random fluff

On my way to London

mcfadden — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:15:30 -0500

I'm on the way to London for work and I've had an amazing experience going through O'Hare airport. Total time for ticketing, printing of boarding passes, checking of luggage and getting through security? Exactly 10 minutes. That's truly a record, but I think the situation is a result of many ...

New HP MiniNote

mcfadden — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:18:12 -0500

I went ahead and got myself one of the HP MiniNotes that have been so popular on the net. I will say that my initial impressions are that the keyboard is going to take some getting used to and that the screen is one of the smallest and most difficult to read that I can ever remember seeing. But the machine is so small that you can take it anywhere. I plan to put it into a Timbuk2 bag for the time being until I can find a case that makes sense for it.

My Birthday in PI

mcfadden — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:02:23 -0600

Okay, this is fairly obscure, but if you take my birthday as a series of digits (MMDDYY) and look for them in the digits of PI you find them starting in the 21,503rd position after the decimal point.

A Crucial Teenage Moment

mcfadden — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:41:10 -0600

In a moment that is commonplace but still special, my daughter passed her driver's road exam and is a fully qualified member of the driving society. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but in our house -- where one of the parents doesn't drive at all -- it's not just about teenage freedom.

Despite an incredible bout of nerves that kept her awake the night before the test, she passed with flying colors. Her excitement in naturally boundless as mine will be when I see the first insurance bill. Still, she's a good driver and even though I have second thought about adding one more driver to the environmental mix, I'm pretty happy for her. The father's role at the Driver's Licensing Center is to not say too many embarrasing things and watch as future truck drivers fail writen exams for their commercial license. Oh, and pay the Department of Transportation $43 (USD) for a tiny bit of plastic and some ones and zeros in a huge database.

Winning Quickly at Chess

mcfadden — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:48:11 -0600

Currently I'm working my way through John Nunn's book entitled "Winning Quickly at Chess." It is a book that attempts to demonstrate that many people lose at chess early in the game because of some basic flaws in their thinking. I'm going through the book at the rate of about one game a day and entering them into Chess base so that I can go back and forth through the variations.

It's an interesting self-assignment. We'll see if it pays off when I go to play over-the-board or online.

A Link for Keavy

mcfadden — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:42:58 -0600

Here is a link for Keavy.

What I'm Reading -- The Rest is Noise - Listening to the Twentieth Century

mcfadden — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:05:46 -0600

I'm just about finished with The Rest is Noise -- Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross. I'll start by simply recommending it to anyone interested in classical music. As a cultural narrative, it's a triumph because it puts the fundamental crisis of 20th Century music in nearly purely cultural (rather than musical) terms. This means that almost anyone can read and enjoy this history without having to have a detailed musical background.

What Ross gets right, it seems to me, is the subtle connection between the end of possibility for the traditional strain of European classical music and the problem of filling the vacuum. Schoenberg and Stravinsky are the early heroes of the book, but they end up tragic figures: overtaken by the forces they have unleashed. Ross also draws another connection that I had never thought about: the connection between musical theater and cabaret in the 1920's and the emergence of jazz, bebop, Broadway and rock in the 1950's. It's interesting how the end of classical music isn't really the "end" but sublimation into other forms.

What reamins is the bombast and nonsense of Boulez, Stockhausen, Xenakis and the Darmstadt School. Ross is particularly good at pointing out the sheer craziness of the Darmstadters wihtout stooping to simply heaping abuse on their silliness.

It's interesting that Britten and Shostakovich are taken together after the 1950's and I learned things about Shostakovich that I had never read in any of the biographies. One wonders what happened to British Music in this period because Ross chooses not to mention Alwyn or Malcolm Arnold as reactions against total modernism.

Still, Ross really delivers and I highly recommend the book. It is at Amazon right now for about 35% off and that's a good value for a book that is going to give anyone interested in Classical Music in the 20th Century many hours of surprising pleasure and new insights. Ross is the music critic of The New Yorker and this success makes me want to seek out his reviews and interviews in that magazine.

Visit to Purdue

mcfadden — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:32:30 -0600

On Friday of this week -- the 29th of February -- Gaelen and I are on the road to Purdue University to sit in on some engineering classes. Gaelen has already been accepted there and is sufficiently interested to go ahead and attend a day of classes. It's something I never did when I was starting out as an undergradualte and, given that Purdue remains one of his favorite schools so far, it makes perfect sense to do.

It's a longish drive -- we'll leave about 4:30 after school gets out and are likely to arrive between 9pm and 10pm. I'll be interested to see if I can make it through the campus tour given that my back is not cooperating with me lately.

Pictures by the "Official" Photographer

mcfadden — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:28:17 -0600

The official -- or, quasi-official!? -- photographer for my brother's retirement ceremony has posted some pictures from the event. Here is a link to the website that has the pictures. I found it a little bit slow, but that's okay I suppose.

The Clueless at IGF

mcfadden — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:02:56 -0600

Sorry to have missed the Internet Governance Forum. It's a chance for Brazil to experience excessive hot air and public whining. As the conference drew to a close, the Russian representative, Konstantin Novoderejhkin, called on the United Nations secretary-general to create a working group to develop ''practical steps'' for moving Internet governance ''under the control of the international community.''

Why, I wonder? Have things been going that badly? Not happy with ICANN, IANA or the IETF? Then why not show up at those meetings and contribute positively rather than whine from the sidelines?

MEXICO 2007 World Chess Championship

mcfadden — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 22:34:28 -0500

You won't find out about it on CNN but the World Chess Championship is underway in Mexico City. The official FIDE page is available here:

Link to MEXICO 2007 World Chess Championship - World Chess Championship 2007

BBC SPORT: N Ireland players brawl on plane

mcfadden — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 22:03:53 -0500

Would it be possible for the West Ham and Sheffield United nonsense to be over? This is faintly ridiculous actually. Now players from the team are actually pretending to be Mike Tyson in Iceland:

Link to BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | N Ireland players brawl on plane

Where Am I?

mcfadden — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:57:23 -0500

Today I'm in the Madison office on the lovely Eastside of Madison. Google has been kind enough to provide a little map of where you can find me today. I'm messing around with this because I'm going to be on the road so much in October that you will need a map to find me.

View Larger Map

Getting Ready for October

mcfadden — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:25:57 -0500

Sounds crazy, but I'll hardly be in Madison anytime in October. There's the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles, a RIPE meeting in Amsterdam, the ARIN meeting in Albuquerque, a meeting with ETNO in Brussels, a BT confab in Washington DC and another BT meeting in London. All in all, a schedule that piles on the frequent flyer miles. I'm learning to pack light (a goal expressed on Leo's Vegoda's blog as well).

Madison Soccer Information

mcfadden — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 06:48:43 -0600

I didn't know about it until this morning, but there is a site dedicated to Madison soccer information.

Closing Down Madison East

mcfadden — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:49:35 -0600

A friend of mine asked me if they ever catch the people who phone in the bomb threats that close down Madison East High School. In fact, I didn't know! But it turns out that they have . . . and, what is even better, the person calling in the ...

History of Cribbage

mcfadden — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:44:13 -0600

Since I play this silly game it was amusing to see a very nice article by the Wisconsin Historical Society on the history of cribbage in Madison.

Can This Really be True?

mcfadden — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:06:21 -0600

UW-Whitewater reports that Madison is the fourth most literate city in the United States. This only goes to show that with enough data to select from, you can use statistics to prove anything. Madison is indeed a very "literate" city -- if you take that to mean the relatively high ...

Not out of the battle just yet...

mcfadden — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:06:49 -0600

They could have collapsed after the horrible draw against Fulham last week, but West Ham came out with all guns blazing away at Newcastle on Saturday. A wonderful goal by Marlon Harewood showed that the strong striker still has the capability to sting. Not long later Carlton Cole scored on ...

FEMA Gone Mad

mcfadden — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 14:15:19 -0600

From the Washington Post . . . "In its latest report, the GAO found that numerous applicants received duplicate rental aid. In one case, FEMA provided free apartments to 10 people in Plano, Tex., while sending them $46,000 for out-of-pocket housing expenses." Your tax dollars at work.

Body Odor Brings Down a Plane

mcfadden — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:00:11 -0600

I'd like to say that this only happens in America, but this is a story that could happen anywhere people are too sensitive to body odor. Having a plane stop because of a passenger fart is an amazing but true story.

IPv4 Addresses by Country

mcfadden — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:37:49 -0600

I'm not sure that the data is really correct, but what if you built a report that analyzed how many addresses were given out to each man, woman and child on a per country basis. That is what this report tried to do.

Euro Notes Disintegrating

mcfadden — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 09:55:12 -0600

I'm not sure why I find this story so funny, but I do. The BBC reports that Euro notes are disintegrating because of drug use. No such report exists for money in the United States. I wonder if that is what they mean by a strong dollar?

Snakes at a Movie

mcfadden — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:07:01 -0500

Life imitates art. Bad art.

Plane Returned to Amsterdam -- Suspicious Passengers

mcfadden — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:02:09 -0500

Here's a report that Northwest Airlines had a flight returned to Amsterdam after some passengers engaged in suspicious behavior. First of all, it's got to be KLM and not Northwest, right? Next, once again, there is no report on what the actual suspicious behavior was by officials. Surely someone who got off flight 42 is angry enought to report what went on!

Eventually . . . Look Ma! No Land Line

mcfadden — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:51:04 -0500

Michigan now has more cell phones than land lines. A report indicates that the number of land lines is shrinking -- so it's not the pace of growth that is being compared. In real terms the number of phone lines with wires is not just shinking but smaller in number than mobile phones.

A Very Nice Float on the Boat

mcfadden — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:41:33 -0500

It was a lovely day in Madison and perfect for a float on the boat with Chris. Haven't seen him since I left UWM, so it was great to catch up. One of the things I noticed is how appealing Madison can be in the summer. We docked at the Memorial Union and scooped up some cheeseburgers and a few brews. Three hours passed as quickly as you can imagine in the Wisconsin sunshine. I did take a picture of the Beetle next to the shore and maybe I'll post that as I get used to Live Writer.

I also notice how few people were on the lake. Okay, it's a Wednesday and the middle of the work week, but the lack of boats -- on a day where the locks on the Yahara were closed -- was quite a shock. I kept wondering where everyone was!

Just One More Reason to Hate Sony

mcfadden — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:53:09 -0500

And I do. I hope they get bought. It turns out that all the trouble that Dell has been having with laptop batteries is due to . . . oh, you guessed it didn't you?

More Speedtests

mcfadden — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:47:58 -0500

Yesterday I noted the speed of the DSL circuit at my office. This morning I tried the same test on my home DSL connection. That statistics are somewhat interesting.

Testing trhough Chicago: 3.905Mbps upload; 690Kbps download and 86ms latency
Testing through Los Angeles: 1.542Mbps upload; 438Kbps download and 103ms latency
Testing through London: 1.080Mbps upload; 360Kbps download and 133ms latency

Too Incredible to Believe

mcfadden — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:33:26 -0500

NASA has apparently lost the original footage of Neil Amstrong's first steps on the moon. Reports that it was accidentally knocked off the side of NASA headquarters by a falling piece of styrofoam insulation have not yet been confirmed.