HD1s Personal weblog

Readers know I'm a rather big fan of Amazon Kindle, as I have it on every single one of my various devices and love it on all of them. Amazon seems to be aiming to merely control the DRM, not where/how you use it, so they should open the source of the Kindle up and let others design devices using the Kindle's DRM for free. It would be a great boost, though given current trends, it isn't likely to be on their radar at present.

The Guardian has obtained the entire casualty data and an explanation thereof. I'm sure a lot of visualisations are forthcoming; this is just a note apprising me of their existence.

At May 27 of this year, I was politely asked to leave the UC Berkeley International House by an RA. Tonight, the very same RA told me that a recent change in policy -- from the top, mind you -- has lead to the exclusion of alumni from the coffee hour. So, I demanded this in writing, as I am going to ring his supervisor for clarification tomorrow. He refused. So, coming from my newfound confidence which I'm holding Kassourri personally responsible, I called his bluff, repeating my demand for his name, his position, a written copy of the policy, his supervisor's name, and the supervisor's number. When he lifted the phone to call 911, another RA walked in and was more reasonable about my demands. After handing me a piece of paper with the required information, I left the place, after warning the original RA that this was no way to treat an alumni and a contributor. As this is the second time this has happened, if it happens again, I will cease my yearly contribution to the alumni fund.

They finally caught on and HMSHost will sell the Kindle at airports in the States. No word yet, if they will preload the bestsellers on the devices and disable the wireless to keep with regulations.

Every time there's an opening for a new US Supreme Court justice, the Republicans whinge about an odd notion. This notion is odd, precisely because it is the role given for the courts in the US Constitution, namely:

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority; to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls; to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party; to Controversies between two or more States; between a State and Citizens of another State; between Citizens of different States; between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

So, I'm driving up 101 from lunch at AOL in Mountain View when I see police sirens go off in my rear view mirror. I pulled over, rolled down the window. The cop said his dispatch had said a Twitter alert showed that there were a car matching the description of mine (black Civic, real precise, I know) driving erratically -- weaving in and out of lanes, speeding, etc. Before that, he demanded to know why I didn't pull over on the motorway (oh, and he didn't understand "motorway" either, which lead me to ask him what language he thought I was speaking, leading me to make a Kassourri-esque remark about how he didn't understand English). I showed him my satnav as he'd said I'd been speeding. He asked me if I'd anything to drink. He then took me license and insurance away for a minute and brought it back, wishing me a good afternoon.

Thirty minutes later, I got home and checked Twitter for my license plate number, which he said his dispatch had found. I was let go without any trouble -- guess they figured out by my demeanor that I'm not to be messed with.

Calling this whole episode an inverted pyramid of piffle is putting things mildly, but I did make it to lunch. All in all, it turned out to be a fine afternoon.

I was at pizza orgasmica watching the Spain/Honduras game. And I got up to get a drink, when this group of (clearly American) women walk in, take my plate and move it to another table. I returned to find my plate wasn't there, so I told one of the ladies seated that I had left my plate there, pointing to a spot. She denied it. No, not apologised, but just you-must-be-mistaken. She then pointed to another table sitting empty. I told her I saw her move my plate to the other table and asked her where she'd learned her manners, and she returned the question. I then informed her that "were this England, I'll have you know that you'd be dead by now, just enjoy your meal knowing full well you lied to get the table, even when confronted with it". Why the hell doesn't this country have common decency?

For all the readers who feel I'm slagging off this country, I'm not. There are some really nice/polite/cultured people here. The ones that aren't, really get at my goat.

While GArrow, on Lily may describe xPath as "semi-casual", I think it is the most straightforward way to locate a node in XML. After the flip, I give code allowing one to test Xpath expressions out on XML documents. It needs nothing beyond the JDK, it will probably work with JDK 5, though I develop using JDK 6. You do need Java's XPath support.