I just watched "Sunshine". This isn't about that.

I know there was another film, maybe 8 years ago, that involved going to the Sun and dropping stages of the spaceship into the Sun with nuclear bombs on them to trigger ... who knows what. Maybe restart the Sun spinning? or restart its nuclear reactions? I'm not sure. One of the characters was a jackass writer (no clue how he got to be an astronaut) who kept making notes to himself on a voice recorder; of course he's one of the ones to die in the end, though not the first.

The film is in the grand tradition of sci-fi based B movies upon horrible science, such as Sunshine (and the plot is laughably similar though the feel is drastically different) and The Core. It's not Solaris.

Anyone got ideas?
asterroc: (xkcd - Binary Heart)
Anyone want to talk me through connecting my Plantronics bluetooth headset to my Mac? My Mac's not discovering it.
I'm going to be in Long Beach for a few days for a wedding in mid-July. I will have a rental car and T$ with me. Any recommendations on things we *must* see/do/eat at while we're there?

The World

May. 10th, 2009 11:06 pm
I'm trying to understand something. Please answer the below questions to the best of your ability.

[Poll #1397877]

ExpandWhat I'm trying to understand - read this AFTER submitting the poll )
asterroc: (doll)
Should college police officers carry guns?

Discuss.
Calling Librarians and Musicians!

When I was in high school I attended a summer camp on Long Island for performing and visual arts called Usdan. I was often in the chorus, and one staple song was Jerusalem - the lyrics are William Blake's "And did those feet in ancient time", originally set to music as a hymn by Sir Hubert Parry (pipe organ and all).

I am trying to find the particular arrangement that we always sang - at a minimum who did the arrangement, ideally a decent recording of it and/or sheet music. This arrangement was for piano and four vocal parts (or at least it was played on piano). The first verse started with the female voices in unison for the first sentence ("And did those feet...), then the male voices in unison for the second sentence ("And was the holy lamb of God..."), and then broke into four parts (either at "And did the countenance divine..." or "And was Jerusalem builded here..."). A similar pattern was used in the chorus (Women: "Bring me my bow..." Men: "Bring me my spear..." Women: "I will not cease..." All: "Till we have built Jerusalem..."), though I may be misremembering who said which lines. The chorus sand a lot of Aaron Copland pieces, so if this was not a Copland piece itself at least I expect the style was similar.

Anyone have a clue who the arrangement was by?
I have 24 .png files that I want to wrap into a single 24-page .pdf file without losing image resolution (as I would if I pasted the .png files into 24 pages of a Word document and then .pdf printed on my Mac). Any way I can do this for free and legally? I currently have access to both PC, Mac, and linux on a very slow computer; I have a slight preference for Mac.
In case you missed it, the BSG "Final Five" theme is a cover of the Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower". From the iTunes snippits, the Dylan original is as miserable as all Dylan, the Hendrix cover is pretty good, and there are a plethora of other versions I didn't listen to. According to Wikipedia, 11 versions in total. iTunes offers 150 versions total, but that includes multiple versions by the same artists.

Ages ago [livejournal.com profile] the_xtina found a page that posted billions and billions of covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in mp3 format. Well now I'm looking for the same for "All Along the Watchtower". Anyone got?
asterroc: (xkcd - Escher)
Google Video is going to cease hosting new videos, so I need a new service to compress and host videos for my classes. Unfortunately Wikipedia's comparison charts of video services doesn't list all the things I want to know about. Here's what I'm looking for; 1-5 are required characteristics, "preferred" are additional characteristics I really want, and "optional" are bonuses.


  1. Unlimited file size (or at least 500MB), unlimited time (or at least 90 min)

  2. Cross-platform compatible

  3. No additional software required for viewing (things like Java, Flash are ok since most computers have them already)

  4. Compresses videos as well as sharing them, so they're faster for students to download on slow internet connections

  5. No bandwidth cap, or 1.5GB/week / 8GB/month minimum.

  6. No account required for viewing (preferred)

  7. I can choose not to display my name/account with videos I post (so I can use the same account for personal use) (preferred)

  8. I can choose to not allow students to find other videos that I posted (ditto the purpose) (preferred)

  9. I can choose to unlist videos I post, so no one but my students with a direct link are likely to find them (for intellectual property reasons) (preferred)

  10. Download of video available (preferred)

  11. Organization of videos into "folders" so I can post a link to the folder and the student can access all videos for that class in one place, and not the videos for other classes (optional)

  12. Tool to upload multiple videos simultaneously (optional)

  13. Upload tool allows me to resume paused or interrupted uploads (optional)



Anything else I should be looking for? Who do you like that has these? Google Video had 1-9. YouTube already fails at #1. I started looking at Vimeo and RapidShare, but don't know much about them. Edit: RapidShare seems a bit sketchy, Vimeo has weekly bandwidth limits below what I need.
asterroc: (xkcd - Escher)
Somebody on my flist posted a program that would let me see where all my memory is being allocated on my Mac. The problem is that I've got only a couple Gigs of HD space left (used 89 Gigs of 93), and I just moved all my document files off onto an external HD, and that was only 2-4 Gigs. So I want to know if the rest are images, audio, programs I don't use, or what. Help!
asterroc: (xkcd - Binary Heart)
I'm looking for a free and/or open source program that will let me edit .pdf files and save them partially filled in and continue them later. Any suggestions?

Edit: I use a Mac.
If I'm not working from a pattern, how do I know how much yarn to get to make a certain item?
I do not use a grill in the bottom of Kappa's cage and above the tray for two reasons: (1) I like her to have the opportunity to forage among the things she drops (both food and foot toys), and (2) it encourages me to change her papers daily since I don't want her foraging in poop and day-old veggies. The problem is that Kappa has learned how to move around the papers on the bottom of her cage. Her favorite game is to slide them right off the edges of the tray and onto the floor outside, dumping half the refuse on the floor outside of her cage, and half onto the tray.

I tried putting the grill back in and she lost many of her favorite treats and foot toys out of reach beneath the grill, and I found myself slipping back to not changing the papers daily since I know that she can't get to the gunk since the grill's in the way - but of course some gunk accumulated atop the grill, so this wasn't healthy for me to do. Then I tried taking the grill back out and putting on a couple of binder clips (they're like metal clothes pins) on the edges of the newsprint, clipping it to the tray, and I swear she figured out not only how to rip the paper, but also how to fold it up into a tent she could burrow under. She's doing friggin' origami!

So now I'm stumped for ideas. How do I get Kappa to not move the papers around so much, without having to put the grill back in, or switch to something like corncob or cedar shavings? (Since both corncob and cedar bedding are neither good for birds [they grow mold easily and spores irritate birds' lungs more than mammals'] nor easy to clean [they'll get thrown even farther than the papers are being thrown now].)

X-posted
I want to knit a hat. I bought circular needles (size 5, 16") and some yarn (100g) - the person at the yarn store suggested how much of it and what size needles to fit it. She also said something about 4.5 stitches per inch I think, but I don't know how to knit to a specific gauge.

I am under the impression that I should start my knitting at the bottom of the hat and work my way to the top, doing slip stitches along the way. How do I know how many stitches to cast on? How do I know how often to do slip stitches? I'd rather not work directly from a pattern, as I tend to get bored doing that, I want more of general guidelines to help me learn to knit things w/o a pattern.
I'm reposting this request for advice b/c I originally posted it on Friday evening, a bad time apparently, and nobody replied, while I'm pretty sure some of my CTY friends here would have advice for me if they'd seen it. So:

http://zandperl.livejournal.com/553712.html

In short, I'm applying for Dean at LAN, SHD, and AMH, and I want advice on who to ask for recommendations, and whether to put union stuff in my resume.
I'm looking for photos that show what the result will be if I do various simple patterns, such as

* K rows only (which should be the same as only P rows)
* K rows alternating with P rows
* K1P1 repeat, flip, K1P1 repeat
* K1P1 repeat, flip, P1K1 repeat

And how do I get cables that go straight up something? I don't mean like braiding, just unbraided cables?

Basically, I've got K and P down now, and I want to make a scarf that doesn't look totally messy (edit: or boring), so I want to know what these different patterns will get me. I guess I could do like three inches of each and have a bizarre scarf like that.
I haven't been following Obama's picks for cabinet members. Someone care to update me? I think I saw Hillary was taking one.

I've also heard that people who have cabinet positions can never successfully run for office again after that. Is this true? If so, why? And why would someone like Clinton take the position then? Please give me the short version, as usual, too long and I lose track of where it started...

Which reminds me, this week I've had two people tell me either that since I teach physics I must be really smart, or else that physics is a really hard subject. Both times I replied in complete honesty that I think history is harder. Politics/current events might be even worse since things change so quickly, at least history's over and done with.
asterroc: (doll)
So I'm applying for a dean position at a nerd camp for this summer, where I'd supervise and support the teachers of various subjects, about which I may or may not have any language. I have taught at this nerdcamp before, 2004-2005, but since there's been a gap (to 2009) I expect that I should fill out a full application. A full application includes 2+ letters of recommendation, one of which should speak to my work with children. So I'm looking for advice on who to ask for these. Application is due Jan 5.

For the "works with children" first letter the deans I worked under at this nerdcamp would be the most recent (call them collectively Choice A). They do not currently work there anymore, they knew me briefly and superficially, and I have not remained in contact with them in any form. I had two people I used in this role the last time applied (2004); of those two I am not in contact with one (but T$ is, call her Choice B), and the other is on my once-a-year mass email list (and I have an old copy of his letter that I could send back to him for revision, call him Choice C). A new option is a colleague of those two with whom I have been in more frequent contact with since then (Choice D). And a last choice (Choice E) is one of my undergraduate advisors with whom I subsequently worked in 2006 at Astrocamp (their mini-nerdcamp, I was nominally a peer of his though of course in practice he was still a mentor); I also have his old letter of recommendation that I could send back for revisions. What's y'all's opinions?

For my second letter I plan to ask my current dean in my current job.

I am considering adding a third (optional) letter from my union president. The plus is that it would paint me in a VERY good light as a person who takes responsibility, provides guidance to near-peers, and could possibly show my abilities to act as an intermediary between faculty and administration. The problem is that it's a union person, and what employer wants to have a union activist in their midst. Should I include this one or no?
I've heard a lot of analysts say that Biden was unusually reserved last night in the debate. (1) Do you have examples of how he usually is? (2) Anyone know why he would've been more reserved than usual?
Oh wise LJ-friends, explain to me this Feds bailing out / buying out the banks thing. Preferably in 3 sentences or less (so as to boil it down to what's most important).

I really do appreciate y'all's ability to boil down these topics I find remarkably complex and filled with too many details for me to grasp, into simple "here's what's important about the thing, and here's what you can ignore" sort of summaries. And I've a tag for them too.

So. Fannie May, Freddie Mac (what's with the names anyway?), and AIG. Three sentences. Go!

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