Voder-Vocoder

The redesign started with only editing css files, but then I needed to insert some <div>’s, and I needed to edit almost every cgi and html file. I managed to automate the task, though.

Emacs will not have Xft support anytime soon, unless somebody codes it.

I visited the CSS Zen Garden, and it inspired the …

Fry: Who cares what you’re programmed for? If somebody programmed you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

Bender: I’ll have to check my program. <pause> Yep.

Been watching too much Futurama recently, so I’ve got robots on my mind. I haven’t read enough recent sci-fi with robots. There are robots in the old Asimov books, and a handful of sentient AI’s in some other books, but not enough.

My Life Story

I read this article on software defined radio and once again got excited about it. The only problem is that you need a very expensive ADC to pick up FM or HDTV.

If software defined radio ever becomes really common, maybe the price of the hardware will drop. It seems to me that an ADC is such a horribly useful piece of equipment that every computer should come with one. It’s refreashing to see that the free software sommunity is so far ahead in this game.

If anyone I know has an old ADC card laying about and wants to work on building something cool, tell me.

(serves one).

1. Go out and buy a little rosemary plant. Plant it in your garden.
2. Pull off a sprig. Take it inside.
3. Take one frozen chicken breast, and cut it up into thin slices. Marinade with rosemary and crushed red and black pepper.
4. Go watch some TV
5. On medium-high heat, fry the chicken with a dab of olive oil.
6. While the chicken is cooking, cut up onegreen bell pepper and one small onion
7. When the chicken is almost done cooking, throw in the veggies.
8. Stir it all around for a minute or so.
9. Pour in a large splash of merlot
10. Stir it all around for a minute or so.
11. Add a cover and steam for a minute or so.
12. Stir fry until the juice is almost gone, then serve.

Sometimes I wonder, “would a matchbox hold my clothes?”
I ain’t got no matches but I’ve got so far to go.

Funny story. This year, my dad got a new desktop from HPQ. It had an AMD Athlon processor, but on the outside it had one of theose "Intel Inside" decals. I’m not sure which of the two companies should be more upset at HPQ’s gaff: AMD for not getting the credit they deserve or Intel for having thier brand name diluted.

Comics

I’ve been reading comics recently. Working my way through Warren Ellis’ Planetary and Transmetropolitan.

The first two volumes of Planetary are great, but the crossover books I read really didn’t have much going for them. For instance, Planetary/Authority book shows the weakness of the the idea of having comic book universes. If both the Planetary organization and the Authority exist in the Wildstorm universe, then why doesn’t Elijah Snow just call for the Authority’s help in getting rid of the Four? That would seem to be a task better suited to a team of overpowered superheros than a team of overpowered archaeologists.

Transmet, on the other hand, is flawless so far. This shows the importance of having well-rounded characters.

Driving

I used to share a flat with a guy named Andy Szudy. He had a habit of jumping in a car on summer evenings and driving around the Wisconsin countryside. I didn’t understand the urge that well, but this summer I’ve got the bug. I just drove out to the video store and thouroughly enjoyed driving through the cool night.

I kind of want to get in the car and take off. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to go.

high-speed internet

I got cable modem service last week. This is the first time I’ve had a high speed connection at my house, and here is what I think:

All in all, it’s a good idea. A bit expensive, but these things can be budgeted for.

bittorrent

BitTorrent is awesome. Because the load is distributed evenly, you can get the full use of whatever bandwidth you have.

I love how the program is so minimalistic. Compare to Kazaa, which is a huge executable that only seems to run on Windows. It achieves this minimality by using existing httpd clients/servers to not only deliver the .torrent metafiles, but also information about and links to the torrents in normal text/html.

It’s annoying when servers deliver .torrent files as text/plain instead of application/x-bittorrent.

hardware addiction

With all of the crap I’m downloading, I may need to get a new hard drive soon. Right now I have two 30 GB drives. If I replaced one of them with a 120 GB drive, then I’d have two and a half times as much storage. If I had a mobo with more than two IDE channels, I could have more than four devices. But I really shouldn’t spend any more money on hardware. Instead I’ll spend it on blank CD-Rs.

the urge to game

I read a review of Star Wars Galaxies the other day. Made me want to see the game. Explore it for a few weeks, at least. Their pricing model discourages the casual gamer. It’s $12 to $15 per month plus $50 up front for the game. If they were really confidant that the game was fun, it would be $20 up front for the first month and $20/per month after that. If they can keep a gamer for a year they’ve more than broke even. But $50 is a bit much for a game that I might want to stop playing the first month.

And I’m certainly not paying $80 for the collectors edition since the standard edition is sold out. `

This is a well established business principle. Give away the razor and profit on the blades.

I’t just as well that I’m not going to get the game. I’d just have to use windows anyways. And that would be distasteful.

Drove down to the North Carolina/Tennessee Mountains. Backpacked for a week or so. Wandered around Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

Then I realized that I was extremely lonely out there in the middle of the woods without anyone to talk to. This was about the time I finished the only book I took with me, The Brothers Karamazov.

I then drove down to Ft. Myers to visit my parents. My mother had just bought a second house as an investment. I took it upon myself to get the front yard loking decent, so I spent a week weeding and putting down mulch. I also drove down to the everglades.

Then it was time to go to Memphis for Ben and Julie’s wedding. I spent a night with some friends of my parents, and two nights at Scott’s house.

The wedding itself was interesting. I hadn’t seen any of my high school friends in a couple of years. Memphis now seems like an alien place.

Now I’m back in Madison.