Finally got around to reading Slate’s article (via kottke) on “The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See.” Essentially instead of having a computer write out all the city names and state borders and rivers etc, David Imus did it by hand.

By contrast, David Imus worked alone on his map seven days a week for two full years. Nearly 6,000 hours in total. It would be prohibitively expensive just to outsource that much work. But Imus—a 35-year veteran of cartography who’s designed every kind of map for every kind of client—did it all by himself. He used a computer (not a pencil and paper), but absolutely nothing was left to computer-assisted happenstance. Imus spent eons tweaking label positions. Slaving over font types, kerning, letter thicknesses. Scrutinizing levels of blackness. It’s the kind of personal cartographic touch you might only find these days on the hand-illustrated ski-trail maps available at posh mountain resorts.

There’s something to be said about putting that much time and dedication into your craft. I spend a lot of time these days trying to figure out the best and most efficient workflow for myself, of getting things done faster. But there’s certain things that you get passionate about where time is no longer an issue, and it’s about getting it done right.

Apple’s got an event going on tomorrow, where they’re widely expected to reveal the next version of their iPad.

My guesses? Retina screen (2048×1536 resolution), the pricing will be the same as the current iPad 2s, it’s getting 4G LTE, and the design will be largely the same, just with slight adjustments in the taper as we’ve been seeing in leaked photos. I’m liking the recent rumors that it will be called the iPad HD as opposed to iPad 3.

What do I think isn’t happening? The home button going away (no way in hell that’s happening), a haptic screen, or a smaller form-factor.

Rumors keep speculating on a 7″ version of the iPad coming out to compete with the Kindle Fire. I think that’s plausible, but if they just lowered the prices of the iPad 2 then I think that’s enough in their way of competing. Sure, it’s not smaller, but the price is going to be a lot closer.

I’m also expecting the AppleTV to be updated – hopefully with 1080p support this time. I feel like this is going to be the one to catch us off-guard.

Lastly are the MacBook Pros, which are about due for a redesign. I keep hearing that they’re all going to turn into slim MacBook Air-like models, which I can completely see happening. It feels unlikely that this will be announced tomorrow though as it’s going to steal the thunder from the rest of the announcements.

Even before I had my iPhone in my hands, I was already looking into how to get it connected to my car. My Mazda3 is from 2004, which apparently is just before everyone’s car started coming with aux-in connections and Bluetooth, as my car has neither.

Aux-In

I remembered reading way back when I still had a functioning iPod that people had developed modules that would connect to the back of my car’s stereo and trick it into thinking a CD changer had been attached, while providing either a USB iPod connector. Recent searches didn’t come up with a lot of new developments, so I went with a tried and true solution.

The requirements I was looking for in the connection: 1. Retains the steering wheel controls for changing tracks. 2. Charges the phone. 3. Would not completely take over the phone, so I could still use it for navigation and phone calls.

I ended up going with the GTA Car Kit because it fit all of those requirements, was rather inexpensive, and had decent reviews.

Mount and Holder

As for the mount, I wanted something as minimal as it could possibly get. I was avoiding the vent-mounted docks because I think it’s ridiculous to block an air vent in that way, and I also didn’t want something that was going to obstruct any of my controls.

I came across the custom bezel mounts made by Bracketron, which is a piece of metal mounted to a pre-existing screw in the car. It would require removing the car stereo to get to the screw, but not a big deal since I had to do it anyway to install the GTA Car Kit. The one for the Mazda3 mounts up near the head unit and the glove compartment, which I thought was a perfect spot.

Of course, this is just the mounting bracket and not a holder for the iPhone. The bracket itself came with pre-drilled holes that would fit an AMPS pattern. This basically means that they’re drilled to a specification other manufacturers have agreed upon, so I was free to find a AMPS compatible mount to go with the bracket.

Again, I wanted something slim and discreet. Pro.Fit seemed to offer that with the miCRADLE 4. It’s made to fit my iPhone very snugly, and absolutely won’t fit if there’s a case on the phone. +1 for going naked with my phone.

Installation

The entire installation was rather painless. I’m not going to go into too much detail as there are instructions out there on the web as to how to remove the head unit from the Mazda3. The tricky part came when deciding how to run out the cable from the head unit to the phone.

Most of the guides I had seen suggested running it into the glove compartment (nope, gotta be able to see my phone) or running it out of the little coin box next to the cigarette lighter. That wasn’t a bad option, but I’d rather not have that little door open all the time. Instead I went with drilling a hole into the side of the center console on the passenger side and just threading the cable out that way. Not entirely discreet, but I think the end result was fine.

I ran into one slight problem with the phone holder – the cutout at the bottom for the dock connector wasn’t wide enough to accommodate the connector that came with the GTA Car Kit. Some sand paper and a nail file worked wonders though, and now I’ve got my phone integrated with my car.

And yes, I always feel so creepy when I go buy them. I have to look around and hope that nobody else is in the tiny aisle buying socks too. Then I start thinking, “Do I look old enough to have a kid?”

If there are kids there, I try not to stare at the kids. And then subconsciously not to look down at the feet. Do they have bigger feet than I do?

Then as I’m trying to find the right size, I’m focusing and thinking, “Don’t stare at the kids on the packaging. At least make it look like you’re looking at the socks and not the kids. Idiot, why do you have to try? You really are looking at the socks.”

Then I’m trying to find calf socks, but not the ones that go up to the knees, and not the short crew ones either. I’m taking too long, shit hurry up you pedo.

All of this could be avoided if they just made more accurately-sized mens socks. “Sizes 6-12.” Bullshit. How the hell did you manage to design socks to fit six shoe sizes? Six! That’s impossible. You guys designed shoes down to the half-size, and here you’re telling me these magic socks will fit a range of six shoe sizes?

There was nothing more disappointing than ripping open the plastic wrap and putting on socks in the Target parking lot to find that gray patch that’s supposed to be on my heel was way up by my ankle. So much was said with so little.

A weekend back in Pasadena with the parents pretty much always means going out to eat some Chinese food. My dad decided on Mama’s Lu on Garvey. Along the way we passed by another Mama’s Lu that had apparently just opened but wasn’t advertising yet. We proceeded to the original location, found a wait of ten parties ahead, and went back to the new location.

Inside it’s a lot less cramped and a lot cleaner. The menu looked to be about the same prices-wise, and just about all the same items were available.

Chicken soup. We got two of these to share among the three of us. Chicken’s a bit dry, but the soup is very herby and probably makes your nails grow faster or increases electrolyte production in your blood.

This was interesting – I believe it was cappuccino pork chop? Basically pork chop with coffee flavored sauce. Kinda tasty, but I tired of it after eating too much.

Tofu, mushrooms, and veggies. I really should have written down the names of the dishes. The tofu in this was cooked perfectly, and had a lot of flavor.

The sea bass was perhaps my favorite dish. Extremely tender, the fish just sort of fell apart when I poked my chopstick into it.

I’ve never understood what all the rage is with Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. I’ve been there once – waited way too long for dumplings that were extremely mediocre and overpriced. Din Tai Fung’s become my benchmark – basically if you think their dumplings are amazing and that the place is worth the wait, then I no longer trust your reviews on dumplings and possibly even Chinese restaurants.

The dumplings (aka Xiao Long Bao aka XLB) at Mama’s Lu are way better. Perfectly juicy on the inside and the skin isn’t too doughy. Mama’s Lu gives you ten dumplings for $5.99. Go back and try the ones at Deng Tai Jiu if you want (that’s right, I’m making jokes in phonetic Chinese Mandarin now), but it’s all hype if you ask me, and you’re crazy if you don’t think the ones at Mama’s Lu are better.

Damage for the entire meal was a measly $37.46. Wish I could find a place as good and as cheap as this in the Irvine area.

Mama’s Lu
501 W Garvey Ave
Ste 101-103
Monterey Park, CA 91754

I managed to max out my Dropbox referrals in three days, following this Lifehacker article on using Google Adwords to your advantage.

For those of you who don’t use it yet, Dropbox provides you with 2GB of free cloud storage, so you an access your files from pretty much anywhere. It’s web-based and has applications you can download for OS X, Windows, iOS, Android, and Blackberry. I’ve taken to putting most of my documents and projects and anything else that I readily need access to in there.

2GB isn’t much, but for every person you refer to Dropbox (up to 32), you get another 250MB of space. 500MB if you’ve linked up a .edu account (Follow this sneaky method to get one for yourself if you’re no longer edumacated like me). You can also complete some simple tasks to get another 640MB.

The How

Alright, enough free advertising for Dropbox. This is about me getting free stuff, cause I love free. I came across a post on Slickdeals a few days ago mentioning how to get another 5GB of storage for free by installing a beta version of the software and then uploading photos and video. Done and done.

In that same thread, someone mentioned that Lifehacker had posted a way to max out your referrals by using Google Adwords. At that point I had a measly two referrals (I have no friends). I followed the tutorial, and as of this morning I’m maxed out. It looks like it used up no more than $45 of my free Adwords credit, and at the end of all this I’ve got 26GB of free storage.

Notable

A couple of things of note: I didn’t follow the Lifehacker article to the letter. I saw some mention of limiting the CPC to $0.05 instead of just letting it auto-bid, and it did seem to work quite a bit better, letting me get more ads out.

It’s also really interesting to see the e-mail addresses of the people who signed up. Of the 40 people who joined (if they don’t install the app then I don’t get the credit, hence 8 more users than the 32 max):

• 13 Gmail
• 11 Hotmail
• 8 Yahoo
• 8 Other

Just something to keep in mind, that despite Gmail being so amazing, a lot of people are still using other e-mail services. And for those of you who are, why the hell aren’t you on Gmail yet?

I’m super happy the Dropbox referrals worked out though. This just gives me even more confidence in the idea of putting everything “offline” and running smaller hard drives in PCs in the future.

The guy who everyone assumed would have an iPhone (that’s me) finally got an iPhone.

It’s been just over three months since I first got it, and I thought it’d be good to write up some thoughts and impressions on the iPhone, since this is my very first smartphone.

Comparison

Is there even a point in comparing this to my old phone? I used to have a Nokia 1680. Laugh all you want, but I dropped that thing quite a few times and it always kept working. The battery lasted around five days, mostly because nobody ever called me =( I actually got really used to predictive text input, and the camera of course was a piece of crap. And no data plan, obviously.

Case

Obviously I’ve been finding myself being a lot more careful with the iPhone 4s. I’m not using a case or screen protector because I really like the design and the feel of it naked, and so far it’s been fine. Some tiny scratches here and there and just a tiny nick on the front edge, but otherwise it’s still fine. I do have a really nice felt case that’ll be handy to use when traveling or if I participate in some activity that’ll have me worrying that the phone might drop out of my pocket.

Battery

The battery, of course, is a big change for me. I have to charge it every day now. I thought this would be a big inconvenience but it hasn’t been terrible. Games eat up the battery like no other. It will easily last me a full day on a full charge, but I was spoiled by the five day battery of my Nokia.

There were some issues with the iPhone 4s when I first got it. I would go to sleep with the battery at 100% and wake up to find it at 80%. iOS 5.0.1 which was released shortly after the launch of the 4s seems to have fixed those issues though.

Sprint & CDMA

Originally I was going to switch from T-Mobile to AT&T, but due to my awesomely sad and frustrating yet kind of hilarious fiasco with their customer service, I ended going over to Sprint. Sprint meant going on a CDMA network, and CDMA meant no simultaneous voice and data. I was a bit worried about not having this feature at first, but I’ve only come across maybe one situation where I found myself needing it.

Data speeds on the other hand are horrible. I’m averaging maybe 0.5 Mbps down and about the same for upload. The most I’ve ever gotten is around 1.80 Mbps down. I’ve compared with friends on AT&T and their speeds blow Sprint’s away. Disappointing, but this is definitely a limitation of Sprint and not Apple.

Siri

I don’t really use Siri. She’s handy for setting timers, and that’s maybe about it. Honestly most of the time I forget I even have that feature. I’d like to use it in the car, but right now I don’t have a headset or speakerphone.

Conclusion

Overall, I love it. I still think it’s one of the best smartphone designs out right now, and the retina screen is just so sharp and pretty, I want to lick it. I’ll go more into the apps I use and car integration in a future post.

Bruxie, “The Bold Fold,” as they call themselves, seemed gimmicky to me. The idea of waffle sandwiches sounds unique and tasty, but in execution felt mediocre. I didn’t find anything special with the waffles themselves, and what they put in the fold did anything but scream delicious.

On my first visit I ordered their buttermilk fried chicken and waffle, and it was bland, dry, and boring. On my second visit a friend went for that very same waffle (because come on, if you’re going to a waffle place you’re ordering their fried chicken and waffle) and came to the same conclusion I had. After two visits to their original location in Old Towne Orange just off Orange Circle, I wrote them off as a fad.

I went with some friends to the newly opened Brea location and figured I’d stick to the sweet waffles since those were good, and there was no way this new location could be any better than the original Bruxie in Orange. I split the Nutella & bananas, and then got a shredded pork listed on their specials menu to balance out the sweet waffle.

I enjoyed the shredded pork at first. It had a nice Asian flavor to it, although perhaps a bit heavy on the onions. The Nutella & bananas was awesome and there isn’t even a point in describing it.

Some friends went ahead and ordered the chicken and waffles despite my warnings (heed my warnings!), and it looked quite a bit different from the one I had tasted. The chicken was slathered in honey and there was a good amount of coleslaw (the one I ate had very little honey and almost no coleslaw), and they kept raving about how good it was.

I relented and ordered one. And it was everything I imagined chicken and waffles to be. Bruxie, what’s up with the quality control? I’m tempted to give the Orange location another try now, but you failed me twice already. Big thumbs up for the store in Brea though. The line also moved very quickly despite being long, and orders came out much faster than expected.

Also I got a chocolate shake. It was meh.

Bruxie
215 W. Birch Street
Brea, CA 9282

And here’s the last. I’ve realized I should probably have called this series, “Eric’s Favorites from his Tumblr” since some people seem to think my choies are questionable. Well go make your own website then and post your favorites. Hmph.

• To Kanye
• Raynell gets eager on Jeopardy
• Mark Hamill’s interpretation of the Joker
• Nightmares Fear Factory’s Photostream
• Beyonce makes fan sing
• Teaser for TLC’s Virgin Diaries
• Zooey Deschanel has fans
• Ellen’s hilarious scare montage
• Lucius Fox can’t decide

Just finished watching Star Wars: Clone Wars. I watched these way back in college, but Brad Vassar watched them over the weekend and talking to him got me wanting to see them again.

Don’t confuse this series with the 3D CGI animated series that came out later in 2008. This is the series that came out in 2003 and was produced by Samurai Jack’s Genndy Tartakovsky.

It’s no exaggeration that this animated series was the best thing to come out of the Star Wars prequels. Why?

• You get to see General Grievous kick ass, and understand why he is feared by all of the Jedi. In the movies he is just some random villain thrown in and you don’t know why he’s supposed to be so amazing.
• The camaraderie between Obi-Wan and Anakin is finally shown as they fight together in the Clone Wars, and you get a clear view of their friendship.
• The tone is more adult and serious than the movies. The animated series finishes right before the beginning of Episode 3. I went ahead and watched the first fifteen minutes of Revenge of the Sith and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
• Anakin’s struggle with the Dark Side is fleshed out and much more believable.
• Action. Non-stop action. And the action involves seeing Jedi being badasses instead of the wusses they were portrayed as in the films.
• Mace Windu. Watch that. If that doesn’t make you want to watch the whole series then you’re dead to me.