richardcampbell

SW:TPM-3D

Saw SW:TPM-3D . The 3D was pretty good, especially, of course, the action sequences. The "Star Wars" movies are such a visual design treat that that they practically beg for the 3-D effect - from the opening episode crawl, to flying in to canyons or trenches, etc. George Lucas is said to have looked in to 3-D for the original series, but the technology wasn't up to it, and of course, he had his hands full with just the 2-D special effects. In terms of the movie itself, let it be said, I'm just fine with it. For good or bad, it's a children's movie with slapstick and kiddie humor throughout; if you can accept that, it's a romp, even with the more than usual wooden acting. One flaw though is that the Real-D polarization mechanism results in a dimming of the picture. The darker look to sunny Tatooine was especially noticeable. (The franchise probably won't catch up to the #1 franchise, but still has almost $2 billion in total sales!) If you're going to see it, be sure to check out way too much hidden sights to see - I especially liked the ETs in the Senate and the 2001:Space Oddysey pod!

Capt. Moses Campbell

Another genealogical tidbit…. An old Campbell cousin, was a representative at the Connecticut ratification of the U.S. Constitution. That happened just a few days over 224 years ago.

My seventh-great-grandfather, Robert Campbell (b. 1675, perhaps in Coleraine, Ireland) and family, emigrated to the Americas in 1718, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts. They apparently moved immediately to New London, Connecticut and then took up with a Presbyterian church community in Voluntown, Connecticut. Robert’s son, Dr. John Campbell (b. 1698, Ireland), had a son Moses Campbell, born 14 April 1737. He married Sarah Dixon.

During the Revolutionary War, he rose to the rank of Captain in the Connecticut regiments, along with a few other family members.

After the war, The Continental Congress passed the Articles of Confederation, but by the mid-1780s there were many calls to revise these and in 1787 a Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That convention rewrote the articles from scratch and passed the new Constitution in September. The Congress then quickly referred the document to the 13 states, which each called for their own state convention.

Connecticut elected their delegates to their convention in November 1787. Moses Campbell and Benjamin Dow represented the town and area around Voluntown. On 3 January 1788, the Connecticut Convention began in Hartford, the state capital. With just a few days of debate (mostly concerning Federal power to lower tariffs between states and to repay debts owed to War veterans), on 9 January 1788 it became the fifth state to approve the new Constitution.

Moses Campbell voted in favor . UPDATE: A PDF of the actual ratification document, from the National Archives. Moses signed in the fourth column, second one down.

Later on, Moses Campbell and his family, along with some other Campbells, moved further north in to Oneida County, New York, and settled in the Norwich Corners area. From there, many of these Campbell's, including my fifth-great-grandfather’s family, moved to the Rochester, New York area. Moses died in 1827 and was buried in Paris, New York.

A/C, D/C, and USB

I've been arguing for years that DC power distrubution in data centers, trading floors, and homes should be the new standard. As the argument usually falls on inebriated ears who'd rather be watching the baseball game, I can't claim to be much of an influence. But there's been more discussion amongst people who actually know what they are talking about, see Wired's article, and from the Data Center Knowledge cite. Some reasons: up to 15% energy saving, fewer points of failure, less cooling.

Meanwhile, at the home and desktop level, rather than have myriad bulky ac-to-dc converter bricks stuck on to your power outlets, why not just have DC power distributed to USB outlets? Right now, there are multiple manufacturers that provide outlets with built-in converters: CurrentWerks, NewerTechnology, Fastmac, and Rolodex. Not a bad answer, certainly an interesting option for new building or renovations.

Merry Christmas

My mother spent many afternoons in England rubbing brasses in the Midlands area. This is one I selected for this years Xmas cards for our family. The brass is from the tomb of John Harewell in the church of St. Peter's in Wooten-Wawen, Warwickshire. You can see a good picture of the tomb here . The tomb features a large brass of John Harewell along with his wife, and also smaller brasses of their 5 daughters and 5 sons. You can see a closeup of the actual brass of the sons here.

One long-term hobby of mine is to get all of my mother's rubbings scanned in and posted, of course, to the web. Still trying to decide the best tech for this - google app engine? Rails? roll-my-own cgi? I'm surprised that there's no definitive listing of the brasses in the UK on the web somewhere....

On Avon

When my mom, dad, brother and I lived in England, from 1968 to 1972, we lived in Hampton-In-Arden, a few miles from Coventry where my Dad worked. Fortunately, we were only some 15 miles north of Stratford-upon-Avon, and we regularly visited the shops and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I saw many productions at the theatre, including Julius Ceasar, and Peter Brook’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (with Ben Kingsley). We visited Stratford whenever friends and relatives from “the States” came over; I spent a good deal of time playing with toy boats in the Avon River on the Theatre riverbank. We all came away from that experience with a love of theatre, especially my brother Robert who later became a lighting and sound designer, and stage manager in Michigan and New York City.

As a kind of thanks to my mother and to the RSC, I’ve purchased a seat in the newly renovated theater – L46 – inscribed “Virginia Lee, Robert, and Richard Campbell”. See the seating plan .

Beethoven

It's coming up on the 241st birthday of Ludwig Van and I'm finishing "The Ninth" , my first foray into Beethoven biography. A little overwritten, but more the fun for it. And a very broad review of the master’s life and times. Puts his life and music into context, especially with respect to Napoleaon and The Congress of Vienna and Concert of Europe, and how this relates to Lord Byron (not the golfer), Pushkin, Heine, etc., and the “romantic” tradition. Great stuff. And, I’ve realized I’ve got great gaps in my Beethoven musical exposure – many of the late string quartets, late piano sonatas (esp. Op.111), Diabelli variations, and more. I’ve had the Symphonies memorized ever since my Dad’s Toscanini set (on vinyl of course). Lots more to go through! Apparently, Charles Rosen’s "The Classical Style: Haydyn, Mozart, Beethoven" is the indespensible guide (for lay types like myself).

(For the golfer "Lord" Byron Nelson, see "The Match" . Good quick bios of Hogan, Nelson, Venturi, an unknown amateur, and Cypress Point)

Reminder, latest books and things available through the Amazon store link at left. (You may need to disable ad-blocker for this site. Thanks!)

RIPs

Allow me to get on the brush-with-late-greatness bandwagon. One thing I found interesting about Dennis Ritchie was that he actually attended the old Usenix conferences (which I understand is actually still in business). Just odd, because few of the original Bell Labs guys attended. And, I mingled with him at an open-bar. No recollection of the conversation.

Meanwhile, while working at CITI, we had an infatuation with Apple Computer, Inc. I actually went out for a couple days team discussion to talk about A/UX. That was an aborted attempt to port the original MacOS to a UNIX platform (about 1988/9, whilst Steve Jobs was not at Apple). But I was at the unveiling of the NeXT computer, where one of the hightlights was that the cable connecting the monitor carried both the video and power supply (hence only one cable). And then, I was in the front row of the luncheon the next day, where Jobs was again extolling the virtues of the writeable CD caddy that was, for him, a big selling point of the system. Students could carry their data around in their shirt pocket. Except that I was close enough to see that Jobs' shirts (he had not yet switched to turtlenecks) had been custom tailored with extra-large pockets big enough to hold that CD caddy. One insight into his fetish for fashion over technology, and sometimes, over useability.

JPO and "Stonewall"

I've done a little more family research recently, and uncovered a bit more info on my (maternal) Owens family. My great-great-great-grandfather Jonathon Owens was born about 1793, and as of 1830 was living in the Macon, Georgia area as a carpenter. His son, Jonathan Parrish Owens was born in 1831. In 1861 he enlisted in the Georgia Volunteer Infantry, 61st Regiment, Company I. This regiment was part of the Confederate Army's 2nd Corps commanded by Stonewall Jackson (see picture). He took part in the many civil war battles - Gain's Mill, Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Battle of the Wilderness - finally getting wounded in the leg at Spotslyvania in 1864. He had a son, Carlton Julius Owens, my great-grandfather, and finally passed away in 1899. It'll be interesting to see if I can find any Michigan Campbell ancestors who might have fought against him.

Hurricane Irene - report #1

I don't think anyone here in Essex County knows what a Cat 1 hurricane means. We get tropical storms (nor'easters) with 40-50mph gusts. Tonight could be up to 75mph. No one has boarded up windows; of course, neither have I - monkey see monkey do. I do have 6mil contractors tarp and a dozen rolls of duct tape to do damage control as it happens. The timing is lousy - the brunt of the storm is from 2am to 2pm tomorrow, a long night. We have moved in everything and anything from the backyard and deck. The critical thing for me is the basement sump pumps. Newly installed after this spring's rain, we've actually just finished (Thursday!) repairing and repainting the basement. I've bought two new big marine batteries to do backup service if/when power goes out. The wind has just picked up. Talk to you later.

Virginia Lee Campbell

Virginia Lee Campbell ... 8 March 1935 - 12 June 2011

My mother passed away last Sunday after a two-year struggle with cancer. After one surgery in 2009, there was a recurrence last year. We were able to move her up to New Jersey from her home in Tampa, Florida, where she had been caring for her father for many years. She was able to spend some good time with her grandchildren, but far too short of a time of course.

As every one knew, my mother was not one to complain and the last nine months here were trying. But in between treatments, we were able to enjoy our family ties and create more memories in our new house.

There will be a service on Saturday 25 June 2011 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Please send me an email for details.

Continue reading "Virginia Lee Campbell"

UpUrl - chrome extension

I've written a small Google chrome extension - "upurl". The idea is that often after getting in to the depths of some website, or after using a search engine, it is not always trivial to navigate back up the URL path. It's often hard just to find the homepage link for some sites. This extension puts up a little icon that when clicked shows the hierarchy of slash-separated URLs based on the current tab. It's not on the official extension page yet, it's only is double secret stealth beta release (and Chrome only) at http://www.netrc.com/upurl.crx

Thanks

The Navy Seals Foundation - http://www.nswfoundation.org/

Special Operations Warrior Foundation - http://www.specialops.org/

WWII * 3

Three WWII books:

Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific - Robert Leckie's personal account of Guadalcanaland more. Overwritten, purplish prose, showing off the brashness of youth. The battle scenes are vivid but the hell-raising hijinx and cameraderie are a constant counterpoint. This was the basis for the first half of HBO's The Pacific.

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa - E.B. Sledge's vivid story covers the harrowing island battles of Peleliuand Okinawa. Apparently based on a diary kept during the war, the book is nevertheless written with a far drier, unblinking, and more mature viewpoint. A terrifying read of horror.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Lauren Hillenbrand's account of the life and Louie Zemperini, teenage terror, Olympic runner, Pacific bomber, and then, the flip-side of the previous books, castaway survivor of a plane crash and prisoner of war. Hillenbrand, as in Seabiscuit, digs deep in to the story, bringing to life every character and detail. The plot will amaze you with coincidence, luck, and courage. Check out the Amazon widget on the left....

Just a small item

A small item, which begging your pardon, concerns me and Managing AFS: The Andrew File System. Regarding the origins of the term "cloud" computing, if I wrote this in 1996 (and finally got the book out in 1998), the terms were certainly in common use by (at least) the AFS community:

Depicting AFS as a file system cloud demonstrates the ubiquity of the system and the simplicity of connecting to the service. Perhaps a better analogy would be to a consumer utility provider - the water supply or the electric company. After a single hookup is made, services are constant, reliable, and affordable. As with telephone services, you simply expect that a single phone line will be able to connect you to any other phone in the world. AFS is like that; the worldwide community of AFS sites shares files without any special browsers or other applications. As far as they are concerned, "No matter where you go, there you are."