call diesel.

Incom lete.

2011-04-26T09:05:00.000-04:00

I was working on a longer post, but who knows when i’ll finish it, so here’s the base.

Religion serves a certain purpose that provides a moral compass for those lost or weak. It serves a purpose, most profound in environments where instinct, in it’s most animal form, rules. In places where what makes us human is lost. Where necessity clouds morality.

What do us atheists use as a moral compass? Really, what do we use as a guide as to whats right and wrong? I don’t believe in a fear-instilling god, I don’t go out and steal and hurt people, but I don’t believe in a god that makes me fear post-life retribution for my actions. I just believe in looking out for my fellow man, as looking out for him will probably benefit me in the long run.

I am, and probably always will be, an atheist/agnostic. One thing that has always perplexed me, however, is what a secular society replaces the… moral charity, if you will, of certain religions with. Religions certainly fill a very important role in society, especially in charitable roles. Secular charitable organizations certainly exist, and do much fulfilling work, but without faith-based organizations, the vast majority of these efforts would be lost. Why these organizations do what they do is a whole other debate, but they’re there, and they do a lot of good.

I don’t have an answer. Perhaps someday I will, maybe not. But I’m still fascinated by it.

Wallpaper for the Masses

2010-07-06T21:35:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to share my Android wallpapers with the rest of ya. Each image is optimized for Android 2.1 or later (up to 5 home screens), but I see no reason why earlier Android versions wouldn't work. Promise to update more, soon, in the same Picasa gallery.

Mark's Android Wallpaper

Resetting Google Chrome Bookmark Syncing

2010-04-28T09:39:00.001-04:00

One of the things about Chrome that I was most eager to try out was Bookmark Syncing. Years ago, I used the Google Bookmark Sync extension for Firefox, and when Firefox 3.0 came out and killed it, I was bummed. Then, of course, Google ceased development for it.

I've since found Xmarks, which I love, but I still wanted to try using Chrome's built-in bookmark syncing, just to see how well it works. When it rolled out to the Mac dev builds, I tried it right away. Unfortunately, something went awry, and would never get past the "setting up" phase of the initial set up. I took a look in my Google Docs, and sure enough the Google Chrome folder was there, but no bookmarks, and the files that were in there were useless to me (autofill, preferences, theme). No matter what I did, I couldn't "reset" the Sync folder in my Docs. I couldn't even remove it manually, as Google Docs will prevent you from modifying the Google Chrome folder, or anything within!

Well, I figured it out, finally. This is all you have to do to reset Google Chrome syncing:

Navigate to the root of your Google Docs (click "My Folders"),
Right-click on the Google Chrome folder,
Click Move To,
Select any other folder,
Click Move to folder,
Voila.

At this point, you can now go into Chrome Sync set up, and proceed normally! I noticed that Google will even clean up after you and remove the "bum" Google Chrome folder from wherever you stashed it. Nice!

Google Buzz observations

2010-02-10T01:35:00.001-05:00

So far, very very cool. It's amazing being able to pull up Google Maps and see other users in your area, what they're saying, and being able to comment on it publicly. So far, it feels like Twitter on steroids. One very interesting thing I've noticed, though, is that when you get an email notification that someone has commented on a Buzz that you commented on, each notification appears in the ORIGINAL email notification you got, very much like how Wave works. It's quite nice!

All in all, it feels more robust and "complete" than Twitter does. It'll be interesting to see how the web GUI feels, and how it connects with Facebook and other social networks.

Nexus One: The Wordy Review

2010-01-09T16:40:00.037-05:00

Ok, first off, I'm just going to get this out of the way: it's not an iPhone. Straight up not an iPhone-killer. Some features, yes, are lightyears beyond what the iPhone currently has. But the iPhone remains the easiest to use smartphone there ever was, and Android, in its current form, is no where close to being as easy to use as iPhone OS. Ok, now with that out of the way...

Unboxing

The packaging is gorgeous, mostly due to the fact that it's heavily Apple-inspired. It's basically a bigger version of the iPhone box, but completely white, with a basic "nexus one" logotype on the front, and a small "google" sitting closer to the bottom. Very tasteful and simple, and it immediately gave me a warm fuzzy. My favorite part, however, is the Google colors running around the sides of the box, against the back. A very nice touch.

The phone was presented nicely upon opening, sitting alone in a recess. You remove the cardboard face that holds the phone to reveal the USB cord, power cable and headphones, as well as a very cute little soft-to-the-touch book that contains useless usage warnings about how you can injure yourself using blah blah blah blah... the stuff they're required to tell you, basically. No documentation about how to actually use the little bugger, mind you, which would have been handy. The iPhone doesn't need such things... Android, however, does. I was able to figure out most things, but I'm a nerd. Most people aren't.

Hardware

Speaking of headphones, why is it that when you purchase a $500+ phone (Nexus One, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS... you get my point), they come with the shittiest headphones they could manufacture? I swear... the iPhone headphones were basically too big to fit in any ear I've ever seen, and the same is true with the NO's (heh, I love that abbreviation). They look nice, sure, but I've since reunited them with the box they were shipped to me in. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find that the pause/play button on my Apple iPhone in-ear buds works on the Nexus One! As for the cable situation as a whole, while these HTC-made cables are nice, the cables for the iPhone are a bit nicer, and they don't come pre-wrinkled (I hate hate hate that!).

Ok, so on to the phone: it's amazing. The hardware, in my opinion, is gorgeous. Very simple, very clean lines, and I actually like the trackball (although I only use it for notifications, as it lights up when you get an email, text, tweet, etc., which is all customizable). The screen is absolutely stunning. If Apple doesn't match this screen in the next iPhone, I swear to something holy that I will punch a baby kitten. I want to see iPhone OS on this screen–which I believe is the same screen used in the Moto Droid–badly. It's incredibly high-res–in fact, so high-res that when viewing web pages, the browser will actually up-res images so that they're not incredibly tiny. If the images were to be displayed pixel-for-pixel, they'd be indescribably minute. The up-res'ing does make images a touch fuzzy, but not horribly so. It's very acceptable.

One thing about the touch screen I do not like, however, is the "calibration" (for lack of a better term). With iPhone, Apple wisely made the tap area for an element just below where your finger hits. Google didn't do this. What this means is that I often tap on a screen element (web link, button, menu item, etc.), but end up selecting the element just below it. Annoying. I'd pay money for an application that would allow me to remedy this.

The power button is located on the upper left side, which is different from the iPhone, but the same as the iPod touch. As I don't have the latter–but I do the former–it's been a bit of an adjustment for me. It's no big deal, but I do, actually, really miss the "ker-shick!" of the iPhone when sleeping the NO. It was nice having that "yep, I'm cool, toss me in your pocket" sound.

Just above the trackball and built into the bottom of the screen are four buttons (back, menu, home, and search). I don't mind the presence of buttons, but only when they don't get in my way. I mind these buttons. I find myself tapping them inadvertently when going for the spacebar while typing, and I have to say it's aggravating.

The "back" button took some getting used to... Android relies on it heavily, as opposed to the Apple way of doing things, which is to have a "back" button in the GUI of the app you're in, in the upper left corner. It's... different. However, it's universal, in that when you hit back, it takes you back to exactly where you were before, across applications. So, if you're in your browser and a text message comes in, you hit the notification tray (more on that later), tap on the text message, which then takes you to the text. When you hit "back," you're back in your browser. If you hit "back" again, you'll head back to the other browser window you were in before this, or even back to the main screen of the application you were in where you tapped a web link to bring you to the browser in the first place when the text came in. It can be a bit confusing, but you pick it up pretty quickly.

The "menu" button typically holds the icons for an application that you'd see at the bottom of an application on iPhone OS (in blue on a black background, or in a "tray"). "Home" brings you home, and search brings up the universal search function, which is much like Spotlight on the iPhone, but on steroids.

The camera, which commands complete attention on the back of the phone due to the fact that it's huge, is decent. I really have yet to inspect the photos closely, but from what I can tell it's pretty darned good. And the video it takes is very fluid, probably because of the 1GHz Snapdragon processor (eat that, iPhone!).

Setting up the OS
This was very simple. You basically step through a few welcome pages, and are presented with a page to either put in your Google account credentials, or sign up for a Google account. Once you've done that, your contacts and calendars immediately push to your phone, and your Gmail application is configured for your primary Gmail account (and you can configure additional Gmail accounts as well, now). There are a plethora of global settings, such as what service to use for making calls (::cough!::), ringer and notification volumes and ringtones, blah blah blah. Basically, all of the settings you'd imagine would be in there are, including application management (which is how you uninstall applications in Android), the ability to manage SD cards, what the global search references when you perform said search, and other boring things.

You can also configure the OS, out of the box, with your Facebook account. Doing so allows you sync either all of your Facebook friends with your own contact list, or to sync just those in your contact list with your Facebook account (which is the default). It's nice scrolling down the contact list seeing everybody's pictures in place.

Another nice touch: your system settings get sync'd to your Google account. If you get a new phone, just put in your Google account creds, and voila, your new phone inherits all of the settings from your old phone.

Messaging and Voice Input
One thing I like about Android is a new feature Google brewed into the OS where, when presented with a "faceplate" or icon of a contact in your address book, when you tap on that icon a messaging "strip" pops up containing icons representing the various means of communicating with that person that they also support. So, if I tap on John's icon in, for example, a Twitter client, I'll get a phone (to call him), a message bubble (to text him), a letter envelope (to email him), and a Facebook icon (to send a message via Facebook). If that contact does not have a Facebook account, that icon won't be there, and the same goes with SMS (i.e. in cases where you only have a "home" number in your address book for that contact).

Texting is very similar to iPhone, as is email, with the exception that there is a dedicated Gmail application. The dedicated email application is nice, but I like MobileMail a liiiiittle bit more. One thing I do like about the Android email app, however, is that the colors of the message lists are inverted from iPhone: white text on dark grey. It's a bit easier on the eyes.

My favorite part of messaging on the Nexus One, though, is the voice input. It's awesome. It is, by no means, perfect, but I cannot tell you how much easier it is to dictate an email–even a long one!–via voice, as opposed to tapping it out on a miniature keyboard. I used to rarely respond to email on iPhone due to disliking the keyboard (this, mind you, not an iPhone thing, I just dislike tiny keyboards–physical or software-based–across the board). Now I respond to emails/texts without even thinking of it. I do have to go back and correct the transcription on occasion, but overall it's a massive time-saver.

Notifications
This part of the Android OS I love. And I can't say that enough. It is simply fantastic. Basically, the menubar of the OS is a notifications tray that applications spit messages into, or can actually display messages in. So, when you get a text message, you see the contents of the SMS scrolling across the menubar. When you flick the menubar down, it slides down to show you how many emails you've received since the last flick of the tray, how many texts, tweets, etc. Tapping on an item takes you into that items' corresponding application, and if there's only one email, for example, directly to that email. When you plug your phone into a host computer, a USB notification pops into your tray. Tapping on that presents you with a dialog that allows you to chose whether or not to mount your SD card on the host computer (that threw me off at first... I could not figure out, for the life of me, how to get the phone to appear in doubleTwist, which is the iTunes to Android phones).

This is an area that iPhone OS desperately needs to advance in.

Google Voice
I have to say that Apple really screwed the pooch on this one.

Android comes with the Google Voice app pre-installed. You launch the app, it asks you for your credentials for GV, then if you'd like to use it for your phone calls and SMS every time, when prompted, or never. As you might guess, I chose all the time. What this means is that when I make a call or send a text message, it will be done over the data connection, and not via AT&T's voice network. For free. All calls and SMS messages will be tracked in my Google Voice account. And the app has a great interface for viewing transcribed versions of, and listening to, all of my voicemails. Visual Voicemail on steroids. I f**king love it.

Working with Media
This is... not so great. As you probably know, iTunes only works with iPhones and iPods (unless you're on Windows machines, which can use the open source tool iTunes Agent to fool iTunes into working with other devices). Therefore, I use another application called doubleTwist to manage the phone. Luckily, it acts like an iLife app by referencing iTunes for your music, movies and playlists, and iPhoto for your photos. However, I'm not sure if the dynamic playlists update automatically. We'll find out this weekend when I make some changes.

You can tell doubleTwist to sync all of your music, or just certain playlists, and the same goes with your photos. It's pretty straightforward and simple, but it's not iTunes-simple. I strongly prefer being able to just plug in the phone, have it backed up, applications and music/media sync'd, done. Sync'ing Android is not complex, but it's definitely more work.

Calendaring
"&$*#&@!" I exclaimed when I found that the built-in calendar application, which is nice, does not support CalDAV. Thus, I cannot attach it to my work email in a read/write form. I really really hope Google rectifies this... CalDAV was one of my favorite features of iPhone OS 3.0. Other than that, the calendar is pretty normal... it does everything your normal calendaring application does. Moving on...

Home Screens
Android has a great home screen scenario. It's definitely different than iPhone, in that instead of having x-many home screens, plus the 4-item-max Dock, you have 5 home screens, plus the "everything" grid that you invoke when you need an application that you didn't add to one of your home screens. Much like iPhone OS, you can arrange your home screen items wherever you chose, but they don't arrange contiguously as they do on the iPhone (there can be spaces between them, they can all be at the bottom with some at the top, etc).

Android home screens, however, have a killer feature that really needs to make it to iPhone: widgets. A widget is essentially a miniature version of a Dashboard widget, a living application on your home screens. I was incredibly pleasantly surprised, for example, when I went hunting for the Settings application to change the brightness of my screen, and happened upon, on the second home screen, a widget that Google had pre-placed there for me that allows one to disable/enable WiFi, your cell radio, GPS, Syncing, and, of course, adjust your screen brightness! To do this on iPhone you have to find the Settings application, open it, tap Brightness, and drag the little slider. You also have to dig through menus to get to your wireless settings. On Android, it's right there on the home screen, no application required. Other widgets include a combo weather/news widget that automatically updates to show the weather in your location, as well as allow you to change the industries for which to show news for, a stock widget (you can have multiple, so I obviously have one for AAPL and one for GOOG), a music widget that controls your media player, calendar widget, Facebook widget, a clock, Pandora controller, and a YouTube widget. Third party devs can make their own, as well. You can also add icons for web bookmarks (uses the site's favicon for the icon, not the iPod touch .png (if it exists), unfortunately), and playlists, an direct dial for a contact, folders, etc. (so you could, for example, make a folder, and toss direct dial shortcuts to workmates in it, or best friends, etc.). The home screen is quite extensible, and I plan on learning more about it this weekend!

Web Browsing
The browser is just about on par with MobileSafari, but not quite there. This is mostly due to how zooming is handled by Android: with iPhone, when you doubletap a page element, it zooms the page to fit that element to the width of your screen. Android doesn't do this... it zooms to a specific zoom level, which you can adjust. This wouldn't be so bad if the browser supported pinch-zooming, but it doesn't. Bad, bad, bad, bad...

Other than that, pages look absolutely mother-effing stunning on this screen. And holy shit is it fast. Many orders of magnitude faster than iPhone 3G (and I've heard a bit faster than the 3GS, as well, probably due to the 1GHz processor). The Google web apps feel like native applications (which I love, since I use them quite a bit, especially Reader). I don't think this is an area that speed can really be deciding factor, though, as both platforms use WebKit for rendering, and processor will pretty much decide the battle.

More Later
I'll write back with more this coming week (Android Marketplace, Voice Control, etc), but so far I'll say that while I'm enjoying the experience overall, I have to repeat: the iPhone is certainly still the leader. It has a certain smoothness and consistency that Android just doesn't have yet. I will use this phone for, well, who knows how long, as my primary mobile device, but who knows... I might bop back and forth between this and the iPhone every so often.

I do like having my feet dipped in both ponds.

Nexus One: Ordered.

2010-01-06T17:10:00.001-05:00

... and holy crud am I geeked. A co-worker just told me that he hasn't seen me this excited since the day I got my original iPhone (the day they came out, so it's been a while!). Things are getting a bit stressful here at the workplace, and I foresee it getting a lot worse, so I figured I'd get myself a little (and by "little" I mean kinda expensive) nerd toy, since the last one I got was about a year and a half ago (my iPhone 3G).

No, I've never touched one. I've always been somewhat enamored with Android phones, but they've always had some pretty major flaws (be it design, capacity, carrier, infancy of OS, etc.) that, aside from the fact I'm nowhere near the end of my AT&T contract, absolutely shot down any chance of purchasing one.

This time, however, the vast majority of those roadblocks are gone. Yes, I'm still about 6 months away from the end of my AT&T contract, but I'm simply going to use the Nexus One with my AT&T plan (yes, I'm aware of being limited to EDGE). Capacity issues will be wiped away with a nice 16GB or 32GB microSD card (which are dirt cheap), the OS is nice n' mature, and the design is actually pretty damn nice!

Oh yeah, and one last thing: Google Voice. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to finally use my GV account on a mobile to actually make calls and send text (without convoluted workarounds, such as is required with the iPhone).

Speaking of iPhone, I am going to miss it. I will. No Android phone has the well-roundedness that the iPhone has. No mobile OS is as slick as iPhone OS. Android 2.1 comes close, but I'm not expecting it to be as nice as iPhone OS... but I've had iPhone for 2.5 years now, and I'm ready to take a bit of a break to either see if the grass is greener, or to prove that the iPhone pasture is the best there is. I can always go back to iPhone (seeing as how I have 2) if something drives me nuts about Android.

One thing that does worry me, however, is managing of media. I do listen to podcasts and music on my iPhone, and I know I'm now going to have to manually manage that on my Nexus One, at least until someone figures out how to sync it with iTunes (yes, I know there are management apps out there, but none are as slick and easy as iTunes, and I'm not going to take a step back in that department). We'll see.

A few notes:

Google allows you have it engraved for free (with a warning about how engraved phones cannot be returned). I did not get mine engraved... I'm trying to keep it as simple and Apple-esque as possible. ;)
The purchase process could not have been faster/easier. Wow, has the Goog it simple. This may have something to do with the fact that I purchased an un-locked phone, but I did venture into the "let's ditch AT&T" territory last night, and it, too, looked incredibly easy.
A few numbers analysis I've seen around the web peg the 2-year cost savings of an unlocked Nexus One on a T-Mobile plan at around $500 or more over the iPhone 3GS or Moto Droid. I have no qualms about switching to T-Mobile, especially when it's moving away from AT&T.

I'll post back after a week with what I find.

john and kate plus eight? seriously?

2009-05-27T01:42:00.000-04:00

This is a post about John and Kate Plus 8. I honestly have to say that I really have no idea who these people are, but I hear things around the office about this show from time to time...nalthough nothing that's impacted me to the point that I'd remember what was said. I honestly have no idea who they are, and I'm not going to google them to find out about them.

I'm writing this, however, because I've heard markedly more about them today than normal... something about how their show last night sounded scripted, rehearsed, heartless, fake, abnormal, cold, et cetera. (Here's the part where I come off as pompous) But I'm not going to look more into their lives, because I believe that, while many Americans think that we're becoming a nation of abortion-loving, pot-smoking welfare sponges, our thirst for "reality" television soaks into and exploits peoples lives in ways that, had these more conservative-type folk been personal friends of the subjects of these shows, they would never approve of (If you value individual privacy so much, then why are you so into John and Kate Plus 8?), and would think these shows are, in my opinion, not really of any value to any of us.

So apparently this couple is having marital issues. Real, manfactured, I don't know, and I really couldn't care less. It's not that I don't care at a personal level, because I can certainly relate: marriage is the source of the most wonderful, as well as most trying, times of my life. But I turn on the TV late at night, and on the very day that I start really hearing about this show, the first thing I see is Larry King with a marriage counsellor and 2 other "analysts" on his show talking about what's going to happen to the show, what this couple needs to do, blah blah blah. It's all over the blogs. It's one of the most-searched tags on Twitter. Facebook statii are alight with confessions of T+K+8 obsessions/concern. Suddenly, the nation is even more obsessed with this couple because omfg, they're having relationship issues, and finally it's interesting.

You might say "well, they put their lives out there on TV, so we're entitled to our opinions, because we know them so well!" I can see why you'd make that argument. But no, American knows what it sees on their TVs. They know what the studio/network allows them to see. They all thought Jessica and Nick were so effing perfect, then all of a sudden it fell apart (gasp!). America knows nothing–yes, nothing–about John and Kate. Nothing. Let it go. And when people's relationships start falling apart, please don't start making money off of it. And if you see people making money off of it, don't perpetuate it.

I guess it just astounds me that we've gotten to the point where we find these people with an interesting situation, start making a reality show about their perfect/interesting little lives, and when it starts to fall apart, we're all more than happy to keep the rollercoaster going and exploit the suffering of others. Suffering is a key point here: from the little I've heard, it sounds to me like this couple is in a state of suffering. Perhaps they're at an impass in their lives where they're realizing that it's not working. Their family is falling apart. And we're all sitting there watching it, and the advertisers are loving it, because they all know that we're eating it up.

The only way it's going to stop is that we stop watching. If you want to see families falling apart (which I actually think is a helpful thing to see, but not as a reality series), there are plenty of real-world examples that will drive home the lesson and have a more worthy and effective effect on you than any television series. Families can be fucked up, and that's where you should be learning these types of lessons from.

Let John and Kate work on their issues by themselves. It's hard enough when you don't have cameras jammed in your face... and if any of you actually cared about these people, you'd stop watching.

Windows 7 RC Update

2009-05-06T14:25:00.001-04:00

Windows Aero
Here's a few screenshots of what I was talking about with Vista/7 Aero:

This, my friend, is the Gadget Gallery, where you add Apple Dashboard-esque "gadgets" to your desktop. But what the fuck was Microsoft thinking with this one? What the hell is with the glowing text?! Seriously. Look at this window. Look at it. It's shit. It's worthless. It's making me angry just looking at it. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go punch a baby.

Another shot of the Gadget Gallery, with a background that's a little more "realistic." But see, in my experience, most people don't have realistic backgrounds. They have pictures of themselves with 82 other drunken frat/sorority kids turning each other upside down to get the treat. Aero should look decent against any background, as Mac OS X's Aqua does. And even with this different wallpaper, it still manages to downright anger me. Glowing link text? Seriously. Fire that designer, now.

Sloppiness
Microsoft still hasn't put the touches on applications sitting around the filesystem that have been around for literally over a decade. Apps like Notepad, Regedit, Write (WordPad), etc. still have the 8-bit icons they were born with, which effing games have updated, 512x512 pixel 8-bit masked goodness. Oh, and the filesystem, while having been cleaned up a touch, still has shit like this going on:

Program Files, sure... integral part of any OS. Makes sense. Users, of course. Critical info in there, and shouldn't be buried. Windows: obviously. That's the meat n' potatoes. PerfLogs? What the fuck is that? I mean, I know what it is, but why the hades is it sitting with the very few, directly OS-related main components? After all of the crap they have cleaned up from the filesystem root, they leave Performance Logs? That's like cleaning up a massive oil spill in the arctic, and leaving 167,000 empty boxes of Tide on the shore when you leave. C'mon!

As for the MacBook Pro installation last night, it had a few hitches, but all ended well. Initially, after installing the Vista64-compatible drivers that came with the MacBook Pro, Aero wouldn't work, and would only do Aero Basic (which is incredibly ugly, even moreso than what's shown above... even in light of it not having transparency support, save menu shadows). Miraculously, running the performance rating tool in System Properties "activated" Aero's full effects. Whatever. Also, Kaspersky's Windows 7-compatible AV application, which installed just fine on the Mac mini, actually brought Windows 7 to its knees immediately after install while self-updating, and I had to force-power off the MBP. Nothing should be able to do this, save a crashed driver.

I am enjoying Windows 7 more than Vista on the same hardware, so far, even with the RC's current misgivings (which will probably end up in the release anyhow)... we'll see how the few games I use Windows for fair (Company of Heroes and America's Army, basically).

Man I'm glad I'm a Mac guy.

Windows 7 RC + Mac mini

2009-05-05T17:00:00.019-04:00

Ok, I just downloaded the 32-bit version of the just-today-released Windows 7 Release Candidate (64-bit is coming down the webs as I type this), and I thought I'd blog about the install on a 1.83GHz Core2Duo Mac mini w/ 3GB RAM, hit-by-hit style. With the ISO burned and in the drive, here we go!

Boot the Mac mini holding Option to get Startup Manager. "Windows" optical disc shows, as expected. Chosen, and booting begins.
In Setup now. This lil' guy has a few partitions on it, so I'll wipe those. Interesting: the Setup disc manager sees the EFI partition, which is rare. It appears you can even delete it!
Removed all partitions (except EFI), and attempt to create a new single partition for Windows 7. Notice my use of the word "attempt." Dissed. Stiffed. Stifled. No. "Windows cannot be installed on this partition because it resides on a GPT-style disc" (not exact verbiage, but that's the gist). Ooook... weak.
Actually restoring Mac OS X Leopard on this guy so I can Boot Camp it and make sure the MBR "emulation" for the partition table is there. This should absolutely NOT be required, Microsoft... no excuses. Support for EFI and GPT should be flawless out of the box with this OS (heck, should have been back with Vista).
Ok, back in Windows 7 Setup. MS really needs to get rid of the Spinning Doughnut of Light (the wait cursor). That thing is just lame.
Setup will now allow installation on a newly-formatted NTFS partition. EFI partition appeared to have been turned into a 128MB "Unallocated Space" partition. I'd like a straight-up Windows installation, so I remove all partitions, save the initial mini-partition (assuming it's still EFI).
Back to step 3. I'm glad I've got a NetRestore environment and the restores only take 5 minutes. I'm not sure if this is an Apple thing, but I'm assuming not... neither the Intel-based architecture, nor EFI, are Apple-specific.
Restored Mac OS X, Boot Camp'd, etc. Back in Setup. Installing on a fresh NTFS volume. Didn't touch the other partitions. Movin' right along!
Setup's finished, and just rebooted the machine. There's a new animated welcome screen: 4 colored lights swirl together to form the new Windows 7 logo. Looks decent.
Set Up Windows has greeted me, and is prompting for information: User name, computer name, password and password hint. I hate how it requires a password hint to continue. I type "no." Other typical setup stuff such as time zone and product key.
"Preparing your desktop..."

On to putzing around. General speed certainly feels faster than Vista, and the visuals of the OS certainly have more "polish" than Vista, but on the whole the UI is Vista. I applaud MS's efforts with Aero, but man, the translucent effects are just... visually confusing. I really don't need to see through those massive window borders. Yes, I know you can adjust the translucency, but it's pretty see-through out of the box, which is how most people leave it.

Of course, the first thing I do is snag the latest beta of Google Chrome, as I cannot stand IEx. Once installed, I head into my favorite Google apps, Gmail and Reader. Lightning quick. Reader cold-loads in under 3 seconds.

The included themes seem decent. There's an eccentric theme called "Characters" that's got some good colors going on, so I go with that.

I notice a pulsing flag icon in the system tray (which is now monochromatic, much like another OS I've used (::coughmacosxcough::), which is a welcome change.... MUCH less distracting. We'll see how long it takes the OEMs manage to ruin this. I click the flag, which informs me that I haven't an anti-virus package installed. Let's fix that. Symantec Antivirus Corporate 10.2 seems to install properly, and has self-updated flawlessly. Unfortunately, a look at the Action Center (which is invoked when you click the flag in the system tray) informs me that SAV 10.2 tells Windows 7 that it's no longer supported. Drats!

I head to Microsoft-recommended Kaspersky Labs, and download their Windows 7 Technical Preview AV app. Installation is a bit of a pain, but I won't hold it against MS (yet).

Tonight I'll be installing the 64-bit version on the MacBook Pro. I'll post with any interesting tidbits!

iPhone+GoogleMobileApp > NewtonOS

2009-04-21T15:30:00.000-04:00

Depressing robots? Sign me up.

2009-04-11T06:19:00.001-04:00

Wow, does this look interesting. I'm a big big big fan of both Solaris movies (no, haven't read the book yet), and Moon looks to be clearly inspired by the Solaris story.

Try not to notice the site's favicon, though. It makes me feel like I just met Steve Jobs or Sergei Brin, and while I was shaking his hand I noticed some poo on his shoe.

[Update: Apparently I need a wide-screen-video-friendly layout. View the non-circumcised video here.]

She's comin' down.

2009-04-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

Sad, sad news. Again.

New Gmail and Google Calendar for Mobile

2009-04-08T01:43:00.003-04:00

Today, Google rolled out a new interface for Gmail and Google Calendar. These are Google's first web application to use HTML5 and local databases, which allows for some "light" offline usage of your Gmail and Calendar information. In fact, as of 7pm-ish tonight, I beleive a bug exists (it kept poping up for me upon page refresh) that alerts you to this offline functionality.

As some of you know, I'm quite the Gmail fan. I ::gulp:: don't use a desktop email application anymore (more on that later!), with one "exception," which is MobileMail on my iPhone. For work email, that's probably going to remain the case... MobileMail is definitely faster than the web-based Zimbra interface for iPhone (nice try though, Zimbra!).

But, just after I was showing this new functionality off to a coworker this afternoon, I needed to email a friend with information based on an email I had just sent an hour prior, and hopped back to MobileMail (as I normally would) to do so. As I was moving back, back, forward, scrolling down, etc... I realized that if I were in the native Gmail interface, I wouldn't need to do any of this "extra" navigation between folders just to move within a conversation. The web interface proved itself much more efficient than the desktop app, once again.

Take a look at the difference:

MobileMail. Nice, clean.

And here the Gmail interface:

Oh, look, a search function!

Here's a conversation view:

Much more detail within a single window than the MobileMail interface. Now, yes, I'm a stickler for a good UI... but if the the tradeoff between good UI and speed is too great, I'm going to go for speed. And that's what's so impressive about the new Gmail/Calendar interface: the speed is nearly native... and this is just the beginning of what HTML5 is going to bring to handset devices with a decent rendering engine (read: WebKit), most notably iPhone and Android-based phones (note: the new apps supposedly share over 90% of their code between the iPhone and Android versions).

I'm also a big fan of the Floaty Bar: a button bar that hovers with you as you scroll through messages, and (get this) pops up and dynamically updates as you select items from your message list. *Very* impressive.

[Update 2009-04-08] Looks like Gruber's pretty impressed, too... which is surprising, 'cuz the guy's a picky mofo.

It really is that bad. Really.

2009-04-01T16:24:00.002-04:00

Ok, this is pretty funny. Trent really really hated Chris Cornell's new album with Timbaland, and very noticably tweeted his feelings to the general public. Now, he's put the icing on it:

Be sure to put in your email address and "purchase" a copy. Totally worth it.

What's missing here?

2009-03-16T16:04:00.001-04:00

So I was ~~staring lovingly~~ looking at the Googleplex in Google Maps yesterday, and I noticed something... something very cool. Something I'd expect every Fortune 100 technology company to have. Can you spot them?

zee Googleplex

So I tapped in 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA to verify a suspicion. My hunch was spot-on:

Microsoft Headquarters

I then tapped in 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA, really expecting to reinforce my affections for my other obsession. Regretfully...

Apple Headquarters

I'm actually greatly disappointed in both Microsoft and Apple, but especially Apple, with their recent Green push in manufacturing and packaging.

Give up? Look in the labels for this post.

Google Chrome for Mac Alpha Beta Beta Beta Beta... BETA.

2009-02-12T08:17:00.044-05:00

I was just about to download and build the latest Google Chrome build for Mac (as it's been a few months since the last attempt), when I ran across this fella's pre-built package he made available for us nerds. While it's really almost identical to Safari 4 beta's, it's still pretty heartening to see an alpha-quality browser that beats the tar out of the current Firefox, IE7 (and 8!), Safari 3 and Opera 9's. Here's a quick look:

Pretty boring, eh?

Obviously still very early in development, current builders haven't put a lick of effort into the interface at all. There is no tab support (thus no per-tab processes to test), no keyboard shortcuts (i.e. cmd-L for the location bar, etc.), and basic things like printing doesn't work. But what I can say about it is that it's wicked fast (I'd say just as fast as the current WebKit nightlies), JavaScript-heavy web apps load in a heartbeat, and the rendering is pixel-perfect (interestingly enough, this build of Chrome supports CSS rounded corners, which the current Windows release of Chrome, 2.0, does not!). It even scores a full 100/100 on the Acid3 test (current WebKits also score 100, Safari 3 scores Firefox 3 scores 71, and the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 gets 23, I believe).

Again, it's very early, and most of what defines Chrome as a new generation browser isn't there yet, but the meat n' potatoes are. Now, we just wait.

C'mon Goog, get the lead out!

It's like an all-ages show that doesn't suck.

2009-02-11T13:09:00.003-05:00

I've been a fan of this little site for a few years, as it's served up some of the best live performances I've seen recorded, but just in case any of you out there haven't been privy to La Blogotheque, check it out, especially the Take Away Shows. Some that I've especially enjoyed are (in order of age):

Okkerville River
Au Revoir Simone
I'm From Barcelona
The National
Arcade Fire
Andrew Bird
Beirut - This made me a huge fan.
St. Vincent
Handsome Furs
Jens Lekman
Animal Collective
Bon Iver - Amazing set.
Man Man
Lykke Li and El Perro Del Mar
Seasick Steve - This one is spectacular.
Tom Jones - Not the best one on there, but very well done. Tom's not exactly my style, but he still rocks.

St. Vincent - These Days

2009-02-11T13:03:00.002-05:00

So good. Too bad she's not cute 'er nothin'. Hah!

Goodbye MobileMe, hello Google Sync.

2009-02-10T09:58:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, Google rolled out their beta of Google Sync, their over-the-air sync services that ties your desktop and mobile devices to your Google Mail, Contacts and Calendars. Being a Google freak, I of course had to take the plunge immediately on my iPhone, as I've been wanting for ages to have my iPhones native apps sync to my Google account, rather than my $99/year MobileMe account. Don't get me wrong, I like Apple's MobileMe, and I'll probably still have it for a while, but let's be honest... it's about $70/year too expensive, and it's a little too tied to the Mac side. And, while I think Apple's online apps look great, I actually prefer the minimalist looks of Google's online applications. Plus you throw in Google Docs, its integration to gmail and calendar, and the universal accessibility of it all, I think it's a winning combination.
Anyways, moving to Google Sync was pretty darn easy. Basically, here's what ya do:

On your iPhone, disable/delete your MobileMe account. I have not tried not doing this, but I'm guessing it'll either go all haywire, or most likely the iPhone will complain when you try to attach it to your Google account.
Next, you create an account on your iPhone for your Google account. This is where ActiveSync comes in. Because Apple hasn't provided outside developers a means of doing this in any other way, Google has licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft, which allows you to essentially set up an Exchange account on your iPhone. Follow the quick steps from Google, and you're nearly immediately presented with the options of what to sync with your Google account.
That's it. Your contacts and calendars are immediately pushed down to the iPhone, and you're back in business!

I gave it a shot with mail, contacts and calendar, and sure as poop, it works like a champ, with nearly-instant results! I'll post back with how long it takes to go in each direction.

Google adds PDF viewing to Google Docs Mobile

2009-02-09T13:49:00.006-05:00

I knew they were listening to me.

Last night, while nerding, I was blindsided with the spectacular news that Google added Google Book Search to their iPhone/Android offerings, and it immediately popped into my partially-toasted mind: Google Books' renderer = Google Docs PDF renderer. This means I can now view the crapload of PDFs I have archived in my googdocs, right on my iPhone, from anywhere. Technical manuals, religion/theism books, cheatsheets, all of 'em. Thanks again, Goog!

Seeing the PDF in the list, I'm used to.

Viewin' the bitch, I am not!

New Google Reader!

2008-12-05T10:31:00.002-05:00

Once again, one my favorite companies has managed to deliver another great update to one of their already-fantastic free applications, and not screw it up. In this case, my favorite Google application, Google Reader, received a bit of a facelift last night. Gone are the rounded corners of the reading area and navigation groups. Item option icons (at the bottom of each news item) are now much more pleasing to the eye, and the whole interface is basically a bit more compact and space-efficient. Friend's shared items get their own navigation group, and each nav group is now collapsible, which I'm diggin' in a major way (I have a lot of subscriptions, so this means a lot less scrollin' around!). Overall, it just feels a heckuvalot more "polished."

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Reader has changed the way I use the web. Really. I'm not puffing this up in any way. If Google were to take my precious Reader away, I would be really, really, really unhappy.

Not to be left out, the iPhone version of Reader got a little touchup as well, which was a great surprise to me as I was sure they wouldn't touch it, as it was basically re-created from scratch just a few months ago. To my delight, they updated that as well, passing on the new item icons and button styling to my beloved Mobile Reader.

Thanks Goog!

(More about it on Reader's official blog: Square is the new round.)

No way, no how, no Palin.

2008-09-28T01:06:00.004-04:00

Please please PLEASE please someone tell me this isn't happening.

(Excerpt from Couric's interview with Palin):

COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

Now, I'm used to the gibberish that politicians (yes, even Obama) can spew out, but wow, that response is something I could never have foreseen.

Can it be polished with tinfoil and Coke?

2008-09-02T21:21:00.009-04:00

As you may have heard, Google inadvertently "announced" their very own web browser yesterday, and has since released a public beta (for Windows only, argh!), this very afternoon. Its existence has proven to be very interesting, indeed, even though there has been speculation for well over 2 years now that Google has been working on their own browser. They've maintained an Apple-esque level of secrecy over the project. My initial reaction:

First, and most interesting to me, is the fact that it's WebKit-based. This is very cool, as WebKit is the open source foundation upon which Safari (as well as a whole slew of other third-party browsers) is based upon, and is maintained by Apple. MobileSafari (iPhone) is obviously WebKit-based, as is the browser in Android, the upcoming open source mobile phone OS created by Google. What this means is that they have even more reason to optimize for WebKit, as that will benefit all Safari (Mac/Win), Midori, iPhone/iPod touch, Chrome and Android users. One could have easily assumed that if Google were to release their own browser, it would be based upon the same engine that their favored browser, Firefox, was based upon (gecko). The fact that they chose WebKit for Chrome and Android tells me that Google feels that WebKit has the featureset and scalibility they require for making their webapps friendly for anything from handheld up to desktop.

Second, and 99.99% as interesting as the first, is the fact that, in 2006, through search revenue, Google was responsible for roughly 90% of the Mozilla Foundation/Corporation's annual revenue. 90%. And, Google are huge Firefox fans, which makes one question why they would, in the eyes of many, release a competing product. Is the relationship behind Google and Mozilla souring? I don't think that's the case: I think that Google is going to continue to target all browsers (IE, Safari/Chrome, Firefox), and use Chrome to do things with a browser that the others won't... and when those features become popular enough, they'll be added to the other browsers. So yes, it will appear at times that they're showing preference for Chrome, but only because they can only accomplish something using feature x in Chrome, but sooner-or-later, feature x will be added to Safari, Firefox and IE (most likely in that order, heh). This is Google's way of steering the ship that is web browser functionality. This is Google's way of creating a platform that is going to further blur the line between desktop app and web app.

Third, I think Chrome is going to help people get to the point where they're not afraid to be using multiple browsers, perhaps simultaneously, on their computers. Chrome is going to do some things very well, and other things, well, not. Some of us will use Chrome only for certain functions/sites, and Firefox/Safari/IE for everything else. Personally, I'm waiting for something to tie all of my browsers together, most likely in the form of a Bookmark/Favorite syncing utility that spans browser and OS. A Google Bookmarks on steroids, if you will. Think about it: what stops you from using Firefox and/or Safari and/or IE all simultaneously? Or hop from one to the other from day to day? Ok, IE I can see... it just plain sucks. But for me, I hop between Firefox and Safari a few times a day for different sites I use. Their functionality and speed are nearly identical now. The only headache I have in hoping back n' forth is the fact that my bookmarks are not in sync between. I do use Google Bookmarks, but the integration isn't there in Safari for using the bookmarks... only for creating. If that could be eliminated, I'd be one happy camper. Do the same for Chrome, and I'll be back n' forth between browers all the live-long day. I don't want to switch browsers, I want to float amongst them. ;)

A few things I like about Chrome:

The location bar. Very IE8-ish, but in a good way. Basically, take the über-bar from Firefox 3 (my favorite new feature!), and combine it with the domain-exentuating display from the IE8 betas:
Very cool! I also like how the point-size is larger, thus calling attention to exactly where you are. No 9pt type here. And I really like how (as you'll see in the next screenshot) you're invited to type a URL, previously visited site, or a search, all in one field. What a smart space-saver!
"Incognito" for private browsing. I'll let you imagine where this can come in handy (fyi, Google says it's great for secretive surprise gift shopping... What else?!):
Very well done. The window itself has a completely different look, complete with private-eye dude in the upper left, indicating in no uncertain terms that you're in "special pr0n mode."
Harmful site database updates, updated once every two hours. I feel cozy already:
Worry not: Chrome is up to date!

I'm highly anticipating the Mac and Linux versions, so I can bat those around. I sincerely hate Windows' text rendering, and during my 2 hours with Chrome today, I must say my biggest complaint was having to put up with ClearType. I hate it. Hate. It.

As many know, I'm a total Googlephile, but I am not looking for this to displace Firefox 3 as my primary browser. Who knows, it might... but like I said before, I don't want to be stuck with any one browser. Although, I'm the guy who admits to being an atheist, with a slight agnostic twinge. So, who knows... perhaps something will come along that makes me say "wow, it's the One."

But right now I'm thinking that's romantic, but just a bit silly.

Still don't get it.

2008-09-02T11:54:00.002-04:00

Too perfect.

Morgan Freeman's not impressed with In Rainbows.

2008-08-19T08:43:00.002-04:00

Ok ok, it's a bit old now, but it still kills me every time I watch it.

jane?

2008-08-06T23:17:00.003-04:00

Punch me in the face. Gouge my eyes out with a pencil. Drag me from detroit to the mexican border. Refuse me food, water, internet, affection... any human interaction. Rip me from what I know. Show me something I though impossible. Take away my protection and humiliate me. Prove my history wrong. Laugh.

Detroit Barack City

2008-06-25T10:17:00.003-04:00

Check out these very cool campaign posters. All are downloadable as AI and EPS files.

Apple's Shift Towards Web-based Apps

2008-06-18T00:23:00.005-04:00

Last week's announcement regarding MobileMe was quite interesting to me for several reasons.

For one, I feel it was vastly overdue. Apple should have overhauled .Mac no less than a year ago when the iPhone was released. For example, I was embarrassed, especially, a few weeks ago while on a roadtrip with my wife, who was accessing her .Mac account via MobileSafari on my iPhone: "um, it's not displaying right."

I knew exactly what she was talking about: .Mac webmail basically does not work on the iPhone. Period. "Yeah, the webmail for .Mac doesn't work too well on the iPhone..."

Let me share something really quickly about my wife: she's a technophobe. Hates technology, for the most part. (And yes, I'm aware of the irony). She's a smart cookie, though, and knows what to expect from technology surprisingly well, actually.

That said, you can probably guess what her reaction to my informing her about .Mac webmail on iPhone. "What?!," she immediately shot back. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know..." I was embarrassed for Apple.

I should not have to defend Apple on something like this. They're above this. Their prize-winning $500 revolutionary communications device can't render their own Safari-tailored webapps? Yes, it's true, and very very sad. But Google (of whom some of your are very aware that I share another unhealty infatuation with, besides Apple) has a suite of web-based apps that kick the crap out of what Apple puts out there themselves. Use Google search, Notebook, Docs, Picasa Web, or especially Reader (even more-so the beta version!) and gmail, and you'll see what I'm talking about. They are beautiful on the iPhone.

So, you can imagine my excitement (and small twinge of regret*) when Apple announced MobileMe. Where the hell was this a year ago?! I have actually been seriously contemplating ditching my mac.com account, since I can do everything I use it for for free using Google's services (I really don't use my iDisk [thank you Docs!] much), but MobileMe might make me stick around for another year or so. We'll see... I'm not going to un-redirect my .Mac email to my gmail account any time soon. ;)

What I am excited about, though, is that Apple seems to be coming to their senses about web-based apps. I think the time really has come, in which users are no longer going to have to pay for the basic functionality we've come to expect out of every computer in the form of Microsoft Office. And other everyday functionality apps are soon to follow (in fact, beat) that movement. Heck, even Photoshop is going to the web. In fact, I think it's entirely possible that the MobileMe version of Apple Mail could surpass the OS-supplied version of the application, which raises some interesting questions. Apple could update the hosted version every day, week, month, etc. if they choose. The on-disk version would require software compiling, download, and installation, which is becoming more and more old-fashioned every day. I think the on-disk versions of key Apple iLife apps are going to become a mere conduit to Apple's online MobileMe apps (and for the Windows users, possibly plug-ins for key MS apps?).

And, of course, Google will be back there playing nicely with every other kid in the sandbox.

dance monkey, dance!

2008-05-17T15:42:00.002-04:00

Ran across this at (where else) Digg. Brilliant!

Google Apps for Domains

2008-05-02T16:10:00.008-04:00

Ok, so long story short: a practical joke at the office ended up in my purchase of a funny little domain that, to the outside world, will be used solely to host a simple website for a friend. But of course, for me, it's going to do so much more (cue sinister laugh).

I decided to use it to tinker with Google Apps for Domains.

This free (with paid version available) set of applications, including free email at your domain (a la gmail), Google Docs, shared calendaring, instant messaging, shared calendaring and contacts, etc., are a very impressive set, indeed, especially for the price. There is a paid version available, as well, which includes enhanced email security via Postini (which Google purchased last year in July), email recovery and compliance assurance, resource scheduling and even phone support (although, at $50/user/year, while one of the best, it's not the cheapest solution out there). Here's the rundown of the big features common to both free and paid:

Gmail for your domain. Via DNS, you direct your MX records to google's servers, and they host your mail for you, which uses the gmail interface, or you may use the IMAP mail client of your choosing. 6.6GB (and growing!) of free email storage per user. Why would you pay to host your mail elsewhere?!
Google Talk for your domain. Used either via the Gmail interface, dedicated Windows-based Google Talk application, or Apple iChat, your domain's gtalk automatically keeps your coworkers in each buddy list
Calendaring. Shared group calendaring for all of your coworkers, via Google Calendar. Sharable with the outside world. [update 2008-08-17: a few weeks ago, Google CalDAV-enabled their calendars! Read/Write from iCal works great!]
Google Docs. Google's Microsoft Office-competing online versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. These little apps rock. No more are your documents single user-based.. they are remarkably easily-sharable documents that exist in a truly collaborative environment, all safe and secure on Google's über-SAN. Each application exports in a variety of formats, including of course the standard MS Office formats for those stuck back in the dark ages (heh). I cannot tell you how liberating not having to manage files is, as well.
Google Sites and Start Page. I haven't played around much with Sites much, but from what I understand it's basically a WYSIWYG editor with templates that makes it easy to create company intranet pages. As for Start Page, this is your domain's version of iGoogle. Your users can populate their start page with the modules of their choosing, and administrators can define a domain-wide default Start Page. Modules include a Gtalk buddy list, Gmail inbox, weather, Google Docs, popular news sites, all kinds of stuff.

And of course, the beauty of all of this is that there are no servers or software to maintain (brilliant!). Being web-based, you know exactly what your users are seeing and experiencing (no worrying about what features Outlook, Mail, Thunderbird, Entourage, etc. support or do not support, no having to deal with each client app's own issues [Outlook's 2GB PST file limit damaged file stores, etc.], which is very important in a cross platform environment). But at the same time, it's nice to know that if you do have to use one of these desktop email clients, they're all supported as well.

So yeah, you have to look at this, compare Google's offering to traditional ISP offerings, and really ask yourself: why wouldn't just about every small company not use this?

jane!

2008-04-28T22:56:00.001-04:00

sometimes I think the best thing for me would be for someone to just kick me out. get me off this crazy thing!

a gem from digital cuttlefish

2008-04-16T08:25:00.006-04:00

I found this gem over on digital cuttlefish:

I thought I saw an atheist, once, walking down the street.
I checked for horns, I checked for tail, I checked for cloven feet;
Began to tremble frightfully—my heart was in my throat—
Then sighed in happy recognition, for ‘twas but a goat.

I thought I saw an atheist, down near a swollen stream
With scaly skin, and blood so cold, I couldn’t breathe to scream!
I looked into his bulging eyes, and prayed “God, grant my wish”
Then laughed in my embarrassment—it only was a fish.

I thought I saw an atheist, with fur and pointed claws,
And wicked teeth for chewing up Judeo-Christian laws,
I ran, and tripped, and fell to earth, then hid behind a log—
It caught me, though, and licked my face—of course, it was a dog.

I thought I saw an atheist, though cleverly disguised
Not giant and reptilian, but human, normal sized,
It looked to be engaging in productive, useful labor;
But no, this was no atheist—this person was my neighbor!

I thought I saw an atheist; in fact, I saw a few!
My neighbor, and the grocer, and the cop, and maybe you!
I even found some in the church, right there beneath the steeple;
It turns out, to my great surprise… that atheists are people.

It's basically a poem from the point of view of a christian about atheists. Now this is what I like to see... honest, humble, understanding. Not judgmental, not condemning, not aggressive. Then, the revisited version:

...I thought I saw an atheist, upon the witness stand
It couldn't be! Not where I live! This is a Christian Land!
The Constitution guarantees my right to scream and shout;
As the Good Lord is my witness, I demanded "You! Get out!"

I thought I saw an atheist demand an equal voice;
I told him he could leave right now, and that could be his choice.
I said his view was dangerous--our children must not hear!
It goes against the Bible, which our government holds dear!

I thought I saw an atheist nod quietly, and sigh.
The odds were stacked against him, which no person can deny;
What happens when a person is denied his civil right?
I may have seen an atheist who's now convinced to fight.

Now we can all just get along.

Poison or Cure? Religious Belief in the Modern World

2008-03-01T12:55:00.005-05:00

My wife found this gem for me yesterday:

It's probably one of the best debates I've heard on the subject of whether or not religion is beneficial to mankind as a whole, or not. Christopher Hitchins is arguing, as he usually does so well, on the side of the non-believer, and Alister McGrath is arguing on the opposite.

Hitchens is his usual arrogant self, which, I have to admit, is part of the reason why I love the guy, but while I completely agree with just about everything the guy says, I think he could have a bit more tact while debating.

McGrath is an exceedingly patient and respectful person. I would concede that at no point does he attack Hitchens' stance, but it pains me to say that I would not concede the opposite... Hitchens has a far more aggressive means of carrying himself, and while I do enjoy his style of humor, I wish he as a little less of a jerk.

I have a tendency of doing the same, I think, as do many other non-believers in this believer-filled world. And I think the reason for our "aggression" is exactly that: we live in a believer-filled world, and often feel pressure from the masses, who assume we have the same beliefs they do. Hitchens is the epitome of that reactive aggression, in my view, so I give him much license.

I was actually very excited to hear McGrath speak, being a very decorated scholar, and an ex-atheist. I was very impressed with his first 20 minute speech, but I hate to say that the following rebuttals to Hitchens' speeches grew less and less potent... by the end, it seemed that he had nearly completely run out of steam, and had nothing else to offer, nor means of refuting Hitchens' assertions. I was really waiting for that moment where McGrath would say something that made me really think about something in a way I hadn't before, but it seemed that right off the bat, he was merely defending himself from a very no-holds-barred assault from Hitchens, and I found myself wanting him to brush aside what Hitchens said and really dive into his own version of "this is how I think it is," and not "this is why I think Christopher is wrong."

The moderator promises that these two gentlemen will return, and the discussion will continue. Here's hopin' he's right!

random

2008-02-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

"Sometime, somewhere you take something to be the truth. If you cling to it so much, when the truth comes in person and knocks at your door, you will not open it." -- Buddha

pownce me!

2008-01-22T08:22:00.000-05:00

Late last night/early this morning (midnight), Pownce finally opened to the public. "Great, another social networking application," you might say, and I would happen to agree with you. I've a Facebook account, MySpace account (most hated of all!), AIM, google talk, Twitter, goodreads, Vox (remember that one?), etc. But hey, they're free, so what's the harm I say. Giveittome.

So I signed up this morning, downloaded the desktop application (Adobe AIR-based, very cool!), and signed in. So far, I have to say I'm somewhat impressed. The GUI is nice and simple (though I wish it offered a compact or otherwise compressed view), and the memory footprint is pretty modest (34MB). So far so good on that front.

For those who don't know (which is probably most of you, as the beta program for Pownce was very small), the best way to describe Pownce is if AOL had invented AIM just a few months ago, armed with their current knowledge of how people use IM these days, they would have created Pownce. It's basically IM on steroids, but in a good way: you basically post things (IM-length messages, links, files or events), and choose between either the public or an individual to send it to. I think of it as AIM, FaceBook Wall/MySpace comments, and Twitter all rolled into one nifty little desktop app. It's also a bit Digg-ish.

I'm giving it a shot, and I'll probably pressure a few friends to sign up, so I can get the full effect. Add me if you feel so inclined!

call me a pessimist...

2008-01-21T21:38:00.001-05:00

On this 21st of January, Martin Luther King Day, I feel myself choking up a bit while watching the live broadcast of the top 3 democratic nominees on CNN this evening (clarification: Clinton, Edwards, Obama). Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I just watched King Jr.'s famous speech in Washington a few minutes ago.

[UPDATE: Let me clarify... I was enjoying the second part of the debate. You know... when they were sitting in those stylish red chairs, right next to each other, actually acting civil].

America has such a chance for change with this election that I can't help but believe that this is going to be one of the most important elections in my life... and I'm only 31.

But I'm trying not to get too emotionally invested in this election, as my confidence in America's election process is a confidence that transcends my own interests. In reality, I don't think it's going to end exactly as I wish it would*. If my candidate wins, hey... I'll be tickled pink. But while I get choked up hearing of promise and dreams, I'm really trying to temper my elation.

Pardon the shortpost™.

* i'm going for the longshot.

aaaaaaaah the mormons...

2008-01-17T21:50:00.000-05:00

So I was reading this earlier tonight, and, while busting out laughing, I was getting more and more mad at myself for not doing exactly what Bob did when a few salespeople appeared on my very own porch this weekend, hocking the very thing that you would be oh-so-foolish not to buy: God.

I say that I was getting mad at myself because it's always appalled me that these people of faith actually walk from door to door–my door, on my property–trying to convince me, sometimes employing fear in the process, to buy into their beliefs, and I've always wanted to sit them down and have a real conversation with them.

Honestly, I really don't fully understand why I'm so fervent about this, yet my compassion overrides... and I think that's why they get away so cleanly. Here's how it usually goes down:

It's Saturday, 9:39am.

Jenny (barely clothed): "Psssst, Mark! Um, I think there's someone at the door, and I uh..."

Me (still asleep, but waking): "Ergh.. eh... wha?"

Jenny: "There's uh, somebody at the door... were you expecting somebody this morning?"

Me (groggy): "Not that I..."

::click!::

The Mormons.

Adrenaline blur: Pants. Shirt. Stumbling. Living room. Door.

Me: "Hi!"

Champ: "Hello! How are you this fine morning!"

Me: "Great! How about yourself?"

Champ: "Ger-ate aaaas well."

Me: "Excellent. What can I do for you guys?"

Champ: "Well, actually we've come by this morning to share something with you. Do you have a few minutes?"

Me: "Ummm, suuure I do... is... is it a religion, by any chance?" (yes, I actually said the word "religion" in italics).

Sport: "Oh, you've heard of the Book of Mormon?"

Me: "Book of Mormon, sure, sure. But I, well... (eyes narrow) I think I'm set."

Champ: "Oh... kay, do you perhaps have any friends who are going through a rough time in their lives?"

Me (just trying to be nice): "Oh don't we all."

Champ: "Sure, sure... well, we have some pamphlets that we can leave with you if you'd..."

Me: "Actually, I'll pass on those. Thanks for your time this morning, fellas. And good luck in your travels. Hope you catch a few this morning."

Sport: "Heh, thank you sir. Have a good day yourself..."

Me: "I love you."

Nah, I didn't really say that but I was getting bored just typing that little exchange so I had to do something. Anyhow, here's what I take away from that little exchange:

I'm about as socially adept as one of those paver bricks you see arranged in a circular pattern surrounding the base of a fake tree in the middle of a mall in Texlahoma.
When these people come to the door, for some reason the nice part of me overrides the oh-my-god-i-want-to-rip-into-these-people-and-find-out-what-makes-their-little-minds-tick part. I want to ask them real questions, but all of a sudden I try to make them feel comfortable and, strangely, look out for them, even though they knocked on my door.
Mormons/religion salespeople pray on those who are getting their asses handed to them by life?
When they show up, I'm giddy. It's like someone said "Mark, the UPS guy just left a package labeled 'apple leopard messagepad prototype ULTRA SECRET' on the front porch with a return address reading 's.jobs from cupertino' on it. I immediately toss manslap in my shorts, dash for the front door, looking ecstatically for my new toy, but am immediately demoralized when I realize that when somebody says "package labeled 'leopard messagepad prototype,'" they mean "steaming hot pile of corn-laden jet-black sulfer-spewing horse excrement on fire." Drag.
When I open the door, all of a sudden, I turn nice. Damnit!

So help me understand this. Please. (I think) I'm a nice person, but the next time someone shows up on my front porch trying to sell me a religion, well... I don't think it's necessarily unkind to give it right back. They have to be expecting it, right? I mean, not from everybody, but from some... not everybody is going to just lay back and say "well, wow, yeah... ya know, I really haven't thought much about it before..." Some of us already have thought about it, and have very strong views. In fact, I think it's somewhat offensive to assume that I haven't given it thought and have come to my own views already. Don't most people think of these things before they buy a house? Don't they?! I would certainly hope so.

"There's something in the air"

2008-01-12T11:05:00.001-05:00

... reads the banners recently spied at the MacWorld Expo currently being setup in the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Rumors abound about what this could mean, of course, with rumor mills predicting WiMax in all MacBook and MacBook Pros, MacBook "nano" (the ultra-slim subcompact with no ports, thus everything is 'in the air'), an über-AppleTV that does everything (read: home media server), Time Machine over wifi (yawn.), etc. Here's my take:

iPhone wireless syncing of everything but music,
.Mac updates, including compatibility with iPhone, possibly including Back to My Mac (remote browsing and viewing of docs on your home Mac),
or I'd love to see a partnership with Google for the 700MHz spectrum, but due to the 5 year exclusive with AT&T, it ain't gonna happen.

But who knows... Steve has a tendency to bust our most well-founded predictions out of the water.

Thoughts?

Zimbra and Apple

2007-12-18T11:46:00.000-05:00

Damnit... I really wish Apple had bought Zimbra. I mean, I respect Yahoo n' all (they're pretty adherent to standards, they're Mac-friendly, AJAX pioneers, etc.), but if Apple would have purchased Zimbra, I believe it could have turned the collaboration industry on its head.

First, Apple would have a truly small biz-to-enterprise-ready collaboration suite. It competes with Exchange in handling email (actually bests it, I think), has great spam filtering built-in, has kickass calendaring and resource management (well, the resource management could use a bit of cleaning up), and the forthcoming 5.0 has task management and the "briefcase" function that is really going to make Zimbra irresistible to many (I'll be taking a weekend and upgrading us immediately after its release).

I think Zimbra is such a good fit for Apple due to the fact that it's so open: it uses MySQL for data storage, ClamAV for anti-virus, SpamAssassin for spam filtering, tomcat (now jetty) for the mail engine, postfix for mail delivery, OpenLDAP for directory, and a number of other open source packages for its internals. It supports IMAP, POP, MS-MAPI (in the paid version), iCal (you can publish/subscribe to/from any iCalendar-supporting app, such as iCal, Outlook 2007, Evolution, Sunbird, google calendar, etc.), WebDAV (in 5.0), and CalDAV support is planned soon after, which means that it will work read/write with Apple iCal, Evolution, Sunbird, and (supposedly eventually) Outlook. Zimbra can, and does, operate as a complete replacement for Exchange... something that Apple could do really well to provide, as it would turn their pokes into the enterprise market into deep, gouging jabs. Some more facts:

Zimbra 5.0's mobile interface was made for the iPhone. It's gorgeous.
It could easily be integrated into Open Directory even further, as it already uses OpenLDAP for its directory.
It already works with Address Book, iCal, Apple Mail, Finder (WebDAV), Safari. And swimmingly, at that.
It would force Apple to hone their clustering offerings, as Mac OS X is the only platform that isn't currently supported in those configurations.
It would be even one more reason for Linux fanbois and developers to love Apple. ;)

But alas... it is too late. Yahoo owns Zimbra now. And if Microsoft buys Yahoo, which I don't believe will happen, I'll be one horribly disappointed Zimbra fan.

(UPDATE) Ooooh ooh, I just thought of something regarding OpenLDAP integration: in a managed client scenario, OpenDirectory would provide a users' Zimbra mail server configuration, which would be provided to all necessary Apple (and perceivably third-party) applications via LDAP, so when he/she fires up Apple Mail, no configuration would be necessary, as it's all provided via their OpenDir profile. Tasty!

iTablet?

2007-12-14T10:07:00.001-05:00

I think it could happen. Why?

For some time now, Apple has had the software built into the OS to recognize handwriting (Inkwell, which works surprisingly well), and now, as show in the iPhone, multi-touch input, so they have all of the software necessary for a multi-input (read: non-keyboard/mouse-based) interface, making a keyboard less necessary.
The move to Intel makes possible much smaller logic boards, thus smaller form factors. Have you seen some of the subcompacts out there in the PC world? They're tiny! Imagine Apple's take on the sub-com (no, I do not think they'll do just a standard sub-compact and/or replace the MacBook with it).

Now, I'm not saying this because I would like to buy one... I probably wouldn't. Unless someone gave one to me. But then I wouldn't be buying it. Or if they were ultra-cheap... but honestly, I think a full-on laptop would be best for me, personally. But, if Apple does do a tablet... (I do so love lists):

No optical drive. They could ship it with a 4 or 8GB flash drive that is write-protected that contains an OS-restore image.
Firewire 400, USB, ethernet, WiFi, bluetooth. No audio (usb digital only), save the built-in speaker and mic. No DVI, but possibly mini-DVI.
Apple will make it a point to point out that most software is downloadable via disk image, from the publisher, these days (including Adobe CS2/3, QuarkXPress, and just about everything else except Office 2004... but 2008 is nearly upon us).
Probably no iSight.
There would be no keyboard. Keyboard completely on-screen, a la iPhone, but a larger implementation (obviously), possibly with a bezel-effect so as to not obscure completely content behind it.
It probably won't be called iTablet. iSlate? MacSlate? MacScribe? MacBooklet?

I dunno. Thoughts?

Google Apps via iPhone

2007-12-09T18:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, over the past few days I've been really geeking out to the various Google apps (especially when used via iPhone!), and today I tried out yet another that completely blows me away, and will be infinitely useful to me: Google Notebook. Basically, it's an app that is used to record bits of information of all kinds... command line syntax, URLs, lists, recipes, you name it. And it works splendidly via iPhone (you can only add to your "mobile notes" from the iPhone, but you can view all notebooks via iPhone).

The rest:

Reader - has consolidated 10 of my favorite Safari tabs into one(!), and is also amazing via iPhone. FAST.
gmail - again, iPhone... it supports conversation view, and is arguably better than MobileMail. Full composition support.
Documents - Very usable via any standard browser, but really nice via iPhone! You can't edit, but you can view every type (docs, spreadsheets, presentation). View only.
Photos - the already-minimal (but beautiful) interface is amazingly slimmed on the iPhone. I wouldn't say it's beautiful, but its very usable and fast. Gets the job done, and gets it done well (doesn't hold a candle to .Mac galleries, but hey, it's free!). View only.
Calendar - VERY nice iPhone interface. Couple the slick phone interface with SMS alerts, and you have a killer MobileCalendar replacement... except for the fact that you cannot change calendar items after they've been entered on the iPhone (via "quickadd"). So if you do "dinner with jenny tonight" instead of "dinner with jenny tonight at 7pm," you're stuck with an all-day event.

Overall, Google is really going for the jugular with their apps on iPhone, and across the board on the desktop. Their apps are really making me question my subscription to .Mac. I don't think google's intentionally doing this, but they've been building one heckuva foundation for years that they're finally starting to cash in on... and it's really compelling.

Test post via iPhone

2007-12-09T16:04:00.001-05:00

This is yet another test post via the iPhone.