Lair of the Gecko

Passing of a Legend

2011-10-05T21:43:00.001-05:00

There has been much talk lately about entering the post-PC era, and that seems even more prescient with the loss of Steve Jobs.

To paraphrase Churchill, though, this is not the end or even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Nearly everything we have called personal computers so far would be more accurately termed "computers usable by a normal person," but they have hardly been personal.

Desktops were shared communal devices -- in most households there was one for the family. Laptops are more personal -- still somewhat shared, but more likely than desktops to be owned and used by an individual. iPods, smart phones, and tablets are distinctly and undeniably personal and individual devices -- but so far they've lacked the full power of their predecessors.

Now, though, thanks to years of work from a generation of visionaries like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Jef Raskin, Alan Kay, and tens of thousands of others whose names and faces we may never know, we're standing at the dawn of the era of truly personal computers.

The next part of the revolution could be portable devices that combine communication, media, work, and play -- along with interfaces and displays -- portable personal computing systems that are fully capable of not only replacing, but surpassing, everything that has gone before.

The first generation is fading into the past, but the personal computer era has barely started. Whatever the next stage is, it will be up to the new generation to make sure it's incredible, beautiful, and magical. We're standing on the shoulders of giants; let's change the world.

Is this thing still on?

2011-06-26T23:14:00.002-05:00

Man, I really need to start blogging again! Twitter alone just doesn't suffice if you've got more than 120 characters worth of ideas to expr

Important Life Lesson

2010-04-01T18:09:00.002-05:00

Today was the day I mowed the yard for the first time this year.

To all appearances, it didn't seem necessary: the grass is still dormant, the weather has just started warming up, and the lawn still looks neat and tidy from last year. Really, all I accomplished was breaking up and knocking off the thatch from last season.

In fact, the yard looked worse when I finished -- a lot worse! Where before I had thick, even tan sod, I now have thin, patchy-looking, scraggly grass.

But I know that because I did this seemingly unnecessary, apparently destructive thing today, a month from now my lawn is going to look awesome! The new growth will be lush, dense, and healthy.

Now go and meditate upon this...

...while I go to the gas station, because the second important life lesson is to make sure you have enough fuel to finish!

One More Year

2009-11-02T22:40:00.001-06:00

Yes, it's been almost exactly one year since my last post.

Tomorrow is my birthday, though, which seems like a good time to start regularly blogging again. We'll see how it goes....

Well done, and congratulations!

2008-11-04T23:34:00.003-06:00

I didn't vote for him, and I didn't support him, but Obama won, fair and square. There will be plenty of time for analysis and commentary later, but for tonight Obama and his supporters deserve all the spotlights and celebrations.

And, in the months ahead, Obama will deserve the support of all the American people. Not our placid submission, which I will not give him or any politician, but our respect, which I will give. Our loyalty, after all, is to the Constitution and the people of the United States, not to any particular leader.

Election 2008

2008-11-02T23:01:00.003-06:00

So, here we are, finally, on Election Eve. In less than 24 hours we'll likely know who won the election, and I think all of us -- black and white, left and right -- can all join together as Americans in one common, universal feeling:

Thank God it's over!

Seriously, think about it: Obama and McCain have been running for President non-stop for 21 and 19 months respectively. And that's just officially, and doesn't even account for the fact that they've both essentially been running since 2004. Good grief.

Before I go any further, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll say up front that I count myself as a conservative Republican (with strong libertarian leanings) and that I'll be voting for John McCain. I offer no arguments or justifications, it's too late in the game for that, but I feel like it's important to know from the beginning what direction someone is coming from.

Despite my preference, barring the biggest political upset since Dewey "defeated" Truman, Obama will win the election and become the next President in January. And, for the most part, I'm ok with that. Not happy, but ok.

Why? Primarily because, as soon as he's sworn in, I expect Obama to focus all his attention and abilities on the goal of all first term Presidents: becoming a second term President. Make no mistake, Obama is easily the most liberal candidate nominated in decades, and I disagree with him on nearly every issue and principle of substance, but I actually think that his natural impulse may very well be to work toward concensus and compromise. I also think that won't matter a whit, but I'll get to that later.

What really worries me is that my gut instinct (and some polling) says many of Obama's supporters aren't voting for him because they agree with (or even know?) his positions, but because they desperately want to vote for change, and, for all of our lifetimes, voting for change has meant voting for the other party. Since the current President is a Republican, that means voting for a Democrat.

The problem is that in this election, that would mean voting for McCain, because he's actually closer to what most people probably think of when they say Democrat.

In a process that started in 1994, and accelerated sharply in 2000, the Democratic Party has moved much further left than most people (who probably have lives that prevent them from following politics like a neverending spectator sport) are likely to realize. They think that Obama is a Democrat in the tradition of Clinton or Kennedy, when he's actually at least as far left as FDR, and likely with ideas that are as dangerous for the times.

If you're a liberal who really earnestly believes in those ideas, that's fine, but if you're a moderate don't fool yourself into thinking that a vote for Obama is a vote for someone who is ideologically moderate. The best you can hope for is that he'll be pragmatically centrist.

Pragmatic centrism wouldn't be bad, though, and I honestly believe he genuinely means to seek compromise, if only because he will want to be reelected in 2012. There are two reasons it won't matter, though: Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Even if he really wants to govern from the center, I have seen nothing in his temperment or experience to suggest that he will have the backbone or political chutzpah to go against his own party.

I hope he proves me wrong, but I'll be pleasantly surprised if he does.

My fear, though, is that Democrats will misread an Obama victory as a massive ideological shift to the left, just as the GOP misread the 1994 midterm election as a massive shift to the right, and will overreach accordingly. True, that would increase the likelihood of a 1994-style Republican swing in 2010, but likely at the cost of massive, possibly irreparable damage in the meantime.

This is still a slightly right-center country, though, and it's important for the Democrats to realize that probably 20% of their voters this year are likely voting against the Bush administration, and many of those voters are expecting Clintonesque centrism. I'm afraid the lesson they learned from Clintons first two years, though, isn't that they overestimated their mandate but that they didn't move hard enough left when they had the chance.

And that, ultimately, will be Obama's biggest challenge: he can't give everyone (or maybe anyone) what they expect from him. Once in office, he will have to govern to the center to have a shot at reelection, and that will alienate much of his liberal base. He will also find himself constrained by geopolitical realities. When Biden warned about decisions that may not be obviously correct, remember that he was speaking to supporters. What would be seemingly incorrect to supporters? Likely things like keeping troops in Iraq, threatening military strikes against Iran, not invading Pakistan -- basically many of the things they've hated Bush for.

Moderate, independent voters would wake up in February with a massive case of buyers' remorse when they realize they didn't elect a Clinton but a Carter.

And, of course, conservatives will disagree with him on most things on principle regardless.

That's a pretty dismal outlook for 2012, not to mention the intervening four years.

If there's one notion that we need to return to in America, I believe, it is the idea of the Loyal Opposition. Just because we disagree with the other side, that doesn't make them evil.

If Obama wins, he will be the duly-elected, fully-legitimate President of the United States, and despite our ideological differences, I intend to recognize, respect, and support him as such. I will advocate against policies and initiatives that I disagree with, but at the end of the day I will do my best to remember that we are all Americans and that we all want what's best for our nation, even if we disagree about how to achieve it. I hope my party will do the same.

I also hope that Democrats and liberals will do the same. I pray that they will finally let go of the animosity and anger that has poisoned and eaten away at them for the past 8 years. It's over, ok? Let it go, and let's all move forward. We've got too many pressing issues ahead to waste time and energy nursing old wounds.

Now, what if McCain wins?

Don't laugh, this election really does look too close to call in many respects. McCain has been moving up in the polls, and Obama obviously hasn't completely closed the deal. There is also some uncertainty about polling methodology, although I have more confidence in statistical analysis than many of my conservative brethren.

In the event that McCain wins, though, I hope that Democrats and liberals will show him the same respect I'm willing to show Obama. If you lose, it doesn't mean anything was stolen or that the winner is illegitimate.

In the final analysis, I don't expect either candidate to be as bad as his opponents expect or as good as his supporters hope. They will both be inextricably bound by external realities over which they have little control.

So let's cut them both some slack. And win or lose, starting November 4, let's all start acting like grown-up Americans again.

Goodbye, Opus

2008-10-09T18:00:00.003-05:00

I heard today that Berke Breathed is ending Opus, the last of his Bloom County-related comics, on November 2, 2008, so that he can concentrate on children's books.

Even though I never closely followed Outland or Opus, it's still a sad day for me. I was a huge fan of Bloom County when I was a kid. Bloom County was probably the single biggest influence on my sense of humor, followed closely by Douglas Adams and The Far Side. My wife may often wonder if that was for good or ill, but I count it in the plus column. So the passing of another formative piece of my childhood will be sad.

I don't think I'll actually mourn much, though. You see, I've read Breathed's children's books, and they're good. Really, really good. Not in the limp, saccharine way that many such books are, but in the deep, fulfilling way that classic myths and fairy tales are. What's more, though, just like all his comics -- and I don't think it's intentional -- they are all set in Bloom County.

True, if you look at the pictures, the Breathed style is inescapable, but it goes deeper than than. At the risk of waxing philosophical, Bloom County (the place) was a state of mind, at least to me. It was a place where animals talked (the interesting ones anyway), the real and surreal frolicked happily together, and it was completely acceptable -- nay, expected! -- for one to spend an afternoon lounging in dandelions. Bloom County was sometimes dark, and often cynical, but at its core it was always hopeful and beguilingly innocent.

Maybe it's that every creator really only has one world living in his mind, and subconsciously sets everything in that universe. The last Far Side did imply that all the comics took place in the same warped universe, and even Isaac Asimov ended up eventually reconciling his Robot and Foundation universes. I don't think Breathed has intended that, and if asked would likely deny it, but that's how his other comics and books have all felt to me.

And I think that's enough: to know that the spirit of Bloom County lives on, it just got too big for the funny pages. It grew up, just like I did, becoming more complex and nuanced and ultimately richer, but still with the same spirit deep down.

So goodbye, Opus. I'll miss you, but we'll always have Bloom County!

Sarah Palin - Newest Disney Princess?

2008-09-10T22:35:00.003-05:00

So Matt Damon says that Sarah Palin is "like a bad Disney movie." He's actually right, of course, assuming that by bad he means cheesy and sentimental. Mrs. Palin Goes To Washington, if you will.

What he may be missing in that analogy, though, is that it's a movie that would probably make $200 million and become a beloved family classic.

For millions of American women, the likes of Ariel, Belle, and Jasmin look like pretty good company for a Vice Presidential candidate -- could be worse.

Update: Heather Marie points out that Sarah Palin's come-from-nowhere success story would be as crazy as a little-known actor winning an Oscar for writing a screenplay about a come-from-nowhere success story. Hmm....

First History Reading

2008-07-08T22:54:00.004-05:00

After some Amazon browsing and research at the library, I selected Miracle At Philadelphia as my primary reading on the Constitutional Convention. The Amazon reviews were what got Miracle on my short list, but what moved it up to the top was the fact that all the other books I looked at in the library listed it in their bibliographies. I was unaware of it at the time, but apparently Miracle has been the definitive layman's book on the Convention for nearly half a century. It appears that I have chosen wisely.

As a supplemental follow-up, I also checked out The Summer of 1787 for a more contemporary account of events. I'll read it when I'm finished with Miracle. And for good measure, I also got a copy of The Federalist Papers, although for now I only plan to use it as a reference rather than reading it all the way through.

Although I'm a few chapters into Miracle, I don't have any interesting observations yet. I'll post thoughts and comments as they occur to me, of course. After all, what is a blog for, if not boring random readers with your insightful commentary? ;-)

To refine and clarify this project, my goal is to build a personalized American history curriculum for an adult who has a good basic overview but who wants a little more depth -- namely: me. Any recommendations for my next topic and books on the same?

Happy Birthday, America!

2008-07-04T22:21:00.003-05:00

I always enjoy Independence Day. I'm usually awakened early in the morning by NPR's annual reading of the Declaration of Independence, one of my favorite traditions, and one which never fails to give me chills. I also love that it's easy to find patriotic and American music on the radio for most of the day, and if that fails there's always the Copland & Sousa playlist on my iPod.

In many ways, July 4th feels more like the start of a new year to me than January 1st. For one thing, mid-summer is typically less rushed and harried for me than the immediate post-holidays, which makes it more conducive to introspection and planning. I suspect, though, that it's mostly due to my lingering adherence to an academic schedule, wherein new years begin in August-September. By that calendar, July 4th marks the emotional middle of the summer -- the end of reflection on the old year and the beginning of preparation for the new one.

As such, I always have an urge to begin new projects during the summer, and this year is no different. I have about five such projects in mind, but only two that I really anticipate will make the cut to warrant serious effort. Four of the five are things I'm not ready to talk about yet, and I may launch a new blog for them anyway, but Independence Day seems like a good time to discuss the other one.

Around a decade ago I had the idea of reading my way through American history, at the rate of about one book a month. The goal was to select around 12 (give or take) major events and turning points in our history, spaced roughly evenly between 1776 and 1976, and read one really good book on each one.

My first book was George Washington's War, which is a great history of the Revolutionary War. Despite the title, its scope is actually much broader. I especially found myself getting caught up in the drama of the rise and fall of Benedict Arnold. His name may be a byword for treason now, but at the time he was one of the best-loved heroes of the war, possibly second only to Washington himself, which made his betrayal all the more shocking. Analogies are difficult, since we don't really have that type of celebrity war heroes these days, but a close comparison might be if Patton had suddenly decided to turn Italy over to the Nazis. I gained deep new insight into the War for Independence, and a greater appreciation of the scope and precariousness of the endeavor.

Alas, despite the auspicious beginning, the start of school (and all the required reading that entailed) interceded, and I never even got to choose the second book.

So that's my project for this year: read one book on a major even in American history each month between now and July 4, 2009, and I'm soliciting suggestions. I'll be hitting the library tomorrow to select my first one (probably on the Constitutional Convention), so it's a little late to suggest that event/book, but feel free to post comments on others. I may also read some related items, especially primary sources (such as the Federalist Papers in conjunction with the Constitutional Convention), so feel free to suggest those as well.

I'm trying to space topics out evenly over the 200 years up to 1976 (I should have a pretty good handle on events since then), proceeding chronologically by the order of the events, but if there's a period that lacks a major, well-known event, then I'd also be interested in learning about one of those obscure "gap events" that fill in the spaces between the main features, so to speak.

The topics I'm currently considering are the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, the Civil War, Reconstruction, World War I, the Depression, and World War II. Those are all pretty obvious, but there are also some enormous gaps between them, so there are some good open slots. If possible, I would like to read about things other than wars, too -- I'm interested in the ideas that have made America what it is, not just the events.

So, after the Constitutional Convention, what was the next shaping event or idea in the history of America? And what books would you suggest on the topic?

The Purge - Part IV: The Struggle

2008-04-22T15:42:00.004-05:00

Good grief, has it really been over a month since I enthusiastically launched into the office overhaul project with optimistic predictions of being done in a week or so? ("YES, it can!!!" my wife exclaims with exasperation.) You know what they say, though: the first 90% of the project takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time. It is nearly done, though.

We've finished all the fun furniture shopping and arranging, and all the creative decorating, and we're now down to the non-fun parts of the project. Those are mostly related to sorting through several boxes of papers, figuring out where and how to store the "keepers," and finally deciding where all the myriad odds and ends are going to go back into the room.

After all that is done, and the other room is cleared out again, the final task will be selling, donating, or recycling all the stuff we're not keeping. That may be the part I dread the most, personally.

The Purge - Part III: The Restoration

2008-03-25T23:47:00.002-05:00

We started moving things back into our office last night, but so far it has been a slow, careful process. I'm putting a lot of effort into organizing things so that it will be easier to keep them organized.

While HM was at her dance class, I was busy assembling a new media center shelf and a bookcase. Both new pieces have black finishes, which will match my computer desk better than the old wood-finish stuff and fit in with the zen dojo them better.

The new media shelf has more space than our old one (a short computer cart which, if I recall, was left behind in 2000 by the previous tenants in our duplex), so in addition to the TV and printer it will now house some video game systems. The TV looks more than a bit out of place now, perched high on a shelf. It kind of needs to be replaced anyway (it's good to have red colors in your screen), but that's not in the budget for this overhaul. The bookcase replaces two separate bookcases that had been stacked (somewhat precariously), so in addition to coherence, it also introduces some stability into the room, and it balances out the new media tower nicely.

By far the most time-consuming project was loading all the computer equipment back onto my desk. I consider desk organization and cable control essential to the cleanliness of the office.

Back in the dorm I had an absolutely monstrous computer desk name The Beast. Pretty much everyone I knew helped me move it...once. I think only my friend and occasional roommate Kevin ever subjected himself to it multiple times. During grad school, I finally sent The Beast into retirement at my parents' house (where it serves with distinction -- and weight -- to this day) and instead just used one of the desks that was included in my room. In both arrangements, though, I always spent a great deal of time either on my back under the desk or hanging upside down off the back to connect wires, so when I went shopping for a new computer desk after we got married, I picked out a desk on wheels for easy access to the back.

The main flaw in that plan is that, while my desk moved easily, the furniture around it didn't, so it had to move out at least three feet for me to get behind it. Unfortunately, most of the wires and cables behind it weren't that long, and even those that were would only get in the way of the wheels. That meant that wiring things and cleaning behind it was just about as hard as with a stationary desk. For example, when I untangled the rat's next of wires last week, I found 3 USB cables, 2 power supplies, 2 ethernet cables, and 15 feet of coiled coax that weren't attached to anything. I know that when I unplugged their associated devices at some point, I decided it was easier to just grab different wires than to untangle those, but it was still eye-opening.

In order to preserve my desk's mobility, as I moved equipment back onto it, I very carefully coiled each cable and strapped it to the back using Velcro loops. I mounted all of my power strips on the back, too, so that nothing at all is on the floor. There is still a limit to how far it can move away from the wall, but it's now pretty easy to move it out far enough for me to sit on the floor behind it...or to vacuum.

And let me tell you: the vacuuming is key. There were dust bunnies back there before. Ok, calling them "bunnies" is a little kind. Remember the Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs drinks the Jekyll & Hyde potion? Yeah, that kind of bunny.

So as things stand now, Gecko IV, the current incarnation of my desktop computer, is once again connected, powered-up, and humming (if by "humming" you mean "buzzing quietly in a manner that suggests my CPU fan's days may be numbered in small integers"). My primary computer and math reference books are back in the room, at home on the new bookcase. The TV, printer, and DVD/VCR are setup again, and ready to entertain.

There's still quite a bit of work to do, but the end of the tunnel is brightly lit and looming large before us. By the end of the week we will have filtered out some more junk, shredded some more non-essentials, and packed away the stuff to keep. The rest will be moved back into the closet, the desks, and other places where space has been freed for it.

We're on the home stretch now.

The Purge - Part II: The Cleansing

2008-03-23T22:36:00.002-05:00

After nearly a week's work, our home office is finally really clean. It's also nearly empty, but that was all part of the plan. We got all the furniture cleared out or rearranged, which allowed us to give the carpet a good work-over with the vacuum cleaner.

Bless her, Heather Marie has spent most of the weekend sorting, filing, and shredding papers. Some of the records we found were pretty enlightening. For instance, one thing we found was a shipping receipt for an ethernet card...a 10 megabit card...shipped to my old dorm address...in March of 1999. So not only was it a nine year-old receipt for an item I no longer own, it must have been moved from one residence to another at least 4 times. Ouch.

So, aside from some minor nostalgic and historic value, we're not losing much except for old, useless paperwork. We have four trash bags of shredded paper so far, and I expect that we'll end up with another before we're done. Of course, none of that includes the bags of paper that didn't need to be shredded!

And that's just the paper debris! Glancing around our living room staging area, I also see half a dozen books that will soon find a new home, another score or so books that will be boxed up and put in the attic, and an entire box full of non-functional or obsolete electronics.

The electronics will be heading to recycling later this week, as will nearly all of the paper. In fact, all told, we won't actually be throwing away very much stuff as trash, which is good, I think. Bully for us!

As it stands now, the office is mostly empty and ready to receive its trimmed and culled contents. The really interesting part of the experience, I think, will span the next three days, as we decide what really goes back in, where it goes, and what else we're getting rid of.

That will be the test: Can we remain disciplined enough as we restock the office to do whatever it takes to minimize the clutter and set ourselves on a path to continued organization?

The Purge - Part I: The Beginning

2008-03-19T22:02:00.003-05:00

Once upon a time, when we first moved into our house, we set aside one of our front rooms to serve as a home office. My computer lived in there, along with our networking equipment, musical instruments, cameras, and other typical home office accoutrements. Decorated in a zen dojo style, it was to be a calm oasis of quiet contemplation, intent productivity, and uplifting art.

Yeah, right.

It actually served those purposes fairly well for a while. The oriental motif hasn't ever been executed to our satisfaction, but hints of the flavor are there. From time to time it has fallen into varying degrees of disarray, but after a few hours of decluttering it always bounced back...mostly. In truth, we seldom got it back to 100% of what it like was before. Usually the best we managed was 98% or so, which didn't seem bad at the time, but was actually just good enough to give the impression of completely restored order.

The problem with that is that the second time around, we'd only get about 98% of the previous state, or about 96% of the original order. The 2% lost in each cycle would just be little things pack-ratted here, some minor paperwork awaiting filing stuffed into a drawer there, a piece of old computer gear stuck over yonder. Nothing major or disturbing, just...cruft.

Unfortunately, that organizational entropy adds up, and the deterioration only accelerated after my iBook evolved into my primary computer a couple of years ago. After 20 or so straightening cycles, my guess is that we're down to about 60% of our ideal organization. At that level, the clutter is really distracting, and when I recently found myself wanting to use our office space for work again, I was simply unable to mentally function in the room.

The only solution was a real purge and intervention.

In order to understand how profound this action is for me, let me give you an idea: If you're familiar with Clean Sweep on TLC, know that I cannot watch that show. Watching other people throw things out like that literally and physically stresses me to the point that I start to become ill. I'm not nearly as bad as most of their guests, but on a spectrum between those people and a monk, I know which end I'm closer to.

Hi, I'm Ryan, and I am a packrat. It's something that I'm aware of, and I'm working on it.

We thought about trying a less drastic, more incremental approach, but we were afraid that it would just amount to another straightening cycle, and that we'd let it drag on until we lost our will. By completely purging the room, we can keep our momentum going, while the mess it makes of the rest of the house will motivate us to finish it quickly.

So for the past two nights, we've spent several hours removing everything from the office. The only things that are staying are a couple of pieces of furniture that won't fit through the door without being disassembled, and they may come out yet. Once everything is out, we'll be thoroughly cleaning the room, assessing our needs for new or different storage and furniture, then sorting through everything to decide what goes it, what goes elsewhere, and what simply goes away.

I'm really determined that most of it is going away. I really want to try to achieve that calm zen oasis we've been aiming for these past 6 years.

When we're done, I'll post "after" pictures. I'm not posting any before pics because a) we don't really have any and it's already too late, and b) I'd be too embarrassed to show them to anyone.

Wish us luck!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-17T22:53:00.002-05:00

We went out to dinner at the Celtic Grill tonight, intending to meet up with the other Northwest Arkansas bloggers. Unfortunately, we either got there too late, or we couldn't pick them out of the crowd. We really need a cheer or something to find each other next time.

Even if we'd been able to find them, the prospect of enduring the noise and crowd while waiting for supper was daunting, and we didn't want to be out too late. I'm sure the company would've been worth it, but we finally decided that O'Charley's sounded Irish enough, so we ate there instead. Sorry, guys.

In other holiday news, I spent a few minutes this afternoon explaining the significance of St. Patrick to some friends. Having grown up in Arkansas, it isn't at all strange to me for someone to not be familiar with even famous saints. You've got Google and Wikipedia handy, so you can go read Patrick's biography for yourself. The gist of what they wanted to know was why a 4th century Roman-British missionary should be important to non-Irish, non-Catholic, or even non-Christian 21st century Americans.

For the full-length answer, I highly recommend Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization. The nutshell is this: Europe's emergence from the dark ages was heavily aided by the monastic tradition of Christian scholarship that had been preserved in Ireland. No Patrick, no Christianity. No Christianity, no monks. No monks, no reseeding of Western Civilization.

That's enormously simplified, but you get the gist. You really should read the book.

Despite being raised in the Methodist church, I really do think that we Protestants threw out some good ideas with our break from Rome, with saints among the best. Disregarding issues that many Protestants have with venerating and praying to saints, I think we have given up a wonderful source of inspiration and role-models. I grew up knowing all the "real" saints: the Apostles, the four Evangelists, Paul, etc, but it wasn't until later that I learned of the multitude of other saints.

I think that's a real shame. Living up to the examples of the well-known saints is a pretty lofty goal, and their life experiences often seem far-removed from outs. Fortunately, there's probably a saint who faced spiritual trials and burdens similar to yours. They triumphed over their obstacles, and so can you.

So even though Patrick the Man is obscured by the shrouds of legend, let's all take a moment today to consider Patrick the Saint -- perhaps the only saint whose day is widely celebrated by nearly all Christian denominations -- and to think of the myriad other saints whose lives could be examples and inspirations for us as well.

Creativity and Constraints

2008-02-27T23:25:00.002-06:00

I'm not generally a reality show fan, and I'm definitely sick of the "audience votes off one person per week" style of show, but nevertheless Heather Marie has gotten me hooked on both Project Runway and Top Chef. I think I can tolerate (and even thoroughly enjoy) those shows because the selections are being made by real experts and because I enjoy watching talented craftsmen at work.

One thing I've noticed on both shows, though, is the positive effect that constraints have on the quality of work the contestants produce. It's especially pronounced on Project Runway, which we were watching tonight. In the regular weekly challenges, the designers get something like 24 hours and a limited amount of money to create their dresses, usually within fairly restrictive parameters. However for the final competition, they are given 5 months and $5000 for their fashion lines, with basically no limits on their designs.

What repeatedly strikes me, though, is that the designs they produce when completely unfettered seem to be consistently inferior to what they produce under the tight constraints of the normal competition. That's not to say that their unrestrained designs are bad or, for that matter, that they're not actually better than the weekly ones, just that they aren't and order of magnitude better as the time and resources would predict.

Consider the difference between being given a pen and paper and being told to "write something" versus being told to "write a story about a cat." The second scenario is obviously more constrained: you must write a story and it must involve a cat. In the first scenario, you could write anything, be it a poem, a shopping list, or a letter -- you have complete freedom to create. In practice, though, I suspect that people in the "cat story" group would produce things that would be generally considered to be more "creative," even though they had less freedom.

I think there are two lessons here. First, constraints help focus our attention and energy, which generally leads to better quality and impact. Second, the landscape of creative expression is so incredibly vast that you can render huge swathes of it inaccessible yet still have enough space remaining to build works of incredible imagination and creativity.

In fact, maybe that gives us a clue to what we really mean by "creativity": Perhaps it isn't merely the ability to produce new things, but the ability to discover sufficient space between constraints to produce new things.

If necessity is the mother of invention, and creativity is its father, then I think we can reasonably say that constraints are its godparents.

Super Delegates Part I - The Implosioning Begins

2008-02-09T23:19:00.000-06:00

As an addendum to my last post, I'd like to direct your attention to Instapundit (and thereby Althouse and Open Left).

To my mind, griping about the super delegates at this point in the game is a bit like griping about the Electoral College: you knew the rules going in, so you should've been prepared for the possibility that things might work out in unexpected ways. However, as Glenn Reynolds points out:

this attitude is not going to be shared by many people who've spent the last nearly-8 years claiming that winning the popular vote is more important than winning the electoral vote.

I don't typically pay special attention to the internals of the Democratic Party, but I assume that the super delegates, like the Electoral College, are at least partially meant to temper the influence of raw democracy with more experienced, rational forces. If that's correct, then no one should be surprised if that's exactly the effect they have.

Of course, the folks who've spent the past eight years decrying the Electoral College are likely to be the ones who are most upset by the super delegates. At least they've consistent, I suppose.

(And, yes, I'm quite aware that "implosioning" isn't a word. I just liked the sound of it, and its intended meaning is quite clear, so deal with it.)

2008 Election Prediction Redux

2008-02-06T21:14:00.000-06:00

It was election eve 2004 when I wrote this post, which has been attracting a fair number of comments lately. So, how do I feel like my prediction is holding up?

Overall, I'd say pretty well...except for the Breaking Factor [1].

Four years ago, Barack Obama was barely a blip on the national radar. He'd given a very impressive speech at his party's convention, and the day after my original post he would be elected to the U.S. Senate, but that's about it.

Today, he's the main Breaking Factor in my prediction.

So what is his appeal? I think it's mostly attributable to his essential newness. Everyone on the left (and a few on the right) who is fed up with the politics of the past 16 years and who just wants "change" (without necessarily thinking about what that means to them) is eagerly projecting all their hopes and expectations onto the one candidate who is baggage-free enough to make that possible.

Therein lies the problem for Hillary: you can run against someone on policy or on issues or on positions, but you can't run against someone based on New. Either you're New or you're not, and if you're not, you can't fake it.

Compounding the problem is that in the primaries, Hillary is in the position that Republicans usually occupy -- that of trying to run an intellectual campaign against an emotion-based opponent. If your opponent's supporters are basing their decision on emotion, all your logical, intellectually-sound arguments will fall on deaf ears.

That said, I still expect Hillary to win the nomination, but in a far different, far more interesting way than I would have predicted in 2004.

Enter the brokered convention!

There hasn't been a brokered convention in most of our lifetimes. Or, for that matter, even in the lifetimes of many of my generation's parents. As a political junkie, who follows elections and politics the way most guys follow football, that prospect is just too cool! :-)

So, how will the superdelegate brokered convention scenario play out in the general election? That's the really interesting part!

Remember that a large chunk of Obama's support comes from voters who are fed up with politics as usual and who are ready for a real change after the Bush-Clinton-Bush years. That means that as a group they tend to be disproportionately idealistic as well. That ground has a large intersection with the slightly nutty fringe of the Left that has spent the past 8 years insisting that Bush was handed the 2000 election because of shady backroom dealing.

Pause for just a moment and contemplate out those people are going to react if their Chosen Savior Candidate not only loses the nomination to Yet Another Clinton, but does so because of genuine old-style political backroom dealing -- in their own party!!!

Betrayal! The establishment is reasserting its control of We the People! The old guard is oppressing the true agent of change!

I can just imagine it now. (The prospect would probably be less amusing if I weren't a Republican.)

So then the big question becomes whether or not -- after a long, acrimonious campaign followed by a contentious convention -- all those happy, enthusiastic Obama supporters would fall obediently in line behind Hillary. I'm not so sure they would. Most of them probably would, but with far less enthusiasm, but I suspect that some of them would simply stay home. Maybe not many, but possibly enough.

Naturally, in keeping with attitudes of the past 8 years, this will all be blamed on the Republicans somehow. My guess is it will go something like this: The Republicans knew they could never beat Obama (the only true agent for change!) so they colluded with anti-change segments of the Democratic party to throw the nomination to Hillary. That's a win for the Republicans, who won't have to face Obama, and a win for the Democratic/Washington establishment that just wants to maintain the status quo. I'm sure there will be some Karl Rove, Diebold, and Halliburton involvement in there somewhere, too, but you get the picture.

That brings us to November, when Hillary will be representing a fractured and disillusioned Democratic base. In the end, I think she will still win, but I no longer think it will be by such a landslide...unless, of course, the Republican nominee is in a similar situation with regard to his base.

As a Republican, I'm not too enthused about President Hillary, but my expectations in that regard will have to be the subject of a later post.

----

Update: Right after I finished writing this, I saw this on the Drudge Report. Obviously a brokered convention is not something party leaders are anxious to have.

[1] What is the Breaking Factor you ask? An example would be the Mule Factor, from Isaac Asimov's Foundation. In case you haven't read it, here's a quick (very loose) recap: In the far distant future, mathematician Hari Seldon perfects a method of predicting future societal changes called psychohistory over the course of thousands of years. The problem is that it only works on a macro scale with large populations, so it can't account for the actions of lone, highly influential individuals. Because he is a completely unpredictable new type of human (a telepath), the Mule is such an individual, and he nearly breaks Seldon's predictions because of it.

So the Mule Factor is unknown quantity that can be introduced by a single, unexpected individual. I'm using the more descriptive term Breaking Factor in a more general way to mean any unexpected, unpredictable factor that breaks a prediction.

One more thing...

2008-01-11T23:06:00.000-06:00

Since it's only a few more days until MacWorld, with its highly anticipated SteveNote, that means it must be time for the traditional wanton speculation! Seriously, MacWorld is like geek Christmas. It's Geekmas!

The Mac users at my office are running a pool to see who makes the most accurate (and fun) predictions about MacWorld announcements (the winner gets bragging rights and the knowledge of a job well-done, so obviously the stakes are high!) And, yes, we're a Windows software company where a third of the staff use Macs -- take a moment to ponder the implications of that.

My humble predictions are as follows:

Tablet Mac (basically a big iPod Touch with USB/bluetooth keyboard options) designed for media playback and remote computing via Back to My Mac.
iPhone SDK support for the tablet
MacBook and MacBook Pro redesigns to bring their looks more in line with the iPhone, Touch, and iMac.
Higher end Mac Mini or lower end Mac Pro, probably just called a Mac.

But every SteveNote watcher knows that what we all tune in for is the mythical One More Thing -- the thing that Steve Jobs waits until the very end of the keynote to announce, the "last but not least" show-stopping grand finale. So here's my prediction:

Steve nears the end of the keynote, he recaps all the great new products, then he pauses dramatically and says:

"But there's one more thing. Our users have been asking for a two-button mouse for years, but we don't think that's the right way to go. Instead, we're eliminating the mouse completely."

Yeah, that's right: no more mice. Instead they will be replaced by mousepad-shaped multi-touch panels that attach to Macs via USB or bluetooth.

Quit gaping and close your mouth, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Lots of people are already happily using touch pads on their laptops with nary a mouse in sight, and simple external touchpads have been around for years. Some quick searching on Google and YouTube will turn up all sorts of experiments into touch interfaces, and if you have the time I highly recommend watching a few. So like most other things, Apple isn't inventing something new here, they're just doing it right. The big changes in the Apple Multi-Touch Panel are that it's bigger, it's multi-touch like the iPhone, and support for it is built directly into OS X.

Now, before I proceed, I have to make one thing perfectly clear: I have no sources or inside intelligence or direct evidence for this whatsoever. I'm merely making a swag based on current products, extrapolated trends, and wishful thinking.

What I predict is something about the size of a mouse pad or Wacom tablet. Users will put their hand on it very much as if they were using a mouse, and drag a finger around to point with. Putting two (or more) fingers on the surface will activate multi-touch features very similar to the iPhone (pinching and pulling to zoom, spinning to rotate, flicking to scroll, etc.) Perhaps more interestingly, it will open up new avenues for the long-neglected field of gesture interfaces.

I know this sounds crazy, but take a moment try to imagine what such an interface device might feel like. Move your mouse out of the way and rest your hand on the desktop where it usually sits. See how it rather naturally assumes the same position? Now imagine that your desktop is touch sensitive like the touchpad on a laptop, and try moving a finger around as if you were controlling your pointer with it. That doesn't seem so bad to me. Clicking could be handled the same way it is on touchpads. Dragging could be handled by having two fingers on at once.

Right-clicking could be handled by...wait! That's not a problem because you don't need to right-click on a Mac! Oh, ok, I'll admit that I don't really buy that. I use a two-button mouse all the time. But Command-Clicking could still work unaltered, or using three fingers could activate a right-click, or tapping a finger to the right of your pointing finger, or.... Well, really, once you eliminate the hardware, the user interface can take whatever form you want.

I think it would still stink for most gaming (at first), and I don't think I'd want to do heavy-duty Photoshopping with it, but mice and pen tablets will still work just like they do now, so I don't see those programs being an issue.

So what evidence do I have?

Well, first there's Cringely's cryptic prediction that "Apple will introduce...its replacement for the mouse" -- I have to pause here to give him credit for setting me off thinking in this direction to begin with. That statement merged with the laptop touch panel rumors to form the crux of this concept.

Second, there's Steve Jobs' purported dislike of buttons. If he truly hates buttons, what could be better than eliminating them entirely?

Third, there's also the somewhat inexplicable delay of the iPhone SDK, which obviously exists, since that's what Apple's own developers are using to write iPhone apps. One possible explanation for the delay is that it would reveal too much about upcoming OS X and Mac features...like maybe system-wide touchability.

Fourth, of course, we have the iPhone itself, along with its cousin the iPod Touch. Apple has obviously invested a great deal of time and money into developing really nice touch interfaces, and even as successful as the iPhone has been (and may well be in the future), that alone seems insufficient to justify that kind of R&D effort. Apple has to be making other plans for that technology.

One benefit of the Multi-Touch Pad, and the fifth reason to expect it, is that it would provide a single interface method across all of Apple's OS X systems. Right now, we have touchpads on laptops, touch screens on phones/iPods, clickwheels on iPods, and mice on desktops. None of those are going away overnight, of course, but they'll exist alongside the new interfaces indefinitely.

And, finally, we come to my least-supported but most-compelling reason: it's just time. Looking at a brief history of computer interfaces, it appears that input paradigm shifts come along every 15-25 years. There were about 23 years of punch card dominance, followed by 14 years of command line (keyboard) dominance, and now we've had 24 years of mouse dominance. Obviously, those are approximate dates, and old methods lingered for years after. Command lines are still with us today (and are superior to GUIs in some respects).

The fact remains, though, that since Apple popularized the mouse with the original Mac in 1984, we've really had only incremental improvements in input devices. I think (and hope) that it's time for the text paradigm, and I can't think of any company better positioned to promote it than Apple, which controls the entire user experience, from OS to software to hardware.

At the very least, I think it's time to finally move beyond what Xerox PARC did in the 1970s...even if that just means moving forward to what they did in the 80s and 90s. :-)

Cockeye Cauci

2008-01-03T23:27:00.000-06:00

Ok, they weren't really all that cockeye, I just couldn't resist using that title. I'd say they were actually pretty predictable to anyone who was paying attention. Congrats to Huckabee and Obama. But don't get cocky kid: Iowa hasn't been a great predictor in recent years. (Hat tip to Instapundit - my favorite political blog.)

I had actually forgotten my three year-old 2008 prediction until someone posted a comment to it the other day. Rather than hiding the evidence of my prediction as I jokingly threatened to, I'm going to refine things a little.

I think I was (sadly) pretty much right about the fate of the Democratic Party between 2004 and now. What I didn't predict was that the Republicans would be in about the same state after the 2006 mid-terms. Both parties have gone out of their way to earn their congressional approval ratings.

I still think that when all is said and done Hillary will be the Democratic nominee. What I'm no longer certain about is her ability to win the general election.

The main reason is that she is likely to be far too polarizing. Her base will love her, but so will her opponents, who will line up overnight for the chance to vote against her. Between the 45% who will love her and the 45% who will hate her, that leaves only 10% of the electorate for the candidates to fight over. Her best chance to break out of that scenario is for a moderate or far-right candidate to split the opposition. That may be difficult, though, because it seems unlikely that her opponents would not consolidate against her.

The other reason I'm uncertain about her general election appeal is general distrust of political dynasties. Not much has been made of that so far, but I think it could turn into a genuine issue. If Hillary is elected for two terms, then by 2016 the White House will have been held by two immediate families for 28 years. That's over 10% of our country's history...consecutively.

Food for thought: Although obviously less bloody, that's only 2 years less than the Wars of the Roses.

Regardless of my political persuasion, I find myself being intensely uncomfortable with that prospect. Dynasties are not healthy for democracies and republics, and I would very much prefer for my country to not be gently lulled into that trap. I would feel the same way about Jeb Bush running, and when you consider that a whole new generation of Clintons and Bushes could be old enough to run in 2016, the prospect becomes even more disturbing.

I'm completely willing to concede that I may be in the vast minority on that issue, though. I hope that voters will have enough historical perspective and respect for the dangers of hereditary monarchies to at least look askance at simply alternating between two dynasties. Even if they ultimately decide that it's a non-issue for them personally, they should at least consider the implications.

The Dynasty Factor might not be a major issue for very many people, but when you start thinking in terms of only 10-20% of the electorate really being in play, even minor issues become major.

The Year of Less of Me

2008-01-01T23:07:00.000-06:00

In my last post I promised "more later." Well, it's later.

Aside from the obvious meaning of the post title marking 2007 as "The Year Ryan Hardly Blogged At All," this was also the year that I finally started getting in shape. Without going into excessive detail, I'll just say that I now weigh 24% less than I did at the beginning of May.

I'm afraid I have no great secret to share. I haven't gone on any kind of exciting, cutting edge diet, I've just adjusted my lifestyle to eat less, eat healthier, and exercise more. We did do a month of Nutrisystem to kick things off, and although I don't think I could've done it for much longer than that, it served very well to help me break bad eating habits.

Everyone's first comment is that I must feel so much better. Well, I guess. You know how you don't really notice yourself growing up or changing over time until you see an old picture because you see yourself every day? It's the same principle: I lived in my body every day, so I couldn't notice the gradual changes. I only noticed improvements when I exerted myself without getting winded or when I had to move down to a smaller clothing size.

Speaking of clothing, that has been my biggest problem. Since I was trying to avoid buying clothes (especially pants) in sizes that I expected to only move through temporarily, I've been having trouble dressing. Well, I've really only had trouble on the rare dress occasions, but that was enough. At any rate, I think I've just about leveled out at a good weight/size, and since I got a good supply of clothing-related gift cards for Christmas (at my emergency request) I should be adequately clothed as soon as I have a chance to go shopping.

Heather Marie gave me a great book on men's fashion for Christmas, so I'm planning to use this opportunity to really plan my wardrobe. I'll basically be starting from scratch, and one of my main goals is to cover all the essentials as minimally as possible while eliminating lots of the clothes that I don't actually wear.

So, since I have the weight thing under control, what are my resolutions for 2008? I think my main one is to make 2008 the "Year of More of Me," in the sense that I want to be much more active and visible in my blog and projects. The first part of that will entail more frequent blog posts. In the interest of convenience (and catch-up), I'll probably start primarily by finishing posts I've been working on or putting off for a long time, intermingled with new posts.

In the spirit of NaNoWriMo's Big Scary Fun Things, I've got several ideas for year-long projects I'm considering -- with varying degrees of public visibility and scariness. I'll post about them soon. For right now, we need to go practice our ballroom dancing.

Yes, that's one of my BSFTs for this year....

Brief Update

2007-08-09T23:33:00.000-05:00

Still alive.

All well.

Been busy.

More soon.

Most Impressive

2007-05-15T20:40:00.000-05:00

When I blogged about Candidate 2.0, I didn't have any particular person in mind, but I would never have guessed that it might be Fred Thompson.

Ok, so he's not quite all the way there yet, but I'd say that he's probably up to about Candidate 1.7, which is over half an iteration ahead of any of the official candidates.

Would he be a good President? I'm undecided. Heck, I'm not even sure yet if I'd vote for him, but it sure would be entertaining to watch him run! Anybody who'd smoke a cigar at Michael Moore ought to be great to watch in a debate.

Driven from the Tube

2007-04-26T23:26:00.000-05:00

After Tivoing the first three episodes, Heather Marie and I finally got around to watching Drive this week. It's a little uneven, but it's different, exciting, and interesting...so of course Fox has already cancelled it. Yeah, after 4 episodes.

There are several related thoughts that occur to me.

First, what is it with the folks who figure out scheduling for the networks? I'm guessing that they must've skipped the parts of Art of War where Sun Tzu said to counter your enemy's weakness with your strength (or something like that). I can just imagine the meeting: "So, we've got this new show we want to introduce, when should we air it? Oh, I know! Let's put it on opposite Dancing with the Stars and Heroes!" It seems like lots of great shows have been killed prematurely by being scheduled opposite popular, established shows.

Second, has anyone ever considered starting a network (or at least cable channel) that does nothing but pick up shows Fox has cancelled? Seriously. Look at this list of 13 shows that shouldn't have been cancelled. By my count, 7 of those 13 are former Fox shows. And that doesn't even include Futurama, Family Guy, and Wonderfalls. Lots of those shows spawned devoted followings, strong DVD sales, cable syndication, and even a movie. They were not bad shows, and although I'm sure the networks would say they were cancelled because we weren't watching, I think that's like a bully telling his targets that it's their own fault they're picked on. And in a way, I guess it is, because we keep allowing ourselves to care about their shows. Going forward, what should be my incentive to invest any time or interest in future Fox shows? I'm not interested in playing Charlie Brown to Fox's Lucy.

The third thought is related to the above question: I'm sure this is really naive, but what would be the incentive for producers to try to make new shows for Fox? Seriously. Drive was the third of Tim Minear's shows that Fox killed with their rank incompetence. What would be his incentive for taking a fourth good idea to them? You'd also think that other producers would start being reluctant to take ideas to Fox after a while.

Actually, I think I can answer my own question there. My first guess is that, from the inside, there are so many shows that don't even get a pilot that getting one on the air is such a rarity that doing it at all seems like success. Frankly, I'm very thankful to not be working in an industry where success is defined as "failing slightly less than usual."

My second guess is that the pay-off for making a successful Fox show is huge, perhaps more than for any other network. That's because, if your show is successful enough to make it on Fox for a few seasons, they will keep it until it has absolutely been run into the ground (e.g. The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, King of the Hill....) I can see where that sort of job security could be a strong incentive.

Fox also has a reputation for being willing to take a chance on unique, quirky shows (although apparently not much of a chance, nor for very long), but I digress....

My fourth and final thought is the one that should really scare the networks: I have a lot more choices now, and they have fewer opportunities than ever to reach me. What's more, I don't even need to give them the chance.

At one time, like most people, there were shows I'd watch faithfully nearly every night of the week. Now there are only a few: Battlestar Galactica, How I Met Your Mother, The Class, Dancing with the Stars, Amazing Race, Heroes, Bones, Til Death, Psych, and Monk. That means that if you're CBS, you really only have 2 hours per week to try to entice me with a new show. If you're ABC, you only have 2-3 hours per week, and that's only when Dancing is on. NBC only gets 1 hour, and that's only when Heroes is new.

In every case, if that number reaches zero, as I suspect it is for increasing numbers of people, that network has likely lost me forever. At the very least, they'll have to depend on word of mouth to attract my attention again, so whether I ever again consume their product is largely out of their control. We're not a captive audience anymore. That should be really scary.

And what's more, I don't really need the networks much anymore. Note that many of those shows air on Sundays and Mondays. If we didn't have a DVR, in all likelihood there would be 3-4 fewer shows on that list than their are. It would already be cheaper to buy those shows a la carte from iTunes or wait for the DVDs. Just this season, we've had to watch several episodes online (legally, I might add) because we missed them when they aired. It wasn't that bad an experience, and it was very convenient.

But why wait for those things? Yes, good television is expensive, but the technical parts are getting cheaper all the time. My guesstimate is that it would already be possible to make a "real world" (i.e. not sci-fi or fantasy) show cheaply enough that you could, with the right marketing, make money by selling it directly through iTunes or by subscription on DVD. If you could get 200,000 people (a minuscule audience by TV standards) to pay $10/month to subscribe to a monthly DVD mailing or download that included 4 new episodes per disc, that would be about $500,000 per episode. Not great production money, but on a shoestring it's a workable budget.

If I were a network-abused writer/producer (especially one with an established fanbase), I'd sure be thinking about it. Total creative control and no middle man? Sounds pretty good to me.

And if I were an audience- and creator-abusing network, I'm be thinking about the same thing, but in a very different way....

KillCount++

2007-03-31T22:52:00.000-05:00

This afternoon Magaidh (shown here following an earlier, less successful hunt) incremented her kill count by 1, bringing her confirmed total to 6. Today's vict...er, prey was some kind of meadow vole type rodent.

Heather Marie was actually witness to the conclusion of the hunt, and because she was trying to intervene she got a close up look at the killing stroke. I missed the kill, but I got to clean up the aftermath. Let's just say that it left Heather rather traumatized and leave the descriptions at that.

Magaidh, of course, was very proud of herself and spent the rest of the day strutting around the yard looking for a new target.

How silly of us!

2007-03-23T09:04:00.000-05:00

Duh, of course we couldn't find each other at the blog bash last weekend -- we all forgot to wear our capes and goggles!

Fabric Future

2007-03-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

We learned today that the Hancock's Fabrics store in Rogers is going to be closing later this year. Add that to the Wal-Mart fabric departments that are being phased out, and pretty soon it's going to start getting hard to buy fabric in NWA. Accordingly, the wife and I were out foraging for fabrics tonight after work, which got me thinking....

It would seem that sewing and fabric crafts, once the domain of do-it-yourself (DIY) homemakers, may be something of a dying art. It's not that people aren't still interested fabric-related activities, it's just that it's obviously hard to make a lot of money selling fabric. Once upon a time, when store-bought clothes were more the exception than the rule, you could save a lot of money by making your own clothes, but that really isn't the case anymore. Unless you have very specific or unusual needs, it's going to be very hard to compete with mass-produced clothing, even just for yourself. Making your own clothes may still worth doing, but not generally for cost savings.

Sound familiar, computer geeks? It should.

Sewing is one of the oldest and most mainstream DIY hobbies, and the fact that interest in it is waning should scare, or at least sadden, DIY computer enthusiasts, since it's symptomatic of a general societal decline in DIY interest and skills.

Once upon a time, sewing was a common skill among homemakers and people in general, because for a long time you couldn't even buy clothes unless you were rich. Even after clothing became readily available in stores, you could still save a lot of money by making your own clothes. As store-bought clothing became cheaper and more accessible, fewer people made their own clothes unless they had special needs or just enjoyed it. Finally, the cultural skills are beginning to atrophy and it's starting to become difficult to find the necessarily materials.

Once upon a time, system building was a common skill among computer users and technologists in general, because for a long time you couldn't even buy computers unless you were rich. Even after computers became readily available in stores, you could still save a lot of money by building your own computer. As store-bought computers became cheaper and more accessible, fewer people built their own computers unless they had special needs or just enjoyed it. How long until it starts becoming hard to buy components?

The same pattern repeats itself in pretty much every field that becomes mainstream and commoditized, so it's nothing new to computing, but it is kind of sad. The passing of an era, if you will.

I've built several of my own computers, and I've always enjoyed it. I like the research and planning that goes into the project, and I enjoy knowing and understanding exactly what's in my system from top to bottom. Plus, I've typically saved between $200 and $400 over comparable manufactured computers, which is nothing to sneeze at.

However, I doubt I'll build any of my future systems. As it stands now, I'd likely spend several hundred dollars more to do it myself than to buy from Dell or HP. (The fact that my next computer will almost certainly be a Mac is beside the point.) And I'm not alone. I work with a lot of computer geeks, and it's been a long time since any of them have built our own computer systems.

Also, consider this: there is no one running Mac OS X on a computer they built. That's obviously self-evident, since it only runs on Mac hardware from Apple, but when you phrase it that way, it becomes a little disturbing to thing that one of the fastest-growing segments of the market completely shuts out the DIY computer crowd.

Since this cycle seems to repeat itself so consistently, in clothing and cars and radio and electronics and computer hardware, how long will it be until software follows suit? Software has obviously moved well beyond the "you have to do it yourself" period, and for most applications the era of "saving money by making your own" has passed. Thanks to downloadable software, most people can easily find cheap software to meet most of their needs, and most users who write programs for their personal use do so because they have unmet needs or just enjoy it, so it seems like that's probably the period we're currently in.

Hopefully, thanks to the accessibility provided by the Internet, there won't ever be a lack of DIY software tools, but with trusted computing initiatives, the move toward locked-down platforms like cellphones, and the general public's ignorant unwillingness to insist on open platforms, we may start to see an environment where DIYers who want to write their own software won't have a place to do it.

Lessons Learned

2007-03-17T23:08:00.000-05:00

We made it to the Celtic Grill tonight for dinner and the Blog Bash, but it wasn't quite like we'd planned, and there were a few lessons learned in the process:

If you're going to a crowded place to meet a bunch of people you've never met, make sure you know what at least one of them looks like.
Irish-themed restaurants are really not a place you want to be on St. Patrick's Day. Honestly, if I worked there, I'd go out of my way to get the flu every March. Despite the craziness, though, the staff was great.
Octogenarians swilling green beer are not something you want to see.
No one in a random sampling of NWA bar patrons knew what a blogger was. (Me: "Do you know if the bloggers are here?" Waiter: "No, the band is called Cullen's Hounds. The Bloggers aren't playing tonight.")

We got there a little late, and we had to wait a little over an hour for a table. While we waited we got to meet Valerie, who was also there for the bash. For a while we took turns venturing into the maelstrom trying to find our group, but to no avail. Heather Marie and I had put our names on the list as soon as we arrived, but Valerie finally decided to head home and try again some other time.

We finally got a seat in a booth in the bar area, and the meal was excellent (as always). My St. Patrick's Day pint of Guinness was good, but judging by the foam, I'm not entirely sure they poured it quite right. I think I've been spoiled by Guinness' cool, self-carbonating can contraption.

As we were just finishing our meal, Joe from Techography came up and asked if I was Ryan and if I had a blog. It turns out that they had all been at the table next to us the entire time! They had been debating whether or not I was me for a few minutes, but they weren't sure, since the only obvious pic on my blog is the cartoon one. Personally, I'm flattered to think that I did a good enough job on it that they recognized me at all. In retrospect, I think I should've recognized Matt, though, since he actually does look a little like the drawing on Overtaken By Events (minus the brick, of course).

Over all, we had a really good time. It was great to meet some of the locals whose blogs I read, and to finally put faces with their names. Plus, Heather Marie got to bring home a couple of the cool little Erin Go Bragh flags that the restaurant was decorated with.

Maybe with St. Patrick's Day on Monday next year the Celtic Grill won't be so crowded, but I wouldn't count on it. I think it has definitely been discovered now, and although Heather Marie and I love it, I think from now on we'll plan our visits for lunches and non-holidays.

Caed Mille Failte!

2007-03-17T13:05:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Heather Marie and I will be attending the NWA Blog Bash tonight at the Celtic Grill. We'd already planned to go there tonight anyway, so we might as well attend a party, too!

I'll be the completely average-looking guy with the really cute red-head. And she'll probably be wearing something that jingles.

Until then, it's a great time to brush up on handy Irish phrases and sayings.

"Pionta Guinness, le do thoil."

I've definitely gotta remember that one.

Wii Will Rock You

2007-03-09T22:53:00.000-06:00

Yes, I finally managed to get a Wii. And, yes, it is as much fun as everyone says.

I've been really impressed by how well the Wii Remote actually works. It's surprisingly responsive and accurate, and I think it may really be a good indicator of one new way that we'll play games in the future. At the very least, it's great that Nintendo is willing to try new approaches, and the effort seems to be paying off for them in spades.

I do have some problems with Wii Sports, which comes with the system, but they're entirely personal. First, let me say that all the Wii Sports games are really fun. Even Heather Marie enjoys some of them, which is interesting, since she doesn't particularly like most sports, and the only video games she's consistently interested in are fighting games. That preference (especially in light of her affection for Hurling and Gaelic Football) is sometimes mildly disturbing, but I try not to think about it too hard.

There are five sports included: tennis, boxing, golf, bowling, and baseball. Really, tennis is the only one I'm really struggling with, and I think it's because I actually play tennis. In fact, tennis is the only sport that I've ever been really, genuinely any good at, and those skills definitely work against me. In real tennis, the direction of the ball is controlled primarily through a combination of foot position and follow-through. In Wii tennis, it's controlled by when you hit the ball (for right-handed players' forehands, hitting early means hitting to the left, late to the right, "on time" is straight).

You also don't have any control over where your on-screen player moves, so he often lines up for backhands when I would've moved around the ball for a forehand. It's incredibly frustrating when I can see the opening, and I know where and how to hit the ball, but when I do exactly what I know I need to do in order to make that happen, the ball goes off in some seemingly random direction.

Still very fun, but it helps if I don't think of it as tennis. I suspect that if I were any good at golf or bowling, then I'd have the same problem with them. At least I'm in good company, though, since one of the Williams sisters lost to Conan O'Brien.

Several people have written about using the Wii for exercise, and I can see how that might work, but in my case, I think it may be an indirect benefit. That's because playing Wii Sports has made me want to go play tennis and go bowling and maybe even try golf. Those sound like healthy compulsions, so maybe I'll follow through on them since the weather is warming up.

Likewise, if Zelda makes me want to grab a sword and save the world, I'll be sure to mention it here.

Waiting for Candidate 2.0

2007-02-10T21:09:00.000-06:00

I don't have any serious Presidential preferences yet, but so far I'm pretty underwhelmed. There's certainly no shortage of unexciting, experienced competence, nor do we lack for enthusiastic, unproven blank slates onto which everyone can project his or her own expectations (for the time being, at least).

What I'm looking for is what I've begun thinking of as Candidate 2.0. I didn't invent the term, I read it on some blog that was linked to another blog that pointed to an article, or some similar place. I'm looking for a candidate who is actually clueful regarding online outreach.

Make no mistake, online campaigning is going to be big in 2008, but I've seen no evidence so far that any of the candidates really get it. The big question is, What is It?

First, Candidate 2.0 is going to have an online presence. Not just a campaign website, everybody has one of those now, but a real personal presence. That means a website of his or her own, distinct from any office or campaign sites. Ideally, it shouldn't even be solely political.

Candidate 2.0 will also be a blogger. Not just have a blog, they're all going to have a "blog" soon anyway. The difference between having a blog and being a blogger is like the difference between having a child and being a parent -- the later implies a far greater depth of involvement and commitment. Candidate 2.0 will have to be willing and able to carry on a dialog with the blog's readers, not just use it as place to post press releases. What's more, the blog will have to be genuine. The posts can't be just the usual campaign platitudes, they have to be real.

Candidate 2.0 will also participate in podcasts and vidcasts the same way 20th century candidates made radio and TV appearances. Actually, C2.0 will have to participate in those things more than candidates used to in TV and radio. Or, more precisely, they will have to participate more deeply. That's because podcast audiences expect an intimacy and personal connection far greater than what has previously been expected of talk show guests. It won't be enough to go on the show and talk about how great the campaign is going and how wonderful the supporters are blah blah blah.

It'll be forgivable for Candidate 2.0 to not actually have their own podcast or vidcast, due to the time involved, but the campaign absolutely must have one. I think that's already expected, though.

Candidate 2.0 will also have to make a plausible effort to engage pre-existing online communities. There will be an official campaign headquarters in Second Life (or the current equivalent), with C2.0 making personal virtual appearances. There will also be appearances in World of Warcraft, Everquest, and whatever other online worlds will allow such things. Plus maybe a "game with the candidate" type event on Xbox Live. You know somebody a lot better after you've teamed with them in Halo 2 or Counterstrike.

Finally, and this is the real clincher, Candidate 2.0 will be completely open and honest in his or her online interactions, simply because online communities will tolerate nothing else. Spin won't fly well in a blog when the commenters call you out. You'd better be ready to tell the truth, back it up, and explain your position.

This is the part that I think will keep any of the current crop of politicians from being viable as Candidate 2.0, because you have to be able to do all the things yourself. You can't have aids writing your blog posts, nor can you have a handler sitting over your shoulder telling you how to respond in a Second Life chat. You have to be able to do those things yourself. That's another reason honesty and openness will be essential: it's a lot easier to stay in character if you're really being yourself.

Your positions will have to be your positions, otherwise the only defenses you'll have for them will be the standard canned responses, which will have already been shot down elsewhere. It'll look bad if you're flummoxed in WoW by a simple copy and paste from your opponent's website.

When a Candidate 2.0 emerges who can harnesses the potential of online outreach, it's going to be game-changing. It's going to be the 21st century equivalent of the Nixon-Kennedy debates. One candidate in the race is going to step comfortably and confidently into cyberspace, and the other is going to be left standing at the door, looking uncomfortable and old-fashioned.

Candidate 2.0 will have the opportunity to speak directly to millions of people all across the country in what is nearly a one-on-one medium. Their supporters will feel a deep and personal connection, some of them may even form actual relationships and friendships, not only with each other, but with Candidate 2.0. That's powerful. Staggeringly powerful.

This is all going to have to be driven and directed by Candidate 2.0, though, instead of C2.0 just jumping on board a wave of online support and riding it as long as possible. That's what Howard Dean did, and it can ultimately only get you so far. Dean could plausibly be Candidate 1.5, since his campaign began to realize the potential, but Candidate 2.0 will get it deeply and personally, and will seize that initiative directly. Candidate 2.0 won't be able, or willing, to act only through virtual front men.

Last, but not least, by necessity, Candidate 2.0 will be someone with a legitimate chance of winning to start with. That means that he or she will be a Democrat or Republican, with decent pre-existing support to build on. We could see Candidate 2.0 emerge as early as 2012, but I think it'll be a few more cycles before we see anybody mount a viable campaign that starts with a primarily online presence as a foundation.

That person will be Candidate 3.0. :-)

Wimping Out Tonight

2007-02-07T23:17:00.000-06:00

Yeah, that's right, no story today. Heather Marie has been sick for the past two days, and this morning I woke up with a sore throat. Nevertheless, I've been sitting here since I got home at 8:00 trying to formulate a story to go with "magnetic mechanized toy," and I just can't focus long enough to do it. That's a pretty typical pre-cold symptom for me, so I'm hoping that I can go to bed soon and maybe get ahead of it a little.

Health permitting, I'll be back tomorrow with the story that should've been today, and I'll be tacking an extra day onto the end to compensate.

Now, off to sleep....

Writing and Running

2007-02-06T23:44:00.000-06:00

Although I haven't ever actually "won" NaNoWriMo, I have done it enough to get a feel for it, and it's a little like running a marathon (well, maybe a 5k, since it's only 50,000 words). You have to keep up a steady pace day after day, but eventually your story gains a momentum of its own that sort of pulls you along in its wake.

If NaNoWriMo is a distance race, though, then my "month of short stories" idea is turning into daily wind sprints. There isn't the pressure of a running storyline to maintain, but there also isn't the assistance of the momentum. They say the hardest part of writing a story is starting, so I'm basically doing the hardest part every single day.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but only a few days in, and I can feel it wearing on me. I'm not about to quit, but it is a lot harder than I'd anticipated!

Nevertheless, I have a story tonight, so please enjoy Miniature Foam Game. It's by far the shortest so far, but I think that I must be subconsciously correcting the average back down to what I'd originally anticipated.

Oh boy....

2007-02-05T23:34:00.000-06:00

To quote Quantum Leap, "Oh boy."

When I saw today's random phrase, I nearly clicked the button to generate a new one.

Erotic Inflatable Sport

Um...what? For heaven's sake, my mom reads these stories!

I finally decided that not doing it would be kind of a cop out, so I stuck my tongue firmly in my cheek, and gave it a shot. Besides, talk about a title that will drive traffic! ;-)

So, if you haven't already given up on reading these after the first three (and, honestly, who could blame you?), go have a read of Erotic Inflatable Sport.

Story o' the Day

2007-02-04T23:55:00.000-06:00

So far so good, as I managed to post yet another story today. Eco-friendly Illuminated Instrument can be found here.

Just a few brief words about the experience so far. I'm actually a little frustrated, since all three stories so far have been significantly longer than I'd intended. They've been 1311, 1934, and 1384 words, which is significantly longer than the 500-1000 words I'd anticipated. I think those totals will come down some as the month progresses, though, especially as I start writing on weeknights instead of weekends.

Also, the stories have undergone basically zero editing. I've been doing some minor wordsmithing during the initial writing, but other than that, the changes are limited to little more than spellchecking and correcting names that changed later in the story. In fact, I haven't even reread any of them, so what you're getting really is the rough draft of a story.

I fully expect that they'll be strange, incomprehensible, confusing, rambling, incoherent, or all of the above. Deal with it. I've never claimed otherwise, so don't be surprised or disappointed. :-)

Story Two

2007-02-03T23:50:00.000-06:00

Transparent Hand-crafted Company is now available.

Also, in case you missed it, the link to yesterday's story was the story title at the bottom of the post, but you can click here to read it if you don't feel like looking it up.

One Crappy Story After Another

2007-02-02T23:25:00.000-06:00

So, I have this crazy idea....

One of the Dashboard Widgets I have on my Mac is a neat little app called the Idea Generator from Monkey Business Labs. It's a fun little Widget that will randomly generate 3-word phrases that you can use as seeds for brainstorming ideas. The combinations range from the surreal to the sublime, and so it's a lot of fun to try to think of products you could create based on those.

I really do think that working within strict (and sometimes bizarre) limitations really can foster creativity. If necessity is the mother of invention, then restriction is probably its father. Or at least an uncle.

And that's what led to my crazy idea: Could I take whatever combination of words it gave me, and turn them into a story idea? I thought about it some, spun up some combinations, and decided that I could.

Naturally, the next question was whether I could do it for a whole month. That seemed a lot tougher, so I chose February because 1) it was just starting, and 2) it's the shortest. I know it has already started, but I didn't think of the idea until the morning of February 1, and I've been really busy since then. So I'm going to go 28 days starting February 2.

So, here are my ground rules:

I'll accept whatever combination of words is the first one it generates.
If I get a repeat word from the previous day, I'll regenerate that one word.
No word limits. I'll just write until the story is told (within reason, of course).
No major editing or rewrites.
No emphasis in quality whatsoever. I fully expect that I'm going to produce 28 of the worst short stories ever seen by mankind.
I'll write a story a day and post it as soon as possible, but they may not actually be posted daily.
The story will be inspired by the phrase, but may not always directly (or obviously) relate to it.
I reserve the right to modify the rules at will. It's good to be king.

Also, in order to keep my main blog here fairly clear of the junk I'll be spewing out this month, and to throw a bone to some friends who insist on blogging elsewhere, I'll be posting the stories to my LiveJournal account instead.

And so, without further ado, I present Luxurious Nuclear Garden.

Popcorn Response

2007-01-19T20:12:00.000-06:00

I have to give ConAgra credit for a speedy response. Just two days after my post about the disturbing CG Orville Redenbacher commercials, their consumer affairs department replied via a very nice email. I won't reproduce it here, partially because they didn't explicitly grant permission to, and partially because it wasn't terribly interesting, but it was thoughtful and informative. I really greatly appreciate it when companies take the time to interact with their customers. (I also see from my visitor logs that folks from both ConAgra and their ad agency have visited in the past few days.)

The gist of their response was that they'd had good success airing the older ads featuring Orville, and they see this technology as a way to reintroduce him to the current generation. I can see their point, but I wonder if the positive feedback to the old ads wasn't mostly due to nostalgia. Presumably their statisticians would've looked for ways to correct for that, though.

They also said that the Redenbacher family enthusiastically supports the new ad campaign, and they see it as a way to maintain Orville's legacy. He's their ancestor, not mine, so who am I to say?

I think they're onto a good thing with reintroducing Orville, I'm just not sure this is the way to do it. I really don't have any problems with using artificial likenesses of celebrities, provided they and their estates don't mind. My real complaint was just with the unreality of it. Even if their spokes-render wasn't a beloved icon, he still wouldn't look quite right. Somehow, at least for me, it just doesn't manage to walk the fine line between cartoonish-likeness and real-likeness. The Uncanny Valley is an apt description.

I've since seen the ad a few more times, and I've observed the following:

The first time I saw it, apparently the audio was slightly out-of-sync. That hurt it enormously. In later viewings, that wasn't a problem.
I think they must've been going for sort of a CG caricature, which would have been fine. Unfortunately, I think they turned the realism dial up too far.
If the whole commercial (except maybe the popcorn itself?) had been CG, or if there just hadn't been any real people in it, the effect wouldn't have been so disturbing to me. I think the contrast between real and unreal is part of the problem.
The MP3 player part at the beginning was lame. It would've been lame even if Orville himself had been doing it. Talk about the popcorn, or at least something to do with the popcorn. Maybe have Orville sitting in front of a giant HDTV talking about how it's just like going to the movies. "And speaking of going to the movies, nothing completes the experience like my gourmet popping corn!" (Bonus points if he's watching a CG movie and talking about how real it looks.)
Popcorn + MP3s = Lame.
Popcorn + Movies = The magic of cinema! (or at least less-lame)

And it has at least gotten people talking, which may be the most important thing. Heck, I'm blogging about it, and you're reading it, so I guess maybe it works on some level at least.

Now that I think of it, we're going to be watching some DVDs this weekend during the impending ice age, and there is some movie-style "gourmet popping corn" in the cabinet....

No Popcorn, Thank You

2007-01-15T22:50:00.000-06:00

We saw the new Orville Redenbacher commercial tonight during the Golden Globes. It actually motivated me to send feedback to ConAgra, which is really unusual for me. So, for the record, here's what I wrote:

Ok, I'm not easily offended, but the new Orville Redenbacher commercial with the creepy CG Orville, which ran during the Golden Globes, was just disgusting. I'm not terribly bothered by the poor taste of using a morbid simulacrum of your beloved founder, I just found the unreality of it creepy, disturbing, and off-putting. I thought the recent Burger King commercials were creepy, and before that the Quiznos sandwich ads definitely didn't make me want a sub, but I really think the CG-looking Orville may give me nightmares. It isn't just passing through the Uncanny Valley, it's moving in, chopping down some trees, building a farm, and (presumably) planting a corn crop. The commercial did make me want some popcorn, but the box I reached for was Act II, because they don't have a creepy reanimated corpse for a mascot. You're certainly free to use whatever advertisements you want, but as a customer, I feel some obligation to inform you when you're totally missing the mark.

I think that about sums it up for me.

Last Minute for 2006

2006-12-31T22:52:00.000-06:00

My posting has fallen off considerably in the past few months, mostly due to increased time at work, but I figured I ought to at least get one last post in before 2007.

At work, we've finally (more or less) shipped our new product, so hopefully I can get back to mere 40-45 hour weeks soon.

At home, Heather Marie's podcast is still growing strong, and she'll be opening a store on CafePress soon.

At the museum, Heather's in charge of their new podcasts (the first by any museum in Arkansas), which are successful and well-received. Plus, she's moving up to full-time on Jan 1, which will be nice.

Overall, not a bad year. In fact, a pretty good one, I'd say.

So here's to 2006, and hopes for an even better 2007!

Chicago, Day 3

2006-11-13T22:17:00.000-06:00

I think I can summarize our trip this way: We stayed one day too long, and went home one day too soon.

What I mean by that is that, had we stayed only one full day, then it would have been obvious that we didn't have enough time to do everything, so we wouldn't have felt obligated to try. On the other hand, had we planned to stay more than two full days, then today we would've felt free to take the afternoon off to rest and recuperate. As is, though, we wound up running around all day, trying to cram way too much stuff into way too little time.

We started off the day with breakfast from room service. That was fun, since it was Heather Marie's first experience with room service. Good food, and the hotel delivered it promptly at 8am, as requested.

Let me digress here for a moment to say that we were continually impressed with the service provided by the staff at the Talbott. I've stayed in some really nice hotels before, but it's always been as part of a group, so I couldn't really take full advantage of the staff and amenities until this trip. It's a great feeling to know that you're really being taken care of, as opposed to merely being cleaned-up-after. It would be pretty easy to get spoiled to staying at that kind of hotel.

After breakfast, we took a trip to the aquarium, which was great timing, because it was nearly empty when we arrived. I'm not sure it was as good as the one in New Orleans, but it was pretty good. We didn't have time to see the whole thing, but we did get to see a sea lion training demonstration, which was pretty cool. When they asked for an adult volunteer, Heather nearly threw her arm out of socket raising her hand. I can't tease her, though, because getting to shake hands...um, flippers...whatever with a sea lion. She was so giddy and excited she could hardly sit still. I love seeing her like that!

From the aquarium we went to the planetarium to see a CG dome-projection program on Egyptian constellations. It seemed to fit the theme of the weekend, but the main reason for selecting that particular show was that it fit our schedule the best. The immersive effect was impressive, even though I struggled to stay awake in the warm, dark, comfortable theatre. We both thought the coolest thing about the Adler Planetarium is that you can experience three generations of planetarium technology, from a metal sphere with holes punched in it, to a high-tech CG projection dome. Quite a study in contrast.

After the educational sight-seeing, we took a bus back up to Michigan Avenue for a little shopping, window and otherwise. (Another aside: We should've put in the effort to figure out the bus system earlier; it would've saved us a lot of time, money, and walking.) Macy's had a cool window display of scenes from Mary Poppins (the book, not the movie), which were really cute. Macy's was something else to a couple of kids from the country. That location (on State Street) is basically a 9-story department store that takes up an entire city block. Wow.

From Macy's we took the bus on up to the north end of Michigan Avenue downtown. Michigan Avenue is a fun, glittering, impressive place, but it felt weird. We have a lot of the same stores here, but they're generally much smaller and located inside a mall. That makes Michigan feel very much like a gigantic open-air mall to us. Cool, but overwhelming and disorienting until you get used to it. I can see how, if I felt like I lived in a giant mall all the time, I'd wind up spending way too much money on clothes and other mall wares.

We made a stop at Nordstrom's and then went to the Lego Store nearby. Norstrom's was ok, but the Lego Store -- that was awesome! They had some sets I hadn't seen before, and some that I'd seen only in catalogs, but the best part was the option to buy a custom selection of assorted bricks by the bucket. I only got a $6.95 bucket, due to luggage packing concerns, but it was definitely a thrill. I don't get to build with my Legos much anymore, but it was still a great feeling to bury my arm nearly up to my elbow in a bin of bricks. :-)

After Lego came the Apple Store, which wasn't quite what I'd expected. I'd thought the feel would be more like a high class car dealership, but it was really more like a cross between a mosh pit and the concession line at a football game. I think it might've been more fun if it hadn't been so crowded, but it was still fun to go. Now I wish even more that they'd build one in Northwest Arkansas, especially since it would almost certainly be less crowded than Chicago's. I mean -- come on! -- we've got a growing population, lots of disposable income, and a large college demographic, what more do they want? A big Apple cube store would go great in the new promenade!

We made a stop in Nieman Marcus after Apple, and although it wasn't as overwhelming in scale as Macy's, it made up for that in price and style. And, to the staff's credit, they were very polite and helpful to a couple of obvious yokels from the Ozarks. I'll bet I was probably the first person wearing jeans and carrying a big Lego sack who's ever shopped there!

By the time we finally made it back to the hotel, we were really beat, so we just at in the hotel bar/lounge, which was as excellent as everything else at the Talbott, got our stuff packed up, and went to bed.

Chicago, Day 2

2006-11-12T22:10:00.000-06:00

We had a great day today!

We started off by meeting one of Heather's podcast listeners for brunch, which was a lot of fun, even though we had to wait forever to get a table. That turned out ok, though, because it gave us more time to visit. Julia and her boyfriend, Jeff, are really neat, and we had a good time getting to know them. Definitely folks to keep in touch with.

After lunch we debated whether to walk to the Field Museum or take a cab. We finally decided to walk, in order to see more of the city. That turned out to be a bad idea for two reasons. First, it was a long way, and between Heather's joints and my knees, we were in a lot of pain by the time we got there. The second reason was psychological: the Field Museum building is big, so from the time it came into sight until we reached it was a good 15-20 minutes. That was pretty demoralizing. It was still a fun walk, though.

The Tut exhibit itself was a bit of a disappointment. The full title is Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, but there was a whole lot more of the Golden Age than Tut. It was really good, and it was worth coming for, but it wasn't nearly as good as Eternal Egypt was at the Pyramid (or, to compare apples to oranges, it wasn't as good as the Masters of Florence). The biggest problem, actually, was the crowds. Holy cow! We had plenty of time to look at each item, though, as we slowly filed past them in the big, long line. Definitely worth the trip, but not as impressive or coherent as the Pyramid's exhibits.

After the Tut thing, we took a few minutes to hit the high points of the Field Museum. I think it was really nice, but I'm not sure, because by that point we were both so tired and sore and dehydrated that it wasn't as fun as it would've been otherwise.

Supper was the highlight of the day, though! We went to Tizi Melloul, and it was awesome! The main reason we went was that they have belly dancing on Sunday nights, so we weren't surprised that one of our fellow diners was also a belly dancer. Denise was there to see her instructor, who was the performer tonight. When she came out to dance, she invited both Denise and Heather Marie to join her, so her first dance set turned into an impromptu shimmy lesson, which was a lot of fun to watch. I got some really fun pictures of the ad hoc troupe in action.

Speaking of pictures, I've about hit my monthly quota for Flickr uploads, which is apparently ridiculously low, so before I can upload more photos to share, I'm either going to have to either pay for more bandwidth, find an easy way to downsize my pics, or setup another place to put them. I'll probably just put them on my own website once I get home.

For now, it's off to bed!

Chicago, Day 1

2006-11-11T20:29:00.000-06:00

We had a pretty quick, uneventful flight to Chicago this morning, which just how I like my flights.

We're staying at the Talbott Hotel, and it is nice. It's not overbearingly opulent, but it is good, and friendly, with lots of nice amenities (like free wifi). The reviews say it's in the "European service" tradition, whatever that means. If it means good, fast, courteous service, then I'd say that's accurate.

We took a shuttle from O'Hare, which was slower than a cab, but also a lot cheaper, and dropping off the other passengers gave us a great chance to get a quick dime tour of a lot of the area we'll be spending time in.

After checking in, we unpacked and relaxed for a bit in the room, then walked over to Gino's Pizza for supper. Great pizza! The combination of enormous amounts of food, sound, and the graffiti-covered walls was a little overwhelming, though.

On the way back to the hotel, we walked along Michigan Avenue, which was pretty impressive to a couple of country kids.

You can see today's photos on Flickr.

Twenty-leven

2006-11-03T23:52:00.000-06:00

Since I managed to not post for the entire month of October, I figured I ought to at least post something on my birthday. It's been a pretty good one. I only had to work about 9 hours today, which put me at about 61 hours for the week. Definitely crunch time around the office. Heather Marie made a massage appointment for me, so I got a nice, relaxing hot stone massage.

On the way home, we were talking about how we really still feel like we're in our mid twenties for some reason. Honestly, we aren't sure how our 30s are supposed to feel, but we definitely don't feel like whatever it is.

Since I feel like I'm still in my 20s, I think when people ask I'll just tell them them that I'm twenty-leven. Heck, I figure if Tolkien could invent eleventy, I can use twenty-leven and twenty-twelve. Obviously, the names get awkward after that, so I'll have to come up with something else.

Sick Day

2006-09-27T21:35:00.000-05:00

When I woke up yesterday, I had a sore throat. I thought it was just from sleeping with my head in a weird position or getting too cold Monday night, but it lingered on all day, and by the time I got home my sinuses were getting stopped up, too. I still think it may just be bad allergies, though. At least that's how I'm going to treat it, so we'll see how that goes.

This morning when I woke up, I felt truly rotten, so I called in sick and went back to bed. I finally got up about noon, at some soup for lunch, then slept until 5. I'm feeling much better now, but the real test will be how I feel after another night's sleep. We went to Wal-Mart tonight to get some sinus-allergy stuff, but unfortunately the old standby Tylenol Allergy-Sinus is no longer available with pseudoephedrine, even if you sign for it, and the new ingredient doesn't work nearly as well for me. Stupid meth makers.

In other news since my last post, the Arkansas-USC game turned out about the way I expected, and three games later we really don't have a good sense of how good the team really is. Yeah, they're 3-1, but they're a couple of good kicks away from being 1-3. The Auburn game should be pretty telling. Auburn may be better than USC this season, but I think we may not have the psychological disadvantage against Auburn that we did against USC, since we know Auburn. We play them every year, whereas USC had a bit of mystique that comes from the unfamiliar. I guess we'll see. Either way, though, being 6-2 at the end of October sounds really, really good after back-to-back losing seasons.

My knee is continuing to improve. Nearly all of the swelling is gone, and I'm back to about 90% range of motion. I've been able to make it to our past two softball games, so thanks to some rain-outs I really only missed one night. I wasn't too hot the first night, mostly hitting dribblers to third and short, since I was having trouble planting my right foot. This week, though, I was about back to normal, getting a couple of RBIs and even a triple.

Hopefully I can get back into blogging more regularly now, since I've kind of fallen out of the habit.

T Minus 20 Minutes

2006-09-02T19:41:00.000-05:00

Less than half an hour until the University of Arkansas Razorbacks kick off their 2006-2007 football season, so I feel obligated to make a prediction:

Tonight's ESPN game will be remembered as the coming-out party for the Razorback Renaissance.

I don't necessarily mean the Hogs will win, but they'll play USC close enough that it'll be a real game (unlike last year). And although it won't be obvious tonight (unless the Trojans lose), it'll also be remembered later this season as further evidence of a USC decline that started in last year's national title game.

In short, the Hogs will be better this season than critics expect, and I think USC will be worse than lots of people expect.

Either way, I'm ready for some football! Let the games begin!

Frustration

2006-09-02T14:53:00.000-05:00

For the past few months, things have been pretty busy and hectic around here. Not in a bad way, by any means, but just busy. Nearly every Saturday I've wished I could just lie around and relax, sleep in, watch some movies, surf the web, do whatever. Since my knee's hurt, that's about all I've been able to do today.

And it's driving me crazy!

Isn't it funny how something that sounds so enticing when it isn't an option is suddenly much less appealing when it's the only option?

Bad, Cox, Bad! No cookie!!!

2006-09-01T21:58:00.000-05:00

So, here I sit on a Friday night, trying to pay my stupid Cox cable bill. Why is that hard? Frankly, I can't imagine.

I've been paying my bill online for three years or more with no problems. When we got our DVR, though, something got messed up. Ever since we moved into our house, Cox had my driver's license number on file instead of my social security number. Frankly, that was fine by me, I just had to remember to give them my DLN whenever they asked for an SSN. When I went in to get the DVR, though, they "corrected" that. No problem, and no big deal.

Or so I thought.

The next month I went to their website to pay our bill, but when I tried to login, it said since there had been changes to our account, they needed additional confirmation in the form of our account number and my social. (Yes, I know that sounds like a phishing scheme. I manually typed in www.cox.com to get there, though, and even checked the IPs. Yes, I'm paranoid.) When I entered it, though, the form said it didn't match what was listed for that account. So I tried my DLN instead -- no luck. Then I tried Heather Marie's SSN -- still no luck.

"Great," I thought, "they must've mistyped it at the office." So the next time I had a chance to go by, I stopped in and explained my problem. The nice folks at the office double-checked my account info, carefully compared the SSN and DLN I provided to what they had on file, and assured me that it was all correct.

Incorrect.

I'm still having the same problem with the online account info, so I took the time tonight to call their alleged billing support line. At least I think that's what I called. Here's a free tip to companies everywhere: If you're going to display a message on a web page for your customers to call a service representative, put the number RIGHT THERE! It's not rocket science! If I have to hunt around your site looking for a number to all in order to more efficiently give you money then the odds are really good I won't bother.

So I finally work my way through the billing phone menu until I'm told that I can press 0 to speak with a customer service rep. When I pressed 0, the recording warned me that my account would be charged a $4 "cost recovery fee" for helping me. Helping me pay my bill?! FOUL!!! Cost recovery? Where I come from, helping your customers give you money is called a cost of doing business, and you factor it into what you have to charge for those services.

Fine, I'll pay their stupid fee, just to get this sorted out! Wrong again, cowboy! Because they only provide that service during normal business hours! So it's hard to access, pointlessly expensive, and unavailable. Boy, that's a winner!

In their defense, I should add here that this is really one of the few problems I've had with Cox, either with net access or TV, while our previous DSL experience was nightmarish. It's still very frustrating, though, and even though our cable service has been good so far, I'll certainly remember tonight when AT&T starts calling to tempt me with the broadband service they're rumored to be prepping for our area.

Life in the ER

2006-08-27T14:11:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the lack of updates, especially since I've been working on a long post for a few days (which will never be able to live up to whatever expectations may have accrued to it).

I had a softball double-header Friday night, and in the 3rd inning of the second game I stumbled while rounding 2nd and sprained my knee. Aside from the risk of serious injury, the worst part was writhing helplessly in the base path while they tagged me out.

I thought it was going to be ok to ice it and go to the doctor on Saturday, but as we were getting into the car, it buckled rather painfully (and frighteningly), prompting me to scream a mild obscenity and convincing me that maybe more immediate care was warranted. So off we went to the ER at Washington Regional....

After 2 hours and some x-rays, the doctor said there was no evidence of tearing in any of my knee ligaments, which was wonderful news. He did say I should watch it over the next couple of weeks to make sure it keeps improving, and that if it continues to bother me, I might need to see a specialist, since I could have some torn or damaged cartilage, which is harder to see on x-rays.

So for the time being, I'm just elevating and icing it it. As it turns out, laying on the couch with your right leg above your heart isn't the easiest position to type in, thus the lack of updates.

Sitting in the waiting room, though, it became embarrassingly obvious to me that even with the worst-case scenario for my knee, I would've been worlds better off than most of the other patients. I wasn't bleeding profusely, I still had all my fingers, I wasn't brought in unconscious on an ambulance, and my family wasn't huddled in the corner, weeping with fear and grief.

Getting ignominiously tagged out suddenly seemed like a pretty minor problem.

I spent all day Saturday resting, then last night we went for dinner and games with our friends Genet and Joel in Bella Vista. That was really a lot of fun!

This afternoon Heather Marie and her fellow bellydance instructors are meeting to practice at our house, so Magaidh and I are cloistered in the office. I'm taking the opportunity to finally install the new hard drive in my desktop. It looks like that's going to fix the problem so far, but I still suspect there may be more to it than a bad hard drive. We'll see after I finish reinstalling, I guess.

Post Delayed

2006-08-24T23:52:00.000-05:00

I know I said yesterday that I had a good post lined up for today, but as it turns out I didn't have time to get it finished tonight, so it'll have to wait until Friday.

I didn't get home until nearly 10:00 tonight. Heather had a bellydance rehearsal, and
when I left work at 8:00, I went to Best Buy to take advantage of the sale they have on 120 GB hard drives for $50. That's about 42 cents per gigabyte -- not bad! I think that should get my desktop fixed up.

I guess I'll have to call it Gecko 3.75 now or something.

Time for the Next Gecko?

2006-08-23T21:46:00.000-05:00

I went into my home office today to check something on my desktop, and found a big, fat Windows system error message. Following standard Windows procedure, I rebooted, only to get the same error again. Not good.

My current desktop is affectionately known as Gecko 3.5, following my long-time naming scheme. The first Gecko was a custom-built Win95 computer I got in 1997 to replace my first personal desktop, a Gateway 486DX2. The second Gecko was a Win98 Pentium II from Gateway, back when they were Gateway 2000. It's now my parents' computer, having been handed down to replace the original Gecko. Gecko III was an AthlonXP system that I built from parts in 2002. Gecko 3.5 hasn't been dubbed Gecko 4 because it was really just a non-upgrade rebuild of Gecko 3 to replace a bad motherboard, plus it was off-track for my typical four-year cycle.

Which brings us back to today's problem: Gecko 3.5 is ailing. I've been planning to replace it for some time, but the plan was to wait for Vista's release so I could just get it pre-installed. If I need a new system immediately, though, I won't be able to wait -- which raises the question of whether I even want another Windows system at all. An iMac or Mac Pro would do pretty much everything I need, and dual-booting with Windows would do the rest.

Normally right now, with a non-functional desktop, I'd be in full crisis mode. I'd be taking meals at the computer desk and planning a likely all-nighter to try to get it fixed ASAP. If we weren't in crunch mode at work, it's not inconceivable that I'd take a sick day. Since I have a laptop that's now my primary computer, though, the pressure is mostly off. In fact, the only urgent reasons to fix it are that it's our household file and print server and it works better for remoting into work.

Fortunately, I'm fairly certain that a complete rebuild or replacement isn't in the cards. Right now it looks like a simple DLL restore, with a worst-case scenario of a new hard drive so I can install Windows on it fresh without losing my data, but it has caused me to start thinking about Gecko 4.

One interesting statistic is that I've pretty much followed a version of Moore's Law on my systems. My first computer (Gecko 0?) had a 66 MHz CPU. Gecko 2 was a 4x+ power increase four years later (Gecko replaced Gecko 0 when it died prematurely after 3 years). At 1600 MHz Gecko 3 was a 4x increase over G2. The primary reason I haven't been in a hurry to upgrade is that 1.6 GHz is still a pretty decent machine. I could put in a better graphics card and run pretty much anything I want. Here we are four years later, and where's my 6.4 GHz processor?

The answer, of course, is that Moore's Law caught up with the limitations of atomic physics, so we're a little stalled at the moment. Everything is dual-core and multi-processor now, which is a nice segue into tomorrow's post. :-)

Now I'm off to do some ~~computer~~ Windows maintenance....

Update: In all fairness, I have to say that I really can't blame Windows for this one. After some testing, it's obvious that what I'm dealing with is actual hardware failure. It seems to be just my main hard drive, but I'm going to check tonight to make sure it's not the IDE controller on the motherboard. Luckily, I just made a full backup to the new USB drive we got last week, so my data is safe for now.

Mid-week Reportlets

2006-08-16T23:19:00.000-05:00

Halfway through the week, and there's really nothing major to report, just a lot of small stuff, so I hereby inaugurate the reportlet:

Following up on a comment in response to my last shaving post, it's good to know that Target carries a lot of the supplies I've been using. That's a lot more convenient than mail-order, which makes it much more feasible to continue with the double-edged safety razor.
Also on the topic of shaving, while we were in Eureka Springs I used the Fusion again with modern shaving gel. It did seem to work better with the gel, but the razor bumps around my neck, which had almost completely vanished while using the DE razor, came back with a vengeance after only one shave with the cartridge. After a week of shaves with the DE razor, they're gone again.
We got a 250 GB Lacie USB drive today to store archives of Heather's podcast, big media files, and backups. Gorgeous design, but what really excites me is how cheap storage has gotten. For perspective, this single 250 GB drive (which is about the size of a couple of DVD cases) has more storage capacity than the sum total of every computer she and I have ever owned. And now terabyte drives are expected out this year? Awesome.
Included in the Amazon order with the new drive was also a test prep book for the first of the new Microsoft certification tests. I love Smalltalk and Ruby, but there's not much space for them in my day job, so it seems reasonable to focus some time on .NET. I'm mostly looking at preparing for the cert tests as a way to force myself to get up to speed on .NET 2.0 before we transition to it for development at work.
Maczot finally gave me an offer that was too good to refuse today. Heather's been using Skype Recorder for her podcast interviews, and Maczot's price was essentially half-price.

That's pretty much it for today. Off to bed!

Lazy Weekend

2006-08-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

I wish I could say that we did great, inspiring things this weekend, but we mostly just lounged around and watched season four of Gilmore Girls. That was really good, though, since we were pretty worn out by the end of the week.

One funny bit of synchronicity with Gilmore Girls came in an episode where two characters went to Florida for spring break and spent most of their time in their hotel room watching The Power of Myth. As it happens, I have the Power of Myth DVDs checked out from Netflix right now, and I'm finishing the last episode as I write this.

I first saw the series when it aired on PBS, but at the time, I was most attracted to it due to the use of Star Wars in the early episodes. I studied the basic principles, especially the hero cycle, throughout school, but I haven't watched the actual series interviews much since they were on PBS. I've been really surprised, though, by how much I remembered. It's hard to say how much was recalled from the original airing and how much was from school lectures, but it seems to me that I simply internalized and absorbed many of the ideas. Time and again Campbell has told stories or described concepts that I've long been familiar with, but didn't remember learning, and I've realized that his books and interviews were the sources.

Magaidh seems to have made a full recovery, much to our relief. Unfortunately, I'm still suffering from an outbreak of the weird, hives-like allergic rash I get once a year or so. Still no clue what causes it, either. Before you ask, yes, we've eliminated all the usual suspects, from food to laundry detergent. For all we know, it could just be stress. At least it's nearly gone now, with just a little itching and redness on one hand, and hopefully that'll be gone after a good night's sleep and a dose of Benadryl. I think I'll go get started on that now.

Long Dark Night

2006-08-08T23:12:00.000-05:00

No post last night, sorry. Sunday night turned out to be a looong night.

Beginning about 4:00 Sunday afternoon, Magaidh started itching and scratching something awful. It got worse and worse as the night went on. As previously advised by our vet, we gave her a little Benadryl at about 5:00 or so, thinking that it would help if she was having allergy problems. Her itching only got worse, though.

We tried brushing her and spraying her with doggie anti-itch spray, but nothing helped, and her whining and scratching kept us away until 1:00, when I gave her a cool bath with anti-itch dog shampoo. Far from helping, the bath itself caused her so much discomfort that she literally started howling.

At about 1:45 we gave her some more Benadryl, but it still didn't help, so about 2:15 we started another examination to check for fleas and other pests, but we couldn't find any sign of them. We did notice, though, that she'd nearly licked/chewed/scratched several raw spots on her hind legs, and she had a red rash on her belly.

So thus it was that we found ourselves at the emergency vet clinic in Springdale at 2:45 in the morning. The vet said her symptoms were consistent with an allergic reaction to an insect bite of some kind, so she gave Magaidh a couple of shots and prescribed an increased dose of Benadryl for the next five days. They were really nice, patient people there, and my hat is off to them. They're on the job overnight and on weekends so animals can get immediate care whenever they need it -- that takes a special attitude and love.

Happily, the treatments seem to have done the trick, and Magaidh is feeling much better since then. Unfortunately, though, they didn't kick in immediately, so I was awake until after 5am, when Magaidh either started feeling better or exhausted herself scratching.

Last night wasn't enough for me to fully recover, and tonight's not looking so hot, either, but at least I'm going to go give it a shot.

2191 Days and Counting

2006-08-06T23:16:00.000-05:00

Heather Marie and I just got back from a weekend vacation to Eureka Springs to celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary. Wow, it really doesn't seem like it's been that long! Knowing and loving Heather has been the greatest adventure of my life.

We had a good trip, even though we actually didn't do a whole lot. All we really needed was a chance to get away for a little while, to break out of our routine, and Eureka is a great place for doing that.

One of the things I love about going to Eureka Springs is that it's sort of a trip back in time. Not in the cheesy, touristy, Victorian Eureka way, but in the sense that it's sort of a time capsule for 20th century road trips and vacations. Highway 62 from Rogers to Eureka Springs is a smallish scenic byway now, but for most of the 1900s, that was the type of road that connected the whole country.

On the drive over, I'm always struck by how the businesses and attractions harken back to the kitsch of the 50s and 60s driving vacations. The road is dotted with dozens of roadside motels and cabins whose signs haven't changed since the Johnson administration, and it seems that every little road leads to a restaurant or diner of some kind. How is it that I've never heard of these places? There's a crowd, and it's a fairly big place, but I've never heard it, even though I've lived 30 minutes away for the past 12 years. Weird!

There are also some great roadside attractions, like Dinosaur World (which, unfortunately, was closed when we went, perhaps permanently) and Blue Spring. Of course, the main attraction is always Eureka Springs itself.

There's something very...organic about the city. Situated as it is in the deep valley between two ridges, the skyline is dominated on one side by Christ of the Ozarks and on the other by the Crescent Hotel. Because of the morbid history and spooky reputation of the Crescent, I've always thought of that as an interesting juxtaposition between the sacred and the profane. (Nothing against the Crescent, by any means, just an observation.)

I've always loved wandering and getting lost in explorations, which I think may be one reason that I like Eureka so much, since I've never been there when I didn't get lost at least a little. At the very least I usually feel lost when I'm there, which is a good feeling in our strictly controlled, mapped, scheduled world.

We stayed at the Bavarian Inn, which does a great job of providing an intimate, romantic retreat. We also ate at the restaurant on the grounds, which has probably the closest thing to really good German cuisine available in Northwest Arkansas.

To get around, we bought trolley passes for the day. Parking can be a serious pain in Eureka, and the trolleys are a good way to avoid the hassle. During the ride back to our hotel, though, I discovered that an added benefit was the ability to actually look at the town as we rode through. In the past, I've always been to preoccupied trying not to get lost (or trying to get unlost) to truly notice many of the city's features. On the bus ride, though, I saw all sorts of interesting places that I want to revisity. In fact, I think for my next trip over, I want to plan on exploring the city by either bike or hike in order to really see and visit the sites I've only ever driven by.

Home Sweat Home

2006-07-31T23:09:00.000-05:00

We went down to Little Rock this weekend for a brief visit with our families. Fun, but man it was hot! I've gotten spoiled by the relatively low humidity and temperatures up here, so it's always a bit of a shock to go back to Central Arkansas this time of year. Spending half the trip in the hot car didn't help. We had a great time, though, and overall it was a much-needed respite from our daily routine.

Now we're back at home, settling back into that routine. :-)

I'd love to say that I have some deep, insightful thoughts to post, but I'm tapped out tonight. My only reliably coherent thoughts revolve around a shower and bed.

Shaving Control Test

2006-07-27T23:57:00.000-05:00

After a few more shaves with the safety razor and brush, I think I have finally gotten the hang of it. Since I got past the first couple of rough cuts, so to speak, I've been getting consistently close, comfortable shaves. In fact, it seemed like they were better than I remembered from my Gillette Fusion razor. Going into tonight's shave I still had some unanswered questions, though:

Is it the razor or the brush that's making the biggest difference?
Is it just my imagination that the old razor is doing better than the Fusion, given that the last time I used the Fusion was with a well-worn cartridge?
Would the gentler, wetter technique I've learned with the old Gillette improve my shaves with the Fusion as well?

So, with those questions in mind, I decided that I needed to perform a control test, using the new brush and cream along with the Fusion razor (yes, I'm aware that I need to test several more combinations -- let it go). For the record, I hate the stupid power vibrating crap on the Fusion, so I didn't use it.

In order to make the test as fair as possible, got a new set of Fusion cartridges. I consider it a justifiable expense not only in the name of science, but because we're going out of town soon, and modern cartridge razors really do travel better. Plus, if it really worked better, I'd be able to keep using them.

While picking those up ($12 for 4 - ouch!) I noticed that Wal-Mart does carry blades for safety razors ($2 for 10 - nice!). I'm not sure what the quality is like, but given that basic razorblade manufacturing probably hasn't changed much in about 50 years, they should be about as good as anything else.

My expectation was that, using the same techniques, the Fusion would produce a better shave. After all, there had to be a good reason that everyone quit using safety razors in favor of cartridges, right? Yes, the article that inspired all of this did make the point that safety razors are the same type of razor that "Cary Grant, Lee Marvin, JFK, and John Wayne used." That sounds impressive, but it's also pretty darn silly. Why? Well nobody is claiming that the old razors are sissy, quite the opposite in fact, so it's kind of a straw man to present paragons of masculinity as proof that the old ways are best. Plus, JFK didn't exactly have a choice. The other guys did, though, and I kind of wonder what they used toward the ends of their lives. Teddy Roosevelt probably used an old folding straight razor. Well, bully for him, but I ain't gonna!

Therefore, since nobody I know who lived during the safety razor era still uses one, it seemed reasonable to expect better performance from a five-bladed modern marvel than from a 50 year-old antique.

So when I got ready to shave tonight, I followed the same prep procedure I had used with the safety razor (hereafter referred to as simply "the Gillette"): long pre-soak, wet brush, good lather, and plenty of water. I also adopted the same slow "light touch" style I've learned from the Gillette. I took my time, kept my face wet, gave the Fusion a chance to work, and....

....I'd call the shave I received from the Fusion completely inferior to the Gillette by nearly every conceivable measure: it was less comfortable, not as close, missed more hairs, irritated my neck more, and left my skin stinging far more than the Gillette.

I was shocked.

Now, admittedly, there are some more variables at play here. For one, the Fusion wasn't really designed with the light-touch, letting the razor work method in mind. It expects and demands a little more pressure. I also wonder if the Fusion might not actually do better with a modern aerosol shaving gel, since I certainly don't remember it ever hurting that much previously.

Where did the Fusion win? Well, the flexible head is nice when it comes to the jawline and chin. I suspect that may be a temporary advantage, though, since I've been getting better at handling the Gillette around those areas, too. The other great thing about the Fusion is the little single blade on the top, which makes it really easy to trim under my nose and around the corners of my mouth. I still have a hard time executing detail work with the Gillette, but more experience may help that, as well.

Where did the Gillette win? Everywhere else. It cut closer, it cut cleaner with less tugging, and afterward my face hardly stung at all. It even won on speed, since I wound up having to go over my face twice with the Fusion (and it still wasn't as close).

I think my preliminary conclusion is that, while the Fusion makes it really easy and fast to get a mediocre shave, it makes it much harder to get a really good one. The Gillette, on the other hand, makes it somewhat harder to shave overall, but it doesn't take much additional effort to improve from a mediocre shave to an exceptional one, just better technique, which is pretty easy to learn, at least in my experience.

As I was rubbing on some aftershave, this was the synopsis that I came up with, although it will only appeal to my fellow geeks (a similar analogy using cars is an exercise left to the reader):

The Fusion is like Java or .NET: It is easy for users with average skill to do an average job, but it makes it harder for users with great skills to do a great job.

The Gillette is like Ruby or Python or Smalltalk: It's a little harder to learn how to use, but it allows a skilled user to do great things.

For the record, I'd say that electric razors and classic straight razors are like Visual Basic and Lisp, respectively. An electric razor makes it really easy and fast for absolutely anyone to do an adequate job, but nearly impossible for anybody to do better, while a straight razor makes it possible for a master user to do some incredible things, but it's also possible to cause a staggering amount of damage with one. ;-)

Kudos to Microsoft

2006-07-26T23:47:00.000-05:00

Like nearly everyone else, I do have some problems and gripes with Microsoft. I don't really dislike them, though, and I have to give them credit when it's due.

I've been researching tools for a couple of different technologies at work lately, and I've been shocked how common royalties are. Maybe that will fly for a huge company that has either a few big clients or the manpower to deal with the royalty issues, but neither case fits us. We're too small to dedicate staff members to handling the details, but we have thousands of sites that we'd have to pay for. No thanks.

What I've been discovering this week is that this sort of hidden overhead for developers is
far more common than I previously knew. Are there a lot of carpenters who have to pay a per-house royalty for their saws and hammers?

So this is what I have to give MS credit for: generally speaking, they make it pretty easy and cheap for developers to use their tools. Yes, Visual Studio and MSDN are notoriously non-cheap, but they are also mercifully free of hidden costs and royalties.

They also provide a range of prices from free to several thousand dollars, depending on the developer's particular needs. I appreciate the non-commercial versions that many companies offer, but if that's the only alternative to the full price (which may be several thousand dollars), then it's a hard sell, especially for startups. And if your website says we have to call or email for a price quote, then you can rest assured that you won't have to worry about having me as a customer, except in extraordinary circumstances.

So, props to Microsoft for making things relatively easy, transparent, predictable, and cheap when compared to other products, especially for startups and small companies.

Tomorrow we'll return you to your normal, everyday random thoughts and MS bashing. ;-)

Is it really only Tuesday?

2006-07-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

This week is going sooo sloooooow. Theoretically that's good, since I have a ton of stuff to do, but unfortunately I seem to be moving in slow motion, too. Oh, well.

Here's my tip for the day to anyone publishing stuff on the web: put a freakin' date on it! I was researching some statistics today, and I finally found a reference to them in a press release from a trade organization on their website. Were those the current stats? I have no idea, since the release didn't have a date. It did have some helpful references to things happening "next week" and "on Wednesday," though. Gee whiz, thanks. I wonder if the group has any idea how completely useless relative dates like that are.

If you publish something online, assume that it's going to be accessible forever. And ever. Even if you don't like it. It's likely going to be in Google's cache and local disk caches and in server backups and a thousand other places you don't expect for the rest of human history. If the format and software you use don't automatically add a date, then just put one in yourself. Please! If I can't put your information in a time context, I'm probably just going to ignore it.

Out of It

2006-07-24T23:49:00.000-05:00

All day today I felt like I was coming down with something. My head just felt fuzzy, and I couldn't concentrate. It may have just been sleepiness, combined with the fact that I mowed the yard yesterday without taking any antihistamines first. Whatever the reason, though, I wasn't terribly productive all day, and I think I'm going to go to bed now.

Sorry for the boring, lame post. I promise I'll do better tomorrow. I've got a couple of really good ones in draft form, so maybe I'll finish one of those up.

Happily Ever Aftering

2006-07-23T23:56:00.000-05:00

Heather Marie and I went to see Camelot this afternoon at the Arts Center of the Ozarks. It was a really good production, and for us it was a nice break from the hustle and bustle we've been stressed about lately. We have some friends who were in it, and it was a blast to see them performing.

I have mixed feelings about Camelot itself, though. I've known the music all my life. When I was little, my mom put an old stereo record player in my room, and I fell asleep every night listening to old albums, most of which were classic musicals. Camelot was my favorite, but I never actually saw the musical itself until a few years ago, and I was really disappointed.

Of course I knew the basic gist of the Arthurian story when I was listening as a child, but I didn't know the specifics of the musical's version. All I had to go on was basic Arthuriana and the bits and pieces my mom told me of the musical story so that I would know who was singing what and why. Based on that information, my mind filled in the gaps with a suitable version of Camelot. When I finally saw the actual musical, I was underwhelmed because the actual dialog and story weren't nearly as good as my imagined version.

I'm not talking about the vague, dreamy mental versions of stories that we construct based on things like movie trailers, I'm talking about what basically amounted to a full-scale production, with dialog, sets, costumes, and blocking. When I finally got to experience the real version, I found that I preferred mine.

So, I'm off to bed. I think I'll put our Camelot soundtrack in the CD player, and replay my version as I go to sleep.

Combo Day

2006-07-22T23:54:00.000-05:00

Today wound up being a weird combination of more or less random activities, and even though it never seemed like it at the time, somehow as I look back on the day, it seems like I accomplished quite a bit.

After dropping Heather Marie off at the museum, I went to the gym for a while. From the gym I went to the cable company to pick up a DVR, followed by a trip to the barber, then a few hours at work. Finally we met some friends for supper, then came home and watched a show we'd recorded while we were out.

Really just lots of little stuff, but more or less productive, overall.

Sorry, no shaving report today. I typically only shave a couple of times a week anyway (I have been loving the "three-day beard" fashion trend the past couple of years), so two days in a row would've been a little painful regardless of the implement used. I'll probably give it another shot tomorrow.

Start of the Weekend

2006-07-21T23:37:00.000-05:00

Well, probably not really much of a start to much of a weekend. I worked late tonight, and both Heather Marie and I are working most of the day tomorrow.

We did start looking for things to do and places to stay for our sixth anniversary in August. Right now the most appealing scenario looks like a two-night stay in Eureka Springs. Nothing too far or too expensive, just a nice, relaxing weekend away. Plus, a couple of the hotels have wifi now. ;-)

During a break from work tomorrow I may go by the local Cox office and see about adding a DVR to our cable service. Yeah, a Tivo would work just as well (probably better), but the ease of setup for the Cox-provided one, which incorporates the digital tuner, wins out over a Tivo, which would have to be setup alongside the tuner (thus adding yet another box and remote to our TV gear).

The extra cost is minimal, and I'm sick of missing things we forgot to record and pausing conversations so as not to miss what we're watching. Let the TV get paused for a change! Plus, the instant replay option is nice. Since we've started watching lots of series episodes on DVD, we've gotten really spoiled by the ability to rewind and replay when we miss dialog.

Blogathon Interrupted

2006-07-20T23:18:00.000-05:00

I'm calling off the Blogathon, at least temporarily. Heather Marie has just got too much going between now and when the museum's new exhibit opens on July 31. Maybe we'll give it another shot after that. Besides, it's really not as much fun when it's just the two of us. I'm still planning to post every day, but it's all optional.

After a few days of working with them, I've decided that I prefer CopyWrite to Ulysses as a writing program. It's not a price thing, it's just that CopyWrite seems to click better for me. Nothing against Ulysses at all, in fact, I think it may be slightly more Mac-ish than CW, which might explain my preference, having come from a Windows background.

The drawing program is a tougher call. I've been trying out Manga Studio, hoping that the cheaper debut version would suffice. I say "trying out," but it would actually be more accurate to say, "trying to try out." For some reason, nothing that I draw with it is showing up anymore. It's either a bug or setting that I accidentally messed up, but either way I'm frustrated and unimpressed. All problems aside, though, it seems like it should be a fantastic program for drawing black and white comics, especially if print is their final destination. That's not quite what I want, though. The real killer is that it's apparently impossible (or at least uselessly hard) to do anything in color.

That leaves Sketchbook Pro. At $200 it's a lot more than Manga Studio Debut, but it's less than the pro version. It doesn't have any tools specifically for comics, which isn't a huge deal, especially since Manga Studio is targeted completely at manga comics. No, that shouldn't be a surprise, but somehow it was. $200 is a little out-of-budget at the moment, though, so I guess I'll be waiting a while on it. No rush -- I've still got paper and pencils.

Shave and a Haircut....

2006-07-19T23:52:00.000-05:00

Go on, say it. You know you want to.

Actually, I didn't get a haircut, although I need one. I did have a very interesting shave tonight, though.

A couple of months ago, I saw a link to this article on shaving on either Digg or Reddit. It hung around the front page for a day or two before I finally decided to check it out. I was intrigued, to say the least. The whole concept sounded like a cool retro, macho thing.

So I went over to Classic Shaving and looked at their wares. Old school shaving is expensive! Far too expensive to try on a lark, and I had the feeling that cheaping out wouldn't really give the correct impression, so I set the idea aside.

While we were down for Father's Day, though, I happened to mention it to my dad, and I asked about an old Gillette safety razor I remembered being around there. It turned out the one I was thinking of was a lady's razor, but he did have a really nice adjustable Gillette safety razor similar to this one. As it happened, there also happened to be a practically unused shaving brush around their house, and he told me I could have them both if I'd actually try to use them.

And I think he smirked as he said that. Not a good omen.

Another trip to Classic Shaving, and I had a new set of blades and a tube of Proraso Shaving Cream, the best-selling shaving cream in Italy for something like the past 60 years. All that was left was to lather up and shave.

Going in, I was fully-prepared to completely debunk the original article. Yes, it was true that this was the type of razor used by my father and grandfathers, but I also know that all three of them stopped using them in favor of more modern devices. To my surprise, though, the actual experience wasn't quite so clear-cut.

First the brush and foam. Wow! There's a reason Proraso is a perennial favorite! It's cool and tingly, and after I got the hang of the correct cream-water mixture, lathering up with the brush and a nice cream was a really fantastic experience. Very soothing and relaxing.

So there I stood before the mirror, my face dripping with expensive Italian lather, staring at a very big, sharp blade. Through my head were running memories of every famous person I could think of who died from an infected shaving cut. Those were suddenly looking like far less embarrassing deaths than I'd previously considered them to be. I took a deep breath, put the blade to my cheek, and...

...it wasn't half bad! Oh, don't get me wrong, I cut the hell out of myself in several places, but fortunately the soothing quality of the Proraso was such that I hardly noticed. (I did begin to regret not getting any styptic powder, though.)

The razor actually did a great job, for the most part. The biggest problem was trying to get the small, sensitive areas around my nose and mouth, just because of the size of the razor. The other thing that struck me was the weight of the razor. It really wasn't necessary to use any pressure at all, since the razor itself could do most of the work. I did have some trouble getting around my throat and jawline, though, without the pivoting head I'd become accustomed to. Suddenly the stereotypical contorted faces that we all jokingly associated with shaving during the 50s and 60s became not only non-humorous, but necessary.

In fairness to tradition and the designs of our forefathers, I feel like I ought to stick with the razor for a couple of weeks to give myself a chance to really get the hang of it, by my Gillette Fusion Power 5-blade Hummer H2 of a razor is sitting on the bathroom counter calling my name.

In my final analysis, I think I'd have to say that the entire experience was really nice, though. The old style equipment forced me to take my time and relax more than I have in a long time, and it actually helped me rediscover one of the lost rituals of manhood, which was good because -- let's face it, guys -- we don't have too many socially-acceptable rituals left.

So if you have access to the gear, I'd recommend giving it a try. Even if you don't rediscover a classic way of shaving, you may at least rediscover a lost piece of masculine mystique.

Late Post

2006-07-18T23:07:00.000-05:00

Fun surprise dinner with family and friends tonight.

Had to login to work to do some late assignments, but work computer was frozen. Drove to Fayetteville and back to reboot it. Now trying to finish assignment before tomorrow. Hopefully it won't suck too bad.

More details tomorrow.

Jessica Fletcher -- Criminal Mastermind?

2006-07-17T22:25:00.000-05:00

Heather Marie and I were accidentally watching Murder, She Wrote tonight during supper, and it was a typical episode: someone has been murdered, Jessica Fletcher's niece is a suspect, and Jessica manages to nab the real killer...or so it would seem.

At first we were just laughing about how often Jessica Fletcher's nieces and nephews get accused of murder, and exactly how many nieces and nephews she seems to have. Strangely, viewers never see her siblings (or siblings-in-law) that we know of, so we have no way of telling if all these relatives are the progeny of a few extraordinarily fertile siblings or the only children of dozens of brothers and sisters. And if her nieces and nephews aren't actually shady, unsavory characters themselves, they at least run with some dangerous crowds.

That was a funny thought, and it lead to the obvious discussion about how murders seem to follow TV detectives around like a bad smell. That's pretty common in the mystery genre, and it forms the basis of a long string of obvious jokes about how danger it is to hang around with free-lance detectives. What's different about Murder, She Wrote, though, is how frequently the most obvious suspects are friends and relations of the main character.

That's when the pieces started falling into place.

It is a strong coincidence that murders seem to coalesce around Ms. Fletcher, and eventually it would raise questions among the authorities, except that all those cases have been solved and the killers identified. Right? Maybe not. Suppose you were a murderer who needed to cover her tracks. What better way than to help catch the "real" killer?

Wouldn't that start to become suspicious itself, though? Eventually the police would put two and two together: "Hey, she's around a lot of murders, and she's always pretty eager to pin it on someone else. There's something fishy here."

One good way around that would be to arrange the crime in order to frame not your real patsy, but yet another suspect...a suspect whom you would have an obvious reason to help clear...like a well-loved nephew, perhaps? Ah, now we're getting somewhere!

This approach would allay the suspicions of the official investigators, since the answer to their questions about her involvement would be that she's concerned about her brother or sister's child. How good of her! How kind! And she always gets her man! Of course she does -- she's the one who framed him!

This revelation led us to consider how frequently her nieces and nephews are the prime suspects because they stand to benefit in some way from the victim's death. My, that's certainly convenient, isn't it?

So, consider this hypothesis: A friend or relative calls mild-mannered mystery writer Jessica Fletcher with a problem. She pays them a visit and while there kills the person who's standing in their way. In order to cover her tracks, she deeply frames the "real" killer, while superficially framing her loved one, then apparently clears them in the process of catching the real killer. Crime's solved, the innocent are cleared, and justice is served. Very nice and tidy.

In exchange, she gets some killer mystery novel plots (pun intended) and possibly a small kickback from the person she helped in order to support her until the royalties start coming in. In fact, such support probably constitutes her primary income, since the typical 60-something mystery writer isn't exactly rolling in dough.

But what about all the people who confess when confronted with her apparently irrefutable evidence? Sadly, it would seem that false confessions are uncomfortably common. What's more, most of the suspects (or should we begin referring to them as victims at this point, instead?) would stand trial for capital murder, and in many states a voluntary confession precludes the death penalty, so they could merely be bowing to defeat at the hands of a superior foe and salvaging whatever small victory they can.

Seen through the lens of this theory, Jessica Fletcher begins to look less like a kindly old aunt, and more like the Godmother, head of a criminal empire.

Needless to say, we'll be watching Murder, She Wrote with an entirely different attitude from now on! Cabot Cove suddenly looks like a much more sinister place.

And, yes, it was a very slow night at our house....

Hot Time in the Ol' Town

2006-07-16T23:52:00.000-05:00

Holy cow it was hot today! Poor Magaidh just moved from one cool spot on the floor to another all day long.

We were more active today than yesterday, but only by a little. We tried to wash a couple of comforters, but apparently the laundromat in Lowell has gone out of business yet again. I guess instead of waiting for it to reopen and trying to take advantage of another brief period of solvency, we'll just take them to a dry cleaner and be done with it.

Other than the failed laundering and a grocery run, the only other thing we got done today was some audio editing. Some of it was for the upcoming exhibit at the museum, but the other bit was more fun, at least for me: I got to sit in with Heather Marie on her podcast, providing a male perspective to her question of the week. I wish it was something we could do more often, but alas, we haven't thought of a suitable podcast topic for the two of us together.

Nothing big happening at work this week, as far as I know, but things will be really busy since Heather has the exhibit opening soon. At the very least, maybe we can take some more time for ourselves, separate from work, and cram in a little extra rest.

Uselessly Hot

2006-07-15T23:26:00.000-05:00

Heather Marie and I didn't accomplish jack squat today, unless you count watching a DVD from Netflix. We talked about going to a movie or something, but it was just so freakin' hot we didn't even want to leave the house.

We finally decided we might give a shot to being "Creatures of the Night" for the weekend, by taking a nap from about 4 to 8 pm then staying up late into the night. Things didn't cool down that much, though, and when we took Magaidh for a walk at about 9:30 it was still hot as blazes outside. Besides, there's not much to do after midnight anyway, so we'll probably just head off to bed soon.

We do have things that we're going to have to go out to do tomorrow, but we're dreading it, since it's going to be even hotter then. :-(

Friday Relief

2006-07-14T23:48:00.000-05:00

Wow, do I ever need a weekend! I worked late last night, then worked some more from home, then put in another hour between 12am and 1am when the stuff I'd done earlier apparently broke some other work (turned out to be completely unrelated to what I'd done, but I didn't find that out until this morning).

Then on the way to lunch with a couple of friends from work, the car we were in broke down. Thankfully it wasn't mine, since the engine basically just totally locked up. I never found out what the details were exactly, but the solution is going to be a whole new engine, to the tune of $4000 or so. Bummer!

I actually have some follow-up info on the car thing from yesterday, as well as some interesting stuff from work, but I'm just too tired to mess with it right now. Gotta go get some sleep.

Car Wishes

2006-07-13T23:49:00.000-05:00

I want a new car. Not a brand new car, or even a new-to-us used car, but a new type of car. Something fun and inexpensive.

Let me follow the whole train of thought....

We're a one-car family. That's really not as bad as it sounds. Before Heather Marie got her driver's license last year, we obviously didn't need two cars, and since then we've gotten used to only having one. It's only a hassle on the rare occassions that we need to be two dramatically different places simultaneously, which isn't very often. Still, though, there are times that it would be nice to have some supplemental transportation, so I think about options occasionally.

Last week one of the discs we had from Netflix was The Long Way Round, a documentary about a round-the-world motorcycle trip. It aired on Bravo here in the US, but we missed a couple of episodes, so the DVDs gave us a chance to get caught up. And every time we watched it, I found myself thinking, "You know, a motorcycle wouldn't be a bad extra vehicle."

Then I pictured the horrors of a sudden, brutal, bone-crushing, bloody, painful death on the grill of a gigantic SUV and the urge passed.

After thinking about what I wanted in a combination of size, performance, and safety, I decided that what I really needed was essentially a Tron Lightcycle -- basically a motorcycle with a roll cage.

So that's what I started looking for, with some expected variations, and that leads me to my primary question: Where are all the futuristic cars? All promises of flying cars aside, where are the new, innovative designs?

I did finally find a few, but none of them are really very realistic financially. The Carver is pretty intriguing. Too bad it's $48,000. (Looks like a whole lot of fun, though!) Then there's the Smart Car. They're really cute, and look like they might fit the bill. Oh? What's that? They're how much? $16,000? Thanks, I'll just get a Civic.

The Tango Commuter Car looks like it would also be really good, since it's electric on top of everything else, but it won't be available until 2008...and it's practically a steal at only $40,000. Sheesh.

Here's the big clue for people looking to sell ultra-small cars: you've got to make them cheap. If I could get any one of these for $10,000 or less, I'd probably do it. Unlike Europeans, though, we don't have serious space constraints and we have to drive relatively long distances, so most of these are never going to be primary transportation in 90% of America. Most people don't have the extra money necessary to pay that much for a secondary (or tertiary) car. For an idea, look at the mass market penetration of motorcycles that cost over $20,000 -- that's the market.

I've also spent some time looking for kit cars I could build (probably modified to run electric), but that market seems to be dominated now by classic style cars, not single-seat, cock-pit style futuristic experimental cars. I guess I could try to design and build it all myself, but that's really a little more effort than I'm interesting in investing. I could still wind up doing it, though.

Yawn

2006-07-12T23:58:00.000-05:00

Here it is, 11:57 PM, and I'm logged in to my work computer trying to get something to build so I can check it into source control and go to bed.

Naturally, Visual Studio is driving me nuts! It's insisting that Constants contains no definition for ServiceID.ContactsGuid, despite the fact that if I right-click on the reference and select Go To Definition, VS will take me to the freakin' definition!!! What the heck?! It obviously knows where the definition is!

Sheesh. And so I'm still awake, and still banging my head against this wall.

Blog Fast

2006-07-11T23:57:00.000-05:00

I didn't stay at work late today, but I did have to login from home and work a couple of hours anyway, so now I'm running a little late and blogging under the wire.

We started the ping pong "season" today at work. I played two of the seven games I need to play this week, and lost both of them. I played pretty well in the second game, but not quite well enough to win...or make up for how rotten I played in the first game. I'm all about finding weaknesses, though, and I think I've got a couple now that I can use during the real tournament.

Whether I'll actually play well enough to exploit them, though, is a different question....

Typical Monday Night

2006-07-10T23:51:00.000-05:00

Nothing much interesting today. Typical Monday morning stuff at work -- catch up on email, figure out what's happening this week, etc. I'm about to go back and finish off a couple of projects that had to be temporarily left undone last fall pending completion of other pieces of the program. Getting them done will be good, since it will mean I get to do more actual programming and they'll represent two big steps toward finally completing and shipping our next version.

We're starting a ping pong tournament in the office tomorrow, and that promises to be fun. It's going to consist of two weeks of round-robin play to seed our bracket, then a double-elimination tournament. That's good, since it means I'll get to play two games in the tournament instead of just one. Most of the guys in the office are considerably better than I am. There are a few I can beat about a third of the time, but it's tough. Our table setup favors hard-hitting, fast play over finesse and stamina, which definitely works against me. I don't typically go for many kill shots, preferring instead to move the ball around my opponent until he makes a mistake, but it's often hard to keep him out of kill position long enough.

The really good news, though, is that a couple of the guys tried tennis during their vacation last week, and they really liked it, so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get some matches together and maybe even join the tennis club at our gym. Since tennis is the only sport that I'm really genuinely any good at, I'm looking forward to playing them, if only to demonstrate that there's something to me besides the awkward clumsy doofus who can't play basketball, softball, or ping pong worth a flip. (I'm pretty good at racquetball, too, but only a couple of them know it.)

And, frustratingly, I still haven't had time to try out the drawing and writing programs I have demos for. In a way that's good, though, since it kind of answers my question: If I can't even find 30 minutes to test them, there's no way I can justify buying the more expensive ones. Now I just need to decide if it's even worthwhile to get the cheap ones.

It's been a quiet week...

2006-07-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

We went to see A Prairie Home Companion this afternoon. It wasn't unpleasant by any means, but it also wasn't a particularly good movie. Not bad, but not great. I'm a big fan of the radio show, though, so I had pretty high expectations. If I had the choice, I'd spent most Saturday nights from 5 to 7 sitting someplace quietly listening to KUAF. Since I seldom get that chance, though, I prefer to listen to the replay on Sunday afternoon, usually while either napping or browsing the paper. Ah...good times.

The primary problem with the movie was that it was weird to see other actors playing the characters that I've known from the show for years. Kevin Kline is a great guy, but he's not Guy Noir (although he did look a bit like Dabney Coleman). Woody Harrelson has turned into a pretty good actor, and John C. Reilly is always enjoyable, but they were not Dusty and Lefty.

I tried to figure out if they and the other classic characters were actually supposed to be figments of Garrison Keillor's imagination, but if that was the case, I missed it. In fact, I feel like there was a lot I missed. I left with the feeling that it didn't entirely make sense because I didn't understand it. I'm not at all bothered by movies that don't explicitly explain everything to the audience (in fact, I kind of like them), and I usually clue into that sort of thing, so I tend toward the movie-just-didn't-make-sense explanation.

There were some cute, funny parts, but most of them involved in-jokes from the radio show. Since people who don't listen to the show probably wouldn't go see the movie either, that was probably pretty safe.

Personally, I would've enjoyed staying home and listening to the show more. I think my preference for a movie version would've just been setting up cameras and recording an episode of the radio show, maybe interspersed with some backstage stuff and interviews. Since it's doubtful I'll get a chance to see a live show anytime soon, I'd pay good money to watch it in a theater.

Half a Weekend

2006-07-08T23:55:00.000-05:00

One day down, one to go.

Not much going today. I got up early (well, early for me on a Saturday, anyway) and got the yard mowed before it got too hot, then I ran down to the museum to help Heather Marie with some stuff. After getting done at the museum, I had to run pick up a friend from work at the airport.

He was gone to NYC for a week and didn't want to pay to park his car at the airport for a week, so he left it with us. We'd been talking about getting a second car since Heather Marie got her driver's license last summer, and we figured that having two vehicles this week would be a good taste of that.

As it turned out, it was slightly more convenient, but hardly the life-style-altering event one might have expected. Granted, one week is hardly definitive, but when we think about it, there just really aren't that many occasions when we both have to be totally separate places simultaneously.

We'd still like to add a second car for some very good reasons, but convenience fell way down on the list. This week also gave us a good idea of how often we might really have to use both cars, and the fact that it apparently won't be much means that when we decide to get one, we won't necessarily have to shop for something intended for everyday use.

Week's End

2006-07-07T23:58:00.000-05:00

Was this a good week? Well, it's over now, and that's good.

Actually, it wasn't half bad, especially since it was only four days long. Next week may be tough, though, since it'll be my first full work week in two weeks.

Hopefully this weekend will be nice and restful, with a chance to catch up on some some software trials I have installed that I haven't been able to actually try yet.

Whew! Cutting it close on today's post, too! I worked late, then Heather Marie and I went out to dinner. Looks like I made it by the skin of my teeth!

Quickly Going Slow

2006-07-06T23:52:00.000-05:00

I've never felt like a very fast guy. Physiology aside, I've never felt like I react efficiently to fast-moving situations. From sports to dance to video games, when things start moving quickly I can't keep up. It's not that I can't move fast enough, it's more like I feel as if I can't control my movements fast enough.

Since we started playing ping pong during breaks at work, though, I'm learning to move differently. In tennis and Aikido, I never had problems, but I think that was because I knew those things. The motions were comfortable and, more importantly, engraved in muscle memory. Not so with ping pong, though. It's fast-paced and unfamiliar.

What I've learned, though, is that if I try to rush and move quickly, most of my motion is useless and erratic. If I force myself to relax and move slowly (or at least what seems slowly in the moment), though, then my movements are much more efficient and effective. Not only that, but I feel like the play itself moves more slowly so that I have time to think as well.

None of this is a huge surprise, of course, but it's nice to actually experience it.

Not to mention that it translates directly into more wins against my coworkers. :-)

Long Night

2006-07-05T23:51:00.000-05:00

I didn't really feel like I got home tonight until nearly nine o'clock. I actually left work at about five, but I needed to login from home to finish some stuff up, and I didn't get done until about 8:50. Interestingly, though, I got more done in those few hours than when I stay at work for the same amount of time.

And now it's off to bed. For some reason, we didn't realize that the stuff on TV was running 30 minutes behind, so I feel like it should be 11:15, but now I discover that it's more like 11:45. Yawn.

On Independence and Liberty

2006-07-04T23:49:00.000-05:00

A great essay on the responsibilities of freedom and liberty.

The history of America's Revolution and war for independence really is inspiring, and it's good to remember what we've inherited because of it. That's why liberty is one of my favorite words, and why I prefer "Indepence Day" to "The Fourth of July."

Holiday Rehearsal

2006-07-03T23:43:00.000-05:00

It's nearly midnight here, but the fireworks outside sound like the attack on Fort McHenry. If this is what everyone is doing the night before Independence Day, then the displays should be pretty exciting tomorrow night. Of course, for Magaidh's sake, I hope tonight has been the worst of it -- she can't stand fireworks.

As for me, though, I'm off work tomorrow, and I have a long day of sleeping in and lounging around planned, so I'd better head off to bed so I can make sure I'm good and rested. :-)

Lazy Day

2006-07-02T23:12:00.000-05:00

I'd love to say that we were really active today and got tons of stuff done, but I don't want to lie. We didn't do jack today. Well, that's not strictly true. We got some laundry folded, we got our flag put up for Independence Day, and we got some testing done with the new mixer Heather Marie got for her podcast, but that was about it.

I slept late this morning, and Heather napped most of the afternoon. Lots of sleep around our house this weekend, in fact, but I think we really needed it, and I feel pretty rested now...right before bed. :-)

I also downloaded CopyWrite, Ulysses, and WriteRoom, three writing programs that I'm trying out. Not to be confused with word processors, which are primarily concerned with formatting and layout, these programs are tailored specifically to the task of writing as a creative process. WriteRoom is free, but is basically just a full-screen text editor. Of the other two, I'm afraid I may prefer Ulysses, which would be bad because it's a full $100 more than CopyWrite.

I'm also working with demos of a few art programs, and I'm afraid I may run into a similar pricing/preference situation with them. :-(

Blogathon II - Revenge of the Bloggers

2006-07-01T21:39:00.000-05:00

Since we lost the first Blogathon to Lance on what I like to think of as a technicality (if completely forgetting to post can be considered a technicality), Heather Marie and I have both fallen out of the habit of daily posts.

In many ways, it's been good to have a break from the pressure, but it hasn't had quite the effect that I'd hoped. During the contest, I often found myself skipping good post topics since I felt like I didn't have the time to do them justice before midnight. I anticipated that without the pressure of a daily deadline my quantity would decrease slightly, while the quality would increase. A quick look through my May and June archives will demonstrate that the quantity has dropped off far out of proportion to any possible increase in quality. In fact, I think my quality has started suffering as well.

The one big piece of advice that all writers and artists give is to write or draw or whatever at least a little bit every day, and that improvement will inevitably follow from the regular practice. It sounds simplistic and naive, but I'd have to say that at least in my limited experience it seems to absolutely be true.

So now we're back to the Blogathon. Lance has decided to pass on this one, but he's welcome to join in soon if he wants. So is anyone else we know who's interested, for that matter. For now the only rule is one post per day, between midnight and midnight, although after a couple of weeks we may alter that somewhat. The possibilities for variations include defining a day as 6am to 6am (since we're nightowls who tend to post late) or allowing one day off per week. The weekly break is especially attractive since it would allow Heather Marie to take a break on the days she produces her podcast.

For now, though, it's just one per day every day until one of us misses a day, with the winner claiming the knowledge of a job well-done. Let the games begin!

Tent Blogging

2006-06-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

I'm posting this tonight from a tent in our backyard. Why? Because I'm a total geek, and I think it's just about the coolest thing in the world that I can be in my backyard in the middle of the night and still use a computer to access the Internet.

Heather Marie and I are doing a "shake down" camp out tonight to try to identify equipment we need to acquire, replace, or repair. Good camp bedding (for nights when sleeping bags are too much cover, but a sheet isn't enough) is tops on my list so far.

Personally, to me, camping means loading everything up in a pack, carrying it at least five miles from the nearest road, and spending several nights. There are a few, lesser, versions involving cars and developed campsites, but they don't completely live up to my expectations.

However, after experiencing how moving just myself, the wife, and the dog 20 feet from our patio to spend only one night entailed a logistical exercise similar to moving a small army, I can start to see the attraction of RVs to families with kids. Taking a family with just two small kid really camping must require coordination and planning on the scale of D-Day. If there's a family out there that does that with four or more children under 10 on a regular basis, then I want the parents together on a Presidential ticket, because those are some people who can seriously plan and maintain order!

As I type this, there are all sorts of philosophical ideas that come to mind, like how this experience gives me some insight into how the $100 laptop from MIT could cast light into darkened tents and huts all around the globe, and how connected our world has become, and yadda yadda yadda, but it's late, and I'm starting to get really cold (must add heavy blanket to the list).

Now, I wonder how I can get the nice, warm dog to lay closer to me than Heather Marie....

I Hate Astroturf

2006-05-31T20:17:00.000-05:00

Back in high school marching band, we'd go once a year to War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock for the big statewide marching contest. At the time, the field had an astroturf surface, and one of the highlights for us was getting to march on a better surface than the ankle-deep, hole-ridden fields we used each Friday night. The artificial turf was smooth and predictable and easy to march on. We loved it!

Later on, while marching in the Razorback Band in college, I learned the truth about astroturf: it is evil beyond all expectation. Aside from the carpet-burning, shoulder-dislocating, ACL-tearing characteristics that are so well-known to athletes, there are the lesser-known, more insidious problems -- astroturf sheds and generates static.

When you walk across an astroturf field, you build up a bigger charge than a car battery. All that static then attracts thousands of tiny little loose pieces of plastic grass, which leap up onto your shoes and embed themselves in your socks. These are horrible, insidious little things that are nearly impossible to remove, and if you try washing the socks they only transfer onto the other clothes in that load, then melt into small black balls in the dryer.

Thus it was that astroturf earned the nickname we had for it: devil grass. We all tried to wear only old socks to the rehearsals at Razorback Stadium, so they could be thrown away later, and we did our best to keep those shoes separate from others. Fortunately, we only practiced there on Fridays before games, so it wasn't too bad. I can't imagine what the football players had to go through. [1]

Astroturfing on the Internet is at least as bad as the devil grass.

A few weeks ago when I first posted about net neutrality, several things struck me as odd about the comments.

First, it was strange that I got any at all. As far as I know, my only regular readers are my friends and family, most of whom seldom understand my techie posts enough to comment, but I dismissed the sudden influx as being due to my endorsement of Save the Net.

Second, I thought it was odd that most of the commenters didn't have links to blogs of their own. That I dismissed as just people who are more blog readers than blog writers, since that described me for a long time.

Third, it seemed unusual that few (if any?) posted followup comments. Drive-by commentary certainly isn't unusual in the blogosphere, but I usually try to check back in on threads that I'm involved in, as do most people, I think.

Finally, and most damningly, they were nearly all opposed to neutrality regulations. This is certainly a contentious issue, but based on most of the commentary I've read and conversations I've had with fellow geeks, sentiment seems to be at least evenly divided, if not actually leaning in favor of neutrality. I found it nigh unbelievable that the expressed opinions were so overwhelmingly opposed.

It occurred to me at the time that the telecoms could be comment spamming blogs about the subject, but I dismissed that notion on the grounds that a) my blog is too insignificant to warrant that kind of attention, and b) I deemed the telecoms to be too clueless about the opinion-generating power of the blogosphere to even think of the possibility. Maybe in a few more years, but not yet.

Looks like I was right to begin with. They're either more clueful than I thought, or they hired some PR firms that are.

This is certainly a debate worth having, since it is an important issue in the future of the net, but that's really not the way to engage in it. There are people I respect who disagree with my point of view, and that's fine, as long as they're open and upfront about it.

As strange as it may seem, honestly and frankness are really important in the blogosphere, since by and large our thoughts and expressions are the only things by which we can judge each other. Lies and deceptions undermine that, and thanks to the million eyeballs principle, most of the time they will be uncovered.

Or at least they will as long as the means to uncover them are open and accessible to all. That might not be the case, though, if the pathways to the truth were throttled and controlled by those who wanted to suppress it. Ironically, their very actions in opposition to net neutrality make a powerful argument for it.

So, in honor of their sneaky, weasely (if unsurprising) tactics, I smirkingly bestow upon the telco and cable companies the standard title of demagoguery: Big Telecom. Or maybe Big Bandwidth sounds better, I can't decide. ;-)

In the meantime, now that PR firms have caught onto the potential of blogs, it will be their next task to learn how adversely bloggers react to being manipulated. That'll be fun to watch.

[1] I should add here that I absolutely LOVED practicing in Razorback Stadium on Friday nights, under the stadium lights and surrounded by all the history and tradition of the field. That experience made the post-practice cleanup totally worth it.

A Short Boring Post

2006-05-30T23:08:00.000-05:00

I'm still here, and obviously still alive, although I had my doubts a couple of times this weekend.

We knew our friend Rebecca was coming this past weekend, and that was great. Then our friends Bill and David surprised us, which was great. We all went out to eat Friday night, then came back to our house for karaoke, which was great (well, as great as karaoke can be).

Rebecca and her brother threw a surprised mass birthday party for Heather Marie and me (belated) and several other friends Saturday afternoon, which was great. Then we went to see X-men 3, which was really great (maybe I'll post a review later).

Then I was sick all day Sunday, which was...not so great. I'll spare you the details, other than to say that I'm 54 hours removed from the end of the ordeal and feeling almost entirely recovered, but I expect to still be sore tomorrow morning.

Other than that, it's looking like a pretty quiet week so far, which will be a nice change.

Computer Driving Skills

2006-05-23T23:10:00.000-05:00

Someone on Slashdot tonight repeated a common refrain in a discussion about whether basic programming skills should be considered essential for computer literacy: Everyone says you don't have to be an engineer to drive a car.

That's an imprecise comparison, though. You don't have to be an electrical engineer to program a computer any more than you have to be a mechanical engineer to drive a car.

People who know how to use a computer, but who have no concept of programming, are more like people who know how to ride public transportation, but who can't actually drive themselves. You can get along fine with only public transportation, but you'll be mostly confined to those places that have routes running to them. That's also much easier if you live in a large, densely populated city rather than out on the frontier. Maybe that's why Windows is more popular than Linux: it's easier to get around it without learning how to drive.

That can easily break down, though. If you're dependent solely on public transportation, while lacking those skills yourself, then your options are limited to only what is provided to you. You don't have the option of living in a place without those services. And, when those services fail, you're left with no recourse. You'd be the computer equivalent of the public transit-dependent residents of New Orleans. When the buses stop running, you're left with few options. [1]

In fact, not to belittle the suffering of the people of New Orleans, but disasters aren't a bad analogy for computer use. When everything starts to break down, and the people who normally provide services for you are no longer doing it, do you have the skills to provide for yourself (at least a little), or will you be trapped, waiting for FEMA? Basic programming skills are a bit like basic survival skills in the event of an emergency.

In the end, I guess rudimentary programming skills aren't really essential for computer literacy, but they should be considered essential for computer liberty, since without the ability to make the computer do your will, you'll always be confined to the position of waiting around for declarations from elsewhere regarding what you're able and allowed to do.

You'll be the 21st century equivalent of the medieval church laity, forever dependent on the literate clergy to relay the scripture to you.

[1] Yes, I'm well aware that there were economic factors at work in New Orleans that went beyond mere skills and dependency. Analogies are seldom perfect -- get over it.

So Lame the Con of Dan

2006-05-21T21:28:00.000-05:00

Heather Marie and I went to see The Da Vinci Code today. I've already recorded my thoughts on the book, so I'll confine myself to the movie for now.

Let me preface my remarks by saying that I'm unbothered by the concepts in both the book and the movie. They're neither new nor accurate in most respects. Count me amongst those whose faith is not shaken by fictional books or movies, even those with delusions of veracity.

First and foremost, the movie is a pretty accurate recreation of the book, complete with all the original material's flaws. That means that right in the middle of the movie the action is broken up by a solid 20-30 minutes of exposition. That's right: there's essentially a 30 minute History Channel documentary embedded in it. Fortunately, the flashback and memory effects the movie uses are cool enough to hold your attention through most of the exposition.

Overall, it was consistent with what I expected. I've always thought the book was about on par with a bad novelization of a decent movie, and the movie bore that out. Unlike most book-to-movie adaptations, I'd say the movie was far better than the book. That's not to say it was a great (or even particularly good) movie, just that it was better than the book -- not a terribly difficult accomplishment, in my opinion.

It presents an interesting contrast to two other recent book-movies, Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. I don't think many people would seriously claim that either adaptation was better than the original books, but in both cases the movies were made with such obvious love and respect for the originals that their spirits shown through.

In the case of Da Vinci (the book), though, not only is there very little spirit available to begin with, but it will never inspire the love and devotion that LotR and Narnia do. So even though it is a more accurate adaptation than the others, and even though it improves upon the experience of its source, it still falls far short of the quality of LotR and Narnia.

In a strange twist on the concept of "garbage in, garbage out," the books that seem to suffer the least from the transition to film are often those that are little more than the pop fiction of their day to begin with. Gone With The Wind, The Godfather, Jaws -- all great movies that came from (let's be honest here) popular books that weren't exactly great literature. Although The Da Vinci Code joins these and other movies in disproving the notion that a movie adaptation can only be as good as its source book, it still demonstrates that you can only do so much with a weak foundation.

In the final analysis, I'd say that it's a decent, fun summer mystery/thriller/action movie, and it was worth the cost of admission...for a matinee, least. I'm not sure Ron Howard was the best director to make it (I would've liked to have seen M. Night Shyamalan's take on it), and I'm not sure Tom Hanks was the best choice to start in it (Harrison Ford? John Cusack? Ed Norton? Johnny Depp? I'm not sure), but it was passable. I'd give it a C+. It would've made a B- without the gratuitousness of the self-torture scene.

Personally, since the book takes place almost in real-time over about a 24-hour period, I think it might've worked better as a 24-style TV movie, but since nearly everyone would've known everything about it to begin with, then that might have only served to drag out the details.

A faire time

2006-05-20T23:46:00.000-05:00

Heather Marie and I took a trip over to Muskogee today for the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival. Overall, it was a pretty good trip. "Faire," I'd say. After going when it was cold and rainy last year, I thought that any weather would be an improvement, but after the dry, dusty conditions this year, I'm not so sure. Last weekend would've been ideal weather, but we had other plans.

If you get a convenient chance to go to a renaissance faire, I highly recommend going at least once. Personally, I'm not into the dressing up thing, but I might give it a try someday. It's still a lot of fun anyway. This was our third (or fourth?) year going to Oklahoma, but it's really only the second faire we've been to.

Our first trip was in 1998 or 1999, when we went to the Withrow Renaissance Faire at the Withrow Springs State Park. That was the last year it was held at the state park in conjunction with the ACA Crossbow Tournament. The following (and final) year it was held on a farm nearby. The one in Muskogee is far larger and more complex than Withrow Springs ever was, but from what I remember reading, the Withrow faire was one of the first ones in the country, originally organized as a promotion for the crossbow tournament. The incarnation we attended was a descendant of the original, but not directly, as far as I know. Still kind of a shame that it's gone, though.

Crocodile Tiers

2006-05-17T20:30:00.000-05:00

Lots of good comments on net neutrality, although I tend to disagree with most of them. :-) It's interesting, though, that so many have come from one side. I guess there's just a natural tendency to express dissent more than assent. Or I'm seriously in the minority.

The more I think about it, though, I increasingly suspect that the real reason bandwidth companies are pushing for this is that it puts them back in control. Most of these companies are identical to or descended from the big 20th century media companies which, for most of the past century, the were the arbiters of consumption, determining what was worthy of notice.

I've always thought that was the real motivation behind record companies fighting Napster. It really was because they'd lose money, but not due to piracy. Before the advent of cheap online distribution, we all bought whatever media companies were willing to sell to us, which was usually what they told us we wanted to buy. It's really easy to make a fortune when you not only control the supply, but manipulate the demand. Brilliant!

Online distribution breaks that, though. Not only can anybody with the will and time to do so create new things, they can distribute it on equal footing with the biggest companies in the world. And thanks to world wide word of mouth, users are about as likely to find and enjoy the 5-man company's web app as they are the app that 1000-man MegaSoftCorp built. On the Internet, there are few barriers to creators, and consumers are the ones who decide what they want to see.

A tiered Internet would provide a way to reintroduce an element of control and approval. Aside from the obvious quality of service improvements, it also introduces a namebrand element, as Joel Spolsky pointed out in his article on iTunes pricing.

It's not about money, it's about information, and it's not about choice, it's about control.

I don't have any direct evidence for that, just my native suspicion and paranoia. ;-)

Minor Frustrations

2006-05-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

So, I found myself wondering today: What is the correct, responsible answer developers should give when asked to estimate the time necessary to fix the bugs that haven't been found yet? No particular reason, just curious. ;-)

In the real world, there's not much exciting going on right now. We finally started filling in our second front flowerbed on Sunday. Not incredibly interesting, but it represents major progress in our landscaping efforts. We still need a lot more topsoil to fill it in, then some stones to build up around the fountain we're adding to it, but we can see the end of the tunnel now, at least.

And judging by the response to the net neutrality posts, apparently the way to generate a bunch of comments is to blog about something that ticks people off. I have to admit, it's a little tempting to play to the crowd a little bit by picking topics like that, but ultimately I have to just write about whatever interests me or is on my mind at a particular time.

That means it'll be 90% boring to anyone who is not me. Sorry. :-)

Responses

2006-05-15T23:02:00.000-05:00

My post on net neutrality yesterday garnered a fair number of comments, including a link to a pretty good article in Wired.

First, let me say that I'm not a fan of government in general, although history has shown that some degree of limited regulation can often be beneficial. That's not really germane to this debate, however, since the idea that one side represents government regulation while the other represents the free market is wishful thinking at best. Make no mistake: there will be government regulation. The real question is who it will benefit.

New broadband uses (HDTV, streaming whatever, things we've never thought of) will certainly lead to increased demand, but there's no reason to believe that charging more to certain content providers for preferential treatment will necessarily expand the total available bandwidth any more than the current system. Individuals and companies can already purchase more bandwidth if they desire, and supply and demand already seem to be at work in the current market. As in most cases, charging open-market prices to everyone seems effective and reasonable.

My primary concern, though, is that bandwidth providers are not merely providing bandwidth. If YouTube wants to pay for preferred service, will cable companies be willing to provide it to them? If Skype needs a higher tier, how much will phone companies charge? Will a network provided by a conglomerate that owns a record company be fully accessible to iTunes?

As I see it, the problem is that too many of the bandwidth providers are also competing with their customers as content providers. In such situations, the company-provided service will almost always have advantages not available to outside competitors. Ask a small local ISP what kind of service they get from their upstream provider when that provider starts offering competing services. The Wikipedia article on Common Carriers provides some good background.

Competition is good, but it doesn't work well when one of the competitors is able and willing to leverage an advantage in another market.

It's a complex issue, with real pros and cons on both sides, and lots of unanswered questions. From all appearances, there is certainly space and need for some kind of reform. The current infrastructure is in not immediate danger of collapse, though, so there's little need to rush into changes, especially when it seems that all the prominent lobbying has been coming from one side.

Fast, unbalanced legislative action produces bad law. Let's take our time, engage in the debate, and craft something that's good for everyone.

Wii Gamers are Going Home

2006-05-14T22:04:00.000-05:00

Based on the lines to try the Wii at E3 last week, it seems safe to say that Nintendo won the three-way competition for attention hands down. Without any doubt, the system looks like a load of fun, and I'm already planning to pre-order one. I'm sure I won't be alone. It would be easy to credit the novelty of the controller and Nintendo's franchise games, but I think there's something else going on.

I think serious gamers are going home.

Gamers love playing games. Most of us would rather play games than watch movies or TV. It's not that we're spending too much time on pointless activities, it's that we're spending our entertainment time in different ways.

Based on the price and features of the PS3, though, it is clear that Sony is more interested in building a home entertainment center than a game system. It's all about Blue-ray DVDs and HDTV...oh yeah, and it plays games. $600 may not be much for a machine that does all that, but if what you're primarily interested in is games, it's preposterous.

The Xbox 360 is better at being a game machine. It's less of a jack-of-all-trades than the PS3, with some upgradeability to add future features. Although the media center integration distracts a little from its primary purpose, those features haven't caused any delays or added expense because of DRM or extraneous components. The 360 is $400, but I can imagine maybe getting one eventually.

Nintendo is the only company that's really talking solely about games, and gamers who are interested solely in games are listening. This has been Nintendo's mantra all along, but people are only just now starting to notice. I began predicting this sort of market shift a long time ago: that MS and Sony would continue moving further and further upscale, with an increasing focus on producing the elusive set-top box entertainment hub, eventually leaving Nintendo as the lone game console company.

That hasn't quite come to pass yet, but from the directions the three companies are taking, and the statements their executives are making, it's easier to foresee that happening in the next generation.

Personally, I'll be glad to go back to Nintendo. The online library they're offering will give me a great chance to relive beloved classics, as well as try out games I missed the first time around. I predict there will be lots of 30-something gamers who are similarly nostalgic about our childhood games, and who are more interested in gaming than watching.

The Beginning of the End of the Internet?

2006-05-14T21:17:00.000-05:00

The title really isn't hyperbole. Oh, sure, something like the Internet will go on, but it will be a less innovative, less flexible, less exciting, less useful network than we enjoy today.

Rather than recapping all of the details myself, I'd encourage you to read Scott Kurtz's post today on Net Neutrality at PVP. (I'd encourage you to read the comic everyday, too, but that's beside the point.) More details and information are available at Save the Internet and isen.blog. Wikipedia has a great overview of the entire issue.

To imagine what kind of Internet we could be heading toward, it's only necessary to think back to about 1990. At that time, the Internet proper was pretty much limited to schools and government agencies. For the relatively few private individuals going online, access was a hodgepodge. AOL customers couldn't talk to Compuserve customers who couldn't talk to Prodigy customers etc etc. Now, replace AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy with AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon (to choose just three possible examples), and you could be looking at the Internet in 2010.

Finally, I recommend signing the petition at Save the Internet. I'm not usually a big petition guy, but I think this is one that's worth supporting. If you're at a loss for words, my comments are below:

The longterm viability of the Internet depends on the unhindered exchange of information.

Although the telecom companies are presenting the "tiered" internet as a way to provide preference to certain companies, it seems inevitable that preferences for some will lead to discrimination against others.

If the NRA or ACLU choose not to pay the extortionistic data "protection" fees, will left- or right-leaning corporations give their traffic the service it deserves?

Will cable or phone companies be willing to provide fair access to new companies that offer potentially competing services, such as YouTube.com or Skype.com? It seems unlikely.

In fact, the Internet needs more neutrality, not less.

Companies like Google already pay for the bandwidth that they use. Customers already pay for the bandwidth they use. Should either party be forced to pay twice?

Please act to protect consumers and innovative technology companies rather than the vested interests of the telecom companies.

Take a few minutes to think about what kind of internet you want to use for the next few decades.

Remember: It's easier to prevent bad laws than to fix them later.

Busy and Tired

2006-05-09T23:53:00.000-05:00

I can't really think of what all I have going on this week, so it's weird that I feel so harried and worn out.

I think part of it is that work is still kind of crazy and frustrating. More than that, though, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. There's an saying to the effect that 5 years of experience isn't the same thing as 1 year of experience 5 times. I sort of feel like I've been getting the latter.

With that in mind, I feel like I need to invest in a little personal professional development, I'm just not sure what.

One thing that I'm thinking about is earning one of Microsoft's new .NET certifications. The main reason isn't to earn the cert, it's to use the cert test as deadline to motivate myself to focus on the details. It's annoying that the prep books for those tests aren't coming out until this summer, but the main reason I'm reticent about more MS stuff is that I'm not sure that's the direction I want to go.

.NET is actually a really nice framework, but I've grown pretty tired of MS-related stuff at work, and I would love the opportunity to work with another platform. Mac programming, Smalltalk, Lisp, Ruby, mobile platforms, web development, anything...I just think it might be nice to get a change from Windows development with Visual Studio.

I wish there were a place for some of those technologies at my current job, but I don't see it anytime soon. I'm not in a hurry to leave, regardless, but it would be nice to have a little more variety. One of the trade-offs of small companies.

The main alternative to more MS stuff is picking some other technology to work with on my own time, and one possibility that I'm considering for that is trying to volunteer for an open source project of some kind. Doing that would provide some accountability and direction for what could otherwise be a purely academic exercise for me. One down side, though, is that it's not as quantifiable as a formal certification, but I'm not sure anybody other than me would care, so maybe that doesn't matter.

I see this as a binary choice, since over the next six months I'll really only have time for one or the other. So the question is which one. Solidifying my .NET skills would be more likely to improve job quality and options, either at my current employer or elsewhere, while moving in a different direction could be more satisfying, and might conceivably even lead to totally new opportunities.

I can see lots of pros and cons on both sides, so I think it's just something I'm going to have to think about some more. I don't want to wait too long, though, since I'm anxious to do something different.

Too much angst, time for bed.

Unusual Inspiration

2006-05-07T00:39:00.000-05:00

I found a couple of good sources of inspiration for drawing this week, although the reasons they were inspiring are kind of unusual, since they were based on imperfection and difficulty.

Last night I finished Attack of the Bacon Robots, and it was a real trip down memory lane. Not only did I find the comics themselves nostalgic, but they reminded me of things that were going on in my life at the time I first read them, although I didn't always immediately recall the gaming-related events they were concerned with.

There was a time, during college, when I was easily one of the most informed people I knew on all things related to video gaming. I had a list of probably twenty or so gaming sites that I started reading every night at 9pm (when they updated). In the days before RSS, that usually took 45-60 minutes, and constituted the majority of my entertainment activities most evenings.

Yes, that's sad and slightly pathetic, but it left me very well-prepared to immediately comprehend any gaming references and allusions PA might make. My turn of the century gaming history is a little rusty these days.

So, why was it so inspiring to read all the old PA strips? Because they were so bad! Actually, they weren't really terrible, but the first one was decidedly primitive compared to the strip from five years later, not to mention the level of artwork in some of their most recent comics. I find the idea that something that began so simply can evolve so much pretty inspiring.

The other good inspiration has been the articles and workshops in the copy of ImagineFX magazine that I got earlier in the week. In addition to being technically helpful (if frustratingly Photoshop-centric, like everything else), they're also refreshingly forthright. There's no attempt to gloss over the time and effort necessary: I've noticed that the captions for some of the most impressive examples of artwork note that the featured artist took multiple weeks to complete them.

Now that I can aspire to! It's really disheartening to think people banging out drawings like that over the course of an afternoon, which is the impression often given by over-simplified tutorials and demonstrations. There's no way I could do that, it's super-human! It's encouraging to realize that they can't do that either. They're not really all that different from me, these artist creatures, and I could do some pretty cool stuff, too, if I spent a month on it.

The trick, of course, is making the time to spend an hour or so a day creating and cleaning and tweaking and polishing an image, which I admit will be hard for me to do right now, but it makes the final outcomes seem at least a little more achievable.

So Penny Arcade has reassured me that even though it may not be obvious on a daily basis, long term improvement is possible, while ImagineFX has reminded me that it's ok for things to take a long time, even for the experts.

Obvious lessons, I know, and ones that I've learned before, but it's good to relearn them from time to time.

Things I Used to Want...

2006-05-04T23:43:00.000-05:00

...that their makers caused me not to.

Ever since the controller announcement last year, I've been pretty excited about the Nintendo Revolution. I've kind of gotten tired of video games that require dozens (or even hundreds) of hours of play to really glean enjoyment from them, especially if they're just variations on the same stuff we've been playing for over a decade, and Nintendo was speaking my language with their talk of new experiences.

I don't know if I want a Wii less than a Revolution, but I know I'm less certain that I want one. Hmm...I guess that does sort of mean that I want one less, doesn't it?

Likewise the Origami. From all reports, that was sounding like a nice little piece of hardware. I'm a big fan of rethinking the ways we interact with computers, and I've always liked the Tablet PC concept, so this was looking pretty good. I wanted an Origami.

I don't so much want an Ultra Mobile PC. When you get right down to it, I don't really want anotherPC at all. I've got a nice laptop, I've got a serviceable desktop, and I spend at least 12 hours a day in front of some variation on a standard computer. Enough!!! I want something that isn't another freakin' PC, no matter how mobile it is!

That's what went through my mind when I read this article in the NY Times and Robert Scoble's related post.

To some extent, the Old Grey Lady is showing her age and revealing the extent to which she just doesn't get it :

Since it's so hard to enter text, few will try to do e-mail, programming, word processing or spreadsheet work on this computer.

Those things are hard with the UMPC interface, but just maybe, robbed of our comfortable straight-jackets, we can rediscover that computers have the potential to be more than glorified typewriters and calculators, and decide that maybe text entry isn't the best interface for this new, unknown kind of beast.

It's nice to dream, anyway.

Also, to some extent, the UMPC demonstrates how Microsoft doesn't get it. They had, in their grasp, a potential tool for redefining the human-computer relationship...and they outsourced it to OEMs. I'm sure on some business level that made sense, but in the real world, I find it baffling.

One problem with that approach is that the OEMs make PCs. If you give them the opportunity to make any kind of computer, it's going to trend toward what they know and are comfortable with, which means it will become Just Another PC, just like the Tablet PC.

Another problem is that MS has the vision and the means to really innovate and make good systems when they try. The Xbox 360 is a really nice system, in nearly every way. It looks good, it integrates well, and it provides a unique experience. By handing the UMPC off to its OEM partners, Microsoft punted on innovation. I'm sure Dell is a great company, but it's hardly a hotbed of innovation (not that they've announced a UMPC anyway).

The biggest problem I see with outsourcing the Origami -- sorry, UMPC -- design and production, though, is that most of the OEMs have little incentive to make the format succeed as a platform. For the most part, they're doing pretty well with desktops and laptops, and they can anticipate a nice windfall when Vista finally ships. In order for the UMPC to really succeed, the systems must be priced lower than average laptops, preferably a lot less, and that really doesn't leave much space for profit. The margins on laptops and desktops are reportedly pretty low, but they're almost certainly higher than UMPCs would be.

I think this is key. To put it another way: Nobody else is going to be nearly as enthusiastic and tireless in promoting your idea as you are.

Early on with the original Xbox production, rumor was that MS was planning to design the platform, then license production to other companies, the same way 3DO did in the mid-90s. Before the release, though, that plan was scrapped in favor of doing it themselves. That was obviously a good call, and that approach is paying off even better with the 360. MS has control over every aspect of the design and marketing that way.

Apple has done the same thing with the iPod (and all their computers, for that matter), and that's what Microsoft should've done with the Origami: build it themselves, style it along the lines of the 360, make it cool. Heck, even interface it with the 360 somehow. Move it out of the computing division and into the home, and between it and the 360, show us what else computers can be.

And then they could call it the Origami, and really fold and reshape our expectations. Because I really want an Origami, not another PC.

Chip Flip

2006-05-03T23:42:00.000-05:00

Coming back from Wal-Mart tonight, Heather Marie and I got into a heated...discussion...about the nature of Pringles potato chips.

Most individual chips of any brand have one side that is saltier or more flavored than the other side. I maintain that the great thing about Pringles is that the salty side is completely predictable: it is always the "bottom" side, as the chip is removed from the tube.

Heather Marie maintains that there is no difference between the top and bottom of a Pringles chip.

Anyone else have an opinion?

In other matters, I'm a little torn at work. I definitely feel a little under-utilized at times, which can obviously lead to some feelings of insecurity and uncertainty. I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do to break that cycle, but I'm inspired by Alan Kay's statement: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

Maybe what I need to do is look for ways to become more involved in future development, forge a sort of personal job variation on the Blue Water approach to marketing -- seek out fresh new areas instead of struggling in old ones.

Something to think about tonight, anyway.

Artworking

2006-05-02T23:48:00.000-05:00

Since I finally got a Wacom tablet, I've been trying to get back into the habit of drawing a little bit each day. So far so good, but I'm discovering that turning my cheap, simple little hobby of drawing into a digital hobby makes it a lot less cheap and simple.

The primary problem is that there really doesn't seem to be a very good substitute for Photoshop. It's not just the 300 lb. gorilla in the room, it's the 20 ton whale in the swimming pool. From what I can see, it is so dominant that it really hasn't left much market for anything else.

I find that especially frustrating on the Mac, where one of the things I like best about the platform is the availability of inexpensive, quality software. That may sound strange, since it's Windows that has the reputation for having the most software available. While it's undeniably true that Windows has vastly more choices than the Mac, it's really a question of quality. On Windows you often have a choice between the few dominant programs in a category for several hundred dollars, plus a hundred crappy cheap or free ones, whereas on the Mac you can choose between the few dominant programs (often the same as on Windows), plus half a dozen or so really good, inexpensive programs. What good are hundreds of options if only a few are truly viable?

Perhaps I just haven't found it yet, but I'm surprised that there isn't a good Mac alternative to Photoshop, something that is to Photoshop what Rapidweaver is to Dreamweaver.

I also found a great magazine at Barnes & Noble the other night called Imagine FX. It's a great source of digital art tutorials and advice. Unfortunately, since it's from the UK, it's $15 on the newsstand, or $99/year for a subscription, not to mention that it really makes it tempting to get some of the nice (and expensive) tools that they demo.

Oh, well. Maybe I should just stick with pencil and paper for a while.

Restful Weekend

2006-04-30T23:57:00.000-05:00

After all was said and done, this turned out to be a pretty relaxing weekend. We didn't really get a ton of stuff done (other than finishing season 2 of the Gilmore Girls), but I think that was just what we needed at the moment.

This evening we met some friends in Rogers to celebrate a birthday, which was a lot of fun, and that was pretty much the highlight. Now some bed and sleep is sounding really, really good.