Month: June 2002

a day in the life

I have an idea for a new Apple ad campaign: see title above.

Rather than this switch campaign or other “it’s not Windows” stuff, I’d like to do a time and motion study on someone going through their workday. Reading email, writing documents, handling attachments, researching on the internet, printing, etc. and see how well it all works. Then extend it out over weeks, months. Show how much more work real people can done with the right tool, tools designed around them that they can adjust to suit their work style.

Watching the Alpha Geeks

O’Reilly Network: Tim O’Reilly’s WWDC Keynote Manuscript [May. 16, 2002]

This is how we get most of our good ideas at O’Reilly. We look for people who appear to be doing magic, and ask them how they do it. (Remember Arthur C. Clarke’s dictum: “Any sufficiently advanced technology appears to be magic.”) There are always people in any field who are the most clued in to the deep trends, who seem to be playing with all the coolest stuff, and seem to have their finger in everything before most people even know about it.

Tim O’Reilly thinks OS X is epitomizes the convergence of the open source ethos and real-world pragmatism: see his definition of “guilt-free computing.”

I can’t help but agree. It’s just easier to get things done in OS X.

chicago/deep dish pizza

Made this twice in the last week: it needs some refinement, but here’s a starting point.

It’s pretty hardware-intensive, but nothing unusual. You need a heavy skillet, as in cast-iron heavy. A food processor helps, but is not required.

Shred a cup or two of mozzarella. Drain well, then roughly chop a 28 oz can of whole tomatoes. If you pulse them in the food processor, toss in a clove or two of garlic, a generous amount of basil and oregano, and a few red pepper flakes.

Prepare your other fillings (broccoli, spinach, pepperoni, sausage, etc.).

Preheat the oven to 450.

Take 1/2 pound of pizza dough and make a large round, big enough to fill the pan, right up the sides.

Lay the mozzarella in the bottom, and then add the tomatoes (yes, uncooked: they’ll cook just fine where they’re going).

Add the other fillings, and top with a generous amount of parmesan, then bake until browned: about 40 minutes ought to do it. Let it stand for a few minutes before cutting.

If you have dough in the fridge, this all goes together very quickly, and the long baking time gives you time to make a salad.

this principal must be fired

CNN.com – Standing up for her dreams – June 20, 2002

Her hopes were dashed when the school’s principal said he would not allow her to walk across the stage. His reasons, Malikina says, included safety concerns, liability issues and a complaint she would take too long to cross.

It took her less than a minute to cross the stage at the graduation ceremony that was given to her by local businesses, including Philips Arena, the sports arena that adjoins CNN Center.

What a jerk. His message of intolerance and inflexibility rings loud and clear but not nearly so loudly as Masha Malikina’s one of determination and courage.

FreeBSD == faster BSD?

This is a lot faster than either linux or NetBSD were: even running resource-intensive stuff like KDE doesn’t seem to phase it.

Things load *much* faster, and I have yet to run into a situation where the system is swapping so much, it’s unresponsive.

Still wrestling with sound, and I may have a better understanding of suspend/resume and how I can make it work.

FreeBSD on a laptop

I have found very little comprehensive information about running *BSD on a laptop: Linux has its linux on a laptop site, but there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent for FreeBSD or NetBSD.

The additional links below may help address that.

It’s a ThinkPad A20m/2628:
CPU: Pentium III/Pentium III Xeon/Celeron (597.41-MHz 686-class CPU)
Origin = “GenuineIntel” Id = 0x683 Stepping = 3
Features=0x383f9ff
real memory = 134152192 (131008K bytes)

Things that don’t quite work: sound and apm, but a new kernel (building now) may resolve those.
Continue reading “FreeBSD on a laptop”

the easy way to think globally, act locally

Coupon listing: Seattle-King County

I spotted this coupon book/resource guide at PCC. It’s full of coupons and ideas I can use around the house to make things nicer as well as save money/resources in the process.

And unlike the usual coupon book fare, heavy on movie tickets and food, this one is full of useful stuff, from free Metro bus rides to $500 off a Honda Insight purchase (OK, that’s a little hard to take advantage of), bike tuneups and service, etc.