So Clemmie's cousin Apoa is learning Photoshop in art class:-) Check out this montage she asked Clem to sit for.
February 2008 Archives
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Oh yes, oh yes: "With what can only be described as a good dose of Dutch courage, Delft University's Assistant Professor Johan Pouwelse, dealt a devastating thump on the head to the music industry when he labeled the RIAA's super expert, Dr Doug Jacobson'
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more on the dutch RIAA thing
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more Marie Lindor (includes a donate button so you can help her fund her defence against the RIAA)
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more links to donate to the expert witness fund
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shoe shopping
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absolutely no idea what this is all about but check out these fantastic employee portraits from the seventies (found on a search for persona inspiration)
Question: why does my iPhone not sync automatically (or even manually) with with my Powerbook via wifi when both are on the same network and iTunes is running (hell, why isn't their a syncd process running in the background).
I'm finding the 'tethered device' design of the ipod increasingly annoying but for the iPhone which is by nature a wireless device to still follow the same method is just silly...
I've been following the birth of the Tesla roadster and this morning Scobble twittered his test drive in the first production car with the company CEO. Things have really been moving along and the Tesla Motors website has been updated with lots of juicy stuff.
The item that I am listening to right now is an mp3 of the January 2008 Tesla Town Hall meeting (I've grabbed the file so the link stays valid). This is just great, it's all the senior management giving a report and answering questions from the leading lights in the EV business. Dry as hell but very interesting if you're curious about the inner workings of a business that is trying to kick-start the EV revolution by producing road-legal, safe and of course high-performance cars in large enough numbers to make them a valid alternative.
The recording includes the CEO talking to disappointed customers (length of waiting list), goes into technical details about gearbox design and even covers comments and questions from individuals who put $50,000 money down for a car who aren't being allowed to become investors (I know if I put that kind of money down as a deposit I'd be wanting a little love). This is live dialogue and certainly shows access.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Tesla out-performs most petrol-powered super cars (including the McLarren F1 at some speeds).
Get ready for a crackdown on broadband use
Man, this pisses me off. The only person who gets to decide the value of a good or service I invite into my space is me.
Right now, my ISP isn't providing me with value, not even close as my connection rarely gets over 64k (yes, k not m) and the damn connection won't come up after a router power cycle or other network crash.
If the service was a little closer to what was advertised I could start building my own value with it. Because I work in the internet industry, there's a really good chance my connection to the cloud allows me to create stacks of unique value. You know, just doing a quick mental calculation I'd be happy to pay my ISP say £40, £50, maybe even £75 a month.
Of course given past performance, I'd say the chances of my ISP being interested in understanding how I create value are pretty much next to nil.
When are businesses gonna get on the damn bus?
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pretty :-)
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bit more chick... handmade goods
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stuff
Well well well, a new kind of phishing has landed in my inbox. Just when I thought the relatives and colleagues of intestate central african millionaires could show no further bounty, I am now being showered with cash by those friendly folk at the IRS ;-)
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
United States Department of the Treasury
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $184.80.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it.
A pretty lo-fi attempt with no decent url spoofing or fancy html, not even a serious-looking IRS logo. Still, as a new take on an old trick it may hook a few incredulous pennies...
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crib sheet with the most frequently used mysql commands
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le blog du type qui à produit le super bilan sur ces 2008
From Wikipedia's entry on the Lockheed Constellation:
One Super Constellation is parked on an unused runway in the Rafael Hernandez International airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. It was struck by a runaway DC-4 at Aguadilla-Borinquen Airport, on 3 February 1992, resulting in damage to the right wing and main spar.
You can see the wing damage in the satellite shot. Shame Google didn't have any full-res shots of Puerto Rico but still, the quality of these shots never ceases to amaze me :-)
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Well, in the end, the damage to the knee was worse than the scans had suggested and the knee arthroscopy took a lot longer than planned.
I had apparently damaged the front of the knee joint by overdoing it on staircases and the overall state of the cartilage and meniscus was pretty poor. The meniscus tear had a horizontal element which was unseen in the MRI scan and took a lot longer to trim.
The primary meniscus tear was a sudden incident. I was behind third base at a TMW softball game and was determined to not let the side down. I never did catch any balls but the stop-start without warm-up took care of the cartilage. Talk about stupid boy, not only was the accident avoidable, but I was busy at work and never took the knee to the doc. I had company health insurance at the time and could have had the whole thing sorted (retro-kicking myself as I write this grrr).
I'm guessing the damaging stair action might have been getting very pissed and lugging an entire photoshoot's worth of lighting and camera gear up to the top of the Positano cliffs (in a oner) from down on the seafront. Lugging Sven's camera gear up to the top-floor studio at Jubilee Place for a year probably didn't help either...
Needless to say, the op was considerably more expensive than I had planned for. Basically, without health insurance and having lost mobility (I had been limping for three weeks) I needed to get it sorted very quickly. As well as the obvious need for going to work, I didn't want the damage to reduce my future mobility and ability to play with Clem and Hal.
The major onset of pain was triggered by teaching Clementine to skateboard. We'd been looking at videos of Tony Alva grinding pools and planning a trip to North London's three decent skateparks. The thought of not being able to share this with her was a real blow:-(
In any case, I'm crossing my fingers that with only three weeks between re-injury and op, I've managed to not grind or scratch the knee too much...
So I've now had the pleasure of being slid into an MRI and in a few minutes, a man called John Hardy (my trusty orthopaedic surgeon) is going to regularise a tear in the meniscus in my right knee (thank you TMW softball).
08:36 scratch that, doc and anesthetist (sp?) have a full-on knee replacement in theatre before me. Will need to wait a bit longer. On the plus side, I should get a DVD from the orthroscope which I will get up on YouTube as soon as poss.
09:16 JH and sleepman David Coates are doing a knee replacement I'm next in the queue.
09:51 anti-embolism stockings. I'm told to treat them like silk stockings
10:47 still no news :-(
Well, shortly before 11:15 David Coates injected me with a quart of martinis. The next thing I remember is having the best n
ap in the recovery room (boy, I'll bet recovery-room staff have got some juicy material for a book) and then Nicki showed up next my bed :-)
Have now seen the physio and am waiting for nurse to redo dressing before heading home.
Thanks to all who tweeted, called and texted the messages really helped.
Apple says get a Mac So you know, I replaced my lovely 12" iBook with a lovely 12" powerbook back in 2006. Since then, I've travelled miles and miles on motorcycle and Eurostar and the whole time my mini workstation has been powering through... I tend to have Virtual PC, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Omnigraffle, BBEdit, three or four browsers and Omnioutline all running at the same time (while downloading podcasts and listening to iTunes) with snappy response and power to spare...
Now, I know that's no big deal in modern laptop terms but for me (as I create my own unique value in partnership with apple's products) it's both great and exactly what need. Unfortunately, everything is beginning to run on Intel macs, Adobe CS3 looks like Leopard only so if I upgrade I'm also gonna need a new system... add to that the running Windows without VPC and I really need to update my Powerbook.
So, dammit Steve, I thought you were going to anounce the new 12" powerbook last month, but nooooo, you had to go and do the Air™ thing:-(
Steve, this is a machine I cannot use. For starters, I don't need thin, I need small. I need bounce-resistance (speed bumps and motorways) and I need crush-resistance (as I get kicked out of the conference room again and hastily stuff reports and coiled cables into my already overstuff laptop bag).
So where does that leave me...
I need a new laptop with an optical drive, an ethernet, an intel processor and a 12" form-factor. I need it soon, so if I can't get a 12" Powerbook, what are my options? I may actually have to shudder switch to a PC and go with a Dell or a Toshiba...
