Heap of stuff I found lying around the place

amqp.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Navigating the AMQP specification
+
+Firstly, you need to figure out which version of the spec you need. As of this writing there are 4 versions - 0.8, 0.9.1, 0.10, and the 1.0 working draft. This wouldn't be a problem, except they're all pretty much different. 0.8 and 0.9 are similar enough that for simple stuff you can get away with just reading the 0.9 version - which is good because the 0.8 spec is a touch lacking. 0.9.1, though not exactly the same, is basically a tightening up of the 0.8 spec. 0.10 is quite different - it's a significant departure from the previous specifications, adding a new wire-level protocol and changes to message transfer semantics. As such, 0.10 is largely incompatible with 0.9. With all the new additions, 0.10 became quite complex - the aim of the 1.0 working draft is to simplify and tighten in up, much in the same way that 0.9.1 did.
+
+RabbitMQ currently supports only 0.8 and 0.9. In fact, most implementors are skipping the 0.10 in anticipation of 1.0. Whenever you see talk of 'exchanges' this is 0.9 - the concept has been dropped in newer versions. For the rest of this document, I will be referring to the 0.9 spec.
+
+The AMQP specifiction is presented in 3 components - the specification, the protocol documentation, and the protocol definitions in XML. If you already understand the fundamental concepts of AMQP (exchanges, queues, bindings, etc...), the interesting parts are section 2.2 AMQP Command Architecture which explains the sequence of commands between client and server, and section 2.3 Transport Architecture which details the specific byte level format of messages. I found it very instructive to get wire dumps (either using wireshark or by hacking the source) from an existing client - bunny/qrack was my choice.

environment.txt

@@ -1,24 +1,30 @@
 When Kevin Rudd says "it is now time to act", he is not acting. When he says "failing to act today is to roll the dice on our children's future", he is throwing them down the chute and calling for lucky 7. This is PR. This is spin. This is not to be believed.
 
-5% by 2020 is not "ambitious". It's not even close. We're too late for 450ppm. This isn't a problem we can softly softly approach. We're already past the 350ppm limit our planet can maintain. We're fat and about to have a heart attack. This isn't the time for easing into a healthy lifestyle. Give up the burgers, get to the gym - your only other choice is death.
+5% by 2020 is not "ambitious". It's not even close. We're too late for 450ppm. This isn't a problem we can softly softly approach. We're already past the 350ppm limit our planet can maintain. We're fat and about to have a heart attack. This isn't the time ease into a healthy lifestyle. Give up the burgers, get to the gym - your only other choice is death.
 
-I'm a big believer in markets, but a market can't work if you're monkeying about with it. There's a time and place for subsidies, but propping up a dying industry is not one of them. Giving the most compensation to the biggest polluters is bullshit. It undermines the very goal the CPRS is supposed to achieve. There no economic incentive to change if the government is offsetting your costs. Further, the market doesn't even cover one of the biggest polluters in the country - agriculture. Yes, there are complications in measuring emissions from farms, but the idea that it's not possible is frankly an outright lie. A market so obstructed and distored cannot function effectively.
+I'm a big believer in markets, but a market can't work if you're monkeying about with it. There's a time and place for subsidies, but propping up a dying industry is not one of them. Giving the most compensation to the biggest polluters is bullshit. It undermines the very goal the CPRS is supposed to achieve. There is no economic incentive to change if the government is offsetting your costs. The market doesn't even cover one of the biggest polluters in the country - agriculture. Yes, there are complications in measuring emissions from farms, but the idea that it's not possible is frankly an outright lie. A market so obstructed and distorted cannot function effectively.
 
-Taking into account voluntary action for households is a token gesture. The direct measurable impact households can make is important psychologically, but in the scheme of things neglible. The real gains to be made - primarily diet changes and reduced consumption - will not and should not be covered by an ETS. Don't think for a second GreenPower absolves your responsibility to our planet.
+Taking into account voluntary action for households is a token gesture. The direct measurable impact households can make is important psychologically, but in the scheme of things neglible. The real gains to be made - primarily dietary changes and reduced consumption - will not and should not be covered by an emissions trading scheme[1]. Don't think for a second GreenPower absolves your responsibility to our planet.
 
 *It all comes down to risk.*
 
-If science is wrong and we do something: The precious "economy" slows a little as we move to renewables we're going to need anyway []
-If science is right (current consensus) and we do nothing: Big capital-B trouble
+If science is wrong and we do something, the precious "economy" slows a little as we move to renewables we're going to need anyway[2].
 
-Skepicism is important, but I'm not a betting man. And I'm not stupid. I'm not going to gamble on something this important. Keep asking questions, keep demanding proof, but the evidence overwhelmingly sufficient that we must act now. Real action, not KRudd-jumping-up-and-down-but-not-going-anywhere action.
+If science is right (current consensus) and we do nothing: Big capital-T Trouble.
 
-What can you do? Start making some noise. Tweet about it, blog about it, write your local paper. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell the person you meet on the train. Get angry. The government's job is to look after us. It's time to demand they stop posturing and start doing their job. The "Walk Against Warming":http://www.walkagainstwarming.org/ is coming up on the 12th December. Get off your couch and come show them - and those complicit on the sideline - that we've had enough.
+Skepticism is important, but I'm not a betting man. And I'm not stupid. I'm not going to gamble on something this important. Keep asking questions, keep demanding proof, but the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that we must act now. Real action, not KRudd-jumping-up-and-down-not-going-anywhere action.
+
+What can you do? Start making some noise. Tweet about it, blog about it, write your local paper. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell the person you meet on the train. Get angry. The government's job is to look after us. It's time to demand they stop posturing and start doing their job. The "Walk Against Warming":http://www.walkagainstwarming.org/ is coming up on the 12th December. Get off your couch and come show them - and those complicit on the sideline - that we've had enough. The future is not to be gambled with.
 
 h3. Supplementary
 
-"Government media release on CPRS compromises":http://pm.gov.au/node/6353
-"350ppm science":http://www.350.org/about/science
-"Walk Against Warming":http://www.waw.org.au/
+* "Government media release on CPRS compromises":http://pm.gov.au/node/6353
+* "Greens call CPRS actively harmful":http://greensmps.org.au/blog/why-pass-now-and-improve-later-wont-work-with-cprs
+* "AYCC also unhappy":http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-young-will-not-be-meek-about-the-earth-well-inherit-20091123-ixi4.html
+* "350ppm science":http://www.350.org/about/science
+* "Walk Against Warming":http://www.waw.org.au/
+
+fn1. Though it'd be neat to get some credits for being vegan...
+
+fn2. Even if all the climate change research is bollocks, "renewables" will rear it's head again in a few years anyways. Exponential growth does not play well with finite resources.
 
-fn1. Even if all the climate change research is bollocks, "renewables" will rear it's head again in a few years anyways. Exponential growth does not play well with finite resources.

insects.txt

@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ Unsurprisingly, there is little animal rights literature afforded to the use of
 
 Bees certainly are exploited in industrial farming - in that their natural behaviour and environment is subverted - both for honey and for pollination of other crops. If they can not be found deserving of rights however, this exploitation is by the by. It is no more morally relevant than the farming of vegetables. Replace the flies with a tiny mechanical ornithopter.
 
-The classic "test" for determining animalhood is whether a being can suffer from pain. Intelligence, though handy, is not required. Insects are quite far removed from humans physically and mentally, so unlike mammals where we can apply familiar criteria for pain (distress, avoidance, etc...), far more extrapolation is required for flies. It is only in the past decade that "research":http://www.cell.com/retrieve/pii/S0092867403002721 "studies":http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9402618 have started to find that insects do exhibit responses best classified as pain. Capability for physical pain though doesn't necessarily present a problem in this scenario however. An electric shock is a very different type of stimulus than the distress of having your natural movement inhibited. This distress is easily observed in mammals, however it is less clear in the case of flies, whose movements are erratic at best of times. It seems the jury is still out, though given our woeful track record of reasoning about other living beings, even within our own species (racism, sexism, homophobia), all other concerns aside it is prudent to give flies the benefit of the doubt.
+The classic "test" for determining animalhood is whether a being can suffer from pain. Intelligence, though handy, is not required. Insects are quite far removed from humans physically and mentally, so unlike mammals where we can apply familiar criteria for pain (distress, avoidance, etc...), far more extrapolation is required for flies. It is only in the past decade that "research":http://www.cell.com/retrieve/pii/S0092867403002721 "studies":http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9402618 have started to find that insects do exhibit responses best classified as pain. Capability for physical pain though doesn't necessarily present a problem in this scenario however. An electric shock is a very different type of stimulus than the distress of having your natural movement inhibited. This distress is easily observed in mammals, however it is less clear in the case of flies, whose movements are erratic at the best of times. It seems the jury is still out, though given our woeful track record of reasoning about other living beings, even within our own species (racism, sexism, homophobia), all other concerns aside it is prudent to give flies the benefit of the doubt.
 
-Perhaps we can learn something from our everyday behaviour towards insects. A child pulling the legs off a spider is generally considered negative, not for the pain it causes the spider, but from the callous disregard and use of another living being that was causing the child no harm. Indeed, it is the same judgment that mistreatment of a dog would bring. It is seen as abnormal behaviour, we associate disregard for animals with disregard for other humans. Instinctively we apply Tolstoy's observation that "as long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields." The welfare of the spider may be disregarded, but perhaps we need to consider our own? On the other hand, many of us would swat a fly without a second thought. This is often justified by the inconvenience the fly is causing us - its buzzing wings, its tickling feet. Overall this is an interesting consideration, but not relevant to the topic at hand where there is no need for compromise. Indeed, we would first need to address the "compromise" of using higher-order creatures for food and labour, a topic outside the particular scope of this essay. Using flies for marketing is actively seeking out and exploiting them, a very different circumstance.
+Perhaps we can learn something from our everyday behaviour towards insects. A child pulling the legs off a spider is generally considered negative, not for the pain it causes the spider, but from the callous disregard and use of another living being that was causing the child no harm. Indeed, it is the same judgment that mistreatment of a dog would attract. It is seen as abnormal behaviour - we associate disregard for animals with disregard for other humans. Instinctively we apply Tolstoy's observation that "as long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields." The welfare of the spider may be disregarded, but perhaps we need to consider our own? On the other hand, many of us would swat a fly without a second thought. This is often justified by the inconvenience the fly is causing us - its buzzing wings, its tickling feet. Overall this is an interesting consideration, but not relevant to the topic at hand where there is no need for compromise. Indeed, we would first need to address the "compromise" of using higher-order creatures for food and labour, a topic outside the particular scope of this essay. Using flies for marketing is actively seeking out and exploiting them, a very different circumstance.
 
 It's impossible to go through life never hurting a fly, as it were. As mentioned above, bees are used commercially to pollinate a large proportion of our edible plants. The classic definition of vegan as “not using animal products” is more usefully replaced with “"reasonably avoiding products that cause suffering to non-humans.":http://www.veganoutreach.org/guide/qa.html#insects ”  In the case of honey, it is neither an essential nutrient, nor the only sweetener of its kind. It is trivial to avoid, and as such should be. Which brings us in a rather large circle back to the case of insect marketing.
 

stories-of-sanfran/banana-dance.txt

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+Late night on Sunday. A fresh shipment arrives of bananas - very welcome since we were too late for the first round of catering. Grechen and I are dancing. Also, we are hungry. 
+
+We groove over to the table. You can find a lot of subdivisions in the beat when you're trying to get somewhere in a hurry. 
+
+A pass by allows us each to aquire a morsel.
+
+The problem with bananas is they need preparation. You know that hug where you hug with your elbows because you have bubbles all over your hands from doing the dishes and you don't feel they would be appreciated on someone else's back? Or chocolate, you could also have chocolate on your hands. That doesn't wash out so easy. Anyways, turns out that also frees up your hands for other activities. You can peel a banana, for instance. I won't say it's not just a little awkward, but you'll get the job done.
+
+Eating is kind of fun. I mean, it is anyway. But next time you're eating a banana, throw a 360 turn in there. Look forward to sensory overload. You also need to be able to eat with your off-hand (left for me). A skill you may need to work at.
+
+Another pass by allows easy disposable of the waste.
+
+You know, these songs are a bit long. There's probably time for another banana.

stories-of-sanfran/email-pete.txt

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+You said something yesterday about twitter being 10x our size.
+I image that figure does *not* include their API traffic, which is much larger than their web traffic (by a factor of many times, I believe), and would not be included in sources such as Alexa.
+
+That matches my gut feeling better.
+
+Xav

stories-of-sanfran/golden-gate-park.txt

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+The roads through Golden Gate park are closed to cars on Sundays. Instead you'll find all sorts of greener alternatives - surf board long boards slaloming across all 4 lanes; roller blades with wheels bigger than your fist; scuffed pink roller skates below short cut-off denim and a faded purple singlet. Bikes of all shapes and sizes - two wheels, three, or four. Big wheels, small wheels. One of each. Just up the path and around the corner there's a lake, with dinghies and paddle boats for hire. Or you could just use your own two feet. 
+
+The sun is out, melting icecreams.

stories-of-sanfran/hyde-powell.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+There's a tap dancer on top of Powell St. Out in the sun, he's probably there everyday. All day, everyday. 
+He wearing long shorts, no shirt - don't need no shirt - and sometimes a ____ hat. Catches his breath and then the music goes and he _goes_ and he's good and his dark skins glistens and sweats. The tourists lined up in circles for the Hyde/Powell trolley watch on through their HD videocams, $5 in hand keen to be robbed by the city of San Francisco. They can't quite see the drummer just around The Gap corner, but oh they can here him. Over turned buckets and water coolers, he bangs away and sings he's feeling Hot, Hot, Hot, and over the racket you can just hear an old man sawing away on a shimasen, lost among the circled lines and the tap and the drums. 

stories-of-sanfran/john-broadway-tucker.txt

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+John "Broadway" Tucker wears big boots and a silver pinstripe suit. He's brooding the blues at the warehouse, and the whole warehouse is brooding with him. Soulful sorrows spread waves over our heads, thread ribbons through the couples, fill the entire space and you have no choice but to share this blues. He's down and he's out and his woman is no good and he sings with a heartache and desperation that's chasing the salvation you can only get by getting it out there. He stomps his boot and wrenches the microphone and the bass player is high. I'm looking at him - right in his eyes - and I'm digging him and he knows I'm digging him and he stomps his boot again and this time he's missing Chicago. Jim on the Soul Tub plonks away and he's lost in his own despairs but he plonks away anyways coz at least that's something else to keep your mind out of trouble.

stories-of-sanfran/laundry.txt

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+24 quarters.
+A quarter of a pound of quarters.
+That's the only chow this washer will eat. 
+It's quite particular. 
+Soap is another 6 quarters, but you can buy that with other fractions.  
+
+Clink, clink, clink.
+
+"Get a wife, then you don't have to worry about it," says Chico the attendant.
+
+Clink.
+
+"That's what I did."
+
+Clink, clink.
+
+Who'd have thought you could work up a sweat dropping coins. 
+
+Clink.
+
+It's a furnace down here in the basement. Past the fire hose. Past 3 vacuums, standing to attention. Past the dusty shelves of dated travel brochures.
+I wonder if Chico's laundry is in a hotel basement.
+
+Clink, clink, clink (half way)
+
+Probably not.

stories-of-sanfran/swig.txt

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+There's a band playing at a bar called "Swig". They don't have a name, but they assemble every week (I'm told), give or take a few. Whoever has nothing better to do on a Sunday night. A large negro woman is up front, crying a blues.
+
+Let's get funky. James Brown funky (RIP). The woman moves to back up vocals, a man takes the lead. He jumps on the dance floor and shakes his hips. Drops cross legged to the ground and corkscrews back up. Finds a woman to shake his hips at. Drops to the floor hovers around on his arms, like a salamander. 
+
+Can we take it to the bridge?
+Take it to the bridge.
+
+His shirt becomes unbuttoned, revealing some tasty eye candy. Another lady becomes the target of his hip shaking. He does the splits. He does the splits the other way.
+
+Let's hit it and quit.
+Let's hit it and quit.
+Hit it!
+
+The woman and the guitarist walk around the bar with a tip jar, singing a soulful lullaby to send us on our way.