Rotorglow

Ever tried living without any technology that's under 50 years old? Me either. But someone did. Great stuff.

I fucking love this game.

I can't seem to stop laughing.

12" PowerBook survives fire. (Link via Gizmodo.)

I got a white nano, because just as sports cars are supposed to be red, I believe that iPods are supposed to be white. The color screen is slick, though I'm not sure I'll use the nano for pix very often (because there's no Firewire, you can't dump a camera or CF card to it directly, like with the color iPod (nee iPod Photo). The fact that it's based on flash memory means that the music quiz (for instance) doesn't kill the battery. Nor does flipping madly through songs.

I think it's really the perfect cross between the iPod and the shuffle. It's a little thinner than the shuffle, a little shorter, and shinier. It looks just like a 1:3 scale iPod.

Of course the packaging is perfection. Nice coated paperboard slipcase about the size of a 2xCD case. Whatever Apple's numerous flaws are, they've got the out-of-the-box experience nailed.

Instead of prattling on, I'll link to some pix and reviews (since I'll not be able to do better on my own). Gizmodo has a very nice round up, and Ars Technica has a typically informative and extensive (not to mention painful) review.

I will say this: In contrast to one reviewer, I'll say that the nano is not the coolest thing I own. That's either Veloce or my Cremaster Cycle catalog or my complete Alfred Stieglitz. Or Dodging Missiles.

But it's close.

As many of you know, I do not have cable television. Don't believe in it. Wouldn't get anything done if I did have it. Wouldn't leave the house.

So I rely on the kindness of strangers.

This is a screenshot of a video chat I had with Albert. He pointed his iSight at his TV, which he'd tuned to ESPN2, which was showing the Saint Louis/Carolina game. Through the magic of the internets, I watched the 2nd half.

As I type this, Carolina's up by 3 with about 8 minutes to play. I'll let you know how it ends.

IMG_5638.JPG
Originally uploaded by rotorglow at 30 Aug '06, 11.16pm EDT.

I just unloaded by beloved Zenith System 3 TV, with Computer Space Command. Had to give it away on on Craig's List, because apparently nobody appreciated the brilliance of its design, and $20 was too much to pay for such quality when I posted it a couple of months ago. Sheesh.

Anyway, it's a little bittersweet. It went to a nice grandmother from Medford, whose grandchildren will watch The Wiggles or Spongebob or whatever else when they come to visit. I will not detail how much of a contrast that is from some of the stuff I've watched on it....

But hey....I'm glad it's not taking up floor space. And further, the woman said she goes to church every day, and would pray for me. So, I figure I'm pretty much set.

Tim and I chatted about it today:


(15:47:54) Chris: my old TV is leaving me tonight.
(15:48:17) Tim: noooo, really?
(15:48:26) Tim: In what context is it leaving you?
(15:48:33) Tim: I imagine it is going into the future
(15:49:26) Chris: I put it on Craig's List again. For free this time. I guess $20 was too much the last time around.
(15:49:34) Chris: I got about 6 responses this time.
(15:49:36) Tim: cheapskates
(15:49:42) Tim: WILL U DELIVR
(15:51:45) Tim: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/83/2001-terminated.jpg/300px-2001-terminated.jpg
(15:53:08) Tim: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/290000/images/_292313_odyssey300.jpg
(15:53:21) Tim: "So, it is free?"
(15:53:26) Tim: "Shh, not so loud"
(15:53:37) Tim: "Will U deliver?"
(15:53:50) Chris: shit. maybe I should keep it...
(15:53:58) Tim: I don't think you have a choice
(15:54:00) Chris: otherwise I be sent into the abyss.
(15:54:10) Tim: "Daiseeeeeee"
(15:54:30) Tim: sigh. that's sad
(15:54:37) Tim: Solid State
(15:55:23) Chris: I'll always have the pictures.... and the irradiated insides.
(15:56:19) Tim: One cold February morning you'll step outside and it will be sitting there
(15:56:25) Tim: and everyone else will be dead
(15:57:32) Chris: I'll always hear the *clunk* of the ZOOM in my dreams.

Because I'm bored, I just ran some numbers on my email account, comparing the amount of mail SpamAssassin correctly identified as spam to what it incorrectly identified as legit (and I had to flag as spam) and what it incorrectly identified as spam (and I had to go looking for in the spam folder).

The numbers are not terribly surprising. (Excuse the screenshot, but I'm not quite bored enough to format a table for an MT entry. Also, my foot hurts.)

So, SpamAssassin correctly identifies 87.5% of my mail as spam, goofs (in some way or another) on another 1.4%, leaving me with 11.2% of my incoming email as legit.

A couple more notes:

I have a procmail script that backs everything up to a folder before handing the message off to SpamAssassin (that's where I get the total message count).

SpamAssassin 2.63 is installed on Neophi.

I have adjusted SpamAssasin's sensitivity up a tiny bit, but not much at all.

The 3 false-positives are the ones I am aware (when I was expecting something that didn't show up in the inbox). I basically never comb the Backup folder or any of the spam folders looking for something unless I get to wonder "WTF?" about a missing message. That means there's a potential for lost mail from unknown correspondents.

User "Chunky Monkey" on the AVS Forum posted the backdoor hack that enables the 30-second skip on Comcast DVRs running Tivo.

Link