29th
MAY
The Rivalry Continues
I haven’t written about my beloved Red Sox in a while, well, because they’ve been depressing as of late. I love the fact that even Johnny has been saying that they “are just a bad team right now”. I was a little worried with them going into a weekend series with the Yankee$ in NY. The first game was a bit of a pooper. There was some questionable decisions made by the third base coach that cost us some potential lead-extending runs, but that’s life. Then game 2 just exploded! Holy crap, 17 runs and 27 hits!!! Unbelievable…that all I can say. That brings us to tonights game. Boomer has been very bi-polar in his starts this year. He managed to bring the kick-a arm with him tonight, and pitched a gem. He only allowed 6 hits and 2 runs over 8.1 innings. Way to go Boomer. And the bats are really starting to pick up now. Manny and Edgah are pulling out of their funks and are now putting up some big numbers. Destination: Dynasty writes:
Edgar Renteria is up to .290 and scorching hot right now. At one time in this game he was 12 for his last 14. Manny, at one point in the game, was 7 for his last 7, all singles.
Papi had 2 MONSTER long-balls tonight; an upper-deck shot in the first to right field, and a straightaway center shot in the third. Dynasty called the second HR “Reggie Jackson-esque“, and also says that “He hit that ball wicked hahhd.” Gotta love it.
27th
MAY
Win vs. Mac
Filed under Technology
NYTimes.com just published a good article on the “ground rules” for the OS war.
The Mac-Windows war, though, is especially pointless, protracted, and winnerless. There will always be people on each side who are every bit as rabid and un-convincible as those in any other religious war.
I have to put my hat in the Mac camp. There has really only been one thing that has kept me from going back to a Mac — the cost. However, the new Mac Mini could be the product that brings me back with it’s entry level price tag. I have an 8-month-old son and I’d love to be able to use the iLife suite to work with videos and photos. Instead I’m stuck using OK photo software and cumbersome video software. I could then turn my x86 box into a pure Linux system — rather than the dual boot that it is now — and get the best of both worlds 
By abandoning Windows for Mac I’d lose Crimson Editor, but I’d gain Bluefish which I’ve used on Linux and like a lot. I’d lose the ability to play a large selection of computer games, but I very rarely play games anymore that’s not even a real consideration of mine. I think for the little that I would “lose” I would gain that much and more from a Mac. But that’s just me.
26th
MAY
I’m What?
Filed under God Type Things
Found this quiz online which is supposed to rate my “world view”. Some of the questions I didn’t really understand so I just marked the neutral option Well, here is “my world view”:
You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.
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What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com
25th
MAY
Been a Long Time
Filed under Music
I just ripped OK Computer onto my computer at work today. It’s been so long since I’ve listened to this album, but it is one of the greatest albums of the 1990s. Amazing album. Thom’s vocals are perfect for this rock/electronic/air-y sound. Chris Cornell could probably do a decent job at singing this album, but nowhere near the perfection that Thom Yorke achieves.
Speaking of Chris Cornell singing other peoples’ songs, my bro-in-law and I were talking about Audioslave the other day, and he mentioned that they are playing Rage and Soundgarden songs at their live shows. Obviously Chris can pull off Soundgarden songs, and the rest of the band could probably do a decent job of achieving the Soundgarden sound, but there is NO WAY that Chris will ever be able to pull off anything that sounds like Zack de la Rocha. Zach is…well…Zach. Chris is too rock sounding to be able to pull off the anger, passion, and general pissed-off-ness that makes Zach sound how he does. I’m trying to imagine how Bulls on Parade or Bombtrack would sound with Chris singing it, and it just seems funny.
24th
MAY
Ready to Start Blogging?
Filed under Technology
I found this article over at TechSoup today, talking about how to setup your own blog. They have some good tips on thing you’ll want to do in the setup process.
20th
MAY
Fired for Legally Using P2P
Filed under Technology
P2P, or peer-to-peer, is one of the hot terms of the early 2000’s. I found an article on Slashdot yesterday about a teacher, Jorge Cortell, at a university in Spain. This teacher gave a speech on the legal use of P2P networks, and following his presentation he was promptly fired. You can read his blog post for his side of the story. Here is a quote from his post:
The day before the conference, the Dean (pressured by the Spanish Recording Industry Association “Promusicae” as I found out later, and he recognized himself in a quote to the national newspaper El Pais, and even the Motion Picture Association of America, as another newspaper quotes) tried to stop it by denying permission to use the scheduled venue. So I scheduled a second one, and that was denied again. And a third time. Finally I gave the conference on the university cafeteria, for 5 hours, in front of 150 people.
When the media caught wind of this and contacted the Vice-Dean of Communications he said that Jorge was never a teacher at that university, but Jorge had been teaching there for 5 years! Amazing.
20th
An Example of WIDLM
Filed under Technology
WIDLM? You may be wondering what that stands for. It’s simple…Why I Don’t Like Microsoft. It was easier (and shorter) to type WIDLM than Why I Don’t Like Microsoft. But, here is the aformentioned example.
Today on the Houston Chronicle’s TechBlog, Dwight Silverman posts about a recent interview with Micro$oft CEO Steve Ballmer. While the author (not Dwight) states that the content is not verbatim, the jist of it is there. Ballmer is quoted as saying:
We believe RSS is important and will be around for a while but it is not going to change the world. It is a little too simple, that is also the reason everyone’s using it. We are working on more existing powerful stuff, around XML/web services [sic] that will address many issues beyond RSS. RSS will be around, but whatever we are working next will be cooler and more prevelant.
Having said that, there are groups in MS that believe RSS has the potential to change everything and many future technology will be built around RSS, the internal debate goes on.
Silverman rebutts Ballmer’s “simple” claim with “Uh, Steve . . . simple is the point!” Amen!!! Not everything needs to be robust and complex. I think he’s forgotten that simple things change the world, too. Do you remember another simple thing called HTML? That sure has changed the world over the last 10 years.
And what do you mean by “cooler and more prevelant”? If you mean proprietary and full of security flaws, then yes that is probably true. Will it be forced on the world as a built-in “feature” of your monopoly product, Windows, like Internet Explorer and Windows Media?
That’s one of the problems with Microsoft. They take a simple idea that works really well, and they decided that it’s not “good” enough so they make it bloated and cumbersome. It’s like what a former co-worker of mine used to say about the difference between MS developers and open-source developers; Perl/Python programmers use a nutcracker to open a walnut, where MS developers use a sledgehammer.
17th
MAY
Fun on Two-Wheels
Filed under Being a Kid
I know that Judah is only now starting to crawl, but it’s got me thinking about the things that I want to do with him when he gets older (and his siblings too, when they come into the picture :-)). One of the things I lots of good memories about as a kid was riding my bike. I spent most of my early childhood years living in NE Portland. I spent a lot of time on my bike riding around the neighborhood with friends, but there were many times where my family would go out on rides together.
One place we’d ride to was Rocky Butte. Up on top of the butte is a man-made lookout area where you can see up the Columbia River Gorge and gaze at Downtown Portland. And due to the closeness of Portland International Airport you can watch as planes come and go. Being so franticly hyperactive I’d ride on ahead and eventually stop and wait for the slow-pokes to catch up. By the time my mom would show up I’d be rested and ready to go again, so I’d take off. She didn’t like that too much
Another ride we would take is along (and sometimes in the middle of) I-205 from Portland, OR, to Vancouver, WA. The trip to Vancouver is tiring because the bridge is mostly uphill as you go North, but that makes the trip home that much more fun as you can fly downhill going South. It was mildly scarey with all of that traffic going by on both sides of you, but with all of the barriers you totally feel safe.
So, sometime in the next 3-4 years I’ll need to get a bike. I somehow don’t think I’ll be riding through muddy baseball fields this time around, but I’ll be waiting with a hose to spray Judah off when he does…just like my dad did for me.
17th
On His Knees
Filed under Being a Kid
As I’ve mentioned before I was a high energy kid. I was always moving around. Well, the time has come that my son is starting to move around. We think he is going to be a high energy kid just like his old man. Oh boy, this is going to be fun! Check out some video clips of him here.
15th
MAY
Stand Up — A Review
Filed under Music
I am a fan of the Dave Matthews Band. Some might call me more than a fan, but fan is the word I choose to describe myself with. I own everything but DMB Live Volumes 1-3. If I wanted, I know where I could download the bootlegged copies of those show – fully legal mind you – on the Internet. But I’m here today to talk about the latest studio release from DMB, Stand Up.
On my first listen I didn’t know what to think about it. The music was enjoyable, but it wasn’t what I’ve come to expect from them. When I think about the kind of music that drew me to DMB it was the jazzy, jam laden tunes that could go on for 35 minutes in improvisational bliss. Before These Crowded Streets was the epitome of this jammie sound.
The more I sat and listened to this album the more I realized that those parts are still there. My brother-in-law’s roommate made a comment about the latest Weezer album that I think is very fitting to this offering from DMB. Stand Up is a really good album that falls victim to the recent studio history of DMB. To quote another review by a DMB fan, “Stand Up is literally Everyday dressed up in Before These Crowded Streets’ clothing.”
In 2000 we saw the failed Lillywhite Sessions. 2001 brought us Everyday, an over-produced studio album that was on its own merit a good album, but in no way what hard core DMB fans wanted to hear. Some of the Lillywhite tracks reappeared on Busted Stuff in 2002. I feel like, if you remove the albums from 2000-2002, Stand Up is an appropriate follow-up to BTCS, but with the studio happenings of the last few years I sense that many fans don’t know what direction the band is trying to go in.
Go check this album out. It is definitely worth the $12 on iTunes – yes, the full album is out on iTunes, and comes with a digital booklet and promotional video. I give it 3 out of 4 stars.
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