Tom's 2006 Thanksgiving Turkey

Tom's 2006 Thanksgiving Turkey
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Not my best turkey. But still a good one.

Nine point eight pounds. Brined for six hours. Roasted for four hours with fresh herbs and basted every 30 minutes with extra light olive oil.

Standing on Cali

Tom Standing on Cali
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Last Saturday I actually vaulted during our regular practice. I did manage to mount again at trot though only during this practice.

This photo is a little on the blurry side, but in it I'm standing at trot. During a standing contest I stood at trot for 42 strides.

I really need to work on my flexibility if I'm going to compete in the spring. If I can get into a regular stretching routine, like a yoga class, I confident that I can manage a set of trot compulsories and a trot freestyle in the spring. I've gota show up Wendy who did walk at Regionals.

Look what I found on YouTube!

In this video they aren't as good as they were in July when I saw them at Nationals. But it's still way COOL!

Dressage artistique/Artistic dressage

Very cool You-Tube video.

Idea: Four Freedoms for the Physical World

Given the liberating effects seen in free / open source software and the coming development of personal fabrication, why shouldn't we adapt GNU's four kinds of freedom to the physical world?

In furtherance of that idea, I propose that for a thing to be free as in free speech, its user must have the following four freedoms:

• The freedom to use the thing, for any legal purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the thing works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the design is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to improve the thing, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the design is a precondition for this.

Open Source Computer Hardware

A couple of recent episodes of podcasts that I regularly listen to [the Linux Link Tech Show #165 and LUG Radio Season 4 Episode 5] both had discussions on the need for openness in computer hardware like is starting to mature in free and open source software. All of these guys need to check out MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms' "Fab Lab" outreach program, and probably interview Neil Gershenfeld.

This ties into my previous posts on Open Source Electronics and Fab Labs.

Distributed Family / Home Backup Networks working

My Distributed Family / Home Backup Network is settling into regular use, albeit with some minimal manual interaction, i.e. running a few bash scripts and entering passwords. After setting up the bash scripts and getting through the initial transfers, the periodic (almost daily) rsync sessions are going well and finish in a reasonable amount of time, normally within 3 to 10 minutes.

The next steps in the development are to setup some dedicated user accounts with SSH keys and run the rsync-bak scripts automagically. To do this I need to figure out: how to let these dedicated user accounts access all the files that I want to get backed-up; and how to setup chron-tabs to run the rsync-bak scripts automatically.

I'm also going to try to put the commands for this set-up in one or two bash scripts too so that I can add additional "target" computers easily. I also need to fix a problem with the dyndns updates from my parents condo.

Past posts on this subject are here, here and here.

Evangelical Christian leader paid for gay hooker and took drugs!

hyp·o·crite -- a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion

AP Story
read more | digg story

Is it sad or just fitting when reality smashes into fundamentalist religious zealots?