This is “A Geek Observed.” Dan Hallock blogs here. There is a feed if you‘re so inclined.
You can also find me at Flickr & Twitter.
Your auto-compliment: I hope you're having a truly spectacular day. You're a fine specimen of the best humanity has to offer.
Paul Thurrott manages expectations for Microsoft’s cross-platform gaming demo:
So while I’m not saying this won’t happen, I am saying it won’t be a huge deal. Because this what Microsoft does. It just throws stuff out there and sees what sticks. More often then not, it doesn’t stick.
I’d love to be proven wrong down the road. But this has “doesn’t stick” written all over it.
Angry Mouse at DKos puts in a spirited defense of the “angry left.” Money quote:
We like to think of ourselves as somehow above it. We don’t need to be angry; we have facts on our side. We don’t need to be angry; we have justice on our side. We don’t need to be angry; we’re right. And our righteousness should be enough.
But we sacrifice anger at our own expense. Because anger is what motivates us to act. It converts our frustration and feelings of helplessness into something productive. When faced with a stressful situation, we can be paralyzed by our fear or proactive in our anger. And fear never got anything done. But anger? Anger begets action.
Anger is a natural reaction to seeing something we know is wrong. How we express our anger matters, but that feeling, that raw emotion, is important. It’s necessary.
Freddie at L’Hote thinks atheists, despite being right, should sit down and shut up:
One really can become dominated by the things one rejects, and it’s a terrible way to live.…
Sam Harris’s life is dominated by religion. It’s what he thinks about; it’s what he writes about; it’s how he pays the bills. He speaks all over the country about religion, he opines on it constantly, denying it is his constant endeavor. His intellectual and philosophical life could hardly be more centered around religion if he were a monk.
Me? I go weeks without thinking about religion or God. And why would I?
My first response is simply to observe that if you go weeks without thinking about religion or God, I’m curious where you live and who your associates are. Religion interjects itself into my life quite frequently. But to the deeper argument, this comment by “Lynx” on the above post says it quite well, I think:
Harris et. al. are not as passionate as they are because of the deists. I agree that belief in a non-interventionist entirely personal philosophical god is hardly at the top of the list of problems in this world. However it is disingenuous to pretend that this God of the Philosophy Department is the one that dominates our planet.
…You can argue that fathers would still murder their teenage daughters for “dishonoring” them, and that people would still fly planes into buildings or parents would watch children die of preventable disease without calling a doctor even if their was no religion. I disagree but there is a legitimate debate to be had. Also legitimate is to argue that the cure to these societal ills, even if they are caused by religion, is not to undermine the underpinnings of the truth of those religions. Again, that is a strategic debate and it’s perfectly legitimate.
However it is undeniable that religion is not just a matter of personal philosophy, it has real-world, real-person consequences in this world, and hence the idea that atheists are not legitimate in spending time and effort concerning themselves with these real things that they can really see and have really experienced does not compute.
According to the blog Raye Man Kojast, the people in this video are chanting “Do not be afraid, we are all together,” and “Guns, tanks, and Basijis have no effect anymore.”
But look at their faces. Clearly they are afraid. That is what I found so moving about this particular video from today. They are afraid, but they showed up. They understand the stakes, and they chose to be brave. The regime has been brutally cracking down on these protests for months… since July! Knowing how long the road was going to be, knowing that the brutality of the regime and the fear of reprisals were very real, these citizens still took to the streets in the name of freedom and human values. I don’t know that I would have as much courage as they do.
Also moving: the night-time chants continue. First arranged via Twitter, these were a nightly feature of the protests in July. I don’t know if they continue nightly, or if the organization leading up to today’s protests led to their renewal yesterday, but more than 140 days later, the streets still ring at night with citizens calling to heaven for freedom. I don’t share the religiosity which underlies the particular chant (“Allah-o Akbar”)—and of course, Mousavi and the Green Revolution are explicitly reclaiming the words, used with much different overtones in the revolution in the 70s—but the feeling and conviction that underlies the act is deeply human:
I’m frustrated by powerlessness here; not only is there little I can do, I don’t really think there’s very much the United States can do either. I am proud of the role technology and the Internet play, while I’m also quite aware that the Iranian regime has yet to crumble under the weight of green-tinted Twitter avatars. So I watch; I try to understand; I draw inspiration from the brave people of Tehran. I hope that I never live to see circumstances that require this much bravery from me—and if I do, I hope I am equal to the moment.
Patrick Jordan is upset that Tweetie 2 for iPhone will cost the same $3 for upgraders as existing users. Patrick:
I just can’t find a way to think of this as anything less than spitting in the face of existing Tweetie users.…
The whole ‘it’s a completely new app’ argument seems like utter bullshit to me. It is still a Twitter app for **** sake. A slew of new features and functionality does not, to me, make it a different app.…
I understand that Apple likely does not make any of this easy for developers. Even so – very, very bad call. If an ex-jailbreak developer like Snapture Labs can work out manual(and labor intensive) ways to offer a FULL, FREE upgrade from a jailbreak app to an App Store one, then a developer who cares about their users can try to work something out for upgrade pricing. If not, then find a way to cram all the new functionality and features into the existing Tweetie app. Do something to show you care even a tiny bit about your customers.
My response:
A few things.
First: Tweetie _has_ been updated for free for current users. We’re on 1.3.2 now, and there’s been a ton of stuff added. It’s not like you were saddled with some bug-ridden, low-featured 1.0 and left to dry.
Second: The App Store does not offer upgrade pricing. Sure, the Snapture dev(s?) figured something out, and you know, yay for them, but I’d rather my $3 went toward paying Atebits to develop Tweetie, not to develop a complicated, labor-intensive way to offer upgrade pricing.
Third: scale your expectations appropriately to the price, dude. Price _does_ affect the principle of this sort of thing. I demand upgrade pricing in $2000 Adobe suites. I expect upgrade pricing from $50 apps. I’m mildly surprised when I don’t see it in $20 apps. For a $3 iPhone app? Meh.
This world is not yet perfected. In the meantime, give Apple a little time and space and I’m sure we’ll get upgrade pricing in the App Store, give Atebits $3 and I’m sure we’ll get a nice Twitter app, and breathe deeply, sip some nice tea, and I’m sure you’ll feel better. And I’ll bet you $3 that by the time Tweetie 3 rolls around, your wounded heart will have recovered from this offense.
The funny thing is, he’s freaking out over a principle I pretty much agree with. But when it’s $3 and the developer doesn’t have the ability to do it without a bunch of manual labor, I think a chill pill is in order.
Everywhere I have seen this posted, they give away the content before letting you view the video. I think it deserves its own reveal, so I’m posting here so I can link to it. It is a powerful and charming ad.
Ready to go in the oven:
Rumpledethumps are a Scottish dish, generally understood to be a casserole of mashed potatoes with cabbage and onions, often leftover shallow-fried cabbage and onions from a roast. My version expands on the theme a bit, but I love the name and I’m not giving it up.
These are one of the kids’ favorites right now, and I’ve gotten to where I don’t consult a recipe, which can only be a good thing :-)
The basic procedure is this: mash some potatoes (don’t peel them), and mix in generous amounts of butter and cheddar cheese. Not ridiculous, but generous. Include enough milk in the potatoes to make them quite thin (they should be something like the consistency of microwave instant mashed potatoes). Separately, chop and steam whatever reasonably hardy vegetables you have on hand, including greens. Cabbage is the tradition, but this batch includes kale, chard, red leaf lettuce and beet greens. In addition to the greens, I added carrots, broccoli, and zucchini. Finally, chop some onions, green onions, leeks, or the like.
As you might have guessed by now, lots of veggie combinations are good. Just make sure you include onions or something similar, and greens.
Mix the steamed veggies and the mashed potatoes in a casserole. Top with cheese, and bake at 375 until lightly browned. (For a nice finishing touch, pull them out when they’re close to done, add sliced tomatoes on the top and a very light sprinkling of additional cheese; it looks lovely. I didn’t do that with the pictured batch.)
I break with tradition on the steaming, too; sautéing or, as mentioned, using leftover veggies from a roast is typical. But you’re already being generous with the butter and cheese (aren’t you?), so you may as well avoid the oil where you don’t need it.
The end result? Well, it’s a potato casserole, and hopefully you kinda know what to expect. It’s hearty, fulfilling, delicious. Peasant food, in all the good ways.
The boys were eager, so I served up a few portions before I snapped the “after” shot:
This is as simple as it gets for a cucumber salad, and it’s surprising how good it is with just a handful of ingredients. Use roughly equal quantities of tomato, cucumber, and sweet onions, dress with just vinegar or a very lightweight vinaigrette, and top with feta.
Add bell peppers if you have them, and maybe kalamata olives too. But you don’t need them, not as much as you’d expect. This was a huge hit with both kids, and went together in about three minutes flat.
The CSA basket had a visitor while I was photographing it. Exciting this week: eggplant! Also: cukes, zukes, tomatoes, potatoes, basil, leeks, carrots (whose bushy tops the cat is investigating.)
I guess I’m a bit behind in my CSA posts :-)
Sweet peas! Plus zuke, broccoli, cucumbers, basil, and some lovely tomatoes.
(I know I posted last week’s CSA harvest just this morning, but this is this week’s :-)
There’s a bonus photo this week, because I really wanted to take a picture through the fennel foliage. I think it turned out pretty well, excepting the flash making everything too bright.
Carrots, tomatoes, basil, garlic, green onions, and (ugh) another bag of green beans. Most importantly, though: fennel! Fennel is a magically delicious beast, with a rich, artichokey base, flavorful celery-ish stalks, and lots of lightly flavored, very fragrant, almost licorice-ey leaves. I’ve been looking forward to fennel because I have a new approach to try — spicing and baking it, exemplified by this recipe. Fennel is also a great addition to soups, and all sorts of potato dishes, and the leaves and stalks can go in salads.
A bit behind the times, but here’s last week’s basket:
The dominating veggies were a huge bag of green beans (which Jaden, fortunately, likes; I can’t stand the things), and the world’s biggest head of cabbage. I’ve made two recipes with it and used a quarter of the head for each; with recipes that call for a “medium-sized” head. Will make a final double-sized batch of salad tonight.
My most common use of cabbage is sumi salad, a family tradition that I’ve tried to make a little less processed. My grandmother’s version involves using the flavoring packets from ramen noodles, but the MSG and the salt concern me, so I add pepper and step up from canola oil and white vinegar to toasted sesame oil and flavorful vinegars. However… sometimes I’ll throw in half a packet anyway. Moderation, right?
Sumi Salad
Directions
If you have the time and foresight to make the salad ahead, the dressing and cabbage will benefit from marinating for 24 hours. Just toast the ramen and toss it in right before serving so it stays crunchy.
You can toss in all sorts of additions to liven this up and add variety. Pineapple is probably the one I’ve done the most.
This post by Giles Bowkett on his blog is interesting. I think I’ve mostly taken this approach to programming — when I see cool things that I don’t understand, my base response is to try to understand them — but actually thinking about it in the broader perspective of magical versus rational thinking seems like an insight.
I’m from Chicago. I used to live in San Francisco. San Francisco is a beautiful city, but I always used to think it was silly when people from smaller towns called San Francisco “the big city.” Chicago’s population is about 40 times San Francisco’s population, and it felt tiny to me. Beautiful, no doubt, but tiny. That’s how I feel when I hear small-minded programmers calling a few mostly-elegant shortcuts “magic.” Because if you think that’s magic, you haven’t seen shit. That is some Palookaville, Omaha bullshit, and you need to see the fucking world.
…A rational viewpoint will serve you so much better, as a programmer, than a superstitious one. It’s not magic. There is no magic involved. It’s just, if you never learnt Lisp, then you never learned to program, and Ruby’s power is exposing a deficiency in your skills. That’s all.
Review of the Reportage iPhone app, posted to MacWorld because their review annoyed me:
Reportage breaks away from one of the defining elements of Twitter’s user interface, the mixed timeline with everyone’s tweets. Instead, each user gets their own space, and the only tweets you see intermixed with theirs are their replies and mentions.
It’s a nice approach that treats your attention with respect. Instead of jumping around between five different topics among different groups of people, you can follow what someone said, from the last time you checked to their most recent tweet, alongside the responses/conversation that surrounded it, and then move on to the next person.
The Stars interface lets you prioritize friends (in my case, the people I Actually Know In Real Life) so that when you’re doing a quick check-in, and not actually catching up with the whole timeline, you can see at a glance if they’ve posted anything new.
Reportage is a rethinking of just what a Twitter client should be, and I would encourage anyone who uses Twitter to follow people that they actually pay attention to and care about, to give this app a try.
(Aside: I’m bothered by MacWorld’s 2.5-star review, because it seems so personal. Their reviewer, Lex Freidman, says: “If Reportage is fulfilling a Twitter need, it’s not one I have.” Well, that’s fine, but do you give low review scores to every app you don’t personally need? If so, that’s a pretty lousy ratings system.)
Reportage isn’t yet ready to be your only Twitter app, at least if you’re an addict like I am. I use it alongside Birdhouse for posting, and use Tweetie on the Mac, since I’m not always staring at my iPhone. Still, it’s the best thing to happen to Twitter UI in a while, and I hope its ideas spread.
Boot time of my work Mac with the stock Western Digital 7200 RPM drive: 1:05 to the login screen, 0:57 seconds to launch all my startup applications and give me a responsive desktop. A hair over two minutes total.
With a OCZ Vertex 128GB SSD: 0:13 to the login screen, 0:12 to a responsive desktop. It’s so fast that more than 10% of the boot time is me entering my username and password, which appears to take me about 3.5 seconds. (Counted as part of the 0:12 above, if you’re wondering.) Actually, it’s fast enough that the time I’m taking to hit the stopwatch buttons on my phone is probably statistically significant.
Test system is a 2006 Mac Pro, 4×3.0 GHz, 9 GB RAM. Running at startup are Spanning Sync, FontExplorer, Choosy, iStat Menus, Growl, TextExpander, Dragster, Quick Search Box, Mojo helper, Evernote helper, FastScripts, DragThing, DateLine, and Dropbox.