The ball is 3 cm in diameter, held either magnetically so all but a small polar area is exposed. In addition to rotating smoothly, the ball registers (but does not yield to) pressure; "clicking" is emulated by squeezing or pinching the ball with some combination of fingers. An LED blinks or a sound is played to indicate a click is registered.

An internal gyroscope allows smooth scrolling by flicking the ball in any direction. The gyroscope restricts the rotation of the ball to that axis until deactivated by another tactile signal.

With a suction cup or other attachment on the …

William Gibson's fiction is full of unique, near-future predictions about how society and culture respond to technology. The recent LonleyGirl15/YouTube story, closely mirroring the plot of his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, invites serious consideration of some of his other concepts.

A theme carried by both the dialogue and narrative of his novels is the comparison of large corporations with biological entities. Hapless families and individuals of incredible wealth are cocooned inside corporate apparatus that has accrued with their fortunes.

This is a compelling idea, and not necessarily a new one. Economists and financial analysts have long recognized that any …

I'd initially planned to delay publishing anything new until I'd imported all my old blog posts, updated the code behind my books page, got some work done for skule.ca, and so on. I'm starting to realize those are all long term processes that shouldn't stand in the way of another attempt to blog regularly.

Another feature I've always had in mind was a page for all the links with which Dave and others keep spamming me, or which I dig up myself. Yesterday I realized that it would make more sense to use a service like del.icio.us …

This is my new website. The old one is at khaerukama-o.geodave.net, but won't be updated anymore.

I also have a new e-mail address: mail@paul.kishimoto.name. Please update your address books.

Stay tuned for unbelievably exciting (vis not exciting) things.

This will be the first in a number of articles meant to express my opinion on common topics. Often I find I can’t explain my view concisely without feeling I’m cheating someone out of part of the story. Referrals to this page should obviate the need to make editorial decisions that deny people information - decisions I justifiably hate making.

Today’s topic: the attacks of 11 September 2001.

The September 11 attacks were not faked or perpetrated by individuals under the direction of the White House, George W. Bush or his staff, the CIA, the FBI or any …

A few ideas have crystallized for me as I've read about the ongoing furor over the Danish and other European newspapers publishing offensive cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Without repeating too much common knowledge, certain Islamic scriptures forbid realistic depictions of the prophets, but depictions of that sort have been made for centuries. Various newspapers are reprinting the cartoons, citing freedom of the press, and the images are not only in violation of this particular scripture, but also offensive (see the above link).

I've also read this opinion by a 'Muslim dissident', which says, amongst other things:

A democracy cannot …

I make frequent attempts at humour. Often they fail, because most of my jokes are referential. I depend on lateral thinking to insert the unexpected or (seemingly) unrelated into a situation or a conversation. The humour is created either by the juxtapositon of the two items, or, more commonly, poached outright from the thing I'm referencing.

Either way I rely on a whole lexicon of stock phrases, quotations, tidbits and so on to execute this sort of joke. What follows is an informal guide to the most common of these. For the most part the humour isn't explained -- because any …

That's right. Nothing original is said in this post, but a post it is. The following are PDF versions of the MIE374 lecture notes:

• [Chapter 1](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/data/mie374/MIE_374_CH_01_Slides.pdf)
• [Chapter 2](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/data/mie374/MIE_374_CH_02_Slides.pdf)
• [Chapter 3](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/data/mie374/MIE_374_CH_03_Slides.pdf)
• [Chapter 4](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/data/mie374/MIE_374_CH_04_Slides.pdf)
• [Chapter 5](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/data/mie374/MIE_374_CH_05_Slides.pdf)
• [Chapter 7](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/data/mie374/MIE_374_CH_07_Slides.pdf)
• [Chapter 13](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/data/mie374/MIE_374_CH_13_Slides.pdf)
• [Chapter 14](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net …

Computers make us more productive. Yeah, right. Lifehacker recommends the downloads, web sites and shortcuts that actually save time. **Don't live to geek; geek to live.** [Lifehacker.com](http://www.lifehacker.com)

I'm not sure why I haven't read this site before, but it's definitely on my reading list now. It's an admirable message that I sympathize with. Computers, the Internet and the software and data on them are wonderfully powerful tools; but they're just that: tools. There's no point owning a massive industrial lathe when all you need is a Dremel tool.

I'll use Lifehacker for suggestions from here …

Well, well. A New Year! I got wildly and inexcusably drunk on New Year's Eve at Konrad's place (Lil's blog has photos). Moreover, I did it intentionally, which is a rare and awesome thing. Today was the annual Kishimoto Family New Year's Day Open House (KFNYDOH, sounds like a martial art) at my uncle's place in Weston. For the uninitiated, this involves a lot of pre-cooking during Boxing Week, and about 125 guests (mostly adult friends of the family) coming by between 3 and 10 PM. The amount and variety of food defies description, but I'll try and find a …

I'm so emo - I've been listening to a lot of music by Stars. They're great:

God that was strange to see you again
Introduced by a friend of a friend
Smiled and said "yes I think we've met before"
In that instant it started to pour

Captured a taxi despite all the rain
We drove in silence across Pont Champlain
And all of that time you thought I was sad
I was trying to remember your name

This scar is a fleck on my porcelain skin
You tried to reach deep but you couldn't get in
And now you're outside …

This is why I love the Canada Research Chair program, the Ontario postsecondary education system, and Michael Geist. His observations on the Internet are always legally informative, politically neutral, and rhetoric-free; at the same time they embody the sort of values, enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that Canada's laws are designed to protect.

His work is the exact antithesis of the partisan committee-authored 'think tank' reports that a lot of American lawmaking and lobbying seem to be based on, a direct effect of the mandate of the CRC. I find it very refreshing.

Now Playing: Badly Drawn …

Woo! I should be studying.

Now Playing: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III - 06 - Gallows Pole

I'm 21! I wish I could say I had more to show for it, but other events have overshadowed it.

I had the flu from roughly 26-29 November. While I was under I exacerbated my headache by redoing the layout of this site; it's a lot simpler and cleaner now. Some notable changes:

• The blurbs have been moved to the front Media page.
• I added a list of the anime I have burned to DVD; let me know if you want to borrow anything.
• Some books added as to-reads; I've got some spoken-word and lyrics to go into the poetry …

Instead of going off on extensive tangents the way I usually do, I'm just going to quote a lot of really good or striking lyrics and let you make what you will of them.

Call me over and I trust We lay here 'til we must Make our break to our star bodies go

There's a shake with the shock And a gift off with them They carry the dust of the failing wisdom For you there's not any warning And love is 5 in the morning

'Til we skip through the towns to the bright sweet past on And …

The above photo is of a test of the LG-118A Peacekeeper ICBM, which carries up to ten 300 KT MIRV warheads. Little Boy (the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima) rated about 13 KT. What these measurements mean is that detonating 300,000 tons of TNT (a common explosive) or one of these warheads releases equal energy. That TNT would form a solid cube about 20 storeys high. The test warheads were inert (obviously), and dropped on an uninhabited atoll in the Pacific. The bright lines result from the heat created by their reentry into the atmosphere at over five times …

I've been looking for this song for years. I've found a shitty, skippy 80 kbps mp3 of it. I am willing to buy the album to hear more. Apparently Nine Big Dogs were around in Canada from 1990-1992, released one album called Bite and one of the members went on to help found the Killjoys, though he didn't record with them. Someone has mentioned that Alan Cross might have used this song on a History of New Rock segment. Any info is appreciated.

Now Playing: Nine Big Dogs - Bite - Dougie's Lament

Dougie's not like any other man, no no no …

May you live in interesting times [and attract the attention of interesting people [and may all your dreams come true]] Unknown

I just read an interesting article on the supposed origins of this curse, which I first stumbled across in a novel by Terry Pratchett years ago. I think it's fair to say we live in interesting times.

Here's a new take on the teenage-angst cliché "noone understands me," which is clearly a false generalization in anyone's case. Everyone has a store of items which resonate with them deeply - bits of writing, poetry, music, phrases, concepts, etc. Given how complex …

…plus c'est la même chose, non? Frighteningly enough I can't even say it's mid-October; that's come and gone. The term is nearly half over. I'm having less than complete success keeping my vague resolutions for this year, but any progress is better than none. Improvements:

• Working out more; doing circuit training once or twice weekly, usually with Calden. Ultimate games on weekends. CN Tower Stairclimb this Saturday.
• Marks are decent; none of last year's "just didn't submit it" events.
• Doing laundry and cleaning roughly weekly; doing dishes.

But nevertheless

• Down to ~4h nightly sleep, and up to ~1.5 cups …

I tell everyone about this sooner or later, so maybe it's important. This is one of my favourite songs—which is a rare thing, since I'm not generally one for favourites.

I don't know when I got this album, but I remember when I started really liking the song. In Air Cadets, we had a long squadron trip, usually in March Break, for the first few years I was in. Two years we went down to NAS Oceania in Virginia. The trips were fun - on one occasion we'd hardly got off the bus and formed up when a prototype of …