Mostly Harmless

Mostly about my amusement

Year: 2010 (page 6 of 13)

July 21, 2010

Cue the vacation music

Lily and I started our vacation Friday night by eating at the Bhatti Indian Grill and enjoying really good spicy food. It was also our wedding anniversary and unlike last year neither of us forgot it. 16 years plus 5 years dating! She’s perfect.

We have very different vacation styles.  She likes to fill up each day with activity to maximize the time we have. You know, go places, do things, etc. I used to joke that vacations with her was like a military campaign and sometimes it was. I always had a great time with her but the pace was a little intimidating.

There is nothing wrong with that kind of planning. But I get deadlines and furious activity on a daily basis at work. NOTE: THIS IS NOT A WORK DIG! But when you work in a certain industry you deal with fire drills all the time. It comes with the job and I’m fine with that.

How do I prefer my vacations? I like to just take it easy and relax. Go places (or not), run around (or not), and accomplish thing you set out to do (or not). My goal for this week is to relax with Lily and the kids.

I would like to accomplish the following things.

  1. Spend quality time with the wife and kids. Quality time? Can’t believe I’m using that phrase, but what that means is “Don’t sweat the small things”. You know, take it easy with family.
  2. Start and maybe complete another Bandai MG model. I’ve got the MG Gouf v2 all lined up (Lily won’t let me order more unless I make my unassembled model stash smaller!)
  3. Take more pictures. I like my amateur photo hobby and really am jonesing for a 24-70mm  f/2.8 Nikon lens.
  4. Do something with my WordPress theme! The latest not-really-a-GPL-argument-just-copyright-infringement has gotten me to examine how my blog looks. If only I had the time to learn CSS, that’s what really sets one site apart from another.

The last item on my list is to have fun and relax. The list is incidental as long as I have a good time. Mostly I’ll just cheerfully go with what the family does.

By the way, my vacation theme music? It would have to be this song.

July 13, 2010

No iPhone 4 for me yet?

Not really news, but nice to see that Consumer Reports can send people the straight scoop.

This seems to put to rest the myth of this being a software glitch. I still plan on getting one. I was going to get the bumper anyways and it’s still an awesome phone despite the antenna flaw.

July 6, 2010

And now an iMac

I have way too many PCs in my house, but a couple of them have been elevated to “must have”. The notebook in the kitchen had become indispensable, like coffee in the morning.

My morning wake up routine became

  1. Drink coffee
  2. Check my e-mail
  3. Check out my social networks
  4. Do a little sysadmin on my servers
  5. Drink some more coffee

And all from my kitchen notebook. But the HP notebook was overheating and automatically shutting down on a routine basis. As a result Lily and I thought “why not replace it with a Mac book?”

Once we got to the Apple store we realized that the iMac was more bang for the buck, and the small kitchen notebook never moved from its place. We now have the 21.5 inch iMac cheerfully sitting on my kitchen island and I’m writing this up on it now.

We selected an iMac because the kids use them in school and more importantly, I just want the thing to work. It’s pretty straight forward and after I ran the software updater a few times I was up to date on all the patches.

It’s got a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. The mouse was easy to get used to (it’s a Magic Mouse after all) but the keyboard makes me do an occasional double-take. There are no insert or page down/up keys and while the chiclet keys are not small, the overall size of the keyboard is.

Adding my network printer to the iMac was a breeze. Once it found the printer on the network, all I had to do was confirm that I wanted to install it.

Overall I’m really pleased with it. Everyone likes the iMac and the display looks great. The only thing that I’ll need to do is find the equivalent versions of the software I use. I’m mostly a Notepad++, PuTTY, and Firefox user so I should be able to find Mac equivalents.

July 3, 2010

Alice in Wonderland (not in 3D)

Last night I sat through Alice in Wonderland with my daughter and got to see Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, and company in a Tim Burton epic. We watched it on DVD.

I had low expectations but was surprised when I really liked it. The story starts off in usual visual Tim Burton fashion and grows from there on. Alice ends up in the Rabbit Hole and by the end of the movie it’s all connected and works out.

What I can’t get is how would this, or most movies, benefit from being in 3D? When I saw Pocahontas Avatar on Blu-Ray, I liked it. I could easily see how the movie was shot and generated for 3D, but the predictable story line played out well.

I’m not criticizing Avatar; who doesn’t like it when the hero beats the bad guy and gets the girl? James Cameron really knew what he was doing. He had a vision to show and kept with it. Everyone I know who saw it in 3D says that it doesn’t distract from his movie. With the right application, 3D can complement the experience. But the same movie in 2D will still work if the story line is any good.

Now 3D is a gimmick for getting people in the theater *cough* Last Airbender *cough*. But it can’t make a bad movie better. Alice in Wonderland was a good movie and I think that the 3D gimmick would distract from that.

June 30, 2010

The SCOTUS handgun ruling

From the New York Time letter page. This is not my letter, but the sentiment is the same.

To the Editor:

Every year, millions of people across the United States willingly have their First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly restricted when local governments hand out permits for parades. The governments decide who can march, where they can march and when they can march, and require them to have a permit.

The recent Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment seems to set the right to buy and bear arms above the rights of the First Amendment. It deprives local governments of their right to decide who can carry a weapon, where they can carry a weapon and when they can carry a weapon, and, for all we know today, may lead to a time when people can carry concealed weapons without a permit.

Words are almost always harmless. Unfortunately, guns, by design, are never so.

Zachary I. Gold
Massapequa Park, N.Y., June 29, 2010

That’s what I don’t get. We routinely accept controls and limitations to our constitutional rights and these are done as a “common sense” measure.

No one says “let’s stifle freedom of speech and assembly”, but I can’t get 200 of my close friends for a protest without filing and obtaining a permit.

We have freedom of speech but no one expects that to permit someone yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater.

How are guns different? We can restrict some rights but why does the 2nd amendment get a pass on limitations or controls? I know full well that the ruling is about the outright ban on handguns, and is not about “Guns for everyone!” But if the law is re-worded, will it still pass this test?

Why can’t a state regulate that some types of guns are just not allowed?

Thumbnail credit goes to leasepics / Lala Roe for the image.

June 26, 2010

What would we do without political cartoons?

The second thing I look at on the NY Times website is the cartoons.

Oh, now SCOTUS is concerned about rights. Good thing for Jeff Skilling this case didn’t involve someone being kidnapped and shipped overseas to be tortured.

In addition to President Obama maintaining the worst of the previous administration, his Supreme Court nominee (while qualified) represents someone who is more like Roberts and less like Stevens.

When Elena Kagan is confirmed, there is no hope that SCOTUS will oppose expansion of the president’s power when national security is used as the excuse.

June 17, 2010

WordPress 3.0 is gold

It’s here and it’s “Thelonious”.

Now unless you are capable of

  1. Backing up your WordPress blog completely
  2. Performing the manual upgrade by hand
  3. Capable of restoring your file and database backup 100% yourself in case something goes seriously wrong

then consider waiting before adopting WordPress 3.0 on your blog.

The 3.0 release is BIG and things will fail on some setups. At this moment, there is no reason to rush into this release.

At some point soon, yes do upgrade. Keeping current is valuable and makes your blog easier to obtain support. But for now consider waiting.

June 16, 2010

Jon Stewart is a comedian?

The Daily Show should be required viewing for anyone looking to get into public service.

I do like and admire President Obama, but Jon Stewart’s video clip really highlights that all politicians lie.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-15-2010/respect-my-authoritah

President Obama is getting a beating in the polls because of the BP oil spill. But where it really counts, we’re getting a third term for GWB.

At least the economy is doing better.

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Jan Dembowski

Jan Dembowski

I am a software enthusiast who is easily amused and definitely mostly harmless.

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