Parity Violation

Here are some links that might be useful to some:

Texshop – a fantastic free LaTex front end with syntax-coloring and lots of macros. There’s a link to an installer for tetex which you can also as part of Fink (see below.)

Fink – a system for installing hundreds of unix and command line utilities, including tetex, the engine that power LaTex, and Grace, a fantastic 2D graphics program. Use the binary installer for Tiger. Fink takes a little time to set up (be sure to read and follow all the instructions) but once it’s running is very handy.

Pages – Part of Apple’s iWork, I think this is a great utility for make posters. Easy support for columns, ability to handle large paper sizes for a plotter, and support for vector graphic PDFs, so you’re pretty plots don’t become rasterized and pixelated. Much better than using Keynote (also part of iWork and a fine presentation tool) or Powerpoint, both of which are really meant for screen presentations. Educational pricing is $49.

TextWrangler – Fantastic free text editor. Blows the others away. Not the greatest for HTML or LaTex editing, but for any other text files it’s the way to go. Powerful find and replace features and also multi-file search.

TacoHTMLEdit – Only “check spelling as you type” functionality keeps this from being the perfect free basic HTML Editor. Nothing fancy, just syntax coloring, format tags, and preview features. I think I had to add a insert-link keyboard shortcut, but other than that it works quite well. I’m using it to write this very post.

Well, I posted when the Astros were a game away from .500 and they got there. Now I’m going to point out they are a game out of the wild card. What a difference a few months make. While some have said this is a “rebuilding” year, I don’t see any reason why the Astros can’t get to the playoffs. Let’s see what this team can do – I haven’t been this excited about the Astros in July since probably 1998.

Though my references to Bugs Bunny and other Warner Bros. cartoons sometime go over people’s heads, I remain a big fan of the cartoons. They’ve slowly been releasing them on DVD, the so called “Golden Collections” Volumes 1 and 2, both of which I own. Between those two 4-disc sets, I have all the “Tortoise vs. Hare” cartoons, for instance.

They’ve announced Volume 3, though I’m not sure when. You can see the whole list of cartoons on Volume 3 here. Unfortunately, I don’t recognize very many by title… though “The Case of the Missing Hare” is one of my favorites, where Bugs harasses a magic act after the magician crossed him, and I think “Hare Force” might be the WW II era cartoon where Bugs ends up piloting a plane that “gremlins” have been messing with but I can’t be sure. I’m also fairly sure “Daffy Duck Slept here” is the one where Porky and Daffy have to share a room in an overcrowded hotel room… and there’s an invisible Kangaroo involved as well. :)

You know, I made a reference once to “that left turn at Albuquerque” to someone from Albuquerque… and they didn’t get it. I think the kids these days didn’t grow up on the same cartoons I did. Oh, on another note (ha ha) I went to the Houston Symphony’s “Bugs Bunny on Broadway” concert the other week, which was fun. The orchestra played live along with a screen showing some old cartoons; some I hadn’t seen in ages.

The Volume 3 release date is set for October 25.

Well, it had been said that the Astros needed to get to .500 by the All star break in order to have any reasonable notion of going to the playoffs. Guess what? They’re one win away from .500. They just need Wandy Rodriguez to win tonight. Could happen. I’ll be there, so let’s hope I’m good luck for them. They have been playing a lot better. Berkman and Ensberg are both finding their swing…. the pitching continues to be pretty solid. I wonder if they’ll try to pull some trade off in the second half again.

You may also notice I haven’t blogged about my fantasy team in a while. That’s because they stink. Althoug,h Beltre is finally showing some signs of life… I had just given up on him and picked up Randa from waivers, but now Beltre seems to be responding to this challenge. I also dumped Ryan Wagner and picked up some other relief pitcher continuing in my WHIP/ERA strategy. There aren’t many decent starters left. I tried to deal Reyes from the Mets (who has like .278 OBA) but no one is biting… I’m not happy with my second baseman to say the least.

I actually tried to get Biggio (who’s on someone’s bench) for a closer but they wouldn’t go for it. No one likes to trade.

So, as everyone has read by now, Sandra Day O’Connor has announced her retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court. Certain family members of mine were worried about Bush and appointing someone to the court, but I assumed Rehnquist would step down and it’d be one arch-conservative for another so who cares? I remember telling my mom recently something like “But if O’Connor retires, watch out.”

That is now what we’re facing. In a perfect world, we’d get someone like Justice Souter, who though nominated by a Bush turned out quite progressive. Unfortunately, the rallying cry of the right now is “No more Souters,” so they are clamoring for some ideologue like Scalia or Thomas which would be a nightmare. (Those two vote together like 80% of the time, it was in the Times recently, a whole matrix of who votes with who.)

So, I have the lowest expectation of Bush – he’ll nominated some right-winger and we’ll have a huge fight and maybe a fillibuster.
However, it’s possible he made a big stink about those right-wing appeals court justices so he could appoint someone not-so-right-wing to the Supreme Court. His appointments to the bench in Texas weren’t quite all bad… but he hasn’t acted moderate since get to Washington so I expect the worst.