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April 23, 2005

Do unto animals...

Why force herbivores into cannibalism? Shouldn't only bad things (like "Mad Cow" disease) happen when you take a group of grass-eating vegetarians and force them to eat meat?

If anything makes me glad that I swore off red meat in the fall of 2003, it is contemplating meat-fed calves and cattle. Sheesh.

I hope we humans can learn to persist without fois-gras, produced by force-feeding geese using a tube inserted into the esophagus.

And veal! Most veal calves are forced to live for all their days in tiny crates that restrict them from even stretching their legs to rest. They are fed a diet intentionally lacking in iron to keep their meat a "desirable" pink colour.

Shame on us humans.

My dog, Pretzel, is as aware and acute as a young human. He sighs, he gets happy, he cries when he's lost his toy. He burps, he farts, he sneezes. He needs affection and lots of play time. He is like a little child.

It's too bad that said geese and cattle, who surely deserve to live some semblance of a normal life, should be treated in a deplorable manner while selected domestic animals enjoy an elevated status in terrestrial society.

After visiting a veal-related Web page, http://www.britishmeat.com/veal.html, I feel every bit as bad as I would reading about any child being severely battered and abused.

Posted by garyduke at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 13, 2005

Hokery Pokery

Last night's episode of the BBC's new Doctor Who series was satisfying. The new Doctor and his sexy southern cohort make as good a pair as any from the previous series. Best yet, the oddball humour remains and the show has many moments where poignancy and topical humour collide.

I like the show's unique nod to the persistence of mundanity. On no other series (besides Red Dwarf) would I have ever expected to come across an alien plumber!

Some of the clichéd trappings of modern sci-fi series are present, and the beginning of the show put me off with its cheesy CG spacecraft scenes and obligatory robotic spiderbots.

Can't wait for next week's episode! See http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho.

Posted by garyduke at 01:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 01, 2005

Dual Monitors, Part II: An Unusual Configuration

I am currently evaluating the merits of what I feel is a rather unusual and unexpectedly effective dual-monitor setup: I have turned my left monitor 90 degrees counterclockwise while leaving my right monitor in its original state. Here is a screenshot of the unique arrangement in action.

In this screenshot, the portrait-oriented monitor on the left displays a maximised help screen. The landscape-oriented monitor on the right displays the maximised application (Macromedia Freehand MX) for which I am reading the help screen's tutorial content.

The black area in the screenshot does not represent an unused portion of my combined display-- there is no display area there. It does speak to the fact that its strange having a "chunk" missing from under the right monitor when compared to the tall screen space of the rotated left monitor.

I did try rotating both monitors 90 degrees, but I found portrait mode uncomfortable for applications such as Flash and 3DS MAX.

In conclusion, using one monitor in portrait mode (primarily for documentation viewing and editing) while reserving the other for the more application-savvy landscape mode has proven very effective.

G

Posted by garyduke at 09:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack