johnbowman.net

Fusion Man, the Swiss rocket-pack guy and this Japanese helicopter guy should get together and fight crime.

That is all.

Thanks to The Phantom Observer for reminding me of the idea of online vote tracking for MPs. I e-mailed the guy who runs (or ran) howdtheyvote.ca months ago. It is a lot of work to get that voting data in a usable form. And what votes do you track? Every little motion and amendment? Or just the important stuff? How do you write code that can differentiate that?

I believe he mentioned using a version of Parliament Parser which is used behind the scenes for sites like TheyWorkForYou.com and The Public Whip, both British. The latter’s Ministerial whirl (a Java app that isn’t working for me right now) is a very interesting visualization of cabinet shuffles.

Of course, in the States, all this data is readily available on sites such as the Washington Post’s Votes Database, written by, of course, Adrian Holovaty. It helps that the U.S. government makes so much of its data available in usable (or, at least, scrapable) forms.

Clearly we need to elect more nerds in Canada.

BBC News: Obama says US cannot ignore race

CBCNews.ca: U.S. must move beyond race, Obama says in frank speech

Hmm…

FoxNews.com: Obama Condemns Pastor, But Won’t ‘Disown Him’ (front page headline)

Of course…

National Post: Obama offers pastor nuanced support (front page headline)

Apparently, Obama can denounce, disavow, reject, recounce, and repudiate Wright, but as long as he doesn’t disown him, it’s still “nuanced support.”

[UPDATE] But none of these compare to this CNN headline, which was reportedly up for about seven minutes:

Obama: Constitution stained by the ’sin of slavery’

Jonathan Coulton performs “Still Alive” in Rock Band on Vimeo

Jonathan Coulton performs “Still Alive” in Rock Band from Joy Stiq on Vimeo.

Posted here instead of the tumblelog because Iff must see this.

Bah. The RSS feed for White Whine doesn’t have a properly formatted title tag.

Oh, wait.

Crap.

Earlier this month, the Star had a great feature about Toronto’s fire-hall crests and how they reflect the character of the city’s neighbourhoods. I love flags, heraldry, sports logo — any simple, graphic identity — so the full page gallery of crests was a treat for me.

I had intended this post to link to some of the crests, praising some and comparing others unfavourably to minor league hockey logos. There doesn’t seem to be an online version of the Star’s gallery of crests, but I had found most of them on the city’s fire service website, back on Jan. 3 when the article was published.

They’re all gone now.

Does Toronto’s blanket signage policy, which apparently forbids the fire stations from displaying the crests on the halls, also extend to the website?

Here, for posterity’s sake, is how I liveblogged my wife’s labour and baby girl’s delivery using Facebook status updates:

September 28

John is timing contractions! 9:36pm

John is finding the iPod perfect for timing contractions. 9:56pm

John is watching his wife updating a Calc spreadsheet during labour. Amazing. 10:28pm

John is realizing that using an iPod to time contractions officially qualifies him as a GeekDad. 10:50pm

John is boiling water (for tea) and resisting the urge to tear up old sheets. 11:08pm

John is off to bed. Maybe Ella will come overnight. 11:14pm

September 29

John is having breakfast and then it’s off to the hospital. Updates from my cellphone when I can. 10:06am

John is at the hospital. We have our room. Everything going well. 12:56pm

John is having lunch. Ella’s birthday could be today or tomorrow. 3:06pm

John is glad Laurie is getting some pain relief and some sleep. Epidurals are great. 8:41pm

September 30

John is a daddy to Ella Faith Bowman, 8 lbs. 3 oz., born at 10:31 last night. 7:46am

John is home with Ella and Laurie and is going to bed. 2:31pm

This list of 25 skills every man should have (from PC Magazine, found on Geekdad) reminds me of Robert Heinlein’s “specialization is for insects” quote.

✓ for stuff I can do, ? for things I’ve done, but probably couldn’t do now.

1. Patch a radiator hose
2. Protect your computer ✓
3. Rescue a boater who as capsized
4. Frame a wall
5. Retouch digital photos ✓
6. Back up a trailer
7. Build a campfire ✓
8. Fix a dead outlet
9. Navigate with a map and compass ?
10. Use a torque wrench ✓
11. Sharpen a knife ✓
12. Perform CPR ✓
13. Fillet a fish
14. Maneuver a car out of a skid
15. Get a car unstuck
16. Back up data ✓
17. Paint a room ✓
18. Mix concrete
19. Clean a bolt-action rifle (I’ve only fired one once…)
20. Change oil and filter ✓
21. Hook up an HDTV ✓
22. Bleed brakes ?
23. Paddle a canoe ✓
24. Fix a bike flat ✓
25. Extend your wireless network

Wow, this takes me back. I use to play TFC all the time back in journalism school. I actually did a radio assignment about playing TFC. Sad, yeah?

I love the campy tone and look of Team Fortress 2. It fits very well with the cartoonish gameplay. Rocket-jump, anyone?

Check out the character interviews. They’ve already done my two favourites: the Engineer and HWG. They’re made of awesome.

So, I’m riding my bike to work today, and it broke.

Not “it broke down.” Not “the chain broke” or “the tire broke.” The bike broke.

The frame cracked right through the bracket that holds the rear wheel in place.

I was surprised. Don’t get me wrong. The bike was a piece of crap. But I was sure the derailleurs or the chain or something would go before the frame broke.

So, I used my house key as a screwdriver and removed all the useful bits. And then I abandoned my bike on Queen St. E, just east of the Don Valley bridge, and caught a streetcar to work.

I was thinking of taking the same streetcar home to see if it was still there.