I’m in Seattle, exhausted, and greatly looking forward to being back in NYC seven hours. Will write more once I’m home. You’ll love the pictures…
Archive for February, 2004
Sleepy In Seattle
Friday, February 27th, 2004Grey Tuesday
Tuesday, February 24th, 2004Jason Kottke sums it up close enough to my own beliefs, and I’m pretty busy today (heading out to Seattle tomorrow for work), so here’s the deal, thanks to Kottke:
Late last year, a DJ named Danger Mouse took The Black Album by Jay-Z, mixed it with samples taken from the Beatles’ White Album, and produced The Grey Album. He sent the album to a few folks and now — blame the Internet — everyone has a copy. EMI, one of the big five record companies, parent of Capitol Records, and owner/controller of the Beatles musical catalog, sent Danger Mouse a cease-and-desist letter, claiming that he had infringed on their copyright of the Beatles tunes in question. (Jay-Z, on the other hand, released an a capella version of The Black Album so that precisely this type of sampling/remixing would occur.) Andy Baio and several other people posted MP3 copies of The Grey Album on their Web sites and were also sent letters by representatives of EMI ordering them to remove the songs from their sites. Believing that “the record industry has become a huge drag on creativity”, music activist group Downhill Battle organized Grey Tuesday (Feb 24) and urged Web sites to turn grey and/or host MP3 versions of The Grey Album. I’m not hosting any of the MP3 files (you can find the files on these sites), but I have turned the site grey for the day to show my support for more permissive copyright laws. Instead of locking creativity up, I say set it free and see what happens.
The Most Beautiful Woman in New York
Saturday, February 21st, 2004Last night, Margaret received the best compliment I’ve ever heard.
We were at Inagiku, enjoying the restaurant’s wonderful ambiance, fantastic service, and delectable sushi. Waitresses dressed in traditional Yukata kimonos floated in our peripheral vision, occasionally gliding to our table whenever it looked like we were low on tea, or to wipe a stray grain of rice, whenever one would escape our chop sticks, deft though we were.
And then he appeared behind me, announcing his presence with a firm hand upon my left shoulder. I turned in my seat. He was tall, dressed in a black turtleneck sweater. He had a warm, middle-aged face that put me at ease, and a bright smile that made me trust him instantly.
“Excuse me, young man,” he said, maintaining his firm but comfortable grip on my shoulder. “My wife and I are in town, visiting from Los Angeles. We’ve been going around, seeing the sights; just typical tourist stuff.”
I looked at him, expecting him to ask me for directions, or recommendations of things to do in the City. He continued.
“Anyway, we’ve seen a lot of people these past few days, and I just want to tell you that my wife and I both agree that this woman you’re sitting with is the most beautiful woman we’ve seen in New York.”
I blinked.
“So, congratulations to you, on your beauty,” he said to Margaret. “And to you, young man, for your good fortune.” And with another smile, and another squeeze of my shoulder, he turned and left us.
10111
Friday, February 20th, 2004At 9:35AM, Pacific time, I turned 23 today, and I can’t think of anything witty to say, except to make this post’s title my age in binary. Sad, eh? That’s what futzing with Microsoft Excel all day does to my brain.
On the up side, Margaret’s taking me out for sushi tonight. It will be a very happy birthday night. *<)=-D
How to Uninstall the Microsoft VM
Wednesday, February 18th, 2004From Microsoft VM Removal / minimalist.com:
Instructions Start -> Run… Key in the following and hit return: rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection java.inf,UnInstall You will then get a prompt to uninstall (a scary one telling you that IE will no longer be able to download files, which is bogus), choose yes, and then when finished it will want to reboot. Let it. To remove the residual traces you may have of the Microsoft VM, remove the following (where %WINDOWS% is your system directory, usually C:\WINDOWS\ or C:\WINNT\ depending on OS: * %WINDOWS%\java (entire folder) * %WINDOWS%\inf\java.inf (may have been deleted by uninstall) * %WINDOWS%\inf\java.pnf (may have been deleted by uninstall) * Search your system drive for “javavm.dll” and remove it (may have been deleted by uninstall) That’s it. Then go install the VM of your choice. If you have problems with IE continually telling you that you need to install a VM even if you already have one installed, turn off the option “Install on Demand (Other)” in Tools -> Internet Options… -> Advanced.
So helpful, I didn’t want to loose this.
Quick, Google it, Safari!
Tuesday, February 17th, 2004I don’t think I’d ever use this feature, but I just discovered it:
Select some text in Safari, then hit Apple-Shift-L. You should get a new tab loaded with the Google results for your selected text.
Back to work…
Fat People
Tuesday, February 10th, 2004Me: “When you look around the locker room at the gym, everyone’s either in pretty good shape, or they’re fat; there’s not a whole lot of in-between, which I guess proves that if you’re not fat, you can be good looking.”
Heh
Sunday, February 8th, 2004MARGARET (pulling a book from the bookshelf): “Jesus! Why do they have to make History of Art books so fucking big?” GABE: Heh.
AOLogs?
Friday, February 6th, 2004Random thought: It recently occured to me that AOL could easily, and is probably, recording every Instant Message that is sent through its network. There’s nothing specific about this in the AIM Terms of Service, except a small bit:
AOL is not required to pre-screen Content available on the AIM Products, including the content of any messaging that occurs on or through the AIM service, although AOL reserves the right to do so in its sole discretion. AOL is not liable for Content that is provided by others. AOL reserves the right to remove Content that, in its sole judgment, does not meet its standards or does not comply with these Terms of Service, but AOL is not responsible for any failure or delay in removing such material.
I wonder if recording the data would be some kind of violation of privacy, the same way it would be to tap someone’s phone line. But I’m no lawyer, and it’s past my bedtime…
Looking For Work in NYC?
Friday, February 6th, 2004If you’re an architect looking for work in New York City, or you’re interested in an HR position in NYC, let me know. I know of an architecture firm that’s looking to hire.