Friday, May 1, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Why no posts lately
If you haven't noticed, most of my posts here have been on the short side, unlike the lengthy word bombs I drop even less frequently on my work blog. It turns out that twitter is great for this kind of thing, twitpic even more so when there's an image attached. So if you've been missing those things, you'll find plenty of them at twitter/@ericpromislow
Hey Tibor, it's throwing season again.
Hey Tibor, it's throwing season again.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
What's wrong with Satellite Radio
Last fall we installed a new deck in the car with a USB hub
(I want to call it a "tape deck", but the installer guy
said "what's a tape?"). Not only do the CD and USB readers
both do MP3, but they also let me easily skip over folders.
And with the $15 8GB stick I bought at a Boxing Day sale
(that price will look laughingly high next year, won't it),
I can put the equivalent of two DVDs worth of songs on it.
How long is that? As an experiment I put the Rolling Stone's
500 top songs on it, and it took up about 2GB. At an average
of 3.5 minutes/song, that's close to 30 hours. So let's say
that stick can hold 120 hours of audio -- and unlike a CD,
when I get bored of something, I can delete it. Which I did
with the RS tunes -- turn on a classic rock station, and
chances are you'll hear one of those songs. I think I can
get plenty of satisfaction without hearing that tune again,
as earthshaking as it was in... 1964.
The net provides a wide source of interesting, freely available
audio. Chances are pretty good I'm not even going to have a
chance to listen to everything I put on that stick, especially
considering I do most of my traveling on my bike. But when
I first heard satellite radio in a rented car in San Diego
in 2004, I thought it was pretty cool. Now the concept strikes
me as obsolete.
Net-enabled car radio.... that's something else.
(I want to call it a "tape deck", but the installer guy
said "what's a tape?"). Not only do the CD and USB readers
both do MP3, but they also let me easily skip over folders.
And with the $15 8GB stick I bought at a Boxing Day sale
(that price will look laughingly high next year, won't it),
I can put the equivalent of two DVDs worth of songs on it.
How long is that? As an experiment I put the Rolling Stone's
500 top songs on it, and it took up about 2GB. At an average
of 3.5 minutes/song, that's close to 30 hours. So let's say
that stick can hold 120 hours of audio -- and unlike a CD,
when I get bored of something, I can delete it. Which I did
with the RS tunes -- turn on a classic rock station, and
chances are you'll hear one of those songs. I think I can
get plenty of satisfaction without hearing that tune again,
as earthshaking as it was in... 1964.
The net provides a wide source of interesting, freely available
audio. Chances are pretty good I'm not even going to have a
chance to listen to everything I put on that stick, especially
considering I do most of my traveling on my bike. But when
I first heard satellite radio in a rented car in San Diego
in 2004, I thought it was pretty cool. Now the concept strikes
me as obsolete.
Net-enabled car radio.... that's something else.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Go see Dream Science Circus this week!
If you're in Vancouver, that is. They're at the Waterfront Theater
through Sunday Sept. 28, 2008. Seeing how they're from Bellingham,
the home of kinetic and static human sculptures, there'll be
plenty of acrobatics. Any more and I'd be spoiling the surprise.
http://www.dreamsciencecircus.com/, of course.
There's a $2 discount for the weekday shows if you give the password
when you order them. Email me for the secret vord.
through Sunday Sept. 28, 2008. Seeing how they're from Bellingham,
the home of kinetic and static human sculptures, there'll be
plenty of acrobatics. Any more and I'd be spoiling the surprise.
http://www.dreamsciencecircus.com/, of course.
There's a $2 discount for the weekday shows if you give the password
when you order them. Email me for the secret vord.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Finite Jest
I just found out David Foster Wallace offed himself last
Friday. I'm one of those people who actually enjoyed
Infinite Jest. I had to devour it when it came out, as
I had it on a one-week loan from the new books section
of the library. That ran to about 140 dense pages a day,
but I finished with two days to spare.
Wallace's genius was more readily available in a few
stretched out pieces he wrote for magazines like
Harper's -- a famous one called "Getting Away from
Getting Away from it All" on the Illinois State
Fair, an expose of 7-day Caribbean cruise ship
vacations ("A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never
Do Again"), and most recently, a hypertext-on-print
analysis of right-wing talk stations.
And now it's over, without so much as a footnote.
Crap.
Friday. I'm one of those people who actually enjoyed
Infinite Jest. I had to devour it when it came out, as
I had it on a one-week loan from the new books section
of the library. That ran to about 140 dense pages a day,
but I finished with two days to spare.
Wallace's genius was more readily available in a few
stretched out pieces he wrote for magazines like
Harper's -- a famous one called "Getting Away from
Getting Away from it All" on the Illinois State
Fair, an expose of 7-day Caribbean cruise ship
vacations ("A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never
Do Again"), and most recently, a hypertext-on-print
analysis of right-wing talk stations.
And now it's over, without so much as a footnote.
Crap.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Canadian Cash Cab Debuts Tonight
From Adam Growe:
Don't miss it - support Canadian culture (or at least Canadian imports of American versions of British creations).
Hi There,
I'm even going to watch it. and I was there!
The Discovery Channel (and every Wednesday)
8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
Discovery HD (Fridays)
8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
You'll like it too. Thanks for watching.
Adam.
Don't miss it - support Canadian culture (or at least Canadian imports of American versions of British creations).
Friday, August 15, 2008
Because +it +is contains +a
Some people are better than me at presenting Google results. I don't have time to compete, so here are the raw results:
From http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Templates/Talk:
Unfortunately, your current username is in violation of the username policy because it is: contains a bad word See our username policy for more information.
From http://www.northland-camping.co.nz/activities.htm:
Houhora Harbour is unique because it is contains a fast flowing deep water.
From http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/3/92459/6822:
Please be sure to have a clean pair of cleanex on hand, when reading because it is contains a slew of comedic responses. A Dkos classic.
And finally, from DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE CRAB CLAW PROCESSING SYSTEMS
TO MINIMIZE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:
The waste stream from this is of particular concern because it is contains a high five day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), ranging from 7,000 to 15,000 mg/L, and a chloride ion concentration of 135,000 to 150,000 mg/L (Harrison, 1993).
This all started with this Python error message:
SyntaxError: import * is not allowed in function 'yevtushenko' because it is contains a nested function with free variables
What other "because it is contains a"'s are out there hiding from Google's prying eyes? Share yours on the comments page.
From http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Templates/Talk:
Unfortunately, your current username is in violation of the username policy because it is: contains a bad word See our username policy for more information.
From http://www.northland-camping.co.nz/activities.htm:
Houhora Harbour is unique because it is contains a fast flowing deep water.
From http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/3/92459/6822:
Please be sure to have a clean pair of cleanex on hand, when reading because it is contains a slew of comedic responses. A Dkos classic.
And finally, from DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE CRAB CLAW PROCESSING SYSTEMS
TO MINIMIZE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:
The waste stream from this is of particular concern because it is contains a high five day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), ranging from 7,000 to 15,000 mg/L, and a chloride ion concentration of 135,000 to 150,000 mg/L (Harrison, 1993).
This all started with this Python error message:
SyntaxError: import * is not allowed in function 'yevtushenko' because it is contains a nested function with free variables
What other "because it is contains a"'s are out there hiding from Google's prying eyes? Share yours on the comments page.
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