The Inverse Penis Relation

I'm a bit of a nerd but the computer gadget rarely grabs my attention. When someone creates a coffee pot that makes a more perfect cup of coffee, or an autonomous robot vacuum cleaner, rarely does it get more than the casual "huh, thats kinda neat" from me. I've just never had a mind for that level of granularity in my products. I almost never shop for a minute improvement, of a product that I own, if it already performs well. My Dyson vacuum is the exception its unbelievable. Nor have I really been anal about any sort of esoteric detail. Audiophiles piss me off when they refuse to listen to CD's, and Overclockers will go out of their way to buy a cheap CPU, then spend money to watercool it to make it perform better. I've flirted with overclocking, I've created a subwoofer enclosure. But the multiple tweaks for the minuscule gains have never felt worth it. They call it a hobby but I call it a fetish. Spending time and money to make the ordinary item, extraordinary, has never held much allure for me.

One area withstanding, Sub-Laptops. I call it the "Inverse Penis Relation". The theory of the IPR is that as certain products reach "palm size" or "as big as my hand" the more desirable they become. Cell phones went through this in the late 80's early 90's, television remotes, external hard disk recently, and of course in laptops you cant get too thin, too small, too light. This market that is finally making a splash here in the states and it is really exciting to me. In some meetings and conference's Ive been to, too often do I have laptop envy. I met a Korean lady with a TINY laptop, it was brand new, and glistened. Built in camera, high res, large (for its size) screen, full keyboard. Ive been quietly watching the OLPC develop with high hopes of it sparking an interest in large companies to release a tiny sub 500$ laptop for me to run Linux on... I think the Asus eeepc is winning this leg of the race but I don't know if it will be the one I buy. Unless everything else is way more expensive.

A public display of the sentance of the day

My friend and I chat on the google most of the day, everyday. As we're waiting on the bar to hit the end for whatever reason, usually money. And we also surf the web and shoot each other links. Lately his have all been lolcats, I cant complain they are great. But every so often one of us will come across the "sentence of the day". It usually comes across as a statement because rarely is it a complete sentence. For example yesterday the "SotD" was, "...mechanically attached a liquid fuel rocket to a solid axle...".

I liked it because in and of itself it makes you reread it and try and put it together. "...mechanically attached a liquid fuel rocket to a solid axle..." What could it mean, is it some random snip it from some steampunk related commentary? Could it be some random oddly translated specification for the Turkish space program? What about just some good ol' science fiction?

I know where it came from, I found it yesterday for our little tête-à-tête. But when I read it I hear the words, in the voice of Tom Waits, "Whats he building in there..."

Turns out its a mid 60s harebrained scheme to make a fast car faster. As luck would have it, too much of a good thing is usually the best way to go out.

Mac's only get easier

Today while I was working on migrating a users data from one Windows PC to another, I began reminiscing about migrating my last Mac user. Apple really can't make it much easier. Its a tad slow in the start but its really working well from Tiger -> Leopard. A helluva lot better than it did from |X| -> Tiger. Anyways while this is going on and I'm reading disjointed conflicting opinions on Fark, I get a call from one of my users. She wants me to go to her house and help her set up some new Mac stuff she just bought. A cinema display, laptop, and a "Time Capsule". I was intrigued by the "Time Capsule" when I first heard about it. But I haven't played with one yet. I look at the documentation and it looks pretty goddamned easy to setup. So I told my user how I think it works and to try just, plugging it in. If I'm right, I think she'll be ok, until she needs to get data out.

On a side note, fuck Windows PC's are hard to migrate users from. Nothing automated, nothing universal, nothing simple. Just about anyone who can read the prompt can migrate a mac in a matter of minutes and it would "just work". My mom's tried to migrate Windows laptops, and lets just say, it didn't go so well.

The perils of living in 2d

So Ive been dicking around with flickr's "Blog This" command and its kinda cool, but kinda retarded... I really wish I could find a job doing UI consultation because I swear most good ideas are spoiled by bad implementation.

They give you default layouts, but different ones than blogger provides, and automagically insert a bunch of bullshit. And if you want to unfuck it you need to go play with code... I don't have a problem with editing code, but what if my wife who is honestly scared of code wants to change something. SOL? Shits Creek?

I work IT. Its a decent job if you like people and computers but a fucking grind if you cant stand other IT professionals.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

And the test post button is misleading. Also sucks.

First in a string of some, on no topic of importance

This is the first of possibly a few posts on The Wooden Bullet. I thought since everyone thinks blogging is so ubiquitous I should get on the wagon, at least just before it stops...

This isnt my first blog, I had a xanga page when I first started college, I used it mostly to vent about my classmates, coworkers, and various grocery store worker strikes. I was never a grocery store employee. I was just angry they put me in the position of having to cross a damn picket line to buy food. It was a while ago but, I guess I still have an opinion, fuck them.