Google Code Scripted Upload
Posted 9:43 PM

When you want to upload a file to google code in a script there are several options. IMO, send2goog is the best one. In addition to command-line args, it has an interactive mode that auto-saves your config info in ~/.send2goof.conf on both a global-default level and per-file-name level... so you don't have to remember pesky labels, retype usernames, etc. Much nicer than using google's web UI.

Reminder to self as much as anyone else.

Labels: programming

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Apple Says Killing People is OK, Bikini's are NOT!
Posted 10:11 AM

Apples new move kicks 5000 apps off its system, rather than merely rating or categorizing them.

Conspicuously they are leaving on apps which depict graphic beheading, allow kids to play the role of a terrorist sniper, and one that encourages adultery through social networking.

Welcome to the Apple morality lesson. Boobs are really bad. Everything else is fine. I wonder if they'd kick a nursing mother out of one of their stores?
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Gnu Programs on Win32
Posted 8:27 AM

Because I keep forgetting, I'm posting this as a reminder to myself that you can get nearly all the best GNU tools running on Windows. I use MinGW, G++, and gdb as my compiler suite of choice... but there's also programs like "calc", which I go rooting around looking for on Windows.

But this list is more than comprehensive, continins full binaries and works on every old, wonky and new, fancy version of Windows out there.

Labels: open source, programming

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Stop Calling it Global Warming
Posted 8:33 AM

I wish pundits and politicians would cease, as of this minute, to refer to the human-caused exhaust poured into our atmosphere as "global warming".

It's not an accurate description of the problem. Increased carbon in the atmosphere might result in "cooling" in some models. Everyone agrees CO2 levels are lowering the PH of the ocean. And CO2 isn't the worst of our problems. Levels of hundreds of industrial pollutants are skyrocketing globally.

We could be headed for a mini ice age because of a carbon-induced thermohaline cycle change. "Warming" is a derivative term that may, very soon, prove wildly inaccurate and set the politics of this issue back for many years.

Responsible management of the millions of tons of industrial gas byproducts and car exhaust that we pour into our atmosphere has nothing, at all, to do with "warming".

Our atmosphere is a globally shared resource and must be globally managed. There can be no sovereign exceptions to the rules, or those countries will be able to spew their industrial filth upon the rest of us.

Is it socialist to manage shared resources in this manner? Not at all. Feeding and educating people is a social agenda that may be relevant indirectly (after all, if you're family is starving, why should you care about climate models), but for some reason is often "tied" to atmospheric pollution issues by deniers.

Protecting the Earth's atmosphere is an issue of survival, not socialism.
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Virtual Chat Room for Google Talk
Posted 2:57 PM

I created a Perl program that allows you to create a "virtual chat room". It works with Google Talk, AIM and any chat client that works with AIM.

Please see: http://code.google.com/p/vcrbot/

Let me know what you think
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Caffeine, Cancer and Gray Hair
Posted 3:41 AM

We're exposed to DNA damaging, age-accelerating radiation every day. And caffeine might make it worse... or better. (Click on links for references).

Caffeine can accelerate the division of cells, speeding up repair, but also it appears to inhibit the activation of "ATM", a gene responsible for DNA repair. This makes cells more "radiosensitive" ... in other words, more likely to have damaging mutations.

Caffeine is fully absorbed about 45 minutes after drinking coffee. However, it stays in the body for up to 10 hours (5-10 hours for most of us, but 10-20 or more hours for people over 55, women who are pregnant, children and women taking hormone (oral/patch/etc) contraceptives).

So how does this add up? Basically, it means, don't drink coffee up to 10 hours before you go out in the sun for any extended period of time... unless you want your hair to prematurely gray. (Graying hair, and overall aging, has been directly linked to DNA damage and the mediation of this damage by pathways such as those involving ATM kinase.)

Labels: biotech, science

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Genetic Upgrade or Perish
Posted 11:35 AM

It has long been proposed, by scientists such as Steven Hawking and many others that we must expand our species to other planets, quickly, or perish as a species. The reasons for this are many, but the most important reason is our sensitivity to global disasters. Many species would survive a massive asteroid strike, or some other natural disaster, but ours is not one of them. We simply don't have the stored resources to weather such a geological event. As such, it's only a matter of time.

There's a corollary to this however. If we must colonize... how soon must we do it? Again, there's a real time crunch. As we use up resources on this planet it becomes far more difficult, both politically and practically, for us to launch energy-hungry colonization missions. At some point we simply won't have the resources to launch. The race is between our technological ability and our resource consumption. Many experts estimate between 20-100 years.... or we've run out of time.

This leads me to a third conclusion. I don't think we have the brainpower, social will, and ability to actually colonize anything. What's more, I don't see that changing any time soon. Our pace of technological growth is fast, but not fast enough to keep up. Unless, of course, we accelerate that pace.

There are several genetic upgrades that would accelerate growth. One is to repair existing expert, but ageing brains to reintroduce the plasticity needed to adapt and improve. Another would be to improve ability directly. And finally, provided the first two are working, would be the extension of the number of productive years of labour of creative experts, increasing retirement ages and preventing the loss of intellectual capital.

Our ability to change, adapt and survive in the difficult or unusual conditions of our environment has always been our species strength. We wouldn't be here without it, and we won't survive the future without continuing down that road.
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