MonkeyFilter | Curious George: Meta…what?: MoFi investigates MeFi outage.
As you figured… sumpin’s broked.
direct-to-disc backup?
Impression, a backup utility for Mac OS X, by Stephen Elliott.
I’ll be giving this a whirl. Looks promising.
Here’s a roundup at MacFixit.
all new!
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.
Cat Pic (as required)
So all day today, this feline, Simon, has been insistently parking himself on my lap. He’s a robust fellow and a bit hard to type around. It does keep the top of my thighs nice and toasty, though.
I guess someone let him read the universal blog license terms or something, so I’m obligated. Don’t tell Chloe, OK?
Liberry been berry berry good to me
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.
blogchain
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.
Humpback Chicken Stew
This recipe is called ‘humpback’ because I didn’t know it would be especially memorable before I started cooking it. We watched the quite irresistible fillum Whale Rider on pay-per-view as we ate it, and I’ll always associate the two. Also, the stew is so good you’ll eat enough that you’ll feel an affinity with our cetacean neighbors.
Hungry and/or bibulous readers may be interested in my vernacular Guinness Beef Stew, also. Personally, I’d never prepare both at once, though. You gotta pick your fights.
Equipment
2 highball glasses
Cocktail shaker
Sharp kitchen knife
Measuring spoons
Measuring cup
Heavy-duty, deep lidded pot (8-12 cup capacity)
Soup bowls
Ladle
Wooden spoon
Soup spoons
Optional
Microwave
Grooved microwave platter
Paper towels
Second medium pot
Ingredients
4 Gin Rickeys
5 oz Bombay Gin
7 oz Rose’s lime juice
1 fresh lime, sectioned
Ice
Humpback Chicken Stew
8 cloves garlic, peeled, and sliced or diced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tbsp (or more) Italian herb mix (thyme, parsley, oregano, etc. Ascertain it’s herbs only, no added salt!)
1/2 – 3/4 cup small carrots, cut up into rounds
olive oil
salt
pepper
bay leaf
4 medium potatoes
1 cube boullion (veggie, chicken, or beef)
3 – 4 cups water
6 strips bacon
1 – 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken, cubed
1 can S & W ‘San Antonio’ beans (pinto beans, small red beans, Jalapeno peppers)
1 can S & W ‘Santa Fe’ beans (pinto beans, small red beans, yellow kernel corn, diced onion)
1 cup grape tomatoes
Optional ingredients
6 to 8 oz (half a bag) stew vegetables (frozen pearl onions, celery, carrots, etc.)
1 bag frozen kernel corn
1 bag frozen peas
Other fresh or frozen veggies as appropriate and to taste
Preparation
Slice and chop vegetables and chicken as stated in ingredients. Set aside. This is to minimize knife handling while drinking.
Pour gin and Rose’s lime juice together into shaker full of ice. Shake vigorously. Set aside.
Prepare 2 highball glasses with ice and lime wedge. Set aside.
I chose to cut the bacon strips in half and microwave them on high for five minutes to begin the cooking process while allowing some of the bacon fat to be picked up by the paper towels I nuked them on. Non-nukers may proceed to the next step.
Heat heavy duty pot over medium high. As pot heats, cut half-cooked bacon into inch-square pieces and add to pot, watching carefully to keep from overheating (if the grease smokes, it’s too hot).
Serve Gin Rickeys. It’s assumed you’ll consume two as you cook and so will your partner, busy at the X-Box or web browser as the case may be.
When the bacon has crisped up and shed most of the grease, remove to layered paper towels. Dump most of the bacon grease, but coat the interior of the pot with it before discarding. Do not dump directly into drain unless you are a plumber, in which case you know better already. A can or old milk carton will do. Bachelors are encouraged to use empty beer cans scavenged from living room area.
Replace pot on medium heat burner. Add chopped garlic, and stir with wooden spoon. Observe cooking process and add olive oil as needed. When enough oil is engaged, add chopped onions as well. Salt and pepper generously. Drink from gin rickey.
When oil has coated garlic and onion and you can smell the pepper from the sauté, add Italian seasoning mix and stir. There should be enough that it looks like too much. The oil will cause it to cling to the garlic and onions, more or less coating them, but not clumping in the oil.
Add chopped carrots, stirring. Allow to sauté for five minutes.
Fend hungry partner off with second Gin Rickey or, if necessary, saltines. Water down the drink if they show obvious signs of drunkenness or hunger-induced irritability. Once they leave kitchen, rummage in fridge for a pickle or some olives.
Optionally, boil the cubed potatoes separately for about ten minutes before draining and adding to main pot.
Add three cups water and boullion cube. Turn heat to high. If chicken is not cubed yet, do so now. Add cubes to liquid. As liquid approaches boiling, add the beans and the other vegetables; if you’re adding frozen vegetables it will slow the time to boil.
Bring to rolling boil and add bay leaf. If you do not boil the potatoes separately, keep on low rolling boil for about ten minutes; otherwise, add potatoes, but not liquid, from other pot.
After boiling, turn heat down to simmer. If there’s not enough stock to your taste add water to suit. Cover, but leave lid ajar to prevent boil-over.
Adjourn to common room and consume the rest of the Rickeys. Allow the simmer to continue for at least half-an-hour, checking on pot continuously to prevent boill-off or boil-over. At a half-hour or more of simmer time, turn burner off and remove pot from heat. Cover tightly, and wait another half-hour to allow soup to cool.
Serve. I recommend beer as a beverage accompaniment.
Leo Gursky
The Last Words on Earth, by Nicole Krauss. Feb 9, 2004 issue of the New Yorker.
A funny little old man tells us about some of the buffeting the century dealt him. He’s hilarious; the story is heartbreaking. I loved it. I laughed, I cried, right?
Well, yeah.
(I should clarify that the story is a short work of fiction.)
Ah, oops
Matthew at defective yeti reviewed The Triplets of Belleville recently, and mentioned that a review he’d read likened the film to Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, a resemblance that he did not see.
I did, and in a review, so I assumed that he was among the five people who read my film stuff in Tablet.
Tonight Viv and I went out for dinner and film, and Triplets was the most interesting film in the neighborhood, so we went. Viv rarely gets to see films with me when I attend a review screening (they’re usually during the day), so it was her first time seeing the film and my second.
At dinner, I picked up a Stranger to check film schedules, and what did I see?
Writer-director-animator Sylvain Chomet invokes the same absurdly entertaining and overwhelmingly brown nostalgia that Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro tapped into for Delicatessen and City of Lost Children (all three filmmakers are indebted to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil).
That’s from Andy Spletzer’s film short. Ah. So Matthew probably read Andy’s review, not mine. Oops. For all that, Matthew’s feeling that Jeunet and Caro’s flicks are unlike Triplets is ungrounded; all three feel very much like a certain breed of Francophone comics, which is where all three creators began their careers.
The film is playing Seattle with the recreated/restored Salvador Dali / Walt Disney production, Destino, a project initiated and shelved in the late forties by the two moustachioed creators. The recreation is, uh, underwhelming – limited, frame-fade animation is used for no apparent reason. The film looks very computer-assisted. Why not let the app do the tweening? Additionally, the postwar era is not the high point for either man’s creative powers, and the film reflects the constricted boundaries that both artists were turning to.
Entertainingly, I did see something new in Triplets – a supporting character, a mouselike midget engineer inventor, looks suspiciously like a well-known studio head, famed for his association with an animated mouse. The engineer character designs and builds a film-projector that is driven by pedaling athletes held captive by the French wine mob. Chomet, Triplets‘ director, goes so far as to show us a photo of the engineer wearing mouse ears. I’m pretty sure it’s a poke at Disney’s dominance of animated entertainment; the engineer is the flunky of murdering kidnappers and his audience is held in bondage.
Caucus blog
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?