New Kernel Traffic, the only really interesting thing is the bit about Converting Filesystems - The moral of the story? It's a bad idea. Make a backup then restore to the new filesystem as a test. Yep. Read the link for a story about horrible data loss.#

Julie/Julia - ``This morning, housekeeping continued when I finally got around to Oeufs Mollets, which are, I kid you not, boiled eggs. I have finally learned to boil an egg. I boiled them for six minutes. I peeled them. We ate them with salt and pepper and Kristin's Georgian relish. It's been awhile since we've eaten eggs, and I confess to have reverted a bit to pre-MtAoFC tendencies. I didn't want to eat the egg. But I did, and it was not at all repulsive. It was good. Especially with relish.'' - French wonderful eggs?#

She In Crimson - From "je ne regrette rien" to "sometimes the truth is like a second chance"#

Dave Winer writes about why he is going to New Hampshire to talk to candidates and write about the campaign. - ``I want to bring weblogs into the campaign, but not as candidates blogging, but as voters publishing their ideas and working together to share information and figure out who's best to run the country for the next four years. [...] I don't think there's a lot of juice in candidates doing weblogs. They're just going to have their ad agencies do it. It'll be written to make it look like the candidate is writing, but they'll run focus groups to find out what they should say on their weblog.''#

Sarah Allen writes about Synesthesia and how it relates to her as a software engineer. - ``Bits flow through data structures and algorithms like water over rapids or a fountain. Data has texture and color that is only occasionally tied to its human representation. Code can take on elegant organic forms or sleek, polished edges. Old code can get crusty and brittle or retain the fragile beauty of Venetian glass. Some code is lumpy like oatmeal or spiky, like pinecones. Sometimes it hangs together like some bad knock-off of a Rube Goldberg machine and its hard to believe that it works, yet it does. It is delightful when it is soft and supple -— writing a new module is like adding a partner to the dance.''#

Lawrence Lessig writes about admiring Congressman Kucinich. - ``This is Edwards defending affirmative action in North Carolina; this is Dean opposing he war. This is Kucinich, here and elsewhere, articulating views that he believes right, whether or not they are views that will win him favor.'' - Then Lessig talks about two types of people and makes a very funny comment, ``ype two sorts are the majority of us. We're the "reasonable" ones. Apple doesn't make commercials about us. We do what everyone would. I'm sure in the right context, I would have to fight all of my instincts to resist being a type two sort. There have been a couple times in my life when I have succeeded, but just a few.''#

An Article of Kuro5hin about Electricity (de)Regulation. - ``electricity is not a commodity like a pencil is. Electricity cannot be stored in large quantities. Electricity cannot be substituted - you can use a pen instead of a pencil, but you can't use anything but electricity to run electrical equipment. And worst of all, electric grids have only two modes - oversupply, where everything works as planned, and undersupply, where the entire grid goes down. There is no nice supply/demand curve in the short to medium term for electricity. ''#

At Lessig's blog, Dennis Kucinich also writes about energy deregulation. It's a pretty surreal story about a situation he was involved in as a Cleveland political figure. - ``With and estimated 50 million Americans and Canadians left without power and in some cases water, common sense requires us to reflect on the absurdity of deregulation of public utilities. In the first case, the right of utility franchise is vested in the people. We give utilities permission to operate, and enable them to set up a profit making business in exchange for the promise of affordable and reliable service. In 1992, investor owned utilities pushed the Democratic House to pass HR776 which granted electric utilities broad powers. The bill was supposed to restructure the electric utility industry to spur competition.'' - He then talks about the drama surrounding the sale of the Cleveland public energy company, where a large company was pressuring a buyout, ``On that day, by that time, the sale of Muny Light was being promoted by both Cleveland newspapers, virtually all of the radio and TV stations in town, the entire business community, all the banks, both political parties, and several unions, as well as a majority of the Cleveland City Council. All I had to do was to sign my name to legislation and the system would have sold and the city credit "protected." The chairman of Cleveland Trust even offered 50 million dollars of new credit if I would agree to sell Muny Light. [...] I said no to the sale of Muny Light to CEI. At Midnight, Cleveland Trust put the City of Cleveland into default. [...] I lost the election in 1979 with default as the major issue. Cleveland Trust changed it name to AmeriTrust. The new mayor changed the name of Muny Light to Cleveland Public Power. [...] In 1993, the City of Cleveland announced that it was expanding Muny Light. It was the largest expansion of any municipal electric system in America. I had been long gone from major elected office. In fact, after the default, most political analysts considered my career over. I had been asked many times by other politicians why I just didn't make the deal and sell the light system, especially when my career was on the line. I believe that there are, in fact, some things more important than the next election.'' - AWESOME.#

Also on Kuro5hin is an article about the EMU (European Economic and Monetary Union) and how some members of the EU don't plan on joining. - ``It is likely that the question of EMU membership will have a large influence on the future form of the EU. A US-style federal EU seemingly requires a common currency and economic policy, and having member countries which do not participate would sabotage such an idea.''#

Tom Coates is also a Cosmologist . One of his recent studies suggests that, ``For every human being on Earth, there appears to be an alien counterpart who takes care of them when times get tough, who shares the same thoughts and who bears a remarkable resemblance to them physically, [...] This relationship appears to be the true cause of thousands of so-called abduction experiences -- and perhaps every story we've ever heard about guardian angels.''#

I don't use spam filters either - and this game sounds really neat, I wonder where I can find some and play at it.#

Tim Shey has links to cool blackout blogs, pictures, and stories. He also has a nice "Fair and Balanced" story to tell... ``I knew I was toast, even if they fought fair, and balanced my pride for a moment against my pretty, yet unblemished face. And then I fuckin' ran.''#

Scoble responds to Dan Gillmor in regards to Microsoft and security... ``Security wasn't always important to investors (er, the average person that invested in Microsoft stock didn't care). Now they care a lot -- and the fact that Dan and other journalists are writing tons of articles about security underscores that fact. So, you're already witnessing a huge corporate shift. Microsoft, last year, took a month off and reviewed every single line of code. Obviously that wasn't enough.'' - I like how cool and logical Scoble is about everything, the message is "We're not taking the ostrich approach and we'll get their eventually." #

James Robertson has something to say about Scoble on Microsoft's security. - ``If MS had been using a managed environment for these apps, it would be far less of a problem. Buffer overflows just aren't an issue when I integrate plugins into BottomFeeder, for instance. However, it's not simply a matter of MS hosting stuff on top of the CLR from here on out either. There's a huge pile of legacy applications, and most of them aren't Microsoft's code. This is going to be an issue as long as people continue to use C and C++ for application development - and not only on Windows. As Linux popularity grows, start watching that platform for interesting buffer overflow issues more frequently...''#

Peter Lindberg, the man with the details, linked the idea of Virtual Water - how much of something you WOULD have used it something was produced domestically, rather than imported. He writes, ``I'm thinking whether something like this could be used when talking about planning in software projects—for instance, the virtual cost for this feature ended up being 4 000 dollars'' So, every time you use a library or external feature of the environment the virtual price goes up? That's some nice ammo for good development practices and "reusable components."#

Carly writes, ``Returning student move-in is slated for Tuesday/Wednesday of next week. If I didn't live with an RA and know who to get ahold of in housing, I would have no idea that I even had an apartment. I turned in my little sheet back in April, and haven't heard anything since. Amber told me where we were living, and then I had to bug the shit out of the office to be able to move in. Supposedly they sent me a letter or something, but it has yet to arrive here. Woo for the craptacular staff at my college.'' - My college deleted the course registration that I made in May over the summer and neglected to tell me, so when I didn't get sent a copy of my schedule I was very curious. When I called and asked about it they said I never registered. Hah. BS! All the classes I registered for were closed so I had to bring some department heads who liked me on the Registrar's ass to get me into them. I hate at it.#

Mark leads a life of diversions today. - ``Today's unemployment diversion: Making Mint Juleps. Everyone's looking for a diversion from something today. [...] For now, though, I'm about to sample the first sip ever of the summer splendor that is the Mint Julep. I started a few hours ago. A one-to-one ratio of sugar to water, brought to a boil with chopped mint leaves makes the syrup, which has been chilling. I've actually been waiting longer for fresh ice cubes to crush. Pour about 4 oz. Bourbon (bought 80 proof Wild Turkey, a la HST, for the task) over the ice, top off with the syrup and a sprig of mint and... Whew! The first attempt was in too small a glass. 4 full shots of Bourbon just topped off with mint syrup didn't work so well. Blech! Bourbon! And by the way, crushing ice in the blender is a bitch.''#

Michael Feldman finds an article about crazy Japanese people.#

From Memepool is the wonder of 50 Shekel - ``50 Shekel has emerged as the new Jewish hip-hop artist of his generation. If you haven't already heard his shpiel, you are in for a supreme kosher treat. His lyrics are hotter than homemade latkes on a Hanukah night and his rhyming comes straight from his Hebrew heart. Inspired by recording artist, 50 Cent's recent top-of-the-chart hip-hop song, In Da Club, this Brooklyn raised Hebrew Homie finally found something to shpiel about.''#

Very Cool Looking Site.#

Via Andrew Birkett is A Brief Rhapsody on Art and Engineering - ``t is essential, when designing a complex system, to spend some relaxed time fantasizing about what it will be like when it's finished. After all, this is what drives the process of engineering: at some level between rigorous and fanciful, an image of the finished product must be held in the mind, savored, and examined from all sides. Only after this playful interlude (which, to a manager, may be disturbingly indistinguishable from unproductive wall-staring) can decomposition of the design into subsystems, tasks, and packaging make any sense.''#

Jonathan Rentzsch explains what "data alignment" is to programmers who don't know and how it is important. - ``Data alignment is an important issue for all programmers who directly use memory. Data alignment affects how well your software performs, and even if your software runs at all. By understanding the causes behind alignment, we also can explain some of the "weird" behaviors of some processors.'' - Use a Better Language. Woah. You know Use a Better Browser ? Ted Leung, James, Dan, John, LamdaTU, and Peter should put "Use a Better Language" icons on their sites. Maybe?#

Ted Leung wonders what Microsoft offers "big minds" that the open source world does not. - ``All of the open source communities (and yes, there is more than one) collectively can provide the chance to get good ideas into a bunch of products that have the potential to be as good as what Microsoft is doing now. The problem is the community isn't co-ordinated, and has limited resources (at least as far as big minds are concerned). It seems to me that the question that the open source movement needs answer is: What does it take for open source to become an intellectual roach motel? How can we make it compelling for "big minds" to come in, and never want to go back out?''#

Tom Coates writes about his opinion of the Harvey Milk School. - ``gay teenagers - what group are they in? Do they deserve access to the same options and opportunities as everyone else - clearly yes. But do they also have needs that aren't likely to be met in a school in which they'll always be in a radical minority. I'd say yes to that too. A gay teenager should have the opportunity while at school to realise that there are loads of other people like themselves, to forget - for a while at least - that they are not like everyone else. They should also have the opportunity to meet and date and flirt with other teenagers without wondering if they're going to get beaten up. *They should have the ability to have crushes on people without it being statistically inevitable that they'd have them on straight people.* They should have the opportunity to do all that learning about relationships and going steady that are open in principle to straight people in general (even if many straight kids don't feel able to take advantage of them).''#

Tom Coates also writes about trying to find his biological father. Very interesting, sad, thoughtful, read at it. - ``I feel a bit like the SETI Project to be honest. Lighting up the darkness with a seeming infinity of radio waves and broadcasts. Radio, TV, Web, Print... I'm here! Anyone who wanted to could find me a moment! So why don't they come?''#

Don Park ponders the Death of Email - ``The world is giving up on popups because of spams. Will we someday be forced to give up e-mails because of spam? What about forums, chatrooms, and instant messaging? Comments and trackback are also starting to come under assault from spammers. Where is the line in the sand?''#