Here's my new theme. I hope you like it. It's got a little bit more emphasis on the photos, and brings comments to the front page. I think I like it quite a bit. It's a departure for me though so we'll see what I think of it after a week or two.

The plugin that puts the images between posts has some bugs I still need to work out. If you get an error, for now, just reload and it should go away.

Let me know what you think and if there are any improvements I could make.

The neighborhood I live in is, to put it euphamistically, in transition. A few blocks north are the first signs of gentrification, a few blocks south and you're in an area that I wouldn't recommend walking through at night. There is some gang activity, but not much. Mostly it's just white trash screaming at each other. Occasionally, this escalates into people throwing empty beer bottles. At the end of the block is one of the much debated police cameras. It's positioned in such a way that it can't actually see down this block.

Shortly after we moved in 3 years ago, two people were shot in a drive-by across the street. This happened about 45 minutes after I'd called the police to report those same people shouting and fighting. About two weeks ago, I called to report shouting and fighting. It wasn't until I called again after someone from that group hit the window of a passing SUV with a golf club. This was over an hour later.

Flash forward to last Friday. We noticed someone setting up a grill across the street, shortly after that a few police cars arrived, and we quickly realized that some sort of gathering was being held. I went down to investigate and discovered that the police and Mayor Daley's Pet Alderman were having a small cook out for the community. Of course, as members of the community, we'd heard nothing about it. It turns out that the police had found 3 guns in the empty lot there and were celebrating the community's involvement in reporting the activity that got the police to search the lot.

Sunday afternoon, I heard an argument outside a guy and girl were yelling at each other and another girl was trying to keep them apart. The girl threw her shoe at the guy. Then started waving a rake at him. A police officer showed up shortly thereafter, and apparently decided backup was required. Within the next 30 minutes a total of 9 police vehicles arrived on the scene. Eventually the shoe-thrower was handcuffed and taken away.

So... if you call in a large group of people shouting and throwing beer bottles in the middle of the night, you have to wait an hour and for actual violence to be committed before a single police officer shows up. But throw a shoe at someone on a sunny afternoon and half the department responds? Is it any wonder that it becomes harder and harder to treat the police department with the respect that most of the officers actually deserve?

This weekend was the opening of the new modern wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. Since Target was generously covering admission, we decided to head downtown to check it out. This makes Dean's 6th museum trip already. He's been to the MCA twice, the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry. He seems to enjoy them.

Anyway, the modern wing of the Art Institute. We didn't look around the outside very much, so I can't comment a lot on the exterior architecture. The entry way is interesting but not particularly exciting. With the opening crowds it had a feel like an airport terminal with the aesthetic of an Apple product. Clean and white and empty and... well... a bit boring. The galleries themselves were simply galleries. Nothing seemed to be significantly different than the older galleries. While it's great that they have the space to display more of their collection, I was disappointed that more hadn't been done to improve upon the design of the galleries. My biggest complaint was that it seemed that there was no thought given to the actual flow of people through the space. there were sections that dead-ended and others that lead to bottlenecks.

Another complaint was the staff in two of the galleries. In one there was an installation that was an aluminum "landscape" backlit by color changing LEDs. I thought it was a great installation. The way it was positioned in the room left a large area off to one side of the work that was open. When I tried to walk into that space to look behind the work, a staff member told me, in a fairly snippy manor, that that wasn't allowed. I was very disappointed. I firmly believe that if a sculpture is placed away from a wall, it must be intended for viewing from all angles. In another gallery was a sculpture of a fallen, weathered tree. While we were standing in the gallery viewing it, a staff member suddenly and very loudly announced that no one should get within 3 feet of the sculpture. Again, this was not indicated in any way. there was no base to the sculpture, no tape line on the floor or any other indication of an "acceptable" viewing distance. Only a loud voice that took you out of the moment and was overly aggressive. It really detracted from the entire experience.

All in all, the artworks were fantastic, and I was thrilled to have a chance to view more of the collection. But the Modern Wing itself was a bit of a disappointment. Have you seen the new wing? What do you think?

I am, at most, a casual fan of baseball. I am also, a casual fan of the Tour de France. I don't obsessively follow either, but when I'm able I'll turn on the game. I want my favorites to win, and I want the rivals to lose. I can't quote stats, and without looking I can't even tell you results off-hand most of the time.

But while I am first, and foremost a Cubs fan, I am also a baseball fan. I don't think you can truly be a fan of a team without being a fan of the sport. Although it seems that I may be in the minority on this. Where I grew up (in central Illinois) the big rivalry was Cubs vs. Cardinals. And to this day, that's still the rivalry I have the most fun with. A superhero is better when they have a (nearly) equal supervillian. It's part of what makes being a fan fun. But even though I enjoy seeing the Cardinals lose, I don't wish them any ill. I don't want to see their players hurt, and when they lose, I want them to lose because they made honest mistakes, not because of bad umpiring or anything of that nature. And when they have a good play, it still makes me happy, because I am a fan of baseball. When Pujols hit the grand slam on Saturday, although I knew it meant the Cubs probably wouldn't win the game, I admired the fact that he nailed that ball. He saw a pitch in exactly the right place, and he hit it in a way that there was no question that it was gone. It was good baseball, even if it wasn't good for my team.

But there are people who are not fans of the game. people who are unable to say "Wow, that was a great play!" if the play was made by a rival. People who feel the need to insult or belittle their rivals at all times. People who say "I wouldn't go to a game at that park if you paid me." Those people annoy the crap out of me. If I'm offered tickets to a baseball game, and I can get there without sacrificing what's important to me, I'm there. Wrigley, The Cell, Busch, or a little league park... it doesn't matter. Baseball is fun. If it wasn't I'd have no business claiming to be a Cubs fan.

One of my friends from college posted a link to Entertainment Weekly's "50 Most Heartbreaking Songs of All Time". I'm neither ambitious nor diverse enough to come up with 50, and I'm not conceited enough to think my choices are "of all time". However, here are 108 songs that make me tear up a little every time I hear them. (And you can use either version of "tear" that you wish.) (As always, in no particular order.)

Note: Links are to Amazon. If you buy any of the songs, I get a cut.

1. "Hallelujah (Live)" by Jeff Buckley
   This song so forlorn and plaintive that it moves me each time I hear it. A friend who I've lost touch with introduced me to Jeff Buckley.
2. "Hurt" by Johnny Cash
   Trent Reznor's version of this is from such a different outlook, and it's one I don't identify with very well. But Johnny Cash was singing about the love of his life and the damage he'd done to that love over time. His voice sums up the pain of years of trying and frequently failing and of wanting so badly to get it right.
3. "Breathe" by Melissa Etheridge
   This song ran through my head again and again when we were at the hospital with Aiden. To this day, my mind goes back to those hours of trying to find strength to get through the hardest days of my life.
4. "Whiskey Lullaby" by Alison Krauss and Union Station
   I don't really know why this song resonates with me the way it does. But I think that the slow dull pain of losing love is one of the more terrifying things to contemplate.
5. "Mama's Arms" by Joshua Kadison
   The album this song is from was one TBWITWW and I listened to frequently when we were dating (the first time). I can't imagine the pain of losing a parent even now, let alone as a child.
6. "Taps"
   Both of my grandfathers were veterans. The simplicity of this song is both a hymn and a lament. Those who lay down their lives (or any part of it) to preserve the rights we have deserve every honor we can give them.
7. "Bang the Drum Slowly" by Emmylou Harris
   I lost one of my grandfathers when I was too young to really understand what I missed in not knowing him better. I lost the other shortly after Aiden passed away. Even though I grew up within a few miles of both of them, I never learned as much about them as I wish I could have.
8. "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves
   There's nothing actually sad or heartbreaking about this song, unless you've seen the episode of Futurama "Jurassic Bark". But if you have...

A friend posted a link to this blog post regarding sex offender registries. And I have to say, I can't support the concept. There is no other type of crime that is treated the way sex offenses are. Regardless of the nature of the crime, and the history of the offender, they are singled out for public shame and forced to serve a completely different kind of sentence than crimes of any other type.

There is a dichotomy in this country in which sex is more offensive than violence. It is assumed that if someone commits one sex related crime (even if it's something along the lines of an 18 year old sleeping with a 17 year old, and the parents of the 17 year old (not the 17 year old) decide to press charges), they cannot control themselves and will act in a predatory fashion and become a repeat offender. Whereas, some with two or three DUI convictions not only doesn't have to tell the neighbors who he drives past night after night, but frequently, doesn't even lose the privilege of driving. I could easily be living next door to a habitual child abuser, a habitual drunk driver, someone who has been convicted of breaking & entering multiple times, someone convicted of manufacturing or selling drugs, or even someone who had committed murder. But none of those people are legally obligated to tell me about their crime. I can't look up on a web site what they did. Once they've served their time and finished their probation or parole, the are free to come and go as they please.

I have the ability to educate my child on how to lessen the danger from criminals who would take advantage of them, whether in a sexual manner, through violence, or simply via con games or scams. But I can't tell my child "Don't cross the street if there's a drunk driver coming down the block. Yet, I'm not warned about those "criminals" who may live in my neighborhood.

The perceived need for "sex offender registries" shows a massive failure in our criminal justice system. If a person is still a danger to society, putting them on a list doesn't solve the problem. If they're still a danger, they should still be in custody. And if they've served their sentence, they should be allowed to try to rebuild their life with the same assumption of innocence that the rest of us enjoy.

Today I was patrolling edits on the Habari Wiki and noticed a page of gibberish data with a text block explaining that it was part of a research project. Upon further investigation, it seems that it is part of a project to determine if spamming wikis is a viable method of storing anonymous data online. While, as a concept I find the idea interesting, putting it into practice strikes me as a very, very bad idea.

The whole concept behind the wiki model is one of openness. Allowing anonymous access is a viable choice on these sites, not a security flaw. As Wikipedia has demonstrated, this model can be very effective at producing great work. However the price of this openness is that it requires careful monitoring to prevent abuse. The fact that these students(?) are abusing wikis as part of their "research" means that the people who maintain these wikis are being forced to spend more time deleting spam, which means less time producing content or being otherwise productive. While this is true of any spam, when someone is not only blatant about their abuse, but also (by distributing a list of "unprotected" wikis) facilitating other spammers, I feel that we need to call them out and stop their abuse.

Spamming our wiki is not acceptable. Using our servers and networks for your private data storage without permission is unacceptable. Encouraging other spammers is unacceptable. Abusing our trust and our community is unacceptable. The people behind this "research" should be ashamed, and Brown University should take strong action against them for abusing both Brown's network and that of as many as 14,000 other sites.

If you run a MediaWiki installation, check for this spam and delete it as soon as possible. If your site has been spammed in this fashion, I'd suggest sending a complaint to web_service@brown.edu as well detailing the abuse so that they can put a stop to it.

Update: April 11, 2009, 2:04pm

I received a response from the chair of the Brown University CS department.

Sean,

Thanks to you and other wiki owners who alerted me to this problem. I am very sorry for the inconvenience.

I was not aware of the graffiti project and after seeing several complaints in my mailbox this morning, I immediately conducted an investigation. I found that it is a project led by two graduate students, Andrew Pavlo (PhD) and Ning Shi (Master's), who have been working on it independently. I have just talked to Pavlo reproaching him for his conduct. Pavlo is taking down the system and removing as much as possible the data placed by it. I have also asked him to post an apology on the project website.

The CS department values research integrity and will further investigate the matter according to university policies. For what I have seen so far, this incident seems to have been caused by naive behavior by two students and not deliberate misconduct. In particular, Pavlo is a promising second-year PhD student, full of enthusiasm for research. I regret that he did not consult with his advisor about the ethical and legal implications of his approach to measuring spam persistence in wikis. Also, I hope he learned from his mistake.

Again, I am sorry for the problems caused to your website.

I think that this is an appropriate response to this situation, and assuming that it is followed through on, I think we can chalk this up to over-enthusiasm for an idea and acting without thinking through the wider implications. We've all done this from time to time I'm sure. I have to commend Brown on their timely response and action, especially on a holiday weekend.