The Great and Terrible Oz

http://vimeo.com/2317118

( Cut for Hulu vid )

There's an ad on my cable system saying "I'm going to college in my pajamas. How is that possible?, you ask?"

I've been to college.

I know it's very, very common to do so. If you think it's an odd thing, you haven't been on a campus in the last 20 years.

( Yes, Starter Wife. SHUT UP! I'm doing this, OK? Spoilers. )

About a year ago, which was relatively early in this long national nightmare of a presidential campaign, I made a list of people I did not want to be president under any circumstances.

About six months ago, I voted in the primary. The person I voted for did not end up as his party's candidate, but was on the list of people I did not want to president under any circumstances.

Today, two people on the list of people I did not want to be president under any circumstances were their parties' candidate for president. Plus Bob Barr. He was in the House, not the Senate, but I find legislative experience to be bad for a candidate. Many of the people on my list of people I did not want to be president under any circumstances were legislators.

And I voted. I voted in every election since I turned 18. I voted for one of the people who I did not want to be president under any circumstances.

And Starbucks gave me a free cup of coffee.

( Cut for spoilers, even though the show's been broadcast for a good long time )

Yes, it's been a good long time.

Wednesday night, I got a call from my guy at the staffing company.

He said "Don't bother coming in tomorrow."

Friday, I visited the previous boss.

He said "Can you come in Monday?"

So, I'll be back in the lab, several feet under the surface.

And he's talking about making it a permanent position.

I always liked working in the lab....

OK, so naming the Nobody states isn't fun, eh?

OK. Here's a challenge.

Two states have given us effectively 40% of the vice presidents.

Which two are they? And which gave us more?

I was really surprised by this one.

And as always, don't go running to Google and Wikipedia for help here.

And it's dlgood for the win. NY and IN.

There will be history made by this election. Not first black president or first female vice-president. Well, clearly those. But there's more.

There has never been a President born in Hawaii. There has never been a president with Arizona as his state of residence. There has never been a VP from Alaska. There has never been a VP from Delaware.

Taking the presidents list only, there are 28 29 other states (besides, as mentioned, Arizona and Hawaii) which have never produced a president. Without cheating and going to Google or Wikipedia or something, can you name the states?


1 Wyoming
2 Montana
3 Utah
4 Idaho
5 Nevada
6 Florida
7 Maine
8 Vermont
9 Rhode Island
10 Oregon
11 North Dakota
Guessed first by bellatemple.


12 Alabama
13 Mississippi
14 New Mexico
Guessed by sroni.


15 West Virginia
16 Colorado
17 Delaware
18 Minnesota
19 North Carolina
20 Oklahoma
21 South Carolina
22 Washington
23 Wisconsin
24 Kentucky
25 Connecticut
26 Nebraska
Guessed by dlgood.

Three left to go!

And can you name the 4 states that have been the source of 23/43s, which is just over half?

New York 7
Virginia 6
Ohio 6
Guessed first by bastardsnow and then by jengrrrl.
Massachusetts 4
Guessed first by bastardsnow.

Again, no cheating!

Gmail is pushing me toward Free Obama buttons and stickers.

First Tibet, then Mumia.

I didn't even know Obama was in trouble....

( I said TMI, right? )

Not to be pedantic or anything, but isn't that VIP? Well, VIP with more tattoos and less blonde hair?

::considers Pamela Anderson::

Or, at least less blonde hair?

In movies where the young hero is becoming a physical paragon, they show pre-dawn jogging.

When becoming a mental might, they show late-night study sessions.

Yeah, it's all about taking things to a stereotypical montage to limit the amount of screen time it takes. I get that. But is there something to that? Are there times where it's better to exercise? Are there times where it's better to study?

I'm asking this in part because my brain is steadfastly refusing to work at anything creative right now.

( Spoilers )

( Spoilers )

How long until, when watching a movie in a theater, "Spot The Dead Pixel" is a regular game?

( Dead code is code which is never called. The function is replaced, the flag is never specified, whatever. It is never called, never animated by electrons. It is dead. )

Title: No Reason To Get Excited
Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Terminator (between T1 and T2, roughly 1995)
Characters: Sarah Connor
Summary: To kill the snake, you must cut off the head
More notes: Written (late) for soundingsea's Freewheelin' Ficathon, lyrics from Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower." I couldn't get started, so I started writing drabbles. It isn't 1000 words, but I don't knwo what else to add.

( A fragment of memory. )

via Slashdot:

Top Ten Worst Uses For Windows

I really begin to doubt the intelligence of engineers today whenever I encounter a medical equipment manufacturer that has made the switch to Windows from Unix. First of all, let me point out that the FDA requires a lengthy paper trail to be filed every time medical equipment like dialysis machines, imaging equipment, radiation therapy, and biological monitors are upgraded. That includes being patched for bugs and security updates every patch Tuesday if they are running Windows. You know what that means. They are not updated. Therefore they are vulnerable. Critical life support systems throughout a hospital are vulnerable to viruses and worms. They could fail because of the lack of foresight of the manufacturers. People could lose their lives.

I used to work IT for medicine. I also used to work IT for a genomic research lab. I see a few issues here.

• It's a tool - Your car has a chip. Several, I'm sure. I had one go out on me once, nearly 20 years ago. It's hard to do a DOS attack on your car's electronics, because it's hard to get into the system. Until recently, only the heavy-handed EMP attack would do it, although I'm sure OnStar is becoming a vector. Point is, you don't consider your car's transmission to be a computer. Well, doctors and scientists by and large don't consider their big wonderful tools to be computers. They consider them big and wonderful tools. You don't have to update your engine. You don't put bug-fixes on your screwdriver. Why must you harden your sequencer?
  
• It's my tool - With my referring generally to the vendor, but sometimes to the IT staff. You don't know what OS Service Pack 8 will do to Tool Management Package 3.1, and you don't generally have a second machine to run tests on, so rather than allow Windows Update or whatever, you stop that process. So, the vendor keeps a lot of admin controls on "their" box, or the department head or otherwise owner of the system keeps it out of the regular networked upgrade and control process of the IT department.
  
• Like Windows is the only vulnerability - I went to SANS (System Administration and Network Security) about eight years ago. Guy told a story about an MRI machine that got hacked. Seems it had a big HP/UX machine behind it. Seems the big HP/UX machine had sendmail running. Seems that, because it's a tool (see above), nobody told the IT guys, and sendmail wasn't (1) shutdown or (2) updated. Sendmail is the canonical Unix vulnerability. Which leads to ....
  
• Data are complicated - Medical imaging is an an example I can jump to immediately. Oncology probably has the fastest networking and best monitors in any hospital or clinic, because they're tossing around big-ass TIFFs and such because they're using them rather than traditional film to look at the pictures they shot in the MRI (or whatever's the hottest new thing) of your left lung. Oncologists make the big bucks because they can identify what's there better than anyone else. Other doctors can make only slightly more sense of the pics than you or I can. But they can't look at a gene sequence and tell you if it's pig or cow or your Aunt Jenny.
  
• Interfaces are hard - Probably used more as an excuse than anything else I've said, and less and less an issue, IMHO.
  

The guy listing this as a Worst probably thinks medicine is a lot more House than Scrubs.