The Design and Implementation of laffer1

My father sent me this link.  The article claims that Red Bull hardens your blood.  Very weird.

I also created a new 404 page for foolishgames.com and midnightbsd.org.  Let me know what you think of that.

I now have 3 different splash screens on foolishgames.com.  They rotate "randomly".  Tell me which one you like the best.

1. The old one

2. A flower

3. Similar to the old one but "full screen"

If you're wondering how i made them random...

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

    FILE *fp;

    int i;

    char filename[10];

    char c;

    memset(filename, 0, 10);

    sranddev();

    i = rand() % 3;

    sprintf( filename, "%d.txt", i );

    fp = fopen(filename, "r");

    if (fp) {

        while (!feof(fp)) {

            c = fgetc(fp);

   if (c != EOF)

             fputc(c, stdout);

        }

    }

    fclose(fp);

    return 0;

} 

I spent  a good part of yesterday watching TNG season 3.  Part of the time I even worked on MidnightBSD.  Go figure.  

I'm hoping to get abiword working again.  That port seems screwed up and it's probably one of the most useful remaining we can fix before the release. There is a newer version I'm going to try to update to.  Our port is very old  

 Just go.

 MSNBC has another article about the US spying network from the WWII era.  I never realized how many spies we had back them.  

MSNBC has an article about the lower standard of living everyone is facing as a result of inflation. Duh.  

It's interesting that the brought up people in the 70s wanted wage increases.  I've been saying that for awhile, but most people still think it will get better for some reason.  I don't see how.  It's not like oil companies want prices too low.  Car companies in the US do.  GM was making a fortune selling SUVs.  

Of course the problem with raising wages is that prices sometimes go up for that reason.  We run a risk of that.  However, I think people need to be able to pay their bills and buy gas and food.  Right now, that is so difficult for some that they can't buy anything else. 

One of the buildings at Apple HQ had a fire recently. 

 Caryn and I bought an air purifier last year.  It has an ionizer that we rarely use, and a permanent filter.  I happened to see some posts on amazon.com talking about the dangers of ionizers, further calling them ozone generators.

I did some research.

Some ionizers are ozone generators.  Proponents of ozone generators say they kill bacteria, can clean the air.  This is false.  Ozone is toxic at high levels and can do very little at low levels with the air.  Further, it can negatively interact with some chemicals and cause problems with rubber.  High levels of ozone can cause problems with breathing, asthma, etc.  All ionizers have a small amount of ozone byproduct. Small levels are not dangerous and allowed by the EPA guidelines.  It is still not helping your air though.

The EPA recommends using HEPA filters and improving ventilation to keep the air fresh.  

More info against ozone:  (biased some as they are selling products)

negative ion generators

air testers

After reading this information, I think I'll avoid the ionizer and look into a hepa filter for my other bedroom.

24 if it took place in 1994... you got mail

answer 

More on CNN.

It's a nice day today.  The sun is coming out from the clouds, it's in the 60s, and I have nothing to do today.

I've been playing with Twitter for awhile.  Considering how simple the app is, it's very cumbersome to add friends.  If you don't use hotmail, gmail, or yahoo, you can't add friends.  Who thought of that?  Not everyone uses those services and if they do it may not be their main email account.  I know a lot of my relatives use their ISP accounts.   

 Justice is sweet. A certain mayor is going to jail.  At least some people aren't above the law.

55 Million and growing...

For many years, media companies have been pushing for Digital Rights Management (DRM) in consumer products.  Devices like Microsoft's Zune or Apple's iPod limit the uses of purchased content.  

With the upcoming transition to digital television (DTV), consumers will need to get cable tv, purchase a converter box, or buy a new television set with integrated tuner.  However, some people like me still have their VCRs hooked up.  You can play videos, but what about recording?  Analog recording of television is something we've enjoyed for over twenty years.  The new DTV standard will kill those devices.  It's possible that a digital converter box would allow you to record a down sampled version of the signal over the air, but for people like me who bought a new tv, it spells the end of a era.  

Some people use set top boxes such as the tivo to record television.  They have newer products with DTV support.  However, without using some hacks most of those devices do not allow you to keep recordings forever.

Unless the general public wakes up, DRM is here to stay. 

Bill Gates has been Knighted.