| The Declarer (Floyd McWilliams' Blog) |
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Mostly political; some random geekery.
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Thursday, April 10, 2003
Ana Marie Cox said a week ago that left-wingers should take back the night:
This is admirable, but also quixotic. I have not spent a lot of time at Indymedia (thank God) but I have perused some very long threads -- for example, the thread from which I harvested so many wonderful nuggets of Holocaust denial in the previous posting. And I have never, not once, seen criticism of Indymedia's excesses from a left-winger. That is, I see comments by people opposed to Indymedia -- though the threads I have read are hardly "swamped" by them -- but I have never seen a comment that shows sympathy for Indymedia's goals and politics but opposition to their modus operandi.
What is the Indymedia reaction to the liberation of Iraq? This Hit and Run posting attracted the following comment:
Here are some comments from that thread:
(I love it: "Paid, threatened, or Kurdish.")
(I've heard "some of my best friends are Jews" before, but never from a Holocaust denier!)
Now you know why people like Damien Penny calls the Indy folks "NaziMedia".
I hate to add grist to Aaron Haspel's sticks and wheels lawsuit mill (see comment), but I must say, I have a job. I have been looking since January and not much happened at first. I did have a phone interview in February but nothing much came of it. The market is really grim and I figured I would have to take a job that didn't pay well or was boring or had a long commute.
Two weeks ago my luck changed. I had two phone interviews for different openings, and was invited to in-person interviews last week. Both interviews went well. The first company that I interviewed, Docent, brought me back for a second interview on Friday. At the end of the interview the hiring manager wanted to make me an offer! I got a call on Sunday from him as I was driving home from the Swiss. He made the offer, and said that they would pay the same amount that I was making at i2! My jaw dropped; I was expecting to make about 70-80% as much in this market. I had to put him off for awhile until I heard from the other prospect. I went there for a second interview on Tuesday, and haven't heard anything since. So this morning I accepted Docent's offer. Not only is the pay good, but the work is interesting and the commute reasonably short. And the Docent office is right across the freeway from the Palo Alto Bridge Club. What can I say other than that I lucked out. Update: I just heard back from the other company I had interviewed. They turned me down, saying that I was overqualified.
Oh, and speaking of funny cartoons, do you read Achewood? If not, do so immediately. Do you want me to put you in a cell with Nice Pete?
"Hi, I'm Captain Gingivitis from the 101st Cavity Creeps Brigade! Fuck you, raghead!"
Clip-art nonsense is back! Wednesday, April 09, 2003
The Iraqi People are Free, Saddam is Dead -- and America has a New Wonder
Martin Booda posted this to a Civilization III newsgroup:
Jim Treacher suggested a new slogan for anti-war protesters: "Save the Statues". How about "Save the Palaces"? Several people have objected to the "looting" of Saddam's palaces by US soldiers.
Here's "Road to Surfdom" blogger Tim Dunlop on the subject:
These were soldiers who had captured the enemy leader's dwelling. How detached from reality do you have to be to complain that they examined documents? Does Dunlop think that the 3ID needs a search warrant? (I learned from the comments section that it's fun to be a lefty blogger. Cause if anyone criticizes you, you just call them "freepers" and morons, then move on to your next triumph.) And here's a letter to the editor in today's San Jose Mercury News:
The palaces are not "the property of the Iraqi people". If anyone from the Iraqi government ever said that, it was a lie devised by Saddam to excuse his corruption and greed. It seems to me that if Schneyer is going to take dictators' word as gospel, then he must also object to the liberation of 100 Iraqi children from a children's prison. After all, the Baathists would also classify that prison as "property of the Iraqi people". Monday, April 07, 2003
I played five sessions of bridge last week. On Tuesday I scrambled from my job interview with Docent over to the club and played with Eric. We had a massive game, over 67%, and won of course. Then on Friday after my second interview with Docent Eric and I played in the first pairs game at the San Jose sectional. This was held at the Masonic temple, which is an imposing structure on a hill near 87 and Curtner. We had about a 55% game. We erred on some hands and also had some bad luck. For instance, my left hand opponent held
 KQJ9  A9875  A3  A8 and heard his partner open 1. He bid 2N, which was a forcing spade raise. His partner then bid 3 showing heart shortness. He keycarded and found his partner with the spade ace and a heart void. It's not clear why this made his hand better but he bid the grand and found his partner with a sixth spade and the KQJ. This was about a 10% board. Thanks!Saturday night I played with Sherry as I mentioned in the previous post. Sunday I was set to play in the Swiss with Dan and two other members of our GNT team. I talked to Dan on Saturday, gave him directions, and reminded him about the time change. Gametime arrived but no sign of Dan. I got a good substitute, one of the better players from the 0-2000 GNTs which were being held simultaneously with the sectional. We had a good set and nearly blitzed the opponents. Still no sign of Dan! We could no longer borrow players from the GNT teams as their scedule did not match ours. So I asked a five-person team if we could borrow one of their players. I did get a substitute but unfortunately we were not on the same wavelength. Here is a defensive problem: 2nd chair, vul v. not, you hold AQ83 QJT4 — JT875. RHO opens 2 weak, you double (no, I wouldn't double either), RHO bids 3N, and partner doubles for penalty.Partner leads the 5. You play attitude, where a low leads indicate interest in the suit and high leads disinterest, with no length information. Here is the dummy:7642 86 QJ8754 ALet's say you win the ace and declarer plays T. What now?* * * * * * * * * * While you ponder that, consider a lead problem. You hold 3 83 QT98732 Q84. All vulnerable, the auction starts at your left and is done before you bid: 1 1 3N. What do you lead?* * * * * * * * * * On the first hand, you need to return a club to remove dummy's entry. If you played a spade or a heart, you are in too much of a hurry. There is no hand consistent with the auction where declarer can run nine tricks. My partner played back a spade, declarer won, and the diamonds were set up for +650. My hand was J95 xxxx AT96 Qx. (Not a classic double, but RHO was an overbidder and I knew she was not making it. My partner had overbid and yet we were still on for +300 or so.)On the second hand, you have your choice of a spade or a diamond. A spade is good if your partner has good spade interiors and entries. A diamond is good if spades are not a threat, though you have so many diamonds that it seems unlikely you could ever run the suit -- declarer can hold up Ax.If you led a diamond, you lose 12 imps. Most players I consulted led a diamond. What was wrong with a diamond? Nothing! In fact, you find dummy with AJ and partner with Kxx. In fact, you beat the contract four tricks vulnerable. Teammates were -930; my spade lead lost 17.(I had fun telling people that their lead blew 12 imps, but I did learn something. World champion Lew Stansby told me that "if you never led a spade on this auction you would be ahead of the game." "Do they ever fool around with you on that basis?" "No.") When I got home I had a message from Dan. He had a blowout while driving to the sectional and the result was a multicar pileup. His car was smashed and he had to go to the emergency room. Fortunately he was not badly injured.  There was a sectional in San Jose last weekend and my lovely wife and I played on Saturday night. The main event was a two-session pairs, so we expected to play in a side game. However there were not enough pairs for the unlimited game, so we were mixed in with the two-session event. We played quite a number of good pairs. Sherry and I had a decent game, 54% and one silver matchpoint. We also got +1100 when our opponents overcompeted to 5 diamonds. Sherry had four diamonds to the king and scored three of them. She was ecstatic to get her first "sticks and wheels". Graphic courtesy of Aaron Haspel.
Apropos the previous item, Andrew Sullivan posted this letter from a reader on BBC bias:
(Note that you do not pay a license to watch BBC; you pay a license to watch any television at all, even if you are interested only in private broadcasts.) When I was living with my friend Rupert in the late 90's his brother from London came to visit. I remember my horror when he described how vans would prowl the street pointing instruments at peoples' homes to see if they were cheating on their license fees. Here is what another of Sullivan's British readers had to say on the subject:
The BBC (and for that matter, NPR) should be privatized. Separation of media and state is just as important as separation of church and state.
Our friends the French
From the comments of a Command Post article on Al-Jezeera comes this interesting information:
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