Travels with Ruby: Thursday before Loscon

[mdlbear]

So here we are at the LAX Marriott. I couldn't get the wired internet connection in the room to work; the wireless sucks rocks but it's better than nothing. I'll bug the hotel in the morning.

I've already bugged the hotel about the lack of an outlet near the bed for the facehugger: they sent up a bloke with a power strip, extension cord, and what sounded like an Aussie accent. I can haz facehuggr now. The Wofling has just put herself to bed. She very sensibly brought an air mattress this time (sharing a bed with her little sister is Right Out).

The trip, down US 101, was uneventful. It's much prettier than I5 and the traffic is consistently less (though it was heavier this year than I've seen it in the last decade of Loscons). About 7:30 including the break for lunch at Pea Soup Anderson's.

Annoyingly, I snapped off a fingernail unloading the car. Even more annoyingly, it was the right forefinger, which is what I use most for fingerpicking. And of course there's no superglue -- I forgot to pack it. Could have used it to extend the stub a fraction. I can get by, though. Won't sound quite as clear, but the difference is surprisingly slight.

The flower_cat, chaoswolf, and I had dinner with AJA and Kore; I hadn't really had much of a conversation with K before, so that was good. There was enough discussion of CD production and related matters that I figured I could treat it as a business expense. The Y.D. joined us briefly for desert; she'd already had dinner up in the Con Suite.

I should probably go to bed soon.

Comments

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

These days I always pack a Power Squid--amazing how useful that is.

[mdlbear]

I actually have both a squid and a little 3-socket power strip along; I'm using the latter on the desk. But I figured that if enough people ask for it, the hotel may eventually get around to putting in extra outlets near the beds, and that would be good. Besides, this way I don't have to worry about forgetting it when we check out.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Not familiar with 101 south of St. Luis Obpispo, but it definitely is pretty north of that.... So's old 99, but that way is curvy and slow, where 101 is wide and flat and four-lane or better the whole way.

How's the air quality in the basin these days? I remember it being pretty putrid last I was there in 1992/3.....

You evangelizing Audacity and your makefiles? Good. We need more people that know how to use Free Software to make music and art.

[mdlbear]

Air quality is actually pretty good at the moment. Of course, it's a con, so I don't get out much.

There are a couple of stretches where 101 goes right along the coast, mostly around Santa Barbara; more like CA Route 1. Very pretty. Also a couple of nice stretches where you're surrounded by hills and huge boulders.

Now that Ubuntu is shipping Audacity 1.3.3 I'll have to give UbuntuStudio a shot. Might be worthwhile making some disks to give away.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

UbuntuStudio

Oooers. 'course, I'd need a bigger box for that. Preferably a hotrod laptop. But, yeah. It's neat to see packages like MythTV and Audacity come out with dedicated Ubuntu distros... the dev community is catching on that this is what's needed to finally Take Over The World, and I think the enthusiast community is gonna be right behind'em when they figure out, hey, I don't need several thousand bucks worth of software to Do My Thing. Artists are all about the cheap.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... I know an artist I really need to talk to. (She's not a filker, if you're wondering.)

Thanks for the pointer there.

(And I love the way Ubuntites keep coming up with logos that fit that circle-triangle form factor and manage to reflect what it is they're doing :)

[mdlbear]

These days even the low-end (sub-$750) laptops have 64-bit dual-core CPUs and 80GB of disk. Add more RAM and you're good to go.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*nods* While I was writing that I spec'ed a Dell 520n with 1GB RAM and the faster hard drive for something around $830. And that was with the hi-res screen, too.

Or better, a Dell 1501 with a dual-core Athlon for $711... only problem I have with that is it doesn't come in an "n" model. Or with the 7200rpm HDD.

[mdlbear]

The N models tend to be the older ones (i.e. that won't run Vista). Grump. Ran into that problem when I went to get the Y.D. and XP machine.

[netolu.livejournal.com]

I try and avoid taking I5 wherever possible. Sure it'll often get you there faster, but unless I'm in a genuine hurry then it's no advantage to take. With the exception of the Prunedale pass being a routine nightmare I greatly enjoy the drive along 101. If I really have time to kill, then I'll take the coast road.

[mdlbear]

We did the coast road once -- maybe after both kids leave home and we're not pressed for time we can do it again. It really requires at least two days to do properly.

[danceswthcobras.livejournal.com]

If you get a chance to read this before the con is over, would you be kind enough to convey hearty congratulations from Tanith on his arrival from the Faerielands? I may yet make the same journey, and his courage is a fantastic inspiration. I knew Heather when I lived in California, but have not yet met Alec. Am very much looking forward to the opportunity if he makes it to a con in the Southeast!

[mdlbear]

I'll see what I can do!

[mdlbear]

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