Saturday, January 11, 2003

Cloned or Conned?

Real life is stranger then fiction? Or is someone taking some investors for a ride?

Yahoo! News - Clonaid, Company That Claims Clones, Still Elusive

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - Clonaid, the company that says it produced two cloned human babies but has given no evidence, said on Saturday it raises money for its project but declined to give details of the company's legal status, financial position or where it is based.

Clonaid was founded by the Raelian sect that believes humans were originally created by aliens who mastered cloning. Leading scientists believe the company's claim in the last two weeks to have successfully cloned humans is a hoax.

posted by Wuphon's at 10:46 PM

DSL Up

Well... just about the time I reconfigured the laptop and walked over to the router it must have come back up. (Plugged the laptop in to verify that the problem wasn't my router - and realized that it has connected up and the link was fine again.) Ah well, guess I'll cross my fingers that it stays up without a phone call to my DSL provider.

posted by Wuphon's at 8:10 PM

DSL down

So... my DSL line seems to have failed sometime in the last 2-3 hours. Now begins the joy of finding out if there is a general outage, or if they need to do something to just my line.

posted by Wuphon's at 7:38 PM (0 comments)

Friday, January 10, 2003

English charset setting

Supposedly, from what I've read, english HTML pages should use the following charset meta tag. (ISO-8859-1 is Western European, ISO). Acceptable aliases for "ISO-8859-1" are: cp819, csISO, Latin1, ibm819, iso_8859-1, iso_8859-1:1987, iso8859-1, iso-ir-100, l1, latin1.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

Character Set Recognition - Microsoft MSDN article.

posted by Wuphon's at 5:48 PM (0 comments)

IANA's official charset listing

This is the official listing of all of the possible settings for the "charset=" META tag.

These are the official names for character sets that may be used in the Internet and may be referred to in Internet documentation.

posted by Wuphon's at 5:35 PM (0 comments)

Setting the charset in Response object using ASP

Charset Property

The Charset property appends the name of a character-set to the content-type header in the Response object. Default character set is ISO-LATIN-1.

posted by Wuphon's at 5:31 PM (0 comments)

HTML and Unicode RFC2070

A few links to RFC2070...

Internationalization of the Hypertext Markup Language

www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2070.txt
RFC 2070
rfc2070 - Internationalization of the Hypertext Markup Language
rfc2070.txt

posted by Wuphon's at 5:27 PM (0 comments)

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

Sake

Since I'm going to need sake for various recipes, here are a few links:

Yahoo!Sake
Suihitsu Sake - dictionary of terms
Sake World - FAQ, best picks
Joy of Sake
EtiquetteK

Ah, here is what I wanted to know... sake should be stored away from light and kept cool (keeping it in the fridge is fine). Unopened, it will supposedly stay fine for a few months if stored properly. However, once the bottle has been opened, it begins to oxidize and should be used up within a day or two. Which for cooking means getting the smaller bottles.

posted by Wuphon's at 7:30 AM (0 comments)

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

Burns Depression Checklist

So I've finally started in on reading Feeling Good by David D. Burns, M.D. (I was assigned to read it when I last went in for a consultation back in October/November... but I hadn't felt the need to read it yet). At least now I can discuss cognitive therapy with my psych doctor when I go in to see him the week after next. (And I can say, yes, I read the book... LOL) It's an okay read so far, I'm only a chapter or three into the book. What's interesting is that some of the focii in cognitive therapy is the same tactics that he (my psych doctor) has used on me during some of the visits - so I've already seen the strategies work.

There's a test in the book called the Burns Depression Checklist and I wasn't too surprised at how drasticly different I score when I look back on how I would have answered the questions last May vs how I answer them today (and I'm having an off week). Back in May, I'd have scored an 83 (out of 100) had I taken this test vs a 14 today. In fact, the scores for the last 3 questions (red flag questions) was 10/12 (it was probably borderline whether I should have been under observation - the fact that I came in on my own is probably why I was allowed to be responsible for myself). Anything above a 75 is categorized as extreme depression. 11-25 is categorized as mild depression. The goal is a score under 5 (considered to be normal) or 6-10 (normal but unhappy) - so I still have some things that are plaguing me (top scorers were low-self esteem - moderately often, trouble sleeping - moderately often, and feeling tired - moderately often).

posted by Wuphon's at 10:38 PM

Philadelphia 1990

Just a blatant promotion that I've posted my Philadelphia 1990 pictures.

posted by Wuphon's at 9:29 PM

Recordable DVD - Sony DRU-500A

/drool...

Sony DRU-500A - Hardware Reviews - CNET.com

The good: Supports all four popular DVD-recordable formats; writes DVD-R at 4X and DVD-RW at 2X; great performance; affordable; generous software bundle.

posted by Wuphon's at 5:07 PM

House design

Starting to think about house design, with large influence from A Japanese Touch for Your Home by Koji Yagi.

One of the common themes is the heiarchy of areas within the house going from private (fartherest from the public entrance) to the public entrance and front walk. The style is not to have only inside and outside, but a layered approach where inside flows to outside, and the boundary is not always clear. (Horrible explanation, read pp18-19 for a better description of the concept.)

Possible master bath layout (upper sketch is from the book, with adjustments, lower sketch is a more compact version.

posted by Wuphon's at 7:41 AM

Fix for BlogThis! under IE 6

Install BlogThis BlogThis and BlogQuote Installers (linked from Blogger Support Center so it's reasonable to consider it trusted).

Nice, this fixes the issue I've had with IE6 and the right-click BlogThis! menu item (which is darn convenient when back it worked and a real pain when it doesn't work). Hmm, spoke too soon, I'm not 100% sure that it works fully.

posted by Wuphon's at 7:15 AM (0 comments)

Links to bloggers is getting mighty thin

Out of the 8 blogs that I used to link to, I just trimmed 4 of them since they're either no longer active, or they've vanished since the last time I checked. (And I confess to not checking regularly at all... just every few months.) Oh well, at least jschuur dot com is still up and running. In fact, I may need to borrow some ideas for what to blog about... (that, or figure out how to get a comment system going around pictures that I post on the site which I thought was a nifty idea).

posted by Wuphon's at 6:19 AM

Monday, January 06, 2003

York City Houses

Gee, a year ago I was considering buying a house, so I had driven around one sunny winter day and took a bunch of pictures. Well, at the moment, I'm not planning on buying a house for another 24-36 months (I want to pay the Focus off first, and I have 18 more payments to go). However, I figured I'd dig up the old photos and post why I liked the various houses (if I can remember).


Brick row house, with a decent set-off from the street/sidewalk, and it faced a shopping center that is never very busy.


I liked this one since it's an end-unit. However, it looks like the narrower version of this style (notice there is no window to the left of the 2nd floor bay window which indicates a larger floor plan).


Smaller house. I think both sides were for sale though given the condition of the blinds on the 2nd floor windows. Quiet neighborhood, but the house is rather boring to me.


Same character as the previous, but apparently the attic has been converted into a 3rd floor usable space. The floor plan is probably too narrow for my tastes.


Cute house on a corner. Garage as well, quiet front porch, fenced yard.


This design grabs me a bit more then some of the others, but it's a pretty common design for south-central Pennsylvania. Very nice neighborhood from what I remember.


This house is one of my favorites, lots of architectural detail and a side-yard. Wrap-around porch is attractive as well.


Ummmm, it has a garage, it's not frilly... nice neighborhood, but overall reaction is yawn (lots of lawn to mow).


Some nice architectural detail, seems like a nice wide floor plan.


These two are almost identical designs. The size looked right, and both had a side yard.

posted by Wuphon's at 10:11 PM

Cross-links to my other Japanophile blog entries

Japanophile
Kakebuton, makura, futon and stuff
Makuras and Tansu Furniture
Japanese style
Japanese culture & language

posted by Wuphon's at 9:09 AM

LR design stablizes

Okay, tatami is looking more and more definite, and if I adjust the layout I think I can get exactly what I want.

Plan 6 - 5 tatami layout

By flipping the location of the table and the papasan, things work a bit better in the room. Maximum capacity would be (2) people on the trunk, (4) at the table, (2) on the papasan and foot stool, with (2-3) sitting at other points on the tatami area.

posted by Wuphon's at 8:46 AM

Tatami Mats

Tatami Room sells the traditional mats (bottom of the page) in the 3'x6'x2" standard format as well as the 3'x3'x2" half format. (The ones I want are at the bottom of the page.)

Four Gates also sells tatami mats as does Modan Living.

Garden Gifts is where I bought the first (2) of my zaisu chairs, but they don't carry the full depth tatami mats (goza mats are just a slim mat with no core, designed to be placed on top of traditional tatami mats). However, they carry a kotatsu table that looks almost exactly like what I wanted for a table (unfortunately it is sold out).

Japan Shoji is another source of tatami mats (the traditional, 2" thick ones).

posted by Wuphon's at 7:56 AM

Sunday, January 05, 2003

Two more LR designs

After thinking about tatami mats some more, I had the inspiration to revisit trying to do tatami in the living room. (Since I've now seen examples where tatami mats are just placed on top of existing flooring.)

Plan 4 - 2 tatami eating area

I like this one because it seperates the table nook from the rest of the room, and it only requires (2) tatami mats to do it. Plus, it provides room in the lower-left corner for a seating bench. The room also suddenly "works" in terms of space, and the papasan in the upper-left no longer seems to crowd. Nor does the entry door seem crowded.

Plan 5 - 5 tatami design

A bit more ambitious, but with (5) 36" x 12" shelf units along the walls, it offers tons of shelf space which would be very useful. Otherwise it's the same layout as plan #4, but with (3) more shelves and (3) more tatami mats. The doorway from the hall becomes a definite entrance point where guests would remove shoes and leave them in the hall. Downside is that the pyramid trunk along the wall now seems crowded (as will the shoji screen). This design also makes the papasan chair seem much too large for the room. However, even if I buy (5) tatami and only use (2) down here, I can use the other (3) upstairs in the bedroom.

posted by Wuphon's at 11:53 PM

Inspiration pieces

greentea design - sleeping area - you'll notice that the futon is placed on top of rice-filled tatami. Which is a very nice idea for western-style decor as a way of getting the futon up off of the floor when you can't cover the entire floor in tatami. (Tatami mats are approximately 3' x 6'.)

Tansu LLC has a bunch of pictures of finished projects, some of which are nice inspiration photos. Tatami rooms has a few nice ones. 4 TATAMI ON MODULAR BASES is interesting, but I especially like the shoji screens on the walls on each side of the window as a way of dressing up the contemporary style window. 2 ROOMS 5 TATAMI MATS EACH shows the zaisu style chairs as well as a very simple version of the table that I'd like to get. As you can see, it looks like the table can sit 4-6 people. You can also see that sometimes there is an opening under the table that drops down into a "pit" (makes it easier for western people to sit at the table).

One of the ideas that I have is to do a (6) tatami area on my 3rd floor bedroom, the room isn't quite of the proper dimensions, but it is large enough to do the 9' x 12' layout.

posted by Wuphon's at 9:35 PM

Possible Tables

greentea design has a bunch of Korean and Japanese style tables that look very nice. Favorites are the maru table and the kotatsu table.

Contemporary Tansu offers a hibachi style table that is completely custom made (meaning I could specify the wood choice) for $1800.

posted by Wuphon's at 8:40 PM

Living room plans

So, after probably 2 years of planning, I'm finally ready to buy furniture for my living room. I'm probably on my 5th overall redesign of what I wanted to do with the room. But I'm down to 3 final designs (with a possible variation on number 3) - but they're all very similar and just a reworking of the same furniture. The overall design is asian, with heavy emphasis on floor-level living (I wish I could rip the carpet up and put tatami down), so I'm making use of zaisu floor chairs, a low-standing table, etc. The room needs to be multi-purpose as well:

- lounging around during the evening, including watching TV or playing games
- serving as a dining area
- meeting area for up to 10 people (tough goal, it's a small room)
- work area for wireless laptops when co-workers are in town

Now, the general layout of the room is that the upper-left doorway leads into my office area (which is why it's screened off). There is no door between the office and the living room. The upper-right doorway has a swinging door (shown) and leads into the hallway leading to the rest of the apartment. In the bottom is a bay window, the only windows in the room (it's a row-house). The base of the windows is around 23" and the ceiling height in the room is a low 7'-5" (so by going floor-level seating, the room will seem larger). There is a single forced-air vent in the upper-left corner for heating, which needs to be kept clear if I want the room to stay warm during the winter. The only (2) electrical outlets are in the top wall (small circle marks location) and the lower-right corner of the room.

Current color scheme of the room is antique white walls, dark brown color trim (paint or stained wood), drop ceiling with white tiles and black metal. The floor is an ugly aqua green carpet. None of that can be changed since it's a rental.

Empty room from December 1997


March 1998


2001 room layout


Plan 1 - Bay window focal point, plan A

This is not a bad design, because it puts the table, papasan (my only "western" style chair, or as close as I'm going to get), and the TV in my preferred arrangement. It puts the shoji screen in the background of the room, so that you're not distracted by what lies behind the screen (my messy office). The table is also in a good location for breakfast due to the morning light coming in from the lower-left corner of the sketch. The problems with the design are the location and size of the papasan chair. It's slightly crowded in that area of the room as a result. This was the result of my last attempt 18-20 months ago to figure out a floor plan.

Plan 2 - Bay window focal point, plan B

Okay, plan B is to leave the TV in the bay window, but move the table to the lower-left corner. Looks like the papasan chair will end up in the lower-right corner. Downside is that you will not be able to see the TV from the papasan (unless I shift the TV to the left side of the bay). This layout does allow normal passage into the office through the doorway (the office has 2 doorways, there's a 2nd door into the hallway that I normally keep closed). I do tend to lean towards this floor plan as well.

Plan 3 - Upper-left focal point

Floor plan number 3 is a further development of the idea started in plan 2 of putting the papasan chair in the lower-right corner. Advantages are that the table area becomes the focal point of the room as you walk in, then shifts to the TV area up by the screened office doorway. It's possible to use the doorway into the office by folding up the shoji screen, and the papasan chair doesn't block the room flow.

Furniture
I've settled on the following pieces as core pieces for the room. You'll notice that these (3) pieces appear in all of the layout designs that I've done in the last 18-20 months. Hopefully some of the items go on sale come February.


This is probably "the" core piece that I definitely plan on getting. It's a 6-drawer dresser, with drawers that are perfectly sized to hold DVDs (internal dimensions of the drawers are 21.5-22.0" wide, 17.0" deep, and 7.0" high). The DVDs would lay spine-up, in (2) left-right rows in the drawer, providing about 43" of linear storage per drawer (258" total). My estimates are that you can store (36) DVDs in 21" of linear shelf space, which means that this dresser will hold 442 DVDs (I currently own a bit over 200). Source for this piece is Pier1 (part #1822498).


Storage trunk, useful for folks to sit on, or to stack floor pillows on (in), or to use as a serving area for the table when dining. It's the same color wood as the 6-drawer dresser. Part #1822600 from Pier1.


The papasan chair, which I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get. The things I'm not thrilled with is that the wood (rattan) is lighter shade (yellow-tint instead of brown) and the overall size of the chair is rather large (43" diameter). Source is Pier1 (part #816766). The main reason that I'm considering buying it is that I do like the chair, it mostly fits the decor, and I don't really have any other ideas of what to use instead for a more western style chair. There's also a foot stool (19" dia) that can be purchased (additional seating).

posted by Wuphon's at 7:22 PM

Knees Up!

More Goon Show nonsense... one of the jokes used in The Lost Gold Mine and The Whistling Spy Enigma is the phrase "Knees Up". For instance, in the Whistling Spy Enigma (scripts: sroden, thegoonshow, spidersweb):

FX: DOOR BEING OPENED ABRUPTLY
Moriarty: Ah, Captain Seagoon. Hands up!
Major: Oooh!
Moriarty: Who are you?
Major: Mother Brown
Moriarty: Knees up

So why the response, "Knees up"? Which is delivered in rapid-fire stacatto style turning it into a joke. (A joke also used in the Lost Gold Mine of Charlotte and The Spy or Who is Pink Oboe.)

Well, there's a children's song about a dance called Knees Up Mother Brown. (sources: KIDiddles, World Kids):

There came a girl from France
Who didn't know how to dance
The only thing that she could do
Was knees up Mother Brown

However, Library of the University of Toronto seems to have the more likely version of the song (in fact, there are two versions). Here is the first (and more common version?):

Oh, knees up, Mother Brown,
Knees up, Mother Brown.
Come along, dearie, let it go,
Ee-I-Ee-I-Ee-I-O.
It's your blooming birthday,
Let's wake up all the town,
So, knees up, knees up,
Don't get the breeze up,
Knees up, Mother Brown.

The reason I think this is more likely is that the one version was taken from a book called Songs from the Front & Rear: Canadian Servicemen's Songs of the Second World War - which, given the heavy influence that WW2 seems to have on the humor of the Goon Show makes this one seem likely. One of the interesting cross-reference items here is that the song features the phrase "Ee-I-Ee-I-Ee-I-O" which I've also been wondering about what it means or where it sourced from.

On the other hand, the character of Moriarty is supposedly from France...

posted by Wuphon's at 6:02 PM

Bike Dimensions

On a somewhat related note, I found my notations about the size and weight of my existing bike (the beast!). 5'-6" long 3'-6" high 2'-0" wide and 41 lbs (including the air pump and full saddlebag which adds a pound or three). Looking over at Performance Bike ... well, I was hoping to get an idea of current weights, but I'll have to look elsewhere.

123bikes has some rather expensive bikes listed (like $2200+) however, the Sub 22 which is a rigid only weights 22 lbs. (drool)

I'm hoping that my new bike weighs in sub-30lbs, but I'm not gonna pay multiple-grands in order to do it.

posted by Wuphon's at 10:58 AM (0 comments)

Netherlands - 1990

Netherlands 1990 page is pretty much done. Not much information other then pictures since I can't remember off the top of my head names of places or ships or stuff like that. (I'll have to go digging for my logbook at some point...)

posted by Wuphon's at 10:18 AM (0 comments)

White Christmas

Just a quick movie, looking out my window at the snowfall during Christmas week.

posted by Wuphon's at 7:56 AM (0 comments)

Bike Pole

Remounted my bike rack pole last night as well. As you can see from the above 2 photos, I don't have a lot of room in the stairwell that leads up to my 2nd/3rd floor apartment. And storing my bike outside is not really an option in the city (it would be exposed to the elements... both natural and criminal). So I had bought a bike pole rack that goes from floor to ceiling and attaches via friction (with an adjustable screw to snug it up tight) maybe a year ago; but after a few weeks, the top had moved about half an inch so I took the bike down off the rack to avoid trouble.


Here's the installed pole. Currently mounted flush up against the wall, with a pair of anchor screws being used to keep the top from wandering. Now, I made a mistake mounting it... the handlebar on the bike scrapes the wall, which means that tire is always going to be canted out. However, there's still a few inches of room between the back tire and the wall, so I may free up one of the two anchor screws and rotate the pole slightly to get the front a bit farther away from the wall.

Still, I'm happy with the pole because it gets my bike up off the floor and out of the way. Now I can look into dressing up the entry way area to make it more inviting. (e.g. that rug has *got* to go)

posted by Wuphon's at 7:30 AM (0 comments)

New template

Okay, starting to harmonize the site, so now this page uses the CSS file that I'm using for my home page. I've also tightened up the top of the page, and reworked the style of the side panel. I've also posted a copy of my blogger template for those who are interested.

posted by Wuphon's at 7:09 AM (0 comments)

Winter Riding (more)

Before you dress for a winter ride

posted by Wuphon's at 1:51 AM (0 comments)

Mountain Bike Slang

Okay, now I remember why I like to ride... reading through The Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang, a lot of the entries make me chuckle because I can picture or imagine the event. Some good excerpts:

acro-brat n.little kids who use thier bikes like pogo sticks, with pegs coming out of the front axle. Should be confined to the Circus or other freak show reviews.

crotch-testing n. sudden impact between a male rider's private parts and something very hard and pointy, such as a handlebar stem or seat.

gravity check n. a fall.

horizontal track stand n. a foot fault that happens at a stop sign.

JRA n. acronym for "Just Riding Along," a phrase universally uttered by people bringing both halves of their frame and the remains of their fork in for warrantee replacement.

mantrap n. hole covered with autumn leaves, resembling solid earth and effective at eating the front wheel of the unsuspecting rider.

organ donor n. someone who rides without a helmet. Also called a "metal head".

Pirelliology n. the noble art of being able to identify tires from the tracks they leave on the ground.

road rash n. contact dermatitis; an allergic reaction of skin to moving asphalt.

snowmine n. an object hidden by snow on the trail. "Be careful of the snowmines -- you know, rocks, logs, hibernating bears..."

wild pigs n. poorly adjusted brake pads that squeal in use.

posted by Wuphon's at 1:45 AM (0 comments)

Winter Riding

So, after not riding for 15 months (bleh) I figured it's time to get started again (cheer). In fact, I went and took a gander at the bikes in the bike shop to get a good idea of what sort of bike I'm looking for. Since I was the only customer there, I took the opportunity to quiz them a bit on the different options, how much bike is over-kill, etc. Plus, they'll do a fitting to get me into the right size frame, stem, etc. Looks like I'll end up spending about $600-$800 for a hard-tail with disc brakes, 27-speed, clipless pedals, and a lighter bike then I'm currently using (a Sears-special, 18 speed, rim brakes, top-clips, with a frame that is too small for my torso). If I'm feeling okay, I think I'll stop in there next week and start the ball rolling. (Also have to get new shoes to go with the pedals.) Right now, my goal is to ride my bike to my next appointments with the doctors at the end of January (it's only 2-3 miles).

I also spent the evening trying on all of my old technical wear to see what still fits and what I needed to order more of. Not too bad, most of my stuff was XL anyway, so it's only a few bits of L gear that I have to replace until I lose the weight again. Now I need to figure out just how many layers (and of which items) I'm going to need for a given temperature. I think I have the gear to deal with anything down to the freezing point.

posted by Wuphon's at 12:46 AM