2005

April 2

Mathematics and the Cosmos

April is “Mathematics Awareness Month.” [I waited until today to post this so that it wouldn’t be mistaken for an April Fools’ joke.]

posted @ 06:10 AM EST

Some Other Time

Daylight Saving Time,” where used in the U.S., is in effect for more of the year than “Standard Time”; 210 days compared to 155 days this year, for example. Shouldn’t the more used time be called Standard? But then what would we call the other one—“Daylight Wasting Time” or “Daylight Spending Time?” Please tell me if you have any good or funny suggestions.

posted @ 09:02 AM EST

April 5

Nothing Is Perfect

Frank & Ernest on “nothing is perfect.”

posted @ 08:36 AM EDT

April 10

Hell of the North

The 103rd Paris-Roubaix is on fire with five riders left of an early break leading the first chase group of seven, including George Hincapie of the U.S., by about a minute, and with a second chasing dozen about a half minute farther behind. With about 60 km and 12 stretches of cobblestones left in the race it looks like the eventual winner will come from the first bunch of chasers. Go, Georgie!

UPDATE: It was a close finish for the top three.

  1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step
  2. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery
  3. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Fassa Bortolo

posted @ 10:17 AM EDT

April 14

Upgraded to PhpGedView 3.3.1

The Dolben Family software has been upgraded to version 3.3.1 of PhpGedView.

posted @ 05:14 PM EDT

April 15

IRS Deadline Reminder

It’s not too late to fill out Form QF [PDF].

posted @ 08:13 AM EDT

Setting Applications to Handle File Types in Mac OS X Firefox

This is one of those times when I make an entry to this blog that is probably more of a note to myself than anything else.

One of the things that has bugged me about Firefox for Mac OS X is the lack of an interface to set helper applications for file types, e.g., to have it use Preview instead of Adobe Reader to open PDF files. Well, there looks like there’s an interface in Preferences -> Downloads, but it doesn’t do anything. It seems that the Linux version has the same problem for which someone posted a work-around.

Basically, the file “mimeTypes.rdf” which is buried in the user preferences directory is used to provide the mapping. You can use Mozilla’s interface to set the desired preference, then copy and paste the relevant text from its “mimeTypes.rdf” to Firefox’s. Exactly where to find these files (hint: ~/Library/Mozilla/Profiles/), which text to copy, and where to paste it is left as an exercise for the reader. If you don’t think you can figure it out by looking at it, you probably shouldn’t try. In any case, it’s a good idea to make a backup copy of the file before you modify it so that you can recover if you get it hopelessly wrong.

posted @ 10:13 AM EDT

April 24

Student Blogs

Inspired by Eszter Hargittai, I’ve started a project (with, I hope, collaborators) to bring student blogs into high school classes. One of the first steps for me is setting up a test environment to shake out relevant configuration issues.

posted @ 01:29 PM EDT

April 29

Upgraded to PhpGedView 3.3.2

The Dolben Family software has been upgraded to version 3.3.2 of PhpGedView.

posted @ 08:13 AM EDT