Inert Ramblings

Year: 2003

  • Panther – Fink and Apple X11 don’t play well with others.

    From the Fink FAQ:

    Q8.11: I installed Apple’s X11 in Panther but Fink keeps asking to install xfree86.

    In addition to the FAQ answer above, be sure to look for all other xfree packages! I used to have xfree86-rootless installed instead of the standard xfree86-base.

    [dyn-002:/sw/etc/apt] sean% sudo dpkg -l | egrep -i xfree
    iU xfree86-rootle 4.2.1.1-16 XFree86 libraries, utilities, clients and da
    ii xfree86-rootle 4.2.1.1-16 XFree86 libraries, utilities, clients and da

    After adding the remaining xfree-rootless packages to the removal list, Fink finally stopped complaining about needing xfree86.

  • Hot Thanksgiving pig-on-frog action…

    Mmm…yes, Kermi. You LIKE that, don’t you? [slap!] Who’s my little green bitch, huh? Say it…SAY IT. [slap!]

    Thanks to Kaiser for the image!

  • We have bats in our belfry!

    Have you ever been sitting around, unable to sleep late at night, and gotten the Bad Feeling in the pit of your stomach? You know the feeling. Somewhere in between the freaky kid in the corner is staring at me and the teacher just saw me throw that spitball. I turned down the music and heard an absolutely frightening chattering. And meowing. And the occasional scrape and flutter. And meowing. Then silence. Silence is never a Good Thing!

    I wandered out of the computer room only to be immediately buzzed by a bat! Three kitties were tracking its every movement, and it was circling at the top of the stairs! I called Kelly in with a strange incoherent babble that showed obvious distress and confusion over exactly how to vocalize what I was experiencing. We both stared in amazement for a few minutes before I realized that I happened to be holding my Canon EOS Rebel Xs.

    Unfortunately, I had the Quantary telephoto which was way too slow for the conditions. I ran downstairs, grabbed the Elph, and started shooting stills and video! After the little guy started to tire out and got close enough to the floor for Willow to smack down, I remembered Kelly’s pond net sitting outside, grabbed it, and went all Steve Irwin! I utilized the genuine Croc Hunter Net Flop technique to safeguard our little friend in an impromptu pocket, transferred him to a fishtank, then brought him outside to his freedom!

  • Twenty-first century digital boy…

    B0000C8VU8.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg I just placed an order for a Canon EOS Digital Rebel for the outstanding price of $650 (regularly $899). Thank you American Express Membership Rewards! I couldn’t justify the Canon EOS 10D because its feature set was complete overkill for what I’ll be shooting, but the Digital Rebel uses the same 6.3 MP CMOS for a resolution of 3072 x 2048 pixels! Not only that, but I already own a Canon EOS Rebel Xs and Speedlite 380EX with Canon EF 35-80mm and Quantaray Tech-10 CN AF 70-300mm lenses that are fully compatible with the Digital Rebel!

    Why the sudden digital photography kick? I’m finally pulling in a steady trickle of cash from my affiliate accounts, and have found a way into the stock photography scene, so I can finally justify the purchase price! Also, with high-resolution gear, the wife and I may get back into risque photography and start working with models in the New England area looking for portfolio development. I also have a complete revamp of all of my Web sites planned using Mambo Open Source Server with Google optimization, so that will add quite a few new opportunities for affiliate income!

  • Is Apple calling Microsoft and Windows users poseurs?

    rockstarbounce.jpg Disclaimer for the easily-offended OS zealots: Let me start out by saying that this is not a dig against Windows or Windows users. I’ve got Windows XP and Windows 2000 on my desk, in addition to Mac OS X, OpenBSD, and Linux. I’m simply pointing out an observation that I made with Apple’s latest ad campaign.

    So, Apple has finally released iTunes for Windows and updated their respective ad campaigns with dancing silhouettes of trendsetters bumping and grinding to a selection of music from different genres. The ads are named Dance, Hip Hop, and Rock, and I found something rather interesting with the spliced lyrics in Dance.

    The soundtrack to Dance is a remix of Jason Nevins’s Rockstar Classic Club Blaster-Edit, which is a remix of N.E.R.D.’s Rockstar. Not only did I immediately recognize the lyrics the first time I saw Dance, but I also made a note of the fact that the ad starts in on the second chorus! I also remembered that the original song had something to do with “fucking poseurs” and how “it was your dream to be like us”.

    Maybe I’m reading too much into the ad and I’m giving Apple’s ad agency way too much credit. Maybe this is Apple’s way of giving Microsoft a subliminal jab in the ribs? Who knows…but it’s damn funny!

    iTunes. Now for Windows.
    (more…)

  • I’m such a cheat…

    So I caved. I threw Atkins out the window for Thanksgiving and totally hogged out. Turkey, stuffing, pie, ice cream, the works. But whatever…I’m down to a 38-inch waist and fit into clothes I either haven’t been able to wear for 10 years or have never been able to wear! Besides…you need to cheat every once in a great while so you don’t cave in and succumb to daily temptation! By basically gorging myself silly yesterday I reminded myself of what it felt like to eat that much food…and I really didn’t like it all that much.

    So I’m back on induction today…joy of joys.

  • Black Friday Optics

    B00006LV79.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg The Canon PowerShot S230 3.2 MP Digital ELPH is on sale for the amazing price of $269.88 (save $130.11) over at Amazon.com. I do believe that I’ll just yoink one of those!

  • Happy turkey day!

    “After the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of the major women’s magazine in the 19th century, were desperately seeking a holiday that would bring the nation together. Thanksgiving had been a local holiday in some places in New England,” explained Dr. Abrahams. “Lincoln declared it a national holiday two centuries after the original Thanksgiving.” And, with it, the turkey regained respect and visibility.

  • Scriptable Image Processing System

    For the past few weeks I’ve been on a mission for a co-worker – find a utility to embed ColorSync ICC profiles into a JPEG without opening and re-saving it using Photoshop or another imaging tool. It turns out that Panther already has this functionality built into a low-level command line tool called sips. Many thanks to fxt for digging this one up!
    (more…)

  • Grass Cowboy – Music to tip cows by

    grasscowboytreason.jpg Grass Cowboy has released Treason. Click. Buy. Listen.

    August, 1996…four engineers and a doctor of Pharmacology from Dublin are trapped in a basement studio in Watertown, MA with nothing but beer, smokes, and a thirst to rock.

    Weeks later, out crawled Grass Cowboy, lean and mean, and ready to inflict songs of hope and desperation on the world. Satisfied fans have witnessed Grass Cowboy’s music excellence at Boston clubs like Mama Kin, the Linwood Grille, and O’Brien’s. Grass Cowboy’s diverse musical sound is inspired by everything from Punk to Rhythm and Blues, leading to a truly unique and interesting sound.

    Grass Cowboy features:

    Tony Espy – Lead Guitar and Vocals
    Bill Filler – Lead Guitar
    Jeff Cawthorne – Drums
    Cormac Taylor – Lead Vocals
    Steve Prowten – Bass

    Grass Cowboy…music to tip cows by…