14.8, baby!

These days, every time I sit down to write all I can think about is roller derby. I just got back from one of those practices where I really feel like I'm improving; the kind that keep me craving more (as opposed to the practices where I feel like I'm plateauing and my endurance is nil). I still can't believe I've found a way to exercise that I actually enjoy! My form felt good tonight, my endurance was up; now I just have to figure out how to stop getting foot cramps!! (grrrr)

Tonight we had to do push-ups until I literally couldn't lift myself off the ground anymore (I don't think I'm gonna be able to raise my arms above my head tomorrow). Thumper started singing a call-and-response song while we were doing it and it totally made my night. We also timed each skater doing 1 lap around the rink; my time was 14.8 seconds (thank you, freshly-cleaned bearings). Here's to being able to beat that a month from now.

Rat City Rollergirls tryouts are in 9 days. I'm so curious to see what they're going to be like, and who's going to get picked. I hope all the PFM can be supportive of each other and happy for whichever ones of us make it, rather than catty and jealous. We're planning to go out for drinks afterward to celebrate the new Fresh Meat. Cross your fingers for me...

The new Y2K Problem: Y292,277,026,596

You may remember some distress around supposed Y2K issues several years ago. Many of those systems moved to storing four digits for years. Some other systems that used a slightly more technically clean approach still had a Y2038 problem. This has since been fixed for the most part in a number of ways. For instance:

Date/Time Functions in PHP 5.1 and up [use] a (signed) 64-bit value [introducing] a new wraparound date in about 290 billion years, on Sunday, December 4, 292,277,026,596. However, this problem is not widely regarded as a pressing issue.

I'm a natural-born leader... in consumption of worthless media

Every once in awhile, I can't resist reading some particularly awful piece of cotton-candy "news" that I stumble across on the internet ("10 Fashion Mistakes Men Make at the Office"? Irresistible. FYI, Nick doesn't make any of them). Today I just had to sneak a glance at "How your birth order affects your relationships". Without giving my opinion on this advice, here's what it says about me:

It’s no coincidence that most U.S. Presidents were first-born [children]: This is the sign of natural leaders. You’re a take-charge person, so not the type to drive friends and romantic partners crazy asking questions like, "I dunno where we should eat—where do you want to go?" Instead, you’ll make sure you have reservations—and land a prime table, too. And anyone lucky enough to pair up with you won’t spend weeknights wondering whether he or she has Saturday night plans, because "oldest kids are planners," says Dr. Leman. You’re also old-fashioned—in a good way. You always come through on anniversaries and Valentine’s Day.
Your love challenge: Being more spontaneous. First-borns aren’t the seize-the-day sort (you’re not one to text your sweetie to suggest meeting at this fun café you just walked past). Likewise, "you hate surprises," Dr. Leman warns. Pity the fool who springs meeting the parents on you when you thought it was just the two of you going out!
Best match: Youngest child. "It’s a case of opposites attracting," says Dr. Leman. "You help the last-born be more organized, and the last-born helps you lighten up."

I can't figure out whether the appropriate response to that is "Good thing I got me a last-born!" or "I can't believe I reprint this stuff."

Geek Heroes

You gotta see this video of true geek heroes.

Moving from Open Source to Open Data

Ars Technica has this story about Insight, a new open community data analysis project started by Business Objects. Insight seeks to create a community focussed on specific challenges which bring expertise together with openly available data sets to create analysis of those data sets for many different purposes.

There are collaborative projects for code, but no equivalent for data. We're hoping to combine data sources, analysis, visualization, and more.

This reminds me a little bit of (one of) the premise behind Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End.

We already collect and share massive amounts of data (see the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics for an excellent example). Today the analysis of this data occurs in isolated projects for isolated goals. Vinge, and now Business Objects, describes a world where the analysis also becomes a massively distributed, but shared, process.

Here's a little quote to live by from Franz Aman, an exec at Business Objects:

We are a commercial business, but we also believe in helping nonprofits and charities where we can. We believe in doing well by doing good.

American politics in 2016

"The story boils down to this: the Democrats can't win, and the Republicans can't govern."

No kidding, eh? This tidy little distillation of American politics is part of an intriguing article I came across recently from The Atlantic Monthly's July 2005 issue. It's written in the form of a letter to the first third-party president from his campaign manager, discussing the political context of his election and how the past several decades have affected the current political scene in America. The interesting part? It's dated 2016, so it discusses some "history" which hasn't happened yet. Given that, along with the fact that it was published almost two years ago, it's uncanny how spot-on some of the analyses and predictions are. To whet your appetite:

The past fifty years have shown that the Democrats can't win the presidency except when everything goes their way. Only three Democrats have reached the White House since Lyndon Johnson decided to leave. In 1976 they ran a pious-sounding candidate against the political ghost of the disgraced Richard Nixon—and against his corporeal successor, Gerald Ford, the only unelected incumbent in American history. In 1992 they ran their most talented campaigner since FDR, and even Bill Clinton would have lost if Ross Perot had not stayed in the race and siphoned away votes from the Republicans. And in 2008 they were unexpectedly saved by the death of Fidel Castro... As for the Republicans, fifty years have shown they can't govern without breaking the bank. Starting with Richard Nixon, every Republican president has left the dollar lower, the federal budget deficit higher, the American trade position weaker, and the U.S. manufacturing work force smaller than when he took office.

When we read histories of the late 1920s, we practically want to scream, Stop! Don't buy all that stock on credit! Get out of the market before it's too late!... In retrospect, the ugly end is so obvious and inevitable. Why didn't people see it at the time? The same clearly applies to what happened in 2009... Once the run on the dollar started, everything seemed to happen at once. Two days after the Venezuelan oil shock the dollar was down by 25 percent against the yen and the yuan. Two weeks later it was down by 50 percent.

So go curl up with some tea and read it! It's worth the length.

La délation communautaire

I got a most excellent email last week:

La France découvre le Web 2.0 et les efforts communautaires:

http://delation-gouv.fr
"Aidez-nous à remettre la France sur les rails en signalant tout comportement suspect grâce à ce formulaire."

My favourites:

• X est bronzé toute l'année
• X possède un didgeridoo
• X est "bizarre"
• X joue au minigolf avec des balles roses
• X ne se drogue pas