August 2008 Archives

And creativity is born.

In a Democracy, they should.

84,000 people showed up at the Democratic National Convention. The pictures of the event scale are staggering! I hope the nation speaks thunderously in the upcoming election!

News media are reporting that the Republicans are having to scrape to find 10 - 15,000 people to show up at their convention.

Now the timing of their convention couldn't be worse as the latest hurricane, Gustav, seems to have New Orleans in its path. The mayor ordered a mandatory evacuation because of what he is calling "the storm of the century." Gustav will no doubt be a catgory 5 hurricane when it makes landfall. Katrina was only a category 2 or 3??

What a tragic reminder of just one of the multitude of partisan failures this Republican administration brought upon the nation as if inflicting one plague after another!

But, numbers don't seem to matter too much in our country since Al Gore won the popular vote in this nation in 2000 when the Supreme Court crowned George. Numbers don't seem to matter when the electoral college can be manipulated to allow a minority of people to control the majority of people.

I read a post about the VP choice for the Republican party in a blog I frequent. At first I thought the post was funny. Now that I know a little more, I don't. Allow me to quote the post:

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

The choice is so absurd it appears, on the face of it, completely laughable. She has so little experience in governance I make the case than she has no experience and will be a heartbeat away from a man that has fought off cancer several times (and I congratulate him!) and is in his 70s?! Shocking! Alarming! Not funny!

But this is not what worries me.

She is an extreme right wing fundamentalist with radical religious views she would in all probably, just like George Bush and his failed administration, try to force down the throats of every American. The separation of church and state is essential in this nation. Bush has done horrific damage on this front (like so many others) that will have to be reversed.

But worse than this, if there can be such a thing, her beautiful smile belies the fact that she is another #$@%#i oil man--just in a dress! This is brilliant, clever, and dangerous strategy by the oil companies wanting to capitalize on the women's vote, the religious vote, and gut the American people for all we're worth.

The horror is that she is even more of an oil man than the Bush clan!! She is suing the Bush administration to allow the oil companies to kill off more polar bears so they can drill in the pristine wilderness of Alaska!

We do not need another president or vice president that is in bed with the oil companies!! Our oil addiction is what has caused the mess we are presently in today and feeds terrorism around the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, run, don't walk!

At first I rather liked John McCain the maverick, the independent thinker. Even though I disagreed with his a lot of his thinking. But, completely contrary to what he promised, he has sold his soul to the religious fundamentalists and to the oil men--which he promised he would never do! The Republicans are at it again!

If ever there were good reasons to ditch the Republican party, we have seen them in tragedy that is the Bush administration and now is being repeated in McCain's horrific choice for Vice President. This is systemic thinking that is endemic of deep power at work to control and destroy the middle class American.

The Republican party now wants to kill the polar bears, force you to pay $20 a gallon for gas, put 3 extremist right wing fanatics on the Supreme court, and make you walk to their churches (most churches, those they disagree with, in the view of the fundamentalists are "apostate") every Sunday.

I say again: Run! Don't walk!! This is no laughing matter. This is terrifying!

Photo Credit: I shot the stuffed polar bears and placed them on a picture I altered that was originally shot by marklkelly, CC, @ flickr.com)

I have been sitting here in the San José Airport for 6 hours and just learned an hour ago that my flight will be delayed at least another 3 hours! Enraging.

But it gets worse: a very attractive woman has been talking loudly on her cell phone for almost this entire time to everyone she can think of to call. I know all of her personal business, including all the details of the divorce she is going to file for when she gets home. After all, she never wanted to move to Denver to begin with!

She has this horrifically annoying tone of voice and incredibly bizarre speaking pattern: A, A, B, B, AB, AB. For example: "Did being with daddy while I was gone this week make you feel uncomfortable? Did being with daddy while I was gone this week make you feel uncomfortable? Go ahead, you can tell me. Go ahead, you can tell me. Did being with daddy while I was gone this week make you feel uncomfortable? Go ahead, you can tell me. Did being with daddy while I was gone this week make you feel uncomfortable. Go ahead, you can tell me." Naturally, the children agreed with her, probably to get her to shut up.

Almost everything she said followed this twisted pattern!

I want to strangle her while screaming: Just shut up! Everyone in Gates C12 - C14 is sick of hearing the socially inappropriate details of your divorce--things that should never be sharing with your children, you idiot! What wrong with you?!

As I was getting precipitously close to doing the above, I have put on my earbuds and fired up iTunes. I'm listening to Andrew White, Antoine Dufour, Brian Gore & Peppino D'Agostino's album, International Guitar Night.

On a far more important note, 4 out of the 5 computers out and in use by those of us stranded here in gate C12 are Macs.

Here is a great tutorial for shooting lightening--something I will have to do at some time soon.

I've always marveled at what women will subject themselves to for style and fashion, especially in footwear! These shoes, mostly for women, are just outrageous, in a wonderfully hysterical way. Check out the other stunning and shocking examples at this link.

Why the hell did George Bush and Dick Cheney lie to the American people? Why did they decide to kill and to maim? Oh, yes... the terrorists that had nothing to do with Iraq. More photos are at this very disturbing link. Their behavior is simply evil. Why hasn't the media been exposing this?

Barack Obama's speech last night was magnificent. He spoke of those truly American themes that are at the heart of patriotism and the American Dream. Rather than the cheap Rovian tactics of trying to discredit the opponent by attacking his patriotism and family values and by focusing on narrow issues that divide, Obama lifted the political discourse to higher levels. He recognized McCain's patriotic service to this country yet disagreed with him on substantive issues that impact everyone. He then gave us something to vote for! Yes, as Lucy told me many months back, Barack Obama is the real thing!

Here is a link to the full text of his historic acceptance speech on Thursday night, August 28, 2008.

Contrast that to John McCain's parties campaign style that only gives us a steady, putrid diet of the same old fear politics of Carl Rove and the horrifically failed policies of the Republican party, of war and economic disintegration, as well as something to vote against—him!

And in sheer desperation, in what I believe will be a failed attempt to keep from loosing this election, they announce the VP candidate (a woman--in hopes of desperately grabbing 1 or 2 Clinton votes) the morning after the Democratic National Convention, to divert press coverage away from the substance that was Barack Obama's speech. The Republicans can not run on a record of success. Bush--a success????? So they divert attention from substance! Ever the cheap and desperate shot of a party that had its day in the sun and failed this nation in absolutely every way!

I am completely supporting the Obama/Biden ticket. I am voting for hope and for change. I am voting for policies that will support the American people. I am voting against the horrifically failed policies of the Bush administration and the Republican party.

Join me!

I try to avoid talking too much about religion on my blog. But this post can't be held back!

You know, I am continuously so shocked at the lunacy that perpetrates itself as faith--both in the Middle East and in the United States. These right wing extremists, these fanatical fundamentalists, people I have often known since my childhood, appear to be becoming more and more out of touch with basic sanity. They seem to thrive on perpetuating their own power, influence, control and desire for personal financial gain by frightening people--good people. If they really believe the fear they peddle as faith, they have reached new lows in their own terrifying psychosis. I hope good people of faith see this for what it is and run as fast as possible from these religious nuts!

... several blogs have noted a growing number of conservative evangelicals alleging that Obama is the anti-Christ, or at least a precursor to that end-of-days figure. For example, Hal Lindsay, a prominent evangelical writer, charged in a recent WorldNetDaily article:

"Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of the reception he can expect to receive.

He will probably also stand in some European capital, addressing the people of the world and telling them that he is the one that they have been waiting for. And he can expect as wildly enthusiastic a greeting as Obama got in Berlin.

The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist. And it seems apparent that the world is now ready to make his acquaintance."

[Source: Obama Anti-Christ? McCain Ad Touches Off Religious Debate]

What a speech at the DNC! What a powerful change we would see in the First Lady of the United States if that position were occupied by Michelle! She would be such a role model of articulate and poised female leadership. She is nothing like Laura or Barbara Bush. At least Barbara was like everyone's loved grandmother. But Laura ... well, I won't even go there. I have never had anything beyond basic respect for weak women who feel they have to "stay in their place."

Moving from people who are horrifically out of touch with typical Americans to people that ARE the American dream. Both Michelle's speech and its delivery last night were powerful. She was moving. I was blown away. And their little girls are adorable! When compared to the McCain ticket, which I see as another unthinkable Bush term, I am convinced America needs the Obama/Biden ticket!

Maybe I just can't find it, but I am astounded and greatly disappointed that Audiobooks and the iTunes store have not made audio podcasts of the Kennedy and Michelle Obama speech available without charge as they did in the last election!

I went to the El Segundo Antique Car Show yesterday, sponsored by their police department. I was pleasantly surprised. They showed hundreds of cars all parked on their rather quaint main street. The lighting was good for shooting too, a bit overcast, minimizing deep contrast, shadows, and glare. Here are two slideshows. The first is a highly compressed, low frame rate (causing the transitions to be a bit blurred) slideshow of some of the pictures I shot. (Even so, the file is large, 24 megabytes) and will require some time to download.) Click the photo below to open the slideshow window.

The cars were awesome. Almost all of them were in astounding condition. Many brought back a lot of memories from childhood—several times I would see a dashboard or steering column that someone I knew as a young child had.

Enjoy!

If you have the access speed and want to download the higher quality version (103 megabytes: same physical size but less compression and a higher frame rate so it looks smoother), click on the picture below.

Stephen Downs posted that Microsoft's attempt to patent the PgUp and PgDn keys on the computer keyboard was granted by the patent office this week.

So, does this mean those keys will disappear from my Mac keyboard? If you look at the "Claims" section of the patent, it would appear Microsoft has patented the whole concept of page up and page down? If that is the case, will some future software update to my Mac OS disable the functionality of these two keys?

I certainly don't want to pay Microsoft any type of licensing fee to page up or down–which I actually do, a lot!

Awesomeness. I posted a long while back about being able to use technology to design my own clothes. More and more, this seems to be happening. Here at zazzle, you can create your own Keds at the Keds Studio! You can even use your own photos and graphics. Very cool!

In a world increasing over-crowded, public is increasingly less valued. This project is wonderful! Notice the Apple ad?

“71% of adults used to play on the streets when they were young. 21% of children do so now. Are we designing children and play out of the public realm?

[Source: Wooster Collective: Bruno Taylor's Playful Spaces]

to start stealing software!

I think I'm one of the few people that actually pays for software. Even when I receive Not For Resale (free) versions of software, I frequently purchase copies as well. And I don't share the software I purchase or get for free from the makers with anyone else. But I'm so SICK to death of serialization, of authorization, or license downloads and verification, of re-authentications, of being hassled to register every time you launch, of having to re-register. I'm ready to start stealing software! I know where to find almost every program I have on this hard drive as a free, illegal, download! I'm a heartbeat away from doing it!

So why am I frothing at the mouth? I just had the logic board replaced on my newest machine. (That's a whole different story.) That replacement caused the most expensive software I own to have to be re-serialized. So, first I have to search the world over to find the correct serial numbers. Oh no, i know exactly where I keep them all. That's not the problem. Which version do I currently use? I've had many, many versions over time. On some products, I've had every version ever made!

While you would think this is easy, it's not! It's all so damned confusing now that the vendors package them into more lucrative suites of products.

Do I own Final Cut Pro Suite 2 or 3 now? How can I tell? Is it made up of Final Cut Pro version 6 or is it 5? And does it contain Motion 2 or 3 or 4? And is it Soundtrack 2 or is that up to 3 now in Final Cut Pro Suite 2 or did I decide I need to find Suite 3's serial number? Where is that? But I have so many serial numbers for Final Cut, I threw away version 1's serial number when I upgraded version 2. Then when I upgraded to version 3 the serialization process required the serial number for version 1?!!! What?! I had to buy the full version again! Which one of all of these serial numbers is in fact the current version?? And what about the same kind of issues with the Adobe Suite. Is it CS 3 or 2?

And then I have to figure out why it says the serial number I think is the right one is not valid! It IS valid. But, with the various hardware issues, replacing the hard drives, replacing the logic boards, the software activation server thinks I'm running it on half the computers in the USA, I guess!

I HATE IT! After paying over $3,000 for those two software products alone, why do I have to then be abused by the serialization process too?!! And then there's the whole issue of typing in the long and arcane serial numbers. Is is a "1" of a "I," a "0" or an "O?" Can the font size possibly be any smaller on the label? They might as well ship it on microfilm. No wonder so many people steal all of this!

I just read an interesting post at Kevin Kline's The Technium: Why People Pirate Stuff. A software-based game maker wanted to sincerely figure out why people stole his software for free, especially since it was so inexpensive to begin with. He posted his question which got picked up all over the internet, and he was flooded with answers. He was startled by the answers as they weren't what he expected they would be.

Reason number one: Even at $20, consumers felt it was over priced. (Dear god in heaven: what about at $1,500, then!!!!!!!! Insane, Adobe! Absolutely insane!)

Reason number two: "anything that made purchasing and starting to play difficult -- like copy protection, DRM, two-step online purchasing routines -- anything at all standing between the impulse to play and playing in the game itself was seen as a legitimate signal to take the free route." (The same thing applies to installing and using any software! Every time I get the dialogue box to register my software, let alone to have to re-register my software, I get angry! Leave me alone, and let me get to work. I don't want you having my information! And I get sick of making stuff up to junk up your servers!)

I had hoped venting my frustration in this post would make me feel better. It didn't.

You'll feel better in the morning.

Is indeed tripe the glue that binds America together, that keeps our democracy from falling apart?

Today my Mail inbox was suddenly and unexpectedly flooded with about 30 emails, mostly calendar notifications, that were all from between 2005 - 2007! This is beyond a mess!

Oops! I posted too soon. Add another 37 alarm notifications sent via email that just arrived to my inbox! Maybe we can be over 100 before the hour is up!

Tonight, while taking my evening walk by the ocean, I was about to freeze to death! Here it is the later part of August, and it's just cold outside by the water! But that's not the missed opportunity.

The sun was a huge orange ball of fire setting over the water. A tall sailboat went through the giant sun. It was gorgeous. I didn't have my camera! Sad.

Brilliant shirts, sold by redbubble, are hopefully instructive. Do you see the terrorists in the graphics on the shirts? No?! Well, still, don't you feel safer now? After all, isn't that what matters?

Trust, the social glue of life, evaporated and was replaced with greed and hyper-consumption while the Republicans ran this country—straight to hell, in my humble opinion. Where has the soul of my country gone? When will it return?

"They" blame the terrorists. (That's properly pronounced "tur-ur-ists.")

I blame each one of us.

Pssst! It's time for some hugely significant change!

This water sculpture by William Pye is unexpectedly beautiful and looks delightfully refreshing. I wish I could hear it as well! More photos of his work can be found at his site. I learned of his work at the Rocketboom blog.

According to this, that would be "yes."

Digital Daily notes that Apple's market capitalization at $159.37 billion is now worth more than Google's which is at $157.56 billion. Apple's market cap first exceeded $100 billion in May of 2007. Apple was included into the S&P 100 index at that time. For interest, MacDailyNews compiled a list of the market values of other notable companies:

- Microsoft (MSFT) - $255,648,204,000
- IBM (IBM) - $169,964,678,000
- Apple (AAPL) - $157,012,662,240
- Google (GOOG) - $156,392,862,560
- Cisco (CSCO) - $142,125,692,160
- Intel (INTC) - $135,658,860,000
- Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) - $111,866,423,760
- Nokia (NOK) - $97,746,699,520
- Research In Motion (RIMM) - $71,143,935,000
- Disney (DIS) - $59,257,501,500
- Dell (DELL) - $50,483,256,060

[Source: Apple Now Worth More Than Google - Mac Rumors]

Car accidents aside, in an all glass car, this concept vehicle looks awesome--almost like a duck from behind! I would love to see the front of it.

The Airflow by Pierre Sabas of France has wheel-mounted electric motors and is made entirely of glass. "I’ve tried to wrap it around like fabric. It allows for a new driving sensation and it gives the occupants a new perception of the outside world," he says. The car won the Best Design Interpretation Award at the Pilkington Automotive Vehicle Design Awards.

Image courtesy Royal College of Art

[Source: Gallery: 10 Green Concept Cars That Are Waaaaay Out There ]

I am certain that I don't begin to understand the cost associated with running a web hosting company. And, since I am not really a web master per se, I really am basically clueless as to everything that is required to run such a business. I've just cobbled together enough skill to make this and a couple of other web sites work.

I do, however, understand being a consumer that feels like he pays a lot of money for telecommunications and gets virtually nothing for all of that money.

When considering how to design a backup strategy, I looked at Amazon S3 for an offsite backup service. Before I decided to sign up and start paying them money, I realized that I am only using 2% of the server disk space I am alloted on DreamHost, the web hosting service I've used for years here at timtyson.us. And, I actually use 0% of the bandwidth I am alloted per month!

So I thought, since I have over half a terabyte of unused server space and unused bandwidth is just gushing out of my pores, why not get a little bit of my money's worth: store my iTunes library offsite in the server space I am paying to have but am not using. I still would have a couple hundred gigabytes of unused server space and unused bandwidth would still hemorrhage from my pores. My backup strategy requires a one time upload, and every three months or so, I would update the backup with the new files added to the library. Easy!

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent most of the last three days running the backup, compressing the files, and uploading them to the server. Within hours of my completing this task, I got an email from DreamHost nicely telling me that they suspected I was violating the Terms of Service by using their server to backup data. The Terms of Service specifically forbids this.

What?! Are you kidding me?

I was shocked and read on where they quote from the terms of service. There in black on a white screen it clearly stated it. I told them I was naïve enough to have believed that since I wasn't going to do anything rude or illegal I would never violate any Terms of Service agreement; so, I never even read it. And like an idiot I just thought that since I was paying for the server space and bandwidth, which I have barely used at all for years, (read high profit margins) I could therefore use it as I saw fit.

Wrong! Totally wrong!

I have seven days to remove the files, pay them more money every month, or have my account disabled.

They offered me a deal I couldn't refuse, one that I turned down because Amazon's S3 service appears to be a much better value.

Doesn't Stop There
I have spared my readers my recent disgust and tirade with Verizon, to whom this household pays over $5,000 per year--for what exactly, I'm unsure. Try calling their technical support when things don't work. You might as well plan on making a day of it--literally! (After hours and hours, I did finally get one technician, unlike all of the others, who knew his work, and I was so shocked and thrilled I asked to speak with his supervisor to rave about their having someone on payroll who actually earned his salary!)

I have yet to post, but absolutely will, my outrage at the fees AT&T charges iPhone users... for what exactly?!

And then there's Apple's MobileMe service, which I am supposed to have had for free for the past few years but for which I pay top dollar. Oh, and did I mention that MobileMe has had so many issues lately they might as well shut it down. Email didn't work today... again! Try contacting their customer support. They tell you what information to gather for the support agent. But then, one click later, you learn there is no support agent. Support literally doesn't exist. Thank goodness for the guy at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store who really does know his technology, but plan on waiting a day or two to get to him.

When will a company deliver on what they promise to sell you? When will a company give people a good value? When will a company provide customers with excellent service and support? When will corporate America stop trying to rip off the average customer who is powerless to fight them? Is nothing more important than making more money, than ripping wider profit margins, than providing less and charging more? Current business practice in the USA is not sustainable.

I am really fighting becoming horribly cynical!

Seeing this makes me want to go back to this beautiful country! This lookout in Aurland, Nørway, would undoubtedly make my knees weak! The principal architects for the project were Todd Saunders &Tommie Wilhelmsen. More of their amazing work can be seen at this link. The views in this country are breathtaking. Add the work of Todd Saunders &Tommie Wilhelmsen to maximize impact--so to speak.

Well, two and a half days ago, I began an offsite backup of my iTunes library. I had no idea it would take this long to compress and upload my entire library of over 14,000 files. Having experienced several hard drive failures this year, I have worried for some time that I needed a more comprehensive backup plan to include off site backup and redundancy.

I have begun designing and implementing that strategy using several tools. I'll share one in this post: Mathusalem is a utility that runs in system preferences. I really like it because it allows me to backup over a network and to Apple iDisk, Amazon S3, AFP Servers, FTP servers, SFTP Servers, and WebDAV Servers. Nice. You can download it and read more over at the Mathusalem project at Google Code.

A year ago or so the media was all abuzz with the fact that some amazingly high percentage of our paper money has trace amounts of cocaine on it. Yes, that little fact made me feel really confident in drug enforcement efforts.

Now I read this:

In today's edition of the journal Science, R. Graham Cooks, a professor of chemistry at Purdue University, describes a mass spectrometry technique to test fingerprints to learn what the person has been touching, including drugs, explosives, and poisons.

[Source: Fingerprint test reveals if owner has touched drugs, explosives, and poisons - Boing Boing ]

Well now, isn't that just a fine howdy-do! So how long before some innocent sap is sent to prison because his finger print indicates he touched a $1 bill to pay for, well... Is there anything you can still buy for a buck, even if George is snorting?!

Photo Credit: Creative Commons license, photo by shyb at Flickr.com

A friend of mine has this and loves it. I want to add the continuous glucose monitor to my pump, which will support it, but that needle looks a little sharp!

Artificial pancreas: Scientists are pairing continuous glucose monitors, such as the device pictured here (white device, top), with insulin pumps, such as the one pictured here (pagerlike device, bottom), to create an artificial pancreas for people with diabetes. In this commercial system by Medtronic, the glucose monitor wirelessly transmits data to the pump via a meter (not pictured). However, the user must still decide how much insulin he needs and dose it out himself. In an artificial pancreas, specially-designed algorithms would calculate how much insulin is required, and how quickly, and then signal the drug’s delivery without human intervention.
Credit: Medtronic, Inc.

[Source: Technology Review: An Artificial Pancreas]

She is terrified of lightening. But it's beautiful. Even though you have seen it strike right next to you several times in your life, even thought you've seen it strike the house a few times, even though you've seen a ball of fire rolling around the carport from its strike a time or two, have you ever seen it in slow motion?

Here is a really distressing post from BoingBoing about the one-day-to-be-law "i-Patriot Act." The federal government will probably dismantle democracy one fear at a time.

Upon reading this post and listening to Larry talk about it, I recalled hearing, shortly after 9/11 that the so-called Patriot Act was already on the shelf waiting for passage in the event of a terrorist attack. I mean, after all, since when has our government done anything with the speed and efficiency with which they passed that law?

And when a bill has such a name, we need to stop and think! Patriot Act?? No Child Left Behind? What ever happened to the good old days when legislation had names link HB205? Now we have to market laws to the masses so they will be more deeply lulled into the stupor in which we live?!

Who are these people who think up this legislation in advance of our "needing" it?! What is happening to my country? Where is it going?

Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the Internet.

Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.

[Source: Lawrence Lessig on the coming "i-Patriot Act" - Boing Boing ]

An interesting article posted over at NeatOrama, entitled "10 Things You Didn't Know About Oil" was filled with interesting tidbits. Number 8 on the list, about why the Saudi's are getting soooo rich (hint: what it actually costs them to pump up a barrel of crude) will get your blood pumping. And the whole unexpected bursting of my dinosaurs myth was just a bit unkind!

And, while I'm thinking about it, am I the only person that is getting angry with the oil companies' force feeding us ads about why it's good to have higher oil prices?! My god! Everyone is already being robbed at the pump. Must we like it too?!

I'm sure this will be too expensive for me to use!

Delta announced Tuesday that it will begin rolling out Wi-Fi access on its aircraft this fall, with plans calling for the wireless service to be available on the company’s entire domestic fleet of more than 330 planes by next summer.

[Source: Macworld | Delta to have Wi-Fi on all its US planes, starting this fall]

if anything, but this post by photographer Thomas Hawk about Obama's language and McCain's language in recent speeches is curious for thought. His idea was clever: go to Real Clear Politics, copy and paste the text of one of their recent speeches into Wordle to get a visual of the words most frequently used.

I suspect that, given a large enough sample of content, one would begin to glean insight.

How many of the most commonly used English words can you list in 5 minutes? I had an abysmal 43 out of 100. I just can't perform under pressure, at least that's my line, and I'm sticking to it.

Give it a shot at this link. Sorta fun actually.

After being on the phone for the past 6 hours talking with Apple, Verizon, and Linksys, I finally have Back to My Mac up and working. It's nothing short of a miracle. Which leads to me wonder, what mere mortal on this planet would go through all of this to get this service to work? How many people are actually using Back to My Mac? If it's this complicated to set up, this difficult because every network is so different, how can the normal user take advantage of this service? Yet another example of technology being entirely too difficult for the "guy on the street."

I love when things come together in unexpected ways. I mentioned back a couple of days ago that I am in the process of building a media server for the house which sits on a home network in which all of the computers are to be part of the house digital hub. Well, it's starting to make more and more sense.

The media server itself is the oldest computer I own. It's slow and is maxed out with two 60 GB drives and 2 GB RAM, USB 1 and Firewire 400. But speed and RAM are not so essential for the tasks it will perform. (I don't think.) But getting the data on the external drive, since the two internal drives are much to small, has been a challenge, until today.

It hit me this morning, while I'm ripping the DRM from all of my purchased music files, that since all of these machines are connected together on the network, I can simply drag and drop the media files from the current external media hard drive upstairs onto the media server's external hard drive downstairs. Rather than dealing with the excruciating slow speed of USB 1 (since the media server jumps the speed down to USB 1 during import) I can drag and drop the files through the finder and enjoy the speed of the 1 GB ethernet network all of the machine share.

Now, what would have taken about 24 hours should be done in less than 3! And while all of the files are transferring, DRM dumpster is working away. The interconnectivity within the house is already starting to pay off!

Photo Credit: Dareen Hester @ Flickr

... Tim-style!

Manhattan Beach must have more children per capita than any other city in the USA! I'm completely serious! I've never seen a place with more children--really young children. Thursday and Friday nights I ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and Chili's respectively. Both evenings the number of loud and generally badly behaved children was unbelievably high.

As incredulous as it may sound, on the half of the restaurant I was in, on Thursday I counted 37 children under the age of about 5! What if they all spontaneously decided to take over the restaurant? I swear there were not enough adults to have prevented it! Screaming, crying, doing what less-than-1-year-olds do, the place was out of control. The dining experience was completely unpleasant. I couldn't wait to get out of there. Chili's the next night was little better.

By California standards, these are inexpensive places to eat. So I guess the moms and dads take the family out to eat here. I actually asked the waiter at California Pizza Kitchen if Thursday nights was kids night. (I was going to avoid it in the future.) He rolled his eyes and said with a bit of disgust in his voice, as some toddler let out a particularly shrill screech: No, believe it or not, it's like this every night.

So when the girl that cuts my hair told me about the ArcLight Theater at the Cinema Dome in Hollywood, describing it as kids-free and very well done, I immediately wanted to go there. The tickets are pricy: $15--hence no children: indeed, a small price to pay. A large, very nice theater (with reserved seating) on Sunset Blvd., I had a fantastic time enjoying a dinner and movie: Mamma Mia!

The movie's setting in the Greek Isles was spectacular. The music is, well... you know. I bought the soundtrack. Meryl Streep was a sensation. She can sing, too!! Is there anything she can't do on stage?! Pierce Brosnan?? Was the casting director snorting cocaine, or what?! The man can not sing. At least the audio mixer amped up everything else to drown him out.

This was a great feel good movie, and the only thing loud and out of control was the awesome music. I highly recommend it.

The International Surf Festival was held this weekend: contests in surfing, building sandcastles, paddling, swimming, and some intense volleyball competition–we're talking guys who are very serious about volleyball. I learned I don't know how to shoot volleyball at all! I'll have to put this on my list: practice anticipating where the ball will be hit when while zoomed in at 200mm. A huge challenge!

And I continue to marvel at the bizarre and beautiful plants here. So here are a few shots from the day. The flowers are all from the garden.

The AppleTV Remote all but slays me when I have to enter text information. But, with the Apple Remote for the iPhone and iPod Touch, when a screen requireing keyboard entry appears on the AppleTV, the tiny little QWERTY keyboard appears on Apple Remote application. Input is real time. Nice!

Here is a good article at the iPod Lounge for Mac users who are interested in ripping your legally owned DVDs so you can watch them on your iPod. (They also give info for Windows users.) The article includes settings and information related to format. Handbrake, a great little application which I've used many times, is not completely intuitive. The step by step directions, presented by the iPod Lounge, along with some explanation of what the settings all mean and do is very helpful.

I'm in the process (this very moment, actually) of setting up a media server for the house that will provide access to all of the digital media content to any television or computer in the house. Regrettably, I can't find a single comprehensive solution to address all of the digital assets: TiVo, AppleTV, iTunes, Podcasts, Photos, the Verizon DVR, etc. I suspect that Apple has been developing this for the last few years, but that will probably be a completely proprietary solution.

And the thought of ripping all of the DVD content I own is just too overwhelming, especially when the new BluRay format is getting ready to pounce and make all of the lower resolution DVDs look less than desirable on the large HD flat screen TVs. And then there is the hard disk space requirement. For standard definition alone the space required is insane!

And then you have the issue of developing an affordable digital media backup strategy. I'm already dealing with a LaCie HD failure at the moment–a 1TB drive. When drives contain that much data, losing one is no small concern. And yes, they do die! This is the third hard drive failure I've experienced in 2008! That's a huge issue.

I have two 4 TB Drobo's with a network interface on the way to address the backup and redundancy issues. But what of catastrophic loss like fire or theft? I'm curious about off site backup. But .Mac, now MobileMe, limits backup capacity to 60 GB, which doesn't even cover my documents folder, let alone my digital media assetts: 20,000+ photos, then thousands and thousands of videos, podcasts, and music files...

I'm curious about Amazon's S3, with JungleDisk, which, as inexpensive as it first seems at .10 per GB per month plus bandwidth usage, adds up quickly when you're talking about terabytes of data. Redundancy is good but is also both very time consuming and expensive.

Then how do you fully and completely automate the backup/redundancy process? I certainly don't want to spend any of my time checking to see what new files have been added to iTunes to back up just those, etc. This must be completely and reliably automated.

Who has explored solutions? Has anyone found anything you really like that works well?

If it's true, the dude is out of touch with today's (virtual) reality!

In a daring bid to wrench attention from his Democratic rival in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today embarked on an historic first-ever visit to the Internet.

Given that the Arizona Republican had never logged onto the Internet before, advisors acknowledged that his first visit to the World Wide Web was fraught with risk.

[Source: McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet - Borowitz Report ]