How the Mdlbear got its name

Ganked from slothman, who saved me the trouble of removing the replication code:

Explain your LiveJournal name and its meaning.

This is a multi-step process. First, you have to realize that "mdlbear" is short for "Mandelbear". It's only seven characters; a fact that hackers who cut their teeth on eight-column tabstops will readily appreciate. It's also faster to type, and fits conveniently in DOS filenames, IRC nicks, and so on.

The "Mandelbear" is the name this fractal, which you can also see in my default userpic, acquired when I described myself that way in a post on alt.callahans. I'll track that one down eventually, meanwhile this post includes the following description:

"The Mandelbear started out in Callahans as a medium-sized teddybear. He is presently a three-dimensional cross-section of a four- dimensional fractal, usually the one defined by iterating z^3+c, with Mandelbrot sets in one direction and Julia sets in the other. The cubic Mandelbrot set looks a lot like a sort of weird teddy-bear made out of hearts, with two antenna-like structures on its head. It is, of course, infinitely fuzzy."

The "medium-sized teddybear" was originally derived from the "Middle-Sized Bear" in Cordwainer Smith's story "Mark Elf". Here it is. It's in the collection The Instrumentality of Mankind from Del Rey, 1979, original copyright on the story 1957. I quote the relevant passage in this post:

[The story so far: Carlotta vom Acht has awakened from 16,000 years of suspended animation, and has spent several days wandering around in the wilderness that Earth has become. At the end of the story she encounters the Middle-Sized Bear.]

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Middle-Sized Bear who lives in these woods."

...

Carlotta was angry, confused, frightened, and sick again. She started to run.

Something as solid as a blow hit her.

She knew without being told that it was the bear's mind reaching out and encompassing hers.

It hit--boom!--and that was all.

She had never before stopped to think of how comfortable a bear's mind was. It was like lying in a great big bed and having mother take care of one when one was a very little girl, glad to be petted and sure of getting well.

The anger poured out of her. The fear left her. The sickness began to lighten. The morning seemed beautiful.

She herself felt beautiful as she turned--

And there you have it.

Cigar box guitars and hubcap banjos

Links here, and here at cigarboxguitars.com.

(From Make:blog, natch.)

Telco it like it is

Telcos wish to deny mass snooping | The Register

Furthermore, both companies have said they "cannot confirm or deny" that they've got a relationship with the NSA. Now, trust a journo on this one: in the commercial world, and in the political world, whenever a flack can deny something that might be bad for trade, share values, or winning the election, they always deny it. "I cannot confirm or deny" always means, "I cannot deny". There are no exceptions to this rule outside the realm of legal constraints against commenting in any way (gag orders, etc).

The Reg. does a pretty good job of parsing the careful, contorted language that Verizon and BellSouth use in "denying" that they've given anything to the NSA. And I understand the Brooklyn Bridge is up for sale on eBay...