Oh, hell.

Life is complicated, and busy.

I’m going to get busy spilling my guts about what I’ve learned from playing with my BeagleBone. I’m also going to post about a project I’m working on that I call “The Doberman”. It won’t happen tonight, but for a preview, and to find out what a BeagleBone is, check out this link.

Mama Luna had four beautiful baby kittens today. ZOMG! And the little black one is funny!

I think I’ve learned more about painting from watching others paint than I have by experimentation alone. This cat has mad technique.

I’ve registered the domain name hillbillygenius.com. As self agrandising as that may sound, it’s not about me.

I’m often spellbound by the world that I live in, and it’s the people who make it really interesting. For instance, tonight I met Santa Claus. Not the mythical North Pole variety, but a real down-to-Earth Santa Claus. He was touring the neighborhood on his custom painted red Segway scooter, chatting up my neighbor, Doug.

Seeing this, I had to jump in the fray. I’d just pulled in the driveway after work, and the two were talking in front of Doug’s garage. I reacquainted with Doug, and Mr. Claus was entirely charming.

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I first heard about this statement yesterday, and it registered, but I wasn’t angry. I’ve had a chance to think about it, and now I’m downright pissed.

This is a multi-part agrument, so bear with me. Economically, the one entity that can pay for massive natural disaster assistance is the federal goverment due to it’s fiat power. It should be, in effect, the insurer of last resort, much like it is the lender of last resort for banks. Morally, helping one’s fellow human in time of need should be one of the defining characteristics of our species; this should be obvious, as enshrined in the Golden Rule. An in ordinate number of deaths and injuries are caused by inappropriate building codes: trailer parks should have mandatory storm shelters (ditto slab foundation buildings, in general). It would be trivial to make a mandatory weather alert app for all cellphones, I’ll admit, that nothing beats the nose of a dog for finding certain things, but some drones doing thermal (and other) scans would be nice – you can do it over a war zone, why not Missouri? Dogs are all we’ve got.

According to this calculator the State of Missouri is on the hook for $6.2 billion in Afghanistan alone (one moderately sized state out of 50). The total cost of the whole war-on-terror-shebang would cause a fatal cring, so I’ll spare you. The fact is though, that the federal government spends more each week, on ordinance alone, than what it would cost to build two Joplins,

And yet we wonder why the federal debt is out of control….

I have been finding many technological gewgaws that have made my jaw drop lately (I’m looking at you, various Android augmented reality apps). But this hack takes the friggin’ cake:

French developer Fabrice Bellard has built a JavaScript-based x86 PC emulator capable of running Linux inside a web browser.

Just.wow. Real, honest to God Linux. You need Chrome 11+ or Firefox 4+ to make it go, but damn.

…found on Wired.

From today’s Financial Times…

The rain beats down on a small Irish town. The streets are deserted. Times are tough. Everyone is in debt and living on credit. A rich German arrives at the local hotel, asks to view its rooms, and puts on the desk a €100 note. The owner gives him a bunch of keys and he goes off for an inspection.As soon as he has gone upstairs, the hotelier grabs the note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher hurries down the street to pay what he owes to his feed merchant. The merchant heads for the pub and uses the note to pay his bar bill. The publican slips the note to the local hooker who’s been offering her services on credit. She rushes to the hotel to pay what she owes for room hire. As she puts the €100 note on the counter, the German appears, says the rooms are unsuitable, picks up his €100 note and leaves town.No one did any work. No one earned anything. Everyone is out of debt. Everyone is feeling better. And that is how a bail-out works.