Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
 
December 29th, 2002

Snowbound

Up to Pioneer (near Tahoe) for late Christmas, joining Mom and Dad, brother John and his fiancee at Dad’s cabin. Slipped in under a major storm set to dump Saturday night. Mid-way through the day a dog followed us home from a hike – name of Faith, phone numbers on her tag but no one reachable. When the snow started we took her door to door in the car looking for an owner, no luck.

Snow tumbling furiously and sky cracking, made a makeshift home for her in Dad’s basement, then took off in his 4WD to move our cars under the snowline so we’d be able to get out next day. Bad timing. Took forever to get down the hill, cars spinning out all around us, snow falling so thick we could barely see to drive, even our 4WD w/snow tires having trouble and sometimes sliding.

On way back up, they closed the road in front of us. Too many accidents, too much risk. Got stuck eating bad calamari in a pizza dive while they plowed. Meanwhile Christmas dinner was getting cold at home. One of those moments that would be a lot more depressing if the adventure weren’t so ripe.

Three hours later back to the cabin safe, then an hour into dinner the power blew, leaving us with his pot-belly stove and candlelight to finish dinner. Didn’t stop us. Egg nog w/brandy and a whalloping game of Cranium by candlelight.

In the morning, found 18″ of snow on ground at 4,000 ft. Won’t get to snowboard this trip, but that’s okay. It’s Miles first snow.

Posted in Family | No Comments »

December 26th, 2002

BeView Archives

More thinking about the disappeared content on Byte.com, more discussion with other Byte editors and writers, and I finally decided to go ahead and post complete BeView archives here on birdhouse. Left behind the new subscription curtain, the articles are effectively hidden from search engines and the rest of the world, and no one is going to subscribe to CMP just to read my crusty old nuggets. A piece of computing history will be lost forever if I don’t crack them open. So the archives are now open for all, in all their occasionally embarrassing glory.

Music: Orchestre Murphy :: Hymn to the Sultan of Brunei

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Posted in Geek, Media | 2 Comments »

December 26th, 2002

R3Mix

Endless debate with audiophile friends over whether “perfect” or “CD quality” audio can be achieved via MP3, regardless of bitrate. R3Mix.net offers the best collection I’ve seen of facts, data, explanation, tests, and observations on the nature of “perfect” digital sound as it relates to compression and commonly available encoders/decoders, etc. I do disagree with the author on some points – I’m still no fan of VBR, which he advocates, and his Myths page would probably send chills down the spine of most hardcore audiophiles. Still, lots to learn at the site. Their Quality page points to the largest real-world MP3 quality test I’ve heard of, involving 300 audiophiles and conducted by c’t magazin. Conclusion: Transparency (inability to distinguish between CD original and compressed MP3 versions on $15,000 worth of audio equipment) happens at around 256kbps. Wish there was a good English translation of the test page.

Thanks to David Huff for the pointer.

Music: Lennie Tristano/Lee Konitz/Warne Marsh :: April

Posted in Music | 15 Comments »

December 24th, 2002

You Will Comply

Very scary first-hand report by an accountant on how he and his 7.5-month-pregnant wife got borked by the system while going through airport security: Coffee, Tea, or Should We Feel Your Pregnant Wife’s Breasts Before Throwing You in a Cell at the Airport and Then Lying About Why We Put You There?. It’s dire out there, and getting worse. Merry Christmas.

Music: Shonen Knife :: Fruit Loop Dreams (Accoustic Version)

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments »

December 24th, 2002

Random Quotes

Came up with a fairly simple method to stick random quotes into Movable Type pages (requires PHP).

Music: Patti Smith :: blue poles

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Posted in Blogging | 4 Comments »

December 23rd, 2002

Mesmer Eyes

It is astonishing to see the effect television has on Miles. We’re not even sure whether he can focus on objects across the room, but if the TV is on, he’s glued to the set. He has no language comprehension and no idea what the forms on the screen are doing, but he is absolutely mesmerized by the dancing pixels and shapes. We can even be standing in the kitchen with him and see him craning his neck to see the TV in the living room. It’s the primordial modern babysitter. No matter what our ideas are about shielding him from TV’s influence, one glimpse is all it takes. Heroin for babies.

We don’t really worry about this rabid attraction to the tube. TV’s negative side is its trashy programming. But it’s not about content for infants – they just like the light forms, and at that level, it’s no worse than watching his mobile, which he can also watch for half an hour at a time. We also have a lot of fun setting him on my lap and running the iTunes visualizer full-screen – he’s equally mesmerized (Daddy’s a sucker for that game too ;)

In the past week or two Miles has learned to grasp intentionally, rather than randomly. He now holds his pacifier in his own mouth, and can hold a stuffed kitty to his chest. He grabs Amy’s hair, buttons on my shirt, etc. He was doing some of that earlier, but now it seems very intentional. “I want that.”

Yesterday he started making raspberries with his lips, buzzing and flapping through the drool. The cool thing is we can do it call and response. I’ll raspberry and he’ll raspberry back, and so on. Drool volume is way up – we think he may be in the early stages of teething.

Music: Ozric Tentacles :: Erpland

Posted in Family | No Comments »

December 20th, 2002

More Auto Wilding

Lucky neighborhood, I guess… at around 10:45 pm Friday night Amy and I heard a loud crashing and grinding sound, followed by an engine revving high. Came outside to find two pickup trucks on their sides across the street from us. In the GMC a man was struggling to get out. Me and two other bystanders helped him out of the passenger door (which was on top), I asked if he was OK (he was) and went inside to ask Amy to call 911. When I came back out, bystanders said he took off running toward Telegraph.

Oakland PD arrived in minutes and I gave a statement to an officer who did NOT believe the vehicle was stolen. Even for joyriding, he said it would be very rare to steal a rasty old pickup like that. Stolen joyride vehicles are almost always upscale. If the car was not stolen, the driver may be easier to track down.

The only way I can figure the two trucks ended up this way is if the GMC actually drove up the side of the Toyota at angle, pitching himself up and over as if rolling off a highway median.

So let’s see… there was the pickup that plowed into the side of the house farther down on 66th a couple-three years ago. The ramming of Cecilia and Mark’s car a bit ago. The similar incident outside of Sudi’s house a bit later. And now this.

Neighbors: If you must leave the house at night, wear helmet and pads. At this point, I think you have a better chance of being run over by a wilder than you do of being mugged.

And we’re going to raise our kid here? Right.

Music: Stranglers :: Peaches

Posted in Misc | No Comments »

December 19th, 2002

Survivor Lessons

You’d think we would have had enough of Survivor after five seasons, but it’s a guilty pleasure. Once again, I come away from the season with two core observations:

1) Everyone (not virtually everyone, but everyone) looks better with a few days stubble, no makeup, a natural tan, their hair unkempt, a chilled out ‘tude, and no shoes on their feet than they do when they get back to the studio for the follow-up, when you see them in their hair-dos and Sunday-Go-To-Meetings.

2) Democracy is the ultimate leveling mechanism, shaving off both the weak at the bottom and the strong at the top. Trimming out the strong personalities, the good fighters, the smart puzzlers. The winner is always nice but not too nice, gentle but not too gentle, helpful but not too helpful, etc. The winner is, almost by definition, above average, not exceptional. Survivor is a microcosm of our own political system.

Music: James Chance & The Contortions :: I Danced With A Zombie

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment »

December 19th, 2002

Nielsen on Complexity

Web usability expert (I know he’s controversial) Jacob Nielsen has some good observations in a CNET piece on Flash usability:

Most mistakes are the results of designers and developers overestimating the average person’s familiarity with technology and trying to cram too much onto a Web page, Nielsen said.

“If we leave developers to their own devices, they create complexity,” he said. “It’s in their genes to love creating new features. You end up with software that’s mainly accessible to other geeks.”

Hmm… sound familiar?

Music: Gong :: Foghat Digs Holes In Space

Posted in Web Dev | 2 Comments »

December 19th, 2002

Searchling

In the past few weeks, Searchling has risen to the status of “most useful software on my computer.” Sits quietly in the menu bar. Responds while in any application to Cmd-Opt-/ hotkey with a small popup text field, cursor already positioned, ready to search Google, IMDB, VersionTracker, Dictionary, MacOSXHints, or pretty much any site (choosable with a picklist, configurable with a text editor). Search results sent to the preferred browser.

If there is such a thing as software Zen, this is it.

Music: Lounge Lizards :: She Drove Me Mad

Posted in Geek | 1 Comment »

December 18th, 2002

So-Called “Quotation” Marks

For reasons that are opaque to me, an inordinate number of people without basic grammar skills go into, of all things, sign-making as a profession. The result is the ubiquitous phenomenon of quotation marks used inappropriately for emphasis. I was on a Muni train today and saw a professionally printed sign reading:

“WARNING”
You are being videotaped.

In other words, the San Francisco surface rail system is not really warning you – just air-warning you. Pretending to warn you. Mock-warning you. “So-called” warning you. Got to joking with a MacWorld editor about this phenomenon and he turned me onto The Gallery Of “Misused” Quotation Marks, an archive of misused quotation marks in the wild. Hilarious.

Was also amused by the resemblance of this site’s name to my own Archive of Misheard Lyrics.

Music: Jestofunk :: Fluid

Posted in Culture | 4 Comments »

December 18th, 2002

Free Prints… Down to the Wire

Reminder for anyone who signed up for Mac.com – you can have 100 free Kodak prints generated from your iPhoto collection if you jump on it before Dec. 31 – a $50 value. At the risk of sounding like an Apple shill, you should see Amy and I gathered around the digital hearth, poring over pictures of Miles in iPhoto, using all the fancy features like cardboard cutout consumers… almost saccharine. She’s even more hooked than I am. I come home daily to new rounds of Miles pix. You think I post a lot? You should see how many she takes! It’s kind of weird… she’s got such a long history in analog photography — an MFA in photography, years as a photo teacher… but she got so hooked on the PowerShot and iPhoto that she only shoots digital of Miles… has hardly pulled out the 35mm cameras since he was born. But we’ve had nothing to send to relatives, so we jumped on this tonight and selected out the best.

Music: Captain Beefheart :: Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man

Posted in Geek | 3 Comments »

December 17th, 2002

Lightbox

National Geographic has begun to place their amazing 114-year history of photographic images online in low-rez, watermarked format. I’ve always had a special connection to National Geographic — my parents subscribed throughout my childhood, and I took in much of the world beyond through its pages. This is the kind of database project I would love to have worked on.

I have a few problems with the site, such as the fact that they call the shopping cart the “Product Cart” (like the music biz, all the heart and soul of the artist is boiled down to simple “product”) and the server timeouts calculating totals. I like the concept of having a “lightbox” to store the images I’m interested in.

If you follow through to the shopping cart, you’ll find that you’re charged according to the kind of use you intend to make of the media. I told them I wanted to use an image for a Web editorial for up to five years and was asked to pony up $240.00. Which seems like a lot in the context of a web culture where everything is (seemingly) free, but is really not much when you consider the real and authentic art of the photographers and the integrity of the publication that makes it happen.

In any case, it’s great to see this archive become available.

Music: The Residents :: Less Not More

Posted in Culture | 2 Comments »

December 16th, 2002

Shrinkrap

Every year I forget how much effort goes into the holiday CDs – building the perfect playlist, burning a pile of non-coasters*, making the playlist fit onto a printable square, selecting cover images from old National Geographics, gluing playlists to backs of pictures, labeling discs, finding envelopes, writing notes, going to the post office… and I love it all. Great way to spend a rainy weekend.

* Never made coasters on the Mac before, but for some reason having a lot of trouble lately – I always liked Sony blanks best, but they’re crapping out now, one after t’other. Switched to Memorex and turned down the burn speed, seems fine. What the heck has changed between last year and this?

Music: Lovage :: Strangers On A Train

Posted in Music | 3 Comments »

December 15th, 2002

Printer Sharing – The Missing Link

ORA blog: Our home printer sharing issue has finally been solved. As it turns out, CUPS has a nifty http interface, which becomes available as soon as you enable printer sharing – just hit http://localhost:631….

Music: Lovage :: Pit Stop (Take Me Home)

Posted in Geek | 7 Comments »

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