General

BellSouth Sucks

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For a long time, my DSL service has been very unreliable. As soon as it started raining, the connection would drop and it would go up and down every few minutes until the storm passes.

Today my phone service and DSL suddenly went dead. No dial tone and no DSL service. When I called BellSouth, they told me the problem was with my equipment. I unplugged every device and tested the line, but it was still dead. They can’t get anyone here until Tuesday, which means I’d be without internet service until then, which I require for my work since I telecommute.

Since I already have Comcast Cable, I called them and ordered internet service. They activated it immediately, so I walked to Radio Shack and picked up a cable modem. Less than an hour later, I’m back online.

This cat needs a home

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Gunther (also known as Ernie) is a very friendly Hemingway cat that needs a home badly. He’s already been to the vet and is neutered. I’ve been feeding him for a while and a few other people are also feeding him. He’s been trying to get into my apartment, but I can’t take him in because of my other cats. When he sees me, he rubs against my legs and wants to be petted.

Gunther

MiiEditor.com is down

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It looks like Nintendo shut down Miieditor.com. Their site now shows the following message:

MiiEditor is down
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Luckily I was able to snag the graphics for each page of Mii components a few days ago, which I’m still chopping up and converting to resources that MiiView will composite into an actual mii graphic.

A celestial tribute to Arthur C. Clarke

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Larry Sessions, a columnist for Earth & Sky, has suggested in his blog that the gamma-ray event whose radiation reached us a few hours before Arthur C. Clarke died, and which occurred 7.5 billion years ago, be named the Clarke Event. The outburst, which produced enough visible light to render it a naked-eye object across half the universe, is officially designated GRB 080319B. What more fitting tribute to Clarke than to associate his name with the greatest bang since the big one? (Via Slashdot)

Questions Arising On Mercury In Compact Fluorescents

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this is why I never liked the compact flourescent bulbs.

Their relative energy efficiency is unquestioned. The problem is the mercury — enough in one bulb to contaminate 1,000 gallons of water, even in newer low-mercury bulbs. The EPA has an 11-step cleanup process to follow when you break a CFL in your home. The specialized recycling facilities that are needed are thin on the ground — about one per county in California, one of seven states where it is illegal to dispose of CFLs in the general waste stream. (via Slashdot)

I’ve always been concerned about the mercury content of fluorescent bulbs, since I’ve seen broken bulbs drip mercury. Thankfully I’ve never had to clean one up in my own home, but I’ve seen the mess they make and the difficulty in cleaning up the mercury. Aside from that, I always found the quality of light from CFL bulbs to be poor. They take longer than regular light bulbs to power on and they start to lose brightness after a short time. They also don’t last very long. I prefer halogen bulbs.

R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke

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Arthur C. Clarke, one of the greatest science fiction writers, has died. He’s probably best known for “2001: A Space Odyssey”, which he co-wrote with Stanley Kubrick. Clarke was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

Happy Pi Day

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Today, the 14th of March, is Pi Day 2008. Pi Day is internationally celebrated in honor of the mathematical constant “Pi,” who’s actual value will — now and forever — remain unknown. NeoSmart Technologies has a run-down on the history of Pi, Pi Day, and the significance of Pi and other such “magical numbers” to science and technology. ‘Pi isn’t just a number that you can use to calculate circle-related mathematics, it’s a symbol of something by far greater. Pi is one of many “magic” numbers that are found everywhere — if you know where to look. These magic numbers can’t be explained, they just are. And if you use them right, they make it a lot easier to do a lot of really complicated things… In a way, they’re a testimony to technology and computers (or vice-versa, depending on how you look at it)’. (Via Slashdot)