A curious mind » What the...?

I’ve tried Twitter twice to see what all the fussin’ is about. Both times Firefox would hang. Sounds dumb anyway.

As for the home automation - oh, my head. I’d become an obsessive, paranoid freak in no time. “Someone’s at the door!” Huh? Why?! What are they doing there?!! I’m calling the cops!!!

Only thing I am keeping an eye on in terms of future needs/networking is my iTunes library. I’ve got it set up on a dedicated RAID (with DVD backups just in case), but I don’t want to push those drive into an early grave because I’m playing back hours of music from them all the time. Seems to me that I need the RAID for long-term storage and an “active” drive that I copy everything to and use for actual playback, because in the long run I would like to see my future home be wired in every useful room for iTunes sharing. Just add cheap old computers, and off you go. Networked music bliss in every room, all feeding off one server.

It’s funny how we moved from mainframe/terminal to home computer, and now seem to be inching back towards that old model. In fact one of the hightlights, for me, of this iTunes sharing thing would be digging up machines to run iTunes in various rooms. A laptop here, an old iMac there. There’s articles out there regarding new uses for old VT100 terminals…

hmmm….

Comment by Jim — 3/26/2007 @ 9:46 am

Yeah, I hear you Jim - the potential for paranoid freakout is there. After having been broken into at my last place though, I like the thought of knowing that you can use home automation to at least turn the lights on automatically, if not just be able to have photo captures of whoever is at the door.

It’s not like I’m going to be getting into it anytime soon, but I like the concepts that this guy has been building out of Twitter. The only potential use that I can see getting out of the service - unless some other enterprising parties think other things up - that’s for sure.

As for media server(s), that’s something I’d like to get into as well. Our one bedroom apartment pretty much precludes playing around with that anytime soon on that too though.

Comment by Brian — 4/8/2007 @ 12:20 pm

Oh, for F’s sake

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@ 8:23 pm

Some jerk actually paid attention to that idiot (you know, remember him?) and is suing Apple over potential hearing loss from using an iPod.

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Yet another way to individualize yourself on the internets

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@ 8:31 pm

With all the blogging, Friendstering (or, if you’re in the know, Orkuting) and other online exhibitionistic tendencies, people seem to be drawn to coming up with new ways of representing themselves. And for those non-Bobcats who read this blog (all two of you): Just when you think you’ve seen it all, Sean manages to point me to yet another way: iTunes Signature Maker.

I had some issues but came up with an interesting mix all the same:

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Irony

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@ 8:57 pm

I·ro·ny: You pull an intercostal muscle from going on your first run after having a cold featuring the worst cough of your life. It’s so bad, it hurts to breathe normally, so you go to an Urgent Care clinic. You’re prescribed muscle relaxants and a plan to take them with excessive amounts of Advil. And when applying the cold compress on the pull as instructed, you need to cinch it to the point that the ACE bandage you have holding the compress in place makes it difficult to breathe.

Comments (5)

UGH! I’m so sorry Brian. I guess bad muscle pulls isn’t just an east coast thing. I hope you recover quickly. That’s no fun at all. Feel better!

Comment by Sean — 1/25/2006 @ 5:11 am

I had an ugly go-around with some kind of horrific cough in the fall. I was prescribed one of those purple hockey puck Advair things. Worked wonders.

For head congestion, I can’t speak fondly enough of Claritin-D. Yeah, I know, it’s for allergies, but this formula drains your head like there’s no tomorrow.

At any rate, take care! fluids fluids fluids. But I’m sure you know that.

Comment by Jim — 1/25/2006 @ 6:22 am

Thanks for the well-wishes guys. While I the pain is still here, I can feel a little bit of improvement. I must admit though, for all the huzzahs I hear over vicodin, it didn’t really do much for me last night.

Fortunately I’ve pretty much kicked the cold so I’m not still coughing. Yawning and the occasional sneeze just makes life so… interesting now.

Thanks for the cold tips Jim - I’ll keep them in mind for the next go-around! And continued speedy recovery wishes to you too Sean!

Comment by Brian — 1/25/2006 @ 7:40 am

I’ve learned ibuprofen is the best (if it doesn’t hurt your stomach) because it’s a pain killer as well as an anti-inflammatory. I was also prescribed vicodin, and it didn’t seem to do much for me. On a follow-up appt to the dr Tuesday he said that the vicodin isn’t a “utility to heal you.” It’s exclusively for the pain, but doesn’t help with swelling, etc. But I haven’t noticed it doing much of anything. Feel better Brian! And remember: pppbbbttt! Keyboard Magazine!

Comment by Sean — 1/26/2006 @ 6:51 am

When I had my rotator cuff problem last summer, the doctor had me do a combination of advil and tylenol. The non-technical explanation was that they target pain in different ways. And when I mixed them, it was more effective, with less dosage. So that’s the neat trick I know now.

Comment by Tim — 1/29/2006 @ 8:16 pm

Of Bob Dylan, tribute albums and Love Monkey

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@ 12:42 am

Every workday I wake up to NPR, get my act together then drive down the hill to the Oakland Coliseum BART station and wait a bit before picking up my commuting buddy, Mafalda. I used to squeeze in a little Air America before her train would show up, but KQKE (the Air America affiliate) blew a great idea before they even implemented it and lost my morning drive-time patronage - they created a local show (good) but put Willy Brown and Will Durst on the air as its hosts (decidedly bad in my book).

So once they started this show, I switched back to listening to the local classic rock favorite around these parts, KFOG. This morning the big topic of conversation was CBS’s new show, Love Monkey. Apparently, the Chronicle’s TV critic loved it even calling out the show’s secondary focus on music would be up a “Foghead’s” (a listener of KFOG) alley - although I can’t find that particular assertion in the article. The New York Times’ critic, however, didn’t like it.

Contrasting the warm fuzzies of a new show along the lines of “Sex and the City” or “Jerry Maguire” (or something - anything - more entertaining than random non-celebrity people heaping all sorts of abuse on each other) were some acerbic opinions, mostly offered by Alessandra Stanley of the Times. While there was lively discussion about different aspects of the show, the idea that the stereotypical woman does not like Bob Dylan - and that any woman that professes otherwise just pretends to to please men - was an interesting one.

Music is such a funny thing - you either love it or you hate it. And God forbid if you run into anyone who disagrees with you. Now I will freely admit that Dylan is a brilliant songwriter - someone called in to say that a female friend of his has a license plate cover that professes that Dylan is the Shakespeare of our time. I don’t necessarily disagree with that idea, although I find the medium to express such a romantic notion to be a little at odds with the sentiment. But that said, I just cannot fathom how anyone would agree to allow Dylan to sing his own songs (never mind a group of men responsible for investing gobs of money into a recording contract). This opinion was only reinforced when the DJs took a break and played Tangled Up in Blue.

Listening to a song written so beautifully, sung in a fashion that made me cringe made me wish for someone or some group to record the entirety of Dylan’s catalog - so I could listen to and fully appreciate his work (something I haven’t done for obvious reasons). Then it dawned on me - that might not be an improvement, given the industry’s penchant for getting random unknown groups to perform on tribute albums usually resulting in performances that are so unbelievably sub-par that it makes you wonder why they still do tribute albums. What’s with that?

As for “Love Monkey”, I recorded it on my ReplayTV and just watched it tonight. I have to say I like it. It’s not perfect - I agree with Goodman’s assessment of the supporting male characters and kind of cringe at some of the treatment the show gives women, but it’s entertaining and shows promise. And I’m just happy that I can stop racking my brain as to why Judy Greer looked so familiar - she played the goofy roommate Andrea in Kissing a Fool (a guilty pleasure that is interestingly commented as “Not bad for a crappy romantic comedy starring David Schwimmer” by someone on IMDB).

« OK, I’m done

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OK, last post for the night pointing out stupidity

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@ 10:10 pm

I promise. This one is just too good (painful?) not to share. The geekier among us may or may not have heard of a new technology in disk drives, called perpendicular storage. For the uninitiated, it’s a new way of designing hard drive platters that manages to squeeze even more data on to the platter(s) while reducing the potential of data loss due to the superparamagnetic effect (if the bits are positioned too close together, the charge from a bit could “flip” the charge on a neighboring bit).

Need a little more background? OK good, because that’s the point of this post. For some strange reason Hitachi actually paid someone to produce a little musical Flash number loosely based on the classic Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” cartoon. While I will warn you that it might make you cry, at least you’ll have a better understanding about where the disk drive industry is headed. (Via)

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Stupid Mac Trick #5892017

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@ 9:53 pm

USB floppy drive-based striped RAID. I’d write something, but (a) I’m still laughing and (b) what could I possibly say about this? (Via)

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The creepy new online frontier of being sleezy

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@ 9:42 pm

So I was bumming around the job postings on Craigslist, only to be confronted with a listing including a reference to a rather bizarre site called “GirlfriendX.com”. Not quite sure how low online portals have gotten, I figured “what the heck?” and pointed Safari at it.

While I have to admit that I was half-expecting a porn site (it seems like 80% of all sites have something to do with porn now, right?), I was decidedly not expecting a virtual “black book” that acts as a (and I quote) “dedicated accountant who constantly evaluates your Booty Yield so you can determine whether any particular woman is worth the time, effort and money that youâ€™ve invested.”

I know I shouldn’t be surprised at this stage, but I have to confess that its completely unapologetic stance straight from the macho days from which I thought we evolved a decade or so ago just caught me unprepared.

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Learn to spot if she’s faking it

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@ 11:06 am

Even though it seems as though there’s an overwhelming majority of my friends who are married now, here’s an interesting little experiment to help those of us who are still dating as to whether or not the person you’re seeing is faking it - and by “it”, I mean “smiling”. The BBC has an online psychology test that step you through 20 quick movies and ask you to judge whether the smile is genuine or fake.

While I did fairly decently (14 out of 20), the summary at the end gives additional pointers on how to spot the insincere. (Via)

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The Lamb Cometh? Part II

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@ 2:29 pm

Steve Hackett keeps the tempest spinning in my proverbial teacup: The former Genesis guitarist confirms that the band’s management has been in touch with him to talk about his interests in a reunion. (Hat tip to Dan)

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Thanks for the update. I continue to hold out hope — although, as I posted on my own blog recently — I hope this doesn’t take on a “least common denominator” approach and lower Steve’s genius and Peter’s artistic insight to Phil’s level of schmalz …

– david

Comment by David Amulet — 12/29/2005 @ 1:20 pm

Thanks for dropping by David! I’d have to say from reading your exceptionally clever post, we’re pretty much on the same page (although I think I might allow a little more for Phil’s earlier solo stuff).

There’s always a concern for mass commercial-selloutitude when these sorts of things happen (Didn’t Eagles fans need to take out another mortgage for the “Hell Froze Over” tour?), I’m pretty optimistic that any fruits of a reunion wouldn’t stoop to Phil’s descent into formulaic (yet large-income-generating) pop. After all, there are ego’s aplenty among this group - including Steve and Peter, and those two have been particularly good at keeping to an artistic standard. My inability to really be able (or desire) to listen to the vast majority of Phil’s solo stuff does not take away my appreciation of his talents as a drummer. I think that if we see (rather, hear) anything from this potential reunion, it’ll be all good.

While their remake of “Carpet Crawlers” a while back shows that they have the ability to work together again, my biggest doubt is whether they be able to do it for an entire album (never mind the potential roadblocks they might have in doing such a thing). Of course, if they tour - I’ll be beside myself (I get a little impatient with Peter’s tour-once-a-decade philosophy).

Comment by Brian — 12/29/2005 @ 2:35 pm

Agreed — if they tour, I’ll be all over it! Thanks for stopping by and checking out the article; I hope that you continue to enjoy my “clever” posts (I appreciate the compliment).

– david

Comment by David Amulet — 1/1/2006 @ 6:53 pm

Anti-viral Bilge

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What the...?

@ 3:23 pm

What the heck is “anti-viral bilge”? From what (little) I know of sailing and medicine, I can certainly imagine what it’s supposed to be, but I can’t say I have every heard of such a thing (nor do I suppose I want to know what it is).

Oh wait - It’s the subject of a spam I got earlier today.

Can someone explain to me what they think these degenerate lowlifes are going to accomplish by sending nonsensical emails?

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Being Inclusive

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@ 2:51 pm

I’m sure you’ve read by now about the whole kerfluffle Dubya’s power-base is giving him over the “Christmas”-less holiday card. In reading about it in the Chronicle, I came across a rather surprising - or maybe not so much - quote from one of these people upset with such “insensitivity” that managed to disgust me even more (despite my belief that it wasn’t possible):

[William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights] was not mollified by a letter from Lands’ End [regarding his group’s boycott of their “Christmas”-less advertising] saying it “adopted the ‘holiday’ terminology as a way to comply with one of the basic freedoms granted to all Americans: freedom of religion.”

“Ninety-six percent of Americans celebrate Christmas,” Donohue said. “Spare me the diversity lecture.”

Got that, all you Americans who don’t celebrate Christmas? You don’t matter.

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The Lamb Cometh?

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@ 8:23 pm

I heard it on my commute into work this morning and went temporarily insane (fortunately, my commute buddy is a sweet and understanding woman) - Phil Collins starts a tempest in my teacup by saying he’d be up for a Genesis reunion (Thanks to Chris for the link).

And to think that I was jabbering away during the mini Pink Floyd reunion about how a Genesis reunion tour would make my century… I know not to hold my breath, but I’m all over it if it comes to fruition. (Now that I’ve had time to breathe, I could’ve sworn what I heard on the radio was in context of touring, while the BBC report implies more of a recording situation - heck, either way I’d be psyched!)

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My legs are faster than my lungs give them credit for

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@ 8:49 pm

As you kind readers might recall, last year at this time I was getting pretty anxious as the training was waining and I was preparing for my first marathon, The California International, just right around the bend. Well, an inconveniently-timed cold canned that effort and I had subsequently started a part-time job. Working 65 hours a week between my full-time job at my previous employer and the store put a serious dent into my running schedule. It was so dented, in fact, that it stopped. I sporadically ran here and there, but with absolutely no consistency and consequently I bailed out of racing altogether.

Well, my weight is a little on the heavy side and I feel like a slug. For the past couple of weeks, I started to go for runs on Saturday - ideally the ~5 mile loop between Marina Green and Fort Point (my favorite run bar-none). The first couple of runs meant a lot of walking breaks, and ultimately disappointing performance (should I be stressing about my speed and endurance - which I’m not). Last weekend I went up and visited the ‘rents which somehow translated into a “I’m not going to run at all this weekend” decision. Needless to say, there were definitely mixed feelings about running yesterday.

I was looking forward to doing something active, but loathing the physical pain that would be involved. I was careful in avoiding my tendency to redline off the start (my Garmin Forerunner is an excellent tool in that regard, among many others). That said, I was stupid and decided to throw in some short sprints for the hell of it. Yup, it was a dumb idea as my lungs and feet started to give me serious guff and I was forced into a walking break. I resumed running, but it was clear that my legs were just not happy, so at the 2 mile mark I decided to just sit down and do some people-watching. 10 minutes or so later, I was good to go and decided to slowly slog it and go for total distance in finishing the loop.

My legs seemed to be happy with this plan and I managed to finish out the loop ~~without incident~~ with one incident: Jamming with my iPod Shuffle (easily a close second behind the Forerunner as the most useful tools a runner can have - even if you have a hard drive-based iPod) towards the end of my run, I noticed I was getting particularly winded. I looked at the Forerunner and noticed that I had been running a consistent 6:30 minute mile! To put this into perspective, I’ve been running this route usually around a 10-11 minute mile. If I all-out sprint, I can usually manage a 6 minute, but not for very long (usually both my lungs and legs give out). And here I’ve been distracted enough by a song that I brought my pace up significantly without noticing - that is, until my lungs had had enough. My legs didn’t have any problems for the rest of the day and even tonight they’re only slightly sore.

Two “What the F?!” moments in one week… To say I’m a little curious what’s going on (never mind what a more aggressive or jammin’ song might do) would be a massive understatement.

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What the F?

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What the...?

@ 2:12 pm

OK, as I’m sure both of you know, I’m particularly inept at the whole reading signs of potential interest from other people. In fact, I’m sure you remember the particularly horrifying stories of not only a female friend from Bates but my mom informing me of being scoped by guys (don’t get me wrong, it’s flattering I suppose - but clearly not up my alley). But last night, well, I still don’t know what to make of it.

I’m an idiot when it comes to reading people sometimes. Really, I just need full-on, unmistakable signal flares and some dude with the landing torches that are used to guide pilots in parking large aircraft. I’m dumb. I admit it.

Last night I was down in LA for a sales event with Shawn, a guy from Sales. Shawn’s a stereotypical single straight guy, keen on watching women as they pass - intent on possibly, well, you know. Shawn’s a very personable kind of guy, not in a slimy Sales guy kind of way, just naturally conversational. As the event was winding down, I was speaking with a potential customer and Shawn started to get all excited. After the customer left our booth I asked him what was going on and he said that a particularly attractive woman happened to check me out as she walked by.

Could it be? After all this time of only being informed of getting scoped by gay men, that the opposite gender was checking me out? He pointed her out to me and I was almost blinded by the rock on her finger. Great. Gay men and married women. It’s an improvement, but not by a tremendous amount.

After relaying the aforementioned humiliating stories to Shawn and my resulting befuddlement - much to his amusement, I might add - we made our way to a bar to finish out the night, settling in next to a table of three attractive women +1 guy. Ordering a couple of beers, we chatted (yet paid attention to the more interesting blurtings from our neighbors) as we waited on a guy from LaCie to catch up with us. Boisterous conversation and rounds of JÃ¤germeister going around at the table next to us, while explaining what happened next, still did not prepare me for it. I don’t know what Shawn and I were talking about, but the next thing I knew, the woman sitting closest to me got up, walked over to me and - I kid you not - started rubbing her hand through my hair.

I don’t know whose jaw dropped further or quicker, but clearly Shawn didn’t have a clue what to make of it either. It wasn’t a brief, “I’m gonna run my hand through his hair as I walk by” kinda thing - she was doing it for at least 20-30 seconds. Naturally, awkward conversation ensued and… well, isn’t that an awfully large diamond on her left hand! What the F? Conversation eventually got more relaxed with all 4 of our neighbors (and the LaCie guy who eventually showed up), but I never asked what the hell happened before our 4 neighbors took off for the evening.

So I ask you, my two faithful readers - what the hell just happened? And why did my appeal (whatever it might be) completely bypass single women and go straight to the married ones?

« OK, I’m done

Comments (1)

I’m just so excited that MIT allowed me to migrate to FireFox that I had to leave another comment and see if your comment box comes out right (it doesn’t in IE). Hurrah! All the time you spent on your ‘blog is being interpreted correctly!

At any rate, I don’t even know where to begin on the above. We haven’t met face to face in, oh, at least five years so I can’t attach any kind of meaning to your appearance. The Old Brian did have a flair for a certain conservative yet stylish tidiness (I remember that you never, ever wore jeans in your life - did that change?), so that might cover the gay man angle - well, ahem, depending on where their interest lies, that is. As far as married women carrying diamond mines on their fingers, perhaps they are looking to move up in their Sugar Daddy world? A certain reserved demeanor also factors into this, of course. I remember you being more of an observer than a boisterous loudmouth (Jon and I shared that duty: Sesame Street Skirts at Papa Gino’s, anyone?), which a lot of people warm to.

Many people (myself included) have made it known to their SO that a “look but don’t touch” policy is in full effect, which I think might have been the case with Woman #1. Eyes wander. That’s how it works. No sense trying to go with behavioral modification, it’s just too frustrating, and if you get caught looking after months of trying not to, it gets ugly.

As for #2: just about anything can be blamed on JÃ¤germeister (don’t ask), so you could simply write that one off. Refer to the above example, with the added complication of about 90% of usual inhibitions dropped thanks to that dastardly German elixir.

To sum it all up: I would be flattered. You seemingly have much more (or equal) appeal than whoever the hell it is that they agreed to marry. No matter how you look at it (or how demented they are), I think it’s probably a good thing. Regard it as an adventure! Perhaps you could break up an engagement! How empowering…

Comment by Jim — 11/8/2005 @ 11:30 am