techSanctuary

posted a message on Twitter “@redsonya I keep a big bag of many varieties of chocolate, just in case. Do you need to borrow the cheer-up-chocolate bag?” 2:48 pm - Comment

Yes, I'm back.

The pilot light has gone out on my Nice & Patient. This has shorted out the Mental Editor subsystem and now I am saying things on the phone like, "I prefer to put you through to his voicemail, because then I won't write your name down wrong or anything."

Clearly the Competence Complex is also endangered.

This couldn't possibly have anything to do with staying up till three-thirty on Saturday night, could it? Perish the thought! It's probably the infamous Humboldt black mold. One of these days I am going to reach up to scratch my nose and my whole head is going to collapse.

See? the Mental Editor is definitely down for the count.

I couldn't help it. My birthday is coming up and books are a traditional gift; it was already on my Amazon wishlist; but it was right there in Borders, real and solid, and I had to pick it up. (Then I had to restrain myself from clobbering an overzealous Borders flunky with it--don't they have those terminals so we can type in title and author searches all by our own selves?--but that's beside the point.)

I also couldn't help reading the first thirteen pages today over my breakfast tea. The book is slim and as a McKinley glutton I couldn't help being a little sad about that. When one of my favorite authors publishes a short book, it's difficult to read normally, without rolling every word in the mind like a drop of...well, honey...and the grand sweep of it can be lost, as if it were a ball-gown and I were examining threads. I never did manage to get all the way through The California Feeling because of the threads.

(Stash green tea is better than Bigelow green. Even--and I'm very fond of it--the one with lemon.)

Not sure what to think yet. The main gripe of reviewers who had any was that McKinley spends too much time discussing beekeeping in Chalice as she did with baking in Sunshine, but I liked all the baking, so maybe it's going to be hitchless enjoyment. Here's hoping!

posted a message on Twitter “I took today off. It's a weekend for my weekend.” 8:53 am - Comment

Here’s a video displaying all commercial air traffic in the world during a 24-hour period. Seriously, I’m moving to New York City tomorrow and seeing the flight density in this computer simulation scares me a bit. Thankfully, it’s a big planet with plenty of space to fly. But then, pilot friends tell me that sometimes they get close enough to wave at each other, so maybe it’s not as big as to accommodate the 7.4 billion passengers that will travel by air in 2020. [Zhaw via Dark Roasted Blend]

Shared by Sean

Great news for Moto fans. This is the best move they’ve made in years..

The iPhone may be the only game in town for serious mobile Web developers right now, but that won’t last ling. Next year, the iPhione will see some serious competition from Google’s Android platform. Of course, T-Mobile will start selling the first Android phone, the G1 made by HTC, on October 22. But other cell phone manufacturers are gearing up for a major Android push.

The most significant of these may come from Motorola. One of the original partners in the Open Handset Alliance behind the open-source mobile OS, Motorola already has 50 people on its Android team and is growing that to 350, according to an Android developer approached by a headhunter to join the team. That is a huge commitment that shows how big a bet Motorola is making on Android.

This same source has also seen people from Nokia and Verizon at a recent Android developer conference. The conference was put on by Google last week for developers who had not yet seen the G1 to help prepare them for its launch. In general, in order to be an attendee, you had to have an Android app. Neither Nokia nor Verizon are official members of the Open Handset Alliance.

Nokia recently acquired the rest of Symbian it didn’t already own, and is determined to keep that OS as long as possible, since it powers all of its phones. But Nokia may have an Android team sniffing around, which is smart even if it is for nothing other than to gain competitive intelligence. And if Android takes off, Nokia could decide to hedge its bets and launch its own Android phone.

There is a certain inexorable logic behind all the interest in Android.

1. It is a more capable mobile Web computer than anything other than the iPhone.
2. It is a very appealing development environment for app creators—and just like on the PC, apps will drive adoption.
3. Most importantly, as an open-source OS, manufacturers don’t have to pay a licensing fee to whoever controls the OS. Given the razor-thin margins in the cell phone business, that alone is reason for manufacturers to embrace Android (with the exception of Nokia, which owns Symbian). But you can see why Motorola might see Android as the key to its recovery.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

posted a message on Twitter “I had an awesome day. I love my new utilikilt and I got to be cute and show off in it. Also, I think I made a cute new friend.” 11:38 pm - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “Folsom St Fair was so awesome fun and I met really awesome people. in San Francisco, CA” Sunday at 2:11 pm - Comment

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Whoa, whoa — what’s this? A fresh report from Nikkei is pretty confidently talking about a new Nintendo DS destined to hit “within the year,” though we aren’t claiming to be full-fledged believers just yet. To be fair, this isn’t the first we’ve heard of such a beast, though the translated description is pretty far out there. For instance, the new model will reportedly boast a camera that will be used heavily for games and offer a stronger wireless signal. Even crazier is the bit about “competing with cellular phones” and “exceeding the frame of the game industry.” The article mentions that the device will eventually ship for ?20,000 ($189) or less, though it doesn’t say what kind of sauce the author hit before writing commenced.

[Image courtesy of Techeblog, thanks RS]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

posted a message on Twitter “Got groceries for party, cleaned out fridge, and delivered bagels and coffee to Diana. All of that before my weekend wakeup alarm went off.” Saturday at 10:56 am - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “@redsonya If you can't think of anything for Sunday, come to Folsom St. with us, you can whip someone if you want.” Friday at 8:26 pm - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “@redsonya Come over tomorrow, email is in your inbox.” Friday at 8:26 pm - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “IMO, the debate reminds me that, again, it's a choice of the lesser evil. Also, alcohol and sexy ladies FTW.” Friday at 7:46 pm - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “@tatymai Happy birthday, I wasn't sure if it was today or tomorrow. Doing anything special?” Friday at 4:23 pm - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “On my way to some debate thing, mostly to drink. in Mountain View, CA” Friday at 4:19 pm - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “My move to CA archived for all time (bonus Spence quote) http://bit.ly/aF7jX” Friday at 10:35 am - Comment

posted an entry on genetikayos's channel at Plazes genetikayos @ Google (Mountain View, United States), Sep 26, 2008, 10:11 AM (plazed via plazer) Friday at 10:11 am - Comment

posted a message on Twitter “I don't care about debates but it's a good excuse for a drinking game.” Friday at 9:48 am - Comment

So I've been sitting here numbing my brain with the 17854 jpegs this poor little Dell has accumulated over the past five years, looking for one particular picture of one particular yellow office building, and suddenly I wanted to get up and practice the Texas dip in the empty office. This is partly caused by boredom, and partly, I think, by the urge to impose sense and order on the world. (The jpegs contain neither, for the most part.) To perform a little ceremony to straighten out and get back on track. I could just stand up and stretch for a moment, but no, I had to think of a ridiculous curtsy.

I love ritual. This was probably made all too clear during my Bridezilla phase, during which I tried to incorporate anything that might be Meaningful into our pseudo-wedding. I stopped short of the broom-jumping because that seemed a little tacky, but there were plenty of things in there that weren't natural or obvious choices. It just all seemed like it would impart some special blessing on our directionless, traditionless lives. And I search for that daily, seeking out trivia and instructions that won't do a bit of practical good. Redacted recipes from medieval to Victorian times; weaving and braiding techniques; curtsies; orders of procession among the British nobility; dances; mythology; the meanings behind superstitions. I'd probably study the Japanese tea ceremony if I wasn't afraid of being told, extremely politely, to fuck off; it seems to exist at a higher level of decorum than mere Western etiquette.

What's your favorite ritual--traditional, personal, or other? I'll just be over here practicing my curtsies.

posted an entry on genetikayos's channel at Plazes genetikayos @ Google (Mountain View, United States), Sep 25, 2008, 10:44 AM (plazed via plazer) Thursday at 10:44 am - Comment