I bought a new disk drive to use with my shiny new iMac, specifically for use with Time Machine. Picking out the right drive to buy was itself educational. (more…)
Archive for October, 2007
"Backing up 998,532 files."
October 30th, 2007 by peterbPerfect Sports Weekend
October 29th, 2007 by psuThe Steelers beat up the Bengals.
The Patriots completely crushed the Redskins.
Finally, the Red Sox finished off the Rockies to win the World Series again. Who would have thought.
Adventures in TV Part 6: Comcast Still Sucks
October 26th, 2007 by psuI was trying to record the new PBS series The War in HD on my shiny new HD Tivo. The first few episodes came in fine, but the most recent repeat only recorded in SD even though the program guide said it was on the HD version of WQED. So I tried setting up a single recording by hand, and after it finished, I looked at it and it was a completely different program than was listed in the Guide. Some cooking show. No Ken Burns.
So tonight I am flipping around, and I compare what is on the TV with what is listed in the guide, and I realized that my Tivo is showing the programming listed for WQEDDT (200) on channel 220, which is WQEDDT2. Meanwhile, channel 200 is showing what should be on 220, or maybe the regular analog channel 13. I can’t really tell. In any case, this renders the Tivo service completely useless since you can’t actually record anything that is listed, you get the wrong channel.
I want to know who I should kill for this.
Seattle Shorts
October 24th, 2007 by psuWe were in Seattle for a long weekend this past week. This is the first time I’ve been back since a trip about ten years ago. As before, Seattle is a great food town, especially for seafood. And, in the last ten years they have finally learned how to make a cappuccino. Here are a few places to try.
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I'll Take Manhattan
October 23rd, 2007 by peterbI’ve been wanting to do this recipe as a video blog, but due to an uncharacteristic bout of responsibility, I sent Sony back their loaner HD camcorder and I just haven’t been able to work up the enthusiasm to use my somewhat dilapidated Canon. So this is a story I will have to tell in words. (more…)
Mamma Mia
October 22nd, 2007 by peterbThe American conception of Italian masculinity is somewhat out of step with reality. 30 years of Italian-American gangster movies have firmly ensconced the idea of Italian men as sort of irrationally hyper-macho. The truth is a little more prosaic. Any native Italian woman will tell you: Italian men are mama’s boys.
I say this without rancor or intent to insult. It’s not inherently negative, it’s just the simple truth, to the point where the Italian government offers tax breaks to men to move out of their mothers’ houses already. (more…)
Returning Red Ring Rage Redux
October 19th, 2007 by psuYou will recall that last week my wife and I called Microsoft to get a shipping box for my dead Xbox. That converstation lasted 45 minutes and included no less than six corrections to the shipping address as read back by the woman on the other side of the phone who apparently did not really speak english at all.
Well, the box arrived that the beginning of this week. The only problem: it arrived at the wrong address.
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Walk the Walk
October 16th, 2007 by peterbMy hands are still a bit chopped up from this weekend, and I’m still in a bit of pain, so pardon me in advance as I prepare to overstate my case.
When I moved into my house, one of the things I liked about it was the cute little brick walk leading up to the front porch. It’s a bunch of concave bricks tiled next to each other, with no mortar or anything holding them in place. Very natural looking, very nice.
But, as I believe I have mentioned before, I’m not quite so good at maintaining my yard. In fact, I suck. In my neighborhood, I’m “that neighbor.” Oh, my neighbors don’t actually hate me, they’re all way too nice for that. But let’s just say I’m sure they would all love it if something really nice happened to me, like say I got a very lucrative job far away, forcing me to sell the house to someone who actually knows the first thing about maintaining his yard.
So now, several years after moving in, my nice brick walk is full of weeds and grass. And unlike the rest of my wild-grown yard, this particular thing sort of bugs me. (more…)
Keyboard Perfection
October 15th, 2007 by psuI’ve used many keyboards in my time on this Earth. I think the very first one I used was attached to an old manual typewriter that I used to use to type up certain homework assignments in junior high. The first one that I used that was connected to a computer was the collection of square calculator keys that Commodore called a keyboard on the PET 2001. After that, there were the TRS-80s, the Apple II, the VT-100 in the high school, the Adm-3a, Tektronix, and some horrific unified APL terminals at Umass, and who can forget the Concept 100s at CMU.
And all these before I ever owned a computer of my own.
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In the style of…
October 11th, 2007 by peterbThe two Petes collaborated on this article. If you can guess who it is written in the style of, you win nothing, but may feel either proud or ashamed, at your discretion.
It was in a karaoke bar in Saitama that I first met Kobayashi Hikaru-san. This was not your high-end bar, like you’d find in Shibuya, or Harajuku, or any of the other hip spots. This was a thoroughly middle-class establishment. That didn’t stop us from proceeding to get very, very drunk along with a couple of his friends. I spent most of the night ignoring the interview and getting hit on by two very cute girls who gave me their keitei numbers.
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