wednesday night / a site for sore eyes
choose one:
a few recent posts;
links to embarassing things;
rss was for robots.
January 4, 2007
don't even start it up
GET /linux/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.novell.com
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: http://www.novell.com/linux/unixtolinux
GET /linux/unixtolinux HTTP/1.1
Host: www.novell.com
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
<body onload="self.location.replace('/linux/');">
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;url=/linux/">
<script [...]></script>
<noscript>[...]</noscript>
alternate titles included: dusting off the cobwebs, and my personal
favourite: your infinite loop of refreshes and redirects is ready.
(http://www.novell.com/linux/
is the default home page for firefox on SLED 10)
* * *
January 8, 2007
cambridge joe
it started off innocently enough. another angry tirade on badtransit from some enraged
commuter, probably confused because they tried to use their receipt
as a ticket again.
but this post was different... it had a familiar voice, and was
atypically well-reasoned. must not be a commuter rail or bus rider!
i scanned to the end to see where the author was from to find,
unsurprisingly, another blame charlie firster from the left
bank.
it was fuzzy at first, but the pieces of the puzzle began to fit
together quickly. only having $20s, girlfriend, and joe had just
paid for his entire lunch using $1 coins. then there was the
trademark use of such racially charged phrases as
"squawbuck", but the clincher was his claiming to have
lived here for seven years.
for
shame!
also i wish i had the eloquence to come up with the phrase "I
don't recall the Rive Gauche being the site for hulking chemical
plants" but alas that would require knowing what the rive
gauche was. or is?
man it would have been even more embarassing if i had left it in as
rive cauche.
* * *
January 9, 2007
almost
so, yeah! stevenote fever is sweeping INTERNET.
traditionally, i've had a sweet tooth for many things apple, and
networked/media things silver and/or shiny in general. for example,
last year i ordered a macbook pro (and tivo 3) the instant i could.
hmm but this year... this year i guess i only have next year's
macworld to look forward to.
the (`)tv (as my friends are typing it) is kinda ho-hum. we knew it
was coming, it doesn't do anything a mac mini plugged in to your tv
can't really do, and it doesn't even do tivo. if i could actually
rip all my dvds with iTunes and use it, that would be something.
we'll see what 2008 brings.
now the iPhone is something that should be tailor made for me! i
mean honestly. an ipod and phone that fit into one pocket? with a
phone ui actually designed by apple? even now i find myself getting
excited about the idea, and yet...
the first problem is that it seems a little big. i mean, this isn't
2001 anymore! the most awesome thing about the first iPod was that
i could carry all of my music with me everywhere. but then i
accidentally tasted the sweet nectar of the mini, and have not been
able to look back. i don't even carry around my signature sony
headphones anymore, now that i live this ultra-portable life! you
see, i can't have the weight of the iPod keeping me down as i race
to catch a D-line train in the morning. and oh, the unsightly
bulges...
but i guess steve probably drives around or sits on airplanes a lot,
and the size is probably acceptable to him. and i suppose are
people who carry around not only a standard iPod, but a blackbear-y
as well. i guess they'll be ok with using one of those beasts, but
i want one nano-sized device to carry around with me (i still
don't care about video on the iPod).
but the real killer tile of the iPhone is... the interface?
shocking, but turns out to be true.
the first problem with the touch interface is that it doesn't give
you physical feedback. this is the same problem that the dock
connector iPod had. namely, it's difficult to tell if you
clicked on a button or not. it just feels awkward. there's a
reason why people enjoy
clicky keyboards, or the weight of fine piano keys.
my receiver remote suffers a similar, but slightly different, problem. without
physical buttons, it's difficult to navigate the ui while looking at
something else, such as your television. this remote is less
cluttered, like the iPhone's interface, but that doesn't make it
more usable. in fact, the newer revision
of this remote has more physical buttons, exactly to correct for
this problem.
in comparision, the all-wonderful tivo remote
is totally usable while concentrating on your tv. the buttons come
in many different shapes (and colors!), and there are a few
different "zones" that you'll use depending on what you're
doing: flipping through tivo menus, actions used while actually
watching recorded shows, and a number pad. and the buttons feel
good both to the touch and the push. it's a great device!
(actually, i think we liked sony's tivo remote even a little better.
go figure.)
the current iPods are great at this, too! i do a lot of volume and
track skipping while my iPod is in my pocket, out of sight. i would
be disappointed to have to give up that functionality, as simple as
it might sound.
with all these considerations, i shudder to imagine writing text
messages or emails on this device.
that leaves web access as its only possible savior, to which i will
simply scoff, "the screen's too small."
so yeah, i'll be waiting for the second gen, or maybe an iPhone
nano.
* * *
January 9, 2006
it was bound to happen
despite being unable to convince any of my buckeye-crazy friends to
come out, i went to see emily
at the paradise last night. i really regretted not going down to
new york to see her last summer, and was relieved when i read she
was going on tour again.
the show had a pretty weird vibe, but was excellent. my only
complaint would have been that it was an hour or two too
short... emily said "that's it" as she played the last
notes of the last song. after playing the whole album, they didn't
really have anything left for an encore. oh well, i hope she comes
back soon.
on the way out, there were a few people hovering around the merch
table, but nobody was really buying anything, so i picked up her
album on vinyl. i just felt like... it would be a really beautiful
album to listen to on a turntable. if only i had one.
i thought about stopping by tweeter after work, but instead decided
to give harvard square's audio
lab a shot instead.
it was like walking right into high fidelity.
there was some guy from belgium who had been in the store maybe 15
years earlier, and was in town again so decided to stop by. we
talked about the iPhone a little, in fact.
and i could not tell if another guy in there worked there, or was
just a regular customer. i imagine that i could go back every day
this week and he'd be there.
after some brief conversation, i ended up taking home a pro-ject
debut III. i liked the minimalist design, and i figure it was
best to get out of there before he got the $4400 models back in
stock.
also, how could i resist? it's silver.
after a brief taxi ride home (the box was a little bulky for early
evening T travel), i arrived back in brookline anxious to play my
new records.
the guy at the store noted that it required a little assembly, so i
carefully took out the parts and opened up the instruction book. it
begins:
Dear music lover,
it started dawning on me that this was indeed a special device.
i struggled with terms like azimut and anti-skating while trying to
assemble this device. the instructions almost seemed
backwards... they tell you about switching between 33 and 45 after
you already put the, umm, platter? on the... hub. you see, there's
no lever, or button, you have to remove the platter and switch up
the belt. that would have been handy to know, when i put the belt
on in the first place! oh well.
and i still have no idea what the little weight hanging off the
string by the wire next to the arm is, but it seems like such a
beautiful and elegant solution to whatever it does. this whole
thing has reminded of emotional
design... the admiration of its design makes its use more
enjoyable. for example, the power switch is difficult to find at
first; it's actually underneat on the left. but it leaves the base
clean with elegant beauty, so in the long run the 45 seconds it took
to find it aren't so bad after all. i guess.
their
faq is awesome:
Historically, Pro-Ject and other high-end record players have
concentrated on sound quality at the expense of comfort features
found on consumer class products.
...
On the other hand, a record player is not a product which will
play "straight out of the box". By carefully reading the
instructions for use and by following an equally careful
step-by-step assembly you will quickly learn about the product and
how it works. Our entry-level Debut models are as close to
"plug-and-play" as a record-player can get.
so plug-and-play that it only took me an hour of setting up before i
could play anything... oops, playing at 45 rpm, flip the thing,
change the belt, there we go. sounds ok, i guess. what's up with
that popping and snapping? and this getting up every five minutes to
flip records over is starting to get a little old.
but it's clear, from all these details, and the exquisite packaging
that emily's and thom's records have, that these are truly labors of
love? anyway they are fun. i'm going to stop by audiolab tomorrow
and tell the guy how much fun it was setting it up, and thanking him
for recommending it.
oh and emily's show tomorrow is going to be broadcast on INTERNET by
the
npr tomorrow, so you should check it out! hopefully they will
have more bandwith than tsn
broadband.
* * *
January 13, 2007
cookbook reviews volume one!
at some point in the last year or so i ended up with a copy of the
bittman. it has remained on my shelf, sandwiched between
unopened copies of the verilog hardware description language
and the picture of dorian gray.
until tonight!
i've been wanting some pancakes lately and figured tomorrow would be
a good day to give them a try. since i'm not making them today,
this is merely part one of this review.
fortunately, it does contain recipes for pancakes (i was unsure if
it would). however, it contains multiple pancake recipes,
each deficient in some matter. what if i want basic, light,
and fluffy sourdough pancakes? the uncompromising pancake
enthusiast is left completely on his own.
the second problem is that the times are orders of magnitude too
conservative. for example, the basic pancakes suggest 20 minutes.
that's barely enough time to get to whole foods to get eggs and
milk, let alone the second trip needed to get baking powder instead
of baking soda.
then, if i want to upgrade to the "light and fluffy"
version, i'm going to need at least 20 minutes to just get to bed
bath & beyond for a whisk. so far, we're looking at around 90
minutes, and then i have to wait for the butter to get warm. who
needs this?!
however, bittman's saving grace can be found in the section titled
"eight other ideas for pancakes." nestled between two
citrus-crazed lunacies is the following gem:
5. Spoon the batter over pieces of cooked bacon.
tomorrow really will be the first day of the rest of my life.
* * *
January 17, 2007
why am i not in australia
* * *
January 22, 2007
i'm glad i don't work on calendar software anymore
one.
two.
* * *
January 29, 2007
an inauspicious start
i should have known something was up when i saw a blue line train
already in the station at scollay
under. even more worrying was that it didn't close its doors
and pull away before i could get on. apparently there were some
switching problems, so i left to find a taxi after waiting a couple
of minutes. fortunately it wasn't
closed. that would have been only too awesome.
the store didn't have any liberty-sized
toothpaste or solution containers, and since i was bringing my parka
(it's expected to get up to 6 in edmonton on saturday) on
board, i figured i'd just check my bag this time. most of it did
arrive in toronto, but part of the handle was gone. i went to
complain about it, and got some piece of paper, and headed to leave
the customs area.
unfortunately my customs form had a pink line on it? so i had to go
to immigration.
the not-too-unpleasant customs worker and i put our noses to our
collective grindstones, and pounded out a rough draft of my
biography. he was in for constant surprises. first, that i don't
have printed proof of my return next week (it is 2007, these things
are emailed. i did offer, if given access to a printer, to provide
documents which say anything he wanted. he frowned at me something
fierce). next, i don't have the address of my friend memorized,
even when i've never been to his new place. and was i sure i wasn't
here to do any work? sadly, the words to express how little i was
planning on working this week simply failed to come out of my agape
mouth.
i'm not too surprised, though. there aren't that many people that
fly to alberta in february to see some band (did i mention it will
get down to -10 saturday night?). maybe i should wear my jsb shirt
when i fly? and i guess it's a stretch for me to expect the customs
agent to be able to get his head around the fact that someone might
actually have friends. and maybe these friends just happen to live
in canada.
or maybe it was the fact that i haven't shaved in two weeks and my
passport expires in three months. and it happens to be almost
completely full with canadian customs stamps. also i probably
shouldn't have made those darcy tucker jokes.
oh, and did you know that pearson's terminal two is closing? what
they don't tell you when you book your flight is that all of the atm
and money changing services in terminal 2 are already closed. and
taxis no longer wait to pick people up. i had to take the shuttle
over to terminal 1 for that.
at least the law of averages says the rest of my trip should be
pretty smooth, right? i mean, it could have been worse. i think
the 6:30 am flight still hadn't left before my 11:00 am.
also: !!!
* * *
January 30, 2007
my stupid trip continues
another harrowing taxi ride in
toronto! (i can't believe i never wrote about the story of the
OCD-taxi-driver-in-a-blizzard ride the the last time i flew in, but it happened)
apparently today's ordeal stemmed from parliament's new regulation
banning the sale or use of windshield wiper fluid by ontario taxis.
it was as if someone had put a half-dozen layers of 3M
"magic" tape over the windshield. i spent the whole ride
gripping the door handle as we swerved back and forth over 4 lanes
of highway so that the driver could see the road at an angle through
the side windows. i would have said something, but there were two
or three other taxis doing the same thing. when in rome...
so far things have gone smoothly, though. i would like to
congratulate canada on getting an airport terminal with working atm
machines! and i'm sitting at the gate, and not a single person has
checked any id of mine.
the weather isn't looking any better. now the high for thursday in
calgary is supposed to be -2F?
time to board.
* * *
January 30, 2007
hysterical and useless
well that was sort of exciting. about 40 minutes before we landed
they made that cliche announcement asking if there was a doctor on
the plane. it was a little humbling, thinking that the only thing i
could help with on a plane is if maybe the landing gear were stuck
because some pam module was seg faulting, or maybe if there was like
a bomb that could only be defused with simpsons trivia, or
something.
these are not vital skills, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the
word.
the calgary airport is notoriously difficult to exit. if you've
ever been, you're surely familiar with the thousands upon thousands
of glass-eyed seniors, in their red vests and white cowboy hats,
aimlessly wandering the corridors of the airport; they've probably
been trapped here for decades. some of them have even managed to
build small golf carts out of used honey roasted peanut wrappers and
discarded baggage claim tags.
* * *
January 31, 2007
the other picture is even blurrier
* * *
