PACE - Property Assessed Clean Energy financing for home weatherization is like a magic trick. It's one of those situations where everyone wins, as far as I can tell. Is there any downside to this? Any hidden gotchas I'm not seeing ( Read more... )

I'm tired of being a guinea pig for Computer Science educators. This is now the second introductory Computer Science class I've taken, and it's the second one to have incomplete or brand new course materials.

( CS pedagogy rantings... )

I've been having an interesting experience with my laptop.

I recently sold my 2007 Macbook Pro for an Asus UL-30A. Overall I think it was a good trade, but there are definitely some tradeoffs.

( new laptop rantings )

I never would have thought to look for an EV-designed community in a Florida retirement town. Maybe I shouldn't be; it sounds like a pristine Disney-style Tomorrowland. It does remind me a little of Kim Robinson's utopian California in Pacific Edge. Just add in a bunch of healthy young loons zooming on the windy paths on bicycles among the old ( Read more... )

Alternate Plan as Health Option Muddies Debate - NYTimes.comThis is a news article about the "health care cooperatives" under discussion as an alternative to the government-run public plan. I think the whole thing is stupid. We already have co-ops. Most of the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans are non-profit co-ops. All of them started that way, but ( Read more... )

Editorial - Intel’s Human Rights - NYTimes.comI find it bitterly amusing that a huge company like Intel is claiming to have "human rights". However, the antitrust proceedings are basically worthless because Intel is on its way out anyway. The huge growth market right now is mobile devices, including smartphones, where Intel has very little ( Read more... )

I have some things I'd like to give away or sell. First-come, first-served. Leave a comment if anything interests you. We can figure out shipping and all that jazz later.

HP Laserjet 1100 - black and white laser printer, parallel-port only. It's discontinued, but Windows Vista includes drivers for it. It could use a new roller and toner ( Read more... )

What Bruce Sterling Actually Said About Web 2.0 at Webstock 09 | Beyond The BeyondI love this essay. I've read it before and I just read it again because it's so great. Here's a few excellent excerpts ( Read more... )

My darling lady love, Renee, volunteers for an organization called the Samaritans that runs a 24-7 suicide prevention helpline. This fall, she's participating in a fundraising run/walk for the organization and is asking for donations in honor of a friend of hers who committed suicide four years ago ( Read more... )

A piece of spam made it into my gmail inbox today, a rare occurrence and generally an annoyance. The subject of the message was "Pushing cucumber inside." Now, I know what you're thinking, and I thought the same thing too, but I clicked through out of morbid curiosity ( Read more... )