a blab by idle

Thanks for the link, Arthus! The embarrassing thing is that there's no discernible content here anymore, since I started (and never finished) sorting my content into "public" and "private".

If you're actually looking for something useful about me right now, might want to hit my work site instead. So many projects, so little time…. BTW, if you're going to Springfield for IETC 2007, I hope to see you there!

ObOLPC: G1G1 started today! Get out there, spend $399, donate an XO to a worthy cause, and get one for yourself in the process!

I haven't blogged in, what, three to six months? (Except on my edu blog.) Until I get a moment to actually start blogging again, IM always works to reach me. I've just started trying out twitter, so if you want in on some of that action, my twitter handle is scottswanson and you can find my twitter page at http://twitter.com/scottswanson/.

Oh, and SL is still a good way to reach me. On maingrid I'm still Kyle Thorn, and fairly soon, I'll be bringing the Gaia estate owner, Sullivan Rhode, over to TG to take possession of our first island.

As for social networking, I'm available through all the usual suspects, though like everyone else, I'm focusing on Facebook and LinkedIn now.

Of course, in low-tech modes, I need to get back to Chicago sometime just so I can pick up my slacks from the tailor and get a haircut already….

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09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
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Watch the video. Understand why, now that virtual reality has achieved a fledgling critical mass, there's simply no reason, if perhaps even no way, to go back.

Oh, and let me know if you can get through it without shedding a tear. I couldn't.

Apparently, with only six weeks of notification, the Unity Church of Chicago (a wonderful organization) has pulled the plug on Eight:18 @ Unity, probably the premier monthly Chicago metaphysical event; the last one will be Friday, June 1, 2007. This is quite shocking, and I'm trying to get details. Hopefully an agreement can be reached, although I'm sure Unity must have a reason for deciding this; I just don't know what it is.

I also worry a tad because we have another group that meets there twice a month; is Unity decommissioning all outside gatherings?

Any information would be appreciated! If you know of a way that we can rebuild the harmony that seemed to exist between the two, please let Emily and Preston know. Failing a reconcilliation, Eight:18 will need to find a new locale; if you know if "the perfect new locale," it would also be great if you let them know. (I would be happy to convey your message if you would prefer as well.)

To the credit of everyone involved, the copy-of-a-copy I received of a letter that Emily and Preston put out about this speaks only lovingly of Unity and implores everyone to work towards finding a resolution that serves everyone's highest good.

More information can surely be found from their YahooGroup, GivePeaceADance.

No, not that spoon. Christine Miserandino pegged it quite well with her Spoon Theory, one of the best practical analogies I've ever seen for living with an invisible physical disability.

Worth a read if you want to bring it home — or if you've been looking for a good way to explain to your friends why, some days, you just aren't as much fun as anyone else.

I would like to say that I found "Children of Men" vaguely unsatisfying, except that actually, I found it wholly unsatisfying. Every single aspect of this film was taken about one-third as far as it should have been. The result was a lukewarm film that excelled in absolutely no virtue or capacity. I had been looking forward to watching this film for a while; my nephew and I looked at each other and realized "there's two hours of our lives we're never getting back."

I suddenly feel far less concerned that I haven't been going to the movies much lately. Bring on the DVDs! More House, Law and Order, and Hong Kong cinema for me.

Apparently something I did with the whole fastcgi debacle broke a lot of things, and they've been broken for a month. Oopsie! I'm going to have to look into this and fix things up (although it will have to be later, as I've got soup on the stove and have a chapter to review before a meeting in two hours).

Got the Jan 07 Oracle Database Insider in email today. There was a news link there about their "Free DBA Toolbar", which intrigued me, so I clicked through. I can't tell you how tickled I was to read the following first sentence:

The Oracle DBA Toolbar (available for Internet Explorer only at the moment - yeah, yeah, we know; a Mozilla/Firefox version is forthcoming) gives you one-click access to key DBA resources on OTN.

I wonder if it launched like that, or if they changed it after getting deluged with "BUT WHAT ABOUT..." emails.

I updated to Movable Type 3.34 today, after Wednesday's release. One of the promises was integrated and instant FastCGI support. However, there's a small environmental change you have to make to get it that instant support running; unless you read the announcement carefully, you might miss it. Furthermore, that doc is only linked to from the release note, which itself does not come up (nor does anything but a changelog) if you do a documentation search for 3.34 at sixapart.com.

I'll probably make those changes within the next day or two; I'm curious to see if FastCGI makes any difference on this system at all.

[6:32 AM] Update: Tried moving the five core CGIs to .fcgi to make them run under FastCGI. mt.fcgi, however, seemed to blow a gasket in the middle of a site rebuild, so I had to backout the AdminScript change and rebuild the site again. I've left the other four; let's see how that goes through the day.