Jake DiMare

Done and done...

2010-01-13T17:31:00.001-05:00

I set up http://www.jakedimare.com and it will be the home to all my blogging, henceforth.

Redesign

2010-01-12T15:48:00.003-05:00

I thought it would be fun to redesign my personal blog for 2010. At this point is looks like I will be redesigning it twice or three times...I just can't get it right.

For one thing, it may be time to pull the trigger and register my own domain name. Then I can download a real blog engine and ditch the constraints of blogger. I like the features of blogger a lot but from a design perspective, not so much. I am unhappy with the toolbar at the top and I can't seem to get the layout to work the way I want it to...though this could be a result of my own intellectual limitations.

The other thing I am getting ready to do is change the theme altogether. I have gotten quite a bit of mileage out of this weird snapshot I took of Boston one winter morning in 2006. It is a cool image...except for a light pole right in the middle. I have tried to Photoshop it out before. I know how...but I just don't have the time to do it right. I use it for my twitter background so I am at least consistent in my 'brand' but I am just getting tired of it.

AmpLive

2010-01-12T13:13:00.002-05:00

One of the designers at the office just turned me on to this. For fans of remixing/mashups and Radiohead...

http://www.onesevensevensix.com/amplive/

Well worth the price tag (FREE)...but I would have paid for it...

Happy Festivus

2009-12-23T12:13:00.003-05:00

Yes, you can purchase your very own festivus pole.

The Tarantino Mixtape

2009-12-10T12:33:00.001-05:00

The year in review...

2009-12-09T11:39:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again...when the media devotes all their spare time to reviewing the year. In general, I guess 2009 will not go down in history as the best year for most people in the world. I personally fared well. I have a lot to be grateful for.

In technology, things have begun to get incredibly exciting. I could go on for hours about all the amazing changes happening but I only have about 2 minutes so here are a handful of the most fun and exciting advances:

* If you don't think a picture of the moon is that cool consider this: It has taken us 30 years to be able to take another look at the Apollo landing sites. No camera or telescope had the ability to see something that size at that distance.

Of course, no list would be complete without negative consideration. Without a doubt, the technology which is the least exciting (in my humble opinion) is getting the most attention:

Robot Hamsters

Social Networkage

2009-12-04T16:25:00.004-05:00

Friday is here. I am working on shaping Viewpoint Creative's social networking footprint this week. It has been fun because I get to explore communities I would otherwise not necessarily explore in depth.

Click here to read an article on Mashable! about visualizing global social web involvement.

I found an article earlier today on a toy for babies connected to Twitter. I find this idea pretty disturbing...can we allow babies to enjoy baby life without the involvement of the WWW? I mean, I am all for posting pictures so we can all keep up with your little miracle but if you connect the child to twitter we can't be friends anymore.

And yes, I can see the irony in this position but I have been thinking a lot lately and I do believe it may be high time people start to recognize the decidedly antisocial behavior that comes with over use of social networks.

Juxtapose...

2009-12-01T16:10:00.002-05:00

Today began with a lesson in a primitive method for hunting large game animals in the wooded areas of the Northeast United States and ended with a lesson in use of the rgbA color attribute in CSS3. The former lesson was courtesy of my buddy Josh Benton, who you should get to know...if you don't. The second lesson was courtesy of 24ways.org

As far as the hunting technique, it was ostensibly simple: One guy waits in a spot quietly with his SOS while the other guy ranges out on foot and 'pushes' the animals back towards the shooter. Since I am the less experienced hunter I get to do the pushing...which is fine. I am a big believer in paying your dues.

The difficulty lies in the landscape. In order to be effective the pusher needs to dislodge the deer from their hiding places in a combination of dense scrub pine, tangled under brush and briers. If you are the kind of guy who is easily freaked out by getting dirty or doesn't enjoy walking around in the cold before the sun comes up...You are not going to enjoy hunting. It is a lot less glamorous then it is made out to be on TV but it is also a lot more fun and interactive.

There were no deer this morning. That's OK though, with tagging limits we don't want the fun to end too early in the season anyways.

Giving thanks...

2009-11-25T15:52:00.002-05:00

It's all about the gratitude these days. Life is a heck of a lot easier when I stay focused on the things I am grateful for. And there is a lot this year...too much to mention really. I have been so incredibly fortunate in my career and personal life this year that getting into specific details feels embarrassing. Point is, I am grateful.

One important detail though, I need to stop talking about feeling grateful and start acting it.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Chow down!

Rube Goldberg

2009-11-16T09:06:00.002-05:00

Isn't it funny where the imagination can take you? In some strangely complex series of machinations my brain led me from hearing the name Rube Goldberg Machine last week to finding this video this morning: http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/581/

The thing is, I hadn't thought about Rube Goldberg once all weekend. Then suddenly this morning as I poured my coffee *poof* it was back in my conscious thoughts.

By the way, it was used on some talk show last week in reference to the American health care system. Seems pretty fitting...as in, the United States health care industry is a Rube Goldberg machine...in other words a ridiculously complex, convoluted way to accomplish a simple task.

This statement would be true if the health care industry was simply all about keeping people healthy. Sadly, it is not. The health care industry is about lining the pockets of share holders...and it is very successful.

A Perfect Circle

2009-11-06T16:23:00.002-05:00

I have heard rumors that A Perfect Circle may come back again but I never wanted to get my hopes up. I couldn't tell you how many times I have listened to Mer De Noms and Thirteenth step and then I was beside myself when the aMOTION remix album became available.

Well, now I have heard it right from Maynard James Keenan's mouth and I am officially going to get excited. Here's the actual interview, which is pretty funny once it gets going...

http://kisw.radiotown.com/bjdaily/Interviews/MaynardJamesKeenan-9-17-09.mp3

I have never been able to see them live...though I have seen Tool a dozen times.

By the way, if you haven't already checked out Billy Howerdel's solo album Ashes Divide yet...do it. If you like any of the aforementioned you will enjoy Ashes Divide. It is really good.

Peace

The battles rage on

2009-10-29T12:53:00.002-04:00

This week it is Android vs. Apple. Some third party came out with this "idontcare" video in response to the iDont commercial:

The irony is pretty thick of course. Apple is probably the king of abusing other brands for the purpose of self-promotion. At the end of the day I am not sure if mud slinging sells more units but I am sure it is funny to watch. Apparently at least one other third party would like to voice their opinion on the whole subject:

iDontgivea.... Tee Shirt

Technology Rules...

2009-10-27T15:05:00.006-04:00

Today at lunch we got to talking about the current and coming advances in technology. I thought I would list a couple of the most exciting updates to our lives...

Life 2.0?

Augmented Reality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality

Think Terminator. We are literally a year or two from having mass produced retinal projection devices so we can have information pumped into our field of view at all times allowing us to gain deeper insight into the world around us. What's it good for in a practical sense? Imagine you lost your keys. No worries, just ask your augmented reality virtual assistant to show you what direction they are in and how far away they are...

Robots
Guess what...when you were not looking robots became a reality. And I'm not just talking about those giant arms that took all the jobs welding cars...I am talking about C3PO and R3D2 level technology. Walking, bipeds and artificial intelligence with the conversational ability of, well...a mentally handicapped toddler...But still! It can talk to you!

Don't believe it? You better look here: http://robots.net/ and then start making sure you say nothing but nice things about robots because when they figure out they exist you want to be their friend. Most of the advanced technology in development today is designed with one purpose in mind: exterminating people. Granted, we like to think they will only exterminate evil doers in third world countries but...

Swarm Intelligence
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0910/0910.4116.pdf

...or the the emergent collective intelligence of groups of simple autonomous agents. I'm not really qualified to comment on this very much but believe me when I tell you it matters.

Can you feel it?

2009-10-22T13:41:00.002-04:00

north shore, fall leaves, comfort, wool sweater, staring off into space, cool crisp night air, coffee, Radiohead, burning wood, timelessness, driving with the moon roof open, with you...

Check it out

2009-10-07T15:04:00.002-04:00

Stories from youth: http://www.beasleykinkade.com/

Movie database...

2009-10-05T10:12:00.006-04:00

This new site is a cool way to search for movies based on abstract criteria...don't understand what this means? Well, imagine you really like movies on, about or in your hometown...with Jinni it is now possible to find them. In my case I searched on Boston...and the results were pretty spot on. (I collect Boston based movies.) I also like Westerns...works again.

But what if I want to search for something less tangible? Say I am in the mood for something captivating? Yep, Forrest Gump was the top result. Try it out!

Public invitation

2009-09-29T13:26:00.001-04:00

Dear Deftones,

Please come back to Boston soon. I don't want to be 40 when I see you again because I am getting too old for the mosh pit.

Best,

Jake

Oh and by the way...

2009-09-28T13:12:00.002-04:00

I am finding it harder and harder to suppress all of my thoughts on the state of our economy...I don't have too many opinions or thoughts on macro economics because I don't know anything about the topic, I only recently learned to balance my checkbook. What I have learned, however, is that government and financial leaders are a whole lot less intelligent and trustworthy than I previously imagined.

Is there any kind of movement in our country to end representative democracy? The internet has made the United States Congress obsolete. Then we the people could truly manage our destiny as a people...lobbyists would have to become advertisers in order to push their selfish agendas...which would jump start the floundering advertising industry...perhaps save a few magazines and newspapers...

Slow times

2009-09-28T11:56:00.003-04:00

It has taken a while but I am starting to notice the effects of the economy...Noticed many closed businesses outside Boston recently. Also, the price of homes seems to be getting reasonable all of a sudden. Imagine, reasonably priced homes...

On organization..

2009-09-21T14:56:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to creating a database pulling all the various URL's, usernames and passwords I have to keep track of together into one document. I am also working on an overhaul of my folder structure. Something has seriously changed in my life because I love organizing things. I may just wrap up all the wires in my office too. I don't know...Don't want to get too crazy...

Indeed...

2009-09-17T16:57:00.004-04:00

What to say? Life is good. I found a couple of interesting web sites today:

(warning...seriously dorky content ahead)

http://www.kurzweilai.net/
http://brainstimulant.blogspot.com/

Fall is slowly settling into New England. I noticed the first leaves turning in the trees on my way to work this morning. It was a pleasant reminder of the juxtaposition of change and the constant effect of gravity as the earth slowly circles the sun.

My new favorite term is Singularity, which refers to the technical, not the gravitational...a theoretical point in the future where super intelligent technology will explode in an orgasm of accelerating change and exponential advances. Take that Luddites! In yo face!

Given Moore's Law, there will come a time when a computer will be more intelligent than a human. In fact, it is probably going to be in the next 20 years. Just today a coworker and I were waxing nostalgic while he installed a 16 terabyte (wicked big) hard drive array to augment the 42 we already have for our media server. This all fit on a half of a single rack mount. 10 years ago a single terabyte required an 8' tall silo with a robot arm and a climate controlled environment. Oh, and it cost 6 figures...only nuclear labs and defense contractors owned them.

I hope the robots like us.

Apache, MySQL and PHPizzle

2009-08-24T14:47:00.004-04:00

I am making the big switch...well not really. Not yet anyways. I am doing a real live evaluation though.

So far, my overriding sentiment is that it is not hard to see why Microsoft still kicks enterprise software backside. It can be a very arduous process to set up a unix server and get everything running right if you have never done it before. While an experienced engineer might scoff and chalk it up to my relative inexperience...and that may all be well and good...at the end of the day I get to decide what we will be moving ahead with.

Consider: In order to install Apache on Unix from the binary you need to have a c compiler running. OK, go out and download GCC. Oh, in order to install GCC you need 'G Make'. Oh, in order to install 'G Make' you need GCC. Wait, what? In order to install either you need to pull all your hair out, light it on fire and do a hat dance around your office. Up to lighting your hair on fire, that was all true.

On to MySQL. Hard to complain too much, when you consider what they are giving you for free. But, don't you dare try to change your Root password by running a query against the database. There is a very specific command for this important first step.

After a day of knocking my head against the wall I have a unix machine running Apache, MySQL and PHP. After some configurations I am almost ready to install a PHP bug tracking solution and test it out.

Google voice...

2009-07-30T12:22:00.002-04:00

So far not much of a change has occurred in my life since I set up my Beta Test Google Voice account, but I am anticipating coolness squared. Maybe even cubed. I really like that I will be able to read transcribed versions of my voice mails.

Before I signed up I was sort of able to understand why Apple or ATT said no on the iPhone platform, figuring it was a competition thing. But now I am not sure what their problem is. My 20th century analog brain is sometimes quite slow to pick up on the subtleties of business in the digital age. This is probably not as as it should for a guy with my title, but I gave up trying to understand everything a few years back and I haven't picked up the habit since.

Anyhow, out of the 3 people who read my blog posts, there is one who might call me. Next time use:

Quiet nights...

2009-07-24T13:54:00.003-04:00

I have been meaning to talk about my experience last weekend. I went to a bonfire in Amherst Massachusetts. It was great. Jackie had never done the whole pan-mass on route 9 and I was feeling energetic and I am a huge fan of being away from the city so I decided to take the slow road.

There's lots of stars in the sky. A lot more than I can see from the city. As we drove home I kept looking up through the open moon roof (at stop lights of course). I suddenly remembered a time when I was a teenager and my buddy's father brought us on a sailboat trip to Maine. There was a clear night when I laid back on a rock on the top of a hill on Damariscove Island in Boothbay Harbor and looked up at the sky for quite some time. There's even more starts visible there.

I like stars. The idea there is a flaming ball of hydrogen fusion 7 light seconds away is really impressive to me. The universe in general fascinates me immensely. I am really looking forward to my next trip outside the city so I can get a good look up there and think about the vastness of space. It comforts me, to think we are so small and insignificant. I am not sure why, but it does.

Goose hung high...

2009-07-24T13:53:00.001-04:00

A couple of my friends are starting a clothing line...their first tee shirt is interesting...