Archive for April, 2012

Special visitor

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Here’s LRN1 enjoying a quiet moment with a very special visitor a couple of weeks back.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at our apartment complex’s clubhouse, and part of my famous Event series.

Been a few days again, and lots has happened.  First (and worst), LRN4 and LRN1 left for California on Saturday morning.  Boo hoo!  They’ve had a great time visiting LRN5, LRN12, Cliff, and many other friends.  The house was in great shape and everything is going well.  They got my beloved pickup’s strange blinker problem fixed, they packed everything up and loaded the truck, and they’re ready to head for Utah tomorrow morning.  Drive carefully, Loyal Readers!

I’ve been living the bachelor life again, although LRN4 correctly points out that I’m definitely not living like a hobo this time.  I’ve got furniture, dishes, food, and all the comforts of home.  That part’s just fine.  I’m still a bit lonesome.  However, I have my sushi to comfort me in my time of trial.

Also had a hamburger last night and a really nice plate of pork paprikash tonight.  Tomorrow: sushi again, most likely.

But I’m suffering.  Suffering, I tell you.

Let’s see, what else has been happening?  We went to an interesting place on Friday called Bryn Athyn.  Beautiful old buildings.  Very nice people.  Perfect day.  It was all good.  Recommended.  I don’t think we’ll be going back again and again, but still recommended.

Ordered my Beagle Bone over the weekend.  It’s finally in stock at Adafruit!  They shipped it out of New York City yesterday.  It arrived in Philly today, so I expect it’ll be delivered tomorrow.  Can’t wait!

I bought some instant ice packs for my poor, sore tennis elbow the other day.  They work – sort of.  See my brilliant Amazon review here.  Try another brand.

Time for bed already.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: attack turtle!

See you tomorrow.

Distant statue

Friday, April 6th, 2012

Here’s a view from the docks in New Jersey.  See if you can pick out a well-known landmark or two.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Statue series.

Hmm.  I think that categorization may have given away at least part of the answer.  Hopefully, my Loyal Readers won’t notice.

No word from Apple yet on releasing the Brewing Co. app.  Patience, grasshopper.  In the meantime, LRN1 is making amazing progress on the Android version.  What do you think are the chances it’ll be on the street before the iOS one?  I’m giving it about 25-30%, but LRN1 is usually good for a challenge.

Went out to lunch with my colleagues Hai and Thomas today, as is our wont on Fridays.  This time, I invited LRN4 and LRN1 to go with us.  We went to the Thai restaurant in the same strip mall as the Newtown Amish Farmer’s Market.  Except the restaurant is gone.  Closed down.  I guess they needed my business a bit earlier.  So we decided to go to the Amish Farmer’s Market for lunch instead.  Except all the Amish people were taking Good Friday off.  So we decided to go to the Chinese restaurant at the far end of the strip mall.  Except they had a fire a couple of days ago and they’re closed for repairs.  So we went back to the Amish Farmer’s Market and got Mexican and Japanese food from the non-Amish vendors.  Sheesh.  It was good anyway, but sheesh.

Let’s see, other new stuff . . . hmm . . . still thinking . . . nope, not coming up with anything.

Then let’s talk about Linux, shall we?  I’m disgusted with Ubuntu.  I see that shocked look on your face.  Well, it’s true.  I’ve loved Ubuntu for the last few years – and used it extensively – but they’ve jumped the shark for me.  That stupid Gnome Unity interface has got to go.  What a mess.  It’s as bad as Windows 8.

No, it’s not that bad.  Nothing is.

But it’s bad anyway.  A laptop computer is not a tablet.  It never has been and it never will be.  I don’t want a desktop full of icons.  I want a menu.  Give me my menu back, Ubuntu!

Yes, I know, there are supposedly ways to get the menu back.  That worked fine on Ubuntu 11.04, so I used it and was happy, but it’s hopelessly broken on 11.10.

And don’t tell me it’s all Gnu’s fault.  Yes, they’re responsible for Gnome.  But Ubuntu is responsible for caving to them.  And I don’t run Gnu, I run Ubuntu.

Or I ran Ubuntu, that is.  It’s gone now.  My trusty old Averatec Linux Laptop is now running Linux Mint.  That’s basically still Ubuntu (even downloads its updates from Ubuntu’s repositories – I wonder how long the Ubuntu people will put up with that!), but it has . . . wait for it . . . menus!  It also features a bit of non-free software, which doesn’t bother me a bit, and it doesn’t require me to put up with some Stallmanesque guilt trip to enable it.  It appears to have a nice, clean look, and it seems speedy enough for my old, pathetic hardware so far.

So do I have a perfect distribution?  A lot of people seem to think so.  I’ll have to see what I think after a while.

Okay, rant over.  Thanks for listening.  I feel so much better.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: mystery freeway dog!

See you on Monday.

Other lagoon

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Here’s a second look at the Coco Palms lagoon.  I’m pretty sure I offered a first look at it quite some time ago, although that one was the view to the left as you exited the (hurricane-destroyed) main building going towards the cabanas.  This is totally different.  This is the view to the right as you exit the (hurricane-destroyed) main building going towards the cabanas.  Great Art taken on our cruise to Hawaii during shore leave at the (hurricane-destroyed) Coco Palms Resort on Lahaina and part of my famous Vacation series.

I really wish I had been able to see the Coco Palms when it was actually open.  It looks like it was a really cool, if possibly somewhat dated, place.  I was born too late!  Or at least I traveled to Kauai too late, anyway.

Although it might not be too late after all.  It’s for sale!  I’m looking for partners.  You bring the money and the work, and I’ll provide the ideas.

I’ve take lots more Great Art recently – just need to get it into iPhoto and select the Greatest shots for the blog.  Real Soon Now, guaranteed.  In the meantime, Hawaii pictures aren’t all bad.

Now for the excellent news: we’ve submitted the Brewing Company app!  It went in to the App Store System yesterday and heaven only knows when it’ll come out.  When it does, I’ll let my Loyal Readers know.  In the meantime, why not check out our company website?  I put up a shell on Saturday and have been gradually filling in the blanks.  It think it’s moderately presentable at this point.  Criticism (constructive or otherwise) appreciated.  You can’t polish a gem without knocking off the rough edges.

Over the weekend, we went to a place called Northlandz.  It contains the most amazing model railroad in the world.  I think that’s a pretty accurate statement.  The thing is in a gigantic building with 8 miles of track.  It took us three hours to walk through it.  Just for grins, there’s also a fairly large dollhouse, a bunch of dolls and other toys, and a huge pipe organ, along with several other organ consoles.  Why?  Who cares?  I’m not sure I’d go back again and again as I would will to Longwood, but I’m really glad I went once.  And I’m not a big model railroad fan.

Although I do like trains.

I mentioned the Beagle Bone single-board computer a post or two ago.  I finally got around to ordering on the other day from Adafruit and . . . they were out.  They have plenty of them at [amazon asin=B006X35EN6&text=other vendors], but nobody else seems to have the cool starter kit that Adafruit offers, so I’m waiting.  Impatiently.

I’m reading [amazon asin=1590593898&text=Joel on Software] right now, along with a couple of other software books that maybe I’ll talk about in a future post.  The Joel book is a fascinating book for software developers that really makes you think.  The guy has very good instincts about the industry in general and the art of developing software on either a large or small scale.  I don’t always agree with everything he says, but I suspect I do so at my own peril.  Highly recommended reading.

Time for a couple of other thing before I head for bed.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity:  angry elves!

See you tomorrow.