hey look! links!

[jazzfish]

Mistakes I've Made: Drinking Four Loko: "Four Loko Blue Raspberry is abhorrent and I can only imagine that these cans are filled by a long assembly line of Smurfs vomiting."

An Experiment in Accurate But Misleading Movie Descriptions: "Back to the Future: A bewildered teenage boy fends off his mother's disturbing and unnatural attraction to him."

Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better: "Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles."

Geek Luddites: "The concept of computer has radically changed in that vision [of 'ubiquitous computing'] in a way which is much more than giving the navigation system the pleasant voice of Majel Barrett. We know this because if it hadn’t, a quarter of the fucking Enterprise crew would be the IT department."

Henge Docks: "Henge Docks has created the first truly comprehensive docking station solution for Apple's line of notebook computers." Mine's on preorder and will, I hope, be here by the end of the month. Not that I'll really be able to use it that soon, since as far as I know my desk chair hasn't miraculously gotten any less painful to use, but hey. Maybe I can figure out how to use it, with appropriate incentive.

I have never had a bad experience having lunch (or dinner, for that matter) at La Sandia, no matter the company. I should remember this more often. Meanwhile, thoughts on "friends" continue to bounce around my head and not settle out in any coherent fashion, as they're wont to do. The short version being that I'm not used to having "friends" anymore, if I ever was. Acquaintances and very-close-friends / sigoths / partners I can do, it's that middle ground where I'm uncertain. This has been a good year for fumbling through that uncertainty.

Comments

[rbandrews]

Henge Dock: well that's just brilliant. I want one, but with a Mac Pro, there's kinda no point. However, I've already decided this Mac Pro is the last desktop system I'll own, so, after it becomes useless, I'm definitely getting one of these.

Glasses: well that's just brilliant. I like that a lot of programs now seem to invest in the third world rather than dump money on the third world. I also like that I could get a pair of these and never have to spend $500 on a pair of glasses again. I'd look like a dork though.

Four Loko: well that's just... really not brilliant.

[jazzfish]

I'm not sure how I feel about desktops. Portability is kinda nice, and a good docking station gives me almost all the advantages of a desktop system when I want them. On the other hand, I'd be pretty much hosed if my laptop were to get dropped or stolen; that's almost enough incentive right there for me to buy a cheapish desktop (read: mac mini) and try to keep everything in sync between the two.

And he /did/ mention that the next step was to make the glasses look less horrific...

I'm about of the opinion that alcohol that comes in a can is not meant for human consumption.

[rbandrews]

At this point, no machine of mine has the only copy of anything irreplaceable on it. I have Github for code, Dropbox for stuff, and Time Machine backups (to portable hard drives that never leave the house) to pick up anything I missed. So if I did lose a laptop, I'd just go buy another one and copy the backup image on it.

Apparently Reddit has had a love affair with Four Loko. It's as much alcohol as a bottle of wine, and keeps you up all night. Not only does it get you drunk, it makes you want to go out and spread your drunkitude around...

Also, I have to strongly disagree with your app store thing. First of all, there are already app stores everywhere and have been for longer than iOS has had one, so it's not an issue of whether everyone will clone Apple or not; it's already happened.

But the real issue is that I object to the idea that a computer should be seen as a device only for running pre-packaged apps. The computer is the most general-purpose device ever built. It can do anything you can imagine (and articulate clearly). Making computers easier to use is great, and they've become a whole lot easier to use over the past decade, but making computers easier to use by making them do less is criminal.

Computers can be a tool for freedom, for spreading rationality, for privacy, for anything you can think of. I don't want to see them be demoted to "merely wires and lights in a box".

here's to the middle ground

[darkfyre-muse.livejournal.com]

which is where I typically fall. And yes La Sandia for the win!.

I'm still musing on a response to your other post. It may take awhile, here's to making me think.

Re: here's to the middle ground

[jazzfish]

It's weird. Several times now I've walked to lunch thinking "oh this is going to be weird and awkward and i won't know what to say" and then it always turns out to be totally fine. You'd think people enjoyed talking to me and actually wanted to hang out more, or something.

(and yay for thinkiness. :)

Re: here's to the middle ground

[ndkid.livejournal.com]

Unflattering self-image not withstanding, I'm surprised that you made it through your Blacksburg years without ever recognizing that people actively enjoyed talking to you and wanted to hang out more. I generally did, and I'm confident other people did, too.

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

My life has been a long story of unrequited friend-love. I'm trying to abandon the whole pursuit.

[jazzfish]

I've been trying for awhile now to pin down why it is that I'm always baffled by neat people who are excited to see me and say "we should hang out more" and meet me for lunch and talk to me at parties and things like that. No real luck so far.

My unrequited friend-love tends to be a general condition, not focused on specific people. Based on that bafflement above, it seems that when it /is/ requited I don't know what to do with it.

But, I do think you're neat, and we should hang out more, and all of that stuff.

[daghain.livejournal.com]

Four Loko is de facto illegal now. The FDA ruled caffeine to be an unsafe additive to alcohol (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111702634.html?hpid=topnews).

[jazzfish]

While I shed no tears for the demise of Four Loko, this seems a bit wrong-headed.

[selki.livejournal.com]

Glasses: very cool!

[jazzfish]

There is nothing about that article I don't like: awesome cheap technology used to make millions of people's lives better and bearable.