Wes' thoughts

My Current Blogging Workflow

2011-05-08T00:35:00.001-07:00

My blogging workflow has been bugging me for some time. I used to write directly into the Blogger's editor in the web browser, but that's just begging to lose work, so I've explored a number of other options.

I've written drafts into Evernote, where I keep ongoing notes, mostly work and personal projects. They felt lost there, so that didn't work for long. I next wrote into my DevonThink journal file. That was cumbersome, since I keep that file in an encrypted disk volume for safety's sake, so that didn't work to well either. I wonder if that's one reason I don't write journal entries as often as I like.

I've drafted quick thoughts into Simplenote, and they have occasionally become blog entries. That works great for quick thoughts that need developed, but it's cumbersome for longer entries, since I use Simplenote and Notational Velocity for more ephemeral things.

I installed the MarsEdit trial a long while back, and bought it when my evaluation period was over and I wasn't anywhere near done with my evaluation. I very much like the post management and publishing aspects of MarsEdit, but I very much dislike composing text there.

I've been keeping an eye on Markdown for a very login time; I knew it would one day be important to me, but I'd not yet figured out how it fit into my workflow.

Last night when I was writing up a summary of iOS weather app evaluations for a friend in email, I realized where Markdown would fit in: as the language for draft blog posts.

I next revisited Markdown tools. I tried it first in MarsEdit, but the whole thing felt clunky. I Googled around a bit, and then tried BBEdit - another tool I'd purchased a long time back before my eval was done but after the free eval had expired and was sitting idle. BEdit makes Markdown dead simple, with its built-in preview and quick access to the Markdown to HTML conversion filter.

Here's the current workflow: Draft in whatever is handy - BBEdit if I'm at my Mac - then save in my blog posts folder as I go. SugarSync keeps track of the saved drafts as I go - so nice! When I'm happy with the post, I copy it into a new blank file in BBEdit and run conversion filter to get HTML code. I then copy the HTML and past it into a new post in MarsEdit and publish, immediately checking any links to ensure they work.

I suppose it's a bit more convoluted that it should be, but at least I'm comfortable with it, and I've picked up a new skill: composing in Markdown.

An ironic side note: to date I have used TextMate rather than BBEdit as my daily go-to text editor. I prefer TextMate's clean UI to BBEdit's cluttered interface. I'm now looking into cleaning up BBEdit's UI through its extensive customization; I'm making progress.

Update

I couldn't find a stock template I liked more, so I decided to fix this one. As I looked into the way Blogger used the various header levels, I determined that this template reserves h1 and h2 for itself, so I must start with h3 and work down from there. I updated the post on iOS weather apps and it now looks much better.

This blogging stuff is now kinda fun. I hope to now post more frequently.

Mac users and the Kindle

2011-05-07T23:59:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday, Randy Murray wrote on Twitter:

I did not expect: Mac fanatics love Kindles. It tops the list in sales of Patrick Rhone's new book, Keeping It Straight http://t.co/CMQsQIs

I was a bit surprised at his surprise, but I saw a few others react similarly, so I was prompted to write a response.

In brief, I believe Amazon, in the third iteration of their only hardware product, has managed to capture a bit of Apple's design philosophy: the Kindle doesn't attempt to do anything except what it does well, and what it does well, it does better than any of its competition - it presents present long-form documents for reading.

All of Apple's products seem to be designed with a variant of this philosophy. The early iPods are the best example of this philosophy, and while the feature set of later iPods have grown, they've not strayed much - each feature is designed to be simple to use and to just work. They work so well that it's difficult for Apple's competitors to compete unless they take on the same philosophy, which seems to be brutally hard for most to do.

iPhones my be the pinnacle of Apple's application of this design philosophy. Though at times if feels like they can do anything, they really can't. What they do - browse the web, run apps, play music - they do better better than any other smartphone made. They handle phone calls quite well too, when good phone service is provided to them.

The Kindle is blissfully feature-light, as it is only designed to read long form documents. Those features are focused on optimizing that experience: the gorgeous, read-anywhere-there's-light display, the seemingly eternal battery life, the simple access to the best selection of ebooks, the ease of purchasing said books, the automatic bookmarking and syncing of bookmarks; I could go on and on regarding the minute details they've attended to.

The native apps Amazon makes available for other platforms enhance access to the Kindle. For instance, when I'm reading a book on my kindle and it's got a detailed and/or color picture, I grab my iPad, fire up the Kindle app, sync the book to it, and boom, there's the picure in color and a zoomable higher resolution. So nice.

Amazon's one current hardware product seems to have followed a design philosophy that Apple has perfected: they've created a product that does one thing better than any of its competition. Apple fans understand and appreciate that fact.

The best iOS Weather Apps I've Found

2011-05-05T21:35:00.001-07:00

This is a summary of the iOS weather apps I recently reviewed, as I became unsatisfied with the weather apps I was using on my iPhone and iPad. I was talking with my good friend Hobbes today about this revisit and he requested a summary. I thought I'd take this chance to become a little familiar with MarsEdit and Markdown.

Please forgive me for not writing reviews of these apps; it's not necessary, as Ben Brooks has already done a very good job of reviewing my picks. Please see the update below for links.

There are the two best weather apps for iOS that have received a consensus among those I read and trust online and myself. Unfortunately, they have lame names and lame icons. If I could only have two, this'd be them.

The Best

iPad

Seasonality Go

Almost perfect. On my first screen by itself.

iPhone

My-Cast Weather Radar

I'd forgotten it had a radar until I saw its full name; I just call it My-Cast, but that's not unique in the App Store.
It's got all the basics I need in a quick and pleasant layout.
Not on the front screen, as there are two faster apps on the front. On the second screen by itself. My go-to weather app when I need details and can't get my iPad out.

Honorable mentions

iPad

All three of these are in a group on the third screen; i.e., I almost never use them.

Moxier WeatherCaster

My favorite until this revisit. Good info and pretty, but it has those lame canned video loops that take space and video CPU. Needed replaced.

On my iPad, I've also got:

WeatherBug for iPad

Not as good, and has ads.

WunderMap

No ads that I saw, but map-heavy and info is too dense.

iPhone

Ah, here there are some other contenders. Thermo and Fahrenheit are on the front screen by themselves; My-Cast in on screen two by itself. WeatherBug is in a group on page three with the real rejects: Apple's Weather, AccuWeather, and TWC. Keep in mind that Apple's Weather was on my front screen by itself until the revisit.A

Thermo

Gorgeous, simple, and fast. Just the temperature now and yesterday at your current location.
On my front screen by itself.

Fahrenheit

Current temp for home location in a badge on the icon, updated about hourly or when launched. Gorgeous icon, and the data inside is good but not great.
On the front screen next to Thermo.

I look forward to your thoughts.

Update

I'd like to give credit to Ben Brooks for his blog posts on iOS weather apps, including this one that included My-Cast and this one that covers Seasonality Go. He also wrote a follow-up that includes a few more apps. Thanks, Ben!

It's been too long

2010-05-12T13:16:00.001-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. When I look back on the last seven months, I see two things that have occupied my time: work and school.

Work hasn't really become any more difficult, it's just become more intense -– it is taking more of my attention, I suppose. It certainly is more fun than it ever has been. When I think about it, virtualization and RFID/asset management seem to dominate my work efforts.

School is different that last summer or fall. Last summer my brother and I started attending Cornerstone's School of Ministry. It's a college-level Biblical studies program, and we've enjoyed it greatly. The teacher, Rob Dalrymple, is also involved in founding a graduate-level school, the Koinonia Graduate School of Theology. They offer enrichment-level enrollment – discounted, non-enrolled auditing. I was quite excited, as I was looking for something more challenging, but I'm far rom ready to commit to a graduate program.

Late last year I began attending classes at KGST as an enrichment student. I've taken Worldviews, a survey of Psalms, Biblical interpretation, and am now finishing up New Testament. I've tried to stay up with the reading and homework, but it's been quite challenging. Rob has graciously allowed me to make presentations on two different projects I developed, and they were both well received. I've got about a year's worth of reading backlogged. I am very much looking forward to taking the summer off from school and working down that reading backlog. I will also be pondering whether to get more serious about school, i.e. pursuing a certificate in the near future. It's going to be a good summer.

Birthday present from my parents

2009-09-09T23:20:00.000-07:00

Made in 1911. Fully restored. All original except new mainspring.
Sounds beautiful.

recently added to my iTunes

2009-08-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

New music:
Neal Morse: Lifeline: 2-disc special edition
Dream Theater: Black Clouds and Silver Linings: 3-disk special edition
Dave Matthews Band: Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King
Over the Rhine: Live From Nowhere, Volume Four
Stryper: Murder by Pride

Recently ripped (what took me so long?):
Boston: Boston, Don't Look Back, Third Stage, Walk On

Also recently acquired: Neal Morse: Sola Scriptura and Beyond DVD

What movie most resembles your life?

2009-07-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

What movie most resembles your life?

My first answer to that question was: I don't know; I've never seen a movie that boring, nor would I want to.

Then I thought for a minute. What about Spiderman, only without the girlfriend or superhero role? Oh, and I have a decent career, I pay my bills, and I have a most excellent roommate, my brother.

But that's not really a good comparison. I will keep thinking. Replies would be appreciated.

And then I thought, what movie would I most like to be in? First answer: anything where I get to interact with Scarlett Johannson. But that's not a good answer either. Hmm. This is a much more fun question to ponder.

One more thought about the first q: I do not think my life is boring; quite the contrary. It's just nowhere as adventurous as a good movie.

Thank goodness for the BART ride to SF this morning; I get to compose and meditate upon such frivolous thoughts as this.

Random stuff, including upcoming movies

2009-05-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's really been since January since I last posted here? Wow.

Anyway, it's been a really busy year. I've mostly been posting to my Twitter feed and to my Flickr photostream, and I occasionally post random findings to my Tumblog.

Lots of stories to tell. Maybe I'll get back here soon and tell some of them.

Oh, I almost forgot; here is a list of the movies I intend to see this summer:

Star Trek
Wolverine
Terminator Salvation (May 21)
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (May 22)
Up (Pixar) (May 28)
~~Land of the Lost (June 5)~~
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (June 24)
Public Enemies (July 1)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (July 1)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 15)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (August 7)

Adventures in Apple wireless networks

2009-01-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

(or: how to set up Windows XP as a client to an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station running WPA2 in a few easy steps - and no, it's not obvious, at least not to me)

I got an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station today.

My pre-historic Linksys WAP11, which I bought in the mid-90s (for like $250 - unbelievable, I know, but this was before PC laptops came with built-in WiFi adapters), finally gave up the ghost. Hence the need for a new AP. I considered a few different models, including the WAP54G, which is now only $60, but it's not feature-rich, and it doesn't do 802.11a or 802.11n. Linksys' 802.11n WAP costs like $150. I know I should have probably supported Linksys, a division of Cisco, for whom I work, but I've been drinking the Apple Kool-Aid, and it seems I'm quite addicted. Apple makes such beautiful, functional hardware.

Setting the AP up was trivial from my Mac, even over the air. I set it up as a bridge with WPA2 security, and it just worked. I quickly added my iPhone, and it worked too. Things had more signal bars and data flowed more quickly than I ever remembered with the WAP11. It's interesting to note that my 6 Mbps-down-DSL line was actually being hindered by my 11 Mbps half-duplex WiFi.

So after the Apple hardware was quickly configured, I sat down in front of the three Windows laptops that live here: my old Dell, my brother's Dell, and my ThinkPad from work. I first tried to add the wireless network the way I've always done it - manually. But Windows wouldn't connect. So I tried the Airport Utility, but that didn't work either. So I Googled around, and tried a few different things, but nothing worked.

So I tried the automatic way, which I don't think I've ever used before. I opened up the "show wireless networks" dialog and double-clicked on my new SSID. It prompted for the WPA2 key; I pasted it in (dang, it's long!), and up it came. Worked like a charm on the Dells. The ThinkPad was easier, since Cisco uses better WiFi management software - manual config was a breeze there.

So there you have it. I couldn't believe the fairly simple process of connecting Windows XP to a WPA2 Personal network wasn't easily findable, so I figured I'd post it. I hope it helps someone.

PS: the WPA2 keys are almost untypably long - much more so than WEP or WEP2 keys - so I recommend putting it in a text file on a thumb drive, and copy/pasting it. Worked for me.

To my Obama-suporting friends...

2008-11-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

To my Obama-suporting friends:

Please take good care of my country; we (the conservatives) will need it back in good condition in four years.

To my fellow American citizens:

God help us for getting what we asked for: change for the sake of change. Hopefuly, we learn from it, grow through it, and come out a better, stronger country.

Congratulations, President-elect Obama. I pray you are granted the wisdom to lead this country in the best way.

Some advice to aspiring IT professionals

2008-10-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

I was recently interviewed by a young college student studying MIS. One of the questions he asked me was:

What advice do you have for someone entering the field?

I responded with probably more advice than he wished. I wish more people followed this advice, and I hope I follow it as often as I think I do.

Herewith:

Always be open to new experiences.
Be open-minded.
Stay up with current industry trends, but develop wisdom to know when to not follow those trends.
Wisdom comes from experience.
Learn from your mistakes.
Learn how to get along with people of all kinds.
Realize that when you work in IT, you are a service provider; those you serve are your customers; your purpose is to meet their needs and make them happy, in that order.
Pay attention to your customers.
Realize that your customers don't always know what they need: your first responsibility is to help them determine what they really need, and your second is to meet that need.
Respect your boss.
Keep your boss informed, as he is responsible for your work.
Loyalty to your boss and your company is important.
Respect the law; always keep your work in the law.
Respect your customers' privacy; don't abuse your elevated privileges.
Be a trustworthy employee.
Be punctual.
Communicate clearly.
Use good grammar.
Communicate in a positive rather than a negative manner.
Think about who you're communicating to; adjust your message to their level.

BTW, what is the difference between MIS and IT? I there really any difference anymore? I think so, but I don't think the answer is clear. I asked the student, and am eager to read the response.

ESV: A tremendous new study Bible

2008-10-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

I received today my first copies of the long-awaited ESV Study Bible. I am blown away. I've been awaiting this Bible since I first found and fell in love with the English Standard Version translation when it was first released in 2001. The translation strikes an ideal balance between readability, eloquence, and a faithful literal translation. It's based on the best currently available ancient manuscripts.

As I've only had the study Bible for about an hour, I have much reading and evaluating to do, but my first impressions are quite positive. It's beautifully bound, both in the leather and hardcover editions. Both editions seem to be identical except for cover and gilding.

The study Bible is printed in full color throughout, with full color maps included with the text as well color plates in the back; it also has a tasteful light green highlight used where appropriate, including in table rows and section headers.

The complete study Bible is available online at no charge to all who purchase a printed edition; a code required for account creation is included with each Bible. It is a very well done online implementation.

I hope to post further thoughts as I read more, but at this point I'm quite impressed.

Catalina pictures posted

2008-10-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of the situation -- comfy sofa, warm cat next to me, neglected laundry, quickly approaching Monday -- and went through the 253 pictures I took while in Catalina last month, choosing a few favorites. Enjoy.

Peggy Noonan sums up my feelings about the current political situation

2008-10-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

In a column on wsj.com today titled Playing Frisbee on a Precipice and subtitled America's political class lacks the seriousness this moment demands, Peggy Noonan sums up nicely my feelings about the current political situation. Both candidates are speaking sound bites rather than addressing issues, and no one is forcing them to do otherwise.

The candidates are slinging mud at on another rather than trying to prove why they are the candidate with the better platform. The media, and the masses following them, are eating up all this mud-slinging and begging for more.

It's all terribly ugly, quite frustrating and rather depressing.

I can't wait for the election to be over, and for the nation to move on and deal with the issues in front of us.

O. My. Gosh. I'm a real Mac user now.

2008-09-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

I can't freakin' believe it. I moved my iTunes library and hence my iPhone, contacts, and personal calendar from my PC to my Mac today. In my mind, that completes the transition, as I should now be self-sufficient on my Mac - I should no longer need to even power up my PC.

I am now a Mac user. Wow.

This is a really a big deal.

Actually, there's one more thing I'm awaiting: Adobe CS 3.3; I've completed the platform switch, and am awaiting the install disks. I should be able to survive the next week, as Lightroom is working wonderfully on my Mac.

'm even reformatting my iPod to Mac format. Wow.

Now the real fun begins.

Some links to picture sets

2008-07-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Ah, it seems that whatever was wrong with the hotel network has been fixed; I'm seeing very few dropped packets now, and the Flickr Uploadr is working.

Here is my first Baltimore harbor set, taken yesterday from our hotel room overlooking the harbor. Here is my set from Union Station in Washington, DC. And here is my second Baltimore harbor set, taken today as I walked around the harbor near our hotel room.

My east coast trip so far

2008-07-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

Late last week, my Dad and I left for a visit to Virginia Beach and Baltimore. We really enjoyed Virginia Beach; it's a lovely place, but quite hot and humid. You can see pictures here.

We arrived here in Baltimore on Saturday. It's hot and very humid here as well, but this hotel room have better AC, so it's more comfortable. We went to Washington, DC yesterday, and did not much enjoy it. We went on a whirlwind trolley tour to see the highlights. The city is rather dirty, with tons of homeless hanging around. It's also hot and humid. I wanted to go back today, to see some of the historic sites and museums in detail, but was really too tired, after a few days of little sleep. I'm feeling much better now, and intend to go back to DC tomorrow and do some serious touring and picture taking.

I've been trying to upload yesterday's pictures to either Flickr or Smugmug since last night, but I've been unsuccessful; the hotel network is terribly lossy, with at least 13% packet loss constantly. I finally found a way to reliably push pics to Flickr, but it's terribly slow. I'll post another entry with links to the sets when they're done uploading.

Infiniti G37

2008-07-07T00:06:00.001-07:00

As those of you close to me know, I've been struggling with my 19-year-old, 215,000-mile Corvette for the past 18 months or so. Struggling with keeping it on the road, comfortable to drive, and whether to continue restoring it.

Yesterday, I changed the game. After a fair bit of research, and struggling with whether I want a new Corvette, I decided to do something completely different. I bought a new car - the second new car of my life.

I bought an Infiniti G37. It's absolutely gorgeous (see below), it has 330 horsepower, it handles like a dream, it's comfortable.

I took a few photos of it today.

I. am. tired.

2008-06-20T20:33:00.001-07:00

I am tired. Busy week; got slammed with cases. Not sure why. It's so nice to be on the way home for the weekend.

New King's X album: XV

2008-06-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

I got the new King's X album, XV, a few days after it became available. I've listened to it through a number of times over the past few weeks, both with my brother and by myself.

It is one of my favorite King's X albums, and that is saying something, as they are by far my favorite band, and they have some really good albums.

My favorite tracks at this point include "Pray" and "Repeating Myself". Truly beautiful stuff. Highly recommended.

First thoughts on my new Macintosh

2008-06-04T00:45:00.000-07:00

I've spent the evening (well, the last hour and a half since I've been home) on my new Macintosh. I've installed absolutely nothing since I received it this afternoon; I've only updated the OS and configured WiFi at work and at home.

I've used four apps: Safari, Mail.app, TextEdit, and system preferences. I've been able to do everything I need to at home. Incredible. I thought I'd need at least Firefox, but not yet. Safari is better on the Mac than the PC. Yeah, I'm impressed with Safari.

I suppose the ease of transition has been helped by the fact that I've pretty much moved my life to the web. We shall see if the
honeymoon ends as I get deeper into the switch. I must soon move my iTunes library, iPod, and iPhone.

I'm surprised about how much I've figured out so far; a quick help or Google search has given me the tips I need to uncover the quirkiness that is the Mac UI. Keyboard shortcuts are the most baffling, but I'm figuring them out and getting the hang of them. E.g. it's option-arrow to jump back a word, Fn-F10 to expose all windows of the current app. There should be a tab-key combination to cycle through the current app's open windows, but I've not yet discovered it. NBD, since I've got expose.

For the most part, the darn thing just works.

The single coolest thing I've found so far is the auto-brightness on the screen and keyboard. When I darken the room, the screen automatically dims, and the keyboard lights up. Beautiful. It's the first laptop I've ever seen that I can use in the dark. Totally awesome.

Alright, the ThinkPad has a light over the keyboard, but it must be turned on manually, and how am I to determine the keystroke in the dark?

Yeah, Macs really are that awesome.

Question for the Mac gurus. The delete key on a Mac functions like a backspace on a PC. Where is the equivalent of the PC's delete button?

I've ordered my first Mac

2008-05-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

I ordered my first Macintosh today: a MacBook Pro. I'm excited. I've wanted one for quite some time, but never had a good justification.

It finally happened today. Cisco is now supporting Macs, and they are finding their way into our labs, so I must support them. I need to be familiar with them, so I ordered one.

As familiar as I am with them from a distance, I have a lot to learn. I'm looking forward to it.

Our 2008 trip to Las Vegas

2008-05-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Ryan and my trip to Las Vegas for this year is booked. We're going for two nights only in late August to see King's X at the House of Blues. This year, we're taking our good friend Hobbes. It's going to be excellent.

a new tool/toy

2008-05-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

I got a new computer today. As a matter of fact, I'm typing this on it now. It's an Asus Eee PC 900, running Linux -- Xandros to be exact.

It's a neat little thing; it's kinda like a cross between and iPhone and a Windows laptop. It's really small, but easier to type on than a phone. With a little more practice, I should be able to touch type on it; I'm close to being able to do so now. Like an iPhone, it's all solid state, and it doesn't run Windows, so it's quickly usable on demand. But like a Windows laptop, it runs full apps including Firefox and Thunderbird so I can get much more done.

It's tiny, with a 9-inch wide-format screen, and weighs 0.999 kg - 2.2 pounds, according to Google. Yet the display is 1024x600, so there's a good amount of real estate. I'm able to use all my normal web apps without any trouble.

Yep, I think I'm falling in love with this little bugger.

It's showing its true Linux roots in that I had to follow a complicated multi-step process to set up the exotic wireless network setting we have at work, and it still didn't work.

But wireless at home came up perfectly the first time, so that was nice.

Overall I love it so far.

That's it for first impressions. I'll post more as I become more familiar with it.

Nice weekend overall

2008-04-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

I had a nice weekend overall. The bad news was that my brother hurt his back badly on Friday evening, and so was either visiting a medical specialist or was laid up.

The side effect of the above was that we spent a lot of time in front of the television. We watched The Terminator, T 2, and T 3 in order. Then I re-watched the first episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I was impressed with the series before, but am more so now. Its consistency with the movies is incredible; the writers really do their homework. While the third movie was in ways disappointing, I'm also impressed with the series as a whole, movies included; it's really terrific science fiction. It's much deeper than I remember. Very good stuff.

I also watched the first new episode of Moonlight last night. While the pace of episode seemed a bit rushed, it's really good to have the show back. I hope it's doing all right.

Oh, and it's so nice to have Bones back too. I'm feeling inundated with good television right now.

So, about the weekend, it was a huge bummer that my brother is in such pain, but it was so cool to hang out with him and watch a bunch of TV; he really enjoyed it too. That's why it was such a nice weekend, all things considered.

Love and pain

2008-04-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

It's amazing
how much good
     and how much bad
there is in life.

How a misunderstanding creates so much
     pain,
     suffering.

It's amazing
how much love
     there is
in the world
along with the anger,
pain,
and strife.

It's amazing that God loves us so much
considering how much we messed up his creation
and ourselves
and each other.

His love is why
there is any
love in the world
at all.

If it wasn't for God
and Him creating us in His image,
and His loving us
and giving Himself for us
there would be no love in the world at all.

Without Him there would be only selfishness
and strife
and pain
and suffering.
Hurt.

But with Him, even now,
there is Hope,
and there is
Love.

From my drawing class

2008-04-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a colored pencil drawing class; today was the first meeting. It was quite fun.

I took a set of pictures of the still life we're working on so we can re-set it next week. I'm putting them here so they'll be easy to find.

New Amsterdam and Hulu

2008-03-26T00:23:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an ad for an interesting show: New Amsterdam. I believe I saw the ad in a show I'd recorded and watched at a later date.

Which was a problem, as the pilot episode had already aired. It was not scheduled to run again in the near future. So I thought "bummer!" and blew it off. I saw another ad and my curiosity was intrigued, so I went to the network's web site to see if I could watch it online. No such luck.

Then I remembered I had visited this web site a while back when it was in beta; it did high-quality on demand streaming of network shows, but I couldn't remember its name. I later stumbled across an article about it, and put two and two together.

It's called Hulu, and they do have the first five episodes of New Amsterdam. They're in fairly high res; they scale well to full screen on my 1280x960 laptop display. The streaming quality is very good; it only paused a couple times, and each for less than a second.

Since it's free, there are a few commercials, and they aren't skippable. They're 30 seconds long, and only come one at a time. There's a dot in the scrubber, so you can see when they're coming up. While they're running, there's a countdown timer 'til the end. I just muted them and let them go by. No big deal.

I'm really happy with Hulu's service.

BTW, Hulu has the short recap BSG episode up now; it won't be on TV for a few more days.

Oh, and New Amsterdam is a good show. I give the pilot episode 4/5 stars. I'll watch the rest over the next few nights, and watch the rest on the DVR, after the next episode records next Monday.

After I'm caught up on New Amsterdam, I'll re-watch a number of episodes from BSG season 3. I got it on DVD at Borders this past weekend at a nice discount, thanks to their rewards program. Woo hoo.

Two cool book decoration styles

2008-03-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Two very cool ways of turning a book into another work of art:

Brian Dettmer's insanely creative Book Autopsies - (37signals)

And here are more pictures of Dettmer's work.

Fore-edge Painting: Frost

Here's a third; more bizarre to me:

Georgia Russell’s Book World | paintalicious

So looking forward to being home...

2008-03-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

I've had a terrific time here in Austin. I've feasted in the best food, all of which I just can't get back home.

I've enjoyed working in the Austin office. It feels so good to get things taken there; it's so nice to be appreciated.

I really enjoyed SXSW over the weekend. It was so much to get an overdose of such geekery, and to hang out in a wonderful town with my Bay area friends. But the past weekend just wore me out.

I am so looking forward to being home tomorrow. I miss my cats, my family, my house, my car. It'll be good to be back to the familiar. But then I'll miss this wonderful town.

There are always tradeoffs; we must carefully weigh the options and make the best decision.

I've loved being here, but it's time for me to go home.

Having fun at South by Southwest

2008-03-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

I love Austin. I love my friends. I love geeks. And I love to hang out and learn stuff.

This weekend, I'm hanging out with my friends at South by Southwest here in Austin, which attended by geeks, and I'm learning stuff.

Very cool weekend.

Oh, and I love good food. I ate dinner tonight with my friends Esin and Jessica at this wonderful Cuban restaurant. Austin has such good food.

a good summary of today's iPhone news

2008-03-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

From Web Worker Daily comes the best summary I've read so far of today's iPhone enterprise and SDK news:

iPhone: SDK Today, Enterprise Features in June

Poetic justice

2008-02-12T08:49:00.001-08:00

It's such a nice feeling to sit in a Microsoft office in SF, browsing
Google reader with my iPhone. I'm awaiting the start of a presentation
on Windows 2008 Server. Am I excited? No, I rather dread every new
Microsoft OS. But managing this stuff is part of my job, so I must
know what to expect.

Oh, btw, it sounds like IT at my work is preparing to release Vista to
the desktops/laptops in about 6 months. I hope it's not mandatory.

A feature the iPhone really needs

2008-02-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

The iPhone has many deficiencies, but thankfully its benefits far outweigh its deficiencies.

One of the deficiencies I'd most like to see remedied, and soon, is over-the-air calendar and contact sync, with web-based access. I.e., a service like dot Mac, where contacts and calendar entries are automatically sync'd in real-time, and are accessible via a web interface.

After email (which the iPhone already does really well), this is the single greatest feature of the GoodLink service I have on my work-supplied Samsung BlackJack. I love that I can enter a contact or a calendar entry on my phone, into Outlook, or into Outlook Web Access, and everything automatically (and almost instantaneously) synchronizes.

My iPhone syncs to Outlook on my home computer. It drives me nuts that I must essentially double-enter calendar events -- on my iPhone and into 30Boxes. They should automatically sync.

I'd give up 30Boxes if Apple had over-the-air to sync to a web-based calendar service that they provided. That would be awesome.

Cable-based calendar/contact synchronization is so last century. :-)

I bet they'll never introduce such a service, but it would be so cool if they did.

The Hobbit has a director

2008-02-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo! Guillermo del Toro has signed on as director of the movie rendition of The Hobbit. This is a good thing, as I really like his work, and Peter Jackson is producing.

The Microsoft offer to Yahoo!

2008-02-01T09:07:00.001-08:00

Hm. I talked to a Yahoo! Tools engineer at a dinner party last week about the rumored upcoming Yahoo! layoff announcement. He seemed to not know what was coming up. When the announcement was made this week that it would be through attrition, I was surprised that it was so weak. Now we see why.

This is a big deal. The fact that Yahoo! isn't refusing it outright makes me think this will likely go through.

Good grief, now I'll have to close all my Yahoo! accounts. I'm really gonna miss Flickr. Maybe it'll get spun off. I doubt it.

Emily's quiz/meme challenge

2008-01-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

My friend Emily posted on her blog the following:

The rules for this meme are:
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
(2) Post the rules on your blog.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

She also said at the bottom:

I am now suppose to tag six people by linking to their blogs. However, I do not know how to do that and my husband is too busy at the moment to show me. Therefore, I shall just LIST their names - oh the horror!

Christie www.christieleejohnson.blogspot.com
Courtney www.steedlyboys.blogspot.com
Wes www.wesleyt.net (I know he will never do it though)
Chris www.holvathegaboink.blogspot.com (he probably won't do it either)

Okay, that's all the people I know.

That third one is me, and she is partially right. I'm not going to follow all of the rules, as I occasionally feel contrarian that way.

Let's see, I've completed items one and two already. I shan't complete items four and five, so that leaves item three, six non-important things/habits/quirks about me. And I'm going to bend it, as they may be important depending on the perspective of the reader.

I love my cats.
I'm easily distracted by various and sundry different things (hmm, so are my cats).
I have an iPhone, and I stay on top of my email with it.
I love tea, hate coffee, and drink lots of water.
I love books, have a large and growing collection, and I love to read.
I'm studying Genesis with a number of friends right now.
This was written in Google Docs and posted directly to my web log.

Ha! seven instead of six. I'm such a rebel.

PS: I actually hand-edited this in Blogger after the initial post from Google Docs. It didn't look very good at first.

Useful art...

2008-01-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

I made some userful art yesterday. It turned out fairly well.

I wish I spent more time with my pencils.

Finally, some new photos

2008-01-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

I took and published some new photos yesterday.

a tale of two movies

2008-01-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

Actually, two tales, each about a movie. I went to see two movies last week. Thursday, I went to see the Great Debaters with Esin. It was an excellent movie, and I highly recommend it. End of tale one. Yep, short and sweet. The other is a bit more involved.

Friday night, I went to see Cloverfield with Shane and my brother Ryan. I think it's a good movie, but I only got to see half an hour of it, at which point I was so sick I had to leave the theater. No, it wasn't food poisoning, and no, the movie didn't gross me out.

I got motion-sick, or some variant thereof. At first I wondered what was going on, and then I remembered my experiences with the Blair Witch Project and Castle Wolfenstein from my youth.

Blair Witch and Cloverfield are shot hand-held. Wolfenstein (and its contemporaries, Doom and Quake), as a first-person shooter (FPS), simulates a hand-held camera. With that hand-held perspective comes a lot of camera motion caught on film.

I left my theater viewing of Blair Witch at one half hour, and I never could play a FPS for more than a half hour. I've not played a FPS in a very long time now.

When that motion consumes my field of vision but my inner does not detect the motion, I get very sick. As I think about the experience, I'm getting a bit queasy. It must take a while to completely wear off.

Anyway, as soon as I left the theater, the symptoms started subsiding. It's truly a bizarre experience -- I cannot control it at all, and it's very frustrating.

I did eventually watch Blair Witch on DVD, and I'll do the same with Cloverfield. I also must because Shane wouldn't tell me anything else about the movie. Since my TV doesn't consume my field of vision, I don't get motion sick watching handheld films there.

No, I've never gotten sick on a boat. Yes, I've been a bunch of times: small boats, big boats. Lots of motion, and a little. Never a problem.

I've gotten motion sick on an airplane only once: it was a 15-passenger twin prop, and we were flying over the Rockies from Denver to Cortez (or was it Durango?). It was svery cold, and we were in clouds -- I couldn't see any point of reference outside. I remember watching ice form on the center of the propeller and then fly off. It was a very bumpy ride. I figured out that my body was feeling motion but not seeing it. I coped by starting out the window, looking for non-moving definite cloud shapes that contrasted with the airplane's motion in which I was strapped. It was the same feeling I got watching Cloverfield; very frustrating.

Cool web tools that are new to me

2008-01-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

I just evaluated and signed up for a pro account on Toodledo. It's an excellent web-based to do list manager. It's got all of the features I need, is quite powerful, and is very easy to use. It's got a really nice iPhone version, and is quite extensible.

I found out about it when I was checking the Jott Links -- built-in Jott targets. I've now got 30Boxes (my public calendar), Twitter (But I usually SMS it when on the run), and Toodledo.

The other thing I worked on tonight was my Google Calendar, which I've never really used before. I'm using it to aggregate all of my online calendars: 30Boxes, my Backpack reminders, and my Toodledo due dates. It's an incredibly powerful calendar.

This has allowed me to clean up my Backpack a bit. I previously had a number of random lists scattered through my Backpack pages; I'm now able to consolidate them into one filterable list: so nice. I can also assign due dates and priorities so I can view the list in various orders, including a very nice default order of "importance", which is based on both due date and priority.

Seriously, I feel I can't sing Toodledo's praises highly enough; have a look.

three happy tidbits

2008-01-13T21:57:00.000-08:00

My brother and I rode our bikes today; it's the first time in seven weeks. It was so nice to be back. We had a good ride.

I watched Friday's new episode of Moonlight tonight. It was so good to see it.

Tonight, I confirmed that Moonlight won the People's Choice Award for favorite new drama. I hope this means it'll be renewed after the writer's strike is resolved.

About that strike; anyone heard anything about it? I haven't in a while now. I was hoping that because Dave's Worldwide Pants production company got the waiver and settled with their writers, the rest of the companies would take the lead and settle. It's been a couple weeks now, and no news. Bummer.

C'mon, guys, let's get with it. There's a lot of good TV to be made.

Good day...

2008-01-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, I had a good day today. I felt like I was really productive. It
was an important start to a good year. Nice.

Crazy new way to start the new year

2008-01-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

Hm. I hope this is a sign of things to come (the not putting stuff off 'til later part). Earlier today, I started some software maintenance. I didn't finish it when it was time to leave for our New Year's Eve gathering, so I set it aside. When we got home, I finished it. What was it? upgrading iTunes and the OS on my iPhone.

I'm glad I didn't leave it 'til later, so that's a good thing. But I hope I didn't break stuff. This system seems so fragile: there are so many quirks since it syncs with the incredibly evil (IMHO) MS Outlook.

We shall see. It's time to get to bed. I've got a day off to observe tomorrow; hooray!

Okay, now that's just funny

2007-12-14T17:04:00.000-08:00

I've had a Gmail account for quite some time now, but I've never really used it until recently.

I'm using it now for three reasons: one, my ISP's webmail is excruciatingly slow; two, I don't take my personal laptop to work anymore, and typing on my work computer is faster than on my iPhone; and three, because I can access Gmail over imap from my iPhone.

Anyway, Gmail's one-line text ad on the spam folder is a series of Spam (the foodstuff) recipes complete with navigation arrows. The first one was for Spam fajitas: "Serves 8, add extra salsa if desired". Yuck. I'll take beef or chicken instead, thank you very much.

Recent and upcoming movies, and reading notes

2007-12-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

My brother Ryan and I have seen two movies together recently. A while back we saw Enchanted, with Amy Adams. I highly recommend it; she's amazing. Sure, it's a Disney Princess/children's movie, but it's also a really good movie. And like I said, Amy is an amazing actress and terrific fun to watch.

This past Friday, we saw Beowulf. While I did enjoy it, I really have mixed feelings about it. I am really disappointed they rewrote the story. If I hadn't seen a previous, more faithful Beowulf movie rendition, and if I hadn't read the poem at least once, the story probably would not have annoyed me. But it did.

And I don't understand the necessity of animating it. They have perfectly beautiful, real, actors there in front of the camera. And special effects/CGI are so advanced now, they could have kept the characters real and accomplished everything necessary. But they did not. That was really annoying to me.

I was so annoyed by the story rewrite I went out and bought Seamus Haney's translation. It'll be a nice break from Dresden.

Oh, yeah, about Dresden. I'm in book 7. The first six are all wonderful. I'm looking forward to the last three. But I need a break, so I'm reading/studying (I believe all the classics should be studied in addition to just being read) Beowulf, and I may indulge in a further diversion and read Pullman's His Dark Materials, starting with The Golden Compass, since I've been curious to read it for some time, and all the controversy has just made me more interested in reading it.

Oh yeah, about the Golden Compass controversy. I wish my fellow Christians would calm down a bit. Yeah, Pullman's an atheist, and the series is a serious dig at the Catholic church. But for goodness' sake, it's a fantasy trilogy.

Teach your children correctly, and it won't affect them, other than making them think, which is a good thing.

Use the controversy as an opportunity to dialogue with those not of the faith. Consider Pullman's criticisms. I will; the universal church (i.e. the worldwide body of believers, my denomination included) certainly isn't perfect, since it's made up of us imperfect humans. We need to take certain criticism to heart, and learn how to be more effective, sensitive witnesses of the good news to those of other faiths, atheist and agnostic included.

an excellent service: Jott

2007-11-26T19:07:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad I found Jott recently. It is a service you can call from your cell phone, and it'll send emails.

Its simplest use is like this: call it, tell it to Jott yourself, and leave a message. It'll transcribe your message and email it to you. It also includes in the email a link to the voice message, in case the transcription isn't accurate.

It works really well. I use it to send myself reminders and to document conversations. I also use it to send stuff to my Backpack home page for processing later, especially when it's not convenient to send emails.

Did I mention it's free for now? I'll likely convert to a paid customer when that happens, if it's not too expensive. I love it; it's not yet bungled a transcription.

Try it.

Good bike rides this weekend

2007-11-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

I set a new one-ride record for myself on Saturday. My brother and I rode about 10.9 miles in three segments. It was raining for the segment home. Riding in the rain was so much fun!

We rode Sunday also; the weather was much better, but we were fairly burnt from Saturday, so we only did 6.25 miles.

Sunday evening we watched the Pixar movie Ratatouille on DVD. It seemed like it wasn't in the theater very long; we weren't able to make it at the time. It's brilliant; it's as good as any other Pixar movie.

Buy it, rent it, watch it.

I can't get to my backpack site; here's why

2007-11-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

Very interesting. I can't get to my backpack site to update my to do list for my trip Wednesday. Here's why:

Quick, Plug The Internet Back In: Major Rackspace Outage

email on my iphone rules

2007-11-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

I love my iPhone. I love the fact that it has a real, usable email client.

When I got it, I configured it to check my two primary personal email accounts. When Google announced free imap access to its Gmail accounts, I cleaned up my gmail inbox and added it to my iPhone. And today, I cleaned up my Yahoo email inbox and added it to my phone. It seems that the Yahoo email connection with my phone is imap rather than pop, which is cool.

So nice. All four email accounts in one place, and I can quickly check them most anywhere. So nice.

Unfortunately, my earthlink account is only accessible via pop, which is a bit of a bummer. But at least it's accessible. Oh, well.

bike update

2007-11-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

I rode three times this pass weekend, and I feel great. It's so nice to be getting exercise again.

I rode Friday morning by myself. I had a few issues with my bike. I got those issues resolved Saturday; I found out my bike was too small for me, so I exchanged my blue 20" Trek 7.3 FX for a black 22.5" 7.3 FX. Jeff at Cyclepath Hayward took very good care of me.

The new bike works so much better! My brother and I rode together Saturday evening, and then again Sunday evening; it was great!

Now I need only figure out how to ride during the week. Right now, my plan is to ride Tuesday and Thursday morning before going to work. I'll start tomorrow.

Good grief, another one!

2007-10-31T16:26:00.001-07:00

I felt this one too. It was a 3.7, at about the same location as last night. I was in a 1:1 meeting with my boss here in north San Jose, so even though it was smaller, I was closer.

Crazy stuff.

that was an experience

2007-10-30T20:43:00.001-07:00

About an hour and a half ago, we had an earthquake. It was the third I've felt, and the biggest I've ever felt. Quite an experience.

It was a 5.6, of moderate strength, about eighteen miles south-southwest of my house.

Everything's alright and nothing was broken, but my little Arwen, scaredy cat that she is, is still a bit shook up.

Camera tidbits

2007-10-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

My next camera, the Canon EOS 40D, and my favorite camera, the Canon PowerShot G9. They both got good review at my favorite digital camera review site.

Re poker this past Saturday night

2007-10-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

I pulled the previous post on my poker game; this one replaces it. I'd rather say only this:

Poker is not for me.

My shiny new bicycle.

2007-10-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah, with a title like that, you'd think I'd post a picture. I will, in a week or so. It's a Trek 7.3 FX in Fathom Duotone (i.e. blue). Really nice bike. It should pay for itself quickly, as I think I've finally found an exercise regimen I enjoy and can stick to.

My brother and I first went to Bicycles! Pleasanton, but they were closed, so we went to Cyclepath. We had a blast test-riding a couple models, first a Trek Navigator 2.0, and then a 7.3 FX. I felt the FX was a better bike, and my brother like the 7.3 FX as well; it was bigger (i.e. it fit him better), and it was lighter and handled better. They only had one 20" model; they called their Hayward store, and they had a 20" 7.2 FX. I bought the blue 7.3 FX and the requisite accessories, and we went to Hayward to pick up the 7.2 FX. It's a beautiful champagne color, and a wonderful bike. They were able to install the computer on on his bike -- what a cool device; I need to schedule a time for mine to be installed.

We brought the bikes back to our parents' house, and we went on a ride around our old neighborhood -- really fun!

We've got a bunch of things to take care of; I need bike shorts and shoes, and we need to figure a better way to store the bikes, but we're well on our way to better fitness and lots more riding fun.

More on my eyes

2007-10-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

I had the follow-up on my eyes on the 18th; my eye burst into redness again the night before. Between then and now, I only wore my contacts for a few hours on the 18th, and then again on Saturday to a party for about seven hours. Since last Thursday, my eyes have been red on and off, with last Tuesday evening/Wednesday being the reddest.

I called my optometrist on Monday and made an appointment for this morning. We've determined that it's nothing to do with my contacts. My doctor is fairly certain it's not an infection. She says "it looks really irritated." My eye has been really dry on its own, and she thinks that may be the cause.

We're trying a couple different things over the weekend, and I've got another follow-up appointment on Monday.

My goal is to be back into my contacts before my trip to Las Vegas in mid-November. My doctor thinks we can do it. I hope so.

Poker party this Saturday night

2007-10-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

I'm going to my first poker party this Saturday night. I'm excited and a bit nervous. My family plays five-card draw almost every weekend, but we will be playing Texas HoldEm at the party; I've only played HoldEm once before. It should be fun, and a good learning experience as well.

good news

2007-10-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

My eye healed up over the weekend, and my optometrist let me start wearing my contacts again. So nice. I've got a follow-up on Thursday to make sure they continue to be healthy. They feel fine. The one difference: I need to keep them wet; I'm continuing to use the rewetting drops as necessary.

good news and bad news

2007-10-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

First, the good news. I watched the first three episodes of the new season of Bones last night; it remains at the very high caliber it was in its previous seasons. It continues to be one of my favorite shows of all time.

Now the bad news. I can't wear my contact lenses for a while, as my right eye developed an irritation (i.e. redness) while I was in Austin that hasn't yet cleared up. I saw my optometrist this morning, and she banned me from contacts; she also gave me some rewetting drops and a some antibiotic drops to prevent infection. I see her again on Monday. I hope things clear up by then so I can start wearing my contacts; I miss them terribly.

Books update

2007-10-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

I finished Butcher's first book of the Dresden Files earlier this
week; it was excellent. For some reason, I didn't bring book two on my
trip.

I contemplated starting Gibson's Pattern Recognition, and book one of
Butcher's Codex Alera series, but neither felt quite right at this time.

I went to the one remaining book store on Guadalupe yesterday and
picked up the Arden Shakespeare third series' Hamlet and The Merry
Wives of Windsor. I'm going to start Hamlet first.

Why Shakespeare now, especially when I've had such a difficult time
tackling his works my whole life? For one, I know it's important to do
so. Second, something I was reading earlier this week made a
comparison between Hamlet and Falstaff, so I decided to do my own study.

Since I'm at the airport and my flight is delayed, I have plenty of
time to start my study.

Austin pics

2007-10-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've not yet left Austin, and I've posted pics:

wesleyt : photos : Austin 07 - powered by SmugMug

I may take a few more tomorrow; if I do, I'll add them to the set.

Enjoy!

Books update

2007-10-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I finished Harry Potter 7, and I loved it.
Brilliant series; one of the very best ever.

I then read Stardust by Neil Gaiman. It's also brilliant, in a very
different way. It's a different plot than the movie. I'm glad I saw
the movie first, as it's easier to appreciate both plots.

Now I'm off to read book one of the Dresden files by Jim Butcher. It
should be good.

My new desktop system

2007-09-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 w/ 1066 MHz FSB. Awesome.

Asus P5N32-E SLI motherboard. Excellent.

Asus GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCI-Express. Amazing.

4 GB RAM. Yep, that should be enough.

DVD burner with LightScribe. Nice.

4x Seagate 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA 2 hard drives. Huge.

Antec Sonata III 500 case. Beautiful.

I'll configure the HDs as follows: 2 HDs will be in a mirror as my primary drive. I'll back up the primary to another bare drive. The last HD will be a scratch drive.

2 TB raw disk space. Unbelievable.

I've got two more 500 GB SATA drives that I'll put in enclosures. One will be in an eSATA enclosure, and I'll use it as my external backup for my desktop. The other will go in a USB 2 enclosure, and will be used to back up my laptop.

I've got one Dell 2407; I'll get a second one when I return from Austin, so I can work dual-headed, as I now do with my laptop. Nice.

This is the coolest computer I've ever owned. And I designed and built it. Very nice.

Fun, relaxing weekend

2007-09-24T11:59:00.001-07:00

We had my birthday dinner and cake this past Saturday night; it was wonderful.

When I was in Catalina, I bought a cheap set of 100 2g plastic poker chips and a couple decks of cards. My brother and I played five-card draw in the evenings as best we remembered it, and enjoyed. Of course, we never play for money.

After dinner and cake Saturday night, I divided the chips between the four of us (Mom, Dad, Ryan, and myself). To my great surprise, we had a blast.

Yesterday afternoon, Ryan and I went in search of better poker chips. I ended up at the great gaming store Legends in Cupertino, where they had a 500-chip starter set. They're 11.5g composite chips - clay and plastic - in a nice aluminum carrying case. They're wonderful. We played last night (five-card draw) with the new chips and enjoyed greatly. At first my Mom was skeptical, but once she started handling the new chips she understood.

On the way home from Legends we stopped at Borders and I looked at a few books on Texas Hold Em. I think I got a good one; I enjoyed reading the first bit of it last night.

The only issue I have with the chip set (hee hee, IT pun intended) was that they didn't include blue chips; blue's my favorite color. I got 200 white, 100 red, 100 green, and 100 black. So when I got home last night I went online in search of blue chips; I think I found an exact match.

I also did a bit of research on cards. I dug out some Excalibur casino Bee cards and compared them to the Bicycle cards I bought on Catalina. Except for the large index, I much prefer the Bee cards; they are less flimsy and have a much better feel to them. They're easier to shuffle.

So I added a blue and red pack (with normal index) to my order. The store had a few different types of plastic cards, so I did a bit of research on them. I added two packs of inexpensive Royal plastic cards to my order. I looked at the Brazilian plastic cards, but passed on them. I next looked at the KEH cards; they're a cellulose (i.e. paper) and plastic composite. I read a few reviews. They sound wonderful, so I added a set to my order.

I got a few more red chips and some purple chips, and I got a case for these 300 extra chips. I can't wait to receive my order and confirm that they're the same chips.

Now I just need to find a few more opportunities to play. Hopefully my brother and I will find some time this week to practice Hold Em; we will then teach it to my parents, hopefully starting next week.

My first Cisco business trip

2007-09-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I booked my first business trip in a really long time. I support the systems in a lab in Austin, and I'm going there in October. I'm really looking forward to visiting Austin. I've not been since I flew back in late 1990/early 1991 for my friend's wedding.

In other news, I'm about halfway through Harry Potter book 7. I am so addicted to that series. I'm aiming to be done by end of day Saturday.

I skipped my Over the Rhine concert last night. I didn't feel like going to the City alone. Lame, I know.

I must like vacation

2007-09-14T14:14:00.001-07:00

I must like being on vacation. I just booked airfare and hotel for four nights in Las Vegas in November. Cool!

Pics from the inland Cape tour

2007-09-08T23:11:00.001-07:00

I've posted a few pics from our inland off-road Cape tour. Fun!

New photo gallery of my Catalina trip so far

2007-09-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

I'm uploading now to my Smugmug site a gallery of my Catalina trip so far. These are the 33 most interesting pictures of the 249 I've taken so far, based on a quick perusal of my photos this evening. None are edited except for the few 16x9 crops. Enjoy!

on to book five

2007-08-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

I finished Harry Potter book four last night and I started book five. Try as I might, I could not pull myself away to read something else. Okay, I didn't really try at all. I'm on this train until it arrives at the end of book seven. It is such a good series! Every book is better than the last.

Thank goodness for vacation next week. I'll finally have some time for reading, as well as all the other things that need my attention.

Stardust is an excellent movie

2007-08-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

I saw the movie Stardust with my friend Esin last night. We both loved it; it's an amazingly cool movie. I think I'm going by Borders on the way home tonight to pick up the book by Neil Gaiman.

And I'm going to look at The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman as well. I saw the trailer for the forthcoming movie, and it looks excellent as well.

New music: Over the Rhine and Eisley

2007-08-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

I got two new albums last week: Eisley's Combinations and Over the Rhine's The Trumpet Child. I listened to both of them for the first time Sunday night.

OtR's Trumpet Child is a work of art. Absolutely beautiful. It meets the high bar they set with all their previous recordings.

Eisley's Combinations. Hmm. I t5hink I need to listen to it a bit more. It seems to be missing that "something special" that the rest of their body of work has -- something akin to magic. Maybe it's more maintream than their previous stuff. I'll listen again soon and see if I can figure it out.

iTunes and iPhone sync workaround

2007-08-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

When I upgraded to iTunes 7.3.2 a short while back, something changed such that my iPhone no longer sync'd calendar our contacts to Outlook. I uninstalled and re-installed 7.3.1, but the problem didn't go away. Seems more like a Microsoft-type problem than an Apple problem. I Googled about the problem, but didn't find anything.

Anyway, I Googled based on the error message today, and I found something. Even though I use Thunderbird and not Outlook as my default email client (and I don't sync email on my iPhone), I must make Outlook my default client when I sync my iPhone.

Lame. But at least my iPhone can once again sync. Whew. Oh, and the settings change is quick and easy. Hey, it's Windows; it's not unusual for such things to require a reboot.

Transformers is an awesome movie

2007-08-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

I saw Transformers the movie tonight. It blew me away; totally awesome. Highly recommended.

the iPhone update rules...

2007-08-02T01:02:00.000-07:00

Sure, the expected and necessary security updates are there.

But they enhanced something very important: they added support for imap nested folders. Now I can see all my email folders in my primary imap account.

So darn cool.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2007-07-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

I went to see the new Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I think it's awesome. In ways, it's my favorite movie of the series so far. Dumbledore rules in this one! I also love Luna.

Truly good stuff; highly recommended. It's tempted me even more to read the series. I bought the first two books on Monday; I'll start the first when I'm done with the book I'm reading now: Robert Heinlein's For Us the Living.

My second drawing class has been canceled...

2007-07-23T13:10:00.001-07:00

Aww, I was looking forward to more drawing instruction. My second drawing class has been completely canceled.

My instructor is still sick. I hope she gets better soon.

I just need to work harder now to get practice on my own. And maybe I should enroll in a semester-long class. Hmm.

A busy, nice, long weekend

2007-07-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

I took Friday off and slept the morning away. Nice! I bought a tabletop easel and a couple drawing boards, and started working with them. Ah, yes, my previous post has a picture of my setup.

I stayed up late Friday night cleaning my camera's sensor in preparation for my photography trip Saturday.

It was fun. It was tiring. I learned a lot. I took almost five hundred pictures. I'm about 60% through the first pass, and some are good. Many need work, as I got dust on my sensor, even before the first and only lens change. Only two specks though; one on the upper right and another on the lower left.

It'll take me a few more days to get through them, but I'll post some soon. I'm thankful for the experience.

Gladdie and the easel

2007-07-21T00:07:00.001-07:00

Gladdie and the easel
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

I got a new easel and drawing boards today. I really enjoyed playing with them. I took a few pictures; this is the first of them. The rest are here:

My new drawing easel

Galadriel

Arwen

fragile

2007-07-19T09:05:00.001-07:00

fragile
Originally uploaded by norwego

My friend Kim took this picture while in Norway. I love it!

Bible passage of the day

2007-07-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

13 "For from the least to the greatest of them,
   everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
   everyone deals falsely.
14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
   saying, 'Peace, peace,'
   when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
   No, they were not at all ashamed;
   they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,"
   says the LORD.

Jeremiah 6:13-15 (English Standard Version)

This is so true of much of our society today.

Mom's new lamp

2007-07-13T15:17:00.001-07:00

Mom's new lamp
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

I am really proud of this photo. The subject is my Mom's new tiffany lamp. My Mom did the design, and I adjusted the lighting and took the picture. I also took a detail picture of the shade.

now this is cool...

2007-07-12T23:46:00.000-07:00


show atm all

ATM port status    : Cell delineation achieved
Rx data rate (bps) : 6160384
Tx data rate (bps) : 786432

I went from 1.5Mbps down/384 Kbps up to that. Very nice. And my bill went down too, because I gave up my routed DSL for DHCP. No big deal; I don't host anything at home anymore.

It's so fast! Uploading photos shouldn't take forever and a half now.

Welcome to the 21st century, self.

PS: for those that aren't geeks, I've now got 6M down/768K up.

New Eisley single

2007-07-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

Eisley recently released a new single on iTunes called Invasion from their forthcoming album Combinations. It's really good, and I'm looking forward to the new album; it'll be released August 14. They're coming to town soon too; I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, and Over the Rhine will be in town in September. Excellent!

My second good drawing.

2007-07-09T23:40:00.001-07:00

My second good drawing.
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

Here's the good drawing I managed to create tonight.
Here is my entry about my first drawing, and here is a picture of my first drawing on the wall.

the tubes they are full

2007-07-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

My iPhone is having trouble accessing the InterTubes (Internet) here at work. It is even failing getting weather updates. It had no trouble at home this morning. My guess is that AT&T's data service is overwhelmed in this Geek Mecca that is Cisco's San Jose campus.

Side note: did a quick experiment with the Jawbone on the way in. Rolled the window down while on the phone; my caller couldn't hear me, nor I them. Hmm... More experiments necessary.

First Impressions on the Jawbone Bluetooth Headset

2007-07-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

I decided that I needed to get a new Bluetooth headset for my iPhone. I have a Jabra JX10, but I've, let's say, not been gentle with it.

Yesterday I decided on a whim to go to the Apple store to get Apple's Bluetooth headset. They didn't have one in stock and I didn't have a second choice, so I left with only a case for my iPhone (the Griffin Elan Holster).

I did my research last night and I decided to give the Aliph Jawbone a try. I tried it around the house today, while running the sink and standing in front of my clothes washer while it was filling. My caller couldn't hear the background noise when I was standing two feet away from the noise sources. I'd say that's a great success for a first test.

The next test will be in the car tomorrow. I've had a background noise problem in the car with every Bluetooth headset I've owned, which is two: the Jabra BT250, which I sold to a friend when I got the JX10. I once had a wired Jabra with built in noise cancelling; it was the only good in-car headset I've owned.

My friend told me he talked to a guy while the guy was wearing the Jawbone going down the freeway at speed with the windows down, and my friend said he heard no background noise. I'm looking forward to a similar test.

My only complaint so far is the same as I've read in other reviews: the on-headset volume control is a bit clunky; you use one button to cycle through five volume levels. The headset is supposed to automatically adjust volume level with change in ambient noise, but it didn't adequately compensate when I turned on the washing machine; I needed to bump it up two or three levels. The user's manual says to use the phone to turn up the volume, but my phone was in a different room.

Which brings me to Bluetooth performance. It seems the connection between the Jawbone and the iPhone is very strong. I went 20+ feet away with a wall in between, and I didn't notice any packet loss. I'm impressed.

One more thing: this is the most comfortable cellular headset I've ever worn. That's saying something, as I really liked the comfort of the BT250. This one's better because it's lighter.

I hope to write more when I've had a bit more experience with it.

I got bit by the iPhone bug

2007-06-30T23:20:00.000-07:00

I was minding my on business for the most part yesterday, focusing on work and getting to an appointment on time. While I was driving home, I decided to call my friend Hobbes, as I am wont to do on a Friday evening. He told me what he was up to: preparing to go to the local AT&T store to see if they had any iPhones; he was getting one.

The AT&T store had not received any, so he went to our local Apple store. They had some, so he got in line. He called me back after a bit and said, "I can get two; do you want one?" My first answer was no. My standard response when someone asked me if I was considering an iPhone was that I would wait for the phone to be out for a month before I would consider it, as I wanted to see how it was being received.

But the immediacy of my friend's question made me think more seriously, and I was tempted. After thinking about ten seconds, I gave in. "Yes, I do. Thanks!" He acknowledged me, I said bye, and I hung up. It was done. I was going to become one of the first iPhone owners.

I picked it up from his house this afternoon. I started activation when I got home; I had to wait just over 30 minutes. i called AT&T confirm everything was okay, and they assured me it was; they were just really backed up from all the activations. I guess the phone is selling quite well.

I was on the phone with my friend when I got cut off and couldn't get a signal. I checked my email, and my iPhone activation was complete. Then the adventure began.

So far, I'm completely impressed. Contrary to the opinion of a number of my acquaintances, I am not a cell phone junkie; it has all of the features I need, and most that I want. The number one thing I'd like to see for it is a real programming API so my favorite Pocket PC app, My Life Organized, can be ported over.

I have always thought that EDGE wasn't fast enough, but it feels faster on the iPhone.

All of the built-in apps work brilliantly. I am surprised to not see a to do list app; I'll start looking for one soon. In the meantime, I'm using a note. About notes; where do they show up on the PC after a sync? I've not yet been able to find them.

The call quality sounds better than any other cell phone I've used; it rivals my landline phone, which is excellent.

I need to get a new Bluetooth headset for it. I was thinking about getting Apple's, but it's not yet available at my Apple store. I did some research, and haven't found any reviews about it. My friend Hobbes recommended the JawBone headset. It seems to be getting excellent reviews; I may pick it up tomorrow.

That's it for now. I hope to write an update once I've used it for a while.

I watched two things last night

2007-06-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

I watched a movie last night after work, and then I went home and watched a TV show.

The movie was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. Lots of clichés and a horrible amount of product placements, many of them overt, with the Dodge Hemi thing being the worst. Ridiculous!

I watched the Studio 60 series finale when I settled in at home for the evening. It was a good ending: sad, happy, beautiful. I felt that the series started getting really good in these last five episodes or so, after taking a dive mid-season. It's too bad NBC didn't have the patience to let the show develop more.

my first presentable drawing

2007-06-25T23:50:00.001-07:00

my first presentable drawing
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

This is the first really good drawing I made for the Monday night class I'm taking. I'm really happy with it.

Okay, a little background. I signed up for a drawing class; tonight was the second of four Monday night sessions. We did pencil the first night; we worked to really see what we were drawing.

Tonight we used charcoal, and we focused primarily on studying negative space. That part was fun; I didn't really enjoy the charcoal. I felt much more out of control than with the pencils.

We did this drawing by first covering the page with charcoal. We then used an eraser to remove the negative space around the subject.

Next week we will focus on shading; we're all excited.

My sensor is clean!

2007-06-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago, a careless lens change atop the roof of a five-story parking garage, I managed to get dust on my DSLR's sensor. I noticed in the images of Mount Diablo I took there a bunch of spots in the sky. It was the dreaded sensor dust. I asked around and researched, and came upon the website of Copper Hill Images. They have two sensor cleaning kits: wet and dry. I wanted to cover my bases, so I ordered both. The kit arrived this past week, so I started work this morning.

I first used the blower to blow on my sensor. It just moved the dust around. So I next used the SensorSweep, a dry brush. On my first pass, I moved all the dust to the edges. On my second, I had only two spots on an edge. On my third pass, it was clean. I'm so happy! I'll be taking lots of pictures once again.

The moral of this story is twofold: 1) get out of the wind when changing lenses; ,and 2) be prepared to clean your sensor.

drawing

2007-05-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I registered for a drawing class. A drawing class, you say? Yes. I need to learn composition -- visual, artistic composition. I'm having a difficult time learning it within photography, where I need it, as I'm constantly distracted by the technical aspects I enjoy so much.

I've always wanted to really learn how to draw. I studied it when I had art in Junior High, but that was a rather long time ago, and I can't remember hardly anything.

So I found this lovely class through my local community college's continuing education program. I ended up emailing the teacher, making sure composition would be covered; she said that it will be an important part of the class. It meets once a week for four weeks, and starts in just about three weeks. I'm really looking forward to it.

After breakfast at Jim's, Ryan and I took the Vette to Livermore to get my supplies. We had a blast.

Ryan decided to join me in the class and enrolled tonight. Excellent!

A nice relaxing evening

2007-05-18T22:27:00.001-07:00

These days, it takes both my brother and I being sick to spend a quiet evening home together. A bad way for a good thing to happen, but a good thing nonetheless.

We have stayed at home this evening, listening to new music.

A bunch of cool new albums were released recently: United Abominations by Megadeth, The Physics of Fire by Becoming the Archetype, and Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. In my Amazon order, I added one back catalog item: One by Neal Morse.

We started out with the new Megadeth album, and have moved on to the new BtA album.

I've long appreciated Megadeth, but I've really enjoyed their last two albums. This new one is excellent. Dave Mustaine's lyrics just get more and more interesting. I'm absolutely fascinated by his self-expression in his art as he matures in his faith. He's a tremendously talented musician.

I discovered Becoming the Archetype about a year ago. I heard a track of theirs in a Tooth and Nail compilation sampler released on Pure Volume. It was love at first listen. I immediately bought three copies: two to give away and one for my brother and I. My brother has been eagerly anticipating this release; I'm glad it finally arrived. It's very good.

(Note to the RIAA: See, giving away music sells more music. I'd've never heard this band any other way. And I've bought four copies of their album and given two away to others who would have never otherwise heard the band.)

We're just starting One now. It's typical Neal Morse brilliance so far. I've so enjoyed Question Mark, Sola Scriptura, and Testimony that I was curious to hear One.

I just realized that Neal and Dave's stories are somewhat similar: both achieved great success in the mainstream music world, became Christians, and kept doing what they love: using their incredible talents, only in a slightly different way. Neal went solo with a tremendous band, including Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater on drums.

Dave continued with Megadeth, and has had continued success. It seems the new album is very well received, including by die-hard Megadeth fans. That's so cool.

I fell in love with Linkin Park a while back when I had an ultra-cheap subscription to Yahoo Music Unlimited that included putting music on portables. I downloaded all three of LP's albums at the time, and fell in love with them. When YMU went mega-expensive for a portable subscription, I said to heck with them, unsubscribed, and deleted all of my MS-encrypted music. And I bought my favorites in iTunes or CD; three albums of which were LP's. And I haven't looked back. I've read very mixed reviews about this album, and am looking forward to hearing it.

While I'm writing about music, I must mention another of my favorite bands of recent times: Over the Rhine. I love them so much. They make beautiful music. I found out about them on a music podcast, The Bored-Again Christian. I noticed a song by them on one of my favorite TV shows, Bones -- the song and the scene almost brought me to tears; it was on my DVR until I had it on DVD -- and I sought them out with a passion. Thankfully, they had a bunch of free music on their web site. I listened and listened, and fell ever deeper in love. I bought a whole slew of albums last Christmastime: 7 albums, almost have their back catalog. And I fell ever deeper in love over the year, as I slowly digested all that new music.

This past Christmastime I bought the most of the rest of their back catalog; my collection is almost complete, and I buy every new album as it's released. Of course, I'm enjoying working through this second flood of beautiful music. I'm truly in love with this band.

Did I mention that I love music? It's truly one of God's best gifts to us.

Presence and availability

2007-05-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

My friend Kim recently wrote on her Twitter feed:

who needs a mobile phone anyway? why be CONSTANTLY available? darn new-fangled devices only cause trouble... (new one arrives wednesday)

In a way, I sympathize. I've got too many darn newfangled devices myself, and they just keep getting more complicated, and some (notably my phone) less reliable as well.

My phone is a PDA with a usable web browser (Opera). It also has the best personal to do app I've seen.

I still have my Palm T5, which keeps my schedule and a bunch of reference information: Bibles, a nice dictionary, grocery list, world clock, etc. I just can't part with it yet.

As to why should we be constantly available? We don't. I don't really turn my phone off anymore, but I do regularly put it on do not ring. That way, I know when I miss calls.

Cell phones can be terribly convenient, but they don't always need to be answered; caller ID is helpful here as well. Voice mail has been accepted by almost all callers. My policy: answer calls when it's convenient, and return missed calls and voice mails as soon as it's convenient. I sometimes follow up missed calls and voice mails with emails or text messages, which since they're not real-time media, lowers the urgency of a conversation.

That's my two cents.

PageFour for free today

2007-05-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of the site OutlinerSoftware. Not only do they (we? I post occasionally) cover outliners, they cover all manner of personal information management (PIM) software, and get into writing software as well. One of the best recommended non-academic writing software applications has been PageFour. I downloaded it a few days ago to start evaluating it. And what do I find this morning on OutlinerSoftware? It's the Giveaway Of The Day! So now I can evaluate the complete application. Nice.

What did I mean by non-academic writing? Academic writing requires tracking your references; the best app for that (According to OutlinerSoftware concensus) is IdeaMason and IdeaMason is incredibly cool.

Oh, and if you're writing on a Mac, they say Scrivener is unparalleled. I wish I could use it.

Unrelated PS: Jaiku was down last night; my feeds weren't being updated. It seems all is well now.

Jaiku and Twitter

2007-05-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Twitter is a pretty cool creation. It's like a microblog: a blog where entries can be a max of 14 characters long. Perfect for making entries via SMS, which I do every once in a while. Okay, a few times a day to this point.

I've heard Twitter described as a presence stream or an away message on steroids. I like it; it's like a running public diary of what I'm doing at any time. It's especially nice since it can be updated from either the web or my phone.

Jaiku is similar, but even bigger. It can be a presence stream, and it can be more. You can point your Jaiku account to all of your RSS feeds and it'll aggregate them for you. That's how I'm using it.

Jaiku is currently aggregating my Twitter page, my Blogger blog, my Flickr page, and my Vox blog (which is mostly dead right now).

A cool print service

2007-05-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Moo.com will print your Flickr images on 100x100 mm note cards and smaller 28x70 mm note cards for not too much money. My friend Esin uses them as personal cards (like business cards) and recommended them to me. I'll be getting an order together soon.

Cool stuff!

I own the number 12

2007-04-17T20:02:00.001-07:00

I Own Number12MillionNumbers.com

Incredible pictures

2007-04-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Incredible pictures.

The first set is of one of my favorite bands of all time, Over the Rhine. The second link is the site of the photographer who photographed the first set. Wow. Incredible pictures, incredible subjects.

The dude has my dream job: taking pictures of wonderful musicians. Where do I sign?

Wes' thoughts

My Current Blogging Workflow

Update

Mac users and the Kindle

The best iOS Weather Apps I've Found

The Best

iPad

iPhone

Honorable mentions

iPad

iPhone

Update

It's been too long

Birthday present from my parents

recently added to my iTunes

What movie most resembles your life?

Random stuff, including upcoming movies

Adventures in Apple wireless networks

To my Obama-suporting friends...

Some advice to aspiring IT professionals

ESV: A tremendous new study Bible

Catalina pictures posted

Peggy Noonan sums up my feelings about the current political situation

O. My. Gosh. I'm a real Mac user now.

Some links to picture sets

My east coast trip so far

Infiniti G37

I. am. tired.

New King's X album: XV

First thoughts on my new Macintosh

I've ordered my first Mac

Our 2008 trip to Las Vegas

a new tool/toy

Nice weekend overall

Love and pain

From my drawing class

New Amsterdam and Hulu

Two cool book decoration styles

So looking forward to being home...

Having fun at South by Southwest

a good summary of today's iPhone news

Poetic justice

A feature the iPhone really needs

The Hobbit has a director

recently viewed on TV

The Microsoft offer to Yahoo!

Emily's quiz/meme challenge

Useful art...

Finally, some new photos

a tale of two movies

Cool web tools that are new to me

three happy tidbits

Good day...

Crazy new way to start the new year

Okay, now that's just funny

Recent and upcoming movies, and reading notes

an excellent service: Jott

Good bike rides this weekend

I can't get to my backpack site; here's why

email on my iphone rules

bike update

Good grief, another one!

that was an experience

Camera tidbits

Re poker this past Saturday night

My shiny new bicycle.

More on my eyes

Poker party this Saturday night

good news

good news and bad news

Books update

Austin pics

Books update

My new desktop system

Fun, relaxing weekend

My first Cisco business trip

I must like vacation

Pics from the inland Cape tour

New photo gallery of my Catalina trip so far

on to book five