iPhone blogging
So now I can post from my iphone. Nice … Except typing is slow and cumbersome.
Let’s Internet
Don’t just dream … Do!
Netflix streaming to Xbox 360 problems
I was thrilled to hear that Netflix is now streaming HD movies to Xbox 360 devices. So I upgraded our Netflix account and went through the process of connecting the two. That was super easy.
The first couple of days it worked great. But then we started to have connection problems.
When you first start a program it will test your connection speed. There’s a little bar diagram … you know, just like on your cell phone … and you get one to four bars. At the beginning we would get four bars and the program would start immediately.
Lately, no matter what time of day we try we might get one bar or we get no bars and a message saying “you’re internet connection is too slow”.
However, we have a Time Warner cable modem and doing a speedtest.net test shows our download time is about 6000 kbps and upload time is 900 kbps. Definitely fast enough for streaming video.
So after troubleshooting … rebooting everything, etc … and googling like crazy I called Netflix. It took about 7 minutes to get through to tier one support, then another ten minutes to get to tier two support. But they were extremely helpful and understanding about the problem.
Essentially, they said that they’re aware of the problem. And while the new service had driven an up-surge in traffic their servers were not yet even operating at 50%. So the congestion problem is happening somewhere between users and the servers. They said it doesn’t seem to be focused on any particular ISP. So in the meantime we just need to hang time and give them time to work it out.
I can’t wait. I love my HD tv. And I loved my Voom service (remember them?). But cable and satellite HD service just sucks ass. I’m hoping Netflix can fill our HD void.
St. Gallen Stiftsbibliothek goes online
The stacks in the Stiftsbibliothek
One of the most memorable experiences I had in Switzerland was a visit to the Stiftsbibliothek in St. Gallen. Stiftsbibliothek (the abbey library) is a library of ancient texts in a Swiss monastery.
Entering the library at Stiftsbibliothek.
Each semester my high school would arrange cultural trips for us to go on. This particular trip was actually a tour of several different monasteries in eastern Switzerland. I chose this trip over others for less than historical or cultural reasons. No, I won’t tell you her name 
.
However, I never regretted it. Many of the texts there were published before 1000 AD however the ones that really impressed me the most was getting to look through a first edition of Description de l’Égypte.
Sure the ancient hand-illuminated books were interesting if inscrutable. But Description de l’Égypte was extremely large and detailed and the guide allowed me to turn the pages by hand. I took some pictures of the pages but they turned out blurry; to my dismay.
Now, the NY Times is running a story that the collection is being digitized in part as a reaction to the recent flooding of Dresden. It’s not the same as being there in person and getting to walk around the stacks, but it’s the next best thing. And it’s one of the best uses of the internet that I can think of.
Visit it at www.cesg.unifr.ch/en/index.htm
The cross on the grassy knoll
Isn’t religion one big old conspiracy theory?
My dad was in town for a couple of days and one night he told us about something he’d heard on late night AM radio. It was about an archeologist who “re-discovered” some ancient stones from Mesopotamia sitting in a British museum. The stones were covered in script that no one could read. So he started working on translating them.
After years of hard work he finally had a breakthrough and began to understand what he was reading. And it wasn’t about kings and warriors and conquests. It was about aliens and dying planets and genetically engineered workers mining precious minerals from the soil. And how the two ruling aliens were brothers and they worked different parts of the earth until they had a falling out. One of them engineered his workers to procreate so that he wouldn’t have to replace them all the time.
WTF!? At one point G interrupted him and asked if he has started smoking pot. lol.
No, he isn’t. But he tells this story with the same vigor and certainty as a stoner relating how he was chased down a hallway by an elephant-sized pumpkin muffin. “It happened man. I was there.”
Of course he couldn’t remember any names, but I thought that it all sounded very “scientological”. Turns out it’s not. It’s just yet another guy who has come up with an “aliens created humans” story. Only this one has been debunked by all the other smart people who’ve come along and translated the Sumerian language.
This all led us into a discussion on what difference it really makes if it’s true or not. So what possible difference would it make in your daily lives if your race was actually a creation of aliens? If the aliens are still among us and we can’t see or experience them then it doesn’t matter. Life as we know it goes on.
“But we don’t know” he says.
“So what.”
“Wouldn’t you like to know? Don’t you deserve to know?”
Hrm. Let me see if I’ve got this right. The aliens, if they exist, have no direct impact on the course of my life. Indirectly they have an impact in the way that I modify my life in the way that I perceive them … or don’t.
Um … just like god. God has no direct impact on my life. Though there can be indirect influence based on how I perceive god and how I choose to reflect that perception in my life. Which really isn’t influence at all but rather my own free will choosing god as my excuse to do what I want to do. Right? Maybe.
So, if this aliens-genetically-engineered-humans-to-mine-gold-for-their-dying-planet is just a galactic conspiracy theory isn’t god also?
Hrm. This could explain why I have such a viscerally negative reaction to conspiracy theories (and to the idea of god).
Why do people vote Republican?
Perhaps this will explain … http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
I still don’t know what to think about this. I’ll have to digest it more before I write up my thoughts. Stay tuned.
Edit: Here’s another piece of the puzzle; an opinion piece in the NY Times by David Brooks titled “The Class War Before Palin”.
This country must naturally be made up of very different people; educated, uneducated, poor, rich, etc. But when we two political parties have a lock on the system so that they are the only two parties it is a travesty for them to become the party of the educated vs the party of the uneducated.
Don’t we deserve better than that? Just take a look at the other times in history when the uneducated have overwhelmed the educated in social and political realms: the 1960’s Chinese Cultural Revolution
and the 1970’s Iranian Revolution.
Both events began with a political/social figure grasping for power by utilizing the easily inflamed prejudices and intolerances of the uneducated masses. But what was once a “base” soon just became an angry mob and the results were great cultures brought low. Only now, 30 to 40 years later are bot cultures starting to recover.
Umbrella?
My favorite new weather site … http://umbrellatoday.com/
Sometimes (most times?) the best idea is the simplest idea.
I’m a fan of Larripin Labs
I like cross-stitch and I like physicists so why wouldn’t I like cross-stitches of physicists!? Larripin Labs has patterns for sale. The first up is Feynman. But I hear that others are coming soon; like Michio Kaku. How do I know this? Let’s say I have “insider” knowledge.
Be sure and check it out.
Dexter
We finished watching the second season of Dexter (thank you Netflix) and I have to say I enjoyed it much more than the first season. Naturally, the first season had to set up the Dexter universe, however I think that the stories were a little too neat and tidy (like the Ice Truck Killer’s victims). It just seemed like Dexter was a little too unreal and all his problems were solved too easily.
In season two Dexter himself became way more real. It was actually exciting to see him come a little unhinged and unpredictable. The Lila character was a great addition and she really had a great effect on Dexter.
All that said … the ending was really disappointing. Of course we hope Dexter won’t get caught. But there’s nothing wrong with unfinished story lines. There’s nothing wrong with unanswered questions. However everything got wrapped up neat and tidy. A little too neatly and easily.
Why I love the internet
At work there is a Friday morning breakfast mafia of about 30 people. On a rotating schedule two to three people bring breakfast for the entire group on Friday. A couple of days ago I got an email from a member of the mafia asking if I’d like to join. “Sure,” I said.
Well, then on Thursday I got another email welcoming me to the group and showing the new schedule. Guess which Friday was mine? Yep, the very next Friday. Urp!
I decided that what I’d like for breakfast is good breakfast tacos or burritos so that’s what I volunteered to bring. Hrm this would have been easier in Austin; just go to Tamale House. I have no idea where to get good breakfast tacos in Dallas. I don’t want to get fast food crap from Whataburger or Taco Cabana. So I turned to Google.
A search for “richardson tx breakfast tacos” turned up several hits. Close to the top was a blog reviewing a restaurant named Taqueria El Fuego.
Turns out this place is very very close to my house. Perfect! There was a picture of the exterior of the restaurant (hosted on flickr) and on the sign is their phone number. So I called them up.
“Sure we can make you breakfast tacos. We open at 6 a.m.,” I was told.
The next morning I got up extra early. Drove over and picked up the tacos (with a side of chorizo … Mmmmmmmmm). Drove back home to put the garbage out (almost forgot again!). Then drove to work.
I didn’t actually see many people around. But checking on the breakfast table 15 minutes after leaving the tacos there one bag was empty and the other half empty. So I think they were a hit.
Turns out I should have known about this place. G’s friend M told us about it. El Fuego serves authentic Mexican food not Tex-Mex. And she told us we should go for dinner. Well now we are because the tacos were excellent. And it’s just around the corner. Can’t beat that.
Lead by example
Tonight Bill Clinton said, “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”
This really speaks to me as it is one of my own personal philosophies. It guides how I behave and what I share about my feelings around topics like politics and religion. When I was a child my parents tried to raise me as a Baptist. I went to Sunday school while they went to “big people” church. Eventually, I convinced them to take me out of Sunday school and let me accompany them to “big people” church. The reason is because I thought the Sunday school people were crazy. They kept talking about things I should feel but I never did.
For better or for worse that experience has framed my relationship with the church and with people of the church. Hypocrisy was more the rule than the exception. I would hear a lot on Sunday about how people were suppose to behave and believe. But then during the rest of the week I’d see how they really acted and really believed.
Eventually I had no choice but to turn my back on the church. I can’t pretend to believe in something that isn’t real. Something that pretends to be what it isn’t. That’s not authority to me. That’s not leadership to me.
It took a long time but eventually I found the leadership, the guidance I was seeking. And now it guides my life in perfect harmony with the idea that example is stronger than words. And it has nothing to do with the christian church.
To those folks out there that like to talk about how great their religion is I say, “really!? show me!” Don’t talk about it. Do it. Live it. Your example will shine brighter than your words.
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