Abulsme.com

Amy Exiting Concert Thing

Abulsme — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:00:32 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 20 04:05 UTC

Alex Loves His Hippo

Abulsme — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:17:29 +0000

Taken 2010 Sep 4 05:38 UTC

Tacking to the Right

Abulsme — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:36:52 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Honor Rally
Primary Results
Presidential Approval
Divided Government
Economic Update
Ken Mehlman
Hypocrisy

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 30 Aug 2010

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Sky Dagger

Abulsme — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:26:21 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 13 04:37 UTC

10th Grade Begins

Abulsme — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:14:49 +0000

Taken a few seconds ago.

Expo Markers

Abulsme — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:26:34 +0000

As of a few minutes ago, Alex has figured out how to write on a white board with a marker. And how to write on walls. But we won’t talk about that. But he is now drawing! Woo!

Our Teaser Strategy

Abulsme — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:58:10 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

iOS 4 on iPhone 3G
iTV Rumors
WikiRape
Information Mobility
Iraq Drawdown
Obama a Muslim again
Critical Thinking

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 23 Aug 2010

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Um, Not Sure About This Swing Thing

Abulsme — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:02:10 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 13 04:09 UTC

Seriously Netflix?

Abulsme — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:33:52 +0000

OK, now I know that I will never, ever, ever, get to the bottom of that list of 500 DVDs. But still, I like adding things whenever I think of them or hear about them. You suck. Its not like you have to actually send me all of those DVDs, you just have to keep them in a silly list for me. And you stop me at 500? Bleh.

Perhaps I need to start keeping my own backlog for video, just like I do for books and music. Bleh.

Spaceship?

Abulsme — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:45:33 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 12 01:07 UTC

2001: A Space Odyssey

Abulsme — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:12:02 +0000

OK, so I can’t begin to mention how far behind on my “reviews” for both “Family Movie Night” and the ones we have actually gone to the theater for. Many months behind. Of course, that only means five movies. But since we revamped our home entertainment center a couple of weeks ago, we have been speeding up again, so I need to catch up.

Anyway, a bit ago, as I said, several months, it was Brandy’s turn for Family Movie Night, and her movie was 2001: A Space Odyssey. She had originally picked this with the intent that we would watch this in time to watch 2010 on New Year’s Eve as it turned from 2009 to 2010. Now, I’m behind, but not that far behind. We didn’t actually get to this until the Spring sometime. Oops. Anyway. 2001.

This is a movie which is of course known for its visuals and music, and the fact that not all that much actually happens plot wise. Amy had not seen it before. So the main thing to talk about here is her reaction.

Basically, she sat through the whole thing, enjoying the music and the visuals and all that, but just waiting for things to start happening. Of course they never did. She oohed and ahhed at the appropriate places. But then it ended. Her reaction when something like this:

WHAT?

WHAT??

WHAT WAS THAT?

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

IS THAT IT?

REALLY??

How long were we sitting here? REALLY? THAT’S IT?

YOU ARE KIDDING ME!!!!

WHAT WAS THAT BABY DOING?

I WASTED HOW LONG ON THAT??

REALLY?

Of course, she had seemed to be enjoying it just fine before it ended. And of course, that was before the credits. There were lots and lots of credits still to go after that. And then even after the credits ended, the music continued for several more minutes. Somehow we convinced her to stay to the very end. But still, nothing happened.

It was most amusing.

From my point of view of course, I really like 2001. It is a very different kind of movie of course. For the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes, you just sit back and let it roll over you. For the middle portion, you think about HAL. It is fun. It is an experience.

It is not of course the kind of movie you watch when you want action. Or a real plot.

But it is an experience that is definitely worth watching at least once a decade. :-)

What? I’m in a Box. So?

Abulsme — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:33:46 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 9 03:43 UTC

Running at the Playground

Abulsme — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:05:51 +0000

Taken a few seconds ago.

Most Affronting Thing

Abulsme — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:23:24 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Ground Zero Mosque
Diverging Political Realities
Net Neutrality
Feature Toilets
Newt Gingrich
Primaries

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 16 Aug 2010

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Driving to Work

Abulsme — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:00:10 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 5 23:20 UTC

Highlights of Alex Month Ten

Abulsme — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:00:11 +0000

It is very late, but here is the video highlight reel of Alex’s Tenth month. This covers June 13th to July 14th. For those who need it: Direct YouTube Link

As before, I’m pretty much making these more for me than anybody else, so I only bothered to edit down to 10 minutes. I guess if I really wanted people other than myself to watch, I’d just publish separate 30 second bits as they came along, but you know, whatever. Watch if you wish. :-)

The month eleven highlights will probably be out in a week or two.

Nice Golden Parachute

Abulsme — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:04:27 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

HP Sex Scandal
Weaponized Porn
Gay Marriage

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 9 Aug 2010

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Alex Turns Eleven (Months)

Abulsme — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:25:58 +0000

Less than two hours from now, at 11:58 UTC (4:58 AM Pacific, 7:58 AM Eastern), Alex will officially turn 11 months old. Almost a year. Gulp! He is such a big boy!

I’ve been bad, I haven’t even posted the highlights video for his 10th month (although it has now been edited and will be on YouTube soon and posted here shortly thereafter), let alone gotten anything ready for the eleventh month which is about to end. Oh well, I’ll catch up eventually maybe. And after we hit a year, I’ll do those less frequently than every month anyway.

I’ve also not lately done just a general update on what Alex is doing and such, so here goes:

As I posted a little over a week ago, Alex is now walking. We went from a few tentative steps without holding on to anything to toddling all over in the space of a few days. This means we have a toddler now instead of a baby, and he is of course using his increased mobility to the fullest, and is getting into everything he possibly can.
He’s also doing the climbing thing, up onto things, down off things, out of laps, up and down stairs. All with no problem and no fear. (Even when there should be fear of course, so we watch carefully.)
His vocabulary is growing slowly but surely. I am now “Daa Eee”. There is of course “MaMa” going on too. And I am pretty sure there is “Aay Eee” for Amy, but Amy doesn’t recognize it as such yet. And of course “dog”, still his favorite word by far. And “look”, constantly used while pointing at things he wants to see more of. And “book”. We have “clock” as well, but he associates that with the Tix Clock I have in my office instead of a normal clock. Oops. There is also now “up”. And “ball”. Those are the most common. I think a few others have made appearances off and on. (For instance, a handful of times he identified a couple of other animals in one of his games… a duck and and a goat… but that just happened a couple of times and didn’t repeat much.) Oh, and then there are the things for which there are words, just not the right words. ”Guck” is the fish in his bedroom, but also all fish. And of course, “ning” has meant milk since long before his first English word (that would be dog I think) started being used.
He has learned deception, trying to trick us to look the other way or otherwise be distracted before he snatches glasses off our faces.
He loves the Jeopardy theme song and plays close attention whenever it comes on.
When certain songs come on he starts to bounce and dance.
He likes watching Big Bird on TV. Also other muppets and the occasional cartoon. Humans, not so much.
He pushes his own mini shopping cart when we go out shopping.
He will climb up onto my lap and put his head down on my chest when he is ready to go to sleep.
He loves pushing buttons and has tried multiple times to send faxes on our printer. If we actually had the printer hooked up to a phone line, he would have succeeded. We get the confirmation pages saying tit tried to send a fax but failed. He has however made a variety of copies using the copy feature.
He gets super happy and excited when I get home from work, jumping up and down and squealing and getting himself to where I am as fast as he can manage.
When he finds things that we have taken away from him in the past, he picks them up, then yells at us to get our attention and hands them to us.
He feeds the dog all the time. Roscoe and Alex are quickly becoming best friends. Lately, he has been going up to the dog, giving him a big hug, then resting his head on Roscoe’s side.
In general he is a happy healthy little boy, doing all the things you would expect at this age. And having a blast doing them. He has so much fun!

Anyway, eleven months now. One more month until his first birthday. Wow. And there is that whole thing where somehow it simultaneously feels like it was just yesterday that we brought him home as a tiny baby and that he has been here forever and how could there possibly ever have been a world without him. I guess that is how these things go.

Peeking Out From Mommy

Abulsme — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:29:28 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 5 18:40 UTC

Divorced!

Abulsme — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:15:37 +0000

A few hours ago we got word that the final paper work was filed and signed by all the appropriate people. Brandy is now divorced!

I hadn’t mentioned this online earlier, but this was also tied up with fixing another legal mess. Washington state makes the assumption that any child born to a married woman (or any woman divorced less than a year from the birth for that matter) is the child of the husband. You can’t, it seems, even declare otherwise on the birth certificate. (At least that was the advice we were given when Alex was born.) So the “father” spot on Alex’s birth certificate was left blank. Tied in with this divorce were all the documents where Brandy’s (finally now officially) ex-husband was declared not to be the father and I was declared to actually be the father and updates to the birth certificate ordered. This required documents signed by everybody all around plus results of DNA paternity testing showing that Alex was indeed half mine and half Brandy’s. Etc. Fun stuff.

At the same time all issues to officially get custody of Amy in the right state were taken care of. This basically makes official the fact that Brandy’s ex hadn’t been involved in her life since she was a toddler and Brandy has custody and all that. It has been the de facto case for 12+ years, but now all the right paper work is in place.

Getting here has been a real mess. We finally got around to hiring a lawyer for all this stuff almost two years ago now. We tried to do it on a budget though and got a pretty cheap one, who spent the next two years proving you get what you pay for. I’d been arguing for a long long time (almost since our first interaction) to fire him and hire one who wouldn’t take several tries to get basic facts on paperwork correct, who wouldn’t encourage just signing the paperwork with the incorrect information because it was easier than redoing it to correct it, who wouldn’t miss court appointments and filing deadlines, who would actually answer emails or phone calls in a timely fashion, and who would actually occasionally communicate with us what was going on and give semi-articulate answers to questions rather than appearing to always be confused about both the facts of our case and the relevant laws governing the situation, but Brandy wanted to plug through it figuring eventually he’d manage to get it right.

Monday there was one last set of screw ups. Brandy got a call mid-morning saying to be at the courthouse at 3:30 PM to meet an associate of our lawyer, but no clear indication of exactly what would be happening, what was needed, etc. It appeared I wasn’t necessary though. So I wasn’t going to be there. Until about 3:20, when Brandy called me urgently to let me know that it turned out that I needed to sign two additional documents. And they had an appointment with whatever judge dealt with such things at 4 PM. It would have been very helpful if I’d known about that a few hours earlier. So I rushed out of work to try to get to the courthouse. I took the company shuttle to a building closer to the courthouse, then started run-walking as quickly as I could manage in the direction of the courthouse. I kept going and going and going. No sign of any courthouse. I had texted Brandy with “Go to 4th and then take a right, right?”. I hadn’t got an answer. Until she finally responded that I was going the wrong direction. I turn around, continuing to go as fast as my out of shape legs would take me without looking like a complete idiot on the street. Then I texted “The one with the big white steps”? Except my iPhone corrected that to “big white stars”. I headed into the building, but it turned out to be the wrong building, and Brandy texted to say I was too late, they were done.

Fully expecting the possibility that we had missed another deadline, or the lawyer had screwed something new up, or the the fact my signatures were missing would cause things to once again be pushed way out into the future while things had to be done all over again, I finally met Brandy outside the courthouse. She had the lawyer’s associate with her. There had indeed been a few other irregularities (for instance Brandy’s ex was technically required to take a parenting class as part of the disposition of Amy and he hadn’t) but the judge had given the green light to proceed anyway. The only thing missing was my signatures. If I had turned left instead of right after getting out of the shuttle, I could have been physically present in front of the judge too (I would have just barely made it), I would have signed what needed to be signed, and Brandy’s divorce, the declaration of Alex’s parentage, etc would all have been finalized on Monday. As it was, I signed the papers I needed to sign right there in front of the courthouse. The lawyer’s associate took them and filed them on Tuesday and all remaining approvals from the judge were given at that time. We just got confirmation that all was in order… finally… just a little bit ago.

So Brandy is officially divorced. Amy is officially in Brandy’s custody. And I am officially Alex’s father.

Woo! So we’re going to go out to celebrate in a few minutes.

And yes, this obviously opens up the possibilities for two additional things to happen in relatively short order. Namely…

First off, Brandy and I getting legal recognition that we’ve essentially been a married couple for a number of years now in every way other than the legal way. Theoretically that could happen as soon as Monday. But I’m guessing we may take a little longer than that. We’ll see. One question of course is if there would be any family or friends who felt strongly about needing to be present for such a thing. As far as the two of us are concerned, it is basically just paperwork and filing legal documents so that things like insurance and whatnot get simpler, so it is highly unlikely we’ll be doing any big party or ceremony or anything like that. :-)

Of course one of the things that being legally married would also allow is the second thing on our list, which is me legally adopting Amy. This is something that Amy has said she really wants, and I really want, and Brandy wants but all of the other stuff prevented it earlier. I have acted in that capacity in all ways but the legal ways for about half of Amy’s life, and I’m the only dad she’s really had, but “officially” there is no relationship at all there. I can’t sign things related to her school or health care or whatever. It would be very nice to get that all set up as well. It isn’t long, just a few years, until she is legally an adult and those things don’t matter as much. But still… we all want it. That might take a bit longer still, but we’ll get all that set up before she turns 18. For sure. :-)

Anyway, good day. Good stuff.

Off for a nice dinner out somewhere to celebrate.

Achoo?

Abulsme — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 23:54:10 +0000

Taken a few minutes ago.

No Idea What Is Happening

Abulsme — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:41:30 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

News Meta
iPhone Multitasking
Genius Quality
Unmarriages
Deflation
Wikileaks

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 2 Aug 2010

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Grandma B and Amy

Abulsme — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:54:18 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 1 16:53 UTC

Grandma Saying Goodbye

Abulsme — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:42:54 +0000

Taken 2010 Jun 1 16:52 UTC

Alex is Walking

Abulsme — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:53:30 +0000

He’s done one or two steps without holding on to things a few times over the last couple of weeks, but earlier this hour, I got this email from Brandy:

From: Brandy Donaghy
Date: August 4, 2010 23:10:25 GMT
To: Samuel Minter
Subject: Across

His bedroome, on two little feet, no hands.

—”The very young do not always do as they’re told.”

Woo! Go Alex!

Of course… gulp… we’re in trouble now!

Ivan Plays Guitar

Abulsme — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:29:07 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Sam Going HD
Party Mailings
Shirley Sherrod
Injured Ivan
No Time
Vacations

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 26 Jul 2010

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Showing Grandma Where to Look

Abulsme — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:24:29 +0000

Taken 2010 May 31 22:25 UTC

Mmmm… Orange!

Abulsme — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:44:36 +0000

Taken 2010 May 31 19:31 UTC

Just take the Picture OK

Abulsme — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:53:16 +0000

Taken 2010 May 31 19:31 UTC

Playing Together

Abulsme — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:37:29 +0000

Taken 1 Jun 2010 00:26 UTC by Ruth Brandon

(Edit 05:00 UTC, corrected timestamp and adding attribution, this was from my mom’s camera, not mine, so the timestamp delta from UTC was different, which also means I posted this picture out of order, before others I would have posted otherwise. I can not say how much it annoys me that the EXIF data doesn’t include the timezone. I look forward to the days of ubiquitous GPS within cameras, including not just geotagging, but properly synchronized timestamps either in UTC or with included UTC offset.)

Actually the 19th

Abulsme — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:24:23 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

iPhone 4 Reception
Apple Supply Shortages
Alternative Energy
Capped Oil
iOS 4 on iPhone 3G
An Excellent Breakfast
Wikileaks

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 19 Jul 2010

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Sunday in the Family Room

Abulsme — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:08:11 +0000

Updated AbulCam

Abulsme — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:54:56 +0000

So, last week I got a new external wireless network camera to play with. It has been set up for awhile now, but I’ve been tweaking various things, so I hadn’t posted about it now. But you should all of course take a look. The image above should be updating live, but go to the full AbulCam to see the timelapse of the previous day, send messages to me, etc. Because it is wireless, and because it has the whole night vision thing going on, it isn’t limited to pointing at things near my computer. I’ve pointed it at various things in our front or back yard, in a few different rooms of the house, etc. Fun stuff. As I write this it is once again pointing at me sitting at my computer, but I’ve been moving it around and will probably continue to move it around. Brandy made me promise not to put it anyplace inside the house other than my office without her advance knowledge and her ability to veto, but still, there will probably be fun stuff to see sometimes, and more fun exciting daily timelapses. So peek in often!

While setting it up I spent a bunch of time improving various aspects of the AbulCam since I was messing around anyway.

The main live image now uses server push instead of a cranky Java applet, so it works more reliably and in more places. (For instance, now you can see it update live on an iPhone.)
I’ve also improved the reliability of the push of the daily timelapse. In the past it would not always actually have the previous day’s timelapse because the pushing of the file up to the server would fail. That should work much more reliably now.
If you are using Safari, the timelapse is HTML5 instead of a Quicktime plugin. Other browsers will still use Quicktime.
The mini view of the camera on the front page of Abulsme.com also now updates live for most browsers. (The current version of Firefox has a glitch in how it deals with server push, so I have Firefox use the older thumbnails which update once a minute or so.)
The “make my iMac say something out loud” feature, which had been broken for awhile, is now fixed and fully operational again.
Since the new camera is a network camera and not sharing USB with the internal camera, I don’t have to turn it off to have a video chat using the internal camera.

The new camera also lets me pan and tilt it from a password protected control page served by the camera itself inside my network. Aside from exposing that control page publicly and publishing the UID/PW for the camera, I haven’t figured out a way to just put the appropriate control knobs on my public webpage to let anybody pan and tilt the camera. I’d already spent enough time on other aspects of the camera, so I had to cut things off somewhere. But if anybody out there knows how to do that with a TrendNet camera, let me know. I think it would be fun to let the internet control where the camera was pointing. :-)

Anyway, updated camera. Peek in and enjoy.

Alex and the Geek Clock

Abulsme — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:49:09 +0000

Taken 2010 May 31 23:05 UTC

At the Market

Abulsme — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:24:34 +0000

Taken 2010 May 30 03:13 UTC

Just a Step to the Right

Abulsme — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:36:48 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 23:28 UTC

More EMP Waves

Abulsme — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:12:16 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 23:26 UTC

100 Cases of Water

Abulsme — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:23:34 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

iPhone Update
Lindsey Lohan
Child Stars
Social Networks
Seattle Heat
Mortgage Defaults
Picky Unemployed
Life without Internet

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 12 Jul 2010

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Alex Turning Ten (Months)

Abulsme — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:59:08 +0000

In just a little while… not that many minutes away now… specifically July 14th at 01:29 UTC… which is July 13th at 6:29 PM Pacific or July 13th at 9:29 PM Eastern… Alex will be a whole 10 months old. Two digits on the months now. And coming up on one year pretty darn fast!

There will, of course, be a video of highlights from the last month. But probably no earlier than this weekend and perhaps later. We’ll see how things go. But I will do better than I did on the Month Nine Video. Promise. I hope. :-)

Highlights of Alex Month Nine

Abulsme — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:31:25 +0000

This is way way late. I should have posted this a month ago. It covers Alex’s ninth month, which goes from May 14th to June 13th. I’ll be posting about Alex turning 10 months old in not very long at all. But hey, what can I say, I had a lot of other things going on and just didn’t get to it.

Also, knowing that really I am doing these videos for ME, and not for anybody else, I didn’t even attempt this time to get it to be particularly short. I realize for folks out there who might care, posting 20 second or 30 second clips when there was something fun to show would get more people to watch, but whatever. Nobody except maybe his Grandmothers (maybe) will watch more than 2 or 3 minutes worth of this stuff (max!). I know this!

But I like doing them monthly rather than as one offs, and at that point there is a bunch of stuff, and picking the best two minutes or whatnot would just leave me missing stuff I cut out. So whatever. Almost 10 minutes this month. For the one or two of you who might watch past the first few seconds, enjoy!

And maybe I’ll get month ten done before his first birthday. We shall see!

Oh, and for those who need it… Direct Link to YouTube.

Waving at EMP

Abulsme — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:26:48 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 23:26 UTC

Actually it is a Labyrinth

Abulsme — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:37:48 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 23:16 UTC

Of the Reek

Abulsme — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:42:14 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Amy talk about:

July 4th
Colored Hair
Facebook Privacy
Reading Parens
Secret Codes
Amy on TV Shows
Overexaggeration

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 6 Jul 2010

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Running the Maze

Abulsme — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:02:46 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 23:14 UTC

Amy with More Cousins

Abulsme — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:59:31 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 23:08 UTC

Amy with Ella, Luca and Mia.

Amy and Cousin Mia

Abulsme — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:07:04 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 22:17 UTC

A Pig at the Rainy Fourth

Abulsme — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:04:31 +0000

Ya Bo Bo

Abulsme — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:20:05 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

iPhone 4
iTunes Remote
McChrystal
Afghanistan
BOINC

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 28 Jun 2010

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No. No. No. No Depp Doctor.

Abulsme — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:26:37 +0000

I can’t even begin to imagine how bad an idea this is.

Johnny Depp playing the Doctor in a big-screen Doctor Who movie?
(Charlie Anders, io9, 2010 Jun 29)

It sounds like a ridiculous internet rumor. But Tor.Com claims to have confirmed the casting, and a release date of 2012, with “movie studio sources.” (They don’t say which studio.) And Russell T. Davies may be the writer.

They say take it with a few pounds of salt, so I will.

Photog Amy

Abulsme — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:20:35 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 20:10 UTC

Alex and Lucy Lumphead

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:41:52 +0000

Lucy Lumphead has been circulating in my family for many decades. She started off as something between my Grandmother and her sister Norma Louise. Lucy arrived here last Christmas and will stay until we pass her along to another member of the extended family, most likely a family member with young children. As tradition has it, she will get a new outfit first.

Picture taken 2010 May 28 22:06 UTC

Go Alex! Go Alex!

Abulsme — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:19:51 +0000

Playing Peekaboo Barn

Abulsme — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:23:56 +0000

Taken 2010 May 29 04:29 UTC by Ruth Brandon (if I am reading her timestamps correctly).

LIGO Today

Abulsme — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:06:24 +0000

Irreversible Retinal Damage

Abulsme — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:26:13 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Blue Lasers
iPhone 4 Orders
Vuvuzelas
Watson

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 21 Jun 2010

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You Got My Glasses!

Abulsme — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:33:06 +0000

Taken 2010 May 28 22:07 UTC by Ruth Brandon (If I am interpreting her time stamp correctly.)

Peekaboo Sequence

Abulsme — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:38:38 +0000

Series taken from 2010 May 28 05:13:48 UTC to 05:14:14 UTC. Shown 2x Actual Speed.

Rosetta Stone

Abulsme — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:03:44 +0000

The picture above cracks the code on the time stamps on Amy’s camera. The camera says 2010 May 26 01:54. The clock, plus the fact I know she was in the Pacific time zone, indicate it is 21:54 UTC. I think it is safe to assume that she initially set the time on her clock in the PM part of the day so the day is probably correct rather than being one day off as it would be if she had done an AM/PM error in the morning. If that is the case, then I can infer that the date on the camera will be correct (Pacific) in the time before 12:00. The additional hour off is due to daylight savings time. In any case, it means that (at least until Amy updates the time on her camera) to get UTC you add 20 hours. (If she originally done an AM/PM error in the AM instead of PM, then it would indicate the date would be correct in the times when the timestamp was after 12 hours, rather than the ones before, which would mean the real date was one day earlier during those hours…. so if that was the case then instead of adding 20 hours to get UTC, you would subtract 4 hours to get UTC, but I think it highly likely that she set her clock during PM hours, not AM.) All of the above though does mean that the guesses I made for the timestamps were one hour off, specifically 1 hour later, because I didn’t account for her setting her clock when we were in PST instead of PDT like we are now. So I’ll have to go put comments on those previous posts with corrected times. Perhaps. Not that anyone cares other than me. I know that.

Amy’s Last Day of Ninth Grade

Abulsme — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:39:49 +0000

A Couple of Windbags

Abulsme — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:15:37 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Boycotting BP
Japan Troubles
World Cup
iPhone 4
Safari 5
TV Future

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 14 Jun 2010

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Rolled Drum

Abulsme — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 07:41:27 +0000

Taken 2010 May 28 01:29 UTC

Grandma B Arrives for her Visit in May

Abulsme — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:41:02 +0000

Taken 2010 May 27 03:53 UTC by Amy Roney

Tufte Today!

Abulsme — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:32:31 +0000

Pondering the Tag

Abulsme — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:23:28 +0000

Taken 2010 May 26 02:49 UTC by Amy Roney (if I am interpreting her timestamps correctly)

Just Dandy

Abulsme — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:48:16 +0000

Taken 2010 May 17 22:44 UTC by Amy Roney (if I am interpreting her time stamps correctly)

Alex Turning Nine (Months)

Abulsme — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:54:08 +0000

Well, here we go again, as time just relentlessly moves forward. In less than 10 minutes, at 15:00 UTC today (8:00 AM Pacific, 11:00 AM Eastern), Alex will officially be nine whole months old. Sometime “soon” I’ll post the video highlights of month nine, but in the meantime, I’m just acknowledging the milestone. Congratulations Alex!

Randomly at Maple Valley Days

Abulsme — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 02:27:44 +0000

Picked a random spot within ten miles to go to because it was nice out. Got there then looked for nearby stuff. Headed toward an arboretum. Found a local annual festival called “Maple Valley Days”. Now we are exploring.

Warp Light

Abulsme — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:47:34 +0000

Taken 2010 May 9 22:35 UTC

Something about Bananas

Abulsme — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:14:09 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Three Years
AT&T Data Plans
Gaza Flotilla
Economy Update
The Gores

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 7 Jun 2010

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Purple Tears

Abulsme — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:12:59 +0000

Taken 2010 May 10 00:03 UTC by Amy Roney (if I am interpreting her timestamps right)

Getting Backblaze Statistics from the Command Line on a Mac

Abulsme — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:43:54 +0000

I’ve been trying to keep a little dashboard showing how well Backblaze is doing keeping up with backing up my primary system (a Mac). I’d been doing this by hand every once in awhile by just taking the numbers of files and MB left shown by their icon in the menu bar. But that was manual and tedious. I wanted to automate it. I Googled a number of times things like “Backblaze Command Line” to try to find a way to pull this info, but never found anything useful. I poked around a bit looking for relevant log files, but didn’t find them until tonight. I found what I needed, so I thought I’d post so that if anybody else is looking to do the same thing, when they Google, they will find the answer, rather than having to dig and find this from scratch. Of course this is just for the Macintosh version. I am sure there is something equivalent in their Windows software, but I don’t have a Windows machine, so I’m not going to be the one to find it there.

Anyway…

It turns out what you need is all in a nice little file:

/Library/Backblaze/bzdata/bzreports/bzstat_remainingbackup.xml

The contents are pretty straight forward:

So, for remaining files needing to be backed up:

cat /Library/Backblaze/bzdata/bzreports/bzstat_remainingbackup.xml | grep remaining | cut -d \” -f 2

And for remaining bytes needing to be backed up:

cat /Library/Backblaze/bzdata/bzreports/bzstat_remainingbackup.xml | grep remaining | cut -d \” -f 4

I use these together in a quick little shell script that I run every few hours using cron:

#!/bin/bash
# Updates BackBlaze Stats
FCFILE=/Users/abulsme/Dev/MailCount/bbfiles.txt
MBFILE=/Users/abulsme/Dev/MailCount/bbmeg.txt
date “+%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S” | tr -d ‘\n’ >> $FCFILE
echo -ne ‘\t’ >> $FCFILE
cat /Library/Backblaze/bzdata/bzreports/bzstat_remainingbackup.xml | grep remaining | cut -d \” -f 2 >> $FCFILE
date “+%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S” | tr -d ‘\n’ >> $MBFILE
echo -ne ‘\t’ >> $MBFILE
cat /Library/Backblaze/bzdata/bzreports/bzstat_remainingbackup.xml | grep remaining | cut -d \” -f 4 >> $MBFILE

My actual script actually does one more thing to convert bytes to megabytes for my charts, but the above gets you the raw data. What you do with it after that depends on your application and what you are trying to do with this info.

For me, I’m generating dashboard charts:

Everything prior to 2010 Jun 10 was me grabbing data manually for the graph. June 10th forward is pulled automatically by the above.

Anyway, hope this ends up being helpful for anybody else wanting to programmatically monitor how well Backblaze is or is not keeping up.

Discovery

Abulsme — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:40:04 +0000

Taken 2010 May 9 22:23 UTC by Amy Roney (if I am interpreting her timestamps properly)

Amy Gets Cake and Cube

Abulsme — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 06:52:56 +0000

Back when it was free last month I downloaded Portal, because I’d heard good things about it from a couple people in a lunch conversation at work awhile back. But I hadn’t touched it until this last weekend. Sometime Saturday I brought it up on my computer on a lark. I hadn’t been playing it more than 11 minutes when Amy came in and said “What is that, can I play?” So she sat down and started a new game. Rather than play myself any more, I just watched her play, offering suggestions at a few key moments. :-)

Ten hours of game play later, spread over four days, Amy just beat the game. (Awesome song at the end by the way…)

She had a blast. And I had fun backseat driving.

Great game. Great fun. I haven’t enjoyed a video game like this in many a year. (Mostly because I haven’t spent any significant amount of time playing anything more involved than Doodle Jump or Peggle for decades.) Of course, I didn’t actually play this one either. And given the nature of the game, having watched it played through from beginning to end sort of gives you enough spoilers that I’m not sure I’d have fun playing it myself at this point. But still. Fun.

Of course some of that was the game, but a lot of it was just sitting and spending time with Amy, which was great.

And now of course we know that we’ll be getting Portal 2 as soon as it comes out. I gather it will have a 2 player mode. I think Amy and I will be all over that.

Just Cruisin In My Cart

Abulsme — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:29:46 +0000

Taken 2010 May 9 00:45 UTC

Poohed

Abulsme — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 02:11:48 +0000

Taken 2010 May 8 23:19 UTC by Brandy Donaghy

For Gary C: Wachoo Talkin Bout Willis?

Abulsme — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:16:07 +0000

Taken 2010 May 8 20:13 UTC

Shot Down a Boat

Abulsme — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:53:00 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Going to Ikea
The Oil Spill
Apple/Microsoft/Google
Phone Habits
North Korea
Facebook Hijinks

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 31 May 2010

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Amy’s Sunny Spring

Abulsme — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:34:49 +0000

Taken 2010 May 9 00:00 UTC by Amy Roney

(Timestamp assuming that Amy’s camera was set to Pacific time, but with an AM/PM error introduced during PM hours as other plausible interpretations of the timestamp in the EXIF data would not match the position of the sun or would imply Amy might have been up setting the time on her camera before noon. May still be off by an hour if camera doesn’t handle savings time properly.)

Gleeful Steps

Abulsme — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:06:30 +0000

So, I was going to post today how right after my post on Recent New Alex Tricks I realized I’d forgotten two… he’s started initiating peekaboo games using napkins or blankets or whatever is around and, very important, he has learned to stick his finger up his nose.

But, those were somewhat overshadowed about an hour ago.

I hadn’t mentioned it here yet, but my mother was visiting over the holiday weekend, and she helped him get confident pulling himself up on a toy rolling lion thing and then using the lion as support to “walk” as he pushed it along. He would also do the same with his high chair. Today he decided to see if he could do without the lion.

So it is just after dinner. Brandy is holding Alex on the table (yes, yes, we know) and he is bouncing happily. He tries to crawl across the table to Brandy’s laptop, but she won’t let him. So he bounces some more. At one point, he looks toward the laptop, scrunches up his face and makes a determined sounding yell and his whole body tenses up. A few seconds later he lunges forward out of Brandy’s arms toward the laptop… and finds himself standing. Just for a second. Then he sort of hops forward and takes a couple of barely controlled steps before Brandy catches him and pulls him back in.

He is now hopping up and down screeching with joy. Over the next ten minutes or so he does it over and over again. Bounce bounce bounce bounce in mommy’s arms… jump forward… stand for a few seconds… one or two steps then fall backwards into Mommy’s arms or sit down… Yelling and jumping and smiling excitedly the whole time. And of course all on the dining room table.

Eventually he was done and retreated to his mom. Afterwards he was happy to crawl around a bit before his bath rather than try for more steps. This is still an experiment, not an actual mode of locomotion. He continued to be very excited through his bath. Then it was time for a little snack, and then to crash. It was a very exciting evening.

For all of us.

Another Chat with Grandma B

Abulsme — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 05:21:14 +0000

Taken 2010 May 6 02:49 UTC

Recent New Alex Tricks

Abulsme — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:58:27 +0000

I haven’t done this kind of an update in a bit, so here goes…

Words: Dog, Up, Nana (Banana), Look, Book, Goat, Duck, Hi, Yeah, Mama, Dada
Waving: He waves like mad at all sorts of things, but especially if you wave at him. And if he waves and someone waves back he enjoys that very much.
Clapping: His Grandmother always clapped to him on his video chats. About a week ago he started clapping back. Now he claps all the time.
Pointing: About a week ago he started pointing at things that he is interested in. He will point at an airplane and track it across the sky. He will point at something across the room and continue to point straight at him as you carry him toward it until he can touch it. He will also just generally point where he wants to go when he is being carried.
Light Switches: He can reliably turn light switches off. He can sometimes turn them back on, but it is much harder. There is a switch by his changing table, and he almost always turns it off as soon as we sit him down there.
Steps: He can climb up steps with ease. Today for the first time he climbed all the way from downstairs to upstairs. He can’t quite do going DOWN stairs in a controlled way, so of course someone is always right there with him.

More to come before long I’m sure. And I’m sure I forgot some as well.

Siblings Getting Coffee (uh, or other drinks)

Abulsme — Mon, 31 May 2010 02:44:18 +0000

Taken 2010 May 4 21:11 UTC by Brandy Donaghy

Sam and Alex Video Chatting with Cynthia

Abulsme — Sun, 30 May 2010 06:16:50 +0000

Taken 2010 May 4 02:19 UTC

Alex says Let Me Out!

Abulsme — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:06:35 +0000

Taken 2010 May 2 03:37 UTC by Brandy Donaghy

Final Test Tonight

Abulsme — Sat, 29 May 2010 10:14:03 +0000

Giving up for tonight. Hopefully what I have now should work for Facebook but not Twitter if tonight’s pattern holds. And it doesn’t hit LinkedIn like ping.fm did. But ping.fm was messing up the links (via Superfeedr) so whatever. It is late. I may revisit this again someday when I have more time. For now, it is what it is.

Bleh, Another Test – Or Two!

Abulsme — Sat, 29 May 2010 09:26:22 +0000

Yeah, yeah, yeah, test me!

Sorry, More Testing

Abulsme — Sat, 29 May 2010 09:22:56 +0000

I think I’m close to done for now though. Sorry bout these.

Another Test

Abulsme — Sat, 29 May 2010 09:07:30 +0000

That last way of doing things worked for Facebook but not Twitter. Looks like lots of people are having a similar issue with Twitterfeed recently. Trying something else. Bleh.

Annoying Testing

Abulsme — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:28:54 +0000

It seems like the ping.fm stuff I had been using to feed my blog to Twitter and my Facebook status has been acting up and sending links to stuff other than just the plain old link to my blog post, often making those links useless. It also missed at least one post, perhaps more. So I’m trying to switch things back to Twitterfeed to see if that works better, even if it takes longer to propagate since it only checks for new posts every 30 minutes instead of the almost immediate of ping.fm. We’ll see. This post is primarily just to see if it is working. If not, there may be more tests before long. Bleh. If it works though, no more tests, I’ll just post normally again.

Oh, and I still have the Facebook import into “notes” going too. The delay between me posting and it showing up varies wildly from a few hours to over a week, which is annoying, but more people seem to comment on those that anything else, so I’ll leave it.

Amy and Zenia in the School Play

Abulsme — Sat, 29 May 2010 03:38:52 +0000

Taken: 2010 May 1 03:37 UTC

Kindle Ratio for 28 May 2010: 55%

Abulsme — Fri, 28 May 2010 21:00:24 +0000

As I have since December 2008, after I finish each book I read I’ve been calculating what percentage of the last 20 books I have read are available on Kindle. I’ve been doing this because I have said all along that once that ratio was greater than 50% I would “Officially want a Kindle”. Well, it seems that since the last time I looked at this in April, several of the 20 books in question that were not available on Kindle have become available. As of today we are at 55%. In other words, 11 out of the last 20 books I read are now available on Kindle. So it is time. I “officially want a Kindle”.

This does not however mean I will order one today. I am in the middle of a physical book right now, and the next book in line I also already have a physical copy of. And there are other items ahead of a Kindle in the spending priority list. But as of now, I do want one. :-)

I have also decided on the algorithm I will use to determine what to read next whenever I finish a book once I have a Kindle as well. But I will wait until I actually have one before describing it I guess, in case I change my mind. :-)

I will continue reporting this ratio until I actually have a Kindle and read the first book on it. After that I will stop.

Xenocide

Abulsme — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:26:50 +0000

Author: Orson Scott Card
Started: 26 Mar 2010
Finished: 10 Apr 2010
592 p / 16 d
37.0 p/d

I continue to make my way through all of the Ender Series on my way to the latest in the series which Brandy gave me awhile back. This time it is Xenocide, the third book in the series.

The third book is a bit more blah than the first two books. It is still an interesting book and examines some fun concepts, but it seems that the first two books had more big, new and surprising things. This one just sort of continues the story. You explore the notion of different levels of alienness some more. It makes you think about what makes a person a person, and about how much you have to change a person before they aren’t really the same thing any more. Fun stuff to philosophize about. But it did seem like somewhat treading the same waters that were covered in the last book.

To be clear though, it is still a fun story, and leaves me wanting to read Book 4. I think when I read this series before many years ago, I only got to Book 4. So I’m eager to go ahead and read Book 4 (the plot of which I can’t say I really remember) and then get on to Book 5 and beyond.

I will also say that in this series the character I’ve always enjoyed the most is “Jane” the sentient computer network. I remember when I was a teenager reading a lot of books that had sentient computers as characters, and it was always something I was drawn to. Of course we still don’t have good sentient computers. They really need to get back to working on that.

Still Hiring Software Development Engineers for Amazon

Abulsme — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:45:19 +0000

I’ve still got open slots in my team at Amazon. Yes, rather that make a little puzzle like my last post I’m saying it specifically. :-) We have a lot of fun and challenging things we are working on, and Amazon in general is a great place to work. Full updated job description for my open positions:

Automated and Targeted Merchandising

The Automated and Targeted Merchandising team delivers relevant merchandising content to users who are most likely to respond favorably to that content. Our team manages a wide range of automated, highly scalable systems, for delivering targeted email and website content to receptive customers. We also own a number of systems that assist marketing and merchandising professionals to find, schedule, and apply relevant targeting for any subset of users. Automated and Targeted Merchandising systems rely heavily on computational advertising, data mining and machine learning techniques. These techniques, combined with aggregated customer behavior data, allow us to provide a high degree of accuracy in targeting the right demographics – and driving higher sales as a result.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have strong development skills in Java or C++, with experience in designing and architecting scalable high-performance systems and services that are also flexible, reliable, and maintainable. They will have excellent problem-solving skills, a solid understanding of computer science fundamentals, a quantitative mindset along with a proven track record of on-time delivery. We are seeking engineers that are highly pragmatic and can solve real-world problems faster than others believe possible. Candidates should be familiar with machine learning, data analysis and data mining techniques. Database skills and experience with large-scale multi-tiered distributed systems are highly desired. Familiarity and comfort with front end web technologies a plus. Advanced degree in Computer Science with a strong Mathematical background preferred.

If you are a Software Developer and the job description above sounds like it might be up your alley, toss me a resume at abulsme@abulsme.com. If that specific position isn’t quite what you might be interested in, the Website Application Platform group I am a part of has a bunch of other spots open as well, not just software engineers. See the WAP Jobs site for more information.

If you don’t fit any of the above yourself, but know someone who does, send them my way too. :-)

The One that had the Cheese Slice

Abulsme — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:30:23 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Android Developments
Google TV
Idaho Idiot
Kentucky Idiot
Oil Spill
Lost

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 24 May 2010

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Highlights of Amy Month 175

Abulsme — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:19:29 +0000

Since I’ve been doing these videos every month for Alex, I didn’t want Amy to be left out or anything, and as it turned out, she was turning 175 months old soon after I thought of this, so I started collecting video of her as well as Alex. So here, designed to be exactly the same length (plus or minus a second) as the last Alex video, is a set of highlights of Amy’s 175th month. This covers from April 21st at 05:46 UTC to May 21st at 16:15 UTC. Congratulations Amy on turning 175 months old a few days ago! Woo!

If you don’t see the embedded video above for whatever reason, here is a direct link to YouTube: Amy’s 175th Month

(Edited 19:42 UTC to embed and link to corrected video fixing an error in one of the captions.)

Did I Do Something?

Abulsme — Mon, 24 May 2010 07:20:00 +0000

Taken: 2010 Apr 24 23:48 UTC

Alex is Coming for You

Abulsme — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:00:30 +0000

Taken: 2010 Apr 24 23:19 UTC by Amy Roney

State of Confusion

Abulsme — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:21:21 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

US Space Program
Rekers’ Rent Boy
Facebook Privacy
Oil Spilled and Otherwise
Cars

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 17 May 2010

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes

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Cobble

Abulsme — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:03:48 +0000

Taken 2010 Apr 24 01:24 UTC

Bag Skin

Abulsme — Thu, 20 May 2010 02:24:56 +0000

Taken 2010 Apr 24 01:01 UTC