I am in the Pacific NorthWest area of the U.S. and we are currently at around 75-78 degrees F on a day to day basis. Last week, we actually had a run of rain for three or four days which was very nice. Now, last month it was HOT. I believe in using modern conveniences like an air conditioner when it is so ASS-HOT that I can’t see for the sweat in my eyes upon waking. That is hot. Now, at this moment in time, it is not hot. 76F according to the NWS. So, why is it that several people have their air conditioners on right now? Last night, a cool 66F, as I was strolling with my Katie, three, THREE, people had their air conditioners on! I propose an air conditioner invention which has an ambient thermometer for inside and out. When the temperature outside falls below the inside temp, the air conditioner automatically shuts off and shocks the user if they try to turn it back on. Obviously, that is a drastic measure, but pain therapy does wonders for some people. The air conditioner also has a learning curve and will stop administering shocks when it can last the space of several minutes without being molested by its owner right after it turns off. The only problem I can foresee is that my company would be sued for customer abuse or some such crap, even though we all could use a little lesson in resource management. I will now take this moment to boost my own ego and talk about my recycling regimen.

I like recycling. It is a good idea. I want to reuse any materials possible so that I don’t feel so bad when I see a parent buying plastic diapers where the shit inside them will be dust before they decompose. Originally, my apartment complex had recycling bins and I used them with pride. Then, the complex changed garbage companies and the recycling is gone. Instead of just throwing away my plastic bottles in petulance, I called the local hotline for recycling and talked with a nice woman who directed me to a state-sponsored recycling/dump location. Every week or two I collect all the plastic bottles, 1, 2, and 3 codes, along with corrugated cardboard, glass bottles, and even two or three newspapers and travel twenty minutes north to this location. I put them in the bins and drive back home. This is not convenient for me, but I think it is important. I even collect other people’s recycling on occasion on my way. This is my small contribution to the cause of furthering humanity’s place on earth. Thank you. Heartfelt congratulations and praise is always welcome.

I am in the Pacific NorthWest area of the U.S. and we are currently at around 75-78 degrees F on a day to day basis. Last week, we actually had a run of rain for three or four days which was very nice. Now, last month it was HOT. I believe in using modern conveniences like an air conditioner when it is so ASS-HOT that I can’t see for the sweat in my eyes upon waking. That is hot. Now, at this moment in time, it is not hot. 76F according to the NWS. So, why is it that several people have their air conditioners on right now? Last night, a cool 66F, as I was strolling with my Katie, three, THREE, people had their air conditioners on! I propose an air conditioner invention which has an ambient thermometer for inside and out. When the temperature outside falls below the inside temp, the air conditioner automatically shuts off and shocks the user if they try to turn it back on. Obviously, that is a drastic measure, but pain therapy does wonders for some people. The air conditioner also has a learning curve and will stop administering shocks when it can last the space of several minutes without being molested by its owner right after it turns off. The only problem I can foresee is that my company would be sued for customer abuse or some such crap, even though we all could use a little lesson in resource management. I will now take this moment to boost my own ego and talk about my recycling regimen.

I like recycling. It is a good idea. I want to reuse any materials possible so that I don’t feel so bad when I see a parent buying plastic diapers where the shit inside them will be dust before they decompose. Originally, my apartment complex had recycling bins and I used them with pride. Then, the complex changed garbage companies and the recycling is gone. Instead of just throwing away my plastic bottles in petulance, I called the local hotline for recycling and talked with a nice woman who directed me to a state-sponsored recycling/dump location. Every week or two I collect all the plastic bottles, 1, 2, and 3 codes, along with corrugated cardboard, glass bottles, and even two or three newspapers and travel twenty minutes north to this location. I put them in the bins and drive back home. This is not convenient for me, but I think it is important. I even collect other people’s recycling on occasion on my way. This is my small contribution to the cause of furthering humanity’s place on earth. Thank you. Heartfelt congratulations and praise is always welcome.

First, I really wish it wasn’t so late. It’s close to 2am, and my little (oops, big, manly-Man fingers) fingers are aching from too much work today. However, I had to drop a note on the new site design! I really like the concept, and I think it looks cool, but, i did have some issues finding where to click and so from a function point of view, I give it a 8.756. All in all, an improvement from before, but it could use a little…”user friendliness.” I was quite impressed, however. Very cool.

So. today started CPA class for the upteenth time. Yes, I’m taking Financial, with an eye to take the exam in 1.5 months. Then I’ll have one section left, which I’m taking in early January after a class that will last all of December. Folks, let it be known, that I am still going to be at the wedding. Let it also me known that I am taking a seriously FAT/PHAT vacation if I pass both remaining parts.

I’m not sure that I’ll be able to leave my mark on these pages much in the next few months, but be assurred, I’ll be BACK. And when i return, I’ll be getting my damn CPA discount for my car insurance!

Keep the faith,

km

Right. So, I’m currently listening to DMB “Some Devil” in .ogg format.

Why, you might ask?

Because it is better quality than .mp3 with a smaller file size.

Ok, but what about lossy vs. lossless formats, you counter.

Well, .mp3 and .ogg are lossy, which means that the extreme upper and lower ranges are discarded in favor of smaller file size. Lossless codecs are perfect, digital reproductions of audio streams, better bang for your buck. Ogg does better with this than .mp3, but it is still not a perfect digital reproduction. I thought the same thing, so I researched FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) options on OS X.

Why didn’t you just use Apple Lossless Codec, the new option in iTunes, Mac Man?

After reading of DRM (Digital Rights Media) issues on Apple’s iPod vs. Real Networks, I’m distancing myself from that debacle. Instead, why not go with the open source option? It doesn’t cost me anything except time finding how to encode and decode FLAC files. Well, it wasn’t all that easy. FLAC on Mac is difficult to say the least. You can do it by CLI (Command line interface), but I’m not real big on typing to run a program each time I want to change tracks. Instead, the only GUI option is MacFLAC, a labor of love for a single programmer, Dan Greuel (Dan does indeed rule). That program is just for encoding from CD’s. It’s kinda buggy, but works pretty well on my Pismo 500Mhz G3. Now, to listen to these files, I can’t just boot iTunes since QuickTime chokes on these files. Instead, I employ a defunct audio program called MacAmp Lite X. Now, it doesn’t just come with the ability to play FLAC files right away. You have to install a plugin and hope to whatever deity is available that it doesn’t freak out on you like it did to me the first time I tried to run it. The point is, I can see how someone slightly less technically adept would say,

“Ben, you are an idiot. You rip your own CDs into this format that I’ve never heard of and use software that isn’t certified for 10.2 much less 10.3. You can’t even get a digital audio player to play in FLAC. Just buy some songs from the iTunes Music Store and it will be fine.”

True. To the average person, Apple’s FairPlay-enabled AAC files encoded at 128kbps is more than enough, and the RIAA certainly wants them to be just satisfied with this crippled version of “their” music. (You figure out who the “they” is in that last sentence. I really don’t know.) I just want to rip my CDs once. ONCE. Not three or four times depending on how easy it is with the current software. CDs are just cheap plastic, they will NOT last 50 years, unlike LPs. I would rather make backups of my music through the latest hard drive/mass storage technology and hope to that same deity that someone else is in my boat and can collaborate with me on a software project to convert these perfect copies of music to the equivalent open-source/free option so I can avoid buying “Some Devil” three times in my lifetime on various media. That’s all.

So I’m trying to get a copy of RevAirTunes and FairKeys and other software from Jon “DVD” Lech Johansen, yet their server has been down for several days now. My search is not done, yet this software doesn’t have a defined title or is just lines of code without a container or GUI, so its kinda difficult. A variant of this penchant to circumvent DRM that is available is Hymn (http://www.hymn-project.org/download.php). VLC is also a good, Mac-only solution to listening to a dollar song.

Speaking of dollar songs, I still have $1.96 on iTunes Music Store, thanks to a generous gift from Matt and Beth. I would really like to listen to these songs in their lossless codec without restrictions, like “authorizing a computer.” See wordiQ for more.

For those of you who link directly to this blog without going through my website, shame on you, or as the kids say, cheese on you, you missed my redesign. Go check it out right now and come back to read the rest of this.

Go ahead.

I’ll wait.

Ok. Katie and I have finally started the registry process for wedding gifts. I’m vaguely uncomfortable about this process, by the way. I’m not sure that anyone will spend money on us since we decided to have an intimate ceremony with just 9 people. It is not that I don’t want to have everyone come and watch us say “I do,” yet the whole ceremony started to become more than just Katie and I and instead about everyone else. Who do we invite, who do we not invite; it was a hassle I just don’t want. Besides, this way, anyone who wants to hear about the wedding ceremony will have to ply me with Thai food and ice water before I divulge anything.

On the good side, Katie is completely engrossed with every aspect of registering, including the pretty border on the WeddingChannel.com page that can be changed at any time. I will be creating an uber-wedding page for us as well, so don’t think you’re missing out on my coding skills quite yet. This page will give more detailed information about why we’re picking the places we’re registered at and what happens after Dec. 1, 2004.

Going back to the not-inviting thing, we really wanted to elope at first. We decided not to elope when I thought that my mother wouldn’t speak to me again, though, when we told her of our discarded plans, she said she would have been fine with it. I’m not so sure. The good part about not inviting 350 people to my wedding is that we can send out really cool announcement cards instead. These will leave our hands about a week after the wedding itself and I will be checking the registry sites twice a day to see who acts first and who really doesn’t love me.

As always, send me a note about the new layout, good or bad. I already found out that the java linking through Fireworks MX 2004 isn’t all its cracked up to be, so I might change my text template. Stay tuned for this exciting new development in the newest installment of…

“Ben in Cyberspace!”
(Echo voice from “Pigs in Space”/Muppet Show reference)

This is the first day, since Thursday, that I have been lucid enough to post. Katie has been the absolute best person/roommate/fiance there ever was for the past several days. If you see her, shake her hand and congratulate her for being the best human being on the earth. Did I mention that she is the love of my life?

As I sat in a newly reorganized room, Katie was hard at work on her computer, clearing out email messages and chatting with Kristian. I was somewhat bored and looked at new virus info on Symantec.com. This link allows Symantec to check the integrity of your system’s firewall. I followed it and to my surprise, an error came up that I wasn’t using IE 5.0 or better and would I please use the most insecure and badly patched piece of software available. No wonder they want to test your security. What they should be testing is the intelligence of people using IE and afterwards say, “User of IE, you need to get a real browser.” The problem is people who use IE don’t know any better. They use it because it is what comes up when they click the internet icon. I suppose I should be grateful that my browser isn’t exploited more often.