Lake Temescal and a View

Yesterday, we went scouting for a place to have Emma's first birthday party. Since it's close by our house, we went up to Lake Temescal. While it probably is not going to be the location, I did take some pictures. The last picture in this bunch isn't from Lake Temescal, it's the view from up on Grizzly Peak Road.

Mike Tyson's Punchout using bongos

Seriously. This is why Jeremy is one of the most awesome people I know.

LinuxWorld Registration is open

LinuxWorld is no longer as cool or fun as it once was, but I tend to find it worth it just to get the latest Debian t-shirt. I often donate to the EFF as well when I'm there, and sometimes there is something else neat to see on the floor. It is currently possible to register for a free exhibits pass. They apparently also have www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/ehall//SN460564">community days, which you can register for (also free!). I registered for the Ubuntu one, hopefully I'll be able to make at least part of that. Anyways, if you're going to go, drop me a line, and maybe we can meet up at the show.

On the addictive qualities of Mac OS X

When my wife's laptop broke, we opted not to pay to fix it or buy a new one. The newest Ubuntu had impressed me, and I was pretty sure that I could use my work laptop running Linux, and let her use my MacBook Pro most of the time. This worked ok for a couple of months, but as time went on, I started to notice more and more things that I missed from the Mac. I've found that I've really gotten used to the feel of Apple's keyboards, and even more importantly, the screen on my Mac is so much easier on my eyes than the LCD in the HP laptop I got from work. Perhaps it's the way Mac OS X draws fonts, perhaps it's something else in the Mac OS X rendering layer, perhaps the MacBook Pro simply has a better screen. Whatever the case, my eyes are vastly happier when using the Mac.

Then there are the many things in Mac OS X that are simply more polished than in Ubuntu. Perhaps I should be a good open source citizen and take the code and fix the things that are broken, but I simply don't have the interest. There are way too many other things I'd rather be hacking on than trying to fix things like Ubuntu's network configuration application (I probably should write a future post on how this is broken, so maybe someone with interest could fix it). So while I don't have an addiction to any of Apple's other crack (I rarely use my iPod, I don't own (and don't plan to own) an iPhone or an Apple TV or what not), I do, despite my best efforts, have a Mac OS X (and Apple hardware to a certain extent) addiction.

Now all I have to do is find out how to get another Mac laptop for our household, preferably free... (sometimes it's annoying working for a company that makes computers...)

OMG WTF Diablo III

It looks like they actually are making Diablo III. I sense a new addiction incoming.

The cake is a lie

I hereby declare that I have beaten Portal, and can now officially make all the cake jokes that the rest of the internet got tired of months ago.

Transcript of a rather interesting talk

I came across this transcript: Is There Anything Good About Men, which is a rather interesting analysis of the roles of men and women in society. I'm still digesting it, so I don't have any intelligent commentary at the moment, but I figured I'd share.

Best Pen EVAR

The Pulse Smartpen is one of the coolest gadgets I've seen in a long time. One of my coworkers just acquired one, and now half the office wants one. For $150, the ability to have my notes and other things that I write in a notepad to be connected with my computer is beyond worth it. The advantages of this over a tablet computer are numerous to me: first and foremost, there's the price. Also, I can use this in direct sunlight, something no current laptop screen can do (except the OLPC, but that's too small for adult hands). Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that they're going to be releasing an SDK so that users can write their own applications for the pen. Ok, I think I'm done gushing about it for now, but it's definitely jumped right to the top of my wishlist.

Ack

Thanks to a link shared by a friend on
Google Reader, I have discovered Ack, and it is the greatest thing
since sliced bread. I don't think I'll ever use grep again. (And it
works anywhere Perl works, which means that if you're stuck on Windows,
you can use it there, too!)

My Official Stadium to Stadium 10k time

It looks like I did it in 54:53, and came in 36th in my age group (19-29). I'm pleasintly surprised.