Archive for 'Science & Tech' Category
Shuttle Bug
18 July 2006Ok, so let me get this straight…
Shuttle Colombia vaporizes, and it’s enough to keep the rest of the fleet more or less grounded for three years.
We have ONE successful outing, in which one of these things doesn’t blow up, lose gargantuan chunks of foam, or disintegrate… and all of the sudden, the green light is on to re-enter the space race? Am I missing something?
You know, I drove 100mph once. Didn’t crash; didn’t kill anyone. Using NASA’s logic, that means I’m safe to continue driving 100mph, right? Don’t get me wrong: I love the space program. Went to Space Camp as a kid, worked for two years to get a scholarship to go there, too. Certainly, the space program was one of our country’s most innovative of the 20th century, paving the way for the ubiquitous nature of satellite communications, weather tracking, etc. Problem is, there’s no innovation left in it. Ok, let’s duct-tape our 30-year-old glider to keep it in the sky for a few more years… Huh?
Granted, I understand there’s only so much NASA can do with limited funding, and there’s no way they’ll keep their funding (let alone get more) if they can’t keep these birds in the air. I just don’t like them playing a crapshoot with their crew members’ lives. Sigh.
Who are we racing into space at this point, anyway? Uncle Sam should have the sense to continue some funding, give NASA a few years to develop a next-gen craft, and then get back up there.
One Gmail to Rule Them All
16 July 2006(How to use one Gmail account to manage multiple domain emails.)
After deleting all my spam and trash from Gmail, I thought it was time to reorganize what’s left. You organization nuts can file this as one of those “Get Things Done” type of solutions. (I never read the book, so don’t bother correcting me.)
I use Gmail for everything: personal mail, mail from my numerous websites, special addresses for sending to/from my cellphone, and what not. As my needs have increased over the past year, I’ve been haphazardly adding labels for this and that, but now I think I’ve got a pretty good system worked out.
Gmail: Select All… and then some!
16 July 2006Ok, just discovered this, and I know a lot of Gmail enthusiasts such as myself are really going to love this feature.
Got a lot of spam? Go to your Spam box. Click on “Select All”. Now look above the list of messages, and you’ll see a text blurb like this:
All 25 conversations on this page are selected. Select all 1318 messages in Spam
Wowsers! How slick is that? Sure, it should’ve been there all along, but Google has corrected one of the very few flaws in an otherwise perfect webmail client. BTW, it works in all folders and labels, too! Send your whole Inbox to the archives! Suh-weet.
Update: My friend Rob Worley has pointed out that deleting spam is even easier! Just go into the Spam folder and, above the messages, you’ll see this message:
Must’ve missed it in my haste. Thanks Rob… and thanks bigtime, Google!
Look out, Skype: …AIM Phoneline is here?
14 July 2006Ok, so I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a few days. As millions of other AIM users probably experienced last week (or am I the only one who didn’t register using a fake e-mail address?), AOL has unveiled a new AIM Phoneline feature that, amazingly, seems to give users a free and personal local phone number. Apparently, if you’re logged on using the proper AIM client, calls will ring in to your headset (or other audio setup of choice). Otherwise, they’ll be redirected to a voice mailbox, which you can later access either through AIM, or through your aim.com email address.
Now, this solution doesn’t suit my needs for three reasons:
- I use the Adium IM client for OS X (or Trillian on the Windows side).
- I would not, in a million years, use my aim.com e-mail address.
- I have a cellphone with free nationwide long distance.
Oh wait… Four reasons:
- I have Skype, and don’t really have a need for online voicemail, except potentially for call-ins to a podcast.
However, I can read the writing on the wall. This is a feature probably directed at that infamous Generation MySpace. It would, in fact, be useful for kids who aren’t stupid enough to divulge personal information but, for whatever reason, do want to talk to strangers on the Internet. Thing is, I just don’t see a business model in it. It appears you can’t make outgoing calls with the free plan, just the “Unlimited” plan ($9.95/month). But… What’s to stop someone from using Skype for outgoing calls?
Meh. I guess I shouldn’t be expecting spectacular business plans from a company like AOL. Their only successful strategy was to target unsuspecting, technology-weary consumers and charge them up the back-side for a shitty, locked down and proprietary service. I guess the trend continues.
Oh… While I was researching this post, I came across a company called jConnect. No live calling, but you can accept faxes and voicemails delivered to your regular email. (Their free phone numbers appear to originate in Idao, so long distance charges will apply for the vast majority of people.) When and if I get going with another podcast, I’ll probably give this service a try.
954k
11 July 2006Interesting… In the two-ish weeks since I’ve had Thom’s House up & running, it’s made it into the top million sites on the web, according to Alexa. Number 954,088, to be exact. (I must confess I was amused to find that’s actually a better rank than a certain other site I don’t care much for, which has had partial content up for several months.) Another new domain of mine, SmartPop.net, is somewhere in the Top 500,000. I’m pretty sure only two or three of us are hitting that regularly.
So this means that one “power user” such as myself can pull a site into the top million, two can pull it into the top 500k… I wonder if three or four will pull it into the top 250k and so on? I doubt it’s that easy… I think the atmosphere get’s pretty thick around the 300k mark. SMART-POPCORN.com has trouble floating in the 100-200k spot, and it’s pretty well trafficked.
Vive le iTunes
23 March 2006Just had to comment about this whole France-tries-to-take-on-iTunes issue.
I was a Napster user. I was one of the ones kicked off by Metallica. (No hard feelings–not any more.) I was also one of the sneaky devils who got back on using a quippy “Metallica bites!”-derived username. I used Morpheus and Kazaa and Limewire, and tried eMule and some others. I was a pirate, and I felt justified… I didn’t like the idea of having to buy a full $15 CD for one or two good songs, and since there was no viable alternative, I’d download illegal copies as a form of symbolic speech: “Fuck you, RIAA.”
Apple changed that. While the RIAA was still spending millions attempting to prosecute smalltime pirates not unlike myself (which, I guess they still do, right?), Apple came along with a business model that I loved and the music industry, despite their many levels of stupidity, could get behind. 99¢ per song. Don’t want a whole CD? Don’t buy it. Forget the sleek elegance of the iPod, the ease of use of iTunes as music store/jukebox and all that (albeit true) marketing hype. I was sold on, and my loyalty to Apple continues to be based on the fact that they came up with a viable business solution when nobody else would or could. Now, yes, I own an iPod, though it took me long enough. Anyhow, of the 420-ish tracks on the player (not counting the podcasts), 84 of them are iTunes purchases. And they’re among the highest ranked songs in my library, because I was able to pick out just the songs I wanted. (The whole wheat/chaff thing.)
So I guess it’s not surprising that I get defensive when I read an argument like this:
“I am probably not the only one to use iTunes on my PC even though I don’t have an iPod (I use my phone, and MP3 CD player in the car). For ripping my CDs, all works fine - I knew nothing of this DRM thingie, so when I first bought, yes PAID FOR some tracks off iTunes, how annoyed was I when I discoverered I could not play them on anything but the PC! It’s certainly made me not want to spend any more money with Apple - and that includes not buying an iPod - I’m not falling for that! I now want to go search for this ‘unlocking’ device to free up my music which is being held hostage by DRM. My point being, get rid of DRM and I will buy legit music again.”
I’d reply to the guy directly, but the originating site is having registration issues, so I had to vent here. Allow me to not mince words in my quasi-reply: “Don’t want DRM? Go buy a fucking CD, ass.” Why do people want an iTunes-like solution? Because they don’t want to buy ten songs they’ll never listen to, and a case that’ll only collect dust. iTunes cuts the fat out of the music business model, and the DRM restrictions are a reasonable trade-off, as far as I’m concerned.