Project Insomnia

Update: Benitez has been traded back to the sucky Florida team from whence he came:

The Giants have traded Bernitez to the Florida Marlins for right-hander Randy Messenger. The deal was announced after the Giants' 4-2 loss to the Mets Thursday Night.

From Henry Schulman, Giants beat writer for the San Francisco Chronicle comes the long-awaited word that the Giants are trying to trade Armando Benitez!

Armando Benitez's days as Giants closer appear to be over, and he could be wearing another uniform this weekend.

The Chronicle has learned that the Giants are engaged in serious trade talks with at least two teams that are interested in acquiring the embattled closer. One of them is the Florida Marlins, for whom Benitez saved 47 games in 2004.

An industry source said a deal was possible before Friday night was over.

Couldn't come soon enough. Should have happened before the season even started.

When: 20070530 1936
Where: AMC Mercado, Santa Clara CA
What: Windows Media Player error on a POS screen at the snack bar. Doh!

Box of Kittens has been up for a few days and I've managed one post per day so far. So this is just a reminder to go take a look whenever you need a dose of cuteness to get you through your day.

I realize I've neglected the Restaurant Reviews lately, but I'd like to make up for it with this new review of The Melting Pot in Larkspur, CA. We ate here before seeing RiffTrax Live in San Rafael on Sunday night.

Mistryl said "Can someone remind me again why there isn't a kitty video blog?"

So I thought, and asked for a few opinions, and clicked a few buttons. And now I present: Box of Kittens. The ultimate in kitty video blogs. At least, it will be. Right now it's more of a placeholder, though it does have the namesake "Scrubs" video clip. Enjoy and check back soon for more!

From somewhat NSFW site DoubleViking.com comes
The Top 15 Han Solo Quotes You Need to Use in Regular Conversation :

We at DoubleViking consider Han Solo to be the apex of all that is manly. He’s our number one role model, he’s a badass in his own right, and his sarcastic, roguish presence helped make the original trilogy vastly superior to the crappy prequels. He’s so cool, in fact, that we have to suggest you model your life around him – or, at the very least, use some of his quotes in everyday conversation. So, without further ado, here are the fifteen best Han Solo quotes (and when to say them), ranked in order of importance.

I'm not too proud to admit using almost all of these quotes on a regular basis.

His reputation on the line, contractor finishes repair early, and I-580 opens:

For a man whose confidence in his construction company borders on braggadocio, C.C. Myers was noticeably nervous on the ninth night after he promised to rebuild the fire-damaged MacArthur Maze in just 25 days.

Moments earlier, he had brashly predicted that his company would reopen the Interstate 580 connector a week sooner than his original ambitious prognostication -- and in about one-third of the time forecast by Caltrans.
...
Twenty-six days later, I-580 opened at 8:40 p.m. Thursday -- in time for this morning's commute and in line with Myers' prediction.

This is a fascinating read, about how government red tape and bureaucracy were simply eliminated, agencies cheerfully worked hand-in-hand with suppliers and contractors and the work got done early and under budget. Why aren't these people doing all our freeway and bridge construction? Should the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge really have taken 25 years (estimated to open in 2014, 25 years after the Loma Prieta quake) to plan and build?

I noticed this disruption last night on the way home, but figured it was weather or sunspots or something.
XM Restores Radio Service:

XM Satellite Radio restored service Tuesday after a software glitch knocked out the signal from one of its four satellites and disrupted service to many of the company's 8 million subscribers for about a day.

The problems began around noon Monday, the company said. They initially expected to fix the problem after a few hours but service remained disrupted for about 24 hours.

'The problem occurred during the loading of software to a critical component of our satellite broadcast system, which resulted in a loss of signal from one of our satellites,' the company said on its Web site.

So they pushed an upgrade without, it seems, adequate testing, and it failed as soon as it was deployed. Whether your software enables sharing your favorite iTunes playlists* or broadcasting 170 satellite radio channels to millions of subscribers, it's important to test before upgrading!

* plug

SF Sketchfest Presents RiffTrax Live

with Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy of Mystery Science Theater 3000!
Return engagement! NEW film!

In this special return engagement, the merry madmen behind television cult-favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 will storm the stage and do what they do best: provide glib and hilarious live commentary to a feature-length B movie!

SF Sketchfest presents Michael J. Nelson (MST3K’s lovable “Mike Nelson”), Bill Corbett (robot “Crow” and alien “Brain Guy”) and Kevin Murphy (bubble-headed robot “Tom Servo”) as they deconstruct a movie they have handpicked for this occasion.

They'll be at CFI in San Rafael on Sunday night and Cobb's Comedy Club in San Francisco on Monday night. It's actually easier for us to get to San Rafael on a Sunday than SF on a weeknight, so we're going to the Sunday night show.

While the usual author of MousePlanet's Disneyland Resort update is cruising the Atlantic, I've taken over for this week and next week. At the bottom where it says "This article is a joint effort by the MousePlanet staff with several people contributing to the information presented," it's very true; I wrote the body of the article, Lani copy-edited it, Alex wrote the Pirates 3 premiere story, several readers provided photos and stories, and I think the schedules and events come from Tony.

The difference is that these people--the other staffers, I mean, not the readers who submitted their photos and stories--have been doing it every week for three years. This is the first time I've done one of these, and it's pretty stressful. The DLR update is probably the most visible and well-known piece of weekly content on MousePlanet--tied with the WDW update, I guess--so there's a very real sense of lots of people counting on me. I think I did all right. Now I am gearing up for next week.

The changeover from iPowerWeb to DreamHost is happening right now. I've migrated the entire site via a cool Web-based multi-ftp client supplied by DreamHost and have changed the DNS settings at Gandi to point to DreamHost's nameservers. Depending on propagation time through the Internet tubes, Project Insomnia may be served from DreamHost by the time you read this. How will you know? If all goes well, you won't see any change at all.

Except that iPowerWeb's unexplained unannounced "migration" downtimes will be a thing of the past. If I wasn't already planning on switching Web hosts, this past weekend would have made the decision for me.

DreamHost supplies a ton of Web space and essentially unlimited email addresses and aliases. If you'd like to host your Web site or blog at www.project-insomnia.com/yourname, or if you'd like a yourname@project-insomnia.com email address or alias, just let me know.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Falwell said on the 700 Club,

'I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'' Fellow evangelist Pat Robertson concurred with his sentiment. After heavy criticism, Falwell apologized.

Say hello to the Big Guy Downstairs for me, willya? I'm sure you'll have a lot to talk about.

My soon-to-be ex-Web host (iPowerWeb) apparently lost a server and had to restore from backup, or something, because around 8:00 last night Project Insomnia went dead to the world--including email, so if you sent me anything since then, please re-send--and only came back a few minutes ago. Sans the last two weeks of posts. I'm glad the entire site is published by Blogger, so all I had to do was re-publish and not lose anything. Still, no apology or even warning; the support email I sent last night was auto-answered with "our server administrators are aware of the problem." Very helpful, thanks. See ya.

Not content to toil endlessly behind the scenes, I have an actual article on MousePlanet today. With pictures! Light Magic - 10 Years Later:

It seems hard to believe that it has been 10 years since Light Magic made its triumphant premiere at the Annual Passholder party, Tuesday night, May 13 1997. Since then, of course, Light Magic has gone on to become the most beloved production in the history of Disneyland that has been duplicated to great acclaim at other Disneyland parks around the world, and a Broadway stage version is in the works. It is true that the success of Light Magic has led to problems with Anaheim sewers being completely clogged with 10 years' worth of non-biodegradable mylar confetti, but this seems a small price to pay for having such a wonderful, magical...

And it goes on from there. The '97 pictures haven't been seen since I took down Disneyland Backstage lo these many years ago.

Oakland A's sign Fremont land deal:

The owners of the Oakland A's announced today that they have signed a contract to buy 168 acres for a proposed ballpark development in Fremont.

Lew Wolff, the team's managing partner, said the deal will allow him quickly to submit an application to the city for a roughly 32,000-seat stadium, surrounded by housing and high-end commercial development.

"Let's go Fre-mont" just doesn't have the ring of "Let's go Oak-land". On the other hand, the new stadium will be close enough that we could conceivably attend weeknight games--not an option at the Coliseum.

News from The Register that we are finally getting a PalmOS Treo upgrade--a true upgrade, not that 680p nonsense:

The Treo 755p uses the same design as the 750 and, indeed, the 2.5G 680. Initially offered through the Sprint network, the handset has a dual-band CDMA 2000 EvDO radio on board. Like the 750, it has Bluetooth 1.2 and a 1.3-megapixel, 2x digital zoom camera. Like the 680, it sports a 320 x 320, 65,536-colour display, a 312MHz XScale processor and Palm OS 5.4.9 'Garnet'.

I can't wait.

Following up on this post, I downloaded and installed Pidgin and tried it out. It works acceptably, but there aren't any compelling reasons to switch away from Trillian Pro and there is one major (for me) missing feature: the buddy list can be docked, but it can't auto-hide; this is a feature of Trillian Pro that is invaluable to me on a small laptop screen.

I'm changing Web hosts from iPowerWeb to DreamHost. This will be done in stages over the next couple of weeks and hopefully there won't be any downtime. Changeover should be complete by May 26th. If you find the site unavailable, this is probably why, and I apologize for any inconvenience.

When I'm done, I'll have more Web space and bandwidth along with many spiffy new features. Change is good!

Anyone watching Sunday night's Giants game against the Phillies should have had no doubt that Shane Victorino's collision with Omar Vizquel to gain an interference ruling was no mistake, and guess what? You were right:

Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel was correct in suspecting the Phillies' Shane Victorino purposely collided with him during a rundown Sunday night. The umpires called obstruction on Vizquel, citing a new rule allowing runners to 'establish their own baseline,' and Victorino slithered away safely.

'Running into him was my only escape,' he told Philadelphia reporters. 'Once I saw him release the ball, I said, 'I'm going right for him to try to get an interference call.' Fortunately, I got it.'

This is the first time I've heard of this "establish your own baseline" nonsense, and according to Rule 7.08 (a)(1):

Any runner is out when --
(a) (1) He runs more than three feet away from his baseline to avoid being tagged unless his action is to avoid interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball. A runner’s baseline is established when the tag attempt occurs and is a straight line from the runner to the base he is attempting to reach safely;

Victorino was trying to get to second in a rundown and ran more than three feet away from the line between first and second--onto the infield grass, in fact--to avoid being tagged. His action was not intended to avoid interference; indeed, according to his own statement, it was to deliberately induce a fielding interference call on Vizquel resulting in Victorino being awarded the base.

Dirty.

Pidgin 2.0:

Pidgin 2.0, the latest version of the popular open-source instant messaging client formerly known as Gaim, is now available for download. After months of development and numerous beta releases, Pidgin 2.0 is finally ready. A significant improvement over the current 1.5.x series, Pidgin 2.0 includes several compelling features and usability enhancements. Last year, we looked at the second beta release and concluded that much work still needed to be done. Many of the problems we discovered in the early Gaim 2.0 betas have since been resolved. The official Pidgin 2.0 release, available for download from the Pidgin web site, provides an impressive level of quality and reliability.

Pidgin 2.0 is a highly extensible and cohesive platform for multiprotocol Internet communication that includes broad support for essential instant messaging features and common protocols. Rigged with a versatile plug-in system and an assortment of advanced features, Pidgin 2.0 is capable of competing with commercial instant messaging applications like Trillian Pro. Although Pidgin 2.0 has evolved into a robust and powerful program, the absence of voice and video chat features and a few minor weaknesses in the user interface detract from its usefulness and illuminate the need for additional work as development on the 2.x series progresses.

I've been using Trillian Pro for several years and am reasonably happy with it, but as always there are little niggling things that could be better. I've downloaded Pidgin 2.0 and will be trying it out this afternoon (so if you see me connecting/disconnecting rapidly on IM, that's why). Pidgin's Web site appears to be Slashdotted, but the download is also available from their page on Sourceforge.

From 1981: the World's first UMPC | Reg Hardware :

It's the original UMPC: Epson's HX-20, announced in 1981 - 25 years before Intel and Microsoft formally launched the ultra-mobile PC category, in April 2006.

I think I have one of these in a box in my garage. I'll try and remember to check when I get home tonight. Hopefully it escaped the Great Electronics Recycling Sweep of 2006.

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

That is all.