The Red Brick Times

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

"Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job � including in the sex industry � or lose her unemployment benefit."

Posted 9:30 AM by whatley (0) comments

Tim Wallace! My money's on you!

Pirelli Relativity Challenge: Thus, the Pirelli Internetional Award launches the Pirelli Relativity Challenge. An award for the best multimedia work that explains special relativity theory to the layperson.

Step one: Call Katko. Find out what special relativity theory is.
Step two: Create multimedia work that explains the damn thing.

There. My job is done. Carry on.

Posted 6:23 AM by whatley (0) comments

ahh, much better now. yesterday the dressings came off, tubing removed, and i was able to shower! my sister happened to be off for the day, so she drove me to and from. we also stopped for lunch and picked up some things at the grocery. then i came home and took a nap. amazing how a sedentary state followed by a few errands can exhaust you. received a perfectly worded get well card from a co-worker that reminded me to take time to heal and not rush things. i did not luck out with "best case" as betsy did. three weeks. hey, it's better than six.

Posted 8:55 AM by Sally (0) comments

Following Russell's link, E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible. I came across this story,Big Brother to Watch Over Island . It seems that Wired is Paranoia Central. Every other article is about privacy and Big Brother.

This one is about an experiment on an island in Maine where . . .an artificial intelligence system will decide who can be trusted and who is deserving of greater scrutiny. The surveillance system will learn to recognize and trust regular visitors to Ayers Island, such as a woman who walks her dog on the island every morning, said Markowsky. "But if it sees three big guys it has never seen before, it will take notice.

Prompting one of the privacy guys to observe that . . ."People start fitting in to what they think is good social behavior and that leads to increased discrimination against those that don't conform to those norms."

Could this be the beginning of artificial bigotry? Will it be better than the natural kind?

Posted 11:51 AM by A. O. (0) comments

Here ya go Sally. While recouping you can take a tour of some Unusual Museums of the Internet.

Posted 11:10 AM by whatley (0) comments

I'll be taking Ciphire Mail for a trial spin in the very near future. It's not going to eliminate spam (drat the luck) but, if well adopted, will make it much harder for scammers to trick the unwary through those "phishing" expeditions that have been getting a lot of press recently. I've included an excerpt from a Wired article about Ciphire Mail below. Read the whole article (it's short and not too techie) for a good understanding.

Wired News: Safe E-Mailing for Dummies: "E-mail authentication -- confirmation that the stated sender actually sent the message in question -- could make many e-mail hassles fade away, since most scams and computer viruses rely on bogus sender information to lull recipients into a false sense of security. Encryption is also a good idea, given the increasing prevalence of snoopy software.
The Ciphire Mail application, free for individual users, nonprofit organizations and the press, works in conjunction with all standard e-mail programs. It operates almost invisibly in the background, encrypting and decrypting e-mail missives and digitally signing each message to confirm its source."

As if authentication weren't enough of a reason to like Ciphire Mail take a gander at this (also from Wired): E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible.

Posted 2:31 PM by whatley (0) comments

Well, folks we're ass deep in snow like Al Capp's Lower Slobovians replete with proboscical icicles. Its 12 degrees with a 35 mph sustained breeze and gusts up to 70. We've been here over nine years and this the first time I've felt the house shake in the wind. The governor has declared a state of emergency so the Cabinet can get to its tailgate parties for the Patriots game without any pesky citizens having accidents that may slow them down. Its supposed to be -13 at Heinz Field by game time. Good Luck fella's!

How's the weather out there?

AOG

Posted 1:38 PM by A. O. (0) comments

With my impending de-employment and the 'surging' economic recovery I have been decidedly underwhelmed by the prospects. So I did a bit of web surfing to try and decide what my options were ... is there a reasonable way to blend my rather esoteric blend of schemes, scams, and hustles into a job. Then I found this fascinating article. Longish but it does have promise. Perhaps it should be subtitled: New Horizons in extending corporate financial morality in personal employment

Posted 8:24 PM by jeichenlaub (0) comments

Interesting take on the FDA and the "morning after" pill from USA Today Op-Ed. :

"The FDA's job, by law, is to judge the safety and efficacy of drugs, not the morality of people who use them. If scientific evidence were the only guideline, Plan B would have been available without a prescription long ago. If it continues yielding to political pressure and religious fervor, the FDA abdicates its responsibility and assures millions of unnecessary pregnancies and abortions."

Full article here: Yahoo! News - 'Plan B' beats abortion

Posted 7:42 AM by whatley (0) comments

Back to gainful employment! I start Monday at The Sherwood Group, an association management firm, working as an administrator for two of the associations they manage. Better money than at the last place and a little travel, including Vancouver if February and San Fran in June.

I was off for ten weeks but it feels much longer. Between vacation pay, severance, and unemployment I actually finished ahead of the game, go figure!

Michael

Posted 1:38 PM by Michael (0) comments

Russ, I just accessed the chatroom to see how it works. Seems pretty straight forward. We should get a few folks to pick a time and try it out. Also what happened to the members profile page? I'm trying to get a couple of e-mails for personal correspondence.

Posted 9:09 AM by A. O. (0) comments

I believe that most of us were dapper at one time or , at least, spiffy. Here's my entry. Smile.

AOG

PS- Congratulations Sally! Hope your surgery goes well.

PPS- The sharp dressed guy with a cookie always gets The Girl!

Posted 1:50 AM by A. O. (0) comments

Warning: Blatant bragging in this post.

The following link will take you to the American Guild of English Handbell ringers website which lists the recipients of the National Exemplary Handbell/Handchime Program Award. The Westwood Chime Ensemble and the supporting program was recognized.

You'll get text only- only AGEHR members can access the site with the photos. They published one of a regular classroom rehearsal, one of the special needs group (which reads color coded squares) and one of the Ensemble marching in the Memorial Day Parade. (Really wish you could see that one- they're all acutally on the right foot!)

And when it rains, it pours. The Chronicle Telegram, Sunday, January 16 is running an article about our program. Many pictures, student interviews. Thanks to all of you who ever purchased cheese and sausage/candy/any fundraising item from a music student. Kind participation in our fundraisers helped us purchase nearly all of the equipment we use.

Here's the link: http://www.agehr.org/links/exem2004.asp

Posted 8:56 PM by Sally (0) comments

OK here's my suggestion for the "new look" of tRBT. I'm not sure if others find that their comuter fonts are shrinking, but type size 8 just doesn't cut it for me anymore. Look for one-armed typing in upcoming posts, I'm taking the plunge under the knife to have a troublesome rotator cuff injury repaired next week. No doubt a result of my professional pitching career. I'll have my arm strapped to my side for a few weeks. Things I hope I can do with one arm: type, talk on the telephone, pet the cats, operate the VCR remote, read. Things I'm sure I can't do with one arm: laundry, vacuuming, dishwashing and cat litter changing. Send chocolate. Maybe it won't make me more dextrous, but I'm sure medical research somewhere will support my theory that it speeds the healing process.

Posted 8:05 PM by Sally (0) comments

My main job today, at least to start with, is to install an operating system on two slightly older Compaq desktops. 500Mhz/256Mb RAM, more than adequate for their intended tasks. Problem is they�ve been around and have had several users over time. We�re talkin� viruses, spy ware, crappy programs installed, the works. A week or so ago I started to try whipping them into shape as is but quickly realized I was wasting my time. These guys needed to be reformatted and started from scratch. So I�m doing that (even as we speak, sortof) then I�ll config a new router I just bought, network everything, and have the whole shebang ready to plug in to the company�s Canton office next week. This is actually kind of boring work for me but the cool thing is that I�m doing it at home! I needed broadband internet to patch the new OS�s (among other things) and have that here. Plug the Compaqs into my home router and away we go. I�ve never been able to work at home before. Nice. Because of this my very first order of business this morning was to buy some speakers to plug into my spiffy new laptop (I got these - amazing for the money). I mean hey, I might as well make the most of the situation. So here I sit, �putin and postin�, with the great radio paradise (my favorite �net station by far) playing in the background. Gotta love it.

Posted 4:56 PM by whatley (0) comments

Welcome to the new look of tRBT! I've been wanting to do a redesign and kicking around ideas for a while now. This weeked I had some time on my hands and a new computer and new DSL and.....well..... one thing just led to another. Took me a good part of yesterday and most all of today (hey, I even updated the "about" page) but I think it's finally done.

Andy was first to notice the change (see comments in the post below), not ten minutes after I put it up and stopped for dinner. He even found the first bug (well, not a bug really, but it is something I hadn't considered). Funny, while I was working I thought how he and John were finally getting some value for their money ;-)

As things progressed I made sure to check for compatibility in different browsers but something may have slipped through. If you notice a problem please let me know.

Hope you like it!

P.S. (Monday evening) - As an added bonus (especially for the ladies) here's a picture of a dapper young whatley I found while going through some things my mom gave me a few months ago. We're talking very dapper and very young, 3 years and 5 months old to be exact. You may choose between a 100dpi (about 90k) or a 300dpi (about 550k - suitable for framing). Just remember, in the United States it's illegal to photoshop dapper young whatleys.

Posted 8:37 PM by whatley (0) comments

Having a spiffy new laptop at my disposal inspired me to install a wireless network here at home last weekend. I put an ethernet capable printer (with scan/copy capability) in a spare router port upstairs and a wireless printer downstairs, either of which I can access from wherever in the house (or out back, come summer) I happen to be. You know me. If it's worth doin' it's worth overdoin'. Then, just today, the DSL I ordered went live, which I also patched into the wireless stew. It's connectivity central around here.

Posted 9:37 PM by whatley (0) comments

This is our Marsha getting ready to swing into space during her first trapeze lesson. Anybody care to join us next time? (I was already a repeat offender on the night in question)

I really like this picture posting gizmo!

Posted 7:35 PM by A. O. (0) comments

The Red Brick Times

Monday, January 31, 2005

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