Shake Up the World

Die Hard in the most unlikely of places

2008-12-17T02:33:00.002-05:00

What a great, entertaining show - Chuck. Not only does their "christmas" episode feature a bona fide plot twist, but also Sgt. Al Powell from Die Hard, back as his old, twinkie-munching, LAPD self. In a hostage situation, no less!

Wonderful episode.

Now, come on NBC, this is no time to send a great show into the spiral of death. And Chuck, now's no time for hackneyed, contrived season bridges. Keep pleasantly surprising me and equally rewarding the story lines.

I expect good things when you come back in February.

PC Game Conspiracy

2008-12-03T10:45:00.005-05:00

The requirements to run the latest and greatest PC games are just insane. Many of them, at least. I think we long since passed the minimum bar threshold for running at 30 frames-per-second, and now we're just paying the price of being a second-class platform.

I'm guessing one of two things may be happening

(1) console games for the PS2-3/360 are getting sloppily and quickly ported back to the PC, without taking the time to make them efficient for the PC architecture.

(2) video card / cpu companies are somehow encouraging this mess in order to drive sales of new computers, in a time when sales are slumping because machines are already ridiculously over-powered for the average consumer.

just an idea. i'd love to see more games ported WELL to the PC. a criterion collection or Mobile High Fidelity for the PC gaming industry.

The USB Generation

2008-11-05T21:18:00.003-05:00

While my first personal computer was an 80286 33MHZ with a hard drive in the 10's of megabytes, it was something I built with used parts that no one wanted. That was probably 1995. My computer usage exploded right around the time CompuServe added Mosaic. If I had purchased a new computer only a couple years later (1997), it would have come equipped with USB 1.0.

The track record and profileration of USB, if nothing else, models my generation of Internet users. We came onto the Internet at a time when everything was just beginning to solidify out of the AOL's and CompuServe's and into regular, dial-up ISP's.

We have been able to observe the progression from computers with few peripherals other than your parallel port printers, serial port modems and PS/2 keyboards and mice to computers with an unlimited number of configurations based on the USB interface.

We may not all remember disk or cartridge-booting our operating systems, dialing directly into our BBS', or writing in Word Perfect 5, but we DID witness the transformation of the PC into a multimedia and extensibility powerhouse and the beginnings of the popularization of the WWW.

Saving Money (Trees)

2008-11-02T01:03:00.002-04:00

The guys at the super shady hydroponics and organics store would probably be disappointed by my use of their high quality potting soil to save a bonzai tree.

Lala.com looks interesting...

2008-10-29T03:59:00.003-04:00

I will have to investigate more! The concept of buying a streaming album for $0.80 is almost too good to be true (not to mention the free streaming of songs you own).

I only see one major drawback so far:

What is the streaming bitrate of a web song?

We strive to maintain a bitrate standard of 128 kbps for web songs that you stream from your collection. As determined by the labels, some web songs may stream at a bitrate of 64 kbps. Songs that you upload will generally stream at the bitrate at which they were ripped.

64kbps streaming is pathetic. 128kbps is better, but it won't cut it for people who actually spent time ripping their music at 192kbps or higher (CD quality). Hopefully Lala will do what Napster has done and up their collection to 192 over time.

But is 128kbps for $0.10 a fair price?
Probably. But I'd pay $1 per album to stream in 192kbps VBR.

And this part of their Terms of Service:

We use non-personally-identifiable information including IP addresses and aggregate user data to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track movement around the site and to gather demographic information about our membership base as a whole.

Hrm.

2008-10-27T01:47:00.002-04:00

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

Never gonna give you up (caffeine)

2008-10-23T18:08:00.003-04:00

Sweet...I was just rick-rolled by Jak's coffee in Newark Liberty Int'l. But I don't think they meant it as a rick roll. I always wonder if there is some ROFL'ing teen or twenty-something behind the scenes doing things like this on purpose ;)

Don't tell anyone about the fireworks...

2008-07-13T22:53:00.001-04:00

What would you think if you saw a yard sale sign at the corner which read: "Demolition Sale"?

There's either an illegal fireworks factory around the corner, or something's going to get knocked over. Either way, I'm there.

There and back again

2008-07-10T00:51:00.002-04:00

Best time of my life. The experiences I've had while traveling over those two (and a half) weeks feel definitive and catalytic. Coming back home afterwards, I sit at my desk and lie in bed and struggle to mentally file all of the details away. It's a messy and fluid and satisfying imprint that I can run over and over in my head.

And I feel more anxious for all that.

I want to shake things up more than ever, both at work and at home. Why? I'm still figuring it out, but maybe the insane pace and the rewards for enduring such a non-typical itinerary reset my expectations a bit. And not just for traveling.

It wasn't just the surroundings and activities, but the people, too.

I'll start by being more outgoing.

(See what happens? Send me on a trip and you get all this attempted introspection :-P)

"Your ping time is your download speed"

2008-05-20T02:00:00.001-04:00

Thanks, Comcast executive customer support. There are so many things wrong with that statement I don't even know where to begin.

Rolling Thunder

2008-03-22T23:43:00.003-04:00

That's what I think every time my plane's jet engines rev up at the start of the runway. First the noise, then the thrust, then the thunder.

I've been flying a lot for work lately, and I'm still getting comfortable with all the travel.

Being offline is so 1997.

2008-02-20T20:41:00.001-05:00

It feels icky to write in Word, and really, to create most of types of content offline. Authority and authoritative copies are moving to the web.

TV

2008-02-18T22:36:00.002-05:00

As a rule, I should just stop watching shows after their first season. It's really the rare show that stays truly awesome for longer than that one arc.

4am mornings and 007-themed meetings

2008-01-19T03:16:00.000-05:00

So this past week has been one of the most crazy, tiring and rewarding weeks in recent memory. 2008 is off to a good start!

MacWorld keynote + hockey-line for seating
San Diego sales conference, amazing resort, sessions, bars and drinks

(all in 4 days!)

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

2008-01-15T21:18:00.000-05:00

Today I seem to have infinite patience: first the MacWorld line, then a big delay on my flight out to our sales conference. If only I could nap until our plane arrived...

Today is the greatest...

2007-12-21T23:35:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePGPCHjznQM

A perfect example of a cover. You take a recognizable song and make it your own.

The Good Stuff

2007-10-28T14:31:00.001-04:00

Crisp autumn days
Blue skies
High altitude, panoramic views
guitar-driven and live music
black coffee
good wine
sports, predominantly hockey
spicy ethnic cuisine
no humidity
copyright models that appeal to Napster-spoiled GenX/Y's
chicken skin
good video games
disruptive technology
artistic use of language
down-to-earth types
to-do lists
bullet points
black and slapstick humor, parody
open markets
philosophy and existence/knowledge
woodwork
matte
california portions
sci-fi
small friendly suburbias
sensible sustainability / responsibility
special people
corny jokes and terrible movies

The Whopper of Digital Music Downloads

2007-10-28T13:57:00.000-04:00

http://davematthewsband.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=1_5575_8857&pc=DMDD16

I just bought this baby --- it's a $49.99 digital music download. Crazy? Not quite what you might think. Let's spec it out:

3 consecutive full-concert recordings totalling 55 tracks, over 5hrs 20min of music!
Lossless FLAC encoding, aka CD-quality
No Digital Rights Management (DRM) that would prevent portable-device use, or burning
Downloadable CD labels, tray inserts and booklet
That means we're talking roughly $0.90/track.

Not bad for some real hi-fi digital download goodness...

Amazon MP3 Store

2007-10-23T23:22:00.000-04:00

I bought my first MP3 from Amazon's Digital downloads store today in 256kbps vbr mp3. It's the Slip's Even Rats track for $0.89. It's from Guitar Hero I's Bonus Tracks, and it's awesome.

In case you're wondering, it sounds great! And no DRM!

Full of id3 metadata too, so your music play will know what's going on.

Amazon.com Song ID: 201727212

tiny cities

2007-10-03T06:48:00.000-04:00

I took an overnight flight from las vegas to philly last night. the coolest thing was that the electrified city strips seemed to bubble up out of the earth's crust like they were the yummy marshmallow-lava center of an earth-cookie.

DMB recap

2007-09-30T19:08:00.001-04:00

The Shoreline!

Awesome concert, but too much smoke -- of every type. Fascinations of the night:

the electric fiddle. awesome.
Dave's vocals, live.
why does the drummer always smile so much?
GREY STREET.

List of songs played:

Sugar Will
A Dream So Real
Two Step
Eh Hee
You Might Die Trying
Everyday
The Dreaming Tree
Grace is Gone
Black Water
Louisiana Bayou
Sister
Granny
Cornbread
The Idea of You
#27
Dreamgirl
Jimi Thing
Grey Street
Stay / Wasting Time
So Damn Lucky (encore)
Ants Marching

Good ol' east coast bagels

2007-09-29T20:03:00.000-04:00

Are the sh*t.
This west coast stuff has got to go.

The Holy Audio Trinity

2007-09-26T02:13:00.000-04:00

Audio Nirvana is:

Exact Audio Copy (ripping)
FLAC (lossless compression)
Foobar2k + ASIO4ALL (bit-perfect playback)

did you take notes ? ;)

Federated identity

2007-09-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

I saw a presentation today on federated identity and the presenters were encouraging everyone to work towards a multi-agent federated group (think spoke and hub). They wanted to do things like connect all your school records, track teacher performance or link all of your educational identities together in order to leverage resources.

My question is, given the interest the US government has taken with national ID cards and NSA wiretapping, would we just be handing over a neat-and-tidy data set to the government?

What would stop the government from secretly compelling any old trusted ID provider from leaking credentials or IDs?

What starts out as a great convenience and movement could turn into our worst fears about government records of our activities.

GMail Pwnage

2007-09-15T21:38:00.001-04:00

I pared down my inbox from 35XX messages to 1600 in 30 minutes. Now that's just awesome :)

spamtastic

2007-09-12T21:16:00.000-04:00

>> RE: [SPAM] Honda loan information
Matt,

so this is why my question for the dealership went unanswered for a week. If you're Honda, why in god's name is your spam filter set up like this!?

a little gem

2007-09-08T01:02:00.000-04:00

"Pulling up roots like Super Mario 2" - Blue Scholars song (close enough to the real words)

For reference,

Blue Scholars:

Super Mario 2:

Wasn't expecting an awesome reference like that on a hip-hop track. Just amazing.

Don't get mad Nintendo, you're not making any money on SMB2 any more anyways.

Grokking in the fast lane

2007-09-06T02:12:00.000-04:00

So many things have happened since I last wrote an update that I don't know where to begin. That's the problem with intermittent blogging. If you wait long enough, everything starts to feel passe. But that might imply it's all been uneventful -- which is so *incredibly* wrong!

Let's break down major recent happenings in my life into a list. As I've just started work, I'm trying to improve my organization. Which brings me to:

1) Started Work. A big step! Although I'm really just returning to the place I interned at last summer, this is why I am out here in California in the first place. My fellow new hires are as excited and motivated as I am. We're all working on different projects, but we try to meet up for meals. Everyone's busy here --- even with the massive hiring sprees --- there's always more to do and time is at a premium. That's why I value coming in early. It gives me an extra half hour to sit down, read my email and prepare for the day without worrying about distractions or meetings. What still strikes me is that although everyone is super-busy, nearly no one seems frantic or about to freak out. It makes me smile when I think what would happen if I snuck a few IB hires in here ;) On another note: everyone assumes the culture is relatively homogeneous throughout the company, but it does in fact vary. For example, I am in a group that works closely with other businesses, and as a necessity, the group behaves more like what you would expect from a standard "professional" organization. But I can see how, from the outside, the differences are so minute as to be irrelevant. I am not entirely set up on my project yet, but I know I will love working here again. The amount of freedom and responsibility is unparalleled and the environment indulges my inquisitive (and passionate) nature. Looking at all the older employees walking around, I wonder which archetype I will eventually resemble (if at all).

2) Korea. Had the time of my life! I've never been to Asia at all before, and this experience was a great introduction. I visited Joowon for a week in Seoul and we galavanted around to different restaurants and some of her favorite hot spots. The city was crowded and just as "connected" as I had been expecting. Man, cell phone reception and TV in the subways just rocks. hard. One thing I noticed there was that the culture seemed to emphasize or support same-sex friendships pretty well --- even among older people. It was not uncommon to see groups of older men or women out late at night. I like that. Plan for next time: see the cultural sites. And here's a picture of Seoul from Joowon's apartment.

3) Car. I just bought a Honda Civic LX 2007 Sedan! It's a great car and I love driving it. It came down to a choice between the Civic and the Mazda 3, and I went with the Civic for its reputed reliability and hassle-free driving. Both cars are eerily similar on paper and in price, so I really could have been driving either car right now. The only thing I dislike about the Civic is that its hood slopes down so quickly that you can't see the front of your car from the driver's seat --- you just have to know. Luckily, it's pretty stubby so I haven't had many problems, lol.

Although I don't plan to drive it to work every day, I live in the Suburbs and it's necessary for errands, shopping and hauling stuff around. If I could fully support myself by walking and biking, I probably would. Cars are fun to drive, but I don't lust to drive anything I can currently afford :-P

Anyways, see you soon reader. Oh, and I read Stranger in a Strange Land, in case you were wondering about the post title. Sorry for the anti-climactic ending, work tomorrow.

My Coffee and Tap Water are not friends

2007-09-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

So I found out this week that my "hard" tap water does not play nicely with my coffee grinds! It turns out that I wasn't going crazy by thinking my coffee tasted strangely sweet and mineral-heavy. My hero? A Brita Filter. Now I can get back to enjoying my morning cup of coffee. Speaking of which...

Colbert at Cornell This Fall

2007-08-29T19:57:00.001-04:00

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/NEWS01/70829004/1002

Social Incompetence

2007-08-29T19:06:00.000-04:00

It scares me how little some Web 2.0 CEO's, pundits and evangelists actually seem to "know" about the value and application of social networks. One recently claimed the quality of a facebook network was proportional to the number of close friends who share many friends in common (with you). At best, this is an oversimplification. At worst, it is a characterization of social networks which begs the proverbial venture capital question --- so what is it good for, another rolodex?

Maybe with an abundance of networks to uncover, discover and build upon, our resulting enthusiasm has led us to ignore the next step. I think Facebook understands this at least, as they have turned their growth momentum over to their users via apps.

"Now that you've built up your social network, we'll let you purpose it as you please."

All 1's and 0's

2007-08-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

I read an article in the SF Chronicle yesterday about how award-winning producers detest the popularity of MP3's since they are viewed as a less-than-stellar way to appreciate harmonic subleties.

I agree for the most part and I wish consumers had more choices when buying digital music online. I don't mean pick-your-proprietary-format - I mean pick your bitrate / price. Even while I've touted the quality of Napster in the past, paying $9.99 for a degraded-quality album doesn't seem like a deal.

Offer me that, but also offer me the real deal. Lossless audio downloads.

MusicGiants is one of the only shops that is currently offering these for popular releases, but unfortunately for me, their downloads are still tied to the Windows Media DRM system.

YouTube

2007-07-30T17:26:00.000-04:00

If, indeed, YouTube plans to automatically screen uploaded content, we should all be worried. I have not seen the process they are using to identify content, but unless they have hired a massive army of (ironically imperfect) human censor-monkeys, I do not trust that First Amendment (free speech) and Fair Use content will be saved.

How can you parody or remix a work when your infringement filter is automated?

How can you express your opinion about a contemporary and important social issue when mentioning its name or showing short clips of it (too often, i'm guessing) will get you automatically removed?

Even worse, who else will know this is happening?

Who is creating these filters?

What broad strokes are the plaintiffs requiring Google detect?

I won't believe it 'till I see it on this one --- automatic removal runs counter to our legal system, in just the same way that conviction might precede trial or proof of wrong-doing. Once again, we are creating an advantaged-disadvantaged situation between the "media conglomerate producer" and the "average content consumer".

I would hope Google has the foresight to realize this before moving forward. To all the greedy companies out there who might claim that YouTube-esque exposure has done irreparable damage to their revenue, reputation or viewership, I'd like to see exactly how this has affected:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

-taken verbatim from the US Code TITLE 17 > CHAPTER 1 > § 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

The Modern PC Survival Guide

2007-07-25T16:47:00.001-04:00

I think everyone has their own list of favorite programs and tools that they install first-thing on a fresh (Windows) desktop. Here are my essential open source or freeware tools:

7-zip : for compression and zip files

bitpim: for interfacing with my mobile phone

Exact Audio Copy: for all CD ripping purposes

Eclipse: for all serious or complicated software development and compilation

ffdshow: codecs for audio and video, rolled almost daily

FileZilla: for all FTP needs

Firefox: duh.

foobar2000: great audio player for many formats, supports high quality kernel streaming

MediaPlayerClassic: no hassle media player, no install needed, comes through in a pinch

NotePad++: best text editor i've used in Windows. Used for scripting, html, php, text.

VLC: when you absolutely, positively, need to play a media file, this will do it, no questions asked.

WAMP: Apache HTTP server, MySQL database, PHP5 install bundle, webdev in a box.

Wireshark: For all your network packet needs.

All of which are American dreams

2007-07-25T16:41:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some reading and everyone should take a minute to thank their local library: The ALA is one of the coolest, consumer-rights advocacy groups out there!

They've challenged (in court) the proposed broadcast flag recommended to the FCC, fought COPA in its various forms (mandatory censorship) and have opposed the PATRIOT Act and suggested major revisions to the DMCA!

While their interests are probably more accurately expressed as advocating free speech and free access to public information, they have championed the same causes as many technologically literate copyright reformers.

This is the kind of watchdog group I'm glad to have looking out for me.

Deep Red & Black

2007-07-19T18:36:00.000-04:00

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070716/full/070716-13.html

Looks like some researchers have finally "solved" checkers and mapped the winning strategies.

Pan's Labyrinth

2007-07-18T00:42:00.000-04:00

I just finished watching Pan's Labyrinth, and I have to say, it's one of the best movies I've seen in a while...it just oozes style and dark fantasy. I like the position of the main character, Ofelia, who is struggling to keep her fairy-tale world alive while being thrust into the ominous world around her. Ironically, she seems more at home in her scary fantasies than in her own bedroom.

But back to the style --- it's just amazing. You have to see some of these costumes and effects to believe them. There's just something undeniably refreshing and kick-ass about this movie. Take the faun, for example. You're never quite sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy, as he interacts with Ofelia. He has deliciously evil posturing and says really sketchy things, but some of his actions turn out to be quite helpful.

Two more notes: you can tell this is a foreign film, just by the way they choose to show grotesque moments...haha. It's definitely not based on hollywood. Also, I have to admit, this reminded me of American McGee's: Alice, another awesome "twisted" fairy-tale story (although it's a computer game). Both are awesomely stylish and entertaining, if you can dig the themes. Also reminds me of the movie The Cell for some reason.

(Walk me out in the) Morning Dew

2007-07-14T18:21:00.000-04:00

I need to work on my zen-like calm. Listening to the Grateful Dead helps, esp. their mellow numbers.

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

2007-07-09T21:28:00.000-04:00

The housing search is complete! We are now the proud renters of a 3 bedroom, 2 and 1/2 bathroom and 2-car garage townhome in Mountain View! I will be the last to move in, but I know it will be sooner than expected.

Looking forward to awesome cafes!

2007-07-06T18:21:00.000-04:00

I'm out in California apartment-hunting this week. This means I'm also checking out local cafes and restaurants, and I have to say, I'm very excited! There are some real gems here -- like Neto's Cafe in Mountain View.

This is a fresh mint leaf - lemon and sugar smoothie that I ordered, and it's so refreshing, minty and lip-puckering, i'm sure it'll become an instant classic.

The Delicate Art of Sake Bombing

2007-07-04T01:07:00.000-04:00

I had dinner tonight in a downtown Palo Alto sushi joint called Miyake's, which while not being my first sushi experience, nor even my first Miyake's, was quite entertaining!

Let me explain the difference between East Coast and West Coast sake bombing (or what I've observed so far of it): The East Coast style involves delicately balancing your sake on a pair of chopsticks suspended on top of your beer, while the West Coast style involves delicately balancing yourself on top of your chair (standing) while holding the sake inside of the beer glass. In the East, you bang on the tables and yell "Sake Sake Sake Bomb!", while in the West, it becomes a participatory game between you and your waiters:

Waitor: Sake
You: BOMB!
Watier: Sake!
You: BOMB!
...
and then you drink.

At West-Coast Miyake's, as soon as someone yelled Sake Bomb! the lights dimmed, disco lights came up, and dance music started playing -- someone even turned on a fog machine.

So which is better?

The East Coast version, obviously :-P It requires more skill to balance your sake on chopsticks, the table-banging incorporates the chant into the actual drinking event, and no one breaks their neck. Those West Coast sake bomb cowboys are just crazy ;)

---

On another note, the Palo Alto restaurant also had special rolls for many of the companies in the area: You could order Microsoft, Cisco, HP, IBM, Apple, Google and Sun rolls, to name a few. Yes, Neil tried a Cisco, and I tried a Google.

I should have learned by now,

2007-06-27T19:22:00.001-04:00

When computers run slowly, it's usually for *some* reason:

Such as huge freaking dust bunnies of doom preventing my cpu fan from spinning. No fan -> hot cpu -> slow cpu -> not good times. Removing dust solves the problem!

Apartments, California-style

2007-06-25T20:24:00.000-04:00

I'm in the middle of apartment hunting for a place to live in the South Bay Area, California. I hadn't realized how hard it was to look for housing across the country until I began a few weeks ago! I can tell just from the different places I've called and looked at online that my options will vary from psychotic, liberally worded classifieds postings to excessively persistent and eager professional apartment complexes. And did I mention bears? Oh my!

Ideally, I'd like to find a nice 2-3 bedroom place that is within easy biking distance of work. I will be getting a car when I move, because, my new location, like my surburban home town, has nothing of use within walking distance. However, after the beautiful summer I spent in south bay last year, I think biking to work is pretty much the greatest thing ever. I would like a "nice" place to live, where I don't have to worry about the kitchen exploding or the walls falling down, but I don't want to spend too much on a fancy business executive suite either. Housing should be cheap! I can only imagine this market is supported by our good, old friend, Supply and Demand.

Once I've found a place, a 2-3 bedroom within biking distance (c'mon...c'mon...), I will breathe a huge sigh of relief -- because I can finish planning the rest of my summer and buy a few remaining plane tickets!

A "few", you ask? More details to come...

Lessig goes after corruption

2007-06-20T19:07:00.000-04:00

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003800.shtml#003800

In an interesting turn of events, Lawrence Lessig, IP academic-extraordinaire, has announced he is switching his research focus from IP to the (more general) problem of systemic corruption. This will be interesting to follow...

The 161-step program

2007-06-14T14:14:00.000-04:00

Cornell-withdrawal? Not quite yet, since I'm still in Ithaca. Spending my last days here with Joowon, Neil and my other friends before I head out to California -- the golden shore. If you're still in Ithaca, say hi!

I have two main activities that should be consuming my time:
(1) a research project with two awesome grad students and an equally awesome professor

(2) a housing search with Neil (we're looking at the South Bay Area)

But, as always, Ithaca summers have their own effect...

- Night-time group get-togethers (made even better by long-time friends)
- BBQ's
- Exercising outdoors
- Catching up on all the entertainment (read: video games and movies) I've missed

I always thought graduating and leaving home for good would be hard -- as hard as moving to college four years ago, or harder -- like leaving one life behind and starting fresh. But I'm realizing that, instead, I'm excited. It's time to get busy, make a difference and shake things up. It's time to prepare for a future in product management, cyberlaw, or better yet --- time to let my interests guide an open mind.

I have great friends around me, here in Ithaca and this coming year in California. I wonder why I'm not nostalgic, and I think it has to do with the connections I've made here. For all of us, moving on to bigger and better things shouldn't be a 161-step program. Great memories and great friends going forward.

-matt

-------
Over the next few weeks, I'll:
(1) work on my research project
(2) identify housing options
(3) say goodbye to Joowon

Bob Weir

2007-05-31T18:36:00.000-04:00

How have you changed - personally, emotionally - since your glorious hippie youth?

[Long Pause] I don't know if there's much that's different now. I've basically been a professional adolescent all my life. I couldn't have been more fortunate. What worked for me then - that outlook still works for me now. It could come crashing down tomorrow. I may be unprepared for something that's right around the corner. But I haven't changed that much. I still keep my eyes as wide open as I can. And I have as much energy to get into as much different stuff as I did when I was in my teens and early twenties.

-Bob Weir, Grateful Dead Guitarist in Rolling Stone, May 2007

Random Thoughts

2007-05-23T21:04:00.001-04:00

Everyone needs a crazy hat collection, because, you never know.

Vegas, baby, Vegas!

2007-05-22T20:58:00.000-04:00

So the first time I ever win a raffle, I win BIG --- the grand prize at Casino Night, a $600 check for a trip to Las Vegas!

It was a very unusual night for me - I made a ton of money doubling down on Blackjack and I got ahead to an early start in the Raffle tickets.

The mojo was insane :-P

So now the big question. Who do I take with me? ;)

removing wine labels

2007-05-17T15:35:00.000-04:00

Joowon discovered the secret for new-world wine label removal:

Bake in the oven @ 200deg for ~20min

My Summer Reading List

2007-05-11T15:24:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again...when I start to tell myself what I'll (hopefully) accomplish during the summer. My theory is, if I give myself enough interesting things to do, I'll actually end up completing most of them ;)

So here's my summer readings list, so far:

(1) Information Rules by Shapiro and Varian

(2) Wired Shut by Tarleton Gillespie

(3) The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
(4) A Scanner, Darkly
(5) Python in a Nutshell (reading from last summer I never got around to)

PC World E-I-C Resigns Admist Scuttled Apple Story: Bias for Advertisers

2007-05-03T18:10:00.000-04:00

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/05/pc_world_editor.html

If this is true, I'd just like to say that I had inklings of this from a while back. One day, say maybe 2002-2003, I realized that there never seemed to be any (negative) reviews of AOL products or services. I found this surprising, considering AOL still effects much of the computer market. Shortly thereafter, I found AOL had financial relations with PC World, and I let my subscription run out. I might have been wrong, but I haven't looked back since.

Good for your, Harry :)

Conventional Wisdom

2007-04-27T13:47:00.000-04:00

I always wish I had known these things when I first started college:

Hughes Breakfast & Lunch - Quite possibly the best and cheapest breakfast food anywhere on campus. With real ingredients, fresh eggs and Starbucks-brewed coffee (take it or leave it). Little known and great for winding down on Fridays.

Oakenshield's Trays - Are the most aerodynamically pleasing and sturdy trays for traying down Libe.

Cornell v. Colgate Hockey - The rivalry and atmosphere is near the heights of Cornell v. Harvard (sucks), but the tickets are a half to a third of the price ;)

Overnight Course Reserves - Impossible? Never! Just make sure you take them out right before close, and ask nicely.

24-hour laptop loans - at Carpenter Library.

Phillips 101 Movies - Want to watch Lord of the Rings or Tombstone on the big screen? Don't have a car? Bring your laptop to Phillips 101 on a Friday night and hook it up at the lectern. Voila! Big screen entertainment and movie theater-style seating.

Info Sessions and Career Fairs - The best places to mooch free goodies and excellent, catered food. Even if you're not looking for a job, it pays to stop by these events. The career fair will probably even provide you with a bag for your haul. And who knows, you may actually see something you like.

Collegetown Eating Deals -

Nine's deepdish slices
Souvlaki House Calzones
Bento Box lunch specials at Plum Tree

Have more advice? Send me ideas and I'll post them :)

Campus Film (Destruction!)

2007-04-11T17:29:00.000-04:00

I just sent in my first roll of film to be developed on campus since 2003. Let's hope it doesn't come back like the last roll did, ripped and melted. Seriously, I'm crossing my fingers, haha...

2007-04-08T19:45:00.000-04:00

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." - Babe Ruth

2007-04-07T22:19:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

- Dr. Seuss (Attributed)

Tip of the Day: Don't put "secrets" in plain sight

2007-04-05T12:34:00.000-04:00

http://::your site::/::server::/::id::_::secret::_::size::.jpg

If you're trying to protect content on your site, you really shouldn't be putting this in the html:

id = some number
server = some 2-digit number
secret = some hexadecimal hash

Might not work too well if people start using it to fill in the above url.

College Students to sway Vista sales slump?

2007-04-05T12:13:00.000-04:00

About a week ago, my closest ~2,000 engineering friends and I were pleasantly surprised to see Microsoft on campus - handing out free copies of Windows Vista for students! Like anything worthwhile and offered for free, all of the physical copies the MS folk had brought along quickly evaporated.

But being the nice, kind people that they are, Microsoft took the names and email addresses of students down on plain notebook paper -- with the promise of delivering a Vista license key to your inbox.

Too good to be true?

While I haven't received my Vista key yet (only requirement was 'being an engineer'), this move makes sense if you think about adoption of a new OS. Why give away your expensive, flagship product?

(1) Us computer-types are first-adopters and likely to influence others in their decision to upgrade.

(2) Could we possibly be counted as "Vista Sales"? Might this be a ploy to pump up the number of Vista purchases MS can report...to further encourage sales?

It's a tipping point all over again. Encourage early adopters (and those with influence, power) with incentives. Get enough initial support to sway a critical mass. Profit. :-P

I'm willing to be a Vista guinea pig. I signed up. I'm waiting!

The "New" Napster has aged well

2007-03-20T12:54:00.000-04:00

(Logo copyright/trademark of Napster, Inc., reproduced without permission or endorsement. This blog post in no way reflects the views or opinions of Napster, Inc. I will remove at the request of Napster, Inc., if so desired, but as this is a positive review, I think they may enjoy the publicity :) ).

About a year ago, I was in a tight spot. I was about to begin a summer internship on the west coast, and I had no easy way to bring all of my music with me! I was MP3 player-less, storage deficient, and iPod-free. Instead of doing the easiest, and most expensive thing (buying an iPod), I opted for a $9.99/mo subscription to Napster's new music service.

And almost a year later, I'm still a content, paying subscriber. Let me explain why:

1) Napster's music collection is expanding, rapidly.
On a weekly basis, new albums are added. These are also not filler albums, but new popular releases like Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fall Out Boy, etc. You can easily spend half a day exploring new albums and tracks with their PC client. They now claim over 3 million tracks. Even better, if you don't know exactly what you're looking for, Napster has a decent collection of pre-selected playlists for different moods and categories - that let you seem like you're a good DJ ;)

2) Beautiful, beautiful freedom.
I am a computer and IP libertarian. I demand the utmost flexibility in personal use, and I abhor any restrictions on "unlimited" accounts of any kind. Napster has done a great job of offering the vast majority (some artists are still purchase only $.99 tracks) of their library for unlimited download. This means, if I feel so inclined, I can download complete discographies. I can convert most of my music collection to Napster tracks (I have downloaded over 26GB of music from napster to replace inferior-quality recordings).

What's even more awesome? I can login to www.napster.com and get low-fi streaming access to the same material from work! over port 80! This means I can listen to music at work, with little chance that my office IT guy will block the stream (little bandwidth, port 80). It's not quite music-on-the-go (a $14.99/mo plan), but it's music in n locations, as opposed to the 3 computers you may use with the Napster client.

3) DRM? Optional. For now.
While this seems a little deceiving, as Napster distributes all of its content with Windows WMA DRM containers and license keys, this has several advantages to the end user. *gasp*. It means, if you so choose to violate the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, you can make *backups* of your napster music files! With no DRM! Imagine converting your entire Napster music library to DRM-free music files. This means:

(1) You can transfer your Napster wma's to any device or computer that can play wma's
(2) You can convert your wma's to MP3 for use on the ipod, etc.
(3) You can backup your Napster music library anywhere.
(4) You can stream your music over programs like WinAmp, Foobar2k, etc for parties.

This is all possible via currently-available, 3rd party and highly illegal (via the hotly debated, but still-counts-as-law, DMCA) applications that strip the WMA DRM encryption from your files. It's available now, you can do it, and as long as Napster chooses WMA and hackers stay one step ahead of Microsoft, you could do all of the above :). YMMV and do not take my description as an endorsement or encouragement to violate any law.

4) Quality - Not Pin Drop, But Not Bad (192kbps)
One of my personal pet peeves in music services is their lack of interest in serving high quality music. If I pay for my music, and I usually end up paying as much as a CD would cost, I expect quality that rivals the CD's quality! Most (if not all) Napster tracks are now available in 192kbps, which is leaps and bounds above their 128kbps encoding of a year or so ago. It does make a difference in listening, even with modest equipment. This is quality you can be happy with (for the time being) and amplify to party volumes without disappointment.

Note: The Napster Client program is required for 192kbps streams and downloads.

Any bad here? Sure.

(-) the Napster Windows client is horribly slow and greedy.
(-) the meta-data for albums is not perfect, and some are mislabeled or duplicated.
(-) the download speeds fluctuate greatly. The lowest rate is around streaming speed: ~30kbps.
(I would not be surprised if Napster rate-limited large download queues)
(-) built-in DRM is not fun to deal with.
(-) bad file organization. Napster wants to dump all its downloads in the same large folder. This creates huge delays when refreshing the folder, and huge annoyances when using other WMA playback programs to select tracks.
(-) advertisements on their subscription-user web player. If i'm paying $9.99/mo, I don't want ads.
(-) No option for lossless WMA. I would pay a higher price. I've heard Napster stores in some lossless form, and that they can batch convert their entire library to a new bitrate with relatively little effort.

All in all, this feels like the best option out their for users today. It's hard to beat their selection and subscription pricing. Find me a young music pirate who refuses to pay $9.99/mo for music, and I'll find you a kid who doesn't need those few extra bottles of Coca-Cola or that one extra movie ticket.

Viacom v. GooTube

2007-03-18T23:39:00.000-04:00

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003734.shtml

Lessig makes some good points.

Hello, World

2007-03-11T17:30:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, actions speak louder than words. Sometimes, you can't affect a change by asking nicely, arguing well or appealing to logic. And once in a while, you really need to shake things up to make a difference.

Lead by example. Shake up the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJe2Hxgw7Wg