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title: Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude. |
descrip: One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com Self-Pimpin': Member of an email list? You need The Digest Handler!! |
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| FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!! Back-up your data and always wear white. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Wednesday, November 04, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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iPhone vs. Google Voice
I Quit The iPhone: Apple and AT&T are now blocking the iPhone version of the Google Voice app. Why? Because they absolutely don’t want people doing exactly what I’m doing – moving their phone number to Google and using the carrier as a dumb pipe. The dumb pipe phrase is well said. Seriously, though, why didn't AT&T (well, SBC and friends) get waaaaay out in front of this and innovate a little with phone numbers while they were still a serious player in the home, before cell phones were quite as ubiquitous as they are now? Why wasn't there a smart phone from AT&T the same time there was an iMac? What was their R&D division doing with their time? Heads on pikes, Mr. Tony. Heads on pikes. posted by ruffin at 11/04/2009 08:30:00 PM |
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Only in America. And its economic zones.
Is too much sleep making you tired? - CNN.com.The studies might be international, but the results are all too American, where by saying "American" I pull the colonizing move of meaning the USA. But if you habitually sleep excessively, it could be the result of an underlying health problem. And it could be cutting into your life span. I know of very few folk that need to get less sleep on a routine basis, but whaddya know, there must be enough that there's a market pitching treatment to them. "If you find you're sleeping a lot -- like more than nine hours on a regular basis, you need to talk to your physician, because that probably means you got poor quality sleep and that could be sleep apnea, narcolepsy or restless legs form of sleep disorder," said Breus. [emph of diagnoses mine] A recent This American Life show suggested that those who spent a great deal on lots of health care later in life did not necessarily have longer lives than those who didn't. Perhaps those who didn't were simply healthier. Perhaps the health system isn't smart enough to deduce good, long term rules for better health. I don't think the human has changed enough in 2000 years to warrant any flip-flops on medical advice for the whole. I'm reminded of my standard mantra on eating/dieting: "Eat whatever you want and then go running." I suspect that the suggestion that relaxing in general can kill -- the undercurrent of this "story" -- is the capital talking. posted by ruffin at 10/31/2009 11:38:00 AM |
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| Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Google Voice -- Is that Darth on the phone?
I've been using Google Voice a bit recently. Having lots of phones go off when your number is called is neat... and having you cell go off at the same time helps you know a call's for you, even with a shared phone sans caller ID.[1] It's a nice way to make free long distance calls from the office and the home phone (yes, I still have a landline), but tonight, when I tried making a call around 8pm, it was the worst quality I've heard in quite a while. I couldn't understand what was going on on the other end, and even after re-placing the call, the quality still stunk.Later tonight, things went better, but I'm starting to figure out why Google is giving away free long distance. I'm betting they've determined how much bandwidth they're willing to dedicate to Voice and when call volume goes up, the compression goes up to match. If there are too many calls, well... But if I'm using an Android phone, which apparently integrates easily with Voice, and the call volume cuts out when I'm most likely to make a call, I'm not going to be a Voice fan for long. I ended up using Skype at four cents to connect and 2.1 cents per minute instead. And the connection with Skype has proven to be exceptionally clear recently -- much better than my Sprint cellphone that I just gave up on (and switched carriers). Even when I called around 9:30 tonight with Voice, the conversation often sounded like I was speaking to tech support in India, where you have the tinny, Darth Vader like voice and reverb at times. Still, Voice is pretty handy, and maybe calls in get priority. And maybe I'm extrapolating much too much from a couple of calls. Just thought I'd pass it along. [1] I'm still too dinosaur-like to see the advantage of caller ID. I mean, I enjoy having it on the cell phone, but willingly pay extra? That's crazy talk. Call waiting? Let them eat busy signals, like I did while trudging uphill both ways to make a call. Oh, and that's another good feature of Voice -- a free answering service. I imagine my messages are in the cloud somewhere being mined by Google for help with voice recognition (though can my callers' messages be used in any sustained manner (beyond simple transcription) if they haven't given their permission?), but it's better than my $10 Call Keeper answering machine at home. Seriously, no 9 volt battery and you won't remember jack? Goodness. posted by ruffin at 10/28/2009 09:57:00 PM |
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Seamonkey 2.0 released
Seamonkey 2.0, the real successor to Netscape, is out.* Doesn't seem slower. * Has the Firefox 3.5.4 engine. * Icons are much better (see pic) -- I can tell the difference between Composer and Mail windows now just by looking. ;^) * Apparently supports more Firefox add-ons The bad: * ProFontWindows is no longer displayed correctly in editable text boxes or for email composing; lots of pixel bleed. * Rendering speed a mixed bag. * Having some issues with pulling the contents of IMAP message from Gmail. I don't store anything locally with SeaMonkey. I wouldn't be surprised if that config wasn't tested so well, esp. since they're supposed to have changed IMAP in this version. I use the Monk b/c it's easier on my P3 600 MHz Toughbook -- less overhead when your browser and mail handler are using the same space. I also use it to test websites. I'll keep the site in Monkey and Google code/docs in Firefox, making reloading and testing an easy alt-tab affair rather than a ctrl-` fiasco. Overall, it's been a good browser for me. Admittedly, I'm still waiting for a search bar displayed by default. Can't have it all. posted by ruffin at 10/28/2009 10:04:00 AM |
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| Thursday, October 22, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Gmail ads -- influenced by sender?
 I've gotten some emails from someone recently whose gmail adverts aren't noticeably related to the content we're discussing or the sorts of ads I've seen in the past. They are, however, linked to the sorts of work the sender has done while programming in the past. Does the sender (and what some algorithm says about the sender) help determine ads? Do we project ye olde digital proverbial ethos with our emails linked to our online presence/brand as defined by some compilation corp? I mean, it's not a bad idea from the pov of profit if Google is doing this, but it seems close to an invasion of privacy. No reason everyone should be able to glean from ads connected to my emails that I, um, have read pretty much every codexically amalgamated word written by Frank Herbert [and much too many by his son, which, Dreamer of Dune excepted (barely), probably means any number above 1000]. EDIT: Now that I've replied, the adverts are gone. How the heck does Gmail decide when to show ads? Sometimes you just get offers to connect to Google Calendar or Maps, and sometimes there's nothing, though when it was just one email in the thread, I had probably twelve ads down the right hand side. Weird. Wow, busy day. Was going to upload the picture and the upload form for Blogger now has a pretty complicated "terms of service" which, though it's dated 2006, wasn't there last time I uploaded something. So we'll link offsite. Here's the text: In addition, by submitting, posting or displaying Content which is intended to be available to the general public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such Content for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services. You mean services like Google Press' book on someone famous who just happened to be in a picture I uploaded? Wow. And so all your family snapshots are belong to multinational corporation. Make your time. posted by ruffin at 10/22/2009 10:12:00 AM |
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| Wednesday, October 21, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The new iMac is your next Mini's monitor
From Apple iMac Hands On - iMac - Gizmodo: The iMac has a new trick, too—its DisplayPort can turn it into a second screen, receiving video (and audio, pending availability of 3rd party adapters) input from DVD players or a MacBook. Apple said it was HDCP compliant so it should be fine for watching Blu-rays on, via the port, via a separate player. This is something I've wanted since the first iMac. Your monitor is one of the longest-living pieces of hardware you can buy, second only perhaps to a keyboard or mouse (post-USB), if you like them well enough. Buying a great monitor is certainly the best way to stretch your money. Putting the cash in up-front makes for years of increased real estate across a number of computers. Now this is still a fairly expensive monitor, even after subtracting the value of the iMac innards, but at least your purchase doesn't lose its value nearly as quickly as the old model. 17" G4 lamp iMacs are going for $100 on eBay now at times, and that monitor and stand alone is worth at least that much, I'd think, if you could hook a Mini to it. Even if this is, as Gizmodo give or take suggests, a way of getting BluRay coming through your iMac, now you'll be able to grab a Mac Mini in three years instead of tossing out the whole contraption. So the iMac is your next Mini's (or Windows tower's) monitor. And the 27" can be mounted on the wall. Perhaps it's your next TV. Ah, the beauty of input ports. Labels: apple posted by ruffin at 10/21/2009 09:28:00 AM |
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| Saturday, October 17, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Free VCD App for Mac
No idea why I didn't bump into this earlier. iVCD isn't bad for making VCDs on Macs, but still had a few rough edges.Just as nice, but $40 less, is Burn, a Free as in No Money app on sourceforge: Made your own movies and want to share them with family and friends? No problem. Burn can create a wide range of video discs. From VideoCD to DVD-Video discs. And DivX discs to fit more of your videos on a disc. Works well, and so far hasn't had any trouble converting my movie files from their original format to an mpeg for VCD. The only catch is making sure each of your movies is 64 minutes or less (I believe that's about the max VCD size. You might double check me). To make longer videos into VCD sized chunks, I'm using splitmovie from QTcoffee. Quicktime will split movies by itself if you pay for Pro, but I paid for Pro for QT 6 and am [neurotically] still a little upset that that didn't translate to 7, not even as a discount. So instead of firing up OS 9, I installed this QTCoffee mess. Here's the command line you'll need: splitmovie -o originalMovie.mov -self-contained -no-fast-start -duration 64:00 vcdReadyMovieName.avi And voila... you'll have files named "vcdReadyMovieName-1.avi" on up, as many as are needed. Kinda a dumb format, I know, but cheaper to burn two CDs than a DVD, and then you can tote movies to watch on most DVD players. There are some big blocks every so often, especially, it seems, when there's lots of black, but overall I don't get too broken up with the quality. posted by ruffin at 10/17/2009 07:03:00 PM |
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Coal plants -- in the home
Though this NYTimes.com article on Beijing's air pollution was somewhat fascinating: Every year, [a Chinese family interviewed] burned 1,200 one-kilogram coal bricks — one and one-third tons of coal — to stay warm. Until now: this month, Beijing’s city government gave the couple a two-thirds discount on the electric heater, and a laughably low nighttime rate for electric power, 3 cents a kilowatt-hour. I've admittedly thought about a wood stove, even if the only serious practical application would be to stay warm when the power was out. More interesting to me is that I believe we tend to forget how unclean the US was as it grew into an economic power. The advantage, from the perspective of environmentalists, perhaps, is that China and other econs slowly moving from ag to industrial and service econs, is that they can grab the low-hanging fruit from the collective experience we've already set down. There's less naivete, as exhibited by 1.) China's allowing families to depend on coal (in the words of the ole ball coach, it's "cheap and available") and 2.) China knowing that cheaper energy rates at different times of the day are both fairer and more normalizing than keeping rates flat. /shrug posted by ruffin at 10/17/2009 02:40:00 PM |
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| Thursday, October 15, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Note to self: Non-square pixels
AppleInsider | Apple iMovie 8.0.5 update debuts new iFrame video format: "Digital camcorders began recording in MJPEG (Motion JPEG, a series of still photo captures) before moving to the better compression of the popular DV format. While DV recording allowed for high quality capture, it wasn't optimally designed for direct editing in QuickTime; it uses non-square pixels and is oriented toward TV resolutions and aspect ratios."
posted by ruffin at 10/15/2009 12:38:00 PM |
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