February 28, 2003

The report on the MusicBrainz tagger is that it works, but the amount of information re-written to the meta tags is minor. I was hoping for more individual information like year, genre, and track numbers, and I got just the track numbers. Maybe as more and better information is written to the site, the quality of the tags will improve.

Another very good link I found this afternoon is Constantin Von Wentzel's Base Station page, for all things AirPort, including some crafty solutions to heating problems (avoid frying that pair of capacitors) and uploading your firmware without hosing the unit. Also included are some handy links to repair outfits who will fix your ailing ABS. | link

February 27, 2003

Test pattern. I read on Fucked Company that Cidera, a former employer of mine, shut down its service for good yesterday. Godspeed, and god bless. And quiet props go to Doug Humphrey, who was Doug enough to add a goofy farewell haiku in the announcement instead of some bullshit NewEconomySpeak excuse/diatribe.
(Jen just reminded me via email of one of the design ideas she had for a streaming media brochure featuring a test pattern. )

I also read today that Mr. Rogers passed away this morning. Bye, Fred.

Now that I have a wireless network set up at the house, I'm paranoid that it's insecure. In reading some basic online articles about the 802.11b protocol, I have cause to be concerned. The Wi-Fi Alliance has this basic information to offer, and there's a good book written on the subject ($20). The ever-timely Airportblog leads me to believe that there's no really good way to lock a wireless network down other than implementing a bunch of technical third-party fixes, which is discouraging. WEP is a jacket made of holes, which is disturbing, and simply denying MAC addresses is useless as well. Still, something is better than nothing, and it would be nice for Apple to implement something. We can hold out for Leap or some other encryption standard, but the long and short of it is that it's going to take time to sort this all out.

Found via Wired: Musicbrainz.org, a service that automatically tags and catalogs your existing MP3's based on metadata and ID tags submitted by you and other folks. It's a great idea, along the lines of the CDDB, but there's one drawback: The client is only available for Windows. | link

February 26, 2003

28th street bridge, 2.26

I got the eyes checked this afternoon, and it turns out that my prescription is just a wee bit stronger than last time, but no marked difference. Here's to that. While at the mall, I also stopped in to the Apple Store and bought an Airport card for Jen's Powerbook, so we'll both be wireless from here on out.

As it stands now, we may get a foot of snow tonight through tomorrow, or we may get an inch. It's hard to say, because the local forecasters admit that they just don't know. Meanwhile, I spent $20 putting a little more than 9 gallons of gas in the Scout this afternoon, just in case.

Via Kottke, here's a great link to an idea I wish I had: Using a peephole for a fisheye lens on a camera. I may have to unscrew the peephole on the back door to try this out for myself. Also from the same source: The Lomoizer, for all of us who can't afford the camera right now.

Ok, I'm stupid. What I didn't do was set the Base Station up as a bridge;, I left it in its original configuration as a DHCP/NAT router, so in effect I had two machines (the SMC broadband router in the basement and the Base Station) battling over the right to serve the machines on the network. No wonder I couldn't see the other machines on the network, or the printer. And I think this will allow the autosensing features in OSX to work as advertised. Jen's computer is up and running flawlessly, after a brief detour to the network to download Airport 2.04 for OS9 (it was not included on the enclosed disk).

One final bit of good news: We ordered tickets to see David Sedaris at the Lisner Auditorium in April. It promises to be a funny and interesting evening. Jen hopes he'll talk about the Rooster. (I think the last time I was at the Lisner was to see 10,000 Maniacs back in about 1990 or so.) | link

February 25, 2003

Obsolescence. The Smartdisk USB hard drive I bought at Cidera three years back is not supported under OSX 10.2, but every iteration of the OS before that. I don't know if it's a vendor-specific driver issue or an OSX issue, but it's damned annoying. I think I'll have to definitely boycott Smartdisk from here on out, because that's just ridiculous.

Now that I re-hung the bathroom door to be level, close correctly and open the right way into the room, I found that there's whole lot more space in there for people and storage. I found a real nice cabinet down at the antique store down the street, so I picked that up today to replace the small Target-bought cabinet currently jammed full of towels and bath sundries. I think it will make the room work even better. Meanwhile, work on the hallway and living room molding continues. I'm shooting for getting the interior of the house cleaned up in time for spring, when I can focus all energies on rebuilding the backyard.

PS. My neighbor Dick was sent home from the hospital two days after the operation. Bless his heart, they can't kill him—he's too stubborn. | link

February 24, 2003

Doing research on codecs and video playback, I found dvdrhelp.com this morning, which is a very comprehensive and informative guide to all things video, be it DVD or PC-playback. (And no, I'm not telling you what awesome movie I just got an *ahem* copy of.)

I read, as most other folks have, about Salon being on shaky financial footings, to the point where they are pleading for more subscriptions to pay their rent. I was a longtime reader of the magazine, and as with other folks who have weighed in on the subject, I enjoyed their early lead in the online journalism market. Two years ago their reporting was on time, interesting, deeply researched, and often very balanced. With the dissolution of venture capital, their features became smaller and their focus became fuzzy. Last fall I stopped visiting every day, preferring to scan the 'recently' headlines once a week, and rarely found a reason to dive into the site. (This was roughly about the time Garrison Keillor quit writing Mr. Blue.) Did I buy a subscription? No. I considered it, but at that time, the range and quality of articles had decreased to the point where I didn't care to buy into it. Do I regret the decision? Partly, because without my subscription, and those of the other internet heads who were weaned on the free teat of the early Web, it may have had a chance. Raise a candle, tip your flag, and dip your hat to another vessel of the New Economy as it sinks off into the western horizon.

Behind the Curve Dept., Report No. 317: Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is an interesting, challenging, intriguing album that deserves more than one listen. I like it more as I hear it more. | link

February 23, 2003

One drawback to switching between Airport and Ethernet on a laptop: apparently OSX (and most likely OS9) don't each like having a port open simultaneously for AppleTalk, with is a drag, because I need it for fileserving. I haven't figured out how to set up the system to autosense and compensate, so it looks like I might have to go back to the old Location settings. Which would be a drag, because I haven't had to worry about that for a few years, and I was getting spoiled with Airport auto-sensing the connection.
Update: read the entry for February 26.

I found a very interesting article about a guy who woke up one day with a great idea, and who just happened to have a lot of spare time on his hands. I wish I had the resources and programming background to do something like that. | link

February 21, 2003

state of affairs, 2.21

Airport is working flawlessly at the house, no problems at all. All is right with the world, and (maybe) I can pick up another Airport card tomorrow for Jen's machine. | link

February 20, 2003

I'm feeling much better now. Yesterday I dug the Scout out and bundled Jen up on the warm sheepskin seat and we ventured out into the snow in 4-Hi. Canton, my neighborhood, was an absolute disaster of yuppies frantically scraping off their BMW's and Navigators and blindly zooming around each other to Get There As Soon As Possible. We gamely avoided all these jerks and motored up to her office, and I returned home quietly. Returning to pick her up was a different matter, as aforementioned yuppies were out en masse Getting Home As Soon As Possible, which involves lots of traffic, ignoring red lights, cutting in front of people, blind lane changes, and charging down a one-lane road after seeing you've started and are halfway towards them already. Two and a half hours later we returned to eat steaks and drink beers and lay around on the couch, and we went to bed like good Scouts at 11.

This morning, we rose at 6:15 to be out the door by 7 to drive our neighbor Dick and his wife Thelma to the hospital, where Dick was scheduled for anyeurism surgery at 9:30. I felt like total crap, and by the time we stopped at the BK Lounge for some coffee and food after successful delivery, I felt like dying. Upon delivery of Jen to her office, I crawled under the conference room table, curled up like a dog and passed out until 10 (scaring the life out of Carl, her boss, who thought I was a dead body.)

At first I thought it might be carbon monoxide poisoning from the truck exhaust, but I can't be sure, as I'm feeling fine now. Props go to Jen for putting up with my grunting and generally rotten mood. And everybody cross your fingers for Dick, who needs to quit going to the hospital (the guy fought his way across the Pacific in 1945 and still works part-time as a driver for the local funeral parlor.) He and his wife are the best neighbors ever.

I got my Airport Base Station in the mail today, plugged it in and within minutes was working wirelessly. I can't wait to get it home and test out the signal. Thanks for the heads-up, Mike! In somewhat related news, Looks like I'd better go get a copy of VirtualPC 6.0 before it's gone.

Renie sent me a link that's worth a chuckle or three: Kiwi caught speeding semi-naked on motorised barstool. | link

February 19, 2003

Duh. OK, just for the record, people: When somebody invites you into an organization and asks you to bring money/buy merchandise/pay a hefty membership fee, and then turns around and asks you to get all your friends to join as well, and ave them bring money/buy, this is called a Ponzi Scheme. The entire economy of frickin' Albania collapsed because of this crap. (Yes, I'm stuck at home yet again today, listening to Oprah.)

As much as I think this is a bubble, this is an interesting take on the state of the economy. | link

February 18, 2003

I posted some pictures of the fun this morning. I heard from Todd that the office is closed again today, and we're both thinking that we won't be able to make it up there until Thursday. I don't doubt it.

Apparently some folks have had problems upgrading to OSX 10.2.4, but I've been running smoothly so far (knock on wood.) Overall it's stable and smooth, and because I've never used the modem on this machine I'm immune to what seems to be the majority of the connection problems. And anything to fix the printing problems from Carbon applications is a good thing. | link

February 17, 2003

Sad. We got word a few hours ago that the roof of the B&O Railroad Museum collapsed, possibly damaging or destroying several historical and priceless trains and passenger cars. I only hope they are able to repair the roof and save some of the cars below it.

I'm going to post a gallery of pictures from the snowstorm a bit later on in the day; I still have to strap the mukluks on and shovel the walk outside (I've been avoiding it by painting the front bedroom.) Jen and I walked four doors down the street to Matt & Emily's house to have dinner and watch some movies last night, which was really fun. Apparently the final tally has been a little under two feet, and the Governor has been on the news asking folks to stay off the roads today. Fine by me!

I was not aware of the problems some folks have had with original AirPort base stations, but a link from the estimable Nacintosh News Network details a fix for blown capacitors, which replacements are better than others, and how to solder it yourself. not for the faint of heart, but definitely cheaper than buying a new one. | link

February 16, 2003

fearsome snow leopard, 2.16

I'm Snowed In! It's 6:30 ond there's somewhere around a foot of snow outside (probably more). The talking heads are claiming it won't let up until tomorrow noon. We have plenty of booze, food and a broadband connection, so we're looking good. Plus, the temps are supposed to climb up to the 50's by Friday.

Happy shoveling! | link

February 14, 2003

On Mike's advice, and knowing that I'm finally getting paid this weekend, I ordered a used Airport Base Station from Small Dog Electronics. With the purchase of another AirPort card for Jen's laptop, we'll be totally wireless, at least at my house. It will be very cool to lose the cat-5 cables laying around, and also to have the PC, laptop and printer on the network at the same time. | link

February 13, 2003

international, 2.13

February 11, 2003

city life building 2.11

I read last week that the old City Life building is being developed into a restaurant/nightclub venue. It was a crime to charge visitors $7 to see a thin display of local kitsch, but this will hopefully be a better use of a very beautiful space. Good luck, folks.

Jen and I have been working for the last few days on freelance work, and the stuff we have so far makes me very happy. I'm very excited to sink my teeth into this work, because I have a ton of ideas for the website and I think we can make really strong products for each client.

I will have to look into a product called Konfabulator, which is a sort of do-it-yourself widget maker for OSX, made by the guys who brought us Kaliedoscope (which I never used.) I have a few things I'd like to configure through AppleScript but I can't seem to make the Script Editor record my actions anymore, either in Classic or in OSX. I used to have a series of scripts which would open the three main programs I use every day, and another to mount my remote web drive and publish my log page, and it made the day go by faster. I'd like to set that up again in OSX, but I don't have the technology yet.

Ted Rall writes a very interesting (and very sobering) article about the cost of college, or more importantly, the cost of graduating, and the increasing gap between the folks who can afford it and those who can't. Personally, I count myself lucky to have had parents who believed in me enough to send me to an art college. I don't know exactly how much they paid to send me to school, but I know it wasn't cheap, and I got off very lucky. | link

February 10, 2003

Wired has a very interesting and thought-provoking essay on the exploding world of digital archiving; the author brings up several points I hadn't considered before. Jim Lewis reminds us that mechanical memory degrades, and this very process of aging gives items of importance value and worth, as well as a critical placeholder in the timeline of life. | link

February 9, 2003

Todd did a little digging around and found this link to an article about our friend Terry Tate. I coulda swore he was a pro, but it appears I am mistaken.

Investment in the Future. Jen and I signed up for a class last November at Bin 604 for a pair of wine-tasting classes as our anniversary present. Yesterday we had our first class, learning about the different regions of Europe and their specific varietals. There was so much to cover it basically illustrated how much more there is to learn instead of making things clearer. (From what I understood, you could make a graduate program out of some of the larger French regions.) After getting a little tipsy in class, we visited the Barnes & Noble downtown to spend some money on design publications, picking up the Print Regional Design Annual and some other magazines, as well as a book on design typography/color/mood and a beautiful leather-bound journal for Jen. | link

February 7, 2003

Snowed in again today. I was able to get a lot of work done for the 9-5 and re-hang the bathroom door, so I'm feeling pretty good. I have more lumber to buy as well as some new drill bits to replace the missing ones, but the woodwork is shaping up. I can't wait to be done, because the whole house is filled with dust.

Found via Macintouch this morning: A reader replaced his LCD with a $200 replacement from eBay. Good to know- this might be one of those sites I cache permanently for archive's sake.

Oh, and: Dude needs some serious psychiatric evaluation. What a freakshow. Here's the simple facts: If he was not a bazillionaire, somebody would have taken those kids away from him a long time ago. I feel so bad for them. | link

February 6, 2003

creepy tree with gif downsampling, 2.4

Nothing left to do but laugh, I guess. Continuing the har-har trend from yesterday, Nate (my local North Dakotan expatriate) sent me this link to a shocking Onion story. Kind of frightening when you stop to consider just how much of the world this sleepy northern state could wipe out in one launch. And there's also a funny contribution from Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, who makes the case for blockwide extermination of evil.

Today's music selection is the seminal 1973 release from The Allman Brothers, Brothers and Sisters.

Looks like we are going to have a little snow tonight. This year has been a high-water mark in the duration of the cold snowy season, if not the amount (I think the blizzard of '96 takes that prize.) | link

February 5, 2003

Not Promising. Pitchfork gave a less-than-stellar review to The 100th Window, the new release from Massive Attack. I'm still going to buy it, but that's a real bummer. I hope it's better than they say.

I read an article in the New Yorker about the American intelligence community last night, and the writer brought up an interesting phenomena in examining the different events leading up to the present day: "...both intelligence analysts and policymakers assumed that the Indians would not test their nuclear weapons because Americans would not, in similar circumstances, test nuclear weapons. In the world of intelligence, this is known as mirror-imaging: the projection of American values and behavior onto America's enemies and rivals." One wonders how much of this behavior influences current US foreign policy, and how many missteps have been made because of it.

On a much brighter, funnier note, this is the best commercial I have seen in the last year. I want to vote Terry for President. Thank Jen for this link—she needed it after the day she's having. "You need a cover on your TPS report, Richard!" | link

February 4, 2003

I'm getting older. Last night I found myself in front of the TV, trying to decide between a slew of bad programming choices, when my remote happened upon a Frontline report on the Gulf War. Now, I like PBS, but the Maryland equivalent of Public Broadcasting used to equate to a guy with an aluminum foil antenna powered by his car battery. Somewhere in the last six months they upped the juice on the transmitter and I can finally see the Antiques Roadshow, as opposed to listening to it through a squall of white fuzz.

What was interesting was that it had been produced sometime after the war and sometime before the current administration (the site says 1996), so the viewpoints were not skewed in any noticable way towards the current situation. At the time, I was still in college, and without cable TV, so most of the coverage was new to me. The timeline of events and behind-the-scenes information was fascinating. When the program was over at midnight, they left it off at the beginning of the ground war, with much still to cover. I'm definitely tuning in tonight for the next chapter. | link

February 3, 2003

Gregg Easterbrook, in an article penned twenty years ago, points out the realities of the Columbia's design purpose:

"While all five engines are screaming, there will be acoustic vibrations reaching 167 decibels, enough to kill an unprotected person. In orbit, the shuttle will drift through -250°F. vacuum, what engineers call the "cold soak." It's cold enough to embrittle and shatter most materials. During reentry, the ship's skin goes from cold soak to 2,700°F., hot enough to transform many metals into Silly Putty... After reentry, it cascades through the air without power; finally thunking down onto the runway at 220 m.p.h... The shuttle's design goal is to take this nightmare ride 100 times. "

Something to think about.

In looking through the news reports, it's time to pause and reflect on how brave seven people were in pursuing their dreams. Godspeed.

Today I found a link on the mighty Metafilter about antique radios, which is a hobby I've kind of put aside while the house has been shaping up. There's a pretty nice list of sets on this site, which looks to be someone's personal collection, as well as a list of other sites and links to tube resellers (a must-have when dealing with 60-year-old radios), dial covers (which were made from cellulose plastic and frequently melted or glazed), and other parts. At some point I'm going to post a section on this site with my personal collection, which numbers currently at seventeen. (And I'll light a candle for the Emerson Catalin radio I saw, and did not buy, six years ago in Fell's Point.) There is no better way to listen to Prairie Home Companion or Big Band music than through an AM tube radio. | link

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