blog@cliffdweller

My Newfound Love for the iPod Ecosystem

2010-03-15T20:11:44Z

I read a lot of whining on the internets about Apple's restrictive DRM. Everywhere you turn people are blasting them for using DRM and other means to keep consumers tied to the Apple iPod ecosystem.

For some reason it is bad that if you download something from the Apple store, you have to play it on some Apple device (or at least in some Apple software that's free). I don't quite understand that.

And now that I've dealt with Garmin and their GPS with downloadable maps, I *really* don't understand why people are attacking Apple.

You see, I have about 4,000 items from iTunes that I have purchased. Apps, Movies, TV Shows, and music from the early days that has DRM. They are mine. I get to use them on any computer I want. Sure there are limits, if I try to use them on more than 5 computers, then I have to deactivate my account on one of the existing computers, but it can still be done. Apple charges me nothing for this.

Now, let's talk about my Garmin experience. I downloaded a Garmin map for the UK. I paid $99 for it. Less than a week later, my Garmin was stolen. Guess what? The $99 was just a fee for that map on that Garmin, tied to that serial number (a Nüvi 1350T, if you must know). Gone is the Garmin, gone is the extra $99 map. Garmin has graciously agreed to let me download the UK map again for half price (note, that's $49.50).

Now let's compare and contrast. iTunes, in order to use the music on another device with my same account: free (within the 5 computer limit and on an infinite number of iPods/iPads/iPhones). Garmin, in order to use the map an another device, $49 and change.

iTunes manages my purchases by account. Garmin manages my purchases by serial number tied to a piece of easily misplaced (stolen) hardware.

The bottom line is that when an iPod gets stolen or goes bad, I can still use the content I legitimately purchased on a desktop machine. Plus I know that if I go buy another iPod, I can use all the content I've purchased on the new pod device. That keeps me buying from Apple, and I am a happy customer.

When the Garmin goes bad, or when some bastard smashes the window of my Jeep and pries open my center console to steal it, then I have nothing but loss and smashed windows. I don't have any incentive to step back up to the Garmin plate and buy any more Garmin hardware.

Sure I know I'd have to buy new Garmin hardware to run my UK map, and I am willing to do that, but I am not willing to shell out $50 for a digital download that I am simply repeating from less than a week ago.

So while Apple's iPod ecosystem seems restrictive, it's nothing compared to Garmin's. Why aren't people ripping holes in their broken system?

My next trip down the GPS lane will be squarely in the iPhone App court. And I will be avoiding products from Garmin for a really long time.

Where for art thou, Miley?

2010-03-13T07:50:32Z

So we decided to go see the new Miley Cyrus film today. Tim and I are both (not so closeted) Miley fans, so it didn't take much to talk him into going after lunch.

I still can't remember the name of Miley's film, so I looked it up on Fandango on my iPhone, saw the poster and thought that was it. We made it to the theatre with about 10 minutes to spare, stood in line with a bunch of 14 year old girls and felt a little embarrassed about being the only adult males going into the theatre.

We watched all the trailers (who knew there's another Twilight segment coming so soon?) and were doing just fine. Waiting patiently for the movie to start.

It did. It started with a little girl seeing her mom get murdered on a subway platform in NYC back in the 90s. Ouch. That didn't seem quite right, but maybe the filmmakers were trying to show us some backstory before Miley grows up, runs off to the beach, and has a summer fling with hottie mc hot hot.

But noooooo. Twenty minutes in, there's Robert Pattison. I don't remember him being in Miley's new movie. Uh oh. I think we're in the wrong place…

Turns out we weren't in the Miley Cyrus movie at all. Turns out that Miley's movie doesn't come out for several more weeks. D'oh! And yet it felt like such a Miley Cyrus crowd when we sat down in the first place.

We stumbled unwittingly into a unspeakably boring movie about dysfunctional family who's oldest brother committed suicide a few years ago and the middle brother has anger issues and always looks constipated while the father is a really busy lawyer with no time for his kids and the youngest sister is an art savant who lives with the mom who has remarried some guy. The movie really gets rolling when the angry middle brother, played unsparklingly by Robert, gets beat up by a cop whose daughter is hot so he starts dating her and she turns into his girlfriend until she finds out he knew her dad before they started dating and breaks up with him for a few minutes right towards the end but gets back together and everything seems to just be sorting itself out when the horrific twist happens. Queue slo-mo music montage, float a final voice over or two, and then the movie ended.

So I'd warn you about spoilers but the first 9 hours were lifted from the same old formula that was already 50 years old when that chick who played Sabrina The Teenaged Witch did it in that movie with the song by Britney Spears. How can their be spoilers for a movie using this formula?

If I had known anything about this film going in, I most definitely would not have gone. Plus we kept expecting Miley to show up for the first 20 minutes until we were absolutely sure it was the wrong movie.

Sigh.

Still, after 98% of the movie had passed, they threw a twist out there. It was enough of a twist that we talked about it in earnest three or four times this evening after seeing it. They lead up to the twist very well. There are little clues all through the film. But I didn't actually see it coming until about 30 seconds before it arrived. And that's always welcome, even in slow moving painful movies like this one.

So thanks, Hollywood, for abandoning the formula for just a second. It is the only thing that made this film memorable at all. Now don't make me sit through 5000 more of them.

The title of the film we saw was "Remember Me". If we had walked out before the last 5 minutes I would have given it a D-, but those last 5 minutes were really good ones. So I bumped the whole movie up to a C.

Why Avatar didn't win

2010-03-13T06:58:54Z

Back in January, we had Charlie Booker telling us how to make a compelling news report, in the format of, well, a compelling news report (see that post here).

Now we have these guys telling us how to make a compelling Academy Award winning movie trailer, in the format of, well, a compelling Academy Award winning movie trailer.

Catch phrase! Clever.

I love Lauren Bacall

2010-03-10T18:07:41Z

Did you see all the dish Lauren Bacall is offering up from just watching the Oscars? I have to say I love her more than ever now.

You can read for yourself everything else she had to say over at her twitter feed (Lauren_Bacall).

And for those of you who don't know who she is, she's been in movies like The Big Sleep, Key Largo, Murder on the Orient Express, The Shootist, and Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King. How can you not love that kind of list? Seriously, her movie and tv list is much bigger than Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King, go check it out.

She also summed up my feelings with this little gem:

Yeti in the Jeep

2010-03-15T20:10:25Z

[UPDATE 3/15/10 - Even though this article is fairly kind to Garmin, I've since had to actually deal with the company. I have sworn off of Garmin because of their total lack of Customer Service. The short story is that they want me to pay an additional $50 to re-download a map I already paid $99 for. So anyone looking for Garmin recommendations, please do not accept this blog post as one. Just read it for what it's worth. The first ten days with Garmin were fun, but then it all went sour. You can read my thoughts on Garmin's Nüvi 1350T DRM and crappy customer service here]

Sometimes you find giggles in the most unexpected places…

In the past couple of weeks, Tim and I have been trying out various third party GPS systems for the Jeep. And by various, I mean two. They both seemed adequate at getting us places, but the Garmin is the clear winner.

The Tom Tom had a kludgy interface. I am constantly surprised when any tech company still has interface issues. It seems really simple to me: minimize the number of times a person sitting in the car has to tap the screen to make it go and let the computer do everything it can with no help from the user.

Oddly, the Tom Tom would make you type everything and then it would start directing you with the voice, but the screen wouldn't start updating until you clicked on "DONE". I have no idea why that extra click was in there. Add to that, the "BACK" button inexplicably kept changing sides, so you couldn't just click on it four times in quick succession. You actually had to focus on it and watch where it would appear next in order to back out of the nested menu structure.

Here's a note to Tom Tom: either pay Apple to build a simple interface for you, or at least read the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines and follow them.

The next one we tried, and the one we kept, is the Garmin Nüvi. Not only did they get the whole "BACK" button position right, they used an icon so you don't have to read AND they made it so if you hold it down it skips all the way to the top no matter how deep in the menu system you are. Good move!

Then I found the Yeti voice in the picture above and there was no turning back. This is the only GPS I've ever had that makes me smile when its giving directions. "Oot ort ort OOOT Squeeee!" apparently means keep driving in the direction you're going or something.

And, Yes, Rob, it does Squee.

So it wins. We're so keeping the Garmin. It gets us where we want to go and it makes me giggle.

Skinput

2010-03-03T18:00:43Z

Sweet! These folks are exploring ways to use your skin as input for computer devices. One version includes a Pico projector that allows you to play video games on your hand.

The video shows a guy poking at his arm and hands and fingers to play Tetris, to control his iPod, and to navigate through a series of menus on his arm. This is similar to that thing we saw a while back from MIT that projected info about the person standing in front of you onto said person so you could remember important facts about them.

My February 2010 Facebook Links

2010-03-03T08:31:14Z

These are the links that I posted on my Facebook Account during the month of February 2010.

Link Disclaimer: most of the links in this post go to external sites beyond the control of cliffdweller. Please understand that some of them may not yield the exact results over time that the original description on this page outlines.

February 2, 2010 – Urban Dictionary: iphone effect
shortly after one person in the group brings out their iphone, the rest follow suit, ultimately ending all conversation and eye contact.
Paul said: the iPhone effect… it happens every time we go out to dinner. or go out to a movie. or go out. or stay home. or watch tv. or anything else.
February 2, 2010 – Rumor: Apple Has Another Tablet In The Works. More Like A Mac Than An iPhone.
In the movie Contact, when revealing to main character Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) that there is actually a second space travel machine that …
Paul said: The iPad has been announced, now it's time for a new batch of wild-assed rumors!
February 2, 2010 – Amazon.com: Jason NutriSmile Toothpaste, Orange, Cinnamon & Mint, 4.2-Ounce Tubes (Pack of 4)
Paul said: is amazed that his toothpaste is "orange, cinnamon and mint" flavored. All in one place. who'd of thunkit?
February 2, 2010 – The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen + The Muppets
Paul said: always a classic.
February 2, 2010 – www.normthompson.com
Football Sausage is sure to score big points with sports fans on your gift list. Give our Football Sausage to sports fans. Award-winning salami is made the old-fashioned way, with fresh beef and pork, cured and slowly smoked over hickory fires. …
Paul said: The jury is still out…
February 3, 2010 – Jonas Brothers Hardcore!
Paul said: This is the funniest Jonas Brothers thing I think I've ever seen.
February 3, 2010 – Bill Watterson, creator of beloved 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip looks back with no regrets | Livi
Cleveland Ohio living section: Get lifestyle, food, religion, home and garden news and more. Comment on the articles and join the forums at cleveland.com
Paul said: Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, in his first interview since 1989…
February 3, 2010 – How to Suck at Facebook – The Oatmeal
Paul said: How to suck at facebook… accurate, and very funny
February 5, 2010 – The Water Monopoly
The porthole bath is an original French double ended bath with two portholes cut into the side. It makes a wonderful piece for children’s bathrooms, or it can be used to create a bathroom with a nautical theme. …
Paul said: this is too cool!
February 8, 2010 – Hubert de Lartigue: pas à pas "X-wing"
Je suis très fier du résultat et j'ai l'impression d'avoir fait un petit chef d'œuvre, j'en suis arrivé à me demander si les tickets de métro n'avaient pas été designés pour pouvoir me servir un jour de support pour ce "travail". …
Paul said: This is cool, even if you *don't* speak any French… It's a step by step guide on how to build tiny x-wing fighters with psuedo-origami
February 10, 2010 – Parisian Love Too
Response to Google Superbowl ad.
Paul said: anyone see the google superbowl ad? here's an interesting alternate (read: gay) version.
February 10, 2010 – T-SHIRT WAR!! (stop-motion music video)
GET a SHIRT that we wore in the video (or design a replica in your size)! http://rhettandlink.com/tshirtwar GET this SONG on our 27-song CD (it has vocals): http://rhettandlink.com/music or on iTunes: …
Paul said: oooh, T-Shirt Wars! Stop motion video with 222 t-shirts.
February 11, 2010 – Apple – iTunes celebrates 10 billion songs downloaded.
iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we’re about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet — 10 billion songs downloaded. …
Paul said: Coming soon: iTune's 10 billionth download. And there's a contest… I *need* that gift card.
February 11, 2010 – Google Liquid Galaxy live demo at TED
Google's Liquid Galaxy is engineer Jason Holt's 20% time project, a wraparound view of 8 LCD screens providing a truly immersive experience of Google Earth and Street View.
Paul said: Google Earth on Steroids
February 12, 2010 – Orange Fruit Batteries Power An iPhone
You can power a digital clock with a few slices of oranges – but how many many oranges do you need to power an iPhone?
Paul said: How many oranges does it take to charge an iPhone? Gilligan's professor would be so proud…
February 13, 2010 – Global Warming isn't the opposite of snow
Feb. 10: Bill Nye, the science guy, explains to Rachel Maddow why snow in the northeast in the winter doesn't have anything to do with global warming.
Paul said: too bad Bill Nye says "un-patriotic" and that this is on the politicized Rachel Maddow show. It's a very good discussion about Climate Change and allowing science to be science.
February 16, 2010 – L.A.R.P. Live Avatar Role Playing
Portrait of The Na'vi People of Hometree Wisconsin.
Paul said: OMG, please tell me this isn't for real…
February 16, 2010 – TORCHWOOD – Tonner Doll Company
Tonner Doll Company, Inc. – Extraordinary Dolls and Character Figures.
Paul said: Is Captain Jack actually worth $199?
February 16, 2010 – Starwars Musquito Defense System English Version
Groen Brothers commercial spoof of an anti-mosquito laser system
Paul said: ah, the classics.
February 17, 2010 – TOXIC: Garbage Island – CNN.com
Back in the mid-zeroes, I remember reading a lot of stories about a buildup of trash in the Pacific Ocean so massive that it had formed a floating island of waste the size of Texas. Its colorful nickname …
Paul said: Scary video footage about the waste we are producing and how we're polluting our planet. I've heard about this Pacific Ocean gyre before, but this is the first I've really seen about it from a mainline news source.
February 17, 2010 – Chain Reaction – The Game
Paul said: Chain Reaction! This game is a cool HTML 5 demo – it will only work in Safari, Chrome and (maybe) the IE8. Sorry, no Firefox.
February 17, 2010 – 'Avatar' = 'Pocahontas' In Space (PICTURE)
James Cameron worked on "Avatar" for over a decade. That makes sense.
Paul said: Talk about your formula movies! Avatar really was just a remake of Disney's Pocahontas…
February 17, 2010 – Tumblr
Paul said: actual photo… not mine, but actual anyway.
February 18, 2010 – iSandwich 4G
What would you do, if Steve Jobs is coming for lunch? Be creative and make an iSandwich 4G! This is how you can Do It Yourself. Read more in our blog isandwich4g.blogspot.com. Our tutorial is for everyone: Don´t play with the food – enjoy it! TRY THIS AT HOME!
Paul said: silly. watch it to the very end…
February 18, 2010 – c64 cynthcart live
Paul said: True that. The c64 will never die!
February 18, 2010 – The Johnny Cash Children's Album by Johnny Cash – Download The Johnny Cash Children's Album on iTune
Preview and download songs from The Johnny Cash Children's Album by Johnny Cash on iTunes. Buy The Johnny Cash Children's Album for just $9.99.
Paul said: Johnny Cash has a children's album? who knew? And why am I looking at children's albums on iTunes?
February 18, 2010 – MacDailyNews
"More than 74,000 PCs at nearly 2,500 organizations around the globe were compromised over the past year and a half in a botnet infestation designed to steal login credentials to bank sites, social networks, …
Paul said: I like this headline: "The Microsoft Tax: 74,000 Windows PCs in 2,500 companies attacked globally; Mac users unaffected"
February 23, 2010 – Know Your Aspirals – Introduction
Paul said: I want me one of these
February 23, 2010 – C O D E O R G A N
The dawn chorus… the music of love… whale song… a babbling brook… but none compare to the beauty of the Codeorgan. It reads the content of any webpage and translates the content into music.
Paul said: this is what it sounds like when you play my blog on the code organ. Sweet. Now I'm off to test twitter…
February 25, 2010 – Life in Quarantine – Fully Sick Rapper.m4v
I was eventually let out of hospital on the 2nd Jan, but then brought back in on the 18th Jan and diagnosed with a more serious form of TB… As a result, I have been back in quarantine since the 18th Jan, and all up now I have spent 55 days on the inside of a single room in hospital… …
Paul said: Sometimes you just can't stop the funny. I hope if anything like this ever happens to me that I can be half this creative…
February 25, 2010 – Minimalist Star Wars Tourism Posters: Vacation in Tatooine, Hoth, Endor, Dagobah & Cloud City
Justin Van Genderen is a graphic designer in Chicago. He made these minimalist travel posters for the locations in Star…
Paul said: Somebody (besides me) has too much time on their hands…
February 25, 2010 – The Recycled Alien Queen Is Here With Tip Or Two About Recycling | Walyou
The Recycled Alien Queen Is Here With Tip Or Two About Recycling so start taking notes from the famous monster.
Paul said: Recycled Alien Queen!
February 28, 2010 – sjcerling on Etsy
Paul said: check out these things a friend of mine makes and sells… and buy one or two of them.

Cheryl Luce's Site is up!

2010-02-19T15:21:40Z

Here's another site I set up for a friend who wanted to start blogging about her travel groups.

CherylLuceTravel.com

She is using the site to promote the trips that she leads to places all over the world. Last fall she took a group to Africa, this summer she's taking a group to Alaska. And those are just the A's.

The site is all based on the wordrpess theme "Sliding Doors" but took a bit of modification to get it to display things properly. It's still a work in progress, but I think it's looking pretty nice. She's updating it almost daily.

Percy Jackson – Way to change the book…

2010-02-14T05:44:02Z

No spoilers here, but I have to say I liked The Lightning Thief.

OK, one spoiler: it is nothing like the book. Once I got past thinking "that's not what happened in the book," and "why'd they say that, the book said something else," I started really enjoying the movie.

Maybe there are some spoilers here, but not much.

So Percy didn't really go on an assigned quest. He was just going to free his mom from Hades and accidentally found the lightning bolt and had some sort of flying fight with Luke over the top of Manhattan, but it did turn out well.

Oh, and Uma Thurman makes a great Madusa. Those snakes in her hair were extra creepy. Plus they get extra credit for gratuitous use of the iPhone. Bet Steve Jobs didn't see that one coming.

Anyone know if the kid who played Percy is any relation to Ian what's-his-name in The Vampire Diaries?

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Way different from the book, but the essence was the same. Go see it.

The Wolf Man – please just have the franchise put down already.

2010-02-13T05:52:30Z

Arrrooooooooo.

If you're going to howl at the moon, it's probably best to stick with David Naughton or Lon Chaney Jr. The 2010 wolfman story leaves a l-o-t to be desired.

Things missing were the whole beast-within-theme, tortured soul, decent dialog, story line, etc.

Things it had, but only because I had to: an old gypsy woman, the wolf guy's dead brother's wife (a.k.a. the love interest), the creepy old dad (wolfy, I'm your father. it is your destiny…), oh, and a creepy psych ward with a scary german accented crazy doctor who got his comeuppance right before Scotland Yard is forced to shoot up half of London in a beast-chasing sequence that could only be rivaled by Mel Gibson chasing cars on foot in one of those Lethal Weapon movies.

Suck suck suck.

It was pretty. The sets were well done, the transformation into the beast(s) were super cool. The actual beast, no so much. I was reminded of Roddy McDowall in that movie about those apes that had their own planet.

The big fight at the end between Wolverine and Bumble Bee was kind of nice. The burning of the house as the troops marched on Atlanta was ok. The "uh oh I got bit and even though the werewolf monster is dead but at least there can be a sequel if this one makes enough money" was a little predictable.

Lame, predictable, boring. Even the Danny Elfman theme couldn't bring this one up.

Is it just me, or is Hollywood really cranking out the formula these days? When will something come along that rises above that?Isn't it about time?

Will Portland learn from the greedy music industry?

2010-02-09T23:28:56Z

Today Ars Technica is reporting that "Variable download pricing correlated with slower music sales." Remember a year ago when iTunes dropped DRM but allowed the greedy music execs to raise the prices of popular songs? Let's take a look at how that panned out.

Ars says:

As noted by MediaMemo, this slowdown in growth has all happened over the same period of time that the iTunes (and Amazon, and Walmart) pricing changes went into effect.

That's right, after iTunes (and Wal-Mart and Amazon digital downloads) pricing went up, sales went down.

There are a million ways to spin it, but that's the bottom line. The decline in sales just happened to coincide with the price increase.

Like iTunes and the greedy music industry, The City That Works™, Portland, raised it's parking rates about a year ago. I for one stopped going downtown for everything I wanted to do, so my net is that I'm paying Portland less money every year for parking. I wonder if anyone's done a study to see if the higher rates are actually producing higher revenue…

How to Report the News

2010-01-29T00:24:16Z

This is brilliant! I ran across it on The Kidman Project, my friend Rob's website. Thanks, Rob, for sharing!

BTW, it does have a little bit of swearing (including the F word in one place). Ah, those Brits. They didn't call us Puritans for nothing…

JC Supertablet and friends

2010-01-27T16:58:16Z

Last night I dreamed that I was trying to get people to buy the Apple Tablet (that is going to be announced in a couple of hours) by trying to play Jesus Christ Superstar for them on my Apple Tablet.

Odd.

I guess I heard the phrase "Jesus Tablet" one too many times yesterday.

The sad part was that it didn't have enough memory so I only had part of the rock opera with me. Like the old days of the 8GB iPod Nanos. So I could only play one phrase out of one song over and over.

And that one phrase was "We need him crucified, it's all you have to do…" Everytime, just as it slipped into the next words "talk to me Jesus Christ…" it would repeat "We need him crucified, it's all you have to do,"

So instead of using my tablet to show off, I had to sit on the couch and dig through countless options on the thing to try to figure out how to make it play the rest of the song.

Somewhere I screwed up and jumped into the middle of "I don't know how to love him" but then it just was one phrase out of that song over and over and over.

Then I went in the spare room and was upset that the overnight guests had messed it all up and made it look like I did it.

Like I said, Odd dreams. But I'm awake now. I'm gearing up for the actual tablet unveiling in about an hour and a half. I'm hoping for new iLife, new iWork, new Tablet and cheaper TV shows from iTunes. iTunes in the cloud would be nice, too.

woohoo!

I launched Kurt's New Website Today

2010-02-19T15:20:48Z

It's true, I launched the new website for my friend Kurt in San Francisco today.

SomaticPsychotherapySF.com

This post is more or less just google bait to get the mighty search engines to take notice. However, if you want to click through, you may also do that.

Enjoy yourself, as always!

It's based on a new wordpress theme that I really like. I am thinking of changing Cliffdweller to use this theme, too… at least some variant of it.

Painting the world plaid

2010-01-20T01:52:53Z

What did you do today? Somebody asks me that question every day. It's not always the same person, but it is always the same question.

So here's what I did today: I painted the world plaid. No, seriously. It was no easy feat.

I started with a website known for having public domain pictures of the planet we live on. I wanted to find an animated globe.

What I found was a lot of work in Photoshop. It takes time to create graphics. Designers know that, but people often forget. So this afternoon, I started with a map of the world, and painted it plaid.

Then I animated it and saved it in a dozen formats. I have plans for this Plaid Earth…

California and Texas, first and second. Or not.

2010-01-12T23:23:00Z

Not that I'm getting into the whole competition thing or anything, but since a couple of weeks ago when I started actually using my Nike+ shoe doohickeys, I've been digging around the Nike Running website.

Today I ran across the pictured statistic. The miles quoted are how many miles that people in those states have run so far in 2010. It's a lot of miles until you start looking at populations.

Some guy in Texas was bragging about being second. Interesting. Second, only behind California. I went to look at the aggregated stats, and I see Oregon is number 3! Go Oregon!

Of course, some simple math will show the *real* bragging rights:

According to Wikipedia, the state of Oregon has 3,825,657 people in it. Divide that into the miles run in 2010 (23,192) and you get 6.06 miles per thousand people in Oregon.

I wonder what Texas and California get. Oh, let's go find out…

Texas has 24,782,302 people running 65,533 miles comes out to 2.64 miles per thousand people in Texas. The people in Oregon are running on average 2.29 times as much as the fatties in Texas.

California is even worse with 36,961,664 people running only 49,225 miles. That comes out to 1.33 miles per thousand people. Oregon is 4.55 times better than California. Ouch.

So I guess it kind of explains why Oregon feels so more "in shape" than either California or Texas, assuming of course that running miles equates being in shape. Until now I had always assumed it was just because we like our great outdoors, mountain climbing, snowboarding, skiing, camping, and hiking more than all the other states.

Maybe I am getting into the whole Nike competitive thing a little bit…

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T02:02:25Z

The chorus to this ABBA song goes something like this:

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don't we might as well lay down and die
You and I

A bajillion years ago in high school, I think I made people listen to this song incessantly right around this time of year.

Just to back that statement up, here's one Melanie posted on Facebook today:

Melanie Clark *Sings "Happy new year, happy new year, may we all.." As with EVERY New Years day, Abba haunts me until I cover my ears and start shouting "It's a small world after all.." CURSE YOU PAUL ADAMS, AND THE MITSUBISHI COLT YOU DROVE IN ON!!

At first glance, I smiled and giggled a little bit inside. Was I really that obnoxious back then? (when I see my nephew John in action I realize that I probably was…)

But on further reflection (are we supposed to be all reflecty today?), I started thinking more about the paths my life has taken since way back then.

Here's another lyric from the song, the one that has actually stuck with me all these years:

It's the end of a decade
In another ten years time
Who can say what we'll find
What lies waiting down the line
In the end of eighty-nine

Besides horribly dating the song in 1979 (ABBA was so 1970's after all), it also gave me pause to reflect at the end of '89, just like the song said.

So here's the rundown.

At the end of '89 I was working as the manager of an 8 screen movie theatre in Arlington TX. I remember being upset on New Years Eve because there were no less than 5 accidents between my work and my home at 2AM when I got off work. I had spent the last decade trying to balance going to college and maintaining a demanding 60 an hour a week job. I finally gave up on college. And soon after this decade was over, I gave up on the demanding job.

At the end of '99, I was living in San Francisco, working for myself, running my own company. In the decade since '89 I had worked in three of the crazy startups in Silicon Valley, I had worked at NASA, and I had survived cancer. I had made several trips to Europe and the UK (my first trip to Loch Ness to look for Nessie!) I had camped in the dessert looking for UFOs with Gary. I went to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras with Jim (That's in Australia). Who would've expected all that back when they released this song?

At the end of '09, I am living in Portland. I am married to the man (and his ginormous extended family) that I love. In the past decade I have been the youth director at the largest Methodist church in Oregon, I have re-connected with many of my friends from the old days, I have remained cancer free. I've been to Antarctica, South America, Alaska, back to Europe, and all over the USA.

And more good news: this song no longer applies. I don't have to play this game this decade, only because "nineteen" doesn't rhyme with "who can say what we'll find"…

But, if it did apply, looking ahead I plan to have many happy years with Tim, travel a lot, maybe get a dog. It's the simple things. Maybe I will check back in in the end of twenty-nine.

Go Captian & Tennille! a.k.a. we don't need no stinking QA

2009-12-26T06:13:58Z

Today, Allan and Eunice gave me the Captain & Tennille "Ultimate Collection" DVD for Christmas. Yay team!

I was such a fan in Jr. High School. I once tried to sing my way to free tickets to one of their concerts on a radio station. Nothing like a 7th grader singing "I will, I will, I will…" and that's that last time I ever did anything stupid.

Oh wait, when ABC canceled the Captain & Tennille Show, I actually wrote in to get them to keep it on the air. That was the last time I did anything stupid.

So I was super happy when I got my whole yard of bubblegum from Miko and the Captain & Tennille show DVDs today.

I ran right home to rip the DVD so I can put it on my Apple TV and watch it, just like I do with all my DVDs. While ripping them, I noticed a very peculiar thing.

So, Captain, Tennille, if you're reading this, please note that when I put your 3 DVD set into my iMac, the title of the icon that shows up on the desktop is spelled wrong.

"Captian" and Tennille is a whole different group. I'm just sayin'…

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2009-12-24T21:53:39Z

Yesterday after my trip to the Apple store, Leif and I headed over to lunch and ended up at the "Everything's a Dollar" store. Why not? It seemed like a great place to find that something special for Tim's Christmas (I did, hint: it's pink and glows in the dark for about 4 hours).

While we were there a song came on that reminded me of that one by Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger from that movie a few years back. You remember the one, it was done in the 1960s Rock Hudson/Dorris Day style and was really a lot of fun.

So I thought, I like this tune. I launched up Shazam on my iPhone to find out what it was but it failed me. Like Target, the dollar store is made of kryptonite and lead that blocks AT&T's 3G network. So I was left with the catchy Christmas-ish tune in my head and no idea what it was.

Enter iTunes today. Yes, I'm admitting right here on my blog in front of everyone that I've been listening to my meager Christmas music collection most of the day.

It turns out I already had the song I heard yesterday. It came in on the Trojan Horse called "iTunes Holiday Sampler" that I downloaded for free a couple of weeks ago. The mystery is solved!

The tune is "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Lady Antebellum. Who'd've ever guessed that?

As a side note, I think it's funny that had I found it on Shazam yesterday, I would have had to pay $1.29 for it even though I was at the "Everything's a Dollar" store. iTunes wouldn't have warned me I already had it since it would have been coming from a different album than the free sampler I downloaded before.

How Many Geniuses does it take…

2009-12-24T03:25:41Z

How many geniuses does it take to fix an iMac?

The short answer is 1, but the more complex answer is 2. Unless you count the genius who broke it in the first place (that would be me).

I gotta say I love my ginormous iMac. It's the first desktop computer I've ever had that has and SD Card slot built right in.

A couple of weeks ago, when Tim and I were working on the Unger Family Calendars for 2010, he handed me some photos on the SD Card from his MacBook and I reached up and blindly shoved it into the slot on the side of my monster iMac.

And just like when you slam your locked car door just as you realize you've left the keys inside, I knew I had shoved the card in the wrong slot. Because I didn't actually look, I had shoved it into the DVD drive slot. Dang. That was my first Genius move.

So I've been iMacing without a DVD drive for a couple of weeks. I scheduled a Genius appointment at the Apple store last week, but I never could actually make it into Portland at the appropriate time. So I rescheduled and rescheduled and rescheduled. Wheeee!

My second Genius move was rescheduling the appointment for today. During lunchtime. I knew I'd be downtown anyway, so what the heck, I'll just stop by the mall and drop it off and they'll take it in the back for a couple of hours and then I'll bring it home.

Ooops that. Today is the next to the last shopping day before Christmas. Every parking space within a 3 block radius was taken. I had to lug the 27 inch iMac down stairs, into elevators, across streets, and through the whole habitrail system that is Pioneer Place.

That was the tough part. The easy part was when the guys who get paid to be geniuses spent longer documenting the problem than actually fixing it. It took the tall guy in the kilt holding the iMac and the short guy in the glasses with a piece of packing tape about 2 minutes to extract the SD Card.

YAY! I was their second SD Card extraction today, so they seem to be getting quite good at it. I didn't have to leave the iMac behind, I only had to lug it into the store and back out again.

So the real answer is 3. 3 geniuses, 'cause I had to break it in the first place.

Twitter your Keynote slides via Applescript

2009-11-26T17:37:37Z

You've all heard of a thing called Twitter. Now Gentry Underwood has created an AppleScript that will send predetermined messages to Twitter during your Keynote* slides.

It uses a mechanism where you can simply put [twitter][/twitter] tags in the presenter notes section of a slide. When you get to that slide, the Tweet goes out to the masses.

sweet!

You can even add #hashtags or @mentions to the Tweets.

Read the whole article and download the script for yourself here:

Keynote Tweet: Participate In The Backchannel of Your Own Presentation

*Keynote is a Mac only presenter program made by Apple.

First time for anything, I suppose.

2009-11-26T06:57:00Z

Tonight I installed a new dual-band Airport Extreme base station. I have been having problems with the older Airport Extreme non-dual-band since moving out to G-Town and setting up digs in this apartment I tend to call home. So the opportunity presented itself for me to upgrade to a dual-band system and I jumped on it.

In my sprawling apartment complex, just based on what I can see from the drop down menu, there are 15 (sometimes more) WiFi networks within 150 feet of where I'm sitting right now. Tell me there's no interference from that!

So I went for the dual-band WiFi base station, hoping that I can out-fox all the other folks using primitive gear. Now the slower, less critical WiFi can support the iPhones and the media centers while the more robust WiFi can support actual work on actual machines (assuming I do any actual work, of course).

So that's all well and good, but when I plugged in the new base station, I ran the Airport Utility program to set it up and lo, I didn't have a recent enough version. It seems the new base station wanted version 5.5 and I only had 5.4.2 on my shiny new (huge) iMac.

That's not too weird in and of itself. Often updates come out after machines ship but before people get them into their hands. The weird part is that I checked Apple's website and sure enough, the most recent version was the one I already had installed.

So I did something that I have never done, not one single time in the past 10 years of owning Macintosh OS X products: I installed the software that came with the product in the box.

Way back before there was an OS X, we learned that sometimes installers downgraded system components, so I got into the habit of never using the disk in the box. The reasoning goes that whatever software has been sitting in the box at Best Buy for months can't possibly be as up to date as the software installed over the web from Apple's software update application.

So anyway, all the Mac die-hards out there are all having a collective gasp right now, while all the windows users are saying "so what's the big deal, you can install software."

This is the first time since 2000 that it didn't "just work" by plugging it in.

For shame Apple. Are you growing too fast? Did you outsource this one? is there some reason why Airport Utility 5.5 hasn't been made available for the masses?

I felt like I was using a Microsoft product for a few minutes.

Of course, 10 minutes later when I had a dual-band WiFi base station up and running and supporting 3 machines and an iPhone, the Apple-love returned and I quietly put the CD away. Yes, it only took 10 minutes, and that includes an SMS conversation that I was having with my hubby at the same time.

My Wedding

2009-12-21T06:47:07Z

What an amazing night. You could feel the joy in the room.

I'm not sure I've ever been so happy. It was the most joyous night of my entire life.

I was surrounded by my nieces and nephews, my cousins, and the family that I have chosen to embrace. My high school friends, my nerd friends, my church friends, my hippie friends, my gay friends, my preacher friends, everyone was there and the cake was excellent! Over 250 people turned out on a cold November night in Portland for my gay wedding.

And everyone was as excited as I.

Most importantly, Tim was there. And now we are husbands. I love you Tim.

View the photo gallery

Tomorrow's The Big Day

2009-11-28T06:54:10Z

The 21st Century is when everything changes. More specifically, 2009 is when everything changes, or even better, tomorrow…

Tim and I picked up our tuxes yesterday.

5 Days until the wedding

2009-11-28T06:54:27Z

We have almost everything taken care of for the wedding. It's been an interesting road.

If you've never planned a wedding, then you won't understand why it's such an exhaustive process. You see, everyone has a perfect image in their minds about what a perfect wedding should look like. And it almost never does look that way in the end result. And if you've never planned a gay wedding, then just give up right now. It's all the stress of a straight wedding with an extra layer of "what? two grooms? how does that work" piled on top.

It's like a lot of little committee meetings to make things happen for what's supposed to be one of the biggest days of my life. We've got family drama, church drama, national institutional drama and any other kind of drama you can think of. Fortunately, we don't have Tim and Paul drama, except the good kind.

I'm very happy to be marrying Tim. I'm disappointed that neither my mom nor my dad will be coming. Many members of my extended family will be here, and others have sent regrets. I could bore you for weeks with the politics that go on in the Adams family.

My cousin Janne said something to me that I found very heartening. She stated quite simply "It seems pretty clear from the posts I see on FaceBook that you have chosen to marry into a loving family. I am very happy for you." My immediate family has been completely silent on the matter.

So while I won't have my mom to give me away, I will be surrounded by very close friends and lots of my church family. I'll also be surrounded by my new and very loving family, the Ungers.

It's often been said that we don't get to choose our family. I am very fortunate in that I have been able to do just that.

Portland or Atlanta? You choose.

2009-11-08T02:21:14Z

Have you noticed the ads on Facebook? They let people edit their own ads and choose where to place them.

This is an ad that I saw tonight. I was initially drawn in because of the pretty picture of sushi, but then noticed it was targeted to either Portland or Atlanta, I'm not really sure which, so I clicked on it.

Of course, it's for a service I already use, so my click just cost guys running the ad money for nothing, but then I figure they don't really care anyway, if they can't even match the name of the city in their headline to the name of the city in their copy.

Maybe it's just me tho.

Creature of Habit

2009-10-29T21:16:48Z

I've been going through my Phineas and Ferb stage lately, and all the screens on my various Macs that I manage all have pictures of Agent P on them.

The thing that made me laugh was when I inadvertently started controlling the Mac Mini with the Ginourmous new iMac's Snow Leopard screen sharing. The window opened up just like I'm showing it here.

I didn't change the desktop pictures to make this happen, it's just something I stumbled across that made me laugh. I am such a creature of habit…

Purple is the screen on the iMac, green is the screen on the Mini. I wonder if the MacBook Pro opens in the right place too. I guess I'll have to save that for another day!

Always Look Both Ways

2009-10-20T00:07:02Z

I'm amazed by the number of folks in Portland who just walk into the street and don't even look at traffic. I was equally amazed in Boston by the way people on foot just expect the cars to stop (and they did). So when I ran across this video on YouTube, I had to post it…

Nice Touch, Apple (tv)

2009-10-14T05:43:32Z

This morning while I was eating breakfast in the living room, I was also streaming music from the bedroom over the airport network in my house.

It's no secret, but a lot of people never really pay attention to these features so let me explain.

The Mac Mini in the bedroom was playing the music over the speakers in the bedroom, and simultaneously over the speakers in the living room over the WiFi network via the AppleTV in said living room.

I like to play it that way, so I don't have to turn the music up to hear it all over the house. It works very well.

But this morning I decided I wanted to watch the latest smosh video podcast while I was eating breakfast and I really didn't want to have to go back into the bedroom to pause the music. Since I didn't have my iPhone (which also has a nifty remote control that works over WiFi) to pause the Mac Mini, I did what any consumer would do: I aimed my infrared remote at the Apple TV and pressed pause.

I expected the music to stop streaming, but I didn't expect iTunes in the other room to actually pause. I thought it'd keep playing in there until I got around to going in there and pausing it.

So I was amazed that Apple had the forethought to make the master iTunes Mac Mini in the other room pause when I pressed pause for the AppleTV that was acting as a speaker wire for the extension.

Sweet. This is just another one of those little details that Apple pays attention to that no one ever understands until they start using it.

Way to go Apple, it is a very cool system you've built for me in my house.

You go, Obama!

2009-10-09T15:31:10Z

Wow, The President of the United States just won the Nobel Peace Prize!

How cool is that?

Does that mean that The USA is beginning to regain some of the respect that it used to have?

Is that why conservatives believe it's the apocolypse?

What a cool thing to wake up to this morning!

The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish, Danish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

The only other US Presidents to earn this award were Theodoore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter (22 years after his presidency).

Bed Bath and Beyond is OFF the list

2009-10-05T22:20:16Z

I'm not saying to boycott BB&B, I'm just saying it's not in the first thousand places I'll go look for things that they might sell. So what.

Here's why:

A friend of mine just married another friend of mine and they registered at BB&B. I thought "oh cool, I like that store." While I'm there, I'm sure I can find lots of things I could buy for my house, as indeed I have in the past.

Once I purchased a set of cookware there. I've bought sheets, shower heads, towels, kitchen stuff, floor stuff, wall decorations and even bedroom stuff. I've bought dinner plates, silverware, and glasses. I've bought all sorts of things for my bed, bath and, well, beyond. I don't go there every week or even every month. When I do go, I usually don't spend more than a couple of hundred bucks. I doubt my patronage is keeping their doors open.

But still, I used to like to go there.

When I got invited to the wedding, and saw my friends had registered there, I was excited. It seems I get coupons for BB&B about once a month that are good for 20% off. I thought, wow, that's a deal. I can go buy stuff for the wedding and save 20%. Sweet.

So I waited until the last minute, literally 6 hours before the wedding started, and went to the local store. The store clerks printed out the wedding registry showing the items that still needed to be purchased and were in stock at that location.

We quickly narrowed the item down and went and pulled it off the shelf and then proceeded back to the register to ring it up. On the way I read the small print on the coupon. "Not valid on ___________ or ____________ or ______________ or _________________"* and you could pretty much fill in the blanks with any name brand item that they sell – up to and including the item I was buying.

So I didn't save my 20%. That's ok. My friends are worth the money I spent (I'm not saying how much because they read this blog…). I had in fact budgeted to spend a little more than the list price turned out to be, so I should have been happy. Instead I was all pissy at BB&B for prepping me to save 20% and then yanking the savings out from under me at the last minute. It's like ordering coke and getting iced tea.

So even though I am happy to have purchased the item, and actually spent a little less than I budgeted, BB&B has made me a disgruntled customer by offering me something and then slapping so many conditions on it that I couldn't use it. The irony is that without the coupon I would have gone to exactly the same store and spent exactly the same amount of money and left happy.

Instead, I left disgruntled and I decided to take Bed Bath and Beyond off my list of places that I shop when I need stuff for my bedroom or my bathroom or my beyond. I'll still go there, but not on purpose, and not deliberately, not when I'm in the driver's seat, and definitely not often.

I'm sure the marketing department at Bed Bath and Beyond is trembling in their fluffy slippers.

*Not valid for the purchase of gift cards, All-Clad, Alessi, BabyJogger, Baby Planet, BOB, Bugaboo,DKNY, ERGObaby, kate spade, Maclaren, Maxi-cosi, Miele, Monique Lhillier, Mountain Buggy, Mutsey, Nambi, Nautica, Orbit Baby, Orrefors Kosta Boda, Pediped, Ed Hardy,Lhuiller, Vera Wang, Versace, Richard Ginori, Riedel, Swarovaski, Stokke, Waterford, Wedgewood Bumbleride, T-Tech by Tumi, Tempur-pedic, Wusthof, Margaritaville, DKNY, Ergobaby, McLauren, MaxiCosi, Uppa baby, Peg Pergo, Phil & Teds, Quinny, NettoCollection, CUBkids by Netto, Robeez, Shooting Starts portrait studio, Svan, Tommy Bahama and the Sharper Image,. Wedgwood, Lenox, Waterford, Vera Wang, Nambe, Riedel, Orrefors Kosta Boda, Viking, Oreck, Capresso, Miele, kate spade, Michael Aram, Versace, ALessi, Richard Ginori and Frette Home Products (where available). See Store for details.

I love the internet (#7)

2009-09-26T17:55:32Z

Frequency Modulation – No one is safe!

Incredible, amazing, (cool), Apple

2009-09-17T20:00:41Z

In case you haven't watched the keynote that introduce this year's lineup of iPods, here it is. Someone has edited it down to a minute and a half, in all of it's incredible glory.

the most amazing part to me is that it's in HD. they must have edited it on a Mac.

Fear of change

2009-09-15T16:23:49Z

Here's an interesting article from Seth Godin's blog. You may have heard of him, he has a couple of books about marketing and writes daily on his blog. I read it occasionally and recommend it enthusiastically.

The problem with non

here's a quick quote:

Take a look at the top 100 twitter users in terms of followers. Remember, this is a free tool, one that people use to focus attention and galvanize action. What? None of them are non-profits. Not one as far as I can tell. Is the work you're doing not important enough to follow, or is it (and I'm betting it is) paralysis in decision making in the face of change? Is there too much bureaucracy or too much fear to tell a compelling story in a transparent way?

I find it fascinating. I would recommend anyone, not just non-profits, to take what he says to heart.

Here's another excerpt:

Please don't tell me it's about a lack of resources. The opportunities online are basically free, and if you don't have a ton of volunteers happy to help you, then you're not working on something important enough. The only reason not to turn this over to hordes of crowds eager to help you is that it means giving up total control and bureaucracy. Which is scary because it leads to change.

Reflections on iTunes 9

2009-09-09T22:56:17Z

So I've had iTunes 9 for about 3 hours and of course I've done nothing but poke and prod at it. I'm sure I'll have a better opinion later.

I like most of it, it's a good solid upgrade. Thank you, Apple, for giving me the option to organize my iPhone Apps on my Mac. I've already overhauled where everything sits. And thank you for giving me a method to keep my iTunes on my laptop synced with my iTunes in my living room. Good move.

Two things I see that are disappointing, though, are:

1.iTunes 9 does not appear to be a 64-bit app. That means it's not using Grand Central Dispatch, and I will (probably) still see stuttering video when iTunes is downloading podcasts and other files in the background. boooo. boooooooo.

and

2.iTunes 9 changed the background color on the screens with icons to white (see the screen shot above). I know that Apple is all about making the iPod/iTunes ecosystem recognizable, but come on. Most of the time when I'm viewing videos, I'm in a dark room and the screens that used to be black (good for viewing in a darkened space) have all turned glaringly white. Bad bad bad. now when the TV show is over and the mood is all set, iTunes jumps back to a BRIGHT WHITE screen and messes with my old-man eyes. boooooo x 2. So if anyone sees a hack or a way to change that background color, please let me know!

So I'd give it a solid 6 or 7 (out of 10). The new features are nice. I'm still playing a bit with the genius mixes, and I'm sure I'll be comfortable with the store soon enough. I'll keep my fingers cross (but won't hold my breath) for an upgrade soon that fixes my only two complaints.

Music by the birds

2009-09-09T00:48:11Z

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

It's official.

2009-11-28T06:55:19Z

We signed the contract and made the deposit today. Now I just have to get the invitations together, figure out who the caterer should be, get Navarre to make some red velvet cakes, argue about the Adams Tartan and Scottish vs. German traditions, figure out who's gonna play the music, invite the pastor, stress out for two months, all the usual stuff.

Looks like November 14 is going to be the big date here in Portland.

You should plan to come. Send me email if you want to be included on the social event of the season…

Say it with me: Chu-pa-cab-ra

2009-09-02T17:11:27Z

The crazy news just doesn't stop. It must be the end of summer…

A man in Texas (where else?) has a chupacabra carcass. And he just happens to be a taxidermist, so he knows it ain't no coyote. He's going to preserve it and hoping to sell it to a local museum because he's sure there's one out there who will want it. So is the news of the chupacabra the big item here? or is it that there's a museum that's considered local to Blanco, Texas?

"There are all sorts of strange animals that are roaming the woods here in south Texas…then there are those animals that you just don't know what they are…"

Texas Man Says He Has Mythical Chupacabra

And I Quote…

2009-09-01T23:29:06Z

"This iPhone/iPod touch version has the entire 2.074 page, 7.4 pound dictionary with its nearly 300,000 terms -plus 64 thousand recorded sound files by native speakers- all available instantly at your fingertips.
More than 33,000 written examples, totaling 4,222,000 words, makes this the largest mobile dictionary on ANY platform. The indexes alone are larger than most brand-name dictionaries. Even without the sound files, AHD4 would still be over 100MB and the largest dictionary in the AppStore."

hehe, I thought that last sentence said "...ADHD…" which may have been entirely appropriate, since I've already moved on.

Go see it in the AppStore for yourself (opens iTunes).

bouncy bouncy

2009-09-01T06:16:49Z

So I've decided to get rid of the Prius. I do love it, and it's a fine car. But it's just too expensive for me to keep right now. With the car payment that I have, I could be buying a used car on craigslist every single month.

So say goodbye to good gas mileage. Say hello to Tim's Jeep. I've started calling it "our Jeep." I don't think he minds.

Today I did my first commute out to Troutdale from The John Ross and it wasn't horrible. It's actually kind of fun.

I suppose that'll wear off at some point. In the meantime, I've re-applied all the right tunes to my iPod Nano for the upcoming Jeep rides.

BTW, if you are interested in buying a used Prius that's in pretty good shape, leave me a comment and I'll be in touch.

BBQ Blowout

2009-08-31T16:30:46Z

Thanks to everyone who came to our BBQ today. It was a lot of fun. I won't even begin to talk about the crazy last minute, just-in-time delivery of all of the foods and ice creams and things.

More crypto-winko

2009-08-29T23:32:10Z

Earlier this week I got to post about the local folks who are in search of Bigfoot. Today in the MailOnline (from the UK) there's a guy who claims he can see Nessie (the Loch Ness Monster) in google maps!

So the question remains. Is that Nessie, a giant octopus, a frowny face, or just a boat? Hmmmmm.

I guess it takes all kinds.

Read the whole story over at the MailOnline website.

Summer is over

2009-08-28T01:47:15Z

Sad but true. Try not to cry. School is starting for people and the summer is coming to an end.

Crypto-Bloggery

2009-08-27T16:45:52Z

Today at the Oregon Bigfoot site, there's this quote from "Crypto-Linguist", Scott Nelson.

I believe that the study of these tapes will never (and should never) end. With the recognition and acceptance that these creatures do indeed speak and understand a complex language, a greater effort will be made to collect voice recordings and our analysis of the language will improve.

He's convinced that Bigfoot is intelligent enough to have a language, like dolphins, or children.

Prior to today, I've seen "Cryptozoologists" on various cable tv channels. They always strike me as crazy hermits who believe in Operation Cloverleaf. I mean the guy they always quote on The History Channel really does look like, well, let's just say he looks a little odd.

Crypto-Linguist Scott Nelson's picture looks like he could be the guy next door. In fact, he has pretty impressive creds from the Navy. There was also that former policeman in Conroe, TX, who claimed the ridges on the plaster casts of Bigfoot ran a different direction than the ridges on a human's foot. And don't forget the siting out near Multnohma Falls where over 80 people saw a Bigfoot trying to cross Interstate 84. 80 people including an Oregon State Trooper.

I love living in Bigfoot country. Everyone here knows someone who thinks they may have seen Bigfoot at one point or another. Someday I hope we can prove they really do exist (Bigfoots, not the people who've seen them). Right across the river there's a county in Washington that even has a law on the books that makes it illegal to shoot a Bigfoot.

One of these days I'm actually going to make it to one of the Bigfoot events around here.

Coke conspiracy

2009-08-26T19:55:24Z

Do you remember Coca-Cola?

Back in the 1970s it was a mass of chemicals and pure cane sugar. Tasty.

Now, in the U.S. at least, it's loaded with chemicals and High Fructose Corn Syrup. Some people maintain that HFCS is contributing to the obesity problem in our kids – partially because the same amount of HFCS has 10% more calories than cane sugar.

I believe it tastes different than the Cokes of my childhood.

So I started pondering the whole issue, and you know how dangerous that can be. It's like I'm supposed to be studying for a calculus test or something…

Remember when Coke phased in New Coke as "a better tasting Coke"? then within a couple of years they went back to "Coke Classic" that never really tasted like the original Coke, but still tasted better than New Coke?

I am wondering if the Coca-Cola Company wasn't just yanking our collective chain as they corrupted their formula with HFCS.

Fact : in 1983 – Coca-Cola began taste tests of New Coke in an effort to retire the old formula.

Fact: by 1985, you couldn't get original Coca-Cola any more. It was all New Coke, and everyone hated it. So the Coca-Cola company re-issued the "original" Coca-Cola as "Coke Classic".

Fact: 1985 – Return of the Jedi was released at the movie theatre where I worked and we still had some of the original coke syrup to compare to the new "Classic Coke" in taste tests with our patrons. We got some free local publicity from that one. Ironically, the Coke Classic tasted sweeter than the original Coca-Cola in side-by-side taste tests.

Fact: Soft drink makers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi use sugar in other nations, but switched to HFCS in the U.S. in 1984 (thank you wikipedia for that). Notice how that fits right in the middle of the switch to New Coke and then to Coke Classic debacle?

Hypothesis: The whole bait and switch thing with New Coke and Coke Classic was just so they could slide HFCS in on us when we weren't looking.

Dammit. I wish I had been paying more attention back then.

Oh and here's another fun fact: According to Coca-Cola authorities, the best Coca-Cola is made in Skopje, Macedonia, where the company has granted the Skopje Brewery its "Best Bottling Company" award. (also from Wikipedia)

Even though they know Coke is better with cane sugar, they continue to flood the biggest market with HFCS.

District 9 v. Rosemary's Baby

2009-08-26T00:19:44Z

Stupid crazy people taking your baby to see District 9? What are you smoking? Why would you do that to your kid?

Tim and I went to see District 9 last weekend. For those of you who don't know, it's a film about aliens. Space aliens. And cursing. And guns. and bombs. and bloody explosions (the aliens had a really cool gun that would explode a person like a balloon and blood would fly everywhere – including all over the camera). I'm not so offended by this stuff. I think it's a lot of fun to watch.

But it was very violent, in a video game sort of way.

The movie did an excellent job of exploring race relations on this planet. It highlighted the worse parts that come out whenever we start dealing with refugees and not trusting folks who are different. And it did it in a non-preachy way, since the different folks were crazy space monsters.

So, did I mention the exploding guts and space monsters hopping on everything?

So why would those friggin morons bring their less-than-two-year-old baby to the movie?

People. Please. Babies do have eyes and ears. And they will remember the movies. In some cases they won't know where the imagery came from, but they will remember.

When I was growing up, I had a recurring nightmare. I'd always wake up terrified. It scared me so much that I wouldn't even tell anyone about it.

When I was in my 20s, I happened to watch a movie called "Rosemary's Baby." Maybe you've heard of it. I was astounded and amazed that the recurring nightmare was a scene from the classic film about demon spawn.

So I called my mom and asked her if I ever saw that movie and she sheepishly replied that she and my father had gone to see it in the drive-in theatre, and I was supposed to have been asleep in the back seat of the car. So there you go. I was only 2, and it scarred me for life.

So somebody shake those stupid people down when they start taking their babies to movies like District 9, which is destined to become another classic, but probably shouldn't have tiny children watching it.

Free (and legal) iPhone/iPod Touch software

2009-08-24T19:10:45Z

There's a cool website that I've been spending a lot of time at lately. Actually, I haven't been spending much time at the website, rather I've been spending a lot of time playing games that I won at the website.

It's a site where people can register to win games and software that would otherwise cost actual money at the iTunes App store.

When a developer creates an app, they get 100 free download codes that they can use to distribute for reviews or to family and friends or whatever. In this case, whatever became a website where they give some of them away for free.

All you have to do in return is nothing. Except they do ask you to review the game online in the App store if you have a moment.

I've been very lucky and should probably stay quiet so my odds will stay high, but it seems like I'm downloading something free almost every day.

So here's the site: http://www.appgiveaway.com

You can go there and read all about it, register, and start winning Apps from the iTunes App Store, too. It's a great deal!

kellylenox.com is online

2009-08-29T22:47:19Z

My friend Kelly Lenox is a "freelance editor, writer, poet, and translator,
working for clients in the United States and Europe."

She has a new website and I promised her I'd put a link to it here on Cliffdweller so that Google could breeze through and take a look at it.

You, human, are invited to do the same.

Her link is kellylenox.com.

And if you go there and hire her, tell her I said, "Hi." Wait. Did I grammar that correctly? Should there be a comma or not? or what about the capitalization. It's so hard to know. If only I knew an editor person to ask… :)

…an editor person like Kelly!

Right, a cell phone.

2009-08-22T04:03:06Z

Today I had an issue that I reported to Apple about iTunes on my iPhone. It was one of those things that only I would ever run up against, so it's no big deal really. I just wanted Agent P (yes, I always name my *Pods after cartoon characters) to do one more thing so I wouldn't have to dig my MacBook out and log on to the real internet.

Alas, the iPhone wouldn't do that one thing. And that one thing wasn't even Flash related.

So I logged into Apple's support site and found the page where I could submit a complaint. And you know I love to complain.

A couple of hours later, I actually received this back from Apple Support:

I see that you ran into some trouble while trying to … on your cell phone.

Like what?

After years of correcting people who dared to use the generic "laptop" to refer my MacBook (and PowerBook before it), and after years of correcting people who used generic terms like "PC" for my Macintosh(es), I was appalled by someone at Apple actually just referring to my hand-held computer as a generic cell phone.

Anyone with an iPhone knows it's not just a cell phone. Anyone except the support team at iTunes.

A UFO? In Britain? How about 14 new reports?

2009-08-19T16:38:31Z

The Ministry of Defense in the UK has released more paperwork about UFOs. This time around it centers on sightings in the early 90s.

The files do show, though, that not all the sightings and reports were without foundation. Bright lights seen across Devon and Cornwall, South Wales and Shropshire in the early hours of 31 March 1993 by 70 police and military witnesses were documented in more than 30 sightings reported to the MoD over a six-hour period. The reports said it was very big, shaped like a catamaran and was completely silent. The MoD's UFO desk, known as section (AS)2a, asked the RAF to replay its radar tapes but nothing unusual was detected.

While they do maintain that there's no such thing as alien life or UFOs, they do pose some interesting stats. Like how more UFOs are sighted when The Xfiles are on TV…

So is the MoD on to something, or are they just shilling for Hollywood's District 9?