It floated, rowed straight and turned like a happy beach ball. And like every proud family with a new baby, we could boast she was ours.
How can you beat the idea of a well-made wooden sailboat, made with your own hands in 4 days, all for $800?
Author: paul
faith restored
When I went to rent the video camera yesterday, I couldn’t find my driver’s license. It turns out I have been without it for a a few weeks.
Two things I learned from that:
- Hans Eric, who rented me the camera, is a trusting soul to let me walk off with a $2000 video camera on the strength of my signature (no check, no credit card, nothing).
- I don’t need a picture ID all that often.
A lot of people who try out bikes at Recycled Cycles and use their licenses as security forget to ask for them back. Do we all just dream of never needing a car again? If it were just me, I would suspect early onset of senility, but that can’t be that common.
freebsd issues resolved
I solved my problems with sound by installing the xmms-arts plugin for xmms: this allows xmms to use the KDE sound subsystem instead of talking to the sound device itself. Of course, I lost one of my favorite stations today, so this is less valuable than it was.
And I can suspend and resume the laptop by simply shutting down the network interface and closing the lid. Open the lid, type ‘ifconfig an0 up’ and we’re off to the races. Instantly.
a day in the life
I have an idea for a new Apple ad campaign: see title above.
Rather than this switch campaign or other “it’s not Windows” stuff, I’d like to do a time and motion study on someone going through their workday. Reading email, writing documents, handling attachments, researching on the internet, printing, etc. and see how well it all works. Then extend it out over weeks, months. Show how much more work real people can done with the right tool, tools designed around them that they can adjust to suit their work style.
performance stats
Frank Steele has been watching his OS X machines thrash around.
Compare that with a pure FreeBSD machine.
Or better still, a Darwin machine.
I agree it’s the Aqua stuff: I suppose to test it, I should log out and shutdown all the Aqua stuff and see how it goes from there.
Put on your director’s hat!
[ sonystyle : digital imaging ]
Create your first film – starring the ones you love – with the DCR-TRV900.
End of the year graduation play tomorrow, and I rented one of these today from AmeriCam. I look forward to playing with iMovie.
Watching the Alpha Geeks
O’Reilly Network: Tim O’Reilly’s WWDC Keynote Manuscript [May. 16, 2002]
This is how we get most of our good ideas at O’Reilly. We look for people who appear to be doing magic, and ask them how they do it. (Remember Arthur C. Clarke’s dictum: “Any sufficiently advanced technology appears to be magic.”) There are always people in any field who are the most clued in to the deep trends, who seem to be playing with all the coolest stuff, and seem to have their finger in everything before most people even know about it.
Tim O’Reilly thinks OS X is epitomizes the convergence of the open source ethos and real-world pragmatism: see his definition of “guilt-free computing.”
I can’t help but agree. It’s just easier to get things done in OS X.
it was fun while it lasted
As of June 21 at 2:00pm MST, Radio Free Tiny Pineapple is closing
its doors to the general public and will simply revert to what it was
in the beginning: a way for me to listen to my CDs at work.
chicago/deep dish pizza
Made this twice in the last week: it needs some refinement, but here’s a starting point.
It’s pretty hardware-intensive, but nothing unusual. You need a heavy skillet, as in cast-iron heavy. A food processor helps, but is not required.
Shred a cup or two of mozzarella. Drain well, then roughly chop a 28 oz can of whole tomatoes. If you pulse them in the food processor, toss in a clove or two of garlic, a generous amount of basil and oregano, and a few red pepper flakes.
Prepare your other fillings (broccoli, spinach, pepperoni, sausage, etc.).
Preheat the oven to 450.
Take 1/2 pound of pizza dough and make a large round, big enough to fill the pan, right up the sides.
Lay the mozzarella in the bottom, and then add the tomatoes (yes, uncooked: they’ll cook just fine where they’re going).
Add the other fillings, and top with a generous amount of parmesan, then bake until browned: about 40 minutes ought to do it. Let it stand for a few minutes before cutting.
If you have dough in the fridge, this all goes together very quickly, and the long baking time gives you time to make a salad.
this principal must be fired
CNN.com – Standing up for her dreams – June 20, 2002
Her hopes were dashed when the school’s principal said he would not allow her to walk across the stage. His reasons, Malikina says, included safety concerns, liability issues and a complaint she would take too long to cross.
It took her less than a minute to cross the stage at the graduation ceremony that was given to her by local businesses, including Philips Arena, the sports arena that adjoins CNN Center.
What a jerk. His message of intolerance and inflexibility rings loud and clear but not nearly so loudly as Masha Malikina’s one of determination and courage.