5.31.2007 | When crashing can be a pleasant surprise

My PowerBook G4 has served me faithfully for nearly two years now, and for the first time I had reason to bring it into the Apple Store for a potentially perplexing problem – when I selected a certain font in Fireworks MX 2004, the whole program came crashing down, and sometimes it brought down other applications with it. One incident caused a systemwide crash.

But even as I was experiencing these problems, I was still impressed with some of the recovery features of Mac OS X. For one, the systemwide crash I mentioned simply closed all my programs and logged me out instead of giving me a blue screen of death – no restart necessary. But the biggest surprise came after I took my computer in for repair.

I was told I was going to have to reinstall the operating system. Instantly I had painful flashbacks of sitting in front of a screen for hours watching a progress indicator while backing up important files before having to go through the laborious process of changing all my settings in every application. But this is Mac – they have something better.

By selecting an option during the reinstall process, Mac OS saved all my settings and applications exactly the way they were. After the process was complete, everything was preserved so perfectly that even my Firefox browser remembered the page I had been looking at when I last used it. I encountered only two minor glitches – I lost my user account picture, and I had to reinstall Flip4Mac, a program that lets me see Windows Media in QuickTime on Mac OS. But other than that, the process was painless and flawless. And most importantly, my problem was fixed.

So now though I can't say my Mac hasn't crashed, I can say that when it does, it does so more gracefully than Windows, and with a lot less time and effort lost. Kudos to the designers at Apple, and I look forward to their next release of Mac OS (10.5 "Leopard") in the fall.

5.13.2006 | Finished!

Finally, exams are over, and I'm ready to get back to real life. I'll be taking a trip this summer to Las Vegas and from there drive around Northern Arizona through to Tucson and Phoenix to visit some friends. I thought I could be really high-tech and blog from my mobile phone, but it turns out Cingular coverage is a bit spotty in Northern Arizona since GSM is still a new technology. We'll see.

2.17.2006 | Checks and balances, baby

White House Ordered to Release Spy Papers

WASHINGTON - A federal judge ordered the Bush administration on Thursday to release documents about its warrantless surveillance program or spell out what it is withholding, a setback to efforts to keep the program under wraps.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/ap_on_go_co/eavesdropping

Accountability's a bitch, ain't it? Maybe there is hope after all.

12.26.2005 | The color of temptation

"What is the color of temptation?" is the question posed by a recent Panasonic ad for high-definition TVs. For me, the color of temptation is black and yellow (incidentally, yellow was the color of the fire hydrant in the Panasonic commercial eyed by a small dog – it's also one of my school colors). These are the colors of the new Sprint, and this snazzy new phone that's currently available buy one get one free for $49.

I'm tired of Cingular's two-year agreement (I'm currently one year through), and I'm so unhappy with my phone that I'm going to pay the $150 termination fee just so I can take advantage of Sprint's offer. They have fairer terms, and only a one-year commitment. I'm going to the store tomorrow to try out the phone in person, but from what I know of Samsung before, it's a sweet phone (my current Motorola loses its charge in a day and locks up every now and then, less than a year out).

Update (12/27/05): I went to go try out the phone at the Sprint store the other day, and it's not so great after all. Though the prospect of greater network coverage (at least in Va.) is tempting, the voice quality is not as good as Cingular. The phone was also cheap and plasticky just like the current Motorola I despise so much. There just are no good cell phones anymore. I might get a Nokia 1100 because at least I know it won't fall apart.

12.21.2005 | Praying for the President

Pray for the President. Seriously. If, as he claims, Bush is a man of faith, as I am, he needs our prayers. Many of my faith support the president blindly, as if he were God's representative on Earth and we must follow what he says. I, on the other hand, understand that he is human and is just as capable of making mistakes as we are. Regardless of your political affiliation, even if you believe Bush is a hopeless cause, pray for him. I urge you. His failings and human fallibility only means he needs our prayers just that much more.

I was originally going to launch on a rant about how supporters of the President who claim to have faith can't have true faith since much of what he does (tax breaks for the rich at the expense of the poor, invading countries as the initiator of violence) doesn't match what I believe are the true values of the Christian religion. But then I found this Web site, and I realized: one thing all Christians, and possibly even non-Christians can agree upon this Christmas is that the president needs our prayer.

And right at this moment, what I'm praying to God that Bush understands most are these words from our Constitution, our sacred ruling document that no man claim himself above:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This isn't just about upholding two centuries of human progress, individual liberties and making sure our government reflects the values of the country we've come to know and love. And it isn't just about Bush's personal political career or legacy, which would greatly be improved if he recognized the error of his ways. It's about Christmas, a time of coming together despite our differences in a spirit of reconiciliation, peace and love. Pray that Bush receives this Christmas message, and Merry Christmas to all. To all a good night.

12.13.2005 | I've got the Verve

Check out The Verve Remixed Complete Box Set on Amazon.com. A friend recently introduced me to the collection via (legally purchased) CD. iTunes also has a version that costs $10 more but comes with bonus tracks. It's an eclectic collection of some old jazz standards electrified with some funky fresh beats. Here are my favorite (non-bonus) tracks from the collection:

Spanish Grease 7:26 Willie Bobo (Dorfmeister con madrid de los austrias muga reserva mix) How Long Has This Been Going On 4:57 Carmen McRae (MJ Cole Remix) Return To Paradise 5:52 Shirley Horn (Mark De Clive-Lowe Remix) Strange Fruit 3:19 Billie Holiday (Tricky Remix) Hare Krishna 6:57 Tony Scott (King Britt Remix) Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby? 4:58 Dinah Washington (Rae and Christian Remix) Summertime 6:50 Sarah Vaughan (UFO Remix) Manteca 6:53 Dizzy Gillespie (Funky Lowlives Remix) Sinnerman 4:35 Nina Simone (Felix Da Housecat's Heavenly House Mix) Whatever Lola Wants 4:40 Sarah Vaughan (Gotan Project Remix)

Blues From Brother George Jackson 5:11 Archie Shepp (Mondo Grosso Next Wave Mix) Do What You Wanna 5:24 Ramsey Lewis (Mr. Scruff's Soul Party Mix) Soul Sauce 4:16 Cal Tjader (Fila Brazillia Remix) Fried Neckbones And Some Home Fries 4:30 Willie Bobo (Dan The Automator Remix) Just One of Those Things 4:48 Blossom Dearie (Brazilian Girls Remix) Little Girl Blue 5:18 Nina Simone (Postal Service Remix) Sing, Sing, Sing 6:07 Anita O'Day (RSL Remix) Fever 4:38 Sarah Vaughan (Adam Freeland Remix) The Gentle Rain 6:01 Astrud Gilberto (RJD2 Remix) Peter Gunn 5:08 Sarah Vaughan (Max Sedgley Remix) Stay Loose 3:20 Jimmy Smith (Lyrics Born Remix)

There's also a parallel set of albums called Verve Unmixed – the old jazz standards without the funky fresh beats. The best ones of these worth downloading are "Strange Fruit" and "Do What You Wanna."

Design achievement

I finished the last project of my media graphics class today. The assignment was to design the front page of a newspaper with five assigned headlines. It's called the "Richmond Reporter," and it focuses on Richmond stories with a section highlighted in yellow called the "National Beat." I didn't like the name of the paper at first, but in the end I'm really happy with the way the layout turned out (the "National Beat" part was my idea). If you want to see it in all its full-size glory, e-mail me and I'll send you a high-resolution copy.

Update (12/17/05): Better image uploaded. I also now have a PDF available.

12.01.2005 | Interesting poetry

Be prepared; this stuff is explicit and downright sacreligious. But it's fun, and it shows the power of poetry to expose truth where words (or, gasp!, pictures) might otherwise fail.

The Pope's Penis
Sharon Olds

It hangs deep in his robes, a delicate
clapper at the center of a bell.
It moves when he moves, a ghostly fish in a
halo of silver sweaweed, the hair
swaying in the dark and the heat — and at night
while his eyes sleep, it stands up
in praise of God.

The Solution
Sharon Olds

Finally they got the Singles problem under
control, they made it scientific. They opened huge
Sex Centers – you could simply go and state what you
want and they would find you someone who wanted that
too. You would stand under a sign saying I Like to
Be Touched and Held and when someone came and
stood under the sign saying I Like to Touch and
Hold they would send the two of you off
together.

At first it went great. A steady stream of
people under the sign I Like to Give Pain
paired up with a steady stream of people from under
I Like to Receive Pain. Foreplay Only – No
Orgasm found its adherents, and Orgasm Only – No
Foreplay matched up its believers. A loyal
Berkeley, California, policeman stood under the sign
Married Adults, Lights Out, Face to Face, Under a
Sheet, because that's the only way it was legal in
Berkeley – but he stood there a long time in his lonely
blue law coat. And the man under I Like to Be Sung
to While Bread Is Kneaded on My Stomach had been
there weeks without a reply.

Things began to get strange. The Love
Only – No Sex was doing fine; the Sex Only – No
Love was doing well, pair after pair walking out
together like wooden animals off a child's ark, but
the line for 38D or Bigger was getting unruly,
shouting insults at the line for 8 Inches or
Longer, and odd isolated signs were springing up
everywhere, Retired Schoolteacher and Parakeet – No
Leather; One Rm/No Bath/View of Sausage Factory.

The din rose in the vast room. The line
under I Want to Be Fucked Senseless was so long
that portable toilets had to be added and a minister
brought for deaths, births, and marriages on the
line. Over under I Want to Fuck Senseless – no
one, a pile of guns. A hollow roaring filled the
enormous gym. More and more people began to move over
to Want to Be Fucked Senseless. The line snaked
around the gym, the stadium, the whole town, out into
the fields. More and more people joined it, until
Fucked Senseless stretched across the nation in
a huge wide belt like the Milky Way, and since they
had to name it they named it, they called it the
American Way.

11.29.2005 | Tropical Storm Epsilon

Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta... Epsilon. We are now up to the 26th named storm on record this season, still the busiest ever since the naming conventions had to switch to Greek letters for the pure reason we ran out of names. That, and it's 70 degrees outside right now a couple of days before December. If this isn't global warming I'd like to know what is.

11.28.2005 | It's beautiful outside

It's cloudy and overcast, but I can't help but notice the beauty of the individually formed clouds of different shades of gray as they drift by my window. The sun must be partially out, since the bottoms of the clouds appear gray as they fade up to white towards the top.

I'm sitting here in a lounge area of the VCU Student Commons, and someone is playing the piano next door. It's nice to be able to sit here and relax for a bit. I've also had some time to catch up on my Internet presence at Spread Firefox and elsewhere. It helps me remember what being online is all about: connecting with other people. And I get to enjoy a view of nature and the sound of music to boot. I just wish I had a digital camera to share the experience.

11.21.2005 | Songs stuck in my head right now

	Hung Up Madonna Confessions on a Dance Floor
	Excerpt: Every little thing that you say or do I'm hung up, I'm hung up on you Waiting for your call, baby, night and day I'm fed up, I'm tired of waiting on you
	Romeo Basement Jaxx Rooty
	Excerpt: You keep on givin' me the hold up You know I wish you'd make your mind up 'Cause when we're gettin' on it's so-so You used to be my Romeo

New major

So as it turns out, I've been taking so many upper-level French classes to get my minor (you don't benefit from placing further ahead early on, as I did with my Grade 4 AP transfer credit) that after this year I'm only 9 credits away from a degree in French. That means if I took all French courses next semester, I could graduate a full year early (wow). So instead of spending time on internships and becoming a news reporter for two semesters (which means I'd have to give up my position writing opinions at the school paper), I'm going to switch majors and just finish up my French degree. I still intend to double major, but I'm switching the concentration of my international studies portion from Western European studies to international relations. As it turns out, area studies focuses on anthropoly, a subject I know very little about, whereas intl. rel. will let me take all the politics-related classes I desire, and with a world focus to boot.

I don't know how I feel about being a French major. I never wanted to be one, and I don't know what I would do with a French degree. I had always wanted a degree that gave me credit for being able to write, along with a touch of design experience. I've gotten all this from working on my school paper, but I don't know if it would be enough for a prospective employer if, say, I wanted to design their company newsletter. Or as one opening at the American Red Cross offered, to become speechwriter for the organization's president.

But as much as I want to get a degree that gives me credit for writing, I feel that journalism is too much "do" and not enough study. An English degree on the other hand, at least at VCU, requires too much reading. I'm more interested in the mechanics of lanugage – the grammar, the usage... the subjunctive mood. So maybe a French degree is more appropriate after all in that it reflects my interest in linguistics in general. Still, I'm not happy about all the anti-French sentiment out there since the Iraq war. But then again, most people now believe Iraq was a mistake anyway (but will they ever forgive the French?). No matter, if no one likes a French degree here in the U.S., who knows? I might actually be able to use it in France...

5.30.2005 | Crime on the rise at VCU

An unknown urban male was seen carryin off his turban friend the other night. No other details are forthcoming:

(Okay, okay, this is a really late and lame attempt at an April Fool's joke. Just laugh anyway.)

Bicyclists for Kaine!

Today I used my new bike for the first time (the previous one was stolen out from under the skyway over Main Street), and its first accessory: a sticker touting the candidacy of Tim Kaine for Virginia Governor. The Republicans in this state are too conservative, placing an orthodoxy against raising taxes over all social needs, including and especially transportation priorities (bicyclists, always looking for a good bike lane, can especially identify with that). Vote Tim Kaine for Governor in November, and let's continue the legacy of fiscal responsibility started by his predecessor, current Virginia Governor Mark Warner.

4.24.2005 | Two months later...

Gee, two months already? So much has been going on in school I haven't noticed the world pass me by. One tidbit I happened across thanks to my friends at my school paper, though, is this music video by Junior Senior, a Danish techno band. Once you see it you'll be hooked; I promise. Warning: contains explicit references to squirrels, nuts, nut juice, and ducks enjoying cartoon nudity. And oh yeah, a dancing robot.

3.05.2005 | More Apple coolness

A few weeks ago I got an Apple AirPort Express, a handy portable little device that lets me bring wireless Internet wherever there's a wired Ethernet port and a power outlet close by.

It also has ports on the bottom for a printer to be able to print wirelessly, and an audio out port for AirTunes, which lets me use iTunes to listen to my songs wirelessly through powered speakers connected to the AirPort Express. I'm definitely loving the Apple lifestyle. Setup was a snap (just insert the CD and go), and the price wasn't too bad, either -- the only other wireless router out there that lets you print wirelessly costs $30 more, and it isn't portable.



What surprises most people: AirPort Express uses the 802.11g wireless standard, which means it works with PCs just as well as Macs. Thank you Apple, for learning to play nicely with Windows. I'll buy a Mac one of these days...

Un-Chumbawamba

So I did a search on Apple iTunes to see what Chumbawamba had been up to since their one-hit wonder "Tupthumbing" back in 1997, and I was pleasantly surprised by their latest release, Un. It's a pleasantly capricious album with various musical influences, and in some cases a few distinctly political overtones.

Most notable among the songs is "On eBay," which is also available in a radio edit and remix on the iTunes Music Store. Another song, "Everything You Know Is Wrong," has censor-like beeps at the beginning, but I searched for the lyrics online and the material was political, not explicit. Interesting. I definitely suggest you check it out. Here's the playlist:

1. The Wizard of Menlo Park
2. Just Desserts
3. On eBay
4. Everything You Know Is Wrong
5. Be With You
6. When Fine Society Sits Down To Dine
7. A Man Walks Into A Bar
8. Buy Nothing Day
9. Following You
10. We Don't Want To Sing Along
11. I Did It For Alfie
12. Rebel Code

The title of the first song is a reference to Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph. This appeal to history reminded me that this one man was responsible for two media that now seem absolutely indispensible to our lives: recorded sound and the motion picture.

It's the first album I've ever discovered on my own without the radio to help me along, and it's also one of those rare albums where I liked enough of the songs to buy the whole thing. They all lend themselves to each other, and the snippets I heard on iTunes were tempting enough to make me buy each song. It may just be my new speakers enhancing the sound, but I'm really happy with it.

The title is also fitting, since the album is really quite unlike anything the group has done before, making it truly "Un-Chumbawamba."

2.13.2005 | Coincidence?

So by chance I decided to rent an old 80s Disney sci fi flick upon Netflix's recommendation, and it nearly blew my mind when I saw in the alien spaceship a pattern that looked not unlike Apple's Firewire logo.

Here's the scene from the movie:



And here's the logo:



Freaky.

2.03.2005 | Freedumb

Is our children learning? President Bush has claimed to spread freedom around the world, but many of our children don't seem to understand its meaning. Maybe it's because we've been so hard an al-Jazeera for broadcasting al Qaeda missives, or maybe it's because we've closed down controversial newspapers in Iraq. Either way, somehow fully one-third of U.S. high school students believe the first amendment goes too far in protecting freedom of speech and the press. Beats me.

1.26.2005 | It's getting to the point

It's getting to the point where I'm getting tired of pointing out the hypocrisies of Republicans, and the social problems created by companies like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart recently unveiled an ad campaign and a new Web site, walmartfacts.com, to counter its critics. Sure 74 percent of Wal-Mart employees work full time, but by the company's standards "full time" is only 28 hours. But how do I explain that to the security guard I talked to today who merely groaned and said "it's cheap" when I explained that I wouldn't want people to shop at Wal-Mart. Sure it's cheap; that's why foreign companies are making our household products now and costing U.S. jobs.

As for Republican hypocrisy, first we had Bush awarding his medals of freedom to failed figures in his failed Iraq policy, then the trashing of ethics by the party of morals, and so on. It's starting to get old, as if it were the accepted status quo. I'm tired of complaining. But how else can it ever be changed?

Update (5/16/07): Now that the Onion has posted its entire archive online, I can point you to this particularly relevant article by The Onion.

12.28.2004 | Welcome to the new Cingular

Well apparently the only thing new about the new Cingular is that AT&T customers have to transfer their numbers to Cingular to get Cingular's old calling plans with rollover, and that AT&T's network will eventually combine with Cingular's to provide "the largest digital voice and data network in America," the so-called "Allover Network."

"Allover" is actually a pretty good name for it, since together AT&T and Cingular work just about anywhere, and all-digital GSM is a whole lot better than Verizon's staticky CDMA/analog hybrid. The AT&T/Cingular network is also much larger than T-Mobile's, so I decided to make the leap and do a 2-year agreement to get a free camera phone.

The new phone I got isn't as nice as the one I got with AT&T, but at least it has a camera. I'm spending the evening at Murky Coffee/Common Grounds in Arlington, where I took this first picture with my new camera phone. I think I got the best of all possible (wireless) worlds, or at least I hope so. Either way, I'm stuck with it for the next two years, unless I want to pay a $150 termination fee. Welcome to the new Cingular indeed.

12.19.2004 | AIM ads getting out of hand

So yeah, I use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) not because I want to, but because I pretty much have to. I much prefer Yahoo! Messenger for a number of reasons, but because the instant messaging networks don't work with each other, I have to keep AIM open while I'm using Yahoo! to be able to talk to most of my friends. It wasn't much of a bother really, having two IM programs open at once -- until, that is, AOL's ads started going psycho.

The small box at the top of the AIM buddy list window evidently isn't enough for AOL's advertisers, who have begun using more intrusive measures to get AIM users' attention. Recent examples include (among other things) opening a pop-up ad in Internet Explorer when your mouse cursor moves over the ad, automatically playing sounds and animation, and extending ads larger than the AIM window when they first appear.

Now, I understand AOL needs this ad revenue because unlike Yahoo!, which offers free Web content to deliver its ads, AOL only has its instant messenger (Yahoo's messenger, by the way, is ad-free). But once the ads start annoying users, this can only be bad for AOL, since it only gives one more reason for people like me to stop using AIM.

Stop using AIM? Impossible! Exactly: I'm waiting for the day when it won't matter what network you use, and people with any instant messenger client can contact people with any other instant messenger. Way back in 2000 when AOL first merged with Time Warner, government regulators were considering requiring AOL to open its instant messaging network to competitors as a requirement for the merger. But AOL instead promised to hold talks on creating an instant messaging standard, which have gone nowhere since.

In 2000, we had an administration that used government's regulatory power to ensure competition would benefit consumers. In 2004, we have an administration that lets business do whatever it wants, like push ads on unsuspecting users without giving them a real alternative. I like Yahoo! Messenger better than AIM, and I'd like to be able to use it to talk to my AOL friends. That would be real competition.

But for now I'm stuck with having to keep AIM open in the background. At least I can use the Yahoo! messenger window to cover over AIM's ads.

12.18.2004 | Firefox ad in New York Times

My name is in the New York Times! Thanks to a fundraising effort by Spread Firefox, I was able to get my name in the full-page ad announcing Firefox 1.0 to the world. The ad was made possible by small contributions from thousands of Firefox supporters, including me. In return for a $30 donation, people got to have their name be a part of the ad, which used the names of thousands of donors to communicate the grassroots support behind the browser as an alternative to Microsoft's aging Internet Explorer.


For those of you who may not be familiar with the story behind it, Firefox is basically the result of a years-long effort to improve the once-dominant Netscape browser. When AOL purchased Netscape in 1998, the company donated Netscape's underpinnings to the newly created Mozilla Foundation, which then used the browser's source code to solicit input from programmers and ordinary users from around the world. This model of software development, called open source, allowed Mozilla to draw on the expertise of thousands of volunteers, making for the best product possible.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has used its 90 percent market share of browsers to rest on its laurels and release only minimal improvements, with no new version released since 2001. And since the browser is integrated with the operating system, only people who have Microsoft's latest version of Windows benefit from the updates. According to the New York Times' Randall Stross:

Stuck with code from a bygone era when the need for protection against bad guys was little considered, Microsoft cannot do much. It does not offer a new stand-alone version of Internet Explorer. Instead, the loyal customer must download and install the newest version of Service Pack 2. That, in turn, requires Windows XP. Those who have an earlier version of Windows are out of luck if they wish to stick with Internet Explorer.

Mr. Schare of Microsoft does have one suggestion for those who cannot use the latest patches in Service Pack 2: buy a new personal computer. By the same reasoning, the security problems created by a car's broken door lock could be solved by buying an entirely new automobile. The analogy comes straight from Mr. Schare. "It's like buying a car," he said. "If you want to get the latest safety features, you have to buy the latest model."

In this case, the very latest model is not a 2001 Internet Explorer, but a 2004 Firefox.

Firefox is smaller and more intuitive than the original Mozilla/Netscape browser, and it's faster, safer and better than Internet Explorer. Before I start sounding like an ad, though, let me just invite you to download and try it for yourself. The download for Windows users is only 4.5 megabytes, installation is quick, easy and painless, and you really have nothing to lose. Visit GetFirefox.com to get your own copy, and enjoy the blazing speed and advanced features.

Speaking of advanced features, Mozilla has an e-mail client called Thunderbird that gets better at filtering spam the more you tell it what's spam and what isn't. It also handles multiple e-mail accounts and RSS news feeds. Check it out.

Oh, and did I mention? It's all free.