Brainsoup

Despite all the Microsoft buyout nonsense, I'm betting on Yahoo! Why? Cause of things like Zimbra. While watching the installer for Zimbra Desktop finish up and I noticed it was starting it's service.

Wait, my email client needs an always on windows service?
...
Of course it does. Every other application I run gets a tray icon, why don't I elevate my email to an even higher priority than that?

I'm betting on Zimbra at work too. Yahoo, don't mess this up. Get back in the game.

Now that it's been three years since I was teaching there, I'm posting a couple photos from my time at Lakeside Charter School in Elon, NC. (I withheld my photos that showed the faces of children for privacy reasons). Lakeside was a public charter school at which I was the "Computer Teacher" in 2004. They closed closed in early fall 2005, it seems to have reopened as a private prep school under the name The Elon School this past August with a new mission of offering "high academics".

I'm not going to pull any punches here, Elon Homes For Children is what used to be called an orphanage. A home for lost children if you will. So unsurpisingly it had close ties to community churches; as I imagine it still does. When they opened a publicly funded charter school, they apparently forgot to leave that behind though. The picture to your left is just inside what was the front entrance. Additionally the lobby had a two large pieces of art depicting angels and a small waiting area with magazines and some suggested reading. Oh, and the principals office always had the nice soothing sound of AM Christian Talk Radio playing quietly in the background. The ACLU might've frowned upon such things in 2004/2005 while I was there since the school was state funded, but now that they've gone private, they can do whatever they want.

This month's wired has a couple interesting articles about time. One about amatuer time dorks.

"It was the best extra 22 nanoseconds I've ever spent with the kids," Van Baak says.

The other article is about the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) the official United States timekeepers:

At that level, clocks will be precise enough that they'll have to correct for the relativistic effects of the shape of the earth, which changes every day in reaction to environmental factors. [...]On a moving ship, such a clock would change rate with the shape of the ocean floor, and even the density of the earth beneath. On a volcano, it would change with the moving and vibrating of magma within. Scientists using maps of these variations could differentiate salt and freshwater, and perhaps eventually predict eruptions, earthquakes or other natural events from the variations in gravity under the surface of the planet.

You could passively visualize pedestrians on a sidewalk, O'Brian says, "from the microwaves of the Doppler shift of someone walking."

Dude, time radar? Sick.

Not a lot of mainstream news coverage of this, but apparently a plane crashed in a Mexico jungle with a few tons of Cocaine aboard. A plane which was also formerly used by the CIA to transport people and/or things to Guantanamo. Nice. I've seen this covered in a handful of news sources I've don't know enough about to trust, but nothing mainstream. Until now. The 10/29/07 episode of WBEZ's WorldView gives a good overview of it. Here's a 13 minute MP3 of the program. This is why America's war on drugs is about as effective as our war on terror...cause if you've got the money for a private plane, you can do whatever the fuck you want with it.

The United States Postal Service webstore (shop.USPS.com) sells two singles from the band The Postal Service.

ArsTechnica had the scoop back in 2004, but I found it on The Postal Service wikipedia page

Interesting article and slideshow in from July's Atlantic about Shenzhen, a new city in China. Including some pictures and mention of a rediculous computer market with hundreds (thousands?) of individual stalls, each selling all sorts of electronic components, from CPUs and cables to switches and capacitors. Also noted, is America's largest export by volume to China is scrap paper and scrap metal. Apparently Shenzu is a port city near Hong Kong with some pretty intense urban planning, which you can see on google maps of the area, a little more at Wikipedia. China fascinates me, I was even thinking of taking a Chinese class at Columbia, but being that it meets four evenings a week for 75minutes, it would put a serious dent in my attempts to, well, do anything.

I sure do wish someone would buy me a subscription to the Atlantic<winkwink nudgenudge> that's almost like speaking chinese, right?

Take a look a minute and check out the annotated slideshow (click, watch, listen) or the article (subscription required) and if you've got the time, the I've even ripped the full article PDF from Proquest. (via BoingBoing)

Just saw interesting folks pulling scrap out of a dumpster across the street from my apartment. So I decided to go down and chat with them. There were two guys working pulling out assorted items, brass removed from a sink, copper from electronics, aluminum mini-blinds and some other assorted metals (metal from exterior light fixtures, curtain rods, bike rims, etc). I chatted with one of the guys and he's been doing this for 20 years! He got into the business working the other side of the counter at a recycling center, earning minimum wage, watching homeless guys walk away with checks for $200+. So he quit, and started collecting scrap. He says he averages about $200 a night. He also is quick to criticize other folks who make a mess and ruing it for folks like him. He makes sure to keep everything in the containers he scraps from and not just leave a mess on the sidewalk. I asked him which metals were most valuable and what he got for them? Copper ($1.68/lb) and brass($0.74). Seems inline with the prices in the table (for the curious TL=truckload, LTL=less than truckload).

So here's some food for thought, say he rebells against a 5 day work week and only works the nights between weekdays, takes a generous 8 weeks of vacation a year and earns a little less than he claimed to me. $175/day 4 days a week 44 weeks = $30800. That's more than I made working full time, 5days a week, with 2weeks of vacation starting out at a software development firm (in NC...cost of living is much less than here in NYC, but still). Of course I got health insurance, but after watching SiCKO this evening somehow that seems less valuable that it did yesterday, but hey I'll save that for another post.

(daily scrap prices from demolitionscrapmetalnews.com)

a ThingPart comic.

I've been lusting after a Nokia E70 for the last year and while on this trip was presented with a dead phone (nokia 6820) and an opportunity to pick up the E70 in chicago. I got it, the Nokia branded leather case and a 2gb miniSD card for it. I felt if I was going to have this phone, I was going to do it right. So let's talk about the issues I've had since then:

• Nokia does not manufactur a case for the E70. They sold me a CP-74 case, for the Nokia N90 saying it was the case, but it's not. That would be why the wholes on the sides are in the wrong place. If only that was all that was wrong with the case:
  • Inside the case there was a nylon Nokia tag (you know, attached to the soft stuff which doesn't scratch), placed perfectly to scratch both the screen and the camera. The stiching on the tag was sub-par, making sure that every time you pushed the phone into the case, there was a little tail of the tag (above the stiching) which stuck up and scratched. After removing the tag and the GLUE underneath i don't htink it'll scrach any more..
  • The case is a little too big for the E70. Although the sales person (Joe) at the Nokia store was happy to show me that the case fit the phone snuggly, it fits it almost snugly. The N90 is 112x51x24mm whereas the E70 is 117x53x22mm. Not only is the E70 5mm longer (causing it to stick out above the top of the case exposed) but it's a little narrower. So it slides out easier than it should. Which leads us to...
  • The belt clip is rotates very easily. On the second day I had the phone I bumped the case on something and it happily rotated 180degrees dumping the phone onto the floor leaving the happily hanging upside-down on my belt. The scrach that came from this is not a surface scratch, but two deep corner gashes in the plastic. Nice
  • The belt clip isn't mounted flushly. So it's quite difficult to actually get it attached to your belt or whatever it is you want to attach it to. (Not that I'd recommend it anyways, as the orientation is variable as hell)
• Proprietary dock connector (13pins + ground) reminicient of proprietary connector other manufacturers would use for charging phones; Nokia on the other hand used a standard power jack for the last 4-5years on every phone. I've accumulated three Nokia branded AC adapters which still work.
  • The included wired headset uses the dock connector. Instead of using the standard 3.5mm jack (headphones) or a 2.5mm jack like my Nokia 3595 and Nokia 3650 used, the wired headset terminates to a dock connector. If I break the included one, I'll have to buy one from Nokia instead of for $2 from any cell store (or gas station).
  • USB also terminates to this dock connector, but you cannot charge through USB. (Unlike the entire recent motorola line (RAZR, SLVR, etc) which have a micro USB port on the side for charging and data transfer).
  • Although (because?) they kept the old Nokia charger port (notably unlike N-series Nokias) the dock connector cannot charge the phone. Nokia sells a USB cable which also charges for $60 (CA-70) that has both a dock connector and charging port.
  • The dock connector even has poor pin design. While trying to plug in the USB in the dark, I pushed three of the pins in so that they don't make contact properly anymore. I think I did it by plugging it in upside down or slightly off to one side, but anyways, no the USB cable is next to useless. (I can use it if I apply continuous downward pressure on the plug...which I did while waiting 16minutes for the firmware update to run. If I'd let go I would've bricked my phone--but I got through it and got it done. I'll leave stories about that firmware update for another post).
• Other minor annoyances
• On the side, there is a record button which launches the voice recorder. As far as I can tell there is no way to disable or reassign this. I have a number of 1minute recordings from god knows where.
• My 6820 had the same QWERTY flip as the E70, but because the screen resolution was semetrical (160x160 instead of 352x416) the rotate was instant and no application had to readjust itself. On the E70, the application has to rebuild itself and so opening the keypad can sometimes take 8-10 seconds before the app redraws itself. This loss of 5+ seconds often times removes the speed advantage QWERTY typing would have over T9.
• No auto keylock after X minutes. Series 40 has had this for a while (both my 3595 and 6820 can do it). I had an app for my 3650 that did it (JJKeylock) but I haven't found an app/setting which enables that on this phone so I am constantly forgetting to lock the phone and...
Making the left soft button launch "Messaging" leads to a super-dumb behavior. If you continously push the left button (as might happen with the phone in your pocket) it will send blank text messages to the first person in your phonebook. This is what it actually does: Launch messaging; Options; Create Message; Text Message; Options; Add Recipient; (First entry in your phonebook); Options; Send Message. Grrr...

One final note. When I upgraded my firmware, although i backed up the phone memory to the memory card. It didn't back up my contacts. All gone. You've got to be kidding me.

So, while driving down from Idaho on my way to Arizona, I ended up in Salt Lake City on a sunday night. (10/8). I drove around a little bit; the experience was totally depressing. SLC just seems empty and soulless, especially on a Sunday evening when everything is closed. So I checked out Upcoming.org a site with events from all over the country. I happened to see that Architecture in Helsinki (AIH) was playing. I couldn't quite place them, but I remember hearing about them, I think on NPR. After a quick confirmation from Laura (who had also heard of them) and listening to half a track from their website, I decided I had to go. The show was at In the Venue, which is apparently a pretty hip club in SLC, and I found it without any trouble. Although they wouldn't let me in with my film camera ("If it's got a detachable lens it's "Pro" gear, and not allowed"...if you can fit your digicam in your pocket you can take pictures, but no real cameras) they were nice enough to keep my Timbuk2 bag behind the bar so I didn't have to leave my laptop + camera(s) in my car in the sketchy neighborhood outside.

During the open act, I met a guy (named Bony, "Like Tony with 'B'") who is going to New England Culinary in Burlington, VT in March. He'd never been to the north east and had questions about what a Turnpike was, etc. (he'd only heard it on the Sopranos But once AIH started I was sucked in. The full rich sound that I'd heard on the studio tracks didn't do the songs justice compared to live. Good golly they can play. I ended up hanging out and meeting the band afterwards, which was sweet and picked up a T-shirt and CD to complete the new band experience. The band was super cool and I would love to see them again sometime. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a show that much. And all through random chance cause I was in SLC at the right time with nothing to do. Thank you upcoming and Cingular MediaNet I guess. I imagined that I wouldn't get to see them again any time soon (ever?) as their tour was ending mid-october in LA and they would be going back to Australia after that. But, since then other day they've added another show in NYC at Irving Plaza on November 3rd. I'm definitely going to that! Anyone wanna come?

(link to the SLC event on upcoming which started it all)

This entry would never post to brainsoup. I wrote it up twice all nice and pretty, now I'm just gonna be lazy and get the idea across (finally).

Ideas covered, but lost to the interwebs:

• Cheapest gas on the trip...$1.86...$1.99 most places on the interstate. Same price for 89 with Ethenol.
• Hardees vs. Carls Jr...MO has Hardees, I haven't seen them in a while. I wonder where the line is.
• 89.1 The Wood - College radio that sounds like Alt Nation on Sirius. No commercials, little talking. solid.
• Claire McCaskill, running for Senate here. Thoughtful, well educated and understands the issues (and understands they are complex). She can directly respond to opponents catch phrases with thoughtful, insightful and accesible commentary. I'd vote for her. (heard her on NPR call in show)

Since I don't have the actual money to invest in a Canon Digital Rebel or EOS 5D and lenses, I've just been using my old Canon Elan II film camera. It takes quite nice pictures, but film and developing are not cheap. I found a place while I was in Eugene (Dot Dotsons) that did slides onsite and they were able to develop and scan the 6 rolls I had. It ended up being $15/roll with no prints (mostly slides) and crisp 3000x2000 scans. Although when you consider the cost of film, it comes out to about 0.75/cents per frame. I'm still shooting a little bit with my digital camera (Canon PowerShot A75) and with my Nokia E70, but neither offers an actual SLR (through the lens) viewfinder. The A75 has a viewfinder, but it doesn't match up with the picture taken (useful, eh?) so I end up just using the LCD on the back. One of the things I do love about the film camera though, is I can seperate the focus from metering/shutter. So I press one button to set autofocus and then can reframe and adjust fstop/shutter without having worry about focus at all after the initial step.

Two things came of this developing, one there was a roll that half of it had been exposed with April 16th IMF Protest in DC (2000), which I'd forgotten about and just reloaded. Double exposing that first half, destroying some pictures I didn't know existed and making two hours I spent chasing the light in Milwaukie seem silly. Especially since I spent about an hour wandering around trying to take pictures of a bridge, of which no properly exposed pictures survived. I'm going to see if I can get the whole strip scanned a continuous image because the double exposed images do not line-up and look kind of cool sometimes. Perhaps I could print a border for a room or something. All together I have 175 pictures from film (~800mb) that I haven't posted yet to flickr, hopefully soon.

Sad story: I bought a tripod the other day in Sedona, Arizona to replace my former tripod (xmas gift from mom) which had broken right before the trip. After taking about half a roll, I put the tripod (no legs extended) on the hood of my car, took a shot and then stepped away for a moment. Then the camera took a fall to the ground. When it fell, it snapped open the back exposing the half rolll of Velvia 100 I'd taken ($8 down the drain, not to mention the pictures lost) It dented the top of the camera and meant I had almost no pictures of Arizona except the grand canyon. Lame. This made me reconsider the whole film decision, if only for the reduced likelyhood of damage-related loss of pictures.

Technical rant about camera/lens I might buy to follow.