Drama in Space. Why is no one talking about it.

I have always been fascinated by space and the idea of mankind exploring a new frontier. With the recent troubles on the International Space Station I find it sad and somewhat depressing that no one around me is talking about it. When I do try to mention it I am faced with blank stares and non-committal shrugs. Do people not realize how important these things are to our future as a species? So, to sum up the current situation on the Space Station right now.

Apparently computer systems on the station that control oxygen, orientation, and water supplies crashed recently and has yet to be started back up. Of course the spin is that its not a critical issue. While at the same time officials are saying this has never happened before and it might cause them to abandon the space station for the first time in its history. Sounds serious to me. Not having oxygen, water, or the ability to stay in a stable orbit is pretty damn serious. 100 billion dollar cost aside this can be a serious setback in our efforts to lay claim to our future as space explorers. Imagine how hard it will be to get funding if a major disaster were to strike the Space Station. Wake up world. Things momentous are happening that affect the future of man.

http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&gl=us&ncl=1116692570

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_space_station

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html 

Have Books. Will Travel.

If you are a fan of the Traveler show on ABC then please sign this petition, asking for a second season. Atm there is little chance of the show being continued which means that those of us who have watched the first 3 episodes, and loved them, will find ourselves with no way to get the answers we are looking for in this enigmatic show. Let’s tell ABC that we want real shows, that make you think. You can sign the petition here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?willtrav

If you have not yet seen the show you can watch the episodes online at ABC.com.

Russian ATM with pirated copy of windows.

Not that surprising really.

http://englishrussia.com/?p=981

You have to watch ads. No we don’t.

Here is a clever little comic explaining one aspect of free software:

http://f8d.org/?c=91 

Nice.

Paris Hilton

Jumping on the Paris Hilton bandwagon is lame. Just because you hate people that are better off than you doesn’t make it right to care about what happens to celebrities.. try being concerned and interested in the thousands of people who go to jail for the same reasons and who are not well-known. Again, I say that you are lame.

Police raid wrong apartment.

Imagine you are cooking dinner when suddenly 15 police officers break down your door and run into your apartment throwing flash grenades and screaming at you. I have a lot of respect for certain individual police officers but in general I find that incidents such as these are largely inexcusable. When you are in such a position of power and responsibility you better be able to find the right fucking apartment before you terrorize some innocent family. These people will never forget what happened to them. Note that the police spokesman “doesn’t know how this happened” and that he says it is regrettable. Yeah. Thanks. They feel a lot better now. Oh, incidentely the real targets of the raid got away. Great job Annapolice (sic).

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-raid0607,0,634821.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

Insomnia + Migraine

4:48 AM

I havnt slept in two days.

At this point I would gladly trade any illness for my migraines. Imagine working in a busy kitchen for 10 hours while suffering from a form of headache that gets worse with physical activity. Bright lights send jagged shooting streaks of pain from your eyes to the rest of your head. Loud noises make you want to cry. And then, finally, after 100’s of plates of food dished up. You are done for the night. You go home and think that you can finally relax… it is not going to happen. Your neighbors are drunk and playing their instruments all night. You want to ask them to stop but just getting out of bed and approaching the sounds is going to cause you incredible amounts of pain.. some will say, “call the police”. If you are anything like I am, that is not an option. Why the hell should a police officer waste time and tax money, in order to tell someone to stop making noise. When you can just as well do it yourself. That is if you are not in excruciating pain. You never do manage to fall asleep. You distract yourself playing video games and watching t.v. And then, at 6:00am, just when you are starting to doze off. The fire alarms go off. Big, loud, screeching, fire alarms. Repeat 3 times in the next 12 hours. So yeah. Having a migraine makes me into a whiny little bitch.

LOLCODE

For all you geeks out there.

HAI
I HAS A CHEEZBURGER ITZ 1

IM IN YR LOOP
  VISIBLE "I has dis many: " N CHEEZBURGER
  IZ CHEEZBURGER BIGGER THAN 11 O RLY?
    YA RLY
      GTFO
    NO WAI
      UP CHEEZBURGER!!1
  KTHX
KTHX

KTHXBYE

See the entire article about this fascinating new programming language at linux.com:

http://programming.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07%2F06%2F07%2F1654251&from=rss 

Java Applets

Java Applets can be pretty neat. Amazing simulations and effects. Fun games. etc. But when they automatically run when you are least expecting it .. they can cause hell for computer users. I’m sure you have all had that experience. Suddenly your browser pauses everything it is doing.. you think its crashing. And then the Java Debugger window pops up. You begin to realize what is happening and cross your fingers. There is no going back. You must wait for the applet to load. Sometimes its quick. Other times you resort to “end task”. Sometimes it never stops loading. No matter what the reward, it causes undue stress in our lives. Stop with the automatically loading and starting Java Applets dammit! Fuck.

Neat.

Ok. Normally I would bitch about a website that automatically plays a video and resizes your screen. But this is so cleverly done and fun to watch that I can’t do it.

http://users.telenet.be/kixx/