Wanderers 2007.6.6

I was cued by IM that Bill had a smooth Game of Life going on his new Ubuntu laptop (Dell brand). I mounted Tink and headed over to the Pauling House.

Bill indeed had a cool Life program, knows a lot of the lore. He uses a toroidal model, such that gliders going off screen reappear at opposite edges.

The program is in assembly language, with DOS presumed, so he ends up booting the laptop with Win98's DOS version, loading off a memory stick. In the meantime, he's learning Ubuntu Linux.

Jim Buxton, a ham radio buff, was holding forth on FCC regulations when I got there, which seemed topical given CBS News did a piece on that last night.

In Tver's neighborhood, some Christian radio station is interfering with TV reception at the low end the dial. The station had sent him a filter but it wasn't helping. Jim advised him to contact the FCC and showed him a web page listing the kind of information to send along. David already knew whom to contact.

Here's a link to some anti-human propaganda sent to me from somewhere, a rather clever cartoon, even if intensely misanthropic (some humans will likely find it offensive).