Off The Grid

This “magical” birthday gift just arrived from @vagari. Thanks,...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500

This “magical” birthday gift just arrived from @vagari. Thanks, Jake!

This isn’t your soccer mom’s Subaru Forester. (via...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:43:13 -0500

This isn’t your soccer mom’s Subaru Forester.

(via Top Gear )

I like the look and feel in this short video demo of the Google...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:55:00 -0500

I like the look and feel in this short video demo of the Google Chrome OS. I’m looking forward to trying one of these out. Of course, the key will be if the slick elements can be executed well on low-horsepower machines.

(view larger and in HD on YouTube by clicking through)

Great shot from inside Apple’s just opened Upper West Side...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:57:30 -0500

Great shot from inside Apple’s just opened Upper West Side Apple Store, that gives you an idea of the architecture in context with it’s customers and surroundings. Beautiful. This may be my favorite Apple Store design, yet. (via petervidani)

Notify 2.0: mini IMAP mail app for Mac

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:35:38 -0500

Notify 2.0: mini IMAP mail app for Mac:

Note to self: check this out when 2.0 ships with full IMAP and explicit MobileMe support. (I’ll likely still use Mailplane for GMail and Google Apps… I just need a solution for MobileMe to see if these combined are better than using Apple Mail.app)

Working while blah.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:14 -0500

Working while blah.

1st hand account of Burlington Flu Clinic, 11/14/2009

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:53:00 -0500

Took my 14 month old son to the clinic held at Burlington, MA’s high school today. I got there a half hour before it opened, after sitting in a half hour of traffic on Rt 3A to get there. Police blocked the driveway, sending people to park at Simmons Park, about a half mile up the street.

I parked there and took my son in his stroller back through the pouring rain. When I got about half way up the school driveway, the woman whom I parked next to was coming back towards me with her infant. She said there wasn’t enough vaccine of either seasonal or H1N1 for the number of people in line. She said 3800 people were already there, pushing and shoving. (I had heard that there were 500 H1N1, and 1500 season vaccinations planned for the clinic.)

The woman said there was little organization to the line. Another woman walking away was told she could stay but it would be like playing the lottery.

All in all: a mess. Why hadn’t they told the cops at the top of the driveway that the clinic was full? I told a few people on my way out that the clinic was full. A man coming the other way with two children told me “My wife’s been in line since 7am.”

(Please note none of my info was obtained from any official, but through people leaving the clinic.) [Also, please forgive any iPhone-induced typos.]

Best Know Your Meme video yet… featuring Weird Al, Auto-Tune,...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:40:00 -0500

Best Know Your Meme video yet… featuring Weird Al, Auto-Tune, and even despite it’s low-Ellie quotient. (via @vagari)

Experimenting with a standing workstation today. So far, a nice...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:08:15 -0500

Experimenting with a standing workstation today. So far, a nice change. Think I’d really like to work 50/50 standing/sitting to keep my back less sore.

About the Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:55:04 -0500

About the Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update:

If you are a Mac Mini owner holding off on the Snow Leopard upgrade because of stories of video-playback problems in Front Row, see this line item in the release notes from the 10.6.2 update:

an issue in Front Row that could cause sluggish or slow frame rates while watching videos

I count myself in this group… upgrade, commence!

I’m not one to get hyped up about birthdays. If I wake up on the green side of the grass,...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:19:12 -0500

I’m not one to get hyped up about birthdays. If I wake up on the green side of the grass, it’s a good day. But this year we did a few things. First, Saturday, Amanda and I went to the AppleStore and bought matching iPhone 3GSs. Contracts were up, I was sick of slow EDGE mobile data, looking for a little better camera, GPS, video was a cool plus, and I was completely out of storage on mine. I was always dumping music to fit something else. I went with the 32GB model so I hopefully won’t have that problem again for a while. I’m loading it up now with every app I hesitated on before. (Suggestions?)

Amanda was starting to wear out her Blackberry’s keyboard and wanted to be able to do more on her phone, like Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter… all of which have much better apps on the iPhone. She seems quite enamored so far.

Sunday, it warmed up, so I was sure to get on the bike for over an hour at the Fells. I fear that this was the season’s last ride thanks to the darkness. Maybe I’ll catch a warmish weekend day too. Sad to see my fitness was all but lost on the trails. Sunday, we also walked Cole to the neighborhood playground.

Monday, I worked as usual, but cut out a little early so I could go for a family walk. We originally intended to hike a bit in the Fells, but time was short, so we walked down to the preserved land along the Mystic River with Greta and Cole. Greta go to play off-leash with a young cockerspaniel who was quite relaxed about Greta’s sometimes aggressive pretenses (she likes to act tough to strange dogs as part of her feeling-out process).

For dinner, I regressed to college cuisine. A staple of our diets at UConn was boneless buffalo wings from Wings over Storrs. We spent many a night challenging each other to eating the hottest buffalo wings I’ve ever encountered. It winds up this place is a chain who has set up franchises near colleges across the northeast, including Wings over Somerville that delivers to our area of Medford!

It was just as I remembered. We’re not talking health food here. Your portion sizes are literally measured in pounds at this place. But the sauces are good (24 choices!)and the chicken is hand battered and not frozen, so it’s not awful food either. So good.

We completed the night with Mad Men season finale, and the first half hour of Michael Pollan’s the Botany of Desire.

My wife sent this to me this morning, because she’s...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:31:52 -0500

My wife sent this to me this morning, because she’s awesome. I always get a kick out of someecards.com

http://www.quantic.org/

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:19:22 -0500

http://www.quantic.org/:

Discovered Quantic this evening, as the background music on a web video. Afro-beat/jazz/funk/electronic/eclectic goodness.

Jobs: CEO of the Decade

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:53:55 -0500

Jobs: CEO of the Decade

A License Required for your house? It's a flat out lie.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:23:45 -0500

Received an email forward today about H.R. 2454, stating that,

Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won’t be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. H.R. 2454, the “Cap & Trade” bill passed by the House of Representatives, if also passed by the Senate, will be the largest tax increase any of us has ever experienced.

What the email depends upon, of course, is that you’re too lazy to read the 932 page bill that passed the House on June 26, 2009, also known as ACES (American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009)

But you don’t need to read the whole bill if you don’t want. You can read the recap from it’s author, Rep Waxman. It states, unequivocally:

ACES imposes no requirements on homeowners. Nothing in ACES will impose new requirements on the owners of America’s existing buildings. Nothing in the bill would impede upon home sales. No one will be required to make improvements, but building owners who desire can obtain assistance to increase efficiency and save money on their energy bills.

I just thought I’d put this up on the interwebs so anyone who might be fact checking this dubious email could find an easy answer. But don’t take it from me, read the bill. I did. I found every claim in the email to be entirely bogus.

Think for yourselves, people.

Sunset over a Boston Pier

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:05:10 -0500

Sunset over a Boston Pier

These are the night-time views from my 10th floor room in South...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:32:05 -0400

Towards Downtown

Towards the piers and East Boston

These are the night-time views from my 10th floor room in South Boston. Apologies for the phone cameraphone quality. Also, a light rain is falling.

Checked in at the Renaissance Boston for UI14. Nice view of the...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:41:59 -0400

Checked in at the Renaissance Boston for UI14. Nice view of the water from my room.

A lot of people think government regulations are bad. Have a look at what China looks like without...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:10:00 -0400

A lot of people think government regulations are bad. Have a look at what China looks like without environment regs today: (via @jlbruno)

40 more disturbing photographs if you follow the link.

I contend that Trader Joe’s Maple Leaf Cookies are the best...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:39:15 -0400

I contend that Trader Joe’s Maple Leaf Cookies are the best cookies you can buy in a box.