brett's logjam

The good news from this weekend is that, in addition to our normal jaunt to Williamsburg, we had a very pleasant time visiting my aunt and uncle west of Wilderness Battlefield this weekend. Trip found rocks.

The bad news is that Trip got very sick Sunday night, ran a temperature all night, threw up, pooped all sorts of things that don’t bear mentioning, and cried a whole lot.

I stayed up with him, because, well, you know.

The good news is that he’s feeling better now. Not much better, but better.

The bad news is that it’s 1:06 and the tree frogs and crickets outside are very, very loud.

summers of youth. Hosted on Zooomr

tresev1 | Originally uploaded by banjocat.

Do not try to move the goat.

Daring Fireball: Vacation, All I Ever Wanted.

I hand three tickets to the attendant and carry Jonas toward the boat, which, thankfully, was ignored by the children ahead of us. Jonas takes his seat, and I ask him whether he wants me to stay. He’s been riding by himself on this and other similar rides all week, but this time he says, “Daddy stay with me.” And so, of course, I do. There’s a bench circling the central axis of the carousel, obviously intended for just this purpose. Jonas says, “No, here”, meaning here in the boat with him. I explain that I won’t fit in the boat, but that I’ll be here on this bench, close enough that we can hold hands. I show him, by holding out my left hand. He clasps my index and middle fingers, and that is good enough.

No comment.

Signal to Noise: Even with primitive materials, one can work small wonders.

Presentation Zen: Steve Irwin: ‘Passion, enthusiasm push an educational message.’

Via Schneier on Security, Criminal Terrorism Enforcement in the United States During the Five Years Since the 9/11/01 Attacks.

Bruce has great commentary on his post.

The two essential weapons in my anti-cricket defenses:

• 4D cell Maglite (to acquire the target)
• Justin Roper (to terminate the target)

If I haven’t mentioned it recently, bugs are the enemy.

Amalah: Entirely Hypothetical.

I’ve spent some time cleaning up my car spreadsheet tonight. I still have some issues with my methodology on calculating MPG, but I’m pretty comfortable with my $/gallon numbers.

And oh, what a story they tell:

The above graph depicts the rising cost of gas in the Washington, D.C. area (specifically in Alexandria, VA.). The data is entirely from logs kept in my car since April 2002.

• Before the Katrina spike of August/September 2005, most of the spikes were caused by travel to different areas. The overall trends stand out amidst the noise, though: each year, the summer rise is greater than the previous year’s fall. And so prices go up.

• Starting in August 2006, I began travelling to the Virginia Pennisula, where gas prices were cheaper than in D.C. (usually by about $0.20/gallon). This is why the recent data shows an interesting wave pattern as I would alternate fillups. The really low price last weekend was near Orange, VA, at $2.64/gallon for premium.

• Prices have begun to fall somewhat as autumn approaches, though prices remain above $3/gallon at the local station.

I find the data endlessly fascinating.

• To date, I have purchased 2,675 gallons of gas at a cost of $5,558.88. That’s an average of $2.08/gallon.

• If I had purchased it in bulk in 2002 (when I bought the car), I would have paid $3,766 for it. (That’s $1.41 a gallon).

• In 2005, I bought 543 gallons for $1,317.21, or $2.42/gallon.

• For 2006 year to date, I’ve bought 505.1 gallons for $1,450.76, at $2.87/gallon. I’ve also already driven 12,866 miles, or 65 more miles than in all of 2005.

I originally started keeping track of my mileage because I wanted to calculate total cost of ownership of my car. The historical data, though, is proving far more interesting.

Comments are open on the Flickr or Zooomr photos.

After writing the previous, I am reminded of Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass —

That’s bonafide, 100%-real data, my friends. I took it myself over the course of two weeks. And this was not a leisurely two weeks, either; I busted my ass day and night in order to provide you with nothing but the best data possible. Now, let’s look a bit more closely at this data, remembering that it is absolutely first-rate. Do you see the exponential dependence? I sure don’t. I see a bunch of crap.

I have to say, jUploadr is really nice. Even better than the Flickr Uploadr, methinks.

(I am so ready for Web 3.0, when e comes back from his vacation.)

I’m really coming to love xkcd.

Holy crap! Invisible cow alert!

Panasonic Toughbook line gets an update. Sweet!

_MG_8575.JPG | Originally uploaded by michaelarrington.

Verra small. 1GB. Nice.

_MG_8573.JPG | Originally uploaded by michaelarrington.

New nanos announced: pink is back!

Bingo! 100 gigabytes of storage. $199/year.

I may need to reconsider my offline backup strategy.

Funny. I don’t watch much TV these days (_Project Runway_, golf and football as notable exceptions.)

But I do watch TV on YouTube. And the best part?

You can actually share things with other people. Like this.

Via JWZ: Reno Balloon Race 2006.

Boing Boing: Princeton researchers show how to steal an election with Diebold machines.

I think I’m developing a serious YouTube problem.

I’m watching clouds on the internet, people. Help!

With the upgrade to iTunes 7: Hazards and Surprises with iTunes 7 Cover Art is a worthwhile read.

Omninerd offers up a good dose of statistical reality: Gas Prices in Perspective

Wohba!: That’s No Sunspot!

Skyy_harvesting_captioned | Originally uploaded by banjocat.

Don’t forget, today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Omninerd: Martini Glass Ceiling

(But did they account for the cost of drinking in their analysis?)

Yes, in case you were wondering: my ipod exists in the future.

It’s a long story.

Neat. How To Apply Conditional Formatting in Excel.

Oh boy. Christopher Tolkien finished The Children of Hurin?

I have many, many mixed emotions about this one.

iPod Playlist: 2006-09-20 Shuffle.

Added to my list of Words That Will Make Me Leave the Party —

• ebonding

Don’t ask what it means.

Via JWZ — The Fox Clinton Interview: transcript, movie

From Pajiba —

Schneier on Security: Faulty Data and the Arar Case.

DF: Kieren McCarthy: Still a Jackass

If you aren’t a regular reader of Amalah, I invite you to view her tribute to her son’s first birthday.

Really well done, Amy and Jason. Bravo.

Dave Winer thinks our country has lost its mind, and I think I agree with him.