The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by novalis:

Show all comments by novalis.

Posted on entry A wild and crazy idea: giving the public access to public data ::: September 25, 2009, 07:58 AM:
Josh Jasper, I am the impetus for that Streetsblog post. I'm also one of the cofounders of New York Transit Data, a working group trying to help open up the MTA schedule data. We've had a couple of great meet-ups so far, and I think there's some real momentum in the community about the idea of better and more open transit data. I would love to see some of Making Light's readers at the next meetup.

I can also give a better link for "bus routes down Broadway".

Re #10, there is no need for the MTA to do extra work to massage the data into GTFS (the standard format) -- I have done it already for bus schedules, and should complete subway schedules in the next week or so. My code is released as free software. Also, the MTA apparently uses a proprietary package called HASTUS for at least NYCT bus schedules, and HASTUS can supposedly generate GTFS natively.
Posted on entry Elf Help, a Parlor Bookstore Game ::: June 30, 2009, 09:14 PM:
Growing up: The Iron Dragon's Daughter

Winning friends/influencing people: Bellwether

Crisis of faith: The Sparrow, or perhaps Hell is the Absence of God.
Posted on entry Swine flu and information hygiene ::: April 29, 2009, 01:26 PM:
I estimate it has about a 40% chance of going pandemic, a 59% chance of fizzling like SARS, and a 1% chance of something else entirely.

What information is that estimate based on?
Posted on entry Cornify ::: February 04, 2009, 06:02 PM:
Charlie Stross @#33, I would buy novel that even though I have already been spoiled for it.
Posted on entry Kennedy Assassination ::: November 23, 2008, 05:22 PM:
But is that really where you were?

The study linked above ("Phantom flashbulbs: False recollections of hearing the news about Challenger", in case the Google Books link doesn't work) was one of the key things that destroyed my faith in human beings.
Posted on entry Republican Weirdness ::: October 22, 2008, 09:01 PM:
237 is Camaroon's country code, not its area code. Area codes are only relevant in the North American Numbering Plan (although other countries may have their own area numbering system). 237 is indeed not yet an area code in the US.

Your call did not originate from Camaroon -- if it had, it wouldn't have started with a 1, which is the country code for the US.
Posted on entry Making things, as well as light ::: September 17, 2008, 04:33 PM:
I'm making an occasional restaurant with my fiancée. This means making a lot of mistakes during recipe testing -- but also making a lot of awesome, interesting food. Tonight, I'll be cleaning some sweetbreads and testing some (modified, of course) recipes from the new El Bulli book. And some fricassee.
Posted on entry AP to negotiate with sham "Media Bloggers Association" ::: June 19, 2008, 03:56 PM:
@278, nope. I genuinely couldn't find it. But on reflection, I think I was conflating two articles. Here is one of the ones I was thinking of.

Posted on entry AP to negotiate with sham "Media Bloggers Association" ::: June 19, 2008, 03:31 PM:
I could see myself linking to that image on my blog without any sexist intent, just because I thought it was an amusing statement of how decisively Obama carried the nomination over Hillary—like a house landing on her. Had I done so, then any accusations of sexism would have come as a complete surprise to me.

There is a very good article on this, which I unfortunately cannot find right now.

A lot of people hear "X is sexist", and think, "but I think X, and I'm not a sexist. Therefore X must not be sexist." This usually continues with, "how dare you calling me a sexist?"

Why doesn't the witch comparison raise red flags for you? Perhaps the answer is that you have never considered the actual experience of women in the world. I highly recommend reading some autobiographical works by women who reflect on their experience as women.

I understand that you're probably a busy man, and don't have time to learn anything about how half the world's population lives. As a quick heuristic, I recommend the following: "is there an equivalent version of this with the genders swapped?" If the election had gone the other way, and Obama were portrayed as the Wizard of Oz (the closest male equivalent in Oz), the message would be very different. It's not a perfect heuristic, since you'll find plenty of false equivalences but it's a good start. Hofstadter proposed a related heuristic, which is also interesting, and which Xopher demonstrated above.

If you're not thinking about how women will react at all, why not? Surely if you're going to post something on your blog, you have at least some thought for how your readers will react. Aren't women as important?

OK, so your sexism is of the unconscious sort, rather than Schlafly's intentional sort -- but if you sit there and defend yourself rather than going out and educating yourself, then you're moving in the wrong direction. As for me, I'm trying to move past defensiveness to a place where I've got nothing to defend. But it's a long journey.
Posted on entry AP to negotiate with sham "Media Bloggers Association" ::: June 19, 2008, 01:11 PM:
Ron Coleman is a sexist.

This should not surprise anyone -- most right-wingers are, and Coleman's political views are clearly right-wing. Still, I don't think I would want him as my lawyer.
Posted on entry AP to negotiate with sham "Media Bloggers Association" ::: June 19, 2008, 12:01 PM:
Cox misrepresents the counter-claim process under the DMCA. He says that the counter-claim must be filed in court, and that the content must remain offline until a judge allows it to be returned. This is inaccurate.

In fact, the counter-claim is sent by the person who posted the content to their ISP (in this case, Cadenhead). The ISP sends it on to the copyright holder. If the copyright holder doesn't tell the ISP that they have filed suit within 10 days, the ISP can return the content.

Also, Cox describes the ISP as having "no choice" but to remove the content. This is accurate in context ("to give both sides protections under that law"), but confusing. The ISP does have a choice -- they can decided that they believe the content is non-infringing, and keep it up. They're not then "protected" under the DMCA, but they're within their rights.
Posted on entry Little Brother ::: April 17, 2008, 10:50 AM:
Josh, thanks for lending it to me. I've already convinced one of my co-workers to buy a copy for a kid they know. It really made me miss being more deeply involved in the copyfight. As abi said, the plot rolls right along. But what nobody else has mentioned (perhaps because my reaction was idiosyncratic), was how *depressing* the book was. Because it's very much about the real world, and there is still so much work to be done.
Posted on entry Could lead to goose-stepping ::: April 15, 2008, 02:14 PM:
Avram, re #19: It's not clear that in fact kittens were stomped.. I'm not privileging the testimony of the ATF agents over that of the Lamplughs because they're federal agents. I'm doing so because the Lamplughs have a history of dishonesty.

Still, there are plenty of examples of bad behavior on the part of federal agents.
Posted on entry Making your own fun ::: January 31, 2008, 12:02 AM:
Zendo!

Seven years and a week ago, I met up with a stranger to play Zendo. We're now engaged.
Posted on entry Flying With the Spaghetti Monster ::: November 16, 2007, 05:08 PM:
Eric, that's just a Utah Teapot which was used to stand in for the FSM during test renders. Unfortunately, the wrong version of the render was imported into our universe, so we're stuck with it for now.
Posted on entry That topic ::: November 15, 2007, 08:54 AM:
One could easily imagine an alternate universe in which brtn is an issue of the far left instead of the far right. The idea would be that radical vegans, who in our universe want to extend human rights to animals, also want to extend them back to embryos. It makes a lot of sense -- just look at who the domestic terrorists are now: brtn clnc bombers, and the ELF/SHAC/etc groups.

I hesitate to post this lest I be accused of making a political statement or equivalence. I am not. I'm purely speculating on hypothetical alternate universes. Really.
Posted on entry Some idiot is suing PZ Myers ::: August 21, 2007, 11:26 AM:
Many homeowner's and renter's insurance policies provide coverage for libel suits.

But when I tried to get mine to cover me, they refused -- even though I had specifically asked them about libel coverage at the time I bought my policy. Fortunately, I was never actually sued -- I guess the bad guy's lawyers realized that he couldn't win in New York.

Posted on entry Here's the deal ::: July 25, 2007, 12:28 PM:
Prescription safety goggles are definitely available. A pair of prescription didymium goggles in my (fairly tame) prescription runs about 200 bucks. I haven't gotten one yet because the nonprescription goggles fit over my normal glasses. But I might after a friend of mine got a small chunk of hot glass in her eye while we were blowing together. She's fine, but it was a bit of a scare.

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