Fun time punch list

A lot of the students are showing back up on campus today, so it’s getting really fun here. I’m taking some spare minutes to say a few things about some stuff. Yeah that covers it pretty nicely. Read my ramble at your own risk.

Ars Technica has a little thing about the spread of RSS (really simple syndication) and other types of webfeeds. It indicates that it hasn’t spread a lot yet. Frankly I didn’t start using it until a few months back. Considering IE doesn’t even support it yet that puts a huge dint in the available market as well. For all those who use non-IE browsers, I suggest you take a look at RSS feeds and see if they may be helpful. I use them to notify me of updates to Blogs, news sites, Gmail, etc. Luckily the next version of IE and even the next version of Windows are supposed to make extensive use of RSS. MS is also rumored to be working on extensions to the form to allow more functionality. Hopefully these will be well documented and free for all to use. Given MS’s recent openness it might turn out ok.

I get an e-mail of stories form the NYTimes every day. Recently they had a spot about one of my favorite Senators , Bill Frist. Apparently after pissing a bunch of the far right off by supporting stem cell research, he has decided to support teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in schools to try to CHA. I love how this is a more heated topic now than it has been in around 75 years. It’s weird and scary. Some of the ID people say that a lot of scientists don’t agree about evolution. That is indeed the case. However, they play up the disagreements so that you feel the scientists are discussing whether an object is a tractor trailer or a sedan, when most of the scientists’ disagreements are over the tire pressure or the rubber compound of the tractor trailer. I also hear that they are going to start teaching the 4 element chemistry system: earth, air, water, and fire, and that bloodletting and leaches are making a comeback in medical school. I mean the current atomic model is a theory with holes and the germ and virus infection vector is based a lot on conjecture and secondary evidence for things we can’t observe directly. Someone sent me this link to a list of stickers for textbooks. The top left is one of the actual stickers. The bottom right kills me.

Hmm I Just finished typing the above when I got more good stuff from the NYTimes. This article talks about ID and evolution. It’s pretty good. One thing though in the middle of page 3, useless items might not fade away. Primarily inhibitory or items that waste energy fade. Some things are neutral and simply stay around as an oddity. Men have useless nipples, because they don’t get in the way and it adds unnecessary complexity to get rid of them. Sometimes these neutral items can interact with another neutral mutation or environment change to become useful. Evolution is an opportunist after all. Then there was a second article which I also really liked.

I was looking over at Ars and the prospect for looking at HDTV on your current computer or monitor is pretty low. Currently you can watch TV on your computer by buying a card that captures the TV signal and turns it into a viewable image. Most of them include recording software so that you can use your computer as a VCR or DVR. Well the industry is scared you are going to record something and watch or distribute it without giving them their cut. Therefore HDTV requires a special authenticated signal that will require new software, probably including OS, hardware, and a compatible monitor. Well guess what, most current monitors aren’t compatible. That means that you will basically need a brand new computer to watch future HD programming. I personally think it’s a load of crap that is going to piss a bunch of people off. Make sure that any of you looking for an HDTV research the model for compatibility with the authentication.

For a short plug, Ars had a nice little article about Amazon offering short stories without DRM restrictions. I know some writer friends that might want to check it out.

I saw this on CNN’s RSS feed and wondered if I had awoken in Bizzaro world. I’m going to defer to Smitty, but I don’t seem to remember any assassination or surreptitious overthrow support plans that worked out well for the US.

And watch out for getting shot at the gas pump. Also watch for people stealing your gas at night.

You know what. I need more time to read.