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Blog Adobe, A rant
 I have enjoyed using Flash for quite a while. Mostly I use it to make movies for work, but have been playing around with it lately to make more creative animations. So, when I heard the news that Microsoft Agrees With Apple And Google: “The Future Of The Web Is HTML5", I was a bit dismayed. Now I have long believed that flash was wrong for creating websites, but thought it would remain the standard for video and games. And, I believe that will still be true for a while. if you look at the demo page for html5, you will see that most of the demos are using things useful for building interactive websites, but not any of them demonstrate animation created by HTML5. Even the stuff that will eventually be used to create online games is pretty crude yet. Not sure what the Canvas demo does, since I couldn't get it to load with any of the 3 browsers I tried. So, I think we are a ways yet from animation and online games with HTML5. However, given my recent experiences with Adobe, I am thinking about learning HTML5 now anyway, even though I will be much more limited in what I can do, because I am sick of Adobe. Adobe Tech Support sucks! Not to mention their programs are getting to be so bulky and buggy they are painful to use. My Adobe saga: Part 1:Saving a pdf without comments.I thought this was pretty straightforward, but I had to repeat what I was trying to do 4 times before they gave me a solution. All I was trying to do was to hide/get rid of the comments in a pdf that was being sent in an email. They gave me solutions for how to use comments for an email review, told me how to hide comments from my current view, etc. They even wanted me to send a pdf with comments in it, because that was somehow going to help them understand what I wanted. Hello, you are Adobe, surely you have a pdf with comments in it laying around on your desktop?!? Finally, after 6 emails from Adobe, they gave me the solution. For those curious, here is the highly intuitive solution: Go To Advanced-> PDF Optomizer->Discard User Data->Check the Tab Discard All Comments , forms and multimedia.-> Click Ok. Now save this pdf with a different name, and you can send your pdf itinerary to your boss, without your comments about meeting your colleagues after the meeting for drinks. Are we really the only people who find this useful? Part 2:Upgrading the Organizer in AcrobatMy boss upgraded from Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 9. When he tried to open the organizer in Acrobat 9, the window was missing, and it was apparent from the menu that nothing from Acrobat 8 had been moved over. I sent in an email request for help, but was told this was not an installation issue, and I needed to have bronze support. I tried calling them, spent eons on hold, just to have them tell me, once again, that this was not an installation issue so I needed to pay for support. Not an installation issue? I installed the software, and it didn't work, and didn't import stuff from the last version. How can this be anything except an installation issue?!? So, I went off in search of paid support. Buying support from Adobe is convoluted, especially if you have a volume license. Supposedly there are support packages, where you get so many support calls per year, or maybe some number of support calls, but I never did figure this out. Nor did I figure out what bronze support is. Since there is a new version of Adobe products coming out, I decided it was probably best to just buy one support instance, especially since given the cost of my time doing research trying to figure this shit out, it would probably be cheaper to pay by the instance anyway. So, I spent another 2 hours on the phone, mostly on hold, during which I solved the missing Organizer window problem without any help from Adobe. When they told me the import problem wasn't an installation issue, I said fine, I'll pay. They ended up not charging me, although they lectured me on how this was an Acrobat 8 issue (since I was trying to export from Acrobat 8), so next time they would charge me. Like what, I didn't buy Acrobat 8 from them, and the reason I was trying to export was to have a WORKING INSTALLATION of Acrobat 9? WTF? But then, in the end, they told me it was impossible. You cannot get your Organizer settings from Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 9. I filed a bug report. I had already sent a letter to the CEO complaining about their tech support, but maybe I should send him an addendum? Adobe, A rant ~ Comments: 1
More disbelief in Science
Health, MyRamblings, Scienceby maria on 21 Apr 2010 - 21:20  Just read a very good article Convincing the Public to Accept New Medical Guidelines. It has me thinking about how to convince people to change their beliefs. It has long been obvious to me that people often discount or don't believe scientific studies if they conflict with their pre-conceived notions. Now we have research to back up that claim, not that it would matter to people who don't believe me. Plus, apparently people are more likely to believe what everyone else believes, regardless, or apparently in spite of, scientific evidence to the contrary, according to this article. Ugh. Not sure where this puts us. A very uphill battle, but says a lot about why people still believe that there is a connection between immunizations and autism. So, how can we take current scientific understanding and translate it into something that is popular? How can we use our understanding of why/how people believe things to get them to believe in scientific evidence, and to be willing to change those beliefs when new evidence surfaces? Tough questions. More disbelief in Science ~ Comments: 0
Red Herrings
Health, Politics, MyRamblings, Tech, Scienceby Maria on 13 Apr 2010 - 21:10  Herring (Kippered) I very much enjoyed the TED talk by Michael Specter on the danger of science denial. His main point is that we will continue to do real damage to our planet and our communities, if we continue to ignore what science tells us. His two main examples are the trend to not immunize because of the supposed link between autism and immunizations, and frankofoods, iow, genetically modified foods. I think both of these cases demonstrate the publics tendency to take a scary finding, latch onto the first thing that comes along to blame, and then ignoring science and facts and beat the hell out of the red herring. In the case of the autism and immunizations, study after study has shown there is no link. But the original study, however misguided, did demonstrate that we need to continue to put pressure on manufacturers and the government to ensure that vaccines are safe to use, as some things were brought up that were questionable. We need to learn to accept science and facts when they become undoubtable, stop beating a dead horse, and look to new places for answers. That second point is very important. There is much money and time now being spent trying to convince parents that autism is caused by immunizations, money that should be spent on coming up with the actual causes and cures to autism. Not to mention this misguidedness is causing a crisis in immunization that could cause many diseases that we have not seen in decades to return to the United States. If you are unconvinced that immunizations do not cause autism, check out this pdf from immunize.org. The second issue, genetically modified foods, is very interesting. In this case, the red herring is GMO's themselves. Although more research is needed, so far, it appears that the insertion of new genes does not, by itself, change the plant in a negative way. In Specter's talk he mentioned the noble ideas about adding vitamin A in rice and adding protein and vitamins in cassava, using genetic modification. He did not mention anything about adding resistance to pesticides or insecticides. These are the truly scary things, the things we should be up in arms about. The movie Monsanto's World is extremely interesting, and brings to mind the things we need to be extremely concerned about. First and foremost, are the ties between government and corporations. Monsanto has become a scary monopoly because the US government let it happen, and, in fact, encouraged it to happen. And, it can, and probably has, happened in other industries as well. It is the ties between industry and government that has caused the scientific data to not be scrutinized as it should be. Check out the wikipedia article about Monsanto, under Public officials formerly employed by Monsanto. Which brings up and interesting question. Who should be in charge of government agencies that oversee industries? In many cases, it seems the government decides that people from industry are the best choice, since they would presumably know the most about that particular industry. But, they also have the hardest time separating themselves from the corporations they use to be a part of, and present a real conflict of interest. Time after time, in many different industries, government has failed to enforce or enact the regulations it should in the interest of public safety, because of the ties with corporations. The other thing that we should be up in arms about is the abuse of patent law by Monsanto. Monsanto has used patent law to bully farmers, so that it now controls most of the U.S. corn and soy seed market, according to the non-profit Center for Food Safety. And there is no doubt that Monsanto and its connections in government have worked hard to suppress scientific evidence that its products are not as harmless as it claims. But, you shouldn't take my word on this, do your research. So, while I agree with Specter about there being good that can come from genetic modification, and while at its root, it is not much different from the modifications we have been making to animals and plants for hundreds of thousands of years by breeding, there is still some very scary stuff going on in the genetic modification industry, and most of it has to do with the corporation that controls a very large portion of the seed market, Monsanto, and allows farmers to completely douse their fields with herbicides and/or insecticides. And regardless of whether the food that has been modified to survive such dowsing is harmful, we already know that dowsing fields with herbicides and/or pesticides is terrible for the soil and the nature/people surrounding the fields. For the most common of these herbicides, Roundup, check out the wikipedia article. Which brings me to another interesting article I have read recently. In the article Is it okay to ignore results from people you don’t trust? by Ben Goldacre on badscience.net. He gives a nice example of industry scientists getting the results you would expect them to want, which was different from what non-industry scientists found. Repeated experiences like this makes it is easy for us to ignore results from people we don't trust. We have come to expect scientists from industry to get results more favorable to their industry (which is why the government should have been more critical of the data from Monsanto), but then he goes on to give an example of researchers you may not normally trust, publishing a study with a result that was both accurate and earlier then any other researchers. So, it appears that it is not enough that the public pay attention to scientific data, the public must learn to think critically about the data that they are given. Consider the source, but also consider the data itself. Ask questions. Be skeptical, but do not reject science simply because you want to believe in voodoo. And above all, do not look for studies to validate your opinion, because you will find them no matter how crazy your opinion is. Instead, look at everything you can find that examines the question with an open mind, consider the sources, the methods, the number of studies, and ask questions until you are satisfied. But when some new piece of evidence comes up, be willing to look anew at the question, and to reconsider your position. Yup, it is a lot of work, but it is so very important to our health and the health of our planet. Red Herrings ~ Comments: 0
Ada Lovelace Day
 Today is Ada Lovelace Day once again, and I thought today I would spotlight a modern day techie entrepreneur. Cathy Malmrose started her own business selling hardware running linux in 2007. She impresses me not only because I am awed by people willing to start their own business, but also because she was discouraged from anything technical or scientific as a child. It took her a long time to overcome this discouragement, but she has in a big way, and now is an inspiration to girls and women interested in science and technology. I just love her journal entry about her girls learning how to install linux on a computer. Nelson Mandela is an inspiration to her, and the name of her company, ZaReason comes in part from Za, the country code for South Africa, and Reason, "which translates well in many languages, and has many meanings". I love that she decided to include a screwdriver with all ZaReason computers to "communicate that we respect people's ownership of their new laptop or desktop and we respect their intelligence to be able to modify it." Cathy is also involved with charitable projects through a non-profit, http://www.Partimus.org. LInks about Cathy: Ada Lovelace Day ~ Comments: 0
Great Ad
Yup, it is an ad about preventing HIV transmission. very amusing, and hopefully effective.
Great Ad ~ Comments: 0
Week in Review
Lots about death this week, but lets start with autism. Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who supposedly linked MMR and autism, is closer than ever to being banned from practicing as a doctor, according to NewScientist. Apparently the ban (on him and two co-authors) doesn't actually have to do with the autism claims, but has "concerned itself with the conduct, duties, and responsibilities of each doctor". However, the findings of the investigators does seriously call into question his integrity as a scientist as well, apparently peppered with words such as "dishonest", "irresponsible" and "misleading". It is so sad the panic this mans irresponsible claims have caused over immunizations. While true that the attention over this has caused manufacturers and regulators to pay more attention to the safety of vaccines, which is very important, it has also meant much valuable time and resources have been spent disproving this link. Time and resources that should have been going to investigate other, more likely links. Continuing on to the death theme, we move on to a very concerning development with the "suicides" in Guantánamo back in June of 2006. I highly recommend reading the Harper's article in full, but if you want the short version, watch the video at the bottom of the update. I am sickened by our government, and hope that the Obama administration will do the right thing, and come clean with all that has happened, before and since, they came to power, regarding Guantánamo and the policies of torture by the USA. This afternoon I read an article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning. I had already been thinking about death after hearing an amazing podcast from Radio Lab. The 8th segment, at about 13:30, is a story by David Eagleman from his book, SUM, read by Jeffrey Tambor. I recommend listening to the entire hour, but this is the story that got me thinking down this particular line. It is sort of an echo of something that I had been thinking about, although better articulated then I could have done, and it's kind of a natural continuation of my thoughts about emergence. It is the thought that there is a connection that we all have at many levels. There is the connection between our atoms, molecules, cells and cell structures, organs, organisms, planets, etc, which form groups at various levels. Maybe it is true that at each level there is some awareness of the interconnectedness, and some feeling like loss when the group breaks up. Strange that a type of mourning that may happen to my atoms when I die is a comfort to me, and whose to say there is no awareness in atoms or planets? Next thing you know, I'll be following the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I do recommend the article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning, and which has nothing to do with the flying spaghetti mosnter. I agree with Meghan O’Rourke, I think we do not do the death and mourning thing well in the USA. Before we leave the death theme, I'd like to take a moment to join many fans, friends and family in the mourning of Howard Zinn and J. D. Salinger. Both made amazing contributions to our society, and I am very grateful for their lives, loves and works. On the tech front, a scary thing happened with Facebook on AT&T phones. Apparently last weekend, some people with AT&T phones logged into Facebook, and found themselves in someone else's account. There is a good, but somewhat technical, article about what happened and what needs to be done about it at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As a reaction to the crazy ruling recently by the Supreme Court, Murray Hill Inc. is running for congress. Hmmm. Interesting article about skunk weed. According to the article, "studies have shown that pure, synthetic THC causes transient psychosis in 40 to 50 per cent of healthy people". Apparently, there is normally a compound in weed, cannabidiol (CBD), that counteracts the psychosis producing effects of THC. Guess we should stick to the other strains... Finally, time for some fun. Start with the Ultimate Graphic Novel (in Six Panels). The first comment was almost as good as the novel. Also discovered a great music site, http://digital.thinkindie.com, and found a cool new video, Anna Rose "Picture":
Week in Review ~ Comments: 0
Migraines
The bad news is that my daughter has another migraine. The good news is that I think we have discovered a major trigger. It appears she most often gets migraines when she doesn't get enough sleep. I've thought for years that it is very important for children to get plenty of sleep, and certainly this is the case for Tanika. Here is a great link about children and sleep: http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sleep.htm We have found that we need to put Tanika to bed at 9pm on school nights. She gets up around 6:30, so assuming it takes her 15 min. or so to go to sleep, she sleeps around 9 hours. This seems to be about right for her, as she usually gets up pretty easily on this schedule. I use to think that when she had a big assignment at school that she wasn't going to get finished in time, I should let her stay up to finish it. I'm rethinking this now. Since she is still in Middle school, I think it is probably better that she takes the hit on not having her assignment done, and gets her full sleep instead. And we teach her how to plan out her homework and not wait to the last minute, because school work is important, but school work is going to suffer without sleep, and sleep needs to take top priority, or else she literally suffers. While it is true that the migraines seem to occur when her sleep is seriously deprived (they seem to follow sleepovers most often), I think that even small losses in sleep are bad for her. Migraines ~ Comments: 2
Potato Knishes
Foodby Maria on 24.01.2010 - 01:48  So I tried to make Potato Knishes the other day, and was not entirely successful at it. (No, the picture above is definitely not what I came up with, this is from the broke gourmet, where the recipe is from.) I ended up with rather yummy potatoes mashed with onion, cheese and thyme. The bread wrapping is where things went wrong. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour. I was surprised to learn that pastry flour makes pastry dough. My dough broke apart easily, and would not roll into anything. I sort of thought that it would be the different ratios of dough ingredients that made the biggest change. Apparently, the grind of the flour makes a huge difference. I do wonder why. May have to investigate this further. In the meantime, I definitely want to make these again, but going to try the all-purpose flour this time. I can confirm that the insides of these knishes are really great; in fact, I'm going to have another bowl of knish innards right now. http://brokeassgourmet.com/articles/cheddar-thyme-potato-knishes Potato Knishes ~ Comments: 0
Global Scrub Down
Politicsby maria on 14.01.2010 - 01:21 Wow, this is completely fascinating, if true: Climate Change Catastrophe took Just Months. I read this article a while ago, and I've let it brew a bit. The article explains how the most recent ice age may have come on quite suddenly, like in about 6 months, as opposed to the many years previously assumed. Researcher William Patterson and colleagues believe a large, very cold lake in North America called Lake Agassiz burst its banks, and the large volume of freezing fresh water disrupted the Gulf Stream emough to cause lots of ice to form, which then kept the air cold, preventing the flow to return to its pre-ice age currents. So, thus was a born a mini-ice age of 1,300 years. My first thought was, if it is true that such dramatic climate change can happen so quickly and so relatively easiely, we are really fucking lucky we haven't triggered something crazy, with all of our mucking about with the earth. Think of all of the things we have done in our short time on earth. We have transformed vast treks of land from forests and mixed vegetation to farmland, cities, pastures, etc.; we have dumped all kinds of chemicals (including tons of crude oil) into the ground and waterways; damned rivers; and poured smoke and chemicals into the atmosphere, including not just the usual suspects, but the occasional nuclear bomb, test, or accident. Those are just the things that poppped immediately into my head. Somehow, it seems like some of that has probably done some harm. The findings in this study mean interesting things for our future. Strangely, it can be used as an argument either for mucking about more or less. One argument goes, well then it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to counteract global warming, all we have to do is empty a big vat of cold water in a water current to disturb the flow, and we can reverse the warming we have caused. We can create all kinds of models to figure out the precise amount and place to do this. Obviously, this sort of thinking has some flaws. Most obviously, we are quite likely to get it wrong, or find it practically too difficult to get enough water, at the right temp. to the right place at the right time. So maybe instead we should do all we can to neutralize the changes we have made in/on the earth, so we don't accidentally provoke another drastic change in temperature? Apparently the earth is good enough at doing that on its own, without our help. Maybe we can at least stop more warming, while we figure out whether we want to go into the mucking about with the climate intentionally business? And since it is likely, given all of the changes we have made to the earth, that we have changed more than just the temperature, trying to reverse the most egregious changes we have made could stop any other crazy outcomes we have not yet forseen, but in our ignorance, directed the earth toward. I'm thinking of things like acid rain. It isn't like we don't have evidence that we have drastically changed certain places/aspects of the earth already. So, in conclusion, we should clean up our messes already (air, land, and water ones), regardless of whether we have caused actual harm to the climate (yet), becuase the planet could use a good scrub down after our mucking about on it for centuries. Global Scrub Down ~ Comments: 4
Dophins and a Hero
FunStuffby maria on 06.11.2009 - 21:21  Plus they are just so darn cute! And a big hurrah to Sergeant Munley, who's amazing performance at the Ft. Hood shooting undoubtedly saved lives. NYTimes arcticle. Must agree with William Saletan of Slate that if women can defend Fort Hood in such a brave and heroic showing, then they should definitely be defending the USA in the military.  Picture from NY Daily News. Dophins and a Hero ~ Comments: 0
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