* Soundhound way better than Shazam on the iPhone. recognition much faster, lyrics support nicer * Stunned that Windows Home Server doesn’t support the generic network adapter on a whitebox computer from BestBuy. Supported under XP, Vista, &, and Ubuntu, but dead in the water under Windows Home Server. Stunned. * Word 2010 beta seems to support Latex parsing for equations tho buggy as hell. Cool tho. * “Steam up to 25M users”:http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/29/steam-steams-ahead-to-25-million-users-205-percent-increase-in-sales/. Steam is so awesome. Why isn’t all Windows and Mac software distributed this way? * Conversely, Apple app store has so much crud in it with no real quality editorial voice. Trying out Chomp and app.itize.us.

* “Child 44”:amazon by Tom Rob Smith. Excellent tale of a Stalin-era security officer in Moscow trying to unravel a series of murders while his own loyalty to the state is under question. He comes to grips with his own morality, his relationships, and his family history as he pursues the case in the face of increasing personal costs. 4.5 stars on Amazon, really an excellent tale. * “The Hidden Family”:amazon and “The Clan Corporate”:amazon by Charles Stross. Stross has written some good books but these are not it Choppy. A protagonist who is alternately wickedly competent and incredibly dumb, as the plot demands. Sloppy. Mailing it in? The Amazon ratings on this series is declining and I’d have to concur. * “At Empire’s Edge”:amazon by William Dietz. Barely in and it reads like a bad Star Trek script. Why did I buy this dreck. Amazon says 4 stars, must be Dietz’s mom rating over and over again, this is not readable, 0 stars. * “Wolf Hall”:amazon by Hilary Mantel. Stilted, awkward, dull. Applies to characters and prose. No idea why people like this book or why it wins awards. Amazon says 3.5 stars, I’ll say 1 – readable but dull as dirt, I gave up. * “Fragment”:amazon by Warren Fahy. Crichtonesque romp on a remote jungle island. Engaging and fun. Amazon says 4 stars, a very solid piece of entertainment.

Well of course I will buy one because I am a geek. That said I am unconvinced.

* I still have to carry my iPhone around because I need to make calls. Actually the iPad could free me to switch to a better phone/carrier without having to lose my apps… * I still have to carry my MacBook around. I use real software, Aperture and MatLab and Mathematica and Photoshop and Word. With big datasets, complicated docs, etc. The limited iPad apps don’t cut it. * So am I really going to carry around another largish device? Hmm. * I do carry the Kindle2 around but it is a lot smaller and I get 2-3 weeks of battery life. That is the beauty of a point device.

So I am not really sure what the iPad does for me. But I am sure I will try.

All the “Amazon is dead” talk I find misguided. A, if you are a heavy book reader, the iPad is not superior — battery life, library size, readability are all Kindle advantages. B, Amazon is not stupid, you can read Kindle books on the iPad. C, the Amazon store may not be as cute as Apple’s book thing but it is way more functional. Amazon will be fine even if the Kindle hardware fades away.

• @MartinGTobias book recos #1 brief wondrous life of Oscar wao. #2 Child 44 in reply to MartinGTobias #
• @brucery I use TiVo+cablecard. Goofy to set up but works fine. U do lose some Comcast-specific features in reply to brucery #
• @marcushartman but is the goal of cfb purely ratings/$? in reply to marcushartman #
• @brucery comcast dvrs are crap. i’d consider moxi as well – no monthly fee, and moxi mate multiroom support in reply to brucery #
• @marcushartman easy to criticize bcs puppets. tougher challenge to articulate why playoff better for athletes – what will they gain? in reply to marcushartman #
• @marcushartman few go to nfl, few gain future benefit. media companies, colleges, ncaa rake in huge immediate $s. doesn’t seem just. in reply to marcushartman #

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• http://firemikegarrett.com/ #
• Just found Whole Lotta Losin’ by Monsters of Folk on #soundhound. http://bit.ly/8nhmjo #
• Cold messy wet hike this AM, but let’s you know you’re alive! #
• Recent books – http://bit.ly/7J2rUC – Oscar Wao, Chabon, R, Plums, and Habsburgs #

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* “The Year In Materials”:http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24229/?a=f * “Chromoscope”:http://www.chromoscope.net/#. Fascinating, there is a lot going on we can’t see. * “Massive white dwarf may go nova, endangering life on earth”:http://www.physorg.com/news182067005.html. Maybe the Russians can go fix this after they master “deflecting asteroids”:http://www.universetoday.com/2009/12/30/russia-may-head-mission-to-deflect-asteroid-apophis/. * “World’s smallest snowman”:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6724969/Scientists-create-the-worlds-smallest-snowman.html * “Ancient computer”:http://io9.com/5441889/advanced-imaging-reveals-a-computer-1500-years-ahead-of-its-time – we are not so clever as we think we are.

* “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”:amazon by Junot Diaz. Amazing story. Intertwines the tale of an outcast, a tragic family, the sad 20th century history of the Dominican Republic, and classic science fiction themes. Unique and surprisingly hopeful. Amazon gives 4-5 stars, this is definitely a 5 star read. * “Gentlemen of the Road”:amazon by Michael Chabon. Great tale of middle age adventurers. Jacket blurb says reminiscent of Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories and this is dead on. Amazon says 3.5 stars but I thought this was fun, 4 stars at least. * “A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using R”:amazon by Brian Everitt and Torsten Hothorn. I wanted an overview of R, this wasn’t it, but a useful set of case studies of the various types of problems that R can be used on. Very thinly reviewed on Amazon, I’d say 3 stars. * “The Perfect Fruit”:amazon by Chip Brantley. Moderately interesting story of the inside of the fruit growing industry. Personally would have enjoyed more of the science, and more color on the people in the industry. Amazon says 5 stars but not a ton of reviews. I’d say 3. * “The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke”:amazon by Timothy Snyder. The blurb on Amazon drew me, and I enjoy history. The author attempts to enliven this story with a lot of meandering and fictionalization, it just didn’t work for me. Perhaps Habsburg history is meandering and confusing, perhaps just this telling, I’ll never know as I am giving up. Amazon says 4.5 stars with a light review history, I’d say 2.5. It is not terrible but just didn’t grab me.

• RT @timoreilly: The loan officers at Bank of America should be hanging heads in shame (98 mods out of 1M eligible) http://bit.ly/8Shzpp #
• @edsbs would you really want to watch bsu play more ball? That game was pretty uninspiring in reply to edsbs #
• RT @johnhcook: The new iPhone app from nuTsie is like “Pandora on steroids.” http://bit.ly/6iSJCL #
• @brucery do you get a referral fee for Germantown commissary? You are selling hard… in reply to brucery #

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“Skiff e-reader targeted at magazines and newspapers”:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2010697015_ces_lg_sprint_launch_skiff_new.html – OK I love gadgets and will try darn near anything, but this is a headscratcher for me. I love my Kindle because a) it is way easier to travel with than 5 books, and b) the e-books are generally cheaper than print books, and as a heavy reader, this is hundreds of dollars a year. I get huge payback because of these facts.

What payback will I get from Skiff? It won’t be any easier to travel with than 5 magazines really – magazines don’t take much room, and I dispose of them as I go (to the degree that I read any magazines at all anymore). And magazines aren’t that expensive, there is no way I can save that much money.

I understand the publishers are casting about for a lifesaver but this seems like a waste.

My MacBook is entering middle age and as my intensity of use has grown over the last 6 months (due to coursework at UW) I’m finding I need to start focusing on productivity a little. Some tools that seem helpful:

* “Popchar”:http://www.macility.com/products/popcharx/ provides much better special character insertion than the standard OSX tool. Helpful for entering math symbols, etc. I love this. The basic OSX system tool is weak. * “Keycue”:http://www.macility.com/products/keycue/ from the same guys, cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts. Better than it sounds. I cannot remember all these keyboard shortcuts and this is way way way better than help/manual/online search. * “Hazel”:http://www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php for automagically managing files. My use case is dealing with downloads from various UW course sites and automagically handling. Keeps my downloads folder in order. Handy tho not absolutely mandatory. * “Path Finder”:http://www.cocoatech.com/ as a replacement for Finder. Definitely more handy for moving files between folders. * “Growl”:http://growl.info/ – not sure why I installed but all the cool kids seem to use.

Also on my new Windows 7 setup I am starting to play with some things:

* “Win7 multimonitor taskbars”:http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheNearFinalWordOnMultiMonitorTaskbarsForWindows7UltramonVsDisplayFusion.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ScottHanselman+%28Scott+Hanselman+-+ComputerZen.com%29&utm_content=Google+Reader – haven’t tried these but probably should try one. * “Feedroller”:http://lifehacker.com/5352037/feedroller-puts-rss-and-twitter-updates-across-your-monitor?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+%28Lifehacker%29&utm_content=Google+Reader – well I wanted to love this, and it looks great, but seems to have problems updating its content.

And across both machines:

* “Helvitical”:http://www.iamadtaylor.com/helvetical/ and its friends Helvetimail and Helvetireader certainly improve the looks of google apps. A little buggy tho.

The USC 2010 LAX schedule “is released”:http://www.usclacrosse.com/news/2010-schedule-released, available up at the “MCLA website”:http://mcla.us/teams/usc/2010/. Trip to Seattle the weekend of 2/13, get your tickets now!

• Holiday reading – http://bit.ly/8PyEO6 #
• Love the Dodge Charger “Man Ship” ad. Makes me want an American car. #
• @richtong rediscovering ace frehley?now that is funny in reply to richtong #
• Off to Pasadena! Go Bucks! #
• Hotel in Burbank filled with Buckeyes and Guatemalans. Who knew it was the perfect pairing. #
• 2:1 ratio of ducks to bucks outsidethe stadium. :( #
• Very warm in pasadena – thank goodness for VIP tailgate tickets. In the tent watching the Cap One bowl #
• @elevenwarriors and that’s just the women in reply to elevenwarriors #
• RT @marcushartman: And Oregon joins list of high-scoring offenses to score half their average against Ohio State #
• Love reading the LA Times sportswriters bowing down to OSU – http://www.latimes.com/sports/ #
• I used #Shazam to discover Light Of The Morning by Band Of Skulls http://www.shazam.com/music/web/track?id=50104027 #

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Holiday time, and time for some light escapist reading.

* “The Moor”:amazon by Laurie R. King. Part of her Russell series, and excellent. Interesting character, very atmospheric (the “Moor” refers to the moorlands of England). The mystery itself was nothing special but the character and atmosphere make up for it. * “Terra Incognita”:amazon by Ruth Downie. A mystery set in the Britain of Roman times. An interesting lead character, the doctor affiliated with the Roman legionnaires. The story is choppy and doesn’t hang together well, but the character has promise. * “Revelation Space”:amazon by Alistair Reynolds. Modern space opera. Great reviews but I found it unoriginal. * “The Fade”:amazon by Chris Wooding. Fantasy set in an underground world at war, very engaging. Grabs you from the first chapter.

* Solar coasters. Uber-dorky but I still think fun * Curvaceous bookshelves. I suspect these might look a lot worse when filled. But still admirable. * Sled chair. Blast back to the 60s. * Glass decanters. Sucker for all things glass. In another life I would have been a glass-blower. * Battery powered lamps. Gorgeous.

• RT @JayPaterno: Best birthday advice from Joe Paterno–If no one told you how old you were, How old would you be? #
• Latest pcs I’ve built – http://bit.ly/6xIj4C #
• Up early working off Xmas dinner… http://twitpic.com/vbin2 #

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