Infinite Monkeys |
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Sunday, November 30, 2003
Oh, and another to Monkey R.B., for convincing me that the iPod was the best player in the first place. Saturday, November 29, 2003
Happy Birthday To Me Yesterday was my 35th birthday, and I woke up focused on one thing: Take advantage of as many free birthday goods and services as possible. In the end, I was only partly successful, but I'm definitely satisfied with my victory. Here's my agenda: 7:30am - Wake up, shower, and head up to Krispy Kreme for my free birthday treats. KK gives you 1/2 dozen doughnuts of your choice (plus the hot doughnut they give you as soon as you walk in), and a travel mug filled with coffee. Yippee! 8:40am - My girls gleefully give me presents: "The Two Towers" 4-disc extended edition and some fun Spongebob Squarepants pajama pants (so I can match them). 9:00am - Head down to Fry's Electronics for the 1-day only "Robb's Birthday Sale". They had another title, but it was clearly given in my honor. Yeah. I got a new scanner, powered speakers for my office computer, a 160GB hard drive for only $60 after rebate, and a bunch of stuff that will be "free" if I remember to fill out the 30 rebate forms. Odds: 38% 11:15am - Visit ANOTHER Krispy Kreme, across the street from Fry's, and get another six (plus one) doughnuts and another mug of coffee. 12:30pm - Drop off my Fry's treasure at home. 1:30pm - Go see "Timeline" (free birthday movie at Harkins Theatres) with Fingers. Not great, but kind of fun. It was fun for what it was: a Richard Donner film. Fingers expressed his respect for Donner knowing what he does and doing it unapologetically. I have to agree. Follow the Donner link - this guy directed episodes of THE RIFLEMAN. He's been around forever. Well, 73 years anyway. Virtually no recognizable actors in this film. I kept wondering if, had the script been better, they could have gotten Russell Crowe to play Andre Marek, instead of Gerard Butler, who seemed to be attempting his best Crowe imitation. At any rate, the movie was TONS better than, say, "Lethal Weapon 4". 4:00pm - Enjoy a banana split Blizzard at Dairy Queen. FYI - I should point out that although I have at this point received 14 free doughnuts, I only ate 3 of them. I also scarfed down a burger before "Timeline". The Blizzard was not free. At this point, the wheels came off the self-indulgent cart. I went home, spent an hour on the phone with Bank of America and Wells-Fargo trying to get set up for direct access to my accounts through Quicken, and spent another hour futzing with Quicken 2004 itself. I may devote another blog entry to how much better my six-year-old copy of Microsoft Money is than the most current version of Quicken. This is one of the few situations where I miss my Windows-based options. 7:00pm - Watched "Finding Nemo" while eating pizza with the girls - Pixar continues to bat 1.000. Lots of fun (this was my third viewing) 9:00pm - Put the girls to bed and watched disc one of "The Two Towers" while sipping a glass of Powers Gold Label. So, a pretty good birthday, all around. I did not manage to get free lunch, dinner, or whiskey out of the deal, but I did okay for an old man. :-) Let's see, so many songs to pick. I already did the Cracker reference, so I could pick The Smiths, The Jazz Butcher, Pizzicato Five, Love Tractor...here we go: Current Song: "Happy Birthday" from the album Free by Concrete Blonde It was my understanding that you aren't supposed to post about wine appreciation if you don't know what you're talking about. However, I notice that Hugh Hewitt has been blogging on the subject (sorry, no hyperlink yet - Nov. 28 entry), so that rule clearly has been rescinded. In light of our newfound liberty, I will make my daily heretical admission: I love red wine, but I don't like it served at "room temperature", which is how restaurants serve it. Perhaps it comes from living in Arizona, where "room temperature" is close to 80 degrees during the summer, but I've had warm wine in California pretty frequently, as well, and they seem to serve it the same way. Now, my disdain for warm wine used to be so strong that I would actually drink it "cold", but nowadays I prefer to have it "cool", around 65 degrees. At home, I accomplish this by keeping wine in the fridge, and then pouring it about 15 minutes before I intend to drink it. The first glass is a little cooler than I like, but the second glass is usually about perfect. I haven't looked, but I'm guessing my heresy is not as heterodox as I first thought. If wine was traditionally stored in underground catacombs and decanted immediately upon opening, then most of the year it probably ran a little cool anyway. Do I know what I'm talking about? Of course not. Oh, and I like beer ice cold. Good beer, mind you, but the colder the better. Current Song: "A Skull, A Suitcase, And A Long Red Bottle Of Wine" from the album Invisible Hitchcock by Robyn Hitchcock Current Drink: Well, it's still before noon, so I must be drinking a homemade breve latte. Right, that's it. Because I couldn't be drinking something alcoholic this early. Never. Friday, November 28, 2003
"Heidigger Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table." The philosopher's drinking song should be our theme song. Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Woo hoo! Tuesday Morning Quarterback is back! I haven't thought much of his stuff at Easterblogg but I love TMQ. Sunday, November 23, 2003
Saturday, November 22, 2003
There's been a lot of discussion today about the conspiracy therories around JFK's assassination. A non-scientific poll on CNN showed 73% of Americans doubt the conclusion that Oswald acted alone. It's ridiculous. Why is it so hard for people to accept the simple, obvious explanation that's right there in front of them? Oswald acted alone, and he was sent from the future to stop the nuclear war that JFK was going to cause. I wish Gary Larson or Bill Watterson would come out of retirement, but I'll settle for Berkeley Breathed. By the way, I have no doubt that Hart was up to something with the B.C. Berke refers to. Thursday, November 20, 2003
Everyone Should Have a Blog. It's true. It's a great thing. R.B. just sent an e-mail to his co-monkeys saying "It's just cool having a blog," and I have to agree. You get to comment on whatever topic interests you, get e-mails from interesting and learned people (such as David Allen White), and get mocked on the air by nationally syndicated talk show hosts. But do you really want everyone to have one? Think about it--do you want your mom to have a blog? Well, I think R.B's mom reads this blog once in a while. I think she should have a blog. She could tell funny and heartwarming stories about embarrassing things R.B. did as a child. Do you hear me, J.M.? I'll even help you get it going (on Moveable Type, of course). Wait a second--she could tell embarrassing stories about things I did as a child! Never mind. A friend of mine had this to say about the movie when he saw it: the lead actor in that film did an outstanding job. that's the kind of The DVD includes two separate commentary tracks - the first by director Michael Winterbottom and star Steve Coogan (who plays Tony Wilson), and the second by the REAL Tony Wilson. Despite my ambivalence toward Joy Division, I really enjoy(ed) New Order and I was always fascinated by the Factory phenomenon. Rent it, it's a kick. Okay, so my defense of the Beatles yesterday was a little tepid. In my defense, I was cranking out a blog entry while attempting to participate in a conference call at work. On reflection, I think there is a better way to defend the Fab Four against the Stones, The Who, and certainly Joy Division. It is time-tested and blogger-approved: We must settle our differences via list-o-rama challenge. Here's the challenge: Establish the superiority of your chosen band by answering the following questions: 1. Top 10 reasons my band's songs are better than the others'. Rules: You must list single song titles. Any song from the band's catalog is permissible. Medleys are permitted only if they are routinely played that way on the radio (e.g. Pink Floyd's "The Happiest Days of Our Lives / Another Brick In The Wall Part 2") 2. Top 10 reasons my band's album tracks are better than the others'. Rules: You must list single song titles that did not and do not receive much airplay, relatively speaking. 3. Top 5 reasons my band's complete albums are better than the others'. Rules: No "Greatest Hits" collections allowed, although collections of predominantly non-album tracks are permitted. Example: The Smiths' "Louder Than Bombs" would be permitted, but "Best...I" would not. 4. Top 5 reasons the other guy might be right about why my band is not so great. Rules: List 5 songs and/or albums that make you embarassed to like this band. I will take up the Beatles' cause: Top 10 reasons the Beatles are better than the other bands: 1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2. A Day In The Life 3. Revolution 4. Happiness Is A Warm Gun 5. Strawberry Fields Forever 6. Taxman 7. Across the Universe 8. Eleanor Rigby 9. Paperback Writer 10. Here Comes The Sun Top 10 reasons the Beatles' album tracks are better than the others': 1. She Said, She Said 2. Girl 3. I"m So Tired 4. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite! 5. And Your Bird Can Sing 6. Run For Your Life 7. I Will 8. Doctor Robert 9. Savoy Truffle 10. Rain Top 5 reasons my band's complete albums are better than the others': 1. Revolver 2. Rubber Soul 3. The Beatles ("White" album) 4. Abbey Road 5. Help! (original British releases on all of these) Top 5 reasons the other guy might be right about the Beatles being not-so-great: 1. The Long And Winding Road 2. Yesterday 3. Michelle 4. Revolution 9 5. Blue Jay Way Fellow bloggers and gentle readers - please send links to your own responses to the e-mail address in the upper left corner of our blog. In a week or two, we'll post a round-up of links to other folks' responses. Wednesday, November 19, 2003
The STONES????? Okay, I can't let this one slide. While I would hardly say The Beatles were constantly great, I would say that there was a period of time where they consistently cranked out very good albums with few klinkers. The three albums in the mid-60's ("Help", "Rubber Soul", and "Revolver") were masterful pop with an edge, without teetering over that edge in the way they arguably did on "Magical Mystery Tour" and the White Album. And even with its weaknesses, I can still listen to most of "The Beatles" repeatedly, as long as I can skip "Revolution 9" and "Good Night", which I can do preemptively by leaving those songs off of my iPod. It's a shame that this discussion had to start with "Let It Be", which was inexcusably bad - a document of the total collapse of the band, and bearing some of the worst adult contemporary pablum ever pressed on vinyl. When a friend asked me what the worst Beatles song ever was, I responded without hesitation, "The Long and Winding Road". But the Beatles really only had a one-album "slump", if you don't count re-packaging efforts like "Yellow Submarine", and then they broke up. The Stones, on the other hand... I'm hoping Mitch Berg will come to the Fab Four's defense - if he reads that Guardian article, I can't imagine he'll let the claim that the loss of Joy Division's Ian Curtis was actually worse news than John Lennon's death. And the author refers to George Harrison as "The Other One"? Lunacy. Monday, November 17, 2003
Nice try, R.Brad, trying to make it look like we're talking about serious global policy issues, when it's clear to anyone reading the rest of the blog recently that the monkeys have gone completely feral. James is on a bender, Ben is carrying on a dialogue with an italicized writer who could only be one of the voices in his head, and Robb is drinking beer and listening to hip-hop. Me? I'm plotting several things which shall be revealed soon. [maniacal laugh] Meanwhile, Adrianna from Richmond, KY writes to say "Point: If you have one, please try to state it. Hugh Hewitt recommended this blog but that was after a tiring vacation." Point, my dear Adrianna? From infinite monkeys you expect a point? Perhaps all the works of Shakespeare? No, my sweet misguided Adrianna, the point is what you see here. Make of it what you will. For my part, it's 5:38 p.m. and I have yet to have a drink, a problem I will correct forthwith. Or, as Shakespeare said in Henry VIII, Act 2, "I meant to rectify my conscience." Saturday, November 15, 2003
This ridiculous lawsuit has my blood boiling too much to really blog about it. Update: Here's a great logo for this topic. Another update: here is a round-up of our fellow Bear Flag Leaguer's support. I thought of this idea a few months ago, and thought it was so obvious that someone must have done it already. I couldn't find it then, but finally there's an improvment on the Che t-shirts. I wish he was wearing a beret, though. Thursday, November 13, 2003
Andrew Sullivan points out something truly remarkable about this Kinsley article. If you haven't read Sullivan yet, go skim the Kinsley article and see what he failed to mention, and then check Sullivan. It's stunning. Good Beer: UPDATED Over at Fraters Libertas, the HUAC has taken up the cause of identifying good American beers, and I felt responsible to add to the list. In addition to echoing their praise for Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, I heartily recommend: 1. From the Red Hook brewing company in Seattle, their ESB and Ballard's Bitter IPA are fantastic. 2. Virtually anything from the New Belgium Brewing Company in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Fat Tire is a good reliable ale, but I prefer their Trippel, Abbey, and 1554 beers. 3. Tempe, Arizona's Four Peaks Brewing Company produces a top-notch Scottish Ale called Kilt Lifter, and their 8th Street Ale and Raj India Pale Ale are also excellent. The Fraters also remind us of Hugh's accusation that we monkeys have run out of ideas. I would love to say that Hugh is confusing the fact that we all have real jobs and families to distract us from blogging all day like certain radio hosts with an actual dearth of creativity. However, the truth is we actually ARE out of ideas. The well's run dry. Except for James. As long as there is Vodka on this earth, James will post something interesting. Current Song: "Look What I Found In My Beer" from the album Quench by The Beautiful South Current Drink: What else? UPDATE: Monkey reader Pat D. reminded me that the New Belgium Brewing Company is located in "Ft. Collins, CO., home of the CSU Rams, not in Boulder, where the hated and pathetic Buffs roam." Thanks, Pat! Part 3 - Fancy! Part One can be found here. Part Two can be found here. Thanks to those of you who waited patiently through all of the geek-speak to get to the Bells and Whistles. For those of you who just skipped ahead, welcome! It's hard to build a marketing campaign on fairly obscure compatibility details - the ingenuity of performing Exchange synchronization through the Outlook Web Access API set, rather than native MAPI, is a feature whose benefits are difficult to articulate to the average consumer. Much better to write a white paper for Microsoft systems administrators on how to integrate Macs into their network. It is easier to talk about the sexy GUI improvements. Fortunately, Panther has several of these improvements, and most of them are quite useful, to boot. The biggest new is a feature called Exposé, a fancy new system for selecting between open windows. Even if you've got a 23" Cinema display (lucky bastard!), the stability of OS X has probably led you to leave lots and lots of windows open. Hiding and minimizing are fine, but most of us are likely to just keep stacking apps on top of each other. Enter Exposé - via hot keys or screen "hot corners", you can now easily perform three productivity-enhancing tasks. Hit F9 and Exposé takes every open window, shrinks them down, and re-arranges them so that they are all visible on the screen (or screens, if you use multiple monitors) at the same time. Find the window you want to access, click on it, and all of the windows return to their original size and position, with the selected window on top. F10 performs the same task, but only with the current application: if you've got multiple Safari browser windows open, or several Excel spreadsheets, for example. All other apps recede into the background and are dimmed so you can easily select the item you want. Finally, F11 slides ALL open windows off the screen so that you can see the desktop. You can open a finder window and browse to a document. The windows stay off screen until you hit F11 again, open a new document, or launch an application. After using Exposé for just a week, I was completely hooked. No more Jaguar for me! On a related note, task-switching with Command-Tab is a little more straightforward now. Previously, when you hit Command-Tab, the active applications in your dock would inflate to indicate which application you were switching to. This could get a little confusing, because all of the other apps that were in your dock were still visible, so you had to pay attention to the little black triangles to know which application was "next". The new GUI element is much more "Windows-like": Large icons representing only the active applications appear horizontally in the middle of the screen, and you cycle through them by continuing to hit tab while holding the Command key. You can also, as long as you're still holding Command, use the arrow keys or mouse to move left or right in the list. The Finder has also been re-designed in a couple of useful but not mind-blowing ways. The shortcuts that used to be at the top of the finder window are now in the lower left corner, and the upper left corner shows all mounted drives and your iDisk for easy selection. An eject icon appears next to any drive, network share, or mounted disk image that may be disconnected, and if you are synchronizing an on-line copy of your iDisk, an icon appears to trigger a sync operation and indicate when synchronization is occurring. The finder has also adopted the "brushed metal" interface styling that has replaced Aqua in most Apple applications. Did I forget to mention iDisk synchronization? Shame on me! You can now configure your iDisk (100MB+ of shared web space that is part of Apple's .Mac service) to synchronize with your local hard drive. The chief benefit of this is that when you add or edit files on your iDisk, you make the modifications to your local copy, and the changes are synchronized as bandwidth is available (automatically). Right now, I'm sitting on an airplane with no Internet connectivity, editing my expense report. When I get home, it will automatically be synchronized (and effectively backed up) to my iDisk. An additional feature added to the finder is color-coding of files and folders. I'm obsessive about color-coded organization in Microsoft Entourage - I'm involved in two different businesses (green and orange), and I use another color (blue) for personal messages, and one more (purple) for general information. I use the same color scheme for my calendars in iCal, and I welcome the opportunity to use the same colors to code my documents and folders. If only Apple would include this feature in their Mail application... The last feature I'll discuss is fast user switching. This is a flashy-cool feature with a limited audience currently. Rather than having to close your applications and log out when someone else wants to log on, fast user switching allows you to leave all of your current applications open, and simply open a new desktop for the new user. The graphical representation is snazzy - your desktop rotates away like the face on a cube, and a blank login screen rotates into its place. This is nice for families who share a computer, of course. I use it at home on my family's iMac to make sure the Dantz Retrospect Client (our backup program) is always running, regardless of what the current user is doing. As I said, there is currently a limited audience for this, but I think the feature bodes well for future versions of Mac OS X Server. In the Windows world, there is a feature (pioneered by Citrix and co-opted by Microsoft) that allows multiple virtual sessions to run on the same machine while being controlled remotely. Windows calls this feature "Terminal Services", and it is great for running infrequently used applications at LAN speeds over a relatively slow link. Because Microsoft has a Remote Desktop Client for the Mac, I am able to fully administer my company's Windows 2000 servers remotely from my Mac. In Windows XP, Microsoft leveraged the basics of this technology to allow both fast user switching and remote control of the Windows desktop. Since Apple is now bundling the Apple Remote Desktop with Panther as well, I'm hoping it won't be long before they use the two technologies to build "Macintosh Terminal Services" on OS X Server. Everyone cross your fingers. I've had a lot of good things to say about Panther in the last three posts. In my next post, I will talk a bit about what's still missing. Monday, November 10, 2003
Uh, "not that there's anything wrong with that." I'm not even exactly sure why there are so many naked people on my screen. Near as I can tell, some guy is traveling around the world, trying to take pictures of naked people in public places. Because it's, um, art. Or something. Or possibly because HBO can film it all and have naked people to show at 1:00am. So, in the absence of ACTUAL art, I will kill my jet lag flipping back and forth between Law & Order reruns on two different cable networks. Yippee! Panther Kicks Arse, Part 2 Part 2 - Compatibility Part One can be found here. The Macintosh OS and applications have long supported interaction with non-Mac systems, but only recently have Apple and its software vendors "gotten it" when it comes to compatibility. Compatibility doesn't happen until you stop having to ask yourself what Operating System the other person has. Importing and exporting files between formats doesn't cut it - you need native support for the same file formats, server authentication, messaging systems, and networking protocols. In practical terms, for a Mac user to be more than a second class citizen in a typical mixed network, they must be able to accomplish the following tasks seamlessly: Log into a Windows NT and/or Active Directory domain Access Windows file shares natively Use other TCP/IP network infrastructure components (IP printing, DNS, DHCP) Access a Microsoft Exchange server (including access to contacts, the Global Address List, and shared calendar information) Edit Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) documents without importing or exporting OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) and Microsoft Office X were the "killer tools" that allowed me to do my "job" on a Mac, even though I was the only Mac user in my company. Jaguar allowed me to authenticate to the Active Directory domain controller, browse Windows file shares and map drives, and take advantage of all of the other Windows (Server Message Block or SMB) services necessary to function. Microsoft Office X finally solved the "Mac version / Windows version" file compatibility problem. Office X applications store, retrieve, and edit documents in exactly the same file format as their Windows counterparts (Office 97 and Office 2000 - no word yet on file compatibility with the recently released Office 2003). And Entourage, although it lacked support for MAPI (Microsoft Exchange's native communications protocol), still let me access my folder structure using IMAP, and receive meeting requests from my cohorts. There were still limitations, of course. Jaguar could not "join" a Windows domain the way a Windows NT/2000/XP system could, allowing implicit management by Windows domain administrators, among other network management tasks. And neither Office X nor Apple's iCal and Address Book applications could effectively access my Exchange contacts or calendar folders. Browsing for network resources with Jaguar was awkward if you didn't already know what share you wanted to map to, and properly configuring your SaMBa settings (or even finding them) was a poorly documented chore. Apple and Microsoft both addressed these limitations, however. Microsoft released a no-charge update for Office X that allowed Entourage X to sync contacts and calendar information, and view public free/busy data. And Panther significantly improved the experience of participating in Windows/Exchange server environments. My laptop is now a member of my corporate Active Directory domain, browsing resources with ease. And the new Exchange conduit for iSync allows me to synchronize my Address Book with the Contacts folder on my Exchange server with ease. See my parallel post [coming soon] on "Messaging and Personal Information Management" for more details on my configuration and the obstacles I faced. Limitations remain: The documentation on these functions remains horrible. Exchange contact synchronization does not work "out of the box" if your Exchange server is not also a Domain Controller - which would be rare in most enterprises. Fixing this problem requires intervention by your Exchange administrator, and the change is a minor security risk that they might not be very keen to allow. iCal will not synchronize calendar information with Exchange at all, and the built-in Mail application won't receive appointments from Outlook users and post them automatically in iCal. Entourage is great, but it's a self-contained PIM, and inexplicably will not interface with the OS X Address Book or iCal. But in all, the compatibility gap has closed dramatically enough to make me quite comfortable using my Mac in my office environment. Part Three focuses on the new user interface bells and whistles in Panther. Synchronicity alert - I'm typing this post on a plane, listening to music on my iPod. The song that just finished was "Marnie" by The Jazz Butcher. It's about a girl that wants to house a large cat in her apartment, and includes the line, "Marnie has a problem: She wants to keep a panther in her tiny upstairs flat, and not just any panther - uh uh - Marnie wants it black." Perfect! Saturday, November 08, 2003
Expense reports suck. And credit card bills. They suck, too. And deadlines in general. To hell with deadlines! Grrrrrrrr... Friday, November 07, 2003
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Also, when I’m doing Atkins, I frequently have the “ultimate bacon cheeseburger” without the bun. In younger days, I would consume actual Ultimate Cheeseburgers and/or Chicken Supreme sandwiches by the score, and I miss their deep fried Ravioli appetizers. So back off, man! :-) Monday, November 03, 2003
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