Netpbm. Converts pretty much any image format you can think of into anything else. Dozens of manipulation tools. Unlike ImageMagick, which is a swiss army knife, Netpbm is a zillion individual programs that each do one thing and use UNIX-style pipelines to combine things together. Back in the day the pipeline approach was valuable to me because I could quickly write a one-time special-purpose image manipulation routine and combine it with all the others.
I am blessed by living in a large suburb with a long history of accommodating cyclists: trails, bicycle lanes, wide sidewalks separated from the biggest arterials where the speed differences are especially dangerous. Yes, there are asshole cyclists. But for every asshole cyclist I see, I see two drivers who insist that the bike lane is a right-hand turn lane whether cyclists are present or not, or who stop at the traffic light completely blocking the crosswalk the pedestrians and cyclists need to cross safely. Last week I was stopped at the light in the clearly marked bike lane, and some idiot came up behind me with their right turn blinker on and honked because I was in their way.
University towns/areas are absolutely the worse. Lots of cyclists. Lots of newbie cyclists. Lots of newbie, young, arrogant, preoccupied, easily-distracted cyclists. Combine that with streets laid out assuming a small number of cars (that would be parked in the alleys), which have become frighteningly narrow as on-street parking ate away at the width. It's a perfect storm. Not that that's an excuse.
Sure. mcain6925 at gmail dot com if it's private; I don't worry much about security on that address, it's easy enough to run down for anyone making an effort.
Yes, I have software to straighten my pictures. Same open-source command-line software package I've used to manipulate images for 20 or so years. Why command line? Because it works exactly the same way on Unix, Linux, Mac OSX, Windows, OS-9, and every other operating system I've had to deal with. Because it's trivially scriptable -- work out the details, then do exactly the same thing on the other 47 files. Because I know what algorithms are being applied. Because it lets me control exactly how many lossy serial encodings get done. So, why didn't I make use of it?
Frustration. This was the first post where I was allowed to use the WordPress post creation tool the editors use. I apologize, deeply and sincerely, to all of the editors over the years who have forced my hand-crafted HTML guest posts into the creation tool. I promise to figure out why the initial published version of my HTML rendered properly on Firefox but reduced the images to roughly 2x2 pixel dots in Safari, and not to repeat that particular mistake (no promises about different mistakes).
Impatience. After two weeks, first at a niece's wedding and then at a granddaughter's birthday, I wanted the post up now (see first count about access to the creation tool). Placeholder images leaning to the left remained in, with an "explanation". Alternatively, call this one laziness.
Pettiness. Would anyone call me on the failure to tidy up the images? Would they be polite? (Yes.)
What can I say? Over the last few years I have been tempted to submit a resume to the Colorado Republicans with a cover letter that says basically, "You should hire me to do tactical planning for you. It's a sure thing that I won't be worse than whoever is doing it for you now."
I don't have any inside information, but I think the Colorado thing is more about local concerns. For contests farther down on the ticket, the party needs the booming population of the leftward-drifting Front Range suburbs north of Douglas County to not think of the Republicans as the party of crazy. There's been enough miscues over the last two or three election cycles that removing the chance of the caucus poll looking whacko is, I think, a sound tactic.
One of this winter's projects is going to be modifying my handlebar/control layout. My neck is not as young as it once was and I'm going to have to make my posture a bit more upright to accommodate it. I've test-ridden a couple of recumbents; unfortunately, the one that I really like costs three times what I paid for my current road bike (although the quality of the build is really lovely).
Along the northern Front Range, there are several tributaries that form the South Platte River that are all about the same size, named "creek" or "river" rather arbitrarily. All of them are roughly comparable in length and natural drainage to the Los Angeles River. More water volume over the course of the year because of (a) actual snow pack, (b) diversions from the west side of the Continental Divide and (c) downstream water delivery obligations.
Why they'll put graffiti in places that are (a) difficult to reach and more importantly (b) where almost no one will see it. Art, political statement, or just vandalism -- why do it where it's so seldom viewed?
Unless you own a significant percentage of that stock, then I bet your voice is heard a bit more loudly.
Or special classes of stock, with many votes per share. That practice used to be rampant in the cable TV industry, where a small number of closely held shares had >50% of the votes. And yes, it's legal. Caveat emptor: the existence of those privileged shares is public knowledge, so you knew what you were getting when you bought your ordinary (powerless) shares.
The cable industry was also full of examples of another share-voting scam. There were large numbers of cross-ownership deals between the cable companies and the content companies. Traced back far enough, there were cases where a majority of the voting shares in large publicly-traded companies were controlled by a handful of people, or even a single individual.
Working in the cable industry made me rather cynical about corporate control.
"Maximize shareholder value" is a pretty tricky phrase. Which shares, the special ones that hold 51% of the votes or the ordinary ones that represent 98% of the capital? Over what time frame? In what form (eg, share price increase versus a steady stream of dividends)? Does that goal justify going farther into the gray areas on accounting? How should other risks be treated?
I seem to recall reading that the concept of "only the shareholders matter" became a thing in the 1960s, starting with Milton Friedman and the rest of the U of C economists. OTOH, since that period also coincides with the beginning of the decline of dividends (which were just as good for the shareholders as a share price increase) and the rise of stock options as compensation (for which dividends are worthless, only the share price matters), it seems to me that in practice the shareholder thing could have been just a ruse the CxOs used so they could loot the company.
As an economist friend says, "If the CEO's compensation plan is an annual salary of a million dollars, an annual bonus of a million stock options that vest over a short period, and a twenty million dollar retirement package if the company is sold, no one should be surprised if the CEO's efforts turn out to look like putting lipstick on the pig for a few years and then selling it." I might add that said CEO is likely to privately root for the Fed to blow asset bubbles, since a 25% increase in the share price due just to the bubble makes the options valuable.
Based on my experience over the years, I feel safe in making the prediction that the year after I die, the whole set of tax-deferred savings vehicles -- 401ks, traditional IRAs, etc -- will be made tax-free. All major shifts in US tax policy are scheduled to take effect the year after they would have benefited Michael Cain. I suspect the Cigarette-Smoking Man is behind it:
When I was ~17 in Nebraska, I was approaching a group of 10-12 bison on foot across open short-grass prairie from downwind. About the time that I got close enough for the bull to start paying attention, it finally got through to even my male teen-aged brain that this was not a smart thing to do.
Since then I've been a big fan of really long lenses for nature pictures.
I won't argue the plus-or-minuses of low rates for very long-term capital gains. I will argue that shorter-term gains should simply be lumped in with "labor" income, much the way that gambling profits are. For the most part that's what trading, and particularly short-term trading, in stocks that pay no or negligible dividends is.
Which is why decisions about culling the animal population should be left to the professionals.
I'm almost unequivocally on the side of the bears here. Also on the side of the rattlesnakes, bull moose and elk, bison, etc. And lightning, which is more likely to kill you in a national park than any of the animals. Not to mention freedom to drive to the parks, which is far more likely to kill you than animals and lightning combined. Most people visiting a national park or national wilderness area won't encounter bears (and most likely will encounter mooching black bears*). Most bear encounters are not fatal. We can afford to have some spaces left where the rules are stacked in favor of the wildlife.
* Often taught bad habits by people feeding them. My own opinion is that anyone caught feeding the animals in a national park should have their visitation privileges removed, immediately and permanently.
@aarondavid
Ah, very different needs then. I go the used book route mostly for odd academic works that I've decided I need on my shelf, usually after reading a copy borrowed through my local library network. So I don't care about most of the things that a dealer or collector would, mostly just intact and clean pages. These days, a PDF version would probably be better for my uses -- searchable, doesn't take up the volume, and overlays allow for copious note jotting.
So can a set of bells laced in your boots, making a reasonable amount of noise as you walk along, and knowing how to behave if you do encounter a bear. Statistically, you're in more danger from lightning in the western national parks than you are from bears. To be honest, I'd worry a lot more about a national park full of people carrying a loaded "big ass caliber gun" than I would about grizzlies. Guns get dropped; people fall; sh*t happens.
In the grizzly piece, I have to wonder who wrote the Park Service's line "It's a national park, not a wildlife preserve." Yellowstone is significantly bigger than the state of Delaware; there are multiple interacting ecosystems; it's one of the sites where we chose to re-introduce northern gray wolves; it's a national park, but it's also a stupendous wildlife preserve once you get away from the roads and day hikers).
When I lived on the East Coast, I discovered that there was a language gap between me and the majority of the people living there: when they said "national park" they had a vision of a something well kept, of modest size, and safe. They had trouble with the idea that even in the maintained portions along the roads in Yellowstone, there were things that could kill you. Even more so with the concept that (a) you could hike for two or three days away from the roads and still be in Yellowstone and (b) once you were away from the roads, there were even more things that could kill you (eg, hypothermia two days away from care is not to be taken lightly).
I've started using thriftbooks and have been quite pleased so far. Prices are good. Their standards on quality ratings seem to be higher than mine -- one of the last ones I got was rated "good", but I think it's somewhere between excellent and barely-touched. Free shipping for orders over $10.
Yes, and as the American public realizes that the quite expensive two-theater forward presences are largely wasted effort, they will be dismantled.
If I were a national leader in Japan, somewhere in the government I would have a group of people looking secretly and in detail at the Israeli option. Japan could put together a nuclear deterrent in a year or less -- they have tons of plutonium stockpiled and rockets suitable for delivery. The rest is straightforward engineering. China would make loud noises, but so long as Japan stayed well clear of the South China Sea, it would just be noise.
I don't disagree with that. But I assert that along several axes -- energy, economy, politics, personnel, weapons systems, allies -- the costs of maintaining effective global reach will be relatively too expensive. How many places are there in the world today where the US almost certainly wouldn't be able to pull off an invasion and occupation? How many more/less do you think there will be in 25 years?
I look at what is going on in Europe (and Asia) and I find myself suspicious that the Big Breakup will be kicked down the road a ways by the violence that is going to erupt out there.
I have a bet with Kolohe, dated 5/30/2014, that 25 years from that point the US will no longer be a global conventional superpower.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Weekday Morning Cult Service”
Netpbm. Converts pretty much any image format you can think of into anything else. Dozens of manipulation tools. Unlike ImageMagick, which is a swiss army knife, Netpbm is a zillion individual programs that each do one thing and use UNIX-style pipelines to combine things together. Back in the day the pipeline approach was valuable to me because I could quickly write a one-time special-purpose image manipulation routine and combine it with all the others.
"
I am blessed by living in a large suburb with a long history of accommodating cyclists: trails, bicycle lanes, wide sidewalks separated from the biggest arterials where the speed differences are especially dangerous. Yes, there are asshole cyclists. But for every asshole cyclist I see, I see two drivers who insist that the bike lane is a right-hand turn lane whether cyclists are present or not, or who stop at the traffic light completely blocking the crosswalk the pedestrians and cyclists need to cross safely. Last week I was stopped at the light in the clearly marked bike lane, and some idiot came up behind me with their right turn blinker on and honked because I was in their way.
"
University towns/areas are absolutely the worse. Lots of cyclists. Lots of newbie cyclists. Lots of newbie, young, arrogant, preoccupied, easily-distracted cyclists. Combine that with streets laid out assuming a small number of cars (that would be parked in the alleys), which have become frighteningly narrow as on-street parking ate away at the width. It's a perfect storm. Not that that's an excuse.
On “Divining Day”
Sure. mcain6925 at gmail dot com if it's private; I don't worry much about security on that address, it's easy enough to run down for anyone making an effort.
On “Weekday Morning Cult Service”
@ck-macleod
Guilty, on several charges.
Yes, I have software to straighten my pictures. Same open-source command-line software package I've used to manipulate images for 20 or so years. Why command line? Because it works exactly the same way on Unix, Linux, Mac OSX, Windows, OS-9, and every other operating system I've had to deal with. Because it's trivially scriptable -- work out the details, then do exactly the same thing on the other 47 files. Because I know what algorithms are being applied. Because it lets me control exactly how many lossy serial encodings get done. So, why didn't I make use of it?
Frustration. This was the first post where I was allowed to use the WordPress post creation tool the editors use. I apologize, deeply and sincerely, to all of the editors over the years who have forced my hand-crafted HTML guest posts into the creation tool. I promise to figure out why the initial published version of my HTML rendered properly on Firefox but reduced the images to roughly 2x2 pixel dots in Safari, and not to repeat that particular mistake (no promises about different mistakes).
Impatience. After two weeks, first at a niece's wedding and then at a granddaughter's birthday, I wanted the post up now (see first count about access to the creation tool). Placeholder images leaning to the left remained in, with an "explanation". Alternatively, call this one laziness.
Pettiness. Would anyone call me on the failure to tidy up the images? Would they be polite? (Yes.)
On “Divining Day”
What can I say? Over the last few years I have been tempted to submit a resume to the Colorado Republicans with a cover letter that says basically, "You should hire me to do tactical planning for you. It's a sure thing that I won't be worse than whoever is doing it for you now."
"
I don't have any inside information, but I think the Colorado thing is more about local concerns. For contests farther down on the ticket, the party needs the booming population of the leftward-drifting Front Range suburbs north of Douglas County to not think of the Republicans as the party of crazy. There's been enough miscues over the last two or three election cycles that removing the chance of the caucus poll looking whacko is, I think, a sound tactic.
On “Weekday Morning Cult Service”
One of this winter's projects is going to be modifying my handlebar/control layout. My neck is not as young as it once was and I'm going to have to make my posture a bit more upright to accommodate it. I've test-ridden a couple of recumbents; unfortunately, the one that I really like costs three times what I paid for my current road bike (although the quality of the build is really lovely).
"
Along the northern Front Range, there are several tributaries that form the South Platte River that are all about the same size, named "creek" or "river" rather arbitrarily. All of them are roughly comparable in length and natural drainage to the Los Angeles River. More water volume over the course of the year because of (a) actual snow pack, (b) diversions from the west side of the Continental Divide and (c) downstream water delivery obligations.
"
Why they'll put graffiti in places that are (a) difficult to reach and more importantly (b) where almost no one will see it. Art, political statement, or just vandalism -- why do it where it's so seldom viewed?
On “Tod’s Life Lessons For You to Hate On #3: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner”
Unless you own a significant percentage of that stock, then I bet your voice is heard a bit more loudly.
Or special classes of stock, with many votes per share. That practice used to be rampant in the cable TV industry, where a small number of closely held shares had >50% of the votes. And yes, it's legal. Caveat emptor: the existence of those privileged shares is public knowledge, so you knew what you were getting when you bought your ordinary (powerless) shares.
The cable industry was also full of examples of another share-voting scam. There were large numbers of cross-ownership deals between the cable companies and the content companies. Traced back far enough, there were cases where a majority of the voting shares in large publicly-traded companies were controlled by a handful of people, or even a single individual.
Working in the cable industry made me rather cynical about corporate control.
"
"Maximize shareholder value" is a pretty tricky phrase. Which shares, the special ones that hold 51% of the votes or the ordinary ones that represent 98% of the capital? Over what time frame? In what form (eg, share price increase versus a steady stream of dividends)? Does that goal justify going farther into the gray areas on accounting? How should other risks be treated?
"
I seem to recall reading that the concept of "only the shareholders matter" became a thing in the 1960s, starting with Milton Friedman and the rest of the U of C economists. OTOH, since that period also coincides with the beginning of the decline of dividends (which were just as good for the shareholders as a share price increase) and the rise of stock options as compensation (for which dividends are worthless, only the share price matters), it seems to me that in practice the shareholder thing could have been just a ruse the CxOs used so they could loot the company.
As an economist friend says, "If the CEO's compensation plan is an annual salary of a million dollars, an annual bonus of a million stock options that vest over a short period, and a twenty million dollar retirement package if the company is sold, no one should be surprised if the CEO's efforts turn out to look like putting lipstick on the pig for a few years and then selling it." I might add that said CEO is likely to privately root for the Fed to blow asset bubbles, since a 25% increase in the share price due just to the bubble makes the options valuable.
On “My morning read; global economics, leadership, and sex”
Based on my experience over the years, I feel safe in making the prediction that the year after I die, the whole set of tax-deferred savings vehicles -- 401ks, traditional IRAs, etc -- will be made tax-free. All major shifts in US tax policy are scheduled to take effect the year after they would have benefited Michael Cain. I suspect the Cigarette-Smoking Man is behind it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dh2lkzkPnY
On “Questions From the Headlines”
When I was ~17 in Nebraska, I was approaching a group of 10-12 bison on foot across open short-grass prairie from downwind. About the time that I got close enough for the bull to start paying attention, it finally got through to even my male teen-aged brain that this was not a smart thing to do.
Since then I've been a big fan of really long lenses for nature pictures.
On “My morning read; global economics, leadership, and sex”
I won't argue the plus-or-minuses of low rates for very long-term capital gains. I will argue that shorter-term gains should simply be lumped in with "labor" income, much the way that gambling profits are. For the most part that's what trading, and particularly short-term trading, in stocks that pay no or negligible dividends is.
On “Questions From the Headlines”
This divide seems grey to me.
Which is why decisions about culling the animal population should be left to the professionals.
I'm almost unequivocally on the side of the bears here. Also on the side of the rattlesnakes, bull moose and elk, bison, etc. And lightning, which is more likely to kill you in a national park than any of the animals. Not to mention freedom to drive to the parks, which is far more likely to kill you than animals and lightning combined. Most people visiting a national park or national wilderness area won't encounter bears (and most likely will encounter mooching black bears*). Most bear encounters are not fatal. We can afford to have some spaces left where the rules are stacked in favor of the wildlife.
* Often taught bad habits by people feeding them. My own opinion is that anyone caught feeding the animals in a national park should have their visitation privileges removed, immediately and permanently.
On “Sunday!”
@aarondavid
Ah, very different needs then. I go the used book route mostly for odd academic works that I've decided I need on my shelf, usually after reading a copy borrowed through my local library network. So I don't care about most of the things that a dealer or collector would, mostly just intact and clean pages. These days, a PDF version would probably be better for my uses -- searchable, doesn't take up the volume, and overlays allow for copious note jotting.
On “Questions From the Headlines”
So can a set of bells laced in your boots, making a reasonable amount of noise as you walk along, and knowing how to behave if you do encounter a bear. Statistically, you're in more danger from lightning in the western national parks than you are from bears. To be honest, I'd worry a lot more about a national park full of people carrying a loaded "big ass caliber gun" than I would about grizzlies. Guns get dropped; people fall; sh*t happens.
"
In the grizzly piece, I have to wonder who wrote the Park Service's line "It's a national park, not a wildlife preserve." Yellowstone is significantly bigger than the state of Delaware; there are multiple interacting ecosystems; it's one of the sites where we chose to re-introduce northern gray wolves; it's a national park, but it's also a stupendous wildlife preserve once you get away from the roads and day hikers).
When I lived on the East Coast, I discovered that there was a language gap between me and the majority of the people living there: when they said "national park" they had a vision of a something well kept, of modest size, and safe. They had trouble with the idea that even in the maintained portions along the roads in Yellowstone, there were things that could kill you. Even more so with the concept that (a) you could hike for two or three days away from the roads and still be in Yellowstone and (b) once you were away from the roads, there were even more things that could kill you (eg, hypothermia two days away from care is not to be taken lightly).
On “Sunday!”
Also, used books.
I've started using thriftbooks and have been quite pleased so far. Prices are good. Their standards on quality ratings seem to be higher than mine -- one of the last ones I got was rated "good", but I think it's somewhere between excellent and barely-touched. Free shipping for orders over $10.
"
Caligula, without the explicit sex?
On “Without a Country”
Yes, and as the American public realizes that the quite expensive two-theater forward presences are largely wasted effort, they will be dismantled.
If I were a national leader in Japan, somewhere in the government I would have a group of people looking secretly and in detail at the Israeli option. Japan could put together a nuclear deterrent in a year or less -- they have tons of plutonium stockpiled and rockets suitable for delivery. The rest is straightforward engineering. China would make loud noises, but so long as Japan stayed well clear of the South China Sea, it would just be noise.
"
I don't disagree with that. But I assert that along several axes -- energy, economy, politics, personnel, weapons systems, allies -- the costs of maintaining effective global reach will be relatively too expensive. How many places are there in the world today where the US almost certainly wouldn't be able to pull off an invasion and occupation? How many more/less do you think there will be in 25 years?
"
I look at what is going on in Europe (and Asia) and I find myself suspicious that the Big Breakup will be kicked down the road a ways by the violence that is going to erupt out there.
I have a bet with Kolohe, dated 5/30/2014, that 25 years from that point the US will no longer be a global conventional superpower.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.