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December 28, 2006
MTP Sucks (Follow Up)
Discovered two things in trying to re-sync my Zen today:
1. RealPlayer 10.5's MTP support seems to be much worse than the previous version.
2. WinAmp 5.32's MTP plugin seems to suck lots less than the last version I tried.
Winamp has been happily transferring tracks for a couple hours.
Posted by dberger at 3:35 PM | Comments (0)
God I Hate MTP
I know, I rant about this every time I sync my Zen Touch, but jeezy-creezy does MTP suck. RealPlayer does the best job of any app I've found trying to do a "sync", but the transfer rate to the device seems to be inversely proportional to the number of tracks transferred.
Today my luck is even worse, I can only transfer a hundred or so tracks at an attempt before the transfer rate drops through the floor.
Calgone, take me away.
Posted by dberger at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2006
Thunderstruck
I just finished Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson (see also The Devil In The White City), which I received as a gift from the Beltz clan. It relates the stories of Marconi's qwest to achieve reliable trans-contintental wireless transmissions with the Crippen murder.
While not quite as grab-you-by-the-throat-and-won't-let-go as Devil in the White City, it was a great book. Had I not had the aforementioned prediscessor to compare it to, it would be the best work of non-fiction I'd read in years - possibly ever. As things stand, it's the second best work of non-fiction.
Highly recommended.
Posted by dberger at 8:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2006
10 Years. ten... years... tenyears!
A year ago I mused on how quickly nine years had gone. The subsequent year went just as quickly.
Happy anniversary, sweetheart.
Posted by dberger at 6:21 AM | Comments (3)
December 19, 2006
First Impressions
I haven't owned a current-generation game console in, well, ever. A couple years ago I ended up with a Playstation and a Dreamcast that I bought from the company I was working for at the time. I never really used the PlayStation, but I bought Gauntlet Legends for the Dreamcast and Dawnise and I enjoyed playing it on rare occasion. I ended up finding them both in a drawer and selling them on ebay before we moved.
The one console I never planned to own was an XBox, or it's successor, the XBox 360. No way was Microsoft getting a beach-head in my living room.
Continue reading "First Impressions"
Posted by dberger at 7:09 AM | Comments (2)
December 18, 2006
Corinne Bailey Rae
Posted by dberger at 4:25 PM | Comments (1)
The Damage Doesn't Seem As Bad From Out Here...
Got in to work today without incident - lighter traffic than normal, and little sign of the major trauma that the region had just undergone.
Further east power still hasn't been restored, and no ETA. More news and information is making it's way online. It's not all "rural" areas either - a big stretch of the I-90 from Mercer to Lake Sammamish is still dark.
Hotel rooms are still scarce (well, if you want ones with power and water) and according to co-workers some are cranking up prices to double or more their normal rates. Always nice to make a buck on the back someone else's misery.
50 hours without power was unpleasant, but seems we got lucky.
Posted by dberger at 8:27 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2006
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
When Titus and Victoria were up here for a visit some months back (ok, a conference, but they stayed at our place, so it sorta counts) Titus left his copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Having just finished the Temeraire series - set in the same time period - I decided to give it a whirl.
Having lugged it back and forth to work, in my back in my messenger bag for the two weeks it took me to work through it, I can see why Titus left it here.
Continue reading "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell"
Posted by dberger at 12:40 PM | Comments (1)
December 16, 2006
Let There Be Light
After about 50 hours in the dark, our neighborhood got power back around 7 this evening. The act of flipping a light switch and having the lights respond is most excellent. And the idea of hot showers in the morning... Sweeeet.
Huge thanks and respect to the PSE and cooperating crews out there, in the damn chilly, working round the clock to restore power. Your effort is greatly appreciated.
Posted by dberger at 9:47 PM | Comments (1)
December 14, 2006
Scratch That
I'm now sitting in the dark. The UPS on the networking gear and computers will keep us online for a bit, but... G'night folks.
Posted by dberger at 5:03 PM | Comments (0)
Flicker, flicker
True to predictions, the wind is starting to kick up. We haven't lost power yet, but it's only a matter of time...
Posted by dberger at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)
Heavy Weather
They're predicting a serious wind storm for tonight - expecting downed trees, power outages, damage to structures, and a general end to civilization as we know it. Just to add insult to the evening commute, there's a Football game in Seattle.
I'm going to take off early and see if I can make it home before the worst of it hits. Quite the week to be riding the "wrong bike" (the RS). The Trophy handles the wind pretty well, but the RS is so light it (and I) gets blown around a fair bit.
Living in Southern CA for so long, where there is no weather to speak of, it's easy to forget that this technological terror we've constructed pales in comparison to the power of nature.
Posted by dberger at 11:45 AM | Comments (2)
A One-Hit Wonder's Second Hit
If you were alive and listening to FM radio in the late 90's, you couldn't help but hear Natalie Imbruglia's cover of Torn. The rest of the album it was released on - Left of the Middle - wasn't bad, but wasn't remarkable, though it did spawn two more top-20 singles.
I picked up a copy of her sophomore album - White Lillies Island - and it's quite good. Much less pop sounding, more introspective, and a wider range of sounds.
Posted by dberger at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)
December 5, 2006
How Can It Overheat in Near Freezing?
Yesterday, about a block from work, the head warning indicator on the Trophy started faintly glowing. I had been stuck at a light through two cycles, idling for probably 10 minutes, which is nothing, relatively speaking. On top of that, the ambient temp was in the high 30´s, so I was pretty sure this was a bad thing. This morning before leaving I had a glance at the Trophy service manual and I rode the RS in to work.
Continue reading "How Can It Overheat in Near Freezing?"
Posted by dberger at 8:33 PM | Comments (0)
December 1, 2006
Freedom!
The car made it to the garage! Woot!
We're going to go do the last of the party shopping, and the car will sleep in the garage again tonight.
I'm irrationally excited.
Posted by dberger at 2:58 PM | Comments (0)