Bus in the dawn sun, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Carolyn (Kragen's Mum) sold the Magic Bus today in San Francisco, California. One the last major loose ends has been tied up from our previous life and we have some more money. whew. The guy who bought it owned similar vans in the past and rented them out to people in the Netherlands, so he knows what he's getting into. He wants to take it camping. I hope he has a wonderful time with the Magic Bus. It took us on some wonderful adventures over the years. whew.

Bandwidth used means radio transmissions sent, and overhead means more work done by the processor, both of which take battery power and reduce battery life. Meanwhile, compression turned out to not be very helpful. Since it's negotiated during connection startup, it doesn't help with startup overhead. It does help somewhat with steady-state bandwidth, but at the expense of additional CPU cycles. The result is that enabling compression actually reduced battery life in our tests -- it took more power for the CPU to do compression than we saved on radio power.

I decided to explore some alternative worlds again today, after my previous excursion and reconnoitre.

( Images under cut )

http://news.squeak.org/2008/07/19/get-recording-your-squeak-videos-now/

http://weeklysqueak.wordpress.com/?p=471

The Squeak mailing lists have recently seen a surge of interest in getting videos published to help explain Squeak and Smalltalk to developers coming to the language and environment for the first time.

In response to this Randal L. Schwartz has set up a new Squeak Smalltalk group on vimeo.com to allow Squeakers to easily upload and share their videos.

Videos can be a great way to help people quickly pick up a lot of complex information, which makes this an opportunity for Squeakers old and new to help promote Squeak. If there are any topics that you think would suit a short video, why not try recording one and publishing it? If you’re the developer of a powerful Squeak developer tool, and you’re amazed that no-one seems to use all of its functionality, this would be a great way to expose all of those features in a compelling way.

If you’re a new developer struggling with Squeak, let us know what topics you’d like to see covered in video tutorials. If you’ve got any recommendations for recording and editing software for Windows, Mac or Linux, please leave a comment.

Satire at the ballot box to 'honor' Bush

They want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January, when the next president is sworn in. During the inauguration, the group also wants supporters to participate in a "synchronized flush" -- a way to send a gift to the renamed plant, which supporters say, would be a "fitting monument to this president's work."

It sounds like a harmless joke, or maybe a college civics lesson gone awry. But they have already collected 8,500 signatures in support of the plan - 1,300 more than the minimum needed to put the question to city voters in November.

The biggest opposition in this Democratic stronghold, McConnell said, is people who oppose naming anything after the 43rd president.

Officials at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns the plant, say they get the humorous intent. But they note that the plant is an award-winning facility that keeps the city's streets and the ocean clean.

"If you are looking for a place to make a negative statement about the Bush administration's impact on the environment, this would be the last place to do it," agency spokesman Tony Winnicker said.

HELL YES:

San Francisco smokers are already banned from lighting up inside restaurants, bars and public buildings. Now Supervisor Chris Daly is proposing tougher restrictions, including no smoking in taxicabs, at outdoor cafes, in lines at the ATM, at farmer's markets and within 20 feet of the entrance to businesses.

The city's Department of Public Health says there's no safe level of second-hand smoke. "There's been research that shows the exposure in outdoor areas. The levels can be as toxic as indoor levels," said Alyonik Hrushow from the San Francisco Health Department.

Smokers may feel like pariahs in this city, but according to the American Lung Association, San Francisco is behind other cities including Belmont, Berkeley and Ross when it comes to trying to limit second-hand smoke.

This will be a slight hassle for us at the club, since we'll have to make people move farther down the block to smoke, but that's fine with me, because I find it absolutely disgusting to have to walk through that gauntlet of stench on the sidewalk in front of the exit door.

You're welcome to smoke, and to play with your own poop. Just keep your smoke, and your poop, off of me.

http://blog.summer.squeak.org/2008/06/opennars-development-progress-2nd-phase.html

Many observers have been concerned about the possibility that corporate funding of research may lead to control of the research agenda. [...] The concern about corporate control of the research agenda has largely replaced the concern regarding the peer review system. Critics who are worried about outside influence on the research agenda focus on the individual and his project - not recognizing that the act of funding itself creates the agenda. One need not as or force and investigator to do specific research - one need only fund the proper scientist to do what he wants to do. This method managing science was pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, as we saw in chapter 1.

The Harvard-Monsanto agreement [on tumor angiogenesis factor research] was the first of a new type of corporate-university relation in which large sums were directed to specific researchers who continued their work while remaining at the university. After ten years of research the tumor angiogenesis factor was finally isolate, and the gene coding for it's production was cloned; additionally, a researcher in Folkman's laboratory discovered a bone powder that the firm Collagen (of which Monsanto owns 30 percent) will commercialize. The bone powder is a prime example of the emergent characteristics of research serendipity - a quality that the university environment seems particularly suited to nurturing. These serendipitous outcomes are the discoveries that industry is seeking. Monsanto needs Folkman and Vallee's expertise (and that of the workers in their laboratories): they are purchasing their imaginations. Monsanto does not want these professors to do what the corporation wants but rather to show the corporation what is possible.

Martin Kenney, "Biotechnology: The University - Industrial Complex", pages 59-60.

Greater Toronto is the safest large metropolitan area in the country, according to a report released yesterday by Statistics Canada.

Among urban areas with a population of 500,000 or more, Toronto residents reported fewer crimes per capita than residents of Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa. Winnipeg had the highest crime rate, followed by Edmonton.

It is the first time that Toronto has scored last place when it comes to crime in the country's biggest cities. That spot is usually reserved for Quebec City, which reported the lowest crime rate of any large metropolitan area every year from 1991 to 2006. In 2007, however, Quebec City reported 4,524 crimes per 100,000 people, compared to Toronto's figure of 4,461.

The annual national crime report is compiled by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, based on police-reported crime statistics.

It contradicts what seems to be a growing public perception that Toronto is rife with random violence – like the death of John O'Keefe, killed by a stray bullet on Yonge St. in January; or Hou Chang Mao, killed in gunfight crossfire a few days later in East Chinatown; or Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin, shot dead in their SUV in front of Trinity Bellwoods Park in June.

[. . .]

The rate of violent offences in Toronto – 709 per 100,000 – puts it in the safest third of the pack of CMAs with a 500,000-plus population.

The murder rate in Toronto CMA in 2007 was 2.0 per 100,000, which was middle of the pack for the country's nine largest CMAs. Winnipeg's rate was the highest at 3.6.

But in 2007, Toronto had the most homicides of any CMA – 111 – and its highest rate since 1992.

[. . .]

The Toronto CMA, as defined by Statistics Canada, includes York, Peel, Halton and Durham and Orangeville police statistics as well as statistics from Ontario Provincial Police in Caledon, Nottawasaga, Aurora, Whitby and Mono.