Charlie Marting says “I told you so.”
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Thunderbird Spam Filter, WTF!?
OK, I’ve been living with this for too long, and I can’t find anything about it anywhere with web searches.
Thunderbird’s spam filter is absolutely stupid. Every effing day I have to dig through the junk folder to find legitimate email from people whom I’ve repeatedly (as in dozens of times) told it are not spammers, and from subjects (e.g., mailing lists, like arocket) that I’ve repeatedly told it is legitimate email I want to read. It absolutely refuses to learn. I can handle false negatives in spam reporting, but when it continually buries legitimate emails after I’ve implicitly whitelisted them, I can no longer tolerate this.
Am I the only one with this problem?
Green Cars’ Dirty Little Secret
They’re not very green. All they do is move the emissions to a different location.
The electric car might be great in a couple of decades but as a way to tackle global warming now it does virtually nothing. The real challenge is to get green energy that is cheaper than fossil fuels. That requires heavy investment in green research and development. Spending instead on subsidizing electric cars is putting the cart before the horse, and an inconvenient and expensive cart at that.
It’s not about the economics. It’s about feelings, which are of course the highest value.
Back On The Air
I drove up to Mojave and back yesterday, and then got busy trying to tweak the book website, so posting has obviously been light.
Can anyone tell me why the sidebar is displaying at the bottom of the page on the static home page, but on the side where it belongs on the dynamic pages? I’m not seeing any significant difference in the code, unless it’s a stylesheet issue.
Really, Facebook?
I just got this email from them:
Steve Mims mentioned you in a comment.
Steve wrote: “The ACLU wholeheartedly supports Senator Paul’s efforts to make the Obama administration explain why it feels it has the right to kill Americans on American soil when they are not attacking America.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/06/Exclusive-ACLU-backs-Rand Simberg“
Apparently the bot that makes these connections is confusing me with Rand Paul, to the point that it’s actually substituting my name for his.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I’ve deleted the link to the Facebook discussion, per comments.
[Update a while later]
OK, here‘s a safer link to the original FB post.
The New Tomb Raider
Brian Preston likes it.
Why Failure Must Be An Option
More thoughts on SpaceX’s successful failure from Alan Boyle (who cites Yours Truly). By the way, maybe Alan could straighten out Brian Williams.
Ancient Roman Computers
This article focuses on the manufacturing technology, but perhaps the biggest barrier they would have had is the binary math needed to even conceive the thing. Roman numerals were one of their biggest problems when it came to advancing technology, particularly the lack of a zero, which is crucial for digital computing.
SpaceX’s Successful Failure
I have some thoughts on the current mission over at PJMedia.
Space Colonies That Looked Like Home
When I was in college, disillusioned by the end of Apollo, these were the images, from Don Davis and others, that re-inspired me to get involved in space again.