FirstClown - Latest Comments

Re: links for 2007-09-28

Puppies for Sale — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 23:40:19 -0000

Thanks for those links. Those might be useful for me in future.

Re: Intense Debate V. Disqus: Centralized Comment Systems

famous laptop batteries — Tue, 04 May 2010 03:03:32 -0000

Disqus is good for my work and life.I like it very much.but every coin has two back.we must use the disqus to improve our working efficient

Re: Intense Debate V. Disqus: Centralized Comment Systems

Daina Hayes — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:15:16 -0000

I have used Intense Debate in my wordpress blog it ultimately failed synchronizing with old wordpress comments and then I switched to Disqus. It had lot of issues too. Now I am finally with the comment form comes with theme...

Re: Why I’m Against the Federal Health Care Bill

Mathew Erickson — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:43:11 -0000

Also, to the point about debt, I think everyone needs to understand one very important point: the debt of a government is secured by the land of that government. The Japanese and Chinese may well own Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and the Golden Gate bridge in a matter of months.

Re: Why I’m Against the Federal Health Care Bill

Mathew Erickson — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:41:28 -0000

Great writing, Joe! I think the key thing that I keep thinking about is this: Medicare and Medicaid are broke, and run by the federal government. Social Security is broke, and run by the federal government. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Post Office are all owed and run by the government, and they are broke. Why would we possibly think the federal government can do anything as massive as universal health care and actually save us money??

Re: My Journey in Self-Sufficiency … So Far

FirstClown — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:52:21 -0000

That is a great site! I'm slowly finding sites like this and hope to find one more Ohio focused (since that's where I'm at right now). I've thought about how complicated the intercropping is going to be and figured I'd start small in that area and grow into it. Hopefully resources like www.landshareco.org can help me with that some.

Re: My Journey in Self-Sufficiency … So Far

eatlocalfarm — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:15:50 -0000

The whole biointensive thing with intercropping and succession planting was a bit daunting when we first tried it. We're using an online farm & garden planner that is geared towards biointensive methods and it has been very helpful and seems quite accurate. Here is a link to the site: www.landshareco.org

Re: Why I’m Against the Federal Health Care Bill

Scott McCarty — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:25:16 -0000

Agreed, it is all about mitigating pain.

Re: Why I’m Against the Federal Health Care Bill

FirstClown — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:07:37 -0000

I can see how the argument might break down. I think that I'm assuming a certain mindset here that not everyone has. This is usually the problem with political arguments anyway and something I hope to avoid in general. I read it now and see where you're coming from.

My central argument still remains, this country is not in good financial shape. Passing any kind of big spending bill like this will cause us more debt and more pain. We just saw what happens when the American public takes on too much debt and I would like not to find out what happens when our government takes on too much debt and overextends itself (if it hasn't already).

I think the ethical choice is not allowing the government to do this because they won't do it right and will kill any future attempts at letting people do it right. We may have a philosophy that is ethical in nature and not economic, but I don't believe economic forces will care.

Re: Why I’m Against the Federal Health Care Bill

Scott McCarty — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:32:11 -0000

Well, first and foremost, I would like to say that your tone in this post is refreshing, you are being intellectually honest, even if there are problems with some of the arguments. I am glad you say it bothers you if we can't provide everyone health care, it is an honest approach and you may very well be right.

First, I would like to say, I am a fence sitter on most major issues, including this one. I also, can say, that I wish we could cover everyone, but I can't claim to know how to do it any better than anyone else. There is a shortage of doctors, hence limited supply and nearly unlimited want. Not sure how this can ever be solved.

With that out of the way, there are a few factual holes. First, between 1900 and 2000 England went from being the financial, political and cultural centerpiece of the world, to passing those mantles off to the US in almost every respect. Yet, during this time period both US investors and British/UK investors received return on investment at the same percent down to a tenth of a percent (I am still looking for citation, it is either Robert Shiller or Jeremy Siegel). The UK had socialized healthcare for approximately 50% of that time and they were rebuilding their country from 45 to 55 if not longer. I believe England/UK is a bad example.

Besides, linking French, Greek, and English economic problems causally to their nationalized health care is anecdotal at best. The counter to this argument could be Belgium and especially Japan.

Next you stated, "When people are forced to to become socialist and pay taxes for services and programs they don't want or don't believe in, that is wrong and immoral". This is a slippery slope that could never be used to justify government policy. There are plenty of pacifists and doves that would love to opt out of paying for defense, roads, boarder guards, etc.

Though I have made your argument many times about paying for schools (I don't have any children and I am 34), I know it is ludicrous to opt out of all programs I don't want to participate in. I would surely become a free rider. It happens now, even in private industry, at many jobs, you can't opt out of the health care benefits completely.

After getting excited reading your initial paragraphs, I was a bit disappointing to find that you didn't back them up with more logical arguments. I don't completely disagree with you, just in your form of argument.

I think the strongest argument against nationalized health care right now are the economic downturn and the complete and utter ineptness of the Democrats, I genuinely wouldn't want any of the bills I have seen. It needs to be logical and balanced. But, given the Hippocratic (Hospitals Treat Anyone/Everyone), we (the USA) are bound to a philosophy that is not strictly economic in nature, but ethical in nature. Therefore, I believe, though we are currently helping everyone (at least to the best of our resources), there may very well be a more economic approach, that satisfies these ethical obligations. Or maybe we will just continue down this path and all of us will go to the emergency room when we have problems. Then doctors will truly ration our health care.

Re: Using LaTeX with Lulu

FirstClown — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:50:14 -0000

You might want to look at a tool called Pandoc that can help with conversion from HTML to LaTeX. I use it for a lot of other conversions and it works great.

Re: Using LaTeX with Lulu

Kurt Schroeder — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:04:52 -0000

I will be creating a book of all my wife's blog posts using Lulu and I found your blog entry when I searched for those topics. I must say that I think I would enjoy creating a book with Latex a lot more if I did not have to contend with converting it from the HTML. Holy jeez.

Re: My Journey in Self-Sufficiency … So Far

iffles — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:15:50 -0000

This is interesting, it's nice to hear both where you're coming from and where you plan on going.

I'm definitely more of a small step person, not only in action, but also in thought. If I think too much about the "big picture" like this, I get overwhelmed and give up (not saying it's a good quality of mine. Just true.). So instead I think in smaller steps. Two years ago, it was to go vegetarian (not that I think it's important for everyone, but I'm pretty sure you and I have gone over why I went vegetarian and why it was important for me, so I won't go into that here). Last year it was to grow some of my own veggies, buy organic whenever possible, and learn to prepare more raw foods (which was much easier once you recommended How to Cook - thanks!). This year my goal is to support sustainable farming by getting my CSA from Lavender Lane, do "real" composting, and hope that more than 50% of my veggies survive this year :) ... it's frustrating because I love my house and would never move out of it unless I had to, but I wasn't thinking much about vegetable gardens when I bought it, and of course it sucks for that.

That being said, I'm glad you're starting to write about this, because even if I'm not ready to make these steps yet, it's still something that I think is important, and the more I hear about, the more willing I'll be to continue to take steps next year, which relates back to what you said about working with other people, while - unfortunately for you - I don't think I'm anywhere near the point where you'd ever be able to get any benefit from talking to me, I benefit a lot from talking to you. And hey, if you ever write a book about all this and want photos of things, you know who to call.

Also, thanks for the seed links - I was wondering where I was going to get my seeds from this year, and now I think I know!

Re: Adding Icons to Your Android Application

FirstClown — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:19:47 -0000

Here's the whole class (hopefully it formats properly):
package us.firstclown.android.steap.tea_timer.activity; import us.firstclown.android.steap.tea_timer.R; import us.firstclown.android.steap.tea_timer.TeaDAO; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.ContentValues; import android.content.Intent; import android.net.Uri; import android.os.Bundle; import android.util.Log; import android.view.View; import android.view.View.OnClickListener; import android.widget.Button; import android.widget.EditText; import android.widget.ImageButton; import android.widget.TextView; public class AddTea extends Activity { private TeaDAO dao; private long id = 0; private String iconUri; private String name; private int iconWidth = 50; private int iconHeight = 50; private static final String TAG = "AddTea"; public static final int CREATE_TEA = 1; public static final int EDIT_TEA = 2; public static final int ADD_ICON = 3; public static final int CROP_ICON = 4; /* * (non-Javadoc) * * @see android.app.Activity#onCreate(android.os.Bundle) */ @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.add_tea); dao = new TeaDAO(this); Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras(); if (extras != null) { id = extras.getLong("id"); ContentValues values = dao.fetchTea(id); iconUri = values.getAsString("iconUri"); name = values.getAsString("name"); String type = values.getAsString("type"); String time = values.getAsString("time"); ImageButton iconField = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.iconButton); showIconButton(iconUri); iconField.setOnClickListener(cmdIconListener); TextView nameField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.nameField); nameField.setText(name); TextView typeField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.typeField); typeField.setText(type); TextView timeField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.timeField); timeField.setText(time); } Button saveButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.saveButton); Button cancelButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.cancelButton); saveButton.setOnClickListener(cmdSaveListener); cancelButton.setOnClickListener(cmdCancelListener); } protected void showIconButton(String iconUri) { if (iconUri != null) { ImageButton iconField = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.iconButton); Log.d(TAG, "iconUri: " + iconUri); iconField.setImageURI(null); iconField.setImageURI(Uri.parse(iconUri)); Log.d(TAG, "Cache is " + (iconField.getDrawingCache() == null ? "" : "not") + " null"); iconField.invalidate(); } } protected OnClickListener cmdSaveListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View arg0) { String name = ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.nameField)).getText() .toString(); String type = ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.typeField)).getText() .toString(); String time = ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.timeField)).getText() .toString(); if (id != 0) { dao.updateTea(id, iconUri, name, type, time); } else { dao.createTea(iconUri, name, type, time); } Intent i = new Intent(); setResult(RESULT_OK, i); finish(); } }; protected OnClickListener cmdCancelListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View arg0) { Intent i = new Intent(); setResult(RESULT_OK, i); finish(); } }; protected OnClickListener cmdIconListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View arg0) { Intent i = new Intent("android.intent.action.GET_CONTENT"); i.setType("image/*"); startActivityForResult(i, AddTea.ADD_ICON); } }; protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) { // See which child activity is calling us back. switch (requestCode) { case AddTea.ADD_ICON: // This is the standard resultCode that is sent back if the // activity crashed or didn't doesn't supply an explicit result. if (resultCode != RESULT_CANCELED) { Intent i = new Intent("com.android.camera.action.CROP"); i.setClassName("com.android.camera", "com.android.camera.CropImage"); i.setData(data.getData()); Log.d(TAG, "path: " + data.getData().getPath()); i.putExtra("noFaceDetection", true); i.putExtra("outputX", iconWidth); i.putExtra("outputY", iconHeight); i.putExtra("aspectX", iconWidth); i.putExtra("aspectY", iconHeight); i.putExtra("scale", true); if (iconUri == null) { ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.TITLE, name + " Icon"); values.put( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.BUCKET_ID, "STeaP_Tea_Timer_Icons"); values .put( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.BUCKET_DISPLAY_NAME, "STeaP Tea Timer Icons"); values .put( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.IS_PRIVATE, 1); iconUri = getContentResolver() .insert( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, values).toString(); } i.putExtra("output", Uri.parse(iconUri)); startActivityForResult(i, CROP_ICON); } break; case AddTea.CROP_ICON: if (resultCode != RESULT_CANCELED) { Log.d(TAG, "Data String: " + iconUri); showIconButton(iconUri); } default: break; } } }

Re: Adding Icons to Your Android Application

bala_eventurers — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:38:45 -0000

very nice and useful code i used the scrop coding only it works but its through error after scrop so pls send or upload the AddTea class file.

Re: Adding Icons to Your Android Application

bala_eventurers — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:37:08 -0000

pls upload the AddTea class file i got error when i scrop and save the image it wont set as icon

Re: Obstacles to the Open Community Support Idea

iffles — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:56:18 -0000

Sadly, this is not about this post. Which I did actual read a while ago, and admit you pose an interesting conundrum, but I really have no input/advice on it.

What this comment is really about is THAT. Over there. The Twitter thing. Yes, THAT is what I want. And it appears you're using some javascript form twitter and I could lift it from you, but being as the class names are all "widget" and "widget_text" and "widgettitle" I wonder if it's a widget? I mean, it might not be and you're just using those classes because they're there. But. it MIGHT BE. So I thought I'd ask.

Re: New Podcast Project: Your Number One Podcast

FirstClown — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:55:24 -0000

LOL. The monthly filming wasn't a nightmare, the weekly editting was. You
certainly weren't the problem.

Re: New Podcast Project: Your Number One Podcast

brandice — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:13:34 -0000

"I still have nightmares of doing a weekly, video podcast and how much work that was."

Nightmares? Gotta say, that stings a bit. I thought we had a lot of fun.

I wish you well on this new endeavor. Hope it goes well for you.

Re: New Podcast Project: Your Number One Podcast

Mark — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:38:23 -0000

I can already see the "fun" arguments breaking out with this show. Should be fun.

Re: New Podcast Project: Your Number One Podcast

amandolin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:21:50 -0000

I know why you keep doing it. Your a "scanner." It's what you're supposed to do. ;)

Re: Lightening Talk at PyOhio: Open Community Support

catherinedevlin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:30:51 -0000

I've added you to my blog feed - I look forward to more discussion on the topic.

The idea puts me in mind of college service fraternities - I wonder if that would be a good model?

Re: Lightening Talk at PyOhio: Open Community Support

William McVey — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:51:37 -0000

Looking forward to seeing what comes from this. Will check out DayOn as well. Thanks for the link.

Re: Snarky Baby

Aileen's Kids — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:50:06 -0000

Congratulations on your collection for Baby clothes. These are great options to moms and dads alike who wants the best clothes for their children. :)

Re: Remote Backup Roundup

Keith Veleba — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:25:51 -0000

Saw this pop up in your RSS. Did you ever get this resolved? I'd suggest putting those commands in an acpi script if your laptop supports them.