Done yesterday (20111223 Fr)

[mdlbear]

Odd day. I had an extremely satisfying morning at work, building the pjsua command line SIP user agent/softphone and verifying that it actually works with the hardware we're planning to use for our demo in late January. $BOSS was my assistant; he's thrilled. I'm relieved -- this close to retirement age I kinda have to keep pulling miracles out of my hat to stay employed.

I also noticed a newish (mid-2010, as it turned out) MacBook on $BOSS's desk; it had been intended for the new hire who turned us down and went to Microsoft a few weeks ago. Since my old one is ancient and obsolete, this was a major win for me. I spent the afternoon configuring it. Which was tedious in the extreme -- see the notes for details.

Macs still feel somewhat toy-like to me. Apple's keyboards have always been pretty horrid compared to IBM's, and the one-button UI gives the impression of having been dumbed-down for newbies. I mean, it's great marketing, but if you've been using computers professionally for the last half-century, ...

I spent most of the evening splitting up Tempered Glass's next-to-last practice session, so we'd have something to remember it by. I still need to do the last session, and I think there may be some concerts back there that need work. Note that the practice sessions will not be going up on the web -- at least, not yet, and maybe not ever. Nostalgic bear.

After that, I let the kids introduce me to Munchkin Cthulhu. Fun! I can see how that can be an addictive game.

When it finally wound down around 1am I did a little more Perl hacking to fix problems in the concert rendering, and remembered somewhat belatedly that pseudoephedrine is a stimulant. Well, it's better than not breathing.

1223 Fr
  * up 7:50; W=195.4; drugs, nose, teeth, laundry, dishes, exercise, hair, light
  * music:  2 songs before opening the browser.  go me.
    another more mixed in with breakfast and chores.  About 3/4 of the set.
  @ Over 40 Internet Companies Come Out Publicly Against SOPA (Including Us)
    | TechCrunch We'll see if it does any good.
  & I have a new(er) 15" MacBook Pro at work (from mid-2010; it's a
    hand-me-down).  For some reason it still feels somewhat toy-like.
  : installing Apple's development environment is tedious, and takes well over
    an hour.  First you have to get an "Apple ID" so you can download the
    *free* app from their store, then download 1.5GB, then *run* the
    installer.  For something that ought to be on the machine when you take it
    out of the box.  Not to mention the hassle of snagging the link out of
    their confirmation email (sent to my home system, of course, since your ID
    is an email address) in a form that can be pasted into a browser.  IDIOTS!
  & spent most of the afternoon configuring Silvermine (the new MacBook),
    after spending the morning on a successful installation and test of
    the pjsua command-line SIP client.
  @ Church of Reality - Newton's Birthday - Crispness (from a coworker)
  @ Go Daddy Publicly Reverses on SOPA: But They're Still Slime +Alan Ralph
    Lauren Weinstein's Blog: A Guide to Slamming SOPA Supporters -
    Starting With "Go Daddy" Slime 
  @ New Agreement Between the United States and Europe Will Compromise the
    Privacy Rights of International Travelers | EFF 
  * split up TGl's next-to-last session.  Could stand some editing (to merge
    an improved last verse/chorus) but otherwise ready for a .song file.
  * Munchkin Cthulhu with the kids.  Fun.  Wouldn't want to do it too
    often, but definitely fun.  Chaos won, which seems appropriate.
  * some hacking in record.make
  | 1:30am hum... right.  sudafed is a stimulant

Comments

[kyrielle]

Does Sudafed PE work for you? That's phenylephrine and I've found it less of an issue than pseudoephedrine for me. Some people find it less effective as a decongestant, though.

(I switched to it when it started being necessary to go to the pharmacy counter and show ID to get Sudafed itself in Oregon. One fine day I got there after the pharmacy closed, and after muttering tried the PE and it was fine for me. Handy, as it's the better choice - neither is good - for nursing moms. Impact to milk supply, not transfer to the baby, so...I don't worry too much. Heh.)

[mdlbear]

It doesn't seem to work as well, though I should probably give it another try.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to enjoy the rehearsal recordings; I don't want to go near them. Not because of the emotional impact; because I hate the way my voice sounds on recording. I don't even listen to the concert CD you made of us, because I don't like the way I sound on it. I take other people's word for it that I sound good in performance, but I don't sound the way I like to sound, so I won't listen to myself.

Apple products

[donsimpson.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I want something I can hack, and sometimes I just want an appliance. Which is why I have an Arduino (not very advanced, but I haven't seriously fiddled with hardware since around the 1980s, and anything I don't do regularly fades out of my head) and an iMac (one of the old "luxo lamp" models). Steve Jobs was always pushing toward the appliance idea. Occasionally it does seem a bit toyish, so I have a full keyboard, a jog/shuttle unit, and a five-button scroll-wheel mouse on my iMac. But it's what I want, most of the time.

[mdlbear]

*nods* It never sounds the same as it does inside your head. It took me a couple of months working on CC&S before I could stand to listen to myself. And some of the earlier concert recordings still sound awful, though that's more because of the obvious mistakes than my voice.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

Hey Steve - was going to make MP3s available of very early (voice/guitar) recordings from Kathy's Plus Ca Change... tapes for free digital download -- would you have any objection to World inside the Crystal being included?

They won't be individual MP3s - don't have time to chop them up - just one MP3 per side of the tape.

Thx!

Eli

[mdlbear]

Thanks! Permission granted -- it'll be nice to have that version back in circulation.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

Just FYI, you probably know the Kathy Mar/THOR CD set itself is still in print -- they just never put it on digital distribution so it probably seems out of print in the 21st century. ;-)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Phenylephrine is nearly useless as a decongestant, and it raises blood pressure and/or heart rate more than pseudoephedrine does. The only reason it's become so difficult to buy pseudoephedrine is because it's easy to use it as a precursor to methamphetamine, and, as we all know, the government has to make sure nobody uses any recreational drugs ever (except for alcohol and tobacco, because they're sources of tax revenue).