Moore Musings

The Jedi Order

My brother Daniel introduced me to a very interesting short film. It's called "Jedi Street Preachers", and it is a short documentary detailing some very wierd people in Australia.

Apparently it is the latest religious fad. Any one with broadband (or patience) should check it out. Download it here .

Why do we need any more witnesses?

And people still buy it.

Much to do

It's a very busy week, but before I get going on that, three cheers for Martinez and his creative list of outlawed phrases.

This week is crazy for me, you may not see many posts. (No comments needed on that.)
I am working 8-5 at HCJB, trying to write an overlay manager for the Sharc 21262 in assember. It needs to do two program and one memory overlay. It also need to have seperate load, test, and execute commands on a per-overlay basis. I feel quite out of my league. With any luck our resident Genius, Herb, will write it in a day as he simultaneously learns C++. He's just not human.
Nights I am working 6-10 at the county fair. Our fair is very large. Consequently, what would normally be a 10 minute drive takes 30, and on top of that I have a 10 minute walk from my parking place to the booth I'm running.
But, once I get there my only responsibility is to talk to people about computers and to entertain myself with NFS 5 or our 3D fish screen-saver. It looks beautiful on our 22" LCD display. Widescreen. On a Gf 5900. PCI Express. Dual monitors too.
So maybe that job isn't so bad... but it does get to one's feet after four hours.
Anywho, that's the rap, busy, full, well paid, and quite tiring. My final word:
Bring on the semester, I've had my summer, its been good, and it needs to end soon.

Home

Yeah.
I'm home.
And tired.
And busy.
So goodnight.

Debian WINS

You know it. I know it. Everyone knows that Debian wins. Just ask Slashdot readers.


And while reading other polls...
David: "35% of people are 'oblivious'."
Joy: "Oblivious? What does that mean?"

Hurrah for Summer Goodness

In typical Moore family fashion, we have decided when and where to vacation within 48 hours of our departure. Granted, we have yet to top our all-time record of six hours that we set my 4th grade year. Nonetheless, we are doing well.
Thus, I am off to Mammoth Cave national park. I will have fun in caves, trails, and a general lack of anything civilized!
With any luck, I'll eat well too!
I'll be back on or around next weekend, and will dive right into double job goodness: Programming at HCJB and sharing the goodness of computers at the Micro-Source booth of our local county fair. So ta-tah, peoples of the world.
Many fall down.

"Help! Help!"

A hurried phone call: "Mommy, the little guy inside my computer is dieing. Could please close all the windows?"
- Younger Brother John
I think this adequately illustrates the dangers of mental breakdown pursuant to MUD's.

Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction: Their Source and Destination

I've been reading web pages for the past hour, and have found some interesting developments regarding the WMD's and Iraq.
I have given below the links from which I draw my conclusions, please feel free to investigate and support/deny my conclusions. Just provide reasonable thought and evidence.

Saddam Hussein was in violation of UN resolutions, and refused to allow inspectors to verify that he had no WMD's. This carried on for more than 12 years. See this fact sheet from the US embassy in Latvia.
The United Nations was clearly suspicios that Iraq was acquiring or developing WMD's, in fact they "demanded unfettered access to search", something that Saddam denied them. CNN reported this on November 8th, 2002.
Yet this past March, CNN quotes a "UN weapons expert": "ElBaradei said he had been 'pretty convinced' that Iraq had not resumed its nuclear weapons program, which the IAEA dismantled in 1997." He also said: "We learned from Iraq that an inspection takes time, that we should be patient, that an inspection can, in fact, work." Refer to my link to the UN sanctions above for an estimate of how long this might take.
In March, when the US was going into Iraq, Libya began the process of dismantling a WMD buildup. Howard Dean, then front-runner for the Democratic Presidential candidate, claimed this had nothing to do with Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Washington Post reported Libya's "leader", Moammar Gadhafi, said something rather different.
"I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid." Thus it seems clear that the war in Iraq did indeed decrease the number of WMD's floating, something generally beneficial to people in general, and the US in particular.
Yesterday a committee of counselors to the House of Commons released the Butler Report, a comprehensive report regarding the Weapons of Mass Destruction. It details the exchange of materials and equipment for the manufacture and distribution of WMD's amongst Libya, Iraq, and several other nations.
See paragraph 129 "In 1999, the JIC reported Usama bin Laden’s claims to be setting up a laboratory in Afghanistan."
Also note paragraph 165 that in 1991 "enough fissile material had been produced before the coalition air attacks to produce one nuclear device."
You can view Tony Blair's response to the report and download it here.
I would also like to note that the Senate would not have voted differently regarding the Iraq war if they had known what they know now. Hillary Clinton was among those who still would have voted for war.

#2

Maybe it's tradition, maybe its fate, maybe (just possibly) its part of a plan I don't understand. But regardless, I was in another accident. Some may remember last summer's, it was pretty serious.

The last big event
No time for a long post now, but the synopsis is:
Myself without injury.
One injured golf, recoverable.
One injured motorcycle driver, needing some head stitches (not too badly).
One totaled motorcycle, no hope of return.
One uninjured brother (my only passenger).


I'll provide more details and pics when I have the time, but now I must sleep.
Goodnight all!

Oh, and while browsing my history looking for the link above, I couldn't help but pass this old post and some comments on to you:

...I ran into this in a compilation of letters from the fathers of our country. Perhaps what the Cynic needs is a woman.

Comments:

Wilson [www] @ 4:21PM 2003-07-12 Saturday Comments :
Moore, you missed the point.
John Adams was a great man, and an intelligent leader.
Once he married Abigail, however, he became dependent on her. A separation of any kind would render him (as he admits in the letter you quote) a driveling idiot.
Matrimony forms destructive habits of the mind. Once you start loving that much, you can never stop.
David [www] @ 7:25PM 2003-07-12 Saturday Comments : In that case, I'll set Markov loose on some select proverbs and generate a warning about women!
Vengeful Cynic [www] @ 3:22AM 2003-07-13 Sunday Comments : Moore, are you insinuating that I am too powerful for you and you need to make me dependent on a wench to even things out?
David [www]@ 12:43PM 2003-07-13 Sunday Comments : Seeing you dependent on a wench would be... wow, I just can't find the words. I guess it just generates a logic error. Lets just say you'd be a whole different guy.

Happy Coding Bliss

Hurrah!
My latest app now loads and previews 3 bitmaps (top, side, and front views).
You can then extrude or crop a each in three-dimensional space!
The resulting mesh of points is output to a file, and with the click of a button you can fly around and through the resulting 3D object. (I used an old OpenGL app I wrote 3 years ago.)
It still needs some work...
A large mesh (100+ million points) can take several minutes, particularly on the deletion passes. I think optimizing my hash table keygen will help a lot, its kinda thrown together right now.
I also need to add triangle painting, then I can get rid of all the interior points.
Right now I am mainly excited because I can finally view the 3D result. I love coding!

The Nature of Power

There are many voices regarding the conflicts in the nation of Israel. Often I have heard and seen in the news statements to the effect that Israel has lost all moral high ground by using its overwhelming force against the comparatively weak Palestinians insurgents. Some facts clearly have been missed.
My first major clue that I was being misled came to me as I listened to NPR several years ago. Israel had begun building a wall, claiming it needed additional defense for its citizens. NPR was interviewing an Israeli professor. They asked him if the wall had really slowed the attacks, and reminded him that it prevented many Palestinians from easy commuting to their jobs. They pointed out that there had been another bombing just the week before despite the growing wall.
The professor responded quickly. Before the wall there were bombings daily in the streets.
I was stunned. The papers and radio only occasionally reported bombings in Israel. Clearly the story was being more than slanted.
Is Israel just as morally debased as the Intifadas they counter? Consider the following picture:

That's an Israeli pilot. If he were a Palestinian, what would that plane be doing?

(Picture taken from A Prophetical Walk Through the Holy Land by Hal Lindsey)

Hurrah for Coding!

I've been working on my own little game project, and its not done yet.
I have, however, reached a point of triumph with scripted AI and generally pesky enemies.
You've seen it before, and you'll see it again...
It's another Galaxian clone!

People of talent

Go crazy one-legged man!

Another Golf is up!

Tonight we got the Golden Golf working!
After a thorough air system cleaning, a new battery, a new air filter, new spark plug wires, a new rotor for the distributor, and a careful timing adjustment, it started up.
I raced all over the neighborhood at midnight, and it turned and accelerated quite well. The engine runs even better than just after the timing adjustment: I believe it burned off the crud that had built up when we started it with poor timing.
There are still some issues:
It squeaks when turned quickly.
The brakes are down to the mechanical only, it needs brake fluid.
It ought to have its new fuel filter installed.
It needs a license plate.
Nonetheless, it does run, and so I will take it to all around the 'hood, and maybe to church tomorrow.
Hurrah for Volkswagon Golfs!

Random Quote

Joy: He's probably not a Christian.
David: You're making assumptions, Joy.
Joy: Well I don't know anything.
David: Ahhhhhhhh!

A Random iMac Post

Yep, I'm here at the Apple store in Chicago. My pizza will be done soon, and I'll be back at Giordano's. Yum.

In Which I explain how I acquired yet another VW Golf

The Scene: A post Wednesday night Bible study frolic at the corner of county roads 46 and 3. After some frisbee throwing, we are feeling a little peckish.
Self: Hey David, lets go hit those leftover cupcakes.
David: Self, you are incredible! I'm all over it.
Random Person: Say, are you the driver of that Golf?
David: Why yes. *bows*
Self: Hey! What about those cupcakes!
David: Why do you ask?
Self: Don't let him distract you from the food!
Random Person: Would like you another Golf for only $50?
David: Of course.
Self: No!!! It's all a trick to distract you from the food!
Random Person: Ok. Pick it up tomorrow at 6:30 outside the Boy's and Girl's Club in Napannee.
Self: It's a trap!
David: Ok.
Self: Look what you've done! All the cupcakes are gone... Gone!
David: Oh no! I've been had! That rascally rabbit!

Another family member

There's a new member of the Moore family, and his presence is appreciated indeed.
Friends and relations, meet my latest toy / creation / sibling.

Look familiar? You probably remember his older brother. (Click on for more, gentle reader.)

Or, possibly his younger one.

Regardless of your memory, dear reader, the family has grown yet again. (Also, some may recall his cousin, now in Alaska, and their strange old uncle, who passed on last summer.)

Strangeness of MT

By now I'm sure others have noticed my mis-post to the main page. I noticed it myself as soon as I did it, and I quickly deleted it and reposted it where it belonged. Strangely, it did not dissappear from the main page, although it is no longer listed in the "Edit Entries" section for that blog. I see all the other entries I've made to the main blog, but not that one.
And, as you probably know, it cannot be commented on. I guess that makes it the first real issue with MT. Wow. I feel special.

---------------------------------------
Edit: I posted to the main page the very text you see before you (above), and found that the old post had dissappeared in the process. Thus, I drafted that post (to avoid repeating any wierdness) and moved that post's text here. I guess all it needed was nice little rebuild...

Look Out, Free E-mail of the World

Look out Microsoft, GMail is coming.
That's the only explanation I see for this message I received in my Hotmail account.

Dear MSN® Hotmail® Member:

As a valued MSN Hotmail Member, we want you to know that there are some exciting changes coming soon to your account that will help you do more, receive more and store more than ever before. And it's FREE.

That's not all.
We're rolling out email antivirus protection as well as enhanced storage to help meet your growing needs. This will make MSN Hotmail, a world class email service that both scans and cleans ingoing and outgoing email for viruses and worms before they enter your inbox.
In addition to delivering world-class antivirus protection, you can also look forward to an upgrade in your storage capacity. In fact, you'll receive 125 times your current email storage with the introduction of a 250 MB inbox as well as the ability to send attachments up to 10 MB.

We'd like to thank you for being a valued MSN Hotmail Member and look forward to telling you about more exciting changes to your Hotmail account in the coming months.

We will send an update on when and how these exciting changes will be made to your account within two weeks. Please check your email for this important update.

Thank you, and enjoy the good news.

MSN Hotmail Member Services