Remote Central appears to be a community web site for universal remote control enthusiasts. Frankly, I’m glad there are such people, because I’m the opposite. I’ve been attempting to cajole various multifunction remotes to see our satellite receiver with no luck. I’m
blogging this so that when I finally concede that the current universal remote I’m a-wrasslin’ cain’t get thar fum heah, I’ll know where to turn the next time the man extracts my ten dollars.

Yeesh, it’s a lotta effort to go through just to watch TV, I’ll tell ya that.

Combine PDFs 1.0, from Monkeybread Software. Does what you’d think. Helpful for me when I’ve edited a PDF in Ilustrator and svaed the resulting one-page files back out as PDF.

Made with RealBasic for Mac OS X.

eMusicTheory.com practice: java-based online drills. Greg is perpetually after me to relearn to read music so I can pick up the melodies from his lead sheets, and he’s so, so right.

So far I’m finding Garageband is not as well suited to my needs as the old free version of ProTools. I’m (at the moment, anyway) just disinterested in the midi stuff, although the audio fidelity of many of the instruments is quite astounding.

I should link to these two methods to get around the irritating lack of midi importability. I have actually long used the quirky but powerful Harmony Assistant and Melody Assistant to learn parts by ear. The great strengths of these programs are unfortunately hidden behind a complex and confusing interface.

The programs import an unbelievable number of music notation formats and – and for me, as a non-reader, this is key – can convert a lead sheet into tab for any given stringed intrument. You can even customize the tuning of the intrument and get tab based on that. Since there are so many midi files floating around the internet, this software would make a good companion to Garageband, without a doubt.

buffoonery.org puts on the gold velour flares, the perforated-aluminium aviator shades, and the black leather gloves in preparation for, for, for… Well, frankly, I’m not in the market. You might be, though, so drop by!

UPDATE: rereading this, it sounds as though I’m disinterested in the site content. That’s inaccurate. It’s the velour-slacks activities I’m steering clear of. Even though they are a metaphor that I actually just made up.

Am I making any sense at all? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

The Seattle Public Library finally reopened the branch in my neighborhood not so very long ago. I was reminded of this when at the end of last week I heard that restrooms in the facility had been closed due to drug problems, a genuine irritation in Capitol Hill generally at the moment.

The day after Mayor Nickels’ most recent appearance on KUOW, the restrooms reopened.

The tempest in a toilet bowl tickled my memory and I realized that ever since getting my library card reactivated, I had intended to look into the library’s online reservations and catalog system. Eons ago, before the Age of the Web, the Seattle Public Library system offered an online catalog with reservations and so forth that was solely accessible via dial-up or telnet, and I used it heavily. This was about ten years ago.

I’m happy to report that the home page offers direct access to the catalog. What’s a canonical technoweenie search? Hm, how about anything published by O’Reilly?

Of course, tech books age poorly in libraries, but as an example search, that’s pretty cool. Happily, I’ve noticed that the URLs in the search app are hackable as well, so you can (for example) adjust the number of items in a page view easily. Look for the string ‘npp=10’ and hack away!

I’ve requested a number of items and look forward to getting notification they’re in. One very interesting aspect of poking aroound in the catalog is the ease with which non-book resources can be tracked down. DVDs, CDs, and videos are much easier to locate and identify than via the old green-screen system.

One interesting aspect is the apparent relative paucity of search-and-sort parameters for non-book items. Despite no clear place to search on, for example, a director’s name, I found that you can enter that in the KEYWORDS section and that will often work fine, as long as you also limit by media.

Anyway, I’m happy to see this.

Interestingly, I called the central library to see if they’d implemented WiFi yet. It’s on the table but has not been finalized, apparently. That seems a bit crazy, to me – I mean, they already have the network and the internet access, so why not allocate $200 to each branch for access points? I mena, that’s enough for each branch PLUS relacements for a couple of years!

As a donation-based project, this particualr thing could be funded, imagine, quite rapidly. Not that I’m setting it up or anything, but I count thirty branches. Let’s assume that the project would have to supply a hub to plug the AP in as well. $200 is still more than enough; over Xmas I helped my cousin in LA pick up a Netgear AP that included four ethernet jacks for under $30 new at Fry’s.

There are 29 branches. Even if a hardware manufacturer was not persuaded to simply donate the hardware (cough Michael or Steve cough) at that $200 figure I made up it’s a total of $5800 in hardware costs to at least provide minimal wireless access at each branch. That’s the cost of three mid-range PCs.

There is no reasonable excuse for the libraries to not offer this service.

All right-thinking Mac users have long depended upon the inimitable As the Apple Turns as our primary news resource, so it’s not that big a surprise to note that in the wake of a Boing Boing link to the original story, first C|Net and then the New York Times follow up on the story. What is is it, pray tell?

Well, um, it seems you can buy silent tracks at the Apple Music Store via iTunes. Big deal, huh? Yeah, I thought it was funny too, but for christ’s sake: is it really news that you can waste your money buying worthless crap online, and that computer-processed catalogs often contain bogus listings?

I didn’t think so.

I’m linking because I think it’s a symptom of the increasing transparency of blog-media to Big Media. Let’s see… recently we had the amazing blog blitz around Mingering Mike (which also entered the collective consciousness via Boing Boing, if I recall correctly), and I’m sure others as well. Unfortunately for me, I’m pressed for time and can’t document them at the moment. I recall a light NYT story quoting MeFi users within the past couple days, and I suspect there have been more recently.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Well, it may be a good thing, although at the same time it feels kinda sad. After all, one of the things that creates a positive feedback loop for bloggers is the pleasure of learning about something, however fragmentarily and anecdotally, before the information has been vetted and professionally developed or reviewed.

The vituperative concerns of sites such as The Reg (Google and blogs) and Boing Boing (Orkut) may reflect this developing transformation. By presenting dismissive or negative analyses of elements of the intarweb, the sites seek to undermine the validity of those sites they dismiss or criticize.

Hmmph, I have totally lost my train of thought. How you people blog with a TV on in the same room is a mystery I’ll never plumb the depths of.

Huh? Oh yeah!

So, one possible consequence? By the end of the week, I predict careful, serious analysis of the possibility that Steve Jobs will be airlifted into the CEO’s throne at Disney.

eclecticism > Caucus Time: Michael reports on the Washington state caucus experience. Michael lives literally across the street from Town Hall, where Governor Dean most recently spoke in the city; he reports a 2/3 split from his precinct: Kerry over Dean.

While I think it’s clear that the concerns of anti-war persons are being upheld with this weeks’ news, I have to say that I can’t imagine a Kerry victory over Bush in the fall. The Democratic contender is certain to face a late-October disclosure of Osama’s capture, and only an uncompromising critic of everything – everything – the Bush administration has done and stands for will be able to save the country from a Republican steamroll.

Now, while I’m not as skeptical of Kerry’s qualifications as either presidential candidate or officeholder as some, (who also weigh in with a first-hand report), I do concur with the general idea that this election will set the political tenor of this country for the next few generations.

Time to get my passport renewed. How’s the economy up in B.C. these days?

I Love Death is a schematically visualized, deeply cynical, perfectly realized flash movie. While it’s by no means explicit, sex and death feature prominently enough that it’s NSFW. via the good people of everlasting blort.

I believe it’s a video for the band Lodger.

Daymented uses sour cream containers for storage. Sometimes it makes tracking the leftovers down a bit tricky. She’s assembled a thoughtful interactive simulation for your edification.

All ya gots ta do is find the pea, see? Look, how easy it is! C’mon, c’mon, who’s up for it. You sir! You! You look like sportin’ type!

(Disclaimer: there is no actual gambling behind this link. Rollover-state images deployed for strictly educational purposes. Void where prohibited by law. You must be over 5′ 2″ to board this ride.)

Blather, by Bill Barol, beloved by billions, bounces back. You betcha.