vidsniffing

the rsg-x10-1 has been making the rounds as a quick and dirty x10 based vidsniffing rig. while it's an impressive piece of really simple equipment it's got me itching to build one that does more for as much money or less. i'm thinking of a backpack mounted system that can tie into a gps enabled lappy/pda and tag open feeds, but let's see where that goes...

why april 29th rules

[ a ] today is the anniversary of the los angeles riots.
[ b ] it's also heather's birthday.
[ c ] not to mention the fact that it's free cone day at ben and jerry's.
[ d ] then there's what went down a year ago: while still high off the endorphins from our first date the night before i asked an absolutley wonderful gal if she'd consider being my girlfriend. i was such a giddy little kid when she said yes and to be honest every day i spend with her makes me feel just like that giddy little kid again.

ipod too pansy?

the archos jukebox too ugly? you need the ak-mp3 - the only mp3 player in an ak-47 cartridge.

tooling around

the latest version of pnh toolbar [point fifty.one] supports fiero, er, phoenix, uh, firebird.

xmlpad

torrez seems to release tools at just the right time... for instance i'm working with xml-rpc and i wander over to torrez programming site to find xmlpad. ought to come in handy.

best. comic. ever.

oddly, it's the real poop...

invisiblog

here's something for the truly paranoid... totally anonymous weblog publishing. [via apeshallnotkillape]

congrats are in order...

my boy warflower is officially [as of the twenty.second] a father to a wonderful set of twin girls. you'll make a great dad, man...

swapping services aren't so bad

sez news.com:

"defendants distribute and support software, the users of which can and do choose to employ it for both lawful and unlawful ends," wilson wrote in his opinion, released friday. "grokster and streamcast are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights."

hot damn, i owe judge stephen wilson a beer.

redesign mania!

shhhh... i'm making a new website for megan too. what can i say? when i feel creative, i'm on fire.

textbox

dean allen's been working on his own blog hosting setup, textbox. it seems a tad bit smaller and low key than what the white stripes of the blogging world have been up to but one has to wonder what's next... a blosxom based hosting solution?

computers can take drugs?!

the classic computer magazine archives is working on getting a complete set of tandy's whizkids online. the scary thing is, i think i've got a couple issues kicking around my comic collection that i haven't touched since i was seventeen but browsing the pages while listening to devo sure takes me back. the archive itself if pepered with creamy bits of classic computing goodness and all of it is worth a look if you grew up using a computer in the eighties.

pardon my dust

unless you read my rss feed you might notice i'm tweaking with my layout. things might break but they'll only break for a bit. just wait a couple minutes and refresh the page. consider this a public redesign.

updata: oh my god, we've gone mod!

lazyweb request :: ichat for windows

rendezvous for windows + a simple batch file + trillian = a poor man's ichat

who wants to bastardize some open source code and get a serious version going? [lazyweb thread]

more flotsam and jetsam

[ a ] even tho they don't list kcrw or kdl in the los angeles area yes.net is still wicked awesome.
[ b ] typepad may convince my utterly lazy ass to give movable type a try. the fact that it's being funded by joi ito and they're employing anil dash also gives them some bonus points.
[ c ] los angeles needs it's own 311 service. color me jealous of new york. [reg. req.]
[ d ] megan thought up a really simple drinking game for the movie snatch last weekend. drink anytime someone says fuck. my brother had to rehash his plan for taking a shot instead of just a swig of beer when he figured out he was trashed by the fifteen minute mark in the movie.
[ e ] what've i been up to all day? oddly enough, i've been working.
[ f ] xeni's been blog-sitting the reverse cowgirl blog and she's been doing a smash up job.
[ g ] i've realized that i've been ignoring la blogs because they don't have an rss feed. also, the redesign throws my eyeballs into fits. i really didn't want to say that, but it does. well, at least the layout is done in css.
[ h ] i think i'm going to jury rig my computer to spool the audio from tonight's white stripes performance on conan to my hard drive. yessir, live mp3's are good.

faq'ing around

a couple posts down i mentioned how i was getting a lot of questions reguarding my moblog that resides in the sidebar and i said i oughta make a faq... thanks to the last twenty minutes i can now present you with the gomi mobile blog faq. if you've still got an unanswered question after this please drop me a line.

new toy tuesday :: chandler

if you haven't heard yet chandler point.one was released today. for those of you not in the know chandler is mitch kapor's open source mail client/pim that everyone is hoping will be an alternative to exchange. if you want to get up to speed i suggest you read more about chandler's lofty dreams.

new toy tuesday :: dano

i've spent way too much time today fucking around with the new version of blogger. even if it is nice and fast and fun i've gotta say that i coulda swore that the version of dano ev gave me a peep of at the blogosphere event was quite a bit more robust [css editor, etc] then the version that's out there right now. perhaps parent company google had them dial back some of the functions in the name of accessability or maybe i'm just on crack. some of the things i am seeing tho is it seems that they've taken care of the problem where blogger wouldn't add posts to an rss feed if it didn't contain a title element. not to mention the fact that the feeds now publish in rss 1.0 instead of rss 0.91. and they do have a "preview" button so you can make changes without having to post and publish, so that's pretty sweet.

i do hope that they have dano working with the blogger api by the time they allow user migration onto the new system. i'd hate to not be able to post using wapblogger or audioblogger if i migrated everything over.

playing catch-up

[ a ] the pnh developer toolbar looks really sweet - i just wish it worked under phoenix.. er.. firebird.
[ b ] speaking of phoenix/firebird all the features they're working on for dot six look tasty.
[ c ] i've been getting so many questions reguarding my moblog the past couple days that i think a faq is due.
[ d ] it'd also be a decent idea to put some work into folsom.

away msg

if ($mystatus eq "busy") { &ignoreblog; }
sub ignoreblog { print "i've been busy. sorry about that."; }

pardon my drool

the sweetest nectar apparently comes from the the oldest dr. pepper bottling plant in the world who still proudly uses cost ineffective cane sugar. if you'll pardon me i need to go order a case of bottles.

ew...

shit like this makes me want to become a vegan.

in praise of audblog

that was ammusing... earlier today i noticed a bug on audblog and dropped noah from listenlab a quick e-mail reguarding it. well, about fifteen minutes ago noah gave me a call to let me know they were working on the issue and to see how things have been going. that marks the first time in a while that some place i've done business with has gotten back to me so fast and so personally. if they keep up that personal touch i've got a feeling i'm going to be with audblog for a good while.

half a loaf of wrong

half of me wants to say "it's about time" but the other half wants me to scream out "you're not a desktop os yet! you don't need a pretty splash screen!" sadly, i will probably install it on my linux server when i upgrade to slackware nine.
[p.s.: it looks like someone spilt some aqua on tux.]

give me grandmaster flash or give me death

sadly, technology is advancing so anyone can become a dj. [via gizmodo]

i'm just in it for the food

after showing megan google's menu blog she wants to work at google... in the kitchen. if they're looking for chefs after she gets out of culinary school i think she should totally go for it. she's the bomb at deserts - and i'm not just saying that because she's my girlfriend... swear.

heather wins, flawless victory

it seems as if heather's goal to get moby to contribute to the mirror project was a success... even if my mefi thread and open letter to moby had only a little bit to do with it, i feel like this is a personal victory for me too... happy birthday heather! [even if i am a bit early...]

updata: class act that she is, heather dropped me a mail to let me know how much she appreciated my help and even gave me some link love. so howdy once more to all you harrumph readers giving me the once over...

get your blur on

i'm far too addicted to the new blur album ["think tank"] for my own good. what's funny/sad is the fact that i used to ape on them back when "girls and boys" was their single. i thought that song was way too fruity and to some extent i still do. so what's with this newfound adoration towards blur? i blame dan the automator and gorillaz for warming me up to them but i also have to point squarely to a policy i've taken on over the past couple years: if the music's good, fuck it. life's too short to worry about if you're being "cool" or not.

that said, the most radio accessible tune on the disc "crazy beat" is proving to be my favorite track. just behind that "we've got a file on you" is a minute of pure bile that's in an easy to digest nugget form. gorillaz fans that aren't familiar with anything by blur except for "song two" might be disappointed. still, in the half dozen times i've played it all the way thru it's proven to be a nice solid release.

get your irs on

if you're like anyone i know you probably waited until the last minute to do your taxes and you're scrambling around the web with your tax info at your side looking for a last ditch soloution. while intuit offers a web based version of it's turbotax software [that does e-file] there are some folks who don't want to or can't afford to pay the fees intuit charges to print out your prepared taxes. that's where the intuit tax freedom project comes into play. if you cleared less than $27,000 last year and haven't even considered starting your taxes yet intuit will offer you access to a free edition of their web based turbotax [which handles everything from your w2 to your 1099] with no charge to print your figured taxes. i ran my taxes thru just the other day to verify the work of my preparer and it took me a little over an hour to get everything entered and double checked by their system. what's even better is they offer you a chance to fill out and print an extension if you think you can't get your shit together in time or avoid the post office lines by using e-file.

no fire shower for me

i'm slightly pissed that i'm going to totaly miss seemen while they're in town. everything i've seen on them makes their shows seem totally worth attending, even if they do have that burning man air about them. [via rcb]

in loving memory :: jpeg the fish

click's fish jpeg is dead. this kinda bums me out because i helped her name it when she was looking for something clever to call it. i remember saying something along the lines of "you should name it something geeky... like jpeg." i never met jpeg, but i caught the occasional cam shot here and there and it always seemed like a happy fish.

if you'll pardon me, i need to pour out a forty in honor of the ones who aren't with us anymore. here's to jpeg, jam master jay, tupac and biggie up in heaven...

an observation

i'm sad alton brown doesn't do more with his blog. i'm also sad that he hasn't enabled permalinks.

wilbur tango foxtrot

apple is in talks reguarding the purchase of universal music group?! if this is more than a rumor file this under [this is good]...

mmm skyscraper, i love you

skyscraperpage is a skyscraper otaku's wet dream. by far the most impressive thing about the page is the lovingly drawn building diagrams. take a look at los angeles, tokyo, new york and las vegas to get your appetite wet.

floatsam and jetsam

[one] haystack looks wicked fresh - even if it does rely heavily on the java two jdk.
[two] and even tho denim also needs the java two jdk [not to mention pen input] i bet i could outline web projects wicked fast with it.
[three] if you see something on your friendly neighborhood p2p network labeled portishead - "alien" you're bound to be let down. not only is it not the new portishead album but it's also not any good.
[four] manhattan has mad phat wi-fi coverage.
[five] scientologists used to have a sense of humor?
[six] w3c buttons - hold the img tag.
[seven] the superbowl is still gay but now andy milonakis is a lot older than he looks.
[eight] fuck the blink tag css strobe technique is where it's at.
[nine] zurich windowlickers to recieve handjobs.

william gibson drives a jetta

says gibson:

someone posts the burning question: what kind of car do i drive?

a jetta. a globalist jetta, a german car assembled in mexico for sale in canada. actually i think these may only be for sale in canada; they are the best deal you can get, anywhere, on a new jetta, and the dealer makes you sign an agreement that you won't turn around and re-sell the car to someone in the united states (for a tidy profit).

man, i want an inexpensive canadian jetta.

get wired to get "unwired"

i picked up a copy of the may issue of wired up this morning for a couple reasons...

[one] the matrix article.
[two] the wi-fi pullout.
[three] the article on the decline of the mit media lab. [not online yet]

so far the issue is golden. for instance, the piece on the special effects of the matrix has my jaw still dragging the ground - and i read it over three hours ago. actually, wired has really impressed me ever since their relaunch. it seems as if they've recaptured some of the wide eyed awe they used to use when they'd look at something new. btw: the wi-fi pullout is perfect for the member of your family who can't get their head around what's so great about wireless networks. even if you do buy it for the matrix article take paul boutin's advice and pass the pullout to someone you know/love and encourage them to pass it off once they've absorbed it.

so bad it's good

the multimedia section at aprilwinchell.com is equal parts disturbing and hilarious. pay special attention to the hindi covers of abba songs and the german version of johnny cash's "i walk the line" - done by the man himself.

xpde

another instance of "just because you can doesn't mean you should"... xpde is a desktop environment and window manager for xwindows. they've got some interesting ideas behind it that should make linux more useable for people like my grandparents but i'm still kinda scratching my head asking myself what other reasons there could be that would get someone to run it.

blogs save lives

via joey:

"dude," said my old buddy george the following day, "you were saved by your blog!"

it's true. i posted a gushy entry about new girl, someone saw it and came forward to tell me the truth. maybe the blogger or moveable type people should print up stickers and t-shirts that read blogs save lives. i'd buy one.

i've never been saved by my blog but negative whuffie has bailed my ass out of situations before they got too hairy. [via boingboing]

boredom sets in

i got bored earlier this afternoon and started fucking around with photoshop. after playing around for a bit and using the lomo action on a whole bunch of old pictures i'd realized that i'd done nothing for the defcon logo contest this year. thirty minutes later i'd done this...

and i've got to say that i'm pretty happy with it. so much so that i don't think i'm going to turn in any more than just that one.

file under :: about bloody time

i cut off a chunk of my work day and got death race 2003 up and running. i still need to lay down plenty of information and get the rss feed going but i've got to run to twenty.six.hundred in about twenty minutes. hopefully i'll get to it this weekend.

gundam :: the furniture

my inner otaku screams out for gundam furniture... [severe lack of english ahead]

down on your luck?

things could be worse, you could be mike from zero sex life:

allow me to introduce myself. my name is mike, and i am a complete and utter pathetic loser. i am twenty-four years old, short, pudgy, balding, poor and have nearly nothing to offer a member of the opposite sex. during my life i have met precious few women charitable enough to sleep with my ugly bloated carcass. both the quality and the quantity of these women have been, shall i say, severely lacking.

zero sex life is the journal of a man in los angeles with very low self esteem who is looking to get laid. you can send him some cash [to help woo women] or if you are a member of the fairer sex you can donate your vagina. seriously, i've been almost exactly where mike is before and i've gotta say that a donation could really help him out.

best. mp3. ever.

if you're a big enough sublime fan then the name raleigh theodore sakers might ring a bell. a handful of his absolutley insane rants have been peppered all thru sublime's "robbin the hood" and the bootleg "the psycho semantic police". all the soundbytes on those cds were taken from a tape that has made the rounds and at one point was released as a bootleg that only serious sublime completists own. thanks to some folks i've been given a copy of raleigh ranting [mp3] in a handy seven meg package.

just a warning tho, this is completely un-pc in stretches and there is seriously something wrong with raleigh. please don't hold what he says against me because my opinions do not mirror his at all. cheers!

just because you can doesn't mean you should

there are times when people take technology too far... like a striped raid over five usb floppy drives. [via boingboing]

choons and warez

[ uno ] blogx looks sorta cool. it's too bad i refuse to run iis.
[ dos ] after discussing white noise generators on the mac with eddy, he found a really keen noise generator for os x. i may never cat /dev/random to my sound device again...
[ tres ] i've been looping mp3s from go home productions all thru the morning and i'll admit they're rather addictive. i think it's the first time in forty.eight hours that i wasn't listening to the new radiohead.

mp3+g

via waxy:

a usenet group devoted to swapping karaoke versions of popular songs is unusually popular, with 7500+ songs posted in the last month alone. i don't know where the original files are coming from, but the diversity and timeliness of available files in alt.binaries.sounds.karaoke is staggering.
...
some of the more oddball gems were karaoke versions of king missile's "detachable penis," nirvana's "you know you're right," electric 6's "high voltage," liz phair's "fuck and run," pj harvey's "one line," and the dead kennedys' "too drunk to fuck."

pardon me while i frantically dig for a usenet account.