my so-called blog (redux)

so the iMac’s gone and i’ve been using my Mac mini for a while.. the Mini’s pretty nice - since I was kinda forced into a general cleanup, I’m benefitting a bunch from that - but it’s (again) not the drastic speed change that I was kinda sorta hoping for. it is faster - 2x 2.0GHz CPUs is faster than 1x 1.8, and especially when that 1.8 is 3yo tech - but everything’s still about as snappy. iTunes works a lot better, though, and the sticking with Apple software is going pretty well aside from Safari 3 being kinda crashprone with Flash.

think I might switch back to DSL - I have something called Simplify Media that basically works as a proxy for DAAP, so I can listen to my iTunes library from work. I can get through about 30s of song before their p2p elimination crap kills my connection. Speakeasy claims I can get 6.0/768k, so I may see about that, or try AT&T again. after I moved last, though, the DSL went from 3.0 to .2 so I’d be surprised if I can actually get 6.0 out here.

in other news, I got a MIDI controller the other day - an M-Audio KeyStation 49e. I have no idea how to play piano, but now I’m reasonably competent at hitting the keys for the notes I want and no others. small steps.

few things:

1. Wendy’s at 12:30 = gross.
2. rollerderby is fun to watch and less violent than expected (which is just a bit disappointing).
3. I am now well on the way to being divested of my iMac. Nov 06-Sep 07 is a pretty good run for me.

so, Wilco puts on a pretty damned good show.

so it was recently brought to my attention that I never update this thing anymore. well, duh. so, in between the last entry in this one, I moved, went back to comcast (because 5 lots down evidently breaks the DSL), and stuff. I’m now rocking a Mac Mini in addition to the iMac temporarily (as of yesterday, even!) which is pretty nice - needs RAM but it’s nice to be able to run Windows and a real OS on one computer. just gotta decide if I wanna keep the printer.

I decided with this new machine to do three things to change my computing habits. first off, I’m gonna get rid of the iMac (usually the old machines linger around for awhile until they’re no longer really saleable). I’m going to be way more choosy about the cruft I move over from the old machine, and the cruft that does get moved is gonna get sorted so that it makes sense for a change. I also made the dubious decision to try to use Apple software where possible on the new machine - so that means I’m using Safari 3 instead of Firefox, and Mail.app instead of Entourage (not like I’d actually use that anyway, it being a piece) or Gmail. iWork has come around to a point where I really don’t need Office anymore - Numbers owns, and Pages has neat word processing modes now, and Keynote’s there if I want to make a slideshow about pandas. so far, I’m liking it - Safari 3 is pretty nice, as evidenced by my recently resized wordpress dialog thingy - but forcing myself to use Mail.app is showing me how craptastic Exchange is. as in, I’m just using the web mail because I can actually see my messages there. hurray Exchange.

I’ve also made an aquisition that’s decidedly non-computery: a 1984 BMW 733i. doesn’t really run now but shouldn’t be too hard to make go again, which is a goal since it’s not in the city. mine’s black with burgundy leather. I’m actually looking forward to having something big and mechanical to work on - it’ll be nerdy in its own ways but also quite a bit more physical. it’s also a stick, so it’ll mean I’ll havta relearn how to drive a bit.

So comcast sucks, and now I have DSL. Yay, 3mbit! I ordered 6. Interwebs suck.

so made it up north quite OK, though with a handy dandy cold. got a really nice set of Grado Labs headphones (who coincidentally also have the shittiest website ever). every time I move up a notch it’s an “omg no way” move - I can hear recording booth echo in stuff now, and it’s awesome. can’t wait to try it on some real CDs. hell, I may have to switch to APE or FLAC encoding now.

I did manage to find one thing that’s been pissing me off a good bit since I saw it. there are some anti-Net Neutrality ads playing implying that it’d cost more for me to actually use Google rather than whatever my ISP deems appropriate. the ads are so bad it’s laughable, but it’s not like there’s a counterpoint being offered in the public media. so, now I have a cause.

so I got an iMac a few days ago.. it’s pretty decent, I’m enjoying it. It has a bad hard drive but I have a firewire enclosure that I wasn’t using so it all works out, really. I really need to get rid of some other stuff now, though. Still have 2 PCs that I could be divested of.

I also added a last.fm tracker to my blog. Since they do personalized charts and all, I’m thinking of going through every week and seeing what it is I’ve been listening to and then coming up with a paragraph or two on whatever the standout act is there. It’d get me to write in this thing more often, if nothing else.

So I think I might go ahead and get ridda a whole bunch of toys I have. I’ve got this XBox I never use and two computers I could part with pretty easily (a 1GHz Celeron and a 2GHz Pentium 4). Heck, I may even get rid of my decent PC - I have a Sempron 2800+ that I only really use for TiVo transfers. I have a whole room dedicated to computer stuff that I’m hardly ever in nowadays (though there’s a lot of stuff in there, much of it not stuff I’d want to part with) so getting rid of all this crap would be nice. Plus, I could buy more shiny afterwards.

So I think NaNoWriMo is a complete failure for me, as I haven’t actually bothered writing anything. Maybe next year, when I’m not so freakin busy.

So I got some new toys - through work managed to get a nicer PowerBook than the one I had. The new one’s a 1.5GHz G4 as opposed to my 1.0GHz TiBook, and has a full 512MB more RAM and 20GB more disk space too (the old was 1GB and 60GB, the new 1.5 and 80). I lose out in SuperDrive but win in warranty. I also got a first-gen white iBook - a 500MHz/128MB machine with nary but a DVD reader (no burning at all!) and an additional 128MB SODIMM. I DIY’ed an Orinoco card into it and scrounged up some more RAM and now it’s a pretty nice machine. I’m pretty amazed at how usable this thing is, given that I have OS X on it and all. The Orinoco card, being quite a bit longer than the reg. Airport card, gives my keyboard a bit of a bulge, though, but it’s still usable. I got a freakin’ awesome deal on both machines, and I’m very happy with them both. (The TiBook still worked well but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, and you can sorta feel it. I’m sure the iBook will feel worse once I start trying to play music on it.) Now I want to see if I can scare up some cash for a 20″ widescreen monitor and/or a laptop stand - then I could use the new G4 as my desktop too. I’m kinda thinking of tasking the iBook as a development box, since it draws very little power (45wt) and I can have the stuff I need on it. It’s not terribly fast but it really doesn’t have to be, either. I’m going to start using my PCs less and less, I think..

Speaking of toys, I need to get rid of my Xbox. Doesn’t do me a whole lot of good.. I haven’t turned it on in like 4 months.

“What would I not do to Tommy Lee.” Recorded for posterity.

I wanna get a new phone; so far I can’t decide between the Nokia 6103 or the Samsung T509 (both through T-Mobile).