T Bryce Yehl: Bryce's Personal Weblog

Moving

Mon, 04 Nov 2002 20:15:07 GMT

I'm finally taking the plunge and switching to "MT". 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.

Run D.M.C.

Fri, 01 Nov 2002 15:20:22 GMT

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.

Jam Master Jay, RIP

Thu, 31 Oct 2002 19:14:26 GMT

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.

Airport security leads to topless checkpoint

Thu, 31 Oct 2002 18:36:05 GMT

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.

Goodies

Mon, 28 Oct 2002 23:44:09 GMT

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.

Mon, 28 Oct 2002 15:42:07 GMT

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

Defending the Boom

Mon, 28 Oct 2002 13:50:05 GMT

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.

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

Sat, 26 Oct 2002 06:40:42 GMT

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!

Fri, 25 Oct 2002 15:05:55 GMT

Slashdot post of the day:

When a friend of mine quit his last job, the reason he gave in his notice was "because Dilbert isn't funny anymore."

What ethics?

Thu, 17 Oct 2002 21:57:42 GMT

Blogroots has picked up on the weblog ethics debate.

My take is that weblogs are rarely journalistic outlets. Having journalistic ambitions and a weblog does not make you a journalist. Being a journalist with a weblog does not imply anything. The intersection of journalism and weblogs is a minute aspect of the community of 500,000 weblogs.

Real journalism involves editors.

Edible computer chips?

Wed, 09 Oct 2002 18:10:42 GMT

Over on the Interesting People mailing list, James H. Morris has suggested some solutions to the chip glut:

Edible chips? The silicon chip needs to adopt the economic model of its lowly cousin the potato chip. Supermarket aisles could be filled with nourishing smart chips. They could even serve useful medical purposes after being ingested, monitoring intestinal conditions or blocking fat digestion.

Tarnished eBay

Tue, 08 Oct 2002 17:32:58 GMT

From an SJ Merc editorial on the latest Wall Street controversy, access to IPOs:

The notion that New Economy companies were more egalitarian or ethical than those of an earlier era has been shattered.

I briefly worked for company that "Rode the Netscape IPO wave" -- the COO's words, not mine. He was proud that the company had gone public at a vastly inflated valuation, and it wasn't particularly bothersome that 75% of that value had been erased less than a year later.

The "New Economy" was littered with similar companies. Those that didn't suffer from declining stock prices used their stock as currency, buying other companies at similarly inflated prices to get some revenue on the books and bump up their stock price some more.

I don't think there was anything ethical about that. I swore never again to work for a company without a history of revenue growth, actual profits, and low debt. You know, the types of companies that a rational person might want to invest in. Naturally, the company I landed at got snatched up by another over-valued, debt-ladden public company with ridiculously low revenue and no hope of ever turning a profit...

Some lessons:

As a bubble grows, the value of ethical behavior steadily declines.
When the bubble bursts, ethics will suddenly become very important.
It is always bad to be the one left standing when the music stops.

Isn't it interesting that, just a few years ago, nobody really cared about executives walking away with millions while their companies suffered or collapsed?

Calling all digital video filmmakers

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 17:46:35 GMT

Jason Zada is trying to stir up some digital video creativity with WeeklyDV.com:

"So, if you own a DV camera and a computer, have a few hours and want to participate then here is your [first] assignment. It's a color. It's an agent. It's a fruit. You decide what you will make your short about. Orange is the theme."

You've got four hours to shoot and edit. Deadline is Oct 9th @ noon PST. Sounds like fun...if only I have a DV camera and some free time. [via kottke.org]

Sounds like fun. I was ready to dust off my DV camcorder, but the rules require QuickTime. I refuse to create content that requires Apple's proprietary player, with it's annoying nag screen for QT Pro.

For Sale: Rio Car MP3 Player

Sat, 28 Sep 2002 19:09:26 GMT

I'm looking to get rid of some excess gadgets, figure that I'll give my weblog readers first shot at them.

Rio Car: 30GB, MkIIa, SN 040104084
Rio Car Tuner Module: AM/FM Radio Tuner w/ RDS, SN 2811700004909

What the heck is a Rio Car? It's an in-dash MP3 head unit. It runs Linux, making it the ultimate automotive accessory for Geeks. It is extremely user-friendly and has fewer buttons than most stock head units, non-Geeks will not have any trouble using it.

The Rio Car was discontinued by SonicBlue in December, and they've pulled all of the product information pages. RioCar.org maintains an extensive FAQ containing everything you might possibly want to know.

Both of these items are "spares", opened but never used. All original packaging and materials are included. $1000 or best offer.

30GB Rio Car

Rio Car Tuner Module

My Dad thought I was silly for wanting an Enron shredder...

Fri, 27 Sep 2002 21:58:40 GMT

But it would seem that I wasn't the only one:

Leslie Tesch stood nine-months pregnant in a line so long it stretched out into the burning Texas sun, in the hope of buying a piece of Enron's history. A paper shredder, to be precise. "What a great way to get something functional that's a historical conversation piece," Ms Tesch said. "If you can't get one from Andersen, Enron is the next best place. At least you know it worked at one point." [Financial Times]

The "Crooked E" went for a whopping $44,000.

Blogwalking with the Zaurus

Wed, 25 Sep 2002 23:50:51 GMT

I'm still thinking about the "Blogwalking" on a Zaurus. My idea at this point is to stick with plain text files for weblog entries, ala "Blosxom", but to roll my own system. I don't have any present need to post entries from the road, so I'm thinking that a desktop app that detects when a docked Zaurus, retrieves the entries, and posts them using the "Blogger API" will do the trick nicely. Most of the code that I need can be re-used from "Pocket Blog"...

As far as the Zaurus keyboard goes, last night I used it to type an 812 word entry for my personal journal. It wasn't any worse on my hands than a typical hand-written entry of 300-ish words and the finished entry had just one typo. I'm happy enough with that.

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 19:15:57 GMT

Boing Boing Blog informs that Enron's assests are up for auction tomorrow. Shredders are on page 9.

SpamNet suddenly works?

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 18:14:56 GMT

Out of the blue this week, SpamNet has gone from capturing about 5% of my spam to 60%. Better but not great.

Inevitable Disclosure

Wed, 18 Sep 2002 15:07:55 GMT

Slashdot: CA Court Favors Employees in Trade Secret Decision

If a covenant not to compete (which would include, for example, a nonsolicitation clause), is part of the employment agreement, the inevitable disclosure doctrine cannot be invoked to supplement the covenant, alter its meaning, or make an otherwise unenforceable covenant enforceable.

Personalities

Tue, 17 Sep 2002 17:46:59 GMT

Once upon a time, I worked for a start-up that was really big on "Team Building Exercises." I hated every minute that I worked at that place. It's one thing to help jell a team by coordinating group social activities, quite another to force a team to socialize by trapping them all in a conference room and making them answer stupid questions taken from a lame book written by a "Team Building Consultant."

At least they got us good lunches...

Anyhow. During one such session I was asked what my most valuable trait was, followed up by my biggest flaw. My answer to both was that I take things personally. It drives me to do my best, but sometimes it puts a strain on relationships.

I'm reminded of all this as Dave Winer adds Monsters to the RSS 2.0 Philosophy. It's couter-productive, the flawed way of taking things personally. Take a deep breath and let it go.

Fri, 13 Sep 2002 18:03:47 GMT

Disenfranchised

I'm sure that by now everyone has heard that Florida still can't count votes. The Miami Herald's local section is the place to read up on the SNAFU. "Leahy blames unskilled workers" offers a glimpse into how our fancy new electronic voting machines are supposed to work, and the safeguards they provide to prevent a loss of votes. Unfortunately it seems that operator error is prevalent, and the automated vote tabulation process doesn't validate the data received. Garbage in, garbage out.

Wed, 11 Sep 2002 18:51:42 GMT

Jeremy Lott: Why forgetting September 11 is good for America

If recent media coverage is any indication we are still very much stuck in the moments of that sad, sad day.

I hate that terrorism still dominates the news. I want to move on, but our President and media refuse to let me. I've become very selective in my television viewing, I don't surf to general news web sites, I try to avoid reading the items that make it to my aggregator... Yet I still feel inundated.

Fri, 06 Sep 2002 20:31:01 GMT

30-Second Movie Review: XXX

Haven't done one of these in a while. Jason Kottke's review just came through my aggregator, he wrote:

XXX, taking it's cue from Charlie's Angels, is pure stylized action and explosions with limited interruptions for things like the plot. The gadgets, love story, and dialogue are cheesy as hell and deliberately so because Diesel and company recognize that there's no need for it, other than to poke fun at other action movies (the tricked-out GTO at the end of the movie takes the piss out of Bond's increasingly ridiculous gadget cars). And I loved every minute of it.

My first thought after seeing this flick was that James Bond ain't got nothing on Xander Cage. Cage is everything that Bond isn't: crude, crass, direct, and eager to blow stuff up. This is Vin Diesel's breakout role, forget about The Fast and the Furious.

Most of the action takes place in Prague, which brought extra enjoyment for me. Praha is my favorite city in the world, and seeing XXX brought back many great memories.

Mon, 26 Aug 2002 03:51:07 GMT

Diego Doval: Blogging, Writing, and it's Consequenses

Once more, I've been thinking about what it means to blog, to write, and why it is so hard in our oh-so-advanced western society to simply tell the truth and deal with it. Political correctness, they call it. I call it hypocrisy.

Emphasis added. Some eastern societies have similar aversions to unpopular thoughts and truths, often in the name of Honor or Saving Face as opposed to Political Correctness. The problem with American society is that employees have few rights, and the right to keep their job is not generally one of them. And our society as a whole is extremely prude-ish.

If I had stayed in Germany, I probably wouldn't worry so much.

Wed, 21 Aug 2002 23:59:50 GMT

NewsFactor: Technology Incubators Struggle for Survival in Tough Market.

In recent months, Cenetec, like so many other private incubators, has quietly laid off employees -- its last seven employees, down from a high of about 40 -- closed the doors at its rambling office in the T-Rex technology park in Boca Raton, and ceased operations in its Gainesville spinoff.

"We changed our focus," Adams said. "We are not investing in any new companies, and will just manage our portfolio companies of the last two and a half years. But we are working harder than ever with those companies that we think will make it."

Scott Adams is one of the finest people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. My impression of Cenetec had always been that it was his attempt to help others achieve success as he had. Scott has also been active in promoting South Florida as an ideal location for technology businesses.

Breaking my "personal firewall" tonight...