May 2009 Archives

And another thing that makes me rigorously angry about the California Supreme Court's decision and much of the work of the Bush administration: this is classic religious persecution--not where the religious are persecuted, but where those who do not share narrowly defined religious beliefs are forced to live within their context regardless.

Religious ideology typically is rather narrow and highly defined. If people, on their own accord choose to adopt and live by a set of narrowly defined religious ideas, they should be allowed to do so, as long as their doing so is not hurting others. (This horrid, current example of a parent refusing chemotherapy for her young teenager (13) who would otherwise have a 95% cure rate if treated now, because of her religious objections, is a classic example of when a person's religious beliefs must be curtailed by the state. Her narrowly defined "values" are literally going to kill her child. This is immoral and intolerable.)

To otherwise deny a person the practice of their religion is persecution. But, to allow people to force others to live by their narrowly defined religious beliefs when they do not share them, in fact, may fully find them loathsome, is the very religious persecution this nation was founded to escape and prevent.

And one final thought on this matter, at least for now <smile>, that some 18,000 gay couples can remain legally married while the court makes legal marriage impossible for any other gay people utterly makes no sense at all. This just flies in the face of horse sense. Because of a well-funded religiously-based effort, the state of California has stripped away the civil rights of an entire group of people that are defenseless to protect themselves. Let's not redefine words. This is discrimination. This is religious persecution. This is wrong.

As child I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears ministers standing in the pulpit spewing hatred against black people. I heard them talk about the Bible's endorsement of slavery. I heard them say that slaves were to serve their masters as part of God's plan. I heard them rail against civil rights for blacks and against the evil of interracial marriage.

Yes, I actually witnessed this myself growing up in the conservative religious south. Maybe this is why I am so opposed to all forms of discrimination today. These experiences were so distasteful to a young child.

I recall seeing black people for the first time on the beaches, it was during a Blue Angels show on the island of Pensacola Beach. I was so surprised, I asked my father why I hadn't seen black people on the beach before, assuming they just didn't like the heat and the humidity. He told a then very young Tim about a new law that was passed that forced a change in the local laws that had banned black people from the beaches. What?! A law had banned black people from going to the beach?!

I still marvel that today, in the 21st century, religion is used to deny people rights. God is still used as a tool to promote hatred, ignorance, intolerance, and sheer discrimination. The ugly face of evil is painted holy with a sanctified white. Today, even though racism certainly still exists in this land, the battle for respect and equality is being waged against a less visible group: gay people.

I am astounded and deeply saddened that the California Supreme Court would support the notion that Ken Star promoted in his arguments to uphold Proposition 8: the majority of people in this state's democracy can vote away any group's civil rights. One of the justices asked Mr. Star, "So you are saying that the people can vote to remove freedom of speech?" To which Mr. Star responded, "Yes."

Perhaps next November Californians should pass a proposition banning all non-white people from going to the beach?

The court had the opportunity to do what was right, to take a stand for civil rights. They failed in their duty to give voice to people who have no voice.

Photo credit: Cafe for White Only by jonnyphoto at Fickr. Click the photo to see the large version to read the sign on the door.

I've mentioned before on this blog, and those who know me are already aware of my very conservative upbringing—in fact, ultra conservative would not at all be an over statement. The conservatives of my youth were people who committed themselves to always doing what they believed was right, no matter what it cost them. They were fiscally conservative. They practiced being kind to the less fortunate and helping others. For the most part these were generous people of little means. They spent a good bit of time and energy trying to get others to join their cause. They lived their faith more emotionally than intellectually.

Times have changed, really changed.

Now, according to a recent survey by the Pew Foundation, the fundamentalist conservatives overwhelming support torturing other human beings. The conservative movement controlled this nation under the Bush administration and spent the nation into complete bankruptcy. The ultra conservative power base practiced excess and greed at the outrageous expense of others and have brought the world to the brink of financial collapse. They have been the masters of fear.

This church movement has become fat, arrogant, and hateful, only caring about themselves. For all of their ballyhooing about the redefinition of words, they themselves have committed the worst atrocity of all: they have completely redefined evil to be good and good to be evil. They lived short-sightedly, for today, for themselves. They care more about words than they care about people. They care more about themselves, their power, their financial empires than they care about their words. They really don't seem to care so much any more if others join their case or not, unless they have means, as long as they can force others to live their values regardless of whether they believe them or not. Honesty and integrity no longer seem to matter to them, just power and influence over others and having lots of nice things.

Let me be clear: I want nothing to do with this new brand of conservatism. They are the bad guys.

And by design, I am referring to ease of use as well, which must be the product of careful, thoughtful design.

Tonight I had dinner with Steve. We had talked about going to the Outback Steakhouse but decided on another location, with which we were familiar, for steak. I had been to the Outback Steakhouse at least nine months ago, but haven't a clue where it was.

As we sat down, Steve pulled out his new Blackberry touch-like thing to look up the location of the nearest Outback Steakhouse. He fiddled with it for about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to use the VZ Navigator. I got so frustrated watching him, I got out my iPhone and in a matter of seconds had a map up on the screen, ready to guide me turn by turn. I was represented by the blue pulsing dot that moves in real time. The Outback Steakhouse was the red pin. A line connected the two. Easy.

Steve, not to be outdone, was determined to figure out how to get the VZ Navigator to work so he could find the same Outback. An hour and a half later, he gave up.

As fate would have it, and more than two hours after the ordeal began, he learns, after reading the book I bet, that the VZ Navigator is an additional feature with a monthly service charge that he hasn't purchased. (Or maybe he waded through Verizon's million layer telephone verbal prompting system to wait 30 minutes to talk with the next available customer support provider in India that doesn't speak English too well. Oh, and I especially love how their telephone system repeatedly apologizes to you for the inconvenience and tells you how they value your time and want to provide you with the same quality individual attention they are currently providing other customers. Bull%$@&! Can you tell: I've been in that cue from hell?!)

Bad design. Rotten service plans. Needlessly complicated. When will corporate America ever learn?

I greatly enjoyed all of Dan Brown's books. I suspect one of the reasons I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons so, aside from the fact Dan is an excellent writer, is that I had been to so many of the places about which he writes. (I'm including a couple of pictures I shot of two of the locations featured in Angels and Demons: The Pantheon (above), and a view from atop St. Peter's Basilica (bottom). Just below is a picture, shot just outside The Louvre, of the very spot the challis was hidden in The Da Vinci Code.)

Well, last weekend I went to see Angels and Demons. Faithful to the book, it too is well done, filled with the action, excitement, and great cinematography that make for great entertainment. Highly recommended!

We just had another earthquake less than 3 miles from the house. It was short (just under 3 seconds) and only a 2.7 magnitude about 8 miles deep. The epicenters are all happening in the same area—probably a dozen in the last week.

While the other earthquakes have been basically slow steady rumbles, this one felt more intense and in the middle of it had a real kick that jarred everything. It knocked my computer monitor out of place!

This magnitude 4.1 earthquake was also located in Hawthorne, CA, 4.88 miles from the house--very close to the last epicenter. The depth was 7.5 miles. Maybe that's why it had such a kick to it.

I wonder if they feel worse right on top of the epicenter or out a ways. Interestingly, the deep rumbling sound appeared to be coming from south of here, and Hawthorne is north. Is that because there are mountains just south of me?

The waveform is above. The USGS had the information up on their site when I checked it within a minute of the earthquake. I wonder if it is completely automated? [Update: after reading some on the site, yes. The process is automated. Cool!]

[Again, after reading more, the sheer, or S-wave travels more slowly and is ultimately what is used to measure the magnitude of the quake. I wonder if the jolt I felt today was the S-wave passing through this area? The S-wave is colored green on the waveform to the right, which represents 120 seconds.]

This one, with its jarring jolt was more frightening than any of the others have been. I've got my seismometer running on my iPhone in case we have any aftershocks.

[Update: Apparently we had another earthquake, 2.1 magnitude, 9.9 miles deep, about 1.5 miles from where I'm sitting. The epicenter was across the street from where I had dinner last Sunday. Worse than that: it was only .82 of a mile from one of those huge Chevron gas tanks! But, I didn't feel a thing or thought it was part of the previous earthquake, which seemed to rumble for quite some time.]

By the way, I just love Google Earth and the way the USGS site integrates with it. I can click a link which downloads a KLM file. Double click it and see exactly where the epicenter is. Then I select the measure tool and draw a line from the epicenter to any spot to see how far it is away.

Sounds like a song, doesn't it!

Well, Last night I felt my third and fourth earthquakes since living here in Southern California. I had already fallen asleep but was immediately awakened with the house rumbling. The sound of the earth moving is quite unsettling--more than feeling the house shaking. I wondered if I needed to get out of the house, but there are trees and power lines all around. I assume being outside would be more dangerous. This quake was the first to "cause damage," pictured to the side, here at the house. Of course, I'm being overly dramatic.

A few minutes later was what I believed to be an aftershock, but what is reported as another earthquake.

I immediately checked Twitter to see who was tweeting what: where was the quake, how serious was it, who was being affected? But Twitter was non-responsive. Imagine that! So, after the adrenalin rush passed, i went back to bed.

This morning I learned several things:

1. The epicenter of the earthquake was 4.45 miles from the house. You can see the tiny map below.
2. The quake was a moderate, 4.7-magnitude, quake 9.3 miles below the surface.
3. What I thought was an aftershock (really mildly noticeable) was in fact another earthquake, 3.1 magnitude, 4.02 miles from the house and 7.1 miles deep.
4. As I looked through the USGS earthquake data site for California and Nevada, I'm amazed to notice how many low magnitude earthquakes are happening in this area, even though I don't notice them!
5. Only minor damage reported in the area: see this article.
6. I don't know the degree of difference in magnitude ratings, but they must be significant if a 6.7 in LA in 1994 did $10 billion in damage and killed 60 people.

Well, after hours and hours of retooling all of the CSS files that make timtyson.us look the way it looks (basically starting over again using the CSS code done by Mena Trott as a base starting point.), after rewriting the template files to accomodate the traditional feel of timtyson.us, and after reworking some of the ancillary pages that link from this main page so they too would work with the new CSS statements, my blog is back in business on the new server, using MovableType 4.x, and looking pretty much the way it did before this transition took place.

If you see a mostly white page with content here and there, just click on one of the themes under Pick a Theme in the sidebar. (You may have to find the Pick a Theme section, but it's here.) This should select a CSS file that will control the look of my blog in your browser. You should only have to do that once.

I haven't tested this at all in Internet Explorer as I just frankly hate that issue riddled browser on Windows.

You will notice the blog design is considerably wider. I added a few little additional touches here and there (like the seagull next to the post titles in the Manhattan Beach theme along with other post ornaments in other themes, the large rotating pictures on every page, et. al.).

You will find links here and there that do not work—mostly on the ancillary pages. I'll get around to cleaning those up later. The content on the ancillary pages will, in time, undergo a significant update. Most of those pages were written about 5 years ago.

So, if you find "issues," let me know. Otherwise, enjoy the new look.

And the photographer had to carry all of that equipment up more than 10 flights of stairs?! Makes me dizzy.

I have personally always found Donald Trump to be rather disgusting, a symbol for greed, heartlessness, and excess. Well, today he reaffirmed my opinion of him. Forget about being honest in the application process. Forego contractual obligations for the narrow special interest groups who would sacrifice the future of a 21 year old girl to achieve their own goals. "The Donald" ignores these matters because, well, he said he found the nude pictures of Ms. California, Carrie Prejean, "very lovely."   

I have never supported the objectification of women. I have always viewed it as degrading to all women everywhere. The entire concept of "beauty pageant" rubs me the wrong way, and I have known several beauty pageant winners personally. But perhaps Donald has given us some insight into the pageant of the future: along with the swimsuit contest will Donald be adding the nude modeling contest as well? He does, after all, own the whole pageant and can, as he so aptly demonstrated against the pageant's sponsors' will, call the final shots.

Would a nude modeling contest as part of the Ms. America pageant also be considered "very lovely" by Mr. Trump?

I've been working with my iTunes library (on and off) for weeks now because Apple's iTunes Plus (referred to now as iTunes +) upgrade process made one hell of a mess out of it. I've recovered as much of my music as is possible at this point.

The iTunes + upgrade process, where for some small amount of money, you can unlock your music, play it on all of your devices, and get a higher quality encode, was initially a download disaster! When I first ran the upgrade process, iTunes automatically deleted all of the originals replacing them with the upgraded music. I was a bit worried about that but had, thank goodness, made a complete backup of my iTunes library before I began the upgrade process. (In fact, I keep 4 historical backups of the iTunes library.)

Then months later, I begin to notice that an album here, an album there, a downloaded movie, didn't play. I thought the files must have gotten corrupted. I replaced the non-playing files the backup copies and all was well. Then I realized that this was not a small issue. I had thousands of files that wouldn't play. The files were sitting (in their entirety) on the hard drive but did not play. Then I recalled that during the upgrade process, once, the downloaded files appeared to download more than once but actually never downloaded at all. I had contacted Apple and they reissued the downloads even though their servers indicated the downloads had been completed. Were these files the ones that were all messed up? Which ones were they?

Well, no, as it turns out, huge numbers of my personal files, that I had ripped years ago from CDs I personally owned, also would no longer play. What a mess. I was most unhappy as it took me literally years to rip my entire CD collection into iTunes. I couldn't find any simple solution. And my old CDs were thrown out in the move to California!

I tried to contact Apple's iTunes support. Well, in Tim's opinion, Apple might as well no longer have iTunes support. Even though I have Apple Care, even though I've been a loyal Apple supporter in good times and in their bad times, I got virtually no support: I got to instant message with a support person for about half a day. After stating that the new version of iTunes had been a disaster, he reissued a download of every file I ever purchased from Apple. But the download "got hung up." It never happened. He told me to wait over night and try again. The next day: nothing.

The next day, Apple's iTunes instant messaging "support" was no longer available. Now I had to send them an email (after having to call them to find the hidden email support link) and wait for 24 - 48 hours for them to reply. What crap!

Finally, all of the music got downloaded. But, oops... Only the music and movies to which they still have rights to distribute through iTunes. Many songs are no longer available on iTunes and therefore no longer available to replace my files that no longer play.

After downloading most of my music, movies, and TV shows, comparing all of the files from my original library to the new downloaded library one by one, going through my backups file by file and comparing them to the new and old libraries, replacing the old protected files with their iTunes + upgrades one at a time, I've finally recovered every file that can be recovered. Interestingly, inexplicably, a significant number of the files that had stopped playing all of a sudden played again! What's with that?

Now, to be fair to Apple, I must also note that many, many files played the wrong song when clicked on. In other words, it was as if the directory information on the hard drive was an absolute train wreck. Maybe the disk drive crashed and burned during one of the iTunes + upgrade processes causing all of this mess. I will never know. But all of the files now live on a new hard drive.

What I do know is that I lost many files in this process, found well over 141 duplicate files (as a result of iTunes rearranging compilations and collections). My library of music went from 9.747 songs to 8,555. My movies went up from 25 to 29. My TV shows went from 770 to 785. My audiobook collection went from 55 down to 49. My iPhone applications remained the same at 114.

Keep your music files backed up multiple times!

Or has this design hit the streets? It's way clever. Tim likes.

Source: Yanko Design

Very clever, creative ad campaign from friends of the earth. Pollution is closer than you think!

One of the things I truly love about extremists [insert the neocon whackos] : the rules never apply to them. They are the ultimate hypocrites. Yes, that's what enrages me about them: the garish hypocrisy they display.

Here's an example or two: Terminating a pregnancy is murder, not providing for the child's care (healthcare, daycare, education, etc.) after s/he is born is justified in every way. Murder is wrong, but killing tens of thousands of innocent people in Iraq at a mindless indefensible whim of an arrogant buffoon is the righteous installation of freedom. Being a responsible global citizen is left-wing socialist anti-American gun-hating liberalism, but torturing people against all international law is taloned patriotism soaring high.

And when you call the arrogant neocon hypocrite on the sheer vulgarity, even indecency, of their tightly held hypocrisy, they always don that tattered robe of "persecution." I guess I would find their ridiculous conduct mildly amusing if their behavior were not so nauseating.

Recent case in point: the "contradict myself in my answer in defense of marriage" Ms. California is taking a huge and deeply personal "stand for her beliefs" and her "integrity as a woman." And the little issue of her posing nude and then lying about it so she would not be disqualified from participating in the Ms. America pageant? How exactly does that fit in with her "integrity as a woman" and "her defending marriage?" Oh, I get it. She's being persecuted for her narrow minded beliefs.

Sheer tosh!

The 21-year-old Miss USA contestant has been the center of controversy since she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question on the pageant stage last month.

"That answer, and my commitment to stand by my beliefs, has since resulted in attacks on me and my integrity as a woman," Prejean said in a news release dated Tuesday.

[Source: Topless photo could cost Prejean pageant crown - CNN.com]

Something about living in glass houses... Maybe posing nude and lying about it wasn't such a good idea. Maybe that just smacks of having no integrity and does little to elevate the position of women or even "defend marriage."

This isn't really persecution. It's simply the light of day shining on hypocrisy--that's all. Get over yourself, Prejean.

The "DNS migration" is simply the association of a URL, a website address, in my case: timtyson.us, with its home on some server out on the world wide web. It's not a complicated thing really. You just have to tell the Domain Name Servers (DNS) on which server, of all the millions of them out there, to go to find a particular web address when a person types it in to their browser.

In brief, these are the steps I followed to migrate servers and upgrade my blogging system at the same time (in case I ever want to do this again):

• I copied all of my ancillary timtyson.us files (images, movies, my photo galleries) that are on my old server account, a server owned by DreamHost that they nicknamed "Ivan," on to a new account on a server owned by mediatemple.
• I uploaded the new MovableType 4.25 blog system onto the mediatemple server.
• I set up a new MySQL database on mediatemple for my timtyson.us blog. (The database contains all of the posts and other critical setup and publishing information that make the blog function properly.)
• I exported my blog's database content from the DreamHost database I had created 5 years ago.
• I installed MT4.25 by telling my new MovableType installation everything about timtyson.us including where to publish my blog on the new server location by using a temporary access domain given to me by mediatemple.
• I imported all of my old database content (which I had exported from the DreamHost database above) into my blog's new mediatemple database.
• I told MovableType 4.25 to rebuild my entire blog using the new server settings and the temporary access domain configurations. At this point I had two complete copies of timtyson.us, but the web only knew about the copy it had been using on the DreamHost server.
• Using the temporary access domain given to me by mediatemple, I conducted a number of tests on the new server installation to be sure it worked. The last step in that test was the previous post through the temporary access domain.
• Since it worked, I told the DNS that now, instead of going to the DreamHost server to find timtyson.us, go to the mediatemple server and use the new installation as my web presence. Since the new MovableType 4.25 installation has a completely different look with the very same content, I could tell when the new server address was beginning to propagate around the world.
• Since that worked, I then edited the MovableType installation to stop publishing on the temporary access domain and begin publishing on the timtyson.us domain name, since the DNS server would now send newly published information to the mediatemple server.
• If this post goes live on timtyson.us, the last step in this process worked!

Things that remain to be done that will follow in time:

• Complete this process for each of the website I manage. (I am well under way with downloading (from DreamHost) and uploading (to mediatemple) all of the files for my other sites.)
• Delete all of the files off of the DreamHost server once I have migrated all of my websites from DreamHost to mediatemple, and close that account. I have less than 2 weeks to get this done, hence the delay in completing the full migration for timtyson.us
• Complete the the timtyson.us migration which includes all of the following steps:
• Install SlideShowPro (SSP) on the mediatemple server. (SSP is the system that publishes my photo galleries, and, like MovableType, requires database creation and data population--no small task.) So right now no one can access the photo galleries at timtyson.us. Sorry.
• Create a database for the SSP installation.
• Turn on the existing photo galleries for timtyson.us
• Rewrite the CSS files that gave timtyson.us its previous look and feel. Since MT 4.25 is so significantly different from MT 3.36, this process will be such a significant reworking of those files (read: time consuming) that I will probably start them more or less from scratch. When this is finished though, timtyson.us should have the same (or improved) appearance and functionality it had before.

I've decided not to upgrade my blogging system for my other websites at this time as that would require a massive time commitment. I'll wait until timtyson.us has been restored to its former glorious self first. Then, I'll know the fastest and most efficient way to upgrade all of my remaining sites. I actually use timtyson.us as a proving ground, a beta test, for everything I do on my other sites. I don't want to run the risk of blowing up the professional sites; so, I run that risk on timtyson.us. :o)

[I have another reason the other sites will not be upgraded to MT4.25 yet... There's an unresolved problem with the new timtyson.us MovableType 4.25 installation: the comments template code (and/or any associated javascript) has a bug in it. As written, clicking on any comment link brings up a new page with banner, sidebar, and footer, but the entry data blinks onto the screen for a second and then goes completely blank in the entry area. Odd! I've found a temporary work around. If anyone knows what the problem is along with a solution, let me know!]

So, once again, fingers crossed as I click "Publish." I actually think this will work!

Well, the ole blog has now been around for 5 years! Seems rather amazing to me actually as life was so different 5 years ago!

Sometimes time passes slowly, other times it flies. I recall setting up my blog for the first time--seems like 20 years ago now! Lots of water under the bridge in the past five years. Lots os change. Many, many miles.

And all of it really has been wonderful actually--with the notable exception of the Republican party destroying America.

So I thought this first new post with timtyson.us hosted on the new mediatemple server account and using a new blogging system (from MovableType 2.x to MovableType 4.25 in those five years) was only fitting.

Now fingers crossed this will actually publish! :o)

Footnote: Not only did it actually post, but it posted in a fraction, a tiny, tiny fraction of the time the DreamHost server and MT 3.36 required for posting! Lovin' it!

In the next 12 - 24 hours some major changes will take place here at timtyson.us. We are talking heavy construction. I've decided to upgrade timtyson.us to MovableType 4.25. I've been using MovableType 3.36. In the past 24 hours I've had a crash lesson in the huge differences between the two.

Additionally, my hosting service contract needs to be renewed in less than two weeks. I've been using DreamHost for years. I've been relatively happy with them through the years. But lately their servers have been running slower and slower and frequently dropping my connections as they attempt to add every human on the planet to one of their server plans. And I must have received a dozen or more emails from them asking me to upgrade my account to a private virtual server (or something like that). The upgrade costs more but provides the user with more server resources. They tell me my websites demand a lot of server resources.

After doing a good bit of reading, I've decided to switch hosting services. I'm in the process of migrating all of the sites I manage to mediatemple. (If for no other reason, mediatemple has an awesome web design team!) So, in the next 12 - 24 hours (give or take a dozen or two), timtyson.us will be hosted on their grid service server farm. I'm hoping for better server response and greater reliability.

Interestingly, one of the mediatemple data centers is less than 5 miles from my house in El Segundo, California. With my fiber connection, transfers have been singeing the wires around here!

So why even bother tell you about this? Well, when I change the DNS setup for timtyson.us, my site may be unavailable for a short period of time as the new DNS information propagates across the world. Not to worry, my site will be back up. The little 4.4 earthquake that just rumbled the house didn't do me in.

And you may also find links that might not work or other unanticipated issues. Let me know when you find an anomaly. I hope to have anticipated most things, but doing two major changes like this at the same time is probably unwise if not completely crazy!

timtyson.us will initially have a completely new look and feel as I rework all of the style sheets that make it appear the way it looks now. The "Pick a Theme" style switcher will initially not work at all. Retooling that code will be the last step in the migration and upgrade process.

So fingers crossed! The transition has already been underway for over 24 hours! I'll start the DNS migration soon! Things will be rough around the edges for a while, I'm sure.