Author Archives: Anton

Obie was making sure

Posted on Monday, 2002 February 25 by Anton

A week or two ago I wrote to a friend in jail. Uncertain what resources might be available to him, I enclosed a stamped return envelope. The letter came back, marked “RETURN TO SENDER / UNAUTHORIZED MAIL”; it had been … Continue reading →

Posted in security theater | Leave a comment

potential terrorist thwarted!

Posted on Monday, 2002 February 25 by Anton

As a favor to my dearest friend, I went today to the Federal Building in San Francisco to drop off a piece of paper. I cleverly left my pocket-knife behind (and missed it twice) but, addled by a lifetime of … Continue reading →

Posted in security theater | 1 Comment

less geeky than thou

Posted on Monday, 2002 February 25 by Anton

The Geek Hierarchy. Referred orally(!) by John Grigsby.

Posted in fandom | Leave a comment

by a mountain lake

Posted on Monday, 2002 February 25 by Anton

This weekend’s activities included sitting on a tree stump by the shore of Lake Tahoe. Lesson learned: Sap can be sticky for quite a long time. At some angles, the water looked strangely metallic to me; unlike the dark green … Continue reading →

Posted in general | Leave a comment

Spleen, Venting, Department of.

Posted on Friday, 2002 February 22 by Anton

In the past eight days I’ve received nine spams from CustomOffers, identical in form but varying in content. I have relayed each to its provider Exodus, but got no response (other than from the bot); perhaps everyone there is too … Continue reading →

Posted in neep-neep | Leave a comment

hyperbolic, baby!

Posted on Friday, 2002 February 22 by Anton

Pretty things: hyperbolic planar tesselations by Don Hatch. Presented in the conformal Poincaré disc mapping, which is the most common; it’s analogous to stereographic projection of a sphere. Another favorite mapping is the half-plane, which has no analogue that I … Continue reading →

Posted in eye-candy, mathematics | 2 Comments

the Senator from Low Earth Orbit

Posted on Friday, 2002 February 22 by Anton

People say a lot of unkind things about John Glenn, and I won’t rule out the possibility that there might be good reasons for that. But I’d like to record that he did one good thing that I’ll never forget. … Continue reading →

Posted in constitution | Leave a comment