Mac: Now With More Storage

I dropped a 500GB hard drive into my MacBook last weekend. The hardest part was copying the data over from the 250GB drive I'd put into it last time, replacing the 160GB drive it came with.

It's very cool that it's so easy to install a new HD in a portable computer. My 24" iMac would be much more difficult to upgrade. But since it sits on a table and doesn't move around very much, it's just easy to add an external HD. With the MacBook, as a portable, dragging around external storage is kind of a nuisance.

Just ordered a 2GB SIMM for the 'book too. It has 2GB installed, but will recognize up to 3GB. With Fusion running Windows XP from time to time, some extra RAM would be nice.

Anyway, carry on.

This is not an exit...

Because I can't seem to do this at FB:

Competing Messages: Cluetrain "discussion"

I spent an hour or so yesterday watching a recording of the "discussion" that was hosted recently at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. It was a disappointment on a number of levels, not the least of which, the audio was so poor as to be nearly unintelligible. I watched it on my television; it's somewhat more intelligible in the MP3 of the audio, but I was unable to find any transcript of the event. Not a great loss in any case.

Worse, it wasn't really a serious discussion in any sort of academic setting, or any other setting for that matter. The title of the program was, "Cluetrain at 10: So How's Utopia Working Out for Ya?" Which, I suppose is just snarky enough to suggest it's hip and "skeptical." You had a smiling host who, I gather, was Jonathan Zittrain, plus two of the original authors of the "manifesto," Doc Searls and Dave Weinberger.

Watching it, it appeared almost like a talk show, except the host moved around a bit more. It was the kind of thing one might expect to see when authors are on tour promoting a book. That is to say, it was more a marketing effort than any sort of critical examination of the themes and ideas put forth in the book. The fact that all of the participants seemed utterly oblivious to this was very disappointing, and I suppose just further supports my increasingly more serious contention that "irony is the fifth fundamental force of the universe." In this application, it appears that those who arrogantly contend that others are "clueless" are themselves the ones most in need of a clue.

I was hoping to hear something from the authors about what they think they might have gotten "wrong," in the original book, or points that they believe were misunderstood, or that they would write differently today. I think there was a little of that, it was hard to hear, but I think Dave Weinberger kind of regrets the "grumpy old man," ranting tone of the book. And Dave also appeared to regret the notion of "authenticity" but Doc seemed to smooth that over.

The first question from the audience was a skeptical one, and Doc just seemed to shrug it off. He never wishes to engage in a serious defense of his ideas, he just dismisses his critics and their criticisms. If you watch the video, he literally just shrugs and says "I'm not too worried about that," in response to the assertion in the question that the book simply gave marketers new ways to market to us.

Which just puts the lie to another one of his other vaporous but cutesy constructions: Informing is not the same as delivering information. Inform is derived from the verb to form. When you inform me, you form me. You enlarge that which makes me most human: what I know. I am, to some degree, authored by you.

Except when, you know, you're not.

One rather amusing bit of irony was when Dave Weinberger was describing how the internet, and by implication, the "manifesto," has made many corporations more "open." The example he chose was IBM, where he was describing how top-down, uptight, rigid it was to the extent that everyone wore the same clothes. As Doc and Dave sit there in their slacks and sport coats and colored, open-collared sports shirts, almost twins.

So, nothing new learned. Basically, it was a promotional appearance at a kind of academic talk show, where consummate marketers-in-denial were marketing their old book.

For my part of the "conversation," I will offer that you should probably choose not to spend your time watching it. And to respond to the rhetorical question regarding utopia: Not so good, but thanks for asking.

Mac: Microsoft Laptop Hunter Commercials

Not that Apple needs any help from moi, but if I were Apple, I would send every one of those folks who appeared on TV buying a cheap Wintel laptop because, you know, they're cheaper, a copy of this new book I'm reading: Cheap - The High Cost of Discount Culture. (Irony, Fifth Fundament Force of the Universe Dept: Available from Amazon at 34% off the cover price!)

It's part of that whole "markets are conversations" farce.

iPhone: Notes to Myself

I've been out playing around with my Oly E-520 DSLR. Of course, the new hotness is the the E-P1, or the E-620. (Damn you, Olympus!) In any event, I'm no match for the E-520 itself, let alone the new ones. I'm always forgetting the little tips about which settings for what circumstances. To say nothing of the fact that I can't see the back of the camera in the dark to identify the little button labels. (The E-620 has illuminated buttons. See expletive above.)

In an idle moment the other day, it occurred to me that I can make notes of the relevant settings and tips in the Notes section of Mail.app, using copy and paste from the web sites containing said settings and tips, and the notes will sync to the Notes app in the iPhone, which is almost always with me. Plus, the light from the screen can illuminate those pesky little buttons!

I rock.

Competing Messages: Ten Years After

Don't have time for a longer post, though it's on my "to write" list, but saw this in today's NY Times and figured it deserved a link here. Ten years after the beloved authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto tried to make the world a better place by commercializing our social lives, we're well on our way to success beyond their wildest fantasies. A couple of telling sentences in the article, but I liked this one:

“Our focus has always been sponsored conversations,” said Ted Murphy, founder and chief executive of Izea.

Of course, I think it's a disaster, and the whole notion that "markets are conversations" is a pernicious lie. But what do I know? If I'm so smart, why ain't I rich?

This "conversation" has been brought to you by, um, well that's why I'm not rich.

Cheese Omelet: Sunrise

Jacksonville Beach, FL.

DVD: Knowing

Bought this on a whim, based on what I recalled from the previews I saw on TV, and I like Nick Cage.

Meh.

I haven't read any of the reviews, but this struck me as an M. Night Shyamalan effort. It's a lot like Signs, only cheesier. In general, I like end of the world movies, but this one pretty much sucked. I just never really related to any of the characters. There was no coherent theme, or at least it wasn't developed in any way that left you with some sense of, um, knowing.

Meh. Not recommended.

Tech: My iPod 3G Battery Replacement

I mentioned last weekend that I planned to pop a new battery into my very first iPod, a 30GB third generation iPod. Prior to the replacement that battery was good for about 15 minutes of play, but it wasn't really an issue as it mostly just served as an alarm clock for me, sitting in a JBL speaker next to my bed. While I understand the design, with the four touch-sensitive buttons across the top, doesn't appeal to Steve's aesthetic sensibilities, I love the fact that you don't have to actually push anything, especially when it's sitting in a dock of some kind. In any case, I like the little beast, and wanted to give it a new battery.

I bought the replacement from ipodjuice.com and everything arrived as advertised. The instructions were clear, and they included the plastic tool to pry open the case. That was the only difficult part, it was much harder to get the pieces separated than I anticipated. I would suggest anyone doing this just take their time and work carefully around the top and bottom were there are some delicate plastic components. I was able to get it apart safely, though that was the longest part of the whole process.

I bought an 850mAh battery, which is a larger capacity battery than was originally installed. They make an even larger one, but you have to cut away a bit of the foam surrounding the HD to make it fit, and I don't need that kind of capacity so I went with the 850mAh. Charged it overnight, then let the thing play all day to run it down before recharging again. It's kind of a kick to listen to it with headphones and have it last more than 15 minutes. I'm confident that I could install a new HD now if I needed to as well. So, big win all around.

Cheese Omelet: Trivially Yours,

Last week went by in the blur! What's up with that? Not a bad week, but wow. And made no efforts here, which I kind of regret.

Back to a more regular running routine with my partner. We've decided to run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving the weekends open for the usual foolishness that keeps us up late and makes it hard to get out of bed for a run at oh-dark-thirty. Having said that, we missed Wednesday because said partner was out for some of that usual foolishness on Tuesday! In any event, looking at the data from our last three 5 mile runs over the preceding 10 days, we show steady improvement in pace, especially the last mile. In each run, the last mile was the fastest, which might seem a bit odd, though it's not really. We're fit enough that a 5 mile run isn't especially taxing on our endurance, and knowing it's the last mile is always an incentive to finish strong. And our last mile time has dropped each run, though we're not quite back to our fastest times before the marathon. I also track my heart rate, and the average and maximum heart rate has decreased on each run, so I'm recovering my endurance too. We basically took the month of June off, so we're below where we were just before the marathon, but recovering nicely.

On Tuesday I had some blood tests done at Mayo clinic. Long story why I was there, suffice to say it's time for my annual physical, my regular physician had completed his residency, and I had some questions related to the marathon. So, while they couldn't take me just yet for my annual physical, they did see me about the questions. It came as something of a surprise and disappointment to me that running marathons on a single kidney is not recommended. So the tests were to kind of see what, if any, effect the marathon had on my kidney, and because I needed them for my annual physical anyway.

I'm happy to report that it apparently had zero effect (at least, I suppose, outside the margin of error), as my numbers were identical, identical, to two years ago. But it's good to know now what the risks are. I had known some of them before I ran, and took those into account, chiefly to remain well hydrated and avoid NSAIDs. Now I know a little bit more, which may factor into training intensity and injury monitoring.

It's interesting to note that one of the risk factors for kidney damage is high blood pressure. My blood pressure at the time of the visit was 120 over 60, which is well below average for me, and I often exhibit the "white coat syndrome," and spike it a bit worrying about what the numbers will be. I'm usually, at least back when I used to track it regularly, around 130 over 70, which isn't that great, but didn't call for medication. I'm sure the marathon training has helped in that regard. I will be buying my own blood pressure monitor and I'll start tracking that data regularly. My cholesterol numbers, while up just a bit in LDL (not sure if that's within the normal variability), were still good at 200 overall, with 74 HDL, and 112 LDL. Not sure how that adds up to 200, but I have my physical on the 1st of September and we'll chat about that. Don't recall the triglycerides number, or the nurse didn't give it to me and I forgot to ask. BUN, GFR and creatinine were all the same as two years ago. Thyroid is still underperforming a bit, may want to look into that some more.

But I tried to understand why they were telling me I shouldn't run marathons. The biggest reason is probably just the cumulative weight of the number of risks. Individually, they're not that great. But you have a much greater exposure to all of them in training for and running a marathon. One of the more serious ones is apparently from the tissues and products that enter the bloodstream from muscle damage, and the damage those substances can potentially do to the kidney. In any high endurance event there is some degree of muscle damage, though again, there are many factors involved and training can mitigate them to some extent. Now, an acute muscle injury, like a tear, is another issue. Larger quantities of tissues and products entering the bloodstream in a shorter amount of time. Again, it's probably a somewhat cumulative risk, number of injuries and severity over time. I will note that I suffered a number of muscle injuries during my martial arts training over six years, and the cumulative effects of those don't seem to be reflected in my numbers either.

So, I must learn to listen to my body, train wisely, stay hydrated, rest and recover and enjoy life! Or I can just stay home and never do anything challenging and be perfectly safe but not very much different from being in the ground already.

While I was a bit depressed and a little worried after the office visit prior to the long holiday weekend, I was pleased and relieved to get the results of the tests. I fully intend to run the Phoenix marathon, my goal being 5 hours. If I achieve that, I may not wish to run another one. If I don't, but I improve, I may do another one to see if I can improve some more. I think I understand the risks, but I think they're manageable, and life is about more than simply avoiding risk.

On the Fourth of July

One of my friends is a fairly recent Russian immigrant, and we were out with some other friends the other night. She offered a comment about her green card and how important it was to her, which was both surprising and quite affecting in its sincerity.

I wish I could remember her exact words, but they were something to the effect that when she returns to this country from Russia, upon seeing her green card, the people in customs tell her, "Welcome home." She spoke of how much she loved hearing that, and it was clear that it meant a very great deal to her. Much more than it would probably mean to any of us.

Came to mind this morning thinking about the holiday.

Cheese Omelet: Tempus Fuggedaboutit

...time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister

but boring stories of glory days

Where the heck does the time go?

Okay, Battlestar Galactica appreciation is well underway, but it's taking a while. It's long (It was an 80 hour movie, fer chrissakes!), and I find I write a little, go back and edit a lot, then write a little more, and so it goes. Hopefully it'll be short enough that someone may actually read it. And hopefully it'll be worth reading. If I only knew what not to write as I was writing it, so I wasn't going back and editing it out later, that would save a little time. Anyway, I digress.

Kitchen sink remains spotless. Counters are clobbered, but that's a project in progress. I'm in the midst of an effort to figure out how to actually prepare food for myself. I have two challenges. The first is I'm lazy. So if I can have a machine chop something up for me, that's good, because I hate chopping with a knife. I bought this Cuisinart blender a couple of years ago, and I think the only thing it's ever done is crush ice for some margaritas once. It came with this small food processor bowl and blades. I think at the time I was thinking smoothies and the food processor thing looked like a bonus. So I've broken out the instruction book and I have some vegetables I'm going to "process" today or tomorrow and see how that works. Probably not as advertised, as these things usually go.

The other problem is that I'm preparing food for just me, and you mostly buy food in quantities for more than just one person. So I have all these plastic bowls with airtight lids and plastic wrap, but I still end up throwing stuff away more than actually eating it. So again, a couple of years ago I bought this Foodsaver vacuum thing. I used it last week to wrap and freeze some bananas. I always used to wind up throwing away bananas. Now I just buy a bunch, wait till they're ripe, peel 'em all at once and freeze 'em. A frozen banana is a nice treat after a run. But I'm also playing around with other aspects of vacuum sealing. Here's a tip: Don't do it for blueberries. They just mash together. Those will go in a smoothie eventually, but they're frozen for now. Blueberries you just throw in a freezer bag and eliminate as much of the air as you can by hand and freeze 'em. Nothing better on your cereal in the morning.

When I hang out at the pool, it's important to have on hand adequate quantities of fluids to maintain proper hydration. It's been in the '90s here all week. Unless it's a party, it's usually cans or 20 oz plastic bottles of diet soft drinks. Well, I'm really trying to cut down on the soft drinks, so I bought a 2 qt Igloo pitcher, and it's going to be Crystal Light from now on. Or, at least after I get through caffeine withdrawal. I bought a 3 gal one too, but that's too big for just me.

So the counters are clobbered while I sort this stuff out. The sink is immaculate though.

Wanted to do something a little geeky this weekend, so I'm going to pop a new battery in my old iPod 3g. It's the one with the four touch-sensitive buttons in a row above the scroll wheel. I actually love that design, because you can control the iPod with just the barest touch, which is important when it's sitting in a dock of some kind. No stress whatsoever on the docking connector. My music collection has grown now to actually fill the 30GB iPod, so my next geeky act may be to swap out the hard drive. But we'll see.

My little brother Eric called last weekend, and my brother Mark and I helped him solve a little technical issue. He has a small Acer computer that he uses for his electrical engineering course, which runs a Windows app he needs for the course. Well, it died and so he was wondering about installing Windows on the iMac. He was going to run out and buy Vista Home Premium Edition for about $238.00 I think he said, could be wrong about the price, but I told him he could download and install Windows 7 for free and use it long enough to finish the course, and install it with Bootcamp. Long story short, a couple of video iChats, (including one 4-way conference with the parents too) and he was up and running.

So of course now I want to put Windows 7 on my iMac! That may be in the cards this weekend as well. We shall see. I have a full plate.

And just to round out the geek trivia here, I bought Toslink to Mini plug fiber optic digital audio cable to connect the Mac mini I have in my "home theater" setup to my 50" Panasonic plasma TV. I'm not expecting any great improvement in audio quality. I'm mostly doing it because, you know, I can. The audio runs analog out of the Panny to a Zvox speaker box, so there you go - analog. (Update: Doh! The Panny only supports digital out. Sigh. Oh well. Can never have too many cables, no? Well, yeah, you can.) But I will say that if you run digital audio out of an Airport Express to an iPod HiFi, the audio quality is noticeably better. Awesome in fact. I normally play iTunes from the MacBook through Airtunes to the HiFi above my kitchen counters. But I can also play it through the mini in the home theater, where it also plays through the Zvox and can really rock the house. Of course, forget about soundstage and all that nonsense. Still sounds good to me.

Took Bodhi to the vet yesterday for his check-up, shots, heart worm meds and this time I bought this Comfortis stuff which is a 30 day flea treatment in pill form. The fleas are killer this summer and Frontline isn't touching them. We'll see if this stuff is any better. Of course, it was a $350.00 vet bill and that, um, bites!

Some friends and I are going to cook out at the pool tonight. It'll probably be crowded because of the holiday, but hopefully not too bad. Most people still like to go out and party on Friday nights, so we should have some time on the grill. We're going to make another beer can chicken, which is something of a tradition here.

Monica and I are running again. I have to lose about 5 pounds I gained sitting on my ass and eating conference food for nearly two weeks, plus eating out every night. I ran solo on Sunday, but I sucked. We ran together on Monday and our pace was 11:37 for five miles. We ran the same route on Wednesday and cut 30 seconds off the pace for 11:07, so we should be back on track here shortly. Of course, it feels like we're running in soup, it's 80 degrees in the morning and the relative humidity is probably close to 80%! But it's good to be back out moving again.

For those of you who've been with me through the "blog wars," I wish to observe that I've been reading Scoble lately, and it seems as though his point of view is slowly approaching that of reality. The longer I live, the more it becomes clear to me that what Sandy told me is true, we only learn from the consequences of our actions. You can't tell anybody anything. Other opposing parties still reside firmly within their reality distortion fields where technology is the solution to all problems, including the deficits within the human heart; and universal happiness and utopia are always just another iteration of Moore's Law away.

For the rest of us, just be here now. Everything is exactly the way it's supposed to be; and if you can't figure out why, you aren't paying attention yet.