tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181737472024-03-12T19:58:09.375-06:00microclineAndrew Petro's personal blog.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.comBlogger306125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-21372114018820556192010-08-20T22:55:00.001-06:002010-08-20T22:57:31.997-06:00Oatmeal Stout from Breckenridge BreweryI like the <a href="http://www.breckbrew.com/beer/oatmealstout.html">Oatmeal Stout</a> from Breckenridge Brewery I enjoyed while reviewing mortgage paperwork this evening.<br /><br />I'd drink it again.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-90598598112865534322010-04-10T14:29:00.003-06:002010-04-10T14:45:47.774-06:00Arizona Board Game SocietyI went to the <a href="http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/azboardgamers/">Arizona Board Game Society</a> meeting yesterday evening at <a href="http://store.gamersinnaz.com/">Gamer's Inn</a> in Mesa, AZ. Five or six people, mostly IT. Good times.<br /><br />We played <a href="http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=278">Dominion</a> with the <a href="http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=306">Intrique expansion</a>. I misjudged when to switch modes to grabbing up victory points, and so was soundly beaten. I've played Dominion a few times now; it's pretty good. I tried to buy a copy of Dominion at Gamer's Inn but they were out of stock and didn't give me any confidence on when they would be back in stock, so I'll have to get it from Amazon.com instead. Convenient thing, that Amazon.com.<br /><br />Then we played <a href="http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=5">Power Grid</a> using the France map. That game is great fun but as one of the other players pointed out, the end-game is disappointing in that there's way too much opportunity for players who cannot win to play kingmaker and take actions that choose a winner. Still, the gameplay of the game prior to the final round is compelling and I'll look to play this again.<br /><br />The evening closed with a quick game of <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170/family-business">Family Business</a>. It's a quick-playing card game with some depth. It reminded me a little bit of <a href="http://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG1250.php">Gloom</a>, but not a lot. I liked it. It's quick, simple, not too hard, but still has some redeeming value with some depth, especially if you try to pay attention to the social aspect and steer the balance and momentum to encourage the other players to eliminate one another.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-17981772442302368442009-09-12T14:44:00.002-06:002009-09-12T14:54:41.546-06:00Opening .swf files with Firefox on your MacI've been asked how to do this a few times by friends and relatives for whom I provide informal tech support, so I'm going to try to document this.<br /><br />Let's suppose you have a .swf file that you'd like to play locally.<br /><br />For example, <a href="http://www.cyberbee.com/">Cyberbee</a> has <a href="http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf">a lovely .swf file on copyright</a>. (Try <a href="http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf">this web page</a>. If the copyright classroom experience doesn't play for you in Firefox, then the directions below for playing .swf files locally also won't work.)<br /><br />If you've downloaded the .swf file locally, or otherwise gotten your hands on a .swf file, you might then want to be able to play that file off of your desktop.<br /><br />An easy way to play it locally is to open it with Firefox thereby taking advantage of Firefox's ability to play it with the Adobe Flash player.<br /><br />As a one-off you could open it with Firefox. (Right-click and select "Open With...". Select Firefox as the application with which you'd like to open the .swf file.)<br /><br />However, it might be more convenient to configure the Finder to always open files of this type with Firefox. You do that like this:<br /><br />Right-click on the .swf file.<br />Choose Get Info.<br />There's an "Open With" section in the Get Info dialog. Expand it.<br />Choose Firefox as the application with which to open it.<br />Select "Use this application to open all documents like this."<br />Close the Get Info dialog.<br />Double-click on the .swf file, and viola! It should open in Firefox and play.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-33842200238144434332008-12-25T18:00:00.000-07:002008-12-26T21:26:13.212-07:00Christmas Church ServiceAttended Christmas eve church services this year at <a href="http://www.covchurchcheboygan.com/">The Covenant Church</a> in Cheboygan, MI.<br /><br />The Covenant Church<br />3424 E. US Hwy. 23 Cheboygan, MI 49721<br />(231) 627-9889<br /><br />A Christmas Eve Candlelight Service of Lessons & Carols<br /><br />Songs and carols included O Come, All Ye Faithful; O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Emmanuel; Joy to the World; Heaven's Child; O Little Town of Bethlehem; It Came Upon a Midnight Clear; One Child; O Holy Night; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; Angels We Have Heard On High; and Silent Night.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-59913753748284832612008-06-22T21:37:00.005-06:002008-06-23T09:44:48.720-06:00Avoiding scientific inquiry into gender issuesHaving watched Idiocracy last night, I feel a bit sensitized to stupidity and anti-intellectualism in public fora.<br /><br />In the Sunday June 22 Arizona Republic, among the Opinions, Kathleen Parker writes in "Why women still do more housework":<br /><br /><blockquote><br />... But little truck is given to the obvious: Men and women are hard-wired differently. Of course, that sort of statement will get you thrown off college campuses these days -- ask Lawrence Summers -- but common sense and experience often explain what science cannot.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Often? And how would one know when common sense and experience have successfully explained what science cannot? Science has an understanding of reproducibility of results, peer review, empiricism. "Common sense and experience" rely on assertions seeming true and narrow perspective.<br /><br />I don't think common sense and experience often explain what science cannot explain. That's the sort of anti-intellectual platitude that sounds nice and like it might be true but is unfounded. It's "truthy", if you will.<br /><br />"Hard-wired" evokes the hardest science in psychology and cognitive science. If men and woman are hard-wired differently, it will be (and in part, so far, has been) hard science that will discover this wiring, in what ways it works, and in what ways there are differences -- with care to understanding of significance in both its scientific meanings (statistically significant) and common meanings (differences that actually matter).<br /><br />These differences in wiring will be anything but "obvious" -- this is the lesson, e.g. in popular science book Freakonomics, that things that seem like they ought to be true aren't necessarily true.<br /><br />To deride serious researchers and scientists ("gender theorists") that any answer to differences in men and women lies in "simply that men and women have different preferences" is to idiotically beg the question: yes, but <strong>why</strong> do people have different preferences? Is this a matter of biological wiring? A response to cultural messages? Investigating this in a scientific way, subject to hypotheses that are testable and theories that can be proven wrong, potentially improves human understanding of the world. I wish the writer were acknowledging that, perhaps even encouraging women to become interested in careers in the sciences.<br /><br />What the writer actually closes with is "Sometimes things just are what they are. A wishful theory is no match for nature's stubborn ambition.", a disconcertingly defeatist approach that admits unknowability where it ought not be given ground.<br /><br />I was very disappointed in the opinion piece "Why women still do more housework".Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-91448419918466990502008-05-10T23:14:00.001-06:002008-05-10T23:16:03.789-06:00Unsubscribed from Dinosaur ComicsI unsubscribed from <a href="http://www.qwantz.com/">Dinosaur Comics</a> this evening in <a href="http://www.google.com/reader">Google Reader</a>. I just consistently didn't "get" Dinosaur Comics.<br /><br />One less RSS feed burying me.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-90928624868637325122008-04-04T20:41:00.004-06:002008-04-04T20:45:36.064-06:00Bought 12 gallons of gasolineToday I bought 12 gallons of gasoline, bringing the odometer to 15786 and yielding 25 miles per gallon since my last fill.<br /><br /><img src="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pq-wOXVsD9NnBL0r79RXnIA&oid=1&output=image" />Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-84834456371071248742008-04-02T18:10:00.000-06:002008-05-16T01:38:24.364-06:00Joe's Farm GrillWent to Joe's Farm Grill for dinner this evening. Had a BBQ Bacon Blue Burger with a chocolate shake. Tasty stuff.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-70788749344640083832008-03-31T09:26:00.003-06:002008-03-31T09:35:34.265-06:00Teacher: hero. Copy editor: less so.In Sunday's Arizona Republic, National Briefs, page A2:<br /><br /><blockquote><br /><strong>Teacher kept school bus out of oncoming traffic</strong><br />The driver of a bus carrying 44 children on a field trip passed out at the wheel, and a teacher's quick actions kept the vehicle careening into oncoming traffic, students said.<br />...<br /></blockquote><br /><br />That would be horrible, if the teacher's actions kept the vehicle careening into oncoming traffic. What's presumably heroic here is that the teacher's actions kept the vehicle <strong>from</strong> careening into oncoming traffic. That is, that it prevented that untoward fate.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-33723175034758806332008-03-30T19:38:00.003-06:002008-03-30T20:02:06.428-06:00On the meaning of "self insured"From <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0328cr-copper0329.html">the story</a> "Chandler law enforcement uses new tactic against copper thefts" by Megan Boehnke in today's Arizona Republic:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />Theives have left more than 3 miles of trails dark and cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.<br />"The city is self-insured, but we have to pay a deductible just like anyone else, so it hits taxpayers," Parks Maintenance Manager Kris Kircher said.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />I don't get it. When a city self-insures, that means that the city <strong>doesn't</strong> take out an external insurance policy against the risk. This avoids paying insurance premiums, but it leaves the city (and therefore, the taxpayer) directly vulnerable to the full cost of the loss should it occur. So the city doesn't have to pay deductibles like anyone else. It absorbs the full cost of the loss.<br /><br />For example, I could choose to self-insure against potential damage at my apartment. There's no law requiring renter's insurance and no requirement of it where I live. If I self-insured, I would pay no insurance premiums. But if damage were to occur, I wouldn't pay deductibles like anyone else -- I'd have to experience the full cost of the damage without insurance to cushion me from it. Instead, in actuality, I do have renter's insurance.<br /><br />In the long run, on average, having insurance and paying premiums is more costly than not. This is how insurance companies make money -- they make more money from investing the premiums than they pay out in claims. Insurance is a mechanism for distributing risk -- by all policy holders incurring some "loss" in the form of predictable premiums and deductibles, individual policy holders avoid concentrated local risk, sharing it across all policy holders.<br /><br />It can make sense for municipalities and governments to self-insure -- they may be large enough that the odds are achieved and they're better off avoiding the overhead of insurance. But self-insurance has little to do with deductibles. Something is confused in this reporting.<br /><br />I posted a comment about this on <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0328cr-copper0329.html">the Arizona Republic article</a>. Maybe if I check back in a while there will be an answer.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-72027740067333382822008-03-16T11:06:00.003-06:002008-03-16T11:09:01.560-06:00Steam Cleaned CarpetsWhen I renewed my lease they gave me a coupon for a free carpet cleaning. Wow! Cleaning the carpets actually worked, got the unsightly stains out, and made it feel much cleaner.<br /><br /><blockquote><br />Campbell's Steam Pro<br />Cecil: 480-593-2808<br /></blockquote><br /><br />They seem to have an entry on <a href="http://www.angieslist.com/spdirectory/phoenix/s134617.htm">Angie's List</a>, but I didn't find them on Yelp. :/Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-21247845731293478592008-03-06T16:45:00.001-07:002008-03-06T16:46:52.871-07:00Eyeball examSaw the doctor today about the lump under my left eye. Instructed to apply warm compresses, wash eyelashes with baby shampoo, and see how it goes.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-87297092103690087792008-03-05T17:14:00.001-07:002008-03-05T17:16:02.291-07:00Pork Chops for dinnerI made <a href="http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/beef-pork-lamb-recipes/pork-chops-with-sweet-potato-salad/article.html">pork chops and salad</a> for dinner this evening. I think I accidentally bought real potatoes rather than sweet potatoes, so the salad was not functioning as designed. It was still excellent.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-1846844574464194962008-02-25T23:02:00.001-07:002008-02-27T23:04:46.839-07:0024 miles to the gallon in my CaliberBought 11 gallons of gasoline today for the Caliber at the new Chevron. Apparently I am getting 24 miles to the gallon.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-77013393770481329582008-02-22T16:56:00.003-07:002008-02-22T17:12:13.574-07:00Crushingly Poor Blackboard Suit Result<a href="http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2767">This</a> is really disappointing and further erodes my faith in the ability of the judicial system to arrive at appropriate verdicts.<br /><br />For shame. We deserve the government we get, and here, we are getting a crushingly stultifying patent regime.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-29095412544297255172008-02-17T23:40:00.001-07:002008-02-17T23:42:53.250-07:00Francis Ford Coppola 2005 RossoNot very good at all.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-80793449333319506862008-02-16T23:05:00.001-07:002008-02-27T23:06:41.628-07:00Gasoline for the CaliberI bought 11 gallons of gasoline today for the Caliber.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-81598675400379765782008-01-26T22:53:00.000-07:002008-02-07T22:58:57.132-07:00Guiseppe'sDinner with friends this evening at Guiseppe's.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-83856158399971950412008-01-26T14:31:00.000-07:002008-01-26T14:32:20.987-07:00The Sub-Prime Mortgage Market in Plain (British) EnglishI take it this is why my 401K investments have had tremendously negative growth of late.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SJ_qK4g6ntM&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SJ_qK4g6ntM&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-51012067881107704452008-01-22T17:10:00.000-07:002008-02-24T22:41:27.661-07:00Golden CompassSaw Golden Compass today. Was pretty fun.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-45663852748632532552008-01-01T13:27:00.000-07:002008-01-01T13:29:16.050-07:00San Laurio CoffeehouseWent to San Laurio Coffeehouse today with my parents. Caramel Machiatto. Pretty tasty.<br />s74 w16825 Janesville Rd. Muskego, WI. 414-422-0556.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-42075622251478229612007-12-23T19:58:00.000-07:002007-12-23T20:02:26.318-07:00Counterintelligence<blockquote><br />Higgledy-piggledy<br />Arthur M. Schlesinger<br />Asked, "How does Washington<br />Do without you?"<br /><br />Answered, "It suffers from<br />Counterintelligence<br />High on concensus, but<br />Low on I.Q."<br /><br />- E. William Seaman<br /></blockquote>Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-22680544929065605402007-12-02T10:47:00.000-07:002007-12-02T10:49:10.171-07:00Best Sakai Conference Ever!Best <a href="https://sakai.educonference.com/">Sakai conference</a> so far.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-86196668871516435292007-11-23T16:31:00.000-07:002007-11-23T16:32:16.787-07:00Finally got to the end of my Reader queueI think I'm trying to stay on top of too many feeds.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18173747.post-22727205022961082292007-11-23T16:14:00.000-07:002007-11-23T16:15:17.558-07:00Spock?Played briefly with <a href="http://www.spock.com/">Spock</a>, but I'd have to admit I just don't get it.Andrew Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08290728101055800811noreply@blogger.com0