Standing On Boxes

{I need a lolcat for this!}

So, Steve Jobs announces (finally) the mythical Apple tablet device. I’m not going to go over the features (has or missing). Every tech blog on the planet has details or you can even go to the official Apple iPad website

Other than the name… iPad? Really? … I actually want one. I’ve been waiting for a tablet for ME (and not all the jealous tech-nerds that hang out in the tech blog comment sections (they already HATE the iPad with a seething passion – and it’s only been half a day.)) and this is the first thing since a Newton MessagePad (I’ve got one of those in a box somewhere) to come close.

Let’s get the low-hanging fruit negatives out of the way first:

1. 1. I wanted something a little smaller. The iPad 1.0 is slightly smaller than a pad of paper. I was hoping for a more portable trade paperback size.
2. To get GPS you have to get the more expensive model ($130 more) (actually AGPS (Assisted GPS) — I hope it works without a data plan! Some AGPS devices apparently require a network connection to work. I’m pretty sure I have a couple apps on my iPhone that use GPS even without a 3G connection.)
3. Not enough details available on how some things work (I went browsing through the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK docs but couldn’t find what I wanted to know. (Is it violating the 3.2 SDK NDA to even admit I have a (legal) copy of it? Hmm..))

Things that have sold me on it — in no special order.

• 3G potential – with no AT&T contract required (Already have that because of the iPhone) – even if I don’t use it.
• iWork
• Support for iPhone apps
• Bluetooth keyboard support
• iBook app supports ePub (Here’s hoping it can read non-Apple/iTunes Store procured eBooks. If Not there’s always Stanza and eReader)
• Grown Up (!!) versions of the standard iPhone apps (email, notepad, calendar, etc.)

I do wonder about the “Camera Kit” – it includes a USB-iPod Dock adapter so you can plug your camera directly into the iPad. Does that mean you can plug in other devices that have USB based storage in the same format? (Wild guess — the only app that can access that “mode” is the one that lets you import photos from the camera.)

{Pause while I watch the recording of the event — MUCH better info than I got from the live-blog I read earlier.}

Magical/Intimate – key words from Steve Jobs about the iPad.

But let me mention THE app demoed today that really sold  me on the potential of the iPad: Brushes (It’s an app for artists). This kind of app pushes the iPad beyond being a media consumer/device into being a device to create with.

It’s not just a mobile web browser.

So, watching a show on one of the History channels. An actual historical discussion of the historical background behind the current belief in the AntiChrist (aka Is the Book of Revelations real?) and prophecy.

(Of course, I say that because it fits my own beliefs about such things. I prefer fact based discussions of religion.)

So… they’ve just gotten to the part where they explain that the current belief in the Anti-Christ is actually based on the ideas of a British traveling preacher from the 19th century that really have no basis in the Christian bible. (Sounds like it’s all just the Christian variety of conspiracy theorists.)

And at that point there’s a 60+ second commercial for some kind of fancy crystal cross for people to buy as a gift – for baptisms, confirmations, etc. and to remind people of their religion.

Sure, that kind of thing happens a lot. Commercials targeting an audience based on the content of a tv show isn’t new. Google does it on the internet even. But when it’s a late night tv show? They almost always seem to get it wrong. The commercials are usually aimed at the people who WOULDN’T watch a show like that. Or who would have changed the channel as soon as they discovered it wasn’t a fanboyish show about their favorite religious topic (As rare as those might be.)

I need to spend some time revamping/revising my list of recommended/favorite fics and fic writers. Not today, but soon.

I was just rereading Mhalachai’s crossover fic Agent Afloat Atlantis (A Stargate Atlantis/NCIS crossover centered around Ziva) — which is only better than my favorite Mhalachai fic Physics of the Spin (Rory Gilmore goes to Atlantis) because it is finished.

And as I was reading it, I tried to figure out why I like it so much and why is her writing so much better than mine?

And I think I figured it out. Her characters (Okay – borrowed characters)  move/float inside of lyrical descriptions of movement and scenery.  (Couldn’t find an example, now that I want one.) The characters in her stories don’t just talk. They live in worlds that have color and movement and sound.

Reading one of her stories? It isn’t reading in the pedestrian sense of slogging through piles of words. It’s reading like listening to the music of the words. Or something like that.

So, it’s been Christmas in this part of the world for almost 2 hours now.

And, already, I’ve seen a bunch of “Post Christmas Sale” commercials on TV. And got some Borders coupon spam for a post Christmas sale also.

Gee, in a rush much?

My unstated goal (unless you’ve noticed it in my TtH Profile ) is to have over 500K words of fic on TtH by the end of the year. (Which year? Might actually have been 2008 but let’s pretend I meant 2009 )

Oddly enough, right now I’m 52nd by word count on the site. 500K words seems to be the mid-point of the top 100 writers on the site. And the ones who’ve hit the million word mark are all in the top 20. Compared to some, I’m not that prolific of a writer (There are a couple writers on TtH with stories over 500K words long. Scary! Especially considering most modern novels are around 100K words long.)

I’ll really close. Less than 2K to go. And it only took me 5 years.

The problem? Although I must have over 20K words worth of fics NOT posted to TtH, they are all in unfinished chapters/parts of fics… and I can’t seem to settle on one to work on. I’ve poked a few of my WiPs but nothing sustained enough to finish something I could post.

And I’ve only got a week to go. Argh!

And, on top of that, I haven’t finished moving my fics from my old blog to here.

I’m not really an advertising connoisseur, so this is all opinion (of course).

My favorite Christmas commercials on tv? (No special order)

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[The following is anecdotal.]

Okay, I bought an iPhone at the beginning of August.

As a device, with the exception of battery life, I like it very much though it hasn’t completely replaced my 1st Gen iPod touch as my main MP3 player (I occasionally knock my touch onto the floor at work due to headphone cord length (and it survives). Don’t really want to do that with the iPhone, which cost me twice as much as the touch.)

As for local cell service — I must be one of the lucky ones. I get excellent connectivity locally – both 3G and voice. (Of course, I bought it more for the data plan than voice so I’m a light voice user. I rarely use 1/4 of my allotted minutes a month. And I don’t do SMS.)

Traveling thru New England back in August? There were a few dead spots along the MassPike and driving along I89 in Vermont. It had improved a LOT by Thanksgiving, in the same areas. (I81 in Virginia? Not as many 3G dead spots in November as in August. My mother lives along the edge of AT&T service along the upper edge of the Adirondacks (in NY). In August? EDGE. In November? 3G.

So it’s getting better in the US, no matter what the Anti-Apple/Anti-AT&T internet echo-chamber denizens claim.

Doing business with AT&T? Well, that has been an adventure.

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Okay.

My cable modem started flashing the ‘Online’ light last night but everything else was working (basically means the cable company’s access point/device somewhere in my neighborhood was having issues but the modem was still connected to whatever was between my apartment connector and it (there are ‘link’ lights that indicate that.))

Normally, I have a fairly decent cable/broadband connection but once every couple of months things just stop for an hur or so. Not a huge deal – it’s usually very late at night (I’m assuming it’s a maintenance thing. Someone is remotely updating the firmware or something on the local cable/broadband hub. Or just resetting it for fun.)

But last night, I thought I would send a message to support and tell them my connection was out (used my iPhone for that. It still had a connection to the world)

Before I fell asleep, I noticed that the modem was working again and I had a connection.

So, this morning, I replied to the cable internet support message that showed up in my mailbox this morning and told them things are working.

In reply…

I got a message from someone else at the cable company asking for details on my problem and wanting to help. Apparently they didn’t actually read the reply I’d sent earlier saying things were fine. Even though it was attached to the bottom of this message.

So… do I reply to THAT one? And will I get another “how can we help you” message back?

I can see this one going around forever until the world collapses under the weight of “I’m okay. Stop asking me if I’m okay” messages.

What’s with the comment spam?

Suddenly my blog has been discovered by the spammers? More in the past day than in the past 2 months.

I haven’t done an in-depth study on the topic but those automated comment spam pushers are annoying. Don’t they notice that it never makes it to live on my site? The WP spam catcher I’m using grabs it. And on top of that, all comments have to be approved. By me.

Of course, I shouldn’t have to use an anti-spam plugin to catch it. It shouldn’t be possible for a spam-bot to insert spam into my blog’s comments for me to reject.

One of those days…

Wanted to watch a movie… but not really. Wanted something running in the background with lots of action while I web surf.

My “Go To” movie for such things? “The Replacement Killers“. I have it in both DVD and Blu-Ray (which I completely forgot purchasing. Must have been a $10 special.). Last night I watched the DVD.

Tonight I’m watching the BR. (It has a few extra minutes / added scenes that actually help explain some things in the movie that made no sense.)

And yes, I CAN tell the difference, even on my tiny 37″ HDTV at 1080i (I bought it a year before 1080p screens were in my price range -now they’re cheap – could buy 2 now for what I paid for mine.).

(movie spoilers below)

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There  was a question about themes used here (not sure if that was spam or not since the author provided a link to a WP installation that has an example theme not set up on it). The WP theme I’m using is obvious (check the bottom of the blog pages).

The theme for my stories? It started out as the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme. It dates to 2001 or earlier and its (now defunct) website says it was created by Bryan Bell though his Manila website seems to be inaccessible.

It’s a very old style — mostly using tables and some background images and virtually no CSS. Probably predates all of the fancy css based sites out there.

I’m using it as hand coded, static pages so it isn’t really usable with WP except as such. (There seems to be a mangled version of it floating around that looks like someone rewrote it to work with an ASP based blogging system called dasBlog – though the mangled parts seem to be visible in the screenshot of that theme at the dasBlog website… without attribution.)

Not sure if I’ll keep using it once the fic part of my site is embedded in the CMS (like Radiant or Drupal.) I’ll replace the static pages with. Right now it gives me a nice big white space to put my content on. If I do use it, I’ll convert it into a more modern style of theme not so much with the hard coded background images.

Based on file size ( Old site fics vs. new versions) I’m approximately half done.

Note: I’ve started experimenting with wget as an automated way to download/backup all the fics from the new site. As soon as I have it generating a usable offline copy – to my satisfaction – I’ll put up a zipped copy for those who like such things. Or I can provide instructions for the DIY download crew.

Excluding the images used for backgrounds, the site is currently topping out at 4MB of text/html/zips. The text for the old site (just the content) is 8MB.

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I didn’t watch all of the games in the last World Cup but I watched as many as I could.

2010 World Cup (In South Africa) - GROUP C: England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia

Hopefully, none of them will be on one of those PPV or speciality sports channels on cable that I don’t have (There might actually be a soccer channel.)

Note: The next Women’s World Cup is in 2011 in Germany.

A white Pontiac Fiero, probably an ‘88?

Weren’t those things a fire hazard? Could have sworn they’d all caught fire years ago.

One of the few non-BMW cars on my ‘want to have’ list from the 80’s.

A red E30 325ix in extremely good condition.

You never forget your first car. (You can see a scanned picture of mine on my Flickr pages.)

But the car I’m actual thinking about?
My 1991 E30 318is. My first BMW (I’m on my third – an E46 325i. My second was a 94 530i. The V8 in it was eating my gas budget like it was water. All of them with 5 speed manual. )

I really miss driving that. I wish I had the money to get it back on the road. Instead of in my mother’s barn where it is slowly oxidizing.