Isaac.Eiland-Hall.com

It may seem like sort of a waste of time to play World of Warcraft with your son. But you’re actually interacting with each other. You’re solving problems. They may seem like simple problems, but you’re solving them. You’re posed with challenges that you have to overcome. You’re on a quest to gain certain capabilities. I haven’t spent a lot of time playing World of Warcraft, because my impression is that it takes a serious amount of time to play it well.

For more of his many thoughts on a multitude of subjects:

http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/vint-cerf-0508

As I had this problem for some time with no solution, I thought I’d make this post to get more search results out there… Hope this helps:

Option 1: Use a different skin

Simple enough, if you don’t mind it… Which is what I did for a few releases of Winamp…

Option 2: Scale the skin

Right-click the taskbar button, go to Winamp -> Window Settings -> Scaling and choose Custom. On my system, as soon as I changed the scale, it popped the window onscreen. The tip I read said to scale it small, then you should have the top part of the window to drag… Either way, hopefully that’ll work for you.

Okay… so last night, Tessie (our new, beautiful flame-point siamese we’ve had for a few weeks now, probably 8-12 weeks old) was in hiding…

I was actually worried about her, because she lives on our bed… So I looked, and finally found her – silly thing had been hiding in the closet.

So I petted her, and she was acting a little strange – she intially wanted to go right back into the closet, but quickly came back out.

I petted her, and noticed it look like… looked like she sat on something pinkish. Showed her to Rachel, who said.. “period?”

I said – nah, cat’s don’t do that. Must’ve sat on something.

So I locked her out of the bedroom for the night (mostly she bothers Rachel with her crazy mid-night antics, but me too)

Throughout the night, hear her going nuts to come back into the bedroom, but I thought: She has to learn…

This morning, I opened the door, and she went straight for the closet.

.....and as she walked in, to our absolute shock, we here what sounds, so help us, like little mews.

You see where this is going.

Yes, the little bugger had kittens. Did I mention she’s no more than 12 weeks old?

Yesterday, I picked her up and thought, “Good, she’s beginning to fill out a little”...........

We now have three beautiful little teensy nearly-all-black kittens.

Lawsuit over web site accessibility for the blind becomes class action
A lawsuit brought in 2006 by a blind student at the University of California-Berkeley has now morphed into a class action case against US retailer Target. A federal judge has just certified a nationwide class in the case, which alleges that Target’s web site is not fully accessible to the blind. It’s a case that could help establish the ways in which the Americans With Disabilities Act applies to the Internet, and it has already generated a ruling that, in California at least, commercial web sites must be accessible.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on.

A few months ago, I installed the ‘noscript’ extension for Firefox – it essentially blocks scripts from running on domains unless I give explicit permission. I have been very disappointed to see how many sites do not operate correctly with scripts disabled. I believe this issue is very related to the issue of disabled website visitors.

I think it would be no bad thing to require certain standards be followed, and would eliminate some really poor website design choices (i.e. all-flash sites, at least most of the time).

The AudioFile: Understanding MP3 compression: Page 1
But what is MP3? The usual explanations usually take one of two forms. The long version, available in technical papers, is written in jargon and filled with math. The short version, often used by newspapers and nontechnical periodicals, simply states that the process eliminates parts of sound not normally heard by the human ear. But this one-sentence description raises more questions than it answers for any reasonably tech-savvy reader: how does it find those unheard sounds, and how does it get rid of them? Whats the difference between the different bit rates and quality levels? If youre anything like me, youve often wanted to know the mechanics of MP3, but not to the point of writing your own encoder.

This is a very well-written article, intended to try and bring more understanding of exactly how the MP3 format works to non-engineer—types, and I think it succeeds pretty well. It’s still a little heavier than some might wish; but if you stick with it, I think you’ll have a better understanding of the general process of making an MP3. I think it helps to have a basic understanding of what an audio waveform basically means (in regards to how it relates to the makeup of frequencies), but I’d imagine even folks who don’t have that understanding can still glean some [hopefully] interesting information.

From hackademix.net:
hackademix.net » Pure Java™, Pure Evil™ Popups
Imagine you’re a web advertiser.
Imagine you can open a popup window from a web page defeating any popup blocker.
Imagine this popup can invade the whole desktop, full screen.
Imagine this popup has no title bar, no menus, no toolbar, no location bar, no border and no buttons. No mean to close it.
Imagine user can’t move or minimize this popup. It will go away only when the browser is killed or your show is done…

Now imagine you’re a phisher.
Imagine you can use this almighty popup to draw anything you want. A fake browser or — why not? — a whole fake desktop to collect user’s data.

Impossible wet dreams of clueless evildoers?
No, it’s just 100% Pure Java™ Reality.

---

I haven’t heard of any active exploits, but it’s only a matter of time. But if not this, then the next that’s found… Javascript is a constant problem.It may sound like it’s just a Firefox problem, but it’s not. You’ll notice that the applet ‘solution’ covers any browser.

In fact, I highly recommend using Firefox, with the NoScript extension running. The NoScript extension is so easy to use – when you load a webpage, you’ll have an icon in the status bar. You can click, and it’ll show a list of domains, from which the current page wants to load scripts. You can temporarily or permanently whitelist domains you trust with a click – or de-whitelist them (unlike other solutions that make it easy to mark something, but hard to un-mark it).

I browse this way daily – and it didn’t take me long to have all my regular sites whitelisted – first time I visited them, it was easy. Tip: You’ll notice a lot of sites load scripts from several sources. You’ll notice that, say, a video site might not play the video until you figure out which of those external scripts power the video. So temporarily whitelist the ones that look plausible until the video works; then de-whitelist it (because it was a temporary whitelist) and re-whitelist it (permanently).

For the first time since I’ve been checking, my glucose is under 200!

What’s weird is that I only took it because I was feeling a little shaky – but now that I think about it, it feels more like Ritalin-on-empty-stomach more than blood-sugar-problems, which would be accurate – I took Ritalin on an empty stomach, then went to fix breakfast. And I can feel the Ritalin kicking in… So yeah… Oops.

OTOH, I probably wouldn’t have bothered checking my glucose, so it’s not all bad. heh.

OTOOH, this is “fasting” level since breakfast hasn’t kicked in – so we’ll have to check in a bit to see where it goes… but maybe this Metformin will start working. I hope so.

(For those that don’t know about glucose: Normal people range from 90-130. Controlled Diabetes is 140-150; anything over 200 requires help to control… so my goal is 140-150, but my FIRST goal is to drop below 200…)

Nobody comments on the blog – I dunno if anyone reads it… I’ve gotten discouraged multiple times and not bothered…

What’s happening at the moment, though, is that I’m getting a lot of comment spam, and I’m tired of it… I’ve set it to not even email me when there are comments to be moderated – and I’ll just let them die.

Sorry. Comments are dead.

The other day, after the last post below on this subject, I checked my blood sugar once an hour for about six hours… It didn’t seem to correspond nearly as much as I’d expected to the meals I ate… As high as ~300, and as low as 215.

Right now, at 266.

So far, this medication is doing very very little…

This sucks.

This storm is really, all things considered, a non-event, but still worth discussing as the first storm of the season.

Looks like there’s deterioration; but no significant change from the previous: Probably won’t make landfall, but rather dissipate over the next four days.

000

WTNT41 KNHC 092058

TCDAT1

SUBTROPICAL STORM ANDREA DISCUSSION NUMBER   2

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL012007

500 PM EDT WED MAY 09 2007

THE ORGANIZATION OF ANDREA HAS DETERIORATED SOMEWHAT DURING THE PAST FEW HOURS…WITH A SIGNIFICANT DECREASE IN CONVECTION PARTICULARLY IN THE NORTHWESTERN QUADRANT. SOME BANDS OF DEEP CONVECTION PERSIST…HOWEVER…ELSEWHERE IN THE CIRCULATION…AND SHIP WBVY REPORTED 37 KT WINDS AT 18Z ABOUT 75 N MI NORTH-NORTHEAST OF THE CIRCULATION CENTER. THE NEXT RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WILL INVESTIGATE ANDREA TOMORROW MORNING…AND THE NEXT QUIKSCAT PASS OVER OR NEAR ANDREA WILL OCCUR NEAR 00Z THIS EVENING. IN THE MEANTIME…IT IS REASONABLE TO MAINTAIN THE INTENSITY AT 40 KT.

ANDREA IS CURRENTLY OVER SSTS NO WARMER THAN ABOUT 25 CELSIUS…AND THE SLOW MOTION SHOWN IN THE TRACK FORECAST PROBABLY MEANS SOME EVEN COOLER WATERS WILL BE CHURNED UP FROM BENEATH THE SURFACE.

THEREFORE…IN ACCORDANCE WITH ALL OF THE INTENSITY GUIDANCE…A WEAKENING TREND IS ANTICIPATED AND THE OFFICIAL FORECAST SHOWS DISSIPATION NEAR THE COAST IN LESS THAN FOUR DAYS.

THE SLOPPY CIRCULATION MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO CONFIDENTLY DETERMINE THE INITIAL MOTION…BUT MY BEST ESTIMATE REMAINS SLOW AND GENERALLY WESTWARD OR 265/4.  RECENT IMAGERY SUGGESTS THE SYSTEM MIGHT HAVE STARTED SAGGING TOWARD THE SOUTHWEST.

THERE IS NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO THE TRACK FORECAST OR THE SUPPORTING REASONING.  SINCE ANDREA IS TRAPPED WITHIN A LARGE

MIDDLE- TO UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH THAT THE DYNAMICAL MODELS FORECAST TO NOT MOVE MUCH DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS…A SLOW AND GENERALLY SOUTHWARD MOTION IS FORECAST.  BEYOND THAT TIME…SOME OF THE MODELS FORECAST THE LOW-LEVEL CIRCULATION TO DECOUPLE FROM THE DECAYING MIDDLE- AND UPPER-LEVEL VORTICITY MAXIMA…SO THE OFFICIAL FORECAST INDICATES A NEARLY STATIONARY AND DISSIPATING SYSTEM NEAR THE COAST BY 72 HOURS.  GIVEN THE UNCERTAINTIES IN THE FORECAST TRACK…INTENSITY…AND WIND RADII… THE TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS UNCHANGED FROM THIS MORNING.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INITIAL      09/2100Z 30.8N  80.1W    40 KT

12HR VT     10/0600Z 30.6N  80.6W    35 KT

24HR VT     10/1800Z 30.2N  80.8W    35 KT

36HR VT     11/0600Z 29.8N  80.9W    30 KT

48HR VT     11/1800Z 29.5N  80.9W    30 KT

72HR VT     12/1800Z 29.5N  80.9W    25 KT…DISSIPATING

96HR VT     13/1800Z…DISSIPATED

$$

FORECASTER KNABB

Well! About twenty days before the start of the official hurricane season, and we have our first storm. Subtropical, yes, but a named storm, by golly…

I’d seen this forming off the coast a couple of days ago—or rather, I saw on the SE Radar composite that it looked like a low pressure area out there… I guess it was!

Welcome to the pre-season!

I’m thinking this year will be more like 2005 than last year, simply because we don’t appear to have the El Nino effect to dampen things this year.

Here’s a current radar capture:

If you look to the left of Tallahassee, you’ll see some red markings – that’s two Xs with a red circle around each. The right X is where I live (The left one is the flower shop – it’s rather more useful looking a local weather…)

And here’s the satellite:

NHC Discussion:

000
WTNT41 KNHC 091459
TCDAT1
SUBTROPICAL STORM ANDREA DISCUSSION NUMBER 1
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL012007
1100 AM EDT WED MAY 09 2007

AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE HAS BEEN INVESTIGATING THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OFF THE SOUTHEAST U.S. COAST SINCE EARLY THIS MORNING. THE INITIAL LEG OF THE MISSION WAS FLOWN AT 300 MB FROM WEST TO EAST OVER THE CIRCULATION CENTER…AND SEVERAL DROPSONDES WERE RELEASED. THE TEMPERATURE PROFILES REVEAL A RATHER FLAT THERMAL CROSS-SECTION…NOT INDICATING A DISCERNIBLE WARM OR COLD CORE AT ANY VERTICAL LEVEL. THE WIND PROFILES…HOWEVER…SHOW WINDS INCREASING WITH HEIGHT IN THE WESTERN HALF OF THE CIRCULATION AND DECREASING WITH HEIGHT IN THE EASTERN HALF. GOES IMAGERY INDICATES THAT…COMPARED TO YESTERDAY…THE THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY HAS CONSOLIDATED CLOSER TO THE CENTER…BUT PRIMARILY IN THE EASTERN SEMICIRCLE. THERE IS ALSO A SLIGHT HINT OF UPPER-LEVEL OUTFLOW WHICH WAS COMPLETELY ABSENT YESTERDAY…BUT THE SYSTEM REMAINS EMBEDDED WITHIN A LARGE DEEP-LAYER TROUGH. ALSO…THE RADIUS OF MAXIMUM WINDS HAS CONTRACTED FROM MORE THAN 100 N MI YESTERDAY TO ABOUT 50-60 N MI THIS MORNING. BASED ON THE HYBRID STRUCTURE OF THE SYSTEM…ADVISORIES ARE BEING INITIATED ON SUBTROPICAL STORM ANDREA. THE 40 KT INITIAL INTENSITY IS BASED ON AN EARLY MORNING QUIKSCAT PASS AND RECENT AIRCRAFT DATA FROM 850 MB.

THE INITIAL MOTION IS SLOW AND GENERALLY WESTWARD…ABOUT 270 DEGREES AT 4 KT. SINCE ANDREA IS ESSENTIALLY TRAPPED WITHIN A MIDDLE- TO UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH THAT THE DYNAMICAL MODELS FORECAST TO NOT MOVE MUCH DURING THE NEXT FEW DAYS…ANDREA WILL PROBABLY CONTINUE TO MOVE SLOWLY…BUT IN THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF THE NORTHEAST FLORIDA COAST. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST GENERALLY FOLLOWS THE SCENARIO PAINTED BY ALL OF THE MODELS…TAKING THE SYSTEM SLOWLY SOUTHWESTWARD AND THEN SOUTHWARD DURING THE NEXT 3 DAYS OR SO. NONE OF THE MODELS BRING ANDREA INLAND…AND NEITHER DOES THE
OFFICIAL FORECAST. ANDREA IS CURRENTLY OVER SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURES OF NO MORE THAN ABOUT 25 CELSIUS…AND THEY WILL NOT GET ANY WARMER ALONG THE FORECAST TRACK. THEREFORE A SLOW WEAKENING TREND IS ANTICIPATED AND THE OFFICIAL FORECAST SHOWS DISSIPATION NEAR THE COAST IN LESS THAN FIVE DAYS. HOWEVER…SINCE ANDREA MIGHT BRING WINDS OF TROPICAL STORM FORCE TO THE COAST…A TROPICAL STORM WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INITIAL 09/1500Z 30.8N 79.3W 40 KT

12HR VT 10/0000Z 30.6N 79.9W 40 KT 24HR VT 10/1200Z 30.2N 80.6W 35 KT 36HR VT 11/0000Z 29.8N 81.0W 35 KT 48HR VT 11/1200Z 29.6N 81.0W 30 KT 72HR VT 12/1200Z 29.5N 81.0W 25 KT 96HR VT 13/1200Z 29.5N 81.0W 25 KT…DISSIPATING
120HR VT 14/1200Z…DISSIPATED

$$
FORECASTER KNABB

About an hour or so after a meal… I’m guessing upper 200s, just because I feel a bit tired…

Bah, not enough blood on the first one. Second one either. Look, this is NOT fun, dammit. FINALLY on the fourth lance.

Glucose: 280

And yeah, I feel better than I did a few minutes ago… so I was probably around 300…

Just got up, so this will be a ‘fasting’ test.

I’m definitely tolerating the lance more and more – this is not something I expected. Glad for it, though.

Glucose: 216

sigh

I’m going to go eat some breakfast and take it again in maybe an hour to see how high it leaps up.

Yee.

Hah.

(what sucks is that I’m tired, and I really don’t feel like preparing anything to eat… I’d rather go get fast food – much easier. But much unhealthy)

It’s 4:30am and I thought I’d give one final shot (hur hur)...

Had to lance twice – I think I’m beginning to get used to this. It’s not fun, but… it’s not that it hurts much less, but I’m better able to just DO it, and it seems like I can sort of block it out somehow. I hope this ability increases.

Glucose: 252

I hope this medicine kicks in, because so far it seems to be doing nothing at all.

This is about an hour after having two (small) bowls of cereal.

The previous was before the meal…

ARGH.

So.. here we go again. Haven’t tested in about 24 hours…

Hopefully we’re coming down… I need to get that job. Well, I’d like that job… there are others, but this one I want if I can.

Glucose: 301

ARGH! Wrong direction

I did eat five hours ago, but it wasn’t that bad.

I think I’m going to have to seriously look at the diet thing and go extremely strict – at least for a bit.

sigh

Well… at this point, looks like I won’t be able to go tomorrow morning to re-take the physical (and be approved to drive commercially)...

Result: 227

A little less pain on the lancing – I think I was pressing down on the finger a bit last time, whereas this time I just rested it on there… If it’s like that everytime, it might not be so bad… heh. (This morning… hurt a bit)

Second pill taken this morning…

I’m not ready to poke m’self, but I must. Bah.

A new day, a new finger.

I can see both sticks I made on the forearm, and two of the several on my finger (all yesterday). heh.

255? Dammit!

Well, it is post-meal.

I took the first pill a couple of hours ago…

It didn’t say to take with or without food, but some online research indicated I should take it with meals… SO… I had to go cook.

Made a quick mushroom/broccoli/shrimp stir-fry, although I didn’t have time for sauce, so just a bit of soy on top… Didn’t do any rice or carbs…

After dinner, lanced once on the finger and it didn’t take. ARGH! So I moved up from the lowest setting to the next-lowest setting and tried the other side of the finger. Worked!

Glucose: 223.

So I finally got my prescription filled for the diabetes medicine (1000mg Metformin). The pills I’m not afraid of – but I. Hate. Needles.

Someone gave my wife a meter for me, but I decided to get one for myself – partially because I could control the need guage that way… I found some 30 guage lancets at Walgreens, and you can be sure I snapped `em up.

After reading all the meter instructions and calibrating it, it was time.

I’d convinced myself I wasn’t going to panic, that I’d be ready for it… but I really wasn’t. I sat there for about five minutes, with nothing left to do before lancing, trying to convince myself to do it.

Now, I must interject that I have cats. Two cats with sharp claws. Two cats that I love so dearly that I ignore the pain when they pad their paws on my shoulder when I pick them up. As I write this, I can still feel a little bit of pain from petting my stupid cat before starting the testing process… but I’m afraid of the needles…

I’ve been tested now a few times, and it hurts, but not for long. I know it doesn’t hurt for long. And yet, faced with that damned lancet….

Well, I’d already figured out that I’d try my forearm first – that did help the mental battle a bit.

So finally, I get up the courage… And, of course, it doesn’t hurt very much at all. And I think, “See, ya wuss?” – but my bones say “Yeah, whatever. We don’t ****ing like needles.”

I got such a tiny droplet… I knew it wasn’t enough, but I wasted a strip to find that out, just because I didn’t want to lance myself again. Bah.

It wasn’t enough.

This time, it only took me about 30 seconds to lance myself.

But, dammit, still didn’t get enough blood.

Now, I really don’t want to lance my fingers, but it’s quickly getting to the point where I’m thinking once finger lance is better than 20 forearm lances…

Alright. Finger it is. SIGH.

That did hurt a bit worse, but I did manage to get enough blood. Barely enough. And now my finger hurts because of the squeezing, massaging, and general pleading for blood I gave it – “PLEASE don’t make me lance any more! Three was already three times too many!”

...but I got enough.

Result: 272

Ouch.

I don’t know whether or not to count that as fasting – it’s not 100% fasting, as I had [the equivalent of a] beefstick or so when I went to pick up the prescription… Either way, obviously it’s way too high.

Yesterday morning, I had a pre-employment physical. Fasting, it was 225. They can’t approve me unless I get down below 200; and they’d prefer to see 140-150.

BUT… this is all unmedicated. And frankly, I’ve not got the diet straight yet – I’m eating better overall, but I don’t have it all set yet…

As I’ve typed this, my finger is pretty much fine again, and my shoulder isn’t… but I’ll pick up the cats and pet them in a heartbeat, and I know I’ll freeze again next time I go to monitor. Wish I could fast-forward to a week or so when it won’t bother me. Dammit.

OTOH, hopefully this medication will help get things under control… I feel tired nearly all the time, and I suspect that’s tied to the high glucose levels… I’m mentally lucid, just physically tired…

I’m tryin’ to sleep!

Actually, it’s been quiet simply because of the rehearsal schedule at the theatre – we have a play opening tonight, and I’m in it. No time to write more yet, though, I got to run!

News – Fife Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More

Quote: FIFE’S addiction to giving drugs to kids with ADHD will turn a generation into addicts hooked on presciption medication.

Fortunately, that’s the view of politicians who are misinformed.

Science shows that the drugs are not habit-forming.

But yet again, more irresponsible misinformation goes out.

Makes me angry.

I guess you can tell.

Press Releases – Dr. Dennison offers alternative to ADHD Stimulants

Quote: If you or your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, look for an alternative to the medications that are being too readily prescribed.

Sure.

But:

1) Research completely. Media hype is media hype.

2) Follow the money. Is this “alternative” being pushed by people who stand to make money by the increase in customers? Then it’s just as “bad” as the drug companies hoping for more prescriptions…

It’s usually about money. And if it’s not about money, it’s about someone pushing some cause.

Official Google Blog: Personality goes a long way

Quote: We wanted to offer you a way to add some personality to your Google homepage, too, but we had to ask ourselves some tough questions. How do we add personality without taking away from the information? How do we make sure people don’t get sick of looking at the same theme every day?

Today we’re releasing six themes for the personalized homepage that try to solve these challenges: a city, a teahouse (super cute—this one is my favorite), a winter scene, a sky, a beach and a bus stop. All of our themes are dynamic: they change with your own local time of day, current weather conditions or season. If you add the beach theme, for example (changes with time of day), it will ask you for your Zip code and adjust itself to match your local sunrise and sunset times. So if you happen to be stuck in a windowless office, you can at least crack open a cold one and watch the sun set over your desktop.

Themes for your custom Google page?

Awesome!

Alaska Department of Revenue vaporizes $38 billion account – Engadget

Quote: A quick-fingered technician at the Alaska Department of Revenue reformatted a hard drive while handling “routine maintenance work” that contained an account worth $38 billion—yeah, with a B.

And nobody was even reprimanded for this, apparently.

WTF?