mobrec

So
This post was created on my Nokia N97 and posted to mobrec.com using the wordmobi app for S60.

Posted by Wordmobi

So
Upgraded my main system to Snow Leopard. Current casualties include:

Menu Meters Cyberduck Oxygen XML Editor Mozy Backup

Otherwise, it seems that most of the apps are holding their own. The new Quicktime looks sweet and plays AVIs natively (so no more dubious third-party plugins — maybe).

Overall, seems to be a bit snappier — which is always welcome.

Tried upgrading a second system and got the domain manager error when trying to run the install from the DVD. Booted from the DVD (by restarting and holding down C until you hear the DVD grind). This update is still running...

I'll update the post as new developments come to light.

Technorati Tags: apple, mac, osx, snowleopard, upgrade

So
This morning we returned from an over night camping trip at the Roll In The Hay Scooter Rally organized by the Gem City Rollers of Dayton, Ohio. This is only the second rally that we have been to, and the first camping one. All I can say is, we'd do it again in a heartbeat.

The event started on Friday night, but we decided to join up on Saturday morning because we needed to drop off our daughter at a friend's house for a sleep over (she opted out of camping with us). We meet up with a few other folks that we had met from the WKRP rally earlier this year and headed north to the camp site near Spring Valley, Ohio.

After getting the tent setup and filled, we had time to walk around and take in the variety of scooters that arrived (and were still arriving) for the event. We went out for a group ride around Noon that took us through some fantastic back country in Warren county and ended in north Lebanon were we stopped for food. After lunch, there was another twisty not-so-direct trip back to the camp ground.

From there the afternoon/evening was filled with socializing, beer drinking, pulled pork eating, raffles, scooter driving/handling contests and devolved into karaoke, dancing. drinking and more socializing. We knocked off around 11PM and headed back to the tent for some relief from dry contact lenses and a chance for some shuteye. Others kept it going until around 3AM (and realistically, that's about the time that we actually got to sleep).

Morning came at 5:25AM for me – I was wide awake and couldn't sleep, so I stayed in the tent listening to the morning unfold. Around 6:30, we were both up and ready to get rolling. After whipping all of the heavy dew off the scoots and breaking down camp as quietly as we could, we were back on the road around 7AM, heading south, on our way home.

I put a few photos up on flickr.

Technorati Tags: fun, scootering

So
Tweeted about Granada Doaba earlier in the week, but thought it definitely worth another shout out because the more I listen to this album, the more I like it. Here is the NPR piece that introduced me to the music. One of the cool things about this album is that I have been lucky enough to have been to Granada and appreciate the music and vibe of the place first hand. But the coolest thing of all is that the entire album is available as a legal, free download. And no, I don't benefit from this in any way, just happy to share some creativity at the right price.

Technorati Tags: fun, international, music, world

So
I never knew that this actually had a name but certainly did partake of it when I was in elementary school at the time that affordable digital calculators began to appear on the scene. Beghilos is the term for creating 'words' using a digital calculator.

Kids have been playing with the word-creating possibilities of calculators since they started to appear in the 1970s. It didn’t take long to discover that 0.7734 upside down made hEllO. One of the earliest attested examples from this period is 5318008, which when turned over spells boobies. If your display is big enough, you can enter 53177187714, which makes hillbillies; mine has only ten digits so I get illbillies (sick goats?) and the longest word I can make is 378193771 (appropriately, illegible).

And, in my case, there is no denying the conclusion of the post:

To be 37819173 to play this game in the 1970s, you had to be young, geekish and slightly bored.

Technorati Tags: fun, gadgets, geeks, hacks, ideas, technology

So
Yet another effortless upgrade from Wordpress 2.8 to 2.8.3 (yes, I have been lazy about upgrading) courtesy of dreamhost's one click installer/updater. If you are interested in establishing your own blog or site on dreamhost, use my promo code of MREC50 and save $50 off your first year of hosting (or just follow this link and the discount will be applied without the promo code).

All I can say is that I am into my third year of hosting with dreamhost and have no complaints.

Technorati Tags: blogging, dreamhost, hosting, internet, webtools, wordpress

So
Looks like twitter is still either actively being hammered by a DDOS attack or is suffering a hangover from the same. Direct access to twitter.com is reasonably fast, but API access seems to still be wonky. For example, Twitterfox is updating my tweet counts, but I can't actually get to the postings via Twitterfox.

Update: for whatever reason, I can't post or reply on twitter at all this morning. Others seems to be getting through. Oh, well...

Technorati Tags: ddos, outage, suckage, twitter, webtools

So
What a brilliant article. Someone is finally pointing out that, in America, the rich are more wealthy that they have ever been, and paying less taxes on top of it. And all of this over the top spin that the richest one percent are unduly having to support health care is just a load of bollocks — the figure in question is not even nine tenths of one percent of the Bush tax cuts. And we have all witnessed the job (mythical) job creation that goes on when you give more money to the ultra wealthy during the Bush regime (ie NONE).

According to government figures, 1-percenters’ share of America’s total income is the highest it’s been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they’ve faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms. And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations.

[Emphasis added]

The article concludes with a simple message that I have found is completely lost on the right (particularly those who profess to be very religious):

For his part, Obama has responded with characteristic coolness — and a powerful counterstrike. “No, it’s not punishing the rich,” he said. “If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of families out there have a little more security, when I already have security, that’s part of being a community.”

Technorati Tags: dubious, politics

So
Hard to believe that the average self-important New Yorker would give Cincinnati a second thought, but I am glad that the New York Times did the write up that they did on visiting Cincinnati.

Technorati Tags: cincinnati, travel

So
Interesting research and demos of wearable computing and speculation that it might 'blow mobile phones away'. While the demos are cool, I think the practicality of it remains to be seen. It seems that just like voice recognition was going to make it so much easier to interact with desktop computers (it didn't) that a lot is being invested in these gesture-based systems that probably will struggle to work outside the lab in 'real world' conditions (variable light, no fixed background, uncontrolled contrast, etc).

It will be fun to see how this develops over time but I am not anticipating anything useful in the next few years.

Technorati Tags: gadgets, internet, interfaces, mobile, ui, usability, wearable