08/25/07 04:01 - 78ºF - ID#40730

And Another Thing

I really dislike using Windows. Every little bit of it rubs me the wrong way. It was all I used for 6 or 7 years, and then after about a week with my Mac a few years back, I've never looked back.

This is one of the ideological reasons why I hate Windows: if you run Windows update to get security fixes, it makes you revalidate your Windows installation (it checks your serial number to see how many times it's been used, if it's pirated, etc), and it can lock your computer down to reduced functionality if it thinks there is a problem.

Once you initially purchase software, you should never ever need to go back and verify that you are legit. It's like all those lame warnings on DVD's or before movies telling you not to pirate, when you've clearly just paid for the DVD or movie.

So - the problem: the Windows validation servers are down right now, and may be down until Monday:

Nice. Innocently run software update, and bam! there it goes. Way to treat your paying customers.

Permalink: And_Another_Thing.html
Words: 188
Location: Buffalo, NY

08/24/07 11:00 - 81ºF - ID#40718

Draaaaank

Permalink: Draaaaank.html
Words: 2
Location: Buffalo, NY

08/24/07 11:00 - 81ºF - ID#40717

Visiting some old friends...

Permalink: Visiting_some_old_friends_.html
Words: 2
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: music

08/22/07 11:47 - 72ºF - ID#40689

Tapes

I used to have 30 or 40 really great tapes from DJ sets. 1995-2000-ish.

I can't even remember the names of most of them, where I got them, or what was on the tapes, but I miss them so much. It's hard to mentally reconstruct the day to day and soundtrack of my life back then, it's so far out of reach and far from the ken of my current life. If I actually ever heard certain tracks again I think my head would explode from nostalgia.

And then I see this:

WTF sea of white baseball caps??! Drinking beer and bobbing your head? Weak. Don't kids dance anymore?

Permalink: Tapes.html
Words: 118
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: photo

08/21/07 09:05 - 66ºF - ID#40666

Visited some old friends...

10 terabytes of storage... 12 processors...

Now I have a sad 533mhz Mac :(

My iPhone has a faster processor then my Mac!

But actually I mostly don't notice how slow it is, except when I run unit tests, those take about 15 seconds to start up versus about 2 or 3 on my laptop.

Permalink: Visited_some_old_friends_.html
Words: 53
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: work

08/21/07 12:15 - 60ºF - ID#40648

My Project

So, the project that I've been working on the past couple weeks is up.

DailyClimber

It's a site that sells one camping or climbing item per day at a really good price. Sort of like [link="http://woot.com"]woot.com[/link] (woot is not my site)

Let me know if you check it out and it looks broken (an all too likely possibility)?

jim writes at 11:58:13 08/21/07 - Comment #22759: I am not sure what they are either...

fellyconnelly writes at 11:47:17 08/21/07 - Comment #22754: I don't think that Trango MaxCams wear underwear in public either. but then i don't really know what a trango maxcam is.

tinypliny writes at 01:17:59 08/21/07 - Comment #22729: You are most welcome! LMK if you need more omega testing. :)

jim writes at 01:12:34 08/21/07 - Comment #22728: Thanks, Tinypliny, I am fixing the links back to the store and touching up a few other places!

tinypliny writes at 01:05:17 08/21/07 - Comment #22726: Gosh so many spelling mistakes and omissions! And that too on correction-fluid day! Appalling!

tinypliny writes at 01:03:41 08/21/07 - Comment #22725: The email and rss links are fine too. But there is no way to click back to the home page of the from the checkout page. If a patron chacges their mind and wants to view the absobing Britney snippet again, the only option is to click the back button of the browser. How about adding a linkback to the homepage behind the title graphic of "Dailyclimber". Just a thought.

tinypliny writes at 12:56:36 08/21/07 - Comment #22723: Okay, your first beta tester is here. I clicked on everything clickable on that page. It works fine.
- No dead/broken links
- Google checkout works fine
- The interface is clean and intuitive. If I had the faintest idea what Trango MaxCams were, I might be interested in checking them out at this dealer's simply because of the uncomplicated navigation. :)
- The company "about" page leads to the first page of a post in a product forum.
- The company link itself links to the forum. Nice touch.
- The ever-so-tempting Trango MaxCams advertised at $254.99 are actually $282.30 after taxes.
- Since I need to survive on the bottom of the hillock at Ellicott Street, I fake-ordered 5 of these awesome whatever-cams and the change registered correctly at checkout.

Anything else you need this beta tester to checkout? :)

james writes at 12:47:45 08/21/07 - Comment #22719: SInce the site is up and running, we are celebrating with wine.

Vinos Sin-Ley is freakin delicious.

Permalink: My_Project.html
Words: 59
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: photo

08/20/07 07:54 - 60ºF - ID#40642

Maybe a Repeat

Permalink: Maybe_a_Repeat.html
Words: 2
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: internet

08/17/07 09:19 - 71ºF - ID#40601

Social Graph

Brad Fitzpatrick (of LiveJournal

and memcached

fame) is starting an intriguing attempt at freeing your social life from the clutches of MySpace and Facebook. White paper:

He wants to take your network of friendships that you've defined on the web, and instead of tying that in to a particular website, make it open for any website to use. If you signed up to MyCoolNewSite.com (for example), and plugged in your access token or whatever, it would tell you which of your friends from other sites are on this new one, and you could instantly get going.

Instead of being tied to just the huge social sites, you could participate in a world of targeted, rich, local and interest sites. Estrip would know about your friends (if you let it), and you could always count on not missing anyone or having to reenter all your info everywhere, or bugging your friends to sign up for every new thing.

It would all just happen, decentralized and under your control.

I love Flickr

but I hate that my photography network of contacts is bound up in it and I can't spill that over to other places. I love Estrip, but feel like it's maybe tucked away from the rest of my online life instead of being the center of my personal presence on the web.

Facebook (Flickr, MySpace, etc) right now is a walled off corner of the Internet, like AOL used to be. It's nice and clean and usable - but who wants to be living inside AOL 2.0? It is pulling everything in like a black hole.

The internet is meant to be messy and glorious. Why shouldn't you or I set the boundaries as we see fit?

Permalink: Social_Graph.html
Words: 300
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: music

08/16/07 11:57 - 75ºF - ID#40587

Electric Six

Oh man oh man I can't wait to go see these guys live some day.

Make sure to at least watch until the special effects start.

Too bad their tour doesn't come close to here: