Monthly Archives: May 2010

Computer news, circa 1991

Kristin’s parents brought some kindling to the cabin this weekend, and I made the mistake of looking at it.  I found these awesome gems:

Click to read.

Click to read.

Oh yeah, you read it here.  Solaris x86 and SPARC, ready to pave the way to Sun dominance.  Solaris x86 did pick up some steam in the last couple of years, too little to late I suppose.

Click to read.

Click to read.

Dayum, that be one GB.  We’ve come a little ways in 20 years, eh?

Click for a larger version.

Click for a larger version.

What a deal!  Hard drive, 3.5″ and 5.25″ drives for the ultimate in compatibility.  Gotta love that In-Order, cacheless, sub 1M transistor goodness!

–Nat

Drink this, not that.

Click for the real article.

Click for the real article.

From time to time, I’ve read seen the “eat this, not that” blurbs and they tend to be fairly informative.  Who knew that you should pick a Big-Mac hands down over a Whopper?  This “20 Worst Drinks” is all about sugar content, not so much about fat or calories, but they are mentioned.  There are some beverages out there that no healthy human being should consume, moderation or not.   For me, the visual comparison to junk foods is pretty convincing.

Some of the points might be a bit mis-leading, as they are all the uber-jumbo size if available.  Also, its worth noting the food comparisons are only on sugar content, I am willing to bet that a Moo-latte is indeed better for you than a dozen Krispy-Kreme donuts or whatever… maybe.

Moral of the story: Stay away from “regular” pop, some “health” drinks are just the opposite so read the label,  and when you must indulge go for the small size.

I suppose the *real* moral of the story is that you should just drink water.  That’s pretty boring though, isn’t it?

–Nat

What happened to Nottingham?

The experience I had with going to a liberal arts college is echoed by many of the people I know who attended them: some of the best classes you take are the ones outside your major.  With that I absolutely agree.  Beer in Society, for example.  Brewing beer while learning about the impact it had on human civilization, enabling it essentially, while studying the history of alcohol in the U.S. and how it is even now an important part of our social ecosystem was incredible and had nothing what-so-ever to do directly with computer science.

Introduction to Film was another incredible class, the type of class I would urge anyone to take.  How many classes are their where you learn to enjoy and appreciate the work of others?  All sorts of things were taught in the class, from technical terms and camera techniques to how a director is only responsible for one part of the movie and how so much of it rides upon the editors who cut the movie from the epic amounts of film down to the tightly controlled sequence that people pay to see.

What might have been missing, however, was that just as an editor can butcher or enrich a film, so to can the director and actors butcher the story.  This what allegedly happened to Nottingham which is now showing as Gladinhood…  Robinator… Robin Hood!  That’s it!  Here is an excellent break down of what allegedly happened to the screen play and a plea to change to the system, its a decent bit of reading but I found it very interesting:

Robbing from the poor (writer)

How I got there was fairly intersting, but safe to say I followed the link from this not-so-flattering review (not for the easily offended, although I found it amusing and it is a much quicker read than the previous link):

Robin Hood:  Anatomy of a Cluster****

In the end the movie will be added to my Netflix queue, which means that it will be on its way in to my house about ten years or so, or perhaps never.  My definitive Robin Hood experience will always be the Kevin Costner version, which I watched many a time when I was about ten years old.  Don’t try to change my mind – or I’ll cut your heart out with a spoon!  🙂

–Nat

Washing the car…

Well, as much as I like to avoid it, I washed the car by hand tonight.  It was getting pretty bad looking, parking under trees on the street by Liz’s place and then again yesterday at the park and ride it was clear that birds were offended by the shiny blackness.  I fired up the trusty fifteen year old Altec Lansing speakers that sound 10x better than what I use at my desk and spent $40 on last year and went to work.

  1. Spray car off with power-washer.
  2. Take the cleaning mitt and soapy water, and clean one quarter of the car at a time.
  3. After washing each quarter and when it is all done, spray it down with the power washer.
  4. Wipe dry with micro fiber cloth.  Make sure to stand around so that the neighbors think you are obsessing.

To my surprise, the car actually got pretty clean.  The Mustang was always so horrible that it was pretty discouraging to even try.  That yellow just attracted flies and fly-spots at rate that was impossible to keep up with.  Of course Dad keeps that guy pretty clean these days, but he’s has always been better about vehicle maintenance than I have.

It wasn’t traumatizing, so I guess I should do it a bit more frequently.  Black is a horrible color to keep clean, but it looks nice in the garage right now 🙂

–Nat

The Best of April (pics)

I only took a couple hundred pictures, so there had to be a couple worth sharing 🙂

With any luck, I’ll keep getting better at this…

-Nat

Free (pay what you want) Game Pack

The games, etc.

The games, etc.

You should head over over to Wolfire games (http://www.wolfire.com/humble) and pick up some of the best indie games made in the last year or so.  These are real games that can be had off of Steam as well, the would probably cost you over $100 seperately.  Known as the humble bundle, this has gotten some pretty great press.

I paid $20 and skewed it to the charities that can optionally be supported (its a 50/50 split otherwise.)

Pay what you want, get some good games and feel good about supporting the indie developer community and charities.  It is a win all the way around!

Only about a day left as I post it, so if you are thinking about it pay now and thank yourself later 🙂

–Nat

A Trip to Target Field

For Kristin’s birthday I gave her some tickets for the Twins game on the 11th versus the White Sox.  She was nice enough to take me along! 🙂

It was cold!

It was cold!

It felt a little like going to a football game in October, being that it was a little windy and in the low 50’s to high 40’s.  Outside of the temps, the outdoor stadium feel is great and it just seems like the field has a lot more character versus the old, tired dome.  We were on the bottom tier in the right outfield (section 134) and I would suggest anywhere in that tier to someone who is looking to play it safe in buying advance tickets as they are covered against rain and should be shady if the sun is in full force.

Big Screen - that lady is bummed beer costs $7+

Big Screen - that lady is bummed beer costs $7+

The view from the third row - it was closer than it looks in the pic...

The view from the third row - it was closer than it looks in the pic...

It was a pretty good place to sit, we had a few hits come right us.  It would be quite the hit to homer there though, the wall is really tall compared to the one in left field.

Ronald was there!

Ronald was there!

Left Field - The Olsons are over there...

Left Field - The Olsons are over there...

It was a good time. I’d recommend trying to get some tickets right from the Twins site, StubHub seems to have a pretty solid mark-up margin right now.

–Nat