Day After Yesterday

so I have a few people that follow me on twitter. I know who they are. It is fine. Every once in a while, I will be notified that a new person is following me… and I am all wth? who? So I go check… only to realize it is basically spam. That is kinda lame. The most recent one was for a conference that I won’t be attending. So it could be considered targeted I guess… but the conference could be targeted to anyone using twitter as a communication tool if you want to step far enough back.

I also have people following me… and I don’t know who they are or what their angle is. One of them appears to be a journalist angle… like following people will be a ‘finger on the pulse’ of the scene or something. My tweets are rarely that topical, but there are obviously some people who have such content that would be worth following. Seems fine by me, but it also seems there would be better ways than monitoring a bunch of random peoples’ tweets, but hey, what do I know.

I am still not sure how I feel about twitter. On one hand, it is nice enough to keep tabs on people. Obviously some people have a higher signal to noise ratio than others, and that will certainly vary from user to user. I feel like I have enough going on. Enough RSS feeds, todo lists, emails, IMs, etc to keep an eye on. I am looking to reduce the inflow of information while still trying to keep up to date with things. And that is one of the great things about twitter, it forces a small form factor. And that very form factor that makes it nice encourages people to post things they wouldn’t post to a blog since it isn’t often very important. Obviously controls are in place to limit the flow and how it reaches me, which is great.

But sometimes I wonder if I care enough. Currently, I am sticking with it.

wordpress 2.5 just came out and I’ll agree with everyone else, it is quite nice. And the instantupgrade plugin worked perfect. 2.5 also offers atuo plugin updates, which is good for lazy people like me.

win win win.

Back in the day, I got a nokia 3650 and I liked it. Symbian was good. But times have changed. There was a time when I had full internet on my symbians, and I could read email and all that. The web was merely acceptable… but it was ok for the time… which was years ago…

A couple years ago I decided that I wasn’t traveling or commuting very much, so I really only needed a phone, not much more. Then I left the other job and started mk2 development and I am spending more time caring about things that I was ignoring outside of 9-5, so I decided I needed a new phone.

When the iPhone came out, I was excited, but the lack of unlocking and the lack of 3rd party apps was a problem. Time fixed that, and I finally picked one up the other day, an 8gb iPhone.

Having a decent web browser is nice. Having real time email is great. Being able to do most of the stuff I do on the internet whereever is nice. I won’t bother with a big review, since chances are you have heard of this iPhone thing. Suffice to say that while it doesn’t do everything I want, it is close and the things I miss are probably possible or will be soon.

Things I would like:

an easy way to ftp into a server, edit an html/php file, and save it. I would prefer not to have to ssh in and use vi or anything. I just want to be able to make a minor changes to webpages on the road if needed.

decent task manager. Why apple can’t sync todos with their other apps (iCal) is beyond me.

I am sure there are others, but I can’t think of them now…

if you google jesus zombie, I am number 5. which is fine. but wth threadless is somehow above me? threadless is too big. I should do some SEO optimization on this page just to see what I can’t achieve…

Dear Fotki

I have been a faithful user of your service for years. I have 18,000+ images there constituting 40+ GB. I have them organized the way I like, and many are tagged. My point is I have a significant investment in your service, and due to that I am paid in full through 2011.

I have never been a big fan of flickr. I have an account there, but I have found their organizational style works great for the stream of consciousness that I used to use when I used to take a lot of photos with my phone. And perhaps I will get back into that. But for actual photo storage, I hate it. I prefer the more traditional style of the fotki organizational model.

That being said, we need an API for premium members. I need to be able to do all the cool stuff that I can do on flickr, with fotki. I need to be able to easily pull photos into another application based on various queries. I need to be able to integrate my fotki library into my other web life. I will NOT use facebook to store my photos, but I would love to be able to easily and automatically pull my fotki pics in.

I have thought about writing a scraper to get them, but that is really really absurd. I have thought about writing something to sync my fotki and flickr accounts, but that is also dumb.

There was talk of an API in a fotki journal post in 2005, but that is the last mention of it I can find.

Please step up to the plate. Mimic the flickr API. It really wouldn’t be that hard. Make it available to the premium members only.

Let me know if you need testers. I will be glad to help however I can.

bryan

I have been trying a few different browsers lately, as the firefox memory usage drives me insane. Sure, I go insane slowly, but seriously.

Firefox 3 Beta

Aside from firebug/web developer/Stylish not working, it is great. Seems faster, and the memory footprint is WAY better. This MIGHT be due to the above mentioned firebug/web developer not working. heh. This is the current winner.

Flock

I gave flock a try again, and it is ok. The toolbar on the left is nice, although it could be improved. It is so… staccato in its presentation. I am currently using it or facebook, twitter, and youtube. I am also not sure that the top of the window is the best way to sift through media. That being said, I did just, as I wrote this, opt to update my twitter, and I went to flock. I could have just as easily gone to the twitter dashboard widget. hmmmm… The other problem is it seems that flock suffers from the memory footprint growth problem as well.

Sunrise

I was excited about the small size of this browser. I can handle a stripped down browser for some stuff. The only issue here is that sunrise seems to quit unexpectedly ALOT. Like I can’t really evaulate the memory usage since it never stays up that long. And I am not hitting any crazy sites either. The link preview image and the bookmarking image are cool features. The window resize tool on the toolbar is nice for development. But seriously, crashing is a big problem. I’ll keep watching it as it matures.

Conclusion…

I think I am going to stay with firefox for most of my stuff, due primarily to the firebug/web developer feature set. But since those are not yet working in Firefox 3 Beta, I am going to keep playing with the others. Perhaps I’ll change my mind for everything that isn’t development.

I know, why would I complain about that a bill hadn’t come yet, especially one as large as my biannual property tax bill. But usually it comes in August… and due to this or that, it only just arrived. The interesting thing is that my property taxes actually went DOWN by about 13%, hardly something I was expecting. The payment site was getting slammed yesterday, but was up this AM. Done and Done.

Someone broke into the camry last night… broke the driver side window and climbed in… the only thing they stole as far as I can tell is the suction cup and clip for the GPS. I assume that they saw the GPS clip and assumed the navigation unit was actually in the car… they opened the glove box and the center console, but since we keep the unit itself in the house. They didn’t take the CDs, the V1, iPass, not even the change sitting out. We might find more missing, but I don’t see it now.

It is annoying though. I cleaned the glass up and put the camry in the garage. I’ll run to the glass store tomorrow and see if I can’t get a piece cheap and swap it in. Annoying, but such is life in the city I guess.

*update* … new glass is $80 from pilsen auto glass, so I will pick that up tomorrow AM and swap the glass and be done.

So while we haven’t signed anything, I think we are buying a new car. We are going to sell the 2002 Toyota Camry that rebecca drives daily and replace it with a 2008 Mazda5.

The camry has been a great car overall. Although it is a bit wide and long, it has nice space in the back seat for the kids and their car seats. It has a nice sized trunk. While I think it is nearly mind numbing to drive, the ride is smooth, gas mileage is great (especially on the highway), and there is enough power to get around. Handling is crap, although it is a bit better since I replaced the stock Bridgestone Potenza RE92s with General UHPs. It would be nice to have an aux in on the stereo for the iPods, but whatever. The problem the camry has is that if we want to go out with 1 other person, we have to take 2 cars, and that is annoying. The 2 car seats in the back take up the entire backseat. The camry otherwise has the space we need to get around and really has been a great car. Aside from oil changes and the like, we have done nothing. And aside from petty vandalism (rock thrown at the car, odd dent on the trunk that appeared, and the keying of the passenger side) it is in amazing shape.

The Mazda5 is a car that has low sales, gets poor reviews because journalists can’t put it in a box, and is pretty much the perfect car for us. Although common in both europe and japan amongst others, the concept of a mini-minivan, or MPV, is not popular here. The Mazda5 is a 6 seater (although it is 7 in japan/europe) in a 2+2+2 arrangement. The 3rd row, albeit tight, can hold an adult for shorter trips. With the 3rd row up, you have virtually no trunk, but that is ok. I am not planning on bringing 6 people on a road trip, just on in town jaunts, etc. Think of it as a Mazda3 (the platform on which the Mazda5 is based and shares most components) where you can trade the trunk for 2 seats. The Mazda3 link is really the other major selling point: this is a car. It is not an SUV, or a minivan, or a hybrid. It is a station wagon with sliding doors and perhaps an identity problem. The weight is in check at 3475lbs. It is shorter then the camry by a noticeable amount, and only a bit longer than my Audi A4 wagon or my mother in laws Acura TSX. It is not lifted off the ground like an SUV. It is nimble (enough) and driving it is much more fun than the camry. Sure, it isn’t an autox car, although I might give it a shot sometime.

While we decided it might be a good car for us, and we had taken an hour long testdrive, I called around and found one to rent for the weekend last friday. We picked the black touring model up from hertz friday night and put about 250-300 miles on it over the weekend. We put the car seats in, we took trips to the store with the kids, ourselves, and other adults. We made older people sit in the way back. We carried larger items that wouldn’t have fit in the other cars easily along with our double stroller, gear, etc. I pushed it on the highway, I blared the stereo, I played with all the buttons, settings, etc. I put the clock in 24hour mode (yay!).

Conclusion: This is a great car for us. We don’t want the SUV thing because they are absurd on so many levels, not the least of which is WE LIVE IN THE CITY. Everything around us is paved. Why give up handling and fuel economy for the visual allure of off road capability? Especially when that rarely comes with the added benefit of more interior space? It is sportier than the camry while still offering a more efficient interior layout for our needs. It can carry more with the 3rd row folded than the camry, and it can carry 4 adults as well as the 2 kids with relative ease. There is even some modding potential if I can talk rebecca into it, as the Mazda3-Mazda5 connection brings with it some aftermarket support. And, optioned out as we want it, MSRP is $22,610. The only thing we are leaving on the table is the “Grand Touring” trim, which adds leather interior, bluetooth handsfree, headed seats/mirrors, rain sensing wipers (I still don’t get this, but I digress), and xenons. While I REALLY want factory xenons, and heated seats and bluetooth would be cool, I WILL NOT buy a leather interior. I ordered cloth in the Audi, and I would rather retro fit xenons as needed then have leather.

The 2008 Mazda5 gets a suite of minor upgrades, but the large plus is the addition of a 5 speed automatic replacing the 4 speed that is currently in the car, and that in and of itself is worth the wait, even though they are dealing on 2007s right now. The 2008 also gets the aux input for the iPods, which is nice too.

It also works out that the dealership my parents have bought 5 cars from in the last 10 years happens to sell Mazdas, and since my sister is replacing HER car, we have a bit of leverage for a good price. I need to get an order in for a blue one, as this will be rebecca’s first NEW car for herself, and that is the color she wants. I am already thinking about snow tires, lowering springs, relay modding, rims, tint, and a few hard wiring projects for the navigation and the V1.

While I can’t figure out exactly why the american population hasn’t embraced this market segment, I have to remind myself that I don’t understand why the average american does most of what they do, so why I would think I could understand this is beyond me. But I am glad I have the opportunity. And needless to say I’ll post some pics when we take delivery.

So rebecca’s dad wanted to convert some vinyl to CDs for group of friends….. he was using a turntable plugged into the mac, but since the turntable wasn’t line level, it wasn’t working… I initially told him to find a cheap receiver at a garage sale and use that as a preamp… A bit later in the day, I was at costco with rebecca and her mom, and they had this usb turntable, so we grabbed it for him.

It was easy enough for rebecca’s dad to use right away, included audio software (both simple and advanced), both mac and PC, and USB and line level outputs. It isn’t amazing or anything, but it works. I am going to borrow it and rip a bunch of my vinyl that I have been missing. Should be fun to have all that old chicago punk from my high school years readily available.