Three Martinis

Re: Bailout-Amen

2008-09-28T10:33:00.001-07:00

Marty,

That's why my comment was only "sort of" a defense for Dan.

Paul.

...

those things that the US was backing the AIG bailout with.

it's still only $425 / head.

and the govt had already tried one of those ( $600/head) to little effect.

+=+-- Marty.

p.s. one of the words of caution on the street (wall/main) these days is "know what it is you're buying"
(and forwarding :-)

In Dan's defense (sort of), in Britain a "billion" is a million million ;-)

From: Daniel Callahan [mailto:dancallahan@m....com]

Are you mad? Me do the math, no way, I just pass them on.

====================

paul,

i realized just having pushed "send" i should have made the words of caution pointed at dan, and not yourself.

sorry 'bout that, and i'm sure you understand the full implication of the math, probably the only one who did.

this one isn't so bad as those things going around, now that people think of fact-checking for themselves, where you see the quote:

"i checked this out on snopes",

or some other truth-on-the-net site, and some of these provide links to follow, and some even support the point being claimed. i think we are making progress on this front. it's OK to forward something completely of opinion, or clearly humor, but this one came by the other day: a list of recent presidential IQ's where bush was listed at 91 and clinton at > 135 (or such). i'm a believer that bush is working his way to the bottom of the rank of presidents (i believe in john mccain's neighborhood they're called the ``anchorman'' -- last in his class at the academy), but i'm consistenly working to keep the internet a place of "truthiness", where an objective reality is at stake. that assertion (bush iq = 91) was easily debunked. but it's crime is that, a false report allows a reader to assume the communication channel only puts out noise. not everyone gets that.

thank you for your point of information on the value of a billion! to quote that great conservative, Ev Dirksen (R, IL) from the 50s and 60s,

"A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking _real_ money"

It was true then, and sadly true today, regardless of the size of the "billiion". And we're still learning, sadly.

cc: threemartinis.blogspot.com

The Chosen One

2008-06-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

in the (unlikely :-) event of a republican president -- even before the mccain claim -- the woman featured in the article, pat mulroy was/is highly touted to be the likely secretary of the interior. how do we know her? when my younger brother sean died last year in las vegas, she hosted the post-funeral party. i didn't meet her, other than to thank her for hosting. i didn't know who she was at the time, but came to be aware of her importance. you can read the article. she has lots of political "juice". we have a family photo taken on her pool patio.:

http://mcgowans.org/marty3/christmas07.html, there's a bigger photo in one of the links.

brother vince, who forwards this article, has since moved to LV, to keep an eye on things there.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vince McGowan <vince.mcgowan@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 2:53 PM

Thought you might be interested in this profile of Pat Mulroy in today's Las Vegas Sun (the liberal alternative to the Review-Journal, a real conservative 'rag'):

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jun/08/chosen-one/

In this, the second in a 5-part series on the Southwest water woes, Mulroy is portrayed as 'Scarlett O'Hara', determined that Las Vegas would never be without water. If there is an indictment of her tenure it might be this decision from the early 1990s:

"This was her "New Paradigm," and it went like this: With Mulroy at the water company and Bunker and a number of her staff on the river commission, Las Vegas would just keep building above and beyond the capacity of its river allocation.

It was a Las Vegas-sized dare. The logic: Defy the limits under Nevada's Colorado River allocation. Dare the six other states on the Colorado River, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its overseer the Interior secretary to not give them more water."

Vince

============

cc: applemcg.threemartinis@blogger.com or
http://threemartinis.blogspot.com/

Re: FW: Hey Ed

2008-06-03T17:02:00.001-07:00

Hi Greg,

   wtfay: where ... are you?

and Mike,

   all i (vaguely) remember, correct me if i'm wrong:
      Pittsburgh,   Czech Republic, and Tuesdays with Big Brother?

and for all, don't know if you heard, but Al-Lu is selling off the dearly beloved WH labs, and moving the remnants into downtown MH, who's hall's, if not hallowed are hollow.    (oops, i see SK may have more info on this?!)

in the keepin' it young dept., we (wife pat and I) have (at least) two young friends, Ashok and Marina Maliakal, who hang out there (@MH), Ashok being one of those chemists who's trying to squeeze information into/outof molecules. when last checked, Marina was working for the former Dennis Ritchie (still himself, less the Unix guru).

and FYI, i'm at Fidessa, where bloke-speak is the language, and we peddle our software to the big wall st firms, just so they can pump their orders and trades thru the pipes.   i train our developers, consultants, support staff on how our product works, my partner, Sandi, on what it does. a good deal if ever there were one.

and, oh yes, i'm keeping Ed at bay, his thinking I care one whit about what happens to Hillary.

and, in a sop to history, i'm re-reading Godel. Escher, Bach, with a new forward from Doug Hofstader, the author, where he confesses in the new preface, that late in the publishing cycle, he "got the faith" re gender issues, and felt the need to press a feminine character into service. guess who?   "Ant Hilliary"   talk about a chuckle.

enuf good folks,

+=+-- Marty McGowan

p.s. agree on widening the circle

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 2:05 PM, Durant Gregory M (Gregory) <gmdurant01@lgsinnovations.com> wrote:

As per Ed's request, here you go Sanjay.

-----Original Message-----
From: ewronka@rochester.rr.com [mailto:ewronka@rochester.rr.com]

Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 1:16 PM
To: Durant Gregory M (Gregory)

Cc: mike.benson@netronomesystems.com; Durant Gregory M (Gregory);
mcgowan@alum.mit.edu
Subject: RE: Hey Ed

Lest I be accused of participating in a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, let
me add Marty McGowan to this email thread!

I've been exchanging emails on and off with Marty for oh these so many
years I almost lost track of where I originally got to know him
from----those golden years over at the Country Club (i.e. Bell Labs).

Now all we need is Jeff Martin & Tom Oplinger, and we can begin a
session of forward looking research.....

...
24 Herning Ave
908 230-3739, YIM: applemcg Cranford NJ 07016

Yes Virginia, there really is a Kevin Sac(k)!

2007-12-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

States’ Widening of Health Care Hits Roadblocks

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/us/25health.html?th&emc=th

By KEVIN SACK

Published: December 25, 2007

SACRAMENTO — A year that began with great ambition for major expansions of health insurance here and in other state capitals is ending with considerable uncertainty, as a second wave of change runs headlong into a darkening economy and political divisions over how to apportion the cost.

Re: Reflections on New Jersey's abolition campaign

2007-12-19T16:36:00.001-08:00

celeste,

   thank you for what you have done here.

   i, too, am at last proud to be from New Jersey at this time.

   many years ago, while in colorado, my apocryphal story was that a car from New Jersey would meet a car from Texas on "Gold Camp Road", which on the back of Pike's Peak, was in crucial places only one lane wide. my then-disdain for NJ and TX was based on more than a few encounters in my formative years: college, time with military as a DOD civilian, and early travels east, where, I must say, it was citizens of NJ and TX who distinguished themselves in boorishness.   Gold Camp Road is sufficiently narrow that one of the two drivers would have to give way. my model was that either would rather take the 1000' plunge than give in.    I was heard to say (or pray), "God, please never send me to New Jersey or Texas".    after seven years of this prayer, i heard God speak "Son, here's a deal:   you get to choose!"   Well, _at_long_last_   (> 25 years), the choice is confirmed.

   having been here for these last years, and considering the modest support i was able to give our effort, i am indeed proud to be a New Jersey citizen.

Thank you,

-=-.. Marty McGowan

On Dec 19, 2007 6:31 PM, <PaxCF...> wrote:

Dear Friends,

On Monday, December 17, 2007, Governor Jon Corzine signed the historic New Jersey death penalty abolition bill. It was a good day. I have some reflections on the campaign that led to this wonderful moment but first, a little "housekeeping."

AHS62 -- seventh edition

2007-10-29T17:22:00.001-07:00

this time apologies are in order.

lots has been happening (lots of feedback), some of which
you've seen.

the good news is -- guess what -- Judy had sent the
spreadsheet way back when - early Oct, and it wound up
in my "save until you _have_ to pay it pile" -- which got
worked this weekend.   i'll turn that into a google spreadsheet,
which those of you, so inclined, may look up, and those
in need, i'll mail. this will all take a few weeks, however.

also, have a few new addresses, but not yet on the list
or database.   next time, he says.

my excuse, such as they are, is my wife, Pat,'s trip to
Lk Tahoe, with a small but close portion of St Mary's class
of '64, as they turned 65.    this was our deal: she can
go with "the girls" if i go to AHS 62's 45th. it's debatable
as to who made the deal. you get the idea.   i did point out
that if '64 turned 65, then '62 had just turned 63!   you'd
think a mathematician would have figured that out. well,
the excuse was that Patty got back last night, lately
reserved for writing you, so i'm a day late.

another fun thing was taking patty's godson, John Hollier,
(pronounced Oh-Yeah -- they're Cajun), to the NY Rangers
game on Sat nite, all my other dates: Patty, Chip, Kate,
being out of town -- Chip celebrating pregnant wife Laurie's
b-day yesterday.

SEND those PIX, Folks.   They couldn't have been THAT
embarrassing!

b.t.w. from now on i'll post these letters on my weblog:

   http://threemartinis.blogspot.com

for posterity, posterior, ... whatever.

-=-.. Marty M

The 300 Movie: Separating Fact from Fiction

2007-03-18T08:00:00.001-07:00

From: Manuvera@aol.com < Manuvera@aol.com >
Date: Mar 17, 2007 1:12 PM

Greetings to All,

I have humbly written a commentary on the historical veracity of the 300 movie in response to requests made by my American, English, Iranian and Greek friends. Here is the link:

Dr. Kaveh Farrokh-The 300 Movie: Separating Fact from Fiction

http://www.ghandchi.com/iranscope/Anthology/KavehFarrokh/300/index.htm

The article has a bibliography section and also contains a number of rare illustrations and photographs. Please be kind and forward this to as many readers possible wordlwide.

I look forward to seeing you in the article.

Regards

Kaveh Farrokh

Three on a Book

2006-06-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

Reading a book review today, Neocon or Not? opened my eyes to why I like to read the NYT book reviews: there are often three ideas at play.

In this review, Robert Alter is reviewing Steven B Simth's biography of Leo Strauss. Those of us who saw the Tim Robbins play Embedded learned somthing about Leo Strauss. I'm sure I was not alone among the many who knew little of Strauss prior to this play. Smith's book, Reading Leo Strauss, may help me to better understand Strauss. But, in general, why is a book review so valuable?

Embedded placed Strauss in a 'Big-Brother-esque' position of the all-seeing eye over the machinations of the current neo-con oligarchy who run the country in the absence of real leadership. A not very flattering view, considering the behavior of the charicatures of the real people. Smith, if not Alter as well, seek to right that perception. Quoting Alter's review,

"Why some of his most prominent students missed this essential feature of his thought, and why they turned to the right, remains one of the mysteries of his intellectual legacy"

I guess I'd like to know why as well.

The book review, as this example shows, gives two more levels of analysis on the underlying subject. In this case, Alter, the reviewer agrees with Smith the author. Alter helps the generally informed reader by a choice of selective quotes, and by comparison to other work. I'm a recent secondary educator, amateur historian, and literary person, I'm made to feel more enlightened when any of these connections resonate. A well-written review challenges me to seek more answers, rather than feel demeaned becuase of any lack of knowledge on my part:

"... and Smith is right to assocaite Strauss with cold war liberals like Raymond Aron, ... and Lionel Trilling."

At this point ask myself, "Self, Lionel, ... Calvin ... any connection?" and adjourn to search

You Can't Cut It Out of the TV

2006-06-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

Those were words my father told me the better part of 50 years ago, instructing my brother and I how to sell newspapers, not that my dad was a salesman, as our mom was often to point out.

I'm reminded of Dad's infrequent words of instruction by a couple of events this past week. The first is a series of email exchanges with a lady, Kay D, who better remembers having baby-sat us as youngsters, now just more than 50 years ago. She had worked, as what we'd now call an intern, for that Appleton Press published by Martinis I and II. Back then, Dad was instructing her on the art of the obit. She relates that Dad's instructions were, "people die, they don't ''pass away''". I guess this recollection came back to her since it's still within a year of her mother's death..

But the proximate cause of my recalling those words, "you can't cut it out of the tv", was when I unfolded tomorrow's NYT Arts and Leisure section to the Television page. The lead article is about the show Numb3rs, and how David Krumholtz mastered the character, he being a little short in mathematics ability. Since I don't normally read the Arts and Leiser section, chalk this one up to serendipity, which I guess, is what Dad was talking about in compairing the newspaper and TV.

Television, a visual medium, offers the illusion of being two-dimensional. It's really only one. And not one of the familiar three dimensions, rather the fourth dimension: time. TV doesn't offer either the length or width of the screen, and certainly not the depth. Take for example Krumholtz' observation on his role: "I think it's more important that I learn who a mathematician is and how he sees the world than it is to actually learn the math.", a sentiment with which I completely agree. The point here is without the newspaper, I wouldn't have that insight into his personal muse. In it's current format, how does TV offer the equivalent of the DVD-accompanying "Director's Cuts" or special bits which give us the insight to what we are seeing? TV is likely to remain one-dimensional.

So, thank you, Dad, for offering that wisdom. And thank you, Kay, for recalling that prior time of great insight in this age of three or more dimensions, and importantly, that depth is measured in short phrases.

D-Day Yesterday

2006-06-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

Lost in the triple-6 hype of yesterday was the invaluable memory of D-Day. It was Debarcation Day, at H-Hour. We all overlooked the significance and memory of The Longest Day , when the allies invaded the German-occupied beaches of Normandy.

This martini-drinker and the missus chose this day 6-6-70 to be wed in Pittsburgh (Millvale), PA. In phone calls yesterday, the THREE kids wanted to know if their parents had considered the now-obvious inevitable consequences of a 6/6 anniversary. "Yes and No", is the only answer. Our St Helen, and my mother-in-law belonged to a pottery club, the most glorious product of which was a fabulous ceramic Nativity set. It was accompanied by the much more mundane quiche, for example: the ceramics catcher's mitt, with the ubiquitous: 6-6-70. There must have been a dozen of these mementos in the collection. So, back to last night's question: we were painfully aware of the 6-6 connection, _but_ in 1970, there wasn't the transfixed notion with the triple-six sign of hell's angel. (movies like The Omen and The Exorcist).

The other fact which you need to know is the forefront thought of our D-Day marriage was celebrating my parent's wedding on the anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. So we were less concerned about the confluence of three sixs, as was yesterday, than we were about commemerating a famous battle.

Let's not let our fixation with three sixes overshadow our recollection of real events.

Three Georges

2006-03-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

Striking while it's hot, your 3rd martini offers this bit of March Madness (and while in suburban VA, nach DC).

Your nation's capitol region is represented in the round of 32 in this year's NCAA basketball tournament by it's three "George" schools: -town, - Washington, and - Mason! That's right: Georgetown, George Washington, and George Mason, who last night "upset" Michigan State. So for the moment, the "three Georges" are alive.

The GMU upset of MSU is less of an upset in this martini-drinkers mind, since, in the science of bracketology, I've always come out ahead by picking a Big Ten school to fall one round earlier than it's seeding suggests.

In this next round, we can expect GW to fall to Duke, George Mason to fall to UNC, and if the previous notion has any validity, Georgetown to prevail over OSU. but in the equivication category, OSU, a 2 seed, might have to wait to fall to Florida, the 3 seed.

So, if lucky, there is only one more win in store for the three Georges. Wouldn't it be a rip if the three Georges finished 3 - 3!

Reading List for after the Third Martini

2006-01-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

While following links stemming from the latest ID court decision, where the book "Pandas and People" was successfully demonstrated by the plaintiffs to be warmed-over-creationism, I came across a few books worth sharing with the Three Martini set:

Out of Princeton, the first, with a Kantian title, On Bullshit, promises to let us know what it is when we smell it.

Another, culled from the "People who read ..." list, is best referred to by it's sub-title: Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini. For my money, this one places the set of three martinis firmly on the list of sanity sentinels.

Thanks to friend Deb D for sending me Joan Chittester's recent column which started me on this thread.

How many 3s does it take?

2006-01-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

This probably should go on statboni, but the references to THREE are so compelling.

Yesterday, I learned that Marty McSorley, a fellow M&Mer, and one of the NHL's bad boys who's avowed job was protecting Wayne Gretsky, is the NHL's THIRD leading accumulator of minutes in the penalty box.

You might be interested in knowing how many minutes he served? Reportedly 3381. Not enough THREEs for you? Consider this:



3381 = THREE thousand THREE hundred
        plus THREE times THREE to the THIRD

or, factored


    = 3 X ( 1000 + 100 + 3 ^ 3 )

That gets it down to THREE THREEs!

What's In A Name?

2005-11-20T08:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, in testimony to be published elsewhere, I had the good fortune to attend a memorial mass and celebration of a just-departed Phi Kappa Theta fraternity brother, Ken "Wheels" Pulkonik. As the stories were being told, a talk by Gene "Monk" Montrone, the senior spokesman for the brothers, reminded me how I had tasted my very first three martinis. He and Sylvia, also present, were married in the summer of '64 atop the faculty club at MIT. When I confessed to Monk about their wedding initiating my affection for the Martini, fostered by ancestry and now taste, he told how the the brothers must have conspired to "keep the bar open so long as the receiving line". This was due to repeated visits to both by any number of brothers, possibly yours truly.

I confess here, to Monk and the world, I was a willing, and now grateful dupe.

(Watch this page for the report of the "testimony to be published elsewhere".)

Metropolis -- The Movie

2005-10-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

The fourth Martini -- Chipazzo -- since his days at the School of Visual Arts, has called your third Martini's attention to a milestone in Movie History: Metropolis.

On this THREE-day weekend and with NJ filling it's dry reservoirs, it's time to clear the Netflix queue in which Metropolis has been aging. Imagine my surprise when the heroine, Maria, the shift-change evangelist for the workers in the underground city, preaches before an altar with not THREE crosses, but three SETS of three crosses. A Frankensteinish scientist, who has sold his soul to the city's master, is cloning an anti-heroine to confuse the workers in the city. The movie hinges on her being recognized for who she really is.

The theme of the movie, amplified in the final text-banner is: The HEAD and HANDS need the mediation of the HEART! (While I don't know what the original German text might have been, I'd like to think the THREE-fold alliteration on the letter H is respects the original).

Succor, School, and the Supreme court

2005-09-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

The disaster in Lousiana ( sorry Mississippi, while you added area to the disaster it's about the total population). offers a chance for us to apply succor to the unnecessary victims of unimagined tragedy.

Yours truly has returned to school.

And, to round out the trilogy, the Senate considers a nomination to the Supreme Court. Your tres-martinis editor has opined on the latter at his weblog: the News Dark Time

Writers Have Three

2005-08-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday's (8/14/05) NYT Book review got me thinking. What does it take to be a successful writer? You are familiar with real estate success, need I mention (three things): location, ... Well the Book Review cover page was waxing on the work of Bret Easton Ellis. "I've heard of that name", I'm saying to myself. Before long, I was reminded why: American Psycho, I believe it was. The reviewer went on to explain the pre-publication copy of Mr Ellis' current work had a letter inside the cover, explaining Mr Ellis's style. Aha, .. I'm recalling blood, gore, probably lots of sex, not that I've read any Ellis, but, as I say, am remembering the name.

So, I'm still asking myself, "Why is it I'm remembering his name?" Could it be talent? And an agent, to write the necessary apologia? All well and good, but what is the hook that caused me to remember his name: Ahah! It came to me in a flash: Three Names! Quick, think of an author: Barbara Taylor Bradford, F Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O Connor, to name just three. Of course, the names needn't be names, initials will do: P D James. ee cummings, E F Schumacher. (For some reason, I want to call him E G?)

It would seem you have to decide at an early age on your persona: three names or not. Mr Ellis reportedly made it big while of college age, where he no doubt established the person he would become: Three names were a requirement. What was he known at home? Bretty? While yours truly, moving half a continent away at college from his roots in rural Minnesota, dropped the "Mickey" mantle, and switched to the more regular "Marty", which in Minnesota was used to refer to his father, while "Mart" was reserved for the first in the line of M J McGs.

While there are many authors who succeeded with fewer than three public names, this pundit is waiting for the scientific evidence in support of the Three Name Hypothesis. Let me know if you have support one way or the other.

Watch the Sky

2005-06-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

astronomy

This morning my best man, Bob Simcoe, presented his project: digitizing the astronomy photographic plates of the Harvard College Observatory. Working as an associate of the Observatory, he today for the first time publicly revealed, to a monthly colloquium of the US Naval Observatory, plans of the team at HCO. The challenge, while understood for the better part of 20 years, has not yet been comprehensively addressed. The HCO took and collected 600,000 photographic glass plates between 1872 and 1989. This represents roughly one-third of the IAU estimate of 2 million photos in the world.

Interest in digitizing the photographic record has been growing since 1990. Bob's HCO plan is to produce a system, followed with a proof-of-concept operation, so that a reasonably staffed team could conclude the digital capture in approximately 5 years. He's designing a scanner capable of a 20-second duty cycle on 8x10" photos, and one minute on 14x17". As of a few weeks ago, they had moved the center piece of the project, a 4x4' table into the basement 0f the Plate Stack in the library in Cambridge MA. They've mounted the CCD camera, the 1x1 twinlens system on the table. They let a project to the WPI senior engineering seminar to design the photo-holding tray. Coupling that and the light source to the table are the remaining major pieces before the p-o-c work can begin. Answering the last question, Bob said "We should be taking pictures, by August or September, depending on vacaction schedules. But don't hold me to that".

The audience had few questions about the technical detail. Bob was frank about the state of the project, and the pieces remaining to install and test; the next phase is a demonstration of the p-o-c, developing the handling for the whole collection with a 10,000 plate sample. This is probably a year's worth of work. One gentleman raised the question about the archeological value o f the dust on the plates. Bob thought the atmosphere, as captured in the data would be a more likely source of information.

Tres Cincos

2005-05-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, 5/5/5, "cinco de mayo" around here, was also fifth of twelve ( three x 4 ) "century days". What's a "century day"? One of those day's whose digits are all the same. Note, that in the (rest of the) civilized world, the day is noted in decreasing signficance. This year, for example the Fourth of July is 7/4/5 in the USofA. In Europe, it's noted 4/7/5. Today is 5/6/5 in the USofA, 6/5/5 in the rest of the world.

Yesterday, 5/5/5 is identical in all systems. Ambiguity is marginalized. Let's call it "tres cincos". The next one will be 6/6/6, or "tres sies"! For Mr and Mrs Martini III, this will be number 36 in the aniversary dept. That's _three_ x 12, for those of you counting. Or, to put it in terms of threes: its "three to the third plus three times three"

It's three martini time!

So, What's a FURL?

2005-02-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

Among the many new words you've encountered here in the Web is "FURL". Check the links here to see the "Editor's FURL". So why should you be interested?

It's a guess, but "FURL" stands for File (as in the verb, "to file") the URL. So, we're filing something. What's the something? A URL, pronounced "You are ell", as in "you are ill". We could make this a never-ending-tail, and it may be.

So, what's a URL?

Among the many new words you've encountered here in the Web is "URL". In our current use, it's three-fourths of a FURL. So, the URL, as in "you are ell", as opposed to my high school chum Earl, as in "Big Earl", is the acronym for Uniform Resource Locator.

Uniform, as in "works the same everywhere",
Resource, as in useful, or informative thing, and
Locator, as in where is it anyway?

So, a "FURL" is a File for a Uniform Resouce Locator. I tend to think of it in the sense of the sound of the word. Rather than hurl something somewhere, I just tend to "furl" it. And now for the big question: can you Furl FURL?

Well, you might, but that's too much never-ending ... so, instead, just visit Furl Headquarters and get started with your own furling. Again, as with everything on the web, it's a social thing, so it's quite easy to track your friends' furling.

Three Martinis

2005-02-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

Three Martinis
has become my Master Blogger. In keeping with the theme of three, my other sites are

The Statboni Room,
where I'll harp on sports. the subject du jour being the NHL.
I suppose other entertainment features would be appropriate
uniter the three-martini umbrella.
The News' Dark Time, where "serious" commentary may be found.
It's suffering from a mortal blow this past Novermber, but it's a suitable
place for decidedely partisan polemic.
The State by State Network will be home to the irenic (dictionary.com), rather than the polemic. Things appropriate for this forum are discussion of Jim Wallis' "God is Not a Republican -- Or a Democrat!" book, for example. Some may think this is liberal; to me, it's merely open-minded, whatever that is.

The Tree's Down

2005-01-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

The Tree's down, the tree is out, the tree is gone.

So long, Christmas Season. The homily last weekend was "let's make it last". Would that we could. What makes the Christmas season special is that it only comes once a year. Some of us, many of us, heck, all of us at one time or another can say, "thank goodness" that it's only once a year. This wasn't one of those for us. As with any season, it had it's ups, downs, and sames. I like it that way.

The one chore left is stowing the boxes of ornaments and lights back in the crawl space behind our upstairs hall closets. Get the garden kneeler for these old knees!

This is still January, so it's football season. The moment yesterday was the Jets at Steelers. With family in Pittsburgh and children in NJ (where the real Jets fans live), it was going to be a draw at best. Patty's cousin Bob's wife Toni is noted for her scream "Jerome, Jerome", whenever the Bus crosses the Line. We have this thing going: should the Steelers game make it into the NYC area, and there is a Bettis scoring moment, like his touchdown pass (!!) in the regular season game against the Jets. We hop on the phone (it's on speed dial) and tell Toni to hold down the screamin'. "We can hear you all the way over here". It's gotten so regular, that as we approached the playoffs, Bob and Toni were hosting their family in front of the Big Screen. The phone rings at the appropriate moment, and they know who is calling. At first, the family members thought Bob and Toni were psychics. The line is, "Can't you tell by the ring who is calling". Hey, most cell phones now offer the feature.

It's yet to be written what the result of this season is. But now that the Jets are emptying their lockers, son-in-law Mark offers that today's Colts-Pats game is for all the marbles. You remember marbles. Back when they were worth playing for.

Next year we may consider the artificial tree. They're starting to look real.

Three Doorbells

2004-11-11T21:27:00.000-08:00

How many doorbells can you ring off one remote?

In the most settled neighborhoods, as we are here in 07016, the remote doorbell you buy over at HOME Depot has a 150' radius. Guess what the lot size is here? Guess how many adjacent neighbors have the default setting on the doorbell ringer?

This afternoon, after a number of phantom doorbell rings, ours rang again. Patty, on looking saw a firetruck next door. Then, after franticing around for Jackie and D's phone number, got through. As the facts revealed themselves, "it's the doorbell, silly". Jackie and D are in the middle of three doorbells, all with the same default ringer code. This explains why, on previous efforts, you muse's ears heard doorbells, and after scampering, found only the sunny skies out front. My mind doesn't recall departing FEDEX trucks or Postal wagons departing.

Saturday AM, we'll recode :-)

Part of the Cultural milieu

2004-11-11T20:52:00.000-08:00

Be careful. There is no way this doesn't have political consequences.

This afternoon, we at Benedictine Academy had the good fortune to witness a group of New Jersey players perform Hamlet for us at Benedictine. The nearly dozen-person cast was good enough to spend time with the nearly 200 member student body after the performance. The relevant question was about the good and bad in each of us: none of us is all good nor all bad. The Claudius and Hamlet characters agreed that "it's good to be the bad guy". You get to explore the character in a way that's not available to the good guy.

For me, I knew the players "had" the audience when the young ladies (we're all women students here), were rising out of their seats to peer around those in front. You see, they played on floor level in the gym. It seemed the script was faithful to Shakespeare, but the staging, costuming were more contemporary. While the students (and I) had been prepared by a one-page script from our English/Drama teacher, the language seemed Elizabethan and parsimonious.

It's been said elsewhere. Simply characterize Shakespeare as "economy of ideas".

It was heartening to hear one of our ladies questions, "Do you perform other Shakespeare?" , when the players had admitted staging "Midsummer's Night Dream"; the number of students who realized the question was importune, were ready to help out the poor questioner.

The world should be so simple.

What Yesterday Taught Me

2004-10-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

In last night's game the action was too fast and furious to keep up with.

Text Editing

Somehow, isn't that the way these things always happen -- somehow, I made a mistake on the Cards-Sox page in the HTML, the mark-up language of the web. This experience brings me to my next idea: how to make text editing work better, if not less error-prone. And while we're at it, my hidden agenda is always to discover ever more generalizations: in text, programming, editing, human expression. This is a step in that general direction.

I'm a fan of the macro programming language m4, which allows a writer to re-use frequently repeated runs of text. Here's a Google search of m4. Often, in situtations like this, editing on-line content, there is quite a bit of "dark matter" to provide the gravity to hold the product together and provide it's structure. You know, the paragraphs, lists, headings, even the images.

M4 is a handy tool to capture and re-use the repeated text, seen or un-seen in the case of HTML. The world is moving on from "batch" and "compile" environments, where some jobs are done ahead of time, and now moving to "just-in-time" delivery of the goods and services. I'm thinking that's appropriate here too. The web already has a good deal of timely information, much of it in on-line shopping, using databases with concurrent processes, locks, semaphores. All the recent software innovation is well used. My target is a little narrower. It's us.

As we sit here in our web logs, typing away. Somewhere below the words is the structure. I for one, would like to capture that in a useful way. To get an idea of the problem, select yesterday's Cards-Sox entry and try to make some sense out of the HTML. It's not worth my time in it's current shape. But, I've previously used m4 to format web pages on my own, and would like to bring it into this process, the on-line publishing. As I edit this very page, in addition to the "preview" option, I've an "Edit HTML" and "Compose" tab. Most of the time, I'm composing. Occasionally, I like to see the real stuff, and switch to the HTML view. To make this work, I'm proposing to get the macro-processing out of the batch, pre-compile mode, and work it in to the editor. My waking thought this morning was maybe there's an emacs mode in this, though I think that will be stretching.

A Macro Tool

Here's what I'm talking about, requirements-wise (sort of):

capturing repeated text, both identical, and patterns with arguments,
install in a client-server model, which means remove it from a pre-compile or batch process
support functional, procedural languages, to the possible omission of Object-Oriented languages
moving personal communications into the web (relying on someone else's server for backup data security.. This may need to be examined in detail)

This was where my thinking was yesterday morning. Yesterday was a day of great awakening for me, returning to this Web log, blogger.com. I opened up this web log, Three Martinis for reasons you can see below. In the process, I've had some of my preconceived ideas challenged as to the value of this medium. Recently a critic, I'm now a convert. Probably for the opportunity to ramble on, if not make an occasional point. The experience of Cards-Sox leads me to these conclusions (sort of an implementation):

The macro-processor belongs in the "keystroke interpreter" portion of the process
It communicates with the file store using stored templates and a view of the edited product.
It is stateful, either in a discovery mode or user dialogue. Think of the simple text-completion tools on browsers as already-existing example of this process
Users may, like the editor for this web log, see a Compose mode, or an HTML (e.g.) mode, or an editor mode. The latter shows the structure in a raw sense, regardless of the target language.

My view of how this works is also informed by the workings of emacs. Each keystroke is interpreted as you type. Emacs is stateless in that sense, or it may be thought of as one big state machine, where each keystroke takes you to a possibly different state. In emacs case, the default state (or action) is to insert the just-typed character at the point in the buffer, and move the point. But note the action when you are searching for text. My copy of emacs highlights the visible text fragments that match the search criteria. The cursor moves to the first matching string beyond the current point.

Applications

The constraints on generalization are easy to imagine. If one has a large amount of text to re-use, such as legal boiler plate, frequently you see phrases such as "John Doe, hereafter referred to as the Party of the First Part (PFP)". This is an example of a request by the writer to make you, the reader perform the necessary substitution as a mental exercise. Where the text is considerable, and there are but a few values to substitute, but possibly many places to perform the substitution, it is quite cost-effective to capture the boiler plate and insert the few instances of the repeated text. Form-letter, or mail-merge software is an example of this use. If you think how these are used, they are still batch processes. In truth, for such large amounts of text, the process is likely to remain a batch. Think of the job: "Fred, call up the contract and insert Grace Jones as the 2nd supplier". As the amount of text to re-use decreases, unless it's a tightly controlled legal requirement, it is frequently easier to simply re-type it, as the overhead of accessing it, and bringing it into contact with the specific information is greater than the re-typing. It's for each application, based on re-use patterns, to determine what is the lower threshold on size of re-use pattern.

So, I'm imagining a world where re-used patterns are marketed, again imposing a threshold, but since it's economic, the costs and benefits may be weighed. Imagine this: you're typing, and you're informed by your editor there is an applicable text pattern for your use. You see a copy of your work, a copy of the text pattern, and an insertable template, which you may select. The first application is for those of us who teach, and defend against plagiarism. I needn't describe the scenario.

Three Martinis

In the mid-'70s, while a paid programmer for NORAD, I observed events which inform the ideas behind Three Martinis. With a personal suffix of "third", namely MMIII, the number three has especial significance to me. Working on my software, I had to program an interface to some system software, the Man-Machine Interface, or MMI, as it was known. After a few months, there was a sufficiently useful MMI document, and lo and behold, it worked as advertised. The interaction was pretty lo-level for the Fortran IV most of us orbital mechanics used, but no problem. I was working my way through one, then two separate interfaces to this software. All was going well. Then, when I started an interface to a third module, I got the rather bright idea of generalizing this for all three modules, as the code was looking quite similar. It's worth noting the programming means was a batch card deck. (Or coding sheets for those who couldn't type). Of course this interface worked. It was all my software. As an aside, when I proposed this for the general library, I had to put it before the committee, and was rejected with the notion that "you're an applications programmer, not a systems programmer". That non-technical rejection proved the necessity of my interfacing module. I was able to shop it around to the group of ten I worked with. It didn't make the public library.

So, why three. For any number of years, I've had the occasion to repeat:

My threshold of pain is three.

Three of what? Three of anything. The number of applications for the principal that the third one is redundant (oops) is considerable. In software, there are readers and writers, clients and servers, processes and data, ... the list goes on. We are conditioned to think of binary as something fundamental. It seems if one is doing something for the third time, you haven't discovered the appropriate generality. Such was the case with the NORAD MMI. If you have written two instances of a piece of code, and only two, the odds are good you'll need no more. But if you cross the two-three threshold, the need is likely to continue indefinitely. That's the time to generalize.

Leaving for another day, is generality always better?

Sox - Cards

2004-10-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

It's Satuhday night, Octobah 23, 2004. In a re-run of history, the sahwcks ah hosting the cahds at Fenway pahk. Tim Wakefield has just retyahd three of the fuhst foah cahds, Larry Wakuh dublin' intah the right field cahnah.

While you are all watching the game, I think I'll browse the web for baseball score keeping software. I'd seen some things for the Palm, after having taken in Tony Gwynn's last trip to the Vet in Philly a couple of summers ago. For you drive-by readers, it's sort of mandated that the McGowan boys are baseball fans. To wit. Most of you think Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive game record. What record? Here's a question: prior to Cal Ripken, who appeared on-field in the most consecutive major league games. Here the "on-field" is both a clue, and a defense against those of you who might guess "the organist", the "grounds-keeper", ... any number of other ruses. Well good fans, the answer is "Cal Ripken broke Bill
McGowan's record"

While the URL was linking, David Ortiz just put the Sox up 3-0 with a blast to right field.

The inning ended 4-0 after a double and RBI single.

While they do a beer commercial, here's the Google for

Bill McGowan Umpire.

And while we're off the subject, did you notice the verb "Google". It's been happening for as long as English has been spoken, turning nouns into verbs. Before Kinkos got merged into Fedex, or whomever, they invented the verb "to office". This so thoroughly disturbed the Martini maker, he was incensed enough to do the nasty:
he verbed the last noun. "To verb" (v), as in "we've verbed the last noun!"

Wakefield is throwing 57' strikes! The Cards are up to their small ball. They've got runners on 2nd and 3rd, one out after a bunt! Good stuff, Vince (my brother Vinny, a Cards fan!)

Metheny sac fly: 4-1. (Tim McCarver, former Cards catcher with the call). Thats it for the Top of Two.

Belhorn led off the bottom of two with a single to left. Next batter out somewhere. Cabrera lines out to Taguchi in left. Manny Ramirez singled and was stranded. Still 4-1 Boston. Here's the scorebook software, Baseball Scorebook. Two complete at 9:02.

Larry Walker just homered into the right field corner: 4-2! That's six total bases for Walker. Pujols just got HBP and is on first. After checking on the eggplant parm (my soul), the score is still 4-2.

bottom of 3:

Bill Mueller(sp?) , full-count walk.
Mirabelli, Doug, C. singles off the wall. It's 1st,3rd -- out out.
Mark Belhorn, 2b lashed a 3-1 foul by inches, walks to load 'em up.
Johnny Damon, (bases loaded!) singles, one RBI, 5-2 Sox. (here comes Toni LaRusso, and a beer commercial, lets check the eggplant) Reliever: Dan Herron
Cabrera singles, RBI 6-2
Manny Ramirez, FC: Rentoria (6) to Womack (4), 7-2. RBI
David Ortiz, BB, on 4 pitches
Kevin Millar, 6-3
Score 7-2, 9:33PM

4th Inning, Cards:

Jim Edmonds (3-1) BB, PB to second
Sanders (3-0) BB (runners on 1st and 2nd)
Womack (3-1) BB (bases loaded)
Metheny (3-2,1) F9 (sac) , E3, Sanders, Womack 3rd 7-4
Taguchi () 5-3, Womack scores 7-5
Edgar Rentaria (3-1), BB. RELIEVER for Wakfield:
Larry Walker () 1B, first and third, TWO out.
Albert Pujols (2-1) FC, 6-4
7-5; 9:52

Sox:
(pardon the rather formulaic bullet lists, as we watch the game)

Trott Nixon (3-2,4) BB
Mueller (3-2,1) BB, first and 2nd, none out.
Mirabelli () F7, one out
Bellhorn (1-0) F9, two out
Damon (2-2) F7
7-5: 10:06

5th Inning:

Rollen, F [1]
Edmonds (x-2) K
Sanders (2-2) K
7-5, 10:14

Sox:

Cabrera (1-2) 6-3 [1]
Ramirez (2-0) 1B, off the Ump in left field
Ortiz (2-2) F7 [2]
Millar (1-2,1) 5-3 [3]

7-5, 10:25

6th Inning -- brought to you by KWAX-FM, 91.1, University of Oregon
Cards:

Womack(2-0) F9 [1]
Metheny (0-2,1) K [2]
Taguchi (0-2,1) 1B, E1T, to 2nd,
Rentaria (2-2) "four breaking balls in a row" -- McCarver; 2B, RBI, 7-6
Walker () 2B, RBI 7-7, tim buck, "1017 post-season games, no one has hit for the cycle"
Pujols (2-2) K [3]

7-7; 10:38

Sox:

Nixon (3-1) 1-3 [1]; "it's getting colder" -- Chris ...
Mueller (3-2,1) F8 [2];
Veratek {ph} (1-2,1) K [3]. with the announcers questioning inserting Veratak at this point, I'd have to say it's the Cards' game now.

7-7; 10:46

7th Inning

Mike Timlin for the Sox

Cards:

Rolen (1-2) F8 [1]
Edmonds () F7 [2]
Sanders (1-0) 1-3 [3]

7-7; 10:52

As we listen to a winner of a Fox talent contest demonstrate why TV is the vast wastland. Kelly Clarkson by name is attempting "God Bless America". Bless you, Kate. Kelly probably looks _great_ on the tube on a managed stage. From my seat across the room, it sounds like she missed 40% of her notes, but got the vibratto and Nashville sounds down. Oh woe!

Sox: facing Kiiko Calero

Belhorn (3-1) BB; to second on Damon, scores on Ramirez,
Damon (1-2) 4-3 [1]
Cabrera (3-1) BB, to third on Ramirez, scores on Ortiz
Ramirez (1-0) 1B, RBI 8-7, might have been picked off first, but a poor throw by Edmonds, with no one covering first, allows Ramirez to slide back.
Ortiz () 1B, RBI 9-7
- Relief pitcher: King
Millar (1-2,2) FL2 [2]

Relief: Cal Eldred

Gabe Kapler {ph} (2-2) K [3]

Cedeno (2-1) 1B,

scores on Walker

Relief pitcher:Keith Folke

Rentaria (2-2,1) 1B, E7

9-8

Walker (2-2) E7

9-9

Pujols (3-0) BB intentional loads the bases

?() F5 [2] infield Fly
9-9; 11:47

Bellhorn (1-2) HR into RF corner, 2 RBI,

11-9

Damon (0-1) F6 [2]

Cabrera (1-2) 5-3 [3]

11-9; 11:58

9th inning:

Cards: Reese at 2nd

Anderson (3-2,1) 2B to left field corner;

Molina (0-2) F3 [2]

Cedeno (0-2) K [3]

FINAL: Sox, 11-9, 12:09 a.m.

The play of the game is Bellhorn's 2 run home run and Keith Folke's inning(s) of relief.
The game one winner wins 60% of the series, and 13 of the last 16 -- Joe Buck.

Good night, Ms Callabash, whereever you are.

Three Martinis

2004-10-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

Three Martinis is dedicated to the proposition that life, not unlike Gaul, is divided into three parts.

How is that, you may ask. For starters, I'm Marty III, Marty McGowan III, to be specific. It's gone now, my year (MMIII), but still sufficiently fresh in our conscience to celebrate. My Grandfather, Martin Sr, wrote a column for years, Martinis, in the Appleton (MN) Press. So, in part, this is dedicated to his memory. That memory includes whimsy, serious, and the spiritual. Just like the milking stool out at the Oyen farm, which had three legs, so does life: fun, travel, adventure; sober, spirit, sensation; and Saturday, Sunday, and the workweek.

On the Web, your author is into at least two of these venues: sober and sensation, with some attempts at the spirt. In the sober category, there is The News' Dark Time, in the spirit, we have Call To Action -- NJ, and in the sensation group there is Statboni, the unofficial NHL statistics site.

The News' Dark Time.

It's recently gone over One Hundred issues, motivated by the unashamedly liberal view we are not being served by major media. In particular television, with the popular print struggling to differentiate itself from commercial television. (As an aside, gentle reader, please hasten to chasten your editor, if the tone of one of the three forums leaks to heavily into another). The NDT must be a "Saturday's" child.

Call to Action -- New Jersey.

Your third Martini is also a lifelong Roman Catholic, though less proud of the association every day. To that end, he's hosting a Web site, in need of much update: the Call to Action -- NJ, where we promote the New Jersey action. You recall, this all grew out of Renew, a Bishop's (yes bishops') call to renew the church in 1976. Mrs Martini and I were in CO at the time, and did some grass-roots issue culling as part of a truly alive church in that time and place, as the historically inclined are glad to recall. -- Sunday's child.

On to the Work Week.

Here the web work is a little more diffused. At this writing, your Martini mixer prefers "Up with a twist", while Mrs Martini is clearly favors "Tanquery OTR, olives". But the website of this season is your editor's gainful employ at The Benedictine Academy in Elizabeth NJ. Our young ladies are just starting to make their impact on the school web site, and your editor, as Technology Director, is running the classroom from a chamber off McGowans.Org. Now there's a Saturday site. (Aside to self: make a taxonomy on your work, viewed from at least 3 directions)

At some point, we'll put this up on a web site, maybe. One of the things Martini is struggling with these days is the value of self-publishing and locking up domain names. Somewhere into a third martini this summer, I locked up "three martini" in (most all) its internet manifestations. Next year we'll review that decision as an expensive ($90) boost to simply start writing.

For those of you with access to other parts of my electronic musings, this will be a place to comment on the general topic, with one caveat: "Saturday" talk -- the serious stuff, will be confined to that neighborhood, not here.