotations aren't yet supported but are coming soon.'

Organ Damage In Rats From Monsanto GMO Corn

2010-01-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

Aaaand I told you so (or, rather, Erinne did).

Organ Damage In Rats From Monsanto GMO Corn: "jenningsthecat writes 'A study published in December 2009 in the International Journal of Biological Sciences found that three varieties of Monsanto genetically-modified corn caused damage to the liver, kidneys, and other organs of rats. One of the corn varieties was designed to tolerate broad-spectrum herbicides, (so-called 'Roundup-ready' corn), while the other two contain bacteria-derived proteins that have insecticide properties. The study made use of Monsanto's own raw data. Quoting from the study's 'Conclusions' section: 'Our analysis highlights that the kidneys and liver as particularly important on which to focus such research as there was a clear negative impact on the function of these organs in rats consuming GM maize varieties for just 90 days.' Given the very high prevalence of corn in processed foods, this could be a real ticking time bomb. And with food manufacturers not being required by law to declare GMO content, I think I'll do my best to avoid corn altogether. Pass the puffed rice and pour me a glass of fizzy water!'

Golden Ratio Discovered In a Quantum World

2010-01-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

My dad and I like the Golden Ratio. Here's something neat.

Golden Ratio Discovered In a Quantum World: "FiReaNGeL writes 'Scientists have for the first time observed a nanoscale symmetry hidden in solid state matter. 'In order to study these nanoscale quantum effects, the researchers have focused on the magnetic material cobalt niobate. It consists of linked magnetic atoms, which form chains just like a very thin bar magnet, but only one atom wide.' By artificially introducing more quantum uncertainty, the researchers observed that the chain acts like a nanoscale guitar string. The first two notes show a perfect relationship with each other. Their frequencies (pitch) are in the ratio of 1.618, which is the golden ratio famous from art and architecture. The observed resonant states in cobalt niobate are a dramatic laboratory illustration of the way in which mathematical theories developed for particle physics may find application in nanoscale science and ultimately in future technology.'

Nate Silver on the Odds of Airborne Terror

2009-12-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

Nate Silver on the Odds of Airborne Terror: "

Nate Silver:

You could board 20 flights per year and still be less likely to be the subject of an attempted terrorist attack than to be struck by lightning.

★

Yeah, um... boooo FileVault.

2009-12-24T17:26:00.000-08:00

I kept trying to deactivate FileVault, but if OS X failed to decrypt any corrupted files, then it would abort and refuse to deactivate FileVault. So, I had to manually decrypt the files (mv them out of my home directory) before OS X would allow me to deactivate OS X.

My conclusion: Do not use FileVault.

IO-related freeze

2009-12-18T04:40:00.000-08:00

My Macbook Pro is misbehaving. Every few minutes, it will freeze for about 10-15 seconds while accessing the hard drive. I recently enabled file vault for my home directory. I have run the disk utility on both the hard drive and the sparse image of my home directory. Not sure what is going on here. I guess I will create a new account that doesn't have file vault and see if it behaves the same way.

org-mode speed keys

2009-12-18T04:35:00.000-08:00

I use org-mode in Emacs, and today I discovered "speed commands":

org-use-speed-commands is a variable defined in `org.el'.
Its value is t

Documentation:
Non-nil means, activate single letter commands at beginning of a headline. This may also be a function to test for appropriate locations where speed commands should be active.

So, when you put your cursor at the beginning of a headline, then many commands are accessible by a single key.

Traveling with Baby

2009-12-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

Portland --> Minneapolis --> Kansas City -> Lawrence -> Cole Camp, MO --> Columbia, MO --> Wichita --> Kansas City --> Cincinnati --> Bluffton, OH --> Cincinnati --> Portland.

I'm scared.

The 7 Foods Experts Won't Eat

2009-12-10T15:40:00.000-08:00

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-7-foods-experts-wont-eat-547963/

A really good list to pay attention to. Sounds just like everything Erinne's been telling me about these foods for a while now (except for the one about salmon).

The Myth of Complete Protein

2009-12-08T19:52:00.001-08:00

Most people I know have heard of complete protein, that meat contains complete protein, and that those who do not eat meat must combine things (e.g. rice and beans) to get a complete protein. Lies!

The "complete protein" theory is a myth.

Of course you don't believe me. So do a Google search. Read the history of this erroneous theory, how it became accepted as truth. You will be quite surprised.

Recipes

2009-11-29T18:25:00.001-08:00

I have started putting recipes and other food tips in a shared folder in my Google Documents. A public read-only interface is available here. I would like to give write access to as many people as possible so that they can contribute to the list.

My new headphones

2009-11-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

A friend shared via Google Reader Giving Experiences, Not Things, This Holiday Season.

I've wanted a nice pair of headphones for a long time, and decided they might as well be wireless, but was always overwhelmed trying to figure out what to get. Erinne's gift to me for Christmas is a pair of Motorola S805 headphones. Her real gift is the time and effort she spent finding me the ideal headphones at a very nice price.

They have all the controls you need for playing music and making calls. They have an invisible microphone. They work very well with my phone. They sound awesome. You can plug them in and use them in to any device as wired headphones without using the batteries.

They have a significant amount of static and hissing when I pair them with my Macbook Pro or with Erinne's Macbook, but they sound absolutely wonderful when I pair them with Erinne's G1. What's up with that?

More baby pictures

2009-11-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

This existing album has been updated with more pictures and videos of Ada.

Why...

2009-11-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

We have encountered this phenomenon before, and Erinne encountered it again today. Something happens when you combine these three things:

Old women
Your baby
Grocery stores

When Erinne took Ada to the grocery store today, an old woman (see what I am getting at?) approached her and asked "yours or your mom's?" (i.e. is that baby your daughter or your sister). And then, realizing she had offended Erinne, she said, "uh, I like her hat" and walked away.

So, I understand having a baby makes people act strange around you. Also, the grocery store is one of those places that Erinne goes without me a lot, so I can understand that that contributes to questions related to her being alone.

But, why old women? Why?

Frickin' Awesome Barbecue Sauce

2009-11-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

I copied and pasted from here: http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/bbqsauce.html

Ingredients	2 T sesame oil 1 c onion, diced 4 T ketchup 3 T Dijon mustard 2 T soy sauce 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 t molasses ¼ c balsamic vinegar 1 t salt ½ t pepper
Directions	Heat the oil over medium heat, add onions, and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and cook, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes.

Stupid

2009-11-17T21:44:00.001-08:00

Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat Will Change Our Lives

A quote from the article: ...a cheaper, healthier, "greener" protein...

As if we don't have this already!?

So, it's actually easier to spend a ton of effort and resources figuring out how to mass produce healthy, economical, green meat than to just convince people to consume other sources of protein?? This follows the trend of technological solutions to problems that should be solved with policy and changes in behavior. This is so stupid. Stupid. And it keeps happening.

It's stupid.

Vegetable Juice and Stock

2009-11-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

We bought a juicer off craigslist today. $180 brand new, and we got it for $40. Erinne had carrot and apple. I had carrot, apple, beet, celery, and whatever else I could find. It's a centrifugal juicer, which isn't as efficient as the other kinds, so we had a lot of pulp leftover. I decided to learn how to make vegetable stock, and here's what I learned...

When you cut up a vegetable, there are always inedible parts that you throw away. Don't. Save them in the freezer to use for vegetable stock later. Celery leaves, the ends of carrots, onion peels, basically everything is useful (don't use potato peels, they make it starchy)! The ratios are not important. Cook everything for, I don't know, about an hour, then strain. I might not ever throw away vegetable scraps again!

EDIT: Ok, technically I will still be throwing away the scraps, but only after I've used them.

Today we had Chipotle... twice

2009-10-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

On Halloween, Chipotle gives you a free burrito if you dress up as something off the Chipotle menu (most people wrap themselves in aluminum foil), but they only do it from 6 pm until close. We wanted to go to the Farmer's Market this morning, which would be pretty exhausting, so we weren't sure if we'd be up for a second trip later that evening; each trip is over a mile of walking, and that can be pretty tiring when you're caring a baby and produce. But we really really wanted some Chipotle burritos.

So, I had this brilliant idea... we buy a couple burritos on our way home from the Farmer's Market, and then if we feel up to it we can go get the free burritos later. See, this way we at least get to eat some Chipotle, and maybe we also get free burritos. Win-win.

I'm very full right now.

Elimination Communication

2009-10-29T22:37:00.001-07:00

We decided before Ada was born that we wanted to try Elimination Communication. We went into it with no expectation of catching all or even some of Ada's pees and poops. It's fun to try, and it's far less stressful to try this out now than potty training will be a year or two from now. There's no notion of success or failure, and there's no pressure on Ada to perform.

We've recently seen some unexpected results. In the past couple of days, Ada has pooped/peed in the potty 3 times. She has also been staying dry while sleeping.

We haven't noticed any visual cues for when she needs to go, we just take her and hold her over the potty after the following situations

When we change her diaper. Babies sometimes don't like go in a diaper that's already messy, so they hold it until they encounter the fresh air.
When she wakes up. The need to poop can wake a baby up, so we take her to the potty when she wakes up.

I say "we", but really Erinne has done everything and I just write about it.

DotA

2009-10-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

While browsing a few Wikipedia articles, I discovered that Valve has hired IceFrog, who has been developing and maintaining Defense of the Ancients (DotA) since 2005, and that we may see Valve produce a DotA title...

99% sure??

2009-09-27T01:19:00.001-07:00

When someone says they are 99% sure of something, they probably don't mean that. If they were 99% sure, then they would be willing to bet on it with 99-to-1 odds. That is, they'd be willing to bet $99 for the chance to win $1.

Fradulent Data

2009-09-27T01:03:00.000-07:00

This article references the Gambler's fallacy and Benford's Law, which I thought were fascinating when I first learned of them a few years ago. The article continues with a really interesting and somewhat shocking discovery, that a polling company has been producing fraudulent data for several years.

Spanking makes kids dumber

2009-09-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

From an NPR article here.

This guy has conducted two studies (published here and here) that suggest that not spanking leads to higher IQs. There have been other studies that demonstrate the connection between spanking and lower success rates as adults.

It's often difficult to make conclusions from statistical data like this; it could simply be the case that kids are poorer and dumber because their parents are poorer and dumber, and that poor and dumb people just happen to spank their kids more often. However, he claims he was able to adjust for socio-economic factors, indicating that the relationship between spanking and the child's IQs is causal.

Video Game Nostalgia

2009-09-20T14:05:00.001-07:00

I had Thunder Force III on Sega Genesis when I was a kid. I tried over and over to beat it, then I watched a friend beat it, and after that it was easy. The greatest part about this game is the ending. Hilarious.

In a flash the planet of ORN
disappeared completely.

ORN could no longer control
the huge amount of energy
that had accumulated
after he lost his owner.

The Emperor ORN
had been disturbing
the Union of the Milky Way
for a long time.
What was his true character?
It was a huge bio-computer which
had been made in the beginning
of the space age.

Besides,his computer brain was
developing extraordinary,and he began
to have his own will.

He denied the existence of human
beings and finally he exercised
a program to kill
the whole human race.
It was evidently human beings
who had given him this idea.
Therefore human beings should
think of the meaning deeply.

Anyway the war was over.

And a peaceful time came soon.
It might be for a short time.
Human beings,think about
what you have done.

After the important mission was
completed,STYX turned over
his airframe to the base
fellows waiting for them.
Jean and Sherry,you might aware of
the real meaning of
"true peace"

Some more none-of-your-business

2009-09-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

When Erinne was still pregnant, we saw a woman on the train hit her toddler. It was about 11pm, the woman was on the phone with an ex-boyfriend trying to get back together with him, and her child was in a stroller crying for attention, so she smacked her for being annoying.

Why didn't we say anything? Why didn't we do anything? First, It was not on obvious enough case of abuse to call the police. More importantly, if a mother is in the habit of hitting her child, then she's not going to stop just because some stranger on the train suggested it to her. Furthermore, anything we say to her is more likely to cause more harm to the child. I'd bet (and give you 2-to-1 odds) that if we had said something, she would have only become more angry at the child and been even harsher to her when they got home.

Which brings me to my story from today...

We went to the farmer's market. Erinne fed Ada at home before we left, and then again at the market before we left for home. On the streetcar, Ada got a little fussy. We interacted and played with her to keep her in a good mood. Apparently she just needed a change of scenery, because once we got off the streetcar she stopped crying.

However, while we were on the streetcar, a woman with a very concerned look on her face asked us if our child was hungry. I told her that we just fed her. She then said that our baby is cute, but by that time I had turned away and stopped responding to her.

Then, another woman made faces with Ada, and I turned Ada to her and let them interact. Then, she slipped in "Oh, do you want mommy to feed you, huh?".

I've already explained in a previous post that comments like this are inappropriate. But they are also pointless! If we were indeed neglecting the needs of our child, a comment from a stranger isn't going to correct our behavior. It is analogous to the woman who hit her child.

So, here's the conclusion that I am getting at. It does not matter if the parent is in fact doing something wrong (assuming it is even possible to make that claim objectively), because their behavior cannot be fixed with advice from a stranger on the train. Best case scenario is that you have no effect. Worst case is you piss off the parent and they take it out on their child.

Unsolicited parenting advice

2009-09-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm shocked by the things people say to us. It's like having a baby suddenly makes it OK for people to say all kinds of things to us that would otherwise be inappropriate. You wouldn't go up to a stranger and tell them that you think their clothes are ugly. You would not point at a couple across the street because they look adorable. And, you wouldn't call your mother/father/sibling just to tell them that they need to do the dishes more often. But, you would tell someone to their face that they're not doing the right thing with their baby?

First, let's distinguish between what is appropriate advice and what is inappropriate advice. It is certainly OK for someone to give advice when it is requested, or when it helps solve a problem we are having. It is not OK to give advice that contradicts our current actions or parenting style. So, for example, when Erinne posts a status update on Facebook and asks for suggestions on getting our baby to sleep, the responses that we get are appropriate. When someone points to us and says, "your baby cannot breathe in that wrap," or when a friend says that we should not feed our baby whenever she wants to eat, that is completely inappropriate.

The most offensive thing about these comments is that they presuppose that we are incapable of making good decisions for our child. We researched extensively and came to a conscious decision about how we want to raise our child, and it is not OK to tell us that that is wrong.

OK, I'm done talking about why some things are inappropriate. Next, I want to give some concrete examples of things people have said to us and why these things are incorrect, not just offensive.

"Your baby can't breathe in that wrap! Your baby is too hot in that wrap! Your baby is cold and needs a blanket!" We have had these things shouted at us. We have had a nurse roll her eyes at us because she did not believe us when we said our baby is fine.

I usually try to respond to these comments by providing as much information about the subject as I can, to show that I have educated myself on this and that I know what I am doing. Do people really think I don't know if my child is suffocating? Perhaps if I looked older and dressed better, I would appear more responsible and people would not do this to us?

Then, there's the advice we get from people regarding how to raise our child. If you find yourself giving us parenting advice that you know is in contrast to our chosen method, you might want to stop and ask yourself if your belief actually comes from a rational study of the facts, or if that's just what you believe. Also, don't assume you know more about this than we do; having raised a child yourself does not make you more qualified.

Rather than finish this article with examples of parenting advice that people give us inappropriately, I will follow it up with an article that talks about our particular parenting strategy and the advice that people sometimes give us that contradicts our strategy.

The School Speech

2009-09-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

Conservatives (ok, just the ignorant ones) are going ape-shit over Obama's speech that he will give to schools across the nation tomorrow.

Check out the woman in this video.

Holding back tears, the mother says, "Thinking about my kids... in school, having to listen to that just really upsets me." When asked what she is concerned the President might talk about, she pauses for a few seconds and says, "Socialism. Indoctrinating my kids with what he believes."

You can't see it in the video, but during that pause before she answers, in her head the woman is going "derrr, doot doot doot I have no idea", and then like a parrot she just repeats what others have been spouting.

Fortunately, every concerned citizen with Internet access can view the exact and entire content of the speech at whitehouse.gov. Read it. Read it and show me the part where he attempts to indoctrinate kids into his socialist agenda.

Things just disappear...

2009-09-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

I had a sushi mat. Yesterday I realized that I had not seen it in over a year. Where did it go?

Delicious Chicken Fingers

2009-08-31T23:55:00.000-07:00

Original source: this webpage

This is ridiculously easy to make. Here's all you need to know:

Combine beaten egg, honey, and mustard.
Crush corn flakes; add pepper.
Cut up chicken; dip in mixture; coat in corn flakes.
Bake 450 F for 12 minutes.

There's no point in listing any measurements. Do what feels right.

This would be good over rice or quinoa that is flavored with chicken or vegetable bullion (or something better).

Note the absence of butter and oil. Some brands of corn flakes (not Kellogg's) come without high fructose corn syrup. Just make sure you get some vegetables on the side.

iTerm and Terminal

2009-08-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I did after getting OS X (It was an iBook G4) was to switch to iTerm, an alternative to the Terminal.app that ships with OS X. One of the main reasons for doing this was support for tabs.

I kept using iTerm, from that iBook G4 to a white Macbook, to a unibody Macbook Pro.

But iTerm has disappointed me too many times over the last few months. It tends to crash every now and then. More recently, I've noticed that when I hold down a key, the key repeats without refreshing the screen. That is, I don't see the result until after I let go of the key. This is unacceptable.

Apparently Terminal.app has come a long way, including adding support for tabs (though I cannot select a specific tab with a keyboard shortcut like I can on iTerm). It also seem much smoother, both in the rendering of fonts and in the response time to my input. So, I am giving it another try.

Wireless Security

2009-08-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

WEP has been deprecated and insecure for a long time. Cracking WEP is as easy as this.

But now researchers have demonstrated a way to crack WPA in just one minute (here).

It only works on TKIP, so switch your wireless access point (typically your router) to use AES.

Tabs or Spaces!

2009-08-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

I use Emacs. My coworker/boss uses Vi. Actually, he uses a Vi mode inside XEmacs.

I use spaces. He uses tabs. Our other coworker is the guy in red as shown here.

EDIT: Fortunately, we all use OS X.

Verilog Woes

2009-08-25T19:48:00.001-07:00

As a language, Verilog is decent. It's a little too low level for my tastes, which is why I used to use Cryptol and now use my employer's fork of Cryptol called Quattro. Cryptol/Quattro allow us to write much more abstract, generic, and parametrized code, and to do so usually with no loss in performance.

Then there's the inconsistencies between simulation and synthesis tools, especially if your tools come from different companies. A language construct might be supported by your simulation tool but not your synthesis tool, or vice versa.

And then there's the case where your tool just does something batty. For example, lets say that I have an integer parameter P in module A, and I a string parameter P in module B, and I want to instantiate B inside A and have A's parameter determine B's parameter. So, I have something like this:

defparam B_inst.P = (P == 0) ? "TRUE" : "FALSE";

Fine and dandy right?

For whatever reason, my Verilog simulator decided that the two branches of the expression, the two strings, had to be the same length. So, it padded "TRUE" with a space at the beginning to become " TRUE". I did a lot of experimenting to verify that this is in fact what is happening. For example, if I change "FALSE" to a string of 4 characters when P is 0, it works fine.

When to automate, abstract, generalize?

2009-08-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

When you have a repetitive task to perform, at what point is it worth it to write a script to automate the task? When is it appropriate to abstract away the details? When should you write one highly parametrized function, and when should you write several specialized functions?

More importantly, how should you go about answering these questions beforehand so that you don't go down the wrong (i.e. inefficient) path?

At a conference a couple years ago I attended a talk that addressed some of these questions, but I do not really remember much about it...

I found myself dealing with all of these questions today. I had written some highly parametrized Verilog modules, but it was very tedious to support each variation. Furthermore, I ran into a bug in the simulator (described at the end of my next post), and I decided to circumvent the bug by splitting each module into a few specialized modules. I was then faced with the tedious task of factoring each module into its specialized variants, so I decided to write some elisp to do it for me.

So, in the end I found that I had made the wrong decision to implement parametrized modules, though I could not have predicted the ridiculous bug that I ran into and so was justified in the decision. I feel like writing the elisp to automate the rewrites of each module saved a lot of time, but I cannot really be sure.

Layout

2009-08-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

I was sick of that fixed low width template. This one isn't so great, but at least it has a variable width.

Insomnia

2009-08-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

It has always been difficult for me to fall asleep at night or nap during the day, even when I am extremely tired from missing sleep the previous night. So it is frustrating for me that everyone around me falls asleep effortlessly (my dog, my cat, my wife).

Here I am, one month into fatherhood and with all the exhaustion that comes with it, especially because of the last two nights that have been nearly sleepless for me. Ada is finally asleep, the room is at a very comfortable temperature for this time of year, and I am so tired that the shadows on the wall are moving. No, really, everything looks like it is expanding in place. It is one of the most realistic tricks my eyes have ever played on me, and the only reason I know it's not real is because the shadows have not consumed the entire room.

:)

News Sources

2009-08-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

It is hard to find good sources of written news (And televised news? Ha!). I'm talking about online sources, of course; does anyone still read printed materials??

Here are some brief points to help explain what "good" means (and does not mean) in this case:

Quality of writing - It is a formal publication. If it is littered with grammatical errors, for example, I will lose confidence in the source.
Bias - An absence of bias is not necessary. I like opinions. I do not criticize the presence of bias alone. See next point.
Integrity - This word is overloaded, so it means a lot of things. Think ethics and objectivity.

So, for example, I do not despise Fox News for being biased, I despise them because they are devoid of integrity.

Now, why is it difficult to discover sources that meet the aforementioned requirements? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I was just getting to that.

The mainstream news sources all produce identical stories. A while back, I started using Google Reader to aggregate my news sources. I selected several different news sources, but instead of being provided with any variety, I was subjected to duplicate articles. It was worthless. The Daily Show often illustrates this point with a sequence of clips that show a bunch of newscasters all saying the exact same thing. It is hilarious and frustrating at the same time.

The Internet is huge. And you expect me to spend all day browsing it to find what I want? No thanks. I'm sure there are a ridiculous number of small websites that publish some really great articles, and I'm sure I will never discover most of them.

Fortunately, there are a couple sources that we feel we can trust. I wouldn't have expected it, but Slate and Rolling Stone produce very well written, high quality articles.

Emacs 23

2009-08-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

Emacs version 23.1 is now stable. I have deployed it on several Linux machines and on my Macbook Pro. Emacs 23 natively supports OS X [1] (support for the NeXTstep APIs was integrated into CVS in July 2008 [2]), so building on OS X gives me an Emacs.app that runs as a Cocoa app.

Emacs 23 adds support for daemon mode (via "emacs --daemon"), which is like Emacs Server in that you can connect to it and open files using emacsclient, except that you do not have to have any frame open. I use the following shell aliases to send files to the daemon, run Emacs commands, and open new frames:

# start a windowed frame
alias ec="emacsclient -n -c -a emacs"

# start a terminal frame
alias em="emacsclient -t -a emacs -nw"

# do not start a new frame
alias ea="emacsclient -n -a emacs"

I also set EDITOR so that most programs use the daemon to open files:

export EDITOR="emacsclient -t"

I use daemon mode like GNU Screen, though I also leave Emacs terminal frames open inside Screen windows.

Cup Feeding

2009-08-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

Cup feeding is an alternative way to feed a baby. More information and instructions are here.

Parents resort to bottle feeding (either formula or pumped milk) for a variety of reasons, some of which are the following:

Mother does not produce enough milk
Baby has trouble latching and sucking, such as when Baby is premature
Mother's nipples hurt too much
Mother cannot always be available to feed Baby
Convenience

In some of the cases above, parents may desire to return to breastfeeding once the problem has been fixed. However, it is difficult to return to breastfeeding after a baby adapts to bottle feeding. Eating from the bottle is easier and Baby will learn a new way to latch and suck that will not work for breastfeeding. Fortunately, Mother has another option.

One can cup feed Baby by holding a cup of liquid up to and below their lower lip and letting Baby lap it up with their tongue. It is particularly useful if breastfeeding is not currently an option but Mother wants to try breastfeeding later after the problem has been fixed. For example, one can cup feed a premature newborn until their latching and sucking abilities have developed.

We use the cup feeding technique to give Ada water that has been soaked in barley and fennel, a remedy for indigestion.

Starcraft 2 (Tower Defense)

2009-08-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

http://starcraft2.pro/beta

Fun times.

Y2k (Fear and the Media)

2009-08-15T18:26:00.001-07:00

I do not watch news programs that contribute to a culture of fear (so basically I only watch the Daily Show). It is a despicable practice.

Thanks to the media, ten years ago computer illiterate people everywhere were panicking about the Y2K bug. I found the following quote on Computer Stupidities: Y2K from a TV news program.

You open your eyes, slowly waking up. It's Saturday, January 1st, 2000. What time is it? You look at your bedside clock, but it's blank. Is the power off? You check your digital watch. It's blank, too. The coffee maker, which runs on computer microchips just like your wristwatch, doesn't work. The same for the microwave oven and the stove. Your three-year-old computer-controlled car won't start.

You cannot excuse that as ignorance.

Farmer's Market

2009-08-15T13:33:00.001-07:00

Today Erinne and I went to the farmer's market with Ada. She is 22 days old today, and this was our biggest outing with her so far. We bought peaches, basil, garlic, prunes, tomatoes, and a half flat of berries.

I was absolutely stunned to find heirloom tomatoes for $1/lb. That is filthy cheap. We bought 2.5 pounds; we should have bought more.

Ada slept in the wrap for the first half of the trip. We were nervous about nursing Ada in public, but Erinne was able to find some steps to sit on and nurse discreetly.

On the way home, I dropped the box of berries and they spilled all over the sidewalk and dirt! We picked up most of them, abandoning a few of the blueberries.

Pesto

2009-08-15T13:28:00.001-07:00

I had no idea pesto was so easy to make until I tried last week. It was so delicious that we decided to make it again today. We bought the basil and garlic from the farmer's market this morning. I bought 3 types of garlic from a stand that had about 10 varieties. For the pesto, I used some garlic that was advertised as being good raw and in salads. This garlic was strong; it burned under my fingernails when I scratched off some of the skin.

There's no "right" ratio of ingredients for pesto; you do what tastes good. Erinne and I like extra garlic. I look forward to experimenting with the ratio of garlic and basil.

Pictures

2009-07-25T22:26:00.001-07:00

Pictures from the pregnancy and birth are available here.

Postpartum

2009-07-24T10:15:00.001-07:00

The postpartum experience is analogous to this.

Baby Ada

2009-07-24T02:24:00.001-07:00

Baby Ada was born 7/23, 10:43 PDT. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 20.5 inches long. I think her head circumference was 13.5 inches.

Erinne started having strong, frequent contractions at 11pm Monday night. From 11pm to 7am, her contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart, and we did not sleep Monday night. We were very disappointed when the contractions died down Tuesday morning. Erinne napped Tuesday. I slept a lot Tuesday night, though Erinne barely slept due to the contractions. On Wednesday night the contractions got even stronger, and Erinne was in significant pain. At 2am (Thursday morning) one of our midwives came to our apartment to check Erinne's progress. At 7am the same midwife picked us up and took us to the birthing center.

The labor was awful; Erinne had a hard time dealing with the pain. We spent a lot of the time in the tub. While in the tub, Ada's head started to show. It was difficult to get her past Erinne's pelvic bone. Erinne got out of the pool and started using a birthing stool. Ada shot out like a rocket. All three midwives and I screamed when it happened; we were not expecting it. There was something about the position she was in (not having her chin tucked down?) that caused her to come out all at once. At the beginning of the final push, all we could see was the hair on Ada's head, and then she came out all at once.

She has been very mellow in the first few hours of her life. She is quite active and alert, and can crawl on our tummies looking for food. She was able to latch onto Erinne within the first 10 minutes after being born, though she did not suck. The second time we tried to feed her, she latched on easily again and started sucking. We believe she was able to get some colostrum this time.

Ugh

2009-07-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the tendency for cranky old women to bother you in the grocery store, and usually in some sort of judgmental way?

Today my very pregnant wife (she is due tomorrow) was at a local grocery store with the baby that she nannies. A cranky old woman spotted her, the big belly and the baby in the stroller, and she said "Don't you know what causes that?".

Erinne is very polite to people in public. If I were there, I'd have told that woman that oxygen is wasted on her, and that she should hurry up and die so a more deserving being can have some.

Couple loses kid for being uncooperative

2009-07-18T15:05:00.001-07:00

Here is someone's blog entry that summarizes the case:

The original article is here.

This makes us really appreciate our birthing team!

iPod Touch Bluetooth

2009-07-13T10:12:00.001-07:00

Dear Apple,

I bought the OS 3.0 update for my iPod Touch because you advertised stereo bluetooth support. However, my first generation iPod Touch has no bluetooth support at all. I am disappointed. I hate you. You make me cry.

- Philip

Breastfeeding in third world countries, and why we boycott Nestlé

2009-07-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

The information below comes from this Wikipedia article, this web site, and research that Erinne did (some articles reeked of stupidity).

In less economically developed countries (LEDCs), using infant formula over breast milk contributes to health problems and deaths in infants for three major reasons:

Loss of natural benefits from breast milk.
Formula mixed with contaminated water.
Formula over-diluted in order to save money.

Nestlé makes infant formula, and campaigned heavily to promote it in LEDCs as superior to breast milk. Mothers were duped. In just one generation, many towns were converted from being fed almost exclusively by breast milk to being fed almost exclusively by formula (this is something Erinne learned when researching this problem, but I do not have a citation).

Microwave Popcorn

2009-07-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

Those bags of microwave popcorn are gross, especially the ones with artificial butter flavor. They're also not very cost effective.

But you don't need to buy those bags of microwaveable popcorn. Just put ordinary kernels in a brown paper bag, and microwave. It works very well! I like to season with butter, sea salt, and sometimes nutritional yeast.

EDIT: The seasonings go in after microwaving, and the bag is totally reusable.

My terrible terrible memory

2009-06-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a problem with long-term memory, short-term memory, and attention span. Here, let me provide a few examples:

I started boiling eggs, forgot about them, and then went to class. They exploded all over the kitchen before my roommate found them and turned them off.
I frequently forget that I am making tea within seconds of starting, even if the tea is sitting right in front of me. It sometimes takes 30-60 minutes before I realize it.
I'll turn on the stove, put a pan down, and walk away.
There are many discrepancies between my brother's memories and my memories of events when we were younger.

Unconditional Parenting

2009-06-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.alfiekohn.org/up/index.html

Most parenting guides begin with the question "How can we get kids to do what they're told?" -- and then proceed to offer various techniques for controlling them. In this truly groundbreaking book, nationally respected educator Alfie Kohn begins instead by asking "What do kids need - and how can we meet those needs?" What follows from that question are ideas for working with children rather than doing things to them.

Gifts

2009-06-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have mixed feelings about receiving and giving gifts. First of all, I am really bad at picking out gifts for other people, and it is often stressful for me. Secondly, a gift that you never wanted can be quite a burden.

On the other hand, there are so many things that I have received that I did not realize I wanted until they were given to me, or things that I wanted but not enough to pay for them myself.

My parents-in-law gave us an electric kettle, an iron tea pot, and a calphalon wok. They are now some of my favorite items in the kitchen.

Erinne's friend gave us a baby toy that plays music. It has been surprisingly effective at putting Dorie to sleep (the baby that Erinne watches).

My manager at Galois insisted on getting us a KitchenAid mixer as a wedding present. We never would have shelled out the cash to by this for ourselves, because we never realized how valuable it is.

There are of course many other things, but these are the ones that stand out.

New Belly Pics

2009-06-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

From Baby

Effective Interrogation

2009-05-29T19:43:00.001-07:00

People make all kinds of arguments regarding interrogation and torture. Americans can all agree that a major goal is to protect the United States, but many people also consider other issues, such as human rights and the effect that our actions have on our relationships with other countries. However, we can eliminate every single other issue and only consider the goal of protecting America's interests, and the answer is still that we should not torture suspects.

Torture is not effective. Interrogation experts insist that the way to get information out of a suspect is to pretend to be their friend. Here is a wonderful example of this truth:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1901491,00.html#

So why is it so hard to put our personal feelings aside and do what's right for America?

Marinara Sauce

2009-05-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

Use sea salt to grind oregano and basil in your hands. Add to sauce. Repeat every 10-15 minutes.

Sandwiches

2009-05-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

My mom is not a fan of your typical sandwich. She feels that the ratios of price to nutrition and price to fullness are too high. But Erinne and I do not make typical sandwiches.

In the past I have made a number of large sandwiches with many ingredients. If I recall correctly, during grad school I earned a small reputation for this. But it was always so difficult to pile everything on without the sandwich falling apart.

I recently realized that there is one ingredient in the sandwich that does not really need to be there. An ingredient that wastes space and does not provide as much flavor as everything else.

Last week we went on a picnic with some friends. Everyone brought their own sandwiches. The vegetarians brought some sandwiches that looked very delicious. Last night I went to the grocery store to pick up some deli meat to make lunch to take to work. Nothing was on sale, and nothing looked particularly delicious. And then I realized that the meat is totally unnecessary!

Here are things we like on our sandwiches:

Cream cheese
Avocado (Philip only)
Sprouts (alfalfa, bean)
Nuts (pecans, walnuts)
Marinated and grilled mushrooms
Grilled red onion
Peppers
Eggplant (Erinne only)
Spinach

Your typical lettuce is worthless on a sandwich. It takes up too much space and does not provide flavor. Darker, leafier greens are better, such as spinach or radish leaves.

We buy bread that is high in protein, and along with the cream cheese and nuts, this gives us as much protein as we would get from a meat sandwich. Plus we get lots of other nutrition that you would not get in a plain sandwich.

Russian Pancakes

2009-05-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

This is all you need to know make some deliciousness:

1 egg, 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk.
Use a large, shallow, greased skilet.
Tilt the skillet to spread the batter around and keep it thin.
Top it with every wonderful thing you can find

Tonight we topped our pancakes with strawberries, bananas, pecans, and maple and agave syrup. It was basically the best thing ever.

We have a 2.5-hour birthing class on Monday nights. We take the bus back halfway and walk or take the train the rest of the way, so we don't get home until around 9:30. On the bus ride home, we spent a while thinking about what we would like for dinner (basically trying to remember all the recipes we knew but hadn't made in a long time), when I remembered these so-called "russian pancakes" from More-With-Less. Stopped on the way home to grab some toppings, and by 10:00 we were stuffed and happy. Ada must have liked it, too, because she is doing jumping jacks.

Co-sleeping

2009-04-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

A BBC article Bed sharing 'risks babies lives warns against co-sleeping with your baby. Here's a quote from the article:

"We need to make all parents aware that the most comfortable place for them to sleep is the most dangerous place for their baby."

I think the true purpose of this article is to scare the reader.

The article does not back up this claim. The article does not provide evidence that sudden infant death occurs more often when co-sleeping than when not co-sleeping. The evidence simply shows that smoking, drinking, and premature birth are all risk factors for SIDS, regardless of whether co-sleeping is practiced. To conclude from this evidence that co-sleeping is a risk factor would be like concluding that driving is dangerous simply because drunk driving is dangerous. No, driving is dangerous because you are more likely to die while driving than while not.

The article cites a statistic that out of 50 cases of infant death, "31 were found to have been sharing a bed or sofa with a parent". So, 62% of deaths occurred while the parents were sharing a bed or sofa with their baby. This statistic is useless unless compared to the percentage of parents that regularly share a bed with their baby. If 80% of couples co-sleep with their baby, but only 62% of sudden infant deaths occurred while co-sleeping, then what would you conclude?

There is in fact evidence that co-sleeping decreases the risk of SIDS. Erinne found this article, which dives into the statistics in much greater detail and shows that co-sleeping is less than half as risky as sleeping in a crib.

Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US

2009-04-22T00:32:00.000-07:00

I stumbled on this Slashdot article a few minutes ago.

We do not own a car and we take a lot of public transportation, so we very enthusiastically support this idea.

meat

2009-04-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

I was on the way back from a business trip the other day, and wanted to get some dinner at the airport. Sometimes I get a craving for a hamburger, and since Erinne and I never eat beef at home, I took the opportunity to get some while I could.

I need to learn from my mistakes. Out of the handful of times that I have had hamburger over the last couple of years, a majority of those times have resulted in me having an upset stomach. Steak and other beef seem to be ok, but hamburger is usually a problem.

So, those two Whoppper Juniors exited from my body even more violently than when I scarfed them down earlier that day.

hiccups

2009-04-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

At this stage, the baby's central nervous is developed enough that she starts hiccuping in the womb. When it happens, it is very rhythmic.

Baby kicking videos

2009-04-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

See our baby kicking here and here.

Baby belly

2009-04-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

See Erinne's belly grow big here

Lifestyle

2009-04-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

There are a number of things that Erinne and I do that define our lifestyle, particularly in the way of consumption. According to Wikipedia, lifestyle also includes social relations, entertainment, and dress, but I have only noticed interesting patterns in our consumption habits, so that's what I will talk about below.

I suppose many people have an overall philosophy that dictates their consumption habits. On the other hand, I've noticed that our consumption habits seem to follow a pattern of healthiness, naturalness, sustainability, and thriftiness, and that our philosphy can be derived from that.

Here are just a few of the things that we do:

We do not own a car. This saves us money, makes sense in the dense neighborhoods that we prefer to live in, and keeps us healthy by forcing us to walk everywhere. We often take public transportation, and we sometimes rent a car by the hour.
We do not eat a lot of meat, (especially Erinne). We prefer to get our protein from healthier sources.
We try not to waste. I don't like to throw things away. It's more about being thrifty than it is about being environmentally friendly, although both are somewhat important to us.
We will use cloth diapers for our baby. This is a combination of thriftiness and environmentalism.
We use a lot of natural cleaning and personal care products. This can be very convenient because you can replace almost all such products with just a few: castile soap (e.g. Dr. Bronner's), baking soda, and vinegar. We use Dr. Bronner's for cleaning dishes, the kitchen, the bathroom, etc. We use baking soda for shampoo and apple cider vinegar for conditioner. Conventional shampoo is bad for your hair!!
We do not use toilet paper or tissues. I'll keep the details to myself.
We don't like to spend money. We like to go to the mall just to look at things without buying.
We're willing to pay more for local and organic food.

Stupid Google

2009-04-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I created a virtual portfolio on Google Finance, and I gave myself $100,000 to play around with. Today I sold some shares, and then noticed something odd. Although the "market value" column is correct, the "cost basis" and "gain" columns are, well, see for yourself:

James

2009-04-03T17:42:00.001-07:00

Today crept up on me, and I didn't even realize the significance of the day until it was half over.

It has been one year since my friend died, and I still regularly dream that he is still alive, usually that he played a trick on everyone or that it was a mistake and he was OK the whole time. I don't really understand why, but that is the content of every dream that he is in.

Baby update

2009-04-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

The baby has been squirming and kicking a lot over the past month. Her movements have been getting noticeably stronger each week, and she is now starting to cause Erinne some discomfort when she wiggles around in there.

Although the ultrasound technician said that the baby is definitely a girl, she wrote "probably girl" on the documents that she sent to our midwives. We have a lot of pink clothing that we are prepared to use, even if the baby turns out to be a boy!

Ultrasound pictures from several months ago are here.

Blog

2009-04-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

I am going to make an effort to post here more often. I especially want to share the following:

- All things baby related
- Geeky things, especially related to emacs
- Maybe some various political things

We'll see if I can stick to it.

Computers and OSes

2007-12-28T23:12:00.001-08:00

I'm obsessed with obtaining the perfect setup for my home computers. I find that I want four operating systems:

* OS X - daily use, laptops, and for Erinne
* FreeBSD - zfs fileserver
* Windows - gaming
* Linux - coding, work

I find that FreeBSD is not a good substitute for Linux. GHC does not work well on it (ghci can't run), and multimedia applications are not well supported. I am currently without a Linux box. I have recently tried out Arch Linux in a Parallels virtual machine and loved it. I'm struggling to survive without Linux :).

My good deed...

2007-08-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Let's make a long story short. I bought a stolen laptop on Ebay. I didn't know it was stolen, but I found out pretty quickly after I received it. It wasn't hard to do, as the owner's iChat logged in automatically. I quickly got ahold of his brother and got contact information for the owner. I (luckily) got my money back from the thief and returned the laptop to the owner. The thief was arrested and he confessed. Now I've been ordered to testify at his criminal trial in a few weeks.

- Phil

Bush Speech

2007-07-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=24815

A recent speech from Bush, with the following phrases hilighted:

September 11th, 9/11, Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, Iraq.

It's insane how much he uses these phrases.

Retarded Code in Parallels

2007-04-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Parallels,

I'm sorry to say I will not be using your product. Today I found the worst piece of C code that I have ever seen in my life. The following comes from include/AtomicOps.h in version 2.2.2112 of parallels-workstation:

char assert[
sizeof(int) == 4 && sizeof(unsigned) == 4
&& sizeof(long) == 4 && sizeof(unsigned long) == 4 ? 1 : -1];

Somewhere in your company, a perfectly good computer science education has gone to waste.

- Phil

Good News, Bad News

2006-12-06T16:40:00.000-08:00

A step in the right direction: New York City bans trans-fats from restaurants.

A dismal statistic: The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth.

Kansas Weather

2006-11-29T11:27:00.000-08:00

For anyone who thinks Kansas is boring:

Yesterday: Sunny, high of 71 degrees

Today: Freezing rain, currently 28 degrees (1:30 pm), with a low tonight of 18

Benford's Law

2006-11-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

I'm writing an extra credit paper for my math class. I chose to talk about Benford's Law. The paper is only 3 pages long, and not very interesting, but you can find it here.

UCLA Taser Incident

2006-11-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

This taser incident disgusts me. Here are some videos of the incident.

To form an opinion on whether the officers used excessive force, here's what I have been considering:

The fact that the man was a student, although true, is irrelevant; the officers did not know this at the time.
In the videos, the man yells and curses at police officers and refuses to comply when asked to stand up. However, he is not violent or billigerent, nor does he encourage the crowd towards violence as police claimed.
In the videos, students ask the police officers for badge numbers or other information. The police mostly ignored these requests, although at least one officer responded by telling a student that he/she would be tasered, too.
To me, the man's foreign name and possibly foreign nationality are irrelevant.

I couldn't find the legal requisites for the user of a taser on a suspect, but I have heard that they are similar to, though clearly more relaxed than, those of deadly force (suspect must be a danger to officers or others, etc...). So, what disturbs me is the fact that the suspect was repeatedly tasered while still in handcuffs.

Poll: Dems Carry Big Pre-Election Lead

2006-11-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hot damn, that kicks butt: here

This is stupid

2006-09-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

Bush gets immunity from war crimes

My first post...

2006-09-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

It felt weird knowing that my dad had created a blog and I had not. So here we go.