Keith's Complete Waste of Time

And I should try harder.

I’ve used dreamhost.com for many years to run the vast “Keith Stattenfield” web empire.  Last I checked, I had about 70 domains hosted there, almost none of which get any appreciable amount of traffic.  For a while I used a VPS for some hosts I was more interested in making sure ran well; as it turned out that was much more trouble than it was worth ( and pricier ), and they actually performed worse in many cases than the same sites on shared hosting, but live and learn.

If you too would like to be on dreamhost.com, feel free to use either of these promo codes — KEITHPROMO1 or KEITHPROMO2.  The first one get you $97 off the first year’s services ( if you sign up for a year ), and I get nothing.  The second one gets you $48.50 off your first year’s services, and I also get $48.50.  It’s win-meh or win-win, depending on which one you use.  I don’t care; personally, I’d use the first one, but if you want me to get some cash too that would be nice.

So, if you want a hosting company, go to www.dreamhost.com, and sign up, and use that promo code, or use this link which I think works too.

ХудожникHi-ho,

( SUMMARY: Donate to my bike ride for charity; and then read the wacky letter below. )

As many of you know, in keeping with the traditions of my people, each spring I do something incredibly stupid. It’s what brought my forefathers and foremothers across the ocean ( “Look, dear — the snow is mostly gone. Let’s get in leaky boat and sail for points unknown!” ). Back in college, I and few friends decided to head south for some sun — but, eschewing the popular spots like Florid( “too many bikinis” ) and the South Padre Islands ( “too many Texans” ), we decided to head for the Grand Canyon. “It’s grand! It’s canyon!” And, as it turns out, It’s frequently still covered in snow in March, being in the high desert! Years later, I believe it was another spring when, while helping Lorettload her luggage onto the Amtrack train to go visit her family, the train left thestation with me still on it, and didn’t stop until Oakland, where I got to negotiate my way back to the south bay well after midnight.

Ah, good times. Which brings me to the present. Once again, I will be riding my bike in the NapTour de Cure, fundraiser of the American Diabetes Association to “raise money to bring us closer to the day without diabetes.” I had to go actually lookup uptheir slogan, because what I usually say — “it’s ride for diabetes” — turns out to be somewhat confusing because folks think suddenly I’m encouraging diabetes, which is kind of not the purpose. Truthfully,I’m not exactly sure what the connection between moderate-distance bike riding and diabetes ending-sooner is, but perhaps they think that if they keep me far, far away from the nice scientists in the labs with the test tubes who actually cando stuff about problems like this that it can’t hurt, and the fact that I cajole bunch of my friends into donating money probably doesn’t hurt either.

Now, as most of you know, I am not in great shape. Sure, I say this, but I have actual proof — I got on my bike this very morning, and took it into work, and let me say that it did not go terribly well. I have about fourscant weeks to get myself into good enough shape to bike 50 miles. Luckily, I have Maureen biking along with me to call 911 if anything goes awry. But, suffice it to say that this ride is, like many things, not the smartest thing I’ve decided to do.

So, now comes the point where I’m suppose to convince everyone to give, and give big. They have this webpage of tips of stuff we can mention to try to tug on your heart-strings and wallet-strings, and you can find someof the stuff if you click on the link below and then start clicking around, but trust me — lots of it is the kind of stuff that once you’ve watched it will make you all sad and stuff, because this diabetes thing is not good thing. Then, at this point, I’m suppose to say something really uplifting and everything and then you’ll feel better and I’m tiny part of that, and then you chip in some cash, and everything is all good.

But, I’m terribly with the uplifting stuff. So, I’m forced to go different way. I’m going to appeal to your desire to stick it to me and / or to your hatred for big companies with more cash than you.

See, this last fall Apple announced that it was going to start matching charitable giving, up to $10k per employee per year. Apple has oodles of cash, I’m told — they don’t let me see it, or anything — and apparently Appleneeds to find some way to get rid of it. I do not have oodles of cash, but I’m not doing terrible either. So, here’s the deal. I am going to match, out of my own pocket, half of what everyone donates towards my ride here, and I’llthen ask Apple to match my match. That means, effectively, that every dollar anyone donates to this ride will turn into $2 donated to the ADfor diabetes, half from Apple and the other half from me. If you donate $100, I’ll also donate $50and Apple will donate another $50. If you donate $20, I’ll donate $10 and Apple will then match another $10. It’s just like that gift matching during pledge breaks on public television, except I won’t email you every 20minutes for three weeks about it. ( And, if you happen to have employee matching of your own contributions, you can then ask your company to match your donation, and it’s tripled. Woo! )

Sadly, there’s limit. I am not Tim Cook wealthy, and Apple only matches up to $10k per employee, and I’ve already used some of that this year, but I’ve generally only raised few thousand dollars doing this so I think we’re covered. If this gets crazy and you people cumulatively chip in, like, $15k or so suddenly I’m out $7500, but I guess it’s for good cause.

See! I said I was doing something tremendously stupid this spring, and you’re invited to come along for the ride. Metaphorically, of course. Unless you actually want to come, in which case you should sign up. It’s fun.

So, if you’re interested, you can donate to my ride by going to

http://main.diabetes.org/goto/keith.stattenfield

and click on the “Click Here to sponsor me” button. You can also send me check, or give me cash when you see me. Or, email me, and we can work something out.

-Keith

PS: After this is all over, I’ll send everyone nice email, maybe with some pictures or something ( but, no video; it didn’t work well last year ) and let you know how it went.

PPS: Usually I write these letters with lots of footnotes, but I forgot to. Sorry.

Художник

in that I seem to get about one or three things posted a year.

*sadness*

I do post a fair amount of, well, like to Twitter.  You can tell I’m lying on Twitter if it’s exactly 140 characters in length.  Or, if I’m saying something on Twitter.

Life, for me, goes on.  I’m still crazy busy with everything I’m trying to do.  Other than Cinequest, I don’t think I’ve seen a movie in a theatre ( or, even, on television at home ) in a year or so.

I will be biking again for Tour de Cure, up in Napa, so I’ guess I’ve got to get around to emailing all my friends begging for money for that.

Hi-ho all,

As many of you know, last spring I bought a ludicrously expensive bicycle in order to guilt myself into riding it and getting exercise so that I would lose weight and not die.  And, figuring that I needed all the motivation possible, I signed up for and did a 25 mile bike ride up in Napa for diabetes (1).  I sent out this request for donations because that’s what you do, and many of you were quite generous.

I’ve mentioned that my father was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago, and it took a year or so for them to figure it out and then get him onto some drugs & diet to get it under control, and later my mother was all “I was afraid I was going to lose him”, and I was thinking, well, two things — number one, maybe you should have told me a bit earlier so that I could, you know, maybe actually have a conversation with him or something, and number two, great, if he did die you’d just want to come live with me and I fear you would drive me crazy, so perhaps a way to fix both of these items would be to get this whole diabetes thing under control and then #1, father wouldn’t be dead, and so #2, you could continue to live with him and not with me, and I would be less crazy.  Win-win, basically.

So, I signed up for this “Tour de Cure” (2) ride  up in Yountville last spring, and my sister-in-law Maureen also signed up, because she’s all fit and everything and wanted to mock me while we biked thru beautiful Napa Valley and I figured “Good; she can call 911 on the cell phone when I enter cardiac arrest around mile 15 or so.” We got up really early on a Sunday morning, and had waffles at the hotel***, and then we drove up to the actual starting point, and got our little numbers to pin on our clothes, and when I got to the actual start of the race I was all like, “Ok.  A bunch of people chipped in a bunch of money, and here I am on a bright Sunday morning awake much earlier than I ordinarily would be, about to ride much further than I’ve ridden in the past 20 or so years of my life”, and as we’re leaving everyone is cheering us on with “You are curing diabetes!” and other encouraging things, and then 25 miles later, as I’m biking uphill to the end ( into the wind, I’ll add ) they’re still chanting “You are curing diabetes” and “You’re riding for the cure” (4) and mostly all I can think is that I hope the feeling eventually returns in my legs, but at least we will have put this whole diabetes thing behind us.” (5)

So, flash forward 11 months, and Imagine my surprise when I find out that diabetes remains uncured.  Sure, there’s been some advances in the past year, but apparently after all that effort by myself and Maureen and all that money that everyone chipped in wasn’t quite enough.  I’m sure that somehow it’s my fault (6), because people kept shouting at me that I was curing diabetes, but mostly I was thinking “I’m just riding a bike, and poorly at that.” and also that curing diabetes should seem more science-y, perhaps with test tubes and pipettes and stuff.

Thus, when they gave me the opportunity to participate this year (7), in the same ride, my first thought was that I’d need to do something better than last year, since apparently I can’t cure diabetes merely by riding my bike twenty-five miles and asking many of my friends to donate money.  So, this year, I signed up to ride FIFTY miles, because if twenty-five isn’t going to do it, well, let’s go the extra mile (8), and doing the one hundred mile ride just seemed like it would kill me. (9) Heck, the fifty miles are probably going to kill me, because I haven’t really been on my bike at all for the past 6 months or so, especially since it’s been raining so much this spring. So I’ve essentially got about 2 weeks to get ready for this ride.  Maureen is coming again, and so she’ll be available to call emergency services, if needed.

And so, my friends, I’m again asking you if you can contribute to my bike ride campaign.  I’m not going to claim that you’re going to cure diabetes, but maybe if we get a nice pile of cash together we can figure out something small, but important, and if enough folks do that, folks with diabetes will live long and full lives and their wives won’t go live with their adult children in California.  If you’d like to contribute, click on the link below.

Click here for my Tour de Cure Personal Page for donations & news & stuff.  If you’d like to donate, they and I would hugely appreciate it.  If you’d rather send me a check or hand me cash, just reply and I’ll make it happen.  I’m told these donations are tax deductible, if that’s useful to you. (10)

1 –  Well, not “for” diabetes; technically they’re against it and raising money for research and stuff like that.

As some of you know, I’m somewhat involved in the community around here. For likely the first time in my life I actually know everyone running for my local city council races ( and most of them folks in the school board races ).  Right off the top I’ll say that I think everyone running for city council is eminently qualified, and no matter who wins I think we’ll have good folks representing us.  So, in case anyone cares, here’s my thoughts on the races:

1. Mayor of Santa Clara: Jamie Matthews and Chris Stampolis

I’ve known Chris Stampolis for a number of years, originally through working together on the crew of Democratic TV and since then on a variety of activities because we both live in Santa Clara.  When I was interested in applying to the planning commission, I went and talked with him, since he’d been a planning commissioner, and he was very helpful.  Chris has a lot of connections, especially at the state and national level.

I don’t know Jamie Matthews anywhere near as well, but I have met him on a couple occasions and I’ve observed him on the city council since he was re-elected, and he’s certainly well informed on almost every issue.  He’s previously served 8 years on city council, and was elected about two years ago to his current seat, so if he’s elected then someone will be appointed to finish out his current term.  On most issues he’ll be where the majority of the city council has been for the past ten years or so.

Since the city has a city manager, the job of mayor is more to do a good job of running city council meetings ( and, it is a very difficult job to run a public meeting well ), participating in the community to bring lots of views out, making sure that everyone has an opportunity to be heard and represented, and holding the city staff accountable.

So, on this one I’m torn.  I think Jamie has more local experience, but he’s been a little more pro-stadium than I’d like (not that I’m anti-stadium, but I’d like the city council to drive as good a bargain as possible for the city, and so I’d like to think they’re always skeptical of both the pros and cons of the issue).  Chris is a friend, and I believe he could do the job well too.

2. City Council Seat 2: Mohammed Nadeem and Pat Kolstad

Right up front, I’ll say that I’ve endorsed Dr. Nadeem in this race.  I’ve known him for about two years, and he’s been involved with civic groups for much of the past decade.  He announced early this year that he wanted to run for this seat, and asked me for my endorsement, and I’m happy to provide it.  I think and hope that some of the goals he has — continued strong financial care, more of an emphasis on development along El Camino, and getting as good a deal from the SF 49ers as possible for the city — come to pass.

His opponent is Pat Kolstad, whom I also know somewhat in passing, but who also has a long history of service to the city.  In addition to serving many years in the Santa Clara police department and many local civic clubs and groups, he served as on the city council from 2000 to 2008.  Like Mr. Matthews, his views are largely aligned with the current council majority, and since leaving office Mr. Kolstad was also invoved with the stadium effort.  On the personal side, when I was applying to the planning commission I called all of the council members to tell them a bit about myself, and Mr Kolstad was very gracious and spent time listening to me and giving me some guidance.

3. City Council Seat 5: Teresa O’Neill and Patricia Mahan

I also know both Teresa O’Neill and Patricia Mahan fairly well.  I’ve served with Teresa on the planning commission for the past 3 year ( and, the first time I applied to the commission I lost out to her — and, as I’ve told many people, the council correctly picked the best applicant of the ten for the opening ).  Teresa has done a great job on the planning commission, and previously served eight years on the Santa Clara school board, as well as many other places.

I also deal with Patricia Mahan every month, on the architectural review process at city hall, where she chairs the meeting ( with myself and another planning commissioner ) that reviews many proposed changes by residents and developers.  She does a great job running these meeting ( and, having watched her at city council meetings, running them as well ) and I can only hope that I do half as good a job as chair of the planning commission as she can.  Ms. Mahan has been mayor for the past eight years, and was on the city council for the eight years before that, and so she’s quite well known and has a lot of experience.  It’s not my place to tell anyone what to do, but I think Mayor Mahan would be able to do great work at the county, or even state level if she were interested.

One theme you’ll notice is that although nobody is an incumbent here, pretty much every race is between a “recent incumbent” and someone who hasn’t previously held a city office.  Santa Clara has a two term limit for city council and mayor, but treats them as separate, so Mayor Mahan can run for a city council seat and council member Matthews can run for mayor.  I’m not a big fan of term limits, but do think that there is value in having a diversity of people and backgrounds.

So, having said all that, and that everyone is qualified, who am I voting for?  For mayor, I’ll likely vote for Chris Stampolis, although I’m still undecided, and I suspect that Jamie has a lot more support than Chris but I’m a bit unnerved by his running for city council two years ago and now jumping ship to run for mayor now. For seat 2, I’m going to vote for Dr. Nadeem, because I like his views and goals and think he’ll bring a different set of views to the council.  For seat 3, I’m going to vote for Teresa O’Neill, both because I think she’s very qualified and like her views, and because I’m a bit uncomfortable with the idea of any person staying in the same “place” for 20+ years.

This has already gotten rather long, so forgive me if I don’t go into as much detail on the school board races or propositions.  I’ll be voting for Pat Flot, who I met when we were both in the Santa Clara Leadership program together.  She’s smart and dedicated and has been doing a great job.  Proposition H, the parcel tax for the schools, deserves a yes vote.

So, if Republicans are correct and lowering tax rates always leads (in the long term) to the government taking in more revenues than it would have at the higher tax rate, isn’t the logical conclusion that the tax rate should be 0 and that would lead to the government taking in the most possible tax revenue.

Although I wonder who would be paying those taxes if the tax rate actually was 0%.

So, after a couple years of trying really hard to get a mythical Woot Bag of Crap, and cursing every time the stupid server of theirs would go down the instant the bag of crap came up for purchase, I’d given up hope.  But, a few weeks back there was a Woot off, and I was sitting in my office, and I saw that the current item ( a wireless mouse ) was sold out, so I hit refresh to see what the next item was, and HOLY SHIT IT’S THE BAG OF CRAP. ORDER! ORDER! ORDER!

Except I was pretty sure I’d missed it again, since I did manage to enter in my CVC code for my credit card, and hit the confirmation button, but then the page timed out, so I was dejected.

Except about 15 minutes later I saw that a bag of crap had appeared in my “Order summary”.  Woo!

Here, without further ado, is the unboxing.  Starting with the box…

Since it was only 5 lbs, and about 12″ along the largest side, I was pretty sure that it didn’t have a 60″ plasma display inside.

As expected, none of those items are large plasma televisions.  Instead, they’re

1.  A 10 function remote with a display.  Apparently I need a Windows machine to set it up.2.

2. A Disney “Pirates of the Caribbean” phone / game holder, with a carabiner on the back side.

3. A wired “Netbook” mouse, with a cord in a little retractable holder.

4. A wireless mouse, in some kind of OEM packaging, so it might be Bluetooth or something else.

Overall, not a bad haul for $8.

I’m a bit of a clock guy, and I’ve got a bunch in my house and in my office.  I’ve got bunches of regular analog clocks.  I’ve got my grandparent’s mantle clock that they were given for their wedding in the early 1930s, which we wind with a key and which chimes on the hour in my living room.  In my office I have one of those “rolling ball” clocks as well as a ping-pong clock from Adafruit.

One thing that some clocks show better than others is the passage of time — and sometimes it’s the passage of time that is most interesting to display instead of the exact digital instant that is now.

Here’s the idea:  The front of the peggy is treated like a “pie”, except it’s square.  It shows the fraction of the last and next 12 hours which are day versus night ( calculated from the wall clock time and the longitude and latitude which are configured by the user )  In essence, the “light” and “dark” parts of the current day rotate clockwise, and at a glance you can see how much of the day

As time passes, this display will “rotate” in a clockwise direction, with the current “time” being at what would be 12 o-clock on a conventional clock.  So, this is a small version of the peggy, with white being “lit” LEDs and black being unlit, and a blue border around the 25×25 pixel field.

would indicate roughly noon, on a day near the summer solstice, and this

would be shortly after sunset, again on a day near the solstice.

Here’s a time around noon on a day in late fall, when the day is about 10 hours long.

Here’s dawn on March 21st, the spring equinox ( when the day and night are each 12 hours long )

During the year, as the seasons change, the amount of light and dark will change and along with it the fraction of the clock which is lit up.  Near the winter solstice, only about 1/4 of the leds will ever be on, while in the summer 3/4 of them may be lit.

Other ideas that might be possible ( depending on how much memory code to do the above took to implement )

– The actual time could probably be drawn, either near the top or bottom of the display, using digits roughly 5 x 5 in size.

– the brightness of the leds could vary, so that near the time the sun was most directly overhead the leds were full brightness, and the dimmed as the time got closer to sunset, then slowly brightened again the next day

– perhaps other astronomical stuff — phase of the moon, or the tides — could also be included, although anything terribly complicated probably won’t fit in the memory available

-Keith