Calm brilliance

Capistrano SuperDeploy script v2.3

2008-05-12T02:17:50Z

http://pastie.caboo.se/195345

* Trimmed-down easy config file
* Lots of utility functions
* Smart log tail-er (cap util:logs:smart) that will show aggregate times, hits, errors, etc in pretty format!

Enjoy. :)

Edit 8:05pm: Added exponential weighted average for hits/min counter; fixed regex bug w/ multiple errors in one chunk

Touch, by Tiffany Field

2008-05-08T01:14:28Z

http://www.amazon.com/Touch-Bradford-Books-Tiffany-Field/dp/0262561565

This book was given to me by aliothsan, because of our mutually high level of tactileness and interest in research thereof.

I read the book with a positive bias. I am, indeed, extremely touch-oriented; I've had professional training in massage and various related practices; I've given 'em professionally; it's probably one of the most important senses to my enjoyment of the world.

So I'm very disappointed to say that the book is 99% bullshit. Hardly a single page went by that did not include fallacious reasoning, unstated or unproven assumptions, appeals to authority or tradition, uncritical acceptance of unproven (or disproven) "Eastern" practices, fundamentally flawed conceptions of study design, flippant dismissal of the same, false claims about neuroscience, pure speculation, dewey-eyed wistfulness about the moral and familial superiority of indigenous cultures, or similar.

That's unfortunate, because I do believe touch is important (to me and others like me, at least), and would like to see books out there that support my beliefs. But in this case, while it preaches a message I like, its support for that message is thoroughly porous.

On the positive side, there was the small portion of studies that were correctly done (at least if described accurately, for which I've been giving benefit of doubt) and had interesting results; it is highly probable that most touch is good for people or at least not bad; etc. And it was an interesting read.

"How guys can prevent rape"

2008-05-08T00:54:26Z

Re: "How You Guys -- that's right, you GUYS -- Can Prevent Rape"

Now, let me say at the start that I understand where the author is coming from. I've more friends than I would like who've been raped, some on a regular basis. I'm very well aware of how it can mess someone up. So please put aside the "oh noes he's attacking the rape victim" shtick.

The author, however, completely does not seem to grok the raper's perspective here. She tries, really, but all it amounts to is a emphatically third-party, analytic, "these things happen from other people" sense. Classifying rapists by motive: anger, power, or sadism. Seriously, wtf - do you think ANYONE reading this is going to say "oh right, I'm a sadist, that's why I'm likely to rape someone; I should stop that"?

The rest of it is equally either preachy (rape is bad! [norly?]) or otherwise unempathic (describing the "false" masculinity of machismo purely on a "my values are better than yours" level).

I have two simple suggestions that might actually work. For males.

1. Make consent, in the form of active participation, emphatically macho, and the lack of it ridiculous.

AKA "If you couldn't make your partner BEG you to fuck them, you're not a real man."

2. Practice (solo or with a partner) backing off from horny mindstate.

This is somewhat of an extension of the tradition Masters & Johnson type technique. Essentially, males more than females (me included) can get very single-minded once in a horny mindstate. With low enough inhibitions, and a lack of expectation / need of partner's active participation, that can lead to rape - i.e. where you just want to have sex, and you literally can't stop thinking about it, things start to cloud up in the drive towards climax.

Practicing getting horny and then just doing something else entirely helps with that, and can make hearing "no" or any variant thereof (e.g. anything that's not "YES PLEASE NOW") a lot easier to take and act on. It also has the major fringe benefit of making for more controllable, longer-lasting, more enjoyable sex for both partners.

FWIW, these are both things that I practice.

Sorry that it's not quite as neo-feminist as the original article, but I think it's a lot more realistic.

And as a side note: why is it that these things are always written by female rape victims, and not male ex-rapists... yet claim to be aimed at helping potential rapists avoid it? This seems utterly ludicrous to me.

[Iron Chef WTF] Wine & Cheese Ice Cream

2008-05-03T23:23:34Z

Vanilla ice cream
Burgundy wine jelly (as seen on the half-off rack at Safeway)
Grated parmesean cheese

Mix.

Yummy!

Word.

2008-05-02T04:30:43Z

Finally sold the car

2008-04-27T19:41:53Z

Also whee. Perfect timing, acceptable price.

I am now officially an employee of Zynga Game Networks Inc.

2008-04-26T00:17:14Z

Whee.

Moving help?

2008-04-16T06:37:11Z

I'm going to be packing my stuff this weekend, and finishing that plus moving it to a storage unit in Berkeley next weekend.

If you're willing to help (whether with packing, lending a truck/van so I don't need to rent one, helping unpack once we find a new place, etc) please let me know.

Hopefully we'll have a new place in about a month +- a week. I'd like to have a party thenish, post move-in. If you're interested, ping me.

Things, very slowly

2008-04-13T20:07:02Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuTc9-SMKX4

Via bestofyoutube.com

Yay physics!

Cellphone is working again

2008-04-13T00:45:23Z

Same number as before.

If I had it before, I probably have your number somewhere - but not on my phone.

Dual boot

2008-04-06T04:57:48Z

So, work gave me a nice laptop to play with (er, 'develop on'). TBD if I get to keep it, but I want to use it as my primary machine. Which in turn means I'm going to do a mildly complex setup.

Spec:
Dell Precison M4300
2GB RAM, 2.2GHz Centrino T7500 dual-core CPU, 160GB HD, NVidia Quadro FX 360M

Partitions:
* Dell recovery / diagnostics
* Vista 64-bit (30 GB)
* Kubuntu 7.10 32-bit (30 GB)
* NTFS shared space (88GB)
- w/ file-hosted TrueCrypt volume(s) for all sensitive/personal data
* FAT32 shared swap (4GB)

I tried installing Kubuntu 64-bit, but... it's a major pain in the ass. NVidia drivers don't work right at all; I get blank screens w/ X even in the installer. And from googling it, the performance improvement is minimal if any, and the pain of getting stuff to work right is significantly higher. So, screw it, I'll stick with 32-bit.

I'm going to just copy the files back onto my kubuntu part that I had on it prior to moving it off pre-Vista-install. Then mess with Grub & BCD so I can get a single boot screen, and get Vista & Kubuntu to just use the new FAT32 swap. This'll require some initrd hackery in linux - meh again.

I was considering trying to run it w/ Xen or VMware, but it seems like that'd be too limiting - e.g. I wouldn't be able to run games under Windows. And I was considering trying to get OSX on as well, but again the support for that seems pretty bad - not good enough for me wanting to just have it *work* once set up.

As for file-hosted truecrypt under a journaled, swapped system... it's a pretty minor security problem given my usage AFAICT. Just need to make sure I don't have reason to change the password.

Going down for reinstall of Ubuntu now.

ETA 1AM: Finally got grub fixed. Windows CD is useless for recovery even compared to what I can get from initramfs, let alone the kubuntu live DVD. Hmph.

Anyway, it's mostly set up & working now. Still need to set up kubuntu to pretend the fat32 part is swap.

Vista actually has a (mostly) working version of symoblic links, yay - mklink. So I've symlinked my data directories on the shared part. Still need to make the crypto volumes for cryptoshare and set up cross-os-compatible settings symlinking (eg for firefox). That'll be 'fun'. :)

ETA 3AM: TrueCrypt BSODs. Grr.

ETA 4AM: Evidently it's a weird interaction between TrueCrypt and the EXT2/3 IFS driver. Gah.

I has a new job!

2008-03-25T23:49:03Z

I'm to start work as a Ruby on Rails developer for Zynga on Thursday, assuming that contract details work out.

It's 30-day-contract-to-hire - i.e. the first month is under a temp contract, so we know if we're good for each other.

Hopefully it goes well; looks like it will. I'm pretty excited. ^^

(I'll still be doing my Medtronic work part-time [yay flexible telecommute gig], and of course I've got a half-dozen projects of my own, not to mention the LCS and such, and moving to Berkely next month or so... looks like I'm going to be pretty damn busy. o.o)

Rails query analyzer plugin

2008-03-19T07:03:06Z

Improved SQL profiling (w/ timings etc) to CSV spreadsheet plugin: http://pastie.caboo.se/167685

Y2k38 bug and Ruby on Rails Time vs DateTime

2008-03-19T01:10:00Z

Written up with examples here:

http://pastie.caboo.se/165979

Thanks to the people on FreeNode #rubyonrails for help figuring it out.

Still needs to be patched, but at least I have a temporary solution (the .to_f trick).

F.R.C. (877) 475 4020

2008-03-10T19:56:11Z

I received a postcard.

Front (x = censored):

F.R.C
1381 S Missouri Ave
Clearwater, FL 33756-6500

(stamp box)Auto presorted first-class US postage paid / Ft. Myers FL Permit No. 130(/box)

LPXXXXX
# XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXX-XX 2006-4

[my address]

[edited to splice & remove operator corrections]

(back)
Dear (first name)

We are trying to reach you with Good News!

It is really important that you call us.
Call toll free 1-877-475-4020

CONTROL # XXXXXXXXXX

Thanks Michelle Barbaa

Call 10 am to 8:30 pm EST. Monday thru Friday

(12:31:31) Self: 8774754020
(12:31:55) SprintIP: ??SPRINT IP 6078F DIALING 877-475-4020 (M)
(12:32:54) SprintIP: thank u for calling uve reached family readers club of clearwater florids my name is patrick .. may i have the control number thats on ur post card please q
(12:33:19) Self: Sorry, I don't have the control number. What is the FRC?
(12:33:39) SprintIP: the number should be right on the control card.. it should say control ..
(12:33:59) Self: As I said, I don't have the card at hand; I just wrote down your number. Could you please tell me why you sent me this card? And what "good news" are you trying to "reach me" with?
(12:34:24) SprintIP: oh thats simple .. the reason we sent u the post card .. is to let u know personall y that we have great news for u .. ur name will be entered into our upcoming .. 100 000 grand national sweepstakes .. he needs to get the number ... and register himself for the sweepstakes ..
(12:35:16) Self: Where can I find the full rules of your sweepstakes?
(12:35:34) SprintIP: thats simple enough ... sent request with self address envelope dream come true sweepstakes winners ..
(12:36:03) Self: You don't have them posted online?
(12:36:09) SprintIP: p.o box 5695 ellentown florida zipcode is 34222 - 5006 ... if he wants to get the number .. wait a minute.. the public .. online qq public info becomes available 10/31 2008 public records .. he neeeds to get that number if he wants to register for it okay q
(12:37:15) Self: What cost is there to "register" for your sweepstakes?
(12:37:32) SprintIP: there is no purchase required to be in our sweepstakes .. good luck to u in our sweepstakes we wish you luck and have a good day now
(12:37:51) SprintIP: (PERSON HUNG UP) SR 6078F OR SK
(12:37:58) Self: Oy, fucking scammers.
(12:38:05) ***Self forwards this to BBB Florida

More talks @ Berkeley

2008-03-04T04:29:31Z

http://math.berkeley.edu/index.php?module=announce&ANN_user_op=view&ANN_id=118

"English as a Programming Language"
Wednesday, March 5
"The Axiomatic Derivation of Absolute Lower Bounds"
Friday, March 7

Both are 60 Evans Hall - 4:10pm-5:00pm

Another talk

2008-02-29T20:18:23Z

http://math.berkeley.edu/index.php?module=calendar&module=calendar&calendar[view]=event&id=2700

John Conway. Later the same day.

Another religion & cogsci talk

2008-02-29T03:59:20Z

Might go. Any of the rest of you interested?

Thursday, March 6
10:10am-11:45am
714C University Hall, UCB Campus

So Help Me God: A Social Cognitive Approach to God-Mediated Control
Doug Oman, School of Public Health, UCB

Experiences of divine assistance are one of the primary phenomena of religious and spiritual life. Most early social scientists tended to question or dismiss the truth-value of perceptions of divine assistance. But applying major well-established social scientific theories allows non-reductive approaches to clarifying the functions of perceived assistance from a divinity or other spiritual being. In this paper, we systematically compare and analyze several facets of how assistance from human and divine/spiritual agents is experienced. The approach is concretized using the concept of proxy agency from Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, resulting in a recommended spiritually integral theory of efficacy (SITE) perspective. Implications are discussed for measuring self-efficacy for religious and spiritual activities, for interventions, and for the broader scientific study of religious phenomena.

David Gortner from Church Divinity School of the Pacific (GTU) will respond and present some of his own work.

Directions:

University Hall is on the south-west corner of University and Oxford. To get to 714C you ride the main (north) elevators up to the top (7th) floor and then head to room in the north-east corner of the building by (after stepping off the elevator) turning right, walking about 10 feet, then turning left and walking about 50 feet down the hall.

Map:

http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC12.html

Hope to see you there.

Mark
--
Mark Graves
Scholar in Residence, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA 94709
mgraves@jstb.edu

IdentiFont

2008-02-27T04:12:47Z

http://www.identifont.com/identify.html

Would only be useful in obscure circumstances... but still neat.

Sexual consent forms

2008-02-18T23:05:20Z

http://www.glumbert.com/media/consent

Very amusing video. ??SFW; nothing explicit but plenty of verbal innuendo.

Back from the DEAD

2008-02-14T06:22:36Z

So, my laptop was out of commission.

We tried a first pass at fixing the issue - it didn't get power from the plug - without success.

Today... I took the thing apart completely. All the little (and big) pieces on the table, a boxtop full of tiny screws, the motherboard completely removed from all three pieces of the frame.

Ryan re-soldered the power leads. I put it back together (oy what a pain). And only six screws left over!

And now it works. I was facing having to replace the laptop otherwise.

About as well as ever - slightly better, actually, 'cause we found a massive amount of gunk in the CPU cooler whose current nonexistence will hopefully make things cooler and thus faster. My RAM still gets really hot, but ohwell.

Yay for EE-capable boyfriends & ability to work together to solve a problem. ^^

Ryan comments: FYI it was reading ~5.8V at a couple spots before I reflowed it, and afterwards was reading 19V... no idea why, but whatever.

My podcasts / RSS feeds

2008-02-10T02:27:59Z

In case you care: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/12645655301511999224

ETA: I *thought* this would just be a list of the ones I subscribe to.

Evidently not; it's just the specific items that I highlight. Which is kinda lame, in that I'm most likely not going to bother doing so.

Me in 2600

2008-02-04T21:11:46Z

I submitted an article for 2600 about "all-point" meditation (see my 'my meditation techniques' post for the shortform meta version).

Looks like it'll be published.

Whee.

My laptop is dead

2008-02-04T08:25:25Z

Something about the power. We tried taking it apart, testing connector, resoldering its leads, blah blah anyway it's dead hard enough that it'll take replacing the main board to fix. :(

Hopefully I'll be able to use Ryan's computer to virtualbox my laptop HD and thus still function, but expect my 'net accessibility etc to be a bit shoddy until further notice.

Blah. :(

[Iron Chef WTF] PBLoco

2008-01-29T00:27:21Z

http://pbloco.com/adult_pb.asp (via mackenzie)

Sounds tasty.