Life is a State of Mind

Was not feeling well enough to go dancing tonight, and needed a night home with Erci anyway. We tried out the new Apple TV take 2 software and rented Stardust. It started playing about 50 seconds after we picked it and selected it. We enjoyed the movie, and the instant gratification was pretty cool.

Until this I had been a little disappointed in the take 2 version of our Apple TV, which I mostly got to watch internet content on my big screen. I can still watch internet content fine, but the additional layer of menus because of all the new options makes it a little tougher to get to my Terra and Rocketboom. I think it is worth it for effective video rental on demand. Video quality was very good, even in standard definition, and I liked the closed captioning which helped me with names of characters and quiet dialogue.

If you happen to have a few computers near your desk, or frequently have a laptop sitting next to your desktop computer; Synergy is very useful software you should know about.

Synergy lets you treat adjacent computers and their screens as if they were a multi-display computer. Your keyboard and mouse movements, and cut&paste buffers are copied from one machine to the others over LAN connections (tunneled through ssh for security), and you can drive several machines from one keyboard and mouse.

You can also cut and paste from one OS to another (I have Windows XP, three Macs, and Linux side by side at work). It replaces Teleffect and Cosmo Synergy (Irix and Windows applications that did much the same thing a decade ago).

So I have installed Mac OS X 10.5.2 updates on 4 different machines now and it has been flawless on all and works very well. One was an in-place upgrade from Tiger (10.4.11), and that one had a strange anomaly before upgrading to 10.5.2… it got itself into a “Setup Assistant” loop, and would not let Erci actually log in. It took a little googling to discover that the laptop needed to be shutdown after it had restarted, but before anyone logged in so it could apply pre-restart installs.

I am almost finished preparing a 12″ PowerBook G4 for resale, so if you are interested; let me know.
I am trying to repair an original PowerBook G4 Titanium for resale.

I am now using and very happy with a MacBook Air with SSD storage. It is amazingly fast for routine operations because of the extremely good latency on all traditional drive operations. There a lots and lots of people bashing the Air as a product who have not thought through the issue they are complaining about very well… Note: any old USB based DVD/CD drive works fine. I have been able to install software and boot from install discs with no trouble at all. After initial conditioning, battery life is great as I am not burning juice to keep a drive spinning. It is light enough that I carry it to every meeting now, and it very well could replace my Palm Tungsten C as a PDA as well as extend my desktop computer to meetings and when traveling. I do wish it had a firewire port, but I have not needed one yet. It has no place to plug in a traditional laptop security cable. I suspect it will be fun to scrub the hard drive when I trade this in for something else in a few years (this has come to my notice as I scrub the old machines for give-away and resale).

We are slowly ripping our entire CD library into the Mac Mini home audio server, I did Pet Shop Boys yesterday and noticed that they recorded a lot of very danceable sambas! Next up, organizing photo libraries…

The cats are getting along better now.

So a few years ago I read this excellent cyber-punk/sci-fi story by Bruce Sterling called “The Artificial Kid” and now a co-worker sends me this link:

http://www.nextgendesigncomp.com/entrydetail.aspx?id=953

Quoted from the website:
“Momenta, the neck worn PC also captures the best and most exciting moments of your life.”

This torq-like neck recorder senses when you have increased heart rate and begins recording until you say stop.

So I’ve been a slacker and put off going to the eye doctor for too many years. An unexpected benefit is that technology, specifically the technology of making eyeglasses, has improved dramatically enough to shock even me. The new glasses are extraordinarily light weight, 0.3 ounces. The frames are hingeless memory metal. The lenses some whacky fun new polycarbonate that makes them light and thin.

Best of all, my boss says they are sexy.

When I voted for Obama at 9:30 this morning my tiny little precinct had 104 people vote as Democrats and 93 vote as Republicans (so far). What is interesting is that this is an overwhelmingly neo-conservative precinct, so there must be some cross-over voting happening.

Erci wanted a lap cat very much, and a cat that would bond with her the way Bailey has bonded with me. She found out that the local rescue team (Fancy Cat Rescue Team) was having an event at PetSmart and showing lots of kitties, so we went and checked it out. We brought home a new cat who is a medium haired mixed breed cat, mostly Ragdoll, with tortoise shell coloring and calico temperament (at least that we’ve seen so far).

The big test will be does Bailey get along with her… it can often be difficult to introduce two adult cats (the new cat is 3.5 years old, Bailey is 4). His initial reaction to seeing her in the cat carrier briefly was not encouraging, but these things take time. She is upstairs now with Sutragirl while she studies in her upstairs office. She, the new kitty, is very affectionate.

Bailey knows something is up, but appears to be at ease down here with me…

Update: I let our new kitty out to wander around free for a short bit while Bailey went outside for his morning romp. He came back in while she was still wandering and they met a few times. She seems willing to get along, but so far he is alternately afraid and hiding or hissing and growling from 3-4 feet away. I gave him lots of love and his usual treats, and eventually escorted her back upstairs to her own room, though I brushed her and petted her where Bailey could watch for a bit first. It went better than I hoped, this may work in time.

I’ve been cleaning the basement computer lab, and have some stuff to give away.
I’ll use free cycle if none of you claim items on the list below…

Three Practical Peripherals 288 V.34 Minitower II Data/Fax MODEM with power supplies.

One Supra 14,400bis SupraFAX MODEM with power supply.

One Practical Peripherals PM1200SA Mini MODEM with power supply.

One US Robotics Beta Model 1786 (1995 era) MODEM with power supply (I think this is an HST, but I am not sure).

I have serial cables of many types and if you want a serial (RS-232 or RS-422) cable to go with any MODEM above we can match them up.

I have a box full of 2, 4, 6, and even 8 conductor phone cables in a variety of lengths from 3″ to (I think) 200′ in length. All colors…. please take some phone cords off my hands…

Three SCSI connected Iomega ZIP 100 Drives, each with power supply and male to male D25 SCSI cable.

Three stereo headsets with standard walkman/mp3 player jacks… these all came with portable cassette/cd/mp3 and are not any special name brand or anything, they are all over the ear, small headsets with a top head-band.

Good Year Eagle Ultra Grip Tires

I have four essentially brand new (~1800 miles on them) Good Year Eagle Ultra Grip tires available.

These are sold as an all season radial, one of the very few that manages to earn Canada’s prestigious “Snowflake on the Mountain” rating for Winter traction. I used them as Winter tires only on my old Saab 9-5 Wagon and switched out to a quieter all-season each Spring. These things have amazing grip on snow, ice, and in slushy or wet conditions. When it is dry, they are a little noiser than most all-season radials.

They were about $800 for the set brand new, they are up for grabs if you can provide them a good home.
Size: 215/55 R16 93H - if you have that size wheels, and you get snow or ice, you’ll love these tires!

I also have one Michelin MXM 225/45 R 17 (91W) tire (essentially new) mounted on a 17″ alloy rim (5/110 lug pattern). This was intended to be a mounted full size spare for my old Saab - which I no longer have. I’d rather have the space back in my garage. Again, free to a good home.

Update: I pulled the stuff that has already been claimed out of the list. I am amazed at how fast stuff was claimed… Thank you all for grabbing stuff so quickly. There will be another round, and even some stuff that has enough value that I’ll be asking for trade and or charity donations in exchange…

The greater Washington DC Area does not have presidential primary elections until next week (February 12th), but most of the country will get to vote in their primary elections tomorrow (February 5th).

It’s time to make a statement regarding who I support in the coming elections.

On the Republican side there are no good choices. None of these men is worthy of representing you or me in National Congress, State Legislature, nor as President of the United States. Simple solution, vote in the Democratic Primary if your state allows cross-over voting (Virginia does).

On the Democratic side my favorite candidates either never ran (Clark, Gore), or have been winnowed out by the thoroughly un-democratic culling process the two parties both use (Kucinich, Richardson, Bayh, Edwards). We are left with a very important choice though, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

Here is a simple formula:
Hillary is still supporting George W. Bush’s disastrous foreign adventure in Iraq.
Hillary is strongly supportive of the current political establishment, insider access, and subtle corruption.
Hillary is strongly supportive of Corporate America, to the detriment of working men and women.
Hillary will succeed in uniting Republicans and could risk a well deserved Democratic victory in November.

That’s four strikes. I really like her intellect and her policies regarding health care for all Americans, but we’ll never get to those things because of the first three strikes. Please allow her to continue serving in the United States Senate where she can actually help with the health care issue.

Obama is strongly in favor of getting out of Iraq.
Obama is also supportive of Corporate America, but less so than Hillary, and he is also supportive of individual American citizens who need an ally right now.
Obama is challenging the current establishment and brings the hope of some refreshing change.
Obama has a clear lead against all the Republican front runners, and will make it much easier for a Democratic land-slide victory in November.

Apologies for calling one candidate by first name and the other by last name, I only do that do clearly difference Mrs. Clinton from former president Mr. Clinton.

The message is clear, get your butt to the polls and vote for Obama.