vis a vis

2009 air mileage

4820 - New York (AA, DL)
4061 - Cleveland (UA, WN)
3868 - Cleveland, Detroit (DL, FL)
3420 - Chicago (AA)
16670 - Tel Aviv (DL)
4042 - Cleveland (CO)
4820 - New York (B6)
1356 - San Francisco (VX)
4820 - New York (DL)
15309 - Brazil, Argentina (AA, AS, JJ)
19400 - Delhi (CO)
3433 - Chicago (AA, NW)
4050 - Cleveland (AA)

90069 for 2009. Ugh.

quick browser review

#1 – Firefox

Why I use it:

• Great extension support – notably AdBlock Plus and xMarks
• I like how I can dock my bookmarks.  It’s a great way to make the screen narrower (in other words, more readable) while making good use of that space.
• It works.

Why I hate it:

• It’s slow.  Ridiculously slow to open, and then if I leave it open for more than two days (on my work computers, for example, or when I put my home computer on standby), it gobbles up enormous amount of memory.  I really want a better #1.

#2 – Chrome

Why I use it:

• It opens up really fast.  If I just turned on my computer and I don’t need to access my bookmarks and I’m doing basic browsing, I’ll just use Chrome.  This only happens on my desktop at home.
• Good extension support.  It now has AdBlock and xMarks.  Finally.

Why I hate it:

• Crappy page rendering and video playback.  Sometimes things just don’t work.
• It’s annoying to use bookmarks.  I need to make a new tab and then click on the bookmarks menu and then click some more?  No thanks.  I’d rather just click on the bookmark like I do in Firefox.

#3 – Safari

Why I use it:

• Best browser for the iPhone.

Why I hate it:

• On the PC it’s installs itself whenever anything Apple needs to be updated.  DOJ should get on it, because it’s not cool to have a new version of QuickTime, Safari, Bonjour, and whatever crap installed every time I upgrade iTunes (which is now a beast).
• Weird keyboard shortcuts.  Ctrl-T, Ctrl-Tab, Ctrl-L, Ctrl-E, Ctrl-W.  Thanks.

#4 – Internet Explorer 8

Why I use it:

• Work.  Intranet sites.
• It’s a good second browser if I want to be logged in using different accounts for different services (like Facebook, e-mail, etc.).  Any browser can do this, but I have IE installed on all my PCs so it’s the default.

Why I hate it:

• It takes several seconds to open up a new tab.  Unacceptable.

i am amused

Joakim Noah on Cleveland:



LeBron James on Chicago:

before, after, and after

google bike directions

I saw the press release and I thought "Sweet!" After playing around with it, it's not quite there yet. Maybe Bellevue is to blame for having crap bike maps, but it's not as helpful as I had hoped. It may be somewhat accurate in predicting time though, so long as I make some massive adjustments.

Work to home via the Burke Gilman:
147 minutes on Google Maps = 105 for me

Work to home via I-90:
116 minutes on Google Maps = 75 for me

Discovery park to home:
51 minutes on Google Maps = 30 for me

and hills!

One reason that I don't bike *to* work is that I would need to go up this 2 mile stretch that's at a 4% grade. Coming downhill I can hit 40mph on that hill. Going uphill I'll be lucky if I can maintain 7mph.

annoyances as a bicyclist

1. People who yield for me when they have the right of way. Thank you for the kind gesture, but it's faster if you just kept going. Since Seattle drivers love to go slow for no reason, I won't go until you've made a complete stop and signaled that you're stopping for me.
2. People who turn left at roundabouts by going the wrong way. Yes, technically the law is unclear about whether it's illegal to go clockwise around a roundabout for a left turn. Consider how everyone not turning left needs to go counterclockwise. If any other traffic that blindly enters the intersection is going counterclockwise, maybe you should do the same... unless you like head on collisions. I've seen more than one result from this idiocy.
3. Drivers who drive slower than me... especially if I let you go first thinking you'll be faster. I've noticed this happens a lot on side streets.
   
4. Unalert pedestrians. If you jump out from behind a parked car, you might get hit by a car... or bike. Both will hurt a lot. People who walk 6 abreast on a busy bike trail also fall into this category, especially if you don't respond to oncoming traffic, bells, or voice. The people walking towards you who can't get by and the two rollerbladers who slipped through your crowd should have been a hint. My bell should have been another hint. Me saying excuse me should have been super clear, especially since you turned around and looked at me, looked at me some more, looked at me some more, kept walking, turned around to look at me again, adjusted your sunglasses to verify that I was really there, continued walking, then continued adjusting your shades. Thankfully, you can't walk straight when adjusting your shades so I was able to slip through.
   
5. Wind. I was marveling at how I was going 20mph without much effort the other day. Then I remembered how it was a chore to go 16mph when I was going the other direction.
6. People with smelly cars.
7. Meandering children. Nothing against children, but its harder to avoid children regardless of speed. I really don't want to hit you or run you over, but your erratic path makes it really hard. I always fear that you'll turn your bike right under my wheels as I'm passing by.
   

how to steal money using google buzz

• Step 1: Spider through some profiles and identity the ones with vanity profiles.
• Step 2: Visit the vanity profile to get the current city, hometown, where they went to school, where they worked
• Step 3: Go to the county auditor’s web site for the current city and look up the address of where the person lives, the value of the home, and when bought it.
• Step 4: Try to figure out the person’s password for their Gmail account. The address is already known, and the password is probably “12345.”
• Step 5: Use Gmail’s fantastic search feature to find any mention of “account,” “password,” or “PIN” and also see where they bank. You want to find banks for deposits (to steal) and banks for loans (to verify your fake identity)
• Step 6: Steal their money. Some banks ask for verification of things like mortgages, loans, and the like. Usually, it's asking what they got the loan for, what's the amount, what's the monthly payment, and when it was opened. Since you know where they live, how much their house is worth, when they bought it, and where and when they went to school, this shouldn’t be that hard. If it asks for past addresses, see what’s in the Amazon account page.
• Step 7: Profit

You can also do this with Facebook. Have fun! And more importantly, BE SAFE!

iPad mini update

The iPhone 3Gs is a great device, but the following changes make it a ton more useful.

Functional Upgrades

Lock Calendar
(jailbreak needed)
Lets you see your calendar on the lockscreen.


SBSettings
(jailbreak needed)
Gives you access to some common toggles and a task manager by swiping your finger across the status bar. What toggles? Toggles like 3G, airplane mode, WiFi, Location, and auto Rotation (separate install). Also lets you change what's showing in the status bar allowing you to get the battery, GSM, and WiFI meters as a number.


ProSwitcher
(jailbreak needed)
A great UI for multitasking. Lets you flip through open apps like you flip between open Web pages in Safari.


Activator
(jailbreak needed)
This app lets you program hotkeys for apps. For example, you could make it so that wiping up from the bottom of the screen pops up the search panel. Or double tapping the status bar brings up the iPod. Comes with ProSwitcher.

91 PC Suite for iPhone
(jailbreak needed)
This is an app for the PC that does a lot of stuff that iTunes should do, but doesn't, or sucks at:

• Back up and restore contacts
• Back up and restore text messages
• Back up and restore calendar
• Back up and restore notes
• Back up and restore call history
• Photo manager (meaning you can copy files on and off and also make ALBUMS!)
  
• Contact editor
• Text message conversation editor (I can't see how this can be used for good, but it's there)
• Full calendar UI (like the old Palm Desktop)
• Notes editor
• Call history editor
  
• Bookmark manager
• Search and install of Cydia apps
• Manage voice memos
• Make your own ringtones
• Access your iPhone's file system
• IM client for SMS chats through the phone
  
• Stores for Chinese music, wallpapers, themes, ringtones. I think the content is free. What is clear is that it's all in Chinese.
  

Flashlight
(jailbreak needed)
The Flashlight app in the iTunes store can't match this one because the official one isn't allowed to adjust the brightness of the screen. The jailbroken one automatically maxes out the iPhone's display brightness so that the Flashlight can actually be a flashlight.

Other Notable Apps

Cerebro
(jailbreak needed)
This app is for lost iPhones - like what mobileMe offers, but for free. If you lose it, you can either have it start playing music or you could log into ifindmyiphone.com and see where it is (and the 12 past locations) on a map.

Style Mods

Lil Wayne Weather Theme
(jailbreak needed)
The weather app is boring. Lil Wayne will bright up your day. Depending on the time of day, Lil Wayne will either be awake or passed out.


WinterBoard
(jailbreak needed)
A control panel for setting various theme elements. Lets you toggle icon labels and other things out of the box. Also the standard tool for using downloaded themes like the Simple iPad Theme.


Free SMS GV Mobile+ and TextFree (lite)
This isn't perfect, but it allows you to send and receive SMSes from people using a regular phone number via Google Voice and TextFree.

If you only use TextFree, you'll be able to send and receive texts for free through an e-mail address. It works fine, but I've found that many people do not respond to these texts since they aren't coming from a phone number. Instead, many responses are through my regular phone number, which isn't free.

To get these texts to come from a phone number, you'll need Google Voice.
If you want to go all out, there is a third party Google Voice app for the iPhone available on Cydia called GV Mobile+. If you don't get that, you can still initiate texts using the Google Voice Web site. Once you get Google Voice, have it forward your text messages to your TextFree e-mail. This way you'd get notifications when a text comes in (Google Voice doesn't do this on its own). The first time you get a reply back from someone, it'll be from some weird e-mail address @googlevoice. To get a regular name to show up, you'll need to add that address to the contact in your address book.

best theme ever

Sent from my iPad mini

iPad mini

my new iPad mini

Unlike the full size iPad, it also has a phone, camera can fit in my
pocket. Amazingly, still the same amount of storage and battery life!

jackie brown

I had Jackie Brown on yesterday, and as I was skipping in and out of paying attention, I realised there were all sorts of actors playing atypical roles.

Samuel L. Jackson plays all sorts of roles, but considering the last movie I saw with Samuel L. was Star Wars, it was funny seeing the same man who plays a Jedi knight running around with a crazy pony tail and braided beard.

Michael Keaton plays some jackass ATF agent.

Bridgette Fonda plays Samuel L.'s blonde surfer chick that he keeps around, basically smoking up all day and doing um... other things...

Like Robert DeNiro, who's just some random thug.

Also making random appearances: Debo from Friday is in the movie along with Chris Tucker who basically just gets shot.

Aside from that, this is a very under-appreciated Tarantino flick. It's not as distinctly Tarantino, but that's mostly because he doesn't go over the top the same way he did with Pulp Fiction and most of his stuff afterwards. Just a good balance of randomness and goofiness in the characters and the character development.... and, of course, the music.

i had a dream... two of them!

Both crazy:

Dream 1:
Dealt with middle school, guy from b-school/work, and poop. I'll spare you the details.

Dream 2:
I was on the Blue Line back in Shaker on my way to the airport. Apparently I didn't make it home the previous night. It was 10am. I didn't remember when my flight was so I wasn't even sure I needed to head to the airport that early. I checked my calendar on my phone and saw that I didn't need to be at the airport till 1pm or so. At this point the train started moving. I would have gotten off, but the train was already in motion. I thought about not paying when I got off. Maybe I would pretend to swipe my transit card. I looked at the payment receptacle and then remembered that they don't use those in Cleveland.

At the next stop I hop off (without paying). I'm at the Farnsleigh stop. I start walking home. I think about dropping by the Pearl of the Orient. I also think about whether I should take the short way straight up Farnsleigh to Belvoir to South Woodland or if I should go through Thornton Park. I realize that I've never been to Thornton Park (really, I haven't).

At some point I get home. I'm upstairs in my bedroom looking for socks. I find three pairs of socks that are already rolled up (like my mom would do... I prefer not to roll up my socks). I'll be bring those with me so I don't want to wear them now. I find another pair of socks in the corner of the room. Same thing. I finally find a pair of light brown socks that I plan on leaving in Cleveland and I wear those.

Forgotten dream:
There was also some part of some dream where I was with a bunch of people from my past. When I woke up I could remember who all those people were. However, since I had to write about the bathroom in excessive detail, I've forgotten about this part. You're welcome!

updated wish list - post xmas

A few things...

Loose leaf tea. I'm too lazy to go down to the ID to buy it on my own and I don't think I'll want to bother choosing.
Half-decent computer speakers for the living room TV... because my TV is just a computer with a big ass monitor that happens to also get HD local stations.
Oil filters for my '93 Honda Accord SE... although I have a feeling I'll be riding my bike to pick up things from the auto parts store. It's on the way as I pass Kenmore.

glad to see some ads?

From this twisted Chinese Facebook game of dog humping:

dreamy

I slept for about ten hours last night and it was filled with crazy dreams. Some cast members were:

Three people from work
Two teachers from middle school
My brother
The Simpsons

Random excerpts:

1. A coworker of mine is getting worked up about how he went through some transcripts from a research study to learn more about bit torrent and all he found was a javascript function bitTorrent(). I was thinking how I can just explain what the function probably did. Thankfully, the dream didn't get into that.
2. I get some snail mail from this girl who also works at Microsoft. It contains her ATM card (which is shared with her brother or some other family member). Apparently she owed me money? It also came with instructions to mail it to some other person that she owed money to. Thank you, BofA, for making it into my dreamscape. You still suck.
3. The Simpsons cruising down some random road in the southwest in a red convertible.
4. Lots of class. Lots and lots of classes. And with it, lots of homework. I was thankful it wasn't due till after winter break, and then I realized that it's already almost January! Dammit! The teacher varied from my 7th grade biology teacher to some random guy with floppy dreads. A colleague of mine was there. She seemed to be totally on top of it.
5. My brother and I were folding mattresses and blankets. I got done faster, but mostly because mine was normal and his was needlessly complicated with multiple pieces held together with staples and cable ties.
6. Mr. Federer was there. I don't recall why.
   

the economy is screwed

I thought I had written this before here, but I don't see the post anywhere...

This is why I think things are screwed... for any individual person in today's world, we expect:

$100k to go towards college
$300k to go towards buying a house
$1000k towards retirement (that would be about 50k a year for 20 years... puny)
$100k over a few cars over a lifetime

Total, that's about $1500k. Let's say that we have 50 years of making money. It's way on the high side, but even then we would need to have an extra $30k a year to cover all of this. This does not include any day to day expenses like FOOD, utilities, or having fun. At best, we're barely scraping by. At worst, we're blind to our complete insolvency.

updated wish list - again

The only changes from last time are the removal of the messenger bag (bought it already) and moving up of the computer stuff. That hard drive situation is getting dire.

UPDATE: Added ski goggles

Computer stuff:
A 2TB WD Green HD (I've already almost filled up 1TB with photos and movies)
A decent 24" 1080p display (might do more work from home?)

Bike stuff:
A decent, fast road bike with a super wide range of gear rations both high and low (for the summer and longer rides, especially the Burke Gilman)
Some panniers? (maybe... I haven't used these before)

General stuff:
Sunglasses (last pair finally broke down and disappeared into an alpine lake up in the Grand Tetons)
Bike glasses (getting bugs in your eyes at 20mph is not fun)
Black Oakley A-Frame ski goggles with Pink Iridium lenses
Amazon gift certs (Kindle purchases?)
REI gift certs (I'll inevitably need something bike, ski, or hike related)