30-3: Yes, It's a Baseball Score

I'm a little freaked out over the latest Rangers game results (I think I'm one of six people that follow baseball anymore). Against the Baltimore Orioles, the Rangers scored 30 runs - something that hasn't been seen in modern baseball in over a century. The Orioles' ERA went from 4.39 to 4.60 in a single game. Two players homered twice and earned seven RBI's EACH! The stats can go on forever, but anybody who says baseball is a boring game didn't watch this one.

RetroTech: The Apple Newton and Why I Love It

My first real job started in early 1994, at the Austin Apple Assistance Center. I was hired as a ten-dollar-an-hour intern (a princely sum for the times) and happily spent the next two years swimming in technology. Looking back, I can still remember how fun that job was. And all the stupid mistakes I made and how many opportunities I let slip by, but I suppose most 19 year olds do.

One of the absolutely coolest things I saw during my time there was the Apple Newton. Remember, my friends, that this wasn't a PDA. This was the original PDA - the device that coined the term. Looking down my first time at that Original MessagePad, with its pitiful memory and iffy handwriting recognition, was a religious experience for me - it showed an entirely new paradigm of computing that was truly more personal because it could be carried with you everywhere.

I never supported the product while I was at Apple; I did become friends with some members of the team, though, and absolutely loved talking with them about it. I even tried my hand at learning Newton programming, though my ADD mindset at the time meant that lasted about two weeks. But the sheer wonder of handheld computing that I felt that first day has never really left me. When I got more adult and a bit more financially secure, I started purchasing my own mobile geegaws (currently, an HTC Wizard that will likely be upgraded this year to a TyTN II.) Alas, by that time the Newton had been relegated to the dust heap of history, cancelled by a resurgent Steve Jobs. To this day, I think there are people for whom even his turnaround of Apple, the iPod and the iPhone aren't enough to forgive that decision.

So imagine my surprise when I, in a fit of Wikipedia boredom, looked up the Newton and found that I was not alone in my nostalgia. In fact, the Newton was the posterchild for orphaned tech: thousands of people, it seemed, still used them; hundreds actively wrote about them and kept in communication, and several very gifted people with more time on their hands than I have were still programming for it. I was amazed, and delighted, that there was still a Newtonverse out there. In fact, I was so happy I went out and purchased one - a MessagePad 2100, which was the very last and greatest of the Newtons made by Apple. It blew the Original that first kindled my technolust away. And it was mine.

I suppose you might say I've spent the past few weeks in a form of nostalgic wish fulfillment. I remember thinking about how I would fill a Newton up with apps if I could just get my hands on one when I was at Apple. Now I've got over 15 megs of apps on mine (which, for the Newton architecture, is a lot - trust me.) They include:

- A full-fledged web server (Newton Personal Data Sharing)
- An HTML editor
- An SMTP/POP3 client
- Wireless ethernet
- A productivity app suite (NewtonWorks)
- Math/scientific calculator software
- A multilingual translator

In short, all the geeky apps that make PDAs so much fun. I was somewhat shocked by how advanced Newton software, for the most part written in the mid- to late 1990's, had been - and how the fundamental categories of mobile software hasn't really changed.

Do I have all these apps on my smartphone? Yes. Is it more convenient than the Newton? Yes. Am I having twice as much fun using my Newton than my smartphone? Hell yes. The 19 year old in me grins every time I take it into my hands and slide the on switch...which is something that I can definitely use these days, with a job that seems to age me more and more. And that, in various mutations and incarnations, is IMHO a prime reason why "retrotech" exists. Tandy Color Computer user groups, Apple IIgs web sites, Commodore 64 FTP archives...just like pictures or scents or snatches of music, technology can become a part of our past. It can take us back to different times.

I'm a Bad Blogger - UK TRIP!

Well, kiddies...from what I understand, blogging is supposed to help you chronicle your life and its twist and turns. So why have I been quiet for two weeks?

I've actually been in the UK for a work gig. It's something of a reprise from an earlier one in April; I've been working in a Midlands town in England called Lichfield. I was also able to steal off to London over last weekend, where the Tour de France was in town.

So why no blogging? Well, a couple of reasons. There are times - most of them, I think - when I'm a natural blogger. I like to recount, tell, and relate; I love to synthesize knowledge and experiences into something (hopefully) bigger. And yes, from that last sentence you can tell I'm a geek too.

One thing I've found, though, is that life can intrude...especially when your routine is so disrupted. I almost hate admitting this, since I have such a reputation as the "jetsetter" among friends - but intercontinental travel really sucks the first few days. Going to Europe leaves me completely hyper during the morning and early day, only to crash horribly in the afternoon. And darlings, let me say that Jonathan barely looks decent when he's well rested- when tired, it's like the Medusan on the classic Star Trek episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty? "

I did do better this time. I'm not usually one to embrace taking a ton o' supplements and pills, but I did break down and try melatonin for a sleep aid. I would DEFINITELY recommend it! No psychotic dreams like Ambien, no sleepiness during the day, great for helping you get into a good rhythm of sleeping and waking.

There were some downsides. First, England is having weather close to what Texas had when I left - i.e. rainy, floody, and crappy. It also has some allergen which I was totally unprepared for; by the third day here, I had lost my sense of taste (EEEEK!) and was getting very itchy. And this was on Claritin!! Luckily, Zyrtec is available over the counter here, and within two days I was right as rain. (God, I've been linguistically contaminated. You should hear some of the more colorful idioms they use here.)

Finally - and this was perhaps the most subconsciously depressing - my STUPID CAMERA PHONE totally crapped out on me. I was snapping pictures like wild at the tour, being Ultra Cool and using my Sports setting to capture shots of the...very sleek and hot...bikers go by. On the second day, though, the camera app started freezing repeatedly; then, in a moment of sheer horror, I looked on my storage card and realized that all the pictures I'd had were no longer registering in the file system. They're still THERE, according to the memory stats, but the file system got corrupted. When I get home, I'm going to try a couple of utilities to extract what I can; I seriously hope that I can post some pics from London.

So I'm going to try a kind of delayed blogging, giving some highlights of the trip. I'm staying up tonight to try and start syncing back with American time; when I leave for Austin via Frankfurt, it'll be around 12:45 AM CDT. We'll see if I can't make it on the flight to Germany, then zonk out on the plane.

Summer Flood '07, Climate, and the LCRA

We've been dealing with drought or near-drought conditions in Central Texas for a number of years. No more: we've had ten inches above the average yearly precipitation to date, and now we've been dealing with some severe flooding. Insert your own "when it rains it pours" joke here.

Global warming concerns aside, this kind of fluctuation has been par for the course in this part of the world - we're basically a semi-arid region that goes through long dry spells punctuated by deluges. This is one of the reasons why the Hill Country has the kind of vegetation it has, and why planting all those water-sucking plants from the Eastern coastal regions is such a bad idea here.

It's also the reason why we have six of the most beautiful lakes I've seen anywhere on Earth - because we created them for flood control! Lakes Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Travis, Austin, and Marble Falls were all created after the Lower Colorado River Authority was created in 1934 to help control flooding and to provide drinking water in between. It also had the side effect of immeasurably enriching the local area's ecology, and creating a very lively recreational sports and tourism industry. Check it out here.

Unfortunately, even the most aggressive flood control measures fail. The lakes are up to beyond full, and the literal floodgates are open. There have been a number of people in Marble Falls, a wonderful little town just outside of Austin, that have been inundated - over nineteen inches of rain have fallen in the area, with more expected tonight.

Odds and Ends

The past week has been intense from a work perspective - I'm currently trying to learn four weeks of material in a week. A great way to show your superior self-training skills, even if it drives you insane in the process...

Dreams of Landscaped Paradise

One of the wonderful things about owning a house is thinking of all the projects you can finally do. Tear down a wall? Have at it. Create a scale replica of Machu Picchu in your backyard? Go to work!

Unfortunately, thinking and doing are two very different things. Due to some allowances and insurance money when I moved in two years back, I was able to get some Pergo floors in and did some minor work in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the realities of living settled in and most of my grand projects have come, so far, to naught. I was all set to try to redo the kitchen, but when I was getting multithousand dollar totals for what I wanted to do - even at IKEA! - I decided I had to postpone until later.

One of the projects that I never seemed to get any focus on is landscaping. I've been very shocked and disappointed with the general attitude that seems rampant in the landscaping..uh, field? HA! - in Austin. There are more than a few highly professional firms that specialize in all kinds of high-end projects; mention a standard subdivision plot and a budget of less than $10,000 up front and you suddenly feel daggers through the phone. Due to the Treecalypse I tried arranging something with Home Depot, who just recently started advertising landscaping services...I plan on writing a whole blog entry about that nightmare of an experience. Suffice it to say that they were completely untrustworthy in keeping promised appointments, and that Lowe's is getting more of my money than they otherwise would have. (Alas, they do not offer landscaping.)

SO, I've decided to landscape as much as a DIY project as I can. I must admit it's a little daunting; some of the things I'd like to do are ambitious (i.e. building walls). I got a couple of books on stonework and on landscaping, again from Lowes (Home Depot delendo est!) and they actually make it sound like I could DO a lot of this. I've even found what I think could be the perfect tree to replace my poor ill-fated Bradford pear - the Loblolly Pine. It grows fast, does great in a lot of soils, is native to Texas, and has that stately, yet wild/rustic look that I absolutely love.

SPURS WIN!

As God intended. ;)

Being Alive is Pretty Cool...

...but sometimes we forget about that. There's so much daily grind, and ritual, and routine in modern life - it's so easy to forget about the sheer miracle of living. There have been a couple of events over the past weeks that gave me a huge new appreciation for sheer joy of being alive, being healthy, and being able to appreciate both.

I've been looking around and seeing some things I could be doing better - mainly in trying to expand my personal life and interests a bit, and trying to revive a couple of dormant interests of mine. I'd love to be able to have a huge honking life outside of work, which I often don't seem to have. Don't get me wrong, for the most part I like my job - that's something that a lot of folks can't say...but still, I think I need more than just talking about software during the day and talking about software to others during the night. :) We'll see.

Sopranos Schadenfreude

"Doooooon't Stop"

I love it.
Of course, I could be formulaic and say that if you never followed the Sopranos, or couldn't catch the final episode "Made in America", you shouldn't read this. But then again, the pure evil genius of the ending makes it a non sequitur. What happens to Tony and his family? Will his daughter ever learn how to parallel park? We don't know. We won't know. MWHAHAHAHA!

For me, the Sopranos was a phenomenon that I always followed at a distance - never really saw a complete episode, but followed some of the major plot lines and twists on the various TV/movie sites. (Austin, TX plug - aintitcoolnews.com, run by the venerable Harry Knowles.) I was very interested in the finale, but more from a fan reaction standpoint. "Reaction" doesn't seem an appropriate word; "rip in space-time" might be more appropriate. Personally, I love anything where the reaction is half joy and half loathing; check out any fan bulletin board and that's exactly what you'll see. I think David Chase was called every insult in English by the time the credits rolled; within an hour, the fans had gone to Japanese and Klingon to vent their feelings. Every other post, though, was equally orgasmic - "Geeeeeeenius", etc. I'd say that the show's staff made their bones with this one.

WIIITIS!

No, my preciouses, that's not "Wa-three-tis", but Wee-eye-tis - a New Terrible Syndrome afflicting our population. Apparently, this video game system has gotten enough people off their asses for them to realize how out of shape they are. I find the irony incredibly ironic. (HA!)

Not only does one of my best friends have one of these, but the BF got one yesterday. I have a feeling I'm going to be avoiding a ton of wild Wii Sports swings.

Treecalypse

Ahh, the perfect ending to the perfect day...I went to lunch with a friend around noon; when we came back at 1, the sky was piled high with what I thought was good weather cloud. Unfortunately, as happens in Texas, some sudden and severe storms developed and hit us here in the north part of town. The shot above is during a lull in the rain.

The other shot is what happened to my 20 year old Bradford pear tree in my front yard. Very disappointing, but I should have been more prepared for it; Bradfords are notorious for being susceptible to wind damage, and this one had already had a major branch torn off before I moved in. I think there's little chance of saving the tree; luckily, I'd planned on having landscaping people here next week - it looks like there will be a slightly bigger range of choices than I first planned.

Jefferson Indicted - Finally

Excellent. People who know me know I lean Democratic. They also know that I can have a short fuse about certain issues...one of the shortest fuses involves government corruption. Most people have no idea what havoc and despair a corrupt government can wreak on societies - fly to Haiti, or Zimbabwe sometime if you think that's an overstatement. And even if it's just one Congressional representative, then somewhere thousands of American citizens have not only not been represented, but have had their right perverted to serve the means of an unworthy individual. My sympathy for those people is a little tainted, unfortunately, because they voted the bum back into office - and on a very slippery campaign which painted the opponent as a far-left loonie not in touch with the values of the constituency. Tell me - was the $90,000 found in the freezer during a police search more in line with those values?

Changing the World...One Bulb at a Time

This is an excellent site. I've used CFLs for three years, and when I bought my house made sure that anything I could replace with 'em I did.

Vacation = Work With Room Service

This article is very very sad, because it's totally me. I went to freaking Hawaii in 2004 for the first time - sand, tropical paradise, Kilauea!! - and I brought my laptop. I was literally getting messages from coworkers on IM telling me to disconnect and go enjoy a vacation.

I think I've mellowed slightly since then, but I still sometimes have that urge to take some kind of IT appliance with me on vacations. Hi, my name is Jonathan, and I'm a work addict. (sigh)

The TB Follies

So why am I making a blog entry at 1:36 AM? 'Cause I'm more than a little pissed about ol' TB Andrew and his Transcontinental Tuberculosis Tour. Reading the lastest stories on it make Stephen King's "The Stand" seem eerily too close for comfort.

I hardly know the mind of Mr. Speaker, and can't purport to know what he thought in Rome right after he was informed that he had not just a bug, but a Bad Bug. Current reports state that he feared he could die if he stayed in Italy; after doing a little checking on the state of medicine there, he may have had a point. Hell, even after being flown to what's probably the best place on the planet to get treatment, he might pull through this only after having part of his lung removed. And while I abhor his decision to expose hundreds of people to a potentially terminal illness, I do understand his motivations - survival is a primal instinct, and it's astonishing what other ethical considerations can fly out the window in such times. So altruism =0, survival instinct=1.

Luckily, we have people who are supposed to weigh the greater good for the nation and the welfare of the American public. We have people trained to guard against threats entering our nation. We have a dedicated staff of individuals whose sworn duty is to safeguard the "homeland"...oh, my bad! I'm thinking of that hypothetical alternate reality where the government can do the One! Damn! Thing! it still has adequate funding for - national border security. Unfortunately, some highly trained and sensitive government employee took a look at his computer screen - which was giving him such tidbits as "highly dangerous", "approach with caution", and "don protective gear" - let me say that again, "don protective gear" - and decided to give him a pass, 'cause DAMN if the boy didn't just look healthy as all get out! DELICIOUS. Hear that, all of Those Who Seek To Do Us Harm (R)? Remember, lots of skin product and good grooming before you hit a border checkpoint - looks SELL. Who needs a pesky computer warning that a guy has an infection that could kill 70 percent of the people who get it when you can plainly see that the guy has a knockout tan?

Ladies and gentlemen, I think I've decided to hit the mountain hideout a little earlier than expected. I might have enough food for two or three more people, but you'll have to draw straws. We can come down when it's all over and raid the supermarkets, just like in "28 Days Later". (banging head on keyboard)

Tubin' the Comal

I just got back some pics from a trip I took a couple of weeks ago down to New Braunfels to celebrate my friend Jason's birthday. I have to admit, "tubing" isn't my usual speed - I tend to like things that move faster, or has buttons, or both. :) But I needed this trip like you wouldn't believe - and after a few beers, I fit right in. The weather forecasters had prophesied rain and storms the whole weekend, but the God of Leisure smiled upon us and we had some really nice, sunny mid-80s goodness.

We rented a couple of condos right on the river; Jason's parents were the perfect hosts - the housing was fantastic, and the food was amazing.

Bionic Father Update!

My Dad is now a Borg! Well, not really. His right knee was replaced today in a relatively quick procedure. My mother and I took turns at his bedside; to be honest, the watch was easy - with the anesthetic AND a femoral block AND a morphine "pain pump", Dad was very seldom on our plane of existence. Tomorrow will likely be tougher; they're going to have him start physical therapy on the one knee even before they've replaced the other. I plan on telecommuting and visiting him tomorrow during lunch to see how he's doing. Not to end with too much trite sentiment, but even though it was nowhere near as serious as my mother's quadruple bypass operation last year, looking down at Dad in the hospital bed did evoke a lot of feeling - how fragile he looked, how he had looked after me when I was ill and now the tables had reversed.

The Mad Genius of Brian Atene

Among my loves in life currently are satellite radio (regardless of the merger crap, having a good electronica station when you're passing through Itasca, Texas is a godsend) and YouTube. Imagine my delight when those collided on one of my favorite satrad talk shows, "Ron and Fez". With their characteristic sadistic glee, they ran a bit on a YouTube video that has been making its way round the user community there - that of a 1983 audition tape for Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket". The man in question, Brian Atene, goes through an audition that I can only describe as wonderfully horrible. I seriously don't think I could possibly look at "The Outsiders" again with a straight face. His original video is here; after the video gained more publicity (and people started making parodies of it), he got onto YouTube as julliardropout (nice!) and posted a reply. A good sport.

The Bionic Father!

Well, admittedly "bionic" is a little sensationalist. I'm working from my parent's house this week, as my father will be undergoing double knee replacement surgery. My reaction is "about time"; watching his reduced mobility due to knee damage has been hard to see (although I'm sure it was much worse to actually live with). He'll undergo two procedures, one tomorrow and one on the 31st. Thanks to the miracle of telecommuting, I'll be able to be here without taking off work.

Has the world GONE MAD?!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/26/arts/television/26rosi.html

Radio Surfing: Joe Frank

One of the things I love about satellite radio is the occasional "deep dive" I take into the program content...finding things beyond my normal range of programs. I'm listening to some of the weirdest, most interesting stuff I've heard in a while...a kind of spoken word/psych exploration set to catchy music - the Joe Frank Show, on XM Sonic Theater. The official website is here; here's a description from it:

"Long-time favorites with public radio audiences, Joe Frank's programs are sometimes dark, sometimes absurdist, sometimes solo recitations, sometimes ensemble pieces performed and/or improvised by actors, sometimes voices of real people heard in real situations - whether man-in-the-street interviews or phone conversations with lovers or strangers.

All or just one of these within the span of a single hour can comprise a Joe Frank show, always presented as multi-layered soundscapes intermixed with hypnotic, rhythmic music. Tackling philosophical or spiritual questions, the programs are real and surreal timeless explorations of life, death, alienation, faith and love."

From what I've heard so far, very creepy and compelling. The host's voice is modulated through a filter that makes him sound just a touch otherworldly. Very cool.

Heroes Finale...YATTA!

Let me just say, first, that I completely sympathize with all those who wanted Peter/Sylar Ultimate Fighting. I wanted to see what was going on beyond that door in "Five Years Gone" so badly that I could barely stand it. We saw our two archetypal opposites in 2012, evolved into what we knew they could be. Sylar had become the ultimate chameleon and chimera, fulfilling his wildest dreams of power and standing at the threshold of eliminating his "competition". Peter had mastered his abilities and his combat skills, at the cost of his innocence. Those two people would have given us the Matrixesque bout that many of us were craving.

Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint - the finale took place in 2007. Sylar, while certainly formidable, was drunk on power and on prescience; thinking he understood everything, he forgot that in the Heroes universe destiny isn't immutable. Peter had the courage and heart that he always possessed, but didn't understand the mechanics behind his abilities enough yet - and nearly destroyed a city. These two people could only play things out the way we saw them.

I think the reason why - for me, at least - it was okay that we didn't have a CGIgasm at the end was that this series has really never been about The Powers®. It's been about all these otherwise ordinary people dealing with things that are incredible and horrible and beyond what anyone should have to deal with. These abilities unlocked ways for them do things beyond what other humans could do; however, in the end, they are people - and people miss (i.e. Matt eating his own bullets) as often as they hit (Niki using a parking meter in ways God never intended).

I was crying as Nathan redeemed himself before my eyes. Throughout the series, we saw his suave manner, his coolness under fire, and his charm in action; toward the end, I was watching those traits serve him on his way to the dark side. Seeing him project his serenity and cool at Peter while he calmly accepted death in order to preserve life was the essence of a hero. It was Frodo, Sheridan, Kirk, and Luke rolled up into one package.

The truly interesting factor in this is the role of Hiro in the course of events. Sylar remarks that he will be the hero, while Peter is the villain; in a very real sense, he's right - we know Peter goes boom in the unaltered timeline. SoulPatchHiro katana'ed Sylar originally, who then regenerated and somehow prevented Nathan from saving the day. PresentHiro stabs Sylar and is able to remove his interference, allowing Nathan to be the hero. And when one thinks about it, it might just have been Claire's influence that caused Nathan to change his mind - an influence that would have been absent, as Sylar would have long past added Claire to his "collection". In retrospect, Hiro's string theory was a lot more complex than even he may have realized.