freeform goodness

Links for 2009-11-06 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-07T00:00:00-08:00

Custom CSS Signatures in Mail » All Forces
Yeah, obnoxious, but there are times...
Wacky Cake Recipe - Chocolate Cake Recipe
Mom used to make this one when I was little.

Links for 2009-11-05 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-06T00:00:00-08:00

Vladstudio.com - free desktop wallpapers, widescreen, dual monitors, iPhone wallpapers, backgrounds for mobile phones, wallpaper clocks, e-cards

Links for 2009-11-03 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-04T00:00:00-08:00

Why do we have an IMG element? [dive into mark]

Links for 2009-11-02 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-03T00:00:00-08:00

OpenSSL Certificate Authority Setup

Netbook and UNR

2009-10-31T18:46:00Z

The netbook business is an odd one, really. As a product category, it's easy enough to describe: take a notebook computer, and start taking things out until you end up with something really small and really cheap. Optical drive? As long as you assume the consumer already has a full desktop or laptop somewhere with a CD/DVD drive, you don't need one. Full sized keyboard? Too big, give them something smaller. Top of the line CPU? Don't need it for basic web surfing and light editing. Tons of storage? This is an appliance, you don't need it to hold all of the user's media.

As a business, though, it turns out it's pretty dicey. It's just not possible to make much money on a $300 computer, no matter who you are. Some companies have done the math and decided that it doesn't make sense for them to be in the business. To be honest, though, the business model doesn't matter much to me -- that's up to computer companies to figure out, not me.

I bought Tammie a little Acer Aspire for her birthday last year. Of course, I probably use it more than she does. It arrived with Windows XP installed, and I'm pretty sure I had the hard drive reformatted within a half hour of unboxing. Yeah, I'm one of them.

I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and it was OK. The machine was OK for running Firefox, but I had recurring issues: sometimes, the WiFi would just stop working for no reason, for example.

I'm happy to say the new Karmic Koala release of Ubuntu drastically improves the overall feel of the machine. Everything feels a little snappier, it connects to the household wireless with much less hassle, and after I copied a few fonts from one of my Macs things even look pretty good in the browser. I installed an early access release of Chrome and the performance is very usable on all the sites I visit regularly, even Javascript-heavy sites like Google Wave.

Overall, though, the netbook is still a toy; something to check the IMDb or Wikipedia on while sitting on the couch. It's a nicer toy than it was last week, though.

Links for 2009-10-30 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-31T00:00:00-07:00

Google Wave: we came, we saw, we played D&D

Links for 2009-10-28 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-29T00:00:00-07:00

The Data Liberation Front (the Data Liberation Front)
Data portability for Google products.

Links for 2009-10-27 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-28T00:00:00-07:00

Running Scripts Remotely
My eyes!
Netflix Coming Soon to PlayStation 3 – PlayStation.Blog
Cool. The previous “Xbox exclusivity” of this really stuck in my craw.

Queretaro, Mexico

2009-10-25T16:03:00Z

(that should really be Querétaro, above, but I really don’t have the energy to fight the encoding and escaping war across the internet today…)

I spent 4 days working in Querétaro, Mexico last week. It’s a fascinating place. I get the impression it’s a bit of a boomtown. There are all sorts of global corporations that have significant operations there. It has the benefit of being centrally located, but far enough outside the enormous Mexico City to avoid the issues of overcrowding and traffic there.

This was my very first visit to Mexico and I'd hoped to take a lot of pictures, but it wasn’t to be, primarily for logistical reasons. Usually when I visit a city for the first time on business I try to arrive a day early so I can actually see some of the city beyond my hotel room and the office park, but I had to book this flight very late and the only flight in was a day later. The workday there is about 10-11 hours, partially to accomodate for the extended lunch most office workers take. As a result, our workday started around 8AM and we usually didn’t finish up until ~ 6:30 or 7PM, and sunset was about 7:30PM. I only shot pictures over a 90 minute stretch one early evening.

A couple of my hosts took me out to a nice seafood lunch at a place called Los Delfines (The Dolphins). On the way back, they gave me a quick ride through the old streets of downtown. The city is hundreds of years old, so the street layout has all these cool, super narrow roads with buildings that come right up to the (also narrow) sidewalks. They told me that downtown Querétaro was very safe at night, so I resolved to come back and walk around after my workday was finished.

As soon as I finished up work on Thursday, I went to my room and quickly retrieved my camera. I decided to stick with the kit lens, which was a pretty good decision in retrospect — it gave me coverage from 18-55mm IS, which was fine for all the street scenes. I debated bringing my nifty fifty, since it’s a much “faster” lens than the kit lens, and I knew I'd have very limited light, but I also knew I'd miss having the wide-angle coverage of the 18-55. I really didn’t want to bring multiple lenses as, for street shooting, doing lens changes is awkward and even a little dangerous.

Even on a Thursday, there were all sorts of things going on as I walked through the various plazas and roads. There were street vendors selling jewelry, dolls, clothing, food, and artwork. I saw a preacher conducting a service with in the corner of one plaza, while a couple of blocks away there were a bunch of older folks ballroom dancing on another plaza while an audience of folks watched.

It's worh noting that, despite all the gringo fearmongering I'd heard from various people before making my trip, at no point did I feel less than 100% safe my whole time in Mexico. Despite all the breathless certainty that I would be kidnapped and beheaded by swine-flu-infected Uzi-toting gangsters, the people I met were friendly and helpful.

I felt like I was walking through a Mexican transposition of La Dolce Vita, which is a pretty good feeling to have.

Full set of photos on Flickr.

wall, theater atrium [Flickr]

2009-10-25T08:02:35-07:00

ffg posted a photo:

It's Grrrrreat! [Flickr]

2009-10-25T08:02:28-07:00

ffg posted a photo:

Food vendor's stall [Flickr]

2009-10-25T08:02:19-07:00

ffg posted a photo:

Plaza, ballroom dancing [Flickr]

2009-10-25T08:02:12-07:00

ffg posted a photo:

Cross yourself. A few hundred times. [Flickr]

2009-10-25T08:02:04-07:00

ffg posted a photo:

Waiting For My Car To Be Repaired

2009-10-13T16:45:00Z

The windowsill in the little semi-heated alcove where I'm waiting. I'm guessing there was a hive in here at some point.

Grafitti down the block from the service station.

Your Recommended Daily Allowance of Bunnies

2009-10-08T23:44:00Z

Tessa and Emily.

edit: apparently using "enhanced privacy mode" (e.g. no cookie) for a YouTube video breaks whatever magic MobileSafari uses that allows embedded YouTube videos to be played back in the native YouTube player instead of The Flash Abortion™.

Not Dead, Just Smelling Funny

2009-10-01T21:37:00Z

I’m still around, just really busy and not writing much. I’m in the middle of a large project with a large, unnamed company and it’s keeping me very busy. About the only time I’m at my official office desk is to plug in every few days to do a laptop backup.

PubSubHubbub looks interesting. One reason I’m writing a blog post is so that I have a reason to ping. ☺
If you happen to be Google Wave, you can add me as a contact: marmoset |at| googlewave.com
I rewrote my old messy del.icio.us tagquery script in Python, in the process speeding it by a factor of 4. The new version lives here, and will still point and laugh if run on anything other than a Mac with delimport installed.

Proper Care and Feeding of Computing Consultants

2009-07-06T12:48:00Z

I’ve been doing this for a while. This is an aggregation of lessons I’ve learned while visiting various organizations, performing software installations and integration work. I hope this comes across as constructive. I assume male pronouns throughout for my own convenience. Feel free to search and replace as you see fit.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few things. If you have anything you’d like to add, please leave a comment.

Send the consultant an email with detailed directions to your location. If your company sits on a campus, make sure to let him know which building he’s visiting — he’s probably using an online map app to find your site, but those aren’t granular to the building level.
- If special parking arrangements are necessary, let him know.
- If there’s a gate, make sure to leave that security knows he’s coming, or at least make sure he knows who he needs to call when he gets there to gain access to the grounds.
- If a visitor badge is required (it usually is), one that allows the consultant to take bathroom breaks without an escort is appreciated. :)
If your consultant is coming in from out of town, if you company has a preferred hotel, let him know. If there are any local restaurants/attractions/etc. that he should seek out/avoid, let him know. If he’s staying overnight, he may want to see some part of town outside his hotel walls and your office park. He’s away from home, and a happy consultant is a productive consultant.
Let your consultant bring in his phone and laptop onsite. Would you force your plumber to leave his wrench and pipe snake in the car?
- Try not to freak out if the consultant’s phone has a camera. He’s just here to do his job, he’s not here to steal your secrets.
If he’s working on your systems, it is “nice to have” if you let him plug his laptop into your network directly. He likely has shortcuts, tools and scripts installed that will let him get his work done faster (it may even save you some money if he’s billing by the hour) if he doesn’t have to spend time duplicating his toolset onto a USB stick or CD while he works
- It is understood that this is not always possible due to security policy.
- If the consultant cannot be connected to your network, an external guest network with internet access is very nice to have. If the consultant can retrieve tools, scripts, and information from his office, he can consult his colleagues, try various scenarios on his office test systems, etc.
Unless he’s working directly on your server or network hardware, don’t make him work in the server room. It’s cold, deafeningly noisy, and probably has really lousy chairs. Provide a normal desk or conference room as a work area.
- If you book a conference room, try to reserve it for the entire day. If you and your consultant have to uproot yourselves and your gear multiple times over the course of the workday, you’re losing time.
- Verify beforehand that network drops, overhead projectors, etc. are working if the work you and the consultant are doing requires them. Once again, you’re saving yourself time and probably money.
If any access (hardware, network, software, etc.) requires management approvals, please try to get them all beforehand.
Related to the above, having a member of management available with approval/signing authority to get around unexpected roadblocks is a time/aggravation saver.

addendum: Adrian Sutton at Symphonious had a few more. Thanks, Adrian!

Glow-In-The-Dark Marmosets

2009-05-28T13:53:00Z

Really, how could I resist linking to a story about luminescent marmosets?

Really?!?

Follow the link above for a bonus cute-baby-marmoset picture.

The Inevitable Hart Plaza Skyline Shot

2009-05-25T12:59:00Z

I take this picture every year on this weekend. Truth be told, I think it's more dramatic with the cheaper cameras, though. See (2005) , (2006) , (2007), and (2008).

Movement 2009 photos here, blog coverage here, and follow @moodmat on Twitter.

Good Morning Sunday

2009-05-17T13:38:00Z

We need milk. I think I'll walk. This is not the sidewalk I'll be taking, though.

Southern California April 2009

2009-05-02T09:31:00Z

I spent a few days in southern California (mostly in Orange County) a couple of weeks ago, and of course I took my camera. I was working at a site on the border of Irvine and Tustin, CA.

On my drive to the worksite every day, these two massive structures looming out of the morning fog kept grabbing my attention. I had no idea what they were, but they seemed wildly out of place among the office parks, shopping malls, and subdivisions. The day before I left, I finally remembered to ask my hosts about them, and found out that they were World War II-vintage airship hangars.

We finished up a little early that day so I went walking around with my camera. It’s actually a very serene place now, inhabited primarily by birds. There was a friendly nesting pair of red-tailed hawks who'd made one of the hangars their own private aerie. I'm anthromorphosizing and calling them friendly because they put on quite a show. I heard them long before I saw them — the distinctive “skee-eer” noise that a red-tailed hawk makes (which you've doubtlessly heard in hundreds of movies) is an attention getter (especially, I would imagine, if you're a small mammal.) Anyway, for nearly a half hour I watched them dart, dive, fly along the top edge of the hangar, and even occasionally fly directly over me (at first to ascertain whether I was a threat, later just out of curiosity, I think.)

The following day I drove down to San Diego to visit another customer site. After I finished up for the day I decided to take the scenic route north to Orange County. It’s a very nice drive, if you have the time. I stopped at Cardiff State Beach after refueling the rental. It was a little chilly and overcast, but that didn’t stop the surfers, who played among the fairly dramatic swells off the coast. I can't say I did very much frolicking (alas, I was wearing khakis and leather shoes) but I did take a few pictures.

One of my regrets is that I visit many interesting areas as part of my job, but I rarely have time to see anything beyond the inside of office parks and hotels. To the extent that I can, whenever I'm lucky enough to finish up early I like to get out and see things.

If you've installed Cooliris you can "quick-surf" all the photos embedded on this page, btw.