Barnson.org

Sorry slow posting over the past week, I got a sinus infection, and then the flu on top of that. It was gross and I was miserable.

So we went as a family to see Meet the Robinsons this past Monday. Unfortunately, my wife was feeling ill with the same aforementioned gross affliction I suffered through, so she stayed home and I hauled four kids up to the Cinema 6 here in Tooele.

What a great movie! For the first twenty minutes or so, I just thought the movie was… well, bizarre. In particular, the introduction to the Robinsons was absolutely surreal and vaguely reminded me of the terrifying video sequences from Dumbo which gave me nightmares as a child. (That subject is blog-worthy on its own, I swear the Disney animators were tripping out on something when they did that one.) But shortly thereafter, the story became more engaging as you begin to be able to put the pieces together for who is who, and the story very satisfyingly allows the audience to make the conclusions just a few moments before it’s explicitly divulged.

Nice. I like it when a movie can do that and not rely on a trick. Subtle clues, added together, then validate the conclusion your audience just arrived at. Slick.

As before in “The Bathroom Stall“, I hauled the boys off to the restroom after the show. Our youngest is currently resisting potty training… when he’s angry or unhappy, he likes to express his displeasure in a way that he knows will get some reaction, namely by peeing on the floor.

You know, this situation reminds me vaguely of the situation we are in in Iraq. For years, we attempted to deprive Saddam Hussein of the ammunition he would use to oppress his people, but at the same time provided him the raw materials (Oil For Food) he needed to maintain basic sustenance. Well, that was enough to keep him armed and ready, too. The situation with my son is like that. We do our best to deprive him of ammunition, but he can always make more, no matter how he has to scrounge and scrape to do so.

Anyway, the boys started to line up and do their thing, but Elijah (my middle son) decided at the last moment to use a stall rather than the urinal.

“Hey, Dad!” he shouted from the stall, excited. “The water’s blue!”

“That’s great, son,” I said as I smiled apologetically at the other fellows milling about waiting for their kids to finish, too, and rolled my eyes a little. A gentleman relieving himself at a urinal glanced my way and offered me a sympathetic grin with eyebrows raised.

In case you’re not aware of the rules of men’s urinals, receiving a smile from a stranger standing at a urinal is disturbing and an explicit violation of rule number twelve: “Always look at the wall. Looking down means you do not know what you are doing or that you are obsessed. Looking at someone else is threatening.”

“This is so cool, dad!” came the excited five-year-old voice from the stall. “I’m peeing a lot lot lot, and the water’s green now!”

Urinal-looker turned to me and said jokingly “So is he learning his colors, or did you feed him something special?”

Weirded-out, I just chuckled nervously.

“Dad, you have to come look at this! I made my pee turn green!” he shouted.

By this point, the entire bathroom was looking toward the stall. Any hopes of salvaging the situation and respecting the rules of the urinal were dashed, so I reluctantly trotted over to the stall, congratulated Elijah on what a great job he did making the bowl green, and herded the kids out to the car.

Wayward Sun is going to reunite, and have a battle of the bands between Ed and Matt. At that point, Matt will declare his intention to become a Jesuit Priest. Sam will declare Tony Dungee and idiot, but only in Chinese, like in Firefly.

In the meantime, JB will teach the Art of Tying shoes to Ben, while Weed watches the new Star Wars Trailer. The Murphy Maphia will all fly their model airplanes while Rowan works on Exmormon.com. Tim Clarke will do some AKC naming while watchin Adult Panda movies, while I, Timpane, will watch back to back Star Trek and Buffy The Vampire slayer.

Happy Spring Everyone!

On Tuesday April 17th from 12pm until 8pm participating Ben& Jerry’s scoop shops around the world will be hosting Ben& Jerry’s Annual Free Cone Day. Is it a time for you to try a new flavor that you’ve been wondering about without commiting your hard earned dollars or is it a time for you to enjoy an old favorite and savor in the deliciousness that is free ice cream? The answer from us at Ben& Jerry’s is yes. Visit our scoop shop locator to find hours and directions to the closest Free Cone Day experience near you.

Sorry for the ad, but i thought that the free part might make up for it 🙂

I did a little writeup on Apple’s move to the Intel x86 architecture over IBM’s POWER architecture for a mailing list I’m on. I’ve heard numerous theories bandied about for why Apple moved, and after a lot of reading and digging, here’s my theory.

On Tue, April 3, 2007 1:10, Rich said: > IMHO, this is probably the biggest reason Apple moved > to the Intel architecture, so programming for the > machine would be easier, and more software will be > available over time. It’s probably also true that > this type of strategy will take years to make any real > gains.

Not quite accurate. Apple has had a version of Mac OS which runs on Intel architecture internally since they began designing Mac OS X in the late 1990’s. It’s been occasionally “released” (leaked) and squashed since then.

The basic problem was financial and supply-chain management. Motorola could not produce the POWER chips (a derivative of IBM’s POWER architecture as part of the AIM — Apple, IBM, Motorola — alliance) in sufficient quantities to keep up with burgeoning demand due to lack of fab time. They also couldn’t produce the chips at a low enough cost. IBM stepped up to the plate in an attempt to keep Apple using POWER-based chips (IBM’s design) with fab time at their under-used fabs. Eventually, Motorola dropped out of the picture entirely, and IBM picked up manufacturing entirely. IBM, however, also could not keep pace with the release of massive numbers of consumer units. Their POWER4 fabrication facilities were sized with the server market in mind (much fewer, higher-margin sales), since IBM uses Intel chips for their desktop lines. Additionally, IBM could not keep up with the pace of advancing chip speeds and diminishing power requirements which Apple wanted.

The curious thing was, IBM had the spare fab capability to handle Apple’s demands. It was available and unused, but the time was scheduled and sold to a company who IBM was not willing to bump in order to provide more chips to Apple. This other company was going to place massive demands on IBM’s fabrication facilities with even more units of POWER4 chips than Apple could project sales of in their wildest dreams, and IBM would not budge on the fabrication projection.

Thus Apple was faced with a problem: 3-month or longer lead times on their processors if they stick with the PowerPC (now Power4) architecture. Intel had been courting Apple for some time. They had spare fabrication capacity due to a falling-out over a major contract with a large company on a next-generation console. With the arrival of IVT — Intel Virtualization Technology — and the lower-power dual-core Pentium M chipsets (now called Intel CoreDuo2), they had a winner. IVT would allow seamless virtualization of the legacy POWER-based Mac OS X applications at nearly-native speeds, and the Pentium M finally had the horsepower to keep up with what the POWER chips could do at similar clock speeds and power requirements.

The bonus to developers was much more of a perk than a requirement. Ultimately, Apple went with the supplier who could give them what they needed to support their stupendous growth after the release of Mac OS X and the iPod; neither Motorola nor IBM could.

And that major competitor, that large company who booked the fab time with IBM, was the same company that ditched Intel for their next-generation console. That company is Microsoft, and the console was the XBox 360.

And now you know… the rest of the story.

I wrote this up as a reaction to a recent discussion regarding how Apple is growing tremendously in PC sales lately. Here are my thoughts.

My most recent laptop purchase was a Mac (for my spouse for college). Major factors influencing my decision:

1. Fewer “tech support” calls from my wife. This has been a BIG win for me. Since purchasing the computer in December, she’s only had to ask me for help about a dozen times. Compare this to much more frequent requests on the PC, and I’m happy. It “just works” for her.
2. Great battery life.
3. Very light.
4. Nice screen (a bit small-ish, but very viewable from many angles).
5. Runs UNIX under the hood, and all the usual UNIX tools are there, though the filesystem layout is a little bit weird. I’m a UNIX geek, so I dig the operating system.
6. Very fast. Once we upgraded to 2GB of RAM, this little box task-swaps better than anything I’ve owned… including a quad-processor, 2GHz, 16GB of RAM Windows-based beast that I ran at work for a while.
7. Very attractive. My Dell Inspiron 9300 looks like a big, boxy hunk of plastic next to the sleek MacBook.
8. After-the-sale support is important to me because I see so many failures on a daily basis in my job. Once you include the 3-year service agreement, a similarly-configured Intel-based Dell and Intel-based Apple are very close in price… in my case, within $20 of each other for a nearly-identical configuration.

That last bit, IMHO, is a huge part of what’s fueling their current market penetration. As long as it was more expensive than the competition — mostly Dell — it was the domain of enthusiasts. At an equal price point (or lower, in some cases), it’s a very competitive platform.

Anyway, after getting the new Mac, I fell in love with some features of it:

• The power cord. Why on earth doesn’t anybody else use this type of magnetic lock to handle power cords? I’ve seen way too many laptops fail the same way: someone trips over the power cord, and then it yanks against the circuit board inside and you can’t charge your laptop anymore. It’s a problem on my current Dell, worked around by doing gyrations with maneuvering the plug until it stays.
• Nothing bulky hanging off anywhere, and no strange shapes where the display meets the chassis. It’s smooth and slides easily into a bag.
• Magnetic-locking screen catch. I have owned a half-dozen laptops, and the screen catch always ends up breaking after 2-4 years. I’m a hard user, I know, but using those same rare-earth magnets to hold the screen closed is superb innovation.
• Very positive-action keyboard that doesn’t seem prone to failure.
• Intuitive mousing on the keypad. Hold + drag == scroll.
• Trivially easy to work on and do most upgrades. Memory replacement, for instance, involves no tools. That’s cool.

I agree they need to streamline the file-sharing to Windows bit. Right now, you have to go into your configuration screen and read the IP address and full UNC path to the share, then type it in on the other computer… ugh. I know Samba can join a domain and show up in the browse list… why can’t my Mac?

A few other annoyances, but for a work PC, I’d pick a Mac again next time. For my games, though… that’s a tough sell.

–Matt B.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2045021,00.html

The gist of this article: The UN calls for mass circumcisions in Africa to slow the AIDS epidemic after weighing evidence indicating that circumsicion reduces infection rates dramatically. The AIDS pandemic is overwhelming in many parts of Africa, often resulting in multiple families living under one roof due to the death of family heads.

Now I’m conflicted about this… 1. The evidence is conclusive: Circumcision dramatically reduces infection rate for males who have sex with infected females. It doesn’t stop the men from transmitting the disease, nor does it appear to have any effect on men who have sex with men, but it reduces their chance of infection.

2. I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a bit of “correlation is not equal to causation” going on. Is it possible that circumcised males tend to come from a different sexual tradition than the uncircumcised? What I mean is, is it possible they tend more towards monogamy?

3. I’m generally opposed to mandatory circumcision. My boys aren’t circumcised. I’m leaving that to them as a decision they can make on their own as a teen or adult. Mainly, this is due to my bad experience with the procedure at 7 years old (which I won’t go into) and my feelings that baby circumcision is a barbaric, unnecessary procedure.

If there is strong scientific evidence that circumcision reduces AIDS infection rates by 60%, should it be mandatory — or near-mandatory — like inoculations are in first-world countries?

P.S.: I am immensely entertained by the name of the doctor advocating this course of action: Kevin de Cock. I’m so immature.

Its begun. The 8th season of Buffy – in print form.

Joss Whedon is writing it, the old show writers are coming back, and it is the first official “Canon” in the buffyverse since the jaw-dropping final moments of Angel. (Rowan will remember me yealling “WHAT??!)

Spoilers below, so if you don’t want to know, don’t click “read more”. Still here? So, The first issue of the season starts with Buffy and some of her army of slayers fighting a big beastie via helicopter, with advanced weapons, and Xander running the show from a base.

The “Immortal” from the episode of Angel.. dealt with quikly.. and if you think about it, hilariously.

The government is after Buffy and co. becaue they are too powerful.. we do see the remains of Sunnydale.

Dawn is represented here.. in a “BIG” way.. *snicker*. And again, its hilarious. We finish in true joss style with a surprise ending that makes me yearn for the next issue.

So.. a review. Art is good, and Dawn and Xander are captured well. buffy looks kind of like buffy, but a little off. If it weren’t trying to capture likenesses, the art would be exceptional.. but I digress.

We dont care about the art. We care about the writing.. and it is PURE buffy. The characters voices are clearly heard in the way its written, and the story is amuch grander and better continuation than “Queen of the Slayers” – the only other post-Buffy novel.

The reason? Joss Whedon. He knows these characters.. and I find myself thinking about the implications of this new Buffy saga, and the questions it answers. It does well to make me feel like the universe is still there, going strong.. and I really did miss it.

I found a nice family safe video thats kinda fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O61Do03ZCjw

Not what I originally posted..

Actually started as a different link.. the Kermit sings “Hurt” vid.. but I only half watched it.. just rewatched. its actually more graphic than I remember.

It is Hilarious.. but NC17 Language and content CLEARLY not for kiddies.

Actually.. it deserves a Youtube Search.. (Hurt and Kermit) watched the whole thing to the end.. and prefer the link not be scoped by the kiddies..

Its kinda messed up. But still funny.

So I’ve spent the last five days totally incommunicado down in Arches National Park. We had a ton of fun with the family, but the highlight of my visit boils down to one photograph…

I just had to share:

Role-player baby shirt.

That’s a person who takes their role-playing games seriously… I love the charisma score on that little guy!