I think I have mentioned this here before but, here is an update. A company called Mgestyk Technologies (It seems they are using the butchered version of English that is so popular for company names these days) has a 3D camera and software combination that provides an intuitive replacement for a mouse and one of those new-fangled "Surface" touch-screen devices.

They claim to replace the keyboard but their demo doesn't show text input. I'd have to see that to believe it can do a better job than a keyboard. But, I would love to use this in place of a mouse or trackball. I think my wrist would be much happier at the end of a day of programming.

Some of the Slashdotters mention a drawback of having the shoulder strength to hold up one's arms for long periods. I agree that it would be tiring. That is another reason I doubt this would replace a keyboard. But, this doesn't need to be the case. People can type all day because they rest their elbows/arms on could their laps. The same could be done with a gestures. If you raise your hands but leave your elbows on your lap or desk when performing the gestures it would be much longer before your arms got tired.

Find out more at: Large Hadron Collider

I don't normally write about... I have never cared much about politics until recently. The probably has much to do with my age as the fact that it was not discussed in my family while I grew up. But, I have had a building disgust with the current U.S. politicians that is almost as old as my disgust for the News-byte Media (but I refuse to digress at the moment). Too many politicians seem to be in it for power, money, self-interest (shouldn't self-interested politicion be an oxymoron?) or a combination of the above. They seem to start out well-meaning enough when in local government but, then something changes. (And, I'll leave my thoughts on that for a later digression also.)

I didn't want George W. Bush to be president in 2000 because he struck me as too untrustworthy and under-intelligent to hold the office. History seems to have done little to dispel that first point and only proved the second.

This does not even mention the different views we have. And when I say views I don't include morals which I don't think should have any place in political discussions. If somebody is amoral they should hardly be a candidate. And the presidential campaigning and vetting process should assure they can not end up in office. So, I assume a certain lack of amorality in the candidates.

Holding political office is about "serving the people". Note that people is plural. I don't think one's own personal morals should not come to into play. (Now this seems to totally go against historical precedence. One could argue that it is blatantly false based on the definition. I understand that but, this is a blog. You, my reader, must understand this is my view. And, if you want to broach the topic, I have many disagreements with the English language. That is something one Ms. Carrero can attest to.) If one holds some beliefs that strongly then they do not belong in office because, at best, they would constantly fight internal conflict when performing thier duties. More likely many of their decisions would be subtely if not blatantly bias. One with such convictions should start or champion a foundation/organization to further such views. They don't belong in

This is too widely reported for me to find an attribution but, I was rather struck by the thought that if Hillary Clinton ended up in the White house this election cycle we could end up with just two different families (immediate families non-the-less) holding control of the country for 24 years--ea quater of a century--a whole generation. That just seems like a bad idea to me. Please understand that I like Hillary Clinton but, that doesn't mean that I think she should be president. I like my brother but, I don't think he should be president either. (No offence.)

So, that is a brief context to my thoughts. I do my best to keep an open mind about candidates. I will consider one affilitated with just about any party. That said, I found this comment by Sean Carrol on the Cosmic Variance blog to be interesting:

[Sarah Palin] is a person who has no business being anywhere near a national ticket. Sufficient evidence for this conclusion comes from the words of her supporters, along the lines of: Sure, she's woefully underqualified, but in all probability John McCain will live for at least another four years! And if he doesn't, we're sure she will have the good sense to resign.

If you have seen minority report and are even remotely techy then, I amsure that you would love to play with such an user interface (UI). Personally, my wrist hurts a bit if I use the computer too much. I think it is actually a poor habit of stretching my hand apart to press a shift key and another simultaneousely but, that is an aside. My point here is that somebody figured out how to hack a WII remote to create such a UI.

It seems that I should have provided more background information when Iapplauded Al Gore and the -- IPCC). From the IPCC website (About page): "The IPCC wasestablished to provide the decision-makers and others interested in climatechange with an objective source of information about climate change. The IPCC does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related dataor parameters. Its role is to assess on a comprehensive, objective,open and transparent basis the latest scientific, technical andsocio-economic literature produced worldwide relevant to theunderstanding of the risk of human-induced climate change, its observed andprojected impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation."

"The IPCC is a scientific intergovernmental body set up by the WorldMeteorological Organization (WMO) and by the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP). Its constituency is made of:"

• "The governments: the IPCC is open to all member countries of WMO andUNEP. Governments of participate in plenary Sessions of the IPCC where maindecisions about the IPCC workprogramme are taken and reports are accepted,adopted and approved. They also participate the review of IPCCReports."
• "The scientists: hundreds of scientists all over the world contribute tothe work of the IPCC as authors, contributors and reviewers."
• "The people: as United Nations body, the IPCC work aims at the promotionof the United Nations human development goals"

Glen speaking again. Wikipedia has a good description of the IPCC and some of the resultsof their latest report including some criticisms of the report. Ill let my readers decide if that iscredible enough to be believed.

Zara has been keeping us busy and I have had some computer issues. I bought a new one. [That wasn't an issue but...] It took me some time to transfer my website development tools to it then its file system became trashed [It seems that the SDelete tool from sysinternals.com is incompatible with Windows XPs default file system -- who knew.] Then, just after rebuilding that most of the way, the hard drive in my desktop wouldn't boot. I'll see if I can be better about it this year.