Blackmoor Vituperative

On October 2, 1959, the first episode aired of what would turn out to be a seminal work of science-fiction television. For the first time the famous four-note musical motif played, and for the first time Rod Serling told viewers that they were “entering a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind.” Yes, it may be hard to believe, but today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of The Twilight Zone.

The first episode, titled “Where Is Everybody?” and starring Earl Holliman, was written by Serling and very much set the tone for the series: Holliman plays a man, dressed in an Air Force jumpsuit, who wanders about a town that seems to have no other people in it, though has evidence of very recent habitation (food on the stove, burning cigarettes in ashtrays, etc.). It turns out (SPOILER ALERT) that he is imagining the whole thing, and that he’s actually been put in isolation to see if he can stay sane for a trip to the moon.

It’s safe to say that every science-fiction TV series since owes something to The Twilight Zone: in the fall of 1959, even “Doctor Who” and “The Outer Limits” were four years away from their premieres. Serling proved that science-fiction had a place on television. Many of the episodes may be obvious, even trite; but there are many excellent ones. Some have become classics, such as “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “To Serve Man,” and “Time Enough at Last.” And who will ever forget that most-deadpan-voice-ever style of Serling’s?

A substantial number of the show’s episodes are available for free online (for viewers in the U.S., at least), and we at GeekDad encourage you to celebrate today by watching a few of them. That’s a signpost up ahead. Your next stop: The Twilight Zone!

(from The Twilight Zone turns 50)

I think I may get out of IT.

I am tired of Windows and the poor decisions it encourages. I am tired of companies that ostensibly hire you for your competence and professionalism, and then micromanage your software choices and filter your internet access. I am tired of companies that make ritual humiliation part of the interview process. I am tired of competing with people from India who are just as smart as I am and who will put up with more BS.

Most of all, I am tired of companies that see IT workers as little more than D-cell batteries of knowledge — just as disposable, and just as easily replaced.

Maybe I am just tired.

I have looked all over Richmond for black foamcore on which to mount my EZ Dungeons. I found some on Amazon for about $38 for a pack of 10.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is displaying an astonishing — I am tempted to say “unprecedented” — amount of good sense on the topic of “net neutrality”. This is not a criticism of the FCC, per se: it is a criticism of every government bureaucracy.

I am utterly flabbergasted… and delighted.

Well done, Mr. Genachowski!

In July of 2009, the anti-civil-rights group called the “Violence Policy Center” published a report stating, among other things, that “Concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven police officers and 44 private citizens in 31 incidents during the period May 2007 through April 2009”. [1]

This is phrased in a way to elicit fear and panic. However, if these statistics are accurate, it means that concealed handgun permit holders commit murders at a rate that is 1/10th that of the general public. [2] Furthermore, while there are currently more police and more people with concealed carry permits than ever before, the rate of police killed on duty is at a 50 year low. As Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, said, “There are three-times more officers on our streets than in the 1970s, and we have half the number of fatalities.” So, even if these numbers are accurate, are they a cause for alarm? Not at all.

However, the fact is that these statistics are not accurate. For example, Michael C. Iheme of Minnesota, who killed his wife in July of 2008, is cited in the VPC report as being one of these murderous concealed carry permit holders. In fact, he did not have a concealed carry permit, and in fact had never even applied for one. [3] In other cases, the VPC report includes a death by strangling, and another which was caused by an accidental discharge. The report is rife with sloppy methodology and factual errors.

There are two main issues here. First, self defense is a basic civil right, no less than freedom of religion or freedom of speech. Second, law-abiding citizens who are armed are a strong deterrent to crime. [4] The Violence Policy Center is anti-civil rights, and pro-crime.

As a computer guy and a gun owner, I thought this idea was brilliant: packing your laptop with a pistol in order to keep your laptop safe while traveling via airplane.

Of course, it is vital to know all of the rules and laws when one is transporting a firearm, on an airplane or anywhere else. So do your homework first.

Then again, gun ownership in the USA is rather like an intelligence test: if you own one (or more), and stay out of jail, you pass.

I have discovered a competitor to E-Z Dungeons, called TerrainlinX. This is a nifty set of cardboard miniature scenery which are prettier than E-Z Dungeons, and in some ways easier to use, but also not quite as versatile or full-featured. I have purchased products from both sets, including the recently released Dragonshire: Deluxe Edition from Fat Dragon Games, and the two TerrainlinX sets, Himmelveil Streets and Himmelveil Sewers from WorldWorksGames. I haven’t actually built any of them yet — I do not know which to build first!

I am having some cheesecake (which I got for my birthday) and a cup of Costa Rican Tarrazu coffee (from World Market) for breakfast, and I must say, this is a damn fine cup of coffee.

The Free Software Foundation has a new educational campaign, and in a shift from previous efforts, it is more openly negative about the costs and morality (or lack thereof) of closed-source software. This is the Windows 7 Sins campaign, and it looks like the mainstream media might actually be picking up on it (if only to heckle).

Personally, I think this is an interesting effort, and I hope that it achieves positive results. I define “positive results” as an increase in the number of people who convert to Linux (what the FSF stubbornly persists in calling “GNU/Linux”), and a decrease in the number of people who continue to blindly hand Microsoft their money.

If anyone needed a reminder that the Bush years were bad for the United States and bad for what America stands for, Dick Cheney is doing a pretty good job providing it.

I said it before and I will say it again: I think it is refreshing to have an administration that doesn’t consider itself above the law.