All the music I’ve burned, catalogued, organized, and rated to date is on the iPod. I’m listening to a song thru the headphones on my Powerbook with the iPod plugged in—I feel like this thing is finally working the way I had imagined. Now to build some powerful playlists and finish the last few ratings…
Speaking of music, here’s an absolutely brilliant use of Flash for a music website: John Coltrane. Good work, guys.
One Down. In other news, I’ve got my Mom’s X-mas gift here; I think she’s going to be thrilled with this. (Hi, Mom!) Now to get Renie done and finish up Jen’s presents. Thankfully, Dad was the easiest one this year- thanks to Renie’s idea. And a great idea it is. (Hi, Dad!) Usually, buying something for my Dad is next to impossible, as is my Mom—my Dad is a lot like me in that his hobbies are very specific and only he really knows exactly what he wants, which makes any surprise difficult. Mom has just about everything, so buying for her is usually impossible as well. This year Renie presents the biggest challenge, which is a real shocker.
Two Down… Well, they convicted this guy a few weeks ago, and they got this guy last night; let’s hope they get this kid too. It’s about time the criminal justice system started working in high-profile cases. Janklow should have admitted he was wrong, stepped down, and taken responsibility for his actions. Nice to see that a U.S. Congressman tried to weasel out of a manslaughter conviction by claiming he was diabetic. Good riddance.
forget I died, remember I lived, 10/30
Roxio, the helpful people who make terrible CD-authoring software for the PC, have a mandatory registration for anybody wanting to update their stuff. I entered “joe@blow.com” in the email field and “joeblow” as a login, and of course, somebody already registered that name. So i put in “joeblow@zero.com” and “joebloeschmo”, and both of them were taken as well. Finally I just made up a random number and got through. How annoying for the DBA to chug through that mountain of worthless data for the five or six good addresses…
The HDR problem may be solved…. Stay tuned.
For Your Voting Enjoyment. Try this site on for size: Select Smart Presidential Candidate Selector. Your mileage may vary, and I don’t know how accurate the results are. Apparently I’m voting for Dennis Kucinich, D. OH.
This evening I decided to get in the Scout and see if she’d crank over just for the hell of it. With the first turn of the key, she gave me a few low cranks and then got slower. Initially, I thought the problem had to do with the dreaded “Gold Box” syndrome (a feature of later IH gas engines, involving an electronic ignition module and frustration) where the starter didn’t get any juice, period. Now I think my accidental draining of the battery back on Friday night put the final nail in its coffin, and it’s been undercharged since then, contributing to my starting problems. I’m going to see if I can pick up a new battery tomorrow and make her happy again.
My buddy Matt in San Francisco sent me an email this morning with a link attached:
Isn’t it amazing that I actually can be a part of this craziness!
I asked him to vote for Gary Coleman.
Tomorrow our friend Nate goes in tho the shop for a suspension job; he has about thirty blowed-up discs and vertebrae, and they have to put him up on the lift and sort the mess out. Good luck, and get well soon, amigo.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
new I think it may be time for some of our elected legislators to roll up their sleeves and get some of the kinks of the intellectual property and copyright laws sorted out before our economy goes down the toilet.
The new Jane’s Addiction album is a mixed bag. There are some songs that really rock, and there are some that merely move. I don’t know what exactly I was hoping for, considering the fact that the band was so strung out recording Ritual they don’t remember it, but this album is pretty good. I suppose it will be one of those albums I have to listen to a few times to get into (see: Songs for the Deaf, Turn On The Bright Lights, Vespertine) but overall it’s not too bad.
Slashdot had an entry on the art of Machinima, where you take the in-game engine of your favorite first-person shooter and “film” a script or some other story. Apparently there’s now a contest for the best of this year’s clips; that link took me to the Red vs. Blue site, where a couple of guys have taken the familiar Capture the Flag scenario and asked the question: If the bots in the game were real people, what would they talk about? This is a distinctly Kevin Smith/Quentin Tarantino approach to the subject, and howlingly funny for anybody who’s been in the military, played a lot of FPS style games, or just likes offbeat game humor. Worth a look, guys.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any funnier. The Scout’s ignition module burned out at work today, so the juice won’t get from the battery to the starter motor. It doesn’t click, grind, or catch. Not a thing. I caught a ride with Nate into town to pick up Jen (remember, the Scout is the one running vehicle we have) and then to Jen’s house to where the Tortoise is parked. We say good-bye to Nate (he doesn’t need to get involved in this insanity, and it would be our luck for his car to break down too) and hop in the Tortoise to try to make it down to the mechanic’s. About a quarter of the way there, she gives up the ghost—there’s a hole in the return line from the radiator about the size of a dime that I didn’t see when I looked over the engine. We get a tow from a nice young guy and drop it off with my mechanic, who so far has saved us roughly $500 by proving that the Saturn’s alternator wasn’t dead, just the battery. So that car isn’t heading back to the dealership anytime soon.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
- No, assholes, games do not sell movies. Your last movie sucked. People don’t want to get burned twice, especially when you charge $9 a ticket for this crap. Make a better movie, and people will come.
- OSX seems to be slowing down every three or four days as I put it to sleep and wake it up each day. Photoshop lags, Eudora takes up cycles to think, and all the apps seem sleepy. Anybody else noticed a problem with X and PowerBooks?
- Buymusic is doomed to fail if their music service is anything like their customer service. Oh, and all those songs might not be legally available anyway.
- Come on, people, vote this guy out of office. What is it going to take (or what are we going to have to lose?)
</grump mode off.>
Hmm. I’m working on modifying a script to automatically update my local log file to my webserver, so I don’t have to manually copy and paste the file each time I update it. There are a few things I’d like to change (this script was initially written as a directory backup too, not a single-file updater) but I need to have more knowledge of AppleScript to do it. I wish the Finder was script-recordable like iTunes or other OSX applications. Oh, and Apple: three of your scripts for iTunes crash the application.
Saturday marked the third birthday of this log, from its humble beginnings as a text-based, manually updated .HTML file to, well, a text-based, manually updated .HTML file. A lot has happened since then—I fell in love, got laid off, found a job, and met lots of new people. It’s been an interesting experiment, and I’ve had a lot of fun. Stick around and we’ll find out what happens this year.
Interesting. I read in an article on Salon this afternoon that out of the 535 elected representatives in Congress, there’s only one who has a son or daughter fighting in this war. There’s something wrong there.
All this crap about “freedom fries” and banning French wine is pretty stupid, and that’s just a basic fact. But this story has me really annoyed at the current political grandstanding by Congress and other legislators who should have a clue. Digging up war graves to make a point does nothing but diminish the sacrifice these brave men made. Bringing them home to spite a country who, for right or for wrong, is speaking their mind, is assinine and short-sighted. These men were sent to liberate a country under the rule of a dictator. They were buried on its soil to commemorate their loss and pay tribute to their heroism. They should not be disinterred to make a political point.
Report. I went to Best Buy and laid hands on the Nikon 5000 and Canon G3, and the results are mixed. Here’s a basic rundown of the featuresets and the pros & cons:
| Feature | Nikon Coolpix 5000 | Canon G3 |
|---|---|---|
| Megapixel | 5 MP | 4 MP |
| Interface | serviceable | better |
| macro | 2-20 CM | 5-50 CM |
| Lens/Zoom | 3x Optical, 4x Digital | 4X Optical, 3.6 Digital |
| RAW Support? | No | Yes |
| Custom shoot modes? | 3 – thru Menu | 2 – on Dial |
| Movies | 60 seconds Quicktime | 3-minute 320×240, audio |
| ISO Settings | 100-800 | 50-400 |
| Price | $800 | $600 |
I loved the feel of the Nikon, and compared to the 4500, its menu operation was much more intuitive. The controls were easily found, the layout felt good, and is a solid camera. The Canon is much easier to figure out from an interface and layout standpoint (I went back to the 4500 to play with it this morning, thinking it was just my ineptitude, but damn, that thing is hard to figure out without the manual) but it feels less solid—more like a plastic toy. The Nikon had more of a standard SLR feel to it. I know that feel is not as important as the feature set, but for me it goes a long way.
Even so, for the things I’m going to be doing with it, I think the Canon is the way to go. The fact that it can write RAW files, the simplicity of the interface, and the layout of the camera are all strong bullet points in its favor, vs. the feel, picture size, and macro abilities of the Nikon. Plus, it’s several hundred dollars less than the Nikon.
peter's inn, 3.8
We had a good weekend. Freelance work is out the door, we did some volunteer work for the AIGA, and bought some nice clothes for Jen. And ate lots of sushi. She also takes over the digital camera this week in hopes that it will spark a little creative energy. I have to dig out the cables and manual for her tomorrow morning.
You may need to register to read this (it’s free) but I think it’s right on the mark. I still remain unconvinced that war is the only option, and frankly, I’m embarrassed by our current foreign policy.
Also, seen downtown, Saturday morning: a plane towing a sign that read: THOU SHALT NOT KILL. —GOD
Keep your fingers crossed for Jen; she has a piece selected as a finalist for the Baltimore Addys this year. She’s listed as designer, copywriter and illustrator, and the piece is a contender. I just hope that this year is not a repeat of last year. One of the things that annoys me though is that there’s no site I can find with a listing of any of the finalists, an event schedule, or even an invite online. Nice going, guys.
There’s a nice Scout on the Binder Bulletin Classifieds in DC going for $5,000 right now.
I’m working on the interface for a game project right now. The game is still very much in the planning/designing stages, and we’re trying to plot out the paths for the users from insertion of the CD to the click of the “quit” button. It’s challenging to be back in a high-level planning role, and help make decisions about how the game will work and feel, instead of dressing up a three-year-old flawed bitmap interface. I can’t wait to get into the building and testing of this thing.
Welcome to the Machine. When did this country become a fascist state? When did free speech become anti-American? Why is it wrong to speak your mind? What’s wrong with this country?
I hope some of those dudes at the ACLU rise up righteously and sue the crap out of that mall.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Pitchfork gave a less-than-stellar review to The 100th Window, the new release from Massive Attack. I’m still going to buy it, but that’s a real bummer. I hope it’s better than they say.
I read an article in the New Yorker about the American intelligence community last night, and the writer brought up an interesting phenomena in examining the different events leading up to the present day: “…both intelligence analysts and policymakers assumed that the Indians would not test their nuclear weapons because Americans would not, in similar circumstances, test nuclear weapons. In the world of intelligence, this is known as mirror-imaging: the projection of American values and behavior onto America’s enemies and rivals.” One wonders how much of this behavior influences current US foreign policy, and how many missteps have been made because of it.
On a much brighter, funnier note, this is the best commercial I have seen in the last year. I want to vote Terry for President. Thank Jen for this link—she needed it after the day she’s having. “You need a cover on your TPS report, Richard!“