Ploafmaster General

Holy CRAP:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzkNI4YIU2o&rel=1&border=1&w=425&h=373]
(via kottke)

Today I decided that I'd ditch Sage - the Firefox extension I use for feeds at work - for NewsGator's FeedDemon. So far, so good - though it's definitely a bit clunkier than NetNewsWire (seriously, what is it with camel case everybody?) and isn't 100% analogous in functionality.

What I'm MOST interested in, however, is the NewsGator Online feature - the ability to sync my feeds between the Mac at home, and the computer here. This way when I get back to the house I don't have to wade through the news items I've already read here at my desk.

Wow...that's a nice start. I have the personal (that is, FREE) version of EE installed on my server, and setup was a breeze.

I just have the default template up for now, and I haven't touched a thing, but you can peep it (Piep it?) on this subdirectory:
/cms/

Okay, so I decided to see what all the fuss about ExpressionEngine is, and I'm in the process of installing it in a sub-domain of my site right now. More to follow, so for you non-tech types, you'll have to pardon the possibly semi-frequent posts about nerdy stuff in over the next few days.

Great pickled apple blossoms! New Kids on the Block is reuniting?!?!?

It's news like this which tempts me to believe, like Job's friends, that I've done some sinful thing to deserve such a horrible reality. I remember when my late Pop Pop, meaning well, gave my brothers and I some NKOTB trading cards (to be fair, he also gave us Batman trading cards). We taped them to our dressers and threw darts at them.

Here's hoping this is short (if at all) lived.
(via Gentle Graffiti)

Who knew? Apparently the Beatles were banned from Israel in 1965 for fear of corrupting the youth. Well now Israel wants them back in order to celebrate the 60th birthday of the modern incarnation of the state.

The New York Times Magazine has a fascinating (though QUITE long) article that theorizes a world in which America no longer enjoys hegemony, the changes leading thereto, and the consequences thereof.

Thanks to a delightful Google logo this morning, I've found that today is the 50th anniversary of the Lego brick.



Now I played with Legos nearly every day of my life from 1 year to 16 years, and I still occasionally lust after the higher-end Star Wars sets. Growing up I went through nearly every variety of theme and skill level, from pirates to cities, from little cars to full-blown Technics boom cranes. I still have a custom-designed spacecraft in my bedroom, and an A-Wing from Return of the Jedi in my office.

I have to admit, however, that I have mixed feelings about the mighty little bricks these days.

On one hand, today we have a greater incidence of specialized bricks and pieces that preclude much of the construction that would have been required in years past. What's the point of a building-block set where half the building is done for you? On the other hand, I have to admire the longevity of such a fundamentally simple toy. In an age of electronics and video games, Legos have adapted admirably with their popular Mindstorms kits and a slew of reasonably successful video games. They also, meanwhile, continue to offer multifarious kits for all ages that allow for the creative rebuilding and invention that so attracted me to Legos as a child.

So happy 50th indeed, Lego. Here are a few useful links in honor of the best toy since the cardboard box:

Lego's own history and manufacturing process (PDF, close to a Meg)
Wikipedia's rather exhaustive Lego entry (if only because of the near-overwhelming array of links to subsections and related articles)
And lest we forget what may be one of the coolest Lego kits ever conceived...the Motorized Walking AT-AT.

All I have to say about Ocean's Thirteen is that it's not like haute cuisine. It's not going to change the way you look at and consume food. No, this film is more like that bacon cheeseburger from Carytown Burger and Fries. Familiar, and by now not too groundbreaking, but tasty none the less. And satisfying from start to finish.

4/5

Have you seen that commercial for the Ford Edge "crossover" vehicle? The one with the gal in the backseat staring up through the sunroof at the night sky in a city? There's some totally sweet music playing, and I've finally figured out what it is: "The Funeral" by Band of Horses. This song came out in 2006, I believe, and sometimes I just feel so behind the curve when it comes to what all the cool kids are in to these days...All the same, this song rocks my face off (even if it sounds like James Mercer from The Shins is moonlighting with these guys), and submitted for your approval is the original video for "The Funeral":

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibE7IqEjni4&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

I'd known for quite some time that the EU legalized the sale of Absinthe a few years ago, but I had no idea that the wormwood-infused boisson was now allowed in the U-S-of-A.

Now to seek out a bottle of the stuff...

Well it appears that most Americans will end up seeing some kinda hot cash injection from Uncle Sam by the summer time. Because Val is way more practical than I, we'll likely stuff ours in savings (and thus counteract the intended purpose of economic stimulation). Others, however, may have grander things in mind.

While trying not to count chickens before they're hatched (no legislation has actually passed as of this writing), what do you plan to do with your money?

This may be a bit dated, but there's a useful (and sometimes hilarious) interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz from way back in October on Esquire's website.

Some of these I knew, some surprised me, but just about all of them were interesting at the least. I have to disagree with him about pizza, though. While it may not be the most heart healthy, it IS good for the soul.

The Morning News has an informative article from Timothy Ledwith about Staten Island and how the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge affected life in the borough.

That is all. For now.

This weekend I decided to trust the advice of John Gruber (generally not a risky proposition) and purchase SuperDuper, the backup software from Shirt Pocket Software.

Dang, it's quick, easy, and intelligent. See, I connect to an AFP share on my external hard drive, so that's mounted most of the time while my computer is upstairs with the Ethernet cord plugged in. I ran my initial backup creating a disk image on that external drive. I was concerned that if I took my computer away for a day and forgot to remount the AFP share when I returned, that the backup would fail. Well, SuperDuper can execute a script for you immediately preceding the backup process. So I was researching Applescript methods for auto-mounting a volume if it's not already connected, and as the evening wore on, the scheduled backup kicked off. To my delighted surprise, it automatically mounted the volume for me, and problem solved!

I highly recommend this to any of my Mac-slingin' peeps out there (who have an extra drive).

This is a really interesting typeface found by my friend Stephanie called Book Club. It's cool looking, but I feel it's a good example of form over function. That's perhaps the intention, which would be fine. I can't tell from the author's website whether it was a commercial project or proof of concept, but in short artistic applications I could see this having a really cool effect.

I do, however, find it humorous that a typeface created with books is difficult to read :-)

I don't own an iPhone (not enough storage for me...yet), and I don't own Delicious Library (2.0 is rumored to be around the corner, so why buy now?). There is, however, an impending SDK for the iPhone which will allow third party software development for the platform.

I've given it a lot of thought, and I think a totally hot piece of software would be a Delicious Library client for the iPhone. Imagine being able to scan your media with the camera on the iPhone instead of having to get a unitasker scanner or holding everything in front of your Mac's iSight. Imagine being able to scan media in the store to check whether you already have something in your home library or add it to a wish list. It could be pretty sweet to manage your media lending on-the-go as well.

I'd pay for that.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!

Tonight, against the odds, Eli Manning threw NO interceptions, and my NEW YORK GIANTS defeated the excellent Brett Favre and his Green Bay Packers. Much respect to you, Favre, but I'm glad the boys in blue came out victorious.

I know the Patriots are currently a 13-point favorite, but you can't count out the Giants now. Not after taking down Dallas. Not after taking down the Packers. We came pretty close in week 17 against the Pats, and though they learn quickly and rarely falter, I've now watched my team's defense surprise most of the pundits with coverage when it counts.

The added bonus, for me, is that I can count on an extra helping of people rooting for the Giants since there are so many folks embittered towards the Patriots, yearning for their perfect season to be taken away. While I personally think another team with a perfect season would be cool, I don't want it to happen when the Giants stand in the way :-)

I just discovered this excellent tribute to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining on the Late Night Underground website. DRAEB EKIRTS!!!

Before I headed upstairs to finish the aforementioned book, I watched the Dustin Hoffman rendition of Death of a Salesman. I'll not dwell on the details, but I did give it 4 out of 5. The acting was amazing, I already love the story (and the stuck very tightly to the script), and the casting was mostly excellent. My only dings are the production quality (it WAS made for television in the '80s, after all), and Stephen Lang's Happy Loman. Otherwise, it was a treat to see one of John Malkovich's earliest film performances, and he was outstanding as Biff Loman.

Last night I finished reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. This book was easily one of the funniest volumes I've read in the past several years. Coarse, profane, yet insightful - this book is less an exposé of the commercial kitchen than of the author himself. Bourdain shares expertly crafted anecdotes about his restaurant years, all the while exhorting the readers to accept and appreciate professional cooking (and it's oft unseemly cast of characters) for what it is.

Two stand-out chapters (also the longest, I think...):
1. A Day in the Life - Here we follow Bourdain from his waking before 6 AM through a grueling restaurant Friday ending, exhausted, in a bar at 1 AM. The pacing and detail is extraordinary, convincing me further that I never wish to run a restaurant :-)

2. Mission to Tokyo - The chef is sent by the owners of Les Halles to a satellite restaurant in Tokyo to consult about the menu. Left to his own exploring devices, Bourdain rapidly falls in love with Japanese food culture. The sense of discovery is palpable, and the reader (or at least THIS reader) is filled with a desire to see the Roppongi district.

I absolutely recommend this book. It's not for the faint of heart, but it IS hilarious and informative. The format is mildly scattered - more the feeling of semi-chronological narrative with various asides - but easily readable. Taste and enjoy.

Because nothing says conspicuous consumption quite like gold-flecked granite. In your CAR.

I know many folks who check my site already read Signal vs. Noise, but this program they posted about today is such a cool concept that I had to write it up as well.

Fluid is a tool from Todd Ditchendorf which allows users to create a stand-alone desktop "app" for any web app. This is accomplished through the generation of a standalone browser for the page, and it supports RSS and the like as well.

Some questions I have (until I try it out at home this evening):
1. What's the resource usage on this puppy - does an "app" for GMail use more ram than Flickr? Is there a minimum RAM/CPU usage regardless of the web app?
2. Does the Fluid app have to stay running in order to use the "apps" you've created? Or is Fluid just the generator?
3. Once you reveal the regular Webkit controls, can you then navigate away from the site? Wouldn't that then make these "apps" simply standalone instances of a Webkit browser? If that's the case, it sounds like running multiple instances of Toad on my Windows 2000 work PC, where each instance has a process ID, and each can crash independently (which they do!).

I'll update this with my findings as soon as I get to play with the new program.

UPDATE: Ha haaaaaa...Seems I missed the fine print. This requires Leopard, and it seems I don't have that. Whoops!

How can you make almost anything better? With MONKEYS, that's how. And tea, that fine brewed beverage, is no exception (yes, monkeys really picked this tea). If this stuff wasn't so pricey, I'd consider purchasing a pouch, because really - shouldn't monkey's do more work for us?

(via Uncrate)