In January, I wrote about framework classes I was working on, and how I wanted to simplify the Inner Drive Extensible Architecture™. I followed up in February with a conundrum concerning how to model the problem. It turned out to be tricky, and time-consuming, and considering I wrote most of it at The Peddler's Daughter in Nashua, N.H., there was a lot of Smithwick's Ale[1] involved.

But today, at last, I've got a new demo.

The demo page has a lengthy explanation of how the new version works, and includes a bunch of source code showing how simple the stuff is to use and to extend. I still have a little polishing to do, but I'll probably be putting the full SDK documentation for the IDEA™ up on the Inner Drive website later this month.

I think this is some of the coolest stuff I've ever written.

[1] I would have linked to the official Diageo site, but it's so annoyingly badly written—it whisks you away to a page requiring your birthdate and it tries to cookie you—that on principle I won't have that as the primary link to this product.

One final quick hit for the morning: I completely forgot that yesterday was the 25th (25rd?) anniversary of President Reagan's attempted assassination. It's hard to grasp that it was that long ago.

I got a mailing from my undergrad alumni association exhorting me to go to the "23th Annual Dutch Festival." I last went to the 9rd one, or maybe the 10st, so I may just have to visit.

One of my fans sent me this Passover-themed link. Share and enjoy.

I'm back in Chicago for the weekend, where today it's 20°C (68°F) and sunny. To some readers in other parts of the world (see, for example, this list) that may not sound like anything interesting, but for me it means I seem to have a number of errands to run in the neighborhood...

The next North American total solar eclipse will be in 2017. Today it's Africa's turn.

Well, this is interesting. MSNBC is reporting this hour that White House Chief of Staff Andy Card has resigned, to be repleced by Budget Director Josh Bolten.

There's a privacy bug in Mozilla that has ended at least one relationship.

By Joyce Appleby and Gary Hart.

Joyce Appleby is professor emerita of history at UCLA and co-director of the History News Service. Gary Hart is a former U.S. senator and Wirth Chair in the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver.

From today's Washington Post:

Sewage Tested for Signs of Cocaine

Fairfax Participating In Federal Program To Assess Drug Use

Earlier this month, [Fairfax County, Va.,] agreed to participate in a White House pilot program to analyze wastewater from communities throughout the Potomac River Basin for the urinary byproducts of cocaine.

No, uh, kidding.

Back in the day, when computer pointing devices had little spheres that rolled around table tops to move the on-screen pointer, I used to joke about "dirty mouse balls" requiring a thorough and intimate cleaning of the afflicted device.

Apparently mouse balls are much more important than I thought. Maybe I should re-think my switch to optical pointing devices...

This week's Science has a special collection of stories about climate change. The evidence is getting better for a 1–3°C (2–6°F) increase in global average temperatures, with concomitant sea-level rises and significant shifts in local climates:

Recent research papers in Science and elsewhere are pointing to a major acceleration in the loss of mass from the world's great ice sheets. That means that the sensitivity of these giant storehouses of water to climate warming may be far greater than expected—with potentially dire sea level implications during the next several centuries.

Since the current administration doesn't believe in evidence, the new findings aren't likely to spur change here in the U.S. Fortunately, we will have a new administration in less than 1,033 days. One hopes Miami will still be dry by then.

The Economist has a (surprisingly cliché-ridden) story of Tuesday's primary election (sub.req.) in Illinois:

IT MAY be the Land of Lincoln, but it is a long time since Illinois had a leader of Honest Abe's reputation. Four of the state's governors have been indicted in the past half-century, and federal investigators are now looking into ties between fundraising by the current governor, Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, and the awarding of state contracts. Unfortunately for Mr Blagojevich's Republican challenger, Judy Baar Topinka, the state treasurer, her own party may be too damaged by infighting and past scandals to mount a serious challenge. Having won the nomination on March 21st, in a bitter and surprisingly close primary race, she now must find a way to circle her party's wagons.

[S]ince [Topinka's] ethics have now been questioned by Republican rivals, and given the investigation hanging over Mr Blagojevich's office, it may not be long before the whole race degenerates into wanton mudslinging. The Chicago Tribune, licking its lips, predicts a campaign that will be "absolutely brutal."

Of course, Illinois is 70% Democrat, so really the governor's race got decided Tuesday.

First, the local story: Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich will face Judy Baar Topinka in the November election. Former Chicago alterman Edwin Eisendrath, for whom I voted, polled 32% to Blagojevich's 68%; Topinka got 38% of the Republican vote to dairy owner Jim Oberweis' 32%. No one appears surprised by the results, nor will anyone be surprised when Blagojevich is re-elected.

Now, the international story: The Basque separatist group ETA has declared a permanent cease-fire, as the Irish Republican Army did a decade ago that ultimately led to the IRA renouncing violence.

Anne has started her new blog, Vegan Fashion Scout:

Veganism is commonly considered a dietary choice, but it goes far beyond that; vegans abstain (to the extent possible) from consuming animals in any respect, which affects every shopping choice from cosmetics to cars to carpets to clothing. We don't want to be able to answer the question "who are you wearing?", and that decision eliminates from wardrobe consideration not just fur and leather but also shearling, wool, silk, cashmere, angora, mohair, down, feathers...

Her latest post is about animal testing and corporate mergers.

The general who headed the effort to train the Iraqi military says Rumsfeld should resign:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is not competent to lead our armed forces. First, his failure to build coalitions with our allies from what he dismissively called "old Europe" has imposed far greater demands and risks on our soldiers in Iraq than necessary. Second, he alienated his allies in our own military, ignoring the advice of seasoned officers and denying subordinates any chance for input.

In sum, he has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld must step down.

Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army major general, was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004.

Very funny, but possibly offensive 3rd Annual Nigerian Email Conference website.

Anne and I just completed the 18-hour drive from Chicago to Nashua, N.H.. I will resume my normal blog posting frequency tomorrow.

You've got to hand it to USMC Chief Warrant Officer James Averhart: he's doing his part in the war on terrorism by tracking down Vietnam-era deserters:

A man was being held in a US military prison yesterday for deserting from the marines 38 years ago after being caught on the American-Canadian border amid a new drive to track down Vietnam-era deserters.

Since he took over the marine corps Absentee Collection Centre in 2004, Averhart has reopened cold cases and claims to have tracked down 33 deserters. "I have a different leadership style than the guys who have had this job. My job is to catch deserters. And that's what I do," he told Florida's St Petersburg Times.

Legal observers said the new drive to hunt down Vietnam deserters is designed as a deterrent for soldiers being sent to Iraq.

I mean, really.

The President's job approval is at 33% today, according to Pew.

And Garrison Keillor has a scathing op-ed as well.

Ouch.

Larry Johnson over at Talking Points Memo Cafe posited what Sunday's activity in Baghdad might look like if it were in New York instead. I have changed the numbers to reflect the relative sizes of Iraq and the U.S.:

03/12/06 AP: A roadside bomb hit a police convoy in White Plains, New York, 35 miles northeast of New York City, killing 8 patrolmen and wounding 32 others, police said

03/12/06 AP: U.S. forces also clashed with gunmen Sunday afternoon in New York City's upper West side, Interior Ministry Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

03/12/06 AP: In Newark, about 20 miles south of New York City, gunmen ambushed and killed a police major as he headed to work, police said.

03/12/06 Sixty four bodies were found with their hands tied and gunshot wounds to the head in Mineola, a suburb in eastern New York City, police said.

03/12/06 Reuters: Gunmen ambushed and killed a local football player (Vinny Testaverde) in Elizabeth City 40 km (25 miles) south of New York City, local police said.

03/14/06 Reuters: At least 320 people were killed and up to 1,000 wounded in three apparently coordinated car bombs at two markets in the Jewish section of Brooklyn on Sunday, police said.

These events actually happened in Baghdad on Sunday. This is our legacy in Iraq. The image of massed armies wearing blue and grey uniforms clashing on the fields outside Manassas should not guide our views of Iraq. It is a real civil war: neighbor against neighbor, multiple factions struggling for control, deaths by the hundreds.

Yesterday the President apparently blamed Iran for supplying some of the explosives that are being used in the ongoing Iraqi civil war:

"Iraqis have shown the world that they want a future of peace," Bush said.

Bush also accused Iran of providing material support to the insurgency in Iraq and vowed to continue to pressure Iraq's neighbor.

"Such actions, along with Iran's support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, are increasingly isolating Iran, and America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats," he said.

Apparently he forgot that 350 tons of explosives went missing after we invaded, because the battle plan didn't leave time to guard them.

Occam's razor, Mr. President.

This habit he has of treating the American people like idiots may explain his 36% approval rating.

The Census Bureau estimates that as of the last week of February, world population exceeded 6.5 billion. They estimate also that the U.S. population will hit 300 million around November 25th. (Actually, they have a current estimate and a rate, which I used to compute a date. So check back in October to see how close this is.)

Very interesting op-ed in today's New York Times: Slavoj Zizek calls athiests "Defenders of the Faith":

Fundamentalists do what they perceive as good deeds in order to fulfill God's will and to earn salvation; atheists do them simply because it is the right thing to do. Is this also not our most elementary experience of morality? When I do a good deed, I do so not with an eye toward gaining God's favor; I do it because if I did not, I could not look at myself in the mirror. A moral deed is by definition its own reward. David Hume, a believer, made this point in a very poignant way, when he wrote that the only way to show true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God's existence.

Amayn.

My incredibly brave wife got into a Piper Warrior with me today, and we flew from Nashua to Portsmouth, N.H. I last flew in January 2005, also with Anne, so I was excited to get back into the cockpit.

Landing in variable 8-to-12 knot winds—variable, in this context, meaning direct crosswind to tailwind—was not the most fun I've ever had flying. But it was still tons o' fun, and we still got Anne home on time.

I lost my ID case last week here in New Hampshire, and had Anne overnight my passport to me so I could go home. It turns out, I needn't have been so paranoid, as reported on Bruce Schneier's security blog:

According to the TSA, in the 9th Circuit Case of John Gilmore, you are allowed to fly without showing ID -- you'll just have to submit yourself to secondary screening.

Here's a link to the 9th Circuit decision (pdf).

I'm not sure what Anne thinks, but as long as I'm commuting to New Hampshire, maybe we should get these Wi-Fi wine glasses:

Jackie Lee and Hyemin Chung, experts in human-computer interaction...have incorporated a variety of coloured LEDs, liquid sensors and wireless (GPRS or Wi-Fi) links into a pair of glass tumblers. When either person picks up a glass, red LEDs on their partner's glass glow gently. And when either puts the glass to their lips, sensors make white LEDs on the rim of the other glass glow brightly, so you can tell when your other half takes a sip. Following tests in separate labs, Lee says the wireless glasses really do "help people feel as if they are sharing a drinking experience together."

Awww...

Here's a hint: the problem is between chair and receiver.

Bruce Schneier linked today to this excellent essay on the unseen dangers of mobile phones:

About four seats away is a gentleman (on this occasion pronounced 'fool') with a BlackBerry mobile device and a very loud voice. He is obviously intent on selling a customer something and is briefing his team. It seems he is the leader as he defines the strategy and assigns each of his unseen team with specific tasks and roles.

Eventually, he starts to close down the conversation. Relief might be here at last! Oh no, he goes on to announce the conference number and the pass code - and say he will see them all on the conference call in a minute.

This made me laugh.

Andy Borowitz today jokes about a hypothetical Bush visit to reality:

For Mr. Bush, the visit to reality, while brief, was still significant because it represented his first visit to the real world since being elected President in 2000.

"The President deserves a lot of credit for making this visit to reality," one aide said. "He doesn't have a natural constituency here."