10 Random Mac OS X Tips

Today I was reading the Slashdot story on 15 Things Apple Should Change in Mac OS X and I came across these excellent hints in the comments:

1. Hold down on the + window button to fully maximize a window (may not work in some apps)
2. To find the actual path of a app or file drag it into a terminal window
3. To rename a file, select it and hit enter
4. Create a shortcut on the dock for the Apps folder, then click-and-hold for a pop-menu of all your apps
   
5. Shift-A will open the Apps folder if you don't want it in the dock
   
6. Don't copy and paste, drag and drop everything, including text
7. To put a widget permanently on the desktop, open a terminal and type:

   defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

   press F12, and while dragging a widget press F12 to drop it
   
8. Use Command-O to launch an App or open a file
9. To skip the"Are You Sure?" dialog. hold down the option key when choosing to shutdown
10. Use the dock for temporary storage of files when using the drag-and-drop method of cutting-and-pasting
    

The Funky Monkey

Now, let's explain this. First of all, Erin is always fun, so the "fun" this comic is referring to is meant to represent that when Erin drinks her personality shifts to where she appears more free spirited. The only time she's not fun is when she's asleep, but then who is fun when they're asleep? Well unless you have a marker.

Secondly, the events in this strip are entirely fictional. Erin has, at least not to my knowledge, slapped my booty.

Thirdly, the where-did-the-bad-person-touch-you doll is a reference to a Family Guy episode where the lawyer asks a child to point "where the angel touched" him. Which is in turn a reference to the long lived 90s TV show Touched By An Angel starring that silver fox Roma Downey, also known for her role in the 2004 movie Funky Monkey.

Lastly the careful reader will note that the word drunk has been crossed out and replaced with "fun", this is to distinguish the personality shift explained in the first paragraph.

I took the Plunge

As noted before I hate MySpace but after being asked countless times by countless people I finally dove in and created a profile. Which as you can see from my icon that I'm quite into ponies. Since you need to be my friend to see it in full here's a screen shot of it to help visualize:


Pretty classy eh? I blatantly stole the idea from Slashdot's April Fools OMG!!! PONIES!!! makeover from 2006 and then used and modified the basic CSS layout from Mike Davidson. I used a little GIMP action to then pull the hearts of the OMG PONIES! image and created a 272x124 table image for the functionality links. Finally I changed the color scheme to use color code #d67bb4 for the wonderful pink color.

Now just because I have a myspace account doesn't mean that I've comprised any of my virtues I triumphed before. I only have friends of people I actually know well and I will not constantly use the site in lieu of something constructive with my time. Although I do have to admit it is fun to post comments on people's pages and keep people updated with what you're generally doing with your life.

In the future I will most like redo the theme again to something a little less "sissy", but I'm happy with it now and the reaction it garners is priceless.

Make sure you hover over all the links on the page too for little surprises...

Where are you Protest Warrior?

It was senior year of college when I first heard of the right-wing website Protest Warrior whose slogan "Fighting the Left and Doing it Right" was the battle cry for a new generation of neo-conservatives. The site originated when it's founders began "crashing" liberal and anti-war protests with signs having such clever phrases like:

"Except for ending slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, war has never solved anything!"

and

"Saddam only kills his own people. It's none of our business!"

Now if you haven't figured it out yet I'm quite liberal and why would a person like me even care about such a site? Well for one, I don't consider myself a hard line progressive, rather I try to see all points of view and then decide on certain issues, with coincidentally usually falls to the left.

Protest Warrior for me over the last few years has acted like a checks and balances to my own personal convictions. The forums were almost always lively and you could see first hand why people were for or against things, both conservative and liberal. Most of it was utter drivel, which lead me to read it more for comedy than seriousness. Occasionally though you could find some good discussion going on and there were a few level headed regulars who were actual conservatives and not flag bears of the New American Century.

This fall I was looking forward to seeing the forum reactions both leading up to and after the elections, but unfortunately that didn't happen since over the last few months their forums have been down. Now, less than a week after the election, the website is no longer responding and seems to be down for the count with no explanation. So what happened? Was the entire project created by some conservative think tank to promote a type of revolutionary thought for young neo-conservatives and their funding dried up? Did the original founders finally realize that their racists and intolerant views were completely askew with humanity and have a change of heart? Did the founders fall in love and run away to Holland? I guess we'll never know.

I'm not really disappointed the site is down, but I wish it would have stayed up for this election. I had to live through the torment of reading the celebrations and prayers that the country was finally on the "right" path on November 7th 2004, and I was itching to see what excuses and conspiracies they came up with this November 7th. It's probably for the better though, I'm not like them and I don't need revenge to satisfy my disappointment. Protestwarrior is gone and there's finally positive change in America, and I couldn't be happier.

Rule of the Many

Throughout my daily routine I always make it a point to check out more conservative sites and forums, mainly because if I read only liberal ones I'll always see things the way I want to see them. Reading sites such as Redstate and ProtestWarrior (although their forums are down) one really gets a sense of why they believe what they and others do. I rarely ever post any responses since arguing online is usually a waste of time and nothing other than animosity comes from it. The other day though I just couldn't help myself.

On election day, while cruising for opinions on our local elections, I came across a thread where a poster was spewing the same drivel that I normally see, but decided not to let it slide. He was all over the conservative spectrum, going off on poor people taking his hard earned money through taxes, Kerry not serving any real time in Iraq while Bush was a war hero, etc.

I responded curtly, telling him to strap on a pair and to quit whining because society has contributed more to him that he'll ever be able to contribute back. I also threw in a cue from the evangelical defense and commented on his avatar (a guy pounding a stick in his hand) and his apparently "touch guy strength" and that it must have been one of those books on the decency of humanity like the Bible that called for the strong to protect the weak. I haven't checked back for any responses yet, because I know what he'll say and it'll just turn into YASIA (Yet Another Stupid Internet Argument), although am going to post tomorrow with a comment of "Oh sorry it took me so long to get back, I was busy celebrating sweeping Congress".

Which leads me to my main point, currently I'm reading two pieces of socialist propaganda; Common Sense by Thomas Paine and Democracy & Revolution by George Novack. The first should be know to any American who's familiar with our countries history, while the second not so much. They fit together well though, with Novak dedicating the book to Thomas Paine and referencing the bulk of Common Sense in his forward. Coincidentally I bought them at the same time but didn't realize this until after I started reading them.

These two points meet up because that is what democracy is, the rule of the many over the rule of the few, or if you want to look at it this way, the rule of the strong over the rule of the weak. Of course it doesn't work exactly like that since democracy is about ideas and not physical strength. This does however lead to an interesting conclusion about the capitalist vs socialist economic system. If Democracy is the rule of many over the few, then why is it paired with a system that promotes the rule of the few over the many (through "survival of the fitness")? The two are ideologically black and white, and it seems a dictatorship or monarchy would go better with capitalism.

In the whole scheme of things, conservatives love to chastise the weak but then hold the flag of democracy, whose strength protects the weak, to their chests. That's not the way it works fellas, good bye.

Mid-term Election Night 2006

Tonite is the first time in my voting history that I watched the results come in and didn't physically feel sick after a while. With the Democrats having control of the House I actually feel like now maybe a platform other than "we're not republican" can be launched and the people of this country and see what it means to be progressive.

Furthermore with the Senate coming down to Virginia I'm not trying to get my hopes up, but with Democratic control of Congress finally there will be some sort of checks and balances restored to our Republic. The other day I picked up Common Sense by Thomas Paine, more out of curiosity, but once I began reading I understood why our Nation was built and what Principles it was founded on. Our government is historically the best in the world, but in order to keep it that way single party control is completely the wrong direction. I may be a democrat, but I'm also an American, and America is built on the principles of diversity, Democrat or Republican.

Ironically I live in a traditionally "blue" state, but by looking at the current results of our state propositions it almost looks like we're as conservative as a Southern red state. For instance there are multiple progressive props, such as 86 which taxes oil companies and directing funds into clean energy. That prop should have passed passed in a progressive state, but due to huge rallying by Big Oil people assumed it meant higher gas prices, which is one of the easiest issues to scare on. Other props for women's rights and clean elections also aren't appearing to do well. We (The Democrats) may have taken back the country, but it looks like my state lost it's integrity.

Guess you can't win them all.

NYT Interactive Election Map

Today while doing my daily browsing of the New York Times I came across their interactive 2006 election guide.


With it you can break down the country by all sorts of variables; safe bets, leaning D or R, who voted for Gore in 2000, etc. I've found it useful to see a big picture of what exactly is at stake tomorrow.

San Diego Prop Voting Guide 2006

Local Props

• Prop B - Pension increase (SD does great with pensions) - No
  
• Prop C - Privatization of local services (When has privatization actually done anything other than make things worse?) - No
  

State Props

• Props 1A-1E - Various improvement bonds (Because I don't want to live in a hole) - Yes
• Prop 84 - Coastal protection (Holy shit! Half of CA is bordered by water?!) - Yes
• Prop 85 - Parental Notification (Cause daddy just loves to hear his little girl got knocked up) - No
• Prop 86 - Cigarette Tax (Do I smoke? No. Would an extra $2.60 a pack help stop smoking and provide a new revenue stream. Yes.) - Yes
• Prop 87 - Clean Energy (Oil companies are against it, so it must be a good thing) - Yes
• Prop 88 - Property Taxes (I thought republicans were all against taxation?) - No
• Prop 89 - Clean elections (Lobbyist not controlling a candidate, sign me up) - Yes

A Macs Best Friend

Yesterday Penny Arcade geared up for their 2007 Childs Play Charity and I checked out their newly updated site which includes what looks like Egypt, a huge leap from the original US only hospitals when they started. While scrolling down I saw the sponsors and thought I'd see what kinds of companies were helping them out, which lead me to a page for Bruji, or as the title calls it A Mac's best friend.

I love using my Mac and all, mainly because OS X is awesome, but I haven't found any must have Mac only applications until now. Bruji makes media database software that resembles the look and feel of Apples iLife apps like iTunes and iPhoto. There are four products, DVDpedia, Bookpedia, CDpedia, and Gamepedia, all of which catalog what their name says.

At once I was impressed by the free demo for Bookpedia. Even on my old G3 iBook the app starts almost immediately and in less than five minutes I had cataloged ten books on my bookshelf. It uses a simple keyword search to look up titles and authors on Amazon and other book websites, displaying the full details of each title. It even grabs the cover image and puts all that information into your catalog, very slick.

Once you've completed your library there's all sorts of cool things you can do with it such as tracking books you've lent to people and custom exporting of your library to all sorts of data formats (cvs, webpage, .mac, iPod). It even keeps statistics on your library and will look up a title on listmania to find similar titles.

These apps are why I love using a Mac, everything is exactly as it should be, no surprises just simple power that immediately produces results. I will most likely buy the Bookpedia app (18$), but they have a bundle where you get any three for 39$ and it could be nice to catalog our DVDs and games as well.

Canada?

A thought occurred to me today:

What if illegal immigrants from Mexico weren't actually trying to stay in America, but rather had to because they were on their way to Canada?

Is that really so hard to believe? You hear those "dirty barefoot unpatriotic" liberals always saying how if things don't change they'll move to Canada. So what's stopping a poor immigrant who has nothing to lose anyway moving up there? It has been suggested that it's probably the cold, but where I'm from in Indiana we have a large Hispanic population and they don't seem to mind the harsh winters, so I think we can negate that.

I'm come to the conclusion that phenomenon is largely overlooked in American society, not because it's not happening, but rather we Americans are too self-important would would gasp at the idea of it. I mean, we're the "greatest nation on earth", of course people want to illegally come here, heck I would if I wasn't already a citizen! Are we so blind to our own thoughts of greatness that this isn't even a possibility?

On top of our own ignorance Canada would seem to have even more to offer than America. Free health care? Why wouldn't an immigrant want to go to a country that provides that most basic modern technology. They even have a providence that's official language isn't English, I have a feeling Canada would welcome such language diversity instead of creating sensationalist stories about foundations of their culture (National Anthem) being disgraced by anything other than English.

We all know this isn't true though, because of one simple reason. As much as American's love to complain and point the finger at illegal immigration as one of the biggest issues facing our nation, secretly they want it. Canadians wouldn't allow their workers to work for under minimum wage or give them little to no benefits. American businesses on the other hand seem all for paying for what is essentially slave labor.

Greatest Nation on Earth indeed.

One Month at a Time

Friday I noticed something; the last time I put gas in my car was September 18th, and I still had a quarter tank remaining. Now if you're counting, Friday was the 13th, which means I've almost gone a month without getting gas (I finally did on Oct 16th after a lot of weekend driving). Most people think it's impossible to do without doing some radical lifestyle change and wonder how I do it. In reality, not only is it possible but you'll actually gain more than just saving money by making only a few small changes.

I only fill up my car when it's on E. I know conventional wisdom says you shouldn't do this, although recently I've learned that conventional wisdom is usually useless, but I do it anyway. Because of this I always fill up around 13 gallons (my manual says it has a 14 gallon tank, but I've never seen it go past 13) so I have a good starting benchmark to work with and I can gleam all sorts of interesting data about my car and driving habits.

According to www.fueleconomy.gov my 2002 Subaru Imprezza 2.5RS should get 22 MPG. Now my average mileage per tank is 260 miles which comes out to about 20MPG (I'm using 13 gallons). I'm not that concerned about the below average MPG because I'm good at keeping the car maintained and I know mechanically it's fine. Rather I believe there are two factors that contribute to this. One is where we live, University City, an area that is notorious for horribly timed traffic signals and a high population density, both causing long periods of the car running but not actually going anywhere. The second are my driving habits, which are related to the unfavorable traffic conditions (I jump off the line at one light in order to try and make the next one before it goes into it's five minute cycle).

With such a low MPG, an unfavourable environment, and my impatient self to blame how do I almost go a month without getting gas? Three things:

1. Taking the bus to work
2. Walking to the bus stop
3. Carpool as much as I can

Now it's not as exciting as you may have expected, since everyone knows that if you take the bus of course you'll save on gas. The main point though is that it works and it's easy. I spend just as much time on the bus as I would if I drove to work so there's almost no time incentive to drive. In addition to this instead of sitting in my car cursing at traffic and having to focus on driving, I am completely free to do whatever I want on my commute, giving me a less stress incentive. Also I read, which has increased my book rate to about three a month, adding an "intellectual" incentive. Finally mechanical wear and tear on my car is decreased. Overall not only am I saving money, but I have gained three additional incentives without any increase in time.

The second factor is I usually walk the fifteen minutes to the bus stop, although sometimes I drive if I'm running late. This adds the addition of health benefits as well as time to slow things down and not get so caught up in things.

I also tend to carpool as much as I can, which usually ends up with someone else driving since my car doesn't have a stereo in it (high crime rate is also consistent with where we live).

When you combine all these factors not only am I only filling up once a month, but I also gain more than if I drove, economically it just makes sense. Now I know that everyone's situation is different and I am lucky enough to work for a commuter friendly employer who provides free bus passes that are convenient to where I live. UCSD also provides free hours with a hybrid Flexcar a month so I can go somewhere during work hours if I need to.

If at all possible I would recommend looking into supporting your local public transportation to not just save money but also increase other aspects of your life.

North Korea Wants to KIll You

North Korea has nukes, why aren't we attacking them?

They fucking exploded an atomic weapon, and well hell, Iraq may have been developing them. But North Korea not only developed one, they built it, and then fucking EXPLODED it. But all we're going to do is take diplomatic action.

I have an idea president dumbass, how about you take all those troops in Iraq who are in the middle of a sectarian CIVIL WAR and send them to North Korea and take out that insane guy with NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Even Bush said in his 2002 State of the Union Address that,

"North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens."

The same address in which he starts his justification for invading Iraq,

"Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade."

Yay, good to know that we went after the right one there. You know, it's a lot easier to get a country to support a war if you invade them for a justifiable reason and not just because you have a "gut feeling".

Democrats and liberals are pussies? I don't think so, we'd just rather spend our time going after countries who hate us AND actually have NUCLEAR FUCKING WEAPONS.

Lessons of the GAIM

I got a new computer at work last week (I mainly wanted it cause of the larger hard drive). So I went through the motions installing all my favorite apps, which included GAIM. A wonderful open source application that I've been using almost as long as I've been using GNU/Linux. A few years ago they released a Windows client that I've also happily enjoyed while working in a windows environment. Unfortunately with this new install I ran into two major problems.

1. GAIM would not sign onto AOL with any screen name
2. GAIM eventually didn't even start up when I tried to run it

After a few hours of researched I solved both problems and I'm posting my results here:

If you install Cygwin, go into the folder: C:\Program Files\Gaim\plugins and remove the tcl.dll file. For some reason the Cygwin tcl.dll will take over and cause GAIM not to start up properly. By removing this .dll everything works fine and you won't even notice it's gone.

If the connection status stops at "Connection established, cookie sent" when trying to connect to AOL you must install the version of GTK that comes with GAIM and not a newer version. I installed GTK v2.8 thinking that it was newer than v2.6 that GAIM comes bundled with, but apparently there's some type of bug that prevents it from working correctly. The same issue appears with GAIM 2.0 beta.

So there you go; if you run Cygwin and GAIM remove the tcl.dll and don't install a version of GTK that doesn't come bundled with GAIM on windows.

Second Life Bum

Over the weekend I borrowed one of the new laptops (Dual Core w/ 1GB Memory) we have here at work and gave it a workout on non-normal work applications. Normally I don't play many PC games, mainly because the computers I have at home are laptops under 1Ghz with less than impressive video cards. Last week though I became interested in the online game Second Life after reading about it in Wired.

When it comes to MMORPGs I usually stay away from them, mostly because I know I can easily become addicted to them and also I'm too cheap to get a hardware upgrade just so I can pay a monthly subscription fee. When explaining to people why I don't play them I ask them the question of "For all the time you spend on improving your character, what could you have done in your own real life?". I decided to try Second Life though, not because it's the typical RPG style kill something, get experience, kill something else, but because it's based off Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash.

In the novel there is a setting called The Metaverse, which is a 3D world created inside a computer. Characters have the freedom to look however they want and to build objects, buildings, clothes, etc. The company that made Second Life, Linden Research Inc, attempted to follow the model in the book and after playing it they came very close. One interesting aspect of it is the virtual economy. In order to buy land and acquire larger pre-made objects you have to pay for them in Linden Dollars, which can be exchanged for real dollars. Linden Dollars used to be given away for free to new accounts, but over the last few months they phased it out and now you have to purchase them with your credit card. It's nice that the game is free but I do wish a small amount of Linden Dollars were available as soon as you started.

Over the weekend I got a hold of the controls and started wandering around the world, checking out the popular places and exploring at random. I'm impressed by the level of detail in the architecture and furnishings of the buildings. At random I searched for Irish pubs and I stumbled across two, one called The Standing Stone and The Blarney Stone in Second Life Dublin. Both are exceptional quality and are located in some high quality areas. I've never actually seen anyone in the Standing Stone, but The Blarney Stone has an average of around five people hanging out.

For my character I went with an Irish punk look, dark jeans, an Ireland flag t-shirt (I got it for free from the Blarney Stone), no shoes, and a green mohawk under a cap. I decided on this look because I'm going to try an experiment: I'm going to be a bum and see how much money I can get.

Across the street from the Blarney Stone in Virtual Dublin is an alley that has a box in it, which I have made my virtual home. Every night I'm going to sit next to this alley and ask for spare change to help get back on my feet anytime someone comes within earshot. I won't harass them, just ask once and then see what happens.

Eventually when I get a modest sum I'm going to go to the casino and see if I can try my luck at increasing it. If it works out I plan to buy some land and then just bum on the side for some extra $, cashing it in occasionally to get some real cash.

Pandas Gone Wild!

For some strange reason Jono and his friend Josh wanted to be known as the guys who killed all the pandas, yes all of them. So I took it and ran with it and came up with this fake news article:


If you think about it long enough pandas are quite scary. Their cuteness alone is enough to make even the most hardened and reasonable person lose all control. The other day on NBC it was even demonstrated in an outtake reel covering the latest panda "boom" in China that these creatures are not as docile or cuddly as they first appear. Be careful.

Olbermann: 9/11

Another excellent special comment by Keith Olbermann on Countdown, this show has been a favourite of mine for years and it just keeps getting better:

MIssing: America

Chris just sent me this cartoon by John Sherffius from cagle.com:

My Letter to ABC

If you haven't heard yet, ABC intents to run a "docudrama" called The Path to 9/11 on September 10th which inaccurately attributes the causes of 9/11 to the Clinton administrator and Democrats. It's discussed in detail on Media Matters as well had being featured on Countdown last night(C&L has a video as well).

This morning I went on ABC and wrote this in their feedback section:

Please do not air Path to 9/11. It is a gross misrepresentation of the events leading up to one of our nations greatest tragedies and to exploit it for obvious political reasons is disgusting.

Furthermore please take down any "education" material you have related to the show.

If this documentary airs I will boycott your network, there are plenty of other non-blatantly biased networks for my entertainment purposes.

Some critics will probably cry about liberal documentaries like Bowling for Columbine or SuperSize Me, but the main difference here is that these are seen by choice. They weren't aired on public airways for the simple fact they don't have any real relevance other than pre-election propaganda. It makes me start wanting to buy Adbusters again to support the taking back of our public communications from the hands of easily influenced and greedy aristrocrats.

You can also go to the offcial ABC blog and make a comment if you'd like, although it's now "moderated" so only the comments that fit the shows agenda are put up there. I made one myself countering some of the Micheal Moore comments but I doubt it will make it up there.

No Wine Before it's Time

The inaugural meeting of Parvulus Vinum(Young Wine in Latin) is coming up tomorrow night. It's a club for young adults that my buddy Anthony and I thought up about a month ago and tomorrow night we're expecting about 15 people to show up and learn how to experience the phenomenon of wine. The meeting will cover the basics; regions, varietals, how to smell, taste, swirl, etc.

I picked up the bottles we're going to taste yesterday, some generic two buck chucks from Trader Joes and the other five bottles from San Diego Wine Company which is close to my apartment. We're aiming for the most common type our peers will see and taste, here's the list for tomorrow:

• Drylands 2005 Sauvignon Blanc - New Zealand - 91pts
  
• Alamos 2005 Chardonnay - Agentina - 89pts
• Gravity Hills 2002 Syrah - California - 88pts
• Smoking Loon 2004 Merlot - California - 84pts
• Echelon 2005 Pinot Noir - California - 88pts

The Wine Aroma Wheel is a handout and will help dramatically for people who have never truly tasted wine before and are at a loss of what they're attempting to taste.

Yesterday when I was looking for reviews of the wine I purchased (some of them were in the store but others were not) I came across two amateur wine rating sites, Corkd and Winelog.net.

Both sites are relatively new and don't have a huge amount of reviews, but as word spreads I have a feeling it will be an excellent independent wine resource site. I've signed up with Corkd and you can see my online wine journal listing on the right of this page. A few friends have also signed up and we're now "drinking buddies", which means we'll be able to recommended wines to each other, see what their cellars hold, and other common things. At our meeting we'll encourage members to join either site to keep track of their tastings and what other members of the club are doing.

Salut!

Berkeley

Last week I bought Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman, and since then I've been intrigued by the political activism in the 60s/70s, specifically at Berkeley CA. Tonite I was reading a good write up on the roots of the activist movements at the Berkeley Public Library site and I came across the Free Speech Movement leader Mario Savio.

Mario was the one who gave the famous "throw your body upon the gears of the machine" speech during a protest on lifting the ban of on-campus political activities. I found it on youtube and it ranks up there with I Have a Dream and other famous speeches of that era. If you haven't seen it before check it out:

Gay Marriage Killed the Dinosaurs

I think it's pretty self explanatory:

And a Lis inspired tribute paint drawing:


And a colourized version by Morgan:

Weekly Roundup

Once again I apologize for the lack of meaningful posts, still a lot going on. Recently I've really gotten into Entourage and Weeds, both are excellent shows on HOB and Showtime and if you have either of those channels I encourage you go give them a shot. Here's my list of weekly links:

The UK Terror Plot: what's really going on - Nice alternative spin on the British plane scare
The Lost Hatch Door - A cleaned up and translated image of the map on the hatch door from Lostpedia
Encyclopedia Mythica - A wiki encyclopedia of cross cultural mythology
Why Mommy is a Democrat - A "children's" book for heathen liberals
PodTube - Any Youtube video to your iPod
The Greatest Software Ever Written - I'll give you a hint what #1 is, it starts with U and rhymes with sticks
Debian Etch Beta 3 - Now with a delicious GUI install
One Good Move - A blog Stephen showed me

It's Not a LAPtop, it's a Notebook

Lucky number three.

Today will mark the third time I will send my G3 iBook in for a logic board replacement. Thankfully the computer is still semi-covered under the iBook Expanded Logic Board Repair Extension Program (such a lovely name), but I was warned by the Apple support person that this would be the last time they replace it, and I will either have to buy a new computer for pay for the repair myself. Now that sounds reasonable, if I had mistreated it in any way (little night time browsing in the hot tub...), but I don't. I use it like a normal laptop, I even got a padded form fitting water resistant laptop bag to carry it around in for safeties sake. Sure it travels with me almost everywhere I go, but that's what it's made for. If I wanted a laptop that sat on my desk all day I would have gotten one of those suitcase size extra-wide screen Dells that are meant to be a desktop replacement than a portable.

Now sure, maybe I could be more gentle with it, and I even asked the guy what I could do to prevent it (since it will most likely happen again in 4 months), to which he said(I shit you not):

Don't use it on your lap

Okay...... so apparently I have a LAPtop and I'm not suppose to use it on my LAP.... great. You know, I should have seen this coming. A few months ago Apple even said so themselves, that the Macbook is NOT a Laptop. Almost all the major computer companies are trying to avoid the title "laptop" simply so they can plead ignorance when some dude burns himself by simply using the thing like the title dictates. The correct terminology now is "notebook", safe, simple, and completely avoids the whole reason why most people want a small, portable computer, so they can sit down and chill with it on a couch. Huzzah for newspeak.

Enough rant, back to my logic board issue, thankfully I found out I'm not alone, and almost anyone who bought a iBook G3 or G4 in a specific time frame suffers from the same issues. Reading elsewhere, one of the better way to avoid the 90 degree tilt of death is to not pick the laptop up solely by its left corner, where the video hardware resides. Doing so will break the chip bonds, causing it to freeze on boot. Also, if Apple tech support gives you grief about it, ask for Apple Customer Care, which may give you more options.

As much as I bitch, Apple's support has been more than stellar. I bought this iBook when it's hard drive was failing from my sister for about 100$, and even though it's had it's problems Apple has repaired it twice when it was out the extended warranty period. Both times the technicians have been friendly and helpful and the turn around for the repair is usually only a day (may be faster for me since I live in CA). If they treat a customer who never really bought the product from them this well, they are definitely getting my $ when my next lap^H^H^Hnotebook purchase comes around.

Weekly Roundup

With Comic-Con, Alissa moving, my parents coming into town over the last few weeks I haven' t had a ton of time to sit down and write. So to keep myself motivated and the site not stale, here's some links I've found interesting over the last couple weeks:

Super Mario Bros: A Literary Criticism
The Pour - A wine blog on the NYT site
The Escapists - A new comic based off Micheal Chabons novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Recipe for Life - An essay by Micheal Chabon relating writing to golems
Weighing a Switch to Mac - Article about switching from a PC to a Mac
What Vista can Learn from Leopard - Nuff said
Debian Administration - I recently got Debian Etch running on an UltraSparcIII and I spent a lot of time here getting everything to run smoothly
Wait, Aren't you Scared? - Blog post on recent British Airline Scare

Comic-Con Preview Night Images

While checking out Rotten Tomatoes for how well Clerks II was doing (60-70%) I came across a gallery of images from preview night last night. Looks like the guys who made Shaun of the Dead are making another movie called Hot Fuzz, awesome.

13 Reasons Why Comic-Con 2006 Rocks

1. Free Stuff
2. Awesome Panels
3. Finally people who understand my "Rogues Do It From Behind" shirt
   
4. You can legally carry a "weapon" without fear of being tagged as terrorist
5. Largest concentration of geek girls in the world
6. Realizing there are people who are exponentially nerdier than you are
7. Chance to pitch your Star Wars/Star Trek crossover idea
   
8. An excellent oppurtunity to stalk your favorite creators and celebrities
   
9. Wonder Woman
10. Snakes on a Plane!
11. Finding that old back issue of Spiderman you just NEED to have
12. The only time besides Halloween you can dress up and not get weird looks
13. Princess Leia

Comic-Con A Coming

With Comic-Con starting tomorrow I'm getting pretty excited. Last year when I went it was only on Saturday and I really just wanted to see the guys from Penny-Arcade and one or two of the panels. I had no idea what I was in store for and afterwards with a bag of free loot in my hands I slowly developed a taste over the last year for much of what I saw.

The insanity this year will start early, with potentially going to preview night on Wednesday to scope out the con, then heading back on Friday and Saturday for panels and walking around. Currently I'm excited for:

Friday

• 10:30am-11:30am: Spider-Man: Then and Now
  
• 2:00pm-3:00pm: Battlestar Galactica with cast members
  
• 4:30pm-5:30pm: Web comics 102: Finding Your Audience panel which the guys from PA are on
  
• 5:45pm-7:00: Samuel Jackson promoting Snakes on a Plane
  

Saturday

• 10:30am-12:00pm: Lost Season 3 Panel
• 10:30am-11:30: 300 Movie Panel
  
• 12:00pm-1:00pm: Simpsons Panel
• 1:00pm-2:30pm: Kevin Smith on Clerks II
• 2:45pm-3:30pm: The Spirit Movie
  

Comics I'll most likely pick up

• New PA Book - Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings
  
• Premiere Maddox Book - The Best Damn Comic In the Universe
• 300 by Frank Miller
• Spiderman #530
• The Imaginaries #2
• 30 Days of Night
• Marvel Heroes
• The Red Star
  
• Astrocity Vol. 1
• Essential X-Men Vol. 1
• Anything free!
  

Weekly Roundup

Here's a few links that caught my interest this week:

The Cake Song - Video shown to me by Chris, annoying yet vaguely entertaining
Baghdad Burning - Blog written by a girl living in Iraq
Hammer and Tickle - Essay on communist jokes
Propaganda Critic - Site Stephen sent me with nice examples of modern propaganda
Oh My God I Hate Ann Coulter - Old blog post about Ann Coulter's ridiculousness from Anthony
What Shamu Taught Me About Marriage - Article about how to get your spouse to be more cooperative

Geeks Guide to San Diego

When I first moved to San Diego the summer of 2004 I stumbled around with what exactly to do in a new city. Now after almost two years of living here I feel I have a solid grasp on where to go for things that I like to do. Of course, if you haven't figured it out yet I'm a geek, so these this is a guide to the geekier things you'll find in America's Finest City.

1. Electronics

After years of reading Penny-Arcade and other tech sites I'd heard about Fry's and it's electronic utopia. With miles of aisles stocked full with everything a geek craves, computers, video games, music, movies, book, etc. With the free time abound due to looking for a new job I looked up the nearest location and found it near Aero Road off the I-15.

Don't Go There. It's crap, absolute rubbish. I mean, it did have all the promised goodies, but I was expecting gleaming halls and a monument of pure techno-utopianism. Instead I was faced with a dreary warehouse looking store that had a shambly and disorganized look about it.

Over a year later, my enthusiasm for Fry's diminished, on our way back from somewhere my girlfriend suggested we stop off at Fry's to get some Christmas gifts. I was confused since we were in North country near San Marcos and not near the Fry's I despise.

We arrived and it was a gift from the Gods themselves. Two giant obelisk towered on each side of the entrance, huge Jacob Ladders inside humming their plasma arcs audibly humming with the electricity providing their life. Inside it has a theme of Atlantis, massive fish tanks filled with huge fish and even sharks. Statues of men in old diving gear gazed upon the pristine aisles of geek marrow and I knew that all the stories were true. Fry's was rock awesome, not only the best presented store I've ever had the pleasure of walking into, but also it's never let me down in my search for some rare connector or piece of hardware.

To make a long story short, don't go to the Fry's in San Diego off Aero road. Spare yourself the agony and spend the extra half hour going up to San Marcos.

The UCSD bookstore also has some good deals on hardware, specifically Apple, since the student discount that's included in the price and you don't have to show a student ID.

The Geek Exit

Occasionally the forces of the universe combine and create a single point multi-disciplinary geekdom. One such example of this is the Clairemont Mesa Blvd exit off the 805 freeway. The next four geek retailers are within a mile of this exit.

2. Comics

The first, on the West side, is Comickaze which sells a variety of major label comics, manga, and assorted collectibles. The store itself isn't impressive in a rational sense, but it appeals to those who enjoy the disorganized and randomness of the comic book geek stereotype. The racks are liad out haphazardly and usually books from labels are kept together, although sometimes you have to dig around until you find what you're looking for.

The store always has some sort of clutter, whether it's the random storage boxes next to the check-out counter or a rack from Free Comic Book Day blocking the way to the collectible section. The employees are generally helpful and occasionally you can catch some authors chatting it up with them or guys who are absurdly into comics boasting about their latest 40,000 book acquisition.

They don't carry much rare or back issues, but you can always find the latest and greatest on the "new" racks near the back left of the store. Their hours vary, usually 11am-9pm, but you'll want to check out the Google local page since their outdated web page doesn't have them.

3. Boardgames

Although I didn't know this till recently geeks love boardgames, and as I expanded my interests here in San Diego I realized that boardgames are something I always liked but never put any energy into. The games now-a-days are a far cry from the simplistic (yet still fun) rules of Monopoly, Operation, Sorry!, and others from my childhood.

The Settlers of Catan started my fascination my senior year of college and I haven't stopped since. Enjoying a variety of new and different types, like Carcassonne, Lost Cities, Captain Treasure Boots, and more. There's even an entire website dedicated to them, with reviews, commentary and alternative modes of play.

Game Empire, East of the highway, has a ton of games, model supplies, a knowledgeable staff, and a large game room that always seems filled with people playing some sort of war or D&D game. Their stock is fleshed out well, although sometimes they're lacking specific titles, all the major ones are there. Almost half their stock is for Warhammer 40k and other wargames, including models, terrain material, paint, and other building supplies.

As much as I like supporting local businesses, Wal-Mart is within walking distance of the store and if you're looking to pick up a more common game and it's too expensive at GE I'd recommend heading there.

4. Music

Although not a whole lot of geeks play guitar, right across from Game Empire is Guitar Trader that specializes in buying and selling used equipment. The store is packed with anything you'll need, and although their music section could stand to have more selection the rest of the store is solid.

Lou's Records (Not off the Geek Exit) is an awesome used and new music store tucked up in Encinitas along Pacific Coast Highway. There are two buildings, one for used wares and the other for newer stuff. It carries a good selection of vinyl, cds, and cassettes arranged in catagories from Indie, Hardcore, Pop, Trance and other electic genres. Every Saturday is Free Stuff Saturday and you can get demo cds, stickers, posters, and an assorsement of other swag. Look near the front for the top 20 albums of the week and employee picks for new stuff you may not have heard before. They also have their catalog in a database system that you can search. Sign up for their newsletter by email to get a weekly run down on almost every music related events in San Diego.

5. Books

A few storefronts down from Game Empire is the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore. I went in it once to check it out and it was completely full of fantasy and sci-fi novels of every type. The prices seemed reasonable and for someone trying to track down a less popular series that larger book chains don't carry I'm sure they have it. From their web page they seem to have a lot of events and author signings as well.

There are probably a host of other more geek friendly bookstores in the city but I either use Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or the UCSD Bookstore for the majority of my purchases.

6. Beer

Geeks love beer, and fortunately San Diego has a large micro-brewery culture many you can find in stores and specialty brew pubs.

Stone Brewery is probably the best known outside of the city, with Arrogant Bastard Ale making a name for itself across the country. They also produce and excellent IPA and Smoked Porter as well as special one time brews. They are located in North county and provide tours as well as a gift shop.

Karl Strauss is well known in California but may not have much clout outside the Western United States (I don't know this for sure). They not only sell in stores but they also have their own chain of restaurants throughout the county. My favorite by far is tucked away in Sorrento Valley in the middle of a business park. The building was a Japanese place so the architecture and garden have a very Zen feel to it. They also sponsor various concerts and events throughout the year. Give their Red Trolley, Woodie Pale Ale, and Amber Lager a try.

There are many other local San Diego micro-brews that you'll find in stores throughout the county. Check out the Beer Advocates Guide to San Diego to find more information.

The city has tons of local bars and pubs to enjoy . My particular favorites are, Pizza Port (excellent pizza), The Oul Sod (authentic Irish pub), The Field (another Irish pub but with food too), The Wits End (for the intellectual), PB Bar and Grill (sports and beach), and The USCD Pub (good prices and student atmosphere).

7. Movies

Out of the all of the places to see a movie in the area, four stand out as a cut above the rest.

The first is Edwards Cinemas 16 in Mira Mesa, and is your standard huge megaplex with stadium seating, multiple concession stands and a expensive tickets. I normally go there to see movies I know I don't want to miss on the big screen.

Secondly is the AMC La Jolla 12 mostly because it's close to my house but also they have the added catch of allowing you to bring outside food in. The location of the theatre is in a small mall like complex which gives you a variety of eateries, from burritos, deli sandwiches, pizza, and even sushi. If you have a current or expired ID use it to get a MovieWatcher card to get a discount on your ticket and eventually it'll acquire points and start getting discounts or free coupons for the concession stand.

The La Jolla Landmark is great for independent film lover, and is located right across the street from the AMC La Jolla 12 (there is also one in Hillcrest). The Hillcrest location is a bit nicer, but they both have that gritty personal quality to them. Every Friday at midnight they have a special showing of a cult or popular geek movie, which includes trivia before the show starts, people dressed up, and all sorts of other festivities.

Cinema Under the Stars is a unique open air theatre with "zero-gravity" chairs that suspend you while you watch old or cult films. Right next door is an excellent BBQ place as well.

8. Videogames

Almost any electronic retailer sells videogames so there's not specific place to go to satisfy your addiction, but there is one area in San Diego that happens to have two great stores across the street from each other. They're you're common Gamespot and Electronic Boutique, but the Gamespot seems to have an unusual amount of quality used wares. I normally run there if I'm trying to find a used title and if they don't have it, my chances of obtaining it are increased by quickly checking out the EB across the street.

They are located in opposite shopping plazas at the cross street of Mira Mesa Blvd and Reagen Road.

9. Cons

San Diego is lucky enough to become the geek Mecca every July with Comic-Con International downtown. The convention gets larger every year, originally starting as just a comic show but over the last few years it's morphed into movies, videogames, fantasy, sci-fi, and just about anything geeky you can imagine. It runs for four days near the end of July and always guarantees plenty of panels and speakers. In addition the amount of free swag is plentiful and you definitely get your moneys worth for the cost of admission.

By far one of the most popular convention in the country is the Electronic Entertainment Expo also known as E3. It doesn't take place in San Diego, but in LA which is only an hour or two drive (depending on traffic) North. I've never actually been but you can always find more info on their website.

San Diego like most major metropolitian areas has a yearly Renaissance Faire held in Balboa Park in August. I've never been there myself but I plan to check it out this summer.

10. Sushi

I'm not a huge fan of raw fish myself (although I'm getting used to it), but a lot of geeks I know love it. In San Diego there is no "best sushi place in the city" since everyone one I know who likes it claims that their favorite place is absolutely the best. I'll have to agree, everyone I've gone to has their own style and menu selection and I've liked them all. Some tend to be pricier and others tend to take a while due to a crowd, but they're everywhere so just find and give it a shot, due to the proximity of the sea your raw fish will be fresh and tasty as the next place.

Thirteen Ways to be a Real Conservative

1. Take the bus to work (gas and stress free)
   
2. Walk or bike to places within a mile
3. Save plastic bags and deposit them next time to go to the grocery store
4. Use a re-usable grocery bag
   
5. Turn off appliances when you're not using them
   
6. Invest in ceiling fans and turn down the AC
7. Get a hybrid vehicle
8. If you can't get a hybrid, get regular tuneups
9. Pay your bills online (saves on stamps too)
10. Enable your computers power management settings
    
11. Recycle whatever you can
12. Create a compost heap and use it to mulch a vegetable garden
    
13. Just use less
    

Counting Down

Today the New York Times had a nice article on Keith Olbermann and his MSNBC show Countdown and I thought I'd comment on why it's one of my favorite news shows.

M my brother introduced me to the fast-paced witty commentary of Keith Olbermann last year and since then it's been my favorite actual news show. Along with Countdown, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report I get my current events with a nice blend of fact and humor. Most of the news stories now-a-days are pretty heavy, and having them intermingled with the quirkiness that the show is known for helps the issues sink in easier.

Olbermann as a host is quite energetic, and if it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't watch the show at all. Occasionally he'll be on vacation and someone will fill in for him, but it's just not the same. His commentary is usually right on the mark and he does it with a wit and insight that I find lacking in most other commentators. By far the best reason to watch him is his calling out of right-wing pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. Somewhat childish, but funny, they're normally in the "Worst Person in the World" segment for something stupid they said and he gives them names like Coultergeist or Bill'O. This has actually lead to ratings increase by the feud between him and Bill'O.

I know that the show is left leaning, but that's fine by me since it reports on stories I know I want to hear about and won't start yelling things at the TV. The fact the Olbermann also reports things either ahead of time (hence the slogan, "Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?") or ones that other major media outlets won't cover period (election disputes after Nov. 04) keeps me coming back too. The show itself just has an overall quality and polish too it, catering to someone of my age and political knowledge with issues I actually care about.

Even though the show doesn't have as much clout as others, it lands some pretty spectacular interviews. A wonderful example is the recent interview with Jack Murtha, whom it seems is avoided or not allowed to fully speak his mind on other shows. It wasn't even Olbermann asking the questions but Brian Unger who sometimes takes his place when he's gone and it still shone as one of the best interviews I've ever seen. Murtha was ruthless and spoke strongly and passionately about an issue he cares deeply about, something that's lacking in today's politicians. The questions were excellent and resulted in insightful responses from Murtha, and unlike other interviews I've seen with him they weren't negatively attacking him.

Finally, the show always ends with Olbermann signing off with "Good night, and Good Luck", probably one of the greatest quotes in television news history from Edward R. Murrow. He also throws in his modern take on the sign off with a count of how many days have elapsed since "Mission Accomplished" was declared in Iraq.

The show airs daily at 5pm on MSNBC, and if you have a problem missing it there are almost always highlights of it on Crooks and Liars.

Thursday Thirteen - Open Source Programs

Thirteen Open Source programs you should check out:

1. GAIM - Multi-protocol Instant Messenger
   
2. Mozilla Firefox - Web Browser
   
3. Mozilla Thunderbird - Email Client
   
4. ZSNES - Super Nintendo Emulator
   
5. Filezilla and Cyberduck - S/FTP Client
   
6. VLC - Media Player
   
7. Apollon (GNU/Linux Only)- Multi-protocol File Sharing
   
8. Grease Monkey - Firefox Extension
   
9. TightVNC and Chicken of the VNC - Remote Desktop
   
10. OpenOffice.org - Office Suite
    
11. 7zip - File de/compression
    
12. Nethack - Dynamic Text-mode Dungeon Crawler
    
13. ClamAV - Anti-Virus Detection and Removal
    

Slashdot Comment of the Day - MySpace

I read Slashdot a lot, and have been for years. Normally I lurk around an just read the comments. The constant flow of tech stories was what first attracted me, but over the years I found myself clicking on the stories less, and reading the comments more. Slashdot is a huge geek site, and because of it's notoriety and history a lot of smart and funny people post to it. Thanks to the excellent moderation system it's easy to find some true gems and actually learn something interesting or scathingly funny.

Over the years I've noticed my thinking is almost warped by all the commentary, not because I don't have any thoughts of my own, but a lot of the older and wiser people say exactly what I've had mulling in my head but never put into actual words.

For example, over the last few months I've had a protest of the popular social networking site MySpace. I just plain don't like it. Eventually I put my thoughts together and came to the conclusion that I don't like it because:

1. It just looks horrible
2. Its way to easy for someone to make a horrible crufty looking page
3. It plays to peoples vanity
4. It creates a "social cliche" on the Internet
5. It actually shows you who the millions of Internet users are
   

The first two are purely cosmetic and as a semi-web designer make me gasp with disbelief when I stroll onto a myspace page that causes my horizontal scroll bar to balloon outwards with text impossible to read because it's the same color as the static background image. The pages just have poor taste and it's hard with all the buzz of "web 2.0" to see something that looks like a site from the mid nineties but still takes 10 minutes to load and usually crashes your browser.

The vanity on the site is disgusting, it's like the virtual culmination of a deadly sin. All that "bling" and slang thrown around on a page that looks like it's from the mid nineties. Just look at most of the pictures, and the majority of people trying to be as outlandish or depressing as they can simply to garner the most attention from virtual eyes. Not to mention the friend counter that shows you how popular you are, as if linking to another persons crappy looking site makes you "cooler" somehow. It's just one big me fest, hey, probably why it's called MySpace

Fourthly is the "social cliche" that comes with the above comment. It's just like the high school lunchroom all over again. Finally, the Internet, the great equalizer, where you the celebrities were known for their technical skills and intelligence has been reduced to who can have the most craptastic looking page. Additionally, MySpace spills out into the real world, and everyone has a page on it now. You hear them talking about it in clubs, in the malls, everywhere. People who just a few years ago gave us geeks shit for having your own website or going online are now more addicted than we ever were. To make matters worse, if you don't have a myspace page people give you the look of "what's wrong with you". You know what, I don't want to be on your crappy site looking like an idiot and telling you how cute I thought Jenny looked the other day. I know how to run my own web server and publish stuff online using fully XHTML and CSS compliant pages (course blogspot sorta negates this, but at least it's a bit more professional looking).

Finally, I don't want to see what type of people use the Internet. I already know who's online, and it's scary. To have a bunch of hobgoblin teenagers, stay young forever old people, and club loving twenty something start posting their greatest picture (taken from the side) of all time while telling in their favorite book section that they don't read because "any book good enough will eventually be made into a movie", makes me want to unplug the cable modem.

To conclude, here's the Slashdot Comment of the Day by Monoman:

Myspace is just another proof that quality is always what is important.

My impression after seeing Myspace for the first time was it was like the early days of web page design. The users were more atrracted to the cheap "gee whiz" stuff. Inline audio and video took the place of flashing/scrolling text and huge animated gifs.

I have some friends that like to use Myspace so I check it out every once in a while. It is still a horrible site from a snobby tech geek point of view. To others, it is a great thing.

He sums my thoughts up pretty well. I am a geek elite, I know this, and therefore I look down on the "masses" when they come teeming to the latest greatest newest thing. Right now it's Myspace, before it was Original Napster, and before that was Geocities (which I was guilty of making a crappy looking self promotion website using non-standard web practices in high school).

As much as I hate MySpace I understand and I applaud it. It gives the technologically challenged an outlet for their online lives, doesn't discriminate, and it grants almost total anarchy to those who want it. Too bad all it's users profiles, comments, and anything else published under it is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Doublethinkiness

While reading my next book for the UCSD summer book program, I started thinking about newspeak and in particular about doublethink and how often I see it online when it comes to conservative talking points. Here's a quick definition of doublethink for those who haven't read 1984 in a while:

"the act of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously and fervently believing both."

Keeping that definition in mind while perusing conservative web forums such as ProtestWarrior, I realized that when correlating threads together large amounts of doubletink arises. The same is probably true for almost any conservative forum or blog that has a user commentary attached. Below are two examples of doublethinkiness I found while browsing the first page (of 1000) of the current events forum.

The first example is the re-ocurring thread topic of not finding WMD in Iraq and the justification of the current war. One of their favorite counter points is massacre of 300,000 innocent people (actually Kurds, who are in fact Muslim) by Saddam and that proves he wouldn't hesitate to do it again, therefore we needed to go to war. If you look at other topics, specifically the ones on Islam they then say that all Muslims are evil, hate America, and should be destroyed. The doublethink is they think it's horrible that all these innocent people were killed and it's our responsibility to make sure it doesn't happen again and at the same time they want to kill all Muslims. Which includes the Kurds. Huh?

The second example is of the recent development of the the 31 billion dollar donation Warren Buffet is giving to charity. A common spout is "it's his money and he can do what he wants with it and thank goodness the government isn't getting their greedy paws on it". If you look a thread below, which is probably about Iraq, they then defend the 291 billion dollar war with only the argument of "stay the course!". The doublethink is they don't want the greedy government to get any extra money and at the same time they want to continue spending massive amounts on an endless war.

There aren't any links to specific threads or comments due to the constant posting of this dribble. Any conservative opinion site at anytime and will yield the same doublethinkiness on any issue they care to comment on.

My New Laptop Bag

I never really got that excited about the bag I carry my laptop in. For the past year or more I've been using a canvas J. Crew bag I picked up on sale to carry my G3 iBook and Dell around. It served it's use well, holding books, power adapters, keys, pens, all sorts of things. Lately though I've had concerns about the safety and well being of my toys and did some searches for quality bags that didn't cost to much or shouted out "steal me!".

Eventually I stumbled upon Crumpler bags and decided I'd pick up the 12' Skivvy to hold my iBook. It's a little smaller than I would have liked, but it fits the laptop snugly and I feel that it's adequately protected. The usual array of other accessories also fit into it with the subtraction of a few lesser used objects. It has a quality feel to it, with tough stitching and a large velcro piece on the flap that overlaps the bag generously and keeps everything in without the fear of it coming undone. The padding is about a quarter to half inch thick around the main laptop compartment and I have a feeling (not that I'm going to test it) that if it drops form waist/table height minimal damage will occur to contents. The accessory compartment has a nice thick zipper on it that opens/closes easily enough and it doesn't feel like it will get caught on anything. Finally the entire bag is water resistant, and even with the little rain we get in Southern California it seems it will keep everything fairly dry. The only complaint I have about it is the large patch of velcro is quite loud when you open it, but that's not a major issue.

During my search I came across some listings of what people carried in their bags which fascinated me for some bizarre reason. I guess it was some sense of dorky voyerism and I wanted to do the same thing. My old bag has a lot more in it, but most of it I never used and the new crumpler made me minimize some:

• 800mhz G3 12' iBook with 256mb RAM and 30gb disk space
• Mead composition Notebook
• Pilot Gel Pens
• Moleskine Pocket Notebook
• UCSD ID and Bus Pass
• 512 USB Memory Stick
• Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens
• Costco Acid Reducer Pills (boooo heartburn)

Exciting eh? It's not much, but it keeps me entertained on the bus on during lunch.

My Typical Day Online

I spend a lot of time online, some people would say it's excessive, but normally most people just ask what exactly do I spend all that time on? Instead of explaining it to each person I figured I'd write a bit about it. I have an odd way of computing which I'll explain and then follow it up with what resources I use.

The Network is the Computer

I'm a systems administrator by day, and one thing I'm always looking for is a way to make tasks easier. Centralizing systems and resources so I only have to do something once is the key here and I carry it over into my personal computing habits as well. I have three computers I normally us, my G3 iBook, an old Dell laptop, and a 64-bit GNU/Linux Debian server. Why so many computers? Well diversity for one, they represent all three major operating systems and platforms and with the exception of cutting edge games I have all my bases covered. Also if I lose a laptop I'm not completely disabled computing wise. The server also has backups for it so we're safe there as well.

The two laptops are essentially satellites of the Debian server, and they contain little to any non-recoverable data. All music, movies, pictures, documents, everything that is important, is stored on the server. I then access it through the web, encrypted SSH connections, and tunneled VNC desktop sessions. Security has a heavy focus, and any IPs that want to connect must authenticate through a webpage, as well as the use of SSL for sensitive connections. The advantage to this is as long as I have a connection to the internet I'm always at my computer. It also allows other people I trust to connect and use various shared resources.

This fits into my daily routine by logging in via SSH on my laptop or desktop at work, then tunneling VNC to my shared desktop. The shared desktop contains my instant messenger, cd burning app, filesharing app, web browser, and whatever else software debian has installed

Sites

Here's a list of sites I usually have loaded in a tabs or Live Bookmarks:

1. Slashdot - I've probably learned more from comments here than I did in four years of college
   
2. Digg - Link Farm, and comments are usually worthless but more up-to-date than Slashdot with a nice interface
3. Crooks and Liars - Good liberal news site with lots of news clips and stories that get buried in mainstream media
4. Penny Arcade - Only on Mon/Wed/Fri, but they have excellent commentary on the gaming industry
   
5. Technorati - I used to hate the whole "blogosphere" thing, but this site cuts through all the BS with the popular tags and searchs box
   
6. Gmail - Where all my personal emails are, go figure
7. Google News - Gives me more mainstream current events tailored to my preferences
8. Protestwarrior - Hugely conservative site, but the forums give you a lot of insight into how their fascinating little minds work

That's it, really not a whole lot when you break it down, but it's a good cross section of the rapidly changing webscape and there's hours of things to read and look into

With the combination of the computing approach I described above and the techniques and list of sites is usually how I spend my day online.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things You Should Read Before You Die:

1. 1984 (Cause then you'll know who Big Brother is)
   
2. We (Cause everyone and their mom has read 1984 but probably not this one)
   
3. Adventures of Huck Finn (Cause Mark Twain is a freaking genius)
   
4. The Iliad and the Odyssey (Know your roots)
   
5. Catcher In The Rye (But only before you hit 18)
6. Into the Wild (Once again, only before you're 18, although when you're older you'll only just stop shaving for a while)
   
7. At least one Orwell Essay or Short Story (trust me)
8. Any "A Very Short Introduction To...." (condensed knowledge for the intellectual on the go)
   
9. Anything written by a non-American author
   
10. Any book written by a comedic liberal
11. Any book written by a conservative to counter the one before
    
12. Any amateur magazine, story, or blog
13. The U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence (no explanation needed)

UCSD Summer Reading Program

Working at UCSD has some pretty cool perks, one of them is full use of all the university libraries. Over the last couple months I've been taking advantage of my library privileges, checking availability, reserving books, and renewing renewing them.

Recently on the staff intranet there was a post about the Worship a Good Book program, which students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to check out books from the libraries and then write a short review on them. They give you the choice of answering a few questions, such as "If you could rename the book, what would the new title be? Why?" and "Discuss one new thing you learned reading this book.". You're only required to answer one, and you get various prizes for the more reviews you do.

I plan on getting up to ten reviews by September 4th, when the contest is over, and then I'll be eligible for a book bunje (whatever that is). They also have various awards, and I'm going to shoot for theJust Siskel Award" for most creative and insightful. Below I posted my first review of A Scanner Darkly which is soon to be a movie this summer, enjoy!

Worhsip a Good Book Review of A Scanner Darkly:

Name your favorite character or theme in the book and why:

The theme of constant surveillance. Even though Bob knows that his other personality, Fred, is watching him he still acts as if nothing is happening. Would we in reality do the same if we knew someone was watching us constantly? We already know that to some extend we're being monitored, with surveillance cameras in banks, stores, and even red lights. Does this somehow add pressure on our subconscious, the fact that every move and every thought we make can be monitored and recorded? Technology is becoming so prevalent in our life it's like a the drugs in the book, we don't know where it stops and we begin.

Discuss one new thing you learned reading this book:

At the end of the book there's an Author's Note, in which Dick describes his own drug experiences (the book is a loose autobiography on him) and those around him. He dedicates the book to those he knew whose lives were damaged or destroyed (including his own) because of their addictions and relentless pursuit of their version of happiness. Drug addiction isn't something that someone just decides to get into like a hobby, gradually events in someone's life leads them into it. This is seen in the book with the character of Bob Archer and him starting as a narcotics dealer and eventually dropping so much Substance D that he splits his personality into two.The first a drug addict and the second an undercover agent watching him more and more with the surveillance equipment, both totally unaware of each other.. This is Dicks allegory for the drug addict, one side wants to stop the actions he's doing, and the other continuing to do so cause it's the only way they know happiness. What I've learned from the story and characters is that even though drug addiction starts as a choice, eventually it becomes something uncontrollable and out of the users hands, no matter how much they want to stop.