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I believe I met Aaron at WWDC in 2001 at a lunch table with my friend John, though it may have been 2000. He was about 14 at the time, if the fuzzy math is correct, and now he's 26 and dead, having committed suicide under the pressure of the U.S. Government's case against him for "freeing" information held in JSTOR.

I talked with Aaron only a few times in my years, and he posted on this blog in response to a post I made about him exactly nine years ago to the day. Coincidentally, it was on the topic of "free information" (books). I still disagree with him, but the world will miss having someone to argue the other side.

I won't be using Internet Explorer any time soon, but the ad was fun.

Is Paris worth a mass?

Interesting article. It's always amused me that our official "things" are oftentimes actual units. Some have been changed over the years to be things that you can measure, but many - like the kilogram - are actual weights sitting there somewhere.

And yet, it's gained weight. Or lost it.

No matter though - a kilogram is also a liter of pure water at sea level. So we can always go back to that, relegating the lump in Paris to a museum artifact.

Some good disc golf tips by Elaine King.

Interesting.

And yes, a bit of filler. 🙂

Here's a good article on gun control.

Fantasists and zealots can be found on both sides of the debate over guns in America. On the one hand, many gun-rights advocates reject even the most sensible restrictions on the sale of weapons to the public. On the other, proponents of stricter gun laws often seem unable to understand why a good person would ever want ready access to a loaded firearm. Between these two extremes we must find grounds for a rational discussion about the problem of gun violence.

And

Of course, it is important to think about the problem of gun violence in the context of other risks. For instance, it is estimated that 100,000 Americans die each year because doctors and nurses fail to wash their hands properly. Measured in bodies, therefore, the problem of hand washing in hospitals is worse than the problem of guns, even if we include accidents and suicides.

Really worth reading. Don't let the second quote scare you into thinking it's pro-gun. I think it will come across as well balanced.

From John Gruber:

Old (non-retina) favicons are 16 × 16 px; a retina favicon is thus 32 × 32 px. The lazy way to support retina is to replace your old 16 px favicon.ico file with a 32 px file, and allow non-retina browsers to scale the image. The proper solution, however, is to create a single favicon.ico file containing two icon resources: one 16 × 16, the other 32 × 32. ICO files support other resolutions as well, but I see no practical utility in doing so.

I'd like to order a few (three or four?) small posters online. What's the best place to do so? 18 x 24" or so.

Five 18 x 24" color posters (mounted to foam boards) from the FedEx/Kinko's is $179.

Funny. But then again xkcd almost always is.

I still have no idea why anyone would want to run more than about ten miles or so, but this article about the 100-mile punishing Leadville Ultramarathon (and it's not punishing because it's 100 miles - that's the least of it!) is worth a read.

I wonder if he could sue.

Bah. I suppose I knew this was coming, I think I'd read about it, but dangit - it's one of the best Sci-Fi shows since the X-Files (and by that I mean the X-Files before that series turned to poo).

Is there any compelling reason to get a Wii U? Any "console maker" games?

Our Wii hasn't seen much action lately (like in a year or two), while the Kinect sees regular action, but it's also been overheating or something as it will freeze sometimes after boot-up, so it could also be considered an "updated replacement" that let us keep playing our existing Wii games. Rarely. 🙂

Does anyone know of a relatively easy way to watermark a multi-page PDF via PHP at the time of download?

I'll do my usual research, but if anyone knows of a quick way that works, I'd love to hear it. 🙂