Here’s a Year-End Wrapup for You
Posted by: leahey on: December 26, 2009
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So as 2009 comes to a close I feel compelled to write one of these self-aggrandizing year end wrap-ups. These things always crack me up when written by other people. They list the things they're thankful for, they say what they've learned. They usually rattle off one or two bad outcomes, but ultimately culminate their post by saying they're grateful for even these bad things, because it helped them "grow"; or "mature" or "recognize what they have".
Bullshit.
I managed to skirt all the potential catastrophes in my life for yet another year. I'm not saying it's all due to me, certainly not, those around me have, yet again, gone above and beyond to make my life as good as it is. I appreciate them, and all that they do, immensely.
I know how lucky I am and I don't need some kind of frickin' volcanic eruption of catastrophe to spew its molten goo of angst upon my life for me to appreciate it. I don't need to be run down by a runaway forklift or have one of my relatives shot by a deranged bow-hunter to mature as a person. I'm just fine the way I am, thank you.
Furthermore, I don't have any New Years Resolutions! You know why? Because if I identify something I'm doing that is harmful to myself or those around me, say in like, mid-May…I try to handle it then! I don't furiously scribble myself a message to stop slashing my neighbor's tires come December 31st. I'm never going to stop doing that. Too much fun.
So to conclude, in 2010 I am going to do pretty much the same things I did in 2009; sure there may be a few errant tweaks here or there, but nothing major. I find the entire resolution thing immensely disturbing.
Tiny Pandora is Tiny
Posted by: leahey on: December 17, 2009
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For those of you who use Pandora, but use it on a slower machine and/or just don't need or want the bloat of the full version, I made a quick link to the slimmer version created for the Windows Sidebar:
Complete with easy-to-remember URL.
Protip: Use Google Chrome to create an application shortcut, resize the window to just the size needed for the player, and have a quick and easy desktop-version of Pandora.
Windows 7 on the Dell Mini 9
Posted by: leahey on: August 30, 2009
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Having tested Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my Mini 9, I decided it was worthwhile giving Microsoft's latest Windows incarnation a go. I had previously run XP on the machine, and it ran reasonably well. However, Windows 7 takes up considerably more space on the 8 gig SSD, and thus I had to undertake some install-slimming measures to get it down to a reasonable footprint.
I utilized Rick's thorough howto guide for installing and using vLite, as well as the Microsoft WAIK (Windows Automated Install Kit). This cut out a significant chunk of uselessness: language support, Windows Help, etc.
I have a usable amount of space remaining of my 8 gigs, with Windows 7 installed, and all the (my) necessary applications.
As far as performance goes, I'd rank the machine's speed with Aero enabled and most of 7's bells and whistles turned on as well above XP. It boots up quickly, applications are snappy, and is generally exactly what Vista should have been.
Gina’s iPhone Surprise
Posted by: leahey on: August 30, 2009
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So, thanks to Gina, I am officially a member of the iPhone brigade. For my birthday, which occurs in exactly 1 month, she engaged in a most elaborate ruse to gift me my new favorite toy (depicted below).
Gina had the element of surprise for sure, with my birthday being a month away, but her execution was absolutely flawless. Deducing from the end product, what she did was take a photo of herself holding her iPhone. Caption it to say "Happy Birthday!", and set it as the contact photo for her, on my new phone. Are you following? She then met me at a Starbucks on a lazy Saturday afternoon, and excused herself from the table after we said our hello's and updated each other on our days. Before leaving the table, she asked me to watch her pocket book, which isn't out of character, or anything that would arouse my suspicions.
After leaving the table, Gina called my iPhone, which is sitting in her purse. OH, and she had set the ringtone to be our song! (Sorry, this entry is entirely stream-of-consciousness). The phone began ringing in her purse, loudly. I have this thing about rooting around in her stuff, so being faced with this dilemma, I mutter an "Oh Goddddd" and try to close the top of the purse tight enough to muffle the sound. I am a little bit confused, as I knew Gina had set the song to be the ringtone when I call. I find it strange, but not strange enough to open the purse and investigate. The ringing stops, whew, people were looking. *Music Plays* "Oh mannnn!" I open the purse, quickly find the phone, and am greeted by this screen:
(But obviously with the option to answer the phone)
I am still clueless! It's not my birthday, and as far as I can tell I am holding Gina's iPhone in my hand, that I have just pulled from her purse, and now am about to answer it. I'm pretty sure this is crossing all sorts of boundaries. I answer. "Happy Birthday Love!!!!" Happy Birthday?! Whats up?! Whats going on?! I kind of glance around the Starbucks, as I still am not understanding that the iPhone I'm holding is not Gina's (what is she using to call me) and is my birthday present. I'm relatively certain a barbershop quartet is about to come in and sing, or Homey the Clown is going to pound me over the head with a sock full of flour. I briefly consider whether its possible poor Gina has flipped her lid. Then she returns to the table, holding her iPhone.
OH! Now I get it!!!
I bring the phone down from my ear and understand everything, and I realize the level of awesomenessitude this surprise has reached. The scope and scale of this epic surprise pull-off. The planning. The flawless execution.
I truly have to say I have heard about these sorts of elaborate birthday surprises, but have sure never been on the receiving or (in all fairness), giving end of one of such magnitude. Gina has set an incredibly high bar for Christmas!
Most Interesting Playlist I Sync
Posted by: leahey on: August 21, 2009
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Protip: To get Smart Playlists to update with a new batch of songs: Select All within playlist > Delete. You won't be deleting the songs themselves, just removing them from the playlist, forcing iTunes to reload with a new set.
Archiving All of Your Twitter Followers Tweets via OPML, Google Reader, and Friendfeed
Posted by: leahey on: August 18, 2009
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The other day Dave Winer posted a new tool he created to make OPML (essentially, blog roll files, or friends lists) files of one's Twitter followers. Great tool. He described its usefulness as:
You could use this format to import your subscription list into another app, if one existed. As far as I know none does exist. However, this is an essential step in a bootstrap to create new ways of consuming Twitter data.
I took it one step further. I wanted an easy way to archive all of my Twitter-followers tweets, whether they are directed to me or not. I'm already an active user on Friendfeed, so integrating this whole bootstrap solution in to that service was only natural. Here's how I did it.
- Generate the OPML file, follow Winer's instructions to get it syndicating on Google Reader.
- In Google Reader, under Settings > Folders and Tags, click the small RSS syndication-looking icon next to "Private" for the Folder that contains your Twitter followers (probably named "Twitter-username subscriptions")
- Click "view public page"
- On the public page for the folder, you should see an "Atom feed" link on the far right, get the URL for that feed. (mine looks like "http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user%2F02004925579012804412%2Flabel%2FTwitter-leahey%20subscriptions")
- Now on Friendfeed, you're going to want to create a group (http://www.friendfeed.com/groups), name it whatever you like, but I suggest you make it private.
- Once created, add the Custom RSS/Atom feed from above, and voila. All of your Twitter-followers tweets are archived and (!) very searchable.
It's relatively straight forward. Currently, the RSS feeds for Twitter are more than a little bit behind, so this is by no means a client replacement. However, for archiving and searching older tweets, its an excellent solution.
Update: See my (now public) group here: http://friendfeed.com/ff-leaheytwitter
Divorcing AIM After 10 Years (4 Reasons)
Posted by: leahey on: August 17, 2009
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So, as anyone who IMs me on any regular basis already knows, I've given up on my AIM account — and AIM in general. I was thinking about when, and why, my relationship with AOL really went south. These are some of my reasons, in no particular order.
- Chat logging: I'd have to say it all started when Google Talk integrated itself in to GMail and allowed for online logging of conversations. This is something AOL could have totally capitalized on and should have had from the very beginning. Rather than integrating itself with Bebo, AIM.com's social networking, and every other bloated AOL network site, it could have simply added an online component that allowed for the searching of chat logs. I get at least as much useful information in IM windows as I do in email conversations, why wouldn't I want to be able to archive and search these? Integrating them in to my email just makes things that much easier.
- Vanity Screen Names: I was a child of the screen name exploitation days of the late 90s, so I was sitting pretty with "andrw". That being said, the username meant nothing outside of AOL Instant Messenger. I didn't use AIM.com email, so when I gave you my screen name I wasn't giving you my email address. I didn't use that name on any other social networking sites, I'm usually "aleahey" on those. I didn't own andrw.com and my first name is not Andrw. The username only described me on that one service, and only allowed you to get ahold of me in one way — IM. When I give out my Google Talk username (andrew at leahey dot org), I'm simultaneously telling you where you can IM me, email me, and where my website is located.
- Proprietary-phobia: AOL persisting in using its proprietary protocol OSCAR, or TOC, or whichever one they've moved to now, worries me. It wouldn't be the end of the world if everyone who knew me on AIM was suddenly not able to contact me, true, but it would be an annoyance I feel like I can avoid with Google Talk. My Google Talk username is, again, my name at my domain dot org, something that would be easily replicated with a replacement Jabber server should Google suddenly go belly-up. The same can't be said for AOL's service. AOL has made some moves towards openness in recent years, finally allowing third party applications official access to the servers, but I don't feel like that's enough. I get why Google runs the Talk server, to get me to Gmail, and to get me looking at ads. I don't get — and have never gotten — what stake AOL has in keeping the AIM servers up and running, other than keeping its brand name out there. Allowing third party applications to run on the servers makes it all too easy to forget what the A in AIM stands for. When that happens on a large scale, I have no faith whatsoever in AOL to keep the servers up and running. The same may happen with Google ten years hence, but their servers are just jabber, and since my username is just my email address, I can surely replicate that elsewhere.
- Privacy: With Google Talk, I feel like my status is more private. I know that users have to request authorization to add me to their contact list, and that makes my inner introvert happy. I have never been a fan of the idea that I was on dozens of buddylists on AOL for no other reason that to check my away messages, and read my profile from time to time. I may be the odd ball here, but I want to know I'm on your contact list, I want to know who is going to be reading the away message I put up.
That's just about it. I wish Google would perhaps add a Labs feature that allowed for the importing of standardly-formatted logs from other chat services, as I have countless megabytes of IM logs from years past just zipped up and awaiting a final resting place. As I said, I like that switching to Google Talk allows me to engage my wanderlust a little bit. I get sick of technologies and want to try out new services frequently; with Google Talk being somewhat standard Jabber, I feel like I can do that more readily and easily.
Cranberry Bog | Pine Barrens, NJ
Posted by: leahey on: August 16, 2009
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Taken in Brendan T Byrne State Forest, on the Mount Misery trail, August 15 2009.
Brendan T. Byrne Pond Panorama
Posted by: leahey on: August 9, 2009
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Stories dugg by aleahey
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