Recent blog entries for marnanel

Moo cards

Moo are selling moo cards, and business cards. I'm thinking I might like some, because I keep having to spell my email address to people. But what should go on them? Time for a poll!

Syndicated 2008-10-13 13:04:52 (Updated 2008-10-13 13:10:51) from Monument

marnanel @ 2008-10-13T00:48:00

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Apparently the fifth wedding anniversary is wood...

...although some say it's cutlery.

Ours came and went a few weeks back, and Fin decided to get me cutlery.

Wooden cutlery.

In other words, a lovespoon.

I love you too, sweetheart, today and always.
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Syndicated 2008-10-13 04:50:27 (Updated 2008-10-13 04:51:28) from Monument

Calculus is fun! Let's go shopping!

Happy birthday to the wonderful plexq!

For those of you who don't read news.gnome.org, here's a new Metacity post: should double-clicking the menu button close the window?

Rio's teacher claimed, when she spelt a word with a "zed", that "zed" wasn't "proper English" (though it wasn't unreasonable to ask her to use the same terminology as the other kids), and when Rio apologised but said she'd been brought up speaking British English, her teacher told her she wasn't British. She was a bit upset about that, so we went over. Her teacher said that she'd never noticed that I was British, and that she loved my accent and that I look like Paul McCartney. I wonder whether she thinks all British people look like Paul McCartney.

I went to the bank. They claimed that SWIFT is only a European thing and that they had no SWIFT number. This is obviously untrue, since I'd sent money from England to that very branch myself. I think I may find another bank.

Rio says there should be a Barbie doll which says "Calculus is fun! Let's go shopping!"

Syndicated 2008-10-09 01:47:58 (Updated 2008-10-09 01:53:41) from Monument

debate

McCain mentioned three or four or maybe more times, in almost identical words, about how Obama hadn't voted against his party line in the Senate and he had, and about "bipartisanship" (which means nothing more than that you think the folks who disagree with you are right to some extent). It's almost as though he wants to get across that he's not really a Republican.

Syndicated 2008-10-08 13:28:55 from Monument

Happy birthday Rio

Happy birthday to the most wonderful Riordon in the world! Thank you for doing me the great honour of being my daughter. I love you.

Syndicated 2008-10-07 15:20:32 from Monument

The more you know: "Tessera"

I was just wondering why Latin programs use the word tessera, which means a small rectangular tile, to mean a password. Then I found this page, which says:

Why tessera also means “password” in Latin.

A watchword was used at night and it consisted of a word or phrase that someone must say to prove that he was a bona fide member of a Roman unit or, if the authorized password was not used, he was considered an enemy.

In the Roman army, the watchword for the night was not communicated verbally, but by means of a small rectangular tablet of wood upon which it was written. One man was chosen out of each of those maniples (common soldiers) and turmae (troop of cavalry containing thirty men, a squadron) that were quartered at that extremity of the lines most remote from the Principia.

Each of these individuals (tesserarius) went near sunset to the tent of the tribune, and received from him a tessera, on which the password and also a certain number or mark were inscribed.

(It can also mean a theatre ticket.)

Syndicated 2008-10-06 22:01:28 from Monument

screwed up my kernel a bit

Throw me a clue here, someone? apt has given me a new kernel, it seems, and it doesn't have wifi or sound. Apparently what I need to do is install the iwlwifi kernel driver (which replaces the old ipw3945 driver). "lsmod|grep iwlwifi" shows I don't have it. "modprobe iwlwifi" says the module's not found. My kernel is now 2.6.24-19-386, and the upstream site for the driver says iwlwifi is included in the 2.6.24 kernel. So why doesn't modprobe see it?

Syndicated 2008-10-06 12:28:16 from Monument

That book meme

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions if you want to.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Hard to see which is the closest, really, because the shelf is in front of me. I'll close my eyes and touch one.

Okay, here it is. Page 56 is in fact blank, since page 55 is a plate. Page 57 doesn't have five sentences on it. If we take pages 54 and 57 as one and count five sentences, the fifth is mostly in Latin and the fourth is a few yards long. This is unhelpful. Here are the fourth and fifth together.

We live indeed in a thieving, cheating, and plundering Age: Cozening is become a topping Trade, only we have got a genteeler way of ſtealing now, than only to take a man's Horſe from under him on the Highway, and a little looſe Money out of his Pocket; our Rapparees are Men of better Breeding and Faſhion, and ſcorn to play at ſuch ſmall Game, they ſweep away a noble Eſtate with one ſlight Bruſh, and bid both the Gallows and Horſe-Pond defiance; and the Mob is not always juſt in this Point, for one Pick-Pocket deſerves a Horſe-Pond as well as another, without any regard to Quality or fine Clothes. But Dat Veniam Corvis, vexat cenſura Columbas, ſay the Latins.

(Google tells me that the Latin quotation is from Juvenal. "The censor pardons the crows but condemns the doves." Someone has written it up here.)

Syndicated 2008-10-05 15:57:45 (Updated 2008-10-05 16:30:52) from Monument

"Despite English accent"

This (.doc format, sorry) is the FCC's collection of case law which can be used in guidance for determining whether content is obscene. It contains the wonderful entry, bolding mine:

In assessing explicitness, the Commission also looks to the audibility of the material as aired. If the material is difficult or impossible to understand, it may not be actionably indecent. However, difficulty in understanding part of the material or an attempt to obscure objectionable material will not preclude a finding of indecency where at least some of the material is recognizable or understandable.


KGB-FM, San Diego, CA [played] “Sit on My Face” Song

[cut lyrics; you all know what they are anyway -- M ]

Indecent – NAL Issued. KGB, Inc. (KGB-FM), 7 FCC Rcd 3207 (MMB 1992), forfeiture reduced 13 FCC Rcd 16396 (1998) (forfeiture paid). The song was found to be actionably indecent despite English accent and “ambient noise” because the lyrics were sufficiently understandable. 7 FCC Rcd at 3207.

Syndicated 2008-10-05 08:35:40 from Monument

Found while looking for something else

shop.com has a "May We Suggest?" feature. If you were to buy four funny family characters who make bath time a treat! it believes you should also consider buying the story of how the Industrial Workers of the World plan to combine the American working class into one big labour union. Make of this what you will.

I also wish to mention that the last sentence of the copy for those bath toys is downright disturbing.

Syndicated 2008-10-05 01:39:21 (Updated 2008-10-05 02:01:18) from Monument