Yeah for the Snow

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Today marks the second day of the winter when we’ve had snow. That’s good, because until this point it’s been largely a snowless winter, and last year was pretty snowless.

Snowshoe Path

But snow is both essential to the economy, the environment, and way of life in New York State. It provides a surface for skiers, snowmobilers, and snowshoers to get back into the woods.

Climbing out of the Ravine

It refreshes the natural environment, by insulating the ground, while killing off excessive deer, mice, and ticks.

Snowmobile Tracks

… So yeah, to another snowy day!

Elm & Longwood

BASH Script for Switching Between HDMI and Laptop Screen

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Handy bash script I wrote, or actually adapted, for switching between your HDMI monitor and your laptop screen — you just run this when you log-in (also opens or closes gkrellm, which doesn’t fit on the tiny laptop screen) …

#!/bin/bash

# roughly based on:
# http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4489/a-tool-for-automatically-applying-randr-configuration-when-external-display-is-p

# laptop screen is LVDS1
# 1080p large-screen is HDMI1

# default monitor is LVDS1
MONITOR=LVDS1

# functions to switch from LVDS1 to HDMI and vice versa,
# give 5 seconds to detect modelines for HDMI monitor or fails
# as it takes a little while for modelines to be auto detected
function ActivateHDMI {
echo "Switching to 1080p monitor, HDMI1 in 5 seconds ..."
sleep 5;
xrandr --output HDMI1 --auto --output HDMI1 --primary --output LVDS1 --off
gkrellm -g -0+25 &
MONITOR=HDMI1
}
function DeactivateHDMI {
echo "Switching to laptop screen, LVDS1 now ..."
killall gkrellm
xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --output LVDS1 --primary --output HDMI1 --off
MONITOR=LVDS1
}

# functions to check if HDMI is connected and in use
function HDMIActive {
[ $MONITOR = "HDMI1" ]
}

function HDMIConnected {
! xrandr | grep "^HDMI1" | grep disconnected
}

# every one 1 second
# poll to see if HDMI1 is connected

while true
do
if ! HDMIActive && HDMIConnected
then
ActivateHDMI
fi

if HDMIActive && ! HDMIConnected
then
DeactivateHDMI
fi

sleep 1s
done

Stand Up Against the Exploitation of Tragedy

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Yesterday, when you opened Twitter and Facebook up, it seemed like one post or another was calling for people to “do something” about the “menace of guns” in our country, or improve the accessibility of mental health in our county.

I don’t oppose some of the those suggestions. Indeed, certainly we could probably do more ensure affordable and stigma free counseling was available to all. The President’s health law that passed in 2009, with Mental Health parity and a requirement for all to subscribe to a basic health care plan.

We could also consider some gun control restrictions — but the restrictions have to be reasonable in effort, and need to provide a very high standard against someone owning or possessing a firearm. It would have to require a judge, a jury, and a beyond reasonable doubt standard — as does any restriction of a constitutional right. We can’t just have government officials, on a whim, restricting people’s rights, because they don’t like their politics.

The Ledge

We also can’t just start stigmatizing or persecuting individuals just because we don’t like their views. We saw too much of that after September 11th. Rather then embracing conformity, we should embrace diversity, and encourage people of diverse backgrounds to be active and engaged members of our society. We have to stand up against political persecution. They may not be coming after you today, but your in line next.

What I fear, and already see is the worst coming out of people. People want to do something — regardless of what it means for our civil liberties. They want to stop violence, even if they really can not do anything. Even if it means hurting regular folks, they feel they must do something. This is plain scary.

Day is Done – Peter, Paul and Mary.

I think it’s time to step back, and put an end to this madness — the madness of saying we must do something now.