So this guy andrut created some awesome visualizations of sorting algorithms using sound:
Various Sorting Algorithms:
Heapsort:
This is a follow up to my post: Inside the Third Reich, Memoirs by Albert Speer
Throughout his memoirs he paints himself in the most positive light, and I felt that I needed an outside reference to even out his portrayal. To that end, I purchased a copy of Albert Speer: The End of a Myth. The book thoroughly addresses many of the claims made by Speer an shows how he went out of his way to distort the truth to present the best image of himself. There was; however, no smoking gun presented in this book — his involvement in forced labor and relocation of the jews in Berlin is highlighted, but his involvement in the most egregious crimes is only hinted at. The main claim that is debunked is that Speer was a politically naive technician. Throughout my reading of the memoir, I too thought that this claim seemed to be a grand deception of an adept politician.
The New York Times, sums it up best in it’s review: THE NAZI WHO MADE A COMEBACK
By demolishing Speer’s carefully tailored image of himself, Matthias Schmidt has contributed to setting the record straight, even though he overestimates the extent to which historians have been misled by that image. One wishes only that Mr. Schmidt had driven home with even greater force the lasting lesson of Speer’s role in the Third Reich. While his was without question a political role, it was not that of a fanatical Nazi, a true believer in that pernicious creed. Instead, Speer’s politics were those of an opportunist, ever ready to advance his own interests by whatever methods he found would serve that purpose. His career serves to remind us that fanatics such as Adolf Hitler and his disciples can cope with the complexities of the modern world only if they can call upon the talents of unscrupulous, self-serving men like Albert Speer.
I’d recommend this book to balance out the memoirs — but it doesn’t add too much if the memoirs are read with a critical eye and with the knowledge that he is trying to portray himself in the best possible light.
In conclusion, to shed a little more light on this master politician, I’ll end with a quote from: The Nuremberg Interviews
The defendants generally tried to get away with everything they could, and as one of them suggested, they sometimes succeeded. That claim was made by Hitler’s architect Speer, often regarded as the shrewdest observer among the defendants. He was not pleased at the end of the trial when he saw that Fritzsche, Papen, and Schact got off while he was given twenty years. He noted in his diary that their “likes, smokescreens, and dissembling statements had paid off after all.” Speer resented not being exonerated by the court, but it was certainly not because he had failed to like or cover up the truth. Speer and no doubt other defendants resented people like Goldensohn and Gilbert. So far as we can tell, Speer gave Goldensohn no more than a brief and tersely worded statement (included in this volume). He accused Gilbert of being “always eager to add to his psychological knowledge.” In answer to Gilbert’s question about his sentence, Speer lied when he said the twenty years he got “was fair enough. They couldn’t have given me a lighter sentence, considering the facts, and I can’t complain.” By his own later admission, Speer was not telling the truth, for in fact he felt unjustly treated by the court.
Page 7
During 1953 -54 Speer wrote detailed memoirs covering thousands of pages – pages of all kinds and sizes, even toilet paper. The material was smuggled out, little by little, from the Alliked prison for war criminals in Spandau, Berlin. It wound up in Coesfeld, where Wolters had once again become a successful architect. One of his employees typed up the material and the final typescript came to eleven hundred pages. Nevertheless, as the prisoner Speer stated when this work was completed, it was “only a first draft.”
….
[he was] now designated Prisoner Number 5
Page 89
According to Speer’s memoirs, mysterious things occurred during his medical crisis. the surgeon Gebhardt supposedly asked the internist Koch to operate. But Koch refused, because such an operation would have threatened the patient’s life. The specter of a “medical assassination” by the SS-physician Gebhardt haunts Speer’s description of the episode. however, toward the end of the wa, Koch could tell his ex-patient only that he, Koch, had had an angry dispute with Gebhardt about how to treat Speer’s illness. Even in 1947, when Koch could have testified openly against the head SS-physician, all he remembered was that there had been “in the course of treatment differences between Gebhardt and me.” Koch did not mention any life-threatening operation suggested by Gebhardt.
Page 13
By 1943, the wider German public sensed that Germany could not hold out against the mass of Allied arms potential.. now, non of Speer’s talks lacked some variation of the statement that “the sheer quantity of Allied wapons could be not only balanced but outdone by higher quality.” That year, according to the judgment of the historian Karl-Heinz Ludwig, the slogan “qualitative superiority” introduced “a new phase of lying to the German people – a phase the culminated in the myth of miracle weapons.
Page 116
Speer saw all this from the viewpoint of a sportsman. In fact, he told his fellow minister Schwerin von Krosigk “that the race between destruction and reconstruction was the most exciting contest in the history of the world.”
Page 121
in 1944 — the year of the stick-it-out and retaliation propaganda, the year that Speer had proclaimed the year of technological surprises in all areas – the Minister of Armaments made use of Hitler’s edict. That Februrary, he asked Otto Thierack, Reich Minister of Justice, to institute prelminary proceedings against August Pagels, manager of the Linden Iron and Steel Works. “According to the documents in my possession, ” said Speer, “there seems to be an especially flagrant case of sabotage of our war effort.” In March of that same year, Speer asked the Minister of Justice to bring criminal action against Walter Kamaryt, a Viennese, who, according to Speer, had supplied false figuers on the need for, and available supplies of material crucial to the armaments industry.
Page 122
Looking back thirty-five years later, Speer offers an entirely different account of the Egger case in his last book Infiltration (Der Sklavenstaat). He uses it as an object lesson to depict his jurisdictional squabbles with the SS. He also tries to prove that the SS kept attacking him and his industrial managers for political reasons. Speer reprints the first part of a letter that indicates his annoyance at not being informed of Egger’s arrest; Speer then doesn’t forget to quote the last sentence: “I must protest against linking such proceedings with interventions by political offices based on political grounds.” In his book, however, Speer conscientiously hides the fact that he wrote this letter in order to make three requests for a harsher punishment. Indeed, his distortion of the facts goes even further when he concludes his description of the case: “Egger was instantly released from custody. The accusations against him had proved to be unfounded.” What reader would not conclude that Bussing’s general manager had been set free only because of Speer’s speedy intervention!.
Page 126
Hermann Giesler, Speer’s adversary then and now, can only poke mordant fun at the “assassination plan” supposedly hatched by Hitler’s one time minion: “The second most powerful man in the state lacked a ladder.”
Page 191
There is no telling what negative consequences the more primitive constructions would have had for the prisoners. In any event, Speer issued an edict in March 1943, ordering that no more permanent structures were to be put up. The inmate house had to be makeshift. The outer and inner walls were to be lightweight, and there was to be no plastering inside or outside.
However, Speer changed his mind when he read the report on Auschwitz by his two assistants, who must have found catastrophic sanitary conditions there. Speer quickly wrote to Himmler and made building material available — iron, cast-iron pipes, water pipes, and round bar steel — especially for construction at Auschwitz. however, conditions in other concentration camps must have been presented to him a more favorable light. For in a handwritten addendum to his letter to Himmler, Speer remarked: “I am delighted that the inspection of the other concentration camps resulted in a highly positive picture.”
Page 195
Nevertheless, Speer realized that the foundation of his honorableness as a contrite and converted national Socialist was his ignorance of “what was really beginning on November 9, 1938, and what ended in Auschwitz and Majadanek” (Speer). Consequently, the ex-Minister of Armaments never once accused himself of anything without simultaneously asseverating that he had that he had ultimately known nothing.
Page 201
Speer’s favorite role — as hitler’s master builder — comes across somewhat differently in the sources, documents, and eyewitness accounts than in Inside the Third Reich. Nothing could be further from the truth than the image of Speer as an architect with purely artistic ambitions, absorbed in his work, wearing a white smock, perched at the drawing board, designing one project after another for his supreme client. On the contrary: Speer very quickly realized that his position as Hitler’s special architect involved practicable power as well, and Speer quickly learned how to wiled it. Everyone who tried to curb his ambitions learned about Speer’s power the hard way. They had to experience his methods first-hand: his skillful use of intrigues and machinations to make his way to the top. Speer’s position as hitler’s premier architect was his novitiate for higher orders, and ultimately the highest orders in the Nazi hierarchy.
So my brother, Steven Gagne, is an animator in LA and is currently contracting with The Mill. As part of his work there, he is responsible for the animation in the following Verizon ad. His focus is on animation, so the models, lighting, etc are done by others on the team. In my opinion, it’s pretty awesome.
Follow him on twitter: http://twitter.com/skgagne
From hope-web Gallery
The Next HOPE was a blast, we had a great time and Motown won the competitions he entered. Also, I finally got a chance to check out the highline which was even better than I thought it would be.
HACKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
Dave & I got our pick on:
If you’re interested in lockpicking, I’d recommend getting the custom set of picks from Motown’s kickstarter project: http://kck.st/bjNcQf It’s a pretty awesome set, some of the picks are used in the video below.
I shot a video of the final round of the Lockpick wizard competition:
Description
A video capturing the primal essence of locksport, in it 1337 Lock Popper Towne is challenged by the Maestro of Locks Farre. Deprived of sight, they must battle to pop the locks to be anointed Lockpicking Wizard.
Final Round: Lock Picking Wizard Competition at The Next Hope (2010).
THE NEXT HOPE – LOCKSPORT WIZARD (2010) from danny on Vimeo.
Note: I ran out of room on my camera’s memory card so near the end, the last few minutes, there are just clips of when a lock was opened and the final countdown; this is how we turn a 10 minute competition into a 7 minute video.
Vimeo Link: http://vimeo.com/13496783
So I just finished Inside the Third Reich, Memoirs by Albert Speer
Page 18
Quite often even the most important step in a man’s life, his choice of vocation, is taken quite frivolously. He does not bother to find out enough about the basis and the various aspects of that vocation. Once he has chosen it, he is inclined to switch off his critical awareness and to fit himself wholly into the predetermined career.
Page 19
For had I only wanted to, I could have found out even then that Hitler was proclaiming expansion of the Reich to the east; that he was a rank anti-Semite; that he was committed to a system of authoritarian rule; that after attaining power he intended to eliminated democratic procedures and would thereafter yield only to force. Not to have worked that out for myself; not, given my education, to have read books, magazines, and newspapers of various viewpoints; not to have tried to see through the whole apparatus of mystification – was already criminal. At this initial stage my guilt was as grave as, at the end, my work for Hitler. For being in a position to know and nevertheless shunning knowledge creates direct responsibility for the consequences – from the very beginning. (emphasis added)
Page 112
I felt myself to be Hitler’s architect. Political events did not concern me. My job was merely to provide impressive backdrops for such events. And this view was reinforced daily, for Hitler consulted me almost exclusively on architectural questions. Moreover, it would have been regarded as self-importance on the part of a man who was pretty much of a latecomer in the party had I attempted to participate in the political discussions. I felt that there was no need for me to take any political positions at all. Nazi education, furthermore, aimed at separatist thinking; I was expected to confine myself to the job of building. The grotesque extent to which I clung to this illusion is indicated by a memorandum of mine to Hitler as late as 1944: “The task I have to fulfill is an unpolitical one. I have felt at ease in my work only so long as my person and my work were evaluated solely by the standard of practical accomplishments.”
Page 113
But in the final analysis I myself determined the degree of my isolation, the extremity of my evasions, and the extent of ignorance.
…
Those who ask me are fundamentally expecting me to offer justifications. But I have none. No apologies are possible.
Page 165
He stuck unswervingly to his opinion that the West was too feeble, too worn out, and too decadent to begin the war seriously. Probably it was also embarrassing for him to admit to his entourage and above all to himself that he had made so crucial a mistake. I still remember his consternation when the news came that Churchill was going to enter the British War Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. With this ill omened press report in his hand, Goering stepped out of the door of Hitler’s salon. He dropped into the nearest chair and said wearily: “Churchill in the Cabinet. That means that the war is really on. Now we shall have war with England.” From these and other observations I deduced that this initiation of real war was not what Hitler had projected.
Page 204
I prepared a plan of organization whose vertical lines represented individual items, such as tanks, planes, or submarines. In other words, the armaments for the three branches of the service were included. These vertical columns were enclosed in numerous rings, each of which was to stand for a group of components needed for all guns, tanks, planes, and other armaments. Within these rings I considered, for example, the production of forgings or ball bearings or electrical equipment as a whole. Accustomed as an architect to three-dimensional thinking, I drew this new organizational scheme in perspective.
Page 212
Basically, I exploited the phenomenon of the technician’s often blind devotion to his task. Because of what seems to be the moral neutrality of technology, these people were without any scruples about their activities. The more technicial the world imposed on us by the war, the more dangerous was the indifference of the technician to the direct consequences of his anonymous activities.
…
The nonparty members of my Ministry enjoyed a legal protection highly unusual in Hitler’s state. For over the objections of the Minister of Justice I had established the principle, right at the beginning of my job, that there would be no indictments for sabotage of armaments except on my motion. This proviso protected my associates even after July 20, 1944. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the Gestapo chief, wanted to indict three general managers, Bucher of the AEG electrical company, Vogler of the United Steel Works, and Reusch of the Gutehoffnungshutte (the mining combine), for “defeatist” conversations. He came to me for authorization. I pointed out that the nature of our work compelled us to speak candidly about the situation and thus fended off the Gestapo. On the other hand, I applied severe penalties for abuse of our honor system – if, for example, someone furnished false data in order to hoard important raw materials. For actions of this sort would result in the withholdings of arms from the front.
Page 213
There were times when I actually regarded theses raids as helpful – witness my ironic reaction to the destruction of the Ministry in the air raid of November 22, 1943: “Although we have been fortunate in that large parts of the current files of the Ministry have burned and so relieved us for a time of useless ballast, we cannot really expect that such events will continually introduce the necessary fresh air into our work.”
Page 250, 2nd footnote
Hitler could not have blocked delivery of these letters without causing wild rumors. But when the Soviet Army allowed German prisoners to send home postcards, Hitler ordered the cards destroyed. Because they were a sign of life from the relatives, they might have mitigated the Russophobia that was being so carefully cultivated by Hitler’s propaganda apparatus. Fritzsche told me about this at Nuremberg.
Page 259
This was the first time I emerged from my reserve as a specialist to plunge into political maneuvering. I had always carefully avoided such a step; but the fact that I took it now had a certain logic. I had decided that it was wrong to imagine I could concentrate exclusively upon my specialized work. In an authoritarian system anyone who wants to remain part of the leadership inevitably stumbles into fields of force where political battles are in progress.
Page 269
I was thunderstruck.
Page 282
Whereas the gradual industrial growth of the West had resulted in many middle-sized power plants connected in a grid, in the Soviet Union large power plants of gigantic dimensions had been built, usually in the heart of extensive industrial areas. For example, a single huge power plant on the upper Volga supplied most of the energy consumption of Moscow. We had information, in fact, that 60 percent of the manufacturing of essential optical parts and electrical equipment was concentrated in the Soviet capital. Moreover, the destruction of a few gigantic power plants in the Urals would have put a halt to much of Soviet steel production as well as to tank and munitions manufacture. A direct hit on the turbines or their conduits would have released masses of water a destructiveness greater than that of many bombs. Since many of the major Soviet power plants had been built with the assistance of German companies, we were able to obtain very good data on them.
Page 288
From the flak tower the air raids on Berlin were an unforgettable sight, and I had constantly to remind myself of the cruel reality in order not to be completely entranced by the scene: the illumination of the parachute flares, which the Berliners called “Christmas trees,” followed by flashes of explosions which were caught by the clouds of smoke, the innumerable probing searchlights, the excitement when a plan was caught and tried to escape the cone of light, the brief flaming torch when it was hit. No doubt about it, this apocalypse provided a magnificent spectacle.
Page 289
In this way Hitler, too, learned of the blaze, and without making any further inquiries ordered all the fire departments in the vicinity of Berlin to report to the burning tank plant.
…
Since a direct order from the Fuehrer had been issued, I could not persuade the chiefs to go on to other urgent fies. Early that morning the streets in a wide area around the tank factory were jammed with fire engines standing around doing nothing – while the fires spread unchecked in other parts of the city.
Page 290
Goering was embarking for Rominten Heath on his special train when Galland came along to bid him good-by. “What’s the idea of telling the Fuehrer that American fighters have penetrated into the territory of the Reich?” Goering snapped at him.
“Herr rechsmarschall,” Galland replied with imperturbable calm, “they soon will be flying even deeper.”
Goering Spoke even more vehemently: “That’s nonsense, Galland, what gives you such fantasies? That’s pure bluff!”
Galland shook his head. “Those are the facts, Herr Reichsmarschall!” As he spoke he deliberately remained in a casual posture, his cap somewhat askew, a long cigar clamped between his teeth. “American fighters have been shot down over Aachen. There is no doubt about it!
Goering obstinately held his ground: “That is simply not true, Galland. It’s impossible.”
Galland reacted with a touch of mockery: “You might go and check it yourself, sir; the downed planes are there at Aachen. ”
Goering tried to smooth matters over: “Come now, Galland, let me tell you something. I’m an experienced fighter pilot myself. I know what is possible. But I know what isn’t, too. Admit you made a mistake.”
Galland only shook his head, until Goering finally declared: ” What must have happened is that they were shot down much farther to the west. I mean, if they were very high when they were shot down they could have glided quite a distance farther before they crashed.”
Not a muscle moved in Galland’s face. “Glided to the east, sir? If my plane were shot up …”
“Now then, Herr Galland,” Goering fulminated, trying to put an end to the debate, “I officially assert that the American fighter planes did not reach Aachen.”
The General ventured a last statement: “But, sir, they were there!”
At this point Goering’s self-control gave way. “I herewith give you an official order that they weren’t there! Do you understand? The American fighters were not there! Get that! I intend to report that to the Fuehrer. ”
Goering simply let General Galland stand there. But as he stalked off he turned once more and called out threateningly: “You have my official order!”
With an unforgettable smile the General replied: “Orders are orders, sir!”
Page 291
The departure from reality, which was visibly spreading like a contagion, was no peculiarity of the National Socialist regime. But in normal circumstances people who turn their backs on reality are soon set straight by the mockery and criticism of those around them, which makes them aware they have lost credibility. In the Third Reich there was no such correctives, especially for those who belonged to the upper stratum. On the contrary, every self-deception was multiplied as in a hall of distorting mirrors, becoming a repeatedly confirmed picture of a fantastical dream world which no longer bore any relationship to the grim outside world. In those mirrors I could see nothing but my own face reproduced many times over. No external factors disturbed the uniformity of the hundreds of unchanging faces, all mine.
Page 312
You will please take note of this: The manner in which the various districts [Gaue] have hitherto obstructed the shutdown of consumer goods production can and will no longer be tolerated. Henceforth, if the districts do not respond to my requests within two weeks I shall myself order the shutdowns. And I can assure that I am prepared to apply the authority of the Reich government at any cost! I have spoken with Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler, and from now on I shall deal firmly with the districts that do not carry out these measures.
Page 339
So far as I recollect, this was the first time that the specter of “scorched earth” loomed before me. For Rohland went on to speak of the fear that a desperate top leadership might order wholesale destruction. Then and there, on that day, I felt something stirring within me that was quite apart from Hitler: a sense of responsibility toward the country and the people to save as much as possible of our industrial potential, so that the nation could survive the period after a lost war. But for the present it was still a vague and shadowy sense.
Page 342
When I analyzed the complex of motives which so surprisingly led me back to this intimate circle, I realized that the desire to retain the position of power I had achieved was unquestionably a major factor. Even though I was only shining in the reflected light of Hitler’s power – and I don’t think I ever deceived myself on that score – I still found it worth striving for. I wanted, as part of his following, to gather some of his popularity, his glory, his greatness, around myself. Up to 1942, I still felt that my vocation as an architected allowed me a measure of pride that was independent of Hitler. But since then I had been bribed and intoxicated by the desire to wield pure power, to assign people to this and that, to say the final word on important questions, to deal with expenditures in the billions. I thought I was prepared to resign, but I would have sorely missed the heady stimulus that comes wither leadership. The deep misgivings I had been having lately were, moreover, put to rout by the appeal from the industrialists, as well as by Hitler’s magnetic power, which he could still radiate with virtually undiminished force. To be sure, our relationship had developed a crack; my loyalty had become shaky, and I sensed that it would never again be what it had been. But for the resent I was back in Hitler’s circle – and content.
Page 375
I realize that the sight of suffering people influenced only my emotions, but not my conduct. On the plane of feelings only sentimentality emerged; in the realm of decisions, on the other hand, I continued to be ruled by the principles of utility. In the nuremberg Trial the indictment against me was based on the use of prisoners in the armaments factories.
…
For in either case I was moving within the system. What disturbs me more is that I failed to read the physiognomy of the regime mirrored in the faces of those prisoners – the regime whose existence I was so obsessively trying to prolong during those weeks and months. I did not see any moral ground outside the system where I should have taken my stand. And sometimes I ask myself who this young man really was, this young man who has now become so alien to me, who walked through the workshops of the Linz steelworks or descended into the caverns of the Central Works twenty-five years ago.
Page 375/376
This time, sitting in the green leather easy chair in my office, he seemed confused and spoke falteringly, with man breaks. He advised me never to accept an invitation to inspect a concentration campe in Upper Silesia. Never, under any circumstances. He had seen something there which he was not permitted to describe and moreover could not describe.
I did not query him, I did not query Himmler, I did not query Hitler, I did not speak with personal friends. I did not investigate – for I did not want to know what was happening there. Hanke must have been speaking of Auschwitz. During those few seconds, while Hanke was warning me, the whole responsibility had become a reality again. Those seconds were uppermost in my mind when I stated to the international court at the Nuremberg Trial that as an important member of the leadership of the Reich, I had to share the total responsibility for all that had happened. For from that moment on, I was inescapably contaminated morally; from fear of discovering something which might have made me turn from my course, I had closed my eyes. This deliberate blindness outweighs whatever good I may have done or tried to do in the last period of the war. Those activities shrink to nothing in the face of it. Because I failed at that time, I still feel, to this day, responsible for Auschwitz in a wholly personal sense.
Page 411
During the closing months of the war a growing band of desperate people began pinning their hopes on the astrological sheets. Since these were dependent on the Propaganda Ministry, for a variety of reasons they were, as I learned from Fritzsche at Nuremberg, used as a tool for influencing public opinion. Fake horoscopes spoke of valleys of darkness which had to be passed through, foretold imminent surprises, intimated happy outcomes. Only in the astrological sheets did the regime still have a future.
Page 440
I was relieved when I at last sat at the wheel of my car in the fresh night air, Hitler’s chauffeur at my side and Lieutenant Colonel von Poser, my liaison officer to the General Staff, on the rear seat. Kemptka had agreed that we would take turns driving. By this time it was about half past one in the morning, and speed was of the essence if we were to cover the three hundred odd miles of autobahn to the headquarters of the Command in Chief, West, near Nauheim, before daybreak – for then the enemy hedgehopping fighters appeared. We had the radio tuned to the broadcaster for the night fighters and kept the grid map on our knees: “Night fighters in grid Number – … Sever Mosquitoes in grid – … Night fighters in grid …” This way we knew exactly where the enemy was. If a formation were approaching us, we would switch to our parking lights and feel our way slowly along the edge of the road. As soon as our square on the grid map was free of the enemy, we switched to high beam and fog lights, turned on the big jacklight, and with our supercharger howling, roared down the autobahn. By morning we were still on the road, but low-lying clouds had brought air activity to a standstill. At headquarters, I first of all lay down for a few hours sleep.
Page 489
Two weeks later, staggered by the revelations of the crimes in the concentration camps, I wrote to the chairman of the ministerial cabinet, Schwerin-Krosigk: “The previous leadership of the German nation bears a collective guilt for the fate that now hangs over the German people. Each member of that leadership must personally assume his responsibility in such a way that the guilt which might otherwise descend upon the German people is expiated. ”
With that, there began a segment of my life which has not ended to this day.
Page 500
… General Anderson paid me the most curious and flattering compliment of my career: “Had I known what this man was achieving, I would have sent out the entire American Eighth Air Force merely to put him underground.” That air force had at its disposal more than two thousand heavy daylight bombers. It was luck General Anderson found out too late.
…
Early in the morning two days later my adjutant came rushing into my bedroom. The British had surrounded Glucksburg. A sergeant entered my room and announced that I was prisoner. He unbuckled his belt with its pistol, laid it casually on my table, and left the room to give me an opportunity to pack my things.
…
Page 520/521
Hitler’s dictatorship was the first dictatorship of an industrial state in this age of modern technology, a dictatorship which employed to perfection the instruments of technology to dominate its own people … By means of such instruments of technology as the radio and public-address systems, eighty million persons could be made subject to the will of one individual. Telephone, teletype, and radio made it possible to transmit the commands of the highest levels directly to the lowest organs where because of their high authority they were executed uncritically. Thus many offices and squads received their evil commands in this direct manner. The instruments of technology made it possible to maintain a close watch over all citizens and to keep criminal operations shrouded in a high degree of secrecy. To the outsider this state apparatus may look like the seemingly wild tangle of cables in a telephone exchange; but like such an exchange it could be directed by a single will. Dictatorships of the past needed assistants of high quality in the lower ranks of the leadership also – men who could think and act independently. The authoritarian system in the age of technology can do without such men. The means of communication alone enable it to mechanize the work of the lower leadership. Thus the type of uncritical receiver of orders is created.
Page 523
Today, a quater of a century after these events, it is not only specific faults that burden my conscience, great as these may have been. My moral failure is not a matter of this item and that; it resides in my active association with the whole course of events. I had participated in a war which, as we of the intimate circle should never have doubted, was aimed at world dominion. What is more, by my abilities and my energies I had prolonged that war by many months. I had assented to having the globe of the world crown that domed hall which was to be the symbol of new Berlin. Nor was it only symbolically that Hitler dreamed of possessing the globe. It was part of his dream to subjugate the other nations. France, I had heard him say many times, was to be reduced to the status of a small nation. Belgium, Holland, even Burgundy, wer to be incorporated into his Reich. The national life of the Poles and the Soviet Russians was to be extinguished; they were to be made into helot peoples. Nor, for one who wanted to listen, had Hitler ever concealed his intention to exterminated the Jewish people. In his speech of January 30, 1939, he openly stated as much. Although I never actually agreed with Hitler on these questions, I had nevertheless designed the buildings and produced the weapons which served his ends.
Page 524
“The catastrophe of this war,” I wrote in my cell in 1947, “has proved the sensitivity of the system of modern civilization evolved in the course of centuries. Now we know that we do not live in an earthquake-proof structure. The build-up of negative impulses, each reinforcing the other, can inexorably shake to pieces the complicated apparatus of the modern world. There is no halting this process by will alone. The danger is that the automatism of progress will depersonalize man further and withdraw more and moe of his self-responsibility.”
Dazzled by the possibilities of technology, I devoted crucial years of my life to serving it. But in the end my feelings about it are highly skeptical.
This is a quick post that details how to use Google Earth to create a KML file that can then be used by Eclipse with the Android Emulator (ADK).
<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:gx="http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2" xmlns:kml="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
and it needs to be changed to: http://earth.google.com/kml/2.x
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.x"
So in August 2009 a bunch of us went to Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada. This video was put together by Nick Rainville of Car Bio Fame.
It was pretty awesome. I’m the slowpoke going up the mountain — it kicked my ass. Overall the trip was great, but due to ferries and time constraints the road trip portion of the trip was a little stressful, also there were car difficulties.
For more videos, there’s rainville’s vlog: http://carbio.org/ftblvlog
I wanted to easily export the contents of Flex’s datagrid and advanced datagrid. The two formats I selected are Comma Separated Values (CSV) and Tab Delimited. I found a partial answer here, but it lacked an executable and had a few small errors. For copy and pasting to work correctly with Excel the tab delimited format must be used.
Here is my implementation, as you can see it is based on the source above — but I’ve included an example and the code is ready to use.
Demo:
The demo is also available as a separate page located here: Export DataGrid To Clipboard (CSV & Tab Delimited)
Source:
The source code is available (MIT License), by right clicking on the application and selecting view source. It can also be directly downloaded from: DataGridToCSV Source Code
package { import flash.system.System; import mx.collections.ArrayCollection; import mx.collections.ICollectionView; import mx.collections.IViewCursor; import mx.controls.AdvancedDataGrid; import mx.controls.DataGrid; //based on http://coockbooks.adobe.com/post_Copying_a_datagrid_data_to_the_clipboard_for_Excel-9883.html public class DataGridUtil { protected static var tabDelimiter:String = "\t"; protected static var commaDelimiter:String = ","; protected static var newLine:String = "\n"; public static function exportDGToClipboard (grid:DataGrid, csv:Boolean = true, onlySelected:Boolean = true):void { System.setClipboard(exportDGToCSV (grid, csv, onlySelected)); } public static function exportADGToClipboard (grid:AdvancedDataGrid, csv:Boolean = true, onlySelected:Boolean = true):void { System.setClipboard(exportADGToCSV (grid, csv, onlySelected)); } public static function exportDGToCSV (grid:DataGrid, csv:Boolean = true, onlySelected:Boolean = true):String { return exportGridToCSV (grid, csv, onlySelected); } public static function exportADGToCSV (grid:AdvancedDataGrid, csv:Boolean = true, onlySelected:Boolean = true):String { return exportGridToCSV (grid, csv, onlySelected); } protected static function exportGridToCSV (grid:Object, csv:Boolean, onlySelected:Boolean):String { var dataSource:ICollectionView = (onlySelected ? new ArrayCollection (grid.selectedItems) : grid.dataProvider) as ICollectionView; var headers:String = ""; var delimiter:String = "" if (csv) delimiter = commaDelimiter; else delimiter = tabDelimiter; //build header for each (var hcol:Object in grid.columns)//coltypes differe between DG & ADG { if (headers.length > 0)//avoid firstcolumn having extra delimeter headers += delimiter; headers += hcol.headerText; } headers += newLine; //populate data var cursor:IViewCursor = dataSource.createCursor(); var data:String = ""; var item:Object; var itemData:String; do { item = cursor.current; itemData = ""; for each (var col:Object in grid.columns) { if (itemData.length > 0) //avoid firstcolumn having extra delimeter itemData += delimiter; itemData += col.itemToLabel(item); } data += itemData +newLine; }while (cursor.moveNext()) return headers + data; } } }
Example using the code on both the datagrid and advanced datagrid:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" backgroundGradientAlphas="[1.0, 1.0]" backgroundGradientColors="[#7B7373, #342D2D]" viewSourceURL="srcview/index.html"> <mx:Script> <![CDATA[ import DataGridUtil; ]]> </mx:Script> <mx:Canvas width="700" height="470" horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0"> <mx:DataGrid id="datagrid" y="83" height="289" left="10" width="330" allowMultipleSelection="true"> <mx:dataProvider> <mx:Object game="Bioshock" rating="10" /> <mx:Object game="Fallout 1" rating="9" /> <mx:Object game="Fallout 2" rating="10" /> <mx:Object game="Fallout 3" rating="9" /> <mx:Object game="Plants vs. Zombies" rating="7" /> <mx:Object game="Tropico" rating="7" /> <mx:Object game="Team Fortress 2" rating="9" /> <mx:Object game="Arcanum" rating="10" /> <mx:Object game="Myst 4" rating="5" /> </mx:dataProvider> <mx:columns> <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Game" dataField="game"/> <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Rating" dataField="rating"/> </mx:columns> </mx:DataGrid> <mx:AdvancedDataGrid y="83" id="advancedDataGrid" designViewDataType="flat" width="330" height="289" right="10" allowMultipleSelection="true"> <mx:dataProvider> <mx:Object name="Danny" state="MA" city="Cambridge" /> <mx:Object name="Andrew" state="MA" city="Boston" /> <mx:Object name="Steven" state="NY" city="Buffalo" /> </mx:dataProvider> <mx:columns> <mx:AdvancedDataGridColumn headerText="Name" dataField="name"/> <mx:AdvancedDataGridColumn headerText="State" dataField="state"/> <mx:AdvancedDataGridColumn headerText="City" dataField="city"/> </mx:columns> </mx:AdvancedDataGrid> <mx:Button x="10" y="380" label="Copy DataGrid To Clipboard (CSV)" click="DataGridUtil.exportDGToClipboard(datagrid, true, dgSelected.selected)"/> <mx:Button x="10" y="410" label="Copy DataGrid To Clipboard (TAB)" click="DataGridUtil.exportDGToClipboard(datagrid, false, dgSelected.selected)"/> <mx:Button x="360" y="380" label="Copy Advanced DataGrid To Clipboard (CSV)" click="DataGridUtil.exportADGToClipboard(advancedDataGrid, true, adgSelected.selected)"/> <mx:Button x="360" y="410" label="Copy Advanced DataGrid To Clipboard (TAB)" click="DataGridUtil.exportADGToClipboard(advancedDataGrid, false, adgSelected.selected)"/> <mx:Label x="10" y="10" text="Export Data Grid To Clipboard" color="#EFEFEF" fontWeight="bold" fontSize="28"/> <mx:Label x="10" y="43" text="CSV & Tab Delimited" fontSize="20" fontWeight="bold" color="#EFEFEF"/> <mx:HRule y="73" left="10" right="10"/> <mx:CheckBox id="dgSelected" x="10" y="438" label="Only Selected" color="#EFEFEF"/> <mx:CheckBox id="adgSelected" x="360" y="440" label="Only Selected" color="#EFEFEF"/> <mx:Label x="636" y="411" text="(Excel)" color="#D5E0D6" fontWeight="bold" fontSize="12"/> <mx:Label x="234" y="410" text="(Excel)" color="#D5E0D6" fontWeight="bold" fontSize="12"/> </mx:Canvas> </mx:Application>
On Friday (Nov. 19, 2009) Schuyler Towne of NDE Magazine & Open Locksport was interviewed for a short piece on NPR: Picking Locks For Sport, Not Sabotage, and it even feature a guest appearance by my brother Andrew Gagne.
Overall, I thought it was a good piece, my only issue is with the negative/opposition view expressed by Jim Pasco; it seems extremely misguided. The metaphor he makes comparing lockpicking to “let’s pretend we robbed a bank, or something of that nature” makes little sense. Perhaps if he compared locksport to paintball or a firing range it would be more comprehensible, but it would unfortunately undermine his point as those are not controversial activities.
The best comment on the site, unfortunately hasn’t been replied to as it a grave concern of mine:
Have you found pipe smoking to help, distract from, or have no effect on your lock picking? Do you think there is a place for pipe smoking in the so-called “locksport”? – DM
The piece was also slightly recut and broadcast during Here and Now, under the title: The Sport of Picking Locks.