Everyday

Moving Day!

2005-08-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

I have decided that my new weblog, Everyday, is ready for prime-time! It is, of course, a work in progress (which will probably be the topic of many an entry), but I think it is useable enough to go live. I have many, many features to add. You may find that clicking on a link will lead you nowhere, I am working on it. You may find yourself wanting to add comments, I am working on it. You may find yourself wishing that you could sort posts by category, I am working on it. I have decided to go live because it has the basic feature set of a weblog, I can post entries and they show up on the main page. So wish me luck and change your bookmarks to:

http://weblog.celerity-designs.com

My new weblog (update)

2005-08-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out how to use the local time for new blog entries! The company hosting the weblog is in the Eastern US, so if I posted at 10:00 PM in California, my weblog would state that I had posted at 4:00 AM the next day! I used a little JavaScript to populate the date in a textbox to get it to work right. The trick was to have JavaScript format the date correctly so that it could be inserted into a SQL database.

function setdatetime(){
var localDate = new Date();
var utcDate = localDate.toLocaleString();
document.Form1.TextBox_Date.value = utcDate;
}

So now I need to finalize the administration of the individual weblog entries (edit posts, delete posts) and figure out the categories, still...

Sony Ericsson W800

2005-08-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

Sony Ericsson will be launching the rather sweet W800 on August 26th. Unfortunately, it will cost $499. This phone pretty much has it all, except for tight integration with my PC, like my Motorola MPx220 does.

Cave Thinkers

2005-08-18T00:35:00.000-07:00

Cave Thinkers
How evolutionary psychology gets evolution wrong.
By Amanda Schaffer

I don't think people get evolution, or biology at all. This article points to flaws in some jack-hole New York Times columnists article that claims that Evolutionary Psychology (EP) is the driving force behind human behavior. That men must be more competitive than women because they, the men, win more Scrabble competitions? WTF? My main concern with this is that other people will read the New York Times article and accept it. The fact that more men win Scrabble championships than women has nothing to do with competition. I do find the fact odd though. I understand that women are usually more adept at language based skills than men. Perhaps Scrabble is more memory based than language based, but I digress.

I, for one, am of the belief that our biology is the primary driving force behind what we do. I tend to look to a biological reason for societal and individual behavior. That doesn't mean that I am totally nature vs. nurture though. I also believe that the human mind is an incredibly flexible and adaptable machine. That what we are taught has enormous ramifications in regards to our future behavior.

Oh god, please make it so...

2005-08-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

Depeche Mode has a new album coming out in October! The new single, "Precious", is encouraging. DM's latest effort, while not bad by any means, was not as good as I had hoped it could be.

Song titles on the new album are:

A Pain That I'm Used To
John The Revelator
Suffer Well
The Sinner In Me
Precious
Macrovision
I Want It All
Nothing's Impossible
Introspectre
Damaged People
Lillian
The Darkest Star

Information from depechemode.com/news

Inconspicuous Warning

2005-08-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

I was walking around a community college campus today, when I came across the above placard. It was not prominently placed, just affixed to the wall in a seemingly random place. It was a mere 6" by 4". After I read it, and my laughter subsided, I noticed that there were a number of them placed on the buildings in the area. I found it particularly amusing because it serves no purpose. Should you find yourself inside of this building during a major earthquake, the knowledge that the building is aged and may collapse will probably not ease the terror you will experience when the walls come crashing down upon you. All this sign does is give a person one more thing to worry about while they are taking a test.

What I'm Listening To

2005-08-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her, the album is phenomenal. I absolutely love her voice. I particularly enjoy "The Letter", fantastic guitar sound and of course amazing singing. I highly suggest picking this album up. If you don't have any PJ Harvey yet, this would be a good place to start, you will get hooked.

Woodworking

2005-08-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

I have started building a desk. So far so good (no lost appendages). I will post some pictures of the completed desk, assuming it isn't hideous, when I am finished. It is crafted from Birch to match the existing furniture in the room, which came from Ikea.

Lost Wishes

2005-08-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

The Cure's Lost Wishes E.P.

Autolust

2005-08-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

Every time I see an Infiniti G35 Sport Coupe on the road, I begin to salivate. This is the most beautiful car on the road today, period. If I were to win the lottery tommorow, I would buy 3 of them. One heavily modified for the track. One moderately modified for the street. One luxuriously appointed for comfortable cruising.

Less is more

2005-08-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Apparently, less is more. Nike engineers have been hard at work on creating a better running shoe since the days when they were selling shoes out of the back of a van. After countless hours and millions of dollars of engineering effort, it turns out that the best shoe, is no shoe at all. They have studied the movements of the unshod runner and have found that they have more agility and have a considerably larger range of motion in their foot. Damn, you would think that after all of that work we could easily outdo (a. millions of years of evolution, b. some deity's infinite greatness). The point of all of this, well now you can buy a new shoe from Nike (Nike Free) that gives you the best of both worlds. You will be able to protect your feet from goatheads and at the same time be able to run a 4.4-40. These shoes look pretty cool as well. I like the fact that Nike has continually pushed the envelope of athletic engineering, now if they could just find a way to manufacture these shoes without exploiting impoverished brown people.

Whose Fish?

2005-08-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

NOTE: riddle from Coudal Partners

By Albert Einstein (maybe)

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein is difficult and Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish? Feel free to post a comment with your answer.

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can.

PHP

2005-08-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

I want to learn PHP & MySQL. Perhaps this will be a good alternative to ASP.NET which, for me at least, has past the point of being interesting. There are a number of shortcomings in the current feature set that I am considering abandoning it altogether. Of course everything that I am looking for will be available in the next version, assuming I want to shell out the mega bucks for Visual Studio again, and again, and again.

Senator Claims File-Sharing Undermines Youth Morality

2005-08-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

Senator Claims File-Sharing Undermines Youth Morality - via - The Digital Music Weblog

More evidence that legislators care little about the issues at hand and more about buzzwords and appeasing campaign contributors. Perhaps she should be working on revisions to current copyright law that allow fair use and sharing while ensuring that the artist is properly compensated.

It's raining!

2005-08-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

I love it when it rains in the summer. Living in the inferno-esque Inland Empire of Southern California makes me truly appreciate water falling from the sky. It has been miserably hot and atypically humid of late. This rain is most welcome.

Weblog, the saga continues...

2005-08-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

I have recently been re-energized concerning the ongoing development of my new weblog. I have been discussing web development with an old friend and it has really stirred up some ambition, which I am in dire need of! Perhaps I will be able to get a few features completed. Here is what I have left to do:

Create admin for the Gallery (add, edit, delete images)

Create multiple galleries (My trip to the moon, My night out with friends, etc...)

Tie images into weblog entry creation better (needs a pop-up window to add or select images)

Add archive pages (ex. "http://weblog.celerity-designs.com/archive/somearticle.aspx"), this will require some redirecting.

I want to add a section for essays, I find that I want to write too much for a simple weblog post. The weblog post would be, check out my new essay and have a link to it.

Make minor adjustments to style (e.g. color, borders, font-sizes)

MySpace

2005-08-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, I was wrong (reference). MySpace is turning out to be, not so bad. At first I thought it stupid because of the cludgy interface. It certainly isn't as polished as some other sites. But it seems that it is working very well! I have found a few lost friends, well, actually they found me. So, I was wrong. Not the first time, not the last.

Romance via html

2005-07-31T22:33:00.000-07:00

So I signed up for Match.com. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I feel like a dork for trying it, but on the other hand "nothing ventured, nothing gained". So I set about crafting what will hopefully be an attractive profile of myself. I answered all of the questions truthfully, and actually spent a fair amount of time typing. I had to laugh when, upon completion, I was directed to search for matches. So I find a few attractive women in my area and I clicked on the "Do we a match?" link. And lo and behold, we did. Then I got to thinking, well of course we do. The questions that are asked do not truly reflect ones self. My idea of a perfect first date (from the available selections that is) is as follows:

Verdant conversations over cobblestone paths, each of us captivated by the perfume of blooming perennials

So what is the problem, well all of the choices were equally pleasant. There is no way to select a bad answer. There is no "Get high, and fuck" selection for the perfect first date. Not that I believe that to be a perfect first date, but I am sure that some people may. Actually, that wouldn't be so bad if it happened, would it?
The point I am trying to make is that if I do go on a date from Match.com, should I expect that the woman wants to walk along a cobblestone path and delight in the fragrance of blooming perennials, or would she rather do something for which there was no available option on Match.com? I guess I was hoping that this would be easy, but of course nothing is.

Fuel Mileage

2005-07-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

From Jalopnik: The EPA has released a report stating that 2005 model cars averaged 21 MPG, a 1% increase in fuel mileage over the 2004 models. While this is good, the report also states that the highest average rating ever was 22.1 MPG, in 1987! WTF? I certainly am not one for increased legislation, but something clearly needs to be done here. Perhaps the Gas Guzzler tax needs to be extended to all non-commercial vehicles and/or the minimum MPG standards need to apply to all non-commercial vehicles.

Switch?

2005-07-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

I think I want a Mac. A Powerbook to be exact. I am getting more and more frustrated / let-down with the Windows enviroment. Everything works in Windows, it just doesn't feel right. Maybe I am using the desire for a Mac as an excuse for my recent lack of creativity. It seems like all the good musicians, writers, artist and all other generally creative types are using Macs. Perhaps if I had a Mac I could be more creative also. I do know that when I sit down at my PC to do something, get halfway through it and my PC locks up I generally just give up! As time goes by I am becoming more enamored with OSS (Open Source Software). I don't think I am quite ready for Linux just yet, but switching to a Mac is definitely a step in the right direction for me.

Up and running

2005-07-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Finally got the domain issue resolved so I am back up and running. Compounding the problem was the fact that I was not able to get online, the cable company had some issues down the road that were affecting my connection. Anyways, back up and running.

Uh-Oh!

2005-07-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

I let my domain registration expire! Not good, not only does my website not work, but my e-mail is down! I require e-mail as it is my primary and preferred method of communication. Oh well, no use fretting over it. Luckily I have a Gmail account, so I can still talk to people. I have been contemplating using Gmail as my primary account for a while, perhaps this will help me make a decision one way or another. It is amazing how much you miss something once it is gone. It is like the times that I broke my arm. Before breaking my left arm I felt like it was almost useless compared to my right arm, not so. I get so used to having e-mail work that I don't give it a second thought, until it is gone that is.

My Gmail e-mail address is: shane.pinnell@gmail.com

Great Movie

2005-07-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

I saw Wedding Crashers on Saturday with some friends and it was a very good movie. I had everything a romantic comedy needs. The movie was extremely funny, but not too slap-sticky. The romance was not sappy or overdone, it was just right. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone looking for a laugh.

What I'm Listening To

2005-07-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh... How sweet the sound. Radiohead's Thinking About You from the album Pablo Honey. There is nothing particularly striking about the song. No technological wizadry, no ground breaking new sound. The song is simply a fine song, one of the finest ever. Some more song information, including lyrics, is available here. The whole album is amazing as well. If you are into Radiohead then this album is required listening. Even if you don't like Radiohead, you should get this album, along with all of the others, and allow yourself to be converted.

New MCE keyboard

2005-07-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

Engadget has an article (originally from activewin.com) about a new wireless keyboard for Microsoft's Windows Media Center Edition. It is very nice looking, has some nice features and isn't too costly. I would like to know what wireless protocol it uses, Bluetooth hopefully.

Slowly but surely

2005-07-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

My new weblog is coming along slowly. Soon I will be able to go completely live with it! The display portion of the engine is almost complete, I have a few minor tweaks left. The main area for deveolpment is in the administration of the weblog. Things that I need to work on:

Heirarchical Categories
Comments
Trackbacks
Gallery

Not too bad, but there is a lot of work to be done...

Cellphone Lust

2005-07-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

This isn't exactly news, but I am looking for a new cell phone and the Sony Ericsson W800i is definitely a front runner. Some of the features of this phone are 30 hours of music playback, 2 mega-pixel camera, Bluetooth, video recorder and tri-band GSM. It also has a Memory Stick Pro Duo (that name is way too long) card slot which will allow for a sizeable amount of storage at good prices. A 1GB Memory Stick is currently around $99.00. Not bad for the same storage as an iPod Shuffle that goes for $129.00.

The Cure @ Live 8 [updated]

2005-07-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

[Original Post]

So AOL Music has finally posted all of the performances for Live 8. A link to The Cure's show is here: The Cure @ Live 8. You can click around and find shows for Muse, Coldplay, Pink Floyd and so on. The Cure's set included two additional songs that I did not orginally list, because I didn't get to see them. They played "Boys Don't Cry" and "Just Like Heaven" as well as "Open", "One Hundred Years" and "End". And it is Porl!

A brief note: To view the videos, AOL requires Microsoft's Internet Explorer and AOL's Video Player, which should download automagically. I personally find this frustrating because I prefer to use Firefox, which in my humble opinion is a far better web browser.

Portable Audio Recording

2005-07-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

In the past I have attempted to record audio on a portable device, a MiniDisc player to be exact. And while this produced very nice results, I've wanted to be able to get very high quality recordings with something that didn't require a backpack and a Shirpa loaded down with batteries. Well, Create Digital Music has an article on just such a device, the M-Audio FlashTracker. The details are subject to change, but so far it will be capable of encoding a variety of 24 bit/96kHz files, USB 2.0, has multiple line-ins (mic, line, digital), and is small. I currently have a number of M-Audio products, the Delta 1010, DMP-3, Studiophile DX-4 and a Midisport 2x2. All of these products are of a very high quality and I have absolutely no regrets with any of them. If the price point of the FlashTracker is low enough (as most of M-Audio's gear is) and the storage is not some goofy proprietary medium, I will definitely consider adding this to my collection of recording equipment that I use far too infrequently.

There are a number of competing products, but they are all too expensive or do not encode at a high enough rate. Edirol has had the R-1 out for a while now, but I think it is priced a tad high (a quick search on Froogle lists $439.00). Some "professional" equipment goes for even more.

The Cure @ Live 8

2005-07-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

I just watched the webcast of The Cures performance in Paris for Live 8. It was an absolutely magnificent performance! For the first time in a long while, it seems as though Robert Smith is really into the music. And if I am not mistaken, Porl Thompson was playing guitar on stage with The Cure again. If that is true I certainly hope it is more than a one time deal for Live 8. Porl adds a beautiful layer of complexity and richness with his guitar playing that can't be matched. The quartet played the following songs impeccably:

Open off of Wish
One Hundred Years off of Pornography
End off of Wish

On a side note, the future is now! I went on the web and viewed a relatively high quality, non interrupted webcast of a live concert in Paris, France. While MTV was busy showing advertisements and hypeing their, poor excuses for entertainment, shows, AOL was webcasting all of the concerts live, without interruption. I am definitely not a big fan of AOL, but MTV is getting really bad. MTVs airing of the concerts was inept at best. They only showed portions of performances interrupted with advertisements and hype. To MTVs credit, they did leave the Linkin Park / Jay Z performance alone and aired it in its' entirety.

Google has struck again!

2005-06-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

Google has struck again. Normally that would segway into an article on some egregious act, but not in the case of Google. My relationship with Google is like that of a new romantic aquaintance. No matter how great she is, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I keep waiting to hear the words, "I would love to, but I have to meet my husband for dinner", or "I would love to, but that would violate my parole". Fortunately with Google, there may be no other shoe. They have just announced the opening of their Application Programming Inerface (API) for Google Maps [link]. Basically it means that anyone can use Google maps on their own web site or in any application, and it will be fully customizable. Think of a map of all of your pictures on your personal website, a map of restaurants with snippets of reviews or a map of geocaches; all with the beauty and simplicity of Google Maps!
Perhaps Google will create a plethora of great web services and once every one is fully committed to using them, they will drop the $$$ bombshell. I certainly hope not. Their corporate mantra is "You can make money without doing evil" see #6, and they seem to be sticking to it.

MocoLoco

2005-06-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't visited this site in a while. I was checking it out earlier today and realized that I really like design. I am fascinated by how ordinary things can continually be redesigned and be all at once the same and completely different.

Modern Contemporary Design

On writing

2005-06-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

I want to write a book. Who doesn't, right? I have a few stories floating around in my head, but I have no clue as to the proper method for putting pen to paper and producing something of merit. The stories I have thought about are science fiction based, but don't dwell on the science fiction. I like science fiction that uses science, and fiction to tell a good story. A story about human suffering, the quest for power, insanity and so on. I guess I am into sci-fi because just regular old fiction seems to me to be too plain. I need the fantastic for some reason. This doesn't always hold true, I do like plain old fiction when it is well done. But even then, I consider it to be well done when the author has described his world in a way that allows my imagination to envelope it. I like thinking about why a character acts a certain way. What physical, outside pressures are acting on him. What is pushing him to make the decisions he makes. So perhaps I will begin to write...

Musical Equipment Lust

2005-06-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

Create Digital Music has a nice review of the Edirol PCR-M1 Ultra Slim Keyboard. This keyboard looks like it would fit quite nicely on my desk. Of course I would need to get my new digital auio workstation up and running first. I currently have a Midiman Radium 61 which I like very much, but it is pretty big for desktop use.

On a totally unrelated side note: I really need to finish my new weblog, I really want to be able to categorize my posts.

Yeah, right...

2005-06-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

Wired News has an article about record labels trying to legitimize file sharing. Why would any internet savvy person pay for a file that they can download for free? I used to think that if a legal file sharing alternative were available, I would use it. Now, however, I feel like the record labels are just a bunch of greedy a-holes trying to save a business model that is dying.
In my opinion, the record industry used collusive pricing to maintain artificially high CD prices, which related directly to over inflated profit margins. They maintained a stranglehold over distributors and force fed the public highly polished pop music that had little to no artistic quality. Of course not every record label was doing this, but I would argue that the industry as a whole was.
I for one can't wait until the music industry evolves into what I believe will be it's next iteration. I foresee a future where artists make their money by performing music, not by recording ultra-glossy, over engineered, formulaic hits wrapped in an album of lesser songs. Then we will just have to battle TicketMaster!

Wikipedia

2005-06-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

I have Wikipedia set as my home page. Every time I open my web browser (which happens to be Firefox) I am served a random article from Wikipedia. I am often amazed at what I see. There are a great deal of articles relating to individuals. Today, however I was greeted with an article on "Lineage (Evolution)", it is a brief description of lineages as they pertain to evolution. The article describes lineages as being a subset of phylogenetic trees. The author of "On Becoming an Evolutionary Biologist" has described this sort of thing to me before, and while I would not feel comfortable stating that the entry is absolutely accurate, it does seem to be correct. Which brings me to another interesting thought, "How valid are the entries in Wikipedia?"

Wikipedia is an internet based encyclopedia of everything. They currently have 605,109 articles (in English), most of which were entered by ordinary people. Well, ordinary in the sense that they were not paid to write the articles for Wikipedia. The strength for Wikipedia lies in the fact that everyone can edit the articles at any time. It is like a never ending peer review. It would be interesting to see some statistics on the accuracy of Wikipedia articles, I presume that they are quite high.

Wikipedia (Random Page)

Google

2005-06-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

Google is continually bringing useful new products to market. The latest being Google Mobile which will allow you to search via cell phone or PDA and will return results which are formatted specifically to be displayed on a small screen. Perhaps this ability to search for sites that are capable of being displayed on a cell phone will prompt website designers to create sites that are able to be displayed on a cell phone.

Google Mobile

Patriot Act?

2005-06-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

I often find myself questioning the role of government in society. I have, what I believe to be, well formed and reasonable political and social ideals. I consider myself to be neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I don't dwell in politics, but I am interested in the macro view of our government and it's role in our lives. This being said, I have yet (in this weblog) to advance an idea or point of view as being correct or "right". I don't like to think that I am right, or that what I think is the proper way of thinking. I prefer to state what I believe to be true as simply a point of view among many valid points of view. I will argue the merits of my idea and point out the weaknesses of a conflicting idea, but I make a conscious effort to validate any opposing view. Perhaps not express validation, but I try to argue in a manner that allows for the possibility that I am wrong. I try not to speak in absolutes.
The point of all of this? The USA Patriot Act, and it's impending renewal. I feel, strongly, that the Patriot Act is wrong. I, absolutely, am of the notion that the Patriot Act is a piece of legislation that should never have seen the light of day. I plead with anyone reading this to petition their representatives in Congress (both houses) to vote down the renewal of the Patriot Act.
I have not read the Patriot Act in it's entirety, I do not pretend to understand it fully. I do know that the Patriot Act has allowed for the slighting of the protections afforded all mankind in the Constitution of The United States of America. I know that I am afraid of the ramifications of allowing legislation such as this to exist. I am not afraid of terrorists, I am afraid of men. The Patriot Act empowers men to act with no consideration towards an individuals freedom.
Please, urge your elected representatives to vote down the renewal of the Patriot Act! Links have been provided that will allow you to contact your respective representatives.
U.S. Senate
U.S. House of Representatives

Sileighty

2005-06-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

My 1991 Nissan 240SX has been anxioulsy awaiting it's conversion into a Sileighty for far too long. I have such great plans for this car, but plans often require too much money. I have modeled my desires after an article in Sport Compact Car [Hybrid How-To: S13 Nissan Silvia]. There is more info in their project car section, scroll down to find the Silvia.
I recently blew the stock KA24DE engine, so an engine swap is a must if I am ever to drive this car again. The Nissan 240SX is such a fun car to drive that it is a sin to let it sit for much longer.

P.S. If you are interested in making donations, feel free to contact me. I gladly accept PayPal!

What I'm Listening To

2005-06-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

Depeche Mode!

I can still remember the first time I heard "People Are People", it was at a particular intersection (mapped here) on my way home from school. While the moment was not a groundbreaking moment in the formation of my musical tastes, it was a precursor to a much more influential album, Violator. I remember the anticipation I felt placing Violator in my tape player. I remember listening to each song in succession and wondering how anything could sound so amazing. I can't tell you how many times I listened to that album, probably thousands. I would play it with my headphones on and marvel at the complexity and beauty of the deeply layered sound. I remember spending countless hours discussing it with my friends. I remember being fascinated with the design of the leaflet and the single rose on the cover of the cassette. Violator was truly a formative album for me. Violator helped get me hooked on music in general. I would spend every last dollar on the newest maxi-single just to get some new remix of a song I had heard thousands of times or some completely new and promising B-Side! In the case of the "World In My Eyes" single alone, it was worth every penny.

F1 Weekend

2005-06-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

Oh how I enjoy Formula One. I am not an insane fanatic of sports. I enjoy Football (U.S.A. style) and racing, especially F1. I also watch basketball, soccer, rugby, and a few other sports as well. I typically do not plan my life around any sporting events though. I will, however, record an interesting football game occasional. The one sport that I will plan my Sunday around is F1. So, if you have nothing to do on Sunday, watch the Grand Prix du Canada, I know I will.

Roadblocks

2005-06-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have run into a roadblock with my new weblog. I believe that I have done everything right, but I have created a monster. Not a monster in that it is poorly done, but a monster in that I have a "TODO:" list a mile long. I have been stuck trying to figure out the best way to get multiple hierarchical categories for my entries. I may have an entry under "Cars" that will also fit under "Technology", multiple categories for a single entry. I may also have an entry under "Gadgets" which is a sub-category of "Technology", hierarchical categories. I could also have a combinatio of the two. I have the database designed, but I am having trouble figuring out the mechanics of displaying and entering the information in the most efficient manner possible. This is my current roadblock. I have been working on a way around it for a few days with little success.

Directors Label

2005-06-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

Although I don't think the site is quite finished, the video is good. I am looking forward to the "The Work of Director Anton Corbijn"

[link Directors Label, via Depeche Mode]

What I'm Listening To

2005-06-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Mogwai's "Oh! How The Dog's Stack Up" off of the album Come on Die Young. Mogwai is one of the bands that when they come into rotation on my MP3 player or on some internet radio station (not mainstream enough for broadcast?) I don't realize it is them until the song is nearly over. While typically phenomenal, it isn't music that is instantly recognizable. Mogwai's music seems to settle a few layers behind my conscious thought and percolate. I absolutely love it!

P.S. I really wish Blogger had categories, one of a few reasons I am working on creating my own blogging engine.

Launch.com

2005-06-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I like Launch.com or not. I have been using it since it's inception way back when. I like to have the ability to rate music and have new music presented based on those ratings, but who makes these decisions? I guess it is some computer logic, if A and B both like X, and A likes Y, then B may like Y. Anyways, I can't be sure if it is working. I don't hear much "new" music through Launch. I think I may like streaming radio better.

What brought this up is Launch just played "Big Muff" from Depeche Mode. The song is off of their album Speak & Spell, which isn't terrible but it is not really Depeche Mode either.

Silver Lake

2005-06-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post before going to the gym. I went to Silver Lake this weekend to attend a wedding and it was absolutely beautiful. I will post some pictures of the area when I get a chance.

Simplicity is best

2005-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Gizmodo has a little bit on the new DiscHub 2. Version 2 brings minor improvements, none of which are exactly newsworthy. What is newsworthy, at least in my opinion, is the wonderful simplicity of this product. It's best traits lie in what it is lacking. No bright blue LEDs. No mechanism to shoot a CD or DVD out at you when you push one in slightly. No cumbersome footprint taking up valuable desk space. DiscHub 2 is simply a nicely designed, simple object for holding a few CDs or DVDs that you use frequently.

[original post via Gizmodo]

Aesthetics vs. Function

2005-06-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

I am once again getting caught up in the aesthetics of my new weblog instead of focusing on the functionality. I need to be working on the mechanisms, not making the display visually appealing (that step comes much later).

My New Weblog - a work in progress

Inserting multiple listbox items into SQL with ASP.NET

2005-06-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

I ran into my first, of what will surely become many, hurdles while programming my new weblog. How to insert multiple listbox selections into a SQL database (like multiple categories for an individual weblog entry). At first it seemed simple, but then none of the examples would work properly. I started with this code:


Dim oItem as ListItem
For each oItem in oListBox.Items
   If oItem.Selected Then
      [insert oItem.value into SQL database]
   End If
Next

But this wouldn't work! After fooling around with the code I managed to insert all list items (regardless of selection status) which told me that the problem lie in the "If" statement. I could not for the life of me figure this out. I searched and I searched Google for the answer, but to no avail. Finally, after hours of frustration, I reached a newsgroup post that was on a related topic. It turns out that the problem stems from the listbox being changed on PostBack from the server. So simply wrapping the code that creates the listbox in the first place with a


If not Page.IsPostBack
   [create list box]
End If

solved the problem. After figuring this out, it made perfect sense to me. That is how all of these problems end up (assuming I find the answer), always something simple.

Weblog, the saga begins (again)

2005-05-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time I attempted to create my very own weblog engine (akin to Blogger). Due to time constraints, procrastination and a general laziness involving web-design (ex. Celerity Designs), I gave up. That is until I started posting with Blogger. I have found the process to be rather invigorating. I will be writing about the process here, and someday (soon, if all goes well) I will be able to switch over to my very own weblog.

Some of the reasons for my desire to have my own weblog are:

Exporting weblog entries

Categories

Trackbacks

Estimated Time Remaining

2005-05-28T23:46:00.000-07:00

Why can't the omnipotent software engineers and programmers figure out a way to more accurately display the time remaining for a particular task to finish? I have been re-installing some software and the installation program started by stating that it had 4 hours remaining, that was 45 minutes ago. Now, it states that there is 1 minute remaining. It has stated "Estimated time remaining... 1 minute" for approximately 10 minutes. This is rather annoying. Suppose this was the norm for all other tasks that required you to wait for a period of time...

Say you wanted to buy a hamburger at McDoogles. You enter the store, place your order and are told that your burger will be ready in approximately 48 minutes. You decide to run across the street to buy a birthday card for a friend, after all, you have 48 minutes. McDoogles calls your order number 1 minute and 25 seconds after you placed the order, but you are already gone. You re-enter McDoogles, with 7 minutes remaining in your initial approximated burger delivery time frame. McDoogles lets you know that they discarded your order approximately 20 minutes ago due to your failure to pick it up. They then notify you that the current wait for a burger is estimated at 36 minutes.

I don't think McDoogle's would be in business for very long if this were the case. So, I urge software engineers to more accurately predict and estimate the time it will take me to install this software. Oh yeah, I still have an estimated 1 minute remaining...

Hurkey Creek

2005-05-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

I went on a little hike up a trail in Hurkey Park today. The weather was beautiful, the water was cool and I can't imagine a better way to spend a few hours. I took my dogs, who thoroughly enjoyed the hike as well. I was rather surprised to find a number of California Tree Frogs (Pseudacris cadaverina) there.

NOTE: clicking on the image will take you to Flickr where I have more pictures from the hike.

I am not alone!

2005-05-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

For years I have been raging, albeit quietly and to myself, about super bright LEDs. When I bought my Playstation 2 I couldn't wait to get it home, load Gran Turismo, turn off the lights and spend 48 straight hours earning enough play-money to buy my favorite car (a Nissan Skyline GTR). Imagine my sorrow when I powered it on, inserted the game, turned off the lights and sat on the couch only to be temporarily blinded by the uber-bright blue LED shining with megawatt LASER like intensity from the front of the device. Who in their right mind would put such a bright light on a device that most people will use in a low-light environment.

The same thing happened when I plugged in my M-Audio Studiophile BX-5 self powered monitor speakers. These speakers each have a bright blue LED right under the speaker. I use these speakers, as I guess most people do, as the primary monitors for my computer which I also use as a Digital Audio Workstation. This means that they are always turned on, and the LED is always emitting an intense amount of light.

Well, finally someone has validated my long held distaste for bright LEDs on electronics device, and that somebody is Wired News.
[Read the full article here: Backlash Brews Over Blue LEDs]

No more plastic?

2005-05-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

Treehugger has an interesting article on a new process for creating a pseudo-plastic from wastewood products. They basically break the wood fibers down, dry them and grind them into a powder. Once the wood has been pulverized, the resultant powder is pressed into discs which are claimed to have the same properties as plastics. The product will be introduced at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan. Clock gears made of wooden plastic

Now while this process takes a great deal of energy heating up the wood, and then re-heating the resultant powder in order to form it, this process must be more eco-friendly than current plastic making technology.

Picassa

2005-05-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine was raving about the new Picassa 2. I was a little reluctant at first, but after downloading and installing Picassa, I must say that I am rather impressed with it.

As I have come to expect from Google, the user interface is clean and the feature set is powerful without being overwhelming. The icons are easily interpreted and I had to endure almost no learning curve. Right out of the box (well, I actually downloaded it) Picassa began to find and organize all of my images. The initial organization was by date, by I assume that they can be organized by most any criteria.

The most impressive feature for me was native support of the RAW file format. RAW is literally the raw camera sensor data with no compression or processing of the image prior to saving it. I take and save all of my images from my Canon D60 in the RAW format. Up until Adobe's Photoshop CS, I had to convert the files into a JPEG or TIFF and then browse or process them in Photoshop. While Photoshop did a good job of allowing me to view my RAW images, it pales in comparison to the ease of use I get with Picassa. Of course, I will still do all of my editing with Photoshop, but Picassa definitely has it's place.

A New Computer

2005-05-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

I need a new computer. I have been mulling around the idea for a while. My current computer has served me well, but it has too many quirks and oddities to be stable anymore. It will freeze up for no reason and it is running a tad slow. I don't want to start over from scratch with my current PC since I plan on building a new one anyways. Anyways, I have narrowed down my hardware requirements and I think I can do it for under $1,000.00.

Here is a list of some of the hardware that I want:

Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SL

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+

Video Card: XFX Geforce 6600GT

RAID Carrier: Enlight Ultra320 Drive Module

Memory: CORSAIR XMS 1GB DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)

Hard Drives (For RAID): HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA II

Of course there will also be the obligatory fans, thermal paste, and other odds & ends.

I am thinking of turning my current PC into a Windows Media Center, once I get this new one up and running. I have been holding off getting a Tivo because I want a Media Center PC. I really would like to be able to record TV in a Tivo like fashion, but I don't like the subscription aspect of the Tivo system.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

2005-05-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

This camera was released in January of 2005, and it is arguably the best on the market. The competition for this camera comes mainly from Nikon. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Nikon's products. I do know that Nikon makes a high quality product that is preferred by many professional photographers, but I believe that is based more on tradition than on the merits of the product. There is a really good review of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II on Digital Photography Review. I currently own a Canon D60, and I absolutely love it. If I had an extra $8,000.00 laying around, I would buy this camera right now. That is, if I could find one, they seem to be out of stock everywhere.

[Read the whole review over at dpreview.com]

24

2005-05-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the season finale for "24". That is a superb television show. Hopefully with the popularity of shows like this and "Lost", the major networks will move away from the pseudo-reality style shows. I don't necessarily mind reality based television, but if everything was reality, then it wouldn't be entertainment, just reality.

Evolution vs. Creationism

2005-05-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

On Becoming an Evolutionary Biologist has an entry discussing the debate between creationism and evolution. While his point of view is clearly expressed,

I would like to chime in with my own 2¢.

I do not wish to argue the merits of Evolution vs. Creationism, rather the utter lack of respect either side of the argument has for the other. Obviously people are extremely passionate about the topic, but perhaps we have lost site of a fundamental principle of our society. What is this principle you ask? Well, the ability to intelligently debate a topic while respectfully disagreeing with your opponent. On the side of Creationism, the religious fundamentalists are arguing that evolution has no basis in scientific fact, despite an enormous amount of evidence to the contrary. On the side of Evolution stands well educated academics who believe that they "know" what is true and right and are unwilling to accept or even tolerate a differing, non-scientific point of view.

Both sides are guilty of using extremist tactics to debase the other. Both use exaggeration and omission to confuse the un-decided. The religious fundamentalists point to omissions in the historical record of fossils as proof that evolution is a hoax. They point to organisms who haven't evolved in eons as proof that evolution does not exist. They prey on the ignorance of the masses regarding evolution to bolster their ranks. Now, this is clearly wrong. Not just wrong in that they are incorrect, but wrong in a deeper sense. They are purposely misleading and distorting the facts to their followers. But the scientific community is not free from blame either. The scientific community is guilty of basely dismissing a religious point of view without even acknowledging that it is a legitimate point of view. Not necessarily legitimate in fact or proof, but legitimate in that it is held. The scientific community is also guilty of not properly educating the masses. They fail to admit that there are enormous gaps in the data. That while we may have a good idea of what is going on, very little of what we know can be stated as scientific fact. They also fail to admit that we don't definitively know anything. Very little can be stated as an absolute fact with absolute certainty.

While I personally agree that evolution is a fact, I do not know what role (if any) a deity or higher power played in the creation or maintenance of our universe. I do, however, believe that the Christian Fundamentalists are not correct. In fact, they are, in my opinion, absolutely incorrect. I obviously side with the scientific community, but I wish they would do a better job of explaining what evolution is, how it works and that they may be wrong, if only partially.

Trackbacks?

2005-05-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

I am once again let down by Blogger. There is no support for trackbacks. Trackbacks allow one site to "track" who has linked to their weblog entries and to link to them, simply acknowledge their existence or ignore them altogether. The point is that trackbacks are a useful bit of technology and would be a nice addition to Blogger.

That said, Blogger's interface and design are very nice. I would really like to see the addition of trackbacks and the ability to categorize my entries.

Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R Z

2005-05-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

In my never-ending quest to find things of interest to me on the internet I ran across the NISMO Z-Tune Skyline. This car is awesome! I have always loved the Nissan Skyline and this one will probably be the last "official" R34 Skyline to be released by Nissan. The Skyline is an amazing car in all regards, unfortunately it was never sold in the US. Perhaps the new iteration of the Skyline, the R35, will be sold in the US as a Nissan Skyline. Although I wouldn't mind too much if it was sold as an Infiniti. Whatever name it has, I really hope Nissan USA decides to make a GTR version that will be as fast and handle as well as the R34 Skyline did.

Link to pictures (text in Japanese)

Someday

2005-05-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

Someday my car will look like this! Well, without the stickers or wing and it will be black of course.
Photo taken at the JGTC event in Fontana, CA on December 18, 2004.

Oh yeah, get Firefox

2005-05-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

There is a better web browser out there, and it is called Firefox. Why is it better, well it just is, and over 50,000,000 people agree. It is very adept at blocking pop up windows and renders web pages faster. But more important than that, at least to me, is that the browser is not dominant on the screen. It always seemed to me that when I was using Internet Explorer I was looking at a webpage "in" IE. When using Firefox, I feel more like I am looking at the web page itself, and Firefox is just a tool to help me get there. Firefox does not ever get in my way like IE did. It is better, you should try it.

The only downside to Firefox is that a small number of websites will not work with it. But this limitation is not the fault of the community that has developed Firefox, rather, it is the fault of the web page designers who have failed to adhere to accepted web standards and have coded for IE only. This problem was more prevalent in the early days of Firefox (6 months ago?), but as time progresses and more people switch over to Firefox this limitation is showing up less and less. Actually, I haven't encountered a webpage that didn't work in quite a while. Although it may be that I just refuse to visit them until they conform (i.e. Launch!).

Formula 1

2005-05-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

I just watched the Grand Prix de Monaco, and I can't get over how amazing those cars are. They are quite simply the absolute apex of automotive engineering. I find it hard to believe that man is able to engineer a machine that is capable of going as fast as these cars go and for as long. They traveled a total of 260.5km (162 miles) in 1 hour and 45 minutes. That works out to an average speed of 148kph or 92mph. The engines in these cars are 3.0 liter V-10's that operate at up to 20,000rpm. Now compare this with the average car that operates around 5,000rpm and you can see that these engines revolve an amazing four times faster. The cars produce so much downforce at speed that they would literally be able to drive on the ceiling of a tunnel. Absolutely amazing!

One criticism that I have of Formula 1, and of racing in general, is that there is little emphasis on fuel economy. The FIA (the governing body for F1) has made a number of rule changes coming into the 2005 season, but none of them are aimed at improving fuel economy. The current generation of F1 cars gets, at best, .66 liters per kilometer (3.5 miles per gallon). Now, I am not a proponent of radical rule changes altering the nature of F1 racing, but I would like to see some minor changes to help improve fuel economy. I look at most forms of racing as, first, a very exciting sport but then as a testbed for automotive development. F1 has been absolutely instrumental in advancing the safety of vehicles, increasing horsepower, advancing aerodynamics and improving handling. The budgets of the top F1 teams probably equal budgets of most major automakers. I think it is time, especially considering the current strain on oil reserves, for F1 to pour some development money into improving fuel economy.

Bloc Party

2005-05-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

So I just got "Silent Alarm" from Bloc Party. My first impression is that this is good music. Of course I really like the single "Banquet", but the rest of the album seems very strong.

Star Wars

2005-05-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Star Wars, those crazy Star Wars...

So, I went to see Star Wars Episode III last night with a friend, who shall remain anonymous. I was duly impressed. I was let down by episodes I & II, and as such my expectations for episode III were rather low. It turns out that George Lucas can still make a decent movie. Following is a short list of things I would have done differently.

More Vader!
A better space battle (the battle was anti-climatic)
No cheesy love lines
A realization that Anakin wasn't the "Chosen One"

I am sure that this list will grow over time, but for now it will suffice.

PhD Blog

2005-05-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

My friend, who shall remain anonymous, has a cool blog about his quest to obtain a PhD. Check it out!

On Becoming an Evolutionary Biologist

Sweet HD Camcorder

2005-05-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Preface: I really like gadgets!

Sony is going to release a really cool camcorder, the HDR-HC1. It will record in High-Definition. While there are other cameras available that also record in HD, this one is super small (comparatively).

MySpace

2005-05-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

MySpace is seemingly popular, but I don't know why. The user interface is complicated, it doesn't look very good, and it is sort of odd. The one saving grace is that the price is right (free!).

Anyways, I have a MySpace (is that how it is said?)...

My very own MySpace

I went to work again...

2005-05-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

This could be a daily entry. Going to work everyday taxes my soul. I feel like I should not have to go to work so often. Maybe once or twice a month would be okay. Even then I would dread the arrival of my once a month workday. It isn't so much the work that bothers me, although I could do without it as well, it is the incessant requirement to do something I do not really want to do.

Everyday

Moving Day!

My new weblog (update)

Sony Ericsson W800

Cave Thinkers

Oh god, please make it so...

Inconspicuous Warning

What I'm Listening To

Woodworking

Lost Wishes

Autolust

Less is more

Whose Fish?

PHP

Senator Claims File-Sharing Undermines Youth Morality

It's raining!

Weblog, the saga continues...

MySpace

Romance via html

Fuel Mileage

Switch?

Up and running

Uh-Oh!

Great Movie

What I'm Listening To

New MCE keyboard

Slowly but surely

Cellphone Lust

The Cure @ Live 8 [updated]

Portable Audio Recording

The Cure @ Live 8

Google has struck again!

MocoLoco

On writing

Musical Equipment Lust

Yeah, right...

Wikipedia

Google

Patriot Act?

Sileighty

What I'm Listening To

F1 Weekend

Roadblocks

Directors Label

What I'm Listening To

Launch.com

Silver Lake

Simplicity is best

Aesthetics vs. Function

Inserting multiple listbox items into SQL with ASP.NET

Weblog, the saga begins (again)

Estimated Time Remaining

Hurkey Creek

I am not alone!

No more plastic?

Picassa

A New Computer

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

24

Evolution vs. Creationism

Trackbacks?

Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R Z

Someday

Oh yeah, get Firefox

Categories

Formula 1

Bloc Party

Star Wars

PhD Blog

Sweet HD Camcorder

MySpace

I went to work again...