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GUpdate

After Midnight by moe. w/ John Medeski, Trey Anastasio, Sam Bush, and Jennifer Hartswick
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/moe2005-02-10.DPA4021s-splt.v3.flac16/moe2005-02-10d3t06_64kb.mp3]

Follow up to Don’t Be Evil

So for about a week now I’ve been using Gmail for all of my email (5 addresses, one place to get em all), Google Reader for my RSS feeds (34 of them), Google Calendar for events (there isn’t much happening, so there is very little there), and Google’s startpage as one stop for all of that. Google has some other nifty services, but either I already used them or I don’t need them (like Google Earth and Maps, which I’ve used since they came out).

As a startpage, Google works pretty well. I’ve got semi useful widgets and links to places I want to go. One cool little thing they’ve added is page themes, which actually change with the time of day. I like that.

Gmail is incredible. I don’t know what more I can say about it. That’s untrue: I recieve email from 5 different email addresses (three of which Google checks and recieves via POP3, the other two are fowarded), automatically sort them with filters, and can search through them easily. I can also send email from each one of those email addresses, including my uconn address. And all this is available to me anywhere with an internet connection. I only wish I had done this earlier.

Reader is another story. Google Reader needs more work before I can sing its praises. It does adequately replace Sage (the firefox extention I had previously used to view RSS feeds), lets me organize feeds into folders and allows me to read more posts quicker than before. But it is in sore need of some features. I’d like to see a search, so I could find specific things in my feeds quickly. Maybe even a smart folder feature (a la OSX).

But my main complaint about Reader is one that I’ve already complained about before. I feel even more distant from the sites I’m reading. Even more so than when I was using Sage. As a result I read my feeds less. I don’t know what Google could do to help this, or if there is anything they can do. But that doesn’t make it any less of an issue.

Google Calendar seems nice, but I haven’t had too much of an opportunity to play with it, being summer and all. It will be tested more in the fall.

As for the other services Google offers, they mostly don’t do anything for me. I don’t use blogger because I’ve got a blog that I can hack here, I don’t much like Picasa (viva Flickr!), and although SketchUp is fun, I have no use for it.

I’ll make new posts concerning this as things change.

I’ve also tussled a little bit with the Google Apps Suite. Since that is a bit more niche, you’ll have to check the extended to read about that.

Continue reading “GUpdate”

FOMO

Better Change Your Mind by Apollo Sunshine
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/apollosun2007-04-22.nak300.flac16f/apollosun2007-04-22t01_64kb.mp3]

So the schedule for Bonnaroo 2007 is up, and it gives me a pretty different impression than what I got from just looking at the artist lineup.

There are a number of conflicting sets, so I’ll either need to miss some or all of a large number of artists. Which is probably ok. I knew it would happen, coming to a festival as large as Bonnaroo, but I’d rather see entire sets. There are a few bands who I’ll see no matter what. But otherwise, it looks like I’ll be doing a lot of tent-hopping.

Here is what I’m planning on seeing, but I’m going to try and be as flexible as possible.

A few comments:
– I will see The String Cheese Incident and Keller Williams (WMD’s) no matter what. This is SCI’s last year touring with Bill Nershi, so I want to see them while I still can. And Keller is touring with his ‘dream band’ so I’m not going to miss that either.
– The first conflict on my list is The Black Keys vs. an acoustic Tea Leaf Green set. I’m leaning towards TLG, because the tent is going to be packed, so showing up half way into it isn’t a great option.
– The next conflict isn’t one that I’m debating, just one I’m upset about. String Cheese vs. STS9 vs. TBD (superjam?) vs. Mago featuring Billy Martin & John Medeski. I’ll stay for the whole SCI set, because its likely that STS9 will still be playing. If that other set is indeed the superjam, then I shall be sad. But not too sad, because SCI, Martin and Medeski will be on stage at that same time, so the superjam won’t be too amazing. I’ll keep telling myself that.
– Next is Hot Tuna and Ziggy Marley vs. Railroad Earth and acoustic Warren Haynes. I’m thinking I’ll end up at the later, because they’re both in the same tent, and Railroad will be good, but Warren Haynes will absolutely pack that tent. It would be good to be there early.
– Keller Williams vs. Spoon vs. Ween vs. Ben Harper vs. Franz Ferdinand. I’ll see Keller but I’m sad about the bands I’ll miss.
– The Flaming Lips vs. Gov’t Mule vs. Galactic w/lots of guests. Fuck. These were three bands I really wanted to see. Odds are I’ll make TFL my priority, and check in on Mule once its over. They’ll still be jammin, I’m pretty sure of that. I’d like to see Galactic, but I just don’t think it’ll happen.
– Wolfmother vs. T-Bone Burnett vs. Flight of The Conchords plus Demetri Martin. This one is really damn hard. I have no idea what I’m going to do here.

I think those are the big ones. Otherwise its just overlap, and I’ll probably just catch a little of this, and a little of that. All in all, if it works out well, I’ll be seeing over 30 artists over the course of 4 days. :D

In Praise of Idleness

All hail BoingBoing for bringing these links to the light of day.

First, In Praise of Idleness, which is an excellent, if a bit lengthy, essay defending doing nothing. I may reread this article for the rest of the week so I can be sure to absorb everything he has said.

Second, a more recent article which looks into what people who hang around towns during work hours are actually doing. I really wish I could just camp out on a city block for 24 hours, and see how the world around me changes. I may do just that in the future. You can thank this article for that notion.

Lastly, an episode of This American Life which also explores the Secret Life of Daytime. The episode is an hour long, but all five acts are extremely interesting, and very worth listening to. If you find yourself short on time, just listen to act one, but do yourself a favor and make time for the rest of the show later.

While all of those links are in my linkroll, they were so incredibly cool and interesting that I thought they deserved special mention. It is rare that so many good things appear on the internet at once. So it shouldn’t surprise you that I have one more link to share.

Bonus, from Neatorama (which for those of you who don’t know, is like BoingBoing in its subject matter, but has a different, and in my opinion more appealing, way of presenting it). The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century. This doesn’t have anything to do with the aforementioned links, but is a damn good read.

That last story is from one of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series, which are amazing. This story is proof. If you need more, I have several editions in my bathroom, which I’ll would gladly share. If you want them.

Don’t Be Evil

I spend a lot of time on the internet. That’s no secret.
I like to think that I’ve optimized and streamlined everything as much as possible. I’ve fiddled with Firefox and gotten it to do exactly what I want and need it to do, to the point where it is the most important application on my computer.

Backtrack, it is July 2004 and I’ve just registered for GMail. I’m really pumped about this, because I’m a huge nerd. I use it frequently until the end of highschool, and for that time it is a great tool. Then I stop using it. I honestly don’t know why, maybe I forgot about it, maybe something else, whatever the case, I didn’t use it anymore.

Now some two years later, I logged in to one of my GMail accounts. I’ve used my Google ID for a couple of their other web apps like docs.google.com (which I used to write a couple papers this last semester), but I hadn’t actually signed in to GMail. So I did that today.

No, this isn’t about the messages I found from years ago (which were pretty fun to read) or the spam that somehow got in there. What drove me to write this post is how incredibly tight Google has tied together all of its apps. I’ve paid attention over time as Google churns out nifty web app after web app, but I hadn’t taken the time to see how they worked together, and that’s what makes them valuable. Lets move back to my original point.

I’m considering a massive shift in the way I use computers. I can do this with Google Apps. Google Reader replacing Sage (Firefox plugin for RSS feeds). GMail replacing Thunderbird. Google Calender replacing 30boxes (I like 30boxes well enough, but the integration with Google is so handy). Hell, even iGoogle replacing my homepage. I’m not sure about Picasa replacing Flickr, but I’ll play around with it.

Yes, I’m a bit apprehensive about putting all of my information in the hands of one company. But their privacy policy and terms of service are solid, so I think it should be alright.

I think I’m going to try and go through with this. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Boat

The Gnome by Pink Floyd
[audio:http://uvhk.fce.vutbr.cz/sharejuke/M_cizi/PinkFloyd%20-%201967%20The%20Piper%20At%20The%20Gates%20of%20Dawn/Pink%20Floyd%20-%20The%20Piper%20at%20the%20Gates%20of%20Dawn%20-%2008%20-%20The%20Gnome.mp3]

So I remembered recently an interesting event from my childhood. My grandfather on my mother’s side had a workshop in the basement where he had all sorts of tools and spare parts from previous things he had made. I loved playing down there, and as I got older, he started to help me build creations of my own.

I remember building a mousetrap, because my grandparents had complained about the mice in the basement. My mousetrap consisted of two pieces of wood nailed together, and a piece of cheese. I don’t remember how it was supposed to work, but I left it down there to let it take care of the rodent problem.

I think my favourite creation, looking back, was the boat I made. It may have been the first thing I made with my grandfather, I’m not sure. But I took a length of 2×4 (maybe 8 or 10 inches long) and hammered about 50 nails into the top of it. Once I was done building my boat, I filled up the sink with water to prove it floated.

What I like most about my boat is that as a kid, I had reduced a boat to the very simplest of construction. I knew a boat was made out of wood, and I knew that you needed to do some work to make it. Having only one piece of wood meant I should just hammer nails into it until I figured it was done. What a cool boat.

Where did he go?

Don’t Fuck With Flo by Ha Ha the Moose
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/hhtm2000-09-03.shnf/hhtm2000-09-03d1t04_64kb.mp3]

I’m in summer mode. That means not much time in front of a computer, and nearly nocturnal sleeping habits. Things are happening, however hard I may try and stop them. Some of the decisions I make this summer will change how the next few years, or maybe more, play out. I’ll be sure to keep you abreast of them.
Hehe…abreast…

EDIT: So I woke up this morning (the 11th) and I had Don’t Fuck With Flo in my head. Its a moe. song, but there aren’t any mp3s on archive so I went with a version by this band, Ha Ha the Moose. And its good. So enjoy.

Still Trying

From PostSecret:

—–Email Message—–
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 11:45 PM
Subject: Five Dollar Bill

I work at a bank and upon counting my five dollar bills the other day I stumbled upon this one.(picture attached) I couldn’t have found it at a better time as that was exactly how I was feeling that day.

I just want to let whoever it was know… you’re not alone in trying your hardest and still not feeling good enough. Your secret now hangs in a frame in my room. Thank you for sharing not only your secret but also my secret. It feels good to know that I’m not alone.

~Still trying

Sorry, its the best I could do