surfing shoulders

In Cory Doctorow's boingboing post today about David Byrne's blog (still with me?), he captured exactly what I enjoy so much about blogging and reading blogs:

This is one of the things I love most about blogs: getting to shoulder-surf thinkers who make me smarter.

Well said, Cory. And thanks for the blogging you do to make me smarter.

i-ACT 2007: gabriel's return to africa

Gabriel Stauring is one of those folks I find myself admiring more and more as time goes by. He's now chronicling his third trip to the Darfur region of Africa over at the i-ACT page on StopGenocideNow.org.

When I first encountered Gabriel in the omidyar.net online community, we were both just beginning to learn about the atrocities committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. Since then, Gabriel's been a man on a mission, c-founding StopGenocideNow.org and dedicating the lionshare of his waking moments to raising awareness about what's happening in Africa on top of acting as a Family Consultant, providing in-home therapy for abused children and their families.

I've had the privilege of meeting Gabriel face-to-face once, and he's got all the hallmark qualities of a strong, silent leader: humility, approachability, drive and charisma. And I admire how he's using technology to support his work:

i-ACT is Interactive ACTivism:

• We use technology to reject the standard excuse of inaction - ignorance
• We debunk the myth that ordinary people cannot stop genocide
• We replace statistics with names, faces and stories

The age of bystanders should long have passed - we have entered an age of knowledge which empowers us to protect. Join us as an upstander. Become an i-ACTivist.

The first time I heard Gabriel was headed to Darfur, I was concerned his passion to do something about the situation was blinding him to the very real possibility something bad would happen to him. Instead, through his blogging and v-logging what was happening on the ground there in Darfur, he provided a glimpse for me and thousands of others the humanity effected by this seemingly-far-away atrocity. He made it more real for me than ever before, and I know now it's because it was Gabriel who was sharing his experience, not some unknown-yet-credentialed reporter parachuting in to capture 90 seconds of news.

When I heard Gabriel was going back to Darfur, my fear for his safety didn't materialize like it had the first time. Instead, I found myself hoping that what he'd see was measured improvement since the prior year. As he (and his travel companion Stacy) posted: things weren't much better, and in some cases, things were worse.

And now, less than a year since he was last in Darfur, he's back again. Please join me bearing witness to the story Gabriel has to share. He's posting daily at i-ACT3. Become an upstander with me. Tell five friends of Gabriel's work. Ask them to do the same.

Let's remove the excuse of ignorance from standing in the way of progress for this important cause. Stop Genocide Now.

q&a with Mike Grier

Found this nice treat on the San Jose Sharks web site: a Q&A with Mike Grier.

Those who've followed my blog for a while know I'm a huge fan of Grier's, and this Q&A only reinforces his status as a class-act.

Now that the Sharks are re-tooling their logo and introducing those (ugh) new-style jerseys this season, I think it's time to take the plunge and augment my Washington Capitals Grier sweater with a Sharks Grier sweater, too.

Can't wait for the hockey season to start again. Only 2 months until training camp!

my simpsons avatar

My Simpsons Avatar
Originally uploaded by thomas pix

also called: fun with 2-D graphics.

While I aspire to have pants this orange (but not feet this tiny), I don't think I could ever wear them out in public.

We'll see if my avatar makes it to another part of the Simpsons movie site (let me know if you see it!).

You can make your own avatar here

video of battle at kruger

Thanks to Robert, our tour guide at Safari West this week (review of the trip to come later), I was turned on to the amateur safari video below that shows a battle between lions, crocodiles and Cape buffalo. It's worth watching every second of the eight-minute-plus footage.



If not for Robert's educating us on the toughness of the Cape (don't-call-me-water) buffalo, I wouldn't have guessed the eventual winner.

Evidently, the buffalo don't get mad, they get even, and they bring the whole family.

UPDATE: I see that Time magazine has a review of the Battle at Kruger video posted online, too, and it goes a little deeper into the science/behavior stuff (of both the subjects and the video's viewers on YouTube)

cool new toys for the birthday

This evening, finally got my birthday gifts from my wife and kids, and she really surprised me this year (again!):

I got a bunch of new gadgets for my Canon Powershot S1-IS camera, including filters (polarized, UV filter, etc) and two new lenses (a 2.2 Telephoto and a .45 Macro Wide Angle) along with a carrying case for all and some tripods.

Nice timing, as we're about to take my folks to Safari West for an overnight stay and safari tour. Can't wait to add more photos to my Flickr stream.

woodland home in wales

Catching up on boingboing feeds today led me to this fantastic (in all senses of the word) web site detailing how a low-impact woodland home came into being.

I especially enjoy the "how" tab showing it rise from the meadow. If only there were a time-lapse of the build, I'd be in heaven.

I'm rather jealous of his skills, even though he professes not to have any:

Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around inbetween. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverance and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.

Perseverance indeed.

DVDs up-converted to 720 from a Mac?

As I've previously posted, the Planet Earth series on Discovery Channel was eye-poppingly amazing on our Toshiba plasma TV. Definitely worth filling up the HD DVR with those episodes.

My lovely wife noted how much I liked Planet Earth and got me the HD DVD version for Father's Day. The only problem: we don't have a HD DVD player in the house. So, she exchanged for the standard definition DVD format, and, wow, what a difference it makes (unfortunately, not in a good way). I miss my Planet Earth in High Def!

Back in January, I blogged about our A/V tech stack, and you'll notice there's a distinct lack of a DVD player in there outside what's available via our Mac mini. So, I see a couple paths ahead:

1. Get a new standalone DVD player (HD? Blu-Ray? which format's gonna win?) and figure out how to get yet another HDMI cable into and through our HK AVR245. (a DVR and a Mac and a DVD player, oh my!) The AVR245's only got two HDMI inputs, and I'm reaaaally reluctant to go back to an external switcher, especially given the 245's handling of the audio separately from the video.
   
2. Figure out how to get an HD player inside our Mac Mini (highly unlikely, but a man can dream, no?)
3. Figure out how to get our Mac Mini to upconvert the DVD it plays from 480 to 720 (feels like this could be a fruitful path)

I'll give #3 a shot and blog about my progress.

UPDATE: Didn't take too long to find the following sage advice (dollop of common sense?) in an HD forum regarding upconverting from 480p to 720p:

[I]f you're expecting the results to look better than the original standard-def DVD, you'll be disappointed. There is no conversion process that can add detail that isn't present in the original. You will in fact lose some quality because the target resolution isn't an exact multiple of the original.

Looks like I'll just have to "settle" for the standard-def look and enjoy catching Planet Earth on Discovery HD now and then.

a use case for twitter

Last night, after having to reset our HR20 HD DVR (again), the wife and I settled in to watch another episode of "Last Comic Standing." (LCS)

We both enjoy seeing standup comedy, and the majority of the times we've cried together have been thanks to the hilarity of a newly discovered standup comedian on a televised stage.

Anyway, as we're watching LCS go to commercial break, we discover NBC is trying to milk more money out of the audience by displaying the setup of a joke on screen and inviting folks to text a number to get the punch line. 

The hitch? it costs 99 cents for the privilege of getting the punch line, and the setups all look to be about 5th grade humor, at best.

So, why not nominate someone to pony up 99 cents to get the punch line and then tweet it to the collective Twitter? Simply keep the public twitter timeline open during broadcast, and you'll save at least $5 each over the course of a show!

Maybe one of the other 200,000 viewers of LCS will take the bait?

our special netflix membership program

For the first time I can remember, we've finally hit our quota in the number of Netflix DVDs we can have in any given month.

It's not too much to brag about, as we're on the 2 at-a-time (4 a month) plan, but if you knew our viewing habits, you'd be impressed that it's taken this long since we joined Netflix back in November 2004.

Why's this a blog-worthy event? Well, for giggles, I decided to see how long we have to wait before starting a new month (June 26) and how much it'd cost to be on the 2 at-a-time (unlimited) plan.

I follow the convenient embedded hyperlink to the Change Membership page and see this friendly notice at the bottom:

Please Note: You are currently on a special membership program.

If you change your membership, you will lose this special program.

Sure enough, as I scan the membership selections (who the heck has time for 8 at-a-time?), there's no such thing as a 2 at-a-time (4 a month) plan to be seen for my rate of $11.99 a month. I can pay $3 more to lift the monthly limit or $2 less to get 1 at-a-time unlimited.

I kinda like my inexpensive, yet special, status. So for now, at least, I'll keep what I've got.

favorite firefox keyboard shortcuts

I've been using Firefox since it was in beta, and it's only recently I've discovered keyboard shortcuts over and above the standard command-L to put the cursor in the URL bar. Given the number of other Firefox users that are surprised when I share the tips, I thought I'd put them up here for all to share:

NOTE: I'm a Mac user, so most of these shortcuts use the Command (aka "Apple") Key in combination with a letter/number. I've shortened the key name to be, simply, Cmd. I assume this equates to "Ctrl" on the PC, but ymmv.

• Cmd+L = puts the cursor in URL bar
• Cmd+K = puts the cursor in the web search box to the right of the URL
  
• bar (defaults to Google Search)
  
• Cmd+T = opens a new tab
  
• Cmd+[number key] = toggles the browser to the tab corresponding to the number pressed (counting left-to-right)
  
• spacebar = page down
  
• shift+spacebar = page up

And a bonus, Apple-only key command that's not limited to Firefox:

Ctrl+Alt+Cmd+8 = reverses the colors on the display (press the key
combo again to toggle back). I find this feature very useful when
using my laptop outdoors when it's really bright and sunny. Makes the
screen much easier to read.

Anyone else got some favorite keyboard shortcuts for Firefox?

ok computer is ten years old!?!

Spooky to learn that Radiohead's OK Computer was released ten years ago tomorrow in the UK. (thanks, kottke)

That is, spooky in a "where did the time go?" sense. I still get the shivers when I hear the opening guitar wail on Airbag, as I know I'm in for a solid hour of brilliance courtesy the boys in the band.

It took me quite a few listens to appreciate the artistry of the track "Fitter Happier" but now I find it a welcome reminder of my time using the funky text-to-speech feature on Apple computers that provided hours of entertainment listening to the man-in-the-box read aloud a string of profanities. Ah, good times.

In honor of its release anniversary (and again on July 1 when it was released State-side), I'll be sure to spend some hammock time listening to the whole thing via iPod tomorrow. Won't you join me from the comfy place of your choosing?

new UI design on the DirecTV HR20 HD DVR

Looks like the graphic designers at DirecTV had a few extra cycles to burn, so they've updated the UI and color scheme on the HR20's navigation.

The first sign of the new look is on the warning/welcome screen that pops up as soon as you click any of the menu buttons on your receiver. Besides touting a new "lighter" color scheme, the feature they tout the most is the fact you can now easily see what the colored buttons on the remote are for. That's it?

What I've noticed so far:

• multiple episodes of the same show now show up in the list as one item with a folder icon next to it (replaces the old right-facing arrow)
• help text on what the colored buttons are for have moved from directly under the minimized live picture (upper right) to the strip along the bottom of the screen. Yes, more conspicuous, but it now seems like we've lost some vertical space that otherwise should be used to display program info. The six lines of program info seems overwhlemed by everything else on the screen, and now the space under the minimized live picture is dead space.
  
• the lighter colors (lots of white and light blue) definitely brightens the interface up from the old dark-blue-and-gold scheme (I guess the Cub Scouts sued to get their colors back). The drawback to the new light-and-airy scheme? You're completely overwhelmed by it when catching up on your recorded shows at night in a darkened house. It's as if someone turned all the lights on again, and it takes a moment for your eyes adjust enough to read what's on the screen.
• Navigating through programs (play, ffwd, rewind, skip) brings up a newly designed progress bar overlay across the bottom of the program image that I swear is twice as big as it used to be. So much for trying to fast forward through sporting events... you lose the bottom third of the image (and therefore stats and scores) thanks to this new progress bar. ick.
  

I'll give the new look another week before I firm up an opinion on like v dislike.

One remote control trick I've learned for the HR20 is the ability to put markers on a recorded show to easily skip back to them next time I watch. Here's how:

During playback of a recorded show, pause the recording and press the green button to creates a bookmark. You'll see it show up as a little notch on the progress bar. To move to a bookmark, click the menu button and then select the desired bookmark from the menu and the HR20 DVR jumps directly to the scene you bookmarked.

UPDATE: A couple more "hidden" features to the HR20 as announced in DirecTV's e-newsletter:

• Group Play—Play recorded shows continuously, one after the other. Press "Play" on a folder of recorded shows in your Playlist to enable this feature.
  
• Display Options—Your grid guide can now page up and down faster. To enable this feature, press "MENU", then go to Help & Settings > Setup > Display and turn "Scrolling Effects" OFF.

growing upside-down tomatoes, day 75

Upside down tomato plant after 75 days
Originally uploaded by thomas pix

We're 75 days into our upside-down tomato experiment (click the picture to get access to the set of photos documenting the growth so far).

Compared to the three plants that are in the ground, this thing's a monster... at least four times as voluminous as the others. My concern about this hanging plant is that it looks big and beautiful but it my not set fruit, even though it's flowering.

Granted, this isn't a controlled experiment between the hanging plant and the terrestrial plants: the watering schedule and volume are different (down below, they're on a timed drip irrigation system). Also, the ground itself isn't as rich and nutritious as what's in the hanging bucket.

The experiment isn't close to being over, however, and I have my fingers crossed we'll be plucking yellow pear tomatoes from underneath the hanging bucket for the entire month of July.

:UPDATE: I took a closer look at the plant last night and counted at least a dozen tomato fruits in various stage of development. We have fruit! w00t!

file under: so what if we don't eat it?

A Page One promo on WSJ.com today reveals this tidbit (reg required to follow the link):

Estonia Chooses a National Fish

Estonia's effort to forge a post-Soviet national identity hinges, in part, on Baltic herring. Following an emotional debate, Estonia selected the small, oily animal as its national fish. One problem: few Estonians actually eat it.

It got me thinking: what would the Journal have written back in June, 1782 when the Continental Congress officially adopted the Seal of the United States with its Bald Eagle grasping arrows and an olive branch? Probably something along the likes of:

United States Chooses a National Bird

The United State's effort to forge a post-English national identity hinges, in part, on the Bald Eagle. Following an emotional debate, the Continental Congress selected the bird of prey as its national bird. One problem: few Americans actually eat it.

Of course, if Benjamin Franklin had his way with nominating the turkey as our national bird, we'd be munching away on it daily.

grocery shopping just got easier

Got a promo today introducing me to the new Amazon Grocery Store and I think I've finally found the solution to getting all our regularly used non-perishables that avoids driving to the store.

Since we're an Amazon.com Prime customer, we get all-you-can-eat free second-day shipping on items. Couple that with the fact most of our shopping list items stay on the chalkboard in our kitchen at least two days, and there's no real difference between buying from Amazon.com or going down to the local Safeway.

(I'd looked into buying groceries from Safeway.com, but decided I didn't want to pay the $4.95 delivery fee... call me cheap)

So, now we can get our big bulky items like Diapers or Pet Supplies for the dog or even Gourmet Spices in bulk.

A quick scan shows that prices are quite competitive, and most the brands I'd buy at the local store are carried.

Will give it a whirl and post later how it worked for us. Any other Amazon Grocery Store customers out there?

copper river salmon for dinner(s)

copper river chinook filet
Originally uploaded by thomas pix

Tonight, I cut up the rest of the salmon we're not going to eat in the next couple days for the deep-freeze.

I still can't believe the color of the meat on these wild-caught salmon. Definitely not pale like their farm-raised cousins. We got a great price on them, ($8.99 per pound after haggling with the fishmonger) and the cooler seemed to keep them fine on the flight from SeaTac to SFO after the TSA folks confiscated our ice.

I prepared our first filet by pan-frying it with thinly-sliced onions. Here's how:

• Started by heating up olive oil and a dab of butter in a 10-inch saute pan at medium-high until the butter sizzled.
  
• Then, lay the filet skin-side down in the pan and cooked two minutes before flipping it over (with care!) to cook skin-side up for another two minutes.
  
• Toss in half an onion thinly sliced and cover.
  
• Cook for six minutes or so on medium-low heat until the fish is done.
  
• Remove the fish and set aside to keep it warm.
  
• Blast the heat under the onions and deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup water plus 2 Tbsp lemon juice.
  
• Once the sauce reduces by half (and the onions are translucent), pour the sauce over the salmon, garnish with lemon wedges and serve over rice.

Melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

Tomorrow night: we broil it

cool design: US govt budget

I'm a fan of interesting and new graphic representations of otherwise mundane data, and this poster of how the US government's budget is allocated: Death and Taxes certainly fits the bill.

Not only is the design cool, but the interface to zoom in and out on the web page is clever as well. (a two-fer!)

airline lost our child's car seat

The kicker on our trip home from Seattle last night was the fact that two of our three pieces made it to SFO with us, just fine.

The missing (crucial) piece of luggage that didn't show up was the car seat for our youngest. I'd been keeping an eye on the odd-size luggage window which is where the car seats are usually delivered, but no luck there. So, after watching the both the odd-size window open and close and the luggage carousel spin for 45 minutes AFTER we'd taken our first two bags off, it was clear no more pieces were coming through. Finally, it was time to make the fateful trip to the baggage claim agents to inquire what was up.

I was able to narrow down which of the bar code claim tickets belonged to the car seat and handed it over to the agent asking for an update on the status of my kid's checked car seat.

"Oh, this didn't even scan," said the agent, looking back and forth between the ticket and her computer screen.

Translation: it didn't even make it INTO the system at SeaTac, so no way it was going to arrive at SFO that night. She apologized for the inconvenience while handing me a form and a pen.

While I was filling out the United Airlines Delayed Baggage Report form, the agent disappeared into a side office.

Then the amazing thing happened: she re-emerged with a brand new Even-Flo car seat for us to use until United was able to find our missing car seat and deliver it to us. We'd simply hand over the loaner when our own was delivered.

Call me a cynic, but I'd fully expected a shoulder shrug and apology, not a replacement seat. So, what could have been a really bad experience turned out to be a redemptive customer service exchange. Nice touch.

Oh, and her final tip for me: don't bother calling the 800-number on the back of the Delayed Baggage Report... call the United Premier Exec dedicated customer support line instead.

Traveling thru SeaTac (boo Hertz)

Couple random observations about traveling through SeaTac this past weekend:

• Always, ALWAYS check for car rental contract before driving away. I've got Hertz Gold, so I can go straight to my car. Did so this time and noticed the contract wasn't there. Spent 5 minutes in the Hertz VIP lounge with several other folks in the same boat. Time well spent, as when we drove out of the rental car garage (and into the rain) to the gate where you show license and contract, there were several cars pulled over to the side with flashers on. I overheard one of the gate agents comment "none of them got their contracts, call those Hertz [folks] and get them out here now!" The agent didn't say "folks" but you get the idea.
• When Hertz says "Green class" and offers you a Toyota Camry, it is NOT the Camry hybrid. I fell for the marketing (and paid $3 a day extra for the privilege), and the extra room in the car was worth it, but if you think you're going hybrid in Hertz's Green Class, save your money.
  
• Pulling into the Hertz car return 36 hours after leaving, the three folks working the return lanes simultaneously gestured for me to get into three separate lanes. I finally picked the one closest to where I wanted to go and stopped the car. The return agents then bickered at each other in a language I couldn't understand until finally one of them started checking out the car for damage. I'm not one for hand-holding at car-return, but a simple "Hi, how was the car, sorry we were confusing you," would go a long way.
  
• If you buy fish at Pike Place Market thinking you can carry it on the plane, be warned that TSA is under strict orders to confiscate your ice. Yes, you read that right. We spent an extra 1o minutes at security as the agent struggled to open our odorless cooler to extract two small ice blocks from within. Given there are no pointy objects available at the checkpoint (they must be discarded prior to screening), it was amusing to watch the guy struggle to get thru the packing tap. No, I wasn't about to volunteer my car key to help, for fear of getting the key confiscated as a potentially deadly weapon, too. The whole remove-the-ice trick was security theater at its finest, and I'm glad our flight was short enough that the prized package of Copper River Salmon filets didn't spoil. Isn't there some way the Pike Place fishmongers can work out something with the TSA folks to mitigate this problem? (oh, and to the TSA lady who suggested we check the box of fish: I'd rather we not just give it away to the baggage handlers... I'd rather keep it close to me for the duration of our trip.)
  

In all, I have to say I'm less than impressed by our trip through SeaTac. I am, however, really impressed with the Seattle area and won't let the airport experience stop me from coming back again.

the fast security lane at SFO

the family is flying to Seattle this morning, and since I saw how busy things were coming back into SFO from Boston last Saturday morning, I knew security would be a looooong wait.

We (me, the wife and two small girls) got to the security line a good 90 minutes before boarding. When we got to the TSA agent to present our IDs, she asked how many of us were together (four) and then she whisked us around the long lines and to a special lane with hardly any wait.

I thought we were going to be subjected to the new puffer technology (where you step inside an enclosed machine and it shoots puffs of air at you from head to toe), but no. What did all the people in this lane have in common? we all were traveling with small children.

Brilliant.

Take those obviously prone to gum up the security screening procedures and give them their special lane. Keeps the other lanes moving quickly, and enables the comraderie and patience of new parents to help each other out.

I even saw them letting the wheelchair bound thru the same lane as us.

A gold star to whomever thought this crowd control measure up.

Maybe I'll borrow a kid next time I need to fly.

serving time at the DMV isn't as bad as it used to be

Someone stole the plate off our minivan yesterday, and the first thing I did after consoling Left Coast Mom for the bad luck of finding was to go to the California DMV site and try to set up an appointment so as to avoid spending tons of time in the lobby.

Yes, we could have driven around a while sans plate (we had a police report to back up our claim of the plate being stolen), but LCMom wasn't too thrilled at the thought of driving around without everything being legit. I don't blame her.

However, the earliest appointment available at the DMV was on June 14... over a week away.

I screwed up my courage and decided to go in as soon as the local DMV office opened this morning at 8am and wait it out.

One thing conspired with another, and I didn't actually make it to the DMV until 10 past 8. 

Imagine my surprise when I not only walked straight up to the DMV air-traffic-control person (the multilingual one who says, "why are you here? here's your form... here's your number.. wait over there" all day long). 

I got my form, sat down, and if I hadn't hurried to complete it, I would've had to do so standing in front of the clerk waiting to serve me.

I was walked out of the DMV at 8:20a with brand new plates.

For years, I've given the DMV a bad rap as "the great equalizer that makes everyone wait a long time no matter your stature in life." 

I stand corrected. Color me impressed.

sculpture garden under the sea off Grenada

In catching up on my boingboing feeds, I'm just now finding out about Jason Taylor's Underwater Sculpture garden off the coast of Grenada.

The sculptures are life-sized human forms that he's carefully placed in 4 to 9 meters of water off the west coast of Grenada. It's a simple concept, yet he's executed it brilliantly.

While the still photo gallery gives a great overview of the pieces, I'm a sucker for video, and the piano etude playing in the background is the perfect choice for this 2 minute video tour. And if you're like me and wonder just how Jason did it all, he's even shared pix of his process.

My favorite pieces are the Vicissitudes (a circle of standing human forms in 4.5m of water) and the hauntingly beautiful La Diablesse at 7.5m. Yet another reason to head back to the West Indies.

new home for the chooks

new home for the chooks,
originally uploaded by thomas pix.

The Eglu has arrived, and after a little more than an hour, I was able to put it together and move the girls in.

I was really impressed with the way the packaging was handled... the Omlet folks have done a splendid job with the product design. The only nits to pick are with the instructions on how to set things up, and the expectation for how long it'll take.

The instructions start with the sentence "Assembling the eglu and run - this shouldn't take much more than 20 minutes and is very simple."

Very simple? Yes.

20 minutes? No. Not even. Maybe if you've been putting these things together for years and are racing a fellow employee for bragging rights you can do it in 20 minutes, but for the average Joe (or Thomas as the case may be)... plan on an hour.
The handy "The Omlet Guide" included with the eglu was surprisingly informative and entertaining in addition to instructional regarding how to set up the 'glu.

In all, I'm very pleased with our purchase. But I already miss hearing the girls' cheep cheep as I type my blog. Hope they're sleeping safe and sound in their new eglu.

Note: this is a duplicate post of what's appearing over on my Urban Chickens blog. I inadvertently published it here straight from my Flickr account, but it's worth keeping here if for nothing but the cool technology that the eglu represents.

ten years of cathedrals and bazaars

Wow. I just was reminded that this month marks the ten year anniversary of
publication of the seminal essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar (links to First Monday version).

As I was first starting to explore the whole open source/mass collaboration
phenomena, this essay had an enormous impact on my understanding what was
to come. It's worth reading again (which I will do to mark the occasion).

how to reproduce 36k ft thinking at sea level?

Today is not the first time I've had some holy-smokes! strategic insight blind-side me mid-flight.

I'm just about to pass over my 50,000th mile flying in the last three months, and besides the toll of the cramped seating arrangement and the challenge of liquids (both to consume and to expend), the cocoon of air travel actually presents me a very fertile space for big-picture thinking.

I divided up this flight into three segments (all segments soundtracked with noise-canceling Shure e4c headphones and a random playlists on my iPod).

• In the first segment, I caught up on all the short articles I'd been printing out and stashing in my "flight folder" (Tom Friedman opinions, CIO mag leadership articles, conference prep materials)
• [break for food and drink]
• in the second segment, I dove into the book I'm plowing through right now (The Difference by Scott E. Page)
• [break for short nap]
• in the final segment, I read all my RSS feeds offline to get inspired by a whole plethora of different perspectives, and that's when the insights hit.

The ideas flow like water, and I madly dash the notes down in an email to myself. And here I sit wondering what is it about hurtling through space that enables this kind of thinking.

Much as I don't want to admit it, I think the catalyst is the one-two-three punch:

• my cocoon of iPod-laced sound
• the lack of distractions from others around me asking questions
  
• and, gulp, the complete lack of internet connectivity.
  

Without connectivity, there's no way for me to satisfy my curiosities by following the links in my RSS reader, so I gobble up the static ideas and perspectives quickly... and that leads the neurons to fire in ways they otherwise don't.

Next time I'm inclined to spend sleepless hours in the middle of the night surfing the web (yes, undisturbed, but no music playing), I'll instead try to reproduce the airplane experience: pop on the iPod, sign off the web and then see if I can get into an uncomfortable seating position.

Bonus points if I can endure the awkward tug of both a full bladder and a dry tongue for full replication of the high-level thinking environment that seems abundant at 36,000 feet.

too many netflix dvds unplayable

Over the weekend, Left Coast Mom and I finally got a chance to sit down and watch The Pursuit of Happyness, courteous our Netflix subscription.

Well, we got to watch the first hour and fifteen minutes of it. Then the damn thing froze and we couldn't get the rest of it to play. I tried cleaning the DVD (per Netflix suggestion) but no dice. We were stuck at the beginning of the Taxes Due chapter (21) and unable to skip ahead. Lots of forced quits of the Mac Mini's DVD player before we finally gave up.

If this were the first time this'd happened, I might be more understanding, but we seem to have run into a slew of unplayable DVDs from Netflix.

Yes, Netflix is more than happy to quickly replace the unplayable DVD, but that's at least a three-day-long solution, and the nights are few and far in between when both LCM and I hit the parenting trifecta of 1) kids in bed and asleep on time, 2) caught up on DVR shows and 3) have at least two hours before we fall dead asleep.

We're on the 2 at-a-time (4 a month) program specifically because we hit the trifecta so seldomly. Now that we're running into unplayable DVDs, to boot, we may just have to reapportion our $12 a month movie habit over to HBO instead of Netflix.

We just got billed, so I'll give Netflix until end of June before making the decision. If we get yet another unplayable DVD, we'll switch.

the feature creep conundrum

James Surowiecki (of Wisdom of the Crowds fame) has a great article about Feature Creep in this coming Monday's May 28 issue of the New Yorker. In the article, he adroitly addresses the painful situation that technology producers have found themselves in now that design cycles are relatively short, innovation is relatively cheap and the consumer feedback loop is so short:

This spiral of complexity, often called “feature creep,” costs consumers time, but it also costs businesses money. Product returns in the U.S. cost a hundred billion dollars a year, and a recent study by Elke den Ouden, of Philips Electronics, found that at least half of returned products have nothing wrong with them. Consumers just couldn’t figure out how to use them.

Surowiecki points out that a lot of Feature Creep problems stem from the internal-audience problem where the developers themselves don't use the very products they're developing and therefore have no idea how crappy the end product turns out.

I learned at AOL to combat the internal-audience problem by making the producers use the actual goods they're making (aka "eating your own dog food"). Back in 1998, when my team created the 1-2-3 Publish and Easy Designer home page publishing tools, you bet I used them to make and maintain my own AOL Hometown page (still there after all these years. Ah, good times).

The number of features we didn't include in the basic publishing tool was huge, and not all of them fell off the list because of scarce development resources... we had constant battles to strip down the 1-2-3 Publish tool to be as lean as possible so newbie web publishers wouldn't get distracted by gizmos on their way to creating their first web page.

Of course, as a product manager, I cheated by throwing all the gee-whiz features intended for 1-2-3 Publish instead into the specs for Easy Designer, the WYSIWYG publishing tool. The price we paid for including all these things was comically bloated html code in the resulting published pages. As long as you don't view source, the products not all that bad.

I still make sure to use the tools I produce, but my primary interaction with feature creep now is as a consumer. I fancy myself to be a geek and take pride in making as much use of features on my gizmos as possible, only if I have time to study and learn and ham-fist my way through menus of options.

I've come to expect that part of the purchase equation I've internalized is that I'm willing to pay for high-end stuff and yet use only a tenth of the features available on that stuff. Case in point, my Harman Kardon AVR245. Of the 70 buttons on the remote, I use only 5 of them (power, volume up, volume down, FM, HDMI) when I'm not just manually pushing buttons on the receiver itself. That fact in itself tells you just how much of the capacity of the AVR245 I'm using. However, I love the sound quality of the AVR a lot, and even that's an understatement.

I'd like to say I bought the AVR245 specifically because of its sound quality and not because of all the cool kick-ass features I'll some day use, but that's not true. I bought it for the feature set (and the sound quality!), and that's exactly the conundrum Surowiecki talks about in his article:

as numerous studies have shown, people are not, in general, good at predicting what will make them happy in the future. As a result, we will pay more for more features because we systematically overestimate how often we’ll use them. We also overestimate our ability to figure out how a complicated product works.

Maybe I'll spend Memorial Day learning how to use another button on the remote.

yet another bug with the HR20 HD DVR

More bizarre behavior from our DirecTV HR20 DVR has recently cropped up:

When we press the 30-second skip ahead button, the DVR actually rewinds about 15 seconds before starting to skip ahead 30 seconds. It doesn't happen every time we press the skip button. And it seems more likely to happen when the show we're playing back is within the first five minutes of the recording.

No, I'm not fat-fingering the skip button and accidentally hitting the replay button (my fingers aren't that big, thanks), and I can't understand why this bug has appeared now.

Our latest upgrade (to software version 0x145) happened on Friday 3/30/07 at 1:47am. Nothing has changed recently in our setup, so I'm stumped about this one.

I'd resisted posting about the HR20 for a long time because I didn't want to jinx our good luck with the latest software build. However, this rewind-before-skipping-ahead "feature" is getting a little annoying.

Oh, and another beef that I've got with the way the HR20 sets up series to record: if there are multiple broadcasts of a show (like the Daily Show or Deadline or Art Mann Presents), the DVR records the earlier broadcast, even if you choose the later broadcast to avoid overlaps with other recordings. Annoying.

But hey, at least I'm not losing programs anymore. (fingers-crossed)

turning old CDs into something valuable

Thanks to a BB post, I see that a couple of those old CD-ROMs I've been lugging around since I moved from San Francisco to DC back in 1995 might actually be worth something, at least from a patent-busting point of view.

Overly quoting the EFF story here (but for good cause):

A company called Acacia has claimed a patent on an “information distribution system” that amounts to the idea of shipping a CD-ROM that contains hyperlinks to online resources. (EFF is currently working on busting another Acacia patent that covers streaming audio and video over the Internet.)

To help bust this overly broad patent, we are looking for prior art that shows the use of this technology before 1994. Specifically, we are seeking the following items:

1. NetNews CD-ROMs, sold by Sterling Software, preferably volumes #1 through #35. These CDs may have been also available through CD Publishing Corporation.

or

2. Other CD-ROMs that were distributed in 1993 or earlier that contained
hypertext content or were installation disks for applications that linked to Internet content.

Information about these or similar items is greatly appreciated. Submit tips to Philip H. Albert with Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP.

Can't wait to dig through my file boxes to see if I've got a golden ticket!

my favorite Treo 650 map app

I'm still oozing with gushy feelings over having found the Google Mobile Map application yesterday (thanks to the folks blogging at WWD).

This lightweight little app (480KB download) brings all the power of web-based Google Maps to your handheld (mine's a Treo 650) with surprisingly quick speed and decent resolution:

• real-time traffic data
• detailed directions (written and illustrated)
• search results displayed on screen
• satellite images

I couldn't be more pleased to have this little app. What's more, it's not browser-bound, so I don't have to go through the slow launch process of pulling up the web every time I want to use the maps.

w00t!

The only other Treo app that I've found even close to this clever and useful is the Caltrain Schedule for Palm OS, but now that I'm a mile from work, no need to slavishly consult the "next train" info for me.

i remember her when...

Over a bowl of Grape Nuts at breakfast, I was glancing over the list of attendees at the white-tie dinner for the Queen at the White House last night, and what caught my eye were the names of two different pro football players in attendance: Peyton Manning and Timothy Hasselbeck.

Perhaps Dubya thought it proper to have some footballers in attendance for the Queen? (shhh, don't tell him).

What stood out all the more was the fact that Elisabeth Hasselbeck was in attendance with her husband (or was he with her?). Yes, she's a co-host of "The View" now and all that.

But this is also the same Elisabeth (Filarski) that we watched sweat through a season of Survivor Australia to finish in fourth place.

Who could have thought she'd go from getting eaten alive by flies in the Outback to an audience with the Queen?

Just goes to show that life is funny sometimes... and there's no way to know what's coming next.

when the party's over...

My beloved Sharks managed to lose in the second round of the playoffs (again). This, after being up two games to one in the series against the Red Wings.

I was at the game last night, and it seemed like after the initial 15 minutes of trying to score, the Sharks, as a team, shrugged their collective shoulders and gave in. It didn't help that we were sitting in front of a couple obnoxious some-time fans of the game (see Left Coast Mom's description of the experience), but it was still great to get in one more game at the Shark Tank this year.

So, the 2007 Stanley Cup will be won by the better of the Ducks/Red Wings or the Sabers/Senators. Don't even know whom to root for in those matchups.

And, after a day or two of beating up the Sharks in the local papers, hockey will be relegated to its usual 4 column inches per week in the Mercury News.

On the bright side: only four more (hot) months until preseason starts!

name change or revised history?

Courtesy a kottke.org link, I discovered this Air & Space article on the First Photo from Outer Space.

Turns out that shortly after WWII, scientists launched a V-2 missile into outer space from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The rocket had on board a 35mm motion picture camera, and it reached an altitude of 65 miles at its apex. The missile crashed to earth, and the camera broke (as you'd expect) but the film survived in its steel case.

Several of the film stills were stitched together to form a panorama that showed over a million square miles of the Southwestern United States. More specifically, of New Mexico, a state I grew up in.

And beyond the golly-gee-willikers nature of the shot, I'm amazed to see that the Jemez Mountains, the mountains I grew up at the foot of for ten years, are called out in the panorama as the "Valle Grande Mts."

Huh. I'd always known that the caldera that makes up the vast interior of the Jemez Mountains was the "Valle Grande" (and more specifically, "Baca Land" after the family that owned the vast expanse).

Granted, the photo was taken when the city of Los Alamos was freshly emerging from its secret-squirrel status as home of the Manhattan Project. But when did the name change? Or was the person in charge of labeling points of interest on the photo a little loosey-goosey with names?

Looking over at Wikipedia's entry on Jemez Mountains, I see that what I knew as "Valle Grande" is referred to by others as the "Valles Caldera." Wikipedia contribution, here I come!

use wordpress or blogger? blogger wins

Those following along know I'd started a new blog a week ago to track our progress as urban chicken farmers. I've used Blogger for over a year to publish this string of posts, and having blogged on the WordPress platform a few times as a guest blogger, decided to try something new.

After just five posts on WP, I've now moved the nascent Urban Chickens blog back to this platform. While you can still find the blog at http://urbanchickens.net, the domain now forwards here to myurbanchickens.blogspot.com. I'll be deleting the old WP blog this weekend.

Why did I pick Blogger over WordPress? for several reasons:

1. Knowing as much html and CSS as I do, it's easy to customize the Blogger template. To do the same on WP, I'd have to pay (literally) for the privilege. When I start creating artwork for the design, it'll be easy to add here on Blogger.
   
2. WP disallows all advertising and anything more than a few, relatively low-key affiliate links. I've got designs on building up enough niche traffic to Urban Chickens to warrant at least token advertising and affiliate income (enough to pay for chicken feed). Here on HVY TK, I've earned upwards of $10 in the last five months without really trying.
3. I'm comfortable with the Blogger interface. I know where to click to find things. I lived through the starting this blog pre-Beta and then moving to the now no-longer-Beta interface. Starting a new blog here on Blogger is incredibly easy.
   
4. I use Statcounter to track traffic, and WP didn't allow me to add it to my blog there. Here, I've just added the Urban Chickens blog as a new project. Piece of cake!
5. Finally, what I thought would be the deal clincher on WP is no longer a value-add: I can add guest bloggers (like left coast mom) to the Urban Chicken blog in a snap.

Glad to be back here. Be sure to change your feed readers!

WWO: walking to work everyday

(I'm participating in World Without Oil, and as of today, gas is up to $4.12 a gallon in this alternate reality game.)

I filled up my car for what I hope is the one and only time this month. Gas hit $4.12 a gallon, and that's up from $3.69 last week. I can't believe that it only took $0.50 a gallon to push me over the threshold, but driving a mile to work now feels like such a luxury, and one I can now do without.

No more weekend fun rides on the motorcycle -- it will stay in the garage unless I absolutely must travel to attend meetings outside the office, then I'll ride it (@ 45mpg) instead of driving the car (@ 22mpg). And if I can get away with Skype video conferences instead of face-to-face meetings, I will.

Glad I booked my June trip to Boston last week, as it looks as though airfares are shooting through the roof. And I'll take the T from the airport this time instead of a taxi. Who knows what the fuel surcharge will be at the end of the month?

cheep, cheep, meet the peep(s)

meet the chick!
Originally uploaded by thomas pix.

After much hemming and hawing and fence-sitting, we've finally got our chicks. Two Barred Rock pullets joined our family yesterday afternoon.

To spare regular readers all the bloggy details of raising chickens, I've started a new blog about them chicks here in my new blog Urban Chickens.

Only rarely will the chicken stuff bleed into this blog, and that'll only be when there's a technology or food angle to the post.

TED video: why are we happy? why aren't we happy?

Had the pleasure to see Dan Gilbert talk at South by Southwest Interactive in 2006 on the same subject: what makes us happy?

Psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we'll be miserable if we don't get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel real, enduring happiness, he says, even when things don’t go as planned. He calls this kind of happiness "synthetic happiness," and he says it's "every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get exactly what you were aiming for."

Great 20 min video from the TED conference here. Well worth the watch!

If you're more into reading ink on dead trees, get his book: Stumbling on Happiness

earth day: living greener in 2007

As a way of celebrating Earth Day today, I've taken inventory of how much "greener" we, as a family, are this year compared to last.

The biggest greening has come from our moving into a new home that's only a mile from my office. Not only has my daily commute shrunk from 59 miles to 2 miles, with all the carbon emission reductions that come from not having to lug my butt those 285 miles to work each week, but the house we live in now is greener, too.

Our old house was in a nice sunny neighborhood in Campbell (outside San Jose), but there was no topography to speak of. We were in a flatlands surrounded by other houses/condos/businesses, and the micro-climate of our area meant we consistently ran temperatures 10 degrees warmer than other towns around us (love those Bay Area microclimates!). Lots of trees in our neighborhood, including two huge camphor trees in our front yard, but that didn't mean it was any less hot in the summers. To help cope with the heat in our old place, we had air conditioning installed when we replaced the ancient furnace with a new energy-efficient one. While we lived more comfortably, we paid for it in our energy bills. The Springs and Autumns were the cheapest since we didn't have to pay to heat or cool the place, but we got used to shelling out over $200 a month in energy costs.

Flash forward to this year in our new home. We now live on the slope of a hill overlooking downtown Redwood City which means we get gentle breezes every afternoon and can leave the windows open most of the spring and summer to enjoy the natural cooling. Not only is the location of our home more conducive to natural climate control, but we have solar panels on the roof and an electric meter that spins both ways: when the panels generate more energy than we use, we feed back into the grid. At night and on cloudy days, we pull from the grid since the panels aren't generating anything. These solar panels have had an amazing impact on our electricity bill. Since we moved in last August, we've consumed less than $200 TOTAL electricity (compared with $200 a month in the old place). Wow.

The house we're in now is about 1,100 square feet bigger than our old home, to boot, but thanks to a dual zone furnace, we only heat the upstairs floor (where we spend 95% of our time living) and leave the well-insulated downstairs floor to its own devices.

There are other things we can do to get greener by next Earth Day, like cutting water consumption, growing our own veggies and my walking/biking to work several days a week (oh, and raising chickens!), but we've made huge strides in the last year. Here's hoping more and more of us can have similar impacts in lessening our footprint on the earth.

Happy Earth Day!

toshiba 42hp66 HD plasma snowy picture

toshiba 42hp66 HD plasma picture snafu
Originally uploaded by thomas pix.

Disconcertingly, I'm seeing the snowy/fuzzy picture problem pictured to the right more and more frequently when I first turn on our Toshiba 42HP66 plasma HD TV.

So far, I'm able to get around it by turning the TV unit on and off a couple times seems to solve the problem and eventually the picture comes in clear as a bell.

I'm not sure where the problem might be, but I've noticed that it has the same signal processing problem whether I'm trying to watch TV (the signal from the DirecTV HR20 DVR) or access my Mac's desktop (the signal from the Mac Mini).

Since I'm getting the problem while trying to "see" both TV and Mac, I don't think the problem is due to the Harman Kardon AVR 245 I use as a switch between the devices. Rather, I think it's something to do with the connection between the AVR 245 and the TV itself. I've tested the physical connection of the HDMI cable to both the back of the AVR 245 and the TV, and those both seem fine.

I'm really hoping it's not the actual HDMI cable that's going bad. Not only because I paid the installer the unholy sum of $85 for the cable, but because the cable has been installed inside the wall so there are not unsightly wires hanging from our wall-mounted HDTV.

san jose sharks move on

Was quite satisfying to see our hometown Sharks defeat the Predators in Nashville last night.

While I really wanted them to win the series in five games (which they did), there was just a small part of me hoping the series would go to six games (WHAT?!).

Blasphemous? not really... I'm just greedy, I guess.

See, I split my season tickets with two other parties, so we're rotating attendance at playoff games, using a pbwiki to track rotations and tabs. Since there weren't three home games in Round One, there's a remote chance I won't be able to attend a Round Two game should the Sharks sweep or win in five again.

Now I don't really mind watching the games on TV (it's cheaper, for sure), but the camera crew assigned to televise the games from Nashville couldn't follow the puck to save their lives. It looks like the rest of the markets still in the playoffs (Anaheim, Detroit or Calgary, Dallas or Vancouver) have many more years of experience under their belts than the Nashville crew ever would.

Go Sharks!

busy or bursty?

Interesting article over on Web Worker Daily describing the differences between what they call the busyness-oriented workers and the bursty-oriented workers. Some examples:

Busy: Show your face during all standard working hours.
Burst: If you produce what you need to, we don’t care when you do it or how long it takes.

Busy: Immediate response to email required.
Burst: Use better ways to communicate when available including blogs, wikis, IM, chat rooms, SMS, and RSS.

See the full busy/burst article over on WWD (and don't miss the discussion in the comments).

urban chickens... here we come

After several months of research and precarious fence-sitting, last night I navigated to the Omlet web site, and filled my digital shopping cart with a blue Eglu and two Gingernut Ranger chickens.

The checkout process was relatively straight-forward, until it came time to enter credit card info. A notice on the site said Omlet isn't yet accepting credit card payments, so they'll be giving me a call to get the info instead.

It's a good thing I'm getting the call back, too. Turns out my color choice isn't as popular as I thought it would be. Breakfast negotiations will ensue shortly.

I'll be creating an entirely new blog about our adventures in urban chicken farming. Will post a link to it when it's up.

UPDATE: Claire, at Omlet, called me back, and the next delivery date for chickens isn't until mid-June... given the delay, am I now back on the fence? oh, and the Eglu color negotiations settled on "green."

united flies better than usairways

I had to be in Canton, Ohio this morning no later than 8:30am. Seeing how I live in the Bay Area, a plane ride was called for.

To minimize the time away from family, I opted to take a red-eye from SFO to Pittsburgh on a United codeshare flight operated by USAirways and then drive a rental car to Canton (80 miles away).

It's been a long time since I've flown any airline domestically other than United. I've got almost 500,000 FF miles on United, so you know my loyalties.

It only occurred to me last night as I was arriving to SFO: I've never flown any airline BUT United out of SFO (except my international trip on KLM last month). So I've never experienced Terminal One at SFO before. I may never stray from Terminal Three again.

I was a little underwhelmed by the entire Terminal One and US Airways flight experience. Granted, SFO is a hub for United, so things are generally better all around for flying United in and out of SFO, but I didn't expect the drop off to be so steep:

• The check-in process for USAirways consisted of eight electronic kiosks (three of them were open for folks not checking bags), period. No way to approach a ticketing agent directly. You have to interact with the kiosk first.
• The TSA pre-screening tables are configured oddly in Terminal One so that the amount of table space available to stack your stuff in the bins is quite short, and the unload area is quite cramped. Lots of elbowing and hip checking once through the metal detector to get your shoes on and laptop stowed before taking the lo-o-o-ong walk down the terminal to the gate.
• No gate attendants! Wow. If you've got a seating request, I guess you're SOL. Maybe this was due to the late departure of the flight (10:30p), but I was very surprised not to see any USAirways staff until mere moments before the gate opened to usher us in.
• This was my first trip on an Airbus A319 in a long time. Small plane (but not an empty seat to be found). The flight attendants were a little on the bossy side for my tastes, but for the most part, my eyes were shut and ears were plugged to sleep as much of the 4.5 hour flight time as possible.

Oh, and am I the only one who's noticed that Pittsburgh has added terminals to its shopping mall where the airport used to be? Do folks really go to the airport to buy all that stuff? I felt like I was walking through a miniature (only 40 stores) version of the local Valley Fair mall once I got to the main hub of the airport. Reminded me a little of my last trip thru BWI (another mall-turned-airport outside Baltimore).

Oh, and in case anyone in California cares: it's definitely not spring yet along the Western PA, Northern WV, Eastern OH corridor. The buds on the trees haven't yet opened, and it was flurrying as I drove to Canton this morning.

Glad I'm flying United back to SFO tomorrow. How'd I get so comfortable in my flying rut? Oh yeah, by flying 28,000 miles on United so far this year. eesh

shrook wi-fi access at boston logan airport

At Boston's Logan airport, there's the logan wifi network which allows minimal web-based content on the free side of the pay-to-web-surf wall.

An unintended benefit to the crippled access: using my standalone copy of Shrook (my RSS reader), most of the pictures associated with feeds download at least partially. I didn't scientifically measure anything, but it looks to be about a 12Kb limit before the wifi pay-me sphincter squeezes shut. Definitely not enough of a glimpse to see whole photos, but surprisingly enough to get logos, illustrations, etc accompanying the blog posts.

Of course, no email or web pages are allowed thru, but for some reason Shrook can rain down supplemental content for the feeds already sitting on my macbook pro. No new feeds without paying.

When I'm traveling, it's usually the feeds I'm catching up on anyway. w00t!

Oh and I see that Continental airlines is trying to offer free wifi access at Logan in their Frequent Flyer lounge. I'm sure we can look forward to seeing a lot of "your free wifi is interfering with critical airport communications" (while the pay-to-surf wifi has no such effect?!) Follow along on Google.

my favorite time of year (hockey!)

If you listen closely at this exact moment, you can hear Oh, Canada! and the Star Spangled Banner being sung in Ottawa's arena, Scotiabank Place.

The puck will drop in mere moments to start the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs. w00t!

You can find me watching hockey scores here for the next two months.

Go Sharks!

Sharks hockey playoff tickets!

Sharks hockey playoff tickets!
Originally uploaded by thomas pix.

It's like Christmas all over again!

Our playoff tickets were delivered to the doorstep this morning. Interesting to see the breakout of prices the deeper we go in the playoffs:

• regular season: $38/seat
• 1st round: $48/seat
• 2nd round: $61/seat
• 3rd round: $86/seat
• 4th round: $116/seat

I can't wait to pay $116 to watch the Sharks win the Cup this year!

drm-free is like unleaded gas

With word that EMI will now be selling DRM-free songs on iTunes for a premium ($1.29 per DRM-free song v $0.99 per crippled song), I should be rejoicing, yes?

I mean, who doesn't want to be able to buy a song online and do with it whatever you want? right?

But still, something's sticking in my craw. Apple's the one who takes the original file and then alters it with their DRM code. Kinda like the oil refineries add lead to the gasoline they make.

And then I, the consumer, pay extra for them to take it right back out again so I can fuel up with "unleaded" gas. Blech.

need help getting daily del.icio.us posts on blogger

So, I've been using del.icio.us a lot recently, and it's come at a cost to my posting here on the blog. Via Shrook, my feedreader, I've seen others like Ross Mayfield include their del.icio.us links in their feeds, and I want to do the same.

Much easier said than done.

The del.icio.us folks have provided a handy widget to generate daily blog postings, but in creating the widget, you must know full URL of the XML-RPC interface for your blog. I have yet to find said URL for my Blogger blog. I've checked the Blogger Help Groups and the closest I can get to an answer (LucyG asked the same question) is the unhelpful helpful tip to look here in the Blogger Data API Overview.

A helpful answer would have been "here's the URL just swap out NNNNN for your blogname." But it appears no one's yet cracked the code.

Has anyone seen a successful automatic post from del.icio.us to a Blogger hosted blog? As soon as I find the answer, I'll post it here. Talk about search keyword gold...

planet earth as an hd showcase

I love it when all the technology in our living room functions as it should...

Our HR20 DVR has been faithfully recording all the episodes of Discovery Channel's new Planet Earth series, and it's been delightful to watch these high-def tours de force on our plasma TV with the sound streaming through the Harman Kardon AVR245.

Not only are the sights and sounds stunning, but the editing is top notch, too. You can hear the surrounding low rumble of volcanoes and the twitter tweet of all kinds of insects and birds as if they were in the room with you. The flyovers of mountains are as if you're looking out the window of the plain yourself.

And to the editing: as a father of two young ones, I really like how the chase scenes (wolf chasing caribou or leopard chasing goat) are shown up to the moment of the catch but not through to the disemboweling and consuming.

My daughters are mesmerized by these shows and I think they'll be leaving a lasting impression on them for years to come. Way to go, Discovery Channel.

Planet Earth should be the marketing campaign for all things High Def.

lessons on surviving winter travel to boston - redux

A week ago, I was in Essex, MA (just outside Boston) looking out at six inches of fresh snow topped off by a little ice and sleet feeling grateful I hadn't paid attention to Lesson Number One from my nine lessons.

Instead of being booked on the first flight out, as Lesson Number One had taught me, I was on the penultimate flight out. And if not for that, I'd have been desperately trying to live lessons Three through Nine all over again, just two weeks after I'd learned them the first time.

Thanks to the winter storm that hit the Eastern Seaboard on March 16 and 17, United canceled its evening flights on the 16th and many of the morning flights on the 17th.

My St. Pat's flight was untouched, and thanks to my Mileage Plus Premier Exec status, my upgrade request was honored well before the cancellations threw bookings into a tizz and filled the flight to overflowing. Sitting in First Class never felt so good.

Perhaps my upcoming trip to Boston (third trip in six weeks) will yield more travel lessons. I just hope there's no snow involved this time. I'm in the mood for spring having sprung.

flickr photos under creative commons license

After I uploaded my Stockholm pictures to Flickr, a good friend pointed out that (until today) I have not been practicing what I preach regarding content being available for others to build on in the Creative Commons. My own pix were under regular old copyright until just now. At last, I've put my own Flickr photostream out there under a Creative Commons license for others to use as they see fit (with attribution to me, of course).

Now, I chose the Attribution license for my own photos, as it allows for others the most creativity possible, as long as they attribute the original photo to me. But there are six different Creative Commons licenses available for employment on Flickr, and the Creative Commons web site has a very useful CC license FAQ that details the difference between each license.

Want to add your own photos to the Creative Commons? Here's how in six easy steps:

• From any Flickr page, click on your account name to get to your account settings page
• Scroll down to the Defaults for new uploads section and click "EDIT" next to "What license will your photos have?"
• Choose your license from the dropdown and click the "Set Default License" button
• IMPORTANT: once the license is set, you need to click "EDIT" on the "What license will your photos have?" again to change the license on all your existing Flickr photos.
• Once you're on the license page, choose the "batch" link in the grey box above the dropdown.
• On the new "set a license default for your photos" page, choose your license and click SAVE.

Voila! Your Flickr stream is now part of the Creative Commons set on Flickr for all the world to get jiggy with!

timely verizon wireless notice

So, we've just experienced our first "early" Daylight Savings Time switch, beginning March 11 and ending November 3.

What should I find delivered in the mail on Monday, March 12? The following IMPORTANT NOTICE from the good folks at Verizon Wireless [with my italicized comments]:

Please note that Daylight Savings time is going to take place 3 weeks earlier and end 1 week later this year as a result of the Energy Policy Act that Congress has passed. [read: don't grouse at us about this change]

Daylight Savings Time will begin on Sunday, March 11, 2007 and end on November 3, 2007. [what, this is a one-time gig? no change in 2008? cool!]

Although Verizon Wireless network is ready to seamlessly support the change, you may be required to update your device if you use a Blackberry®, PDA or Smarphone running Palm® OS or Windows Mobile®. [seamless, save remembering to send this reminder out on time]

Updating your device helps ensure that your calendar and time stamp calculations remain synced up with the United States and Canada. [Wait, Congress passed an Act that affects Canada, too? do they know about this? ]

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your continued support. [and kindly overlook the blatant inconvenience of sending this to you late]

To get the required updates, please visit verizonwireless.com/dst and follow the directions. [and here's hoping you can still access the web after the fact!]

Yer palz at verizonWireless

Funny how they never send out a bill late, huh?

refreshing change of perspective

It's been over two years since I traveled outside the United States, and this trip to Sweden has served as a powerful reminder how refreshing it is to immerse yourself in a different culture.

Even though traveling to Scandinavia is far from the culture shock of a trip to say, South America or Southeast Asia or anywhere in Africa, the culture here is different enough from my daily American experience that I'm reminded just how insular my life is in California.

Among the biggest differences I've noticed:

• I've yet to see any trash anywhere on any street in Stockholm (I'll keep looking)
• The Swedes are very style-conscious, but in a sense of personal pride way, not in a "look at me" kind of way
• The food is portioned perfectly on the plate... no heaping American-style servings spilling over the sides of the table here
• Tax is included in the price you see on the shelf... no complicated additions at the cash register
• There's a very strong push to mind how big a footprint one makes on the environment... I can't believe how green the adverts and marketing messages are here in Stockholm. It'll be interesting to see if the Dutch are as green as the Swedes seem to be.
• Kaffe is king: If only I could fit the industrial-strength coffee-making machine at the GWP offices, there'd be a vacant spot where the machine now stands come tomorrow evening :-)
• Politeness and courtesy overwhelms me everywhere I go: not in a sickly-sweet manner, but in a "I respect you and expect you to do the same of me" manner.

I've got to figure out how to bring this home with me.

madmundo: what rights for women?

In today's Global Action Network meeting, we were treated to content created by Patrice Barrat of the Bridge Initiative.

In celebration of International Women's Day, here's a snippet of video seen on his Madmundo site about Chahinaz, a young woman in Algeria, exploring why women don't have the same rights as men in her own country and how her experience is (or is not) shared by others elsewhere in the world:



Patrice also had a great idea, that's not as "out there" as it might seem: in conjunction with the upcoming Olympics in China, have an Olympiad for Change, where the competition would be about how to effect change in the world... we'll see how this unfolds.

flying (to the) dutch, man

After a harried morning at work, I arrived at SFO with time to spare to take KLM flight 606 to Amsterdam. It's a code share flight with Northwest Airlines, and I had signed up for flight status notification at the Northwest web site. Having used United's EasyUpdate service for many years, I thought NWA's service would be similar.

Wrong.

Two hours before the flight was due to leave (and I was already in queue to go through security), I got the following email in my box from nwa@nwa.com:

Flight information is not available for NW flight 8606 scheduled to depart at 3:20 pm on March 6 and arrive in AMS at 10:55 am.

Luckily, the flight information notice, or lack thereof, was the low point of my experience flying KLM to Amsterdam. Flight 606 is a ten-hour nonstop flight aboard a McDonell Douglas MD-11. Depending on which flyer forum you visit, the MD-11 is either the last of a graceful line of three-engine long range aircraft, or it's a dying breed that should be parked in the deserts of Arizona without further delay.

Aside from lacking power ports at any seat on the aircraft, I found the aircraft to be rather comfortably appointed and unless I was looking really really close, I couldn't tell the aircraft hadn't been delivered in just the last couple years (in reality, the last MD-11 was delivered to KLM in 1997).

I'd been assigned seat 6G, an aisle seat, in the World Business Class section, and this sums up the experience:

• the seat has 150 degree tilt, so is much more comfortable than coach, but in no way a comfortable position for sleeping
  
• it has its own video monitor, so you're able to choose among 7 movies and 7 television program packages that run on a 2 hour loop
  
• you can learn a surprising amount of useful Dutch by reading the captions to a spoken-english movie
  
• shortly after boarding, you're given a convenience bag (with eye blocker, cabin socks, etc), noise-canceling headphones and breakfast menu to make your selections for the next "morning"
  
• within the first two hours of flight, dinner is served, cleared and the shades are down and lights lowered to facilitate sleeping (or learning Dutch-by-caption for those of us who are restless)
  
• the food was decent fare and the coffee and wine were actually quite good
  
• the attending crew are polite and efficient at their tasks
  
• the parting "gift" for the business class folks is a miniature model of Old Dutch Houses filled with "the famous Dutch young jenever, distilled by Bols Distilleries." Nice gift for me (at the hotel) and the girls (emptied for home)
  

In all, quite the pleasant transatlantic experience and I wouldn't hesitate to fly them again (after I return home Sunday, natch)

My Schiphol airport experience can be summed up in one word so far: smoky. What a difference from the clean-air US airports.

directv hr20 dvr needs customer support

The latest software upgrade for my DirecTV HR20 DVR was downloaded on Feb 28.

I'm now running version 0x134, which has finally fixed the dreaded IKD bug, according to the Level 2 Tech Support supervisor I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with.

Was it a coincidence that on March 1, the day after the software upgrade, my HR20 failed to record either American Idol or Survivor like it was supposed to? Instead of finding them waiting in the playlist for me, I had to go to my History list and see that they've been registered as "deleted" with the following error message:

This episode was canceled because of an unexpected error. (2003)

Evidently I've discovered yet another bug that has now been reported to the tech team awaiting others to share their same pain. If you've had a series fail to record on your HR20 because of the (2003) error, please call customer support to report it so they can fix it quick by having more data points.

Even though DirecTV has claimed it's fixed the IKD bug, they have yet to "fix" their orientation toward how the problems are affecting their users. I spent 35 minutes on the phone this sunny afternoon trying to get to someone at DirecTV who would acknowledge that their product is failing to deliver what it's promised to do (record the shows I ask it to record).

The orientation of the first- and second-tier customer support reps seems to be to do what they can to get you to reset your DVR and assume all will be solved. I finally had to ask for a supervisor after spending 10 minutes with "Loretta" telling me that my problem was "fixed" with the reset and there was no problem whatsoever with the fact the HR20 had failed to record shows for me last week. She tried several times to ship a new unit to me to "fix" the problem which shows just how ignorant she is as to why folks use a DVR:

I have a DVR to reliably record shows for later playback at my leisure.

I don't have a DVR to help someone develop their technology. I didn't pay several hundred dollars to lease this HR20 so I could spend at least an hour a month on the phone with tech support to help squash bugs.

Here's an idea for the execs at DirecTV: look at your user account database and identify the people like me who call in for tech support only after already diagnosing and capturing in explicit detail what the bugs are. Give us free DirecTV service in exchange for us agreeing to be your beta testers with regular bug reporting and feedback looping. When you've got a true GM candidate after testing with us (and all the others who don't know how to beta test well but are along for the ride), you can begin charging us for the product.

As a longtime subscriber, I remember as recently as one year ago when I was a huge DirecTV fan and sang the company's praises. The HR20 ownership experience has done nothing but erode my goodwill toward them. And I'm sick of the phone-tree hell they force me to go through each time I want to help them debug their software.

BTW... the "fast access PIN" thru tech support is 1537 for the next five days. Call 1-800-695-9251 to get straight to the level-two support folks. If Loretta answers, hang up and queue up with someone else.