August 31, 2005

Pandora

Yesterday Jeff introduced me to Pandora.

Give Pandora an artist you like and it automatically creates a radio station it thinks you'll enjoy, comprised of artists that have similar qualities to the one you specified. It's amazingly accurate, and many of the songs/artists in your station will be ones you haven't heard before, making it a great way to discover new music.

No commercials. First ten hours are free, and afterwards it's only $36/year.

Pretty slick. Check it out.

In Matters that are otherwise worthwhile

Posted at 12:32 AM | Permanent link

August 29, 2005

Greasemonkey 0.5.1

I just noticed that Greasemonkey 0.5.1 Final has been released, with the much awaited security fix to the former gaping hole.

Great job, guys!

I get a fully functioning Emacs back last week, and a fully functioning Greasemonkey this week?

God's in his heaven and all's right with the world!

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In Technology and Software

Posted at 11:49 PM | Permanent link

August 28, 2005

Too Much Coffee Man

This is my life, too. (Thanks, Russ Beatie!)

Too Much Coffee Man is my most favorite new comic since the PBF.

RSS feed available here!

In General

Posted at 05:50 PM | Permanent link

To Durham we go

Now that the dust has settled a bit and I've confirmed that I'm receiving mail at my new address, I should probably announce that I've moved.

I'll be living with Ashish in a brand new house in North Durham, and I use the term "Ashish" loosely because as a second year medical student he's either at the hospital or sleeping 90% of the time.

The commute to work is kind of a bitch, but being five minutes from 9th Street, Duke, and the new American Tobacco district is nice...so long as I can manage to avoid being killed by gang violence.

I've updated the contact page with my new address:

Josh Staiger
707 Weeping Willow Dr.
Durham, NC 27704

This address doesn't yet show up on google maps, but here is a good approximation. I'll post directions soon.

My old 919 phone number is going away, but you can still get ahold of me on my cell: 216-570-8595 (I really should change this to a North Carolina number one of these days, but for the moment have no plans to do so).

Thus far we're still leaching wireless internet access off the neighbors next door (if you happen to be my neighbors please stop by so I can apologize). It's a huge pain, so new entries might be few and far between for a bit.

In General

Posted at 05:33 PM | Permanent link

August 23, 2005

Google Talk - I'm on!

Might as well get the obligatory "I'm on Google Talk" post out of the way.

I'm signed on to Google Talk right now using the instructions described here.

I'm using Adium on the Mac to connect.

If you want to give it a shot, feel free to give me a holla:

joshstaiger@gmail.com

In Technology and Software

Posted at 10:34 PM | Permanent link

Keyboard Remapping Utilities for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

Michael Baltaks has released a beta of DoubleCommand for Mac OS X 10.4.

I've been using it for the past three days to remap the enter key on my Powerbook to ctrl with no problems. (The world is happiness and glee!)

Also, check out fKeys from Flynn at Kodachi 6 * 14. fKeys is in its very early stages of development, but we owe Flynn a debt of gratitude for discovering the first working technique for general keyboard remapping on 10.4.

Thus ends three months of Emacs frustration.

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In Technology and Software

Posted at 07:45 AM | Permanent link

August 22, 2005

Quality Cinema: The 40 Year-Old Virgin

I respect women. I respect them so much that I completely stay away from them.

On Saturday, weary from unpacking boxes, I headed out to Southpoint to catch a showing of The 40 Year-Old Virgin.

Best decision of the weekend. I laughed until I cried.

With a title like "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" one would come to expect a myriad of raunchy sex jokes, and the movie certainly delivers. But unlike many comedies in this genre there's a surprising intelligence and wittiness to the humor (think Daily Show, rather than Anchorman).

Steve Carell is shaping up to be quite a fine comic actor.

I liked Virgin even better than The Wedding Crashers, which is high praise given that I also enjoyed that movie a great deal. Very much recommended.

In General

Posted at 08:36 AM | Permanent link

August 20, 2005

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I just finished the latest installment of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

In a word: wow! I didn't see that ending coming. I somewhat guessed the character who was going to die, but I didn't think it would happen like that!

If you've read the book, let's talk about it.

I'll be posting further thoughts in the comments to this entry. If you haven't yet read the book, I'd recommend you avoid them.

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In General, Matters that are otherwise worthwhile

Posted at 07:50 AM | Permanent link

August 17, 2005

The Ministry of Reshelving

...

3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell's 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."

4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."

...

The Ministry of Reshelving Project

In General

Posted at 10:18 PM | Permanent link

August 15, 2005

Raleigh Bloggers Meetup, Tuesday August 16th, 2005

Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, August 16th) for the second Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.

What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village

2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773

Hope to see you there!

Update:

Dave might just demo Roller 2.0 for us if we're lucky.

In Blogging

Posted at 08:35 PM | Permanent link

August 05, 2005

Pretend Work

"The other problem with pretend work is that it often looks better than real work. When I'm writing or hacking I spend as much time just thinking as I do actually typing. Half the time I'm sitting drinking a cup of tea, or walking around the neighborhood. This is a critical phase-- this is where ideas come from-- and yet I'd feel guilty doing this in most offices, with everyone else looking busy."

-- Paul Graham

In Matters involving the art of avoiding sloth, Technology and Software

Posted at 06:52 PM | Permanent link

August 01, 2005

Raleigh Bloggers Meetup, Tuesday August 2nd, 2005

Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, August 2nd) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.

What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m. Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village

2020 Cameron St Raleigh, NC 27605 (map) (919) 829-3773

Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)

Hope to see you there!

In Blogging

Posted at 07:37 AM | Permanent link