Moving

I'm finally taking the plunge and switching to Movable Type. I'm not going to bother importing this weblog, at least not initially. Too much work for too little benefit. My archives can stay here indefinitely.

My new home page and weblog. Feeds are available in RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0, and RSS 2.0 flavors. I'm not going to set up RSS redirects. I don't like Userland's solution because any aggregator that doesn't understand the format will barf on it. HTTP 301 redirects are better supported, but I don't feel like reconfiguring Apache to allow .htaccess files.

For the couple of people that subscribe to my category feeds, I'll get around to re-creating those eventually. Stay subscribed to the current feeds and wait for an update.

4:15:07 PM | Comments: | Topics: movable_type radio 

Run D.M.C.

Anil Dash:

You can't miss the music. Check out the current Top 5 on the Billboard charts, you'll find Missy Elliot's "Work It". The last minute of the song is a straight lift from Run-DMC's "Peter Piper". The incredible breakdown to Bob James' Mardi Gras, which Jay cut up for the song, is still so purely grooving and ass-moving that it can top the charts a decade and a half later. Chuck D said it best years ago in one of his rhymes, "Run-DMC first said a DJ could be a band." The "band" behind Run-DMC is still echoing out of people's rides in Queens today. There's no better legacy.

I came across a Run D.M.C. timeline. In spite of being the first rap artists to go gold, platinum, and multi-platinum, they have no Grammy awards. Eminem has five.

11:20:22 AM | Comments:

Jam Master Jay, RIP

I'm blacking out for the rest of the day in remembrance of Jason Mizell, aka Jam Master Jay.

Jam Master Jay, the D.J. who provided beats and scratches to the rap group Run-DMC's groundbreaking records, was shot and killed in a recording studio in Queens on Wednesday night. [...]

For most of its history, rap has been criticized for promoting violence, and several rappers who sang the praises of the gangster life, including Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., were murdered. But Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay, all middle-class natives of Hollis, Queens, a mile or so from where Mr. Mizell was shot, created rap with a social conscience, urging listeners (between boasts) to stay in school, fight prejudice and respect one another. [NYTimes via Adam Curry]

I saw Run D.M.C. in '93, part of the 19-Naughty-3 tour. One act cancelled at the last second and both of the headline acts stank, with Naughty by Nature practically boo'd off the stage. Run D.M.C. took up the slack, coming back for a second high-energy performance. They "rocked the house" for over two hours.

Run D.M.C. turned an otherwise miserable concert into one that I've always remembered fondly.

3:14:26 PM | Comments:

Airport security leads to topless checkpoint

A French tourist got so fed up with having her chest wanded by airport security in the USA that she took off her shirt and bra to demonstrate her bomb-and-boxcutter-free chestular region. The airport was closed for 10 minutes. Under the USAPATRIOT Act, she faces up to three years in jail. Link (German-English translation here: Link) [via Boing Boing Blog]

This would be funny if it weren't so friggin' sad. America has become such a fearful place that even a half-naked woman threatens us.

When I lived in Europe, I made a concious effort not to blend in. I was a proud American and rarely wanted to conceal that fact.

These days I dream of blending in somewhere and never looking back.

2:36:05 PM | Comments:

Goodies

The replacement motherboard for my 1.1GHz Gateway and my new 1.3GHz Celeron arrived today. Neither system has any love for the 1.3GHz chip

Scrounging on eBay for a deal on a motherboard that will work with the chip. I'd wanted to avoid that because I really hate mucking around with PC innards, especially motherboards... but I've spent so much time in there lately that it no longer matters.

7:44:09 PM | Comments:

Gotta go do the follow-up on last week's interview, wish me luck.

11:42:07 AM | Comments: | Topics: job_hunting 

Defending the Boom

NYTimes: In Defense of the Boom [via Interesting People]

The next time some editor, or regulator, or politician seeking re-election, begins to shriek about the iniquities of the boom, someone needs to turn to him and ask: where were you when it was happening? And if the answer happens to be, ''Making the boom work for me,'' the best thing you can do is forgive him for it. Really, it wasn't such a bad way to spend your time.

9:50:05 AM | Comments:

Some notes on my lastest job interview, PC components, etc

I made my worst first impression ever for a job interview, arriving about 45 minutes late because I grossly under-estimated the level of traffic congestion around Miami at 3:30pm. I called them when I realized I was going to be late; they called me back when I was just a few blocks away, wanting to re-schedule because the most of the staff was getting ready to leave. I convinced them to let me finish getting there, figured we could follow-up next week if need be.

It seemed to go well once I was there, and I'll be going back on Monday. I'm optimistic... I've got expert knowledge and experience in most of the areas they're looking for, and believe that I can quickly learn the stuff that I don't know, mostly load-balancing hardware. They're looking to fill an extremely odd schedule, which means there shouldn't be much competition.

I don't care about working hours, so long as I get paid well for them.

Got the replacement motherboard that my dead Gateway system needs for $25.50 on eBay. BTW, that system was 6 weeks outside of the 1-year warranty when it died. Gateway claimed to no longer have replacement parts, which I'm inclined to believe because nearly every one of the boards I found on eBay had defects (mostly dead USB ports).

As much as I love Gateway's bovine themes, I have never much cared for their products and this re-enforces my low opinion.

PriceWatch shows 512MB PC133 for as little as $27. I had been holding off on buying more memory for the past year because all of my DIMM sockets were full and I was expecting to have bought a new DDR system by now. Since it now looks like I'll get another 12-18 months out of my old box, upgrading to 1.5GB for peanuts is very attractive. The replaced sticks of PC133 can trickle-down to the Gateway and my kid brother's HP.

Speaking of my brother... he turned 18 last month, gotta stop calling him kid. He started his first regular job this week, working at a mall pizzeria. I dropped by after my interview and offered his co-workers something to tease him about, which they immediately did. Our age difference meant that I could never take much physical revenge against him while we were growing up... Now that we're older and (somewhat) more mature, I enjoy every little bit of mental anguish that I can cause ;-)

Sibling rivalry never dies, nor should it!

2:40:42 AM | Comments: | Topics: job_hunting