Our culture is obsessed with youth and beauty. It astonishes us when an average-looking, middle-aged person manages to slip past the gatekeepers and find their way on television. I remember an author on NPR (writing on aging) mentioned that she took a trip to New York, and judging by peoples' reactions to her, she wondered if they'd passed a law against being as old as she was.

It's a depressing state of affairs, which is why there is something inspiring about this clip. Just watch.

Come sail away (part 2 of n)

Five numbers align.
The victor receives great wealth.
Bingo is stupid.

A cruise ship is like a floating city in some ways, and an independent nation in others. It has its own customs and taboos,* its rituals and languages, and a surprisingly complicated legal system. Cruise ship society has a very clear caste system, with most of the population being part of the idle rich class. Idle with a vengeance.

Four of the seven days, we couldn't leave the boat. So there was ample opportunity to study this new culture. The anthropological implications are tremendous, and I'm sure there is no shortage of professors willing to wade in and get their hands dirty (or just manicured) in the name of Science.

I don't have the scholastic background to do it properly, but hopefully someone will find my layman's ramblings useful.

Bingo is... well, I don't care about bingo. Still, I liked the haiku.

Well, this post went nowhere. Sleep now!


* Taboo #1: Do not, under any circumstances, try to unionize the ship's staff. That can get you keelhauled right quick,

Come sail away (part 1 of n)

Like sailors of old,
who braved the wind, shoals, and salt,
I can't get wi-fi.

Last week, my family hog tied me, threw me in the back of the van, and dragged me off for a week of mandatory fun and relaxation. The plan: a week long cruise along the west coast of Mexico. While ocean cruises aren't the sort of vacation I would plan for myself, it was becoming clear that there is no such thing as a vacation I would plan for myself. Somebody would have to do it for me, and those somebodies turned out to be my parents.

I think I needed it. I think I relaxed some. I think it showed me that the Co-op can get along without me, at least for short stretches. That should be comforting, but I think some part of me was hoping for one or two "only Bryce can solve this" emergencies, just so I would feel missed. The ego can be a ridiculous thing.

One blessing in disguise: Norwegian Cruise Lines charges just shy of $1/minute for Internet access. Since I couldn't bring myself to pay those prices, my contact with work was limited to a couple of e-mail from seedy Mexican Internet cafes. Those emails basically said, "Relax. Things are under control."

Since I couldn't fret or micromanage, I had to find alternate pursuits. I've rediscovered reading. I'd entirely forgotten what it's like to burn through five books in a week. It's a good way to dust the cobwebs off the ol' noggin. I also spent some time chasing my niece and nephew around the ship. Let's just say that Beauden is a big fan of elevators. There are just so many buttons to push.

I've always been very negative towards cruises. I've always thought they were expensive, tacky, and powered by desperate third-worlders. Those opinions still ring true, but for the first time in months, my head was clear and I could hear my own thoughts. Having heard those thoughts, I found them anticlimatic, so I cranked up my iPod to drown them out.

I need to get out more.

...nothing is more damaging to teh adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure.

[...]

My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it.

--Chris McCandless

From the archives

Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:56:59 -0600 (MDT)
From: Bryce C Anderson 
To:  [redacted]
Subject: Broken link.

Your webpage at http://[redacted]/elisp/major-modes.html has a
link that purports to be a link to a Verilog Emacs mode.  When clicked,
it actually goes to a porn site called "shemale-review.com".  If you are
still maintaining this website,  you may want to do something about that.
:)

------------------------
Bryce Anderson

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing,  but it's not half so bad as a lot
of ignorance."  -- Terry Pratchett

Geohashing: the dance craze sweeping the nation!

For the technically disinclined, it's a way to generate a bunch of random location every day, generally within a hundred miles of you, the intrepid adventurer. Call it your daily flash mob.

It looks like the Wasatch Front is bisected by a latitude and longitude line, so every day there are four separate points to choose from. Today, the most accessible one is out on Antelope Island.

It looks straightforward enough, it wouldn't be hard to build an RSS feed or a Twitter agent that would publish the day's points as soon as the market opened. The only thing I'm unsure about is getting the market data.

I've also spent a bit of time thinking about alternate reality topographies. Combining the ideas could make for an interesting ARG.

You could alter the geohashing concept by allowing people to define their own center point and scaling factor, maybe add their own private salt (geek term) so their results were different from anyone else's.

This could make a nifty Facebook app. Seriously, they're better at keeping track of your friends than I could ever implement.

The littlest typewriter

I just got my XO-1!

Er... tiny green laptop with Shrek ears? John Negroponte? Quest to educate every child on the planet by throwing dirt cheap, durable hardware at small children?

Here's a self-portrait.

...

Okay, that didn't work out so well. I'll figure it out later.

It's tiny, it's cute, it makes people wonder if I mugged a Nigerian kid to get it. The battery is less awesome than I expected. It runs for about three hours rather than the expected six. I'm not sure who made that promise, though, so I can hardly claim to be disappointed. The keyboard is even smaller than I expected, but I'm managing.

I'm sending this from Sam Weller's book store, which has rock solid wireless. My apartment? Not so much. A few people have already asked about it, so it's a great conversation piece.

Later.