Month: June 2007

Home Mad Music Video

Again my proclivity towards altered-time recordings leads me to this interesting video.

The most amazing thing to me is exactly how smooth the images on the posted bills are knowing how they were done manually (not CGI).

In the artist’s own words:

“Myself and a couple have friends have entered the above into the Modest Mouse video competition. Using green screen footage provided by the band we cut a simple music video. We then degraded the images and printed out each frame sequentially. (all 4133 of them) We then nailed each “shot” of 50-100 posters to various structures and posts.”

XKCD

XKCDThis is another great web comic that I’ve enjoyed for over a year now. It touts itself as “A comic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language” and it is all that.

I definitely don’t “get” all of the comics – although I suppose that’s true of any artform – but I do like and appreciate most of them. Especially if you like science you’ll enjoy this comic.

Make sure to hover your cursor over the comic after reading it. There is usually some additional background in the tool tip that will appear. Sometimes the tooltip can be a little long so Firefox users will need the “Long Titles” extension to get around a bug in that browser to let you see the whole thing.

iPod in the Shower

One of the greatest things to come along in my lifetime is the ability to time-shift many things to when it’s better for *me* to do them. TIVO is great for this. While I’ve time-shifted my TV programs for years using a VCR and about 20 VHS tapes, the ability to easily pick and choose the exact program you wish to see when you want to see it is a luxury that the Pharaohs, for all their opulence and riches, would have envied.

Similarly, I love my iPod. Ironically I use it for podcasts far more than I use it to listen to music. I’ve already talked about podcasts elsewhere (check the “Podcasting” category).

I like to listen to my iPod while I exercise, drive and when I shower. These are three activities that are nicely complemented by an interesting audio background.

As part of our bathroom renovations I had an extra recess included in the bath tub area just for my The Sharper Image “Digital Shower Companion”. I notice they don’t sell my model anymore (couldn’t see a model number on the unit anyway). The closest thing they have now is this Shower Radio for about $30.

Anyway the radio is now mounted

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I also picked up a Griffin iTrip FM transmitter for the iPod. Add in a snack bag and, voila, you have the makings of a water resistent iPod player for your shower.

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Slip the iPod into the bag

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And prop near to the radio.

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This position works well since you can push down on it with one hand to change podcasts or fast forward through dull bits. Trying to prop the iPod upright leaning against the wall next to the radio was too unstable. You can also mount the iPod right on top of the radio. The radio antenna works quite nicely to stabilize the iPod on its side.

The frequency band is pretty cluttered here near Atlanta. I’ve had the greatest success using 90.5 as my broadcast/reception station.

BTW don’t even think about using the iTrip for car trips. The airways are so cluttered with signals nowadays that I found myself having to hunt for new unused frequencies about every 45 minutes on a long trip. And the proliferation of little weekend-only stations made even usually commute reliable frequencies useless when out and about on Saturday and Sunday. Use a direct connection instead.

Suddenly Silver : Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse

Suddenly Silver : Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse Suddenly Silver : Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston

I always enjoy “For Better or For Worse”. You don’t get this book to see new material, much of it I’ve already seen in Lynn’s other works. Instead you get it because of the commentary and perspective that it puts on a comic that has not only been around for 28 years (as of this posting) but has grown and matured as I have over the past 3 decades.

There are insightful mini-essays from folks near and dear to Lynn that help to give you some insight what it must be like living in the same circles as someone who can produce such great work. I get the sense that she’s not the easiest person in the world to be around sometimes, but for all involved those less than rational moments seem to be more than outweighed by the wonders and tribulations expressed by this “parallel family” from Lynn’s mind.

The comic is still as fresh as it ever was and I still look forward to reading the strip each evening.

Nintendo Wii vs Sony Playstation 3 in Mac vs PC format

Possibly one of the most offensive ads I’ve ever seen, which is why I have included it here 🙂

The honesty in advertising is actually kind of refreshing. I remember seeing this ad back before the Wii was even released, certainly not on TV, probably as part of a viral marketing campaign.

You can’t say that they don’t know their target demographic.  Enjoy!

Hot Violin Skills

** Update July 4, 2008 ** It seems the College Humor version of this video is no longer working (maybe temporary but I don’t care) so I found it on YouTube and updated this entry. ** End Update **

** Update June 9 2007 ** After listening to The Black Eyed Peas’ original “Pump It” again both Mich and I agree that this version with the Violin emphasis is a great improvement on an already lively song. ** End Update **

This young lady is very cute but also unexpectedly talented. I’m more of a piano fan myself but I really enjoyed this performance. Black Eyed Peas to violin. Whodathunkit?

Renovation update 06/06/2007

Scope creep hits every project… 🙂

We were so pleased with the new toilet (Gerber EF-21-312) in the master bathroom that, on impulse I decided to replace ALL of our toilets with the same model. Apparently slabs are known for their less-than-enthusiastic sewer drainage. These new ones I swear push whatever’s in them all the way to the waste water treatment plant in one go!

Also, the 1/2 bathroom next to the garage has a small window and no ventilation fan so we decided to update that too. We don’t really need one for the usual reason of removing moisture but rather to aid in guest’s vanity to try to remove any evidence of what was going on in there. Hopefully this will end that odd practice of lighting matches and other bizarre behavior folks do to hide being human… Mich pointed out (after I had ordered a new Panasonic (FV-08VF2) WhisperFitfan from Ira Wood & Sons) that we probably wanted a noisier fan just to mask any noises coming from that room 🙂
Anyway here is how the updated 1/2 bath looks

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With the fan.

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This morning we also worked with Tommy to figure out where the mirror and the new lighting for the guest bathroom should go

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The electrician came back today and wired up both the fan in the 1/2 bath and replaced our old 3 gang with a 4 gang switch in the guest bath

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The can lights were installed

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and the pancake box for the lighting fixture was installed.

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Mich still needs to find the right medicine cabinet – she had found it at Lowes earlier but had decided to get a smaller one and now they are sold out of the one she wants. Tommy has one at home that he thought she might like so we’ll check that out tomorrow.

Beware iTunes 7.2.0.34 update!

**Update 4:00 pm**  Shut down my soundbridge and doppler and then restarted iTunes. Then I attached my iPod and *presto* my audio files reappeared. Of course the “Sync movies” option was unchecked as usual so I checked it, hit the “Apply” button and now I’m synching my 17+ Gbytes of video content… again.

**End Update**

**Update 8:30 am** When I got to my car I realized that, even though iTunes was showing all of my songs/podcasts as loaded on my iPod. Nothing was accessible to be played. Of course I always keep a backup audiobook in the car for such “emergencies” 🙂 but it is annoying nonetheless. This is telling me that I need to disable Apple’s auto updater so that I can run it only when I have time to fix any mess that it may create.

**end update**

My iTunes updated itself overnight. For some reason, every once in a while (I’m pretty sure it’s after an update) iTunes stops synching my video content. It’s *really* annoying since it dumps it all and then I have to re-select the video content in iTunes and it needs to copy all of the files back over again.

This morning iTunes is at 7.2.0.34 and I see that the video tab is simply gone. After synching I get the dreaded “Some of your content was not synced because your software is too old” garbage message and all video content is gone. I don’t even have the option to correct this and now I’ve got to get to work. 🙁

If you use the apple auto updater, beware!

Renovation update 06/05/2007

This was largely a grunt day. Larry was head down in the bathroom with no windows on a high eighty-degree day priming and prepping the walls, door and vanity.

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Finally the wallpaper is gone

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A quick view above the shower head

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and another view into the attic (never ceases to amaze me).

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Tommy was meanwhile doing finishing touches on the master bathroom and loads of finicky finishing things (Thanks for mounting the radio in the shower!).

Minimalist Stick Figure Theater

Minimalist Stick Figure TheaterI stumbled on this web comic a few months ago and have been slowly working my way through the archives. There is a little philosophy, a little insight, some playfulness and a whole lack of detail in these comics that make them very appealing to me.

The main character is a quasi-cynical quasi-loser – to over-use the “quasi” thing – who shall remain nameless (really!) encountering a rich array of secondary characters. There is continuity of experience from comic to comic which I greatly appreciate and which lends a sophistication to it that has me always anticipating the next offering.

Be sure you read the author’s note at the bottom of each comic. Often the insights are as amusing or revealing as the comics themselves.

Check it out – Minimalist Stick Figure Theater