http://301south.net (an exercise for the reader) Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:54:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en ocean.301south.net is a low-volume mail server. 95% of my logs are spam rejected by postgrey.  The other 5% are evenly divided between spam which gets screened out by SpamAssassin and actual legitimate messages, which probably number 25 a day coming in and fewer than 10 a day going out. ... http://301south.net/2010/02/domainkeys-are-easy/ With the unending avalanche of embarrassments in climate science recently, global warming "deniers" are becoming ever more strident in their triumphalism over defeat of the "warmists." I must admit that I have not familiarized myself with the science behind the IPCC report.  But there is a simple, irrefutable fact that ... http://301south.net/2010/02/drawing-a-line-for-the-denialists/ Say you are measuring some signal, which you expect to show an exponential decay, but you are unsure of the zero-point on your measuring device. If you want to measure the time constant of the decay you need to know what it's decaying to. For a signal s, $latex ... http://301south.net/2010/02/curve-fit-with-zero-offset/ Finishing up a report for DTSC on "Alternatives Analysis".. switched from writing to layout on Thursday and now it's almost done.  Here are some figures I created for the work (in pstricks, of course). TeX source Figure [above] shows how hazards, risks, and costs are considered together in an alternatives analysis.  A ... http://301south.net/2010/01/alternatives-analysis/ Abbie and I are down visiting my folks in San Diego -- My mom's partner has been struggling with the transfer of 7 years' work from his old XP machine to a new one running Windows 7; He's been struggling with poor compatibility for literally months, with the new computer ... http://301south.net/2009/12/a-good-day-for-oss/ Interesting result here: Dutch study (pdf in english) on the life cycle impacts of reusable vs disposable cups for coffee service found that hand-washed ceramic coffee cups are the most impactful way of consuming coffee, machine-washed porcelain coffee cups are the second-most impactful, and disposable single-use paper ... http://301south.net/2009/12/for-coffee-drinkers/ These pictures are from several weeks ago, during the heyday of the La Brea fire which, though distant, was still near enough to change our atmospheric chemistry here in Santa Barbara, and also drop ash all over everything. On the morning of 8/13 the sky was deep red and purple; then, ... http://301south.net/2009/08/fog-rolled-in/ I was just browsing the Harmonized Tariff System in use by the US International Trade Commission today... you may (or, more likely, you may not) be interested to know that 6201.13.1000 is the HTS code you would use if you were responsible for the import of "Men's or boys' overcoats, ... http://301south.net/2009/08/of-man-made-fibers/ As I am wont to do, I've been frittering away the hours poking and prodding TeX to make beautiful graphics.  This is my way of giving myself the impression of working hard, and actually accomplishing things, though not things that necessarily advance my career. I'm quite fond of PSTricks, a LaTeX ... http://301south.net/2009/08/convert-latex-figures-to-stand-alone-graphics/ So, the chevy Volt -- that's big. The US environmental protection agency are in the process of developing a fuel economy standard for hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles, and according to a recent draft version of the standard, General Motors' flagship entry into the "range-extended electric vehicle" market would clock in ... http://301south.net/2009/08/the-chevy-volt/