Most recent fragment:
Perhaps I'll write the first technical writing procedural drama. "Looks like this list (puts on sunglasses) is bulleted. (Yeeaaah!)"
Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:15:35 -0700
Software Updates
Lots of software these days can be configured to check for updates automatically. Every once in some while, the software checks a web site and downloads any updates. Usually it will save the update and install it the next time you restart the program.
Here's the problem: I hate rebooting. I tend to leave my computer running for weeks or months at a time. Applications I use frequently, like my web browser and mail reader only get closed when I'm shutting down the machine completely. These updates now occur so often that sometimes they stack up.
Today I had to restart my browser to install a Java update, and when I restarted the browser it installed an update from I-don't-know-how-long ago. Once that was finished, the browser said, "We recommend you install the most recent version." Yes, the 3.6.7 version I just finished installing is outdated now. So, I can expect to re-live this experience in a few weeks when 3.6.8 installs and 3.6.9 is ready for download.
2010.07.29 at 9:30am EDT
Continuing Android Avatar Insanity
Must. Stop. This. To see the whole collection at once, there's an index.
Android avatar images on this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.
These avatar images are also shared under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. You are free to use them online or in print, but please attribute them to "Elliott C. 'Eeyore' Evans" or "ee0r.com" when using them, or creating other work using them.
2010.07.28 at 12:00am EDT
Toolsday: Woodworking Knife
Let's talk about sharp things again! I want to talk about this ginchy Japanese pocket knife I bought for woodworking.
Woodworking Knife
This is a modern, though slightly vintage style Japanese pocket knife. I'm told the design is quite common, and knives like this were typically used as pocket knifes by schoolboys throughout much of the 20th century.
I bought this one from a woodworking catalog, and probably paid too much, but it struck my fancy as something I wanted. A good sharp knife is handy in the shop, for cleaning out cuts and making careful carves. This one is forged iron, and you can see the difference in color on the blade where the hard steel of the edge gives way to the more flexible steel that makes up the bulk of the blade. This bi-metallic style is what's used on most Japanese blades, including chisels and swords. This blade is about five inches long.
This one doesn't lock open, which is a slight safety detriment, so you have to remember to keep your thumb on the tab to keep it open. The tab makes it easier to open, too. The good heavy blade means you can exert quite a bit of force. Theoretically, you could even hammer on the back of the blade, but I wouldn't recommend it and haven't tried it.
This knife is most important because it's given me practice at sharpening this kind of blade on my sharpening stones. I use it to shave the edges of boards, mostly, so it gets dulll if I don't keep at it. The sharpening process has even made the edge shinier over time. I keep it oiled to prevent rust.
2010.07.27 at 10:00pm EDT
Clown Robbery
Yes, the "Clown Pants Bank Robbery" happened about a half a mile from my home. We often buy groceries at the Giant Eagle where he tried to steal a BB gun. The Kmart where he actually stole the gun is in the same shopping center.
The person I really admire is the lady who just got out of her car when he tried to carjack her.
I do think the robber made the best decision when (sitting in a parked car without keys, covered in red dye, sans the money) he decided to just give up and wait for police.
If you don't know what I'm even talking about, just do a google News search for "clown robbery".
2010.07.26 at 2:30pm EDT
Sir Maghnus Kamishimo
Last summer, the knight who heads our household at Pennsic, his excellency, Baron Sir Maghnus an Chnoic na n'Iora, celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his knighting. Their graces, Duke Sir Christopher Rawlyns and Duchess Morgen of Rye bought some great fabric (Sir Christopher was squired to Sir Maghnus), so Sharon and I volunteered to make some Japanese Garb from it. It took us a while, but we recently completed the outfit.
Sir Maghnus in his new garb
Sharon made the kosode, and I made the hakama and kataginu. The white himo (ties) on the hakama are both appropriate for Sir Maghnus (in the SCA, only knights wear white belts) and more period than I usually get to make for myself. I had hoped to make the kataginu (vest) from the same fabric as the hakama (pants), but due to cutting, there wasn't quite enough. I found this shiny fabric at the Jo-Ann, though.
2010.07.26 at 8:00am EDT
That's not cool
So, if you use Google to do a search of my blog for "world war z", that is, you enter "world war z site:ee0r.com/blog" in the Google search box, you get two results. One result is the archive index, since it shows the title of a blog post I made reviewing the book, and the other is the actual blog post. So far, so good.
If you use the Google search box at the top of the archive index to do a search for "world war z", you should get the same results, right? Unfortunately, you don't. You get the same two results as #1 and #2, but you get a third result that is a link to the book on sale at Amazon. (Here's a screen capture.) No link to Amazon appears in that blog post. It's basically an ad inserted into the page as a search result.
I don't object to Google putting ads on search result pages, especially when they are providing a valuable service to my blog and my readers, but why isn't this marked as an ad? It appears in the site search results, which implies it's a page on my site! This is fundamentally dishonest. Google is beginnning to seriously suck.
2010.07.23 at 12:00pm EDT
Android Avatars
Over the weekend, I just couldn't stop thinking about more Android avatars. You'll recall I posted some last week, and they were so much fun I made seven more. I have four more ideas percolating, so watch out for more of them in the future. To see the whole collection at once, there's an index.
Android avatar images on this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.
You can download original, Creative Commons licensed, Android logo images from Google's Android 'Press/Media' page. You are free to create derivative images based on those, provided you comply with Google's request for attribution.
These avatar images are also shared under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. You are free to use them online or in print, but please attribute them to "Elliott C. 'Eeyore' Evans" or "ee0r.com" when using them, or creating other work using them.
2010.07.21 at 12:00am EDT
Toolsday: Paint Can Opener
Here's another mundane little tool that I think everybody should have. It's just a little pry bar for opening paint cans.
Paint Opener
You'll wreck your screwdrivers if you use them to open paint cans. Bending or twisting a screwdriver blade makes it useless for transferring force into a screw, so unless you have an extra screwdriver that you don't mind destroying, you're better off picking up one of these little prybars in the painting tool section the next time you buy a can of paint or wood finish.
At the very least, you're likely to get paint on any tool you use for opening paint cans. If you then use that tool on something important, you might get bright red paint on your pale wood project, or something equally unhappy. I've been known to use this paint opener as an impromptu stir stick, and it's good to know it probably won't come near anything important.
These things only cost a dollar or two, so you won't mind using them to pry at other things besides cans. If you're having people over to help paint, I recommend getting a bunch of them so that there's always one handy. You can give them away afterwards. The "handle" end of this one is even designed to be a bottle opener for the end of the day, so there you go.
2010.07.20 at 10:00am EDT
No More Excuses
I've been wrestling with some 'getting things done' type problems lately, and apparently they came to a head in my subconscious over the weekend because I woke up early Saturday morning with the words "no more excuses" ringing in my ears, out of a dream. Sometimes, your subconscious can give you a new way of looking at problems that might be an answer if you make it into one. The feeling was strong enough that, even though I fell back to sleep, I remembered the phrase upon waking and wrote it down. I'm going to look at that piece of paper every day for a while and see how it works out.
2010.07.19 at 9:30am EDT
Antenna Touching
Apple has finally admitted that touching the antenna (that is, the entire rim of the new iPhone) degrades reception. Steve Jobs correctly states that this is not just an iPhone problem, but that it is a problem on most wireless phones. I can't confirm his claim about a warning sticker on some phones, but I do remember a line in the manual for my last Nokia phone that warned you not to touch the metal logo on the back of the phone. I remember a line in the manual for my very first phone ever (which actually had a pull-out antenna) tat warned you not to touch the antenna. When Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone 4 had an antenna running all around the outside of the phone, I remember saying something to Sharon about these touching antennas, and wondering out loud if Apple had figured out a way around this problem. He was so proud of this "brilliant engineering", I thought for a while that they must have a fix.
As you've probably heard, no, they did not find a fix for this problem. When people started experiencing the problem, they denied there was a problem. They blamed the user for doing things that the user had no reasonable expectation should be a problem. They blamed software ngineers for a hardware problem. They admitted their software has been lying to users for years about signal strength, in an attempt to avoid admitting there's a problem.
This reaction became increasingly unbelievable, so finally yesterday Steve Jobs admitted that there is a problem. He's offering a bandaid for the problem, and blaming reality for the problem. If he hadn't denied for so long that there even was a problem, this would not be such a big deal.
There are three real problems here. The first was reportedly ignoring an engineer who allegedly warned that this antenna design might cause a problem. The second is failing to perform real world tests that might have uncovered the problem before the release of the phone. (As we know from the famous "lost iPhone" story, test units were disguised by putting the iPhone 4 in a case that made it look like an older iPhone.) The third is denying the existence of any problems whatsover when it was blindingly obvious there was a problem.
Even now, when the denials are over, Steve Jobs drags competitors phones up on stage in front of the press to prove that many popular phones have this problem. Did anybody ever say other phones don't have this problem? By your own claims, some phones even admit they have this problem right on the phone. You're the one who was saying the iPhone did not. Please, just stop with the excuses. An admission, a remedy, and an apology are all that's needed.
2010.07.17 at 12:00am EDT
"This blogging business. LJs and what-not. Over-rated, if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it."
All text and graphics copyright © 2010 Elliott C. Evans except where otherwise noted.
