Much has been said of Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. Many have drawn parallels between elements in the movie and the recent history of the United States, from the attacks of 9–11 to the ensuing war on terror and its effects, both foreign and domestic. The Joker is chosen as the terrorist and the only way to stop him is to be just as lawless, to forsake all that you are defending—if only for just a little while, until order is restored—before everything you hold... [More]

Palin/McCain '08Reports that the Democratic convention has given Obama a “bump” are greatly exaggerated: he was ahead by six points a month ago, McCain caught up and passed him just before the Democratic convention[1] and, now, after five days of nearly exclusively Democratic coverage in the media, Obama has clawed back his six-point lead.

Bravo, Democrats.

This is clearly still the party that knows how to speak to the American people and holds a tremendous amount of appeal. Obama didn’t have the guts to choose... [More]

This article is written in response to a couple of incredulous emails I received about my recent publication of a handbook for the Book Library, which seemed like a lot of work documenting an application in use by two people, with no hopes of ever being used by more.

The Book Library as it is today is a Windows-only application built with Atlas, a Borland Delphi-based framework available from Opus Software AG.

I used to work at Opus, and the Book Library is the application I wrote to get a... [More]

This article is part (9) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

Before you start adding pictures, you should read the article Uploading pictures in earthli Albums (earthli News) to learn how to prepare pictures for publication online.

If you have a lot of pictures to add to an album and you don’t feel like adding them individually, you can upload them all at once and then edit them later.

Let’s start, as always, by going to the Galapagos home page, as described in the navigation tutorial, as shown... [More]

This article is part (8) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

If you’ve got a lot of pictures in one album and want to group them or categorize them better, you can make sub-albums within the main album. Picking up from where we left off in the navigation tutorial at the Galapagos home page, we see that there are hundreds of photos in one album.

Before you can move pictures, you have to create the album to which you’re going to move them.

To move pictures, you have to switch to the... [More]

This article is part (7) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

In addition to adding and editing pictures, you’re invariably going to need to delete some as well. There are a couple of ways to do this, but let’s start off—as always—where we left off in the navigation tutorial with the Galapagos home page, as shown below:

Delete Picture from Album Page (click to enlarge)

To select a single picture for deletion, hover over the small “command” triangle (1) next to it, then select “Delete” (2) from the menu. You’ll be taken to a... [More]

This article is part (6) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

Changing the cover for an album is the same as editing one, but you need to actually add pictures or move pictures from another album first. To change the cover picture for an album, go to the album’s home page. If you follow the instructions in the browsing tutorial, you should see the Galapagos as shown below:

Galapagos Home Page (click to enlarge)

Near the top of the home page, you should see the “Edit” button (1); press it to show the page below (if you... [More]

This article is part (5) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

Editing an album is just as easy as creating a new one. To edit an album, go to the album’s home page. If you follow the instructions in the browsing tutorial, you should see the Galapagos as shown below:

Galapagos Home Page (click to enlarge)

Near the top of the home page, you should see the “Edit” button (1); press it to show the page below (if you can’t see the button, follow the instructions for logging in before continuing):

Edit Album (click to enlarge)

There are a lot of settings... [More]

This article is part (4) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

Editing an existing picture is a snap; if you don’t have any pictures yet, check out how to add a picture first. Let’s continue from where we left off in the browsing tutorial with the Galapagos home page, as shown below:

Galapagos Home Page (click to enlarge)

There are two ways to edit a picture: from its home page or from a drop-down menu that pops up when you hover the mouse over the triangle next to a picture (2). If you’re editing a lot of pictures, it’s... [More]

This article is part (3) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

Before you start adding pictures, you should read the article Uploading pictures in earthli Albums (earthli News) to learn how to prepare pictures for publication online.

Adding a picture is just as easy as editing one. Picking up from where we left off in the navigation tutorial at the Galapagos home page, we see the page below:

Create New Picture for Galapagos (click to enlarge)

Press the “New Picture” button (1) to go to a page where you can upload pictures:

Add Picture Page (click to enlarge)

Above the form, you can... [More]

This article is part (2) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

Making a new album is very easy; you only need to know two things:

1. Where you want to put the album.
2. What you want to name the album.

Let’s make a sub-album in the Galapagos album from the browsing tutorial. If you don’t know how to get there, check out that tutorial to show the page below:

Create New Album (click to enlarge)

Near the top, you can see the “New album” button (1); press it to show the page below (if you can’t see the button, follow the... [More]

This article is part (1) of a multi-part earthli Albums tutorial.

earthli Albums is an online photo manager that lets you upload pictures to albums and send updates to subscribers. Before you can add your own pictures, you should learn how to navigate the application. To get started, browse to the earthli Albums home page. You should see the following screen:

Albums home page (click to enlarge)

Near the top of the page, you can see your login status (1). If you’re not logged in, you’ll see a link to “Log in…”. Select it... [More]

earthli Albums is an online photo manager that lets you upload pictures to albums and send updates to subscribers. Pictures are organized into nested albums and users can have as many albums as they like. It’s pretty easy to use the earthli Albums, but you should still familiarize yourself using the tutorial outlined below.

1. How to browse earthli Albums
2. How to make a new album
3. How to add a picture to an album
4. How to edit a picture
5. How to edit an album
6. How to change an album’s cover picture
7. How... [More]

This article is part (6) of a multi-part Book Library tutorial.

To edit a book, you first have to find the book that you want to edit. Once you’ve found it, you should be looking at a window full of details for the book, as shown below.

Browse Stephen King Books (click to enlarge)

In this case, we’ve selected the book “Black House” from the list on the left and can see all of the details for it on the right side, like the “Title” (1), the “Main Author” and so on. Whereas the title is just text, the author, publisher, section and... [More]

This article is part (5) of a multi-part Book Library tutorial.

When you’re adding books, you might find that you’re always filling out certain fields—like “Location” or “Owner”—with the same information. The Book Library can fill out these values automatically when you create a new book if you set up a default template.

When you start the Book Library, you’re taken to the main menu, as shown below:

Choose Add from the Main Menu (click to enlarge)

Just as when adding a book, select “Add Books” (1) from the menu. You’ll be shown the... [More]

This article is part (4) of a multi-part Book Library tutorial.

When you start the Book Library, you’re taken to the main menu, as shown below:

Choose Add from the Main Menu (click to enlarge)

From here, choose “Add books” to show the window below:

Adding a Book (click to enlarge)

This window is opened to a new book where you can start filling in the information for it (1). Fields in pink are required; those in grey are optional.

Setting the Author (click to enlarge)

Once you’ve filled in the title, it’s copied to the list on the left side (1). Fill in the name of the author (2) and press tab or enter... [More]

This article is part (3) of a multi-part Book Library tutorial.

When you start the Book Library, you’re taken to the main menu, as shown below:

Choose Print from the Main Menu (click to enlarge)

In the toolbar, there’s a “Print” button (1); press that (or type Ctrl+P) to show the print window below:

Main Book List Settings (click to enlarge)

The list on the left shows the available reports; the one you’ll use most is the “Main Book List” (1); select that to show the options for that report. You can elect to restrict by “Location” and/or “Owner” (2) or just leave one or both... [More]

This article is part (2) of a multi-part Book Library tutorial.

Browsing your books will always start with a search, as demonstrated in the searching for books tutorial. So, let’s start from there:

Stephen King's Books (click to enlarge)

An explorer window shows the contents of a list of books (1); selecting a book on the left shows the details for that book on the right, where you can change them, if you like.

However, if you select the “Books” itself, you’ll see another list on the right, showing more information:

Browse a List of Books (click to enlarge)

As you... [More]

This article is part (1) of a multi-part Book Library tutorial.

When you start the Book Library, you’re taken to the main menu, shown below:

Choose Search from the Main Menu (click to enlarge)

Select “Search for Book” (1) from the list to bring up the book search window, shown below:

The Search Window (click to enlarge)

On the left side of the window are fields by which you can search; fill in the values you’re looking for, then press “Search” or hit enter to continue. For this tutorial, type “king” in the “Main Author” field (1), then press the “Search” button (2) (or... [More]

The Book Library is a personal library manager that lets you organize the books in your library by section, publisher and author. You can keep track of lots of information about each book, including the price, condition and so on. It’s pretty easy to use the Book Library, but you should still familiarize yourself using the tutorial outlined below.

1. How to Search for Books
2. How to Browse your Books
3. How to Print a List of Books
4. How to Add a Book
5. How to Add a Default Template
6. How to Edit a Book

To be honest, the audio was much, much better, delivered as it was in a dry, extremely serious tone, with no indication of the comment’s wittiness. his co-announcer seemingly took no notice.

You learn something every day. After years of wondering how the acre came about as a measurement of area, here comes the Chain (length) (Wikipedia) to explain everything. An acre is apparently not just an inscrutably long and decimal-place–laden number of square yards. It is, in fact, exactly 10 square chains. A chain is one tenth of a furlong and equal to 66 feet. That makes more sense than 4840 square yards or a box 208.71 feet on a side.

In addition to the chain, there’s also the rood, which is a... [More]

Two point five kids.

Four-bedroom house in a good neighborhood.

Two-car garage full of garden tools and two new cars in the driveway.

Good schools.

Fancy vacations.

Keeping up with the Joneses.

The American Dream.

It’s called a dream because it doesn’t seem realistic that it will come true for every American. And it doesn’t—but only for those losers who aren’t willing to work hard enough for it. That’s the hard-as-nails story anyway—the philosophical core of the American... [More]

Silicon Tracking DetectorThe LHC (Large Hadron[1] Collider) is located in France and Switzerland at CERN[2]; the first experiments begin in early August 2008 and a full test of all 27km of track is planned in September. Project members expect to be analyzing the first collisions by the end of the year. The entire track will be cooled to just 1.75ºC shy of absolute zero (to -271.25ºC) and will be in-use for decades. The big expectation is that the long-sought Higgs Boson[3] makes an appearance.

The article Large Hadron... [More] (Big Picture)

If you have an email account, you can most likely check mail from anywhere in the world—either using webmail or by using a mail program using either POP[1] or IMAP[2]. In order to check mail, you must always identify yourself and authenticate with a password. Sending mail, on the other hand, used to be easier; some hosts used to relay mail from any address to any address. In the age of spam, this is no longer possible and many large ISPs have switched their SMTP[3] settings to require authentication... [More]