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Jim's Journal

jim
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09/23/2007 11:26 #41261

Favorite Five Albums of All Times?
Category: quiz
Post your list of your favorite five albums/cds/etc of all time. Either as a comment here or in your own journal. You don't need to add links to your list like I did.

Massive Attack, Mezzanine
Pixies, Doolittle
Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes
Jane's Addiction, Ritual de lo Habitual
Towa Tei, Best

I completely skipped all my favorite D&B albums and a few other categories too... a more accurate list wouldn't be quite this rock and roll.

So, what's your all time favorite music? We just did this list sharing thing on my photo group, and it's interesting to see what everyone's personal soundtrack is.
museumchick - 09/25/07 12:45
I can't narrow it down to five! heh. The self-titled Violent Femmes album is one of my favorite's, though.
jbeatty - 09/23/07 11:59
Even though I get five this is still difficult, in no particular order:

Dots and Loops - Stereolab

Mood Swing - Joshua Redman

Speaking of Now - Pat Metheny Group

The Grand Wazoo - Frank Zappa

Radiohead - OK Computer

Top ten would have been slightly easier.
paul - 09/23/07 11:40
Kimya Dawson - My Cute Sweet Friend

Echt - Freischwimmer

The Long Winters - The Worst You Can Do is Harm

R.E.M - Life's Rich Pagaent

The Postal Service - Give Up

Similar to what (e:jim) said this lacks all electronic music which is actually most of what I listen to.
james - 09/23/07 11:33
1) Nick Drake - Pink Moon

2) Nico - The Marble Index (John Cale's production is awesome!)

3) Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernal (avant-guard prog-metal)

4) Joni Mitchell - Blue

5) The Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children

09/21/2007 20:40 #41243

Dog Park
Category: buffalo
It was a lot of fun, and so many dogs! You can't tell from the photos but there were about 100 or so of them.

image
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And the march of the seasons:

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I need to remember to wipe the fingerprints off my lens before I take photos, everything looks like it's underwater.
ruleofblue - 09/29/07 13:01
BuffOLA.org has updated their site.

09/21/2007 20:04 #41242

Social Graph Part 2
Category: internet
Google to take on Facebook: by opening up their social graph? That is my dream come true! xfn and openid, distributed digital social networks not under anyone's thumbs.

That's all you need. Push and pull from Google, and Six Apart (LJ, etc). Autodiscovery of social networks. Smugmug just did it and now all I really need is for Flickr to jump in, or maybe I can fake it through their API.

09/21/2007 12:52 #41230

$1000 a Month
Category: internet
Carrier short codes for SMS messages are $1000 a month. (That's the way you can text to or from a really short number, like 22345). I didn't think it would be that expensive. And that's just the cost for the CSC number, there are addiitional higher charges for receiving and sending messages from CSC's as opposed to normal numbers.

Guess I'll need a long number! 716-998-1987 is harder to remember then 23560, though.
paul - 09/21/07 20:17
You can definitely use a GSM modem with sim card attached to a server to send out the messages. Then you just buy an unlimited messaging account from tmobile for that sim card.

I think that SMS is in its death throws. Honestly, after years of closely following mobile telfony I am sure that it is yesterday;'s technology and that most cell phones are going to go in the direction of email very soon. Many, many of them already have.
james - 09/21/07 14:35
Hey Jim, someone smeared geek all over your journal.
jim - 09/21/07 14:05
I mostly need to send outgoing SMS's at this point, so doing without a short code isn't that big a deal for my project.

I think the better browsers and get (mobile safari for example), and mobile email too), the less relevant the SMS racket will be.
jim - 09/21/07 14:02
Yeah, Paul was telling me that I should just tether a cell phone to a server and send them out that way, but my server is in a rack in San Diego, and so...
zobar - 09/21/07 14:01
So you pay per month for your short code, and then you pay per-message for using the API. GOD THIS INDUSTRY IS SO SHADY. Network providers screw service providers and service providers screw content providers and everyone screws the end user. How many people could you possibly bill for sending one 160-byte packet over the network? Let's find out ...

Now that I think about it, my previous phone [Sony Ericsson T616] could operate over Bluetooth as a Hayes-compatible modem. There were special AT commands you could issue to it; there was probably one for sending SMS.

- Z
jim - 09/21/07 13:57
Well you don't need a short code, but whether or not you have a shortcode you need either a web gateway API to call or a cell system interface terminal. The costs for sending a message seem to be around $0.05 per text, and you have to buy at least $25 worth at a time.
jim - 09/21/07 13:44
It's an API call, usually just in an encoded url like this describes: :::link:::

But some of the you have to submit XML packets with the message info. You need to pay for a short code, and then pay a gateway service for an API connection, and your site can send SMS messages directly.

Alternatively there are actual cell devices that you'd hook up to your server and send messages with over the regular cell networks, but I am not too clear on what's involved with that route.

zobar - 09/21/07 13:40
Funny, we were just solicited by a mobile service provider. Question: once you have a short-code, how do you submit SMSes to the network?

- Z

09/20/2007 20:27 #41221

Roswell Park Memorial Mace
Category: work
The Roswell Park Cancer Institute Memorial Mace

image

Yes, an honored stick with which to beat people, in a glass class by Human Resources.

And even better, an illustrated history of the evolution of medicine:

image

(view large here)

Including these highlights:

Centaurs curse humankind with illness, including cancer.

Greeks like to have sex with other men and also fail to cure cancer.

An old Jew wears pointy shoes and withholds secret knowledge of how to fight cancer.

Some guy invented very small drippy zeppelins that fail to cure cancer.

Madam Curie returns from the dead in radiant form, but no one can see her cure for cancer.

There is another secret ghost hiding behind the ghost of Madam Curie. We do not know his story.

Scientists are too poor to own chairs, so you should donate money to RPCI. To help them cure cancer.

Cacti are taking over the world, a new form of mega-cancer.

An African looking mask likes to leer at reclining nude women. Something something cancer.

jim - 09/21/07 15:04
I bet you're siding with the centaurs.
mrdeadlier - 09/21/07 14:59
Thanks for ruining the magic
lauren - 09/21/07 10:55
haha. stupid cancer.
james - 09/20/07 20:52
leering at nude women cases cancer.

Thankfully the last lime i leered at a nude woman I just breast fed for the last time.