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01.31.04 you've heard the hype. now buy it! the shins are another great the band. they're gentle and familiar and totally inventive. young pilgrims reminds me here and there of a really twee cover of a nirvana song; then again, i have a case of the crazies. # tom's hardware takes an in-depth look at winFS, the future-savy service layer that will sit on top of the NTFS file system in microsoft's new Longhorn operating system. (longhorn is the long-awaiting re-write of Windows that microsoft has been steadily chugging towards; NTFS is the behind the scenes system that manages how your computer stores files, if you're a Windows user.) winFS as it stands, is a file system mod allowing full backwards-compatibility and dissolving the concept of file-storage and manipulation as we know it. it's a vision of the operating system as a relational database that considers all information as a record. and it's the most revolutionary idea to come to the consumer desktop ever (unless you still use be). the question however, is whether microsoft can pull it off. will they actually deliver this change-everything OS, or will they repeat the same mistakes again, delaying Longhorn further and further, until consumer demand trickles down to nothing and forces redmond to roll the candy-colored features of longhorn into some kind of XP+, leaving winFS as the ultimate vaporware and leaving us with the equivalent of another ugly watch? or will apple surprise us all and beat them to it, what with the addition of dominic giampaulo to their crack team of apple-next-be superheros? as you can probably tell, i'm fascinated by this shit. # "There's no political risk in saying you'll put a man on Mars in 30 years. It's so bold-sounding, but at the same time we're afraid to fly 350 miles to the Hubble to fix it? I won't use the word cowardly, but we're stepping away, we're retreating." there's no danger in promising to accomplish something 30 years out. it's easy (in fact, almost impossible not to) to cancel a mars-program later on, a few presidents from now, a few economic crises from now, when we've yet to make any news-shattering progress, any sweeping photo-ops in a gradual march towards Mars. and it's stupid to cut short the life of one of our most successful tools of exploration, by only 7 short years, based on the rather flimsy duplex of arguments being used right now (money and "safety" — space isn't safe, so let's get on with it). wired points out a rapidly spreading movement to force NASA to save the Hubble, including a surprisingly successful online petition. surprisingly in that people seem to be listening, unlike so many other online petitions. # 01.30.04 blogger supports atom. now everyone can offer rss feeds. and should. no more excuses. # 01.29.04 it's about time: pixar leaves disney. it's like a dead marriage; everyone else knows it's over long before it ends. but where will they land? # 01.27.04 in the event that you are reading this site, and you happen to be a complete stranger to me, and you'd like nothing more than to email me for the first time, likely from your inexplicably unpronounceable yahoo! email account, so that you can show me some interesting file attachment you've got, i implore you, please call attention to this fact in the subject line of your email, because at the moment i'm planning to delete your email (along with the 20 others exactly like it) without hesitation. # i have an 8:30 meeting tomorrow morning. actually, i have an 8:30 meeting every morning, starting tomorrow. you have no idea. it's a cruel and merciless god that has failed to notice that the official start time at my office is 9:30. i think. # i'm restored, rebooted, back in action. the root cause of all of my pain and horror has been, as it has many times before, was third-party ram and the trauma caused by it's interactions with the buggy os x 10.3.2 in the interim, patently awaiting a new order of good, reliable RAM, i took it upon myself to re-arrange my working space, moving from the nook i was previously situated in, to a nice window desk in the bedroom. note that i use the term desk liberally — mine is actually a kitchen table i co-opted. anyway, the new situation, while forcibly removing jessie and i from each other's presence, gives me a bit more privacy and more space to enjoy as my own. it does have some disruptive effect on our morning patterns, but so many things do that i'm not about to give up on the new-found space and light. pictures will be forthcoming, once i have the ram to properly edit them without having an aneurysm. # 01.22.04 i was on a roll with this posting bit, and i had hoped it would continue. but i've become distracted, as my good fortune crumbles around me. short-circuiting house wiring, a dead router and my failing laptop have kept me occupied for a few days and unavailable to post, not to mention focus on writing anything for the exciting new class i'm taking. but i'm waiting for my second string replacements to show up and better luck around the corner, so i'm spending the day, thanks work, in san diego where the weather is warm. life always seems to come together in warm weather. in a few more days i'll have all of these little earthquakes moved aside and i'll be back on here blathering at you. # 01.19.04 to the owner of the black mesh laundry bag and the (yes, i looked — know thy enemy) unexpectedly large lacy underthings, would you please be so kind as to relinquish the iron grip you have over our apartment building's inadequate laundry facilities? perhaps if you would stop to consider the implications of a 2-washer laundry setup in a 60-apartment complex, you might realize that the 3 hour strangle-hold you have exerted over this puny facility might not be the most neighborly behavior one could engage in. or perhaps if you chose to wash you and your family's 6 (and counting) loads of laundry more than once a decade, you would find the results not only more hygienic, but also much appreciated by your (thus far) very patient neighbors. hostilely yours, chris # i've been looking for a os x savvy disk repair utility all afternoon. my pb has been behaving somewhat erratically since the 10.3.2 update and i'm just starting to feel like this is a good time to invest in some preventative medicine (i never buy utility software). so i've narrowed the playing field down to diskwarrior and techtool pro 4. DW3 has some very vocal advocates, but there's some outstanding question regarding it's 10.3 interoperability. TTP4 looks great, with an entire raft of troubleshooting features that i would love to have (and optimization!) but it's really expensive and i can't find anyone who seems married to it. does anyone else have any experience (good or bad!) with os x and 3rd party disk utilities? # 01.18.04 if microsoft was serious about security, they would release a basic firewall system for all of their supported operating systems as a free patch. related: is anyone in the open source community working on an open virus protection system? i mean, if not a free anti-virus program, why is there not an open database of known virus definitions that could be tapped by any application to provide a basic level of protection? it feels like we're ignoring the pink elephant of these vulnerabilities, and leaving the problem to the worst possible people to solve. after installing norton anti-virus and firewall for reese today, i can honestly say that symantec's applications are so poorly designed, from a user-interaction standpoint, as to almost be viruses themselves. cryptic messages pop up every time a user clicks on anything, and each one does the worst thing possible, offering the user a choice of options, including "cancel" or "do nothing", to remedying whatever it sees to be the problem. i promise you, no good can come of this as we continue to push more and more of our lives into these boxes. thank god (in this case) i have a mac. # oh, cool, another great ancillary benefit of Commander Bush's Rocketship To # every time i go out, i come home and i think, "drinking and dancing isn't as much fun as it should be" and yet, every time the opportunity presents itself, i fall back into the same trap. i lost my atm card tonight, which is a big bummer, because 1.) i don't do stupid things like that and 2.) because of the holiday weekend, i don't have access to any more cash until tuesday (see above for reasons why my wallet is empty anew). but i'm giving the wrong impression of my evening. i saw david sedaris tonight, who is amazing in person, totally engaging and genuine. plus i got to go out with some good friends (ricky and shyla, plus i got to meet r's very cool sister and see their very nice friend tom again) which is always a favorite past-time of mine. i drank too much, i danced very poorly and i had my cards read (the present: inner harmony; the action: knowledge, growth; the outcome: enjoy the luxuries life affords, but don't take it for granted) and when i got home, i found a very surprising and interesting email from andy behrman, of whom i've written before. when it rains... # 01.16.04 I opened my eyes. And in the mirror I didn't see myself. Not the Mona Lisa with the enigmatic smile any longer. Not the shy girl with the tangled black hair in her face, but instead her fraternal twin brother. With the screen of my hair removed, the recent changes in my face were far more evident. My jaw looked squarer, broader, my neck thicker, with a bulge of Adam's apple in the center. It was, unquestioningably a male face, but the feelings inside that boy were still a girl's. To cut off your hair after a breakup was a feminine reaction. It was a way to start over, to renounce vanity, to spite love. I knew that I would never see the Object again. Despite bigger problems, greater worries, it was the heartbreak that seized me when I first saw my male face in the mirror. I thought: it's over. By cutting off my hair I was punishing myself for loving someone so much. I was trying to be stronger. middlesex is, hands down, one of the best books i've read in a long time. it takes a commitment (at 540 pages it's not a weekend novel). without revealing more than the above (and numerous glowing reviews) gives away, i'll tell you that it's more than worth the investment. # 01.12.04 the tiny, impoverished island nation that is my blog's namesake has been decimated by a cyclone. the island of niue, whose only natural resource seems to be their internet top-level domain (.nu), is considering disbanding and being annexed by new zealand as more than half of the island's population flees, potentially leaving the country with as few as 500 permanent residents. i'm not sure what this means for my domain name, but i'll bet it's not good. # 01.11.04 every night, for the last three nights, i've dreamt i was at the world's fair. # 01.10.04 i'm still having a hard time getting used to living in a city that has a music scene. there's this entire ecosystem of local and regional music that's nothing short of amazing, and yet i still haven't adapted to that idea or to the affiliated systems of discovery. by which i mean to say, i go to shows for band's i've never heard of, and probably couldn't find at the kind of record store i'm still used to (virgin, tower, etc). and i love these bands, sometimes more than bands i have heard of. still, i feel right on the edge of actually knowing the scene. i'm still entirely dependent on people around me (kate, tim, select others) to turn me on to a new band or an upcoming show. like Film School , the band i saw tonight. (minmae were excellent as well.) i wish there was some kind of local directory of bands/shows etc. i mean, there is, but if i've never heard of a band, how can i figure out which shows to go to? oh, it's so baffling! # 01.08.04 a perfectly cool extension of an already cool box. but will it support the mac? # 01.07.04 pitchfork is reporting that the clear channel devil is trying to roll out their own washed out, dumbed down, shellacked idea of an indie rock station. god help us. # a new mp3 is available to your right, this one from the stills. i just picked up their new album logic will break your heart (itunes/insound) and i'm enjoying quite a few of the tracks. it's great pop, if you're into that sort of thing. # 01.06.04 sharing a similar (although more fully developed) aesthetic to my own, tyler was already well versed in the medium brand of uber-cool footwear. so, with a little encourage, i called around and found a store that carries them. best bought-myself-a-christmas-present ever! # i think i have mad cow disease. that's why i can't sleep at night, can't wake up during the day, eat compulsively and suffer this debilitating loss of ambition. i knew beef would kill me one day. it's been a long vacation, friends. in las vegas i learned that money doesn't mean much, doesn't go far, doesn't give back. in tehachapi i watched the snow blowing, reminded what a big space makes up california. back home, my home, i rang in the new year with friends and hardly even noticed it was happening. walking home in the rain, more times now than not, with no resolutions, no evolutions, no purging or bingeing or cleansing or cleaning. in 2004, there's no need to recover. i make only one promise, to own life as my own, free of the sucks of guilt or anger or fear. it's a different year and for it, that's my goal. shouldn't be hard, should it? i'm getting good at this, feeling at home with it. tyler came to see us, to spend new year's eve with us, to my perpetual delight. i get nervous, about guests, because i don't know what to do with them, because i feel a pressure to entertain. but tyler puts me at ease. he's good company and i was so happy to have him here, to be able to share champagne shots, and this wonderful life i've found. my family spent christmas in vegas. "you gotta play big to win big," jessie reminds me. the cloth of my family is changing. no longer four, or even four plus two, we're two and two and two now, and there's a different feeling to us, a strange new liveliness. las vegas is an emotional pit, a joyless cave where meaning has no meaning. but in spite of it, being able to see my family slowly moving into this new formation, like a team of synchronized swimmers gliding into formation, is a worthwhile diversion. in the end, i found some peace with 2003, by far the fastest and most silent year of the 23 so far. but it was an unsettling year, a frightening year, and i'm happy to be rid of it. # 01.02.04 happy new year to everyone! expect to hear all about the wild and crazy times that were had over the last week and some. maybe tomorrow. # for the new year: batch convert your itunes-protected aac files to mp3 with this handy, if not confusing, application. i've only tested it with one authorized track, but it seemed to decode and re-rip pretty easily. # « December 2003 | archive index | February 2004 » built with movabletype |
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