I managed to post just a single entry to this blog last year. And ironically, it was a link to previous posts.
I suppose "micro-blogging" via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, and now Path has been my main outlet for communication. I'm clearly not alone, as most of the individual blogs I follow have migrated to Twitter. But that's not true for everyone. Some bloggers have remained prolific, others have reduced their posting frequency but continue to publish high quality stuff, and others have moved to Tumblr (and Posterous) for lighter communication and easy reposts with stronger communities.
I originally intended for this site to be a hybrid blog/wiki, where I could log stuff like code settings and what-not that might be useful for others besides me. But these days, I find it easier to keep everything in Evernote.
So what's next for MikeyP.com? Should I retire the blog and put up a new static site? Should I try to get back in the habit of posting something interesting, maybe at least once a month? Focus the site on a single topic, like game design? Slim the site down, and archive all of the old stuff except for the most interesting posts? Should I redirect over to Tumblr, or convert the site to a "lifestream" that reposts my content from Twitter, Instagram, etc?
Or perhaps I should continue to let it sit derelict, like a time capsule from a previous internet age...
Okay, I'm two days late on this, but I love the idea. Shawn Blanc (via Marco Arment) proposes that every January 20th, bloggers post five links to previous posts they've written.
Since I haven't had time to write new posts recently, I love this idea! I'll just keep linking to old stuff. Genius!
So without further ado, here are five, fun, "blast from the past" posts on MikeyP.com:
Almost every high-tech startup in the Bay Area outfits their office with Herman Miller Aeron chairs. And as some of the startups inevitably go out of business, the Aeron chairs hit the surplus office supply market, where people like me pick them up at a big discount.
After bringing home my discounted Aeron chair, I noticed that the center post tended to drag against the carpet. The standard casters on Aeron chairs are designed for office carpets and solid floors, and don’t lift the chair high enough to allow the center post to clear a normal home carpet.
You can buy a larger set of Aeron casters from various sources, but they usually sell for at least $50 or more ![[B001H96YRG]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
. To me, that’s pretty expensive for a simple set of casters.
After sleuthing around the ‘net a bit, I was able to find the dimensions of the large-size OEM casters. A specialty store called “Great Lake Casters” sells casters of the exact dimensions for a mere $1.64 each. I ordered five.
Installation was simple. I turned the chair over, popped off the old casters and popped on the new large ones. The new casters raise the chair by about 3/4 inch, which is plenty of clearance for the center post over the carpet.
Comcast has rolled out a faster cable modem network in my area. I thought I was going to need to buy a new DOCSIS 3.0-compatible cable modem to take advantage of the new “Blast” speed tier, but I guess not:
Wow.
The Uncrate “buyers guide for men” has discovered one of my favorite beverages.
Suntory Yamazaki Whisky | Uncrate
Here’s what Uncrate has to say:
Born from the pure waters of the Vale of Yamazaki and handcrafted at Japan's oldest distillery, Suntory Yamazaki Whisky is a great way to wind down after a hard day at the office. Aged for either 12 ($40) or 18 years ($100), Yamazaki has a lengthy, dry finish, with the 12-year variety offering a delicate, mellow taste and the 18-year providing a spicier punch, with cherry-like tones. For maximum enjoyment, serve on the rocks with an ice ball, which you can make yourself using the Spherical Ice Tray Set ($16) from MoMA.
Hmmm, I must look into this Spherical Ice Tray Set…
Most coffee aficionados (like me) insist that whole bean coffee should be ground in a conical burr grinder. Never use a blade grinder. The typical reason is that a burr grinder creates a more even grind at a lower speed, as opposed to a blade grinder’s uneven grind at a high speed. An uneven grind makes for an unpredictable brew, and the high speed of the blade grinding process can heat up the beans, thereby altering the flavor a bit.
However, where the generally despised Krups blade grinder is under $20, a good conical burr grinder can be expensive. And while the burr grinder advice is important for folks grinding espresso, it isn’t quite as important if you’re grinding coffee for a coffee press or paper cone filter.
Most people associate blade grinders with the Krups grinder. The Krups is avoided by coffee fanatics due some notable flaws:
But not all blade grinders are like the Krups. In fact, the Ueshima Coffee Company in Hawaii uses a giant custom-made machine called the “Crackulater” which is in essence a high-quality, high-consistency blade grinder.
I needed a new grinder, and found that Mr. Coffee, of all companies, makes a surprisingly good blade grinder for the same price as the Krups ($20). And it solves all of the problems associated with the Krups. The Mr. Coffee Grinder has settings for the grind size and amount, which sets the speed and duration of the grind. You just hold the button down on the top of the grinder, and it will stop automatically when the grinding is complete. You then detach the container (right-side up), give the top a couple of twists, and the static-free ground coffee is free to pour into the filter or coffee press. Simple, effective, and consistent. What’s not to like about that?
I’m sure I’ll pick up a nice burr grinder at some point, but for twenty bucks, the Mr. Coffee Grinder is a steal. And nothing beats freshly ground coffee.
Every time I visit the Big Island of Hawaii, I buy fresh Kona coffee. I love driving through Holualoa and Captain Cook, where you can buy freshly roasted coffee right from the coffee groves and roasting companies. There is a lot of good coffee to choose from in the Kona region, but my favorite coffee from a recent Big Island trip came from the Komo Store.
The Komo Store is a small, old, general store in Holualoa. It’s a Mom and Pop shop that has been there for around 100 years. Mom was manning the register there when we visited.
In the old days, they apparently accepted coffee beans as barter payment, but these days, they grow, roast, and sell their own “estate” coffee. Unlike most other coffee companies in the area, Komo Store has no tasting setup, no tour, no brochures, no pretense. They just roast and sell excellent coffee along side their general provisions. And the coffee is indeed excellent.
Highly recommended!
With the iPhone replacing my iPod, cel phone, PDA, and camera (for casual use), and with my switch from older, clunky laptops to the svelt MacBook Air, I decided to downsize my laptop bag / briefcase.
My previous bag was pretty small to begin with, but it couldn't beat the slim and lightweight 13" Tucano Workout bag. This classy Italian-made bag is designed for the standard 13" MacBook, but the MacBook Air fits inside perfectly. A lot of people opt for basic sleeves for their Airs, but I prefer to use an actual bag with zipped pockets and slots for business cards, cables, pens, etc. And even after filling the pockets in the Tucano bag, it still remains incredibly small, light, and comfortable to carry.
I bought mine at the Flight 001 store in Berkeley, CA, but you can find it online at a variety of sources for under $60. It comes in a few different colors (I chose black).
In my quest to find the ultimate solution for contact list and calendar synchronization, I decided to try out Funambol. Funambol is an open-source product formerly known as sync4j, which provides client and server sync applications, as well as a sync portal service at http://my.funambol.com. Funambol is closely, but not exactly, based on the SyncML standard.
I decided to run my own Funambol server (version 6), and synchronize it with four clients:
All but the iPhone were previously kept in sync manually via Pocket Mirror for the Treo.
Setting up a Funambol server was quite easy, at least for someone with basic technical skills. They thoughtfully provide the server in a ready-to-run package that includes all of the base host components, like Apache Tomcat and Java. You just need to extract the package, start the server, and run a simple configuration utility. The included PDF instructions are easy to follow. If you are behind a firewall, as most people are, you'll need to forward port 8080 to the machine running the Funambol server.
Funambol provides their own Outlook plugin, which installs easily, so I installed it on both Outlook clients and configured them to point at my server. Here's a lesson I learned when dealing with syncing Palm Pilots: Always choose one, and only one, client to be the "master sync source." When you first configure a sync solution, you will inevitably screw up the data somewhere, either nuking everything, or duplicating everything. I chose my work Outlook client as the master. I also backed up my home Outlook PST file. I first manually synced the work Outlook client, then did a one-way sync from the server to my home Outlook client. I ended up with several duplicate appointments on the home client, so I manually cleaned out the dupes, and did a standard two-way sync. When I synced the work client again, the dupes appeared on the work client, so I removed the dupes there as well. And here's where I ran into a problem: the duped appointments were missing all of the Exchange meeting data, so information about the meeting organizer and attendees was lost. Luckily, because I chose the work Outlook client as the master sync source, I could compare duped meetings on the work client and delete the dupe that was missing Exchange data. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the problem until I had deleted a few of the wrong dupes. Contacts synced fine between both clients.
There is no Funambol client for the Treo 650, so I tried the Nexthaus SyncJe client and the Synthesis SyncML client. The SyncJe client would connect to the Funambol server, but it couldn't see any of the data stores, so I couldn't use it. That left the Synthesis client. The Synthesis client would connect and sync, but I had several issues, presumably due to differences in adherence to the SyncML standard. I lost all contact pictures on the Treo, and several address fields were incorrectly combined or deleted. All-day appointments (like birthdays) were converted to 6 hour appointments randomly a day before or after the original date, and other meetings would mysteriously vanish. I suspected some of the issues were related to data on the Treo previously synced from Pocket Mirror, so I wiped the contacts and calendar clean, and re-synced from the Funambol server. After manually cleaning up the contact data in Outlook and syncing all clients, the contact info on the Treo was fine. But each time the Synthesis client synced, it would randomly screw up some part of the calendar. I ended up setting the Synthesis client to only do a one-way sync from the server, and never "write back" to the server. This prevented corruption of the server's sync data, but it also meant that I could never add new appointments from the Treo. And even in this case, some appointments would still never appear on the Treo.
When I picked up my iPhone 3G, I walked to a nearby coffee shop, sat down, launched the AppStore on the iPhone, downloaded the native Funambol client, configured it to point at my server, and synced. And just like that, I had all of my contact data on the iPhone. Upon careful inspection, however, I noticed two issues: 1) Email addresses were listed in a category called "Other", instead of "Email". This doesn't seem to cause any real problems, as I can email everyone fine. 2) Contact "Group" info was not synced. If you sync contact data from Outlook to the iPhone via a cable and iTunes, Outlook's Contact folder data will be translated into Group data on the iPhone. This information is not translated when syncing via Funambol, so all of my contacts are listed in one long list. I'm able to manually assign group information using the iPhone app ABGroups, and while the Group data is not synced with Funambol, it does seems to be preserved on the iPhone after syncing.
Apple currently doesn't allow third party software to modify the iPhone's calendar, so the Funambol client does not sync the calendar. This flat out stinks, and it makes you wonder if Apple is trying to force users to subscribe to their MobileMe service. In the mean time, I use Google Calendar's Outlook Connector to do a one-way sync from my work Outlook client, and I view the calendar using Google's iPhone-optimized Google Calendar web site. It works surprisingly well, and I can even see organizer and attendee data on the Google calendar. But it is far less than ideal, as I can only see the calendar when I have a network connection. Note that based on usage reports from Omar and others, I don't trust a two-way sync from Google calendar, so like the Treo, I cannot add new appointments on the iPhone. Come on Apple, open up the calendar!
After two months of usage, I'm still using Funambol on a daily basis. I occasionally get duplicate appointments in my calendars, but I'm not sure if it is Funambol or other issues (I've seen dupes appear when I modify my Exchange calendar via Entourage on the Mac). I don't think I would recommend Funambol as a bullet-proof calendar sync solution, but for Contact data, it does the trick. And in both cases, I like that I'm syncing everything without cables.
UPDATE: Well, today I updated my iPhone to firmware 2.0.2. After doing so, used the iPhone Funambol app to sync with my server as usual, and it decided to duplicate almost all of my contacts. Why? The firmware update? Was it because I added Group info? As much as I want Funambol to succeed as free alternative to MobileMe, I'm dubious of its reliablity.
Like many people, I store and use Contacts and Calendars on several devices and computers. At home, I have a personal address book and calendar, and at work I have the global company address book and my shared work calendar (on Exchange Server). Other family members also have their own address books and contact lists. And I want to prune my contacts into categories so I can sync just a subset of the list.
I want a solution that allows me to synchronize my personal contacts/calendars with my work contacts/calendars, but not vice-versa. And I want to share that personal data with my family. Here's a diagram of what I'm looking for:
The rectangles are client devices, and the circles are data sources. The dotted lines represent "read only" paths. My devices/computers are on the right, my family's on the left. For example, my PDA/Phone will need to show my family calendar and my work calendar, but my family's PDA/Phone only needs to show the family calendar.
I'm pretty sure I'm not alone with this data sync problem.
With my Treo, I can mostly make this work by manually hot-syncing in the cradle on my home machine and my work machine. I have yet to try syncing one home machine to another, though Easy2Sync looks like a fine solution if everyone is running Outlook.
But with the migration from Treo to iPhone, and some home machines from Windows to Mac, what is the best way to keep everything in sync? And can I, preferably, keep the iPhones in sync wirelessly?
Either I'm missing something obvious, or there is an interesting solution opportunity for someone.
UPDATE: This just in from Uncle Walt regarding the new iPhone: While you can have both personal and Exchange email accounts on the new iPhone, if you synchronize with Exchange calendars and contacts, your personal calendar and contacts are erased.
I've been running this blog semi-anonymously for the past few years. But some minor Googling would get you going on whatever you wanted to know about me, so I figured it was about time to add a proper "About Me" page.
Hi, I'm Mike Perry. I create video games for a living. I've been making games for around 20 years, and I'm currently a Creative Director at Electronic Arts. You've probably played some games that I produced, designed, programmed, or otherwise contributed to in some way, like The Godfather, The Sims, SimCity, and others. I've been lucky enough to have Will Wright as my game design mentor, and was fortunate to learn from the Japanese game masters at Hudson Soft back in the heyday of the NES.
I've given a few talks at the Game Developers Conference, and I have a semi-accurate Wikipedia entry here .
For fun, I play games (duh), travel, fiddle with computers and gadgets, hike, DIY home repair, read books and alternative comics, and calibrate my home theater. I occasionally study jazz guitar at the Jazz School in Berkeley, and I own way too many guitars for someone who plays as poorly as I do.
This blog at MikeyP.com has no meaningful purpose. I just started it in order to write down things that I would likely forget, and would possibly be interesting to other folks.
Absolutely nothing I write here is approved of or endorsed by my employer. All opinions are solely my own.
Here's the new filter I set up on my yahoo.com email address:
If...
From contains "@"
Then...
Move message to Trash folder
There. That should be a nice and effective improvement to Yahoo's spam filter.
The always useful 511.org web site has a new feature: A web page where you can calculate your average out-of-pocket commuting costs. I just did these calculations myself a few weeks ago, and reached the same conclusions as the 511.org calculator. My commute costs me about $22 a day. Sheesh.
Did you see the Moon and Venus in tonight's sky? Even through the Bay Area haze… wow.
I own a few domain names, which means that I have the ability to create an unlimited number of email addresses. This is a cheap and effective way to reduce email spam in your inbox.
Whenever I purchase something from a web retailer that I've never used before, I create a custom email address that includes the name of the retailer. I do the same when I register for shareware and especially when I register at an online forum.
For example, if I plan to buy something from somewebstore.com, I create an email address call somewebstore@EXAMPLEofoneofmydomains.com, and I use that address exclusively for that web store. If start to receive spam to that address, I simply disable the address, and the spam stops.
Recently, I had to disable two addresses, one I used to register software called Shinkuro and one I used for a forum to discuss the KMPlayer media player software.
KMPlayer is an interesting media player for Windows, as it is mish-mash of features taken (stolen?) straight from other media players such as WinAmp, as well as various open source projects. I assumed that the Korean-based forums were insecure, and I was right. Within 3 weeks, I noticed that my custom kmp@EXAMPLEofoneofmydomains.com email address was being used as a Reply-To for someone sending spams. And I never even posted a message to the forum.
Shinkuro was surprising, as they are a company that creates collaboration software for government use, and is partially funded by DARPA . I created a custom shinkuro@EXAMPLEofoneofmydomains.com address to try the software, and never used it for another purpose. But this year, I started getting Nigerian 419 scams sent directly to that address. Would you trust the security of Shinkuro now?
I've seen this all over the net these days, but I thought I was too far out on the fringes of the blogosphere to get tagged. Well whaddya know, Anthony just tagged me with the "5 things you don't know about me" meme .
Basically, the way this works is that someone "tags" you to blog about 5 things people may not know about you. Then you tag 5 other people to do the same thing.
So… here are 5 things you might not know about me:
, with the 16KB (that's KB, not MB) memory expansion pack. The first program I wrote for it was an Astrosmash clone. In BASIC, of course.. Actually, two kinds . But it's been years since I practiced, so please don't try to beat me up. I'll just run away. Quickly.So there ya go. And now to tag other people!
Let's tag StickyC, Robin, Brian, Ronbo, and Cantoni. Can't wait to see what ya'll write.
I recently did a couple of weeks of traveling. Over the years, I've learned to pack lighter and lighter, so on this trip, I brought only one kind of shirt: The REI Sahara Tech Tee. The tech tees are 100% polyester, but they feel as comfortable as cotton. They breath very well, and amazingly, keep you cool in hot climates and warm in cool climates. They don't wrinkle, and the polyester material means that they don't stain or stink. And they are so lightweight that you can roll up an extra in your day bag for sudden climate changes or spur-of-the-moment dining at a "long sleeve" restaurant.
I brought six of them, three short sleeves and three long sleeves, all black. For $25 each, they are an excellent bargain.
One of the coolest things I ever saw on my Commodore 64 was a Mac-like graphical OS environment called GEOS . OSNews is running a really nice article about the history of GEOS, and if you're are old C64 hack like me, it is a must read.
In my office closet, I have about 6-8 years worth of Stereo Review / Sound & Vision and Guitar Player magazines. I've kept them because the stereo mags contain reviews of now-vintage hi-fi equipment (which I consider buying now and then), and the guitar magazines have equipment reviews as well as interesting lessons.
But after spending a couple of days cleaning out and reorganizing the closet, I'm wondering why I keep the magazines. They take up a ton of space, and in all this time, I have yet to actually crack open a back issue. Am I ever going to plan a purchase that requires back issue magazine research? Will I ever have enough free time to study even one old guitar lesson? Can I even figure out which magazine has a particular review or lesson?
So what to do? Chuck 'em in the recycling bin? Plow through each one and tear out the most interesting pages? Donate them to a library (do libraries even want this stuff)?
eBay? Nah, forget eBay.
My friend Joe may have sailed solo across the pacific from Mexico to Tahiti, but he's taking a commercial airplane home. According to his latest email update, he's actually shipping his sailboat back. On a ship.
I don't know anything about yachts or sailboats, but apparently, you can have one shipped almost anywhere in the world by a company called Dockwise. They have giant floating drydock ships that sink themselves low enough to let boats "float on and float off" for long distance transport. Neato. Check it out: http://www.yacht-transport.com/
I rarely discuss politics on my blog, so let's file this one under "humor."
If you ever wondered why so many bizarre, illogical, and downright backwards bills get passed in the US Senate, you only need to read the following transcript of Sen. Ted Stevens (R - Alaska) to gain some insight: http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1512499. It is, in his own words, an incredibly misguided understanding of how the internet works, and how that "understanding" influences his voting. If I'm interpreting his poor grammer correctly, I think he believes that the increased presence of video downloads on the net is preventing him from getting his email on time. Therefore, he believes, those video providers should go out and build their own internet.
Some choice quotes:
"I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially."
"…the internet is not something you just dump something on… It's a series of tubes."
"Maybe there is a place for a commercial net but it's not using what consumers use every day."
(Caught on Craig's blog)
So I decided to order the Philips Bodygroom for some "manscaping ," or at least attempt to look and feel more human and less beast.
When I clicked the Buy Now with 1-Click button on Amazon, as usual, they showed a page of "Other items I might enjoy:" In the list:
Aw geez…
Getting the sense that you are completely overwhelmed with data, from emails, newsfeeds, DVR, etc.? This dude totally nails it:
…these days, my feed reader pulls down megabytes of data – a large portion of it, of course, cat pictures…
Found on furrygoat
I think I just found StickyC's dream gadget bag: The Tumi T3 Ducati Map Bag. In function, it seems nearly identical to my Tumi gadget bag, except that the Ducati one looks much much cooler.
Check out the rest of the Tumi Ducati luggage line: http://www.tumi.com/tumi_collections/t3_ducati/category_search/index.cfm?Ne=600&N=4005+600140
Wow. Joe up and decided to sail his boat Music across the pacific ocean, from Panama to The Marquesas Islands ... solo. Man, what an adventure.
He's reporting via YOTREPS, and you can see a plot of his progress overlayed on a Google satellite map here: http://pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=wda5825.
Livin' the dream.
I've been trying various brands of running and hiking socks. Without a doubt, the Smartwool socks I purchased at REI are the best. A wool+synthetic blend, Smartwools come in bunches of different sizes, shapes, and thicknesses, all of which are stay plenty comfortable and dry. No more blisters for me!
I decided it was time to replace my ancient cross-trainers with some dedicated, modern running shoes. Instead of doing tons of online research like I usually do, I just popped into La Foot in Berkeley. These folks know a lot about shoes and feet. They even have a machine that will scan your foot and mill a custom shaped insole.
When I told the saleslady what kind of running / jogging I do, she brought out a half-dozen pairs of shoes. When it comes to fitness shoes, I'm not concerned about style at all, so I tried on each pair in order and ran up and down the street outside the shop. My final choice: the Saucony Men's Grid Omni 5.
It wasn't until I paid for the shoes that I realized what they looked like. The suckers have a big-ass shiny gold lighting bolt on the sides. Wha?
I think I need to get a matching Velour Hoody for my next workout.
When searching for the proper usage of the words "in to" and "into", I found a useful reference site called Dictionary of Sound-Alike Words. You wouldn't believe how many emails I receive (and write) every day that use basic English words incorrectly.
Here's how the Dictionary of Sound-Alike Words lists "in to" and "into":
in totwo words, an adverb and a preposition, as in: Even though it was supposed to be her day off, she came in to finish her monthly report.
intoentering or changing form, as in: She drove into the parking lot and found a space.
I've been using a Norelco Maverick T-1000 beard trimmer for several years. It is a durable, battery-powered trimmer that has an easy-to-clean trimmer head. You just press a button and the trimmer head swings open to allow for trimmings to be brushed out. I use the trimmer once a week to keep the Grizzly Adams effect in check.
A couple of weeks ago, I pressed the cleaning button and the trimmer head flew off in to the sink and a giant spring bounced enthusiastically in to the next room. Ah well, time for a new trimmer. I didn't have time to go to the store right away, so my beard kept growing.
Eventually, I picked up a new Wahl brand trimmer. Upon opening the package, I knew that I picked the wrong replacement. Instead of a single adjustable trimmer, it seemed to include 17 different attachable comb-things and big tube of machine oil. When I tried to pull off the default comb-thing, it broke into a dozen tiny shards of cheap black plastic. Buyer's note: Wahl offers a 30 day money back guarantee. I got my money back. My beard kept growing.
I then purchased a Philips Norelco T-770 Accuvac trimmer, that promises to suck the whiskers right off your face… or something to that effect. It looked like a modern upgrade to the old Maverick, except that instead of a button to swing open the trimmer head for cleaning, you need to grasp both sides of the head and firmly pull it off. I grasped, pulled firmly, and cleanly snapped the head in two distinct pieces. Norleco's money back guarantee is a generous 60 days. I used just one. A small squirrel built a nest in my now bushy mustache.
Finally, I bought a Philips Norelco T-765 AccuTrim beard trimmer. This thing is the clear descendant of my old reliable Maverick, only now it has a lighter weight and uses a rechargeable battery. They've even improved the head cleaning - instead of pressing a button to swing back the head, you just give it a little kick with your thumb. I'll be giving it a gentle kick as I spend the next several hours mowing my face anew.
I launched the MikeyP.com blog one year ago yesterday. MikeyP.com and mikep.net have had live web sites since 1997, but this blog is my first attempt at having frequent dynamic content.
My original goal was to post one new entry per day. Alas, crunch mode [crunchmode3, crunchmodelifestats] has taken its usual toll on my free time, and the number of posts has dwindled as we get closer to final. I'm looking forward to getting back in the posting groove soon enough.
In the mean time, how about reading something completely different? My friend Ronbo has set up life in the boondocks of Washington state...
When I was a kid, A&W was the pinnacle of root beers with "that frosty mug taste." But today you can find dozens of specialty root beers and other sodas at places like Beverages and More.
The best root beer of the bunch by a mile is Virgil's. Instead of the syrupy thermonuclear sweetness found in your typical high fructose concoction, Virgil's has a sugary spiciness that goes down smoothly with just enough carbonated bite. The ingredient list is as natural as it can get: purified carbonated water, cane sugar, and over a dozen spices, including Anise, Clove, and Oil of Cassia (!).
What could be better than a cold bottle of Virgil's on a Saturday afternoon? How about this:
An actual keg of Virgil's root beer spotted at a local Cost Plus. That ought to be just enough for a weekend of fragging in Quake 4... 
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw visited Alabama over the weekend, and CNN reports that my former neighbors in Dixie had a little trouble with the concept of "England". I think these are the same people who, when I mentioned I was from Northern California, asked if I'd ever seen any movie stars.
My old DOCSIS 1.0 cable modem can't keep up with the new high speeds on Comcast, so I decide to upgrade to a DOCSIS 2.0 modem. I chose the D-Link DCM-202. Compared to my old modem, it is super fast. I'm getting download speeds of well beyond 5 megabits per second (compared with a little more than 4 mbps on a good day with the old modem).
There is one caveat with the DCM-202: It requires a firmware upgrade in order to work with Comcast. For a technical person, the upgrade process was a hassle, but not impossible. However, I have no idea how a regular person could ever successfully upgrade the firmware.
Especially when the instructions are wrong.
Here are some critical additions to the incomplete firmware upgrade instructions:
192.168.100.2. In addition, you must set that same address to be your Default gateway (as shown). Thanks to a poster on dslreports.com for finding that.
admin, hitron after the upgrade. It is actually still dlink, dlink.Is the process worthwhile? Absolutely, if you want to get every byte that you are paying for.
The Oakland A's are trying to build a new ballpark in Oakland. While I'm pretty excited about the possibility, something really bothers me about the proposed new design. Check it out below:
Notice anything missing? I do: sunshine. Compare the rendering above with the picture from my last visit to the coliseum. Sunny, warm, relaxing open skies. And Oakland. Where's Oakland in this new Oakland A's ballpark?
The proposed hotel in the outfield is a ridiculous idea. Just watch a game in Toronto to see what I mean. Hey Lew Wolff, why not give us back the picturesque view of the Oakland Hills we lost with the construction of Mount Davis?
The A's have a chance to build something unique and fun with the new ballpark. The City of Oakland is so enamored with the idea that they'll probably approve any design carte blanche. I really hope all involved don't bury the opportunity in shade, brick walls, and hotel buildings.
I can never remember where to use an apostrophe in the word "its". This entry is to remind me of the rules.
It's is a contraction for it is.
ex: It's nice to write a blog entry.
Its is a possessive pronoun.
ex: A webcam is interesting in its own way.
I picked up a new baseball hat at the company store last week. Rather than having an adjustable fit, the hat has spandex band around the base. One size fits all, and it seems to fit my head fine.
Upon reading the label inside the hat, I noticed that the brand is called FlexFit, and get this: the design is patented by a company called Yupoong. Amazing that you can patent something so simple and obvious.
I like the hat, but something about the spandex band makes it feel a little like you're wearing your underwear on your head.
Most news feeds have reprinted the same generic obituray for James "Scotty" Doohan, but the most insightful one I read was in the Washington Post.
The real tribute to James "Scotty" Doohan, 39 light-years after he first saved the USS Enterprise's heinie (and did it many times over), is that it's now almost impossible to have a boyfriend or husband who can't do a somewhat reasonable impression of Doohan's famously stressed-out burr: "We've got nuh powrrrr, Cap'n!" Or "She cannuh take much moor."
If you are a member of Amazon Prime, you can get free 2-day shipping on everything your order from amazon.com. That is, provided you click the correct button when you place your order. Prime members see buttons like this on amazon.com ordering pages:
If you click the "Two Day 1-Click FREE" button on the top of the page, you get free 2-day shipping. But if you click the "Buy now with 1-Click" button in the "Ready to Buy?" column, your items might get shipped via standard slow-boat shipping (as happened to me this week). What gives?
A note buried in the Amazon Prime FAQ explains, "If you use the standard 1-Click button on the right-hand side of product detail pages, please verify the default shipping method for the shipping address. You will need to change it from Standard Shipping to Free Two-Day Shipping to take full advantage of your Amazon Prime benefits."
Why doesn't Amazon change this setting for Prime members automatically? Why would a Prime member ever want standard shipping?
In the past 8 weeks or so of crunch mode [crunchmode3, crunchmodelifestats, crunchblogging], I've managed to:
However, during the same period of time, I've somehow managed to buy:
Strangely, this same crunch mode experience happens to many other people I know. We all seem to buy things we absolutely do not need during crunch. In my garage, I have a half-dozen boxes of unopened power tools that I bought during crunch mode last year. All I can guess is that I was either dreaming of a life where I could work with my bare hands, or perhaps scheming of a way to build a secret escape hatch in the floor of my office. 
Starting this year, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is planning to replace every power meter in their territory with a new, remotely controlled power meter. According to sfgate.com, the new meter is actually a node on a vast new powerline network called Advanced Metering Infrastructure. This PDF file explains some of features of the new powerline network, including realtime web monitoring of your power usage, dynamic billing cycles (instead of fixed monthly rates), and data communication over power lines. Most interesting to me, it may also include a local LAN port that allows end users to connect and regulate thermostats and high-energy usage appliances.
There aren't many better ways to spend a Sunday in July than to sit in the stands and watch Barry Zito pitch eight innings for an Oakland Athletics win.
To increase revenues, the A's are planning to build a new baseball-only stadium in the next couple of years. While no one yet knows the location (or city) of the new stadium, I'll always love summer afternoons at the Oakland Coliseum. Even after the construction of the concrete monstrosity known as Mount Davis (the triple-decker stands named after Raiders owner Al Davis), the Coliseum is still a great place to watch a ball game. Great views from every seat, easy access to BART and the freeway, and best of all, fantastic summer weather, all make for great baseball experience.
Hopefully the new A's ballpark will be as stunning as the park used by our cross-bay rivals...
Wow, I only managed to write 12 posts in the month of June. Gotta love crunch mode [crunchmode3, crunchmodelifestats]...
I like to travel light, so I try to carry the smallest, lightest bags possible. However, I tend to carry a lot of gadgets, which can include any number of the following:
When I need to carry all of the above, I use a small backpack. The Sumdex Neo Metro Commuter backpack weighs only 2.6 lbs, but was built to hold a bunch of gadgets as well as protect a laptop in a padded sleeve. The top exterior pocket is designed for a music player and even has a pass-through hole for an earphone wire. The comfortable shoulder straps double as hand-grip when you aren't carry this on your back.
For my daily commute, I usually just need to carry a laptop, PDA, phone, and game machine. For that, I use the Sumdex Metrobrief Lite. I chose this tiny 1.5 lb briefcase over the usual "courier bag" as I can't stand having to open the whole flap of those courier bags just to get a pen. The Sumdex bag has an easy-to-access compartment on the front which can hold pens, PDAs, phones, etc. Below is a separate compartment for cables and power supplies, and inside is a padded sleeve for a laptop. I replaced the included shoulder strap with a more heavily padded strap from JanSport.
When I don't need to carry a laptop, I use the Tumi Charlton Organizer Tote. This tiny bag is organized like a briefcase in miniature, with business card slots, pockets for PDAs and notepads, and plenty of room for a camera, game machine and more. And best of all, it looks good… meaning, it doesn't look like a purse!
I stopped by Best Buy after work on Saturday to buy a new DVD player and ask about calibrating my new DLP set. Here's how the experience went with Best Buy's Blue Shirt crew:
MikeyP: Hi, what's the return policy on this DVD player?
Blue Shirt Guy #1: 14 days, no restock fee.
MikeyP: Thanks! I bought a DLP here a couple weeks ago, and I want it calibrated. Will the Best Buy Extended Warranty cover calibration?
Blue Shirt Guy #1: Yes. I mean no. I mean, you should talk to that guy over there in the Blue Shirt - he knows all about DLPs.
MikeyP: Thanks!
MikeyP: Hi, I bought a DLP here a couple weeks ago, and I want it calibrated. Will the Best Buy Extended Warranty cover calibration?
Blue Shirt Guy #2 (his hair was slicked back perfectly): Yes!
MikeyP: Great! Will they bring out the calibration tool to measure white level IRE?
Blue Shirt Guy #2: If the first guy who comes out to fix it doesn't have the tool, the second guy who comes out will bring the tool. And if he can't fix it, then they'll pick it up and take it to the shop for you and fix it there.
MikeyP: Well, I meant, are the guys ISF certified?
Blue Shirt Guy #2: Wouldn't they have to be?
MikeyP: Uhhh, you tell me, doctor.
Blue Shirt Guy #2: Yes!
MikeyP: Thanks!
I saunter over to the Magnolia Hi-Fi section of the store. They wear shirts and ties instead of Blue Shirts…
MikeyP: Hi, I bought a DLP here a couple weeks ago, and I want it calibrated. Will the Best Buy Extended Warranty cover calibration?
Magnolia Guy (the lower button on his shirt was straining painfully to contain his gut): No.
MikeyP: No?
Magnolia Guy: Nope. You mean ISF calibration and all that, right?
MikeyP: Yeah.
Magnolia Guy: No, the warranty only covers manufacturer defects and stuff. ISF calibration is a whole 'nother ball of wax.
MikeyP: Thanks!
Checkout time, with the new DVD player…
MikeyP: Hi, what's the return policy on this DVD player?
Blue Shirt Cashier: 30 days, no restock fee.
MikeyP: Thanks!
We were strolling around Jack London Square in Oakland last weekend, when we stumbled upon a docked ship with an "Open for Tours" sign posted nearby. The ship turned out to be the decommissioned US Coast Guard Lightship RELIEF – WLV 605, and the tour was fascinating.
The Lightship is a floating Lighthouse that was manned 24 hours a day out at sea. There were several of them posted permanently off the west coast for over 70 years, serving as guides for ships approaching major ports, such as those in the San Francisco bay and Puget Sound. With the advent of GPS navigation technology, the Lightships were retired, and with the dedication of the volunteers at the US Lighthouse Society, the WLV 605 was restored and berthed in Oakland.
A retired Navy Pilot named Bob gave us a personal tour of the ship, from the decks to the engine room. It's easy to enjoy exploring the different compartments of a ship, especially when climbing ladders through various hatches. If you have a free hour or so next time you are in Oakland, be sure to check out the Lightship. And say hi to Bob for me!
When I first launched this blog back in November 2004, my goal was to post one new entry per day, for no reason other than to see if I could do it. Sounds simple, right? Well, as you software veterans out there probably know, simple things become a lot less simple when you are in and out of crunch mode.
Fortunately, the out part seems reasonably balanced with the in part for me right now. And when that's the case, crunch mode is actually pretty darned fun...
The June issue of Popular Mechanics has concept pictures of Lockheed Martin's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) proposal. The pictures are really fun to check out, but what I find most interesting is the notion that the US just might get it right with this new space ship design.
I can't wait to see the competing concept from Northrop Grumman / Boeing.
…is the high probability that you'll return home with a trunk load of expensive wine you weren't intending to buy.
Now about that cellar I need to buy or build…
There are lots of online travel sites to choose from. For example, I've had good experiences with Expedia. Other sites, like Orbitz, leave a lot to be desired. I tried to find a roundtrip ticket to LA, and here's what Orbitz suggested:
If I booked that flight, I just might get to there in time to fly home!
Last weekend, I was in the organic produce section of the local market, and I saw a sealed plastic package with four apples in it. Plastic is a strange sight to see in the organic section, but more strange was the title on the package: Grapple! Pronounced like Grape + Apple!
At first I thought, 'wow cool, they've genetically crossed grapes and apples! Neato, I've got to try this!'
Then I sniffed the package.
It stank like the Barbie aisle at Toys 'R Us.
A Grapple isn't a cool result of bio-engineering. A Grapple is an apple dunked and soaked in artificial grape bubblegum flavoring. Eww.
I've been thinking of a solution for cellaring wine at home. I do have room under the house to build a proper cellar, but I won't have time to do a big project like that for many years to come. So in the mean time, I've kept my eye on those 'Wine Cooler Fridge' things that are popping up everywhere from Costco to Expo Design Center. The prices range from $100 to infinity, but none of the cheap ones mention anything about two important specs: noise and vibration. The last thing I want is a noisy fridge that shakes vintage wine bottles.
Today I stumbled across a wine cooler at Beverages and More made by Urbina Design. Instead of a traditional refrigerator pump, their cooler actually uses a solid state peltier cooler with a finned heat sink on the back. A small fan circulates the air inside the cooler, and supposedly silently keeps temperatures between 12'C and 18'C.
Pretty cool (ha!) choice for a cooler under $300.
Some jackass is sending spam to several Brazilian TLDs (like gov.br) using a spoofed mikeyp.com reply-to. This seems to happen to me a couple of times a year, and those of you with your own domain names have probably had a similar experience. The result is that I get a pile of bounced emails to addresses that reject the spam. This tends happens in a flurry, with garbage e-mail headers and URL's pointing to 'anonymous' domain registrations. It's all over in a day or two, as I suppose the spammers quickly move on to some other unsuspecting domain holder to avoid being tracked. If I could get a real brick and mortar address, I believe I can legally sue these people.
Each time this happens, the spammers get more clever. This time, they are using dictionary attack scheme to forge a variety of mikeyp.com reply-to addresses. Luckily, this makes the bounces easy to filter, but I wonder how many servers are erroneously blocking mikeyp.com now?
For fuck's sake, when are we going to replace our ancient e-mail protocols with something that prevents this? And why does the IANA make it so easy for spammers to hide behind anonymity?
If you are looking for a nice overnight escape from the SF Bay Area, head up the coast to the Albion River Inn. Located about 15 minutes south of Mendocino , the Albion River Inn has a set of charming cottages perched atop of a cliff overlooking the mouth of the Albion River. Most rooms have fireplaces, and some have whirlpool tubs, but all have spectacular views. Sunny days are simply breathtaking.
The Inn also has an award-winning restaurant on-site, with great meals that compliment a terrific wine list and amazing stock of Scotch Whiskeys.
Note that this is the Northern California coast, so the temperature and fog is totally unpredictable. Luckily, cold and foggy days make this place even more cozy.
Got a few hundred bucks and a weekend to spare? What are you waiting for?
Blame StickyC for digging this one up. This is just what I needed to hear today.
http://www.latke.net/mahnamahna/mahnamahna.mp3
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2665140?htv=12
More proof that the 70's was far more happenin' than we give it credit for, eh? Now if I could just find the Benny Hill version of this tune. UPDATE: Wanna see a nasty example of Google spam? Check this out: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=manahmanah+benny+hill
Trader Joe's is always a great place for tasty organic snacks. Lately, I've become hooked on their Old Fashioned Blister Peanuts.
From the label:
Generations ago folks soaked peanuts in water to remove the red skins prior to roasting. This caused the peanuts to 'blister' during roasting, resulting in an incomparable crunch.
I can only describe these things as tasting snappy. I just know I'll be inhaling a ton of these during baseball season, starting now…
Sure, you could read a review of the book Flanimals before you buy it. But wouldn't you rather watch a video description of the book instead? No? What if the video was a monologue by the book's author, Ricky Gervais, star of The Office on the BBC? Yes! Now we're talking.
Head to the product page for this book and click on the link to watch Amazon's exclusive video clip. I can't describe it in any other way than pure genius.
The manual for my Audi A4 says that I should use 0w30 oil, and when that isn't available, use 5w30. Naturally, I can never find 0w30 anywhere. In an effort to understand the advantages and disadvantage of both oils, I did some googling. Along the way, I found a nice, plain-english site describing everything practical you need to know about motor oil. Check it out at http://www.nordicgroup.us/oil.htm.
Wow, thinking about it now, I haven't crawled under a car to change the oil myself in almost a decade.
This evening I stopped by my local liquor store to purchase a sophisticated adult beverage. When I placed my bottle on the counter to pay, the cashier looked at me and said,
Alright, finally! Somebody I don't need to ask for an ID!
Uh, thanks, I guess.
Apparently he'd been getting a bunch of teenagers with fake ID's and such all night. At the time, I figured either my hair follicle deficit or the gray fur on my chin was the clue that I was decades past needing an ID. But on my way home, I realized what the true giveaway must have been:
The AutoSpies got to test drive the new 2005/06 Audi A4's this week, and reported on the new Navigation systems. (It's about time Audi!) But a sweet surprise is this: The system has two SD card slots that will allow the stereo system to play back SD cards filled with MP3s. How cool is that!
This solution is a lot more elegant than hacking up your own Audi iPod adapter.
Newman's Own Organics, a company run by Paul Newman's daughter Nell, makes some tasty organic snacks. In particular, they make some damned fine pretzels.
Unlike the boring and bland pretzels you usually find in supermarkets and vending machines, Newman's pretzels have a full, wheaty taste with a perfect amount of big chunks of kosher salt. And they have a subtle smoky flavor reminiscent of a hickory-smoked brisket. Mmmmmm, good stuff.
(BTW, did you know that Newman's Own Organics is a separate company from the other Newman's Own that makes salad dressing and popcorn?)
From the Department of the Obvious comes this news: According to the test at WxPlotter.com, I am a High-Level Nerd.
Are you?
Even though I seem to get called for jury duty every year, this week is the first time I've actually been selected for a jury. The jury selection process and trial so far has been a lot more interesting than I expected. Obviously, I'm under oath to not discuss the details, so I'll just mention this:
[CENSORED]
After craving a top quality Japanese Green Tea, I tried a variety of teas at my local coffee places (Peets, Starbucks, etc). While they have good coffee, I was less than impressed with their tea, as well as their annoying habit of serving tea in lip-burning, tea-blanching, boiling hot water.
Luckily, there is a fantastic tea bar in Berkeley, CA called Far Leaves. Not only do they have a variety of green teas, they have a large variety all kinds of teas. Each tea is freshly imported and clearly marked with an expiration date. The manager and employee happily allowed me to sample several teas, and spent time teaching me the best way to prepare each of them.
I ended up buying an excellent Japanese Green Tea called Hakuro, which is infused for less than 60 seconds in 160 degree (F) water.
I asked the employee how their business was doing, and he replied, 'well, it is a tea bar...'
StickyC discovered this years ago, but lo and behold, this consistent formula worked its magic on me last night.
Company Party + Gin Martini + Karaoke Machine = SINATRA!
Sing along with me:
South of the Border
Down Mexico Way…
My friend and GDC speaking partner Elonka is in Wired today, discussing a cool crytographic sculpture at CIA headquarters.
In case you're wondering, Elonka was the first person to crack PhreakNIC.
And of course, she has a blog.
I was googling the net for a quick and easy read on the history of Chinese Dynasties, and sure enough, I found a very nice one. Of all places, a Minnesota State University campus has an online eMuseum, where they have a nice timeline of the Dynasties of China, among other easy-to-digest national and cultural histories.
Tip: When carrying a tube of suncreen during winter sport activities, put it inside of a sealed ziplock bag before slipping it in to your pocket.
That way, you can prevent a mess and some permanent stains when, oh… hypothetically speaking, you're snowboarding on a lovely Thursday afternoon in January at Sugar Bowl, carving down the run 'Tunnel 41', when you suddenly catch an edge, land flat on your chest, and the suncreen tube asplodes.
Modern front-loading washing machines are such a cool improvement over the classic American top-loader tub . After picking two highly rated models (Bosch and Whirlpool) and finding out that they won't fit in our circa 1979 laundry room, our third choice was delivered today: 
Believe it or not, the spin cycle on this thing runs at 1100 RPM. As I sat on the floor in front of the machine, watching centrifugal forces fling every last drop of moisture from a load of bath towels, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to my face if the door accidentally blew off…
This winter, we spent a couple of weeks in Japan exploring and enjoying the country. Even though I had been to Japan before, I was on business and I never had a chance to really see the country.
We initially asked our local travel agents for Japan travel info, and they all pointed us to packages from JTB. Thinking economically, we decided to cut out the middleman and call JTBUsa in San Francisco directly. They were fantastic to deal with. Our representative at JTB was able to give us the least expensive air fare, and even managed to give us an extra night's stay in Tokyo. Everywhere we went in Japan, we were greeted individually by a JTB agent and personally escorted to the next leg of our trip. Our Japan vacation was a zero-stress experience, thanks to JTB.
If you plan to travel to Japan as a tourist, I highly recommend considering JTB for your travel plans.
Ever since the 2004 election, the terms Red State and Blue State have entered our popular lexicon. Red State and Blue State pre-election polls and final electoral results were superbly tracked on the web site http://www.electoral-vote.com (maintained by Andrew Tanenbaum... yes, the Andrew Tanenbaum).
There is a lot of very interesting data on the web site, but my favorite is a graph of red and blue counties. I think the county graph is even more telling about the political (and other) divisions in our country than the graph of the states. Check out the number of red counties inside blue states such as California and New York.
Here's where I'm trying out various features of mikeyp.com. Let's try an image here:
…and an image link here: 
How about trying an InterWiki link
Here is a link to amazon with my associate ID
And here is a full-on amazon buy box:
