I just moved multipart/mixed over to VPS hosting at slicehost.com. I've been very happy with SliceHost (I moved Choka On It several months ago) and unhappy with TextDrive, so now I'm bringing the rest of my sites over.
You may have noticed that all URLs go to joshcarter.com now, and hopefully I've got redirects for all possible URLs — let me know if not. That's part of my longer-term plan for this site.
You gotta give Apple credit, they know how to release products. Tonight they released Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) with great fanfare and no shortage of fans, either. I've seen impressive crowds at previous product releases and Apple Store openings. But what impresses me now is that, even though Apple has four stores in the Denver/Boulder area, and this is the sixth version of Mac OS X, they still drew hundreds of people to each store for the release.
I snapped these photos as the Flatirons Crossing store opened for Leopard. Once they packed the store and the line outside had cleared somewhat, mall security brought over the other line of people that couldn't fit in the first line. I went and got a bite to eat. Came back, store's still packed, line still outside. As I said, impressive.
I'll say upfront I'm no professional 4x4 guide like Bill Burke. But I am obsessive about researching my gear, and one of my recent obsessions is offroading. I've compiled my list of essential (or semi-essential) accessories that I carry in my FJ Cruiser while adventuring in the Rocky Mountains. This list is based on many conversations I've had, web sites and reviews I've read, DVDs I've watched, and of course the essential on-the-trail "boy I wish I had... [x]".
Just a quick tip for the caffeine fiends out there: my favorite morning drink these days is a combo of Yerba Maté (South American tea) and Horchata (milk with cinnamon). The best Maté I've found out there, by far, is Coco Maté made by Café Maté. You can buy it in bags or as loose tea. Then I get Rice Dream Horchata
Also, if you're into loose teas, my favorite accessory is this French Press mug
I owe an apology to regular multipart/mixed readers (Hi Joel) for the long delay in posting. My daughter Genevieve was born last June, plus I've got a new job. As for being a dad, let me just ask: when can I get a full night's sleep again? Despite my grogginess, Genevieve is an awesome kiddo and I love being a dad.
More important to the geek readership is my job: I'm now working at Danger, Inc., makers of the T-Mobile Sidekick. For those of you who followed General Magic, the Sidekick is truly the realization of the vision behind Magic. It's the mobile communicator that becomes your information hub—phone, email, web, SMS, it's all there. Back in the General Magic days, when you heard Bill and Andy talking about their grand vision, the Sidekick is exactly what they were talking about. Fitting, isn't it, that one of Danger's founders was a guy I worked with at Magic.
But despite all that, I've got articles to post here, and I'm going to get on them. Really, I promise.
"Carbonated fusion beverage," so they say. Nowhere on the packaging does it say what components they fused, however.
Turns out it's Coke and coffee. I'm a devout fan of both, but the combo is kind of disgusting. At least it comes in a real glass bottle, which is how Coke should always be distributed.
| Recently moved the world's longest poem (in progress) to a new home: chokaonit.com. It's now at 1100+ couplets and growing all the time! I can taste the smell of victory already. |
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Interesting read here on the business sense (or lack thereof) with Web 2.0 startups. Russell Beattie compares the services these startups provide with services offered by mobile phone companies:
Maybe it’s because I straddle the Web and Mobile worlds why I think this is such an issue. I deal with companies every day who have no qualms about charging 25 cents to send 160 characters of data from one person to another, or who have no problems charging $3.00 for a 10kb .gif image or a bad .midi version of a popular song, or even up to $10.00 for a small Java clone of Tetris - a 20 year old game. Unlike the web world, the mobile world is accustomed to charging for every thing that has the slightest bit of value. The difference between the markets couldn’t be more drastic.
Maybe it's just me, but isn't it a good thing that most Web 2.0 startups aren't gouging their customers $3.00 for bad MIDI songs? Here's my take on the topic:
Continue reading "Web 2.0 Business Models vs. Mobile Services" »
If you need to transfer files between your Mac and other machines, do not use the Mac's "FTP Access" in the Sharing preferences. FTP transfers passwords in the clear, which is an unacceptable security risk. Instead, turn on "Remote Login." This enables SSH and SFTP access to your Mac. These protocols encrypt your password and also data traveling across the network. Use SFTP for moving files around.
If you must use FTP, consider creating a separate account on your Mac. That way your primary account's password won't be compromised if someone snoops your FTP traffic. Change the FTP account's password frequently, and always consider that account vulnerable.
I stumbled into geocaching via a misdirected Google search; somehow I drifted from Krylon spray paints into this bizarre world of... what? That was my first question: what the heck is going on here? Turns out that geocaching is where people hide small "caches" of stuff and, using GPS, post the coordinates of the cache on a web site. Then others, also using GPS, go find the caches.
Is this hide-and-seek gone horribly wrong? Or has it just gone high-tech? I had to find out more.
One of the darlings of last month's Macworld expo was Suitcase Fusion. It even won a Best of Show award. As a Suitcase user, I was excited to see the announcement, and I downloaded the demo first thing.
The feature I especially wanted to try was the new Font Vault. I even read the manual before using it, which tells you to turn on the vault and then drag your font folders (or entire hard disk) into the Suitcase window. The result?
Continue reading "Extensis Suitcase Fusion: Who's Your Customer?" »
| I have some, ah-hem, affiliation with a publicity stunt web site which is in the process of composing the world's longest poem, in Japanese choka form. I encourage everyone who can count syllables to stop by and contribute! |
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I've done a heck of a lot of typing over the past ten years, and my keyboards show it. They look grimy and beaten down, but continue to work flawlessly. After doing a rubik's cube paint job on my first Kinesis keyboard, I decided I'd fix up another, this time applying lessons learned from the first. This article describes to you can create your own New Hotness like mine pictured above.
Guy Kawasaki insists that you know your competition, and that includes using your competitor's products. Here's how we used some competitor's products at Spectra Logic.
ADIC Scalar 1000 automated tape library: with some minor modifications, it makes a great beer cooler. Refrigeration goes where the tape drives used to sit, tap goes on the door, and a keg replaces the robot. Credit goes to master machinist Juan Aviles.
StorageTek 9710 tape library: turns out it makes an excellent smoker. Juan replaced the rotating robot with a rotating 4-up rack, then added gas and grill on the right where the tape drives used to go. At our 2005 Christmas potluck we ate smoked BBQ chicken made in the 9710. Pretty tasty, too.
Guy Kawasaki just started blogging, and I'm compelled to mention it because I owe him one. Rewind back to 1994. I'm a EE/CS major at Duke University, but what I really want to be doing is creating super-cool products. I'm a recent Macintosh convert and a huge fan of the crew that created it. I had just read The Macintosh Way
For those following my discussion of push reel lawn mowers (posts here and here): I returned the Brill Luxus 38 mower. With some research on Colorado grasses it quickly became apparent that the grass needs to be cut at 2.5 to 3.0 inches. This contributes to better root growth and more efficient use of water. The Brill only goes up to 1.8 inches, so that just wouldn't work.
Not wanting to abandon the concept of reel mowers, though, I bought the only mower fitting my requirements: the Scotts Classic. Following is my experience with it over the past several months.
...I'll put ads on multipart/mixed. Yea, I know, it's a low move. But web hosting isn't free and I'd like for this site to pull its weight, or some fraction thereof. Please give an advertiser a click if you don't mind.
UPDATE: nah, forget it. Ads are gone. This site is a labor of love and not a money-maker. I did, however, add Amazon Associates links in some articles where I discuss specific products.
I now have a second mow under my belt with the Brill manual reel mower. As expected, it was much easier than the first time around. With the grass starting shorter and following the terrain closely, the second cut had about half the binding problems. I expected almost no binding, but alas, such was not the case.
Now that I have a real house with a real yard, I have to (yuck) mow the lawn. I don't want a gas mower because of the noise and pollution. That leaves two options: manual and electric. Here's my experience to date.
Continue reading "First thoughts: Brill manual reel mower" »
All material copyright © 1999-2006 Josh Carter, unless a separate author is listed. All rights reserved.
