Archive for August, 2005

2005.08.16

BlueJay Cafe

If you like the genre of cooking called “home” cooking (sometimes meaning you mom might have made it, and sometimes meaning southern style) you should definitely check out BlueJay Cafe at 919 Divisadero Street near McAllister Street. I had the pork chop and was really impressed with it; thick and juicy. No that wasn’t supposed to sound pervy, but the food really is amazing. Even the biscuit made a strong impression on my palette. They also have a great Bloody Mary if you like them (I do, though my experience is from sipping Ann’s).

I am hearing that they have a great brunch, too. Not as good as Dottie’s True Blue Cafe, but with much shorter lines. I hope to give it a try in the not so distant future.

2005.08.14

Haircuts Won’t Be The Same

It’s sad, but it’s true. I got one today and it’s nothing I would have preferred. I know this is cryptic aside from the fact that I got a trim. I’m going to bed.

2005.08.13

I Believe Congratulations Are In Order

So congrats to Bill and Amy on their engagement! I’m glad I never place that bet with NHK about who would ask whom…

2005.08.13

Online Broadcasting

A group called The Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) has taken the idea of podcasts which is a sort of digital radio that anyone can participate in and is applying it to video. They have created a program called DTV that lets you choose channels via RSS feeds, and then pick programs and download them in their app as enclosures. If you don’t get the jargon don’t worry; essentially fire up the application, look at the channels available, then choose shows you want to watch.

DTV can use direct download, which could get painful for watching a show since you may be competing for bandwidth on the show’s server. To work around this PCF has integrated a torrent-style system so that you can use legal P2P technology to faster acquire that desired show. On top of that it looks like they are also integrating the free and open source VLC video player so you can view the shows in DTV (kudos to my boss for pointing this out!). Sweet.

So here we have an application that, aside from download times, allows you to watch videos online for free. Of course just watching doesn’t include the “participatory” portion of their foundation’s name. For that they have built the Broadcast Machine, which allows you -yes, YOU!- to create channels and get your own videos online so that others can watch what you produce. This means that someone like The Movie Blog could get a channel created and do their own show. I know they’ve been doing Video Editions (video of them hacking on Hollywood and more); this would be an ideal way of distribution!

I’m kind of excited about all of this. The possibilities are extraordinary. I can see down the line where there might be too many channels like we have at my house with the full digital cable package, but if you hear about a channel that’s good from someone else then you have a chance to get it.

Anyone interested in starting a Geek Night channel with me?

2005.08.12

Simple Insurance

Here’s an idea I’m giving out to the world for free. Hopefully someone with money and business savvy can take it and run with it; I’ll be their first customer.

I want simple insurance. If you own a home you have to get homeowner’s insurance. If you own a home but have someone besides relatives staying with you then you have to get landlord’s insurance (and your renters probably need renter’s insurance!). If you live in a flood plain then you need to get flood insurance. Out here in California you almost have to get earthquake insurance. I’m sure there are even more varieties of insurance for the home that I’m not even aware of.

What the fuck is all of that! I own a home. Well, I don’t own a home now but hopefully someday, but let’s pretend I OWN A HOME. OK. I want insurance for the home. I don’t care about these varieties of insurance; I want my house safe and secure against disaster and I want some form of help for anyone in the house regardless of who they are.

In fact homeowner’s insurance probably started off this way until the greedy bastards figured out they could make more money by dividing it up into different packages.

So I want someone out there to come up with Simple Insurance, where you insure your house for X amount of money. Period. Your car for X amount. No more or less. Your valuables. Your dog. Your smile. Whatever. A range of benefits for one price. Simple Insurance. C’mon, someone do this; you’ll make a ton of money guaranteed!

2005.08.11

Aggregation Dreams

Yesterday I noted that KRON has put up a site called The Bay Area is Talking. One of the nice things about it is the aggregation of various blogs on the right side. I’ve been thinking of doing something like this with the front page of OOKEE.com to make is easier for people coming to the site to see what’s been updated recently on the many sites. The problem was that I didn’t know of any aggregation tools. But something popped out from the recesses of my brain and told me that Rael (creator of Blosxom, which runs most of the OOKEE.com sites) had already developed a tool for this.

Some quick searches on Google revealed what I was searching for: Blagg. I’ve installed it and am testing it; it works as advertised and I had aggregated my first batch in less than 15 minutes! The irritating thing I’m finding, though, is that it runs as a separate script. I have to either run the script to get it to work or I have to set up a cron job to run it for me every once in a while. Currently I have a cron tab running the script hourly. I figure that won’t be too hard a load on the server (which seems to be straining these days!).

So the next goal is to try and set up something like Stu MacKenzie’s sidewordz plugin and put the aggregation on the sidebar of OOKEE.com’s front page. The problem I’m seeing with this is figuring out how to make sure the link for the article in the sidebar goes to the correct website. Hmmm. I might have to hack up Blagg if I can’t get the variables correct. I wonder if Blagg is using a template of some sort…

To be continued.

2005.08.10

This is What Happened to KRON!

So I did write to Brian Shields and I got a response. Evidently they put together The Bay Area is Talking site! I’ll have to look into it some more. The site aggregates RSS feeds from Bay Area blogs (I’m on the second page!) and dumps (some of? all of?) it on the front page. Brian also has a running blog covering current news. Good stuff. I’m adding this to my daily visits!

2005.08.10

What Happened to KRON?

In June KRON invited a load of bloggers to their studios to “touch base“. They said they were working on a few ideas to help Bay Area bloggers, though they didn’t specify what those tools might be. Initially they said they hoped to have something to announce the week after the gathering. Then an announcement was made that they were working on “getting it right” before release.

I’m all for getting things right. Probably because so often I get it wrong. However it’s been quite a while and I’m wondering what the story is. I take the bus on my way to work and transfer every day at Geary and Van Ness. While I sit there drinking my coffee and waiting for the 47 I look at their building and wonder what’s going on. I’m not impatient; since I invested little of myself in the project aside from some enthusiasm I’m not upset about delays and the lack of announcements. I’m just wondering what their status is.

Maybe I’ll write Brian Shields and see what the story is…

2005.08.09

Dog Soldiers

Dog SoldiersI’d read online that Dog Soldiers was quite a good movie. Based on this and the fact that it would probably make great material for Geek Night I went to pick it up. The problem was it was not available as they were “re-releasing” it and in short order I forgot about it. A few weeks later I was at Amoeba Records and saw it there. Elation! I bought it and brought it home, happy that there would be some new material for Geek Night.

Unfortunately it sat on the table for months and months. I wasn’t stressed about it; sometimes the mood isn’t right for watching a British werewolf movie. Yesterday, though, we had a spontaneous movie night as Mookee and Dave were over, and Mookee proposed Dog Soldiers.

In essence a patrol of soldiers find themselves unexpectedly fighting a family of werewolves who seem to be all but unstoppable. Though there is nothing new added to the werewolf genre the story is fresh and clean (excepting the blood!) and very enjoyable. There are no CGI effects in this thing, which is awesome. All the werewolves are guys in costume with mechanical masks controlling the facial features. Slightly cheezy but I wasn’t distracted at all by this. In fact I thought the werewolf design was quite good.

If you like horror films or action films that aren’t intellectually stimulating but don’t assume you’re a stupid git, this is a good movie for you. I’m looking forward to seeing where Emma Cleasby, the only female character in the movie, goes with her career. I’m also looking forward to more of Neil Marshall’s future flicks. He’s got a good sensibility for story, visual and editing that should see him far!

2005.08.08

His Dark Materials, the Movie

I just recently finished Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. I got very excited when I read on Stephen Laniel’s Unspecified Bunker that the series had been optioned by New Line Cinema (disclosure: I used to work for Time Warner who owns the studio) and is being made into a film.

Apparently there was some concern about the studios ripping out some of the christian elements of the story for fear of religious wingnut protests. Philip Pullman wrote about this and seems assured that, despite being misquoted, the film will retain its integrity. He makes it clear that the story isn’t against religion but is against literal authoritarian interpretation of religion.

Mr. Pullman feels New Line will do a good job with his story. I hope they do! The movie is scheduled for 2007 (too far away in my opinion) and screenwriting credits are currently going to Tom Stoppard which bodes very well.