Friday, December 30, 2005
Get back, Honky Cat.
Watching our daughters’ personalities unfold is a real kick.
Both of them enjoy music, but I think li’l T has a special response to it. I was watching Elton John on Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio, and before the commercial break they had a teaser of him playing “Honky Cat.” T was suddenly entranced, and signed frantically for “more” when it was done. I ended up rewinding and replaying that teaser several times, and then fast-forwarding to the whole segment. When I got tired of hearing that one, I forwarded to the next part where he performed, and she was just as interested in that one, too.
Let’s face it: in this Empty Vee world, watching someone playing a piano with his face in front of a mike is pretty boring. But she stared intently at him the whole time. She wasn’t interested in the talking portions of the show, only when he was playing music.
Pookie, of course, will take just about any opportunity to dance. That’s how she enjoys music, through motion. But T likes the sounds more. She will beg over and over again for any song you care to sing to her (“I’m a Little Teapot” has gotten a lot of airplay lately), and she can clearly be heard singing wordlessly to herself sometimes. I don’t recall Pookie doing that at this age.
(Funny note: Elwed remarked bemusedly that he thought he heard her humming the tune to the “Jeopardy!” song one day, not knowing that I had been singing “I’m a Little Teapot” to her recently. They really DO sound very much alike ...)
Rant o’ the Day
ATTENTION all IT sales representatives:
Do NOT try to trick your way into getting a return phone call from me. Do NOT lie to the administrative assistant and tell her it’s not a sales call. If you do, not only will I chew you out and hang up on you, but I will never, EVER buy products from your company.
“It’s not a sales call, I just want to know if we can send you this brochure about this new product ...”
“It’s not a sales call, I just wanted to confirm the information you provided us ...” (when I downloaded an article from their web site)
Oh, and if you’re outright RUDE to the admin? That goes double.
Asshats.
zilch, what are you up to over there???
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WOR…
VIENNA, Austria (AP)—Depictions of the U.S., French and British heads of state naked and engaged in a sexual act will be removed from hundreds of billboards across Vienna after causing a national uproar, the artists decided Thursday.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Lyrics…
I listened to some stuff for the first time in years. Here are some lyrics, dating back to 1980…
Ougenweide, Kein schöner Land (on the Ja-Markt album)
Nun Freunde, eine gute Nacht
jemand dort droben überwacht
in voller Güte
uns zu behüten
ist man bedacht.
Man wird uns lenken
und für uns denken
man hat die Macht.
I have to admit that when I first heard this song, I considered it subversive. That was a long time ago…
I suppose I should add a Legal category…
Here’s one by Mark Rasch… I’ve actually met him a couple of years ago, while both of us worked for the same division within SAIC.
Tracked by cellphone
To quote very selectively:
Government argues “real time” electronic data doesn’t exist
In the New York, Maryland and Texas cases, the government wanted to track the location of cell phone holders in advance under the lower standard of simply demonstrating some facts as to why they wanted it, rather than the slightly higher standard of providing probable cause. They argued that the records are merely stored records of “communications.” The courts in these cases pointed out that the signal being measured (for signal strength to determine location) was not a “communication” under the statute. The government then argued that, despite language in the statute mandating that phone companies cooperate in pen registers or trap and trace installations (the infamous Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA), which stated that “the authority for pen registers and trap and trace devices cannot be used to obtain tracking or location information” that they could get such information under a lower standard than probable cause.
The next government argument is somewhat astounding. The courts all agreed that the lower standard of “articulable facts” would apply to the disclosure by the cell phone company of “historical call site information”. That is, if your phone company retained records of where you were, the government could get them with a subpoena, a search warrant, or even a warrant on a lower standard. Indeed, the court recognized that the government could demand that the phone company retain and not destroy such records in anticipation of a later court order. The higher “probable cause” standard applied only to the creation and dissemination to the cops of records that didn’t yet exist. This is where the astounding argument comes in - the government claimed (with a straight face, no less) that as soon as the cell towers in question determined your location and recorded this fact, these were now “historical” records subject to the lower standard. Thus, according to the government, there is no such thing as “real time” data or even data “in transmission.”
As a technical matter, this is likely true. Indeed, I have argued that there is no such thing as interception of packets “in transmission.” The packets have to be stopped, copied, and reassembled to be read. Nevertheless, the law makes a distinction between historical data and real time data. That the government would seek to extinguish this distinction in this case does not bode well for the government’s position in other cases. The government could then argue that it could listen in on your VOIP calls with nothing more than a subpoena (for which no probable cause is required) because all it is doing is looking at “historical” packets - albeit merely hundredths of a second in the past. This is clearly the opposite of the delicate balance Congress sought to strike. Thus, it appears that the government is seeking to convert all interceptions into seizures of “historical” data, and adopt the lower standards for such data.
Another attempt to make an end-run about what little privacy protection there is in the U.S.?
In this time and age, turning an electronic device means that it enters a state of reduced functionality, usually by shutting down user interfaces. I seem to recall that a certain type of cellphone technology will have the handset triangulate even when “turned off” and the only remedy (if that) is to physically disconnect the battery. Only the most paranoid will bother to do that, so movement tracking will happen whether it’s on or “off”.
It’s indeed an astounding argument to define real-time events away. Makes me wonder - who watches the watchers?
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Isn’t it ironic?
I always think about the little ironies within Christianity such as pastors who abuse spouses, pedophile priests and multi-millionaire ministers. Occasionally I get to witness one of those little ironies first-hand.
Click to read more...
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
What to do with those leftovers?
I had left over smoked salmon, and have had my fill of all the bagel, cream cheese, capers, and red onion that I can handle. So, the question arises wtf to do with the smoked salmon that is still left over? It costs too damn much to let it go to waste. Here is a suggestions for a smoked salmon vodka cream sauce that I and my guests found flavorful:
INGREDIENTS:
3 tablespoon butter
Some finely diced shallots, use as much or as little as you like.
1 1/2 cup diced smoked salmon
4 ounces vodka (and another 3 oz in a martini for the cook)
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup mushrooms, recommended shitake or button (portabellas are simple too rich for this dish)
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato sauce
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/8 tablespoon cayenne pepper
In a large saucepan saute butter and onion. Once the pan begins to lightly smoke, pull it off the flame and add the vodka. Light the vodka (one of those creme bruele torches works really well) and burn it off, but be damn careful. It is wonderful showmanship when done right, but the sucker is going to flame like all get out with 4 ozs of vodka in there. Also, as to the vodka, use a cheap one. You want a vodka that would burn ya going down, not the good stuff. When the vodka has burned off, return the sauce to flame and mix in the tomatoes, and heavy cream. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. Reduce and serve over your favorite pasta. (I’ve served it over penne, linguini and rigatoni. The linguini woked the best.)
Best wishes if you try it.
and now for a new server…
If you see this post, you’re looking at the site after being moved.
Enjoy.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Après-Cephalopodmas
Well, things have finally slowed down a bit, to the point where it’s starting to feel like a real holiday weekend—just in time for it to end tomorrow.
By some miracle, the baby slept in until after 7 this morning.
Elwed was kind enough to go out to get McDonald’s takeout for breakfast (this was prompted by the discovery that we were out of maple syrup for the “french toaster stix” in the freezer).
I gave Pookie a bath. Let’s just say she needed it.
My mother brought over leftovers from last night’s feast—all except the leftover latkes, which I took as a great compliment since I was the one who made them. My mother would give up her life for me, but not the latkes. Still, we ended up with some nice turkey, tsimmes, green beans, lemon-parmesan-risotto cakes, rugelach, and the Lebkuchen she had bought for Elwed but forgotten to serve. Oh, and Elwed gets a box of cappuccino truffles all to himself, since I hate the taste of coffee.
Elwed did a lot of housecleaning while I wrangled the kids (primarily the toddler, as Pookie spent a lot of time closeted with her new stuffed Pikachu or upstairs on her computer).
I used up the last of the mangos in the fridge and made mango smoothies.
Sadly, deadscot’s promised arrival did not come to pass today. He probably found out somehow that we had no latkes in the house.
But then I made beef carbonara for dinner while Elwed wrangled the kids (actually, it was more the case of them wrangling him; he suffers a lot of abuse at their hands). I even had time to read a few essays out of my new Christopher Hitchens book.
The toddler crashed at her usual bedtime, I caught up on bill-paying, and now I have a few minutes to write.
It’s so unusual to have periods of time where we’re not under pressure to get at least five things done at one time.
It used to be that my idea of a great holiday was a trip someplace, or a party, or something. Now it’s just time for a nap and reading a book, and being able to sit in front of the computer and type with two hands, without a jealous toddler on my hip.
Gee, I wonder what we’ll do for New Year’s?? 
Saturday, December 24, 2005
*Waves Hello*
Hi y’all!
As a few of you may have noticed, I have started skulking about your Drupal blog. I like what I read here and you guys seem to be a likeable bunch, so… since I could… I signed up! Of course that anti-spam image with letters bit wasn’t being very nice to me, and that was part of it, too. 
Is there any place I can read about how this got started or would someone fill me in?
Thank you!
Beverly
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