http://launionaflcio.org/images/100224-boron/all/a/?name=IMG_2600-800.jp...
http://launionaflcio.org/images/100224-boron/all/a/?name=IMG_2601-800.jp...

Turbo Tax maker Intuit, again, is mired in political turmoil: Intuit was upset that John Chiang, our State Controller, had been making electronic tax filing software free to people. Intuit wanted the State to use a different system that worked with Intuit's commercial software.

We've already had two terms of an obstructionist governor and legislature that can't compromise. The race will probably come down to Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown.

The sysadmins took down the http://embeddedart.com site that belonged to Joe Stack. That was his company's website, and on it was a list of his past projects. The guy had talent.

According to the text left at the website, the site takedown was at the request of LE, who suspected it might contain sensitive information. The assumption is that the note contained the information, but, perhaps other pages also contained info.

In the conspiracy theory web, people are speculating that Stack didn't fly into the IRS building - that he was killed and then somehow, a plane crashed into the building, or his dead body was piloted into the building via remote control. Anyway, the idea is that the attack was performed to discredit the Tea Party movement. Their theory seems far-fetched to me, but maybe they're on to something about the "he knew something" part. I just think the big problem with the teabaggers is that they're starting from the assumption that this was a "false flag attack" and then searching for evidence to prove this thesis.

Here's a cached copy of that page:

1. The argument's been made so often, it needs a macro.

2. See http://laeastside.com/

3. The real Eastside is east of the LA river. It's had this name for around 50 years. The area around Silver Lake is not the Eastside.

HPHP Initial Comment
HipHop what you need to know

HPHP appears to be a significant product: a PHP compiler that compiles down to native binaries, saving time and CPU. It produces a monolithic, multithreaded binary.

A nice side effect could be that sites using HPHP would be a harder to hack. For one, you could never upload and execute a PHP script, because PHP is not running on the server.

HipHop leverages a simple fact of PHP-life: most of your code doesn't change. Even in a project with ongoing bugfixes, only a small number of changes are deployed. So, once the app's done and ready to be run full-time, it should really become a compiled application. HipHop is the compiler.

This is a short list of links to groups that organize or try to organize programmer labor unions and other computer-based worker unions, as well as lobby organizations.

Bathroom tissue is expensive, and everyone needs to pinch their pennies when they pinch off a loaf. Cell phone calculators don't have enough precision to calculate the per-unit cost of toilet paper. They also lack parentheses to do some necessary grouping to calculate:

PRICE / ( SHEETS PER ROLL * ROLLS )

Solution is below the fold.

This is weird. The authors turn OpenOffice.org into a spreadsheet server -- and then create a front end in Dojo with Javascript, and tunnel events from the front end to the OOo spreadsheet via a Tomcat servlet.

Amazon was totally sleeping on the iPad, which many predicted. So they announced and the Kindle Development Kit.

The metal back of the device is cold, and sucks the heat from your hand.

2010 is upon us, and unlike the Arthur C. Clarke sequel to 2001, wherein the world is exploring space, in the real 2010, the world is trying to find a goddamn job and avoid a huge, double-dip recession and rapid price deflation.

The rule of web software has been to use a single global platform, and localize the data, language, and results. Theoretically, it should work, but, in practice, it doesn't.

What a strange new years. I'm sick with some flu or something. Congested and coughing. Toast with a store brand "Robitussin DM." My GF broke her hand, so it's in a cast - the cat's paw.

For around a year, my FON hotspot was turned off, due to lack of appropriate permissions to tap into my local sources of broadband. Now, it's back, and in the South Central / USC area.