Monthly Archives: January 2006
Science Olympiad
Tonight I went to the coaches meeting for the Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad at Pattengill School in Ann Arbor. They had information about the competition, and workshops for the coaches of the various events. In the workshops they explained in more detail how the events will work and gave some ideas about how coaches can prepare their teams for the events. The Science Olympiad is an annual event for 2nd-5th grade students and Max’s school came in third overall. Max’s teacher Lisa Lava-Kellar happens to be the 5th grade science teacher at his school and is the head coach for the school team. I’m coaching the team for write it, build it. In this event, 4 kids participate, the first 2 go into a room where they shown a structure made up of up to 20 pieces of various items typically from a place like scrapbox. They get 25 minutes to analyze the structure, and write up a detailed instructions for how to reproduce it. They have to describe the parts and figure out what order to assemble them in. No illustrations are allowed. At the end of the time, the instructions are handed to the other 2 teammates who have to are given a bag of the same pieces and have to use the instructions to try and reproduce the structure. This will actually be quite a challenging event as are all the others. This should be a good learning experience for the kids and I’m looking forward to it.
MLK and Iraq
On this day when the country is supposed to be observing the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., Juan Cole has a great post about what Dr. King might have said we should do in Iraq. It is based on Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” address of 1967. The same suggestions are just as relevant today, almost 40 years later. Here is a sample:
1. Martin urged the end of the offensive bombing raids.
‘ Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. ‘
The US has increased the number of its bombing raids in Iraq from 25 a month last summer to 150 in December. Bombing raids are very bad counter-insurgency tactics and should be rethought.
Go read Dr. Cole’s post for the rest. It definitely worthwhile. For those of you who don’t know of Dr. Cole, unlike virtually every so-called “Middle East Expert” you see on TV, Juan Cole is actually fluent in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. This means he can actually read original source material himself and he is actually familiar with the people there really think. If you want some actual rational, informed writing about the Middle East, follow Jaun Cole’s Blog.
Plugging the Analog hole and the threat to democracy!
Ed Felten is a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University. Prof. Felten has done a lot analysis of copy protection schemes (and I use the word schemes in the negative sense, as in schemes to sell snake oil). Over the years he has been sued several times by companies trying to prevent him publishing the results of his studies. Prof. Felten is not an advocate of piracy or a thief. He is not trying to sell anything to anyone. All he is trying to do is inform the public about technology that affects them. Unfortunately this sort of public discussion, about “content protection technologies” is explicitly prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which I personally think is unconstitutional, and is definitely one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress. Because of the ridiculous provisions in this law, companies have tried to stymie public discussion of flaws in their products.
As we move to a point in time when the current analog tv signals are permanently turned off (currently scheduled for the end of 2008) people who still have current non-digital tv sets will need new digital to analog converter boxes. This point where the digital signal is converter so that it can be viewed is known as the analog hole. This conversion point can be used to copy this digital content. The big media companies desperately want to keep people from copying this content and bypassing their revenue stream. As part of this effort they have enlisted two of their congressional lackeys, James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and John Conyers of Michigan to sponsor their Digital Transition Content Security Act. It is interesting that congressmen from WI and MI get such a disproportionate amount of their campaign financing from big entertainment companies, you would think that they would get most of their money from cheese and car companies. The MPAA and RIAA and their friends are the top contributor to Sensenbrenner and no 2 contributor to Conyers.
Prof. Felten has a very interesting post here about a big hole in the anti-analog hole legislation. Basically they want to make an exemption to the protection schemes for “Professional Equipment”. They need this so that the creators of the content can actually copy and create the content. A potential side-effect of this exemption and the way it is worded is that it would close off access to content creation technologies to amateur creators. Besides causing trouble for people who just want to edit their home videos in iMovie, it also potentially closes off access for citizen media to compete with the “mainstream media”(MSM). Given the sorry state of MSM today and the desperate need we have for alternative sources of news, this is a very major problem. Without blogs and podcasts and videocasts, we would be left with the likes of Fox News, and Judith Miller and Bob Woodward. The sources of information would be controlled by a few huge companies and their lackeys in government.
The most essential element to a truly functional democracy, is an informed populace. Without accurate information, people can’t make wise decisions. Forget about piracy. That is just a bogus argument about money and who gets to collect it. Currently that is the distributors of the content, not the creators. The technology we have today is finally allowing the content creators to start profiting from their work, rather than some middleman.
The reason why DRM must be eliminated is because it a grave threat to democracy. Information must be free to flow! People need access to information of all kinds in order for democracy to thrive. We must not let swine like Conyers and Sensenbrenner contribute to the smothering of democracy. Contact these fools and give them a piece of your mind!
Tears?
Here’s a question. Why is it headline news that Sam Alito’s wife left the hearing room in tears earlier this week. The only thing that is relevant hear is the judge’s views on the law and the constitution. This man is extremely dangerous and has no business on any court in this country, much less the supreme court. He is in complete agreement with the idea of a royal presidency. He would reenforce all the outrageous policies of the Bush administration. But what does the media focus on? His wife leaving the room in tears. This is exactly why the main stream media is now completely irrelevant and the sooner that people begin ignoring it and find new sources of “real” news, like blogs, the better off this country will be.
The moon 2
My friend Cam wrote a post today about the full moon rising last night. the night before I saw the moon rising and I grabbed Max’s telescope and my camera and took some pictures. Here is one that I took Friday night.
Pacific Coast Hellway
I have recently started listening to a podcast called Pacific Coast Hellway produced by a guy named Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff. It is a mix of rants and music sketches. One recent episode was titled You Are Not America… The bulk of it was a rant about red states vs blue states. One part of it was a comparison of of red vs blue. He had one particularly great line that really sums up the difference:
In blue states if someone sees you reading a book, they ask “What are you reading?, in red states they ask “Why are you reading?”
I have to warn you, the language of this podcast is very raw. Mark holds nothing back. It is definitely not Work-Safe or Kid-Safe. If you have tender ears look elsewhere. If not check it out. You wont be sorry.
Best and worst of the auto show
I’m not going to the Detroit auto show this year, because it’s just to bloody expensive. But I have seen what is on display there. Chrysler which has over the last 15 years consistently come up with some of the most amazing concepts ever shown here has come up with a real stinker this year. The new Chrysler Imperial
is one of the biggest automotive turds I have seen in a long time. The proportions of this thing suck. The design is derivative, looking too much like the current Rolls-Royce Phantom, but much shorter and taller. What where they thinking?
The Dodge Challenger concept looks ok when seen in isolation, but when you put the thing next to a Mustang you realize that it is huge. It is over a foot longer than the Mustang. and is totally wrong for the type of car it is supposed to be. This type of sporty car is supposed to be compact and fun to drive.
Now having mentioned the mustang I must admit that I have a 2005 Mustang. I have been a Mustang fan ever since I was a kid and family friend of ours had a 1969 Mach 1. I have never been a big fan of Camaros but GM really nailed it with their new Camaro concept.
The proportions are just right. There is just enough of the first generation Camaro that you can see the natural evolution from 1969 to now, but it stool looks modern and muscular. It is everything a modern pony car should be. That being said, I love my Mustang. It is a blast to drive and I love the way it looks.
It sucks when you have to change the batteries in your faucet
About a year and a half ago, my company replaced the faucets, toilet flushers, and paper towel dispensers with units equipped with motion sensors. While this may have seemed like a good idea to someone, particularly the toilet flushers, the reality is that half the time they don’t work and you have to use the manual flush button anyway. With the faucets, you have to position your hands just right in order to get them to turn on and if you move your hands out of position the water flow stops. You also have no control of the temperature. I just went to the rest room and saw one of the faucets apart so the battery could be replaced. Having done some shopping for assorted bathroom components over the years it is obvious that these electronic fixtures must be substantially more expensive than conventional units. And since a technician must be called every time one of these things stops working (which is pretty frequently) it sure doesn’t seem like they could be saving any money in reduced water costs. but what do I know I’m just an engineer not a facilities manager.
The Detroit Auto Show
Yesterday, the media previews began for the 2006 North American International Auto Show (aka the Detroit Auto Show). All the car makers are doing a series of splashy intros for their new production models and concepts. Traditionally Chrysler has always had some biggest shows for the media, such as in 1993 when Bob Lutz drove the then new Jeep Grand Cherokee through the glass front doors of Cobo Hall, and a couple years ago when Wolfgang Bernhardt roared onto the stage on a motorcycle powered by an 8L Dodge Viper V-10. This show used to be just a local dealer show until the carmakers got involved and renamed it the North American International Auto Show in an attempt to get it onto the world stage along with the likes of the Geneva, Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo shows. The only problem is that Cobo Hall was and is a dump. For a show of this size it is small, dark and hard to move around in. But it is all we have for now, and every January the world’s car media come to Detroit for the big show. Unfortunately, this year for the first time in several years I won’t be going to the industry preview days, due to personal budget constraints. $75 is just too much to spend. My company used to buy a bunch of passes every year, but the last couple of years they have stopped. I like going to the preview to avoid the crowds. You can actually get into most of the cars and get a close look at what is new. During the public days it is just too crowded and no fun. So this year I will just do the virtual visit through sites like autoblog and the car connection