Butch Howard's WebLog

One last flick of the experimental lash. Technorati Profile

This experiment has ended. It is a lot of tedious work to write a blog by hand. Coding all of the HTML for all of the entries, manually managing the archives, and all that jazz is stuff that software should do for you. Since I am not in the mood to write a blogging package from scratch, I have switched to using Blogger.

This is where all the new stuff (what there is of it) is being written.

These stories are about my wife's great uncle (Uncle Gene). She is highly irritated that his will was not followed.

It is also sad that many of Gene's accomplishments and talents were not covered in any of the stories about his death. Of course, being a life long naturist and wanting to be buried nude is more interesting in today's media than someone who served with General Eisenhower in WWII as a aide in the Little Red School House. One of the stories did mention his love for music, but did not say how he could replay just about anything after hearing it just once. The story of how he had to leave the love of his life in Europe after the war because his family spent the money he had been sending home to save to being her over after the war would have been worth a book and a movie.

Link Via

Here is an experiment using the Google Maps API.

Irrespective of the disclaimer at the top of this page, I have decided to make a note regarding the dearth of posts. I have not been posting. That should clear things up.

I am starting to feel a bit guilty since I now have a couple more sites linking to me. That's kind of cool since I write nothing worth reading. I really am working myself up to writing more often. Also, as a learning exercise in PHP/mySQL web development, I am creating a minimal blog system. More on that later.

Thanks for the links you guys.

You're I, Robot!
by Isaac Asimov
While you have established a code of conduct for many generations to follow, your demeanor is rather cold and calculating. Brought up to serve humans, you have promised never to harm them, to follow orders, and to protect yourself. Living up to this code has proved challenging and sometimes even drives you mad. If you were a type of paper, you would be pulp.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

This is not a joke.

This bill, House Bill 175 from the 2003 Geogia Legislature, started as one to " provide for the crime of smoking in a motor vehicle while a child is restrained in a child passenger restraining system " and progressed to "to provide that a person may consume and possess bottled water in a public transit bus, rapid rail car, or rapid rail station".

How does that happen? It is really interesting to combine the legislative history with the history in the press:

Legislative History

Press

Fox News AJC No Smoking Org Decatur Daily

Press for 'Bottled Water' version (I tried several searches)
Press release
This one covers the change

Someone linked to my Weblog! I didn't know about it until I happened to execute that Google search. The website appears to have gone on permanent hiatus in March 2003. He considered me an 'Educator'. Hey, a link is a link...

Update: since moving to my own domain the Google search is: different

the map

create your own visited states map or write about it on the open travel guide

Update: I dumped the image because it was frequently not there.

At some point in the near future, fuel cell technology being developed for automobiles could be used to power our homes.

Another possibility that comes from such a system is the homeowner's ability to power the house from a fuel-cell vehicle. The fuel cell in a typical fuel-cell vehicle would have an output power from 25 kW to more than 100 kW. Because the average home only uses between 2 and 10 kW of electricity, it would be possible to "plug" the car into the home to provide power from the fuel cell using the hydrogen stored on the vehicle.

According to this NYTimes article, I might now have scientific support for kitchen-cleaning procrastination:

Chuck Gerba, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona who has studied bacteria in home kitchens, said that he found that people who had the cleanest-looking kitchens were often the dirtiest. Because "clean" people wipe up so much, they often end up spreading bacteria all over the place. The cleanest kitchens, he said, were in the homes of bachelors, who never wiped up and just put their dirty dishes in the sink.