Protection or paranoia

While purchasing a DVD movie this afternoon, I stood in line behind a woman with very few items. My distance was far enough to keep a comfortable space between us. All of us hate to be crowded. However, the person behind me was breathing down my neck. If the line moved an inch then they’d approach closer.

Finally, my item was wrung up and it came time to pay. As a slid over to the ATM machine, I asked the person who was extremely close to please back away. The stare told me that the person didn’t understand so I repeated myself. “Please backup. I’d appreciate it if you’d let me do this transaction without your eyes.” The person muttered something about my being paranoid and therefore I replied that my card had been stolen three times before. It seemed like a calm response and certainly more information than this rude person needed to know. However, the person snidely stated to the cashier “He should take better care of things.”

This was enough to push me over the edge. I took a deep breath, smiled, and stated “Thank you for your kindness. I’m glad that you appreciate my privacy.”

The muttering continued as I walked away.

This event started the whole process of my thinking again about how views of robbery and theft are so very different for some people. I don’t appreciate the perspective that someone who has been robbed is the fool. In my book it is the thief who carries the blame – not the victim. Sadly, there seems to be a growing number of people who don’t share this opinion.

Upon arriving home, and checking email, I received my regular mailings from ebay and paypal. Of course, they really weren’t from paypal or ebay. If you view the html code, it becomes obvious that the images came from audimas.net – a suspended account which uses ns1.omnis.com as the domain name server. After having to deal with the turkey in the line earlier, I decided to call omnis.com and see if they were aware that their servers were hijacked.

Technical support was closed.

I’ll follow through tomorrow and hopefully these crooks will be caught. It’s time that the tide turn and all of us go after these turds who believe that the internet is their key to finding innocent people. Just imagine all of the people who believed that paypal and ebay are asking for their accounts to be verified or their accounts will be canceled.

Paycheck Confessions

One of the most annoying aspects of being around a teacher is the constant complaining. Nothing seems to be right in their world. It's difficult to be associated with this crowd when the first words out of their mouths is something that is negative.

Sadly, I've fallen victim to this same atrocity.

My anticipation for the latest paycheck centered on discovering new ways to spend the raise. After all, I'd moved from an Emergency credential (unrecognized as being qualified) to a Preliminary credential (which means I've taken all the boring classes and am now qualified). According to my new contract, my pay would be higher.

OK. You guessed it before reading any further. My paycheck was actually less than while I was on the Emergency credential. It sorta, kinda, makes the air fart out the tires. I could just hear the sounds escape from my mouth. Damn LAUSD, F%$&@ waste of time to put me through those SL$# classes.

Of course, I then realized that I'd become "ONE OF THEM."

OH MY GOD. Save me from this rant.

Poof. It was over and life moved forward. Phew.

THE ERUDITE LABORER'S CRIES OF ROMANCE

This made me roar. Imagine a large, dirty and hairy stereotypical construction worker launching this monstrosity at a young lady ... and to think I wasted all that education by becoming a teacher. I should have remained in construction. Dang.

Bowling

Birdie and I were bowling today and the humor was a bit too much to hold back. We probably looked rather goofy as we would fall over laughing when the ball would roll only a few feet and land in the gutter. Guess that it isn't too difficult to laugh if you picture my waddling down the lane trying to toss a small ball so that 10 pins would fall. How DO the professionals do it? My hat is off to them.

CA Science Center

Birdie and I went to the Science Center today. On the way to the museum, we bought a 128 MB SD card for the camera. Our time at the museum was mainly spent in the rose garden and the Imax theater. We took a dozen pictures of the different varieties of flowers growing in the garden. We also snapped a few pictures of dispaly boards in the Air and Space Gallery.

Rather non-ebullient day

Today was a Bubble trouble day. My enthusiasm reigned a distant land and not my classroom as my mind wandered haplessly about plans for a field trip on Wednesday, staff development Tuesday and Open House on Thursday. Each event seems to warp plans for lessons. More important is that work on the websites seems stalled as ideas flow slower than molasses.

Nope, it's defintely not an ebullient day. Time for sleep.

Number One Commented Post

OK, you'll never guess which one of my posts has the most comments. Come on now. Take a wild guess.

Yep, the post in which I state that Birdie has opened up Hilary Duff Chat. As of April 19, there are 46 clean comments because I wiped out tons that were rude. There is even one from Hil herself. Too bad her IP address places her somewhere other than where she is at the time of the post. Oh well. Nice laugh.

So, check out this thread and have a great time.

Zend Studio 3.5 Beta

It is fascinating to play with new releases of software and at times more enjoyable to watch the progression of betas. Even though I don't write about Linux distributions as much as I have in the past -- they are still fun to tinker with and install.

Now, in this case, Zend sent an email invitation for beta testing Zend Studio 3.5 Beta and I installed it immediately. I have many files to edit today and so it'll be interesting to get them done in this beta.

New Features
1. New improved look and feel
2. Full PHP 5.0 support, including internal debugging, code analysis, code completion and syntax highlighting
3. Secure FTP integration - SFTP and FTP-over-SSH
4. Live code templates
5. Improved FTP performance and stability
6. Passive-mode debugger, allowing debugging over a firewall
7. Secure debugger communication using SSL
8. Syntax highlighting - colors and font schemes
9. Support HTML special characters - highlighting and code completion
10. CVS diff viewer
11. Internal help
12. Drastic performance improvements

Tatung TTAB-B12D

The second draft for the first look article is done. I'm considering the addition of more specifics on each of the categories but that may make the article more than a first look.

Other work to be completed is the GoBinder review and the detailed report on the Tatung Tablet PC. Too bad I can't just say, "The Tatung is such a nice tablet. You should buy it."

Oh well.

Bush and Iraq

Here is a shocker - NOT.

According to Bob Woodward's new book, Bush discussed attacking Iraq two months after the 9.11.2001 towers incident.

Well, duh. Anyone and everyone who voted for Georgy Baby knew he had an agenda to get rid of the man who tried to kill his daddy. No one is THAT stupid to not have seen it coming.

Too bad American lives have been lost because the planning has been so poorly done.

Bloomberg article

Bad Science

I'm always amazed how a good hypothesis can be ruined by bad science.

Take a look at this publication in which the authors suggest boys are favored over girls with regards to math.

Two years ago my oldest daughter scored in the 99th percentile for math standardized exams. She was then repeatedly told by her mom and several teachers that math is for boys. Slowly she drifted away. The teachers continued to favor the boys - calling on them and reinforcing their growth.

Today, Elizabeth will catch herself repeating the words from these crummy teachers. Personally, the social influence is greater than testosterone being provided at a particular age.

Actually, this article lacks any connection between the hypothesis and the statement regarding hormones. It's just bad science. Now, it's time to redesign the experiment and ask probing questions to these same volunteers and we might find that the students who excel at math were in fact around people who reinforced this behavior.

Pictures

My sister put images of Elizabeth and Birdie up on whatisnew.com.

Microsoft MPX

Not only do I want a SPOT watch, the Microsoft MPX looks like a winner too. It's bad enough that SPOT doesn't cover my driving down the 405 in LA or my home in Palmdale but I'm now completely jealous that this cool phone is going to be available. I'm almost afraid to think about coverage. Argh.

Please please please make sure it is usable. After all, my present phone is only good if I stand on one side of my classroom - the other side closes any connection. People who try to call me complain all the time.

Just think - IF - I had a SPOT watch then someone could instant message me while I'm in the classroom and ask me to call them back when there is time. And that could be done on this nifty MPX ;-)

Too cool for words. Too sad if I don't have coverage. Sniff.

Music from Another Room

Birdie has found another favorite movie. The previous movie, "A Walk to Remember" has now been replaced by "Music from Another Room"

She loves the part where the guy puts on a costume, walks on stage, and is 'beaten' by bats from angry women. Uhm. The movie makes that scene funny. Guess you'll have to get the movie if you aren't laughing.

CSS and INDEX Layout

You will notice strange things happening on this blog today. I'm playing with the css and index.html file. The new header is in place for the index page only. All of the other pages have the old banner. Many links are missing too so please be patient as I'm trying different things.

At least I'm having fun. Hopefully you are having a great day too.

The great moonbuggy race

The great moonbuggy race was April 2nd and 3rd. High School winners were as follows. First place went to a team from New Orleans area schools, with a finishing time of 4:14. Teams from Lafayette County High School in Missouri and Carlisle County High School in Kentucky tied for second place, with a time of 4:40. Huntsville's New Century Technology High School came in third, at 6:43. Very cool.

Floating in the clouds

This image was created by a digital photo taken while I was sitting in the chair. After cutting out the background using QuickMode in photoshop, I then copied it to the clouds photo taken earlier today. The key feature I am practicing is the duplication of the background, using opacity, and blending so that the image appears as if the chair is floating in the clouds. It'll take more practice ...

Headers

My work with photoshop continues with changes to two websites.

(1) Hilary Duff Chat now has a new header. Elizabeth thought that the image of Hilary should be on the other side, facing toward the forums. She also wanted the slant to go in the opposite direction. It all seemed fine to me. Birdie had the final say and the images stay as they are for now.

(2) This blog has a new header. The picture was taken this morning. The original shot contained the snow covered mountains. However, the cloud formation turned out to look much more interesting and therefore I cropped the image to show only the clouds and beautiful blue gradient background. The arial font lettering was used for the title. A shadow was added to increase the contrast between the lettering and the clouds.

What do you think? As always, if you see something nasty then speak up and make a suggestion on how to fix it. Thank you.

PSAT

Everything around me encouraged a smile. As I walked around the beautiful campus, the slight sea breeze slid past my face, pushing the smell of the ocean into my nostrils. Deep breaths filled my lungs with the same wonderful smell. I continued my journey as the sun peeked through puffs of scattered, white clouds, causing the warmth of the morning to hide and then show its face again. My exposed skin would react with goose bumps as the wind and hidden sun would combine to chill the breeze. My smile widened with each gust of wind.

Birds flew overhead, chattering amongst themselves. I noticed how their language mimicked the crowd of young children eagerly waiting in line to register for the PSAT. Maybe the birds were laughing. Maybe the birds were plotting and watching to see if food was going to be dropped. These twisted thoughts continued until a woodpecker’s drilling drowned out the disappearing birds and caused me to refocus on the line of children. I’d hate to be in the line. Tests are for the birds.

Eventually the line disappeared and the children were all gone. I turned and decided to walk toward the student center.

Two and a half hours later the line of children returned but dimpled with parents hugging their youngsters. Some of the kids came out smiling. Several looked exhausted. Elizabeth and Birdie ran over, hugged, and said, “That wasn’t bad.”

Knock Knock. Who's There?

Alien #1: Dude, quit banging. Someone might hear you.
Alien #2: Sorry. Just teasing the Earthlings

Space Sounds heard again

Venus Crosses the Seven Sisters

It's time to look up and check out the heavens. Once every 8 years, Venus crosses paths with the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45.

Sorry for the late post - all of the action started on April 1 and will end April 4. Regardless, look up and see if you see these stars and planets. Audio is available on the link provided.

Testing Einstein

After 45 years of planning, the Gravity Probe B is expected to launch on April 17. Near-perfect spheres will be placed in orbit 400 miles above the poles. This should provide scientists with a space/time reference, thus testing Einstien's ideas that gravity is a field distorting space and time rather than a force transmitted simultaneously as two objects cross paths.

More On Gravity Probe B