I actually bought a new monitor. I've been using Amber's 17 inch for some time. It is a pretty good monitor, but not that much larger than the PowerBook in resolution and a refresh rate that was wearing on me. The Dell 2005FPW uses the same LCD as the Apple 20 inch but has VGA in addition to DVI, which means that I can use it with my old PowerBook. It also costs about half as much whenever it goes on sale, so I ordered one during the last sale.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
July 4th BBQ - Open Invitation
Everyone,
This is an open invitation to an all day July 4th BBQ (Monday) at our place. I'll be BBQ-ing, movies, scrabble, beer, soda, and come see the worlds most intricate inflatable infant pool. Things will prolly get 'started' mid-morning and continue for most of the day. During the hottest parts of the day, i'll be projecting movies onto a screen in the house (bring popcorn, and ice cream) and have board games available. If you are coming (or if you ARE NOT), please RSVP by commenting below so i can get a headcount. I don't want to cook too much.
Menu so far is fajitas, brisket, hot dogs, and chicken. One person is already bringing a potato salad (and her daughter).
And speaking of BBQ here is something i ran across - the original slacker of the San Marcos slacker incubator and his dry rub recipe. (i think this is him; someone please confirm.)
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
File Transfer During Halo
Todd, the reason why game-play on XBox Live was so crazy was that I had this zip file headed to Madeline. Since I tried to keep playing for a bit (restarting the XBox, etc.), I got sort of used to the whole world jumping around and now in real life I am prepared to be suddenly facing a wall even though a moment before I was hallucinating that I was walking down a hallway.
Trackball!
So I coughed up some bucks and purchased a Keningston Track Ball for use at work. Its going to take some getting used to. Also, now I want do find a nice OS X port of Centipede...Ikea Camping
I think that there is a genuine sub-culture of people who like to camp out to be the first or among the first in line somewhere. I participated in this once upon a time to get my little sister into a specific school. It is a good example of taking a logic to its obscene end. Something is not open/available yet but will soon right here. Someone decides to get there early in the morning. Someone else thinks "oh, I'll stay overnight." At what point to people start squatting in Ikea construction sites? I guess the construction company would have the police run them off. At what point did Ikea decide not to say "no trespassing?" It must be something of a good publicity stunt for them--the evening news loves to cover a good urban waiting-camp.
Flickr: Ikea Camping Pictures
Flickr: Ikea Camping Pictures
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Google Earth
We had Google Earth running on a Windows PC here at work this morning. Wow is it neat!!! To bad it does not work on OS X ....A Coffe-Bean Juicer
Taggart, have you seen this? Presso - A revolutionary way to make connoisseur coffee at home.
The iPod Chasers
It must be frustrating to try and make a formula that beats the iPod. In order to do it you have to manufacture slick hardware with exceptional quality control, design an interface that keeps the important things up front without a bunch of clutter, deploy multi-platform synchronization, organization, and encoding software (and through in an e-commerce application that works with mafia-style wholesalers), and cover the world in an iconic ad campaign. Fast Company's article "Apple in Their Eyes" gives a little peak into the minds of people who are trying to beat Apple at the iPod game. Each one covers a slightly different aspect of how Apple is winning for now.
Mambo, locally with Thanks to Paul
Last night, paul helped me develop the ability to work with a Mambo template locally. I was a little overwhelmed; the string of words 'starting a web server' is pretty much the beginning of confusion for me. While i can understand the words, deeper meaning is lost on me. Luckily, there are lots of utilities out there for someone like me. In this case MAMP did the trick (with major help from paul in setting it up.)
Now, i'll be able to spend my Mangum Manor hours fiddling with the css, php, and html docs to customize the template.
The abbreviation MAMP stands for: Macintosh, Apache, Mysql and PHP.
With just a few mouse-clicks, you can install Apache, PHP and MySQL for Mac OS X!
Now, i'll be able to spend my Mangum Manor hours fiddling with the css, php, and html docs to customize the template.
Monday, June 27, 2005
We should've stayed in the trees
This is an interesting sequence of words written by the Guns, Germs and Steel guy. We were discussing this very topic at lunch, and my thought was that although agricultural societies may actually cause more human misery than their hunter-gatherer counterparts, agricultural societies and their associated ills are a swell idea because the ultimate big Idea is to get the heck off this planet before a chunky ball of ice hits it, or the sun swallows it, or it gets flushed down some black hole- and agricultural societies with their ballooning populations and intense competition provide the best chance we have of developing the sweet hyperspacial propulsion system and the handy robotic terra-forming technology, and the comfy jumpsuits necessary for humankind to conquer the universe...Calculate Height and Width of an Object to a Target Area
One of my recent quest has been to find an efficient way to make two logos of different proportions occupy the same area. My most recent solution is a Javascript form:
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Fun With Names
This web site is fascinating even if you are not thinking about what to name your unborn child(ren). Found via this site. Adolph, you will probably really dig it, especially if you have listened to the last chapters of Freakonomics which deal with names.
Happy Birthday Lil' D!
)
You guessed it, Diana is one year older today! Being the bastion of responsibility that she is that will not stop her from working a shift in her dream job : Macaroni Grill Waitress!Man, i can't wait until August.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Justices, 5-4, Back Seizure of Property for Development
This is an astonishing decision to me. I think I need to read more about it.
Justices, 5-4, Back Seizure of Property for Development - New York Times
Justices, 5-4, Back Seizure of Property for Development - New York Times
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
A Great Speech!
Read this speech spoken by Senator Barak Obama to the graduates of Knox College in Galesburg Illonois...And then read this: The Unitarian Jihad!
People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution.
Nerd Vittles
Nerd Vittles HOW-TO Bonanza: 50 Great Summertime Projects for You & Your Mac mini (or any other Mac you own)
Monday, June 20, 2005
Kris, Sully and Hannah Gholson
The Chavez' travelled to Plano, TX this weekend to see the Gholsons, who were in town for another friend's wedding. In short, they are doing great. Kerri (not in this picture) is teaching Montessori and Kris is coding Java in Virginia (Richmond) now that he is retired from the Coast Guard.
It was like no time had passed at all, except of course when it came to sully. I was having full conversations with him. It was really a treat to see how he has grown up; and even better to get a preview of the kinds of things i will have to deal with in about a year when Adolfo reaches his age. Sully had a much better command of his emotions.
Leaving them was sad; I hope it won't be so long before i get to see them again.
It was like no time had passed at all, except of course when it came to sully. I was having full conversations with him. It was really a treat to see how he has grown up; and even better to get a preview of the kinds of things i will have to deal with in about a year when Adolfo reaches his age. Sully had a much better command of his emotions.
Leaving them was sad; I hope it won't be so long before i get to see them again.
Seattle
The first leg of my June Journey is almost over.
After going from Atlanta to Austin to LA to Seattle and back I am looking forward to spending some time with the Mrs. and maybe my new neighbors.
Cherries are in season here in Seattle and I am coming home with both Bing and Rainier.
So if anybody has any good recipes, please fill me in.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Irving Penn
Found out that while I am in New York next week the national gallery of art is going to have a Irving Penn exhibition.
I am sure that my room at the W will have room for a hanger outer or two.(Killy, Adolph)?
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/upcoming.shtm#penn
I am sure that my room at the W will have room for a hanger outer or two.(Killy, Adolph)?
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/upcoming.shtm#penn
Democracy For America
I don't know if any of y'all have had the pleasure of hearing David Van Os speak- but as evidenced by this foto, the guy gets white hot as he employs the sonic strategy of a thunderstorm to get the word out. He is running as a Democrat for Texas Attorney General and there is no question that he will be a "fighting lawyer and a fighting Attorney General".
I caught him and Gov. Dean and Jim Hightower out at Stubb's last night, as part of Democracy Fest. It was good a good pep rally...
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Echo Chamber
Just heard the NPR piece about the Canadian student who built a simple air-conditioner because it was hot (86 degrees or so!!!!) and anyhow I feel like I am in an echo chamber because I first read about this homebrew effort here and then here and then here....Thursday, June 16, 2005
Tunes
I been listening to Edan's latest hip-hoptacular Beauty and the Beat. As far as I can tell it bears no relation to the Go Gos album of the same name...What are y'all listening to ?
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Hodgie
Last night had dinner with Jason Hodge. It has been over three years since I last saw him and spent time. My last fleeting memories are of him writing "I am Liz's bitch" with a sharpie on my back the night before my wedding while in a drunken stupor. I saw him briefly showing up late to the wedding the next day.
I miss the Hodgie antics.
In appropriate manner I had to much to drink and talked till late, too late, in the night. I had to wake up at 4:30 for a sunrise shot, and while it was painfull, it made me smile.
Revolving Door?
The White House announced over the weekend that Philip Cooney, chief of staff of its Council on Environmental Quality, had resigned, calling it a long-planned departure. He had been head of the climate program at the American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for large oil companies.
The guy will take a job with Exxon Mobil Corp. in the fall.
Long-planned? No shit.
VNC and Tiger Fast User Switching
Hey Pablo, let's try this out this evening:
Command-Tab « Blog Archive » Tiger Fast User Switching:
Command-Tab « Blog Archive » Tiger Fast User Switching:
"%u201CIn Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4, fast user switching gets a related feature. When a user session is switched off-screen, if a screen watching program such as OSXvnc-server is running, the off-screen session will get a virtual framebuffer so that it can be remote-operated while another user session or a login window is on the hardware console.%u201D"
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Monday, June 13, 2005
Disposable camcorder
So I picked up one of these the other day and it seems pretty interesting. I got with the intention of figuring out an interface with my computer instead of returning it. I think one's of its most interesting features is its rugged shell. It resisted my attempts to take it apart with iPod take-apart tools and seems very drop-able. I think it will be ideal for duct-taping to a car bumper, attaching to a kite or doing any number of things you would not want to do with a traditional camcorder.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Saturday, June 11, 2005
One second at Cezannes
Carol and i had my mother come over to watch adolfo so we could spend an evening out with Sara and Annabel at Cezannes, a small piano bar above the Black Lab in Montrose.
Saxaphones are strange and complicated instruments. I thought to myself, "if there were two hundred saxaphones lined up along the horizon and i saw them out of the corner of my eye, i would say, 'hey! there's pasadena...'"
My mother wanted me to learn to play the saxaphone when i was growing up. i've always known my mother to love jazz, which isn't something taht i've thought about in a long time. i never wanted to play a woodwind, though. i always wanted to be a drummer, but we didn't have the money for it.
Saxaphones are strange and complicated instruments. I thought to myself, "if there were two hundred saxaphones lined up along the horizon and i saw them out of the corner of my eye, i would say, 'hey! there's pasadena...'"
My mother wanted me to learn to play the saxaphone when i was growing up. i've always known my mother to love jazz, which isn't something taht i've thought about in a long time. i never wanted to play a woodwind, though. i always wanted to be a drummer, but we didn't have the money for it.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Oh my goodness that is funny
YA'LL GOT TO CHECK OUT THESE PHOTO CONTESTS.
PEEING IN MY PANTS KIND STUFF.
http://pazeme.lv/hilarious/
http://pazeme.lv/hilarious2/
PEEING IN MY PANTS KIND STUFF.
http://pazeme.lv/hilarious/
http://pazeme.lv/hilarious2/
A Perspective from MacInTouch
"I think it is about time that someone points out that OS X has been around for 5 years and if you are still dependent on software that hasn't been updated in 5 years you have bigger issues than running that software on the newest computers 2 years from now."So the counter-person at the coffee-place I am at this morning asks me if I like my new laptop. She specifically says new and I reply that it works well but is a couple of years old, I look down at my t-shirt (wearing it again--I swear I wear other t-shirts more often) and add that I got it in 2003. Two years may be thought of as a long time in computer years, but in real-time quite a lot can happen. It will be interesting to see what will happen over the next two.
Photography and Security
Reading this: Boing Boing: Photographer grills security guard about dumb policy
Thinking this: Killy and I once got called out by a security guard when we were taking pictures of a downtown building. So instead of taking pictures of the building, we took pictures of the reflection of the building in the paint of my car. It took place in post-9/11 Houston, where people were terrified that the terrorists would strike an out-of-the-way who'd-a-thunk kind of place next. It sucked--we weren't interested in making a scene but in retrospect you have to protect your right to do stuff or you will certainly lose it. Worse still, it isn't as if taking a picture or not taking a picture will change the (in)security of a large building, dam, water-works, refinery, etc. Security from obscurity has been shown time and time again to not work. If we were interested in "scoping out" the building for some nefarious deed, then the rent-a-cop wouldn't know it. The security person's orders come from people who wish to impose an easy way out on the rest of the world--you can't sue these the managers of this property for letting terrorists scope out their property.
From that perspective, I feel some sympathy for the people paid to be dick-heads, so to speak.
Hauru no ugoku shiro
I am not sure when it will open here in Austin, but when it does I am definitely going to go see Miyazaki's latest animated feature, Howl's Moving Castle...Thursday, June 9, 2005
Vamos, Vamos Argentina!
Thanks to a tip from my girl Sandra, I caught the game at the best location in town- a brazilian cafe out in Hyde Park called Café Brazil (53rd and Evans). The match was projected onto a big screen in the yard out back and about 60 or so Brazilians, Argentine folk and other futbol fans gathered around and drank beer and chanted and danced and otherwise went bonkers as the two great teams clashed.
Of course, the night did not turn out too well for the Brazil as the Argentina cleaned their clock 3 to 1. The Argentine squad looked great in the first half, dominating the Brazilians entirely. The second half was another story as the Brazilians really put the heat on and continously threatened, coming heart-breakingly close to putting in a couple of goals...
Also, the U.S moved one step closer towards a spot in the 2006 World Cup with a wonderful 3-0 victory over Panama.
Wednesday, June 8, 2005
phase one complete
lots of errands to run today, busy, busy, busy. i will be having the gas turned on friday, the electricity switched to my name tomorrow, renewed my vehicle registration (due 12/04) and (the big one) got my wireless network setup!
that's right, this post is coming to you live from my front porch where i get a nice strong signal. Now all this place needs (besides all my stuff) is a woman's touch. *sigh*.
Fubol Dilemma
A tough choice: Does one watch the Panama vs U.S.A match (7:30 CST) or Argentina vs Brazil (7:45 CST) ?I'm leaning towards watching the Argentina/Brazil game. Not only because it is a classic of classics matchup, but also because Brazil is promising to come out with the 'ultra-attacking' lineup that they used to such good effect in their thwumping of Paraguay last week...
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
the key.
woo-hoo! i was able to pick up the key to my new place today! very excited, gotta go over there and sweep off the porch, chase off the wasps and destroy their nest, and the like.
Monday, June 6, 2005
macosxhints - 10.4: Disable graphical smileys in iChat 3.0
macosxhints - 10.4: Disable graphical smileys in iChat 3.0:
$ cd /Applications/iChat.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/
$ mv SmileyTable.plist SmileyTable.plist.bak
News of the Day
Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006
The one thing about the computer business is that things keep shifting around. In some ways it is surprising that Apple has stayed in business with as big a changes as it has made--the shift to PowerPC, the shift to Mac OS X, and now this. The upcoming months will be very interesting--will we be able to run Windows operating systems on Macintosh hardware (if we really needed/wanted to)? Will we be able to buy Mac OS X and install it on a white-box PC that meets certain specifications? I think the one thing we won't see is a break up of the software and hardware divisions (as the Palm/Palm One demonstrated to markets that it was a pretty bad idea).
[Update:]One of the most interesting things is that Apple has been producing a version of Mac OS X that runs on Intel processors for the last five years. This has been reported before in vague ways and is in some ways expected, since Mac OS X has its origins in an operating system called Next that ran on Intel processors. Live from WWDC: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget - www.engadget.com
Information Collection Thinking
I drove to Houston this morning listening to Freakonomics and I started considering what I want to do in life. Do I really want to tap at a computer? One of the things I am considering is checking out of the state of information drunkenness I put myself in each day and feeding myself more books.
Sunday, June 5, 2005
US Beats Costa Rica 3-nil in World Cup Qualifier
According to the New York Times the U.S Mens Soccer team is ranked 10th in the world. This seems hard to believe, but one thing is certain: the U.S squad definitely has, in goalkeeper Kasey Keller, one of the top goalkeepers in international play. The guy is just phenomenal. I mean, he was pulling off some Matrix style moves last night as he dove around doing things that gravity does not normally permit. What a game it was!The next qualifying match is on June 8th and pits the U.S versus the Panama at El Estadio Rommel Fernandez in the Panama.
Saturday, June 4, 2005
"A Patriotic Effort To Save Energy and Fight Global Warming"
Doesn't that sound nice? Too bad its not happening here.Friday, June 3, 2005
lil' D is kicking more butt.
So, about three weeks ago Diana went to interview for an Oncology Residency at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, maybe some of you have heard of it. Well, she called squealing with glee this morning and once she calmed down enough to speak english she let me know that she was one of the two applicants accepted for this year's residency!can i pick 'em or what?
Big News For George R.R. Martin Fans!
George R.R. Martin claims that he is done, mostly, with his latest book, A Feast For Crows! This is big news for those of us that have enjoyed his outstanding fantasy series, A Song Of Ice And Fire.Thursday, June 2, 2005
Dye Sub!
One of the many attempts to get neutral grayscale digital images was the purchase of a HI Photo Printer 640PS DyeSub printer. It turned out that the doc's didn't like the color bias it seemed to have. Add to that the long print times and a horrible driver and it was quickly shelved, but not before a ton of paper and dye sub printing cartridges (both B&W and color) were bought. So whenever i've got some prints to make, i use that one. The prints are decent (the greens seem to come out a little overblown from time to time) and it's cool to just be able to copy the images i want to a CF card and plug it into the machine and hit 'print all'.The cartridge ran out and i unrolled the whole thing just so you guys could see it. I think one cartridge will print about 50 sheets or so.
Post-Giro wrap-up
My fantasy squad finished in 38th place out of approximately 800 teams. Not too shabby, but a little disappointing since I was in 13th place going into the final day. I had both the winner of the final stage and the overall winner. Unfortunately, I only had one other highly placed rider in the final GC. I think you really need to have the top two GC riders or maybe even the top three to crack the final top 10. I was relying on Cunego and Garzelli to put me in that position, but it didn't work out.
Next up is the Tour de France where I have a better record. Last year I finished in 16th place and the year before I finished in 2nd. This year will be very difficult to pick. Due to the structure of the game, players will have to pick only one of the podium favorites. (I am assuming Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are the top favorites for the podium.) At the moment I am leaning toward Ullrich. He is a far more talented rider than Armstrong even though his preparation and tactics are highly questionable. Until last year Ullrich had never finished worse than 2nd at the Tour(!) Jan Ullrich is the only man in the world who can show up at the Tour out of shape and ride himself into a podium spot. But then there is Basso. He is potentially as talented as Ullrich and he has a brilliant team director... I need to think about this.
Next up is the Tour de France where I have a better record. Last year I finished in 16th place and the year before I finished in 2nd. This year will be very difficult to pick. Due to the structure of the game, players will have to pick only one of the podium favorites. (I am assuming Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are the top favorites for the podium.) At the moment I am leaning toward Ullrich. He is a far more talented rider than Armstrong even though his preparation and tactics are highly questionable. Until last year Ullrich had never finished worse than 2nd at the Tour(!) Jan Ullrich is the only man in the world who can show up at the Tour out of shape and ride himself into a podium spot. But then there is Basso. He is potentially as talented as Ullrich and he has a brilliant team director... I need to think about this.
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Another Flickrer
This weekend Amber and I got her mom and dad hooked into Flickr. Since they are Windows users, we put Picasa on Mary's computer. Picasa is very smart software and the picture to the right was made using its collage feature.
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multi-column, auto-paging layouts
Wow. The International Herald Tribune has some pretty amazing stuff going on in the layout department. I mean, yeah, they may be a world class news outlet and all, but that pales in comparison to their elegant article layout system. They are using a javascript thingy to create viewport height sensitive 3 column layouts that automatically divides stories into pages based on available viewing area. amazing.
I never got around to eating there
I never got around to eating there but The Austinist reports "The Sun Sets on Oasis." There was a fire there that destroyed the restaurant.
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