Month: March 2008

a comment

It’s really slow (I have an old machine, true, but I suspect GS is not asking as much as the nth tab in Safari or a QT movie and those work OK).

…It might be worth talking to one or more of the big seed companies (Territorial or Burpee) and get an SKU listing that you can convert to XML.

I wanted to leave some comments on a software program to manage garden planning but couldn’t, for some reason.

I’d like to try something like this, but I’m not sure if this is the right app. Couple of observations:

  • It’s really slow (I have an old machine, true, but I suspect GS is not asking as much as the nth tab in Safari or a QT movie and those work OK). Even text entry is slow. And those fonts . . . . yuck. I feel like I’m back in OS 9/Classic mode.
  • I had trouble getting the app to work with even the simple tutorial. I found I had to enable internet access before the selection menus would work
  • I would like to organize/manage a garden with 3 raised beds (4′ x 10′) but I don’t see how I do that. What kind of garden has height as a measurement?
  • It might be worth talking to one or more of the big seed companies (Territorial or Burpee) and get an SKU listing that you can convert to XML. Or maybe one exists thru USDA?

I would like to make this work, and if I was a coder, I would take a look at fixing some stuff. But alas, that is not an area where my many gifts are apparent šŸ˜‰

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

your free press at work

CAFFERTY: Interesting, isn’t it, all those 11,000, 12,000 pages of documents released today…. The fact that Hillary Clinton was in the White House the day Monica Lewinsky got the stain on her dress.

Calling it panty-sniffing doesn’t begin to cover it.

It doesn’t quite come through in the transcript, but the disgust was palpable.

CAFFERTY: Interesting, isn’t it, all those 11,000, 12,000 pages of documents released today. What’s the first thing that the press corps satisfied their curiosity about? The fact that Hillary Clinton was in the White House the day Monica Lewinsky got the stain on her dress. That moved on one of the wires that I read about at 3:00 this afternoon. Amazing.

[From Cafferty]

The public was never as interested in that story as our constitutionally-protected journalists were.

the best is the enemy of the good

most people listen to music in environments that are full of compromises: the solution, according to the snobs (call it what it is), is to stop listening. better to listen to music you like and follow the trend of better equipment/better encoding that not listen at all, don’t you think?

Lou figures out that the mp3 standard is not wonderful. My reply at ZDnet, if I had felt like registering one more %^&*( time just so I could leave a comment:


every recording is a degradation of the live, in-person performance. the question is, what trade-offs are you comfortable with? if you don’t have an audiophile playback system, what good are high-end recordings?

most people listen to music in environments that are full of compromises: the solution, according to the snobs (call it what it is), is to stop listening. better to listen to music you like and follow the trend of better equipment/better encoding that not listen at all, don’t you think?

[From Rocker Lou Reed takes aim at new technology | Tech News on ZDNet]

Questions:

  • how is mp3 “new” technology?
  • how perceptible is the difference between a WAV file and a 320k mp3 or mp4/aac file?
  • does he have any idea what he’s on about or is he just one more “traditionalist” in a changing world?

links for 2008-03-13

expenses

a new radiator (the existing one has come apart, with the top part of the tank leaking coolant with very little encouragement needed), with a new temperature sensor and gasket(s) a new drive axle and rubber boot, as the one in place has split and allowed rocks and road grit to commingle with the bearing — leaving the mess in place, even cleaned up, is a gamble I’d rather not take

After noticing my van’s (the family car) showing signs of running a little hot (the temperature gauge would actually move), I took it to my mechanic this morning. I actually need:

  • a new radiator (the existing one has come apart, with the top part of the tank leaking coolant with very little encouragement needed), with a new temperature sensor and gasket(s)
  • a new drive axle and rubber boot, as the one in place has split and allowed rocks and road grit to commingle with the bearing — leaving the mess in place, even cleaned up, is a gamble I’d rather not take
  • a timing belt replacement (recommended after 5-6 years or 90k miles: a 98 model with 80K is overdue) as a broken belt is a shortcut to a ruined engine.

About $1700 in expenses. If only the thrill of driving a Dodge Caliber (with satellite radio — 193 channels and still nothing on!) made up for it . . .
Is it true you can make money on the Internet? Wish it were so . . .

on trust fund hippie kids

When you know your whole life that you can have what you want, what they want is to be in a tribe and care about nature and spirituality…. When privileged people have everything they want, the next thing they want to do is build amazing things for other people (and celebrate and be nude and beautiful).

Yeah, it is infuriating that they can use the safety of their middle class lives to tell themselves they are adventuresome. If they’re sanctimonious on top of that, that’s really frustrating. BUT. Think of it this way. This is what people do when they know they are safe. These kids have felt safe their entire lives and trust the world, and what do they do with that? They choose a lifestyle of openness and gentleness, of connectivity and consciousness. When you know your whole life that you can have what you want, what they want is to be in a tribe and care about nature and spirituality. (Maybe they care about nature and spirituality in an easily accessible way, but as far as cheap philosophies go, it is a kind one.) This is also what impresses me about Burning Man. When privileged people have everything they want, the next thing they want to do is build amazing things for other people (and celebrate and be nude and beautiful). People who have never been scared don’t want dominion. They want expressiveness and connection. [From Go to work!]

So young and yet so wise.