March In Colorado
Posted on | March 16, 2008 at 10:18 pm | Comments Off
Looks like we’re getting our first big snowstorm of the month today. March is typically the snowiest month in this area. The good thing is that since it usually warms up pretty fast after the storm, the snow melts faster than it does in the dead of winter. The bad thing is that it’s usually wet, heavy snow which makes shoveling difficult and injures a lot of backs.
Here’s a photo from my porch of the start of the storm: Sunday evening around 6:30. There’s a chance we might not get all too much, but at this point that’s looking more and more unlikely and we could get 10 or more inches around here. Looks like the St Patrick’s Day morning commute is going to be a bear. I’ll try to take another picture tomorrow to compare with this one.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “i need god, but i’m never going to fully believe in him”. Wow, now that’s a conflict.
Latre.
Battle Of The iPhones
Posted on | March 15, 2008 at 7:19 pm | 3 Comments
Last night, the InfK family was in town, all the way from Australia, via of a stopover in Los Angeles first. N and I went to dinner with them at Las D. Topics of conversation were mostly about Australian health care (which, of course, is better than ours), and Mrs InfK’s new iPhone, which they had gotten just an hour or so before. Their’s is an unlocked one that will work in Australia.
So, along with comparing our iPhones, we had to do the usual simultaneous picture taking with the cameras in said devices:
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As you can see, the pictures that the 2MP camera in the iPhone takes are not the best. I did have to photoshop them a little. They tend to look a bit washed out and blurry, though the later is probably because of my unsteady hand. Well, and there’s no flash either, which doesn’t help. Pretty typical camera phone. The nice thing is the way you can view the pictures you just took on the nice iPhone screen, and zoom in and all.
After eating our Mexican dinner, we retreated to the cafe next door and used their WiFi service while I drank a Mango Smoothie. Spike had a lot of fun playing with the computers and coming up with new biofuel formulations. We had a talk about Australian Spiders vs American Spiders, where InfK claimed that American ones can’t even break your skin when they bite you and so are as nothing compared to their ’stralian counterparts. But this morning, N and I were attacked by an American one that came flying out of a blanket that she pulled off the couch, and you can bet he would’ve sank his fangs into us if he had gotten close enough. But N trapped him and put him outside while I ran around like a frightened little girl.
Anyway, we had a great time with our friends from the other end of the world and hope they come back soon!
Latre.
Adventures In Dreamsville
Posted on | March 14, 2008 at 10:48 pm | 1 Comment
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 40°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Tango Shoes” (Bif Naked)
- “West of the Fields” (R.E.M.)
- “The Silvery Light of a Dream, Pt. 2″ (The Apples In Stereo)
- “The Lost Years” (Bill Nelson)
- “Mystery” (Inspiral Carpets)
- “You/Me” (Mitch Easter)
- “Dog” (Dada)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Bill Nelson showing up on my jogging playlist almost every day. For one thing, the songs that show up are often dull, ambient instrumentals or slower vocal songs. The jogging playlist is supposed to be “fast tempo” songs only, but BPM Analyzer sometimes miscalculates the tempo of songs that don’t have prominent drums or beats. It’s not surprising that his songs show up a lot in the playlist, since I do own something like 40 albums by the guy. And all of them are ripped into iTunes as part of my 256kps project. I ripped his catalog as one of the first sets of discs I did, not because I wanted to hear most of it so badly, but because his catalog occupies such a vast portion of my CD collection that I wanted to get it out of the way. I have far more albums by him than by any other artist; Bill’s quite prolific.
By my count, 734 out of the 19913 songs in my iTunes are Bill Nelson songs, which is like 4%. So statistically (figuring 7 songs a day while jogging), I should on average hit a Bill Nelson song every three jogs or so, but only if all 734 are eligible for the “fast tempo” playlist, which I’m not sure they are. So something about the iPod’s shuffle algorithm really seems to favor old Bill if I’m hitting him almost every run.
I know I could just remove him from the Smart Playlist by adding an “ignore” criteria for his name, but there actually are a number of songs/albums that I would like to keep in the rotation and I don’t want to specify them one by one. Maybe I should just “uncheck” the dull songs/albums in the iTunes browser so that they never play under any circumstances. But I like hearing them sometimes, just not when jogging. I need fast tunes when I’m running!
Sorry, Bill. Get out of my nano!
Latre.
Adventures In Coupling
Posted on | March 13, 2008 at 8:12 pm | 10 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: When I bought the iPhone, one of the selling points was that it was supposedly iPod-like in that you could plug in any set of headphones to listen to music and other audio. But I guess I didn’t do the proper research. When I plugged my headphones at work into it and played a tune, the music still came out of the speaker instead of the headphones. I didn’t have the earbuds(/microphone) that came with the iPhone with me, because the earbuds don’t even begin to fit in my ears and they’re useless.
A quick websearch tracked down the problem. The headphone jack on the top of the iPhone is slightly recessed. So normal plugs on normal headphones don’t go all the way down into the hole (headphonus interruptus) and make proper contact. The cowling around the headphone plug is too big. The earbuds that come with the iPhone feature a “low profile” cowling that is small enough to allow the jack to go all the way down and not get stuck on the walls of the tunnel leading into the hole.
Here’s what the jack looks like (click any photo to enlarge):
Here’s what it looks like with the supplied earphones plugged in:
And here’s what it looks like with normal headphones plugged in:
As you can see, the cowling around the plug gets hung up on the outside of the jack. Part of the outside of the plug is visible and is not making contact.
I can’t understand why Apply did this. The iTouch, which I understand is pretty much the same form factor, doesn’t have this issue. What possible explanation is there? It doesn’t seem engineered to sell more Apple products, since most people probably end up buying a third party adapter like the ones on this page. The rest of the owners who need to use regular headphones trim down the rubber cowling on the plugs using an x-acto knife or something.
Apple is usually pretty good at engineering stuff, so I can’t understand this blunder. It probably has something to do with the fact that the supplied headphones also have a microphone and a button control, necessitating extra contacts on the plug to use that functionality. Maybe they’re afraid you’ll miss a call if you use regular headphones without the button/mic? I suppose I could find the answer by Googling, but I’m too tired. And annoyed.
Latre.
Ticking Clock
Posted on | March 12, 2008 at 9:58 pm | 6 Comments
I’d do a real blog entry today, but I’ve been busy watching a DVD tonight (Superbad) and I’ve been ordered to get to bed by 10pm because I’ve been really, really tired lately from going to bed too late and getting up too early. So, this is all you get:
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 45°F and very windy)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “My Favorite Dress” (Wedding Present)
- “Cheating On You” (Franz Ferdinand)
- “Glad ‘N’ Greasy” (Beat Farmers)
- “The Collector” (Nine Inch Nails)
- “Watch Me Now, I’m Calling” (Blake Babies)
- “Break” (The Cinematics)
- “Easy Target” (Blink 182)
- “I Looked At The Sea” (Bill Nelson)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Getting put on infinite hold by a customer service representative. Hey look, if you have to go to the bathroom or answer a personal call, just say so.
Latre.
You Should See How Much The Biscuits Cost
Posted on | March 11, 2008 at 9:26 pm | 1 Comment
This is for all you KFC Famous Bowl Haters out there. Apparently there are a lot of you, and I don’t just mean Patton Oswalt and his “fans”.
Here, take this (visuals shown are representational):
Yes, there are some places where the KFC Famous Bowl (especially the new BBQ flavor) is such a precious commodity that it goes for eBay auction prices. Be in awe of the Greatness that is the KFC Famous Bowl. Beat ye a hasty retreat down to your local House O’ Saunders and immediately scarf down that tasty, tasty mixture of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and cheese. Marvel at what comes out of you the next day. Worship at the Altar of the Bowl and know that you have tasted God. For the KFC Famous Bowl is your path to Heaven.
(Thanks to Phil for the pic!)
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 34°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Sat in Your Lap” (Kate Bush)
- “I Won’t Let It Drop” (Uncle Green)
- “This Still Life” (B-Movie)
- “A Way Out, A Way Through” (Ultravox)
- “Post Nuclear Talking Blues” (Big Country)
- “Cryin’” (The Von Bondies)
- “623″ (Classix Nouveaux)