A Case For The Cloud

It sounds as though the National Republican Senatorial Committee has a problem with its email servers, too. Let me shorten this somewhat: if you’re putting Microsoft Exchange on an internet-facing server, and you’re not managing it fairly carefully, you’re snack food for hackers.

[Read more…]

View From My Window

I spend a lot of time on airplanes, usually asleep. Not because it’s restful but because I have long legs and going into a trance is the easiest way to cope with the discomfort.

On my way out to LA, I woke up to change the mix in my music player, and looked out the window:

[Read more…]

A Trip Toy

I’m out in LA for a wedding and needed an appropriate present for the bride. So:  12″ acrylic lamp globe, $29 on ebay, 1/4″ ABS plastic cut plug, 1/4″ ABS plastic base piece, water, cosmetic mica, acrylic glue.

[Read more…]

Causing Problems

I’m going to do a couple of postings about causality, because it seems to me that how humans experience causality is of paramount importance to a lot of ideas such as “free will”, responsibility, and knowledge.
Presenting a philosophical framework in which to defend these ideas, however, is beyond me – so I’m going to approach the discussion casually, and I’ll be less rigorous about terminology than I’d have to be if I were going to try to defend my thoughts against a full-on skeptical enquiry.

[Read more…]

Turkeys

Since some of my comrades here on FTB seem to be posting pictures of birds, I thought I’d offer some footage from my bedroom window a few years ago. It started when the Turkey Committee chair convened the meeting, and rapidly got out of hand. I was on a conference call for about an hour and a half, and the turkeys kept up this level of activity the whole time.

[Read more…]