When to buy a Mac

Buying a new Mac is exciting. The experice is akin to falling in love. The touch of a new keyboard is seductive, bordering on indecent. And the satisfaction of having bought the best fills the soul with pride. Like many others, I'm always flirting with the decision to buy a new Mac. However, given that technology is always evolving, and new features are always emerging, when should you buy a Mac?

Some say hold out for the "next best thing" and others swear you just have to "jump in" regardless of what is coming.

A slew of hotly debated comments on lifehacker.com (Wait for Leopard Before Buying a Mac?) helps illuminate this further. In summary, the overall conclusion is: jump in but do your homework first. Paying attention to new OS/hardware/features releases will stave away real buyers remorse such as holding an outdated machine or spending additional money soon after your purchase.

As for the new Mac release of 10.5, Leopard, it sounds like it's worth the wait. As DLAB puts it: "I've been beta testing and documenting Leopard, and it is cooler than a polar bear's toenails. I have only found a single OpenGL-related bug, which has already been fixed in a later build of the beta."

Sounds good. I'm holding out.

Secret to Succes? (Passion or Self-Discipline)

This post ponders the requirements for success: Which is better: passion or self-discipline?" and argues in favor of self-discipline.

"Using passion as your only fuel will no more assure you of success than
being in love will ensure a successful long-term relationship... Self-discipline allows you take action and therefore get results no matter what your emotional state."

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/passion-vs-self-discipline/

SF Mayor: Court Jesterings

A pretty consice and informal rundown of all the candidates running for mayor in SF.
by H. Brown

Cake eaters revenge

image/jpeg
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Daryl Hannah is a Green Diva

Once when i was staying over at a friends house, I was watching the much the newly installed cable tv very late at night. That's when all the really good stuff came on. By stuff, I mean shows that parents would not necessarily approve of their 12 year old son watching). I happened upon a lush and exotic love story set in Greece called "Summer Lovers". That's when I fell in love. With Daryl Hannah anyway. She's so easy on the eyes, it's a no brainer really. Yet it was the mysterious quality about her. Something hidden and breathtakingly real. And since then, she has portrayed an android (ah, Pris), mermaid, cavegirl, ghost, giantess, mental patient, pole-dancing stripper... to name a few. But she is more than an actress.

She has always expressed interest in the environment, but unlike other Hollywood types, she walks the walk. I just read that she is living off the grid in a restored depot in the Rocky Mountains, promoting biodiesel, and using mossy field rocks for her sofa. Swoon.

Daryl is a Green Diva.
Here's the whole article in Off the Grid an interesting zine.

Look who's in Wired! (Paradise Lost, Found Again at Laughing Squid Benefit)

Yep. There I am in Wired.com. I've just been roped in as the "sound guy" for Paradise Lost, the Laughing Squid and Black Rock Arts Benefit event at the new and deliriously sublime Flora Grubb Gardens. This was for a gooofy nonsensical skit by Chicken John, Dr. Hal Robbins's, and a slew of others. I had never done sound for anything. Chicken's on the other hand has done this before. He knows that a monkey could do it.

"No prob" I thought. Only two buttons to worry about. His instrucitons were what you'd expect from any vetran showman about to go on stage. Hasty. Distracted. Stepping away one minute to reherse. Then back to see if I got it. So we go over it again to be sure. "slide these two down" indicating two sliders in a vast sea of sliders, buttons and knobs. "You slide them down, up, down, see? When we're talking, sound. When we're playing the ukulele, no sound." Check. "If I shout 'tape!' turn the tape button." He points. I nod. And "You MAY have to to hit this button. Or this button." Ponting down low where I couldn't even see buttons. That's when I started to get nervous. More buttons! But no prob. I pulled up a crate beside the stage and enjoyed the show. And luckily it was a no-brainer. Just good fun.

Btw, Chicken did this show while running for mayor. That's just the kind of guys he is.
Vote for Chicken

Btw x2, the word "ukulele" is Hawaiian, and means literally ‘jumping flea’.


Technorati Tags: laughing squid, BRAF, Flora Grubb, chicken john, dr. hal,

List 10 Things you will do before you die.

Defining your goals is an excellent activity. It helps you focus your
energy toward the things you hold dear. But these things wont just
happen, you'll need to pursue them actively.

At the end of each year you will cross off things, delete and revise
things. Each week you should strive for incremental movement toward
that goal. Each day you should be concious of a single step you will
take to reach a goal.

Best of luck. And have fun!

Declare your independence from junk mail

Direct mail contributes nearly 6 million tons of waste every year in
America (U.S. EPA). The amount of energy required to produce junk
mail is equivalent to 3 million cars (U.S. Department of Energy). And
generally, these marketing plans are aming to hit a mere 1% success
rate.

Here's information on how to remove yourself from junk mail,
telephone solicitations, junk e-mails, and credit card offers. The
opt-out information here works, I've been doing it for two years, but
I occasionally need remind them. By the way, this link will help you
remove you name and address from national mailings only. For local
mailings, just call the 1-800 number on the flyer, they invariably
have an opt-out option early in their automated response.

http://www.newdream.org/junkmail/optout.php

And for pete's sake, don't buy from direct mail!
(It only encourages them.)
Buy locally.

WikiMapia

WikiMapia combines Google Maps with a wiki system, which feels like a geographic Flickr. Launched on May 24, 2006 and is aims towards "describing the whole planet Earth". Just checking it out for a few minutes I learned about interested previously unknown features of my neighborhood.

Go describe your world.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Seriously hot bhangra

	We've been so busy lately that we haven't had any time for ourselves. This is Bhangra night at the Rickshaw Stop.

The New American Road Trip

The New American Road Trip
At some point after puberty and before mortgage payments, that summer ritual our parents used to make us do became something we couldn't do without. And the rules have changed. Cars are faster, highways are better, and there's cool stuff—really cool stuff that doesn't involve buffets or Dollywood—just about everywhere. Stop sitting on those vacation days and get out there. Our five two-week loops will get you rolling.

Gratitude and NYC's new loose glitter ordinance

I was searching through my emails and ran across something written by a good friend i met at burning man and has since moved to New York city. She's writting a letter to her friends back in california about her experience at burningman. Her thoughts capture the post-burn feeling so well, I wanted you to read this.

<pre>

Hello Lovelies...

So today, as I stood out on my third floor fire escape, aggressively shaking playa dust and glitter off of my lion costume, I had a number of interesting thoughts that I would like to share with you all.

As I watched thin clouds of dust and glitter float down to the lower rooftops, I could envision those tiny specks of glitter landing somewhere – anywhere for that matter. One might have landed on the heads of the couple on their porch below, sharing the afternoon sunshine. Other specks landed on the hot cement, and still others in the eaves of everything – waiting to be discovered and carried onto a new adventure.

Once again I have returned from the playa re-inspired by the magic of life, and filled to the brim with love and gratitude for the amazing people in my life. Each and every one of you reading this email is a vital part of me.

Yesterday I went for a long run along the Hudson River, and I was singing out loud to my music and smiling at all these beautiful strangers. I felt like I knew this great and powerful secret about HOW SIMPLE life is, and how simple it is to be happy – if we just choose that experience.

Thank you all for being a part of me discovering that I have the power to choose what I create in my life. You are my canvas, my paint, and my murky rinse water. We all create, co-create, and burn a lot of important shit together, and I feel so blessed to be part of your web.

As I was running I was thinking about gifting, and realized that the best give I have ever received is love, and that is something I will never lose and nobody can take away from me. Thank you all for being so generous with yourselves and your love.

You are each a speck of glitter, an inspiration, a trial, a celebration. Together we are a symphony of hope, imagination, power and love. Thank you for all the love, the thoughts, the support, the challenges, and most of all for the possibility you help create every moment by being yourself and the best self that you strive to be. Here's to the magic, the possibility, and letting our individual and collective lights shine and shine. With the kind of magic we create, anything is possible.

Here is the fortune I got at the Critical Tits party in my fortune cookie:

"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."

Hot Bikes

Rachel's bike was stolen last night from where it was locked on her
front steps. In SF, over 1000 bikes are reported each year; the
actual numbers are more likely around 2000-3000 because most people
don't file a report. " Bike theft is a virtual right of passage for
most cyclists in [SF]" and yet, their seems to be little or nothing
being done about this. Read the article from the Guardian on all the
details.

Chasing my stolen bicycle
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=2836

Another person has taken action by creating the useful site to help track
stolen bikes.

Stolen Bike Registery

http://www.stolenbicycleregistry.com/index.php

Then there is the National Bike Registry

http://www.nationalbikeregistry.com/

Mechanical machines replaced people called computers

This kind of thing boogles the brain: A Calculating Machine Using LEGO® Pieces

Before the day of computers and pocket calculators all mathematics was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and engineering purposes. The larger efforts involved rooms of semi skilled people, called 'computers', capable of doing reliable arithmetic who would be under the direction of a skilled mathematician.

In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were eventually built but, the most advanced and famous of these was not. The Babbage Difference Engine.


check it out

Tech News

Interesting articles from LiveScience.com


New Computer Hard Drives Better, Faster, Stronger
You don’t have to treat your laptop as if it contained raw eggs, thanks to solid-state drives.

New New Hard Drives Hold a Terabyte of Data
The trick was to teach each bit to stand up rather than lying down. Incidentally, for planning purposes, the next level is the petabyte (a quadrillion bytes); and then the exabyte (one quintillion bytes); and then the zettabyte (one sextillion bytes); and then the yottabyte (one septillion bytes.)

New Technique Stores Data in Bacteria
You think those USB flash memory "thumbdrives" are small, check this data storage out.

Bring Your Own Bigwheel Race 2007

In my biased, unoffical study, the entire country has a love/hate thing with Califoria. It could be because the state is hogging so much of the ocean front property, or that is it rich in natural resources. I dunno. But as a result, this great land is a draw for many many people seeking something special in life.

I've heard San Fancisco described in several ways, all impling it's still the wild west that it always was. And so it would stand that the people it draws are looking for some excitement. On occasion these Mavericks need to create their own thrill rides.

This weekend in San Francisco, that thrill ride came in the form of "bring your own Big Wheel" and one GIANT hill. But not just any hill, it was a race down Lombard street, the crookedest street in the world.

Take a look.

FullBooks.com - Thousands of Full-Text Free Books

Books online? With the unique tactile experience of traditional paper books, one might ask, why would anyone read books on a cold static screen? Even to the most hearty of the digirati set, reading a full length novel online doesn't hold much appeal. Regardless of the obvious barrier, finding a site that hosts thousands of full-text books, made me punchy with excitement.

I've been curious and interested to see how these two mediums merge. It's not there yet, but like everything in this age of hyper-connectivity, merge they will (and in clever ways most likely).

FullBooks.com - Thousands of Full-Text Free Books

If you know of any related sources for the publishing of books online, let us know.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Confess. In the quiet stillness of night you have indulged on sweets to an extreme degree. I'm talking about gorging on your favorite decadence. How bad would it be to die from an excess of Nutella? Ah bliss. A smile would be on my face. Daniela Edburg’s has wondered this and created stunning photos of what the horrific aftermath might look like. "Here, the consequences of indulgence are tabloid or monster movie deaths. Drop Dead Gorgeous both mocks and satisfies our cravings." To the right, "Death by Oreo".

The Morning News - Drop Dead Gorgeous by Daniela Edburg