Thane Plambeck

Second Life becomes Real Life

This video pretty much sums up the experience I had trying out Second Life, except that I flew higher off the ground and kept wondering, "This is it?"

Now I know the answer is "Yes."

How many hours do MSFT marketing people work to develop confusing dialogs like this?

Excel dialog displayed every time I try to save a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file without introducing MSFT-incompatible formatting:

your file.csv may contain features that are not compatible with CSV (Comma delimited). Do you want to keep the workbook in this format?

Then the helpful additional instructions:

1) To keep this format, which leaves out any incompatible features, click Yes.
2) To preserve the features, click No. Then save a copy in the latest Excel format.
3) To see what might be lost, click Help.

* * *
Answer: CLICK YES to stop Excel from rescuing me from "incompatible" features and saving my perfectly fine CSV file from a formatting that's truly unusable with other software!

Stanford Hills fire

Stanford Hills fire
Originally uploaded by Joe_13

Inbox: No Camp for You

Our summer week at Fallen Leaf Lake near South Lake Tahoe is now an official casualty of the Angora Fire:

Sadly we need to cancel week 4 at Sierra Camp. Yesterday morning, both highway 50 and 89 were open, and power and phones had been restored at Camp. Dave Bunnett reported yesterday that the winds then picked up significantly yesterday afternoon, and the fire that was burning on a portion of Gardner Mountain spread toward South Lake Tahoe. At present is not contained on one side of Garnder Mountain that is relatively close to the north end of Fallen Leaf Lake. Dave Bunnett told me at 7am this morning that Fallen Leaf Lake and Camp are fine, but that winds predicted for the north end of Fallen Leaf Lake may be 10 knots, with gusts up to 35-40 knots, and humidity at 10%. Because the fire is not contained near Fallen Leaf Lake, and the wind is predicted to continue for the next three days, the earliest Fallen Leaf Road will be open is Monday, July 2nd. Once the road is open, and the area is declared safe, Sierra Camp staff will return to camp. They will then need a few days to clean camp and bring in new provisions. As a result, Camp will not be ready for guests until the end of next week. We apologize for the last minute change to your plans.

Papilio rutulus

Owen spotted this butterfly fluttering over the agapanthus in our front yard. It's not a "Monarch" as I excitedly described it, but the Western Tiger Swallowtail, instead:

It waited patiently for me to retrieve my good camera.

Strawman in Jeopardy

dishfire-052
Originally uploaded by thane

A few minutes after I took this photo, Owen and I watched as firefighters bulldozed the front edge of this part of today's Stanford Dish fire before it reached the sculpture.

Double Hmm—

dishfire-097
Originally uploaded by thane

Now today there was another fire, closer to home, at the Stanford Dish.

Owen and I slipped passed the roadblocks to take this photo.

Hmmm—

Lake Tahoe Forest Fire 2
Originally uploaded by OrderlyRoom

Maybe we're not going to Stanford Sierra Camp next week after all.

The Meaning of Life

If you were to ask what provides some meaning in life nowadays for a great many people, especially men, you could do worse than reply 'football.' Not many of them perhaps would be willing to admit as much; but sport stands in for all those noble causes—religious faith, national sovereignty, personal honor, ethnic identity—for which, over the centuries, people have been prepared to go to their deaths. It is sport, not religion, which is now the opium of the people.

The Meaning of Life

yourmorals.org questionnaire

I haven't tried it yet, but according to Nature magazine (14 June 2007, "The depths of disgust", page 768), this questionnaire promises to ask such delightful questions as

"Even if I was hungry, I would not drink a bowl of my favorite soup if had been stirred by a used but thoroughly washed fly swatter."

and

"I might be willing to try eating monkey meat, under some circumstances."

[ My sentiments exactly—tartare or nicely seared? ]

http://yourmorals.org/

Tailfins

The Triumph of the Fungi

Neil Sloane writes:

Funsters, I just read a truly great—funny, scholarly and deeply scary—book called The Triumph of the Fungi—A Rotten History by Nicholas P. Money. It's the kind of book you come across every ten years that you want to buy copies of for all your friends. It got a great review in Nature. It's scary in the way that The Hot Zone was: rusts and molds could easily destroy civilisation.

Sounds like it might make a good movie. I'm reminded that I still want to need to figure out a way to see The Host.

Anne Frank musical, Secret Service, 1937 Ford Roadster

1) At the University Club:

THANE: So, Julian, are you in any interesting plays now?

JULIAN: No, but I'm taking an acting class. And I'm writing a musical.

THANE: About what?

JULIAN: Anne Frank.

THANE: Hmmm—hard to write happy songs about that, I suppose? So, sad songs instead?

JULIAN: Yes, couldn't have "Anne Frank! Anne Frank!" [dances around like a vaudeville actor. Owen starts laughing].

2) Driving to the Stanford campus where Cole and Owen wanted to see a vintage auto show, we saw police cars and secret service guys outside Steve Jobs's house (maybe—at least they had earphones and dark suits). Barack or Hillary? When I waved to the the secret service guys, they waved back—so, I guessed Barack. But now that I look on his web site, he's in San Antonio today, and it looks like Hillary is somewhere else, too. Maybe just a high-profile iPhone customer.

3) At the auto show, a 1937 Ford Roadster

Did they really look like that, with that grill I wonder? "Just like in Tintin," Cole said.

Double Bubble

Robert Handa

Robert Handa
Originally uploaded by thane

Coming out of the burrito place, Owen and I came across Robert Handa getting ready to do a live TV broadcast for a San Jose TV station. I'd happened to park my car next to their TV van.

I think it was a story on bicycle safety.

"Here comes our guy to be interviewed," he said as I walked up.

"Just practicing?" I said.

"Might as well interview him..." said the TV camera guy.

But I ducked into the car and took this photo instead.

Basketball camp

Basketball camp
Originally uploaded by thane

Palo Alto Little League championship game

Palo Alto Little League championship game
Originally uploaded by thane

Feats of Clay

DSC00900
Originally uploaded by thane

Another old photo set (from June 2003) I just uploaded to flickr.

Mascarpone

Encountered in an unfavorable (foreign language) context: Mascarpone.

Mascarpone?

Is it botched Italian for:

1) A stock car racing fan?
2) Eyelash darkener?

No. One of the disservices of Google is that I'm denied the pleasure of puzzling over words I don't know during the days (or weeks) before I'll stoop to pick up a dictionary and look them up. It's just too easy to type them in.

For example: Name four different Secretaries of State under Harry S Truman.

I dare you—don't click this to Google it, just agonize over it.

Scoring:

Sec. of State #1, 50pts.
Sec. of State #2, 200pts.
Sec. of State #3, 25pts.
Sec. of State #4, 25pts.

You don't need to know what # they are to collect the points. Also: for naming a non Sec. of State, deduct 40pts. My own score: 25+25-40= 10 points (bad guess at #1 for phonetic reasons).

I'm weak on food words.

The Umonhon

I've been telling the kids that all I know about Native Americans are the Nebraska ones I learned about in school, but then I read about the Umoⁿhoⁿ.

"Who are they," I wondered.

I think it's just an improved spelling of "Omaha".

It's actually kind of cool-looking, with the superscripts. I suggest that everyone switch over to this spelling.

But how to pronounce it?