Monday, May 02, 2005

ALL IS WELL

You ever get that feeling that all is right once again with the world? The trees are blooming, birds are singing, the stream near the house is bubbling with the cool mountain runoff. Yes, that one. The feeling you can only get when a favorite series of yours is revived from the dead, like once-dormant flora. Sigh, I'm so happy now that Family Guy has started up again. Last night's first new episode answered such age-old questions like what would it be like if Ralph Cramden actually decked Alice and why the hell did Jesus just sit and take it?

Also, we bumped into an old acquaintance, Marci, over the Passover holiday, who hails from where I now live and was home visiting. It turns out that Marci is quite the vocal talent, check out her demo at the William Morris agency here.

Friday, April 15, 2005

PANAMA

In lieu of anything new to say, I point you to Panama, an old cameraphoto I took when I lived on the Upper West Side. The explanation serves as my blog post. Have a great weekend, all.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Friday, April 01, 2005

Thursday, March 31, 2005

A NEW RECORD

Let's see, last night's episode of South Park (I just watched my DVR'ed copy tonight) dealt with Kenny dying being brought to heaven to lead the armies of light against Satan after proving his worth getting to level 60 of a game on his new Playstation Portable (PSP.) In a twist, Kenny gets revived but remains is a vegetative state. Still counting? The wizards of SP have managed to satirize:

  1. Playstation Portable Mania. (Remarkably timely.)
  2. The Terri Schiavo predicament. (ditto.)
  3. The US Army's online recruiting game. (And -by extension- the plotlines of The Last Startfighter and Ender's Game.)
  4. The Matrix (or pretty much any Keanu Reeves movie.)
  5. The Lord of the Rings.
  6. Quite possibly Dogma. (A risky venture for Matt and Trey, if indeed true.)
  7. The Emperor in the Star Wars saga.

Did I leave anything out?

UPDATE: Alas, Wendy, there is no cowbell. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge. tug on ear.)

Monday, March 28, 2005

CLOSE FRIEND ON LIFE SUPPORT

Gotcha, didn't I? I'm talking about the PalmOS and how it no longer seems to be a platform for innovation. Time was, back in the .boom heyday, that all sorts of new and exciting ideas were brewing in the PDA space dominated by the elegant Palm Operating System and supporting devices. Heck, even as recently as last year us Palm devotees had Sony cranking out cool gadgets and add-ons as well as such nifty tools as WiFi SDIO cards. Even my trusty old recently recommissioned Handspring Visor has a GPS springboard module and an MP3 springboard. (Springboard?) Now what have we got? the Treo. Yeah, it's great, but I don't see a whole lot of innovative software or applications being developed for it. Also, the keyboard is really small. Where's the innovation? How come Palm can only seem to run with an idea that RIM comes up with first? The new Blackberry 7100s have THE form factor I want. Make a PalmOS phone for $300 with that feature set & a bundled JVM and  I'd snap one up. Not some overpriced doodad that will cost you a month's salary of you drop it. The networked apps being developed for phone platforms seem to be leaving Palm behind. In fairness, it's also a market thingie. Palm is being squeezed between supporting a platform for ISV's and getting in the way of the revenue streams of the wireless providers who are subsidizing their phones. It's a tough break, I'll admit, but it still doesn't make me happy.

I'm not sure  where PalmSource (the makers of PalmOS) come out in all this. Their market is being fragmented and they don't have a value proposition. Games? Tapwave's Zodiac is cool, but if you want games, get a PSP. Phones? Treo? natch, get a Blackberry. What's left? barcode scanners?

I fear that my long-term replacement for my dearly departed Clie will be...nothing. <frown>

Sunday, March 27, 2005

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

What do they want? Peace on Earth? Freedom and Liberty for all mankind? Nope. They want new episodes of Family Guy.

LIFE IMITATES ART DEPARTMENT: In other cartoon satire news, the Pope's aborted attempt to speak on Easter Sunday services is eerily reminscint of South Park's croaking Pope. In all seriousness, I wish him well.

LAST ON THE CARTOON ROUNDUP: Star Wars Clone Wars Season III has just wrapped on Cartoon Network in spectacular fashion. Five fifteen minute episodes culminated just before the beginning of Episode III. Character development, action and backstory were all way above par. Well done, Genndy.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

WORK INTRUDES

So I finally broke down and wrote my first significant Python script to extract some statistical data from an HTTP log file. Client needs to grease the wheels on their WebTrends server acquisition so they can get really meaningful data and be in control of their own reporting. For now, Python is cool. I intend to study it more when I can. Plus, Python was created by Guido Van Rossum, which means it has the coolest figurehead name of any open source project that I know of. Way cooler than Miguel. Linus, eat your heart out.

It seems that JSF is gaining traction as the Java web framework of choice these days, so I'm going whole hog and learning it. I still find it amazing how difficult it is to cobble together a simple web app compared to, say, using Lotus Domino Designer, but no doubt this is the way to go. For starters:

  • JSF can be developed in a totally free and/or open-sourced environment. Domino costs eight grand per CPU last I checked.
  • JSF is designed to be used with RDBMS' as data repositories, Domino can but it's not trivial.
  • A subscription to Sun's JSF Development IDE, Java Studio Creator, costs $99 a year! That's not some crippled, introductory version either, but an industrial strength tool for creating web apps with drag 'n drop simplicity. Sure 'Creator still has some kinks in it, but what else can you get from a major vendor for 99 samoleans these days?

UNRELATED: I would love to have one of these babies in my driveway.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

EEW THAT SMELL

We appear to have an incontinent skunk residing on our premises.

ALSO: Mighty GM does blogging right. Adding the general to the list of corpobloggers that "get it." Sorry, Lotus, this doesn't cut it. (IMHO.)

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

FIELD GUIDE TO THE CYLON EMPIRE

Compact guide to the Cylons in the new SciFi series:

Early on we are tantalized with the tidbit that there are nine Cylon models altogether. So there are three unnacounted for and probably human mimics.

ALSO: If only they made this for PCS...

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

SUHA ARAFAT IS GOING NIGERIAN?

This, by far, has got to be the ballsiest variant of the Nigerian Scam yet to arrive in my e-mail inbox:

Dear Friend,
 
This mail may not be surprising to you if you have been following current events in the international media with reference to the Middle East and Palestine in particular.
 
I am Mrs. Suha Arafat, the wife of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader who died recently in Paris. Since his death and even prior to the announcement, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion,humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present leadership ofthe Palestinian Liberation Organization and the new Prime Minister. I have even been subjected to physical and psychological torture. As a widow that is so traumatized,I have lost confidence with everybody in the country at the moment.
 
You must have heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund in my husband secret bank account and companies and the allegations of some huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have refuses to disclose or give up to the corrupt Palestine Government. In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of about$6.5Billion Dollars. And they are not relenting on their effort to make me poor for life. As you know, the Moslem community has no regards for women, more importantly when the woman is from a Christian background,hence my desire for a foreign assistance.
 
I have the sum of 20million dollars with a financial security firm in Europe whose name I can not disclose for now for security reasons until we open up communication.Ishall be grateful if you could receive this fund into your bank account for safe keeping and any Investment opportunity. Thisarrangement will be known to you and I alone and all our correspondence should be strictly on email alone because our government has tapped all my lines and are monitoring all my moves.
 
In view of the above, if you are willing to assist for our mutual benefits, we will have to negotiate on your percentage share of the $20,000,000 that will be kept in your possession for a while and invested in your name for my trust pending when my Daughter, Zahwa, will come off age and take full responsibility of her Family Estate/inheritance.  Please note that this is a golden opportunity that comes once in life time and more so,if you are honest, I am going to entrust more funds in your
care as this is one of the legacy we keep for our children.

In case you don't accept please do not let me out to the security and international media as I am giving you this information in total trust and confidenceI will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith.Please expedite action.
 
PLEASE REPLY ME ONLY ON THESEADDRESSES:
madam_suhaarafat@yahoo.com
 
NB: Please click the link below to get more on my story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suha_Arafat
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Suha Arafat.

Monday, March 14, 2005

LENNY

I was walking to Grand Central from my client office when I spotted one of those Grand Central Partnership dudes in blue overalls wheeling a big rubbish bin and broom. You know the type, probably workfare types getting minimum wage. Basically an honest job for someone with not a lot of options. Interestingly, proudly taped to the side of the bin he was wheeling was a big printed sign: "Lenny Williams." Good for Lenny, way to take ownership of a job.

Contrast Lenny with the mid-level bureaucrat I verbally tussled with over the phone this afternoon. Said individual managed to not-so-artfully dodge any responsibility whatsoever. He refused to even allow me to even ask his subordinates questions to better provide him with answers he could really use. Now that's passing the buck. I can't fathom what possible motivation for his orneriness there could be. To be honest, the motivational aspirations of the mid-level bureaucratic minions in this particular organization have always escaped me.

Given the choice, I'd deal with Lenny every time.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

ODDS 'N ENDS

Still undecided about my PDA dilemma, I'm using my antediluvian Visor Platinum in the interim.

SNL's relentless lampooning of the Bush administration turns me off. (Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to dislike about the current administration, but my firm belief is that the only thing more ridiculous than the current state of the GOP is the current state of the DNC.) Luckily, they balance out the equation with great Euro-trash bashing.

In my recent IM conversation with my multi-talented friend Kathleen, I typed this precious gem, which I'm reproducing in its entirety just because:

JakemonO: although the engineer in me KNOWS that CDMA is superior so I smugly look down on the GSM horde

This was in the context of complaining that GSM users (AT&T Wireless, Cingular, T-Mobile) have a greater variety of cool phones to choose from that CDMA folk (Verizon, Sprint.)

The new Battlestar Galactica is one part inspired, one part ridiculous. So far, it's still on my rotation.

 

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL

Yesterday, in a misguided attempt to diagnose the backlight problems on my precious Clie TG50 PDA, I dissembled the unit. Unfortunately, during the process, I tore a tape circuit, thus rendering the Clie permanently inoperative. These things are also designed to be extremely difficult to reassemble. Upshot, R.I.P. Clie, it's been almost two years of pure joy. There are currently no mid priced Palm OS units on the market with keyboards, let alone with keyboards and Bluetooth. I'm not sure where to go next. I need a replacement, but a Treo is super expensive, and violates my "never regularly carry a delicate object in your pocket worth more than $300" rule big time. Plus, I have a 256 meg Memory Stick Pro investment that would be worthless. Perhaps I'll just get a low-end Clie like this.

ALSO: This public service ad is really funny.

Monday, March 07, 2005

ALMOST FAMOUS

Commuting through Grand Central Station this morning, I watched Mo Rocca interview some MetroNorth employee for Animal Planet. At first I thought I was being "punk'd" and he was doing a bit for the Daily Show, but Mo really is working for AP now. I was asked to stick around for an interview, but politely declined. I was late you see...

ALSO: This shuttle train car between Times Square and Grand Central was completely slathered in decals meant to evoke the setting for HBO's Deadwood.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

NEXT ON LIFETIME

Valerie Bertinelli stars as a battered housewife who is indicted for murder, is illegitimately pregnant and battling cancer. Mariska Hargitay co-stars as her lawyer.

ALSO: I wrote this six months ago. How do you think it played out?

Saturday, March 05, 2005

TWO FOR THE ROAD

Both via BoingBoing:

  1. Crazy North Korean promotional Macromedia Flash movie.
  2. Even crazier industrial chicken catcher. The promo movie of this bizarre contraption is eerie. (If you're a chicken.)

Thursday, March 03, 2005

CHANGING LANES

Changing Lanes was surprisingly good. I was expecting a bitter, ugly movie about two people who just get more and more pissed off at each other and a clear villain and victim. I was pleasantly wrong. Also, the cast is awesome.

Two more tunes that I listen to:

  1. Teenage Dirtbag, Wheatus.
  2. Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Israel Kamakawiwo`ole. Iz's rendition of this classic keeps turning up. Rest in peace, gentle Samoan.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

BRIEFLY NOTED

Suddenly, picking up dirty socks takes on a whole new meaning.

TRACKALICIOUS

I don't have an iPod. When I want to listen to music on the go I use my Sony Clie and carefully pack the tunes I want to hear onto my 256 megabyte MemoryStick. The zen of what I'm forced to do actually appeals to me as I -over time- have accumulated a list of songs old and new that evoke specific memories and emotions in me when I listen to them. Some standouts that come to mind are:

  • Heart and Soul, T'Pau. This song is a pitch perfect '80's synth-pop/rock tune. The layered vocals and tempo are sublime. Additionally, the spoken word-chorus dichotomy foreshaow Eminem's Dido dalliance. Listen a few times to appreciate.
  • Life in a Northern Town, Dream Academy. Dreamy, melancholy, lovely.
  • Leaving on a Jet Plane, Chantal Kreviazuk.
  • Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley.
  • Cemetery Gates, Pantera. The guitar riff at the beginning of the chorus still gives me chills. A classic metal piece.
  • Crazy Train, Ozzy Osbourne.
  • Whenever Wherever, Shakira. Shakira doesn't get enough credit. She rocks and this song shows just how much.
  • Antin Mikko, JPP. And now for something completely different. Illustrative of just how layered and conteporary a pure string piece can be.
  • Goodbye Stranger, Supertramp.
  • 1985, Bowling for Soup.
  • Down In The River To Pray , Alison Kraus. If I were a Baptist minister, I'd make sure to put this in my litany.

Sunday, February 27, 2005

HUCKABEES

Watching I Heart Huckabees right now. The title is unfortunate. The movie seems to be seeking the answer to the question of what happens when philosophy majors try to get real, paying jobs in the gumshoe industry. How about Plato, P.I.?

SHORT TAKES

  1. Finished EST, profound conceptualization of the not-to-distant future. Could end stronger (IMHO,) though. Also caught the author's tribute to Pinkwater in the text. Specifically, Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars, one of my favorite books growing up. Corey confirmed my suspicions via email, what a guy!
  2. Found Stewie Griffin's rendition of Shatner's Rocket Man. The single greatest Stewie sketch. Watch the original by the Shat here.
  3. Found Peter trying to nurse Stewie, another great  sketch.
  4. The new Wise Chipotle Smoked Jalalpeño chip is a new instant classic from the company that makes my benchmark chip, the Wise BBQ. I have to disagree with the lukewarm review taquitos.net gave it.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

THE NEW COMMUNITY

Andrew Sullivan is the latest person to highlight the emerging "iPod Nation." Andrew wonders if the apparent increase of people choosing to live in the isolation of their own hyper-personalized space {iPod playlists; cable television; satellite radio, the blogosphere} is a bad thing. Will it result in the destruction of the commons and our ability to exist in a social context? Valid questions, these, and I admit to extrapolating a little on whether this is Andrew's intent. (Andrew's regular blog can be found here.) Regardless, the meme is definitely out there. I wonder, though, if the "threat" is overblown. Firstly, the blossoming of white headphones only informs us of the brand of personal experience the observed masses are participating in. (In this case, Apple's iPod experience.) Who's to say the number or demographic is any different than those who may have been using any other type of device prior to their iPod purchase? These are people who will behave in a similarly detached manner regardless of the type of audio they choose to channel into their headsets. The white headphones is a hollow indicator, then. Furthermore, is the trend accelerating? What evidence exists that the urge to personalize our space is accelerating beyond what was probably decried at the advent of the original Walkman? The portable CD player? (Hell, transistor radios for that matter?)

[SIDEBAR: For as long as there's been music there's been people customizing their personal music experience. Who (amongst my generational peers) can forget their first mix tape? Perhaps all the iPod is accomplishing is the commensurate steepening of the personalization curve that comes with lowering the barriers of entry to personalization?]

We live in a society that treasures individual choice. Why is the trend towards the increased exercise of that right so menacing? Won't our heightened ability to customize more and more of our heretofore communal experience result in new and exciting ways of fostering community? Are we not seeing the first fruits of such communities in such game changing services as flickr, del.icio.us, Amazon and NetFlix -not to mention Apple's own iTunes- with their abilities to share or recommend? Vive la difference! Change is coming, but its not the cataclysm (says I) pundits may be scaring us with.

Corey Doctorow's latest book, Eastern Standard Tribe, consciously fueled this essay. Go get a copy for yourself. It's free!

Saturday, February 19, 2005

DVD'S

There's not much point to watching America's Sweethearts. Unless you really were wondering what Agador would have been like if he were straight.

M. Night Shyamalan's shtick is wearing thin. His signature device is to distract you from his real point until the climax of the film. The distraction has to be at least engaging, though. He's still on my short list of promising directors though. For starters, he relies on the competence of his actors, prefers stage training, and at least lets the story take center stage, not any special effects. Mr. Lucas, are you listening? You used to exhibit such qualities.

For vintage Viggo, I recommend G.I. Jane.

NetFlix IS worth it. Try if for free for two weeks.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

LINKY

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

BOOKS & COOKS

Today while walking on 14th street towards the 2/3 train I passed Bobby Flay. I bumped into Bobby when I still lived on the UWS last year. So Bobby becomes one of those celebs that are on my multiple sighting list, along with Sam Waterson and Steven Hill. (Pretty much the entire cast of Law & Order, come to think of it.)

I'm also reading Corey Doctorow's latest: Eastern Standard Tribe. If you want proof that book and author are targeting the technorati bear witness:

I enjoyed 'Kingdom and anticipate same for EST. Go get 'em and see fer yourself!

LAPTOP UPDATE

So it turns out that there's a demarcation line after which some PC drive controllers won't recognize larger size hard drives. That demarcation line consists of multiples of 18. So a hard drive controller that works for a hard drive between 18 and 36 gigs may not work for a 40 gig drive. The good folks at World Line fiddled around with my old laptop to confirm that this was indeed the problem with the machine and we settled on a 30 gig drive -which is still a 50% improvement over the old 20 gig piece. I'm happy to report that the old Presario is now humming smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that I wonder if the occasional freezes I was experiencing were also due to the old drive dying on me. No matter, now my wife has a machine to use at home while I'm in the office.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...

I remember this post, on Ash Wednesday two years ago. My how things have changed in two years. On my way to the office this morning, there's a bomb scare at the Israeli Consulate one block over. My how things have remained the same in these last two years.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

PARIS AND BOB

Paris Hilton hosted SNL last weekend. She was quite capable and I was duly impressed. The episode wasn't a particularly strong one, but was notable for NOT starting off with political (read: Bush is a fool) satire. I'm glad SNL may finally be getting off their soapbox this season. I've always maintained -with the caveat that this is based purely on conjecture- that Paris is a sweet girl. I mean, she's clearly a party animal with some troublemaking friends, but I've never seen her act rude or improper to someone in a public forum. What she does in private is another matter entirely, but that's food for another posting.

Bob Congdon is a good blog read with a handful of interesting posts that satisfied a bunch of interests of mine. There's the iPod shuffle RAID array story (for the geek in me,) the Google maps story (for the directionally obsessed in me) and a link to the facts behind the famous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit story (for the "let's get to the real heart of the story" investigative reporter in me.)

Geocaching is an interesting pursuit that I may want to have at when the weather warms up a bit. Now that we're bone fide suburbanites, we should try our hands at rustic pursuits, such as hiking and such. Besides, I've been looking for a reason to dust off my old Visor Platinum and GPS module. My old colleague and buddy Chris is into geocaching and even designed the Vermont Area Geocachers' website.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

LONG WINDED

<rant>So I was driving home two nights ago after helping my sister with some moving and started to think about Jon's post "Shifting time and folding space." In it, Jon describes the setup he uses to listen to podcasts. Jon also coined the term screencast to describe his video podcasting philosophy. My point is, how does he find time to think? I mean, I love technology and think and dream about it sometimes. I like to suppose I'm on a similar wavelength, but I draw the line at consuming information aurally and visually. Frankly, I love cars as well, but never thought good information on the topic ever translated to the screen or audio well. I mean, have you ever tried to watch speedvision (cars) or techTV (or whatever that channel is called these days?) I prefer my information (professional as well as leisure related) presented to me on paper or computer monitor with a lingual flavor, thank you. More importantly than the flavor or information Jon chooses to digest (all of them, it would seem) is his seemingly unending capacity to absorb it all. I don't know how he does it. I mean, I once had a client who expressed comfort paying me whatever I charged because he knew Jake (that's me) dreamed about doing his job when he slept! So I know a thing or two about being infatuated with a topic. I guess I'm mellowing with age. I've even decided to officially stop lusting after a Treo 650 on the premise that I just don't want or need to have 24/7 access to my work email. E-mail is a queue. I pop messages off the queue when I choose, otherwise I'd never get anything done! </rant>

Sunday, January 30, 2005

PURPLE FINGERS

As an expression of solidarity with the imperiled voters of Iraq, I'd like to humbly suggest people dip a finger in purple ink. We take the right to choose our government for granted, these folks are risking their lives to do so.

The laptop has suffered a setback. I'm assuming that the Presario's BIOS doesn't recognize the 40 gig hard drive I bought it. I'll be exchanging it for a 20 gig unit (same size as the failing original) the next chance I get.

In other news, my home continues to be inundated with little girls' clothing and furniture. My brother-in-law and I are contemplating hawking children's furniture. It's just like regular furniture except for the following exceptions:

  1. It's painted white or pine.
  2. It's festooned with warning lables.
  3. It's three times as expensive as regular furniture.

Sounds like an easy gig to make money on, eh?

UPDATE: The purple ink meme seems to have traction all over the 'net.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

LAST CHANCE LAPTOP

So I got a new laptop and planned on sunsetting my old Presario laptop by selling it off to my buddy Manny. Unfortunately, the laptop's hard drive seems to be suffering from Alzheimer's or something and needs to be replaced. Considering that I don't think the street value for the machine is more than $300 and a new hard drive cost around $100, strictly speaking the investment doesn't seem worthwhile. Kinda like ponying up a thousand bucks to replace the tranny on the old clunker you're gonna sell for maybe twice that. So the question I have to ask myself is, is it worth it? Well, I think it is, for now, and here's why. I'm currently in transition, so I've been carrying around the new laptop instead of primarily using it in my home office. My homebound wife is currently sans computer in my absence. Yeah, I have some big desktop rigs I can set up, but I don't really have a lot of room for any of them (even though they are compact by desktop standards and I have a sweet 17" LCD display.) So I'll get the old Presario back in fighting trim. When my sister Bena makes her move to Israel, I'll let her have the laptop as my parting gift. I hope she'll like it. So I'm off to World Line computer, which is where Steve gets his parts from, to shop for a new laptop hard drive.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

TALK LIKE AN INSURGENT

Or, ebonics for terrorists...

Yesterday, I did my holy duty and drove my wife's grandmother home. Bubby had been staying with us since the baby came and had been a tremendous help. I would have driven her home Sunday, but I couldn't get any crusading whoremongering pigs to do the harlot's duty of clearing my driveway. So my holy explosive device transporter car couldn't leave its filthy infidel garage. The apostates finally showed up to shovel yesterday afternoon. Insh'allah, the snow shall be completely vanquished and it will run from the wrath of the holy shovels like the rejectionist infidel dog precipitation that it is with its tail between its legs.

N.B. I've gotten weird feedback for this post, feel free to comment, it's meant to be humorous. I may take it down...

Sunday, January 23, 2005

LOTS TO TALK ABOUT

FIrst of all, we had a beautiful baby girl on Monday, the 10th. Her name is Basya (after my grandmother, OB"M) and mother and daughter are doing splendidly. Sleeping right now, in fact. I couldn't be a prouder husband/father.

I see Paul (son of A. Bartlett) Giamatti is hosting SNL. If I were Paul, I'd have to say the most annoying question I could be asked would have to be "What's it like to work with Frankie Muniz?" Seriously, I've been a fan of Paul's work since he played Pig Vomit in Howard Stern's movie and an FBI agent in Donnie Brasco.

On the technical side, I continue to have trouble trying to grok JXTA, so I'm taking a detour to learn JSF, in an effort to bolster my short term earning potential. Sun's Java Studio Creator looks promising.

I'm starting to get pissed off at Flickr. Their web page said that if I invite x number of users who become members my status would be upgraded to premium. It was, for about two weeks. Now I'm back to being a free account user with the associated limits. Frankly, I don't mind not being able to upload more than ten megabytes of images a month but being limited to three photosets is a nuisance. I think I've found a workaround by sharing keyword pages, though, we'll see how well that scales...

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

I TOLD YOU SO

Now that the word "blog" is Merriam Webster's word of the year and all the hoopla surrounding the blogosphere has officially made us mainstream, I look like a fortune teller to my friends and family (OK, not my cyberspace friends, who are way ahead of me, but my old-school flesh and blood ones.)

Now that food, money and material are pouring in to the afflicted area of the Indian Ocean disaster faster than the logistical ability to process all that stuff, the hoopla surrounding the paltry initial US donation of 35 mil. has died down. The ability to deliver aid is where the real need is. Once again, while the rest of the world sits on their bums or forms action committees and coordination strategies the good 'ole US of A is getting it done. (With a very honorable mention to the Aussies, who are splendid.) And our military assistance carries with it no price tag, real or imagined, to sully the gesture of giving help to those less fortunate with a claim of monetary credit. I did point this out to my Mom (get well soon, Mom!) last weekend over Sabbath dinner before the larger truth became evident in more mainstream media. The maritime corollary to the maxim that amateurs fidget over strategy while professionals know that logistics wins wars is that poseurs pledge money for natural disaster relief while the big boys set sail immediately. Hooah to our men and women in uniform doing right by the victims of the Tsunami.

Special shout out to Wendy, gone for the moment, but no doubt soon to return.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

OVERHEARD: BEER-WARE

As a developer of software code, I'm always grappling with issues of what licensing scheme to release my code under. (Thanks tort-lawyers!) Here's the latest candidate:

/*
 * ------------------------------------------
 * "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):
 * <phk@FreeBSD.ORG> wrote this file.
 * As long as you retain this notice you
 * can do whatever you want with this stuff.
 * If we meet some day, and you think
 * this stuff is worth it, you can buy
 * me a beer in return.   Poul-Henning Kamp
 * ------------------------------------------
 */

hat tip: Jesse

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

FOF

My good friend Steve recently started experimenting with the built in RSS reader in the Thunderbird Mail client and asked me to recommend some good feeds for him to subscribe to. I scanned through the list of feeds I check daily and culled a few I thought he'd be interested in. I left out poliblogs and milblogs on the assumption that he wouldn't be interested. (We are on opposite sides of the electoral divide.) For the record, I use and recommend the Sage feed reader extension for Firefox, although the beta of Onfolio 2.0 looks promising and works in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Be forewarned, though, Onfolio is Windows only and requires the installation of .Net runtimes, which can be a hefty download. In case you are anything  like me and enjoy a daily digest of technofocused conversation sprinkled with topicality and philosophy, here's the list I sent Steve:

Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/index.rss
Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/news/rss2.0.rdf
my work blog: http://ksnet.unfpa.org/jake/devblog.nsf/stories.rss
my personal blog: http://gimleteyes.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Kathleen's blog: http://www.dirtyfez.com/rss.xml (former associate and current personal friend -she's a very good writer)
Jon Udell: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/rss.xml (smart guy, always has something clever to say)
Ned Batchelder: http://www.nedbatchelder.com/blog/rss.xml (former Loti, also smart & interesting)
Jeremy Zawodny: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/rss2.xml (developer extraordinaire at Yahoo, big LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) advocate
Iraq the Model: http://feeds.feedburner.com/IraqTheModel (three brothers living in Iraq)
Gizmodo: http://www.gizmodo.net/index.xml (the gadget's weblog)
Mozillazine: http://mozillazine.org/contents.rdf
Mozillazine feedhouse: http://feedhouse.mozillazine.org/rss20.xml (clearinghouse for all Mozilla related blogs)

FOF = feed of feeds

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

THANKS

Sometimes I need to remind myself that I have a lot to be thankful for. Today is the seventh day of Chanukkah and Lorraine & I just returned from her sister's second son's bris. All went well and mother, child (not to mention father, grandparents and assorted aunts and uncles) are fine. Lorraine barrels along in to her ninth month and we excitedly anticipate our family's pending expansion by 50%. I am thankful for all of this, which was barely conceivable to me a little over a year ago. My two best friends, Manny and Chuck, also got married recently, making this a most auspicious year for the three of us. I continue to find happiness and intellectual stimulation in my chosen profession, which is all I can really ask for besides enough compensation to live on. My car works, my apartment has heat and my new laptop is in the mail.

Happy and healthy Holiday season and New Year to all. (Rather, Wendy, the only other known reader of this blog.)

P.S. Friedman gets it right for the first time in awhile (IMHO.)

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Monday, November 22, 2004

DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER

If you've been following events in Iraq, you are probably aware of the brouhaha surrounding the apparent marine shooting of a subdued, unarmed insurgent. In times of war, these things -inexcusable as they are- do happen. The idea that somehow 150,000 heavily armed, trained and primed soldiers mostly in their late teens and early twenties under severe stress somehow posses the diplomatic skills and judgment of an ambassador under hellish conditions is ridiculous. These kids make mistakes. Some of these mistakes are criminal in nature, if not intent. We shall see what U.S. Military justice decides the appropriate fate for the individual under investigation is. What we should not do is somehow draw the conclusion that we are no different than the enemy we face. We are quite different and clearly on the side of moral and civil values in this conflict. There should be no mistake about that. Additionally, we should not shoot the messenger. Kevin Sites, the MSNBC reporter who shot the footage of the incident has been an exemplary correspondent throughout this conflict. At all times he has shown respect, admiration and forged deep friendships with the soldiers he embeds with. To suggest that his actions are traitorous and agenda-driven is odious to me as it should be to anyone who has been following Kevin's adventures on his blog. His recounting of the story can be found here.

UPDATE: From a Marine who was there.

UPDATE II: This is from a US Army future combat systems scenario demonstration. It's worth noting that all of the systems being used in the animation are either in service now or in active development. The small peanut-shaped drone, in particular, has eerie shades of Star Wars in it. Life is not going to be getting any easier for enemies of the US Armed Forces anytime soon.

Monday, November 15, 2004

THE REAL ROCKET SCIENTISTS...

if you've ever asked me about my profession, programming, and whether I'm any good at it, I've probably said that yeah, I'm a decent programmer. What I do is mostly along the lines of scripting and integration, i.e. programming the glue that holds different high level prebuilt components together. Such sexy pursuits include: integrating Lotus Domino with third party LDAP servers and document management products, etc. I do some medium-wieight programming as well, but nothing, strictly speaking, that could be considered rocket science. The true rocket scientists of the trade, I always said, are the game programmers. These guys -they are all men as far as I can tell- design complex mathematical engines for the creation and management of incredibly realistic audio-visual experiences that perform seamlessly and enjoyably -to the delight of millions of ardent game players worldwide in four dimensions. They are the Einsteins (and Von Brauns) of the computer science trade. Backing up my assertion is the realization that John Carmack, a leading member of this august group, is indeed a rocket scientist in his spare time. Carmack co-founded and co-owns id software, which published some of the most popular action games of our time. I first began following Carmack's other company, Armadillo Aerospace, almost two years ago when my interest in the x-prize began. I've found this small company to be my favorite of the contenders, notwithstanding the realization early on that Scaled was going to be the team to beat. Carmack and his small cadre of hobbyists are seriously vying to build an affordable and reliable space transportation device. Check out their site, it's fascinating stuff.

Friday, November 12, 2004

ANOTHER YEAR GOES BY...

Happy birthday to me! I'm a palindromic 33 today. Yay! The lovely Lorraine threw me a beautiful birthday smash last night in the new (and Improved!) Chez Ochs on the Hudson Passaic. I got an Aeron chair for my office nook, so I'm one happy camper this morning. Thanks Sweetie!

Who would swipe a yellow "support our troops" magnet off of a car! It's unpatriotic, that's what it is.

South Park was singularly and uncharecteristically awful this week, bwaah!

Sunday, October 24, 2004

ASHLEY-GATE

Did anyone catch Ashlee's screw-up on SNL? Apparently, the wrong taped vocals started playing when it came time for the not-Jessica to perform her second song. Ashlee oh-so-cleverly goofed around for ten seconds and walked off stage. Great recovery, kid, you're a star! Don't let anyone not in your family tell you otherwise.

Friday, October 22, 2004

SCORCHED EARTH

Add Krugman to the list of 'Times columnists who would destroy the Republic in order to "save" it. Now he says the elections are already rigged by the all-powerful Republican/Bush cabal.

So the Yanks lost. Big deal. I'm more upset that the Sox are going to the series. Not a big fan of Boston, I am.

Gonna be out of the city this weekend. So, next weekend is our official last weekend as residents of the great Borough of Manhattan. <sigh>

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

LITTLE BOY IN A BIG WORLD

Suddenly, the world seems like a bigger, more frightening place without my Bubby.

Friday, October 15, 2004

FINGERED

The latest campaign Brouhaha over John Kerry's "Outing" of Lynne Cheney seems ridiculously overblown to me. Of course, in a close election like this one, everything gets ridiculously overblown. Like the notion that either candidate will measurably impact your life right now, for instance. Some truths:

  • You won't get drafted.
  • Your tax bill won't change -drastically.
  • We'll still be in Iraq on November 3rd, 2004 and November 3, 2005 for that matter.
  • Israelis and Palestinians will still hate each other.
  • We'll all still hate strongly dislike the French.
  • Lynne Cheney will still be gay.

I mean, really. What did Kerry do? He did not slander anyone -not even close. We all knew Lynne was gay. If we didn't before the campaign we sure as hell did after the Vice-Presidential debate. Like the issue of who did what during the Vietnam years, this issue is just random campaign noise to me, to be treated and discarded as such and in no way an issue of any import.

The larger "truth" that I'm beginning to realize is that the Democratic claim of Republican dirty tricks is not wholly unfounded -with a caveat. The Republican campaign is only doing what the Democratic rank and file routinely perpetrate : Mercilessly slander and libel/label the opposition. For every Karl (that's with a K, as is Marx) Rove, there's a Dan Rather; for each swift boat vet ad there's a Michael Moore. To insist that either side has a monopoly on the truth is nonsensical. If you have any gray matter at all, you'll just need to figure it all out for yourself. And for G-d's sake, watch more than one news channel and read more than one newspaper on a regular basis. If you don't, you'll elect what you deserve. It's called due diligence, exercise it!

GOOD READ DEPT: Deconstructing Bob Herbert. I never much cared for Mr. Herbert's columns anyways. He's not only a glass-is-half-empty kind of guy, he's a glass-is-broken-and-leaking-water-like-a-sieve kind of guy. Mr. Herbert doesn't seem to have ever met a party he couldn't rain on.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

SAVED!

Wife & I watched Saved! last night on DVD. A funny, dark coming-of-age teen movie with a bunch of wild twists. RECOMMENDED.

Saw this cute magnet poster in my doctor's office yesterday.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

BROOKS

I find myself reading David Brooks more and more these days. He seems like a level-headed guy without an axe to grind -a rarity for an op-ed columnist in the New York Times. I like his point blank assesment of the differences in vision of the (two) presidential candidates he makes today.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

ROUNDUP

It's good to be in D.C. The latest jibjab yuckfest.

SNL is looking weak this season. Looks like Amy is the only cast member not just phoning it in.

Heather, on Scrubs is a nice fit. UPGRADE!

Ooh! Bill Shatner has a new album! yay! Many years ago, my buddy Steve and I settled on the Shat as the leading candidate for Supreme Leader of our hypotherical new age religion/cult/internet business: Religion 2.0. We never got past the beer soaked planning sessions on that one, though..

Topher is short for Christopher? I DID NOT KNOW THAT!

Why did the rat cross Riverside Drive? I guess we'll never know...

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

From The Stewardess Monologues::
I just love it when passengers get on the plane and they all look in the cockpit. Wouldn't it be great if the pilots were sitting in there, one reading a book titled "SO YOU WANT TO FLY?", and the other holding a broken switch in his hand with a look of confusion on his face?
another gem:
Frequent Fliers: why can everything be justified by how many miles they have? "Sir, you simply cannot be smacking around a flight attendant like that. You can't. Oh? Super Gold status? Yes, well ... that IS a lot of miles. You certainly can slap a flight attendant, sir. Yes, you can.

Monday, October 04, 2004

MISCELLANEOUS

Dunno why Grand Central (Train) Station could be considered a good venue for selling cars. Also, a dead ringer for David E. Davis Jr.  was standing around by the cars. I wonder if it was really him?

Via Ned:

Electoral Vote Predictor collates data from polls across the country to predict the outcome of the electoral vote. The maps are clear and informative, showing which states are near-balance, and which are clearly on one side or the other.

UPDATE: Official Virgin Galactic Homepage

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

MONEY QUOTE

From What the Bubble Got Right, by Paul Graham:

Indeed, that's practically the definition of a nerd. I found myself talking recently to someone from Hollywood who was planning a show about nerds. I thought it would be useful if I explained what a nerd was. What I came up with was: someone who doesn't expend any effort on marketing himself.
A nerd, in other words, is someone who concentrates on substance. So what's the connection between nerds and technology? Roughly that you can't fool mother nature. In technical matters, you have to get the right answers. If your software miscalculates the path of a space probe, you can't finesse your way out of trouble by saying that your code is patriotic, or avant-garde, or any of the other dodges people use in nontechnical fields.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

BUH-BYE, FROM SPACE!

Or, soon you'll be able to get stale peanuts and beer while you orbit the earth. Richard Branson has just announced the first commercial (that I know of) spaceline. Virgin Galactic, of course. If you haven't been following the exciting X-Prize contest -wherein the first person to successfully launch a 3-man vehicle into space and repeat the feat within two weeks with the same vehicle gets $10 million- the first try for the prize is set to lift-off tomorrow. You can read more about the Spaceship One entry here.

GOOD READ: Brooks on the power of the vote (not what you'd expect.)

UPDATE: Kevin has renewed his commitment to blogging. Let's hope he'll continue...

AWW: Hanging with Mr. Squirrel.

Monday, September 27, 2004

LI'L BOW WOW

Observation I made last night: Dogs are like people. It's always the wee doggie causing all the trouble. I mean, when you see a toy breed of some sort snapping and hollering at a mastiff, you gotta wonder: What's the little dude thinking? I mean, Marmaduke can swallow you whole and burp you out little man! Most of the time, the big dog justs sits there and takes it, or doesn't even acknowledge the little pest. Isn't it the same old story everywhere? We can learn a lot from our four-legged friends.

JUNK SCIENCE: Or, what those dudes behind the counter at fast food joints do to kill time. Hat tip: Bob.

Run Peter, run!

Sunday, September 26, 2004

SUBURBIA

It's official, wife & I will be suburbanites as of November 1. We've closed a deal on a shweet rental in Passaic, New Joisey (what exit? dunno.) We're also the soon-to-be proud owners of one of these parental unit transportation devices. I feel so grown up! Oh, where are my manners? A belated happy new year to my Jewish friends and a very healthy and happy Sunday morning to the rest of you!

SHADES OF STAR WARS: EPISODE I

Apologies for the misleading headline, I just read this opinion piece by David Brooks in the 'Times. (hat tip: Chrenkoff.) The diplomatic situation surrounding the Darfur genocide reminds me of what (then) Senator Palpatine railed against in the Grand Galactic Senate: the pithy inaction of the bureaucrats. This stands in marked relief to the "unilateral" action taken in Iraq. Not to belabor the point -which is well taken- but we should be vigilant: Palpatine eventually showed his true evil self as a twisted Sith Lord. Any chance, say, Dick Cheney can shoot lighting out of his fingertips? Hell, if he could, I'd definitely vote for him!

UPDATE: Krazy Karma file: James Taranto of Wall Street Journal.com's Opinion Journal just made the comparison between John Kerry and C-3PO! Great minds think alike, I suppose. You know, I recall hearing that there was a movement afoot in the late '70's to draft George Lucas as a religious figurehead. If, indeed, so much of modern politics can be divined from his Star Wars saga, perhaps this should be revisited?

FASHION: from Shmatas.com. Hat tip: Jewlicious.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

MIDDLE ACT

I decided the post that I had previously put here with the same title is a little to rant-ish, so I'm removing it. You can still access the original text here if you really want. My whole point for posting "MIDDLE ACT" was that it just we seem to be in the middle act of a three act play regarding the Iraq situation. Then I got a little carried away. To much news, not enough time...

Monday, September 13, 2004

NOW THAT'S A SPICY MEATBALL

For those of you who turned down a Hummer because its too small. Wife & I are looking into one of these babies for when we get one of these babies. Any suggestions?

ALSO: Very interesting Yahoo! search shortcuts. Hat tip: Danny Sullivan, via Jeremy Zawodny.

ON POLITICS: I've taken it upon myself to actually read the Democratic Party platform for 2004 and the Republican Party platform for 2004 (note: links are for dowloading Adobe PDF files.) If the election is as important as its being hyped to be (what election isn't?) I figure I should at least learn what the candidates actually stand for from the horses' (or, insert favorite quardruped here) mouths rather than the fickle and innacurate big media outlets.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

I've been asked how come I -geek that I am- don't have a digital camera many a time. To which I dutifully replied: "What for?." With my nifty little Konica Revio APS (Advantix) camera I can take sharp pictures, have them developed with Kodak's awesome PerfectTouch processing AND have them available online at PictureCenter. I may have to rethink that in light of some new developments.

First of all, I've been most impressed with Picasa, a free photo organizing tool from Google that passes the Aunt Tillie test or, in my case the Max test. (Max is my stepdad.) Picasa, by virtue of its adopted family, also works well with blogger, hence the ability to easily post photos to a weblog using the Picasa's slick Hello sharing tool. Which allows me to do things like this. Jeremy notes, however, that if you use any operating system other than Windows, however, Picasa just isn't for you. Which brings me to flickr, which creates a community of photo sharing people. I'm pleased that flickr gives you granular access to security. Don't want weirdos getting pictures of me or my family for nefarious purposes now, do we? However, flickr seems geared towards sharing lo-res pictures online, and not towards the higher quality photos we've come to expect from developed film. More on that as I continue to investigate...

How did I get to this point? It all really began with my frustrating experience with CVS.com's online photo center. I've been having my films developed with Kodak processing at CVS for years, and have amassed quite a digital library on their site. As of August 1st, however, CVS stopped offering PictureCenter. I really liked PictureCenter because I could order my prints and pick them up at my nearby CVS for pennies, no shipping changes included. Now I haven't lost access to my PictureCenter archives mind you, I just can't add to the archive with any new rolls of film or -and this is the big bummer- migrate the archive to a bona-fide Kodak.com account. Since the CVS site is obviously a co-branded Kodak site, this last point really ticked me off. As it stands, I'm still using the Kodak PictureCenter, I just have to bring my film in to develop at a local film & camera store instead. My holy grail is to have complete access to all my photo archives in high quality in one location with unlimited bandwidth and storage. So far, I haven't seen any compelling alternative to local storage using Picasa, although I'm told Yahoo Photos is quite good.

HEH: Insanity Test.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

REPUBLICAN'S SECRET SPEECHWRITER OUTED

Yes, It's Jeff Foxworthy! If you say...You are (not)... Bush did it, Zell did it, Rudy did it. It's definitely a pattern. Who knew Blue Collar Comedy Tour had such an impact on our political spectrum.

SIDEBAR: I just purchased a Jim Breuer DVD on DeepDiscountDVD.com. Both comedian and website are highly recommended. I actually had the pleasure of watching my wife completely lose it during his child birthing bit.

GOOD POINT: Well done, New York. Well done, Mr. Mayor. Another solid reason I'm proud to be a New Yorker.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

(UN)CONVENTIONAL

Watching more of the convention last night. The governator was fun. His speech was a big, bombastic rallying cry. Nothing wrong with that now, is there? I thought the twins' speech was miscalculated. Twenty-two year old girls should have more to say to the world than bad, giggly jokes about grandma and TV shows. Also, Laura had the glassy-eyed slightly dated Stepford Wife look. A little creepy, if you ask me. I do like her, though -she just seems a little behind the times for an event that should be tuning in to the "hip" crowd a little better. Overall a good show, but not as compelling as Day 1.

RELATED: What's the deal with Republican Celebrities?

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

RUDY, RUDY

Rudy was spellbinding last night. (The linked transcript doesn't do his speech -laced with ad-libs-justice.) McCain was on message too. I love Rudy for what he did to restore confidence in the Big Apple. But G-d help us all if he ever decides to run for president. He'd make a really lousy diplomat. He just doesn't seem to posses a single subtle gene in his body. He'd make a good Attorney General, though (IMHO.) The Republicans seem to have the singular ability to focus on their campaign message which gives them a powerful edge against the Dems. Granted, the cacophony of voices effect is and always has seemed part of the Democratic (party) experience. I'm just calling it like I see it.

Friday, August 27, 2004

CRAZY DAY

Had an echo cardiogram this morning. I'm fine, so don't bother with the concern about my health. I was lying on the technician's slab thinking how just about any other situation involving me laying on my side with my shirt off while a middle aged man works a wand coated in jelly around my chest area would have been really uncomfortable.

Still thinking about robots. This screed on the movie I, Robot is quite funny. I guess I won't be seeing it any time soon. Sigh, and I was such an Asimov fan when I was a kid too.

THE DEVIL'S HANDS ARE IDLE PLAYTHINGS

Late at night & wide awake. Watched a previously unseen (by me) episode of Futurama. The very last episode as it turns out, in fact. "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings." Very clever. Worked in an operetta and the one and only appearance of the heretofore unknown Hedonism-bot. Chime in with your favorite 'bot. I'm partial to Don-bot.

What was it I wanted to say? Oh yeah, How come every Israeli movie I see in Blockbuster deals with sexuality? The latest, Yossi & Jagger, really takes the cake. I mean, how long will people get roped in by the juxtaposition of hebrew names and sex? (Bi/homo/inter -whatever.) We don't care! How about something I'd really like to see, like a noir piece set somewhere in the Middle East. I mean, Casablanca was what? 50 years ago? I sure could enjoy a crime/gumshoe set piece film in the narrow back alleys of, say, Cairo or Damascus. Hell, I'll take Amman. (FYI: I just finished When the Women Come out to Dance, a collection of short stories from The Master. Highly recommended, as usual.)

Instead of the election being about the following issues:

  1. Do you hate George W. Bush
  2. Do you hate Republicans.
  3. Do you really hate George W. Bush.
  4. How did both candidates use their privilege to their advantage 35 some odd years ago when they were barely out of college.
  5. Something about body armor.
  6. Sucking up to the French.
  7. Conspiracy theories (a.k.a X-files syndrome.)
  8. Perpetually cyclical issues such as abortion and gay rights (let's face it, we as a nation will continue to straddle the fence on these for the foreseeable future regardless of who's in office.)

Wouldn't it be nice if it were about:

  1. Accountability for our byzantine security apparatus.
  2. The economy.
  3. The budget.

Just a thought.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

GARDEN STATE

Went to see Garden State last night. An amazing directorial and writing debut by Zach Braff. Wife & I love him on Scrubs, he's also perfectly tempered for the lead in this movie. Of course, Natalie is great as well. This movie is to New Jersey what the Big Lebowski is to California. Vietnam, Walter? VIETNAM?!

Thursday, August 19, 2004

THE NATION IS CALLING

Before I left I saw an ad for a (then) upcoming episode of Reno 911 (Comedy Central, Wednesday 10:30p / 9:30c.) Friends have told me that this show is very funny, but I never watched it. This one looked particularly clever, so I Tivo'ed it and we watched it when we came home from our vacation. [sidebar: we really Time Warner Cable DVR'ed it, but Tivo seems to be the popular verb...] Here's a clip from Comedy Central. The setup: Officer Williams has joined the Nation of Islam and is out on a "date" with Officer Jones (who has dressed accordingly in the de rigeur glasses and bow tie.) I started recording more episodes of this show. Who knows? it may end up on our weekly rotation! Stay tuned.

ALSO: This is funny.

Saturday, August 07, 2004

BEFORE WE GO

This posting on Sgt. Hook made me laugh.

Friday, August 06, 2004

RIDLEY SCOTT ON LINE ONE

I've lately been reading the blog My War - Fear and Loathing In Iraq. It's the account of a machine gunner in the infantry assigned to one of the Army's new Stryker Brigades in Iraq. His latest recounting of a firefight in Mosul on the 4th is particular riveting. I'm reminded of the pacing of Black Hawk Down (book and movie,) Today's follow up post illuminates the firefight a little more. I think the Stryker Brigade's exploits, as told by the blogger CBFTW, are ripe for a really good combat flick. I'm interested in finding out what the soldiers think of the new Stryker vehicle. Its been a source of debate in the states as to whether it provides the mobility and protection the troops need in the urban combat environment they are faced with. CBFTW seems to think it came through the firefight he was in quite well, I'd like his further input on that. I'll try contacting him, but I imagine he's quite busy dodging bullets or something, so I won't hold by breathe.

Wife & I are heading for some r&r to the City of Angels and its environs for a week, so posting will be light to nonexistent. I hope to be able to see some neat marine creatures in the wild and captivity.

Monday, August 02, 2004

IN REALITY...

Somehow, Lorraine & I got hooked on Simple Life 2. I must admit a certain fascination with this über fish-out-of-water series. Recently, however, I'm starting to tire of the format:

  1. Paris & Nicole in the pink pick-up trying to find the host family.
  2. Paris & Nicole shock the gracious, simple host family with their foul mouths and designs on the host's children (let's get them laid, etc.)
  3. Paris & Nicole say g'nite (b*tch) & their "I love you's" to each other in the trailer.
  4. Paris & Nicole do their "job," which consists of acting silly and humiliating patrons at whatever establishment they are supposed to be working at.

I saw this billboard on my way to work last week. Is it just me or is this a really bad idea? I mean in addition to this not being a particularly attractive family (I have to couch my words carefully here, I'm genuinely concerned for my safety on this...) What good could possibly come of a reality show about the family of a known crime boss? (deceased, I believe.) Commenting about this show reminds me of this old Jacki Mason routine. (The real story is somewhat more sinister.)

Back to Paris & Nicole, I will say this, though, Nicole is clearly the star of the show. I mean, you pretty much never know what will come out of her mouth next. Oh, and that ferret sure can hold his liquor!

UPDATE: This looks hilarious.

Sunday, August 01, 2004

LITERATI

I just finished Cory Doctorow's futuristic novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Several things about this novel stand out. First of all, I read it in its entirety in electronic form. Doctorow - in keeping with the "Knowledge Yearns to be Free" -like philosophy of the story- has released the book without any rights-management licenses or restrictions for free download. I read my copy on the Palm eReader software for Palm OS on my Sony Clie. Of course, you can always purchase a paper copy if you're so inclined (how quaint.) The book itself takes place in a future where the "reputation economy" has replaced currency as we know it. Aiding this new philosophy is an unnaturally feasible sounding array of cyborg and nano-technology. It all unfolds in a natural way without sounding didactic at all -a good read.

In a more traditional genre, Leonard's LaBrava measures up to all the previous excellent fare that I've read by the master. I think my next Elmore Leonard read will be Mr. Paradise.

Saw Spidey 2 last night with the wife in glorious (and expensive) iMax vision.  Easily the best comic-book adaptation I've seen to date. Better than X-Men 2, better than Superman 2. (Sidebar: what is it about the sequels in comic book films that seem to gather all the glory?) This movie had heart, moxie and -oh yeah- a plot and acting. I recall seeing Michael Chabon discuss his latest novel and his upcoming script writing for Spiderman 2 in the B&N on 82nd a few years ago. I'm also a big fan of his The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which neatly encapsulates Jews and the Comics phenomenon, as well as being a ripping good yarn that manages to work in a real Golem in the process (R' Cohen, are you still with me?)

GOOD READ DEPARTMENT: G-d Bless America, by Michael Coren (hat tip: little green footballs.)

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

YES, WENDY, THERE REALLY IS A MESSIAH...

Or, why I was home yesterday nursing a crushing headache. Yesterday in the Hebrew (Lunar) calendar was the ninth of the month of Av (Tish'a B'Av.) This date is auspicious in Jewish history as it caps a yearly three-week mourning period that commemorates the siege of the Holy City of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (actually, both Temples) some 2,000-odd years ago. In recognition of these events, yesterday was a day of prayer, mourning and fasting for the Jewish people. To get back to the headache part, well, you try not eating or drinking for over 25 hours (that includes coffee) and see how you feel! By virtue of the time of the year that Tish'a B'Av falls out in, it is the longest -and thus most difficult- fast day in the Jewish schedule. The prayers and lamentations recited during Tish'a B'Av recount the horrific details of the destruction of the Holy City and Temple and the disbursement, torture and slaughter of the Jewish people. The silver lining, however, is the affirmation of G-d's love for his people and their eventual redemption. A more thorough explanation of the "three weeks" and Tish'a B'Av can be found here.

Monday, July 26, 2004

POD

This funny looking contraption is my sister's neighbor's vintage 3 wheeled, right-hand drive car. I think it's of Italian origin, but I can't recall exactly. Oddball and old cars fascinate me. Remember Urkel's weird car? That one was actually a tricycle too, a BWM Isetta. It seems that the Europeans took to building innovative wheels after World War II that were cheap to manufacture, cheap on gas and easy to navigate Europe's narrow city streets. They still like micro cars in Europe and Japan, although they don't make them in weird configurations like the aforementioned two vehicles anymore. We're starting to get a taste for them in the US with cars like the Mini and the Scion brand (from Toyota.) The Smart car will be coming here in a few years. Here in America we're mostly into such cars for their Urban Chic (like the iPod craze) -not necessarily out of need. Whatever.

BLONDESTAR. Hat tip: Jeremy's linkblog

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

POLITICAL HUMOR

Seems like this Flash animation is getting a lot of coverage. It's a sendup of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" featuring George Bush and John Kerry. What most people don't know is that Guthrie's "This Land" is actually a libertarian screed. Woodie hated the fact that the song was turned into a patriotic anthem -us stupid 'murricans never got past the title (catch)phrase and assumed it was a loving homily to the good old U.S. of A. Fast forward a half-century and the same thing happened to Bruce Springsteen's "born in the USA." While it's not a commie pinko ditty, it definitely isn't what the go-go '80's made it into. The people in this country are such damned optimists. We'd probably see the lighter side of a nuclear winter if we had to.

Monday, July 19, 2004

PUMP YOU UP

This is ridiculous. So  Schwarzenegger used the term "Girlie Men" to describe some lawmakers. That just means he has a sense of humor, nothing more. I challenge anyone to actually find the people who are claimed to have been offended by the governator's remarks. Why do I care? because when I was fifteen, I was a principle in a summer camp color war comedy skit playing one half of the Hans & Franz duo. The skit bombed big time. The audience was wrong. I still think it was funny.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

NOTES FROM THE FRINGE

I'm posting this blog item using Sauce Reader (1.5Beta from Synop.) its a really slick tool that, aside from being dog slow (which is forgivable in a beta release) is the best RSS/Blog reader I've come across. And I've tried a few (snicker.) You may have also noticed I've added an RSS Atom feed link to my blog on the right. If you know what RSS is, use the link, its a convenient way to keep abreast of any new posts in the blogs or news feeds you regularly monitor, If you don't know what RSS is, read Ned's intro.

Life goes on in Chez Ochs. We're expecting now, so we're probably going to look for a bigger place in 'Joisey. I'll really miss the apple, but I gots to have more space and a car if I'm gonna raise a family. Sigh. The single in the city chapter of my life inexorably draws to a complete and final close...

One of these days, Lorraine and I are gonna get off our collective asses and see the Cloisters. It's been on my to-do list for, oh, about 22 years now. Ever since my seventh grade report on things to do in New York City. Mr. Hollander gave me an A for that in Social Studies. I think I still have it in a box somewhere in my mother's basement.

This July 4th weekend I stopped by the 42nd street pier on my way down the West Side Highway towards Brooklyn. There was a flotilla of visiting British warships. Of particular interest was the British Jump Jet carrier (HMS Invincible, I think.) Jump jet carriers are smaller than supercarriers that the US Navy prefers and are, in fact, closer in size to the World War II class Intrepid, which is now a floating museum that is parked nearby. The British are a clever lot. In addition to pioneering the Jump Jet, which is a jet fighter that can take off and land vertically, they came up with the idea for angled flight decks on aircraft carriers, which greatly increase the safety and sortie rate of modern carriers, along with the steam catapult and many other elements of a modern full-sized carrier. The ship in port has an interesting "ski-jump" flight deck. It turns out that, even though they can take off and land vertically, a short takeoff roll up the ski-jump-like ramp gives the Harrier jet a greatly increased payload and saves a lot of fuel. It's an interesting piece of naval architecture. Here's a link to a pic I snapped on my cameraphone. Those crazy Brits.

BY THE WAY: My latest project blog. (techno-weenies only)

Thursday, July 15, 2004

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS

As you may or may not know, my profession entails keeping up to date on a lot of complicated programming principles. This means reading books with content that is as dry as kindling on a regular basis. My able accomplice in this endeavor is the Amazon.com used book mart. Most of the time, techno-weenies like myself resell their books when they're done. Getting slightly tattered copies of such memorable titles as John Zukowski's (yes that John Zukowski) Definitive Guide to Swing for Java 2 usually saves me over 50% off the cover price. Highly recommended.

FROM THE "I THINK IT'S ODD" DEPARTMENT: How Democrats (full disclosure: I am a registered Democrat) claim that the Republican (read: Bush) campaign machine slings a lot of mud, when all I can see everywhere I go is the relentless negativity of the Democratic campaign. Here in New York City, I see apple-cheeked kids everywhere pounding the pavement in a "Would you like to help defeat George Bush" campaign. I mean, I'm not going to go into a whole political discourse right now, but doesn't the actual candidate have any appeal for voters?

Sunday, May 02, 2004

PAC MANHATTAN: Now this is a cool game!