07

1. 2005-07-06t18:12:20Z. RE: Comics. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Death. Health. Politics. Show Biz.
2. The Hernandai have entered the house. RE: Life. Rambling. Relations [SFW].
3. 2005-07-22t16:34:01Z. RE: Cyber Tech. Obituaries. Show Biz.
4. 2005-07-28t18:04:06Z. RE: Health. Local.

2005-07-06t18:12:20Z | RE: Comics. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Death. Health. Politics. Show Biz.
2005-07-06t18:12:20Z

Comics

• The Bat Is Back
  • This article talks a bit about the new movie, Batman Begins, but from the perspective of his representation in comicbooks.
  • I like the compilation of Batman books at the end:
    • "The Batman Chronicles, Volume One" by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, et al. ($14.99)
    • "Batman: Year One" by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli (new hardcover edition, designed by Kidd with extensive appendices by Mazzucchelli, $19.99)
    • "The Killing Joke" by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, $5.95.
    • "Gotham Central: Half a Life" by Greg Rucka et al., $14.99.
    • "JLA: New World Order" ($7.95) and "JLA: Tower of Babel" ($12.95).
    • "Batman: Cover to Cover" ($39.99).

Cyber Life

• Microsoft offers tabbed browsing--in IE 6
  • They had announced before that tabbed browsing was going to be in IE 7 --but they've decided to sneak it into IE 6 via an MSN Search Toolbar.
  • So finally MS IE is getting tabs. I love tabs but now let's see if IE will get extensions.
  • I like how they've followed the Mozilla standard of CTRL+t for opening a new tab. I'll have to check out the other keyboard shortcuts.
  • There is some bugs so far. EG: If IE is maximized and you open a new tab, then IE will not be maximized.
  • This is a case of Microsoft is trying to bring us into their world,  but better tech would draw themselves into our world.

Cyber Tech

• Intel's Breakthrough. The "breakthrough" is in silicon optics instead of pricey gallium arsenide optics or even slower copper. Photonics will be needed especially for the transition from single chip machines to dual core to possibly thousands of chips per machine.
• Google Maps Tinkerers Make Demographic Data Come Alive
  • Ah the fun and power of hacking Google.
  • 'Geeks, tinkerers and innovators are crashing the Google party, having discovered how to tinker with the search engine's mapping service to graphically illustrate vital information that might otherwise be ignored, overlooked or not perceived as clearly.'
  • Related:
    • http://dunck.us/collab/GoogleMapsHacks
• Apple's Chip Switch Could Open New Window for Macs
  • Mac officially announced that they will be switching to Intel chips last week or so. There's been talking about a switch like this for so long that I have been lukewarm to the news. However, the implications are only starting to sink in.
  • The obvious implications:
    • A dominance of Intel. But how about AMD?
    • Converts from Mac to Windows and vice versa. But which side will have the net gain?
    • Dual or or multi-boots between Mac and Windows. Bye-bye slow emulaters.
  • 'It could even open the Mac to software titles now available only to Windows users.'
    • Why that's right! Hard core games usually talk directly to the hardware and ignore the OS, so PC games could run on an Intel machine regardless of the OS.
• OpenSolaris.org/os/. Wow! Solaris will be open source? If they would just do that with Java!
• Microsoft looks to extinguish LAMP
  • Ha ha! It can't be done.
  • ' Microsoft's anti-LAMP strategy is to heap features into its low-end products and to build a comprehensive set of tools--spanning development to management--in the hopes of making Windows Server more attractive. Because open-source products can, in general, be downloaded for free, Microsoft has to compete against them by drawing attention to the "total cost of ownership." It must make the case that, all things considered, Windows applications are cheaper over the long term. '
  • ' Open source "is the first competitor we've ever had where our cost of acquisition is higher than their cost of acquisition," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Usually, we're able to come in and say, 'We're cheaper and better'...Here we have to say, 'lower total cost of ownership--and better.'" '

Death

• 'Little bodies floating everywhere' Chinese mourn flood deaths of 88 children; village officials blamed
  • Very sad. The grief and anger is palpable.
  • ' It was about 2 p.m. when Sun Shixiang and his wife saw the river water suddenly rise and rush toward the local elementary school. Sun dashed over and found his son trapped in his third-grade classroom. For the next three hours, father and son clung to a window frame and waited for the deluge to recede. By the time they got out, more than half the school's 352 children had drowned, said villagers in Shalan, in northeast China's Heilongjiang province. "When we forced our way in, there were little bodies floating everywhere. It was unwatchable," Sun's wife, Sun Xiuqin, said by phone from her home. Although her 10-year-old son was saved, her 8-year-old nephew and 9-year-old niece were not. "The parents went mad. Everyone was crying." '
  • ' "The teacher, the principal, everybody has a cell phone. They could have easily warned the children," said a 36-year-old woman who gave only her surname, Zeng. Her 11-year-old son survived by running out of the classroom and wading in the river until his parents came. Three of their neighbors' sons didn't make it. "Why didn't they do anything? Are these people human?" Angry villagers said local officials had not only failed to lend a hand, they stood in the way. As parents raced to the school on motorbikes, police officers stopped some to issue fines for permit violations. "If they didn't block the motorbikes, more parents could have gotten to the school on time to help the teachers save the children," Zeng said. '

Health

• 'Bionic' arm brings back sense of touch: Technology links computer, nerves
  • Now that is amazing good work.
  • 'Sullivan grinned as his doctor, Todd Kuiken, director of amputee programs at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, showed a video of Sullivan using his prosthetic left hand to pick up eggs without breaking them. He could feel how tightly he held the eggs. '
  • 'Sullivan's prosthesis has a computer in the forearm that is wired to a mechanical hand and to a "plunger" device on his chest. The hand sends signals up the wires to the plunger, which pushes the skin. That stimulates the nerves in his chest to transmit sensations to the brain as if the nerves were still connected to his real hand.'
  • 

Politics

• Poll: U.S. not winning world popularity contest
  • Tsk. We can't even beat China.
  • ' "The U.S. image has improved slightly but is still broadly negative," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "It's amazing when you see the European public rating the United States so poorly, especially in comparison with China." '
  • ' Almost two-thirds of Britons, 65 percent, saw China favorably, compared with 55 percent who held a positive view of the United States. In France, 58 percent had an upbeat view of China, compared with 43 percent who felt that way about the U.S. The results were nearly the same in Spain and the Netherlands. The United States' favorability rating was lowest among three Muslim nations that are also U.S. allies--Turkey, Pakistan and Jordan--where only about one-fifth of those polled viewed the U.S. in a positive light. Only India and Poland viewed the U.S. more positively than they viewed China.'

Show Biz

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes. I love stuff like this. I'm going to add AFI.com to my donation list.

2005-07-22t16:26:56Z | RE: Life. Rambling. Relations [SFW].
The Hernandai have entered the house

We went house hunting one day on 2005-05-20 Fri. We were intending to go house hunting a few more times but the house and deal we found was so good that we decided within a week. We had the inspection on 05-31 Tue and we closed on the house on the afternoon of 06-30 Thu. The house purchase went very quickly and smoothly thanks to the following people:

• My wife Julia Hernandez. She kept track of all the paperwork and followed up on everything.
• My buying real estate agent Mary Siegan of Century 21 Sussex & Reilly, 2044 W. Roscoe St., Chicago, IL 60618, phone 773-524-4518, fax 773-524-4445, cell [metadata], MSiegan@SRChicago.com, SussexAndReilly.net. She looked after us every step of the way.
• My mortgage brokers Greg Sabourin (GSabourin@capfundmtg.com, 312-867-5363 x-225) and Ralph Magerkurth (RMagerkurth@capfundmtg.com, ext 205, efax: 312-276-4347), both from Capital Funding Mortgage Company, LLC, 747 N. LaSalle St. #6, Chicago, IL 60610, MortgageThis.com. They canvassed to get us a good deal, ensured that we got all the paperwork, and did some stuff for us "out of the loop:.
• My lawyer and friend Jay Sheth. He got thrown against some fast deadlines but came through.
• My house inspector Randy Bartoschevitz (cell: [metadata]) of Accuspect.com, info@accuspect.com, 847·673·9200, Fax: 847·673·9201. He found only trivial things wrong with the house but he did a good job of educating me during the inspection.
• My sister-in-law Millet. She watched the kids when while Julia and I were closing on the house. It was greatly appreciated.
• The previous owner David Oseland. He did a great job rehabbing a house built in 1900 so it's just like new.
• The selling real estate agent Petru Amarei. He had them throw in a few upgrades that were not in the modified contract. amarei.com

On the first night we brought over a few armfuls of essentials, Connie and York's mattresses from their bunk bed, and an air mattress for Julia, Amy, and myself.

Since 06-30 there has been a lot of activity.

• 07-01/15: We brought things over gradually just using the minivan and the other car.
• 07-02 Sat: Cable TV and cable internet set up.
• 07-03 Sun: We had my folks over for a 4th of July party. It was good to see my brother Herb on leave from the U.S. Army.
• 07-04 Mon: Wow! Apparently my block has a huge 4th of July block party.
  • During the day people had food for all their neighbors in the front and as it got darker, they brought out lots and lots and lots of fireworks. And yet at midnight everyone politely quieted down.
  • I got to meet some of the neighbors
    • Alma: Around 3 doors north of us. She's the matriarch of the block and used to nanny for the block.
    • Laura: Across street, 1-2 doors north. She's currently enjoying a leave from work, is going to school, and has had a very interesting life so far.
    • Vincente: Right across street. He has tenants with a baby 2 months younger than Amy but with a full head of hair.
    • Silfredo: Across street, 3-4 doors south. A silver haired gentleman who makes delicious Puerto Rican rice.
  • I've had Hispanic beer before (like Modelo and Dos Equis), but I got to try out some I haven't tried before.
    • Tecate. Lager like, fruity.
    • Sol. Clean like American beer. This is a Peurto Rican beer I got from Silfredo.
• 07-10 Sun: My folks came over again and Millet cooked up her fabulous pancit (noodles) in our kitchen. This time a cousin and his family also visited.
• 07-16 Sat: We had Golan's Moving & Storage [GolansMoving.com] bring over the rest of our stuff from the old apartment.
• 07-17 Sun: We finished cleaning up the old apartment and turned over our keys the fabulous Ms. Chen who has been a very cooperative landlord for the past two years.
• 07-21/22: We're doing house blessing ceremonies.
• I have been visiting hardware stores such as Menards and Home Depot frequently. I've been mainly getting stuff for the yard, lighting, and storage (bookcases, shelves, etc.). Now when I visit the hardware store I feel like a real user as opposed to some apartment-dwelling pretender.
• The kids love the house. In particular they love having Cartoon Network again! They love playing around the house and not having to worry about a neighbor complaining about the noise.

All the urgent tasks have been taken cared of, but a lot of other things need to be done including the following:

• The skeleton of the office is in place --except for the LAN. The kids' bedrooms need desks and chairs for school.
• Bedding has to be finished.
  • York will get a new bed.
  • Will Connie and Amy's room get the old bunk bed? or some other setup?
  • Our king size bed needs a headboard with shelves. I found a nice one online at Gothic Cabinet Craft, but Julia balked at paying $200 for shipping.
• A garage door opener and some security lights needs to be installed.
• Window treatments need to be put up but we want to get a feel of the flow first.
• We have a lot of closets and storage space but we need a lot of gear for organizing it.
• Julia's sewing room, the garage, and my tool area all need work but that should be more fun.
• I'm setting up the front to look conservative (grass, flowers, and bushes). Julia has more exotic plans for the backyard involving more naturalistic, sustainable, holistic ideas. This will take some time and it has been a very dry summer.

A lot of other things need to be done (EG: kitchen island) but that's all the urgent stuff. I think life will start settling down in a bit. It's been busy but it has also been a great experience. Let's see how our roots dig in.

2005-07-22t16:34:01Z | RE: Cyber Tech. Obituaries. Show Biz.
2005-07-22t16:34:01Z

Cyber Tech

• A New Outlet for Broadband
  • It's seems like BPL (Broadband Power Lines) has been taking forever but it seems that people and companies are starting to use it in the U.S.
  • 'Last week, Houston, Texas-based energy company CenterPoint and IBM announced a trial run that will provide BPL service to 220 homes in the greater Houston area. And two weeks ago Current Communications Group, a Maryland-based company offering broadband over power lines, announced that it had secured $100 million in venture financing from Google, Hearst, and Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile, other BPL trials are currently underway in Manhattan, Cincinnati, and parts of North Carolina. So, in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision that cable companies don't have to share their lines with other ISPs (the "BrandX Decision"), consumers around the country may soon have a third choice (in addition to cable and DSL) for getting broadband.'
• Metal-Cooled Computing
  • That's so cool.
  • 'Spearheaded by NanoCoolers, a startup in Austin, TX, the technology takes advantage of a unusual compound of metals that remains liquid at room temperature. Currently, their mixture of gallium and indium (and a pinch of tin) flows freely at temperatures above 7 degrees C. And a new formula could go as low as minus 10 degrees C, according to product manager Mick Wilcox.'
  • 'The liquid metal flows in a loop around a PC or graphics card. First, it picks up heat from the top of the heated chip. Then the liquid gets pumped through pipes to a radiator (usually with a fan blowing on it), where the heat is released into the air. Finally, the cooled fluid circulates back to the chip. The pump that moves the liquid metal around in the system is one of the invention's main advantages over a rival technology, water cooling. Taking advantage of the metallic nature of the coolant, the pump pushes the liquid around electromagnetically. Unlike water cooling, the process requires no moving parts, consumes little power, and is silent. In a patent application, NanoCoolers even suggests powering the pump solely from the waste heat produced by the computer. While the liquid metal compound is non-toxic, according to Wilcox, it is corrosive to some metals, notably aluminum. The attraction of liquid metal itself is its excellent conduction of heat. According to Sapphire Technology, which has adopted the NanoCoolers invention for a PC graphics card, it is 65 times more thermally conductive than water -- and 1,600 times better than air cooling. '
• Longhorn's new name: Windows Vista
  • Ah at long last. Developer beta 2005-07-21, server beta and consumer full release ca. latter 2006, server full release ca. 2007.

Obituaries

• James Doohan (1920-03-03/2005-07-20).
  • "Scotty" of Star Trek fame has passed. Scotty is also an icon for engineering.
  • Doohan was Canadian but he believed that "all the world's best engineers have been Scottish"
  • 

Show Biz

• Two oddballs on a strange roll
  • A nice article on one of my favorite actors, Johnny Depp, and one of my favorite directors, Tim Burton.
  • ' As well as pushing the audience's boundaries of taste, Depp and Burton push each other to take fruitful risks. Their meeting ground is adolescent alienation, particularly as represented in horror films. Recalled Burton in one interview: "Starting with King Kong and Frankenstein, the monsters were always so sympathetic and misunderstood. And the supposedly courageous heroes were these really dumb clods, who were always played by the stiffest actors in the world. And they reminded me of the dumb jocks in school, who were always knocking down the guys who weren't jocks. Everything was tilted against the non-jocks at school. Everything was tilted against the so-called monsters in the horror shows." '

2005-07-28t18:04:06Z | RE: Health. Local.
2005-07-28t18:04:06Z

Health

• Your Genomic Diet. A diet based upon my genome? All I can say is: Cheeseburger, chips, Pepsi.
• Why we must invest in electronic medical records
  • This EHR (Electronic Health Record) system has been tested by the VA (Veterans Affairs) and is now being made free to all Medicare physicians. This could become the de facto standard for modernizing medical records in America.
  • The EHR is call VistA (and should not be confused with the next version of Microsoft Windows called "Vista" and formerly codenamed "Longhorn").
  • 'While the VA has invested a lot in its computer system, most hospitals, clinics and doctors haven't invested enough. Among America's important economic sectors, health care spends the smallest percentage of its revenue on information technology -- only about 3 percent. Industries such as banking spend 10 percent or more. Our underinvestment in health-information technology has dire consequences for all Americans. Researchers at Dartmouth University found that America wastes as much as a third of the $1.8 trillion it spends on medical care -- much of the waste comes from disorganization and lack of information. This, in turn, results in orders for unneeded tests, ineffective procedures and simple human error. '
  • Related:
    • Physician Focused Quality Initiative [CMS.HHS.gov/quality/pfqi.asp]
    • Doctor's Office Quality - Information Technology (DOQ-IT) [DOQIT.org]
    • VistA / CPRS Demo Site [VA.gov/cprsdemo]

Local

• Tallest tower to twist rivals
  • There will always be taller buildings for a good time to come yet. I like the looks of this one more than the height. Plus the Chicago Tribune graphics are pretty cool.
  • 'A far less well known developer, Chicago's Christopher Carley, will unveil his proposal Wednesday for a slender, 115-story tower with a steel spire that could soar higher than 2,000 feet. Designed by superstar Spanish-born architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, the skyscraper would rise next to Lake Shore Drive and near the entrance to Navy Pier. Its tapering glass facade would ripple like folds of drapery.'
  • 'But the ambitious proposal, to be called Fordham Spire, would dramatically shift the focus of Chicago's skyline, and it likely faces community opposition and the challenge of obtaining financing in what some are calling an overheated real estate market.'
  • 'The Tribune revealed in May that Carley was working with Calatrava--the architect of the bird-like Milwaukee Art Museum addition, the Athens Olympics sports complex and the planned transportation center at Ground Zero--to design a tower on at least one of two sites along the west side of Lake Shore Drive and the north bank of the Chicago River. Under Carley's plan, those sites would be combined into a single 2.2-acre parcel at 346 E. North Water St. The area is now an unruly patch, filled with overgrown grass, gravel, trees and a construction trailer.'
  • 'Each floor would rotate a little more than 2 degrees from the one below. The floors would turn 270 degrees around the core as they rise, making the building appear to twist. A spire above would soar to roughly 2,000 feet, making Fordham Spire taller than the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, scheduled for completion in 2010, but not as tall as a tower now being built in the United Arab Emirates. Called the Burj Dubai and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago, that behemoth is expected to reach to about 2,300 feet--the actual height is a closely guarded secret--and become the world's tallest building when it is finished in late 2008. Currently, the world's tallest building is the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, a 101-story structure that rises about 1,670 feet. Calatrava denied that topping the 1,450-foot Sears Tower was his, or the developer's, objective. He contended the Fordham Spire's height reflected his search for ideal proportions.'
  • 
• It's a baby ape for Lincoln Park
  • Joy!
  • 'Good news came in a small package to Lincoln Park Zoo Tuesday morning when keepers arrived at the apehouse and discovered that Kowali, a 27-year-old lowland gorilla, was holding her newborn baby. The zoo had been expecting Kowali to give birth for the last two weeks. She chose to do so sometime between 5 p.m. Monday, when keepers locked the building and went home, and 7 a.m. Tuesday, when they arrived for work. "The baby was already dry and cleaned off. That means the birth probably occurred several hours earlier," said Andy Henderson, an apehouse supervisor who first found Kowali at 7 a.m. She was sitting placidly in the indoor habitat she shares with the father, Kwan, and two other adult females, Bulera and Madini.'
  •