Archive for September, 2006

Keep It Down, You Damn Kids

Tuesday, September 26th, 2006

Wife and I found out on Friday that we will be having a girl, so there’s that. I have no particular thoughts on that, other than it is conveniant to know. Here is the required copy of her ultrasound for public viewing:

At home we recently replaced the ropes in a couple of old double hung windows. This is both harder and easier than I thought it might be, but it is really great that we could do it, and actually get them working properly. No more propping up the window with a board for us. Only like twenty-six or so to go!

Over on my movies blog I have begun reporting on the Netflix movies I am seeing. This seems an easy to keep up with content.

Speaking of seeing stuff, I have been watching the new Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip (you can even watch this weeks episode online), and aside from having a kinda stupid name, it is pretty good. I really liked Sports Night when it was out, and felt like I was in a special club of people who actually watched it on TV. I never really watched West Wing, though I am sure it is of similarly high quality. Sorkin can just write. The show isn’t perfect, I’m not all that big a fan of the new studio president character, but it is pretty good, and I will keep trying to catch it regularly. Also Dr. Who starts again this week on SciFi. I am also watching Eureka on Tuesdays. It is sillier, but I find it distreacting and pleasant.

Vista Point Ahead

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

A couple of days ago I downloaded the new Windows Vista (rc1) and installed it on this here laptop computer.  I was too afraid to install it on my main computer, but this computer is really better than my desktop anyhow, so it is probably a better choice to test it out on.  As it turns out, it runs really well on this computer.  I can’t yet tell if there are many improvements or serious differences to the new operating system.  More than anything it seems like any old system that has a new, prettier interface.  Cool tansparent windows, neat effects when opening windows, and all that.  Kind of like OSX, but very nice. One weird thing is that it seems to leave applications a little open when you would think thay would be closed.  I closed firefox to add an extention, but it doesn’t really close, so the extention doesn’t install.  I had to kill the FireFox process to make sure it was really closed.  Just a minor thing and maybe there are settings that control that sort of thing, but I haven’t found them yet. 

All in al it is pretty slick, and I will probably be using this computer more and more in the coming weeks. I get this free until June, but I probably would have bought it anyhow, so I won’t mind when I have to pay when it expires.

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I Can Read, but Just a Little

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006

Have you heard of Daily Lit? It is perfect for someone like me who would like to maybe read a couple of things, but lacks the discipline to actually pick up a book and get it done. I saw this on Get Rich Slowly, and went there immediately. You sign up and select a book and they send you a little part of it every day. You read for about five minutes and the next one comes the next day. Public domain books and totally free. I selected Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (205 segments) and Aristotle’s Poetics (19 segments) to start my reading. It is working now, and I feel smarter already.

Master Rater

Tuesday, September 12th, 2006

Have you ever looked at the movie ranking on sites like imdb, and thought to yourself, “that is so fucked up and in stupid order, that I think a trained monkey could come up with a better list”? Well I have.

It bothered me enough that I decided to make my very own listing dingus for this website. I have now done this. It is in pretty good shape already, though there are a couple of things I would add if I wanted it to be perfect. Currently you can add lists on any topic, and create lists on already existing topics. Your lists remain your own, and also get compiled into a general user list that shows all of the items in all lists in the category, along with the counts of how often they appear. In addition to these two lists there is one list for the Master Rater. This list is the right list for that category, and you can compare your list to it. Each list item may contain a name, description, and external link. This link is available next to the item name. The items can be reordered in the list (though this is an area that needs to have additional options because moving one at a time could be annoying in long lists). There is also an info page for each item that includes comments about that item. The first person to add an item in a category gets to enter the description and the link. All others will have to settle for comments.

I like this little thing, but like many of the silly things I do there is little demand for such an application. Additionally, it would only really be cool if about 1000 people were using it. Since I have just the one reader this could be hard. It is up to you. You must go and tell 1000 people to use this thing so I can see it really work.

You can find it at the Master Rater section of the Gameboard area, whatever the hell all that means. You will, of course have to register and sign in if you want to check it out, but that is a pretty painless process.

As usual, I will be surprised if anyone checks it out other than myself.

Daddy, What’s a Record Store?

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

This thing is too cool to pass up. Music all over. Some things I couldn’t find, but much I could. Really nice interface and responsive application. I love it.

BlogMusiK