Back in January, Microsoft announced that their next version of Windows would consolidate their multifarious data-stores into one package. Currently, they have NTFS, SQL-Server and the Exchange format to house and index data. This was reported and covered in detail by the Register in XP successor Longhorn goes SQL….

Recently, the Register ran an interview with Benoit Schillings and Dominic Giampaolo, both of BeOS fame, called Windows on a database…. The BeOS probably came the closest to... [More]

Marco’s Papers, Notes, Research & Manuals are now available for browsing. All existing documentation has been reformatted, cleaned up to valid HTML 4.01 Strict standards and collected under a shared style sheet (not earthli themes, though). The listing has also been re-organized to provide a full chronological listing and a project listing.

John Carmack made a couple of interesting posts to his .plan file recently. If you’re interested in seeing what the best 3d graphics programmer in the world is doing and thinking, check out his .plan from February 11, 2002. In it, he talks about implementing the Radeon-specific rendering instructions for the DOOM engine.

Of particular interest to those in the market for a video card when his next engine comes out is this quote: “Do not buy a GeForce4-MX for Doom.” He goes into some detail as to... [More]

The April issue of the C++ Users Journa[1] published a letter by Ashley Williams pointing out yet another wart of C++. For any class in C++, you may declare as many member variables as you like. Each one of these member variables may be initialized in the constructor in the “initializer list”. References, in fact, must be initialized in this list.

Now, if you had to guess, in which order would those initializers be called? In the order they’re written? Remember that parameters passed to a... [More]

The Washington Post reports on the problems related to retracting textbook lessons long in circulation in Afghanistan.

While the stated policy (ie. the constitution) is to keep religion and education separated, this is of course not applied to propoganda material. Textbooks which taught counting with tanks and bullets and were filled with Islamic tenets extolling the glory of holy war against the Soviet invaders, were specially made in the US at the University of Omaha. While the aid package... [More]

The LA Times recently leaked a document called the “Nuclear Posture Review” (excerpts, briefing). In it, contingencies are discussed about using nuclear weapons in the current campaign, under which conditions they’d be used and against whom and which types are needed and must be developed/tested further.

I suppose the obvious questions is why can’t the U.S. just say they wouldn’t use nuclear weapons? I mean, I thought they were the good guys. I understand about carrying a big stick, but when... [More]

Well, let’s recap. Almost a year ago, it was reported that Ashcroft Holds Prayer Meetings at White House. These are Pentacostal prayer meetings, are not enforced on staff, and in no way blur the separation of church and state. Ahem.

More recently, John Ashcroft’s Perilous Nipples by Mark Morford of the SF Gate explains that Ashcroft is afraid of nudity:

“…order[ed] his very own Justice Department to spend $8,000 to purchase heavy blue drapes to cover the two large, noble, partially naked... [More]”

The earthli Christmas theme beta program is over and user complaints have been addressed. The christmas theme is now the default for the holidays. For more holiday-related stuff, check out Oz’s new pictures.

The New York Newsday reported a Stunning Turn of Events… recently. In a somewhat transparent attempt to provide some continuity from the attack on Afghanistan to a continued war in Somalia, the Pentagon announced recently that a GPS from a soldier killed in Somalia (and whose name Black Hawk Down has entered into the public consciousness) has been found in Afghanistan. Whereas this should be more than is needed to satisfy an unquestioning public, an Army reporter noted immediately that the... [More]

The New York Newsday is reporting that Vatican Reaffirms Anti-homosexual Stand. In a stunning turnaround of events, the church has admitted that it has deep-rooted problems and has accepted all blame for them, vowing to do better and fix their problems. Just kidding.

“Noting that most reported cases of sex abuse have involved priests and boys, Catholic officials in Rome have reaffirmed their stand against homosexuality, saying gays should not become priests.”

I knew it was the gays. Damn it,... [More]

SatireWire published Closed Disinformation Agency Can’t Convince Staff It’s Closed, which does Joseph Heller proud with Rumsfeld playing the role of Major Major and a subordinate filling in for Milo.

““We got ya, sir, we’re ‘closed’,” said a winking Major Chad Brumley when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found him at his desk again today. “There is no one here spreading misinformation now, and certainly there won’t be anyone here spreading misinformation daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sir.””

By this point, you should have heard of the new hit spin-off from the Department of Defense (formerly called the War Department) called the Office of Strategic Influence. As reported in the New York Times in Pentagon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentiment Abroad, this office would be in charge of:

<q> … developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and... [More]

The Register is covering the ongoing Microsoft trial, which has entered the penalty phase. As a bit of background, the states are basically proposing that Microsoft make Windows more modular, so that OEMs can distribute versions of Windows with other vendor applications replacing Microsoft versions. This seems to make sense and at least begins to address Microsoft’s crippling monopoly on the desktop by allowing even the possibility that, upon purchasing a computer from a major vendor, one might... [More]

America Sells Itself Out for Stability on the New York Newsday is a fantastic piece by Ralph Peters, “a retired Army officer and the author of two books on strategy”. He very succintly and calmly points out that quite a lot of the U.S. problems in the world today stem directly from a foreign policy that supports ideals exactly opposite to those the U.S. espouses.

While the premise is not new, his approach is much more factual and far less hyperbolic. He arrives at the modern-day reality that the... [More]

John Pilger published an article on March 7, 2002 in the New Statesman about President Chavez of Venezuela. It seems that Venezuela is having trouble learning the lessons of its neighbors in the 20th Century. The story is the same as that told many times before. Democratically-elected left-leaning government nationalizes private oil industry and implements land reforms (which involves giving unused lands away to those that might make use of it) in order to address crippling poverty in over 80%... [More]

osOpinion has an interview with Jef Raskin, …Jef Raskin Talks Skins…, one of the original UI designers for the Macintosh.

Skinning is all the rage with many applications these days (like earthli.com’s themes). A lot of the time, it seems that the designer is more interested in the fun had making the skin or the look of it than the actual usability of it. Apple recently drew criticism for keeping its UI, “Aqua”, closed to skinning in order to provide a more consistent interface for users.
... [More]

Sometimes it’s so hard to keep track of U.S. foreign policy. Especially when trying to figure out where tax money is being spent on making war. There are so many levels of funding available:

1. Foreign aid to oppresive regimes to “stabilize” the local government (think Saudi Arabia)
2. Overt military aid in the form of actual hardware (think Israel)
3. U.S. military “advisors” in the field (think CIA and who knows where they all are)
4. U.S. Troop deployment (bases in over 100 countries, but recently,... [More]

Examples abound of things that are happening (or have happened, fait accompli) that are morally and ethically offensive, but that’s that and move right along. Nat Hentoff wrote Big John Wants Your Reading List for the Village Voice revealing that Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act (oh yeah, it passed, remember?) “…would grant FBI agents across the country breathtaking authority to obtain an order from the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court . . . requiring any person or business... [More]”

Having watched the music recording industry go through digital growing pains, the movie industry is taking a decidedly more legislative angle on piracy. The recording industry may have the DMCA, but that only prevents people from cracking encryption standards that copy-protect music. Hollywood has its sights set on hardware, not software. While the DMCA protects even horrible encryption standards from being cracked legally…by Americans anyway, the SSSCA is an industry plan to enforce... [More]

I remember that immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center, it was generally agreed upon in the mainstream press that irony was dead. I also remember thinking that that was ridiculous. Irony is alive and well. Recent events have borne that out, with increasingly dangerous and heavily ironic things happening all of the time.

Now, in recent days, I’ve seen something that leads me to think that the “irony is dead” mantra was simply a case of mistaken identity. It’s irony’s close... [More]

The New York Newsday published Democrats Raise Questions On War a little while ago. It seems that some have in Congress (especially that troublemaker Daschle) have had the temerity to ask about long-term goals of the administration. This drew the baleful eye of the guardians of a patriotic America in which we all act as one and do not ask questions because it interrupted their slavering, gleeful capering over their new shiny hoards of weapons and money.

It seems the relatively straightforward... [More]

The latest Adbusters issue has Intimidation discussing the Orwellian clampdown that is taking shape in Western society today.

“The supposedly immovable object called citizens’ rights met an irresistible force called “preventative justice.” And it got crushed. … The program isn’t to break bones, but to set limits − what we can say, endorse, speak up against”

More and more we hear the story of the man who was detained for hours or days because he made another person “nervous”. That nervous... [More]

Which side of the road do they drive on? explains exactly that. It covers, in fascinating detail, which countries of the world drive on which side of the road. The map to the left is from the site and shows right-driving countries in yellow and left-driving countries in red. Don’t be fooled by the appearance of surface area, though:

“Having often encountered the implicit assumption that everyone but England and some of her colonies drive on the right side of the road, I compiled … a quick... [More]”

So, how’s the environment been doing lately? With which side of the war on the environment has the U.S. decided to cast its lot? Well, the new Hummer is out. It’s got a 6.0 V8 engine. What kind of fuel economy does it get? Well, that’s a good question. Here’s the answer found on the official Hummer site (emphasis added).

“Because it is a class 3 truck, a type of vehicle that is often classified as a work truck, the EPA does not rate the mileage.. Typically, work trucks site and idle while... [More]”

Lifted from Network (IMDB).

“You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here, you’re beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God’s name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.”

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are... [More]”

earthli’s themes have been separated into sets and the theme selector has been updated to make it easier to choose the best theme for you.

The earthli Forums are officially closed. Their content has been moved into earthli News, which is built with the same technology as the Albums and the Recipes, yielding a single shared earthli user for all sites. There is also better searching, print previews, a draft/published mode for contributors and a better date-oriented layout for easier browsing.

This is an actual letter sent to a Bank in the US. The Bank thought it
amusing enough to publish in the New York times.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing the cheque with which I endeavored
to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations some three nanoseconds
must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque, and the arrival in
my account of the funds needed to honor it. I refer, of course, to the
automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I
admit,... [More]

…as our menu has changed. Try this phone number:

510-809-4466

for a fun look at Enron’s current phone menu. Somehow, it just seems funnier on the phone.