Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in neil's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
7:25 pm	Quick Update to the AV Post Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Talking to Paul at work today, he surmised that it might be that the encoding was off, and instead of the receiver thinking that the dialog should go to the central channel (in phase on L and R inputs) it should go to the rear channel (out of phase on L and R inputs). I guess that’s a bit simplified for how Prologic works, but the upshot of this talk is that I hooked up my surround speakers to see if the audio was going backwards. Well, no, now it is properly going to the CENTER CHANNEL. Which is great, it works now, but that means that netflix had a bug the other night. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
9:55 pm	A/V equipment sucks Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. I’m pretty annoyed right now. For reasons that I really don’t understand, This American Life Season 2, as seen by Netflix Watch Instantly on Xbox 360 Live was not working properly. The music was working fine, and some sound effects, but not the dialog. Now, I think I should explain a bit how things are wired up. The component output goes into the TV, and the stereo audio outputs WERE going into the satellite inputs on my receiver. This has worked perfectly fine since I bought the 360 last fall – but not tonight. I tried two separate episodes of the series, and both “failed”. I tried some other instant watchable Netflix and it worked. I futzed around with the surround settings on the receiver, and occasionally was able to hear Ira Glass, sounding like he was at the bottom of a well. I turned off the 360 in disgust. On a whim, I tried moving the audio outputs to the VCR inputs on the receiver, and lo-and-behold it just works. I really am not sure why the receiver input matters in this case, but there’s bound to be an explanation. Maybe one of me 5 readers knows. If not it will just be a mystery to me. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
6:35 pm	Apricot Liqueur Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Much like my plum liqueur from last year, I’ve prepared a modified Umeshu. This consists of 1kg of apricots (organically grown in Brentwood!), 750g of rock sugar and 1.5L of shochu (basically 50 proof grain alochol from Japan). It’ll be ready in 6 months to a year. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
11:16 am	Parmesan-Rosemary Biscuits Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. This recipe is for a savory variety of biscuits. You can easily make it a less savory biscuit simply by not adding the parmesan and rosemary. It’s a very simple recipe and pretty much makes serving biscuits out of a tube ridiculous! [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<img [...] </img>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><strong>Originally published at <a href="http://www.squidopus.net/blog/?p=942">Starry Wisdom</a>. You can comment here or <a href="http://www.squidopus.net/blog/?p=942#comments">there</a>.</strong></p><p>This recipe is for a savory variety of biscuits. You can easily make it a less savory biscuit simply by not adding the parmesan and rosemary. It&#8217;s a very simple recipe and pretty much makes serving biscuits out of a tube ridiculous!</p> <p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3345/3647826448_f9bee0612e.jpg"</img></p> <p><strong>Parmesan-Rosemary Biscuits</strong><br /> Courtesy Cook&#8217;s Illustrated, Issue 89</p> <p><em>makes 12 biscuits</em></p> <ul> <li>2 cups (10 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour</li> <li>2 teaspoons baking powder</li> <li>½ teaspoon baking soda</li> <li>1 teaspoon sugar</li> <li>¾ teaspoon table salt</li> <li>¾ cup (1½ oz) grated Parmesan cheese</li> <li>½ teaspoon finely minced fresh rosemary leaves</li> <li>1 cup cold buttermilk</li> <li>8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled 5 minutes, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits</li> </ul> <ol> <li>Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 475. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cheese and rosemary in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons butter in medium bow, stirring until butter forms small clumps.</li> <li>Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from the side of the bowl. Using greased ¼ cup dry measure (or #16 disher) scoop level amounts of batter onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits 1½ inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes.</li> <li>Brush biscuit tops with reamining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.</li> <li>To refresh day old biscuits, heat them in a 300-degree oven for 10 minutes.</li> <ol> (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
1:56 pm	On Food and You Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. On Wednesday (May 27, 2009) I was lucky enough to be able to see a preview performance of the film Food, Inc. at the Metreon. It was actually a Yelp event, probably the best one I’ve been to. In addition to a preview of the movie, the filmmaker Robert Kenner, and Michael Pollan (well known for his food journalism as of late) were on hand for a Q and A after the screening. Since I’ve been interested in the topic of this film for a long time (at least a decade if not more), and have read several major books on the subject (Pollan’s, as well as another contributor to the film, Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation), and I just saw Pollan speak at at a Long Now seminar just a few weeks prior, I didn’t really learn anything new during the movie. However, it was interesting to see things I already knew reinforced by the motion picture medium. The movie is a wonderful survey of the issues related to food health and safety that are in large part a product of the colossal agribusiness system in the United States. There are many origins for the problems we have now, including the “Farm Bill”, particularly how it evolved over the last few decades of the twentieth century; the “fast food” lifestyle of the population of the United States; and, most disturbingly, the vast curtain that’s been drawn across the populations eye’s by agribusiness and their friends in the government. Time is ripe for change in many areas, and we shouldn’t overlook our ‘food’ policy. There is a draft food safety bill currently in congress which addresses many issues of food safety that are cause for concern, but it is far from perfect. Of particular concern to me is that it seems to favor big business by the yearly fee structure, as well as the traceability requirements (particularly the interoperability clause in the bill. Now, paper or an excel spreadsheet should be interoperable, but…). $1000 a year per facility is nothing for big business, but for a small operation it’s a lot of money. True, there is an exemption for farms that sell directly to consumers and restaurants, but there are plenty of small producers who would be adversely affected. I don’t have the full picture of the economics, and I know that funding any changes is important, but this method is particularly regressive. Some sort of sliding scale based on revenue would be a better idea (or perhaps a corporate tax increase? there’s always hoping). There is also a call out to put in a requirement for facilities to self-test for pathogens and report positive results, which seems like a good idea, but not a panacea. I’ll be honest, I don’t know exactly what this bill should do or how it should be changed to be most effective and fair. I did read this interesting blog post that argues that smaller is better, and in a lot of ways that makes sense at many levels (except the top, but frankly, feck them). Now, a small food producer is not necessarily safer than a large food producer, BUT any negative outcome of their production would be contained. And smaller generally means more local, which means savings in carbon output (but, well, this is a complex issue since the majority of carbon used in farming is in the growing of the crops, not in the transportation - and anyway, exploiting the various seasons across the country makes sense. Just because I live in CA and can get fresh produce year round from local farms doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t export our food to the rest of the country). We’re used to some things in this country. Super cheap junk food, cheap meat, and expensive vegetables. This leads to a particularly awful, unhealthy, and ecologically unsound diet. A little bit of change in the way americans eat (and the way our food is provided), could have vast implications in our health, and environment. It’s a very tangled web, and I could probably talk or write about this for hours and still be making almost no sense to anyone who is new to the issues. But the important thing I want to do is get people thinking, because thinking about these issues brings up some inconvenient truths. And I can’t see a better way to get this into the mainstream than Kenner’s movie. I urge everyone to see it, and to suggest it to everyone they know. I also urge you to contact your congresspeople and urge them to give us a useful and sane food safety bill - something that’s been needed for a long time. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
12:34 pm	Hummus Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. I had people over yesterday, and one of the things I provided to eat was hummus. In general, I think it’s a great party food because almost everyone likes it (and I don’t think I want anyone who doesn’t like it at my place!), it’s healthy, and it’s actually pretty easy to make. Here is the recipe I used, which I think I grabbed from Cook’s Illustrated, but I am too lazy to go look that up, and I already had it pasted in to my email for some reason. Note: this can easily be doubled Restaurant Style Hummus 3 tablespoons juice from 1 to 2 lemons 1/4 cup water 6 tablespoons tahini stirred well 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus extra for drizzling 1 (14 ounce) can chickpeas, drained or rinsed 1 small garlic clove, minced or pressed (about 1/2 teaspoon) 1/2 teaspoon table salt 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin pinch cayenne 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro or parsley leaves Combine lemon juice and water in small bowl or measuring cup. Whisk together tahini and 2 tablespoons oil in second small bowl or measuring cup. Set aside 2 tablespoons chickpeas for garnish. Process remaining chickpeas, garlic, salt, cumin, and cayenne in food processor until almost fully ground, about 15 seconds. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. With machine running add lemon juice-water mixture in a steady stream through feed tube. Scrape down bowl and continue to process for 1 minute. With machine running, add oil-tahini mixture in steady stream through feed tube; continue to process until hummus is smooth and creamy, about 15 seconds. Scrape down bowl as needed. Transfer hummus to serving bowl, sprinkle reserved chickpeas and cilantro/parsley over surface, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand until flavors meld, at least 30 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil and serve. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
10:01 pm	Star Trek Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. I saw Star Trek (2009) twice - once with my parents while I was in Chicago (on IMAX), and then again when I got back to San Francisco with Mackenzie (35mm). It was worth seeing twice, honestly. Which means I’m already saying I like the movie before I start talking about it. So, without any spoilers, I will just say that J.J. Abrams hit a home run with this movie. It’s far from perfect - if you spend enough time thinking about the story, you’ll get a bit disgruntled, but then again, it’s Star Trek - meaning it’s supposed to be entertaining and one hopes that any literary deficiencies in the movie would not get in the way of that. And this movie succeeds in spades in that regard. The casting is quite good, with the actors capturing the essence and feeling of the roles they are replaying - oh and the villain is good too. And cool special effects. Yes, I liked it. 7 out of 8.1 rabbit turds. (Comment on this)
10:46 am	The Outcome Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. So, I failed in my quest to babble about all six ballot props, but you can rest assured that 1E was as misguided as the rest of them. I guess the populace wasn’t really hearing it either, since the results of the election were pretty pathetic (source: Secretary of State’s Web Site): outcome Proposition Title Yes Votes % No Votes % N 1A “Rainy Day” Budget Stabilization Fund 1,334,724 34.1% 2,569,677 65.9% N 1B Education Funding. Payment Plan. 1,460,630 37.4% 2,435,276 62.6% N 1C Lottery Modernization Act 1,376,145 35.4% 2,507,236 64.6% N 1D Children’s Services Funding 1,331,624 34.3% 2,550,562 65.7% N 1E Mental Health Funding 1,299,638 33.6% 2,563,412 66.4% Y 1F Elected Officials Salaries 2,874,524 73.9% 1,016,557 26.1% The only thing that passed is the “useless anyway you look at it” Proposition 1F. But really as a whole, you can see this election as a referendum on the Legislature. They aren’t doing what we are electing them to do, and I hope that people remember this at the next general election and vote them out. In the meanwhile, maybe they’ll do their job. This goes double for the GOP members who have to learn that occasionally one must “disagree and commit”. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
4:49 pm	Proposition 1D - kid’s can’t vote Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. This proposition is pretty much everything I abhor about the proposition system. 10 years ago, Proposition 10 was passed, which created a tobacco tax to fund early childhood development programs. Now, only a bit more than 10 years later, the legislature is telling the electorate it wants to raid this fund, clearing out the current savings, as well as using current revenue for general fund purposes. Of course, it is claimed that the money will be used to help fund children; Proposition 1D Protects Children’s Services Funding. Helps Balance State Budget Temporarily provides greater flexibility in funding to preserve health and human services for young children while helping balance the state budget in a difficult economy. But if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. The budget is broken, and it needs to be fixed, but robbing Peter to pay Paul isn’t the way to do it. The state needs new sources of revenue (not just new ways of shifting spending), and this can only be accomplished with new taxes - oh which the legislature is doing, but underhandedly, since they don’t require voter approval, but imposed in a very unfair way. With income and sales taxes as the most profitable revenue sources, the budget is going to always be doomed to follow whatever fate consumers are feeling. Without a strong corporate and in particular corporate real estate tax base, there is no real solution. Until I see a real effort of compromise from the state GOP, I’m not going to take anything of this sort seriously. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
2:55 pm	Proposition 1F (aka the feel-good Amendment) Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. I’m going to go out of order here and post about 1F before doing 1D and 1E in the next day or two. Here is the text of 1F from the ballot: Proposition 1F. Elected Officials’ Salaries. Prevents Pay Increases During Budget Deficit Years — State of California (Legislative Constitutional Amendment - Majority Approval Required) Encourages balanced state budgets by preventing elected Members of the Legislature and statewide constitutional officers, including the Governor, from receiving pay raises in years when the state is running a deficit. Directs the Director of Finance to determine whether a given year is a deficit year. Prevents the Citizens Compensation Commission from increasing elected officials’ salaries in years when the state Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties is in the negative by an amount equal to or greater than one percent of the General Fund. Fiscal Impact: Minor state savings related to elected state officials’ salaries in some cases when the state is expected to end the year with a budget deficit. I guess I can’t really argue with this in substance. There is nothing wrong with the Legislature not getting raises in deficit years, but this is also a brain dead amendment which we shouldn’t need. Putting this on the ballot is to let the electorate pat themselves son the back and make them feel like they did something good - although, as Chris Rock says, you don’t give people credit for not doing what their not supposed to do. It seems that there is a pretty good chance that this is the only measure that will pass. And well, I don’t really care either way on it. It’s not going to really fix anything, but it won’t hurt either. So yea, let’s all feel-good! (Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
10:09 pm	Proposition 1C - The Lottery Fiasco Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. From what I can tell, the Lottery in California is considered to be a failure. It passed in 1984 (Prop 37) as a way to raise more money for education without raising taxes, but the general sentiment is that it hasn’t been particular effective. And because of this, the legislature now wants to bet that it will be successful in the future, and borrow against this future success. Oh, and and the same time, the limitation towards only spending the proceeds towards education is going to go away. Instead the legislature would need to appropriate general fund revenues equal to the 2009-2009 lottery year (adjusted for inflation, student counts, etc) per perpetuity. So, a bumper crop of lottery would mean nary for education. The real purpose of this bill is to allow deficit spending (a violation of the current balanced budget amendment passed in Prop 58). Borrowing agains the future to pay the present is clearly the proper solution to any sort of budget. Never mind that future revenues are unpredictable. Never mind that the reason the lottery likely passed in the first place was that it was designed to fund ONLY education. It’s just “slight of math” to look impressive and do nothing of true value. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
2:43 pm	Propositions 1A and 1B Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Warning - ranty post below. Originally I planned to write an entry for each of the six ballot propositions, and explore them separately, but there is no separating 1B from 1A (for reasons tobeexplained below) so I am going to treat them as a package. First of all, let’s look at the two measures as they appear on the ballot: Proposition 1A. State Budget. Changes California Budget Process. Limits State Spending. Increases “Rainy Day” Budget Stabilization Fund — State of California (Legislative Constitutional Amendment - Majority Approval Required) Changes the budget process. Could limit future deficits and spending by increasing the size of the state “rainy day” fund and requiring above-average revenues to be deposited into it, for use during economic downturns and other purposes. Proposition 1B. Education Funding. Payment Plan — State of California (Legislative Constitutional Amendment - Majority Approval Required) Requires supplemental payments to local school districts and community colleges to address recent budget cuts. Now, something important that does not come across from these is that 1B can only be enacted if 1A also passes. The relevant text in 1B, for the record: Measure Linked to Proposition 1A. The funding mechanism for making the supplemental payments established in this measure is provided in Proposition 1A, also on this ballot. That measure establishes a Supplemental Education Payment Account and requires the state to annually deposit 1.5 percent of General Fund revenues into the account, beginning in 2011–12. These funds would be put into the account annually until the entire $9.3 billion in supplemental payments had been provided. If Proposition 1A is not approved by the voters, the provisions of this measure would not go into effect, and there would be no obligation to make $9.3 billion in supplemental payments. situation. Method of Paying Maintenance Factor Also Unclear. The second issue relates to how the maintenance factor (from previous years) is paid in a Test 1 year. One interpretation is that maintenance factor payments are to be made on top of the Test 1 level. A second interpretation is that maintenance factor payments are to be made on top of the Test 2 level. Because the Test 1 level is expected to be significantly higher than the Test 2 level in 2009–10, the first interpretation could result in a significantly higher minimum guarantee in 2009–10. Basically, this is candy thrown at the teacher’s union to get them to support 1A, which is really not in the citizens’ true interest to support. As things are now, the budget is full of obscure formulas amended to the constitution by previous voter propositions (including 98, and 13). 1A uses a linear regression to determine the historic trends that would contribute to this new “rainy day fund”, which is not inherently bad, but it is math that is above what most people care to understand. It also is full of ifs and maybes, and new taxes (which I mentioned before - increased sales tax and personal income tax - while at the same time corporate income tax is being cut). I am not inherently against new taxes, of course, but the places where the taxes are added and where they are cut seem to be misguided, and are only there because the Republican minority only cares about Big Business, as opposed to the Democratic majority who care about Big Business and the common citizen (a small but important difference). Anyway, here’s the thing - legislators are elected to do a job. The job description includes creating the state budget. They fail at their job, and they expect the people who elected them to come save them. That’s just ludicrous. They think that having the budget 100% codified in the state constitution will protect their interests - and maybe it would protect some GOP interests, but it’s not the way you run a state. You can’t codify any situation, and it seems like all this work is to prevent a problem that already happened, without dealing with the possibilities of other problems. It’s a so-called “band-aid’ solution - cover up the wound, pretend it has gone away, and meanwhile the state bleeds out. In my work experience I’ve heard a phrase “disagree and commit” this is something one might do when they realize that the majority is against them in a situation, they want to make it known that they are against what is going on, but that they will commit to doing what the majority is for to the best of their ability. If the minority of the state legislature had a microgram of honor or respectability in them they would do this very thing in order to pass a budget - then they could say “I told you so” if and when it failed, and then get big gains in the next election. Of course they know that’s not going to happen because most of the state does not believe in their policies, but because of Prop 13, they can throw a childish hissy fit and shoehorn their way in. I want to be clear, I’m all for giving money to education, and I respect the idea of prop 1B (if not the means that would get the end) but this is a case where I firmly believe the means do not justify the end. The only way to fix education and the budget over all is with real reform - probably repealing all the budget related amendments and amending the Constitution to make ballot prop amendments much harder to initiate and pass. I firmly believe the populists who created the California ballot initiative system had the best interest of the population in heart, but were rather shortsighted and did not see how easily it could be exploited. Another argument against these overall is that the amendments that we already have aren’t even being properly followed. 1B is basically a “catch-up” proposition for the twenty year old Prop 98, which mandated K-14 spending which just didn’t happen. Why should we believe that anything else that is codified in the constitution will happen (well that’s not in Prop 13, which clearly does happen). Basically, since I don’t believe in 1A at all, that also means that I am against 1B, although I am not strongly against it. It’s all shell games though, and the best way to win those is not to play. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
10:22 pm	Today’s Earworm Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Note - videos linked may not be 100% SFW. The Mighty Boosh is a UK comedy duo composed of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. They’ve had three tv series (seasons) of the most surreal, crazy, and amusing show. In the latest season, which they are showing on Adult Swim, they have a few very catchy songs. In particular, the main song from the first episode, “Eels Up Inside Ya” has been in my head all day. Unfortunately embedding is disabled on the version from the show, but here is a live version. Please enjoy: Also, as bonus, an interview with them on Jonathan Ross a few years ago. This is made more amusing by the fact that John Barrowman is seen on the couch with their backup Shaman and Gorilla about 7:30 into the video: (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
8:56 pm	More About the Special Election Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Ok, I promised to write more about this, so I will. The reason why we have to have this special election rather disgusts me. Basically, it is a kowtow to the minority Republicans in the state legislature, who really only have one goal - to lower taxes for corporations. This is clear because the budget that was provisionally passed (more on this in a bit) includes lots of cuts in services, while at the same time lowering corporate taxes permanently, but allowing for personal income tax to increase. This is simply amazing. And the reason why they were able to this is that the budget requires a two-thirds vote to pass, thanks to Prop 13, and of course the state needs a balanced budget because unlike the US government California cannot print money. So the state needed to pass a budget because otherwise no one would get paid (including people getting tax refunds) and to pass a budget, the Governor and majority had to deal with the minority. And the way the deal worked out was “we will pass this budget, but we need a special election with the following constitutional amendments on it, and if they don’t pass, the budget is toast come February.” And what do they all contain? More constraints on how money is spent, and backdoors for lowering taxes when times are good (we’ll talk about this when I discuss 1A). There is a second demon from Prop 13 that has lead to this path, of course. The property tax limitations limits income when times are rough - the state’s main and pretty much only way to generate revenue is via personal income tax, because corporate income tax gets axed by the Republican minority, and because corporate property is taxed at its value in the 1970s. What to do? Start over. Raise the constitution and reconvene to make it new. Not going to happen, but I think that’s the only solution. Note this is basically a rant, and not really meant as anything else. Useful information in this series will begin in my next post on the subject, to discuss Prop 1A. (Comment on this)
10:43 am	Howard Jarvis’ Legacy Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. 30 years ago Prop 13 passed in California, ballot measure that basically limited property tax, but also made almost anything to do with collecting or spending revenue in CA impossible. Now, partly because of the stipulations of this ammendment to the state constitution, we have a special election next month. Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to go over the 6 ballot initiatives. Now, I reckon that the majority of my dozen or so readers don’t care a bit about this, but that’s OK, because this is more an exercise for myself than anything else - I want to know what the effects of these ballot initiatives will really be, but I also intend to dig in to the strange situation that led to this election, which is basically fallout from the way budgets must be passed. More on this tonight. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 27th, 2009
8:39 pm	A Quantum of Solace Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. I watched the latest James Bond movie, A Quantum of Solace this weekend. The movie was as bizarre as it’s title. pretty much. The plot featured a bad guy who was definitely not good, but not a giant mastermind - but of course I think this is an introduction to the modern SPECTRE, Quantum. Or maybe not. There was not super cool tech in this movie, not even an in car-defibrillator, but I guess the super cellphone and the special computer desk were considered gadgety enough. I decided that I like Daniel Craig a lot, while at the same time not being a huge fan of his Bond character interpretation. Of course it might not be his fault, but that of the writer and director, but Mr. X from L4yer Cake is more suave than his Bond version could ever hope to be. Still, he’s better than Timothy Dalton, for sure. As far as a rating, it’s about 3.25 out of 5.4 rabbit turds, on a rabbit turd scale. - pretty low for Bond! On a lighter note, I will leave you with this, the theme song as if David Bowie had sung it: (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
8:44 pm	“Umeshu” Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Long time readers might remember the plum liqueur I put up last summer. I took a bit out and chilled it today, and we tasted it after dinner tonight. Quite nice, if not quite proper umeshu! (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
12:43 pm	New Feed Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Transparent, but I thought I would mention that I decide to check out feedburner, so I added a plugin that supposedly redirects my feed through that. The feed itself is: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/StarryWisdom (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
7:04 pm	Reading a book on an iPhone? OK (if it’s free). Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Last month Amazon released the Kindle for iPhone application. It’s a pretty silly idea in some ways, because while the iPhone has a large screen for a phone, it’s a small screen for an electronic reader. However, the screen is very nice, so the experience works in it’s own weird way. Here is a screen shot of the reading screen: As you can see the text is crisp and clean - there’s just not much of it on the page. You advance “pages” by thumbing side to side on the touch screen. It’s a straightforward enough interface, and I don’t see how you can do any better. It’s a simple app, but it’s missing some features that you get with an actual Kindle e-reader (although it keeps the pesky DRM, of course) - periodicals being the most major, but also annotations. I am not even sure it syncs properly with a linked Kindle, which would lower the utility for those that have both, but that’s not the point of this review. I’m going to focus on it as a stand-alone app. I was very skeptical when I downloaded it, but it was free, so what the heck. I found that Random House is offering a free versions of some science fiction and fantasy novels through the end of May. Now, it just happened that His Majesty’s Dragon was the only 2007 Hugo Award nominee that I had not read (because it’s fantasy, which I tend to avoid), so I quickly snatched it as a test read. So here I was, set with a free book to test out the free application, and you know, I rather like it. It’s convenient to have something to read when I need to pass a bit of time, waiting in line at the grocery, on the bus, or what have you. It sucks up batteries a lot due to the screen being mostly white, which is a down side. The novel is much better than I reckoned on it being as well, which I guess shouldn’t surprise me considering how strong the other nominees were that year. To sum it up iPhone oweners could do a lot worse than downloading the app and one of the free public domain e books that are available. I’m just not sure it’s worth actually buying content for, for various reasons including it being a less than perfect general purpose reader (but it’s a very nice entertainer!). (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
6:19 pm	The Revenge of the Matzoh Egg Originally published at Starry Wisdom. You can comment here or there. Ok, it’s not a revenge, but I thought I would make a short post about breakfast. A matzoh egg with some spinach sauteed in olive oil and green garlic. I even have a picture: (Comment on this)