work as if you live in the early days of a better nation
Blog Torrent – Simplified bittorrent by Downhill Battle. It’s supposed to work on any PHP-enabled website.
I don’t understand their #1 feature priority:
Mac version. A high percentage of the best bloggers, video artists, and filmmakers use macs. It is crucial to make a mac version of Blog Torrent.
Those bloody Mac users, with their creative haircuts …
(via Boing Boing)
I didn’t know that gmail limited messages to 10MB. I found that when I tried to send 15MB of photomontages today.
Scotland cruise to ICC Cup glory. Yes, cricket still sucks, but at least Scotland sucks less at it than Canada.
I just sold a bunch of CDs to Wild East on the Danforth. I got a pretty good deal on them. This is what I bought with part of the proceeds:
I think I spent more on shoes today than I’ve ever done; a pair of Blundstones and a pair of DMs.
I saw this on an envelope the other day. What can it mean?
To me, it clearly means “May be inspected only by two-dimensional officials with the Eye of Horus wearing a cap at 30° bearing insignia of an upturned army helmet with a lion rampant and a blancmange.”
Oh, and this is my first post with SVG graphics. Yay!
From: John Milloy MPP <jmilloy.mpp/ at /liberal.ola.org>
Subject: RE: Bill 129, Highway Traffic Amendment Act, 2004
November 19, 2004
Dear Mr. Russell,
Thank you for contacting my office about Bill 129, the Highway Traffic Amendment Act. I appreciate your comments and I have noted your concerns about this legislation.
As you may know, on Thursday November 4, 2004 my Private Members Bill, Bill 129, unanimously passed second reading in the Legislature and was referred to the Social Policy Committee of the Legislature of further review. I was extremely pleased with the tri-party unanimous support for the Bill, and by the overwhelming support I have received from Ontarians throughout the province.
The bill proposes to change the existing Highway Traffic Act by making it mandatory for all individuals to wear a certified helmet when cycling, in line skating, skateboarding, etc. on public roadways.
The changes I have proposed in my Bill will have a significant impact on the number of brain injuries suffered by Ontarians as a result of road accidents involving cyclists in line skaters etc. For example, it has been calculated by the ThinkFirst Foundation of Canada, that if every adult bicyclist wore a helmet, 50 Ontarians would be saved from incurring a serious brain injury annually. Combined with the injuries prevented when in line skating, skateboarding or using other kinds of non-motorized wheeled vehicles on roadways and you have an enormous savings for our health care system – $4-$9 million over the course of a single victims lifetime – and a priceless emotional and physical gain for individuals and families throughout the province.
Beyond what the legislation will legally change, my goal with Bill 129 is to create a culture of safety in Ontario. As much as we like to think we are invincible, we are not. Head injuries do not discriminate on the basis of age or the type of wheeled recreational vehicle an individual is operating. Further, head injuries can result in the tragic loss of life, the shattering of hopes, or amoung other things, countless hours of rehabilitation.
Head injuries as a result of an in line skating, bike, skateboard or other wheeled recreational vehicle accident can be prevented by as much as 85% by wearing a simple helmet. Despite this, many individuals have not chosen to wear a certified helmet when operating these vehicles. I do not believe that the inconvenience of wearing a helmet outweighs the personal and financial cost of a potential injury and that is why I have sponsored this Legislation.
I recognize that regardless of the aforementioned statistics and arguments that you may still have concerns about the Bill. Please be assured that I will be tracking Ontarians views on Bill 129 as it proceeds through the legislative process, and that I will take each and every thought and suggestion into consideration.
Thank you again for taking the time to comment on The Highway Traffic Amendment Act. If you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
John
John Milloy MPP
Kitchener Centre
1-416-314-7824
Note: For your information I have consulted with the following organizations about Bill 129
Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police
Ontario Medical Association
Ontario Brain Injury Association
ThinkFirst Foundation of Canada
Association of Municipal Emergency Medical Services
Region of Waterloo Emergency Medical Services
Region of Waterloo Police Service
Toronto Police Service
Participation House – WR
Ontario Cycling Association
Various local cycling organizations
SkateOntario
District and Public Health Offices
Many medical professionals
Canada Safety Council
Survivors
I am still meeting, writing and talking with groups and individuals on this issue, and I will continue to do so while the Bill proceeds through the legislative process. Further, when the Bill reaches the committee stage there is possibility that there will be public hearings held.
Yay, MetaFilter opened its membership again!
So I’m busy doing windfarm photomontages in hugin. Trouble is, the site I’m working on is in the prairies, so here’s some ASCII art of what I’m seeing:
___________________________________________________
This, as you might guess, is just a little short of control points for stitching images. I find myself scrabbling for clods of earth, interesting blades of grass, and what looks worryingly like roadkill by the side of the range roads to use as common points of interest.
So far, though, most of the panoramas have come out looking pretty good. But then, I am 1337 VV1NDF4R^^ D3516N0R …
Ever had some really good news that you can’t tell anyone immediately? That’s me at the moment. I can spill the beans next Wednesday. Woohoo!
We were at the Royal Winter Fair today. There were many cows.
I hope you never need this. But this worked for me.
I accidentally deleted a bunch of files from the CF card that was in my card reader. I recovered them all perfectly.
First, before you do anything else, unmount the card’s file system. This will stop any additional changes being made to the card.
You’ll need to know:
/dev/sda1, or it could be something complex, like /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 (as it is with me).dsc_1017.jpg and dsc_1018.jpg in the dcim/100ncd70 directory, you’ll specify these as /dcim/100ncd70/dsc_1017.jpg and /dcim/100ncd70/dsc_1018.jpg.First, check that the files can be undeleted:
# fsck.vfat -u /dcim/100ncd70/dsc_1017.jpg -u /dcim/100ncd70/dsc_1018.jpg /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
If you get the message Warning: did not undelete file ..., that’s a file that has been overwritten, perhaps in your camera. It’s gone; only the name remains. You won’t get it back.
Then, you can actually restore the files:
# fsck.vfat -r -u /dcim/100ncd70/dsc_1017.jpg -u /dcim/100ncd70/dsc_1018.jpg /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
If all goes well, your files will be back. Makes backups, and don’t do it again.
Ben Hammersley’s Daily Doonesbury Feed, refactored:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use integer;
use XML::RSS;
my ( $sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $mon, $year, $wday, $yday, $isdst ) =
localtime(time);
my $this_year = 1900 + $year;
my $todays_date = sprintf( "%02d%02d%02d", $this_year % 100, 1 + $mon, $mday );
my $db_url =
'http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/'
. $this_year . '/db'
. $todays_date . '.gif';
my $rss = XML::RSS->new();
$rss->channel( title => "Doonesbury" );
$rss->add_item(
title => 'Doonesbury for '
. sprintf( "%05d/%02d/%02d", $this_year, 1 + $mon, $mday ),
link => $db_url,
description => '<img src="' . $db_url . '" />'
);
print "Content-type: application/xml+rss\n\n", $rss->as_string;
exit;
This isn’t perfect (seems to fail on some feeds), but mostly works for me:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# cdf2rss - converts CBC KlipFarm CDF to crude RSS
# created by scruss on 02004/11/12
# RCS/CVS: $Id: cdf2rss,v 1.3 2004/11/13 03:59:21 scruss Exp $
# takes one argument, a stream name. Currently known streams are:
#
# Arts Business Calgary Canada
# Edmonton Montreal Ottawa
# Science Sports Toronto
# Vancouver Winnipeg World
#
# returns a crude RSS 1.0 stream fashioned from the CBC CDF output.
use strict;
use integer;
use XML::Simple;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;
use constant CDFURL => 'http://www.cbc.ca/cdf/servlet/getCDF';
my $cdf = get( join( '?lineup=', CDFURL, $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'} ) );
my $xs = new XML::Simple;
my $ref = $xs->XMLin($cdf);
my $rss = new XML::RSS( version => '1.0' );
$rss->channel(
title => join( ' ', 'CBC', $ref->{category} ),
description => join( ' ', 'CBC', $ref->{category} ),
link => $ref->{href}
);
foreach my $cdf_item ( @{ $ref->{item} } ) {
my $tmp_abstract = $cdf_item->{abstract};
$tmp_abstract =~ s/\s+/ /g;
$tmp_abstract =~ s/^ //;
$tmp_abstract =~ s/ $//;
$rss->add_item(
title => $cdf_item->{title},
link => $cdf_item->{href},
description => $tmp_abstract
);
}
print "Content-type: application/xml+rss\n\n", $rss->as_string;
exit;
These are nested sections from two 60m NRG Systems TallTower masts. Paul and I unloaded two of these. They were heavy.
The blurb says: This image of three dormice, torpid, has won the coveted BBC TV Countryfile photographic competition.
The winning image was taken by Steven Robinson as part of Kew’s monitoring programme of this endangered species in conjunction with English Nature.
© 2003 Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Image: Steven Robinson, RBG Kew at Wakehurst Place
I just installed Firefox and Thunderbird. They have some major suckage points:
Mind you, what do you expect when they name their products after a crap movie and cheap wine?
A logo that looks like a levitating disembodied blue haircut?
You’ve got to love bicycle helmet advocates:
This bill is absolutely right. I, quite frankly, am not going to bear any arguments. I’m not going to hear them, I don’t want to hear them, about whether we have enough police to enforce it. We need it to be enforced. We need to do it for rollerbladers, in-line skaters, anybody, any contraption. It needs to happen.
— Michael Prue, Ontario Legislature House Debate, 4 Nov 2004
So, Michael, I don’t see you wearing a helmet in that picture on your website when you’re out on the street. Don’t you know the number of pedestrian head injuries?
I’m only an amateur at information design, but I know bad information when it nearly causes me to miss my train.
The above image (which links to a larger version) is one of GO Transit‘s new information screens at Union Station. It shows all outgoing bus and train traffic from Union Station for the next two hours or so.
What the used to have was a slightly mouldy old teletext system, where the screen was split roughly into three colour-coded segments: two segments about the next departing train on two different train lines, and the bottom third a big digital clock. You could read the time from across the GO concourse, so you could tell instantly if you had to run for the train.
This new display, you pretty much have to be underneath it to see the time. Also, if you’re a train commuter, you don’t want to know what happens in the next two hours. All you want to know is if you’ve missed your train. This is not an airport.
I know the old system left out bus passengers, but buses don’t exactly leave from the same concourse as the trains. They should have their own information board.
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2004 12:06:02 -0500
To: Lorenzo Berardinetti MPP <lberardinetti.mpp.co/ at /liberal.ola.org>,
John Milloy MPP <jmilloy.mpp.co/ at /liberal.ola.org>,
Harinder Takhar MPP <htakhar.mpp.co/ at /liberal.ola.org>
Subject: Bill 129, Highway Traffic Amendment Act, 2004
I am an experienced cyclist. I am strongly opposed to compulsory bicycle helmet legislation. Its discussion is a waste of legislature time, and its implementation would be a waste of police time.
Bicycle helmets do little to reduce injuries. Better preventative measures include cyclist awareness training for drivers, and proper assertive cycling skills for bicycle riders.
It is unfair to single out the users of “muscular powered vehicles”. Pedestrians and motorists also suffer head injuries in collisions, and so should be compelled to wear helmets too.
Toronto has a culture of utility cycling. We do not ride bikes for sport or recreation, but as an integrated part of urban mobility.
It is no coincidence that the countries with the highest levels of cycling are also those with the lowest levels of helmet use. Please do not harm the health of Ontario by providing barriers to cycling.
I urge you strongly to drop support for this bill. It does nothing for the cyclists in Ontario.
Please acknowledge receipt of this e-mail.
Yours sincerely,
Stewart C. Russell