January 2008 Archives

To all of my adoring readers: my website, timtyson.us, will be unreachable from Friday, February 8, at 10PM PST until Saturday, February 9, 6AM PST. My hosting company will be doing some work at the server side. I hope to return to my enormous fan club <wink> no later then Saturday, February 9, 6AM PST.

Please be patient. :o)

I have been assigned to jury duty on a murder trial. What a horror! Several things alarmed me greatly yesterday:

1) Over 33% of the randomly selected potential jurors (48 people) or someone very close to them have been the victim of face-to-face violent crime.
2) A significant number have no trust in the justice system. One man told of his being considered a potential terrorist after 9/11. He and his family were investigated for 2 months at home and at work.
3) Billy the buffoon used the word "trust" 19 times in his Sorry State of the Union address last night. Obviously those who monitor and attempt to manipulate such things are aware that Americans feel divorced from our "representative" government. This is profound and sad. We as a people having been fed a steady, non-nutritious diet of fear and lies by this current administration and the Republican machine, and we have come to a precarious state: We do not trust. We only fear.

Shame on the national leadership for what they have done! Shame on them for what they have failed to do. We need to fire these arrogant fools and hire true visionary leaders that will nurture our people back to health--psychological health (ditching the fear machinery), social tolerance (less mix between church and state), economic health (fiscal responsibility), political health (end abuse of power), and physical well being for all (medical insurance). The legacy of these irresponsible leaders will be the blackest in my lifetime.

Posted from my iPhone

Can we make it a whole year without Billy the Buffoon starting his own personal version of Armageddon? After all, he has stated that God talks to him. What if in one his delusional states he thinks God has told him to nuke Paris or something! Or maybe he will sell the US to Halliburton as sort of a personal gift to Richard (to avoid getting shot in the face?).

In other news... the US dollar was slammed in foreign exchanges yesterday, worse than the previous worst: 9-11, when Billy wasn't minding the store as he should have been and was never held accountable for failing to do.

If we can only survive 364 more days... Maybe he will stay out of our country more this year--sort of a traveling circus for the rest of the world to enjoy with a good laugh. How the hell did he ever get initially elected? Oh! I forgot. He didn't. The winner of a Nobel Peace Prize did.

It's funny to me that cleaning up the computer's desktop always yields some posts to the blog. (I tend to drop files on the desktop to post about them later when I have time.)

I went to Alaska this past summer. Loved it!! Was very curious about what that state looks like in the dead of winter. I was directed to this website of Alaska cams hosted by the Alaska Mining and Diving Supply Company--frightening thoughts for work! Totally cool--quite literally! (Denali was -45ºF last week! But yesterday it was warmer than Atlanta!!) I was surprised that the sun is starting to shine already! Below are some cam shots from places I visited. The Denali cam is offline for the winter!

Anchorage

The Homer Spit

My site now has its own iPhone/iPod Touch WebClip bookmark icon for your device's (iPhone or iPod Touch) home, not the default WebClip bookmark icon your device creates when you add me to your device's home page.

For a brief "How-to," visit this link at the Apple iPhone Dev Center and click on the link called "Create a WebClip Bookmark Icon." It's really very easy.

The process of adding a new WebClip bookmark icon is so cleverly designed. When Steve Jobs showed this to the audience at MacWorld, the people in the Moscone Center just roared in delight. When I showed, to a good friend, the wiggling icons awaiting their new home, his face lit up like a kid seeing all of the packages under the tree on Christmas morning as he exclaimed effusively, "That's just so cool! That's why Apple is so popular today. They make great products that are so well designed, so everyone loves them."

There's that design theme again I just posted about!

On the flight out to San Francisco for MacWorld I sat next to a lady who was very outgoing and personable. She also had a great sense of flare and presence. I'm the quiet, shy type, yet we talked for hours. Her name: Victoria.

As it turned out, Victoria happened to know the man that sat on the other side of her, an IT fellow from Macy's. Victoria is a buyer and had been to the Atlanta Mart to make purchases for her company. She said she went to San Francisco as a student of art and design in college and never left. Now, almost 60, re-inventing her company, she is effervescent and a fireball.

We talked about design. We talked about her belief that Target is re-inventing retail and giving the big boys, like Macy's (who, in her opinion is all about margins) some very stiff competition. We talked about technology.

At her insistence, I showed her my video iPod. I recommended she listen to the TED podcast series. I told her I had just listened to this man present at TED, a designer from Paris named Philippe Starck. Having traveled to Paris many times and knowing Philippe, she went insane. She had to know more about this podcasting thing. She told me of Philippe's passion for design for common people and ordinary, day-to-day items, not just the most extravagant for those of exceptional wealth. He apparently has been hired by Target to do affordable design for their customers. Which in her mind is nothing short of a brilliant retail strategy for Target.

Then it hit me. The pieces came together. I had just purchased a tea pot at Target that was a Philippe Starck design––for $14.95. The name, placed boldly on the clever packaging, meant nothing to me at the time. I just liked the design of the tea pot. "This is exactly why Target is dominating in retail today!" she exclaimed.

Today I walked by the Garmin booth and was stunned: they were running Garmin GPS software for the same GPS unit I have on a Mac. The GPS software for loading my Topo Maps into my Garmin GPSMAP® 60CSx did not run on a Mac just a few weeks ago. I had to do everything by running Windows on my Mac, which for me is horrendously distasteful. But last week they made the Mac software available, and the guy on the floor gave me a CD with all of their new applications on it!

Happy Tim.

Leopard (OS 10.5) allows some significantly enhanced sharing between computers, though for years we have been able to share iTunes music with computers on the same network. When I plugged in to the hotel network this afternoon, I noticed a large number of computers in my Finder window to which I could connect.

I immediately turned off my computer's sharing.

I then launched iTunes to update my iPhone. Several people were sharing (intentionally or not) their iTunes music libraries as well as their computers. I love this because it gives me the opportunity to listen to new music with which I am not familiar. I selected someone's and started listening. After several tries in which I didn't find anything "noteworthy," I noticed something shocking: Steve Wozniak's iTunes library appeared in my iTunes list as available for sharing!

Apparently Woz is staying in the same hotel at which I am staying. (By the way, for the unwashed masses, Woz, with his buddy Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple back in the day, and Woz is widely credited with being the engineering genius behind the creation of the personal computer.) Here is a screenshot of his iTunes library loading on my machine. (By the way, much to my disappointment, it never loaded. I was totally curious as to what kind of music a man this brilliant, who grew up in the 60's, listens to.)

Of course, it may not really have been Woz, anyone can name their music library anything they want to name it. But somehow I think it probably was. He is, incidentally, speaking to the same group of educators immediately before I do tomorrow. I will never have been so close to a brilliant mind that has done so much to change our world as much as his has--for the better. Wow.

Today I attended my first MacWorld conference. Yes, you guessed it, a conference completely for and about Apple. The day began with throngs (literally tens of thousands of people) gathered around the Moscone Conference Center here in San Francisco waiting in the chilly fog for the doors to the conference doors to open. I was fortunate. As a speaker, I did not have to wait in the horrible lines.

I went to the speakers lounge to wait for the event planners to hustle us in to be seated for Steve Jobs' opening keynote address. I've watched these addresses online for many years having no idea that I would ever attend one in person. There were hundreds of speakers. We had to be in the lounge for almost 2 hours before we were taken to the staging area then seated. I was seated about a third of the way from the front, fairly close to the center.

You can catch a bit of the pre-conference energy in the main room waiting for the keynote to begin as people were pouring in. I shot this little video with my tiny PowerShot. Considering how dark the room was, I'm really surprised at how well the little video turned out. I reduced (cut it in half) its screen size to conserve bandwidth.

On two occasions I heard staff members admonish (rather large and over-weight) adults to stop running and walk as they scurried hurriedly to get a good seat. Yes the energy in the room was high. In fact, the guy who sat next to me "broadcast" the keynote audio via his cell phone until his battery went dead. Another guy kept talking to Steve Jobs throughout the entire keynote as if they were having a conversation about Steve was saying in the keynote. (Now, I'm not that bad!!)

I won't go into all of the product announcements as you can watch the keynote yourself or see it on CNN (as I did at lunch). The MacBook Air is so small, so thin, you have to see it in person to believe it! I had heard rumors that it didn't have a hard drive and was glad to see those were not true. I do wish it had an ethernet port. Otherwise all of the announcements rocked my world.

Naturally the internet connection in the hotel is crawling as everyone is busy downloading and installing the new iPhone update. Mine is in process now. I loved that I just purchased 2 new Apple products today without buying anything: the significant iPhone upgrade and as well as the major overhaul of AppleTV--all as free downloads.

Apple's attention to detail is nothing short of refreshing! I recently was told that the new computer voice in 10.5 (Leopard) actually incorporates the sound of breathing to enhance the natural sounds we expect when people talk to us. I had never noticed it. Indeed, my computer breathes!

I created an audio podcast of the computer reading the text below. You will hear small breaths between the sentences but an obvious breath between the paragraphs. It's refreshing!

Now ladies and gentlemen, that's a machine I'd love to own so I can run the world! OK, I'll settle for using it to make digital video.

Perhaps a market exists for a small internet-dependent "device," especially if it can plug in to it's own "mother ship" at home as well. I must confess that indeed Apple struck gold with the iPod in a time when all of the nay-sayers were asking, "Who on earth would want to watch a movie on a 1.5 inch screen?!" Well, as it turns out, millions of people the world over want to do this.

To play this very short audio podcast simply click this link

This is an interesting read. I had heard some of this information before--about Apple being turned down by Verizon, who was quick to cry over their spilled milk. But the engineering difficulties that had to be overcome are amazing. The story has some funny human touches as well.

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

The battle over who will steal from whom continues. In my humble opinion, AT&T has no business working as the copyright police. Maybe the feds snooping around on our email has emboldened AT&T to further breach privacy.

AT&T May Censor Copyrighted Materials At The ISP Level

I’m often reminded of the Monty Python line “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” as being the perfect analogy for the unexpected, so its apt that I use it here because it looks like what you download online in the United States could soon be monitored and blocked (presuming it breaches copyright) if new plans by AT&T are implemented.

[From AT&T May Censor Copyrighted Materials At The ISP Level]

This is the week of my pilgrimage to Mecca. I have been asked to present at MacWorld. Never having been, I'm really looking forward to the experience. I'll even attend Steve Jobs' keynote! I've been to the mother ship a couple of times, but I've never attended MacWorld before. I'm sure I'll post more as the pilgrimage unfolds.

Color, shape, flow, energy, emotional tone...isn't life all so very interconnected? I have had a little program for years that I use for this very purpose: suggest color schemes based on color theory. The program is ColorTheory Pro sold by DigitalAnarchy. The service mentioned in this post is offered online by the ColourLovers company. I always worry that if I get hooked on a web service offered for free today, I'll grow to need it like water and air and have to pay for it out the nose tomorrow! (Wasn't that all so interesting!) But it's cool.

COPASO is an advanced color palette tool that helps you create the perfect color schemes and themes. With a scratch pad to save colors you're working with, a photo tool to extract colors and an advanced color picker and color theory wheel to give you tons of color inspiration. Using COPASO you can save your palettes to a private folder or download them to your local computer. When you're ready, click publish and share your color palette with thousands of other color enthusiasts. If you're finding COPASO a bit too rich you're your color creating tastes, you can always use our basic color palette tool.

[From COPASO | Pro Color Palette Software from COLOURlovers]

The clothespin as form, as art, as iconography.

Source: Designboom

I have great fun taking pictures of people surfing. Perhaps I love it because "catching the moment" is such a challenge, and surfing just looks like a lot of fun--something I will never do. But the surfing captured in the pictures below doesn't look fun, it looks insane! My god!

From the angle of the shot, the photographer had to be on a boat I would guess. If s/he were on a peer... well, the end of time was near. These photos and many more are found at Surfline.com. These guys are for the serious surfer dude who tracks the weather to know where the best surfing conditions are at any point in time around the world. These pictures were shot at Cortes Bank seamount 105 miles off the Southern California coast after a big storm the day before.

The New York Times had this to say:

DANA POINT, Calif. — One of the strongest storms recorded in the northern Pacific Ocean pummeled the West Coast last weekend, leading to widespread flooding and state and federal disaster declarations. The storm also left behind some of the most remarkable waves ever surfed.

With a second major storm bearing down, four of the most experienced big-wave surfers in the world launched a boat and two Jet Skis toward Cortes Bank, an underwater mountain range whose tallest peak rises 4,000 feet from the ocean floor to within about four feet of the surface. The perilous spot, about 100 miles off the coast of Southern California, had been surfed only a handful of times in the past decade. With just the right conditions, its shallow waters turn huge ocean swells into giant, perfect breaking waves.

“I’ve made some heavy missions out to Cortes Bank,” said Greg Long, one of the surfers who ventured out Saturday. “But this time, it was all on the line: The biggest storm. The biggest swell. The biggest buoy readings ever seen. And as far as the risk factor, it was off the charts.”

They sling-shotted one another from behind their 140-horsepower Jet Skis onto some of biggest swells ever ridden. They gawked as Parsons froze the screen on an image of an avalanche of water swatting him like a fly. “We couldn’t go fast enough,” Long said. “The waves were moving so fast that it felt like we were moving backwards.”

Helicopters hovering over my home for over an hour signaled something amiss. When I got home I checked the news:

Firefighters Work to Rescue Crane Operator

A man has reportedly been injured on a construction crane near the intersection of Peachtree Dunwoody Road and Wieuca Road in Buckhead and cannot climb down.

The man has reportedly blacked out.

Atlanta firefighters and a high-rise rescue unit have been sent to the scene to help.

The crane is located on a the construction site for a high-rise building.

Source: 11Alive.com

Where's the funeral kit for my daily shaved whiskers?!

The Dead Bug Funeral Kit comes with a 32-page Illustrated Buggy Book of Eulogies with Ribbon Bookmark, Casket, Grave Marker, White Clay Flower, Burial Scroll, and Pouch of Grass Seed.

The Buggy Book of Eulogies contains 15 eulogies and 15 buggy illustrations for your Ant, Bee, Beetle, Butterfly, Caterpillar, Cockroach, Cricket, Doodlebug, Fly, Grasshopper, Ladybug, Lightning Bug, Praying Mantis, Spider or Stickbug. The poems are eulogies told by children who have lost their pet bugs to fate. Each book is handmade one at a time. The Kits are assembled by hand as well.

The Burial Scroll comes tied with a ribbon and deposited in the Casket. The Burial Scroll gives instructions for conducting burial ceremonies. Mourners may bury their loved ones outside in the garden or inside the tin box itself, filled with soil and planted with the grass seed provided.

We hope the Dead Bug Funeral Kit will provide some consolation. You may preorder this Kit for yourself or a loved one. We are working as briskly as we can to make these Kits, but there is a lot of grief in this world. And a lot of bugs. We appreciate your patience.

[From Dead Bug Funeral Kit_Barringer]

I have never been much into new year's resolutions. But these are some long term goals or areas of attention I hope to develop this year:

• Promote media literacy
• Promote critical thinking
• Promote fact over fear, reason over reaction
• Promote sustainable living over consumerism
• Become active in my support of a social cause in which I believe

All of these are larger goals I have set for myself this year, not immediate things to do, but rather ways to be, habits to develop or enhance. All of them, but especially the last, will require I do more to educate myself in each area. But I think these goals will not just increase the quality of my life but perhaps assist in enhancing the life of others as well.

Dr. Jim Horn has some blistering words. Do they have the ring of truth? He then goes on to quote an article from the BBC entitled, "Poorest children 'falling behind'

The deployment of standardized tests to guarantee the continuation of privilege by those who have it remains one the great unacknowledged shames of education policymakers throughout the world. And as the poor get poorer and their "achievement" goes with it, the powerful who are responsible for deepening that poverty and widening the learning gaps divert attention from their crimes against humanity by blaming the victims and the educators who lamely try to humanize their incarceration.

[From Schools Matter: As Goes the Wealth Gap, So Goes Achievement]

I've spent the better part of the first of the year grappling with whether or not to sell my little home in Decatur. I immediately fell in love with the house when my realtor friend, Debbie, first showed it to me years ago. I was her first customer. She got to the front door before I did, which is cut glass, peered in at the one-of-a-kind fireplace and exclaimed, "You've got to immediately buy this house, Tim! It's so you!" I did and have always loved it. It is a very happy, happy house, astoundingly full of sunshine. In fact, since the entire front of the house is glass block from floor to ceiling and faces south, it is the brightest place I've ever lived. I love sunshine!! I lived here for around 15 years I guess.

In addition to the generous use of glass blocks for a light and airy feeling and the one-of-a-kind fireplace, the house has many other unique appointments: hand-made cut glass door, arches in many of the doorways, an arched front door entry area, a unique hardwood ceiling in the very unique black and white kitchen that has cool black and white tile work (you can see in the pictures). Aside from the bathrooms, the only room not pictured in the pictures below is the master bedroom. The picture of the yellow room shows part of the downstairs.

I've been renting the house for the past year. Now I'm over the renter scene. The renter completely destroyed the carpet, took the microwave I left in the house, never cut the grass (literally), but otherwise seemed to take good care of the house itself. I thought about renting it again but am, once again, seriously considering moving out to the west coast. I'm in no mood to deal with renters from afar. So I've decided to go ahead and place the home on the market. Selling it makes me sad, really. The house has so many wonderful memories.

I spent the last two days meeting with the realtors I'm going to use and then several contractors. I'm going to have the outside of the house pressure washed and repainted, the inside painted, new carpet installed, and have a dead tree (storm damage), a dying tree (I think the storm must have hurt it too as it is next to the one that exploded, lightning?, in the back yard), and some dead branches from another tree cut and removed. If the contractors do a good job with their work, I'll provide their name and contact information here as a recommendation. The prices were all exceptionally reasonable, and they have come highly recommended.

Decatur still very much retains a small town feeling within the major metropolitan area of Atlanta that swallowed it up. Living in Buckhead, I miss that! These contractors are classic examples; all are locally owned and operated. The tree service guy, for example, said they would show up first of the week to take care of the work. When I asked him how I was to pay him he said, "O, just drop us a check in the mail sometime." Sadly, friendly and easy going are not typical in Atlanta any more.

So, if you're in the market for an adorable 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath with a finished downstairs in Decatur (with no city taxes!), let me know. :o) If your browser doesn't support Flash (shame on you!) and you can not see the rotating images below, simply click any image below the flash player for a larger version (800 pixels wide) of that picture.

<

Today Conrad took his first ride in the elevator. He casually sauntered in as I was loading it. He left the fourth floor bound for the first and didn't appear amused when the floor began to drop out from under him. But being the good natured beast he is, he quickly got beyond the strange sensation and began exploring my camera case loaded in the small cubical. As the elevator stopped, his big eyes and lowered ears indicated he was again not amused in the least. Regrettably however, his least favorite part of the ride was when I opened the door and accidentally stepped on his foot (or tail--I'm not sure which). As he began to cry out, I immediately all but fell trying to avoid hurting him. We will see if this traumatized him for good with elevator rides.

From an email I received several months back: "He's [Barack Obama] the real deal, Tim. His kids go to my former school where my kids still are, and everyone in the community raves about him and his wife." His victory speech is certainly excellent. He has great charisma, and I like the message he hammered. Perhaps his "youthful energy" is needed to bring the bold words he speaks closer to reality in this country!

Yeah, it's rather amazing. Rupert Murdoch is listed as second. Billy Gates is number seven.

1. Steve Jobs
Chairman and CEO, Apple

During the first two decades of his remarkable 30-year career, the Apple Inc. founder twice altered the direction of the computer industry. In 1977 the Apple II kicked off the PC era, and the graphical user interface launched by Macintosh in 1984 has been aped by every other computer since. Along the way Jobs conceived of "desktop publishing," gave the world the laser printer, and pioneered personal computer networks. As a side gig he bankrolled Pixar, which fostered the development of the technology and a brand-new business model for creating computer-animated feature films.

Since returning to Apple in 1997, he has changed the dynamics of consumer electronics with the iPod, and persuaded the music industry, the television networks, and Hollywood to distribute their wares with the iTunes Music Store. With his hugely successful Apple Stores, he gave the big-box boys a lesson in high-margin, high-touch retailing. And this year, at the height of his creative and promotional powers, Jobs orchestrated Apple's entry into the cellular telephone business with the iPhone.

That's five industries that Jobs has upended - computers, Hollywood, music, retailing, and wireless phones. At this moment, no one has more influence over a broader swath of business than Jobs.
--Brent Schlender

[From 25 most powerful people in business - Steve Jobs (1) - FORTUNE]

I would probably never have believed this could be done, but as a child, the neighbor two doors down the street trained her cat to use the toilet. I must confess to having seen it first hand!

Karaynn Long wrote this article on how to toilet-train your cat. Apparently, "toilet-train" is to be taken literally - you can train your cat to go in the toilet (imagine never having to clean the litter box ever again!)

Watch your cat using the bathroom in the metal bowl. Count the number of feet he gets up on the toilet seat (as opposed to down in the bowl of litter). The higher the number, the luckier you are and the easier your job is going to be …

…because next you have to teach him proper squatting posture. Catch him beginning to use the toilet as much of the time as possible and show him where his feet are supposed to go. Just lift them right out of the bowl and place them on the seat (front legs in the middle, hind legs on the outside). If he starts out with three or, heaven forbid, all four feet in the bowl, just get the front two feet out first. Praise him all over the place every time he completes the activity in this position.

Link - Thanks Skully!

[From Neatorama » Blog Archive » How to Toilet Train Your Cat]

...while watching it with your daughter! I saw this video several months ago. It speaks volumes. The power of media to remove us from who we are is so hazardous, and we don't even notice it happening.

As far as I am concerned, this is nothing less than theft by taking. Microsoft is taking away your capacity to open documents, a capacity you paid them to have when you purchased their product! This is so typical of this horrible microsoftian business model. So, let me guess: to keep you safe from the crappy, over-priced software they sold you, they will now require you to give more of your money to them to "upgrade" to the latest version of their crappy software that is improved. I hope the lawsuits start!

Microsoft Office Drops Support For Older File Formats
By Scott Gilbertson January 02, 2008 | 9:44:23 AMCategories: Office, Software, Windows

You might not have noticed it yet, but the recent service pack 3 release for Microsoft Office 2003 contains a hidden "feature" — it disables support for older Microsoft Office formats. If you've got any old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents hanging around your hard drive you'll need to delve into the Windows Registry to open them.

A note posted to the Microsoft Support Center says that “by default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure,” and goes on to warn that “they may pose a risk to you.”

[From Microsoft Office Drops Support For Older File Formats | Compiler from Wired.com]

I have been so busy over the past several months I haven't gone to any movies. This is sad. I love a good movie. Too few are made.

I went to see Atonement, a wonderful period piece that captures well the essence of the book, by Ian McEwan. I highly recommend the movie or the book. The movie was directed by Joe Wright, who also did Pride and Prejudice, another delightfully well done book-brought-to-screen.

"Atonement" (Ian Mcewan)

I recently came across this website: CoinCalc. It's great. You simply weigh your piggy bank; enter the weight into CoinCalc; grab a handful of coins out of the piggy bank; count the number of each type in the grab, and enter how many of each coin type you grabbed. The CoinCalc then computes the estimated worth of your piggy bank.

I have been saving my change all year in a large crystal vase given as a Christmas gift last year. Every night I dump the change from my pockets into it. It's almost filled to the top. I've been curious: how much change is actually in it?

If it's accurate, and the logic of CoinCalc seems reasonable, then I have $420.53 in the crystal piggy bank. (When I went to pick it up, I was amazed at how heavy it is! 34 pounds in a smooth glass vase is hard to pick up!)

With today's retail prices, I've always wondered who is stealing from whom. And the fact remains that the retail cost of most items does not fully cover the cost of sustainability: trash disposal of the packaging, disposal of the purchased item once discarded--anything beyond immediate resources required to make the item and provide short term profit to the maker. Fiji Bottled Water was a classic example!

Shoplifters are caught an average of once every 48 times they steal. Even when they are caught, they’re only reported to the police 50% of the time.

Only 3% of shoplifters are professionals who steal for profit. The rest are amateurs who steal to cope with social or personal problems, or who like the "high" from getting away with it. Drug addicts that also become habitual shoplifters describe shoplifting as equally addicting as drugs.

This, and more fascinating statistics are from the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention.

[From Neatorama » Blog Archive » Trivia: Shoplifter Statistics]