Fastolfe.Net
2008-12-05
Friend connect
Google just announced their new Friend Connect feature, which lets people convert their web site into a social networking site pretty easily. Since I use this site to experiment, I decided to give it a try. The home page should give you the option to log in or sign up, and each blog post (like this one) should now accept comments on the right. Go wild.
2008-06-02
Review: Indiana Jones 4 Sucked
As far as I'm concerned, there are only three Indiana Jones movies. The fourth simply does not count. Lucas took a great thing and tried to stretch it just a little too far and ended up with something horrifying.
2007-12-19
Risk: Who should pay for it?
America is widely regarded as an increasingly litigious society. We're sue-happy, and lots of people are discovering that the system can be (ab)used to win jackpots. While some consider this trend an unredeemable negative, I view this as a reflection on the desires of the community to shift risk around. This may be stupid and short-sighted, but the market normally can correct for it.
2007-12-15
Stupid Thieves
So my car got broken into last night.
2007-09-08
California Livin'
So I'm finally moved. Google made the process fairly painless for me, but it was still a very stressful month. And it's not over yet. I thought I'd take a moment to share my experiences so far.
2007-07-24
Moving, site may be down
Well, my move has finally arrived. I'll be shipping most of my computers, including the ones that serve content for the site, so things may not work correctly for a few weeks until I'm settled and get everything set back up. Wish me luck!
2007-07-24
Medical malpractice
A popular complaint among physicians is that America's medical malpractice system is this crushing force, arbitrarily assigning jackpot awards to people whose only harm was not getting better after they saw a doctor. I have a few things to say about that.
2007-06-30
Can terrorism really wipe out Israel?
This is perhaps the most profound short piece on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I've read in a long time.
2007-06-08
Moving to California
So a few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a Google recruiter. Six phone interviews and a few days spent in Mountain View later, I was given a job offer. I'm really excited, but I'm dreading the mountain of work and planning I have to do between now and then to relocate.
2007-04-21
Tamm Ave. Bridge Demolition
They blew up the Tamm Ave. bridge tonight, the first bridge of many that will be demolished to make way for the upcoming I-64/40 construction.
2007-04-06
MySpace and Facebook
I've had a MySpace page for a while now, and I've even commented on it. Off in the periphery I kept hearing of this Facebook thing, and when a co-worker mentioned it to me last week, I figured I'd go ahead and check it out.
2007-04-05
Olbermann: The Beginning of the End of America
This is a couple of weeks old, but I just now got around to watching it. A very powerful commentary from Keith Olbermann on Bush's government. It gave me chills.
2007-02-14
Firefox date handling in Page Info
Today I was researching an HTTP caching problem and I discovered what I thought was a bug. When viewing the Page Info for an HTTP resource in Firefox, there is a "Modified" and "Expires" date that should reflect the modification date of the resource and when the resource should expire from the browser's cache.
2007-02-05
Evolution vs. Creationism: Not the debate you think it is
The "evolution vs. creationism" debate bugs me. I normally love to discuss things like this and debate the merits of science versus philosophy, but the problem with this debate is that people don't actually understand what it is that's being debated, which makes any educated discussion somewhat difficult.
2007-02-04
HDTV in St. Louis
I've had an HDTV for at least 5 years. I had to buy an expensive DirecTV tuner in order to properly enjoy it, but enjoy it I did. A few years ago I moved to Charter, because DirecTV wasn't keeping up with HDTV offerings. One glaring omission in Charter's HDTV line-up is our local ABC affiliate (KDNL), due to a fee dispute. Fine, whatever, I can get by without one local channel. This month they did the same thing with our local CBS affiliate (KMOV). This means Charter subscribers cannot watch the Super Bowl in HD, unless their TV is capable of picking up the signal over the airwaves.
2007-01-16
Babies With Made-to-Order Defects?
Pre-implantation genetic screening is a technique that can be used by concerned parents to screen their potential children for birth defects or diseases that would significantly impact their quality of life. I've commented before about how this type of screening is going to be increasingly necessary as medical advances allow for defective genes to become more prevalent in our gene pool. Couples like Gibson and Cara Reynolds want to take this in the other direction. The Reynolds have dwarfism, a genetic defect that has non-trivial health and social implications. Their chances of having a normal child are 25%, but they would rather use genetic screening to eliminate that possibility, so as to ensure that their children also have the same genetic defect.
2006-12-16
I don't like MySpace
MySpace is making an absolute killing in ad revenue and is worth billions of dollars. But despite all of that, it still looks like somebody's pet web project run out of their garage. It's running on autopilot just when it has the most opportunity to do some really cool things.
2006-11-07
Levels of Government
When you think of the word "government", what government do you think of? US federal government? Your state's government? County? City? I'm a big fan of self-governance. When people get together and decide that they want their government to do something, they frequently skim over the definition of "government" without even thinking. Getting their measure passed by any of these governments will have roughly the same effect for their local community. Why is it that people automatically think "state" or "federal" when "government" comes into the picture?
2006-11-07
Voting in St. Louis
So I voted this morning, and had my choice of voting (a) with a paper ballot; or (b) electronically. Having read much of what's come out about electronic voting machines, I was a little wary, and asked if it had a paper audit trail I could see. The lady at the desk said yes, it did. So I opted to go electronic.
2006-11-06
Should disabled newborns be euthanized?
They're debating this very topic in Scotland at the moment. While I don't think euthanasia is appropriate here, the real problem does merit some serious discussion.
2006-11-05
Bombarded by Politics
I am being bombarded by political ads, telephone calls, visitors and junk mail. It has never been this bad, and I'm getting really fed up with it.
2006-10-24
Is religion a bad thing?
I'm an atheist. I was raised a protestant Christian, but my analytical mind quickly quashed that. Going to church nowadays is done out of respect for the family members I visit every year or so. Wired Magazine is doing a piece titled Battle of the New Atheism. The article discusses the "New Atheist" movement, which seems to be united not just in the belief that religion is wrong, but that it is harmful.
2006-10-22
Net Neutrality: You pay either way!
So I've been seeing this commercial off and on a bit, and it really annoys me, because it's extremely misleading. It suggests that supporters of Net Neutrality want to push "their" costs onto you. The reality is, both sides mean more costs for you.
2006-10-22
Game of Tag
It took me eight months, Will, but here are my responses.
2006-10-19
New site!
The new site is finally up. A lot of the (boring, annoyingly banal and personal) content was scrapped. Over time, I'll re-post some of it, but for now, the site is going to be a bit sparse. Please poke around and let me know if there are things that aren't working correctly. There will certainly be some problems here and there.