Made by Mikal – Page 105

Proposition 82

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 9, 2006
Post category:Link

California has this strange direct funding system, where the electorate can mandate a given amount of funding for a specific line item, and not involve the politicians in the future decision making. Wikipedia doesn't have an article on proposition 82 yet (I might make one...), but here is an example of a previous proposition. Proposition 82 proposes free preschool education for all California kids (these guys have the noon82.com site as well as the yeson82.com site). It does have opposition though. It's strange living somewhere where I get no say in the political process, and where I don't feel obligated to live with the long term effects of any given change. So, I say give me the free stuff!

Interesting: Vote on other sites with your links

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 7, 2006
Post category:Link

I find the vote links proposal quite interesting. I wonder if anyone has adopted it?

Buy Toshiba!

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 6, 2006
Post category:Link

It certainly seems to be working out for the best for Rory: When I fired up the machine for the first time to make sure he did everything right and it wouldn't explode in my face, I couldn't help but notice that I wasn't getting any WiFi signal. I told him what was wrong. He said he didn't even see a WiFi card in there when he was repairing. That didn't surprise me since, at least from what I saw, he tried to fix my computer by repeatedly body-slamming it on the ground and bitch-slapping it. Hard to see the details that way.

MySQL Tech Talks

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 6, 2006
Post category:Mysql

Three intrepid MySQLers came to Google after the user conference to give internal tech talks. They were kind enough to agree to us hosting them for other people to see. The first two are up, so I'll mention those now, and put a link to the last one when it's available... Click on the thumbnail to be taken to the video. Jay Pipes is a co-author of the recently published Pro MySQL (Apress, 2005), which covers all of the newest MySQL 5 features, as well as in-depth discussion and analysis of the MySQL server architecture, storage engines, transaction processing, benchmarking, and advanced SQL scenarios. You can also see his name on articles appearing in Linux Magazine and can read more articles about MySQL at his website. Jay Pipes is MySQL's Community Relations Manager for North America. Learn where to best focus your attention when tuning the performance of your applications and database servers, and how to effectively find the "low hanging fruit" on the tree of bottlenecks. It's not rocket science, but with a bit of acquired skill and experience, and of course good habits, you too can do this magic! Timour Katchaounov The first part of this talk describes…

Interesting quote

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 5, 2006
Post category:Link

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked...A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system. John Gall via Marc on the O'Reilly radar.

Dirty wheel rims

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 3, 2006
Post category:Bike

It turns out that it basically doesn't rain in California in the summer (or so I am assured by the people at work), so now that the weather is nice again I have been riding to work at lot more. I am suffering from a problem I hadn't considered though, mainly because I normally only ride on paved surfaces. About 10% of my work commute is across a car park with dirt roads, and they are producing a lot of dust. Apart from making the bike dirty (which isn't so bad), the wheel rims are being coated in enough dust for there to be noticeable abrasion noises when I brake after the dirt road stretch of my ride. This must be a common problem for mountain bikes, so, what should I do about it? I imagine that at worst it's shortening the life of my rims marginally, but I'm not massively concerned as my current rims are cheap ones anyway. Apart from wiping the rims down each evening, is there anything else I can and should be doing?

State of the computing book market

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 3, 2006
Post category:Link

Tim O'Reilly's examination of the state of the book market: comes in three parts. It makes some interesting points. Gary Cornell has started a response which is also worth a read.

Lego Mindstorms NXT and open source

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 2, 2006
Post category:Link

I had a gander at the Mindstorms NXT at the Maker Faire and it looked cool. It looks cooler now that it's firmware is being open sourced.

Steven Colbert, will you marry me?

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 1, 2006
Post category:Link

I love you so much. Oh, but my wife says I am taken.

In case of Viking invaders

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 30, 2006
Post category:Link

Please ensure you complete the correct paperwork if NASA Ames is invaded by Vikings. That is all.