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Project Insomnia

Project Insomnia is many things, but in this context it is simply a "braindump" of whatever I happen to be thinking/reading/watching/doing at the moment. Parental guidance suggested.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I never do these things, but this one actually interested me. So...



Your Linguistic Profile:



70% General American English

25% Yankee

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern



What Kind of American English Do You Speak?
|| Andrew, 4:12 PM || || link

Friday, May 20, 2005

Battle of the Bay (snore)

At the bottom of an entertaining profile of ESPN baseball announcer and Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan, Chronicle sportswriter Steve Kroner notes:
For the first two games at SBC Park, A's and Giants fans have a choice of telecasts. At 7:15 tonight, Hank Greenwald and Ray Fosse will work the A's telecast on KICU (Channel 36) while Duane Kuiper and Krukow handle the Giants' telecast on FSN Bay Area. At 5 p.m. Saturday, it's Miller and Krukow on KTVU (Channel 2), with Greenwald and Fosse on FSNBA.

Unfortunately I'm working tonight and Sunday evening, so the only game I'll be able to watch will be Saturday's. It's likely that I'll keep it on FSNBA, as I'm much more partial to Krukow and Kuiper than Hank Greenwald.
Ray Ratto also weighs in on what it will take to make these games at all interesting.
|| Andrew, 3:07 PM || || link

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Breezy

This weekend will be the eighth annual Sunset Celebration Weekend at the magazine's compound in nearby Menlo Park, and, of course, we're going. We went last year. This year, the architect behind the Glidehouse has a new attraction: the Sunset Breezehouse (reviewed here by SF Chronicle architecture writer John King), and we're looking forward to seeing it. All we'd really need is land, lotsa land, under starry skies above. And $300K or so, which we could easily get--and then some--for our townhouse if we sold it.

Also, the Giants (suck) and the A's (also suck) will be playing each other this weekend. I, the sucker for punishment, will be watching Saturday and Sunday's games. The Giants' "Double Play Ticket Window" wanted between $200 and $500 for a pair of seats to Saturday's game. At least one of the two teams will actually win a series.
|| Andrew, 8:28 PM || || link

30 Days to becoming an Opera8 Lover

I've preached the Gospel of Opera for some time, and now you can learn about this excellent Web browser/email client/newsreader/newsfeed reader in "30 Days to becoming an Opera8 Lover". The site author is as of this writing up to Day 14: Panels.
Panels are not new in Opera8, but there are some new features present since Opera7 was introduced. Today we will look at what panels come with Opera, as well as some other customized panels made just for you.

Previous topics include Chat, RSS and Atom, User JavaScript, and Preferences. A bit dry in topic, perhaps, but the writing style is entertaining and the information is very useful--I even picked up a couple of tips.
|| Andrew, 12:52 AM || || link

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

"Pack of Lies"

I don't often get political here--not too often--but this certainly bears mention. As part of the bogus "Oil-for-Food" Senate hearings, British MP George Galloway tore into Senator Coleman and the neocons in a remarkable statement which can be found here at the Times Online, and an audio clip containing the most damning segment was linked from Brad's Blog. Brad also links to a RealPlayer video clip, which I haven't watched.

If the above sounds like boring Senate committee testimony of the type you skip over when CSPAN somehow makes it onto your TV, take a second and read the transcript or listen to the audio clip anyway.
|| Andrew, 12:12 PM || || link

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

An Update, and What I'm Reading Right Now

I'm fine, we're all fine, just very busy.

The Register: Burgled mum finds stolen iPod on eBay
Henry Schulman/SFGate: Hennessey already has his biggest victory
Mercury News: The 411 on I-5: Stops along the way
|| Andrew, 11:22 AM || || link

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Not as such

Adviser Argues on Rights of Cheese Name

An adviser to the European Union's highest court on Tuesday said the name of feta cheese is a traditional Greek name and deserves protection throughout the EU, siding with Greece against Germany and Denmark.

Next on the docket: Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Pippo Crème, Danish Fimboe, Czech sheep's milk, and Venezuelan Beaver Cheese. But not Cheddar.
|| Andrew, 2:37 PM || || link

Monday, May 09, 2005

Dosey Doats

We visited the Mare Island Welcome Center on Saturday and checked out the six model homes. The homes are beautiful, though the some of them could have benefited from some feng shui during the design process--awkward layout--and the prices are very reasonable for brand new, modern homes in the Bay Area. The problem we saw was the same we see with any new developments: too darned closed together. With land at a premium, it's understandable that new homes would be so tightly packed. However, on Mare Island, there is a huge amount of development space available, and it can only be chalked up to the desire on the part of the developer to cram as many homes into that space as possible.
Mare Island itself is a place with quite a lot of interesting history, and the developer who bought most of the former Naval shipyard promises to preserve and restore most of the historic buildings and sites, along with developing parts of it for commercial use. I think I would enjoy living there, and I can't deny the attraction to a brand-new modern home. I suppose another downside is that while the island itself promises to be a comfortable community, it will be part of the city of Vallejo--not one of the best parts of the Bay Area. And, no offense to any Vallejans who may be reading this, it's pretty far from anywhere.
|| Andrew, 5:10 PM || || link

Thursday, May 05, 2005

How Lightsabers Work

My sole acknowledgement of the "Episode III" mania, if such mania exists (and I'm not really sure it does, outside of Fox's marketing department) is a link to "How Lightsabers Work" from HowStuffWorks.

Chances are that you have seen a lightsaber at one time or another, whether on the evening news or down at the local cantina. Therefore you know that a lightsaber is an amazing and versatile device that is able to cut through nearly anything in a matter of milliseconds.

Have you ever wondered how these remarkable weapons work? Where does the energy come from, and how are they able to contain that energy in a rod-like column of glowing power?

In this edition of HowStuffWorks, you will have a chance to look inside a lightsaber and discover the source of its incredible characteristics. Let's get started!

Quite informative, really, especially if you've considered building your own. And who knew how many useful tasks to which a lightsaber can be put?
|| Andrew, 11:53 PM || || link

Alexandria

Another great reason to consider a switch to Linux: Alexandria is a book collection manager for GNOME, and of course there is no Win32 port. With something over 2,000 books cluttering our house, I've been looking for this functionality for a long time, and even bought a modified CueCat ($5 on eBay) to aid in adding books to whatever database I'd eventually build.
|| Andrew, 7:34 AM || || link

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Build a Better DVR out of an Old PC

Here's another build-your-own-DVR article, this time from the folks at O'Reilly's MAKE magazine.

Several months ago, I finally became sufficiently jealous of the millions of DVR owners to motivate me to put a DVR in my own living room. But I wanted something more versatile than a normal TiVo, ReplayTV, or Ultimate TV system. I envisioned an all-purpose media server that would function as a full DVR, but would also work as a music server and play console games. It would have an easy remote-control interface, just like a commercial DVR, and a way to program it through the internet. Finally, I wanted to avoid the monthly fees that many DVR owners pay to keep their machines' schedules up-to-date.

I earn a living as a computer engineer, so I understand how long it can take to write custom software. So, in order to build my dream machine as quickly and easily as possible, I wanted to use only off-the-shelf software and components. I knew this was all possible, and after a month of research and a few late nights of construction, I had my custom DVR box. It works just as I'd hoped and does even more. For instance, it streams music over the internet, so I can listen to my music collection from work (or anywhere else).
|| Andrew, 10:29 PM || || link

NoName Game

Here's a fascinating Flashgame with No Name. I can't figure out what the "oops" checkbox is supposed to do, and don't have time at the office to spend on it, but I'll be playing with this later.
|| Andrew, 5:23 PM || || link

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