作譜

Yearly Archives: 2005

Howl Steam Sith

Proto-Filmwhore.org

*sniff, sniff* Wow. It’s kind of musty in here.

I am not a movie person. I’m probably way more psyched for the upcoming release of Sleater-Kinney’s The Woods than I am about seeing the new Star Wars movie. (Because I’ve already listened to the new Sleater-Kinney, and man does it crush!)

But if I have to pinpoint one movie I would brave a theater to see this summer, it would be Howl’s Moving Castle. I’m not a Miyazaki Hayao nut by any mean, but I’ve watched Spirited Away, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke — none of them disappointed.

I’m also looking forward to the DVD release of Steamboy. It played for all of two weeks at the Dobie, smashed right between SXSW and AAS’ wedding. I couldn’t find the time to go. So I’ve already pre-ordered the DVD from Waterloo.

As for the other big movie event of the summer, I’m waiting another few weekends to go see it in the theater.

Food Whole

Capital of Texas

I noticed a lot of Austinites writing about the new Whole Foods. So I may as well be fashionable and chime in:

  • That creek in the middle of the outdoor dining area is the dumbest waste of a footpath.
  • The $8 sushi isn’t bad, but it sure isn’t worth $8.
  • Further proof of the idiocy of Austin drivers — there is a NO LEFT TURN sign posted to prevent south-bound Lamar drivers from entering the Lamar Blvd. driveway. Heed it, dammit.

Cakewalk INS file for Kawai K4

Technophilia Aural

Some simple Google searches were enough to find Cakewalk instrument definition files for my KORG and Kurzweil keyboards, but it doesn’t look like one really exists for the old Kawai K4 I bought on eBay.

There are, however, a number of software tools to edit K4 patches that also export instrument definition files. Kawai itself has made system exclusive dumps of the K4 available on its web site.

So, I loaded the sysex dump into K4Win, then exported the patch information into an instrument definition file. I cleaned it up a bit to separate the single-voice patches from the multi-voice patches. And because no one else seems to think it’s necessary, I’m making my K4 instrument definition file available for the taking.

Spam or die

Administrative

I’ve sort of held a bit of pride for not having to install MT-Blacklist since employing Movable Type back in 2003.

I tried to be clever — I wrapped MT’s comment script around my own account interface, which requires human approval. If bots tried to scan my pages for a comments script, they weren’t going to have an easy time finding it.

Trackbacks, though, were a different matter.

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Sentimental Girl’s Violent Joke

Oh God, Memes ...

Oh how I try to resist music memes. Via Rhinelander.

Choose a band and answer only in song titles by that band: Number Girl

Are you male or female? Brutal Man

Describe yourself: Frustration in my blood

How do some people feel about you? Destruction Baby [RealAudio]

How do you feel about yourself? Teenage Casualties [RealAudio]

Describe your ex-boyfriend/ex-husband: Seiteki Shonen (Sexy Boy)

Describe your current boyfriend/husband: Cramp Discharger [RealAudio]

Describe what you want to be: I don’t know

Describe your current mood: Sappukei

Describe your friends: Girlfriend Girlfriend Girlfriend

Share a few words of wisdom: Fight Fight

Crippling updates — install now!

Technophilia

Just when I thought I found the Windows Update that crashed my system, it turns out there are four others that could have done the same. To wit, all five:

I’m not sure what it was about my system to cause any failures, and I’ll only blame age of the machine only so far. But five so-called “critical” updates that end up crippling a computer instead? Maybe Microsoft really is rotting.

Windows fix breaks machine. Go figure.

Technophilia

[This entry was edited because I was ragging on the wrong update.]

I mentioned how my old system reboots right before showing a login prompt. It turns out my system was failing at that point, and Windows was (stupidly) configured to reboot automatically upon a system failure.

Hard to diagnose a problem when the system acts in denial. I’ve since disabled that option.

After rolling back my Windows installation a few times, I determined it was one of the Windows updates that was causing the failure.

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An open letter to software GUI programmers

Technophilia

Dear Software GUI Programmers,

Please remember this rule when setting the colors of your user interface: if you specify a background color, you must also specify a foreground color.

In my efforts to reinstall software on my system this past weekend, I encountered a number of installer scripts and interfaces where white text was placed against a white background, or black text against a black background. Why? Because I set the default colors on my system to white-on-black, not black-on-white.

White backgrounds hurt my eyes, which is why none of my web sites have light backgrounds. So I changed my system to suit my need.

Unfortunately, most developers aren’t so vigilant. When you force your software to use white text, you can’t assume your user’s system will provide a dark background. Same goes for dark text.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to switch back and forth between schemes, just to use an application. It’s the first lesson of programming — assume your user will give bad input.

Exiled no more

Proto-TVWhore.org

Looks like Chris Noth and Vincent D’Onofrio are splitting up the caseload on Law & Order: Criminal Intent next season. The featurette on the season two DVDs of the original series all talk around how difficult Noth is to work with. I wonder how long he lasts before he leaves again.