Heroes — No comments
22
Jul 10
Comic genius, selectively reclusive, wildly successful Hollywood/media ignorer, Bill Murray’s unique approach to life is admirably light-hearted. A rare glimpse at what makes him tick, on a personal level, is available in this interview with GQ. Here’s a couple of my favorite bits:
Bill:
“…how you get the comic pitch. Well, obviously a lot of it is rhythm. And as often as not, it’s the surprising rhythm. In life and in movies, you can usually guess what someone is going to say—you can actually hear it—before they say it. But if you undercut that just a little, it can make you fall off your chair. It’s small and simple like that. You’re always trying to get your distractions out of the way and be as calm as you can be [breathes in and out slowly], and emotion will just drive the machine. It will go through the machine without being interrupted, and it comes out in a rhythm that’s naturally funny. And that funny rhythm is either humorous or touching. It can be either one. But it’s always a surprise. I really don’t know what’s going to come out of my mouth.”
GQ:
“Is the third Ghostbusters movie happening? What’s the story with that?”
Bill:
“It’s all a bunch of crock. It’s a crock. There was a story—and I gotta be careful here, I don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. When I hurt someone’s feelings, I really want to hurt them.
…
I got into it one night with a bunch of younger people [at SXSW] who were like, Oh, I love Peter Venkman! I grew up with Peter Venkman! We got to talking, and the more we talked about it, the more I thought, Oh Christ, I should just do this thing.”
GQ:
“Everyone says Danny [Aykroyd] is the nicest guy on the planet.”
Bill:
“Danny is…Canadian. [laughs] No, he’s the only one I see much of. He’s great. And I owe him…”
Who you gonna call?
Design / Uncategorized — No comments
09
Jul 10
Came across this fun lil’ tid-bit of info. via Via magazine. It seems dangerous to have the gas tank in certain areas of the car like the right front fender in the Porsche 911 or under the driver’s seat (or any seat for that matter) like in the Honda Fit. The Honda Fit’s design is new so I’m not sure what they’re thinking. The Porsche, I understand has become traditional placement, but come on, I hope the safety stats support the Fit’s design.
A couple of notorious car models are the 1960 something Ford Mustang with it’s “exploding” gas tank in the rear of the car and the Ford Pinto with the similar if not the same tank design. Side note: I was unaware of the Pinto being one of Ford’s vehicles. However, I love the idea of BMW’s counter balance of the driver’s weight as long as it remains safe.
Front, mid, & back they seem to all have a sense of err in safety. I’m not a car gal or a mechanical engineer so please take my opinions with a grain of salt. But, I do know that the concept of “unintended consequence with desirable results” is rather intriguing. I’m going to chew on that notion for a while. 
Anyway, differences are good, they keep us entertained, even small ones such as this. Some of us are more easily amused than others, however, regardless of genuine interest I’m guessing this is answering a few peoples’ question of gas tank placement.
News — 1 comment
24
Jun 10
Congratulations Petaluma, your next soulless big-box shopping center strip mall is once again on track to dominating one of the most valuable pieces of land the city has to offer. While that may sound particularly negative and uninspired, it should. There is no way in hell the potential for the geographical center of Petaluma is going to be met by this shopping center in any form. This land could have synergized the East and West sides of town. Could have increased tourism by boosting individuality. And could have encouraged urban innovation in future projects.
But at least we’re getting something more modern. The original and previously envisioned designs were even less inspiring. Some essentially called it a 1970s architectural abomination requiring travel by car exclusively which, among others, alienates key concepts from the city’s General Plan.
This is precisely the platform the Petaluma community coalition (PCC) folks are standing on with the lawsuit and appeal filed against the city for Regency’s East Washington Place. It created a sort’ve trifecta of inaction with the City, PCC and Regency occupying corners and preventing ground-breaking of the project.
The latest is a deal involving all three that meets some each’s criteria requested; I imagine it as a precarious compromise at best. First off, Regency will drop their “unjustly delays” lawsuit and pay for the city’s legal fees required to defend itself against the suit. PCC has also agreed to drop their lawsuit contingent upon a few design changes.
Continue reading →
Music — 1 comment
18
Jun 10
“Under Pressure” is a 1981 song recorded by Queen and David Bowie. It marked Bowie’s first released collaboration with another recording artist as a performer…
“…the song’s primary musical songwriter was Freddie Mercury — though all contributed to the arrangement. The earlier, embryonic version of the song without Bowie “Feel Like” is widely available…”
“The September 2005 edition of online music magazine Stylus singled out the bassline as the best in popular music history.”
“There has been some confusion about who created the song’s famous bassline. John Deacon said … that David Bowie had created it. … Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have credited the bass riff to Deacon; Bowie also said on his website that the bassline was already written before he became involved.”
It’s fun to think about how this confusion may have happened. Deacon and Bowie in his studio in Switzerland, chatting, with their lush English accents, about the song and sounds. Deacon, has his trusty bass guitar, Bowie, is singing or just bustin’ out some crazy-cool 80s synth-pop sounds. They’re jammin’ back and forth and suddenly, they strike rhythmic gold.
Bombombom bada bombom
Whoa! So they roll with it. Deacon plays the jam with the rest of Queen in a collaborative session with Bowie. History was made in a matter of minutes. Perhaps it was an epiphany of musical sorts, or maybe even an accident.
Both men involved credit the other out of modesty and respect. Likely, one was particularly more instrumental in the creation than the other. But without two, it may have evolved into something entirely forgettable.
Continue reading →
Anecdotes — No comments
15
Jun 10
Remember the Six P’s:
Piss Poor Planning Prevents Proper Performance.
Personal Goals / Time Management — 2 comments
13
Jun 10
If you’re a white-collar, soft hands clean clothes information-worker, you sit on your ass day in and day out and probably, at night too. Using the computer is your work and play. By now, you probably have decent desk ergonomics and understand the importance of them. Carpul-tunnel and RSI are real, no matter who you are.
Hell, I bet you’ve had some strange aching pains in your shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist, and or hands at some point. An early warning of what could come and enough to motivate you to make some positive, preventative changes. Let’s assess the basic ergonomics of a healthy desk:
- Screen is at arms length from your face and at eye level.
- Keyboard is parallel or slightly lower than where your arms rest on the desk. Your wrists should not be higher than your elbows.
- Mouse easily accessible, moves effortlessly, requiring little to no movement of your arm.
- You’re sitting up straight. Shoulders back and not hunched over. If it hurts, you probably need a better chair – get one with good lumbar support. Or, baring the new chair option, one of these inflatable cushions.
- Feet flat on the ground or better yet, on a foot rest that promotes upright sitting (not slouching!).
- Check this out for illustrations of an ideal workspace configuration.
Now, on to the meat of the meal: taking breaks.
Continue reading →
Time Management — 1 comment
12
Jun 10
The Countdown timer gadget was created as a learning project and because I needed something to remind me to take breaks throughout the day. I wanted something that had a tiny footprint both in appearance and function, similar to the gnome-timer applet (for Linux desktops).
5 minute countdown underway
The concept is very basic – countdown from a preset time (in minutes) and alert when time is up. This gadget is more akin to a kitchen timer than a countdown-until-my-birthday type timer. However, the gadget will happily countdown 135971947923 minutes in case that amount of time happens to be of value to you.
the settings dialog box
As with any quality gadget or applet, this one is configurable. The Custom Countdown setting (in minutes), if set, will override the default of 30 minutes and any Preset Timers selection (also in minutes). Lastly, the Number of Alarm Sounds option defines how many times the audible alarm will sound when time is up. Putting a 0 in this option field disables it.
The Countdown Timer gadget was designed to work with Windows 7 but there should be no problem running it in Vista. I’ve committed the code to my github account where you can follow along for nitty gritty details.
Download it now
See the included README for installation instructions and additional info. Post questions and comments to this entry and I hope you find it as useful as I have.
Last Updated: July 1st, 2010
Internet Technology — No comments
09
Jun 10
PHP version 1, by Rasmus Lerdorf, was released into the world on June 8, 1995. It’s original name of Personal Home Page was renamed, with a heavy nod to recursion, to “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor” in 1998 with the launch of version 3.
I owe a great deal of my professional success to this language, it is the one that truly sold me on programming.
<?php
/**
* June 9, 2010
*/
echo<<<HAPPY15THBIRTHDAYPHP
* May your future be full of fantastic features and ever greater efficiencies.
* You've powered the dynamic web from yahoo to facebook.
* May you continue to enthrall and encourage programmers young and old.
* You've come a long way, be sure to have lots and lots of cake today.
* May your full fledged Unicode support be your gift to us sooner rather than later.
* You've got your problems, but then don't we all.
* May you survive and thrive another 15 years.
HAPPY15THBIRTHDAYPHP;
?>
Bonus: here’s some cool PHP usage statistics and trend graphs.
Computers — 5 comments
22
May 10
The bane of Integrated Graphics, as the last remaining major hitch to gaming on an otherwise fantastic computer, I made it my mission to find a solution. No longer will the crappy Intel graphics chip (X4500MHD aka GM45) hold me back from fully enjoying contemporary PC games. And just in time too – Starcraft II is just around the corner.
The solution is called a (DIY) ViDock (Video Dock). Subtract the DIY portion and you’ve got a commercial product made by villagetronic. After seeing how outrageous the price was – it was ~$400 – I dug a bit deeper. It turns out that the components that make up the ViDock are pretty simple and easily obtainable.
To guide me throughout the quest I utilized a vibrant DIY community on notebookreview forums spearheaded by a diligent fellow by the alias of nando4. His knowledge hsa allowed the DIY’r spirit to flourish in many, myself included. Plus, the current form in which the technology now exists, it doesn’t take a genius to do what we’ve done.
Interested in using a 3d graphics card such as one produced by ATI or Nvidia? Then read on for a step-by-step account how.
Continue reading →
News — No comments
28
Apr 10
Never have I heard such a blatant recount of a politician so out of touch with the common American. His book, entitled “Mount Pleasant” about his one-month teaching stint at an average middle-class public high school in San Jose, is full of exaggerations and misconceptions.
The latest episode of This American Life takes an act to investigate the book’s colorful descriptions and quite effectively establishes solid facts contrary to billionare Mr. Poizner’s published perspective. When confronted about the lies, including city & police statistics as well as quotations from those he worked with at the school, Poizner blindly sticks to his own account. He places blame on unmotivated kids and an imaginative neighborhood full of crime.
The only hopeful moment comes near the end of the TAL act in which Ira interviews the school teacher who oversaw Mr. Poizner’s class. This teacher says that inspite of Poizner’s inaccurate interpretation of the setting, he seemed to genuinely care about the kids future.
Even so, Steve’s unwillingness to concede even the slightest admittance that he may have gotten it wrong, is a frightening reflection of his inability to produce objective judgement. His narcissism is so thick it’s suffocating. He squirms and flakes off in his answers to Ira’s straight – are you sure you got it right – questions.
A person unable to concede mistakes and misuse facts to self-serving ends (to get elected) is not someone we want heading our State.
