Where everybody knows your name

Looks like the most common search leading people to this site is “peter jaros”. So who’s looking me up by name? I don’t know. But you know who you are.

One from the Bronx. (Dave?)
One from Kentucky. (Kentucky!?)
One from who-knows-where.
And three (three!) from Illinois. (Anne, are you one of those?)

So, if you found my blog by my name, leave me a quick comment. I’d like to know who’s here. For that matter, I’d love it if anyone dropped me a line. It’s nice to get a little feedback now and then.

I wonder if there’s some famous Peter Jaros in Chicago…

Line of the day: 7/30/05

I found this one earlier today. I don’t remember where I saw it, but it looks like it’s been on a few different bumper stickers. Your line du jour ce soir is a piece of sage wisdom from the ages:

Remember: pillage, then burn.

Dang, I always get that one wrong…

Line of the day: 7/29/05

Today’s line comes from Brian Geiger’s article “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to ADHOC” over at O’Reilly’s MacDevCenter.com:

I can’t tell you what most of it was. No, most of the memories are gone, like yesterday’s pizza. (For those of you who take more than a day to finish off any arbitrary amount of pizza, I welcome you to make your own analogy.)

If you have any interest in AppleScript, text adventure games, or writing Macintosh software, read the article. I myself have dreamed of going to ADHOC (neé MacHack), and this article made me a bit jealous. Actually, I’m tempted to try to rewrite his code to spec. I'd better restrain myself.

Hot stuff for the masses: p2p IPTV

Presenting ACTLab TV and their technology Alluvium. It’s TV distributed over a p2p Internet model, which as we all know means less bandwidth needed and a much more accessible “transmitter”. It’s p2p IPTV.

There’s a land that I see where the media’s free / And I say it ain’t far to this land from where we are

(Was that too obtuse? 10 bonus points to the first one who gets it.)

Line of the day: 7/28/05

This one comes to us from the comments on Engadget’s post “NEC to make eco-friendly corn phones”. It’s the begining of Ben’s explanation of why phones made of corn-based plastic are worth pursuing:

Millions of phones get trashed every year. Governments and unelected psuedo governments like the EU (bit of social comment there) have decided to make the producers take responsibility for the waste, kind of like enforced recycling. In Europe it’s called Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment or, and I’m not making this up, “WEEE”.

Yeah, you probably though I was going somewhere meaningful with that. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love that companies are doing something about the terrible e-waste problem, but I really can’t believe they gave it that name. Considering the money our congressmen must have spent to come up with a title that spelled out “USA PATRIOT Act” (“Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”). I guess that’s the difference between the US and Europe…

Update: An alternate line of the day from the bottom of the post’s comments, by Rocket Punch:

MAN! I was excited for a few sec as I thought I read “porn phone”!!

Line of the Day: 7/27/05

You can’t really expect one of these every day, can you? Here’s what inspired me this time, from Jason Santa Maria’s entry Maintaining Motivation, summing up the benefits of a little daily exercise:

Free your ass and your mind will follow.

I finish work tomorrow. Starting Friday, my plan is to walk down the road and back every morning. I’ll get in shape yet.

I hate the Mac G4's guts.

That’s right. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Macs. I just have their guts. Consider:

I’m attempting to remove the Zip drive from a G4. To do this I have to remove the sled that holds the CD-ROM and Zip drive. To do that I have to disconnect them so the sled can come out. But to fit my hand in to disconnect them, I need to pull them out…

And considering the only tools we have here at work are a small case containing mostly tiny screwdrivers (the type with a spinning disk on the back and a ridged shaft rather than the nice kind with a handle you can actually hold on to) as well as a whole set of screw bits which don’t actually have a screwdrive to fit into (I have to make my own out of a series of extension and adapter bits that fit together—but again, no handle to grab), it’s no surprize that I’m having trouble.

ISO a new look

Ok, Blog Battered Least of All's cookie-cutter look is getting old. I need to design a nice layout for the site. But what? I'd work from the theme of the site, but there isn't really one. I guess I'll have to play around with it a bit until it looks good. It's tough working with the Blogger-style templates, though, since they really confuse WYSIWYG editors (for the record, I hand-code in BBEdit, but previewing the page is just as difficult). Does anyone know a good way to code a nice Blogger template?

The New Goldfish

Pepperidge Farms Goldfish have changed. They’re narrower, and more…solid. Hard to explain. I like them. Good work, Goldfish team!

ThinkGeek: Not evil.

I just got the Cold Heat soldering iron from ThinkGeek. It’s very cool: when it touches metal it heats to 500 degrees within a second, then cools just as fast when you’re done. I bought it to hack my CueCat to work with Delicious Library, which is pretty awesome too. Unfortunately, the Cold Heat iron’s not much good on work that detailed. Also, the tips are delicate, and the included one broke in shipping. Bummer.

So, I wrote ThinkGeek an email asking “can I return the broken tip (which came bundled) for replacement without returning the whole iron? The additional tip [that I also bought and which is intact] is different; otherwise it wouldn’t be an issue.” I didn’t want to have to send the whole thing back.

Hours later, I got a reply from Mark Silverman:

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention! I’m sorry to hear that your Cold Heat Soldering Iron tip arrived damaged. I’ve sent out a replacement for you, and you can dispose of the broken tip as you see fit. We apologize for any inconvenience, and thanks for choosing ThinkGeek!

So the verdict is in: ThinkGeek is not evil. Thanks, Mark, and everyone at ThinkGeek!

My dream job

I’ve been getting into Crossing Jordan lately. I’ve decided that Nigel has my dream job. Pulling out all the hacks to shape crime scene data and turn it into something amazingly useful. Truly creative computer work. That’s what I want to do.

But, hey, my summer internship’s pretty cushy, so I can’t really complain. Someday, though…say, what classes do you take to prepare you for a job like that? Hmm…

Who is a journalist?

It’s a question that keeps popping up these days. If journalists have special privileges, can everyone be a journalist? I’m listening to Judith Miller’s speech at the Commonweath Club. She seems content with what she says has become the common law definition of a journalist: someone who is paid for and makes their living from their journalistic work. She seems to think that this gives appropriate consideration to journalist bloggers.

But should you really need to make money to be trusted with the rights of a journalist? I don’t think so. What is this black-and-white notion of a “journalist”? It no longer applies. There are, of course, traditional full-time journalists who work professionally. But legally, this is not a necessary requirement. It’s not a question of being a journalist, it’s a question of performing journalism. If you are performing journalism, whoever you are, you (should) have the right to keep confidential sources as it pertains to that action. We all have the ability to perform journalism when the opportunity arises. We all need the rights of the journalist.

The first Malcolm

I’m watching the first Malcolm in the Middle. The theme’s a different recording, or at least the vocals are. More demo-y. It sounds like Linnell recorded it in his living room, which he may well have. I think I like it better.

Incidentally, Hal manages to be naked in the first minute. And Stevie’s there from the beginning. Somehow I got the impression he was a later addition.

Mmm. Must…not see…Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer…must not spoil the hotness…

Line of the day: 6/3/05

This time it’s the name of a Facebook group:

Everyone I’ve Ever Known Is a Better Human Being Than Dick Cheney In Some Way

What can you say to that? The group is here. Honorable mentions: Coalition of Guacamole Lovers, Tori Amos Is The Only Person Who Really Understands Me, and I Just Tried To Ford the River, and My Fuckin’ Oxen Died (and if you get that, see this too).