October 2003 Archives
So, babies don't know about DST. As i found out at 5 am this morning, when Conor woke-up and wanted to play. Always something new to learn!
Brian Flemming is releasing his film "Nothing So Strange" (a fictional documentary about the assassination of Bill Gates) worldwide, online via Bitpass, on the same day it has its theatrical release (press release). I've wanted to watch this for a while, and for 5 bucks, seems worth it. You get a high-quality Quicktime Mpeg 4 (there is a lower res version as well), which you can then burn to your hard-copy media of choice. This is the kind of stuff i was hoping that Bitpass would enable, and i'm happy to see that it is.
Conor was at the doctor yesterday for his 6 month checkup. Just a tad under 22 pounds, which is the average weight of a 1 year old. Big little fella. He got 2 more shots, but he doesn't have to get any more till he turns one. Which is good, because i got a bit faint while holding him for the shots! Needles, bah, when oh when are they going to invent the "hypo-spray" fron Star Trek?
Conors second tooth, or 'fang', is coming in. So that's two on the bottom now for him to attack you with - you have been warned. I must say, he doesn't really bite at all. He used to try to gum you if you got your hands or fingers near his mouth, but he does't really do that now that his teeth are in. Which is a good thing, as they are really sharp.
We had him in the baby backpack on sunday for a fairly long walk. We've tried him in it before, but his neck control wasn't quite good enough, and his head would start flopping around pretty quickly. I think we were out for just under two hours on sunday, and he was a pretty contented camper the whole way. Gotta go, babys crying!
So, there is, believe it or not, some new photos up on the photoblog. I've got it all fixed up to be super easy to post now, and i think Ciara is going to be making some contributions. Now i just have to make the templates look nice ;). Thanks again to Brad Choate, his MTEmbedImage plugin and the ten years of my life guy for kicking my ass into gear and getting it going again. More photos!
I forgot to post this yesterday, but i haven't been to bed yet, so it still counts for Thursday. Just wanted to say congrats to AJ on getting married today! Hope you are having a great time!
So a dual hit of goodness from Apple today.
The new thing first: iTunes for windows. Having had a brief chance to play around in the store, my reaction is "Wow". They have done an excellent job, both aesthetically and functionally. As Andy at work said "its just as well its not available in Canada, as i would have already spent 30 bucks!". Yes, you can look but not buy. There are a few small nits to pick, most noteably the number of available artists. It would also be great if Apple made the service available to all who want to sell though it, allowing bands cut out the middleman.
Second, the new iPod software, v2.1, allows the iPod to hold digital images, via a 3rd party device which allows them to be downloaded to the iPod. This was the only thing holding me back from getting one. Well, ok, not the only thing. It would be nice to have some kind of colour screen to view the photos on. Or playback video. But, really, this is pretty damn amazing. I've got to start saving now... Maybe this could be my one big christmas present... Ok, my one big christmas present for the next 5 years?
I was having some problems getting the MTEmbedImage plugin to work. I sent a quick email to Brad Choate about where the basename attributes root is. It is the root of the blog. So, if your blog is at www.blog.com/mt and you have all your images at www.blog.com/images, your tag might look like:
<MTEmbedImage basename="../images/image.jpg">
Don't forget to make the directory writable by the plugin, if you want to resize your images.
Coming home from Brockville on Monday was hell. The traffic slowed down around Kingston! I don't think i've ever been in such a long traffic jam. Over six hours. Poor Conor had a very rough time of it. One bit of humor was when we pulled into a rest stop to change Conor. We sometime change him on the trunk of the car, as we did this time, and once we had his diaper off, he let go with a huge stream of pee. It was a perfect arc, out of him, into the air, over several feet, and onto the parking lot pavement. It was kind of beautiful, in a way that i can't really explain. All of us, Roisin was with us too, were surprised by the amount. Anyway, i wish i'd had my camera ready, as it would have made a great picture. Do you remember the ad with the baby peeing - i think it was for a computer mouse, and i'm pretty sure it was in Wired. I couldn't find it on google, if you remember and have a pointer to it, please let me know.
Everything in Moderation - "a new weblog designed to collect links and commentary on both technical and social ways of managing online communities and user-generated content". Pretty interesting so far.
And one more book for my increasingly frighteningly large stack of unread books, "Policing Online Games". Gamasutra has an article up with the author and a chapter from the book. Gods, i'm so far behind... Speaking of books, the guy that did the review of Quicksliver that i pointed to last week has another post up about "Stephenson, Pynchon, and Style". Good stuff.
Just read an interesting review of Quicksilver, Neil Stephenson's new book. I think i've got to pick it up this weekend, my stack of unread books notwithstanding. I'm also impressed by readers that have created the Metaweb - a wiki for discussing the content and ideas in Quicksilver. Sort of an encyclopedia about the book, that anyone can contribute to.
And now for something completely different, Tramp Lamps.
Again, i know that i haven't posted any new pictures in, like, forever. I've been put to shame by ten years of my life. He is going to put up a photo a day, for ten years. Holy crap, that's a great challenge. Most interestingly, he pointed to a plugin by Brad Choate that could help to make it easier for me to actually get some more photos up on the site. The plugin, MTEmbedImage, does all the resizing, for both thumbnails and full size images. So all i'd have to do is get the templates working, and simply upload the image. No pre-processing, nothing. I hope to work on the templates for the photoblog over the weekend to incorporate this plugin. Again, i have to be truthful, it will probably come to nothing, but you never know!
We've been watching Carnivale, the new HBO series. If you get the chance, you should check it out. God, spirits, magic and circus freaks. The title credits alone are worth watching.
So, here is a review,some pictures and french text, forum posts with links to more info about Cavalia, a production by one of the folks that started Cirque du Soleil. Only, this time its with horses. Ciara and her sister are going on the 24th, i'm really looking forward to hearing about it, as it sounds like it will be great!
Update: Hello all - this is just a quick note to let anyone reading this that this is not the official Cavalia site. You can find that here. Unfortunatly there is not much info there, or any way to post questions or comments. Please feel free do so here, but know that this is my personal site, and that i have no relationship with the Cavalia folks. Ok? Good, now go add a comment!
Well, we've crossed over into having a mobile child. Gods, he is getting into everything, tho he seems to have a real fondness for power cords. Yum yum ZAP! Not so good for the baby. Its babyproofing time!
Super Lord of the Rings Geek fest. Sign me up. And get me some depends...
Just cuz its friday and i haven't posted in a while. Check it out, i never knew there was a "trample fetish scene"...
