Posted in Drumming on May 31st, 2004 319 Comments »
The “hang” (pronounced “hung”) is a (relatively) new musical instrument that sounds like a hybrid steel drum and gamelan (a Thai xylophone). It is played with the hands or mallets (or whatever) on the lap or a stand and is tuned to make a variety of sounds depending on where it is hit. Hang [...]
Posted in Aerial Photography on May 31st, 2004 2 Comments »
Flying home from Los Angeles I sat on the right side of the plane (again) which meant that my view was south.
Here’s an idea I had while flying. I realized that the arc of a view from over 30,000 feet might take in 100 miles which means that people sitting on one side of a [...]
Posted in People, Politics on May 31st, 2004 No Comments »
An online friend of mine, Brian Byrne, who lives in Ireland just wrote and put up A champion with tarnished armour.
I knew it looked this way from overseas but to read Brian’s writing… man, it’s bad here. Isn’t it amazing that our country can be going down the tubes and we continue to live our [...]
Posted in Politics on May 29th, 2004 No Comments »
Here’s my situation: I’m a Democrat, I very much dislike George Bush (I have never considered him President as I do not respect the 2000 election process), and I will work and vote for John Kerry. However, I’m not enthusiastic about him and so, am reluctant to put his “button” or “badge” in the [...]
Posted in Politics on May 29th, 2004 No Comments »
This is a transcript of Al Gore’s recent speech where he blasts Bush’s entire administration and asks for the resignation of Rice, Rumsfeld, and others. The transcript is provided by moveon.org, a political action committee.
Posted in Macintosh on May 28th, 2004 No Comments »
Inquisitor is a search application that runs in Mac OS X that searches as you type which means it’s very fast; faster in fact than google, which it uses. If you use OS X this tool is worth trying out.
Posted in Drumming on May 28th, 2004 No Comments »
West African Drum Beat is a poorly organized and ugly web site with great resources.
Here’s a page on the kundabigoya rhythm where you can listen to a top line, a bottom line, and the comination with a bell. Here’s another on kpanlogo. Try the other rhthms on the left list and see what you think.
Posted in People on May 27th, 2004 No Comments »
Here’s a transcript of a MITX Fireside Chat with “Tipping Point” author Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is a fascinating guy and an excellent writer. Check out his past New Yorker articles.
Posted in Social Software, Tech Stuff on May 27th, 2004 No Comments »
How Can I Sex Up This Blog Business? is a recent article in WIRED magazine on Nick Denton pulling some “hot” blogs into a small online publishing “ring.”
The blogs mentioned, among others, are Gawker and
Wonkette. The writer, Steven Levy is one of the best tech writers in the business.
Posted in Aerial Photography on May 27th, 2004 1 Comment »
Flying from Connecticut to Los Angeles I was zoning out and figured I’d get some images.
I wish I’d thought to shoot all the great clouds in electrical storms I’ve flown through in 20 years of frequent flying but alas, better late than never. I also did not have a camera that had an easy pre-set [...]
Posted in Humor on May 25th, 2004 No Comments »
A young executive was leaving the office at 6 pm when he found the CEO standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in hand.
“Listen,” said the CEO, “this is important, and my secretary has left. Can you make this thing work?
“Certainly,” said the young executive. He turned the machine on, inserted [...]
Posted in Humor on May 25th, 2004 No Comments »
2000 B.C. - Here, eat this root.
1000 A.D. - That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 A.D. - That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1940 A.D. - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1985 A.D. - That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
2000 A.D. - That antibiotic is artificial. Here, [...]
Posted in Humor on May 25th, 2004 No Comments »
An English professor wrote the words, “woman without her man is a savage” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.
The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is a savage.”
The women wrote: “Woman: Without her, man is a savage.”
Posted in Humor on May 25th, 2004 No Comments »
Pythagorean Theorem: 24 words
The Lord’s Prayer: 66 words
Archimedes’ Principle: 67 words
The 10 Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 186 words
The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words
The U.S. Government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words
Posted in Macintosh on May 25th, 2004 No Comments »
Getting to Know Apple Mail’s Spam Filter is a great article at TidBits by Joe Kissell. Just reading the article online will help straighten out most people’s misunderstandings of how the native OS X Mail program filters spam.
The article is a condensed version of a longer eBook Joe wrote on the same topic and there’s [...]
Posted in Macintosh on May 25th, 2004 No Comments »
Wow, I never thought I’d see screens like these again. You can test drive a Macintosh SE (in flash) in multiple languages.
Posted in Our Place, People on May 24th, 2004 No Comments »
Last fall the local utility company was replacing power poles and had two long ones on their truck that they were getting rid of. Being the “Yankee” that I am, I asked them if I could have the poles. They were happy to oblige. The poles sat in our front yard for 6 months frozen [...]
Posted in Reading on May 24th, 2004 No Comments »
This fun list of rules that demonstrate themselves is from the excellent stylebook Write Right! by Jan Venolia, Ten Speed Press, ISBN: 0-89815-676-9.
Sometimes a tongue-in-cheek approach is effective in fixing a subject in our minds. In that spirit, I present the following summary of the subjects covered in Write Right! - plus a few [...]
Posted in People on May 24th, 2004 No Comments »
The author J.K. Rowling has an interesting “official” fan site, done with a lot of flash that will be fun for any Harry Potter fan to browse around.
Posted in Social Software, Tech Stuff on May 23rd, 2004 No Comments »
As more and more people comment about the recent uproar caused by a change in the licensing of the weblog software, MovableType, the comments range further and further into the meta issues. Here’s one of the better ones I’ve read so far:
MT 3.0 Addendum
“The dilemma for people who build communal tools is this: if you [...]
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