Category: Uncategorized

Here is some example source code for how to use libcurl to upload a file via FTP: curl: curl/docs/examples/ftpupload.c Mac OS X comes with libcurl, so this is a way an application written in C, or Objective C can upload files via FTP.
Ironically, Apple’s own CFFTP functions, which are part of the CoreFoundation are crippled: They can’t create a directory on the server. Pretty useless if you’re trying to put up a web site, for example. This reminds me of Apple’s support for mounting an FTP filesystem in the Finder. Not only is FTP via finder *slow*, but it is read-only. WTF? Usually Apple does a good job of providing fully functional solutions…. but when it comes to FTP they’ve fallen on their face twice.

If enough people see Serenity then maybe Joss will make another movie….
Serenity was an awesome movie. W00T!
How many times have you seen Serenity?

Had a plugged drain, so Roto-Rooter came to fix it. I found a coupon link on Google, and saved 10$. But now Roto-rooter has my email address — they’ll probably spam me with ads for their drain cleaner solution montly.
The sad thing is: The image for the online coupon is not secured. After you fill in the form to gain access to the image, if you were to tell your friends about the image URL, they could save $10 from Roto-rooter without ever having to send them an email address.
See?

It just goes to show how subtle the concept of “security” is on the internet. They’re relying on security through obscurity. But now that the truth is out, they might have to employ more rigorous security to protect their coupon.

I support a variety of Intelligent Design known as FSM. Please call your School Board today.

We’re back from our trip to Maine, so here are a few pictures.

It had been a while since I’d clicked over to “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”. I was dismayed to see that this journal, which is published by the national academy, has gone to a subscription only model. For a long time it was unique in that it didn’t demand high fees for spreading the word or science. I could understand how commercial publishers would justify charging for subscriptions — they had expenses to meet. But the National Academy? Their sole purpose is to spread science around, so why are they closing it up?
The tragedy is that science is supposed to be an open community that welcomes scrutiny. By refusing to open their works to the whole world, it becomes an inbred group of backscratchers fawning over each others uninspired work. Well, okay it *might* become that.
Consider the use of Jargon in science writing. Since Jargon is only understood by a select group, it is an indication of that the writing is intended for a closed audience. Oh sure, my PI used to argue that every word was at a premium, and it was sufficient to simply use phrases or words from previous publications to convey the argument presented in that publication.
(of course, you couldn’t really understand a paper without reading all of its references. Oh and by the way, those publications are published in other journals, each of which has a separate subscription fee.)
I was attempting to read this article on two-dimensional vibrational spectroscopy. It sounded pretty cool. Instead, this is what PNAS gave me:
PNAS — Subscription Status

Scott and I did some scientific research on Mars, and created these documentaries (works in progress) about our findings:
episode 1
episode 2

When I’m bored I love to read about the Mars Expedition Rovers. After nearly two years the machines are still running, driving around up there on another planet taking pictures of things…..
Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Home

Ever wonder how tiny little seedlings know to send their roots one way and their shoots the other? This behavior is called Gravitropism. While a lot is known about this process, much of it is still a mystery.
Within the tips of growing roots or shoots are specialized cells called statoliths. These cells have one outstanding visible feature. (Visible with a microscope, that is.) Statoliths have tiny grains of starch in their cytoplasm.
A current theory of gravitropism goes like this: The grains of starch, being heavier than the rest of the cell, will settle to the bottom side of the cell. (This action can be observed with a good microscope.) Somehow, and this is the part that is yet unknown, this action results in release or redistribution of the plant hormone auxin on the same side of the statolith. Auxin encourages growth in plant shoots. Thus if a plant shoot is growing sideways the bottom part will receive more auxin and cause the shoot to grow upwards. Plant roots behave the opposite way : Auxin slows growth in plant roots. That has the net result of roots growing downwards.
Although this simple model was proposed in the 1930s, the process still isn’t fully understood. Many organelles, such as the Golgi apparatus and the mitochondria, are thought to be involved in the signal transduction from the starch grain to the production of auxin.

I had just about finished a post about how cool the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X are. I used as an example the story of how I recovered some deleted files from a compact flash card by simply using the /dev/disk2 “file” and perl. However, that high praise got lost when my computer crashed. So I’ll instead leave you with this story : Blogs are great but remember that browsers don’t save anything when your computer crashes.