The Blog with No Name

I just came up with this today:

Q: What do you call an elevator that’s strong in the Dark Side of the Force?
(more…)

Sorry about all the nerd posts lately. I’m in a nerdy stage of life and all. Hopefully I’ll be able to whip out a post tomorrow talking about a few things I’ve done in the past week (i.e. two metal shows, a football game, and a wedding) but no promises.

In the meantime, I have do have something I’m thinking about. Recently, an acquaintance of mine revealed to me an extremely personal secret. I accidentally extracted the secret from the person during a conversation in which I asked many questions. Since I’m a poor conversationalist, I make up for it by asking lots of questions. Sometimes I feel like I accidentally slip into cross-examination mode, and start on a series of pointed, probing questions sometimes for fun, sometimes for curiosity, and sometimes with a goal in mind. In this case, the person I was talking to confessed the secret, which ended up being something I had guessed just a few moments before, after dropping a few hints while answering my questions. So now, I feel I’ve been put in a rather strange position. Between this person and me, we share an extremely private and deep secret; however, the rest of our relationship could be charitably characterized as pointlessly superficial. I’m a little lost in how I should deal with this. Should I just act like nothing happened? Should I be mindful of this and show concern about it when I’m talking to the person privately? Right now, I’m acting like I know nothing, but I’m not entirely sure that’s the best course of action in this case.

Tonight I finally got around to replacing the drive on my dying Powerbook. I got a Seagate 100 GB 7200 RPM drive to replace the failing stock drive, but that’s not the important part. The important part is the pictures, so let’s get on with those.

First, Apple thought it’d be a fun thing if the user ever wanted to get to the guts of his Powerbook he should have to remove lots and lots of screws:

Then, to make it even more of a challenge, Apple decided to put some latches underneath the upper case over the optical drive that would firmly lock the case down. These latches would be supremely difficult to locate and unlatch. Most users in frustration will resort to gorilla mechanics and mar their cases. Kinda like this:

Then the user can see the guts of the Powerbook which look like this:

After installing the new hard drive and replacing all the screws, I found out I had two spare screws. Well, sorta. I know where they should go, but I’m pretty sure I accidentally swapped them with two screws inside the Powerbook. The screws I have left over are too thin for the threads to take hold, so they’re effectively useless. It’s always nice to have some spare screws around the house anyway.

So, after about 3 hours of jiggering and cajoling my dying laptop, it now has a new Mega Memory Storage Center. It’s happily installing OS X 10.4 right now:

In fact, in the time it’s taken for me to write this post, it has finished installing. Time to start doing software updates.

I’ve posted some pics of my new Mac Pro here. I used iPhoto and iWeb together to whip out that page in a matter of minutes. Apple really has nailed the integration of their iLife apps. Very slick.

Anyway, some initial thoughts on the Mac Pro:

First, I “only” have 1 GB of RAM. Reports I was reading around the web made me think I’d definitely be needing to get more RAM on the double; however, now I’m not so sure. Pretty much all my apps are universal binary, meaning they natively support the Intel chipset and don’t have to use Rosetta to run. I’ve read that Rosetta is a memory hog. Right now, I have 13 apps running, and I still have 330 MB of free RAM. Granted most of the apps I have running are pretty lightweight, but if I can get this much performance out of just 1 GB of RAM, I think I can postpone getting more RAM for a bit. This would be great since the RAM for this machine is really expensive. To get another 2 GB of RAM it would be nearly $500. If I wanted to max out the RAM in this thing, it’d cost nearly $5000 for the 16 GB.

Second, this thing is very very quiet. I came home from work today, and I thought it had shut off for some reason because I couldn’t hear anything. I can only hear a slight whir of the fans, but considering they’re maybe a foot away from my ear that’s not too surprising. I’ll try to remember to listen for it when I’m being a hardcore gamer, but I’m guessing it won’t get much louder.

Third, so far I’ve been very happy with the performance. CPU usage is very low almost all the time, and it looks like the tasks are well split between all 4 cores. My CPU monitor shows all them being used for something. Game-wise, I’ve been able to completely max out UT2k4 at 1920×1200 resolution and it runs smooth as glass. World of Warcraft is barely even a challenge. I can sit in Ironforge with every graphical option turned way up, and it still hits the 60 fps cap. It will be nice to get a beefier game and really put this thing through the paces.

Fourth, I’m still amazed how fast the migration from my old tower went. It really was just a matter of dumping a bunch of data over from one machine to the other. I was anticipating it taking twice as much time and involve a lot more headache. I have a real trim OS right now, and I hope to keep it that way.

8:50 AM: I woke up an hour ago with the feeling that it was Christmas morning. Since then I’ve been trying to get my work laptop up and running so I can actually try to do some work from home. Unfortunately the power adapter I grabbed was the wrong one and the VPN client fails to connect. I guess I’ll just be watching the webmail today.

9:05 AM: I’m sitting on a conference call that needs to be cancelled. Mac is either in Seattle or Auburn on the truck. Godspeed, good Mac!

9:20 AM: Got VPN working, so I can now work at home! . . .as long as I have battery power.

11:05 AM: My work laptop is down to 1 hour of juice. No Mac yet.

11:25 AM: Okay saving the last of my juice for later in the afternoon. At least I’ve been more productive than some people.

11:50 AM: IT’S HERE!!!

1:25 PM: I’m well on the way to getting it fully armed and operational. I have a lot of data to transfer over from my old computer, but things are going well so far. I forgot that the Mac Pro only takes SATA3 drives. It took me a while to figure out why my IDE drives weren’t snapping into place. Doh!

2:50 PM: I think I’m pretty much 90% moved into my new Mac Pro. I have all my important data transferred over. I have all of my normal apps up and running how I had them before. So far things have been absolutely painless. Using target disk mode, I grabbed all my data off my old hard drives. That made things very speedy (25 GB of music < 20 min). This machine is a beast. I’ll post pics in just a bit.

Today was supposed to be a day full of technological joy, a veritable Christmas in September for me. However, instead of feeling maximum happiness I felt more like Keaunu. Apple’s estimate for delivery was a little too optimistic, but I won’t fault them for that because it did ship a whole week earlier than they said it would. FedEx claims My Precious “left origin” in Anaheim, California, at 2:22 AM Saturday morning. Now, I can only assume it’s somewhere between here and there, lost in the complex system that constitutes a worldwide shipping company. The frustrating thing is that I could have driven to Anaheim and back in 36 hours, but it takes FedEx over 90 hours to get a 65 pound box from Anaheim to Seattle. I guess I should cut them some slack. After all, they need coffee breaks, and I’m sure those dumpy trucks they drive around don’t nearly have the range and speed of my truck. Even understanding this, I’m still impatient. I probably refresh my package tracking page once every waking hour. I NEED a computer. Here’s hoping I’ll have be in a state of sheer glee sometime early tomorrow.

Apple still astounds though. So maybe their delivery estimates are off by a day, but they darn well sure know how to make super sweet portable music players. The Steve announced a lot of new music products today including a super slick iTunes 7, movies at the iTunes Music Store, and updated iPod nanos, shuffles (check out how tiny it is!), and videos. I think the green 8 GB nano with 24 hours of battery life sounds just about ideal. I want Apple in my pants again.

Yes, that’s what I said.

UPDATE: It’s in Portland!
UPDATE 2: It left Portland!

The Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent post detailing why Taiwan should be granted a seat in the UN. In a nutshell:

The UN Charter, article 4, states that “Membership in the United Nations is open to all other [non-founding] peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.” Taiwan is indisputably a “peace-loving” state — in marked contrast to China, which not only makes threats against Taiwan, but supplies arms and financial support to warlords, dictators, and genocidaires around the world, including in Sudan.

Such is the hypocrisy of the UN. China, a communist, oppressive, state is granted preference while a small democratic, peaceful state is shut out. I’m not sure if it would matter much if Taiwan was granted a seat in the UN. It’s far too weak and passive to do anything to benefit or protect Taiwan from China, who not-so-secretly wants to bring it under it’s rule.

If you want to make me happy, send me a very nice computer. Apple does this well:

I. Can’t. Wait. I’m planning on taking the 12th off from work to welcome home my new baby. Feel free to take the day off too. You deserve it.

That’s pretty cool.

(via Dan)

Help me out here with a thought exercise. Consider the following:

A man, a faithful church-goer and by all accounts a pious man, throughout all of his adult life has emphatically stated that adultery is morally wrong and a sin causing grievous harm to the integrity of the marriage. He has never believed otherwise. One day, he falls into temptation, succumbs to the seduction of woman who is not his wife, and commits adultery. His unfaithfulness is discovered, and his friends and family have different reactions. Some argue he is a horrible hypocrite and should be treated as such. Others argue that he is not at root a hypocrite, but he is a man who engaged in hypocritical activity but is not a true hypocrite. Yet others believe he did not even engage in hypocritical behavior. They do not justify or palliate his actions, but point out that he was and is not a hypocrite but simply a man who failed to live up to the standards he believes are right.

Here are my questions:

1. Which group would you fall into (if any)? Describe another group you’d fall into if need be.
2. Do other factors come into play in evaluating this scenario (e.g. contrition, forgiveness, the man’s future intentions regarding adultery, etc.)?
3. What is your operating definition of “hypocrisy” and/or “hypocrite”? Please, no dictionary definitions.

I’m most interested in answers to question 3 but would appreciate the other answers as well.

A new Dragonforce music video is out in the wild. This one is a little bit stranger and is a 5 minute abridged version of one of their better songs. The original version clocks in at almost 8 minutes.

I’ll be seeing these guys live a week from tomorrow, and I can’t tell you how excited I am. I’m also seeing my all time favorite band, Zao (music video), again in about 10 days. I just might OD on metal and hardcore next week. Now, that I think about it, I better start stretching my neck in for the intense headbanging that will occur.

“If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.” — from a email forward

Steve “The Crocodile Hunter” Irwin is dead from a sting ray attack.

I’ve seen reports of his death before, but this one looks legit. I never watched his show much, but I always enjoyed his enthusiasm and love for nature.

More details here.

Labor Day weekend: the weekend to be bored stiff for three days instead of two. Well, not really, but this weekend is probably going to end up being quite unexciting, especially considering what I could be doing. To be fair I have a lot working against me. First, I have a considerable chunk of change locked up in a Mac Pro that could ship any time in the next two weeks (and make a dramatic deduction from my bank account), so it’s not like I can just cut loose and blow a bunch of cash. Second, I committed to take care of a friend’s house and dogs, so I have to be around the area for half the weekend. Third, most of my friends already have plans and engagements apart from me. I know this is shocking, but it’s true.

Regardless all is not lost. I’ve been fairly productive. Tonight, I will finish prepping wedding photos for print and get them burned on to discs. It will be nice to have that done. This afternoon, I installed a subwoofer in my truck. I think my maturity level dropped significantly upon completion, but once again I can blast my horrible music so loud it vibrates my spine and annoys fellow drivers. The last time I could do this was back in high school. The woofer is immediately behind the seats in my truck, so the phat beats have direct access to my ear drums. It’s loud.

I’m not sure if I’m going to take Monday off yet. I could use the money, and I’m not exactly sure I want to stick around the apartment and be bored. Plus, work has air conditioning, and it might be a bit warm on Monday. It’d just be a shame to have a three-day weekend cut down to two by a desperation driven by dullness.

Behold, the coming future of mobile wireless technology: WiBro. My nerd juices are flowing:

. . . the company showed off 4G’s nomadic speed of 1Gbps data transmissions inside the forum venue with simultaneous 32HD channel broadcast (20Mpbs) downloads, Internet access, and video telephony. Furthermore, a 3.5Gbps data transfer demonstration using 8×8 MIMO (multi-input multi-output) was part of the display.

A speedy cousin to WiMax, WiBro’s nomadic speed of 1Gbps is 50 times faster than 3G, according to Samsung. With speeds of 1Gpbs, it would take about 2.4 seconds to transfer 100 MP3 files (300MB), and 5.6 seconds to transfer one 800MB movie.

Try to imagine watching HD TV on your cell phone. That’s right, you can’t imagine it because it’s too crazy for our minds to grasp. Since 4G is slated to be released in 2010, our collective imaginations might have evolved by then so our minds don’t shatter under the pressure of an inconceivable reality.

(via /.)