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| November 30, 2002 - January 22, 2003 | |
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I've been pointed to a discussion area on Apple.com where some people have tried various Etymotic headphones with iPods. General consensus is that they work without the need for an additional amplifier. Reviews were strangely mixed though. Some people repo
rted the dramatic improvement in quality that I've noticed, while others said there was no real improvement! Some people admitted they were afraid to seat the plugs correctly into their ears. I incidentally found out that the ear plugs that came with the first iPods are considered rather inferior, but the current ones are fine.
Go here to read a review of the Etymotics by an iPod owner. He sports real wood for 'em. Then, praise be the music gods, while perusing iPodlounge's forums, I stumbled upon a reference to Etymotic Research's Earphones. The rest of the story took me to audio nirvana. Here were earphones that truly matched the quality of the iPod itself. Very interesting animated gif showing the development of COUNTIES in the U.S. There's more info about this here, but it needs a key. There are two or three colors used, and they must mean something.
And here, a 10-minute animation of the history of U.S. expansion. Mandatory for anyone who was not a history major. And if you were a history major you'll want to see it to find fault. Student (possibly at the University of Kansas) manages to develop scurvy. In America you have got to make a really concerted effort to avoid eating ANYthing containing vitamin C for long enough in order to develop scurvy.
Digital clean up of the Muchmore film of the JFK assassination reveals a second man with an umbrella. Significant? Eh, who knows?
Another DVD burner that handles all formats. From FirwireDirect, you have your choice of internal or external, Firewire or USB 2.0. Prices from $415 to $498.
Girls! The must-have fashion accessory for your iPod can be found in Japan for ¥10,800. Any color you want, as long as it's white. Imagine how this smart and sassy gadget will turn heads at the beach, or just strolling down Commercial Street!
You know how there have been all these gadgets described as "credit card sized?" And they are, if you merely ignore the thickness. Now here's something that may really be credit card sized: the Storcard is 3.37 inches by 2.13 by 0.03 and contains a "hard" disk with up to 5 Gb capacity. The price is expected to be [may we call for that drumroll again, please] $15! The PC card readers will cost about $100
, or it can use USB 2.0 (Storcard website here).
I have owned a set of Etymotic ER-4S headphones for several months. I haven't mentioned them here because of my sheer embarrassment at paying $269 for what appear to be nothing more than earbuds. Now I'm confessing because these are the best headphones I have ever had...better by a huge margin than anything else I've ever listened to. Tremendous capacity for bass. Incredible detail. I'm hearing tiny sounds in performances that I've never heard before. Much of that is because of their unmatched 23 decibels of acoustic isolation. Seat these in your ear canals and the outside world disappears! They work much better than any other noise reduction headphones because the Etymotics reduce outside sound all the way across the spectrum, while most NR headphones are tuned to reduce only certain ranges of frequencies...most often the background roar heard inside a passenger aircraft. With
the etymotics in your ears and your stereo turned OFF you can hear a loud phone ringing or a siren if you're right next to it, but that's about all that will penetrate. Voices are gone. Car noise, wind, jet engine roar, train track noise, all go away completely. If you use these things in a public place you have to be very aware of your sudden deafness. Check traffic thrice. Watch your fellow passengers or pedestrians for signs of imminent emergency. On this past weekend's Amtrak ride they excelled. With these on and my eyes closed I was completely disconnected. I remember being really surprised when I opened my eyes once to find ourselves sitting in a train station. I had never even felt the train slow to a stop. (Sometimes Amtrak is quite smooth). BTW, I saw a young skin-headed man using a pair of Etymotics on the Amtrak. It's the first time I've spotted anyone else wearing them. He had his out of his ear canal and draped over the top of his ears while he flipped through CDs, otherwise I
probably wouldn't have picked them out.
The drawbacks: other than price. You shove these deep into your ear canal. If your mother taught you well, there will be great psychological discomfort pushing something so small in so far. They slip in and seat better if they are damp. I actually stick them in my mouth before putting them in my ears, having to overcome my disgust at the taste of earwax. This is all pretty intimate body contact of course, so sharing these with friends is out, if you behave responsibly. The kit does come wth one or two extra pair of those rubber tips, as they do wear out over time. They also include instructions on how to clean wax off of the speaker itself. That hasn't been necessary for me yet, but if your body makes more wax, or if your hygiene is different from mine, you could have a different experience. The wire is heavier than that on most portable headphones, as it should be at this price. But that coupled with its intimate spot inside your ear, means little bumps of the wire create a big noise. You learn quickly to adjust the wire away from anything that might bump it. There are other versions of Etymotics listed here, including a $129 version with "only" 15 to 20 dB of isolation. The ER-4S requires a lot of power, so if you're planning to use it with a portable player you may need a separate headphone amplifier. For me, this is true with my Riovolt CD/MP3 player. A patch cord runs from the headphone output to the amplifier. My Etymotics are plugged into the amplifier. The Riovolt is cranked up to maximum volume. However, my little Phillips mini-CD/MP3 player needs no additional power, but can push these headphones directly. So think about whether you want to drop $269 on a pair of headphones, and then find out you need an amp for another $119. You will love the result, but you may not be eager to tell your friends how much the little setup cost. I look forward to a report from someone on whether an iPod requires a separate amplifier to power these Etymotics. 
This past weekend was the first time I've ridden Amtrak since the completion of the monorail at the Newark airport. Well, it's there. Just from my position stuck inside Amtrak I could see so many monorails flitting back and forth it looked like one of those Walt Disney wet dream simulations of Disney World that we used to see in the '60s. (Info on monorails here).
The American Dialect Society has announced its "Words Of The Year" for 2002. First place goes to "weapons of mass destruction." In second and third places are google (the verb) and blog. Blog was also voted "most likely to succeed."
In the long-lasting battle of civil war veteran widows, the north has lost. Gertrude Janeway, the last surviving widow of a Union soldier, died January 19. She is survived by the last Confederate widow: Alberta Martin, 95, of Elba, Alabama. Here's a website with planning info, if you'd like to go to Alberta Martin's funeral.
Jack LaLanne is still alive and living in Morro Bay. 88 years old.
The sorry state of Amtrak: I took the "Acela Regional" to DC; that is, the regular ol' train. It cost one-third as much as an Acela Express. It was crowded only between NY and Philadelphia. It left Boston exactly on time and arrived in DC exactly on time. I mean exactly. It accomplished this by sitting in a couple of stations to drop back to the schedule. We sat in Philadelphia for at least 15 minutes waiting for an Acela Express to arrive and pass us. The only bad note on the ride down was the cafe menu. All of the real food on the menu included red meat...pepperoni pizza, turkey wrap with bacon, or an Italian cold cut wrap...except there was a cheese pizza, but that sold out instantly of course. I asked the woman working the cafe who made up these menus. And all that pork. Doesn'
t this train run through NYC? She said that the menu changes every two weeks, so if I came back I might find something I like.
The return trip was the overnight run. Just after leaving NY Penn Station the engine died in Queens, where we are on an elevated track. And there we sit. It's about 2:00 AM, on battery power only, no ventilation, and outside it's a bitter cold panorama of Queens. No announcements. I thought we sat there about half an hour, but as we arrived in Boston they announced that we had arrived 2 hours late in New Haven. It's possible I slept through most of it. I was sleeping pretty well. What woke me up was the female half of a couple in the row ahead of me. The male half was a fairly beefy, attractive Frank. The girl was a lightweight twit. She was insisting that she had to get off the train right now...being on an elevated track in Queens in the middle of the night and 10 degrees was what she wanted to step out into. I half hoped she would really do it so we could see the drama (or I could sleep). Amtrak has recently issued a bunch of new rules for "security;" things about checking ID, limits on carry-on luggage (two pieces of real luggage). The only time my ID was checked was at Union Station when I changed my return ticket about an hour before departure time. I was really surprised when a passenger boarded at Newark Penn Station and they asked him for his ticket when we got to NY Penn Station (prices are the same at both stations). He had no ticket at all. This was an all-reserve train (there are no unreserved trains anymore). The conductor should have at least checked his ID, if these rules mean anything. She could have been justified in throwing him off the train (although we had plenty of empty seats). But no. She just sold him a ticket to New London for cash. Genuine Kodak sample photos from the Kodak DCS Pro 14n Digital Camera (that's the one with 13.7 megapixels). Here are some others on a Japanese site owned by ILLUSION Photography.
 Can anyone give me an idea what this is? I saw it from the plane as we were flying to LAX. We had passed just south of the Grand Canyon shortly before I saw this in the desert. Military and/or research is my vague guess. Looks way too complex for mere irrigation patterns. At first I thought it might be the Very Large Array of radio telescopes, but that's clear back in New Mexico. Click the picture to see it much larger. Kilts.
I think we've covered kilts here at least once before, but it's been awhile, the market continues to grow, and it's such a nice subject. Under a thick cover of tradition and utility, they are really just as sexy as hell.
Two pics of the backside of the Edward Brooke Courthouse.
A chain of gyms in Hong Kong has pre-emptively banned ALL cell phone use in their locker rooms because some of them may be cameras as well. I have yet to see a website with photos like this where the poster claims he used a cell phone, but the people taking these sorts of pictures almost never let you know their technique.
Quick little negative review of the "Orange SPV running Microsoft's exciting, groundbreaking Smartphone 2002" in real time "use." Who ever heard of a one minute boot up process on a phone? Well, Microsoft thinks we want it.
Pit bull rescue story with happy ending. Once in awhile I've gotta link totally upbeat stories to offset the rest, I guess.
The new Memory Stick PRO has been officially announced. It has a theoretical potential of 32 Gb, but it is NOT compatible with current Memory Stick devices. For current products they also announced "Memory Stick with Select Function" which is like several Memory Sticks layered. One stick could have 512 Mb of memory, but it would be in four 128 Mb compartments. Manual switching between compartments would be required.
Here's an unusual site that reviews airports for their sleeping-in potential! A lot of the reviews come from users who got stranded by snow storms, or missed connecting flights, but there are also people who sleep in airports by choice just to save money. The Kansas City aiport gets some heavy criticism.
Photobloggie Award n
ominations are being accepted from January 16 to January 26. Maybe I have a chance in the "Best Kept Secret Photoblog" described as "Any photoblog that currently isn't in the limelight and should be; any photoblog not in the top 100 at photoblogs.org"
"The Answer" is a site for digital photojournalism.
After about 1½ years I decided to replace the filter screen on my Champion Juicer. The photo shows the horrifying reasons why.
 Click for full size One is instructed that the only permitted method of cleaning the juicer parts is by hand in lukewarm water with nothing more than mild detergent. I might take the old one and give it the bleach treatment now and see what happens. An astounding spherical panorama of Times Square at midnight on New Year's Eve. Great sharpness and clarity. You can see EVERYwhere except for a small circle "below" the point where we seem to be hovering. Presumably, that is where the camera is.
A hilariously informative account of MacWorld SF 2003. I spent a long evening yesterday re-installing Windows on my friend George's PC. Windows 98, that is. I haven't tried XP, of course, but something on my wish list for Windows is this: when it starts to fail, I wish it would just go to total, fuckin' failure immediately instead of slowly mincing backwards into death. It drives me crazy to spend half an hour running some Microsoft utility only to have the system come out worse. So I run some utility to fix that, and of course it just gets worse. Jesus never seems to appear to atheists, but if he really cared he would have deliverd an old, cheap, used iMac to me last night and there would have been a smashed PC lying in the middle of Huntington Avenue. Actually, that sounds more like something that would be Moses' job. I'll resubmit the request.
Benjamin Zander's "other" orchestra: The Philharmonia Orchestra.
Would ya just look at this, the Vulcan Mini-PC!
 This thing weighs about a pound, is about in inch thick, has a 5.8 inch 800 x 400 screen, features Wi-Fi and USB 2.0, comes with a 20 Gb hard drive, and [here's where the drumroll should be]...it runs fullscale Windows XP! Not that XP is a good thing, but to be able to squeeze it into this is impressive. Expected price about $1200 - $1500, and four hours on a battery charge...presumably a replaceable battery. Wonder how hot the little box gets. Might be able to use it to keep your coffee warm while Wi-Fi-ing at Starbucks. A major chunk of the Big Dig is set to open next week-ish (official opening on January 17). (Official press release here). It's the link from the Mass Pike to the Ted Williams tunnel, thereby allowing a fast (well, okay, I mean it's intended to be fast, don't blame me if it's not) connection to Logan airport for those coming from the west. This map (PDF) shows the section that is being opened. Discussion here. One guy there figures that after adjusting for inflation, the Big Dig is costing way less than the Panama Canal! I'm surprised.
Here's a flash-y Big Dig page to play with. Here is a search phrase that brought someone to Ro
n's Log (from Yahoo): "exactly on the button. how many people have gotten behcet's disease in the last 5 years and what are there names and what are there symtoms" Pretty demanding for someone who can't spell, I think.
Search with that phrase at Google and see what you get. Someday Google will probably be able to answer questions like that...for a fee! BTW, I had never heard of Behcet's Disease before. Information on Behcet's Disease is here. The Ship Of Fools seem to be real Christians with a sense of humor (not really such a rare thing), but they are willing to take it to the public! Unheard of. One feature of their site is "The Mystery Worshipper" who drops in at church services around the world and then writes a review. He liked the music at Trinity Church in Copley Square. Do not miss this review of the United House of Prayer for All People on the Rock of the Apostolic Faith in Roxbury.
What musical instruments were played?Enthusiastic praise for Cathedral Church of the King in Olathe, Kansas. BTW, "Olathe" has 3 syllables. Those network news announcers get it wrong about half the time. The truth is revealed about Church of the Advent (Beacon Hill), as well. The Ship of Fools Gadgets for God look good, but don't seem to actually be for sale. I woulda loved to be able to get these sandals: 
John Robb (BMOW), long time PC user says he's gonna Switch®. The resulting frenzy from Apple fans is similar to what I imagine might happen if Tom Cruise checked into an gay.com chat room, announced that he's decided he really is gay, and is there anyone here who wants to take his virginity? It's a sweaty and excited crowd vying to offer the best suggestions and highest praise.
To IBM and Hitachi: "We are not worthy!"
4 Gigabyte Microdrive announced. Actually it's coming from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, but as I read the press release I smelled IBM all over it. No way Hitachi could perform this miracle by itself. Indeed, as one reads to the bottom you'll find this: "Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was founded in 2003 [actually January 6, 2003] as a result of the strategic combination of IBM and Hitachi's storage technology businesses." Man. Four gigabytes in a space smaller than my left nut used to be [sob!]. They say they will maintain their price position; that is, the cheapest price per megabyte in the compact flash market. B & H sells the 1 Gb Microdrive for $280. 4 times that is $1120. The biggest compact flash type II that I know of is also 1 Gb, and it's $600 at B & H. So, I guess the new 4 Gb Microdrive will land somewhere between $1120 and $2400. How's that for sharp analysis? I had been thinking my Philips MP3 player that uses only 8 cm CD-ROMs was unique (and maybe it was), but now there is also the CyQ’ve Walkie Music MP3 Deluxe (for about $100-$120) which doesn't get a very good review. The only problem with my Philips is that it consumes batteries like a Balrog! It uses only a single AA battery, and that battery will not power it more than 2 or 3 hours. Worse, is that even when turned off, the battery discharges somehow. Rarely does a battery last overnight. Clearly something wrong there.
Rushing right up up on the tail of the CyQ’ve is this new TEAC MP-330 for about $110. (Amazon $103). It looks a lot prettier than the CyQ’ve. They complain it doesn't support ID3 tags (neither does the Philips). The CyQ’ve does. That's no big deal to me. Major reason for using the 8 cm discs is their small size. I expect the player to be designed to be as compact as possible, and that can include sacrificing some display space. The TEAC also lacks direct folder jumping, a feature that the Philips does have. And in case you are wondering how much you can fit on an 8 cm CD-ROM, one disc will hold one full-length Philip Glass opera. 8 cm discs do cost more than the standard 20 cm discs, but the TEAC comes with 10 blank discs (or 1, depending on which review you read)! Last time I bought a bulk of 'em I think they were about 85¢ each, but here's a place where you can get 'em for as little as 47¢ each. Here's a European version of the TEAC, that doesn't bear the TEAC brand. €149. It claims to feature 20 minutes of ESP, while the TEAC branded model has only 20 seconds. There's also the Memorex MPD8081 for $60 which does seem to support ID3 tags. $179 will get you this very small DVD player. The NextBase 2 includes remote, but no monitor. Specs here.
Now THIS is cool! The Burton Amp jacket is not only Gore-Tex, but includes a control panel on the sleeve to operate your iPod (iPod not included) which you have in the interior pocket. $500. You'd pay $300 for the Gore-Tex alone, I bet. You can get it in any color you want, as long as it's black (surprising, considering the iPod fetish for white). Beats all hell out of that stupid flat panel speaker backpack I mentioned below.
I hope that Burton Amp jacket v. 2.0 will have a feature that recharges your iPod battery using your motion within the jacket as the source to run the micro-voltage generators. I was just saying to my friend Carlton a couple of weeks ago that my Mindstor has a 20 Gb hard drive, and several MP3 players (the iPod, for example) have 20 Gb hard drives, and I'll bet they're the same hard drives. The only reason my Mindstor can't play MP3s is it doesn't have the software or a headphone jack. The only reason the iPod can't be used to store photos from my camera's compact flash is it doesn't have a slot for compact flash cards. "Why not," I queried Carlton "make one little hard drive device that does everything?" It shouldn't cost much more.
Well, the industrious capitalists in China must've heard me and responded posthaste! Here on this ugly page you will see the Deltron Cinema Disk (if you just want the specs in a much more readable format, go here). It's a 20 Gb (or 40 or 60!) hard drive with a slot for memory cards, USB 2.0 (sorry, no Firewire), software to play MP3s, a headphone jack, AND (drumroll please) video output! It supports MPEG 1/MPEG 2 as well as MPEG 4. I can't find a price anywhere, nor a dealer, but I've written to ask. The only thing this device lacks is its own video display. Obviously, that's next, and jack the price up $200. The GeoURL ICBM Address Server is a project to link websites to actual physical latitude and longitude (where appropriate). You are to be assured that this has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Homeland Security, drone aircraft, and the anti-American slurs being tossed around on the web these days. Be assured, I assure you. Nothing to do whatsoever.
Giant Company is not a bike manufacturer, but sells spam blocking software which comes highly recommended. Unfortunately, they sell versions only for those 3 Grand Masters of crap: Outlook, Outlook Express 5/6 (which I think means version 5 or 6), and AOL 7
or 8. Since I don't use any of these msyelf, I can't test it, but anything would be better than the non-control (even anti-control) provided on AOL. Give me feedback if you've used this product, formerly called "Postal Inspector" or "Spam Inspector."
Panasonic will finally introduce the 1 Gb Secure Digital card at this year's CES. Also expected are:
A Swiss watch (called "vigiWatch") that includes a radiation detector (also simultaneous digital and analog clock displays). It displays both current levels and total accumulated dosage. This watch really needs to have a cell phone included because it's only going to make you famous if you are trapped inside the area where a dirty nuke has exploded and you can phone out and describe the conditions around you (including specific radiation levels) as your inevitable death approaches...much like those people who were trapped in the WTC and managed to phone home. Hey, 15 minutes of fame is 15 minutes of fame. [vigiWatch website] BTW, only $1100 (plus shipping).
Here's this MXP 100 digital music player and voice recorder which has voice navigation, which might be interesting if you sing along with your MP3s. I've seen no reviews of this product, but w
hat's really interesting is you can order it with either a 340 Mb or 512 Mb Microdrive. The player together with the 512 Mb Microdrive is only $189! At B & H a 512 Mb Microdrive by itself is $219.95. So, if you're in a market for the 512 Mb Microdrive, you know where to go.
365 days presenting one new MP3 every day for the rest of the year. Focus to be on the unusual. For instance, yesterday's choice was "I Am A Mormon," 1 minute and 22 seconds of Mormon marching goodness.
Penn Jillette has something to say about his right not to have his crotch grabbed by strangers protecting our nation's security. His follow up article is here.
If it's been a while since you read a columnist who made you want to scream and spit, go here. This guy, Glen Martin, is professor of philosophy and religious studies at Radford University, which is a state school. He starts with a good title Totalitarianism nears: Without protest, Americans are giving up freedom. But by the second paragraph he's equating the U.S. of today with Germany around 1940. He doesn't even give us time for a breath when he refers to "our most recent victim states of Afghanistan" where "life is a living nightmare of dehumanization and human-rights violations." Wow. In the history books I read, there was this long grinding war with the Soviet Union, followed by anarchy, and then government by the Taliban. Eventually Aghanistan became so impoverished that they could afford to feed their goats nothing but rocks, and no one could afford to eat the goats. We go in and kick out the Taliban and somehow we are the victimizers?
A few paragraphs down he mentions that our cars are "burning oil stolen from dying Iraqi children." Actually we don't get much oil from Iraq. We steal a lot of oil from dying Saudi princes as well as from aging Venezuelan politicians, not to forget the oil we steal from dying Eskimo children in Alaska and dying country club members in Texas. You got oil, we'll steal it, and I guarantee people are dying there. A neanderthal-level discussion of the article is going on here. (No offense intended to the powerful and underappreciated Neanderthal peoples, may they rest in peace). Hey, the guy has a book published. Here's another article by the Dr. Martin. He signed onto this list which is called the "EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION TO STOP THE WAR" which was a June 5, 1999, march on the Pentagon. He signed as "President - International Philosophers for Peace," an organizatiion which amazingly seems to have no website of its own. He signed onto this petition too, and this one. I'm getting the impression he's opposed to all war (but I'll have to do more digging to find where he condemns the Russian invasion of Afghanistan or the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) and he thinks the best way to convince other people is to lob off a dozen bits of disconnected hyperbole. Motor Trend's car of the year is the Mini Cooper. Their
motto: "Burn fewer Iraqi children!"
Oh these leftists, they fall for the Fidel trick every time! It's like a Nazi officer snapping his heels.
Online Phys. Ed.? Interesting idea, but how do they handle the gang showers?
I got my second complaint about the photo of me that used to be displayed at the top of the right hand column, so I've put up a new one. I think I will get a lot of thanks for that.
frigorific \frih-guh-RIH-fik\ (adjective)
: causing cold : chilling Example sentence: Jamie shivered as she faced the frigorific blast of wind blowing off the lake. The chill in "frigorific" comes from "frigus," the Latin word for "frost" or "cold." ("Frigorific" is derived from the Latin "frigorificus," the adjective form of "frigus.") "Frigus" has provided us with other icy words as well. It is the source of "refrigerate" ("to keep cold"), and also of the combining form "frigo-" ("cold") and the noun "frigorimeter" ("a thermometer designed for low temperatures"), both of which are primarily scientific and somewhat rare. "Frigus" is also related to the ancestors of "frigid" ("intensely cold"). "Frigorific" is a relatively unusual word and is used considerably less often than its relatives "refrigerate" and "frigid." Merriam-Webster 
Testosterone tested as mood drug, an article in the Boston Globe. Or, if you prefer, here is a copy of it.
Tumid
Pronunciation: ['tyu-mid] Definition 1: Swollen, bulging out, bloated. Usage 1: "Tumid" has an interesting sister, tumescent, which means "becoming tumid, in the process of swelling, or somewhat tumid." These lexical siblings allow a rich range of expressiveness in discussions of the expansion of persons and person parts: "Misty's thighs seem a bit tumescent these days, don't you think? She must be off the watercress." (Meow!) "Well, they will match the tumid head she acquired catching and landing that wealthy hunk, Lance Sterrods." (Ouch! No, not the claws!) The adverb is "tumidly" and the noun, "tumidity." Suggested Usage: We can speak of tumid onion bottoms or the tumid seedpods of poppies. The eye tends to get lividly tumid when we walk into doors or hefty bouncers: "Where did he get tumidity to push our Bucky out of the bar?" (He eats a lot of French fries waiting for opportunities to bounce fol ks out of the bar.) Still and all, words on -scent are always beautiful, so we have to say things like, "The tumescent sail raised hopes of a wind that would provoke our drowsy craft home by suppertime." Otherwise, what is the point of living? Etymology: Latin tumidus, from tumere "to swell." No relation to "tummy" but the extended form of the original PIE teu, teu-k-, became Old English theoh "thigh" from Germanic theuham "the swollen part of the leg." Extended by -s, the same root emerged in Germanic thus-hundi- "swollen hundred = thousand." With an [m], we get Old English thuma the swollen finger = "thumb." (PIE [t] becomes [th] in Germanic languages.) In Slavic, it picked up several suffixes and ended up in tvarog "curds" (swollen milk?) yourDictionary.com Reminder: the Pepys Diary is "live" (uh, "reincarnated?") now.
In the morning before I went forth old East brought me a dozen of bottles of sack, and I gave him a shilling for his pains...  I'm just back from celebrating the New Year in Palm Springs. You'll be envious upon hearing that I got to stay right in Deep Well Ranch, with pod-nuhs Mike and Dave. There were trips to Palm Canyon and Joshua Tree. Many photos, of course. About 440 Mb of photos on the Canon, another 40 Mb on the Minolta, plus 15 frames on Kodachrome 64. This was my first test of my Mindstor (20 Gb model). It seems to have worked well. I thought we had a bad glitch when I tried to download from my microdrive flash card. The Mindstor repeatedly shut down during the download. When I powered it back up it would tell me there had been an error, but gave me no idea what the error was. I was able to view the contents of the microdrive, so I knew I had it inserted correctly. Finally I tried recharging the Mindstor, and that did the trick. It seems that downloading from the microdrive requires more power than downloading from a static flash card and the battery (4 AAs) runs down faster than I had expected. But when the batteries run down in my cameras or my much cheaper CD players, the devices tell me exactly what's happened. No clue at all on the Mindstor. It's like a bluescreen of death, only worse. My advice: keep those batteries charged. One result of using the Mindstor is that I'm seeing the actual file names the Canon uses. They aren't named in a simple numerical sequence, and I haven't studied them yet (it was very late last night) to find the logic. Traveling In The New Order:
This was my first trip with the Transportation Security Administration fully in place, and with total baggage inspection. Here's a helpful hint from the TSA website: TSA suggests that you help prevent the need to break your locks by keeping your bag unlockedGood idea, Americans. Also, it would be helpful if you would leave your doors unlocked and your curtains open. If you criticize the administration in print, please CC a copy to Homeland Security. Liberal use of wireless phones proves your loyalty. Thank you very much! Anyway, back to the TSA experience. The first impression I got of the TSA was that they do seem to work, uh, better. That is, they stand where they need to, they communicate instructions clearly, they are polite, their English is good, they look efficient. The immediate second impression is "Wow, they're a lot whiter!" I saw zero black TSA employees in either Boston or Palm Springs (nor changing planes in LA, but I didn't have to go through security there of course). Some did seem to be Hispanic. In Boston the lead bag in my backpack where I had stored my two rolls of Kodachrome aroused curiosity, as it should. The TS A person who checked my bag told me what she was looking for and let me guide her verbally, but I wasn't allowed to touch the bag at all. It was in my new Beseler backpack-style camera bag which is a boy's dream of pockets, zippers and compartments. Naturally I had the lead bag stowed in the deepest, least accessible part. On my return trip, the TSA man (Eduardo) said not a word to me, but managed to figure out the bag [must be a guy thing]. When he found the lead bag (which I had put in an easier location this time) he didn't open it or squeeze it like the Boston woman had. Instead he carefully read the words on the outside, like they would have made any difference. Then I was free to go. All of the TSA employees seemed happy and easy to deal with. But it's still early, right? If my one checked bag got inspected in Boston (and I'm pretty sure it did), then it was behind the scenes. At Palm Springs, after I checked the bag they had me carry it over to the inspectors. They only checked mine with that chemical sniffer thing, but they had the set up to open the bag if they had needed to. If they have one of those big new bad x-ray devices for luggage, I didn't see it. At the New Year's Eve party that I attended I met the creative mind behind My Therapy Buddy. Nice guy, very sincere, and I might meet him again, so I'll just say that the website could use a little work. That seems to be a big animation that loads on the first page. People who have had more experience with [psycho-]therapy can let me know their opinions of the probable efficacy of My Therapy Buddy, which is available at the introductory price of $69.95 which is, I point out, less than the cost of an hour of even bad therapy.
On our way to Joshua Tree National Park, we passed through Morongo Basin where we noticed the local transit authority is www.mbtabus.com (not to be confused with the MBTA).
In the Coachella Valley itself there is the Sun Bus which has the worst sort of website: very attractive to look at, but the information is either useless or wrong. The one route map is very pretty, but links to nothing. If you click on the link for routes ("Where do we go?") or schedules ("When do we go?") you will get the same worthless one-page PDF that doesn't answer either question, and contains at least one error on the fares. It says the basic rate is 75¢, while it is actually $1. Nominations for the 2003 "Bloggies" are being accepted until 10:00 PM ET, Sunday, January 12. This year there will be an awards ceremony, for the first time ever. In Austin.
A "geographically accurate" London Tube map (from Kottke).
A "geographically accurate" NYC Subway map, 1972 (from nycsubway.org). Current NYC transit map done in the style of the cla ssic London Tube map. A critique of the Metrocard machine user interface. A weblog about the movie Adaptation?! I saw the movie on Xmas day with friends and enjoyed it a lot. The original New Yorker article: Orchid Fever.
Blue Smoke barbecue 116 East 27th Street in Manhattan. Haven't been there, so I can't say if it's all just pretense. They do have the nerve to put a sandwich described as "Smoked Usinger's Bologna with Pickles & Slaw" on their menu. And they have a big list of beers and red wines (and a short list of whites). On the down side, they fail to list jalapeños as a side dish, but they do have a jalapeño marmalade, so maybe they'll be willing to dish out a few peppers for free.
This review says "its ribs would embarrass any backyard amateur with a Weber and squirt bottle." Kenny Callaghan, the "Chef / Pit Master" admits to having two whole weeks of barbecue training. Jee-zus! I've got a ten-year old bottle of Gates sauce in the fridge that I guess I'll just keep working on. Ran across this complaint about the iPod battery. Not having ever bought one of these beautifully engineered devices, I must say I am quite surprised that the iPod comes with one permanently installed battery. Every portable electronic device I own has batteries that can be removed and replaced with the readily available replacement battery. I could hardly tolerate the idea that when my batteries ran down I would be without music/phone/camera/whatever until I could get to an AC outlet to recharge (or does iPod recharge via Firewire?). While the 10-11 hour rated capacity of the iPod battery gives you a safe enough margin for, say, a train (or bus, or car) ride from Boston to Washington; the capacity of the battery may shrink to only 4-5 hours after only a year. That's not enough for even one good long bike ride. Apple's solution is to sell you a brand new iPod at a $50 discount. Holy crap! One user says it's a problem with the clock in version 1.2 of the firmware, and reverting to version 1.1 restores battery life. Another says upgrading to 1.2.1 does the trick. A lot of people on that page recite the old rules about rechargeable batteries (NiCads), which are not necessarily true for lithium-ions. One person suggests not using the iPod when it's too cold (sorry Minnesota)! And we have one clueless twit who writes in that the 10 Gb iPod (the discussion is about the original 5 Gb model) that he got on Christmas day 2002 has had no battery problems yet! But no matter the cause or the cure, all of this would be greatly relieved if Apple had made the battery removable. Somebody tell me why this was not a big design flaw.
Meanwhile, it's time for the 2003 predictions for Apple. Here's one guess: "Two major PC computer manufacturers go out of business, Apple's 'Switch' campaign starts to show real results, enterprise users begin to switch because of the OS X's Unix core, and Apple market share goes up to 10 percent again." [See burning semen story belowsemen] Tom's Hardware Guide to "Digicams: New Little Megapixel Monsters". Includes the Minolta Dimage Xi where he seems to be under the impression that the only difference between the X and Xi is the larger CCD in the Xi. Actually, they've added several new options on the Xi. Same zoom lens, though. He prefers the Canon PowerShot S230 for better color rendition, but says the Dimage Xi gives a sharper image. You can Photoshop the colors any way you like 'em, but if your original photo lacks details, there's no way you can create detail with Photoshop. I'd go for the Minolta.
Boy, I'm excited. AOL has just released vaporware that will provide AOL users a blogging feature. (Or maybe not). In this deeply researched article on CBS, we learn that blogs are used by "entertainment artists and journalists" as well as school pupils and vegetarians! The actual AOL software will become available in "the February time frame." I've just started using the January time frame myself, and won't be ready to upgrade to February for about another 28 days, give or take.
BTW, I'm wishing happy modality in the 2003 time frame to all my readers! Burning Semen Syndrome is not the exciting story you may think it is. It's actually a health problem being seen in Gulf War veterans. The Sun Times article tactfully only refers to how the man's own penis burns, how his female partner's vagina burns and concludes with "It pretty much ends any intimacy you can have with your spouse."
Without addressing the chronic problem of lack of a creative sex imagination among researchers [hand jobs anyone?], I think it would have an effect on any sex partner, not just the spouse. I'd like more data about whether the semen burns any mucous membrane it touches, or just the ones mentioned in the article. And, please, let's get some male/male sex into it. How about information from guys with multiple partners? Do they all burn, or are some more or less sensitive? What about taste? Could we get some experienced cocksuckers to sample and discuss bouquet and mouthfeel? Volunteers? Highly useful "Cook's Thesaurus" Not only does it deal with food names with regional variations (like "German mustard" for horseradish), but also provides substitutes to be used in cooking. I mean, it's both a linguistic and a gastronomic thesaurus.
The spelling is "Smeagol" [WARNING! Spoilers in that link!] and wouldn't ya just know, he/it has an Amazon wish list, which includes Beefcake!
In Utah, they've decided that traffic rotaries are the way to go. One more reason to stay out of Utah.
This site promotes the use of rotaries (or "roundabouts," as they call them, even though they're American). But Massachusetts is never mentioned anywhere on the site. Chickenshits! Here is a cute animation of the rotary at the intersection of Route 101 and Milpas in Santa Barbara, California. [Map]. It proves that no accidents occur. Here is a bi-directional rotary! I'd like to see a video of it in action. It seems to be made up of 5 mini-rotaries arranged in a circle. The Rockabilly Librarian is blogging from the second cheapest motel in Palm Springs.
The Delhi Metro has just opened yesterday to overwhelming popularity. Built to handle 200,000 passengers a day, it drew 1.2 million on Christmas, its first day. The fare is only 4 rupees (8 cents American). The cars, by the way, are built in South Korea. Planned since the 1950s, it has taken only 4 years to build! That may not be a good thing.
Last April half the city's buses were grounded when the use of diesel fuel was banned  .
Maybe late, maybe not: The 12 STDs of Christmas
The Avon Walk For Breast Cancer without Pallotta.
A friend (calls himself "Tom") has loaned me a copy of the most recent Advocate which contains an article all about the current situation of fundraising for gay and/or AIDS causes after the collapse of Pallotta's Teamworks. The article isn't on-line, so you'll have to trek yourself to the newstand and purchase a paper copy. BTW, that same issue has a 3-page ad for Androgel [all hail Androgel!]. I remember when I came out in 1975 in Columbia, Missouri, the only readily available national gay publications were The Advocate and After Dark (which consistently denied it was a gay publication, but even I could see it screamed). To get The Advocate (since we didn't subscribe) we had to go to the one porno shop in Columbia, which was a couple blocks north of Broadway downtown, as I recall. Park in a dark and seemingly dangerous lot, and slither in. Honest folks, that was the first time I'd been in a porno store (I had just turned 21). I've dropped in on a few since then, but nothing on a regular basis since then. It was quite an eye-opening sleazy experience to go through that just to get a bit of legitimate news.
More about After Dark:
For those of you who are responsible for windshields (this, I guess, includes everyone with a car) in snowy environments, here is a little device that for a mere $349 (installation extra) will heat your windshield washer fluid to a very balmy 145° (F) in a scant 30 seconds. And if you use a vehicle as your homestead, you can use plain water in your windshield washer reservoir and this little device will provide you hot water for tea, instant coffee, instant oatmeal or even PostumTM in a jif! The kids will love it.
And for you automobile owners who are geeks there is the DriveRight Carchip. You hook it up to your onboard diagnostic system and...
While you drive, it logs data including your speed, how hard you hit your breaks, throttle position, fuel pressure, and a whole lot more. When you've finished your drive, simply unplug the Carchip from your car and connect it to your computer. The software imports the data and -- here's the best part -- presents it in a very readable format.The connection to your computer is NOT USB. This brochure (PDF) indicates it connects to a serial port. Man, how jurassic. Nonetheless, $139 for the whole system. No mechanic required. Home page for the Carchip is here. It won "Best Engineered New Product" from the Specialty Equipment Market Association. Do not fail to note that there is the Carchip and the Carchip E/X. Let us compare:
I missed this when it happened a couple of weeks ago, but the city of Buenos Aires has approved gay civil unions for residents of the city.
Naturally, you'll be wanting to buy replacement Christmas lights right now, and here's the best place I've found for 'em: Christmas Depot. And they're having a sale!
Pepys' diary to be presented as blog beginning January 1, 2003 (corresponding to January 1, 1659).
Huh, look at this - "Ron's Web Log." He seems to have gotten tired back in August. So did I, but that didn't prevent me from continuing to pour forth this tripe.
"Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002." Not sure why these would be very different from year to year, but they're all accurate.
[WARNING: severe animal cruelty] Certainly this is among the very sickest things I have ever read. I'm wondering if we could pause a bit from our military build-up around Iraq to lob a few missiles into Peru.
I've just had a good retail experience with my health insurance company, of all things! This Androgel [All Hail ANDROGEL!] is the first medication I've ever taken on a continuous basis, and the way my insurance works I can choose to continue to pick it up my local friendly CVS for about $240/quarter, or I could submit it to the insurance companies mail order service and pay only $35 per quarter. I didn't need a calculator to compare those two.
So I went to the drug delivery part of my insurance company's website and filled in every damn bit of data I could find and read all the fine print and checked that yes indeed they did have and would ship Androgel. They spent quite a bit of text explaining how they shipped securely and discreetly and how they took temperature into account if it was critical. Then I printed out their PDF prescription fax form and hustled it over to Morgentaler's office on Tuesday or Wednesday last week, handed it to the receptionist and croaked "Must ... have ... more ... Androgel! ... FAX!" She said she'd hand it over to Nurse Kevin. I thought I might get a phone call from Nurse Kevin to verify it, or perhaps I would get a confirming e-mail from the drug shippers (like you get from Amazon). I thought I'd wait until about a week before my gel would run out and then go check the website and see if anything had happened. So imagine my sheer delight when the doorbell buzzed this afternoon and there was a regular old USPS employee to hand me a small box. No signature required. Not even "Are you Mr. Gilbert?" Nope. Just "Here!" and she rushes away. Inside the box is enough Androgel for me to do every soldier in the Iraqi Republican Guard, if they would be so good as to drop the soap first. What a Xmas present! Here's a fantasy ride: the Arctic Ocean Ride of Pain!. Not in 2003, but someday.
VERY well written account of what happens when a man and his pregnant wife encounter airport security and they have to really make sure all of her bulges aren't bombs. Concludes thusly...
There are plenty of stories like this these days. I don't know how many I've read where the writer describes some breach of civil liberties by employees of the state, then wraps it all up with a dire warning about what we as a nation are becoming, and how if we don't put an end to it now, then we're in for heaps of trouble. Well you know what? Nothing's going to stop the inevitable. There's no policy change that's going to save us. There's no election that's going to put a halt to the onslaught of tyranny. It's here already - this country has changed for the worse and will continue to change for the worse. There is now a division between the citizenry and the state. When that state is used as a tool against me, there is no longer any reason why I should owe any allegiance to that state.Somebody send a Libertarian Party membership form to that guy. On a related note, here's a story about how the Denver police converted their 40-some-odd year collection of 3 x 5 cards containing notes from their surveillance of local political activists to electronic form. Somewhere in the process it was determined that the American Friends Service Committee was a group of criminal extremists. World's first commercial maglev train to debut December 31 in Shanghai. Top speed over 400 kph. Built with assistance from Germany. Here in Boston the MBTA can never afford to buy German equipment, so we get either Italian or Japanese, and it's always seriously broken upon delivery. Let's hope Shanghai did the right thing. (Does anyone in the audience have snapshots of the maglev track??)
The MBTA was out test driving empty Breda cars on the Boston College line this past Saturday. During my brief observations, none derailed. This is very good. Some part of the undercarriage has been rebuilt by the MBTA, and history shows that equipment rebuilt or repaired in-house by the MBTA performs very well. The problems are the delays in figuring just what the hell those Italians (or Japanese) did, and then the eternal lawsuits to wrangle millions back from the manufacturer so that the MBTA can pay for the in-house repairs. It works every time, but the whole process takes years. The Marijuana Party of Canada [I bet it didn't take 'em more than a minute to settle on that name] brings you www.marijuanahomedelivery.ca. Sorry Tennessee, but customers must be Canadians in Canada, 18 or older and "have been diagnosed with an illness known to be treatable or alleviated through use of therapeutic cannabis." They don't seem to require a prescription for mj, but merely a diagnosis of a disease that could by alleviated by it. How, uh, libertarian! CN$120 for 10 grams, check or money order or PayPal. No credit cards yet. Guaranteed THC content of 8% or more. They don't say how they ship, or what the package looks like. I should think they might want to use a variety of anonymous looking packages shipped from a range of sites.
On a somewhat related note, a friend of mine who has AIDS recently got a prescription for Marinol which is (for those of you very much in the dark) sort of marijuana in a pill. It's the best you can get legally in the U.S. Prescription was for 30 pills. Pic ked it up at his usual pharmacy (a very large chain) counted the pills and found only 25! Upon complaining, the pharmacist was apologetic and suggested that 5 of the pills must have stuck to the counting tray when they were preparing his order. She promptly provided him with 5 more pills. I want someone who is more creative than me...or maybe someone who works in a pharmacy, to offer me a better explanation for why those 5 pills were missing. I mean a better reason than the reason I think they were missing. I don't think the "stuck to the counting tray" has any legitimacy. A reasonable explanation has to take into account that this is Marinol we're talking about, not Motrin or tetracycline. So consider the additional federal regulations on this item. Iguana sex. Real photographs of real sex between real iguanas (male/female). If you're hot for the cold-blooded...
Only $36.95 (includes shipping) will get you this obviously profitable "Huggy Jesus." No resemblance to John Walker Lindh at all. In a bizarre website design most of of the information about the doll is available only after you click the "Purchase Now!" button.
It's been there for awhile, but I only just noticed this full review of the Minolta Dimage Xi with sample pictures at Steve's Digicams.
 Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers First Edison invented motion pictures, and then we had the entire 20th century to do nothing but hone the craft, art and science of cinema so that its penultimate fulfillment could be achieved in this movie. Hey, I gotta get my hyperbole in, too. But honestly folks, it was good, and mighty impressive. I have been simply swept off my feet by those huge expressive blue eyes of Gollum's (I'm not sure how to spell "Smeagle"). I just want him to lose that breech cloth...and put on a few pounds. The movie looks like a cash juggernaut, too. I think it was showing in 5 theaters at the Boston Common cinema. And selling out every one. In fact, at 7:00 PM they had it originally scheduled in 2 theaters, but cancelled a showing of Harry Potter to add a third theater for LOTR TTT. I heard the manager ask a ticket taker how many were in there waiting for Harry Potter. "Just two," he answered. I had wondered if a sellout meant they actually sold 100% of the tickets, or did they stop at 99.8%. The answer is: No. They sell 101%. We had people sitting on the floor and steps! I guess they figure that since they've allowed space for at least 4 wheelchairs, if no one in a wheelchair shows up, there's no reason another $10 customer can't just sit on that floor space. $10, yes! Certainly more than I've paid for a movie ticket...even in Manhattan. And what do we get for that $10? A scratched screen and some weird color fluctuations at the beginning of some reels. Don't know if it was bad film, or if the projector light was having a hard time warming up. Only one cell phone call was heard during the movie (it wasn't mine). The crowd was generally very well behaved. My favorite line from the movie: Nazgul! [Sorry, my copy of LOTR walked during last week's book giveaway, so I can't check the spellings there]. Gonna be a loooong wait for the Platinum DVD version. Turdiform (Adjective)
Pronunciation: ['têr-dê-form] Definition 1: Having the shape of a thrush. Usage 1: If you find today's word too suspicious to use in discussions of thrushes, there are alternatives: turdoid and turdine "belonging to the family turdus," e.g. song-thrush (Turdus musicus), the ever so seasonal mistletoe thrush (Turdus viscivorus), among others. If you are a genuine thrush-fancier, you will want to keep your thrushes in a specially constructed turdarium "a place where thrushes are kept." Suggested Usage: Here, at last, is the word that wakes up that dozing audience in the middle of your bird-watching slideshow, "I'm not sure of the name of this turdiform little flyer is but I'm sure you will agree that it is a delight to the eye." Of course, there are many birds similar to thrushes that call for today's word: "Marvin, do you know the name of the pretty little turdoid bird sitting on the birdfeeder right now? Etymology: Latin turdus thrush + forma "form." Today's word seems unrelated to any other word in English with the possible exception of "thrush" itself. Word of the Day from yourdictionary I have just finished watching The Blair Witch Project for the very first time ever. And now I know what I guess everyone else already knew: this is one big load of tedious crap. It's got 5 minutes of tingle at the end when they discover the old house. The 75 minutes or so preceding that are nothing more than a documentary of some of the things that can go wrong if you are a really half-assed irresponsible camper. One map. One compass. And ruled over by an egotistical insecure bitch. I was hoping that bitch would get offed in the first minute or two in the woods. I could not believe that they let her live so long. With her out of the way, leaving Mike and Josh alone in the woods, the story might have developed into something interesting.
By the way, what sort of batteries did they use that provided eternal power for their cameras and flash lights? I want some. If you've been thinking about trying a Dvorak keyboard, Dvorty Boards is having a big sale (probably going out of business). I tried one of these. The keys are labeled in the Dvorak layout with the Qwerty also shown in very small letters. A switch on the keyboard allows you to toggle between Dvorak and Qwerty. No software necessary. The problem was just that it wasn't a very good keyboard. After awhile all the keypresses got gummy and slow. Frequently I had to pound the keys to get them to work. So I went back to a standard Qwerty keyboard. The Dvorty Board I have might be a good candidate for the shower treatment.
Reason magazine has posted a very interesting article about Woodrow Wilson's presidency. In their analysis Strom Thurmond, when he ran for President in 1948, was only trying to reinstate the standards of Wilson's adminis
tration! Yes indeedy! And we aren't talking about the League of Nations, either.
My knowledge of Wilson may be even thinner than yours, so I went to read his bio on the White House's website. Turns out he was born in Virginia in 1856. Because he was President of Princeton, I had assumed he was a real Garden Stater (or at least a northerner). Once elected, he began to institute Jim Crow in the District of Columbia. DC police and fire departments stopped hiring blacks. Workplaces were segregated. Wilson told one black delegation "segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen." The Twenty Most Annoying Liberals In The United States For 2002. I don't know how they pared it down to only 20. A few of these people I never heard of, and I'm not going to go checking them out any more than I did the people on the loathsome list. I wonder about the "liberal" credentials of some. Why would a liberal believe that the attack on the WTC was an Israeli conspiracy? I mean, if the liberals are going to become anti-semitic, then we've all gone through the looking glass too many times for me to track it all.
My favorite annoying liberal takes spot #15: Jesse Jackson. What irritates me most about the guy isn't his liberalism nor his lust for the spotlight (like he was running for Mayor of the U.S.), but the fact that he's a terrible speaker. I know, I know. Black preachers are great speakers, but I guess you've got to have one exception to prove the rule. I remember being at a rally in DC where he was one of the speakers (well, you lie down with liberals, you get up with fleas). His harangue included a long list of "committments" which he pronounced as "Mit-Mit." His baby-talk became so distracting that the content of his message was completely lost. I'm sorry that Alan Alda and Bill Moyers didn't make the list. Those two certainly ice my bowels. Allah works another miracle!
Image of John Walker Lindh appears in a No Parking sign in South Alpine, Texas. The faithful flock to behold the image, graven though it were. Reports are rife that heathen followers of the Christ, a Jewish prophet, were observed trampling the scene.
The Two Towers opened yesterday with a big bucket of hyperbole too!
"Not since Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's Ran have the savagery of combat and the specter of death been visualized with such operatic grandeur.&q uot; "The gorgeously elaborate continuation of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy is so huge that a column of words cannot adequately describe co-writer/director Peter Jackson's expanded vision of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth." "Seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is like having a second date with a woman who made you fall in love at first sight." "Actually superior to its predecessor... You could hardly ask for more spectacle for your movie dollar. ...sure to be hailed as one of the most thrilling fantasies ever filmed." "Remarkably, Towers emerges as a forcefully unique work with its own distinct sense of terror...it's truly a miracle in filmmaking." "What's wrong with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers? Well, to quote my 13-year-old nephew, 'It wasn't long enough!'" "This is filmmaking on an unparalleled scale, stirring, rousing, technically perfect." "There is easily ten times more danger and mayhem [than in Fellowship], and the action is consistently more visceral and inspired." "When the battle sequence finally hits, your sore butt cheeks will feel vindicated." "Two Towers should serve as a postcard to George Lucas, one that reads 'Making great movies, wish you were here!'."[sound of bitch slap] And finally we point you to the one negative review by some clueless twit who liked Spy Kids 2 and Die Another Day, but panned Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Her full depth of understanding is illustrated by her question "Why did Bilbo Baggins give The Ring to Frodo knowing the danger it brings?" Pioneer 10 still won't quit. Launched in 1974, it is now more than 11 light hours from Earth.
Another reason to visit Austin: ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMAS. Beer, movies, and little or no advertising according to one report.
I thought that stupid Fandango commercial was just a local Boston thing. I had no idea it was being inflicted on multiple cities. The advantages to DVDs become overwhelming!
John Lee Malvo is complaining about the food in the Fairfax County jail. Shoulda thought of that first, guy.
I'd say three-quarters of the books and LPs are gone, as people continued to haul 'em away on Sunday. Thanks everyone, but especially thanks to BA who hauled out the most gigantic chunk of 'em. It turns out he actually still listens to LPs, as do some of my Sunday visitors! I haven't yet hauled the remainder to Goodwill, so if there is something you want, I may have it yet. I'm sure I've still got a copy of Dahlgren.
My thanks to Dan for sending me the link to Santa Speedo Run.
The underground resistance is alive and well in Boston!
Compare this and the link to this past weekend's Speedo run in Boston, with this story about marauding Santas in San Francisco, DC, New York and other cities. (Home page for Santarchy here). Rude, drunken vandalism in a Santa suit sounds like a lot of fun, and I'd be up for giving it a try at least once; but my point is that Boston is operating on a higher level here. Vandalism yes. Hooliganism yes. Public drunkenness yes. But better. B & H is selling last year's Canon Powershot G2 for only $549.95! Great price for a great camera. It's got the same megapixels as the G3, less zoom, and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the G3, but I'm sure the photos will be just as excellent.
Canon has just made available their File Viewer Utility v1.1.1 for Mac OS X which allows the processing of Canon RAW images on Max OS X. So, if that's all that has kept you from buying a Canon, your excuse has vanished.
"outgoing White House economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey told the AEI tax forum that the 12.4 percent Social Security levy should not be considered when tax burdens are calculated. Lindsey said the Social Security tax is ultimately returned to the taxpayer as a benefit." Well, it would seem that, according to the logic of pro big government people, no tax should be counted as a burden, because they're all returned to us as benefits. Wonderful, magnificent benefits. Benefits that we simply never would have had if that money hadn't been taken from us, passed around through the hands of some bureaucrats, and then benefited back to us. It's why we're such a great country. No tax burden. Immense benefits.
The article also in cludes this: "When administration officials pushed the need to create private investment accounts to supplement Social Security, they specifically warned that taxes paid into Social Security would not necessarily be returned unless the system was reformed." Wow, does that mean that unless we pay more that the benefits would not be returned, and therefore the Social Security tax would indeed become a tax burden? We would be doubly poor! More taxes please, so that our burthen might be light, o caesar. Don't miss this: The Beast's 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2002. Too entertaining. You will cheer some entries, cry "foul" at others, and simply draw a blank on a few of them. I didn't bother to look up the ones who I couldn't identify. After all, they're loathsome. Here's a sample, number 12 on the list:
EMINEMAnd, in case you are looking for balance, Moby is not on the list. Eminem bashing and Moby-basher bashing. Says Eminem is "...the biggest sissy-bully in the history of pop music."
The book and LP giveaway has been a roaring success so far! More than half the stuff is gone, but the Saturday shoppers didn't take the best stuff...or the campiest stuff. That's still here for you. See the picture of the inventory for Sunday:
 Come and get 'em! The book and LP giveaway has been a roaring success so far! More than half the stuff is gone, but the Saturday shoppers didn't take the best stuff...or the campiest stuff. That's still here for you. See the picture of the inventory for Sunday:
Come and get 'em! No 4th amendment rights in Belliville, Illinois. Nope. None.
It would be a nice favor to Ron's Log if somebody with broadband would download this (390 Mb) classic kids bike safety film: One Got Fat and let me see it sometime.
Fun, creative prank
s that don't hurt anyone and don't require drugs or fast cars! Busy Marquee. Go re-arrange the letters on outdoor advertising. Here's a sample:
100 authors in 54 countries vote Don Quixote the best book ever. For those of you may not know, Don Quixote was the very first novel ever, in any language. (Moll Flanders was the first in English). So, I guess it's been downhill since then, eh?
I have badmouthed Hunt's Photo here at least once. Yesterday I was amused (but not too surprised) that they had a special advertising insert in The Metro proclaiming this as "Canon Weekend" at their store, featuring the exciting Canon Powershot G2. Yes. Really. The G2. Last year's model. No price was given, and the description was so vague it could have applied to the G3 as well. So I went to their website to see if it was more clear. The website makes no mention of "Canon Weekend." Searching the list of Canon digital cameras, you have to scroll down a ways to find the G2, but it's there. Nothing about the G3. Now, even little Bromfield Camera has stocked the G3 since early November, so I was sure Hunt (which is the biggest in eastern Massachusetts) would have it. So I sent them a message, hoping they would embarrass themselves. They answered me pretty quickly with a one-liner saying only that the G3s had arrived "today" (meaning yesterday). Pretty late. Not much of a sale effort that. But this morning I got a second message from them that surprised me:
Hello,Frankly, I'm astonished. Excellent recovery. Good response. I wonder what kind of deals they're offering on those tattered old G2s they've got taking up space. A satisfactory retail experience was had in the process of purchasing herbs from iHerb.com.
Oh great! Moby was attacked last night after performing at Paradise (which we all know is just down the road a few doors from the former site of Ellis the Rim Man!).
You gotta see this flash animation: Jebus sings!
Froogle is a new shopping feature of Google. Here, check out this search based on "Minolta Dimage Xi". B & H comes out on top, even though it's not the cheapest.
The Google viewer is interesting, but I'm not sure where its best use might be. It absolutely does not work in Opera. Works in IE 5.5 though. New Google webquotes might be more useful, but it's a bit thin right now. This kid is going far! Just needs to learn a little discretion.
I'm not too good at reading between the lines in business-legalese, but I think this press release is saying that IBM is finally withdrawing OS/2 from the market. Yessir, kiddies. I remember the OS/2 days, when we were GUI-ing and multitasking and the snow was 5 feet deep every day, while Bill Gates was still trying to figure out which way to wear his underwear.
Sony to introduce a new Memory Stick format that will handle up to 1 Gb. Unfortunately, it's not compatible with current Memory Stick devices.
I remember back during the cold war when writing like this could be found just lying about in the streets. But now you have to go looking for it at Korean News, an official news source in North Korea.
Revolutionary opera "The Flower Girl" staged 1,300 timesIf you liked that, you won't want to miss Chicken farm and assorted feed plant rebuilt on moder n basis or the equally lyrical Water-ring screw compressors developed The Perpetual War Portfolio. I think it's all about just accepting the fact that for now these defense contractors (and others) have bought the whole rootin', tootin' show. Congress, the White House, and eventually they'll lock in the Supreme Court (and that lock can take decades to undo, ya know). Take some of your investment funds and put them into those Republican corporations and let them take them where they will for the next few (or more?) years. If you make a profit you can salve your conscience by donating it to AIDS programs in South Africa. In the meantime, following your investments will be something of a distraction from this filth that is pretending to be a government.
"Clone Your Bone": Try it and photo the results, send to Ron's Log.
Whoda thunkit? Some Amazon reviewers are developing a following! Take Henry Raddick, for example. Who wrote this review of You Can Teach Your Dog to Eliminate on Command by M. L. Smith:
Superb September 19, 2002 A message to Americans, pretending to be a message to the world at dubyadubyadubya.com. It's flash, I think.
While cleaning house I re-located the copy of the New Yorker article [thanks Andy!] about testosterone replacement therapy with an extensive interview with Dr. Morgentaler, so I scanned it and put it here.
Cockaigne \kah-KAYN\ noun: An imaginary land of ease and luxury. Outside, in the dark, a wobbly patch of life upon the blue snow, the deer perhaps browsed, her soft blob of a nose rapturously sunk in the chilly winter greenery, her modest brain-stem steeped in some dream of a Cockaigne for herbivores. —John Updike, Toward the End of Time Everyone was seeking renewal, a golden century, a Cockaigne of the spirit. —Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum Cockaigne comes from Middle English cokaygne, from Middle French (pais de) cocaigne "(land of) plenty," ultimately adapted or derived from a word meaning "cake." Trivia: References to Cockaigne are prominent in medieval European lore. George Ellis, in his Specimens of Early English Poets (1790), printed an old French poem called "The |
