Random musings of a morning

• What is the right way to think of a discrete piece of code stored on the hard drive of a computer? Is "file" or "document" most accurately descriptive of anything containing lines of code (which, at its base, is text, after all)—even an application, regardless of whatever GUI bells and whistles it has attached—or just the most common and convenient? Should the same thing apply to a non-code piece of text—say, the lyrics to a song? And what about audio and video files, which at their most basic level are also just chunks of code? Should they properly be "tracks" and "movies," respectively, or are these merely "documents" and/or "files" too? If not, what would be better? "Code fragment"? "Program output"? "Doohickey"?  And what about fully compiled, executable code vs. mere undifferentiated fragments, as my pal fringefan posting below suggests? Is this an important distinction or not? Just curious.
    
• The company for which I currently labor through my temp agency (see this page for a sample of what I'm doing for them) is providing refreshments and materials to the firefighters battling the southern California wildfires, as well as fire safety education tables in the state's schools. The company may not be perfect, but it has the most people I've ever seen in any firm working their butts off to live the firm's professed core ethics and philosophy. It's nice to feel good about where you work.
    
  
• Check out this YouTube music video produced by a fan of Wonder Woman. If you're anywhere near as fond of everyone's favorite ageless Amazon Princess as I am, you'll enjoy it; it's made up of scenes from Cartoon Network's Justice League series. Note in particular the scene where Di barely manages to escape Giganta's hands smacking together by flying under her sequoia-sized legs, then elbows the back of one humongous knee on the way through with the strength of Hercules to collapse the villainess' entire affront-to-the-laws-of-physics frame to the ground. That, children, is called skill and experience. (And being the only woman in the DC Universe not named Kara or Karen who can rival Superman for strength, flying ability and speed sure as Hades doesn't hurt.)
    
  
• If my state is having a crisis-level drought (which it is, as a check of the local paper's headlines will tell you), does that mean buying bottled water to drink is okay now? Does the virtue of not using up our rapidly dwindling supply of local tap water outweigh the vice of creating yet more non-biodegradable solid waste (the PET plastic bottle) and condoning the noxious emissions from the trucks that got it here? Again, just wondering.
    
  
• Apropos of the last bullet point, we've had rain every single day, all day, so far this week in Atlanta proper. I know the reservoirs and the lakes and rivers desperately need it, so I'm glad for that. But the resultant gray, dark, thunderhead-filled sky the whole day long is still damn depressing. Glad the Songbird's not here to see it; she'd find it even more so. (By the way, did you know the state of Georgia possesses absolutely no natural lakes? Every single one is man-made, so I'm told. Not sure if any other state can say this.)
    
  
• I finally went and bought a paid subscription to LJ. The icon lust was just too much to resist any more. I thought 15 would be enough. Then I found new ones and didn't have any more I could stand to jettison in order to make room. I don't want 2,000 icons, really I don't. I don't even need all 35 that come with a paid sub. Just room for a couple more. Honest. I can quit any time I want to...
  

Senator Sanatorium gets a new bully pulpit

Former US Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), one of the wingnut Gingrichistas blessedly evicted from office by last year's Democratic sweep in the midterm elections, is now being given a weekly op-ed column in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the last daily I used for my morning newsprint fix before moving to Atlanta. As if he hadn't already done enough damage to the public policy debate in the Keystone State. Jeeze Louise, I'm all for Republicans and/or conservatives being allowed to speak their piece in public fora (not un-rebutted, mind you, but allowed), but does it have to be the guy who equated homosexuality with bestiality while in office?

Memo to Inky publisher Brian Tierney and editor Bill Marimow: What in the name of Ben Franklin's sainted memory are you guys thinking? Are your Rolodexes really so pitiful that you couldn't find someone saner to represent the right on your op-ed pages?

The SCHIP War, Round 2: GOP rep from GA says we should trust the insurance companies

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA 6th), in today's edition of my local paper, responds here to an editorial by the board demanding that Congress act to save SCHIP-funded state health insurance programs like PeachCare. He clings to the GOP party line that the bill whose veto by Junior Bush was upheld last week would drive millions of kids whose parents could well afford private health insurance onto government coverage and push us down the road to "Hillarycare."

He's introduced a new bill he insists is more reasonable than the last one that would provide "premium assistance" to the families too well off to qualify for Medicare/Medicaid but not enough to afford private coverage on their own. Oh, sure, Tom, let's send them to the same greedy, heartless bastards who caused the problem in the first place! These would be the same private insurers notorious for dropping millions of policyholders off coverage at a moment's notice for no better reason than that the company's bean-counters consider them bad health risks, right? And not just kids, either, but adults as well.

And twice he harps on how his proposal supposedly solves the problem "without a tax increase." Now we get to the real reason the Repugs oppose expanding SCHIP: Money. God forbid the government should raise taxes to help people who truly need it in a way that can't be overridden by an insurance-company executive. Well, unless you put in some serious restrictions with teeth against arbitrary cessation of coverage, Tommy boy, your little scheme will just leave those millions of kids in the same damn crappy sitch they're in now.

Anti-Hillary momentum builds on the left

Courtesy of Politico.com: A new website called Democratic Courage appears to be attempting to derail the ever-more-unstoppable-seeming freight train that is Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) heading for a coronation as the party's 2008 Presidential nominee. There seems to be somewhat of a bias toward former Sen. John Edwards, but any effort to put a more progressive person at the top of the Dem ticket deserves support.

Today's Meme: My Life, Graded

Nefariously nicked from voiceofkiki :
( One hopes the grade is on a curve... )