November 2004
Electoral Vote.com Shows Projects Kerry Winning
If you haven’t seen it yet, Electoral-Vote.com statistically analyses the most recent batches of polls from all the majoring polling companies and tries to project who will win each state.
You can pretty much guarantee that swing state will flip colors every day, but more recently you’re seeing Kerry with more of the electoral votes, which makes me happy
Today we see: Kerry 283, Bush 246...
Be prepared for Vote Challengers
Jacqui was telling me in the car today that she overhead someone at her place of work discussing, in detail, how he was taking part in an effort to block people from voting on Tuesday. This really fucking blew my mind, that not only would people be so un-American, but also be so blatant about it.
When I got home I saw that Brian Griffin has posted a list of question you will probably be asked...
October 2004
Library and a Democratic Rally
Me and Jacqui went over to the Library today to see if there was anything interesting to check out. I found a book, albeit not the one I was looking for, but I remember reading that Alton Brown had suggested it.
The book I checked out was, “Salt: A World History”:
From Amazon.com – “Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World, here turns his attention...
Coolest utilities for OS X?
Coolest utilities for OS X?: “What are the coolest desktop organization/launcher utilities—DragThing, LaunchBar, QuickSilver, PathFinder, etc.—for OS X right now?
What do you use and why?”
(Via inessential.com.)
I use Launchbar, Imagewell and some custom AppleScript droplets.
Launchbar 4 is probably used most often. I use it to launch everything. This lets me use the Dock like I think...
Google Plans Desktop Search Tool for Apple PCs
Yay! I pined for this the other day and now they say it’ll be coming. Erik reminded me about Spotlight and I smacked my head. I wonder which will do a better job?
Google Plans Desktop Search Tool for Apple PCs: “Schmidt did not set a timetable for a Mac version of Google Desktop, saying it had to be rebuilt from the ground up because of the fundamental differences between the Mac OS and...
USAMA
Know your rights, and know where to vote
From Electoral-Vote.com:
Several lawyers have contacted me about the issue of what to do if you show up to vote and the election officials say you are not registered. Here is the procedure. First, be absolutely sure you are in the correct precinct. If you are in the wrong precinct, in most states, your vote won’t be counted. If you are not 100% certain of your polling place, go to...
Is your email inbox a stack or a queue?
I use mine as a stack. Sorting my email from newest to oldest is probably the very first thing I do when I’m setting up a new mail client. I never quite understood why all mail client default to sorting oldest to newest.
Is your email inbox a stack or a queue?: “I’m starting to think there’s something wrong with me. The majority of inbox views I’ve seen on others’ computers have new messages...
Adium 0.71b4
Now available
Beta 4 – Initial 0.71 beta release
Snatch it up!
Firefox 1.0 Release Candidate 1
FTP Downloads
Asa Dotzler says:
“Today we have our first Firefox 1.0 candidate builds available for testing. You can get these test builds from FTP. If you’ve already downloaded 1.0 PR (the “feature complete” preview) and you’re not really interested in testing and bug reporting, then you should probably stick with 1.0 PR for a couple more weeks and upgrade when we release the official Firefox...
MiniPOV: Persistance of Vision Toy
MiniPOV – Persistance of Vision Toy: This is an awesome little project that you’ve might’ve seen in those little toys with the spring loaded arm. You pull the arm and it flaps around and you see the time or date or something You can make these for about $4 and all you need are some soldering skills ( and a soldering iron )
(Via Engadget.)
Microsoft codename roulette wheel lands on...
New at Arstechnica, Microsoft codename roulette wheel lands on “Whitehorse” by Clint Ecker
Titan flyby: Awesome!
There are the best pictures of Titan we’ve ever gotten. They were taken during Cassini’s first of many flyby’s of Saturn’s moon. This is the moon that Cassini will be deploying the Huygens probe into.
Link to Cassini Project Link to Cassini-Huygens Mission on Wikipedia.com
I look forward to some more awesome results from these projects, they really excite the imagination!
I'm officially cool
Maybe you don’t know this but Jacqui and I are pretty active members of one of the coolest online forums of the coolest website on the Internet, Ars Technica
I spend my forum going time about 80/20 between Ars and SA. I’ve grown to know a lot of people there, met a lot of them in person and met a few of them as many as three times! So a few things have happened recently.
Ars has redesigned...
iSock
Uh… wow…
In addition to the new iPods, Apple also introduced a set of colored “socks” for carrying iPods. Apple will sell a set of six differently hued socks for $29.
Packaged similar to real socks, the iPod Socks will come in six different color combinations (what appeared to be green, blue, grey, orange, pink, aqua)…
Photo iPod, U2 iPod
So the rumors turned out to be true!
Apple released a photo iPod that lets you sync in photos from iPhoto. You can look at them on the iPod’s screen or via a Svideo-out port in the iPod’s dock.
Now in living color, its easier to read than ever. That’s thanks in part to the clarity of the display — it offers 220×176-pixel resolution — and in part to the new Myriad typeface.
No more...
Bengals
Cincinnati finally won one! We won it on Monday Night Football too, which is always nice. Apparently Cincinnati hasn’t played MNF for something like 15 years! Hopefully this will mark the end of a losing streak and the beginning of a winning streak ;)
Podder.py, the cooler superior PodCatching script!
This script is completely compatible with the old script in that it will be able to know which PodCasts you’ve already downloaded. However, this script is a lot nicer and provides a bit more feedback. The major changes are:
You don’t have to create any files from the command line (downloads.log). If the script cannot find it, it creates a blank version.
You don’t have to create any of...
Podder.pl, the superior Podcatching script
I am no longer actively working on the Perl Version of this script. Please click here to check out the Python version I am working on
I caught notice of this perl script that uses AppleScript to interface with NetNewsWire 2.0 and extract RSS enclosures, downloads them to disk, and then uses AppleScript to add the PodCasts into a playlist in iTunes.
I modified it so that you can subscribe to...
HP - invent
A funny message from my friend Dan
Dan: what the hell Dan: so HP has this new commercial Dan: “The HP Apple iPod. Your PC will never be the same.” Dan: ok, fine Dan: but then the next line Dan: “HP – invent.” Dan: they didn’t invent that shit!
Woman calls her friend for help while drowning in...
Three women returning from a birthday party drowned when the driver lost control of a Jeep Cherokee and went off the road, plunging into a river as the women frantically called a friend on a cell phone instead of dialing 911.
God damn! How about you focus on getting out of the truck before telling people what’s going on.
Link
Do I have the wrong house?
From CNN
Definately the weirdest thing I’ve read all day:
A woman came home from vacation to find a stranger living there, wearing her clothes, changing utilities into her name and even ripping out carpet and repainting a room she didn’t like, authorities said.
Later, Copeland said, she admitted she broke into the house with a shovel and was squatting there. She was charged with...
OHHHH YEAAHHHH!!
Chicken_Crispers.mp3
Does our government understand how money works?
Via ABCnews
President Bush showered $136 billion in new tax breaks on businesses, farmers and other groups Friday, quietly signing the most sweeping rewrite of corporate tax law in nearly two decades.
Ok, sounds pretty bad, right?
Our country just lost $136 billion in revenue. Why did we sign this into law I wonder?
The official line from the administration:
the White House said...
996 Unread Posts
Don’t you hate coming back to something like that? I just got done plowing through them all :)
Sinclair Broadcasting Group gets what it had...
Sinclair broadcasting group was going to air a highly controversial movie tonight called “Stolen Honor.” Basically a movie that has been discredited and was basically a yellow piece aimed solely and spreading more of the same FUD crap that the Swiftvets have been pushing.
I’m all for free speech and I am perfectly happy about this film being published in book or DVD format (in fact I believe...
Chicago: The Aftermath
Well I finally got back from Chicago and boy am I ever happy to be back :) My plan of getting back around eight or nine tonight was totally ruined by some mistakes I made around Indianapolis. First we left Chicago a little later than I had planned and didn’t really get out of the training session until four. Once we left we got stuck in some moderate rush hour traffic. It was bad but...
Chicago: Day 3
Well, today is my last day in Chicago and I cannot wait to get back home to see the cats and most of all, Jacqui :) Today is going to be a short day (we should be getting done around three’o’clock and I hope to be back to Cincinnati around eight or nine tonight.
We’re going to get Pizza sent in for lunch and I think we’ll be tackling a few features we’ll be using less often and answering...
Chicago: Day 2
Today wasn’t much different than yesterday, we didn’t have to show up until 9am so that part was alright! I am learning a lot about the engineering aspect of my job. Not just about this software package but from what this package does and how my peers who are also attending this training are talking about and how our markets are both different and similar.
I’ve learned that the Cincinnati...
Chicago: Day 1
Well yesterday I left Cincinnati at around 2:30pm on a five and a half hour trek to Chicago for software training for work. I had to make one stop in Indianapolis to pick up one of the Engineers from the Indianapolis market. After stopping there we headed on into Chicago and we got here around eight or nine.
We grabbed dinner and then came back and headed back to bed. I was also very upset...
New toys from work
This little card is pretty cool! It lets me get on Tmo hotspots to use the Internet. It also lets me hop on the GPRS network to use the net! Best part about it is that it doesn’t have the little antenna like the previous model did.
The little metal case it comes with is pretty cool too:
Hey check out this pic of cats too:
Purdue v. Wisconsin
This will probably be Purdue’s toughest game of the season. My boss thinks the only other teams they might have an issue with is Indiana (haha I know) but after watching them lose their cool at the worst possible times over the past 5 years, you become a little skeptical! :)
So this should be their toughest challenge, its all downhill from here. Purdue should also beat them easily, but I bet...
Cool T-Shirts
Check them out
I especially like the Toxic Waste one, Real Genius was an awesome movie :)
Google for your Desktop
Ever have a hard time finding documents strewn all over your PC? Yeah, I thought so ;)
Google today introduced [Google for your Desktop]. Its a program that runs on your computer and indexes content all over your computer. It indexes just about everything too: Outlook mail, AIM logs, Internet explorer, text files, word documents, excel files, and powerpoint documents!
You can then search...
I think you should know
You never cease to amaze me You keep me from going crazy And that’s one thing I know for sure Sometimes I see just how it all will be Take every bit it’s so easy the first straw And this I know for sure
<3 <3 <3
The third debate
From Electoral Vote Predictor
After the debate, a Gallup poll showed Kerry to be the winner 52% to 39%, not far from expectations. A CBS poll of uncommitted voters after the debate showed that 39% thought Kerry had won and 25% thought Bush had won. An ABC News poll showed Kerry barely won, 42% to 41%. However, the ABC poll had 38% Republicans and 30% Democrats, so breaking even in a group skewed...
Cat and Building Pics
Click the thumbnails to check out the entire galleries
Allah Is In The House: Afghan elections gone...
After conferring with someone I know who is actually stationed in Afghanistan and reading some more blogs I’ve come to the conclusion that this “ink” business was blown way out of proportion.
Looks like everything is going to be alright :)
Allah Is In The House:: “Despite the controversy, reports from the ground by BBC correspondents spread across Afghanistan suggest that the issue...
Purdue is #5! keke!
Both of the major rankings (AP and ESPN/USA Today) have Purdue ranked at #5! I never thought I’d see the day :)
I love this phone
This is the P50, a PocketPC based phone from BenQ. It’s nice and small, looking to be just about as big as my Nokia 6600 only thinner. All of that plus its got everything you get on a PocketPC PDA and its got an awesome QWERTY keyboard =-o
Check out these pics:
I wish T-Mobile would carry this phone, I’d be trading in my 6600 with no hesitation!
The Webcams
Afghani presidential candidates pull out over...
Apparently the Afghani elections that George Bush was hyping last night that took place today has been marred by controversy. All but one of the fifteen candidates withdrew from the running over alleged voter fraud. Its a little bit more than suspicious that the only candidate not to withdraw is the U.S. backed candidate Karzi.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Afghanistan’s historic presidential...
Go Purdue! Purdue 20, Penn 13
We’re 5-0 for the first time since like 1945 and this is the first time we’ve ever beat Penn State in their own stadium since Tiller came on board!
Podcasting: excuse me?
Ok, so there is a big to-do going on out there about this new thing called “PodCasting.” My initial impressions were that it was a pretty dumb idea and a little big hokey. I mean, who wants to listen to giant nerds yak on and on about how cool podcasting was?
First and foremost let me explain what it is. Podcasting is basically where some people record a segment, usually about an hour in...
Shanghai Mamas
We went to Shanghai Mama’s tonight, a really cool bistro-esque chinese place near our apartment (we can walk, yay!). Here are some pics I snapped:
The outside of the restaurant
Me, of course
The beautiful Jacqueline
A spy-shot from inside!
BluePhoneElite is neat!
This little program sits in my menu-bar like so:
The little stack of bars on the left is my phone’s current signal level and the little stack of bars on the right is my phone’s current battery level. The number 31026 is T-Mobile’s network code and basically shows me which network I’m currently on (it would be nice if it converted this to a human readable name).
When you click on the...
I call Kerry as the winner in the third debate
Run down of how I felt about the debate tonight between John Kerry and President Bush in the town hall format at Washington State University:
Bush shouts at the crowd
Throughout the entire first half of the debate, George Bush took a very different tone than he had taken during the first debate. I believe that George Bush was going for a “passionate” tone but I think that to me, and...
Mac Backup Software
Synk Déjá Vu
I currently use a combination of my own PHP scripts to backup specific directories and optionally back them up to a local directory, scp them to a network machine, or copy to local removable media based on a test (ping, df, etc…).
You can pick your own compression tool (I use bzip2) and I automate it via cron. It only works for full backups but I’d like to try out something...
This map thingie is AWESOME
I want a version of my own for the US :)
Link
GRAH
I over-wrote my wp-layout.css file last night when i upgraded to WP 1.2.1 >:O
Partially my fault, but can’t they release “update” packages that don’t include things like index.php and wp-layout.css that less knowledgable users might end up ruining their site with?
Guess I’m going to be reconstructing my CSS file from memory tonight :)
Edit: Found a copy laying around. phew