AlmanackPage

Depends on who's doing the naming. Politically, creating the name of an issue 'frames the debate', and gives the namer a very serious edge. In marketing, the

name of a product is often the most visible factor in its success or failure. People with less cynical motives usually pick names that express homage, aspiration, affection, humor, or whimsy. And in response, people see names

expressing whimsy, like 'Google', and attribute less cynicism to the entity than to a cold abstraction like 'Microsoft' or 'WalMart'.

I missed my chance at a whimsical domain name - as they say, 'that disk is already burned'. But I would like this to be a not-very-serious kind of site, mixing silly with occasional sobriety. There will be yo-yo reviews and

political rants, family pictures and encryption algorithms, and whatever else I please, just because I can, because I don't need to make money from it or get approval for it. The Internet is a beautiful thing.

So welcome to HEarlR's Pinfeed Almanack. Mind the spelling, and the capitalization. Granting all due respect to Mark Twain, this is the computer

age, and there is no excuse for sloppiness; and even Mr Clemens admitted to being an outstanding speller when the mood was on him.

'HEarlR' is a construction of my proper middle name, with first and last initials pre- and post- fixed. It is also a sort of homage, to my father and my son, both possessed of astounding throwing arms. Skipped a generation, I

guess. 'Pinfeed' is pure and meaningful silliness. It's nearly impossible to buy a

pinfeed printer anymore, but there are many admirable attributes to the technology, and it corresponds to my superannuating computer skills. 'Pinfeed' also has the combinatorial qualities of 'pin-money' and 'chickenfeed'. Enough

said. As an 'Almanack', this site is all about aspiration. I was smitten by an

algorithm, published 14 years ago in the defunct Computer Language, that purposed translation from the common date format year/month/day to Julian Days, and back again. Julian Days, the article explained, are used by scientists to

do linear calculations of time, from 4713 BCE to 4 billion days thence. As integers, they're very compact and efficient to use and store; as floating-point numbers, they're perfect for astronomers. Socially, they are unbiased, so there

are Julian-based calendars on the Web for Hebrew, Islamic, Persian, Mayan, and French Republican diarists. Plug in a translation, and a date in any calendar is instantly located in another. Which is nice; I don't need anything other

than Gregorian, with side-trips into Jewish holidays, but if I wanted to, I could.

There have been 4 generations of my calendars for various purposes built on the transcribed code, in three languages. Under the 'Kalends' link, there is a calendar anyone can download, or use here. When it's properly secured (soon, I

hope), you can add yourself to the password file, and put dates into a private calendar. I won't peek, the data's encrypted, but I will get torqued-off and delete your account if you abuse my directory with masses of junk. So be nice.

An Almanack has to have some currency, even if it's not a daily blog. I don't know what form it will take yet, perhaps just a thought for the day, but I want

to get some sort of periodic essay posted. No promises. And things get more interesting when other people participate, so I want to have a raving wall for registered users.

Odds and ends: I like cats, yo-yos, running, sharp tools, clever people, classical music, spicy food, dark beer, and elegant computer programs, not

necessarily in that order. And coffee, tea, peanut butter, number games, word games, holidays, ballet and baseball, any or all of which might have links here, eventually. And my wife, I like her a lot. And our two very cool kids.

Pictures of them, and more family and friends I like, are in the picture gallery. If you have time to waste, check out the "Links to things I like".

I don't have copies of all the programs I like here; that would be illegal (in a very few cases), but mostly it would be redundant. The code I have to share is in /usr/local/src, and this, too, is all about aspiration. Perhaps by sharing I

can learn something. According to Wikipedia, "A hacker is a person who creates and modifies computer software and computer hardware, including computer programming, administration, and (in)security."

But the truth is, a hacker is a person who writes code to prevent hunger, and sometimes sleep.

================================================================================

Please add a comment.

================================================================================