Snow in Redmond...

Well, if my team at work was still part of the reserves, we would have had the day off, which is kinda ridiculous because the snow didn't even start until about 6 or 7PM.  The reserves had the day off because the Lake Washington School District didn't have school today, but the crazy part is that the roads were perfectly fine this morning.  So, our lab had to go in, but there is a chance that tomorrow will be a bad day for driving.  I guess that doesn't really give anyone on our team an excuse because we all live pretty close to work, but it might mean another day without the extra people we requested from the reserves team... anyway, enough about work.

I recently discovered that Comerica started charging me a ridiculous fee because I'm not keeping enough money in the account... so now I need to mail them a letter so they will close that account.  I figure that I can't even use the account, and BECU is so awesome that I don't need a stupid bank that charges me money to keep my money there.  Plus, with BECU, I not only have access to a credit unions here in Washington, but all over the country, which is something that Comerica just doesn't offer.

So, other than that, I got some lens filters for my new camera, and I plan on running around and playing with them this weekend, but for now, I just have another HDR photo of the parking lot outside my apartment... which now has snow!

Anyway, that's it for now.

Later,

     SteveO

New camera... again.

     So, the story begins again... a new camera.  This time I decided to get the extra warranty because I have really bad luck with cameras.  So, if I break this camera in the next 3 years, then I'll be able to get the camera fixed, or I'll get money to replace it.  One or the other. So, I am almost hoping that I can break the camera in the next three years... in a way.

     So, of coarse, I have to go around and test out the new camera right?  Well, that's exactly what I did.  I started off with a picture of a dimly lit road at night.  So, I took a picture of the road I walk Jaani down every night after work.  I figure, sense I walk here every day, I should have a picture for future reference right?  Anyway, the camera has an awesome sensor in it, and that means good looking low light pictures without a tripod.  That is the difference between my old camera and my new camera.  This image would have required a tripod with my Power Shot SD970 IS Digital Elf, but with the Cannon S95, it turns out just fine.
     I am not the only person who has noticed this.  In fact, there is a reason the S95 has a 5-star product rating on Amazon, but the SD970 IS only has 4.  The one catch is that the S95 has a lot of manual settings that could be a little intimidating for people who don't share my desire to tinker and fiddle with tons of settings.  However, it's a great camera for me.
     If you are wondering what happened to my old camera, it is getting another lens error.  Only, this time, I can't just pop the lens back on to the track.  This time, the camera is really screwed.  I can't get it to move at all, but if I pay about $250 I can get a replacement part that will fix the problem (and replaced the scratched lens).
     So, about the new camera, I went out and took a bunch of pictures.  I really haven't used the flash for many of my pictures, and I haven't put any photos that used the flash into the slideshow below.  I have to say, that I am really impressed by the HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos; with that feature, the camera takes three different pictures with different exposure times (high, low, and neutral), and blends them together to create a picture that shows the light and dark portions of the picture equally.
     Anyway, I'm happy with the camera so far, and I'm sure I'll have more to say about it soon.  So, until then, enjoy this slideshow of my photos:



Later,

     SteveO

More screens in my office!

So, after a long day of wearing down the battery in my CR-48, I decided to get a picture of all the gadgets together. I have the two laptops, the two netbooks, my Nokia N770 Internet Tablet, Ipod Touch, and my Droid Incredible (phone). All in all, I am representing Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Chrome OS, Android, Meamo, iOS, and (shame) Windows XP. So, needless to say, I have a good representation of most of the popular OSes out there... with the exception of Macintosh, which I don't expect to obtain any time soon.
So, I think it's kinda fun to be able to say I use seven OSes at home on a regular basis, and if you include work, then I run 9 (we use Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 at work)... technically you could even say I run 12 if you include Xbox, Roku, and DD-WRT.
Enough about technicalities. Let's talk more about the Chrome OS Notebook. I went around town using it all day, and I have found it mildly irritating that it doesn't have any sort of real off-line functionality. So irritating, in fact, that it makes me want to re-image it to a real Linux distro... or at least chromium (which would allow me to add more Debian based applications. If Google ever wants people to adopt Chrome OS, they are going to need to add a list of things(without going into developer mode):

• A traditional off-line desktop experience. I really like the idea that was being tossed around when Chrome was first announced about a tab that is permanently pinned to the upper left corner. From that tab, users could have a "desktop" that could use Android widgets and possibly even Andoid apps. Wouldn't that be sweet? You have the same Apps on your computer as you have on your phone/tablet? (I think tablet more so than phone, but why not have phone apps in little windows?)
• A proper file manager.
• Actual support for bluetooth (not just command line utilities only available in developer mode...
• I want a real terminal! the silly crosh thing does not count.

So... after getting home, I caved in and hit the switch to put the CR-48 into developer mode. I just couldn't stand not being able to use SD cards or USB sticks. I am a little annoyed that if I want to open any type of file other than html, pdf, txt, or other type of file typically opened by a web browser, then the content browser tells me it doesn't know what to do with it. This means, that if I want to open a text document on a USB drive, I need to upload it to some sort of web service that will recognize the file then edit the file with that web service. grr.

However, on the bright side... I the "next window" button works very nicely to switch from the browser to a shell and back... plus, I can now view the contents of my SD cards. How you may ask?

I'll tell you:

1. Put the CR-48 into developer mode
   (This means remove the battery and hit the little switch hidden behind a piece of tape.)
2. Once booted, go to open a terminal
   press ++t
   (This is a funky chrome terminal that sort of sucks... so you will want a real bash shell)
3. Open a bash shell
   type "shell" and press enter
4. Become root
   type "sudo su" and press enter
5. Change directory to the Downloads folder using the cd command
   type "cd /home/chronos/user/Downloads" and press enter
6. Create a symbolic link to the /media directory
   type "ln -s /media" and press enter
7. Insert SD card of USB drive
8. press +o to open the content browser.

It's just that ridiculously complicated. I mean, why didn't google just do that in the first place? then they just need to give the chronos user read/write access to the /media directory and there you go, users would be able to read from and save to USB drives and SD cards.

On the not so simple side of things... it doesn't appear that the CR-48 will connect to my blutooth logitech mouse nor my blutooth jawbone headset. I am able to get to a root terminal and use the hcitool to scan for blutooth devices and even get information about the devices, but it won't connect to the devices.

I don't know if any tech savvy people have tried this yet, but if you find anything useful, it would be nice to know.

So... anyway. That is probably way too much babbling about stupid config stuff that should have been done before this thing was shipped, but maybe it will pan out soon.

Later,

SteveO

I got a new CR-48

     So, if you noticed one of my buzz posts from not that long ago... Google sent me a CR-48 notebook computer with Chrome OS loaded on it.  My first impression was that this thing boots really fast.  Then I found out that it came with 100MB a month for the next 2 years; that was awesome to find out, but it only took me a few minutes to realize that I can use that in my sleep... in less than an hour.
     I had a few complaints right out the gate... 1:  No support for USB thumb drives or SD cards... 2: the content browser is a poor replacement for a proper file browser... 3: they replaced the function buttons with some kinda weird buttons, and they don't respond the same way that function buttons respond on a Linux computer.  Specifically, I can't press ctrl+alt+F2 to get to a command line.... at least not without putting it into developer mode... which I will do eventually, but I want to figure out all the bells and whistles first.
     Another thing I didn't like is that, by default, it does not require you to type your password after it wakes up.  Maybe when I first set it up I missed it (which I'll look for after I reset it); however, a quick search on the help  forums revealed that the setting is easily changed within the settings page (which is really close to the newest settings page for the development branch of the chrome browser)... even though I kept "not seeing" it when it was right in front of me.
     I do like how fast it wakes up.  If you just want to surf the web the software is perfect... and if you don't watch a lot of full screen video content, then the hardware is perfect too.  I, on the other hand, watch a lot of video content full screen.  So, I would like to see a better video card if I had purchased it... at least full screen 720p playback is a must!  I mean, my phone can do that...
     As far as the look and feel, they gave me some stickers for it, but I don't think I'll use them.  I like the plain black with no logos look.  It is really sleek and I think I'll keep it that way... at least for a while.  I might end up covering it with stickers like my Lenovo... and Sylvania... computers, but for now, I'm just going to keep it as it is.
     I would have more pictures, but my camera is sort of broken again.  This time the trick I used to fix it last time doesn't work... and actually I think I made it worse by trying to fix it.  However, I haven't given up hope completely yet, and I think I know that I'll get a warranty next time I get a new camera.

Anyhow... that's my first impression of the CR-48 Chrome Notebook.  I'm sure I'll have more in the coming days.

Later,

     SteveO
      

Memoirs of the Pressman

     By the light of my lamp I sit and type... the smoke from a cigarette that burned out some time last year rose from the table, and swirled around the cup of the lamp shade.  I remember days of playing my bass and feeding off of the crowd... listening to Primus... I do the latter more than the former these days.  My writing ends up published on the web rather than buried deep in the pages of a 4X8 inch spiral bound journal covered in pseudo-symmetric doodles... yes - that's the way I roll.  Yet, while I miss it all, I don't miss a thing.  I'm happy to move on to the new things...

     I still find myself inspired by the same things... a random beat, or remembering some crazy explanation of why some song is my favorite...  I like the mood or tone... the sound of deadlines whooshing by... it's some sort of obscure reference that ties two unrelated things together based on a word... like the word deadlines for example...  which ties together the song Pressman with a Douglas Adams quote...  my favorite parts of Pork Soda and Adams... for what it's worth.

     For something completely different, yet not so much - I still find it funny how often I need to explain where frizzlefry comes from.  In some way, it's a testament to how deep by lack of creativity and originality goes, but at the same time... everyone thinks my screen name is short for I am the...  I guess that makes me some what original.  In some small and mostly insignificant way.

    The times have changed... my hair got shorter, but I still remember what it was like to party... of coarse these days it would take me a week to recover from one night of drinking the way I used to every night... I don't smoke anymore... I live 3000 miles... ok, you caught me 2700 miles from where I used to live... although I still have an enormous amount of pride in where I came from... I say I'm from the D... don't F*%! with me... although I'm from the northern suburbs... the city of tomorrow today... the home of automation alley...  but my school mascot is a colt... I swear it's not the mammal.

Anyway... funny tone and all tonight.  I couldn't find a good picture either.  So, I'll call this a post, and maybe someone new will read it.

Later,

     SteveO

Where My Friends are According to Facebook

     So, interesting little thing.  After all these years of using Facebook, I've managed to gather several maps just like the one to the left.  The maps show the general locations of where my Facebook friends are at.  I was thinking I might just make a video of where everyone has moved to and from over time, but in the mean time, it's interesting to look at.

     What caught my eye about the newest map is how, according to Facebook, there is no place in the USA where I am more than about 400 miles away from a friend; unless I go to Northern Texas or North Dakota, I'll be even closer than that.  In reality, I would never be more than about 300 miles away, if you include my friends in SE Colorado, Northern California, South Dakota, and Salt Lake City that don't use Facebook.

     So, there's a little update about what I'm thinking about right now.  Also, while on the subject of Facebook friends, I find it odd that I have 324 friends on Facebook.  That number is really just a running total of all the people I have interacted with (in person) long enough to remember their name (plus a few people I have never met that share my last name), but it just seems odd to have that many people listed as friends when I only interact with a small group on a regular basis.  Perhaps I should begin to reevaluate the criteria for who is my Facebook friend, but if I did that, then I might not be able to find some random person I haven't seen in the past decade.

Later,

     SteveO

Set Course for Anacortes!

     A ferry leaves Friday Harbor under a moon lit sky.  The clouds remain on the horizon, but stay at bay to avoid blocking the light.  The water is smooth, the tailing wind makes for a silent night in the San Juan and Upright Channels.  Large masses of black with the occasional orange or yellow light pass by on both sides.  The glow of green and red lights are the only indicators of our course.

     As the ship passes Decatur Island through Thatcher Pass, the Rosario Strait presents a strong cross wind and the boat begins to sway.  As we get into the middle of the Strait, the waves continue to grow larger, and the swaying becomes more dramatic.  The waves crash on the side of the ship, causing everyone on board to grow tense.

     I stood out on the top deck.  The wind threatens to remove my hat, and the lights of our destination begin to grow brighter.  Shortly the captain will instruct me to go down to the lower deck, where Jaani is waiting in the car.  Katy is reading a book in the passenger cabin, but I remain restless as I stare contently into the blackness.

   Our journey started at 6AM, we departed my home and set course for Friday Harbor.  To get there, we had to take the ferry from Anacortes, and once we arrived we had another ship to catch.  As it turns out, we will spend the majority of the day on the water.  The entire day we were subjected to breath-taking views of the San Juan Islands, sunny skies, and the sight of the Olympic mountains on the Southern Horizon.  The weather the past couple of days has been extraordinarily clear, and perfect for outdoor activities.

     Our goal was to watch sea lions on a large rock off the south end of San Juan Island, but the winds from the Strait of Juan De Fuca decided it would be more fun to throw 8ft waves at us.  The 42ft boat just can't safely navigate around the jagged rocks close enough for us to get a good view.  So, we returned to harbor, but not before finding a few sea otters and bald eagles just hanging around in their natural habitat.  The day was so specular that a minor thing like not accomplishing the goal we originally set out to fulfill... well, it just seemed like a petty complaint not worth recognizing.

     We could not have asked for a better day... well, I guess we could have asked for less wind, but we had no rain, which is a rare find in January around these parts. Jaani was surprisingly good on the boat.  The swaying side to side, and the waves crashing over the bow didn't seem to bother him too much, so long as someone was there to keep him from sliding off the chair.  When we found an off-leash dog park not more than a couple miles from the ferry docks, he got so excited he started to drool and ran as fast as he could for almost half an hour.

The past week has been full of events: The Aquarium, Pike Market, Pacific Science Center, Space Needle, Seattle Center, Experience Music Project, Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle Harbor Tour, Picasso at the Seattle Art Museum, day in the San Juan Islands... having a friend come visit, and giving a proper Seattle tour to a good friend, is one hell of a way to spend a week... well, actually 5 days out of a 10 day period.

All I have to say- at the moment- is that I'm completely beat.  So, I'm going to bed.  I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight, so I hope you all will too.

Later,

     SteveO