January 28, 2009
Done
Okay, I can officially no longer deal with Bloglines. Now to train myself to use Google Reader instead. Step one: rename all my linkbar aliases...
January 27, 2009
Choking under the weight
I've been a faithful user of bloglines for quite some time now. But recently I've been feeling it might be time to give in to the mighty Goog and switch to Google Reader. I have around 175 feeds in my blogroll. Bloglines, starting a couple of months ago, started doing noticeably wacky stuff - not linked, AFAICT, with my adding any more feeds, just out of the blue. For example, when I go to the Bloglines page, there's now a 20% chance that it will load everything *but* my feeds and then claim all is peachy (there's just nothing in that part of the left frame). Or I'll click on a category and the page will load perhaps 40% of the elements and then just sit there forever, loading - unless I click the category again, when it will just load. Or (my personal favorite) a random category which I've caught up in will suddenly claim it has N new entries, with N being something like 500 or 838...but when I go to the category, no new entries come up. Finally, the most annoying of all - it's started losing track of my reading, so I'll come to the page, read a couple of dozen entries spread across my categories, reload the page, see that there's nothing new, and leave. An hour later, when I come back, voila, the same categories have the same new items in them again.Guh.
January 26, 2009
Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Hm. I'm getting a bit hazy memory wise. It might be time to start re-reading both Girl Genius and Buck Godot: Gallimaufry over again. Months of enforced three-pages-per-week pace mean I've lost track of the beginnings, a bit.
Good lord, I can't reread all of GG. There's just too damn much of it.
Oh well.
Gotta do something with the laptop while lazing on the sofa.
January 22, 2009
Kenneth Cole and 1549
The traditionally snarky Kenneth Cole billboard at 57th st. and the West Side Highway says this tonight:In tough times, some land on their feet (others on the Hudson). Thank you to the pilots, crew, and N.Y.ers for all that you did, and all that you do.
Heh.
January 20, 2009
January 12, 2009
January 11, 2009
T3h Econopocalypse
I begin to understand deflation, slightly. I went shopping for clothes today, something I haven't done in over a year. Let's just put it this way: I know it's after the holidays and all, but I piled up my purchases to be rung up, and the total ended up being around 50% of what I was expecting, even with sales.
Hm.
January 5, 2009
To cycle, or not to cycle
...that is the question.
Especially when a bunch of stuff you sort of like having is on this box, and it lives a couple of hundred miles from you.
The Grey Lady Shows Herself for the Slut She Is
This is just ridiculous. Note that Bolton is identified as the 'UN Ambassador 205-2006' with no mention of the fact that he was recalled because Congress wouldn't confirm him. Note that John Yoo is identified as 'a deputy attorney general' with no mention of the torture memos. Note that both these men, who whored for an administration more contemptuous of Congressional oversight than any in recent memory if not ever, are now suddenly whining that the Obama administration will 'bind America' to those hideous foreign diplomatic agreements without garnering proper Congressional approval - despite the fact that that Administration isn't even in office yet.This is what is called brazen revisionism and image repair spin. The fact that the Times doesn't call them on it anywhere in the headers or footers is just unforgivable.
Poetry Break
I quite like Wilfred Owen, having been fortunate enough to have been exposed to his work in a college course. After having spent a couple of weeks thinking about weapon systems, I was reminded of one of his poems and thought it appropriate to post here to keep myself oriented.
On Seeing A Piece Of Our Heavy Artillery Brought Into Action
Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm,
Great Gun towering towards Heaven, about to curse;
Sway steep against them, and for years rehearse
Huge imprecations like a blasting charm!
Reach at that Arrogance which needs thy harm,
And beat it down before its sins grow worse.
Spend our resentment, cannon, -- yea, disburse
Our gold in shapes of flame, our breaths in storm.
Yet, for men's sakes whom thy vast malison
Must wither innocent of enmity,
Be not withdrawn, dark arm, thy spoilure done,
Safe to the bosom of our prosperity.
But when thy spell be cast complete and whole,
May God curse thee, and cut thee from our soul!
Macworld Expo
I am, of course, looking forward to Macworld. Because I'm one of 'those people.' Inveterate Apple gear fanatic. The company? Meh. The gear? Drool.I dunno what to make of the whole Steve-is-dying-no-he-isn't-he's-just-clever rumorfests. No real opinion. I care more about the gear.
I'm hoping for the new Mac Mini with HD-capable chippies in it. Blu-Ray would be nice, but His Steveness pretty much slapped that one down a while ago, and I don't see how they could fit it in at the Mini's price point (which has already ballooned).
One thing I'm hoping is not true is the rumors of the new 17-inch MacBook Pro - specifically, the part that says it has a non-removable battery. For fuck's sake, Apple, if you're going to advertise the machine as the 'media professional's portable workstation' then why the hell would you cripple it that way? I don't care how sexz0r your new battery tech might be, telling a sound tech or video professional that they can't bring two or three batteries to a location shoot is just...stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. I'm hoping this is a stupid rumor and not the truth.
Not that I want a 17 inch. I just hate seeing cool gear get kneecapped.
7-9 inch Touch? Hm. Interesting. I won't care unless I can load some decent terminal software, a word processor, and all the other toys I need in a road machine onto it. If it's just an iPod touch with a 7-inch screen, well...I'll carry my laptop to watch movies. The App store is great for cell phones, which are a bear to load software onto in the first place, but it's too restrictive for me to call whatever uses it a 'computer'. I know, I know, if Apple releases this they'll have some cool new market segment name for it, but for fuck's sake Apple, I want something that will prevent me from having to lug my Macbook Pro to work *every day*. Something I can...oh, all right, I want my MessagePad 2100 back, okay? Just get on that, chop-chop.