If you use iCal as your calendar app, you might have noticed that each view (day, week, month) retains its own size. So when you switch from week view to month view, the entire window changes size. If you are like me, you hate this. You may have even tried to get each view to be the same size, switching back and forth, carefully adjusting the sizes. But you would do better to quit iCal, then use a text editor (vi, TextEdit, or something else) to look at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist

In this file, you will see lots of stuff, including something like the following:

<key>1-day view window rect</key>
<string>{{15, 33}, {875, 700}}</string>
<key>7-day view window rect</key>
<string>{{15, 33}, {875, 700}}</string>
<key>monthly view window rect</key>
<string>{{15, 33}, {875, 700}}</string>

I copied this out of my iCal.plist, and you'll notice that the numbers are all the same. The number pair "{875, 700}" represents the width and height for each particular view. All you need to do is find each of these entries ("1-day", "7-day", and "monthly") in your own .plist file and set the second pair to be the same thing for all three entries. Save and close the file, relaunch iCal, and all views should now be exactly the same size.

Here is swordfishBob's idea for how computer components should be redesigned to operate, inspired by the ban of calling one drive a "master" and one a "slave". This is taken from his post on slashdot.

Drives should not be dominant and submissive. Nor should any other componentry (also consider Bus Mastering on PCI, or even USB requiring a host to master all devices).

No, all are equal. Any collection of devices with connection should either take turns making the decisions, or should hold a voluntary election where all devices have equal influence.

A seven year old boy was at the center of a courtroom drama last week when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of the boy. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge awarded custody to his aunt. The boy confirmed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and refused to live there. When the judge suggested that he live with his grandparents the boy cried out that they beat him more than anyone. The judge dramatically allowed the boy to choose who should have custody of him. Custody was granted to the All Black rugby team this morning as the boy firmly believes that they are not capable of beating anyone.

This would be neat if you wanted to record some music from your band, but you didn't have enough backup singers. Using Vocaloid, you could create synthesized vocal tracks by simply typing in the text of the lyrics and marking the notes that the voices should sing. Samples available for download here; here's a good one. They don't sound that bad, and you can barely tell that they were generated by a computer.

Computers are built using various components that each play some specific role. One particular component is the hard drive. Most computers have one, and some have more than one. For a standard Intel-based PC (what most people use to run Windows), the addition of a second hard drive means you need to help the computer understand which drive is primary and which is secondary. But it's more than just a hierarchical configuration, as the primary drive will (to some extent) control the secondary drive. The terms used to describe this relationship are Master and Slave. The Master drive would be the primary drive, and if a second drive exists, it would be the Slave and thus controlled by the Master. Well, that's the way things have been for a very long time, but times are changing. Just as janitors are now Custodial Engineers (did they have to study Calculus at some point? Just asking, because every other engineer I know has had to take a few semesters of Calculus), we are now witness to the beginning of the end for "Master/Slave" (to be replaced by what?), thanks to Los Angeles County. See this article at snopes for full details, or this article at CNN.

I can't help but feel like we're collectively taking a huge step backward when people in this country think so hard about things that really don't matter. If it's ok for an individual to take offense to a term that I think is benign, and initiate social change as a result, I would like to state that I'm offended by the person who started this Master/Slave protest, and I would like to have that person banned from existence because I am uncomfortable knowing that person is running around my country taking offense at silly things. Should we ban the use of a mouse because it insults those without hands? Perhaps we could come up with a better name for "computer memory" (aka "ram"), because it might be offensive to people who are extremely forgetful. Sadly, there's a fine line between the true story of L.A. County banning the use of "Master/Slave", and humorous fiction from The Onion.

You'll probably find this post on slashdot amusing if you've studied calculus. I enjoyed it immensely, and only wish I had been present to see the event myself.

How could you get into college without being accepted? We talked to a friend tonight who told us an amusing story about a guy he knew in college who managed to pull it off. Basically, this guy applied as an undergraduate to U.T. Austin. After some time passed, he received a letter of acceptance into the university. Pretty normal stuff. But after more time passed, he received another letter informing him that the original letter he already received was invalid, thanks to a computer malfunction. Even though he received a letter of acceptance, he had not actually been accepted into the university. That stinks, right? I mean, you think you got in, but then you find out later that you didn't get in. So what do you do next?

The guy figures he's got nothing to lose, and on day one of the new semester he goes into the registrar's office, frantic, waving his acceptance letter around, blabbering about how he can't register for any classes. He showed his letter of acceptance to the registrar clerk (mind you, this was the invalid, computer glitch acceptance letter), and went on and on about he couldn't register for any classes, even though he applied and had this letter. The lady told him not to worry, and simply updated his record in the university computer system. Problem solved.

He went on to register for classes that day, and the following semester. Several years later, he received a degree. And all of it happened without ever being accepted in the first place.

You can take this quiz to see how you much you really know about 80's music. Yeah, yeah, 80's music sucks, I can already hear it. Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Hall & Oates, Tina Turner, Robert Palmer, ... they're all just a bunch of chumps, right? You didn't really listen to any of their songs, did ya? Nah, of course ya didn't. <begin reality now> Give yourself 10-20 minutes to take the test, and see if you can beat my score of 115 (no, I didn't cheat, I just have an altogether too vivid memory of music, which is sadly inclusive of 80's stuff).

Sample questions:
#9. She blinded me with _____.*
#30. Wet ______ ______ , she's waiting, his car is warm and dry.

*Note: this is probably among the easiest questions on the test, so if you're stumped by it you might consider saving the 10-20 minutes and simply accepting a score of "0" right now.

A friend of mine had to go to a meeting today. He said they were supposed to talk about some software that he wrote, and the meeting ended up taking longer than it did for him to write the software in the first place.

Wifey and I were out with a group of friends last night, and the topic of meetings popped up in conversation. One story involved a few guys sending pager notifications to somebody who was sitting in a meeting, while they themselves were watching from another room. When they called the pager, it asked to enter in a phone number so the guy can return your call. They entered an 800 number for some adult phone service, and then sent the code that means "urgent, call back immediately". So the guy gets out his cell phone, excuses himself to everyone in the meeting, and then calls this 800 number. Apparently his reaction was pretty funny to watch from outside of the meeting room, and he continued to entertain by calling the number back and listening again.

Another funny story was about Meeting Bingo. Before the meeting, someone would discreetly pass around special bingo cards for business meetings. Instead of numbers, they had marketing buzzwords and phrases, like "paradigm shift", "integrated solution", "consolidated environment", "business process automation", "unprecedented performance", "value proposition", "e-commerce", "action item", "cutting edge", "enterprise solution", ... I could go on (and on, and on). As the meeting progressed (hmm, does that mean that meetings make progress?), you kept track of your bingo card. Every now and then somebody would blurt out, "Bingo!". I know that these buzzwordy phrases have a useful meaning and save time while trying to communicate business ideas, but when I step out of a meeting and leave the office, the last thing I expect to hear from somebody out on the street would be "integrated solution". Could you imagine how funny that would be at, say, a Starbuck's? They could re-brand the simple cup of coffee as an "integrated solution", since it does include a spill-proof top, as well as a heat-protecting sleeve. It would be great, you could walk in and order a "GLM" (Grande Latte Mocha, of course) from the "Integrated Solutions" menu (aka, "carry out"). Just think of how much time that would save!

Before you dismiss any of this, just read it through. I'm not convinced myself, and I don't intend to convince anyone of anything that I myself do not believe. Having said that, I think there are some interesting findings about the health and safety of plastics, some of which seem rather compelling, others not. What's right? I don't know. What's the bottom line? I don't know that either, but I'd like to find out.

There are many different forms of plastic, and they have different properties and behaviors. Plastics are divided into numbered groups (1 through 7) and should be marked somewhere. It's pretty likely that you could walk into your kitchen right now and find a dozen items that are stored in plastic containers, and each should be marked. Right this minute, I'm drinking a bottle of Ozarka water stored in a #1 plastic container. In general, the consensus is that #5 is considered safest, and #2 and #4 are ok. Group #7 is kinda sketchy, because it consists of plastics that are composites of multiple materials. Within that group you'll find polycarbonate plastics, a great example being a material called Lexan. Lexan is used for all kinds of things, including the molded panels on a Segway scooter, compact discs and DVDs, and Nalgene water bottles.

There's a growing rumble about the safety of using certain plastics to store food and drinks. The health risk is that some plastics slowly leach chemicals into the food or drinks stored within, and those chemicals should not be ingested by humans without risking health issues. What kind of health issues? Good question.

In the past few months I've heard more and more rumblings about the safety hazards of plastics (again, related to food consumption). Do a Google search and look through some of the results yourself. I read through several articles and repeatedly found referenes to this research paper published in the April 2003 issue of Current Biology.

There is increasing concern that exposure to man-made substances that mimic endogenous hormones may adversely affect mammalian reproduction. Although a variety of reproductive complications have been ascribed to compounds with androgenic or estrogenic properties, little attention has been directed at the potential consequences of such exposures to the genetic quality of the gamete. [excerpt from Bisphenol A Exposure Causes Meiotic Aneuploidy in the Female Mouse]

Summary: the lab crew accidentally discovered the relationship bewteen BPA and genetic abnormalities in mice. One of the lab workers washed the mouse cages using a harsh detergent, and suddenly the number of chromosomal abnormalities jumped from 1 or 2 percent up to 40 percent. Eventually, the researchers tracked the cause to the polycarbonate plastic cages, and they were able to replicate the same kinds of genetic effects (and with similar rates) by administering BPA directly.

So who's at risk?

A friend of mine developed a particular form of brain cancer that's linked to high estrogen levels. Again, one of the chemicals that is known to leach out of some forms of plastic is Bisphenol-A, which mimics the hormone estrogen. Consequently, plastic is one of the things he's added to his health watch list. Is he just being a health quack? You could probably answer that question yourself. First, we have to insert a tumor into your brain, then show you a good amount of credible evidence showing that estrogen is influencing the growth of that tumor and that plastics leach BPA (which mimics estrogen), and finally we wait and see whether you would take more notice of whether your food is stored in plastic containers.

Theo Colborn, author of Our Stolen Future, says pregnant women and newborns are most at risk for developmental problems from plastics because they have developing endocrine systems. Next in line would be young children, and then women who might get pregnant.

Like many things in modern life, it's difficult to distinguish valid health threats from nonsense. It's an established fact that Americans experience different (and sometimes significantly higher) rates of disease and health problems compared to people in other countries. While it's extremely difficult to produce an explanation for something like high rates of cancer in this country, it seems pretty reasonable to be suspicious of our environment and our way of life. Are plastics to be blamed? Who knows. Could you avoid plastics entirely if you wanted? Probably not - since they're everywhere, in case you haven't already looked. So what then? Keep reading, be aware, and make your own decisions rather than have them made for you.

Very promising news for cancer treatment, and thus should appeal to most of the American population (according to the American Cancer Society's reference information, one out of every two American men and one out of every three American women will have some type of cancer at some point during their lifetime; cancer accounts for 25% of all deaths within the entire country).

A group of graduate students and professors at the University of Calgary made discoveries during the 1990s that something called the reovirus had the ability to kill many types of cancer cells. The nice thing is that the reovirus has almost no other effect on the human body, so the patient doesn't experience the terrible side-effects that are common with treatments like chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Oncolytics is producing Reolysin, the drug based on the reovirus. More info available from their faq.

"... and the owner is a mental midget, with the IQ of a fence post..."

Listening to Tom "I don't live here, I'm just here for the ladies" Waits. Trying to concentrate on something else (like work) with this stuff playing in the background is like being half-asleep, drifting in and out of the dream world, and every now and then I get kinda disoriented and wonder what the hell I just heard. I've got a crazy mix going on right now from Asylum Years, Beautiful Maladies, Blue Valentine, Small Change, Swordfishtrombones, and The Early Years.