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| = I'm Flattr'ed! = == Support my writing via Flattr, a new social micropayment system == {{{#!text_markdown I conducted an experiment back when I wrote my [HP N36L review][n36lreview]: I added affiliate links to both [Amazon](http://amazon.com/) and [Newegg](http://newegg.com), hopefully to get some revenue without polluting my site with advertisements. [n36lreview]: http://blog.samat.org/2010/12/10/Hardware-review-of-the-Hewlett-Packard-ProLiant-N36L-Microserver It was successful; I earned enough to pay for a few cups of espresso, at least. Many authors have PayPal-powered "tip jars" or links to their Amazon wishlist. I've now setup the same, but I think it's unrealistic visitors spend the requisite time or money to use them. Enter [Flattr](http://flattr.com), a new "social micropayments" platform, a tip jar evolved to work on Web scale. Flattr is a quick and easy way to give back to content creators—including myself. Rather than trying to explain it, watch [Flattr's introductory video][flattr-video]. I love the cake analogy. If you want to get an item from my Amazon wish list, please do! But what if you wanted to contribute less? And why would anyone else want to use Flattr over PayPal? Well, one, it's simpler. Users need only click a single button (the Flattr widget) to Flattr me. Also, users don't need to worry about figuring out how much to give me—Flattr's "cake cutting" algorithm does it for you. Nothing stops you from [donating more][flattr-donate], of course. [flattr-donate]: https://flattr.com/donation/give/to/tamasrepus Second, Flattr's rates are better. Say you've decided to add $10/month to your Flattr account, and you've Flattr'ed 10 people, including me. Each of those people will be entitled to $1. With Flattr's 10% commission, I'd get 90¢; with PayPal's default fee schedule, I'd get 67.1¢ ($1-($1×2.9%+$0.30)). Big difference. Flattr works well when you're dealing with small amounts (called micropayments), exactly the niche market they're trying to fill. Imagine you're walking down the street and hear a great musician, to whom you'd like to donate some small change. It's easy to do in the real world. With conventional payment systems oriented around transactions, this model doesn't translate. With Flattr, however, the model does—it brings a donation system and ethic present within the real world onto the Web. PayPal has its own [little-known micropayments platform][paypal-micropayments] with a better fee schedule, but it requires the receiver to go through a manual approval process to receive a special account. It's only available in a few countries and has been a "beta" product for years, implying PayPal does not care much about it. Why should they? PayPal, making money on high-value transactions, has little incentive to develop micropayments—not until there's marketshare and mindshare to steal, something Flattr is building. Third, with free culture luminaries like Peter Sunde of [The Pirate Bay][pb] fame behind it, Flattr seems less likely to "censor" recipients, holding funds hostage and even confiscating them, something for which PayPal is notorious. While I'm not worried about anyone censoring my overly-politically correct blog, should I be OK with organizations unfairly censoring others? \*cough\* [WikiLeaks](http://wikileaks.ch/) \*cough\* Flattr is so nascent, it's unlikely I earn a significant amount of money. And the meager money I do earn I will probably use to Flattr others. But it's easy to use, low-risk for myself and visitors, and most importantly I believe in its ethos—so why not? If you like this post or my blog, please [flattr it][samatsays-flattr]! [pb]: https://thepiratebay.org/ [flattr-video]: http://youtu.be/9zrMlEEWBgY [paypal-micropayments]: https://micropayments.paypal-labs.com/ [samatsays-flattr]: https://flattr.com/thing/340884/Samat-Says An aside: you're not going to see widgets on any my sites. That includes Facebook Like buttons or share buttons for Twitter and Google Buzz/Plus/their latest failure. It's amazing these corporations have convinced webmasters into adding things that both slow the performance of their websites and compromise visitors' privacy, for little/no tangible benefit the webmasters themselves—you'll not see any of that here. However, in a minor bout of hypocrisy, I have added Flattr widgets. They use performance-oriented, "progressively enchanced" HTML and Javascript, so their widget doesn't slow sites down. Also, since they're not a "free" social or advertising network, I don't believe them to have any motive in tracking visitors across the Web. }}} = Michael Madsen's Into Eternity = |
= IPv6 for your home network = In /etc/nsswitch.conf: Replace mdns4_minimal with mdns_minimal Add mdns to the end of that line = Downtown Desert Yoga review = My first experience w/ Bikram yoga (AKA hot yoga) was at DDY. I had taken a few non-heated classes before, I’ve been at both the old studio on Main Street and the new one on Alameda, and while I liked the old place better the new one has grown on me. The heating/cooling system is significantly better—it gets hotter for the hot yoga classes and cooler for non-heated classes. There are hardwood floors throughout, and you don’t feel gross walking barefoot throughout the studio. = Virtualenv with Python 3.3's venv = {{{#!text_markdown However, Python 3.3's venv module is easily used to create custom venv setup scripts. Vinay Sajip has done just that with [pyvenvex.py](https://gist.github.com/vsajip/4673395). Use the script as you would }}} = ThinkPad T530 first thoughts = {{{#!text_markdown No indicator lights for AC power, battery status, or charging status on front. No caps lock indicator (only noticed while in Windows). Large, bulky. But surprisingly lightweight, compared to tablets like iPad or Nook Color. Hate the lack of grouping on function keys, no color on Enter, Function keys, or escape. Cannot feel bumps on F and J keys. Really fast wake from suspend. Took Linux disk from X61 tablet, installed into T530 w/out problems! Turned off UEFI and enabled legacy boot. Did not need to reconfigure trackpad, screen, etc. tp-smapi-dkms does not work. Missing being able to set battery charging thresholds, etc. }}} = An Albuquerque Code 66 2012 debrief = {{{#!text_markdown A couple months ago, I participated in Albuquerque's Code 66 Hackathon. [What's a hackathon?][hackathon] My one sentence definition: a weekend where the goal is to go from idea to demoable product (usually a <abbr title="Minimum Viable Product">MVP</abbr>, but not exactly) as quickly as possible. One of the progressive civic movements in the past decade is that of civic open data. That is, data about your city & government should be freely accessible for use by citizens, who are free to do. After all, it is citizen tax dollars that pay for it! This June, the city of Albuquerque was one the latest cities in the country to start its open data initiative (Dear Las Cruces, Ruidoso, Roswell, El Paso, et al—what exactly are all of you doing?), and they've [published several open data sets][abqdata]. Oh, and if you figure out a creative way to use this data, Albuquerque has a [$30,000 apps challenge][abq-apps] with, as you might have guessed, a $30,000 grand prize! At the hackathon this past summer, [Zerek Welz](http://zerekwelz.com/), [Chris Huges](http://www.linkedin.com/in/cfhughes/), and myself met at the event and eventually came up with [Where's the bus!? Albuquerque](http://abqwtb.com/). [hackathon]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon [abqdata]: http://cabq.gov/abq-data [abq-apps]: http://cabq.gov/abq-data/apps-competition }}} = A week with Verizon's HomeFusion = {{{#!text_markdown Living in the tree-less high desert, I have [line of sight][los] to two different cellular towers, one to the direct north and one to the south–southeast. [los]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-of-sight_propagation }}} = Generate entropy for your server = Discuss ekeyd, haveged, etc = How many times a week do I use such and search search engine? = Write post here. = Backing up your Identi.ca account = {{{#!text_markdown To backup [my Twitter account][twitter], I use [ThinkUp][thinkup], which also happens to backup my now-dormant Facebook account. Take that, corporate data silos! [twitter]: https://www.twitter.com/SamatJain [thinkup]: http://thinkupapp.com/ Because of the recent (late-2011) downtime on Identi.ca, and with the release of StatusNet 1.0, I figured now was as good a time as any to seriously setting up my own federated µ-blogging instance. With the heavy focus on federation and [autononous Web principles][franklin-street-statement], I always assumed that it'd be both easy & obvious to get data back out of Identi.ca. [franklin-street-statement]: http://autonomo.us/2008/07/franklin-street-statement/ One word: meh. Identi.ca has a [backup feature][identica-backup], but it [doesn't work quite right][identica-backup-bug]. For example, I could only fetch dents going back 4 months. [Preview of changes to Identi.ca | StatusNet](http://status.net/2013/01/09/preview-of-changes-to-identi-ca) [identica-backup]: http://identi.ca/main/backupaccount [identica-backup-bug]: http://status.net/open-source/issues/3296 }}} = Handling times on the Web in Python w/out headaches = Describe using dateutil, W3C CDTF, etc {{{#!text_markdown <abbr title="Comon Date-Time Format">CDTF</abbr> from the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr> }}} RFC 3339 = Camera at a mountain Webcam on the Web = = Theming Apache's mod_autoindex = = Doing WHATEVER URLs the right way w/ jQuery Mobile = = A JSON proxy for the OpenStreetMap API = [[http://gis.638310.n2.nabble.com/JSON-output-for-xapi-td6483673.html|Developer Discussion - JSON-output for xapi]] = Multiprocess in modern browsers = == Internet Explorer == First multi-process browser? MSIE4? == WebKit == * http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/WebKit2 * WebKit and WebKit2 from a Qt perspective: http://blog.forwardbias.in/2011/08/on-webkit-and-webkit2.html == Firefox == * http://timtaubert.de/2011/08/firefox-electrolysis-101-part-1/ = Getting through Python 2's Unicode problems = * [[http://farmdev.com/talks/unicode/|Unicode In Python, Completely Demystified]] * Force Unicode for all strings w/ Python 2.6+: [[http://docs.python.org/py3k/howto/pyporting.html#from-future-import-unicode-literals]] * Instead of built-in open, use codecs.open = Color on the Console = dstat grep htop pydf == less == * [[http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/knxz9/syntax_highlighting_in_less_ive_been_using_less_a/|Syntax highlighting in less - I've been using less a long time... why this has never occurred to me before today? : linux]] [[http://superuser.com/questions/385768/less-emulate-a-tty-to-preserve-piped-color-output|bash - less emulate a TTY to preserve piped color output - Super User]] = Movie Review: Michael Madsen's Into Eternity = |
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| Spent nuclear fuel Low-level nuclear wastes include things such as clothing, plant construction materials (e.g. concrete) and machinery |
The movie skimps on technical details, some of which I will talk about here. Nuclear waste can be divided into two levels: high-level and low-level. Low-level nuclear wastes include things such as clothing, plant construction materials (e.g. concrete) and machinery that have come in contact with anything nuclear. High-level nuclear wastes include spent nuclear fuel and chemicals used to process and create nuclear fuel. The movie focuses on spent nuclear fuel, which in most nuclear power plants are things called fuel rods. Fuel rods |
IPv6 for your home network
In /etc/nsswitch.conf: Replace mdns4_minimal with mdns_minimal Add mdns to the end of that line
Downtown Desert Yoga review
My first experience w/ Bikram yoga (AKA hot yoga) was at DDY. I had taken a few non-heated classes before,
I’ve been at both the old studio on Main Street and the new one on Alameda, and while I liked the old place better the new one has grown on me. The heating/cooling system is significantly better—it gets hotter for the hot yoga classes and cooler for non-heated classes. There are hardwood floors throughout, and you don’t feel gross walking barefoot throughout the studio.
Virtualenv with Python 3.3's venv
However, Python 3.3's venv module is easily used to create custom venv setup scripts. Vinay Sajip has done just that with pyvenvex.py. Use the script as you would
ThinkPad T530 first thoughts
No indicator lights for AC power, battery status, or charging status on front.
No caps lock indicator (only noticed while in Windows).
Large, bulky. But surprisingly lightweight, compared to tablets like iPad or Nook Color.
Hate the lack of grouping on function keys, no color on Enter, Function keys, or escape. Cannot feel bumps on F and J keys.
Really fast wake from suspend.
Took Linux disk from X61 tablet, installed into T530 w/out problems! Turned off UEFI and enabled legacy boot. Did not need to reconfigure trackpad, screen, etc.
tp-smapi-dkms does not work. Missing being able to set battery charging thresholds, etc.
An Albuquerque Code 66 2012 debrief
A couple months ago, I participated in Albuquerque's Code 66 Hackathon.
What's a hackathon? My one sentence definition: a weekend where the goal is to go from idea to demoable product (usually a MVP, but not exactly) as quickly as possible.
One of the progressive civic movements in the past decade is that of civic open data. That is, data about your city & government should be freely accessible for use by citizens, who are free to do. After all, it is citizen tax dollars that pay for it!
This June, the city of Albuquerque was one the latest cities in the country to start its open data initiative (Dear Las Cruces, Ruidoso, Roswell, El Paso, et al—what exactly are all of you doing?), and they've published several open data sets.
Oh, and if you figure out a creative way to use this data, Albuquerque has a $30,000 apps challenge with, as you might have guessed, a $30,000 grand prize!
At the hackathon this past summer, Zerek Welz, Chris Huges, and myself met at the event and eventually came up with Where's the bus!? Albuquerque.
A week with Verizon's HomeFusion
Living in the tree-less high desert, I have line of sight to two different cellular towers, one to the direct north and one to the south–southeast.
Generate entropy for your server
Discuss ekeyd, haveged, etc
How many times a week do I use such and search search engine?
Write post here.
Backing up your Identi.ca account
To backup my Twitter account, I use ThinkUp, which also happens to backup my now-dormant Facebook account. Take that, corporate data silos!
Because of the recent (late-2011) downtime on Identi.ca, and with the release of StatusNet 1.0, I figured now was as good a time as any to seriously setting up my own federated µ-blogging instance. With the heavy focus on federation and autononous Web principles, I always assumed that it'd be both easy & obvious to get data back out of Identi.ca.
One word: meh.
Identi.ca has a backup feature, but it doesn't work quite right. For example, I could only fetch dents going back 4 months.
Preview of changes to Identi.ca | StatusNet
Handling times on the Web in Python w/out headaches
Describe using dateutil, W3C CDTF, etc
CDTF from the W3C
RFC 3339
Camera at a mountain Webcam on the Web
Theming Apache's mod_autoindex
Doing WHATEVER URLs the right way w/ jQuery Mobile
A JSON proxy for the OpenStreetMap API
Developer Discussion - JSON-output for xapi
Multiprocess in modern browsers
Internet Explorer
First multi-process browser? MSIE4?
WebKit
WebKit and WebKit2 from a Qt perspective: http://blog.forwardbias.in/2011/08/on-webkit-and-webkit2.html
Firefox
Getting through Python 2's Unicode problems
Force Unicode for all strings w/ Python 2.6+: http://docs.python.org/py3k/howto/pyporting.html#from-future-import-unicode-literals
- Instead of built-in open, use codecs.open
Color on the Console
dstat grep htop pydf
less
bash - less emulate a TTY to preserve piped color output - Super User
Movie Review: Michael Madsen's Into Eternity
With Chernobyl's 25th anniversary a few weeks past (ignored, for the most part, by Western media), and the Fukushima nuclear disaster fresh in everyone's minds, now is as good a time as any think about nuclear energy's role in our civilization. Into Eternity, a Finnish documentary released in 2010, takes a very unique look at the nuclear power industry, one not typically thought about. Rather than nuclear proliferation or the plants themselves, it focuses on the geologic storage of spent nuclear fuel (aka SNF), in particular, Finland's Onkalo repository.
The movie skimps on technical details, some of which I will talk about here.
Nuclear waste can be divided into two levels: high-level and low-level. Low-level nuclear wastes include things such as clothing, plant construction materials (e.g. concrete) and machinery that have come in contact with anything nuclear.
High-level nuclear wastes include spent nuclear fuel and chemicals used to process and create nuclear fuel. The movie focuses on spent nuclear fuel, which in most nuclear power plants are things called fuel rods. Fuel rods
At the moment, the US does not have a storage plan for spent nuclear fuel. There is one geologic storage site, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico, but the site is relatively small and destined for storing the generation I nuclear wastes of America's nuclear weapons programs, not that of commercial reactors. A larger site, Yucca Mountain, well isolated in the Nevada Test Range (where nuclear weapons were tested for decades, and much contamination remains), was shelved in 2010 by the Obama administration, leaving America's nuclear energy industry without secure storage for its spent nuclear fuel.
Much of the topics Into Eternity touches, such as communicating the dangers of nuclear wastes stored at sites via markers and monuments, has similarly been discussed for the US' Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
Drupal 7 upgrade post-mortem
This weekend, I upgraded Samat Says (this blog, in case you missed the memo) to Drupal 7.
For my Drupal 4.6/4.7-based site, I had created my own theme, Sands. Lack of time prevented me from porting Sands to Drupal 5 or 6, and it's unlikely it will be ported forward. I'm probably going to recreate it with one Drupal 7's many starter themes, however.
Patient care in the ICU in terms of vectors and topological spaces
Biomedical Informatics, Medicine
A few weeks ago, Timothy G. Buchman gave a talk at the Columbia DBMI weekly research seminar. During the QA session, someone asked why patients in intensive care units (ICUs) were given such “extreme” treatments, often causing them to develop new health problems and complications, keeping them in the hospital. He replied with this wonderful mathematical metaphor about patient care.
You are a point in an n-dimensional space. Each dimension is some vital sign or homeostatic attribute, e.g. blood pressure, blood glucose, temperature, etc. Homeostasis is defined a polytope in that space. As you do the various things of life, your point moves within the space defined by that polytope. For example, when you eat, your blood sugar goes up, and the point moves along in the blood sugar dimension; when you take a cold shower, your body temperature is reduced, and you move along in that dimension. Young people have a large space inside their homeostatic polytope
When you leave this homeostatic polytope, you're considered “sick.” If you travel to far from it, you die.
People who enter the ICU have points that are moving away from their homeostatic polytope. Their movement away can be represented as a vector, representing how quickly their condition is deteriorating.
Treatments in the ICU represent vectors that try to point you back towards your homeostatic polytope.
