Movie Boycott

Based on tonight's movie-going experience, I've decided to instantiate a boycott on certain movies. I can't stand stupid, unrealistic sequences unless the reality set forth in that particular movie has already dictated or indicated that it's possible. For instance, I don't mind if a person teleports if the movie dictates or indicates somehow that people can teleport. I don't mind if people can fly, or if they can time travel, or anything else, as it corresponds to the reality of the movie. I have a good suspension of disbelief. I hate special effects for the sake of special effects, though. Sometimes, flashiness hurts a movie.

With that in mind, here is the (probably soon to grow) list of movie-related people I'm boycotting...

• Michael Bay - Only Bad Boys was good. Transformers was passable.


• Stephen Spielberg - Enough grey. This is largely based on the latest Indiana Jones flick, though.


• George Lucas - See Stephen Spielberg. I'm looking at you, Indy.


• Louis Leterrier - He directed Transporter 2, which is the original inspiration for this train of thought. I can't stand this movie.
  

I'm sure this list will grow. I'll update it as I come across examples of bad movie-making, unless I've already stabbed myself in the eyes with a fork as the lesser of two evils to watching another movie of this sort.

Useful Sites

Just check out this site. It's got a lot of useful links for you.

And here's one for you Mac lovers.

Grindhouse

A day or two ago, an interesting thing began happening. The Girl's car decided to randomly start making a grinding noise similar to one you might hear if you decided to draw and quarter a robot. My brother being awesome, he figured out what the problem was at about 11:30 PM last night. I had missed it. He saw that a length of rope got wrapped around the car's transaxle. After winding about a bit, it got sufficiently tangled and collapsed the CV boot that protects the joint where the wheel assembly meets the transaxle. So, my brother and I were up until 2 AM taking the wheel off the car and cutting the friggin' rope away with a small collapsible knife.

What's more fun, of course, is that the car still makes the noise. Apparently, the noise began when the boot collapsed. So the teeth of the gear at the end of the transaxle are hitting the collapsed CV boot. Humor being what it is, the boot is just a plastic covering. However, to replace it, I think the entire wheel assembly has to be taken apart. I expect that this will be expensive...

Eeeeee.....

Christmas eve dinner was going quite smoothly. Past tense. Then the Girl spoke. I mentioned that I had not gone to a family party because I stayed in MD for a bachelor party. The 'rents asked where the party was. I stated that the first half was at Ellicott Mills Brewery, and that the second was at a strip club. This is about as far as I wanted to take the conversation.

That is not, however, how far she wanted to take it. "Guess what else! Your son got a lap dance. And guess what else! He put dollar bills in strippers' G-strings." She had to tell my parents. Now she's going to sleep on the sofa tonight for causing me the most awkward Christmas eve dinner I've ever had.

Oddly enough, that wasn't the end. "Guess what else! That's where we're going to have our baby shower!" Yeah, she went there. My dad was the only one there to stand up for me. My wife was clearly not doing a stellar job of it. I wonder what I can get for this particular slight. PS3? Computer? I think it deserves something...

Spawn of Satan

The girl and I got to hang out with Irene tonight. It was fun. Irene made a tasty meal of risotto and salad, and for dessert... tiramisu. I love tiramisu. Then we hung out and talked all night. Irene's a ball of fun. She has some interesting qualities too. Somehow, you can get her to laugh to the point that she does all of laugh, hiccup, and burp simultaneously. It's one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

The other bit of humor involved her stomach. It seemed to speak all night to the point that we figure she's going to spawn the anti-christ sometime in the near future. "Mwarwarmwarwar..." All night long. It's pretty impressive. Then, when the hellspawn comes, her completely perfectly circular toilet will probably eat it and send it back to hell.

It's been an interesting night...

Insensitivity At Its Finest

The girl already talked about this, but I didn't know she was worried pretty heavily about it. The F-ing doctor's office called this morning and left us a cryptic message saying that the baby's kidney looked small on the sonogram and that we need to return for another. They left no further explanation. They didn't bother telling us not to worry. Nothing...

So, after she called back, they told her that they suspect that her fibroid was in the way of the kidney measurement. Apparently, though, that doesn't allay her fears that something is wrong. Now I have to wake tomorrow morning so that I can call the doctor and find out what it might mean. That phone call was damned insensitive of a doctor's office that knows all of its patients are expecting and horribly nervous that everything will be fine for the child. Now, so are we. F-ing hell...

Pretzel Beer: Bottling

Well, the pretzel beer is done and bottled. I'm calling it "Four for a Dollar" because we added pretzels from Philadelphia. For the unindoctrinated, in Philly, you can stop at many street corners and pick up four nice, large soft pretzels in a brown paper bag for a dollar. It's tastiness at it's greatest (and cheapest). So, we made the American Wheat beer recipe from Maryland Homebrew and it's in bottles. Yield: ~28 bottles. We had a little bit of the uncarbonated, warm beer and it was pretty good. It's also a nice color red. I think, once it's carbonated, it'll be pretty tasty.

Snowboard Season Begins

Snowboarding was awesome! Ken and I, along with his ski/snowboard club, went to Seven Springs today. It was fantastic! Besides the weirdness of earlier (the carbecue), all sorts of other things happened.

On the way to the mountain we stopped at Sheetz. It has a better name according to the head of the group, but I can't currently remember it. At the mountain, I regained my snowboarding composure relatively quickly and also got to ride in UNPACKED POWDER for the first time ever. It was a dream. I want to go to Colorado. Hopefully New York in January and Vermont in February are sufficient. This is going to be a good season.

On both the way up and the way back, we saw a windmill farm pumping out the energy. I love seeing stuff like that. A picture might follow sometime. On the way back, we also saw the legs of a dead deer (I'm guessing hunted, and not roadkill) sticking up out of the back of a pickup truck. We also stopped at a Sheetz on the way home, whose nickname is now "Dirty Sheetz." You'll never guess why. It turns out buffalo sauce on a cheese steak, though not a Philadelphia thing, still makes my taste buds leap off my tongue and do a dance.

Now I'm home, clean and full of hot chocolate, and ready to sleep in tomorrow! I love snowboarding! Let the season begin!

Snowboarding Pre-Season

Snowboarding season has begun. Ken and I are in the car now, on the way there, and it already promises to be an interesting day. We've already been stopped dead on the road due to a carbecue blocking traffic. I love Maryland. In case you weren't aware, that was sarcasm. But, can't get me down because I'm GOING SNOWBOARDING!

Clean Exception Tracking, Beautiful Code

I really wanted a way to track my exceptions without making my code look ugly. The answer seemed to be to use Python's decorators in some way, but they introduce a twist... decorators return functions, so checking the exception information always yields an exception inside a decorator.

As an example, see the following:

import inspect
def test_handler(func):
   def func2(*args, **kwargs):
       try:
           return func(*args, **kwargs)
       except Exception, e:
           print "excepted"
           (file,line,fname,context,ind) =
                 inspect.getframeinfo(inspect.currentframe())
           print "Func: %s" % (str(fname))
   return func2

@test_handler
def run_user_codes():
   k = {}
   k['test']

if __name__ == "__main__":
   print "In main"
   try:
       run_user_codes()
   except Exception, e:
       str(e)

When you run that, the output will be:

In main
excepted
Func: func2

To solve this problem, you can use the traceback module to get accurate data regarding the actual exception. For example:

import sys, traceback

class TrackException(Exception):
   def __init__(self, tb=None):
       self._tb = []
       self._tb.append(tb)
      
   def add_tb(self, tb):
       self._tb.append(tb)
      
   def __str__(self):
       string = ""
       count = 0
       for t in self._tb:
           (file, line, funcname, codestr) = t
           string += "[%d] %s (line %d, in %s): %s\n" %
                      (count,file, line, funcname, codestr)
           count += 1
       return string
  
   def __getitem__(self, y):
       return self._tb[y]
      
def inspected_exception_handler(func):
   def func2(*args, **kwargs):
       try:
           return func(*args, **kwargs)
       except TrackException, e:
           (t,v,tb) = sys.exc_info()
           list = traceback.extract_tb(tb)
           e.add_tb(list[1])
           raise e
       except Exception, e:
           (t,v,tb) = sys.exc_info()
           list = traceback.extract_tb(tb)
           raise TrackException(list[1])
   return func2


@inspected_exception_handler
def run_user_code():
   k = {}
   k['test']
  
@inspected_exception_handler   
def func():
   run_user_code()

if __name__ == "__main__":
   try:
       func()
   except Exception, e:
       print str(e)

Including the above code in your code makes tracking function exceptions much easier without cluttering your code.

Experimental Adventures in Brewing: Part 1

While sitting in the office working, I had a side discussion about Philadelphia soft pretzels. Everywhere I've ever been except for Philly has no such thing as soft pretzels that are four for a dollar. The Philly soft pretzels are also nice and dense and tasty. Well, during this discussion, it also came up that I'm getting into brewing. My coworker wondered aloud how a soft pretzel beer might taste. I decided then and there that I'd like to try it!

The beer, which I'm dubbing "Four for a Dollar," is currently fermenting. We (Amanda and I) started with an American Wheat beer recipe and added Philly soft pretzels from our recent Thanksgiving trip up there to see family. Ultimately, I'm hoping I can taste the pretzel. If not, I think we'll have a pretty tasty wheat beer, so I guess we can't really lose on this one. Stay tuned...

Opera 10 Beta

I don't really consider myself a fan-boy of any particular browser. I use Safari and Firefox for different things. The only major feeling I have about any browser is that I hate IE. Firefox has some really nice configuration options, and a whole lot of nice plug-ins. Safari is built-in to OS X, and also has a few nice options. I prefer Firefox over Safari.

Discussions recently about Firefox Greasemonkey hacks and others combined with seeing a bit about Opera releasing a 10 beta made me decide that I should download and play with it. Some people are really big fans of Opera to the exclusion of other browsers. My prior experiences with Opera left me wanting.

After playing with it and learning the slightly different ways to make it do the things I'm used to in Firefox and Safari, I have to say I like it. The interface is very nice, and a diversion from the standard browser layout. The toolbox icon in the upper left hand corner allows for quick access to bookmarks and other gems without requiring that they are shown at all times. Opera also has a feature called Speed Dial, which is effectively a tab that allows you to quickly load any of nine of your favorite pages after configuring them. As I am largely a creature of habit, this is pretty useful for me. After discovering this feature, I learned that Firefox has a plug-in to do the same thing. It's also really fast. I'm relatively sure it loads pages faster than Firefox and Safari, but this is just a feeling as I haven't done any time tests.

There are one or two things I'd prefer to be able to configure that don't seem to be configurable, however. To open a tab in the background (remember, I'm on a Macbook and therefore have no middle click), I have to use Command+Shift+click instead of the usual Command+click. This can't be configured. Also, there seems to be no way to replace the current tab with Speed Dial. Seemingly the only way to use Speed Dial is with a new tab. That's a minor inconvenience, but it would be nice to have a button that would replace the current page with Speed Dial. Those, so far, are the only problems I have, and they're not really problems. Overall, I like it, and I plan to hang onto it for a while.

Update: After searching briefly online (i.e., after determine the correct search terms), I found this page, which showed me that buttons can be added to Opera with hyperlinks! How cool is that?! Anyway, on that page was a button to replace the current tab with Speed Dial, which is one of the features I mentioned I would like. Now if I could just find a fix for the mouse button thing...

Thanksgiving Excitement

This weekend was pretty exciting. I'm not used to extended weekends, and I'm not used to days so jam packed with things to do. The Girl and I went home for Thanksgiving for the first time since moving to Maryland. As an extra added benefit, our 10-year high school reunion also took place on Black Friday.

Thanksgiving proved one thing, as it does for many families; that my family is crazy. My aunt took the crazy crown this trip, stating that she was going to make her children (ten and thirteen) sit on Santa's lap so she could get a picture, and that they were going to do it because it was what she wanted, and she didn't care if they ended up hating her later in life. They will, rest assured.

The reunion (and associated activities) was more exciting, though. To quote a fun movie, "It was just as if everyone had swelled." I talked with some people who I never associated with in high school, really. Most importantly, we got to see George! We haven't seen him face-to-face since the wedding. It was awesome! He got drunk, the three of us hung out that Friday night, and we pretty much just had an awesome time being uncomfortable around a bunch of high school people, and comfortable with just a few.

Saturday, we hung out with George some more, as well as with another person I haven't seen in forever; Irene! I saw all sorts of people this weekend. George and Irene are just the same people they used to be, and it was just like old times. We're the ones who are different. The girl is pregnant, and I'm ten kinds of medical :-)

I Don't Get It

Apple could be the stingiest friggin' company ever. They have ads on their website for "1 day not to miss" for sales, which is pretty ridiculous considering shopping there today won't save you much of anything. Not even everything is on sale, and what IS on sale is less than 10% off. I don't get it. All this does is reinforce my belief that I should build an OS X86 machine instead of buying their hardware. My new machine will dual-boot with Linux, too, if I can raise the scratch necessary to acquire it.

Anyway, Apple, eat it raw! Your deals suck!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving all! I'm sitting here on my parents' sofa, watching TV, reading the Internets, and ingesting the massive amounts of coffee I need to properly wake up. I'm trying not to think of the potential food rampage to ensue today, which would probably choke a sufficiently large herd of cattle. O' ye gods of willpower, don't fail me now!

As this is the first time in four years we've gotten to come home for Thanksgiving, and the Girl is pregnant, this should be reasonably entertaining. That and, like other families, mine is probably strange enough to serve as the focus of a psychology major's Ph.D. thesis. May the entertainment ensue!

An Interesting Week For Cars

I haven't blogged about cars in a while. Suddenly, after no news, five stories come up in a day. Most of them were pretty good. I love it when articles talk about new cars and energy-efficient cars and HOT cars; most of these did.

First off, Road and Track talks did a story about the Dodge EV, which is every step in the right direction for what I want in a car; not the least of which is that the body is good looking. Remember the Lots Elise? The same guy designed the car. They want to use the same light-weight material to make it. The Elise weighs just shy of 2000 lbs, which gives it some quickness with a relatively small engine. Also, as the "EV" part suggests, it is fully electric. Just awesome. The drawback? It will probably be expensive for a while, just like the Elise.

Second, and equally cool (if not more-so for the design), the Honda FC Sport. It looks awesome and it is a fuel cell vehicle.

Another quick note is that Mini is releasing an electric Cooper. The Mini Cooper is already a fantastic car, what with it being light and fuel efficient and nimble.

One of the main points that we haven't seen before (in my opinion) is that a sports car can be both ecologically good and still look good. It's a trend in the right direction. I just pray that my car will hold out until these types of cars are widely available.

Finally, and this is of note just because I really like these cars, Nissan is releasing the next version of the 350 Z; the 370 Z. It's faster. It's better designed. It's just as hot. It's probably as inefficient as the 350 Z, though. Of note, however, is that Nissan has introduced a rev-matching component that could replace the heel-and-toe rev-matching requirement for all of you performance drivers out there. I rev-match while coasting, so I'm less efficient than I would be using heel-and-toe. However, I have big feet and I don't have the right pedals.

Update: This site talks about some changes to the 370 Z, including aluminum door panels, a shorter length, VVEL, etc., which would initially make it seem like it gets better gas mileage than the 350 Z. But, the site also talks about how its fuel economy is rated at 18/26. Bummer.

Climbing Shoes Review

OK, so I'm a little crazy. I suddenly feel like reviewing my rock climbing shoes. I've had several pairs, and I just received a new pair yesterday. I'm excited about the new pair. In the meantime, see what I have to say about 5.10 Ascent, 5.10 Galileo, La Sportive Miura, Evolv Defy, and 5.10 Spire. Then, when they're good and worn in, I'll review my brand new pair of Montrail Wasabi.

I got into climbing in October 2003. That was when I purchased my fateful first pair. I'm sure most people commit the same feau pax, and so did I. I bought them way too big, thinking they should be sized similar to street shoes; way wrong.

My first pair of shoes was a pair of 5.10 Spires. They're the famous purple lace-ups from 5.10. I recall that this was a good pair to learn on, but they suffered from two problems, one of which was my fault. They were too big, so I could used my toes very well. I didn't realize that was a problem until I got a bit better and actually needed my toes for something. The second problem is that they're shaped a bit more like a street shoe. Instead of having a really well-pointed toe, they curve up a bit in the front to be comfortable to wear. That also limits the use of their toes. I recall the rubber being really good, though, since they lasted me a long time and then I still got to give them to a friend to use even longer.

My second pair was a pair of velcro 5.10 Ascent. They have some little suction cup-looking things on the heels, although a recent redesign has changed that. I got these shoes a bit closer to the right size, but they were still a little big. These shoes have almost everything going for them, and one problem. The problem is that they may have been a little wide for my feet, so my feet moved inside them a little. However, that may have been because they were a little big for me. On the good side, the rubber is really good. They have velcro, so they're quick to get in and out of. They're really comfortable. The rubber is also really sticky, so they smear well. All in all, I was very happy with these shoes.

My third pair have been the best pair; La Sportive Miuras. They have quick laces, so they're easy enough to get in and out of. They have a super pointy toe, so I can get my toes into just about anything. The rubber is really sticky and pretty durable, so the first sole lasted a long time, and they helped me climb really well. They aren't the most comfortable, but I bought them really small, over-compensating for my two previous purchases. I love these shoes. I resoled them, and I still use them, though the resoles now have a hole, so they're not long for the world. They also cost a bit ($130), but you get major quality out of this price. They're technical, durable shoes.

I have really conflicting feelings about my fourth pair; Evolv Defys. Of the shoes, they are the most comfortable and are really fantastic for technical climbing. They have really pointy toes and really sticky rubber. They have velcro, so I can get in and out of them quickly. I love these shoes. The drawback to them, which is pretty significant, is that the rubber just doesn't last very long. The rubber wore out really quickly. I have developed holes in both toes after about 5 months. If I could put La Sportiva rubber on these shoes, they would be the best. I intend to do that when I get them resoled. On the bright side, they're cheap. At $75, they are a really good pair of shoes.

Then we have my current pair; 5.10 Galileos. I think I like these shoes the least of all of my shoes. Initially, the rubber is not sticky at all. Once they're worn in a bit, they're decently sticky. The rubber wears out a bit quickly, too. The bonus is that they're also velcro shoes, so they'll go on and come off quickly. But, they cost way too much for that to be the main selling point. Steer clear of these.

Stay tuned for my review of the Montrail Wasabis...
Read more...

OS X Apps

With the successful installation of OS X Leopard today, I figured I would share my own strange little software world with you all. I'm a big fan of FOSS, so most of these are free.

The User List

• Adium X - The only Instant Messager you ever need for OS X. And, it integrates with Address Book and Growl


• Firefox/NoScript - Browser of choice


• Safari - For those times when NoScript is just too annoying


• Mail/Address Book - Each is individually nice, and organized the way I like, but the icing to the cake is that they integrate amazingly well


• Quicksilver - So I don't need to go digging around my file system for applications


• Growl - It's just nice to be told what's going on, and when

The Power User List

• iTerm - Because I'm uncomfortable without a terminal


• Deeper - I like to have control over my environment


• Spaces - I like desktop real estate, and I hate clutter


• Disk Inventory X - Because I want to know where my hard drive space goes

The Multimedia List

• Handbrake - Who knows anymore whether DVD backups are legal. Screw it. I'm using it.


• iSquint - My iPhone likes videos too!


• VLC - I like to be able to play all of my videos, and Quicktime is unreasonably locked down by Apple


• Perian - This makes Quicktime just a little bit nicer, and so I can watch things using FrontRow (which uses Quicktime)


• Delicious Library ($40) - Because I have a lot of DVDs, and I like to keep track of them. The Girl just wants me to get rid of them so that they don't require cataloging

The Developer List

• X11 - I like to sit on my couch and program, but most of my development environment is on my Linux desktop. With X11, I can run applications on my desktop, but display them on my laptop


• Eclipse - A nice, free IDE

Update: Wow! I just tried out FrontRow as well. It is WORLDS better than it was in Tiger. It is unbelievably more responsive (it looks like the properly threaded it this time), has a much more manageable layout, and is just generally much more fun to play with.

A Day Off...

I have a reprieve from work. It's kind of nice. It's been a fun day. My keister has taken permanent root to the futon. I've learned a few things today, too. There are virtually no good free ERD (Entity relationship diagram) tools available for Linux or Mac OS. The only ones I could find are DBDesignerFork, MySQL Workbench (which doesn't work well for Linux), and a really weak plug-in for Eclipse called Amateras ERD. Edit: For ease of use and availability, SQLite Manager gets honorable mention too.

Apparently baby mandarin ducks jump out of trees...

I also made dinner for the first time in a long time; rice noodles with peanut sauce. A tasty, quick (15 minutes) meal, assuming you are obscure enough (as I am) to regularly keep rice noodles on hand, and could happily replace your blood with peanut butter despite the inevitable artery clogging that would ensue. I say it's worth it for peanut butter blood.

Fordham Copperhead is tasty...

The end.

Halloween Goodness

Since we got married, we've tried to throw some form of Halloween party every year. It almost didn't happen last year, but we made it. Next year could be interesting with a newborn, but we'll see about that. I'm not entirely sure how this year went, though.

See, I missed most of the party. I missed Laura. I missed Amanda. The party started at 6:00. I got home at 9:00 due to circumstances beyond my control. Because I got home so late, I only had time to dress up as a colossal geek for Halloween, wearing my anniversary gift. I saw exactly one kiddie dressed up for Halloween.

On the bright side, the part of the party I did experience was pretty cool. The Girl did a wonderful job setting it up. I got home to a bunch of happy people enjoying each others' company. I immediately had some home-brewed pumpkin ale, and pizza, and general junk food. Later on I got to have some anniversary cake, which is just so good it has to be part of the crack food group. Definitely. If you're ever planning to be at Penn State and you need a cake, call Kim Morrison to get a cake. She's awesome. She's a wonderfully nice lady, and her cakes are phenomenal. I'm telling you; crack food group.

My childhood "homeboy" JV came down for the party, too, which was awesome. I haven't seen him in forever. We got to hang out with Noelle after the party, and JV stayed over to Saturday. We got to play Wii, eat awesome seafood, and have the tastiest ice cream ever. It was pretty awesome. It was just like the old days, and it really felt like not a day had passed. Reminiscing about pre-school is just so much fun.

:-)

Today, married 4 years, my wife, the girl, on her blog, said the sweetest thing to me she's ever said. Happy Anniversary Bear!

The Cake Is A... Pumpkin

Today was pumpkin-carving day for Halloween. We went to Dana Day's house, pumpkins in hand, to create our masterpieces. Immediately prior to the party, I had a bright idea; I was going to create THE CAKE!

What is the cake? Well, to understand this, you must be one of the initiated. If you are not, then you should go play Portal. Then you'll understand what I've created.

Portal is a fantastic game. It's also hard to describe. It's a little quickie game from Valve Software (yes, the guy does have a valve sticking out the back of his head). It ends up being a puzzle game with a twist. You're eventually given a gun that has two ends of a portal. You can fire one in one place, another somewhere else, and then pass through the "portal" that you created. Throughout the game, you're promised cake by the GLaDOS computer speaking over the loudspeaker following your trials and tribulations.

The cake is a lie!

If you're not interested in playing you can get a thorough synopsis of the game from Wikipedia and an explanation of the above phrase from Urban Dictionary.

Without further ado, my creation and its inspiration...

The Girl

Her birthday was yesterday. :-) It's just a shame she has to have this infernal headache right now. It's been going on for several days.

On the way home from work, I stopped at Godiva and bought her some chocolate to supplement her other present, which she knew about. We later went to Outback for dinner, which was quite tasty, and the ice cream store, which is phenomenal.

Afterward, we went home and watched Planet Earth in the evening, which is a pretty cool show. Great White Sharks are just awesome. That's the marine biologist in me coming out, though.

Nicely Wrapping API Definitions in Python

I was doing a project in which I needed a good way to create an API for the code.inspect fuction. I wanted to have some "globally accessible" variables for the API only, but I didn't want to screw around with having to modify the module's namespace, or running into the problem of from module import *. So, after some pondering, and some playing around and learning about decorators, I came up with the following solution, which I kind of like:

"""
The following code will take a class with static methods
and create a module API from it to use with the code.inspect
(or other) functions.
"""
import inspect
import code

class Singleton(object):
     """ A Pythonic Singleton """
     def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
         if '_inst' not in vars(cls):
             cls._inst = object.__new__(cls, *args, **kwargs)
         return cls._inst


class MyApi(Singleton):
    """This is a Singleton so that the identifying object and other attributes
    don't get overwritten, which could lead to things like race conditions.
    """
    _api = {}
    def __init__(self):
        for f in dir(self):
            if inspect.isfunction(getattr(self,f)):
                self._api[f] = getattr(self, f)
    
    @staticmethod
    def func1():
        pass

    @staticmethod
    def func2():
        pass

if __name__ == "__main__":
    m = MyApi()
    code.interact(local=m._api)

All of this will provide your interactive shell with a list of commands defined in this class. Since they're all static methods, you don't need to know who self is or anything of the like. This should probably be a

Fencing 3: The Gating

Monday; Columbus Day. Today's the day I created the gate. This task is a great deal harder than it appears. The reason; angles. Wood really likes 90-degree angles. Anything else, and it kind of blows.

In the morning, I created an A-frame. Then I ate pizza. Then I put a few boards on. Then I ate fruit and nut mix. Then I realized that I purchased the incorrect hinges, and so I had to head to ACE Hardware for some other hinges. Then I came back and proceeded to hang the gate. The last step was to try to cut off the little extra bit of board so that the gate fits within its opening.

I'd be finished right now but for the saw. It ran out of the electron juice, and so the battery is currently charging. Two hours lapse, I'll be out there sawing the crap out of the side of that gate. Finally, the lock, and it's Miller Time! Well, Sam Adams Time, but that doesn't quite sound the same.

Fencing, Part 2: And No, Not With Swords

Fence day 2 happened today. We have a fence. Check it out...



Ken came over and helped. The girl supervised. It went smoothly for the most part. The only hitch was that we decided to do three beams across instead of two, and that required an extra trip to the Home Depot. But, after feeding the "hired labor" and purchasing the materials, we still saved about $700. Woo hoo!

See the rest of the pictures here.

Quicktime AVI Problems

I'm a Mac user. Generally, I love it. Once in a while, I have a problem that's decently irritating. My most recent source of aggravation has been playback of AVI files in Quicktime. Sometimes, depending on the codec, the sound just doesn't work at all.

Up to now, my solution has been to use VLC to transcode files to MP4 with MP4 audio. This time, no luck. So, I decided to be a good computer scientist and actually try to fix the problem instead of hacking away at it. I found a lot of posts online suggesting using the AC52 package or the xvid quicktime components, but none of that worked. Then, and I don't know why I hadn't found this before, somebody pointed me to Perian. Installation was remarkably easy, and voila, problem solved. So, use Perian to solve your Quicktime codec problems! Then, have fun playing back AVI files in FrontRow!

Fence Building - Part 1 (of Apparently >= 2)

We just started replacing a section of wood fence today. Now, I know that sounds exciting. Please, try to contain yourselves. "We" includes Ken, Kohnke, Drew, and me.

We started with this...


The first step was to take down the panels of old fence. That took all of 30 seconds, roughly. The second step was to remove the old uprights. Uprights number 3 came out with little effort. Uprights 1 and 2 were pretty difficult. I feel as though there were put there to mark a wood mine under our property. We kept digging, and we kept finding more and more and more wood. It looks as though the previous owners had a fence that was falling down, and so they just kept shoving more wood down there to brace up the failing fence. There was also some concrete down there. It was pretty interesting; and by interesting, I mean painful.

On top of that, one of the posts was a 10' post, sticking up only 5' out of the ground. Yeah, 5' of wood was buried in the ground. When Ken finally got it out, a little Chinese guy stuck his head up out of the ground and told us to stop shaking his fence in Shanghai.

Some concrete later, we have four new uprights. The concrete is drying right now. Then, we get to fill in the holes and finish it, which shouldn't be too horribly bad. So, we ended the day with this...


which was just about the time Amanda showed up :-)

Movie Review: Quarantine

Warning: There may be spoilers here.

That said, read on if you are interested, or if maybe you think you want to save $10.

The movie began pretty well. Its premise is that a TV crew consisting of a cameraman and a, let's say, reality TV show hostess, are slated to "shadow" a pair of fire fighters during a night shift. The crew gets a call to head to an apartment building. When they get there, they get locked in along with the tenants of the building and a couple police officers, and none of them knows why.

All hell immediately breaks loose. The little old lady that was the cause of the call to the police and fire department goes ape and tears into a few of the movie's cast. Then, as most zombie movies similarly progress, they get "infected" and the bloodbath continues.

Really, the movie did start out promisingly. Though the camera work was of the style of Blair Witch, which I hated, and Cloverfield, which I didn't see, it had potential. Since the main characters were a professional camera crew, I was practically praying that the camera would not be overly jittery and that I would be able to tell what was going on. For the first half of the movie, that was the case. Then, they decided to stop with the whole clarity thing. I understand the reason; I just don't agree with it. A jittery camera confuses the audience as a way of getting them to identify with the protagonists. I just don't think this trick works, and effectively just irritates the audience. At least that's what it does to me.

The lighting also ended up being schizophrenic. Initially, the movie lighting was fine. The apartment building had lights, and all was well. Then, a little more than halfway into the film, the producer must have run out of money for the electric bill, and the only source of lighting became the camera that acted as the audience's portal to the movie. Then, and I can't IMAGINE why this happened, the camera's light had to go iffy as though the battery was running out, and so there was a bit of a strobe effect through to the end of the movie. When the camera finally gave out, the end of the flick was done in night vision.

I really did think it had promise. It had a script. It had a few likable characters. I feel, though, like they gave up trying to get good scares out of the audience about halfway through the movie, and just gave in to having things jump out at the camera, which they could do because the camera ended up going "wonky." The lighting, the script, and any original scares in the film ended a little more than halfway into the film, though, and the movie degenerated into Blair Witch; no script and no lighting.

Overall, I probably wouldn't recommend shelling out $10 to see it in a theater. If it comes on cable sometime, watch it then. Instead, save your money go to see the new Bond flick, for which we saw a trailer.
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Date Night

The girl and I just got back from date night. If you recall, I won free sneak preview tickets via 98 Rock to see Quarantine. So, we decided to head to The Melting Pot before the movie.

I came home early from work and we left to go to Towson. We walked around a bit before five, and then went to the Melting Pot. It was pretty cool. We did, however, make the mistake of actually ordering a meal. They give you a pot of cheese first, complete with veggies, bread, and apples to munch on. Then, a salad; we each had a Cobb salad. Then, the entrèe. This is where we made the mistake. There were all sorts of meats and such, and the plate was enormous, even for two people. Finally, dessert. We had to fit this in! Who doesn't want melted chocolate with marshmallow and Oreos? I do. :-)

Finally, we went to the flick. There's a story in and of itself in the movie, so stay tuned for a review.

It was all pretty great. It was a nice, long dinner I got to spend with the girl, and we both enjoyed it.

My Theory is Definitely Sound

I hate driving in Baltimore. Most people somehow don't mind it, but it's a living nightmare for me. You disagree? Try going here and then finding your way back out without getting lost. I couldn't I got so turned around I accidentally went back the way I came. No wonder the girl got lost going to an interview in the area once.

Whoever designed that section of the city should be reanimated, made to pay to knock it all down, made to pay somebody else to redesign it, and then killed again. If he's still alive, we'll skip the reanimation part. Well, no we won't. We'll kill him, then reanimate him and continue the process.

Thankfully, I achieved my goal, which was to pick up the sneak preview tickets for Quarantine. Having done that, I learned that the sneak preview is next Thursday. I'm going. I'm interested in seeing how this movie is. It seems like it could be cool.

Little Jumpy Devils

Somebody is playing some cruel cosmic joke on me. It has to be. There is no other explanation. Somebody has to have created some little worm hole or something. One end of the wormhole is my basement. The other end of the wormhole is some creepy mad scientist whose idea of fun is to take crickets, line them up single file, and send them into the wormhole, sending each following the demise of the previous cricket.

Why? Because each of the last four days I've sat in the basement, heard the noisy raucous that couldn't have been caused by something so small, and then found and exterminated the source of the irritation. Rinse. Repeat. Four days. There's another one down here right now that seems to be particularly hidden and particularly loud.

Now if I could just find the wormhole...

Adventures in Brewing, Part 3 - AKA, My Strange Saturday

I wasn't expecting today to be anything interesting. It's just a rainy Saturday. It's also bottling day. I was a little trepidatious about bottling, so I decided to go to Amanda's house before climbing to get it over with, and to care for the puddies, who are very well.

So, here we go. I got there, started following the instructions, and all started off fine. The beer smells good. I cleaned it all, mastered siphoning today, and got the beer out of the carboy and back into the bucket. I then got the beer from the bucket to the bottles successfully (with priming sugar mixture :-) ), and capped the bottles successfully as well.

The cleanup is where things got interesting (though not bad), and where I typically need help in life. First, I cleaned out the bucket. That went fine. Then, the carboy. It's difficult to get detritus from the carboy when the neck is so small. But, I successfully figured out how to get that one going too. In the process, I feel like I got half the kitchen wet, but I'm probably exaggerating. It couldn't have been more than a quarter of it. But, it's all dry now.

I also discovered that iodine likes to TRY to stain countertop. Some of the iodaphore got onto the bottle, and I placed it on the counter and left it for a while, not having known that. I discovered the ioda-ring, panicked slightly, and then took to cleaning it. It wouldn't immediately come out, but Bon Ami seems to have done the trick. I successfully removed the stain from the countertop, thankfully. I'd have felt miserably guilty if I'd stained it permanently.

While there, I also performed an experiment of sorts. Since at no point has the carboy ever been been full to the neck, I decided to determine how full the bucket should be to get the carboy filled properly. It turns out the magic number is just a hair over the 3 mark. Hooray. Now I think we just have to make enough wort not to dilute it too much when putting it in the bucket. I'm betting the more wort, the more potent the beer. That might be obvious, but I learn a lot of obvious things the hard way. I've reinvented the wheel so many times, they might as well call it the "idjamamit greg."

Then, during the downpour that ensued on the way home, I stopped at Costco. On the way, while listening to the radio, an announcement came on for sneak preview tickets to the 98 Rock showing of Quarantine. I called in and won! I also won some tickets to Kim's Krypt and a chance to go to LA for the premier of the Quarantine in Hollywood. Awesome! I got to talk to Stash from 98 Rock. That was cool. He's a nice guy.

All that, and it's only about 2:00. What does the rest of the day hold in store? Oh, yeah, and I never did make it climbing...

Multiplication and Division

I originally wrote this the night I found out...

======

1+1=3. I know. That's addition. Kind of.

That's what happens to the brain, though, when you find out (via e-mail :-) ) that there is to be mini-person in the household in, oh, say, 9 months. Coincidentally, that's a portion of the math involved.

So my heart rate is about 140 bpm, and my blood pressure is probably capable of launching a bottle rocket into a high orbit.

And here's how weird I am. The predominant thought on my mind, since the discovery, has been about cell division. It's the only time division by 2 yields a higher number. Strange, huh? Math is funny. Multiplication doubly so. Pregnancy even moreso than that.

So, yeah, come late April-ish, we'll be plus 1 for all of our engagements. :-)

Starbucks vs. USA

I've had a theory for awhile, now, that I've largely kept to myself. I was reminded of it again today, and so I decided to share. The US is a military powerhouse. It's organized in such a way that it can't really ever be invaded. No country could come to our borders and try to invade us. That country would be summarily crushed. Even China, with its billions of people, would fall to us on home ground. If not for our sheer military power, then for the number of people who own guns and would have no qualms whipping them out to defend their sacred home towns. I, if I owned a gun, would have similarly few qualms.

This brings me to Starbucks. How, you ask? Think about it. They're everywhere. The population density of Starbucks rivals that of many US states. I theorize that Starbucks is the only entity even remotely capable of militarily taking over the US due solely to its ubiquity. Every Starbucks could have a hidden basement in which it trains the Starbucks military. With some synchronization, the Starbucks army could simply come up from their collective basements, draw their weapons, and hold this country at bay. There would be just too many people in the Starbucks army to repel them. We would have no choice but to submit.

So, we need a defense. Let's load up Dunkin Donuts with a similar army. We wouldn't need quite as many people as the Starbucks army would have. We'd need only the right number to supplement our own army. My defensive strategy! Dunkin Donuts/USA vs. Starbucks. Somehow it just feels right, and not just because Dunkin Donuts holds the coffee supremacy crown.

Adventures in Brewing, Part 2

I successfully transferred the beer to the carboy... I think. Only time will tell. Siphoning beer from bucket to carboy turns out to be a tricky endeavor. Gravity is a great help. I believe (or I was told at one point) that air is not. I'm not sure I kept the air from the beer. However, all the rest is well. The beer is being dry-hopped, and it's in the carboy, and there are few particulates as far as I could tell.

It appears to be a tasty beer, too! I love pumpkin. It's potent, which makes me happy. I think, if it survives the next ten days, that it will be quite nice. I have ten days to prepare for part three, the bottling (with the priming sugar!).

And, for the sake of fun, an update on Amanda's cats. Lucy and Pinstripe are alive and well, and VERY well fed since I was the one doing the feeding today instead of Mandy.

A Quick Brewing Note

Something occurred to me. When brewing the pumpkin ale (specifically when making the wort), I was told it didn't really matter how much water to put in the pot. I was thinking about it, and I think it does matter. I think that the more wort you make, the more potent (read: flavorful) the ale will be ultimately. If you think about it, making beer is about making the wort and then adding water to it (i.e., diluting it) until your bucket is "full enough" to make your batch. So, I think next time I'll fill the pot as full as I can when making the wort.

Now, it's possible I'll feel like an idiot when my friends read this. It's possible that this is common knowledge and that this is yet another example of me rediscovering the wheel. Knowledge is like a shiny object to me. When I figure something out, even as fundamental as dilution, I'm dreadfully excited.

So, next time making beer, I propose an experiment. I say, make two batches (or two half batches). Then, make more wort for one than the other, and compare at them both at the end. I'm curious. Are you?

Adventures in Brewing, Part 1

So, I'm brewing now. Amanda has brewed a few times before, and so has Ken has even more than that. This was my first time to be "in charge." Appropriately enough, my first try at brewing is pumpkin ale, just in time for Halloween.

The evening began with a trip to the brew store. Not knowing anything about it, I was happy that Amanda told me to talk with Chris. She hooked me up with everything we needed. On the way back to Amanda's, my tires failed in a way, and I skidded into an intersection in front of a cop and nearly caused an accident. I'm lucky the cop didn't ticket me. My brakes locked, my ABS didn't seem to work, and I slid very slowly, and for about 30 feet, into the intersection as people were turning left across me. Luckily, no mangled people or metal ensued.

Back at Amanda's, I got the beer going, managed the recipe, and we configured a beer and ate Chipotle for dinner. It was tasty. The beer smelled awesome! So, in 5 days, it'll be ready to be transferred into secondary fermentation, and then 10-11 days after that, bottling time! I have to do these final two parts by my lonesome, so I hope I don't screw anything up. Knowing me, it's completely possible. I have instructions, though, and I'm very ready to do my best for a tasty beer!

Geez, What Is It With You and Cars?

Yeah. Uh-huh. Another car post. Here's another link abour cars. Here's a direct link to the manufacturer.

I want one. I'll start of right away by saying that. The XR3 is small. It's a two-person vehicle. It is (at least to me) visually appealing. It doesn't weigh a lot (1480 lbs). It should get amazing gas mileage (b/w 125 mpg and 225 mpg), and is a hybrid. The drawbacks? Biodiesel; it's not that plentiful around here. Home-fabrication; I'm a clutz, and it would be a lot of money to screw it up, or I'd run into a problem and never get it done. It looks complicated. Maintenance; I probably don't know enough about it to get it done. Plus, it won't go up on a standard pneumatic lift, so working on it would probably be difficult. That's probably my auto ignorance speaking, though.

If I had a little extra cash, I'd do it in a second. It'd be a fun project. Apparently the plans are around $200. Anyway, I've been happy about the recent trends in more efficient cars. However, these trends all seem to come from the one-off (or multi-off) companies. When will the major manufacturers do something this daring?

Sew What?

I sew now. At least, I do with supervision. At least, I can sew something simple. At least, I can sew something simple with supervision. This is primarily thanks to Dana and Amanda. Despite pre-infusion grouchiness, I had a good time, and I made a Christmas present for my mom. I'm not going to mention it here in case she ever comes across this, though. I will, however, say that it's awesome because I made it, which probably makes it one of the better presents I will have ever given, despite its relative simplicity.

While we were sewing, a monsoon decided to grace us with its presence. It was really nice, though I'm sure Dana didn't enjoy driving through a wall of water so that we could obtain sewing materials. I really shouldn't say monsoon. I should say tropical storm or hurricane, because the storm was really the leftovers from one of them. I'm not sure which one. What letter are we on? Who knows? I'm sure Florida is unhappy this year; at least it is if a U.S. state can have a state of mind. Can it? I wonder if it reads this blog. Probably not.

We also heard from Dana about this Rube Goldberg device. I came home, looked up more, and found this one. Now, I really want to make one that spans from the top floor of the house to the bottom, and video tape it when it's done. This is ambitious, but I bet, with the help of me esposa y some amigo(a)s, I could get something cool working.

On another note, last week I stated something interesting. "I spilled coffee in my shoe." I said this because, well, I spilled coffee in my shoe. Have you ever spilled coffee in your shoe? I bet you haven't. Well, I can't say that anymore. I took my shoes off, drank my coffee, and then my inability to keep liquids from their magnetic attractions to my clothing popped out in an unexpected way.

That's all for now...

Mishmasy Goodness

Some brief thoughts...

First off, the monkey's fist is the coolest knot ever. Its basic purpose is to make an end of rope heavy. One might say, "Hey! Now I can throw one end of a rope some distance without having to worry about it getting snagged or the like!" But why stop there? Go ahead; use it as a safety weapon. Going somewhere shady? Don't have any means of self-defense? Never fear! Monkey's fist is here. I wonder if they'd let it on planes...

Second off, while considering Spirited Away, a Miyazake film, the girl, Amanda, Ken, and I were thinking of witches and how they always have ingredients stemming from animals blood, hair, and various other parts. I wondered then how vegetarian or (gasp!) vegan witches might get along. Is there such a thing? Why has nobody ever made some comedic movie on the subject? Why don't I? Could I accomplish such a thing? We'll probably never know.

Anyway, my brain leaked, and that's what came out. I've now plugged the hole, though I'm sure it will work itself loose again.

Yahoo Movies

Yahoo put together a list of Yahoo Users Top Rated Sci-Fi Films. I'm going to jump right to the conclusion and state that the user base for this list, though they got some movies on the mark, are special-effect eye-candy whores that that don't have any sense of what a good movie is.

I'll jump right to the list, and my comments.


30. Serenity - I loved Serenity, but I haven't yet decided whether it warrants this. As a standalone movie, it probably doesn't. It needs the character development backing of the show.

29. X-Men 3 - Whatever. I'm not really sure I would qualify superhero movies as sci-fi movies, but I'll ignore that for now. The end of this movie bothered me severely. The bad guys have the most powerful being on the planet and she stands by watching. Bad story writing for my liking.

28. I Am Legend - Yeah, nobody's going to remember this in 10 years. It was good, but not exceptional, and also had some issues. Besides being a giant Ford commercial, how did she get her shiny new Ford vehicle onto Manhattan anyway when they blew up the bridges?

27. Donnie Darko - This is one of the ones they got right

26. X-Men United - Not spectacular. Besides, they also screwed up the entire Nightcrawler character. He's supposed to be swashbuckling and debonnaire. Special effects and weak story.

25. Deja Vu - Didn't see it

24. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Good, but again, not the best.

23. Ghostbusters - Another one they got right. I love it.

22. V for Vendetta - I agree that this movie is spectacular, but it's not sci-fi.

21. The Terminator - This is one of those definitive sci-fi flicks. Why isn't it higher in the list?

20. X-Men - Better than the other two, but DEFINITELY not better than Terminator, Ghostbusters, or (movie for movie) V for Vendetta. It's not one of the best sci-fi flicks ever.

19. Predator - Another one of the definitive sci-fi flicks. Again, why isn't it higher?

18. Superman - A superhero movie (so not strictly sci-fi in my mind), but a good movie.

17. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith - Are you kidding? As if it wasn't just a bad movie, Hayden Christianson could be a worse actor than Keanu Reeves, and that's saying something!

16. Alien - One of the trio with Predator and Terminator. This just screams well-done, fantastic sci-fi

15. Spider-Man - Better than Alien, Predator, Terminator, and Ghostbusters!?!?! No. Everybody who voted this movie higher than those needs a movie education.

14. Jurassic Park - Again, not better than others I've mentioned, but I could see this belonging on the list.

13. Terminator 2 - Fantastic, but not as good as the original. Many original ideas in it, though.

12. The Incredibles - A great movie, but really! It doesn't belong on a sci-fi list at all.

11. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I didn't like it, but I can appreciate it.

10. The Day the Earth Stood Still - Finally, now you're talking! Flying saucers definitely belong on this list! If the new one coming out ever beats this, though, I'll die inside.

9. E.T. - Yup, this is one of those that belongs here.

8. The Matrix - I suspected this would be here. Keanu Reeves can't act, though, and there are a bunch of movies on this list better than the Matrix.

7. Back to the Future - It should never be this high on this list. It probably shouldn't even be here. It's good, but it's not the best.

6. Aliens - Cinematically, Alien is better. But for entertainment value, Aliens is better. They're about equal for different reasons.

5. Return of the Jedi - It belongs on the list. All three of the original Star Wars flicks probably do.

4. Empire Strikes Back - Look, another one!

3. Transformers - NFW. Nothing Michael Bay belongs on this list. EVER!

2. Star Wars - Yup, it belongs

1. Iron Man - You have got to be kidding me! This! The best sci-fi movie of all time? Shoot me now.

So what'd they miss? A whole bunch of stuff. Most of the classic sci-fi stuff (1950s and 60s), like the original War of the Worlds, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, the Time Machine, The Thing from Another Planet, and Forbidden Planet. They also missed some newer classics like Blade Runner, The Thing, Planet of the Apes. And then, of course, how could you miss one of the most important science fiction films ever; Godzilla!

Now, I know people will disagree with ever last (thanks K), but how could you put a comic book movie at the top of a sci-fi list? And how can you just ignore the origins of good science fiction? I'm disappointed in the users that got their movies onto this list. I'm happy with some of the people commenting, though.
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Semantic Mediawiki Problems

This morning I installed Semantic Mediawiki on a server for the first time and encountered a few problems with permissions. This is a very brief rundown on how I got it installed and how I fixed the problems I encountered...

First off, on installation, I had problems when clicking Initialise or upgrade tables button. To get around these problems, I used the database's root user to install Semantic mediawiki by changing the $wgDBuser and $wgDBpassword parameters in teh LocalSettings.php file.

After this, nothing worked. Whenever I tried to execute a semantic query, I got the following error:

...from within function "SMW::getCategoryTable". MySQL returned error "1142: DROP command denied to user ... for table 'smw_newcats' (localhost)".

The solution to this problem is to cd to $WIKIMEDIAROOT/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/storage and edit SMW_SQLStore.php to make the following modifications...

In function getCategoryTable (~line 1644 in my version):

• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_newcats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_rescats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_newcats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_rescats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');

In function getPropertyTable (~line 1706 in my version):

• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_new','SMW::getPropertyTable');
• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_res','SMW::getPropertyTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_new', 'SMW::getPropertyTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_res', 'SMW::getPropertyTable');

Save the changes, re-execute the query, and everything should be hunky dory.

Just One Word: Duh

I'm not really knocking this article. Rather, I'm knocking the fact that other people didn't realize this. "What do you mean? If we make cars weigh less, then they'll consume less fuel?" What a ludicrous thought (that was sarcasm for those that don't speak the language).

Maybe someday in the relatively near future, auto manufacturers will finally do what I want; make a car that still performs, but weighs significantly less. How do I get a job making these choices? Could I be the technology director for some auto manufacturer? I can already tell them where things are going and what would be beneficial for consumers, auto manufacturers, and the ecology.

Ultimately, all I want is a 200 hp car with good steering, good suspension, a low weight, and good gas mileage. For my purposes, I'll define good gas mileage as a combined average of over 30 mpg. They've come close already. The Acura RSX-S is 200 hp, and gets just slightly under. My RSX (base) is 160 hp, but gets about 31 mpg on average. The Civic Si also comes close. The Mini Cooper S doesn't quite have the horsepower, but weighs not much. The Lotus Elise is 190 hp and weighs only 1900 lbs, but doesn't quite get the gas mileage for some reason.

OK, I'm sorry if that last part was boring for the non-automobilicly inclined. The gist of it is, they've come close, but still haven't quite done it, though it shouldn't be hard. Oh, and they stopped making the RSX, which came really close. The Civic is about the only thing left that comes close.

Olympic Tech Envy

By now you realize I'm technologically inclined. I don't know why I am so fond of technology. It's not as though I'm one to like things just because other people do. If I did, then I'd be into things like reality television and the Motorola RAZR. I'm not. Granted, I own a RAZR, but I hate it. I purchased one not realizing its shortcomings. But I digress.

I have spent the weekend in tech envy. My family has the means to spend a bit. At least more than I do. My brother and my mom just bought iPhones. I got to play with them, and now I very desperately want one. I'm sitting here willing Dave to purchase his 3G iPhone quickly so that I can inherit (for a moderate fee) his old one. It's a phone and a PDA, but worlds better. It's fun.

I'm also sitting here watching the olympics on my parents' LCD HDTV. I don't really know why I want an LCD TV. It's not like I watch a lot of TV, I think. I mean I do, but we have a decent TV. This is a want that I can't explain.

One of the bigger pangs I've had this weekend, though, is due to my brother's car. He has a Subaru sTi. I didn't realize just how unbelievably awesome the car is until I drove it yesterday. It's a nice feeling, when pressing the accelerator, having your head pressed into the back of the driver's seat, hearing the turbo kick in, and just taking off. I realized afterward that it wasn't the tires that were squeaky, but rather my driving. The car's got enough torque to leave some of the tire rubber on the road surface. Now if only Subaru could figure out a way to get that going with better fuel economy, I'd be in business...

I also think I am too fond of the ellipse, but that's a thought to be explored at another time.

A Whole Lotta Somethin'

Amazingly, not a whole lot goes on for awhile, and then the cosmos just piles it on. Well, consider it piled. All sorts of wonders have happened recently...

The girl has finally been introduced to the mechanical wonder that is the manual transmission. Yesterday, Sunday, was pretty close to perfect. I started learning Objective C in the morning, we got lunch with Ken and Amanda at Panera, and then Amanda started teaching said girl about driving a stick. The deal was that I wasn't allowed to be there, and I wasn't. Ken and I sat in Panera, pondering how we might be able to play Battleship between both of our laptops. Yes, Battleship. Having to laptops across from one another is the perfect environment for doing that, don't you think? "You sank my battleship! And my laptop doesn't respond well to water, damnit!"

So, the girl drove. She stalled. She jerked around a bit. But she's still alive, my car is in one piece, and she made it successfully from Ames to Ollie's, and parked very nicely on an end spot, for a grand total distance of roughly 1000 feet. I'm proud of her. More driving to come :-)

Then, today happened. I'm going to gloss over most of the details of today because it sucked. You don't need to hear me whine about crap that really, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't mean much of anything. So, we'll skip to the only humorous part, which happened post-frustration. A woman in my new office is having a baby. She's concerned because she doesn't know what to name him. The corollary to this story is that I work with a bunch of geek-type people. So, we quickly degraded to providing her ways to name her baby. I eventually came to seeding a random number generator with the due date, and then reducing the output to printable ascii. We then proceeded to do this. Would you like to name your child Biq? She didn't either. But I contend that the theory is sound...

Oh, there's one more thing. The Girl's new occupation should definitely be extension cord assassin. Some assassins use knives. Some use rifles or pistols. And apparently, some use lawnmowers. She has bladed yet another extension cord to death. I'm sure more cords will fall under the blade before she's finished mowing lawns.
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Our Amazing Solar System

Back to back interesting articles. This article is about energy. Specifically, it's about solar energy.

You see, a few problems exist with energy from water. First off, a water molecule is pretty hard to split, so it requires a bit of energy to be put into the system. Second, the yield is usually greatly less than the energy put into the system due to entropy. Enter the story, and a great deal of hope (at least for me).

A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that could make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night.

A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity, while using far less energy than current methods.

With this catalyst, users could rely on electricity produced by photovoltaic solar cells to power the process that produces the fuel, said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who developed the new material.

Here is another link with a little more of a description.

So, MIT researchers discovered a nearly 100% efficient way, using a catalyst, to split water and save the energy. Chalk up one to science! The other benefit is that the way to do it doesn't involve destroying the environment around it. It's environmentally friendly. And, it is a really really good way to store photovoltaic energy as a result.

So, for the big picture, photovoltaics yield energy. Super scientist guys add a cobalt phosphate catalyst to water, and use that photo-energy-rificness to put an electric charge across the water, splitting the water, and using Platinum to bond with the Hydrogen and store it, and the allowing the cobalt phosphate to bond with the Oxygen. Then, when the current is removed (i.e., the Sun goes down), the separated components recombine into water and release almost 100% of the energy used to create the separation.

Ultimately, this is a good way to store solar power during the day and release it at night. Rock on, Sun! And the über-awesomeness award to MIT for figuring this one out.

Shortie McShorts-a-lot

Your car’s planet-destroying A/C. No matter how guilty you feel about your carbon footprint, you don’t have to swelter on the highway to the beach. After doing tests at 65 miles per hour, the mileage experts at edmunds.com report that the aerodynamic drag from opening the windows cancels out any fuel savings from turning off the air-conditioner.

That's from this New York Times article. That's interesting. I have in the past wondered about this one. There is, however, something about the breeze on a cool Spring/Fall day that prevents me from keeping my windows up. Sometimes you just have to indulge in the simple pleasures in life.

Infectious Meme

I got this from Karina... Have fun doing it.

Here are the rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page of results, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

The Peanut Gallery Speaks

What began as a well-formed plan for a meal degraded quickly into a hasty, thrown-together piece of wonder I can only describe as ... tasty. Dinner was originally meant to be of rice, veggies, and fried. Also known as sushi (maki specifically) and tempura. By the time climbing ended, however, we feared we would waste away to nothing. So our well-laid plans of cooking a meal in following climbing quickly degraded to hastily rushing to the grocery store and absconding (post-cash) with the makings for peanut butter and jelly.

So, to the ingredients. "Not just peanut butter, jelly, and bread?" you ask. Of course not! So what else was there? Gnutella, bananas, fluff, and more bread; all on one sammich! Moo ha. Yum. Ice cream yet to come... Oh, and of course there was pineapple. This is a nice way to end infusion day.

The list of attendees: the girl, Amanda, Ken, and me of course.

Regression of the Species

While spending time on the U.S.S. Internets, I had a few thoughts...

Antarctica is cold (understatement of the year). Apparently, though, it wasn't always. It used to be next to Death Valley. Funky, huh? (1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10). This got me thinking about continental drift (wouldn't you immediately go there?) and I thought about the massive geological event that had to happen to separate these masses. Many earthquakes later, Antarctica is cold and Death Valley is just a few degrees too warm. Did I mention I hate the heat? I'd probably rather be in Antarctica. You can always put on more clothing, but you can't always take it off. Contrary to popular belief, nudity is not always legal. So, I also imagined just what kind of destruction had to happen. If something like this happens again with the human race around (I'm looking at you California!)...

And then, on the way to work, I heard a story about the running of the bulls. I always have to laugh when I hear these stories. They just scream "Darwin Award!" Surprisingly few people have died doing this, though. Fourteen, I think. But, I'm guessing that some serious screws have to be loose to do this. I giggle, though, when I think that this is the one day the bulls get retribution for all of the bull-fighting. And, these bulls will also slightly clean the gene pool for humanity. Go Bulls! Really, though, I don't want people to die in this. I find it crazy they do it at all.

Fun-filled Fourth and More

This has been an eventful weekend. First, the fourth of July. It began, as many of my days recently have, at around 4:45 AM. Somehow, I felt ridiculously functional, and decided to make my computer more useful. So, I installed Apache, MySQL, MediaWiki, and LXR. There's more to come on that.

When the rest of the world woke up, people came over and we kayaked. 'We' being the girl, Amanda, Ken, and I. It were fun. Check out our route. Afterward, we cooked enough food to choke a small family of elephants, and somehow did not meet our demise. 'We,' in this case, additionally included Tim and Samantha. We ended up watching the Wedding Singer, and lapsing into restful (I hope) comas following.

Sometime during the day or night, we decided to start rating beers, and needed a place to store the ratings. Fortunately, I installed a wiki on my computer earlier. Some DNS magic later, my friends have access, and we now have a wiki with beer, wine, recipes, and other random junk.

Breakfast came and went the next morning at a nearby diner in Pasadena. I had some tasty french toast. Amanda and Ken left, and Jessie and I then learned that our basement had a stomach ache. Our sump pump was making some seriously sickening gurgling noises. Several trips to Lowes ensued, and we now have a new sump pump. Later, we went to Sandrew's house to begin an enjoyable eve.

At Sandrew's place, we began by taking a tour of the neighborhood on Drew's refurbished electric scooter. Good stuff. I never thought the thing could have been so fun. A bunch more food, enough to choke the former elephant family's giant mutant offspring's family, and then Katie and Jon came over. The girl also jumped in the pool, fully clothed, to rescue a drowning Corona bottle. Because of her hard work, we'll have one more Corona bottle in the world, saved from being one of the many of the horrible statistic of Corona bottles that have drowned in pools.

Sunday: Climbing day! Ken, Amanda, the girl, and I went to Rockville! I love that gym. I wish I lived a bit closer. I'm still sore from climbing. We ate dinner at the Mongolian Barbeque, went back, and waited out the storm at Amanda's place, with ice cream! Thanks Amanda!

Desultory :-)

A whole host of strangeness...

First off, from the "things I wish I knew when I was learning what to eat" department, we have watermelon makes you horny. :-) 'Nuff said.

Then, a story that we all probably knew deep down, and that shows you the treachery of Cell phone companies, AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte. I always knew they were up to no good. And with their recent lack of desire to yield at all to a loyal customer on iPhone deals, they can go screw themselves. Maybe I'll send them text messages. It's a shame that they really don't see much of the cost from texting. Just poor little old consumer people.

Finally, in the "draperies department," solar curtains. I want some. This is the kind of stuff I want to see more used in the world. "Quick, it's sunny out, close the curtains so I can power all the toys I can buy by saving money on electricity."

The end.

Used 2G iPhone Goodness

For those who want proof of that you can activate a used 2G iPhone (since the 3G version is due out in 10 days), I got this email from AT&T support...

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail AT&T regarding how to add a used iPhone to your line with your sim card, and how to add the data plan for $20.00. I am happy to help you with your inquiry.

To activate a used iPhone on your line, please contact customer service at 1-800-331-0500 for assistance. A new sim card may be required, and the $20.00 iPhone data plan can be added to the account at the time of activation.

[...]

So, I might be getting an iPhone! I'm just glad to have proof positive that I can get the cheaper data plan. If the 3G plan was still $20, I might actually shell out the un-subsidized price for it.

Quick Follow-up

Following the NYTimes article about Windows sucking, ZDNet has a follow-up that talks about Midori, a potential Windows rewrite (refactor :-) ) related to another research project they have going on called Singularity.

Singularity is the research into a microkernel version of Windows. Microsoft says this will never see the commercial/consumer world ever. The author of the ZDNet article, Mary Jo Foley, however, thinks that Midori is a related project with a lot of MS big-wig weight behind it. I wonder if Microsoft could have a much less bloated version of their OS with the security advancements of Vista. I wonder even more, however, if it would be the complex, convoluted, mess of a bunch of settings that Vista has become. I don't know where everything is anymore. I hope very seriously that they have learned from their past mistakes (I'm looking at you, NT, Vista, Millenium, et al) and organized things a bit better, and maybe moved to a better user interface that people can understand.

This all assumes, however, that Midori is even what she believes it is. Will we see? I wonder, personally, how much it would take to topple the bureaucracy that Microsoft has probably become to result in a usable operating system, a usable website, and software that doesn't always tell me what it thinks I should do, but rather does what I ask it to do.

Mac Obsession X Project

By now it's no secret that I love Mac OS X. It's not perfect, as nothing ever is, but it's the best so far for me. I can't help it; I like eye candy, and Apple even found a way to make some of the eye candy useful and some of the useful stuff eye candy...ful.

I own a Macbook, which I purchased for several reason. First off, the weight of my previous Dell laptop was enough to sink a medium-sized ship. Second, I realized that a laptop should just be a laptop, and a desktop should just be a desktop, and never the twain shall meet, really. Granted, my laptop is sitting on my desk right now, but that's beside the point... Anyway, I don't want to buy Apple hardware, really, because I have specific requirements. I don't want to lose half of my life savings on a computer, and I also don't need a computer that could, if it were a car, set a land speed record. But I also don't want a single-component box like the iMac or Mac Mini, because that defeats part of the purpose, which is to teach my brain about the current state of computing so that I don't become old and technically (if not actually) stupid. So, the Mac Pro is the only Apple machine I could buy, and it doesn't meet my lack-of-debt requirement. Third, a project, which should explain why I'm thinking Apple hardware. I am going to dual boot Linux and Mac OS X on this particular machine. With that in mind... the hardware list!

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L
CPU: Intel Wolfdale E8400 LGA 775
Video Card: MSI GeForce 9600GT 512MB PCI-E
Power Supply: Corsair 450W
Ram: 4 GB (2x2 GB) pqi
HDD: 500 GB (2x256 GB) Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM SATA
Optical Drive: Samsung 20x DVD+/-R (though I may change this due to it being Samsung)

This is the plan. These are the results so far of just how painful this will be according to compatibility lists.

Gigabyte Board: Looks like it should mostly work without a problem, except Apple SMBIOS.kext, IONetworkingFamily
CPU: Intel E8400 Wolfdale (LGA 775) - Should be no problem
Video Card: GeForce 9600GT (Not listed) - The GeForce 8800GT should work, so I might go with that instead. TBD

More to come as this project continues... I'd love to have a really fast Mac OS box, and this would also prompt me to purchase Leopard (OS X 10.5) if I can get Tiger (OS X 10.4) working.

And You Wonder Why I Switched?

If the man in charge can't change things for the users, then who can? I'm a Mac user. This is pretty much why.

My own personal experience was that I was the administrator of my Windows box and Windows wouldn't let me unzip a file because it "might be dangerous."

Now off to call Verizon to see about taking a gouge out of Comcast...

...

Nope, FiOS is not yet available. Now to try to fix my cell phone...

...

Nope, still doesn't work. Bummer.

Cellular Hell

I'm compelled to wax cellular due to a huge number of independently occurring but related events. It all began with a rain storm...

It was a decent day to begin with. We were at a climbing class at Great Falls, VA. Then, following lunch, the skies opened and spilled the heavens to the grounds, and my cell phone (which was protected, or so I thought, in my bag), bit the mud. I'd say it bit the dust, but it rained so much that I think no dust was left anywhere. So, my phone got a little wet during this monsoon and died a slow and painful death. Weak! It wasn't even that wet. It is a Samsung A737. Rather, it was; now it's just a useless plastic shell not suitable for anything other than reminding me to check myself into a mental institution if I purchase Samsung electronics anytime in the even remotely near future. I am now stuck using my Motorola RAZR, which is no treat either. Remember, I bought a new cell phone, which means I wanted one so badly that I was willing to commit two more years of my life to AT&T to get one. It's like leasing your soul to the devil, really. Argh...

Then, a few months later, just to stick it to me where it hurts, the 3G iPhone emerges. It's no secret that I have wanted an iPhone. Of course, a couple months after I purchase the crap-tastic Samsung A737, Apple finally decides to both release this iPhone and subsidize its cost. Damn. They would. So now I learn that with my new 2-year AT&T contract, I could have myself a brand-spanking new iPhone. I couldn't be lucky enough to have all this timing work out. Surely Apple wouldn't subsidize the cost when they didn't for the first iPhone. Yeah, right. Oh, and along with the new iPhone also comes the extra ethical question of whether you'll spend $30 US instead of $20 US for the unlimited data plan. Pretty much the last thing I want to do is give more money to a company that doesn't provide me an adequate service. Granted, part of this blame goes to my cell phone (the RAZR) since it's antenna is MISERABLE, but AT&T has had its share of jabs to my ribs, as well as to the girl's and my wallets. I had just reached the point where I would break down and pay $20/month for the iPhone. Now I don't know whether $30 is worth it. I really don't like service contracts. Plus, it's a phone! I mean, how much of The Tubes is really conveniently available on a mobile platform? More everyday, probably, but is it enough to warrant $30/month? My sources says "Outlook not so good," and I (for once!) am not talking about a Microsoft product.

A glimpse of hope then emerged with Android. That's right! Google is coming out with a cell phone software platform. It's Linux-based, and some of it is even Open Source Software. That's awesome. This could be intriguing. I wonder how this platform will do on battery consumption. It's also interesting because it looks like Nokia might try to fight back by buying and open sourcing parts of the Symbian OS, another major cell phone operating system. Let the mobile OS wars begin! I'll be happy to provide my input if somebody wants to provide me the hardware. No problem at all...

Finally, as a a motivator for my diatribe, this article on Forbes on hating your cell phone company. It starts off by saying (I'm loosely paraphrasing) that most people hate their phone companies, particularly in the customer service department. The part that excites me about this article, though, is the following quote:

Another big step: Most operators have plans to open up their networks by the end of the year to a plethora of phone manufacturers, allowing customers to keep their mobile device even if they switch carriers. So you might be able to use that cool, new phone you got at a discount for signing a service contract with T-Mobile, for instance, on AT&T's network.

That's a big thing, because I've been pissed in the past that I couldn't purchase phones that meet my needs because they were locked to another provider, and purchasing one that was unlocked would cost me our house or first born. Rumplestiltskin has got to be behind at least one cell phone company.

So what does this all mean in the long run? It means that (and this is all speculative) the cell phone companies may open up a bit and that there may be a major mobile OS-war that I hope will lead to good, competitive, inspired ideas for cell phones. It means I'm going to have to buy another cell phone before any of this happens. It hopefully means that more of said Tubes could be made available for mobile platforms, and that it may be fun to own a capable phone. Will it be the best of times for mobile providers and companies? Is the endless griping from the consumers they claim to care about actually making them see that they don't care? I hope so.
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Electronic Salvation

Eventful day today. Let me begin by saying, "Happy anniversary Karina and Kohnke." We were fortunate enough to spend some of today with them. We four went kayaking at Quiet Waters park. And so the fun begins...

My day began at 4:00 AM. I woke up for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Yesterday I put the Yakima rack on my car, and the plan this morning was to finish it off with the easy-to-mount kayak saddles. Seven out of eight bolts later, it becomes apparent that I'm one bolt short of a full rack, so to speak. So, 7:30 AM trip to ACE Hardware, to return shortly thereafter with the piece. Poof! Kayak rack is up and on. I'm so lucky that people who like to work on their homes wake up early.

Part two of the exciting adventure began at 9:00 AM. My initial estimate was that it would take about a twenty minutes to get the kayaks onto the car. Sure it would... Forty minutes later, the Kohnkes get a call from us, which was to be the first of many. Then, since our original plan was to stop briefly to get Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, we did so because we hadn't eaten and our combined stomachs would have triggered a good-sized earthquake. Of course, the line at DD could have wrapped a few times around the equator with room to spare for a return trip to the moon. Second phone conversation with Kohnkes ensues, informing them that we'll be a half hour late.

Trip to Annapolis continues (finally) with a tasty breakfast, eaten quickly in the car. Kayaks remain securely fastened to the RSX. All is looking good. "How do we get there?" Of course, neither of us knows. But we think we do, which is all that's important in the grand scheme of things. One wrong turn and several miles down, enter call number three to Kohnkes. After she returns our call, we're on the right track, ETA 45 minutes late.

We show up to Quiet Waters, find the parking area, and we're now 50 minutes late, which is something that my body and brain like to physically remind me of with every ounce of my scarred psyche. After pulling down the kayaks and walking the 30 more miles to the water, we're on the water in the kayaks. Finally. My body is screaming at this point from all the expended energy and muscular distress, and we barely started.

Now do most of that in reverse (except make it 85 degrees instead of 70), get us home , and give me about enough time to eat lunch, and then off to climbing. Yup, climbing.

Every part of me wishes fiercely that I wouldn't move right now. So I'm not. Fortunately, the fingers still work.

And now the punchline... The girl has wanted a GPS unit for awhile now, and Stealdeals had a link to a Garmin GPS for a good discount, so we immediately decided to make it a part of our family. Electronic Salvation is on the way to our front door...
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