Entry Point For Half-Lane Cheerleader Zone

Please help Yams

2009-09-06T10:57:25Z

Send atomicat to Antarctica! The company running the competition's offering a trip to Antarctica for the winner, with the stipulation they submit weblog entries detailing their experience there. As anyone who has him on their flist here knows, the cat's a seriously skilled photographer, so this would be a fairly unique opportunity, in which we'd all stand to gain. ^_^ Painless free registration required - just name, email, and password.

If you'd like to help a bunny get his eye surgery, for an e. cuniculi infection, visit Save Yams. As awolf notes, "Yams' owner is something special. I learned about Yams because his owner appeared on the game show "Wipeout!". He made a total fool out of himself on national television (at one point screaming into the camera: THREE POUNDS OF LOVE!!!), and he promised to use the money to pay for Yams' surgery. But he didn't win." Which is where you come in. Can you spare a couple dollars/pounds/euros?

avon_deer might like this delightfully cynical (or, perhaps one should say, realistic) birdhouse for the surveillance age.

Take a car, a GPS receiver, MAX/MSP, and a pile of loops, and you wind up with this - a remix you control by driving through the sample mappings, controlling the result by your location and speed. ^_^

Grar! You'd think it'd be simple enough - set up a command for a dataflash device, set up the DMA pointer/counter pairs for TX & RX, set it running, and have it call you back once the SPI transaction's complete, so you can tag the bus are being available again. So what was I to make of observing the transfer halting after a single byte, with DMA transfers turned off in both directions, thereby preventing the callback from being reached, and bringing the process to an inglorious halt? Could I have turned off DMA myself prematurely? Was the SPI handler entering a tight self-perpetuating loop? No.. just the manufacturer and their love of nasty little silicon bugs, wherein if you're running that channel in fixed destination mode, and set to not disengage the CS line until another one's required, the data stream itself can - entirely incorrectly - cause the controller to end the transfer prematurely. One CSAAT removal later, and all is well again, even if I can't run the device at the full speed of the processor, thanks to a different bug - but half-speed's fine, given I only need to exchange 256-byte pages every now and then, when the USB or radio side of the bootloader's got a full buffer to commit.

Here, have a rat on a dog in Berkeley, and three rats on a dog in Vienna. Coincidentally, mikesedge pointed out Let's Be Friends, a sadly defunct site akin to a cross-species Cute Overload, with unlikely and utterly adorable pairings. ^_^

Bear and Fox is a fun strip, though there's not much of it as yet, about a red rat snake and a mockingbird. Here's one in which the pair attempt to assert geek supremacy. There doesn't seem to be any RSS feed, however, so you'll need to use some "notify me if this page changes" feature in your browser.

The fearsome Dandelion

2009-08-31T09:42:32Z

Oh, this is more like it! Back when I first played with Logic 8, I had to see what the Demo Content DVD included - a few example Logic projects from established artists, for folks to fiddle around with freely. Except, Hyzenthlay could only manage about the first five seconds of Shiny Toy Guns' "Le Disko" before withering. Frustrating, as it's fascinating to be able to see all the individual elements of real songs in this manner, be able to isolate each track, combine some subset, boost the level of some, and so on.

I finally dug up that disc last night, now Dandelion's in the house, to see how it fares with Logic.

Yep, no problem - all 69 tracks just played perfectly happily. While its video was playing in sync. And Screen Recording was capturing everything real-time in H.264. I think there's some leeway. =:)

Ring around the electron

2009-08-28T10:09:12Z

This? Is a single molecule of pentacene - those are five benzene rings you're seeing, linked linearly. SCIENCE! =:D

I imagine that by now, everyone's already seen this clip, but.. just in case.. it's not particularly suitable for work, but provides well over 300% of your daily WTF RDA. It is, of course, Japanese. ^_^

Three dashed good tracks from Hostage - ravestep, dubstep, plenty of energy and solid breaks.

Matrix squid blueprints, in high resolution.

For anyone interested in vendor-neutral GPGPU, MacResearch is running a series of video tutorials on OpenCL, individually downloadable, or as a podcast subscription.

Well, that complicates things, in a rather unpleasant manner.. the guy we took on late last year's been called up for Greek national service. Not very convenient for us, but with Greece embroiled in the ongoing American Vietnam II, he may wind up getting shipped out to Afghanistan. None of us are exactly happy with this, least of all him. *sigh* His family isn't poor, however, so strings might be able to be pulled to at least secure a safe posting, rather than getting fed into the sausage machine.

Curiously fascinating and amusing: Three Frames. Each day, three frames of film or video, in an infinite loop. Much more fun than it might sound. =:)

I do like the image the final track of this album, Cartoon Hits (with distinctively clip-art style cover - your sign of quality!), conjures up: Popey the Sailorman.

Yemeni Haraazi, breakfast of bunnies

2009-08-21T21:01:56Z

Finally installed Snow Leopard (10A432). ^_^ The process went very smoothly, booting off a USB stick I'd used Disk Utility to restore the image onto. It's much as noted elsewhere - very little difference on the surface, with all the fun down below in the engine rooms; my particular favorite will be OpenCL, finally bringing vendor-neutral, cross-platform GPGPU to the desktop, with the standard administered by the Khronos Group, also responsible for OpenGL and friends. It did, however, cause the iPhone to be temporarily invisible, but dropping iTunes back in place (and taking the opportunity to add the debug version of the USB kext, for USB tracing) solved that. It's worth noting that QuickTime 7 and Rosetta are optional installs, though if you have a Pro key, QT7 will be installed by default; they're gradually embarking on a complete overhaul of the frameworks, given how old some of the original code now is, so the player's migrating to "QuickTime X", and its accompanying shiny new frameworks.

And on the OpenGL front, rabitguy pointed out a particularly interesting presentation on the internals of the iPhone's GPU, courtesy of some ingenious hackery. If you'd rather download it, for later viewing, here's the FLV link. ^_^ Also, via the Khronos Group, the presentation given at SIGGRAPH this year on Beyond Programmable Shading, all slides provided.

I feel in an oddly positive mood tonight. ("Oh, I'm sorry, master!" "No, it'll pass, it'll pass.") In part, that's maybe due to getting back into contact with an old friend, in part, someone who makes me feel very good simply thinking about them (let alone being able to snuggle up to them..), and in part, getting some momentum going, at long last, on the iPhone development front and musically. It'll be a while before those last two bear fruit, but it's part of what I need to thrive - too placid an existence merely ossifies the brain, or what passes for mine, in any event. I have a distinct minimum load requirement. =:)

Apropos of nothing, here's dinner. ^_^ A quinoa concoction from ages back, finally taken out of the cryogenic unit, with asparagus, mushrooms, and a dash of cream cheese, alongside two of Middle Farm's superlative wild boar & apple sausages, and a few spears of baby corn, sauteed and nuked with garlic and Greek pepper.

And if you haven't seen the Avatar trailer yet, what are you waiting for? =:D (Needless to say, grab it in 1080p if you can use it, and hook up some good speakers)

vec_perm is your packing friend

2009-08-20T08:59:00Z

So, plenty of cities have flashmobs. San Francisco? Gets the Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu hula troupe performing History Repeating, lead by a drag queen, at Market & Castro. Brilliant. =:D (Sadly, the clip doesn't include the very beginning, joining in once it's underway, but so it goes) "Willo" on JMG notes they "held an all-day Hit And Run Hula event all over SF. It was remarkable. They started at the Ferry Building, were kicked out by security guards at the SF Shopping Center (across from the cable car turnaround) but were applauded for their spontaneous hula breakout in the Apple Store down the street."

Of possible interest to a particular fox and bunny, perhaps, though I'd be amazed if they're not fully aware of it already. =:) "Couples wishing to register as domestic partners under Nevada's new law may pre-file their declaration between August 24 and September 24, 2009 to receive their state certificate on October 1st 2009, the day the law becomes effective."

The trailer for Summer Wars looks quite interesting. Hafta find out more about it.. though on the cinematic front, today's big event has to be the unveiling of the Avatar trailer, at 7am Pacific/3pm BST. Intelligent big-budget sci-fi is.. well, let's just go with "rare". ^_^;

Saw something clambering on the mesh fencing to my side, a few days ago, and wondered what it was, for a moment.. ^_^

Has anyone encountered Sparky O'Hare (originally Meister Lampe in Germany)? By the looks of it, worth checking out, despite being on paper.

The PSPGo's UK price was confirmed as £225 - £25 less than the PS3 Slim. Can't say it looks compelling - the DS has a vast (though expensive) catalog, and the iPod touch/iPhone's also doing very well in both range and software pricing. My biggest surprise with the PSPGo was the lack of touchscreen, and to a lesser degree, accelerometer; it's essentially the same CPU and GPU spec as originally launched (or is it?), with more SRAM. Still, at least UMDs have finally been ditched, going for a download-only model, and Sony's current indications are that pricing will be similar to iPhone titles (though that does cover a range from 99¢ to $9.99.. not sure how much will be at the low end =:).

Oh, roohbear! Remember this vocal sample from Banco de Gaia's "I Love Baby Cheesy"? I couldn't place the language, though it sounded vaguely Iberian. Nope! He says, "As far as I know that's not a real language, I think the guy was 'speaking in tongues'."

The spirit of anon.penet.fi persists

2009-08-17T09:14:02Z

Truly an excellent way to spend 2m21s, in a style both cynical and inspiring: a short clip produced by Trey Parker & Matt Stone, to a short segment of an Alan Watts lecture, here looking on the meaning of life.

On the other paw, there's this clip, which ranks quite highly in WTF Quotient, starring a student who, it seems, couldn't quite figure out an automatic glass door. (Though by the looks of it, the glass must've been remarkably thin)

Went exploring last night, over on Terravia Island.. beautifully trippy place. =:D It's almost quite difficult getting good shots there, simply because there's so much to try including or excluding, making good framing quite challenging. Well worth a visit.

How well do HDDs survive mail/courier handling? Presumably perfectly happily, though I'm thinking of ones with data already present, as a more convenient means of shuffling larger volumes of data around, within political boundaries and internationally.

I've been very pleased to get back into comics collecting again - digitally, of course. Proof's gone on a bit of a break, unfortunately, but that leaves Neozoic, Abyss, and Tellos as others I'm following. Still, I admit, I did actually buy some of that paper stuff the other week, up at Comic Relief (an easy choice, given they're so convenient to BART and the University grounds, not to mention Jupiter), with the purchase of both volumes of Beanworld. Which, I admit, surprised me a bit in not actually wrapping up any of the smaller storylines - but, if he'll promise to make a better schedule for future issues than in the past, I'll forgive him. =:)

So, what's all this Passport business about? Some kind of virus?

Харе Чиитах Харе Чиитах | Чиитах Чиитах Харе Харе

2009-08-13T12:10:33Z

The first gameplay trailer for Plushed just came out - it's looking like an easy choice, when it debuts in September or October. ^_^

Here's someone who, in the process of trying to recreate the classic Lunar Lander in under 5K, using Flash, and found he'd only taken up 3K - and so, extended it into 3D to fill the space available. =:) Both versions are online to enjoy: original 2D and wireframe 3D. The former is completely faithful to the original, too. ^_^

Looking around for more information regarding using jailbroken iPhones on AT&T, I came across this handy site. (And I thought O2's roaming data charge was silly at £6/MB? Seems AT&T want $20/MB! Oh, to be able to buy up a decent cellco in several countries, and create a genuinely global set of plans)

True, there are easier ways of making music, but if you could make a synth using lots of conductive foam pads, 15 bikini-clad girls, and plenty of conductive ink, I'd say it would be an experiment worth conducting.

As dictated by local law, the Perseids peaked, and lo, the sky was solid grey. Surely all it would've taken is a few megawatts of laser energy pointed upwards?

Hm. So. Despite enjoying many fine tiramisu and cannoli at Victoria's, and quite a few good pints at the Magnolia Cafe and the GBBF, I've apparently lost a little weight. Still far above my ideal, but 100kg down from 105kg at the start of July or thereabouts is moving in the right direction. ^_^ (Could be expensive, though, if I eventually have to go and buy the Cressi Glaros and Orca S2 in smaller sizes.. =:)

Wandering along on my walk yesterday, I spotted one guy (who, sadly, can't seem to open his eyes much; enough to see, though, as he's perfectly able to select what he wants to eat, and gets around as easily as any of the others) right by the fence. Here, he's relaxing a bit, after some energetic munching. When you need to pull the zoom back a little, you know you've got a close shot.. ^_^ Be sure to check out the high-res version!

PHP:PHA:TXA:PHA:TYA:PHA

2009-08-10T20:38:13Z

patch_bunny noted an article about bee sting remedies, wherein our intrepid reporter is deliberately stung multiple times, all in the name of researching a variety of home-made and commercial remedies - some of which worked very well, some not at all. (The winners? Toothpaste, and ice)

I thought I'd try a quick encoding test, to see how Hyzenthlay and Dandelion compare - with a CPU difference of a single core 1.67GHz MPC7447A ("G4", 512K L2, 2GB 333MHz PC2-4200 DDR) and a dual core 2.8GHz Core2 Duo (3MB L2 per core, 4GB 1066MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 - and if you want to see something scary, check out the price of 4GB modules! Don't think I'm going to max it out to 8GB this year =:), I was thinking there'd be a factor of around 3 involved. So, I took the 1m55s trailer for Cats Don't Dance on the R1 DVD, and ran it through HandBrake 0.9.3, at 1000kbps average, using the High Profile Animation preset, for an H.264/AAC MKV output. Short enough an input file as to make the test bearably brief, long enough to be useful. Hyzenthlay took 39m; Dandelion took 4m05s. (And that's without any GPU assistance - HB's purely a CPU-bound app)

Finally got around to officially activating my copy of Komplete 5 last night.. oh, I'd almost forgotten just how much fun Absynth can be. Such a nifty app, capable of such lush audio texturing so easily. Not sure I'm a huge fan of Native Instruments' update mechanism, though.. choosing to update the DVD set's apps didn't, as I'd hoped, simply download the updates and apply them quietly, but rather, downloaded a stack of separate updaters, each needing to be launched manually in turn. Some of which didn't require pointing to the existing version, whilst others did; some offered a choice of location, others didn't; some would automatically install all the components (AU, VST, RTAS) and standalone version, others needed prompting.. and after all that, B4 II dies on launching. =:P Might have to revert back to an unofficial copy for that one. =:D (Still, not a huge issue - I don't anticipate that being at the core of my noodlings, much as I like the classic Hammond sound)

On the cheaper end of things, Mujik is one of the weirder sequencers I've seen, and plenty of fun - and free, for its debut. ^_^ It's no BeatMaker, or even (probably - I've not yet picked it up, though it looks tempting) SunVox, but it's quirky. =:)

Click to see not one, but two binkies in under a minute! (Well, as near as older rabbits can =:)

Now an official beerhead

2009-08-08T22:22:56Z

Pizza du jour: a double pepperoni frozen slab, with smoked anchovies, garlic powder, rosemary, and sliced zucchini (courgette). The anchovies twist and turn dangerously with the pepperoni, whilst the zucchini stands there, wagging its finger. Delicious.

Rodentine sorts might like to peek at this gallery of 14 photos of some particularly talented rat models. ^_^

Looking up information about flucloxacillin, and penicillin in general, turned up this rather fascinating footnote about its early days of mess production: "The challenge of mass-producing the drug was daunting. On March 14, 1942 the first patient was treated for streptococcal septicemia with U.S.-made penicillin produced by Merck & Co. Half of the total supply produced at the time was used on that one patient. By June 1942 there was just enough U.S. penicillin available to treat ten patients. A moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria, Illinois market in 1943 was found to contain the best and highest-quality penicillin after a worldwide search. The discovery of the cantaloupe, and the results of fermentation research on corn steep liquor at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory at Peoria, Illinois, allowed the United States to produce 2.3 million doses in time for the invasion of Normandy in the spring of 1944."

And I even managed to make it back safely last night after the GBBF. ^_^ Got there around noon, met up with an old friend shortly after, and proceeded to partake of much good beer (though I completely neglected to visit the cider alley this year - but with Middle Farm not far away, that's not such a loss), before taking a couple hours' break around 4pm. Hopped over to Exhibition Road, where we all readily agreed that a visit to the Science Museum would be fun. Food was good, as usual - amongst other things, the kudu burger was most tasty, not to mention an exemplary spicy pork pie. =:9 I did wind up bringing a few bottles back with me, too - three bottles of very pleasant mead, and (from the same company) a bottle of utterly gorgeous toffee vodka. Seemed to be selling quite healthily, too - they'd brought along enough for the show, or so they thought, when they had to restock on Friday morning. ^_^ I may post a photo or two sometime, both of the festival and museum - the latter included exhibits such as Difference Engine no.2, and J J Thompson's e/m tube.

So, apparently, there's going to be a sixth H2G2 book: And Another Thing, courtesy of the Artemis Fowl author. Not a series I've read, though I've heard positive mutterings. Anyone know the guy's work well?

I'sa bin cut!

2009-08-06T16:32:24Z

Well, that was pretty cool going. ^_^ I'd had an abscess on my cheek, which had grown uncomfortable in the past few days, so I went along to hand over the forms to register with a local doctor and make an appointment. Which, when I noted what it was for, turned out to be a little over an hour later. ^_^

The doc couldn't handle the matter himself, this being just a small practice, and instead, spoke with an ENT guy at the local district hospital, securing me an appointment an hour hence. Hopped on the bus, off into the DGH, found the ENT clinic, and ten minutes later, much stinky fun involving lotions, needles, and knives. ^_^;

And now it's all taken care of. ^_^ Got a bit of gauze packed in to make sure it's all gone, which I'll need to remove on the morrow (or more likely, Saturday, given Friday will be time for the Great British Beer Festival), and a prescription of flucloxacillin for the next 5-7 days. And then I'll be beautiful again! =:)

Chicken stuffed with pepperoni & marscapone

2009-08-05T12:28:31Z

Business sign seen a bit north of San Carlos, on my way down to Sunnyvale: "Oxygen with Attitude" O.o;

If you like the "All is Full of Love" look of the Svedka android, they've put together a Bot Builder - supply the Flash app with a photo, then add any accoutrements you feel appropriate, to see how you'd look as one. ^_^

A couple shorts I particularly enjoyed on the flight in: Yello Sticky Notes, and duelling air guitarists in a quiet suburban street, in the trailer for Air Knob. The former recaps the creator's journey into animation, blending personal insights (and procrastination), politics, and professional development (and lack thereof) into 2,300 sticky notes, showing six years of his life in six minutes, in wry style.

More first impressions of the new MBP: I'm happy with the glossy display. True, there are reflections, but they're easily ignored - and the tradeoff is that it's all still perfectly bright and clear even in strong sunlight. Battery life looks good so far - with the more power-hungry 9600M enabled, I'm currently showing 78% battery left, estimated 4h24 left. Haven't switched around GPUs much yet, but it does seem the 9400M saves a noticeable amount of power, whilst still delivering quite a decent SL framerate. With the 9600, though.. wow. Most sims are so smooth now! And I can play with shadows as well, though those do come with quite a framerate hit - but they do distinctly enhance the sim's realism. (Not sure if it's changed, but the shadow code used to require an Nvidia 8k series or newer)

Ah, United.. got to love looking at a departures display and seeing a flight scheduled for 2250 as "on time", when no boarding's even begun at 2253. =:) The boarding disagreement was sort of amusing, with one agent calling out "rows 20 and higher", to be contradicted by another, requesting 30 and up; then 20 and higher, countered by 25+. I'll board at some point. ^_^

(And promptly missed the apparently magnificent lighting storms around part of the flight, thanks to everyone having their blinds down on a night flight. Wah!)

An interesting little rebuttal of an Archbishop's recent claim along the lines of "internet-based friendships aren't real". I shan't add much to that line of tripe, other than noting how I've met almost all of my persistent friends on the net, and indeed, fell in love via Usenet and email.

View from the pub's terrace last night.. I'd trade it for the Bay in an instant, but this isn't so bad.

Live and direct

2009-08-01T04:00:47Z

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Got to love a gig where everyone's wielding cameras, and nobody minds. =:D [Edit] His take on the evening? "Kick A** iPhone dev show Yahoo campus. Geeks are my peeps=WIN. I ate about 200 bugs=FAIL lol. Me+Server=WIN http://twitpic.com/ccn1u"

iPhone DevCamp

2009-08-01T01:33:45Z

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Tiny video clip: over here, and there may be the occasional update here too. ^_^;

Greetings from sunny Sunnyvale!

2009-07-31T23:33:09Z

Just about to swing by Weird Stuff for an ethernet cable, as a backup for the hotel's WiFi - and not a bad deal for $65 a night! Then it'll be time for rabitguy and I to grab our badges from registration, and enjoy a sunset performance by BT. ^_^

(So, I can definitely recommend the Silicon Way Inn!)

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PCH FTW

2009-07-31T08:21:17Z

Not too horrible a photo, given we were zooming around the hillside roads leading over from Mountain View to the coastal side of the peninsula at the time, with me holding the camera up above the car to clear the windshield. Gets a bit breezy taking photos that way, but it's fun. =:D

My host for the day, roohbear, and his rather nice Mercedes SL500.. if you're going to go swooping around winding hillside roads, I can only recommend that this is the way to do it. ^_^

We were meeting another former Terran, who now works over at the fruit factory, in San Jose, so we swung around Santa Cruz, up 17, and found ourselves at yonder Santana Row.

Vince had graciously offered us sushi for dinner, and thus we found ourselves at Blowfish. As soon as I saw the description of To Die For, I knew we had to get it.. imagine, if you will, a lobster roll. Delicious enough by itself. Then, add cubes of filet mignon, and slices of shiitake, in oyster sauce, with wasabi cream on the side. Seriously good.

The sashimi selection arrived, white smoke trailing. =:D

As for the next day..

You know that nigh orgasmic feel of utter contentment you attain on enjoying just the right food and drink some evening?

I found that again on Thursday night, courtesy of the Magnolia Cafe. ^_^ I began with their pork nuggets - now, this is tricky to convey well, given the word summons to mind thoughts of barelymeat in breadcrumbs. No, the meat here was virtually rillette - and even tastier.

To follow, I went with the bourbon spare ribs, served with collard greens with pancetta, and macaroni & cheese.

This is where things went blurry. =:)

Imagine a bourbon barbecue sauce, covering exquisitely meaty ribs, with an angelic sharpness to transform the sauce into something far more. (And the sides played more than their part, too - I wish there'd been more of the greens, and the cheesiness of that creamy sauce was a delight)

And soon, time for the iPhone DevCamp at Yahoo's Sunnyvale campus - a superb opportunity to hear about tricks of the trade from those who've already gotten their paws dirty, including a sunset performance by BT. Anyone else I know going along?

In other news, there is, as mikesedge noted, work afoot to remake The Rats of NIMH, with the director of The Illusionist currently chosen to write the screenplay.

Got along to see Moon, having finally identified what the Bay Guardian referred to, somewhat cryptically, as the SF Center - they actually mean the Century Theaters in the Westfield Center, up on the fifth floor. (A good place to see a film! Very comfortable seating) As for the movie itself - yes, this is good. Not without some odd notions of science, but largely, quite plausible, and nicely intriguing. Sam Rockwell's performance is quite a tour de force, and Kevin Spacey brings life to Gerty, the base's answer to HAL. The design draws noticeable inspiration from 2001's aesthetics, as well as more subtle touches from other better modern sci-fi, like Silent Running. Overall, easily recommended. This is one to go out of your way for, if necessary.

From mussawyr, word of the trailer for The Fantastic Mr Fox, apparently in gen-u-wine stop motion, and of course, entirely furry.

Io ex Jupiter

2009-07-29T18:23:32Z

A piece by Kiki-UMA, which I considered beautiful: "After having met Akane, I came to feel the color from music."

So, I weakened on Sunday night, and finally took advantage of Native Instruments' sale on Komplete 5.. still not exactly free with the cornflakes, but attainable. Of course, it wasn't quite as simple as it might've been - accustomed to digital distribution, I wasn't used to the concept of places being "out of stock". But, Pro Audio Solutions came through - with one box left. For reasons unknown, given time was pressing, I couldn't get the site to accept my cards, but roohbear was able to oblige at short notice. (And lo, they indeed now declare it to be unavailable) It's a superb bundle, with Absynth, FM8, Battery, Kontakt, Massive, Pro-53, B-4, Akoustik Piano, Guitar Rig, and more. I've had several of them as - ah - extended evaluation editions for a while; this was an unmissable opportunity to gain full licenses at an affordable (more or less =:) price.

Tuesday afternoon saw a most enlightening round of conversation with krinndnz, who was, gratifyingly, able to make it into the City at that time, later to be joined by cryptodragon, whom we intercepted around Stockton & California. Whilst we'd had various nebulous notions of dinner, a lack of anything immediate presenting itself led to me nudging things towards Jupiter's pizzas, in yonder Berkeley, which I believe was, after dinner, considered to be an idea of some merit. ^_^

Going along on Friday-Sunday to the iPhone DevCamp on yonder Yahoo campus, with Friday evening seeing a special bonus of a performance by BT. (Many thanks to rabitguy for pointing the shindig out to me!)

A film some may wish to note: The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster, due in 2011: "A guy walks around with a puppet of a beaver on his hand and treats it like a living creature."

And then there's James Cameron's forthcoming Avatar, coming in December 2009 - on Aug 21, "Avatar Day", 15 mins of the feature will be released globally as a mammoth teaser. ^_^ You can read a description of the footage shown at SDCC here. "The next scene has Jake in a lab with Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). He's about to go into the Avatar machine, which looks sort of like an MRI. There's playful ribbing back and forth between Grace and Jake; he makes fun of her being a doctor and not being able to save his ability to walk. and she makes fun of him being soldier. Jake goes into the device and there's a "Sliders"-like tunnel effect of a synaptic nerve. When he wakes up, he's still in a lab, but he's in the Na'vi body. The Na'vi itself is sort of like a mix between a human, a horse and a cat but blue with zebra-like stripes. They're tall -- about 10 feet and Jake tries to stand, despite the doctors trying to stop him, so excited to be able to walk. They shout at him to lay down, but he's up and literally breaks out of the room, running down the hall and knocking things over with his tail."

If your design aesthetics include traditional Japanese artwork, you might well want to consider these furry examples by sheppardzo_14. Excellent.

And finally, on Tuesday morning (after I'd hurriedly rewired my host's doorbell so it would work, which I feel is a desirable attribute when expecting a courier - although, in fairness, having heard the tone it breaches forth, I quite understand why it would've been disabled).. Hyzenthlay's successor arrived. ^_^ I'm not quite certain yet, but I'm feeling this may be Dandelion:

What can I say? It's a powerhouse, with a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, dual GPUs (9400M and 9600M with 512MB), 4GB of memory (expandable to 8GB), FW800, 3xUSB2, and a gorgeous 1920x1200 display that shows off 1080p trailers beautifully. More than that, it's a work of art. So easy on the eyes, so uncluttered, with the underlit keyboard remaining, its area gently recessed, and the trackpad's button removed, with the entire trackpad now acting as left and right buttons, depending on where it's pressed down. Truly, a computer should be able to make one happy before even using it, let alone being able to accomplish its tasks.

And now to zoom off down the peninsula to meet up with a couple other former Terrans! ^_^

On the move again

2009-07-26T23:58:57Z

Greetings from sunny downtown Santa Rosa! (Well, you know how it is - parking was awful on Saturday night in North Beach)

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Hyzenthlay's successor

2009-07-25T07:30:02Z

.. is (almost) on its way, probably from Elk Grove. ^_^

So, the pressing issue is: what to call it?

My systems' names have - prepare yourself for amazement - always been quite furry, beginning with red_panda and orca in 1994 (both NeXTstation Turbos, the former then host to FurToonia and Brazilian Dreams II), followed by Raccoon (PB5300c) in 1995, Bunny (Wallstreet) in 1998, Ocelot (rev.A TiBook) in 2001, Mouse (a hand-me-down original iBook courtesy of tgeller) in 2003, and Hyzenthlay (the current one, and still a wonderful system, a final revision PBG4, the last dance of PowerPC and Apple) in 2005.

(Was Hyzenthlay tgeller or loganberrybunny's idea? Not quite sure.. but it's been a particularly pleasant name)

I'd like something that suggests lapinity. Maybe something Watership Down-related again, but that's not a requirement - could be something original, from somewhere else, but lapine somehow. ^_^

SIMless in San Francisco

2009-07-24T19:52:15Z

At long last, I got to revisit one of my main sushi haunts.. and the chef immediately enthused over my return. ^_^;; My bento was indeed still waiting, and it wasn't long before it was performing a noble function once more.

It wasn't much longer before the fish appeared. ^_^

Also finally got to see The Fall, which mussawyr may recall; Tarsem Singh's visual epic from 2006. It happened to be running for two days, and I happened to have a few passes, thanks to amelitatwinstar. As cinematographically lush as you could have ever hoped for. The storyline was merely an off-the-cuff piece of storytelling, which really didn't hurt things, though perhaps the pacing towards the end became somewhat fragmented.

And I really need to try arranging some more meetups! ^_^;

The best way to start a day

2009-07-22T03:27:59Z

Amongst the reasons San Francisco is such a wonderful place..

A double mocha and a tiramisu from Victoria's - really not such a bad way to start a day. ^_^ (And their cannoli are fantastic.. but you really can't go wrong with anything they sell)

Californian SIMs

2009-07-21T09:54:04Z

So.. what recommendations or warnings do people have regarding - if it goes ahead painlessly - a 3G voice and data SIM? (I can just continue with the nasty little Nokia on Virgin Mobile, but I'd prefer to have the iPhone free-range. Sadly, most SF WiFi is now protected, necessitating supporting AT&T or suchlike, if one wants easy access to data, and even this "voice" thing I hear about) What SIM-only plans are there? Where can I pick up such a SIM? (Not quite as readily located as in most UK market towns =:)

C'est la biere magnifique

2009-07-21T01:50:45Z

I HAVE LIVED THE GRANDADDY SONG

Well, okay, not so much a mountain as the peak of Buena Vista park. ^_^

Then a fantastic fried chicken & bacon sandwich at the Magnolia.

And now I find the Toronado has WiFi. This could be dangerous. ^_^

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Here!

2009-07-18T18:38:52Z

And here I am (or was, last night).. ^_^

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Size matters

2009-07-17T13:29:13Z

I'm always in awe of the sheer size of long-haul jet engines.. in this case, on a 777.

Magnificent, and unfathomably potent. ^_^

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bouncebouncebouncebounce

2009-07-17T12:40:27Z

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