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January 2007

brett's logjam

February 2007

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March 2007


3 February 2007

Going to the Birds

My son is obsessed with Birds of Virginia, one of the field guides we keep around the house to identify the birds at our feeders. He takes it with him upstairs and tries to have us read it to him as he’s going to sleep; he points to the cardinal on the cover and then points outside, saying “ka-ka-ka”.

It’s really quite unnerving how interested in things he becomes.

Anyhow, it should really come as no surprise that we have to tell him all about the birds that are outside, which in turn causes both me and Merrystar to up our bird-spotting game. So, seen at the feeder this week:

Red-Shouldered Hawk (II)

And flying right outside my office window, two sightings for me this week:

So that’s the birdwatching report for this week. No doubt I’ll wake up to calls of “dada, ka-ka-ka-ka” tomorrow morning and a toddler who insists upon feeding the birds before getting dressed. In the freezing cold.

I really do love that little boy.

Birdwatching Log

4 February 2007

A Little Bit Jealous (of Ubuntu)

Merrystar’s finished restoring Tsiolkovsky to operating condition, having installed obscure dependencies required for 30-year-old astronomical software and restored data from the ill-fated HissyDrive backup fiasco.

And because of Ubuntu, it’s turned out much better than before. No, honest.

So, I confess. I’ve grown a little bit jealous. I want a brown system! I want to see the OS that Just Works! I want to use it!

Oh, wait. I run Mac OS X and have all of that, minus the brown part. Okay, I really just want to tinker around with Linux again… but know better than to mess up Merrystar’s system this close to Valentine’s day. So I downloaded Xubuntu for PowerPC and ran it on Hithlum, instead. (I’ve long been interested in the XFCE window manager.)

It was nice: fast, UNIX-y, snappy. Not as nice as OS X, but I can now say I’ve gotten Linux to boot on my Mac without frying the system. I could get used to it. But then I remembered that I really didn’t need to do any of this. I have a perfectly good OS now, and I don’t need to go re-learn Linux ‘just because.’ Ubuntu is pretty simple and looks to be low-maintenance, so my technical support duties will likely be light now. Aside from helping to clean up the Windows partition — a reinstall may be in order, because, you know, the Registry doesn’t scale — I’m out of a job on that computer.

Bravo, Ubuntu. It Just Works, like it’s supposed to. Nicely done.

Computer Log | Hithlum Log | Tsiolkovksy Log

6 February 2007

Enterprise on iTunes

Just saw this while picking up the iTunes Free Music Tuesday songs: the first season of Enterprise is now on iTunes.

I’m actually looking forward to cherry-picking the episodes instead of getting the whole series - mixed in among the gems are some real turkeys. (And I’m willing to skip almost all of the third season, Twilight excepted.)

Web Log

7 February 2007

The Great Backyard Bird Count

This year’s Great Backyard Bird Count will take place February 16th through 19th. From the website, participation is very simple:

  1. Plan to count birds for at least 15 minutes during February 16–19, 2007. Count birds at as many places and on as many days as you like—just keep a separate list of counts for each day and/or location.
  2. Count the greatest number of individuals of each species that you see together at any one time, and write it down.
  3. Enter your results on the Great Backyard Bird Count web site.

The program itself is a great example of participatory science. I’m a little more stymied by the cost to join Project FeederWatch; it’s a barrier to participation that is hard to explain away. I offer to perform labor for you, but you want me to pay to have it count?

It’s a headscratcher, I admit.

(Nonetheless, I will be counting birds the weekend after next for them. I do it anyway for free.)

Birdwatching Log

8 February 2007

xscreensaver as your desktop?

Last night I stumbled upon BackLight, a free program for the Mac that allows you to pipe any screensaver into your desktop. While it’s not perfect (it’s a GL layer on top of the existing desktop, so there are issues with Exposé, for instance), it allows for some great effects. Want to run Matrix-style effects in the background while you work?

GLMatrix Desktop via BackLight

No problem. (GLMatrix is part of the xscreensaver package, now available for Macs, too.)

Don’t get me wrong; this is totally useless. Screensavers aren’t the most practical things. (When was the last monitor you owned seriously susceptible to burn-in? 1986?) But this is very cool eye-candy. This one goes in the ‘keep’ pile for now.

Updated: Found another way that doesn’t require an additional application:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &

Will try it out and see how it works.

Computer Log | Hithlum Log

When Good Hard Drives Go Bad

Here’s a question: what goes chirp, chirp, CRUNK, chrip chrip, crunk chirp?

If you guessed Tsiolkovsky’s hard drive, you’d be sadly correct.

First, the Ubuntu side gave us this wonderful message:

Oh Frak

I think this is really quite an excellent way to put it: “…and this disk drive is probably not expensive enough for you to risk your time and data upon it.” Good advice for a bad situation.

Then, tonight, the Windows side gave us this gem:

Oh Frak Frak!

Less informative, but just as ominous.

(Fortunately, Tsiolkovsky is still under Panasonic’s excellent warranty. But only for six more weeks.)

Computer Log | Tsiolkovksy Log

11 February 2007

The Unknown Window

Merrystar and I have this huge framed poster hanging in our living room that we know nothing about. She picked it up in the Netherlands sometime in the late nineties. We don’t know the artist, or the name of the print, but would dearly love to find other works by this person.

The Unknown Window

If you know anything about this picture, please drop me a note or leave a comment on the linked Flickr page. Thanks!

House Log | Personal Log

13 February 2007

Things I Recommend

I was tinkering with this weblog and realized that it was seriously lacking in do-goodery. Like, it’s all well and good to know that my computers continue to interrupt my search for peace and quiet, but really — where’s the stuff that makes you go “that’s just what I was looking for!”

So, it’s time to balance karma. Here are some things I recommend, in no particular order:

(I suppose to balance this out, I should start a Things I Do Not Recommend list, too. Duly noted.)

Things I Recommend

Learn Along With Sesame

Just saw this in the iTunes Store: 4 free episodes of “Learn Along Of Sesame” are now available for download:

I am seriously running out of disk space here, people! Enough with the free stuff!

Web Log

16 February 2007

Reminder: Count Your Birds!

Don’t forget: fill up your feeders, because the Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend.

I’ve already seen a few new (to my backyard) species, like the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) and a Common Grackle. Hopefully Merrystar’s Carolina Wren and my Brown Thrasher will make an appearance.

Friday Update: Made a quick sheet in excel to keep up. Carolina Wren has shown up.

Saturday Update: Brown Thrasher showed up, along with 2 (!) different kinds of hawks, a new kind of sparrow, and I figured out how to turn on the digital zoom on my new S3.

Brown Thrasher A Mixed Flock

Finch Festival American Goldfinch

Tufted Titmouse

Also caught this Blue Heron in mid-flight while out on my walk today:

Blue Heron, Mid-flight

Sweet!

Sunday Update: Another new visitor today, this time a pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers (Dendroica coronata).

Yellow-rumped Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

I’m still trying to get the hang of the new Canon S3’s super-zoom. I may have to take the screens off the windows — all the good shots are through the clear glass on the door.

Birdwatching Log | Photo Log

17 February 2007

To Catch The Wind

To Catch The Wind

Photos up from this morning’s walk through downtown Williamsburg.

Photo Log | Williamsburg Log

19 February 2007

links for 2007-02-20

del.icio.us links

Bluebird Of Happiness

Eastern Bluebird

An Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) visits my neighbor’s garden.

(I am really starting to like the Canon S3, in case you hadn’t noticed.)

Birdwatching Log | Photo Log

Insomnia-Ending Site Updates

Hey look, it’s another sleep-inducing metapost about site changes! Here’s what’s new:

What, you’re still awake after all that? Go to sleep!

Site Log

20 February 2007

Funny, They Don't Fly Like Turkeys

Turkey Vulture in Flight (II)

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), no relation to either Turkeys or Old-World Vultures.

Birdwatching Log | Photo Log

22 February 2007

links for 2007-02-22

del.icio.us links

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

A juvenile light-morph Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) perches by Ironbound Road in Williamsburg. He flew down and got a snack by the roadside about a minute after this picture was taken.

Birdwatching Log | Photo Log

23 February 2007

Okay, Enough With The Steeple Already

Okay, Enough With The Steeple Already

Yet another shot of the Bruton Parish Church steeple. Today they had the windows blacked out; a film crew was inside shooting for the upcoming John Adams miniseries.

Photo Log | Williamsburg Log

links for 2007-02-23

del.icio.us links

24 February 2007

links for 2007-02-24

del.icio.us links

Nothing But Bluebirds

Eastern Bluebird

On our Saturday morning walk through Colonial Williamsburg, this Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) landed in a tree less than 4 meters away from me and Trip. He stayed there for about 10 seconds, and then flew off.

(I now understand the value of quick-drawing your camera.)

Birdwatching Log | Photo Log

25 February 2007

Family Trek

Family Trek

Historical family in Colonial Williamsburg out walking yesterday morning. Best viewed large.

Photo Log | Williamsburg Log

links for 2007-02-25

del.icio.us links

26 February 2007

The Guns Of February

The Guns Of February

I dunno. You go out for your Saturday morning walk, someone leaves cannons in your way.

Life is like that sometimes.

Photo Log | Williamsburg Log

links for 2007-02-26

del.icio.us links

27 February 2007

Come Out Wherever You Are

Come Out Wherever You Are

There’s an owl in this picture. Somewhere.

Yeah, Trip and I couldn’t find it, either.

(I confess: I love it how he goes oot oot oot whenever he thinks about owls.)

Photo Log

links for 2007-02-27

del.icio.us links

28 February 2007

The Roost

The Roost

Photo Log | Williamsburg Log

And Just Think If They Were All Single Posts

I’d like to apologize for the automated links for 2007-02-28 post that will show up sometime later today. Tonight was a banner night for web surfing, as I tried to both catch up on my feeds and try out Camino’s speediness with some traditionally slow sites in Safari. Like, cough, Google Reader, which bogs down in Safari under the weight of the hundreds of posts I’m trying to process. For weeks I’ve wondered about the users who raved about its snappy response; the UI is well done — tap tap tap goes the spacebar with no clicky-clicky required — but after the first 20 articles I spend more time waiting for a response than actually reading.

(Most everyone reading this already knows that I can read really fast: really, really fast when the occasion calls for it. Scanning news is one of those things.)

Camino handled the load far better than Safari did, letting me page through posts quickly, if not as fast as I might like. There’s only so much one can do to cut through all the AJAXy overhead. I grow less fond of AJAX with each passing day. I may soon find myself using AJAX in the same way Merrystar uses Flash — avoid, disable, and enable only when absolutely required.

The only drawback with the Safari → Camino switch is an aesthetic one: small Helvetica type isn’t weighted as nicely in Gecko browsers as it is in Safari, particularly at the lighter weights and smaller sizes. (Sub-10pt italic seems particularly affected.) Also, the line height seems to be crowded in text blocks, so that words seem crowded in a paragraph. It’s very subtle, but I’m known to be picky about my fonts.

(The partial solution is a simple ⌘+ to increase the font size, which makes the web a nicer place to browse anyway. The line height is still awkward, but less distracting than before. It’s still not as good as Safari.)

I’m happy to say that Camino really is chugging along well, and I may keep Safari off the dock and in reserve for specialized tasks. But it’s probably too early to see if there’s a significant difference.

But, back to the apology. The downside of this web browsing is that I’ve been hitting my del.icio.us links pretty hard, and the next post is likely to be pretty big.

Hopefully, you’ll find something interesting in amidst it all.

Hithlum Log | Mozilla Log | Personal Log

links for 2007-02-28

del.icio.us links

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) high above Colonial Williamsburg.

Birdwatching Log | Photo Log

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January 2007

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March 2007