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February 13, 2007
Libloggery One Year Anniversary!
One year ago today, I registered the domain name for the Libloggery and
began tinkering with it. The first "official" entry was "The hickory tree. . ." on Feb. 14, 2006, although I
altered the timestamp of the Libloggery's introduction post to be Feb.
12, 2006.
Including that first post, I've made 171 entries to the Libloggery that
include
photographs, political opinion, poetry, prose, game solutions, and science interests.
The diversity of these posts is indicative not only of my interests, but a
struggle I've had in giving the Libloggery an identity. I envision the
Libloggery as being a sort of library of blogs, with each section of the
"Blog Menu" being a separate and somewhat independent blog. I also feel as
though I've "copted out" at times by simply creating entries that are
little more than links to someone else's content. While that's not all bad,
I should be working harder to create my own content and at least add
entertaining or insightful commentary when creating such an entry.
The last few months at the Libloggery have been slow, but that's primarily
due to my day job. The life of a grad student often leaves little time for
extracurricular pursuits. But, with the light at the end of the tunnel
(let's hope it's not a freight train), I should be graduating soon and
moving on to a post-doctoral position at which time I will probably be able to
devote even less time to the Libloggery. :)
It's been a fun first year. I've learned a bit more about html, cascading
style sheets, and minimal perl. Just enough to be dangerous, that is. This
website is probably not the best example of coding on the internet. But it
is mine, and I look forward to another and better year.
February 07, 2007
Defeat of comment spam in pollxn?
Over the last few months or so, I noticed an alarming amount of comment spam being posted here at the Libloggery. Some stories seemed very popular with the
spambots, but I think I've found a way to defeat them in the pollxn comment program. At least for the time being.
I "hacked" my pollxn.cgi script to read the response to a math question a commenter must answer before submitting their comment. So, if you don't answer the question
or answer it wrongly, the comment will not be accepted. This might not be the best way to do it, but I do hope it will reduce my comment spam. If you'd like to see
specifically how I implemented this, feel free to comment or contact me.
December 21, 2006
Actual Letter Sent by a Congressman
US House of Represenatives Congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA) recently sent this letter
full of bigotry and inane logic. It is shameful that such people actually
hold elected office and hold political power in this country. I think it
just goes to show the undercurrent of hidden motives in the Republican
party as whole. He is also giving a bad name to people with the name Virgil
everywhere. The people of his district should demand his recall from
office.
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-4605
December 7, 2006
Mr. John Cruickshank
7** S** Dr.
Earlysville, VA 22936
Dear Mr. Cruickshank:
Thank you for your recent communication. When I raise my hand to take
the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do
not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from
Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American
citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on
immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and
demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally
and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard
by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come
to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more
Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration
policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs
traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources
from being swamped.
The Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust" are on the wall in my
office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have
anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, "As long as
I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of
Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not
going to be on the wall of my office." Thank you again for your email
and thoughts.
Sincerely yours,
Virgil H. Goode, Jr.
70 East Court Street
Suite 215
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
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July 17, 2006
More unknown callers...
Last Friday I received about 5 calls from the number 1-800-903-7478. A
Google search on July 17 returned no results. In returning the call, no
identifying information was ever given. An automated answer "Please wait
while I transfer your call" is the first thing I heard, followed by
"Extenstion number 0015 is not available, please leave a message." Does
that sound shady or what? A person or company has been calling me, not
leaving a message, and when I call back there's nothing to identify who it
is.
Today, I received a call from 1-800-720-7706. They did not leave a message
and again a Google search today returned no results. When trying to return
this call I got a busy tone.
Anyone else out there getting these, what amounts to, harassing calls?
June 07, 2006
What should you do if you find something somebody left behind?
This story resonates because I have a coworker and friend who left his
phone at a Starbucks one time and never got it back. Also, my girlfriend
accidentally left her digital camera in a taxi last year and was unable to
locate it. People, if you find something that valuable you should at least
try to find the person who lost it. It's the morally right thing to do. To
keep it or, worse yet, sell it, just shows a complete lack of respect for
your counterparts in the human race. What if it was your phone or camera? A
phone is absolutely easy to return, and a camera would take a little more
effort. But not impossible, especially since the owner would be calling the
taxi company about it.
Without further ado, here is the story of a stolen sidekick.
How NOT
to steal a SideKick II
May 26, 2006
Another tool to waste time on the internet. . .
Here's a cool little program that you can use to lazily browse the
internet. It allows you to find cool sites matched to your interests. Sites
are given an thumbs up or thumbs down "review" by users so that stumblers are
introduced to well reviewed sites. Give it a try.
Be sure to visit the Libloggery and give it a thumbs up if you decide to
install StumbleUpon.
Yet Another Unknown Caller
This morning I received a call on my phone from the number 251-219-4166. I
did a search for it but the only information I've found so far is that it
is from Mobile, AL. Anyone else have any information?
May 23, 2006
Worldmapper: A really cool website
The Worldmapper website displays world maps where the modern day political
terroritories have been resized on each map according to a subject of
interest. For example, below are the maps resized for population during the
year 1 a.d. and the year 1500 a.d. Of note is the increase in size of Japan
in 1500 compared to 1. Africa also changed "shape" in 1500 compared to 1.
Other maps at the site include "Total Children", "Total Elderly", "Refugee
Destination", "Net Emigration", and much, much more. It's definitely worth
the time to take a look, not just for the coolness factor but also to see
if a map pertains to a particular interest or cause you may
have.
Population in the year 1 a.d.
Population in the year 1500 a.d.
May 19, 2006
A sign that makes one say, "Huh?"
While walking back from lunch today, we saw this sign on fence enclosing a
parking lot. There were no lasers anywhere in sight. Somebody has an
interesting sense of humor. I laughed. That's me in the second picture,
with the sign.
May 16, 2006
ipod nano Disk Mode
For some reason today, my ipod nano went into disk mode along with a
message that it was "Okay to disconnect". I don't know why it went into
disk mode, but to get it out all one has to do is reset the ipod. The
instructions given below are from Apple website.
- Toggle the Hold switch on and off. That is, put the ipod on hold,
then back to normal control. The hold switch is on the top edge of your
nanon.
- Press and hold the Menu and Select buttons until the Apple
logo appears, about 6-10 seconds.
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