new software in the mix

    i have an sickness. it's called LGS or in technical terms: "latest greatest syndrome." i'll admit it. because of this ailment of LGS, i'm always on the lookout for little apps that can make my computing life better, more efficient, more productive, prettier, et al.

    i recently did a clean wipe and rebuild of my mac. in doing so i always wipe away all the apps i've installed, tried, never used again. and i also try to migrate to the apps that i've been meaning to but was trepidacious for some reason or another. so here's the rundown of what's changed and what i like about said changes.

    ok, the rundown.

    delicious monster
    delicious monster is sweet. everything i expected it to be. they updated, almost right away, to 1.0.5. just bug fixes. but important ones.
    Delicious Monster Icon

    subethaedit udpated
    subethaedit was awesome to begin with. the collaboration mechanism is awesome. local network. over internet. whatever. solo mode [ non collaborating ] is awesome, too. syntax coloring is generally pretty good. it flakes out on closing tags sometimes. i think its pretty fast. some people complain about its speed in rendering text as compared to, say, bbedit or something. because subetha uses NSTextView. i've tried bbedit, smultron, textmate and others. but none of them really do anything for me. and it plays well with others.
    Subethaedit

    ecto
    i blogged about this earlier. and then again.

    ecto icon

    candybar
    candybar is made by panic software, the same folks that make the best ftp client ever. basically, candybar allows you to easily customize icons systemwide. meaning you don't have to do a Get Info (CMD - I) on every icon you wanna change. plus, it will cascade down to new instances of the same kind, eg, dvds, new folder, textclippings, etc. in early version you HAD to drag in each icon into its spot in candybar. now you can import one file: a candybar iContainer. and the iconfactory has bunch of iContainers already to go.
    candybar icon

    quicksilver in, launcbar out
    i have been using launchbar for quite awhile. i really like it. i rarely used my dock or applications folder or recent items menu to launch apps anymore. it was all CMD - SPACE, launchbar would pop down then i'd hit a couple letter abbreviation and off it went. lauchBar 4
    i kept hearing about quicksilver. i knew i'd prolly like it based on what i had heard and from whom i heard it. but still, i had vested a lot of time and energy and emotion in launchbar and didn't wanna jump ship. and why break what isn't broken, right? well, i finally gave it the ol' 1-2 try [i'm not real sure what i mean by that]. immediately, i was blown away by how much faster it was than launchbar. so much more responsive. and honestly, it's a LOT prettier.

    QS launcher

    i liked the preference options. everything's really customizable. good stuff. right now it's primarily a launcher [above], but they seem to have plans to make it much much more than that, noting that they don't call it a 'launcher' on their website. they call it this : "An evolving framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of personal data." it offers learning training to you.

    QS learning

    it does a little 'what this new song playing in iTunes is' kind of stuff.

    QS now playing in iTunes

    but one of the coolest, most exciting and interesting things for me is the commands you can do in it. like this example: grab this file (preview.jpg), perform this action (open with), this app (preview). there's a lot of power here to be harnessed. this is but a very simple example. more info at the blacktree site.

    QS commands

    process in, omnioutliner out
    omniOutliner was good. and still is. it just hasn't bee updated in a long time. and process is a lot better. in a lot of ways. just look at the screenshots of each. most notably, its a lot better for serving my podcasting needs. i talk about that a bit in my upcoming podcast so i'm not gonna blog about it here.

    omniOutliner Screenshot



    process Icon



    process Screenshot

    finally, the safari extenstions[?] i'm using
    safariSource colors the source of a page when doing a 'view source.' helpful for debugging.
    PithHelmet blocks ads (and other media, if you want it to) which is so fucking sweet.

    PithHelmet

    sogudi allows for faster and more flexible searching from the address bar. for example: wiki gender identity in the address bar would run a search on the wikipedia site and ultimately land you here. a catch me if you can searches amazon for 'catch me if you can'. and so on. comes with a bunch of built in defaults but can VERY EASILY add your own.

    jesus, fucking, jesus. this was a long goddamned post. sorry.

    ling log 11.19.2004

    creative commons
    gets into science licensing stuff
    apple's developer site for tiger
    mainly PR type stuff now. getting a little tech.
    spotlight
    how spotlight works behind the scenes
    c|net news
    Apple details plans to Spotlight desktop search
    os x server tiger blog software
    a java version inspired by blosxom
    PHPosxom
    PHP version also inspired by blosxom which is PERL
    keyhole/
    google owns this now. i wish they'd port it to the mac. it looks sweet.

    bloggercon ITconversations archive

    for those people who were/are disappointed that i didn't go to bloggercon myself, you're in luck. ITconversations is building an archive of all the bloggercon sessions in mp3 / AAC format for our ipodding pleasure.

    btw, the rss feed for this with AAC enclosures is:
    http://www.itconversations.com/rss/category-rss.php?k=bloggercon2004&e=2

    mp3 users subscribe to this one:
    http://www.itconversations.com/rss/category-rss.php?k=bloggercon2004&e=1

    gmail goes pop

    this is really good news. i like the idea of gmail. but i need to use a POP3 client. a la Apple Mail. so now, it looks like the proverbial cake and eating. i wonder how they'll handle feeding you ads on new mail or if they even will. if they don't how is this gonna affect the business model for 'free' email supported by inline ads?

    gmail goes pop: Well, one more barrier to me using gmail just fell away... they've added free POP support to their mail service. I still don't use gmail, but they're making it harder and harder to resist. (Via anil dash in atom.)

    so once this is rolled out completely, maybe i'll actually use my gmail account more. here's their online support for setting it up on the gmail end and your end. at the moment, no IMAP support, though.

    still hands down, the best web based mail available. IMHO.

    link log 11.10.2004

    sorry everybody
    liberals in america apologize to the rest of the world.
    mathworld answers to Google Labs Aptitude Test
    how to go about solving the math questions on the GLAT

    for the roomie's election fraud research.

    the hill.com
    dick morris's on exit polls.
    lawrence lessig
    creative commons creator on exit poll data
    red and blue maps
    a collection of those 'how the country voted' maps
    how to save the world
    Dave Pollard's thoughts on exit polls and vote counts
    state by state exit polls
    broken down by state and network.

    a liberation frequency podcast

    UPDATE: this podcast never really went anywhere. and has since been taken down. sorry.

    liberation frequency

    my first podcast.

    the show is called a liberation frequency.

    in this podcast:

    • post presidential radical politics in america
    • where do we stand?
    • what are we up against?
    • where do we go from here?
    • 'fighting for our lives' serial
    • runtime: ~17min

    this is my first one. i'm pretty about happy the format, generally. i'd like to cut the length down to maybe 7 or 8 minutes. i imagine i'll also get more comfortable talking into a mic and being recorded. the sound quality on my spoken parts is a little hissy. it can get better. i've been working on this for a few days trying to make it real perfect. you know, first impressions and all. but rather than perfect forever and still not be perfect, i was reminded of the extreme programming development cycle of 'release early, release often.'

    so i released early. i will try to release often. hopefully, in doing so this gets better and better.

    liberation frequency

    global war map

    STRATEGIC ARMCHAIR COMMAND has a nice "global war map" in .swf (flash movie) form. it's not animated or interactive. just countries color coded by the level of war they are at. red being the highest. red also being the color of the u.s. (minus alaska and hawaii which are a mere orange), iraq, iran, afghanistan, pakistan, saudi arabia, israel (and palenstine, even though it isn't listed as its own nation -- i guess, this is based on NATO or UN recognitions of statehood) and north korea.

    global War Map

    orange countries:

    • alaska / hawaii (u.s.)
    • russia
    • south korea
    • india
    • bhutan
    • hainan
    • brunel
    • malaysia
    • singapore
    • indonesia
    • australia
    • vanuatu
    • swaziland
    • lesotho
    • guinea
    • uganda
    • algeria
    • libya
    • egypt
    • sudan
    • eritrea
    • somalia
    • syria
    • jordan
    • oman
    • yemen
    • italy
    • france
    • switzerland
    • u.k.

    dark blue (smallest possible):

    • greenland (denmark)
    • falkland islands -- off the south eastern tip of south america (u.k.)

    these truly are sensational times we live in.

    revenge of the sith

    rebel alliance symbol

    with the opening of the incredibles, the world has had access to the trailer to the new star wars movie: episode three - return of the sith. oh god, it's hottness.

    you can watch the trailer here.

    here's my thoughts / predictions:

    • notice the wookies, we see a lot of wookies in this one, maybe even a young chewie.
    • we definitely explore more kashyyyk, the wookie homeworld, pretty extensively.
    • we might get cameos of very young versions of han solo, lando, boba fett. but keep in mind episode three is about 20 years before episode four. so if we do see them, they would be very young. maybe even just kids.
    • obviously, we will anakin as vader, finally.
    • the lava pit: there's been a rumour for a long time ( cirac ep1) that the final showdown between obi wan and anakin leads to anakin in a lava pit. somehow he's pulled out by the emperor's mininions and is transformed into vader. more machine than man.
    • those droid walkers approaching the lava might be how he's pulled out.
    • the vader voice still sounds like james earl jones who did the voice in the original trilogy.
    • anakin kills dooku. thus, finally fully embracing the dark side of the force.
    • mace windu has a serious fight scene. ...with anakin? maybe dooku. but my money's anakin.
    • we see yoda fuck shit up again.
    • the imagery continues along the path to looking like the stuff from first trilogy. for example, clone troopers look more and more like storm troopers. fighter ships start to look more and more like tie fighters and tie interceptors. even some early versions of the x-wing. and maybe the less popular a-wing, b-wing, e-wing, and y-wing.
    • in the big battle between obi wan and anakin, before obi wan ultimately 'defeats' anakin into the lava, he cuts his hand off. a la, vader versus luke.
    • we catch a glimpse of the millennium falcon. well, not actually the falcon. but the same kind of ship: a mere corellian freighter.
    • sidious / palpatine actually does some lightsaber fighting himself. instead of just mind control and lightning fingers. seriously, ANYONE can shoot lightning from their fingers.
    • big space battle right at the heart of the galaxy around the city planet of coruscant.
    • we'll see the birth of the anakin / padme kids. twins luke and leia.
    • the subsequent hiding of those two kids with their respective surrogate parents. luke with owen and beru lars. leia with bail organaa who is a senator, first chariman and viceroy of alderaan and eventually a founder of the the Alliance to Restore the Republic (rebel alliance) with mon motha.
    • obi wan goes into hiding on the planet of tatooine relatively near owen and beru.
    • some new vilians.
    • the most exciting thing i think that can happen is another young boba fett appearance. under the tutelage of dooku. at the end of this boba fett book : The Fight to Survive after jango fett was killed by mace windu at the battle of geonosis boba follows his late dad's* * - instructions on what to do and who to see in the event of jango's death. eventually he meets up with count dooku who takes him in to look after him and have him trained further as a bounty hunter like his predecessor, jango.

    here's something really interesting, though. the trailer for the episode III video game. this, of course, is not exactly what will happen in the movie, but it can give us some more clues to possible happenings.

    por ejemplo:

    • anakin will kill mace windu.
    • anakin and dooku have it out right in front of palpatine, a al vader and luke in episode six.
    • anakin kills multiple jedi
    • anakin and obi wan have their climax battle on a platform above the lava.

    noteworthy links:

  1. official star wars databank covering all the movies and the expanded universe [ books, comics, et al ]
  2. dark horse comics timeline
  3. the force dot net's timeline
  4. del rey's star wars book timeline

    5. rebel alliance symbol

    although, if you think about it jango is not really boba's dad. more of his surrogate daddy, as boba is an unaltered clone of jango. thus, boba's biological father is jango's dad (whom we meet very, very briefly during a jango fett comic called open seasons). so to recap, boba fett's dad is actually is grandad. take that!

    first VoIP call

    got a call tonight from the girl. her dad has a talkbox (sorry, couldn't find an english page for it. actually, i don't know that this is even it.) and she called me from it. the number shows up as "unknown", something the telecom world will have to work out sometime as more VoIP is used. otherwise, it was pretty seamless.

    the content of our conversation was more interesting, though. her brother, scott, is getting into the world of podcasting. his good friend is doing a podcast called coverville which is, as it sounds, all cover songs. and he's ASCAP legal, too. that was a smart move, i think. as podcasting blows up more there'll be all kinds of legal battles over content, surely. good for him for beating them to the punch. heading them off at the pass, as it were. it was fun slash funny to hear both of them sooo excited about podcasting. truely this is the beginnings of something big. and the people that are in the loop know it. and that's why this thing is so electric to everyone right now.

    it was also funny to hear how disappointed both of them were that i didn't go to bloggercon.

    and, yes, they convinced me to start podcastinng. i've started laying the groundwork. my biggest technical hurdle is figuring out how to do enclosures with WordPress. i'm sure it can be worked out.

    coming soon:

    LIBERATION FREQUENCY
    we don't just want airtime.
    we want all the time, all of the time.

    link log 11.05.2004

    these are for my own benefit as much as they are for anyone else. enjoy.

    bin laden video transcript
    more poetic and articulate than most people give credit for.
    get some, fuckers!
    civillian video footage of american soldiers fighting near the american consulate.
    everyone has had more sex than me
    new link for the cartoon music video starring a bunny with issues. since old one got borked.
    straightedge documentary by bbc radio at straightedgelifestyle.com
    found this thanks to GtmcKnight who makes awesome buttons, but apparently can't have fun sober.
    global guerrillas
    John Robb's Weblog where terrorism, technology, and market analytics intersect. really great forward thinking stuff. he's writing a book, too. bonus.
    UK paper after election
    for those that care. [i think the number should be twice that much]
    sean and ryan's blog
    high school friends
    new america
    red == bush, blue == kerry, purple == mixed. counties / states are weighted based on their electoral size.
    canada 2.0
    i've seen other 'new america' maps, but this is my favourite. by mena from six apart.
    how the presidential 'race' went down
    in chart form
    thumbscrew
    download it here. it's what i use for making thumbnail images.

    for the roomie's fraud 2004 link list

    for the roomies about voting machines
    add this to your repository of voting fraud docs.
    and another
    about voter machine hacking.
    slashdot posting
    it has lots of election fraud links. some are already on the list.

    comparing opensource software development to global guerrilla warfare tactics

    i've been reading a lot at the global guerrillas blog. and i'm just floored by this guy's thought processes. the connection of disparate models is just amazing. here he compares the opensource software model to that of the global guerrilla warfare model.

    Global Guerrillas: THE BAZAAR'S OPEN SOURCE PLATFORM

    Release early and often. Try new forms of attacks against different types of targets early and often. Don’t wait for a perfect plan.

    Given a large enough pool of co-developers, any difficult problem will be seen as obvious by someone, and solved. Eventually some participant of the bazaar will find a way to disrupt a particularly difficult target. All you need to do is copy the process they used.

    Your co-developers (beta-testers) are your most valuable resource. The other guerrilla networks in the bazaar are your most valuable allies. They will innovate on your plans, swarm on weaknesses you identify, and protect you by creating system noise.

    Recognize good ideas from your co-developers. Simple attacks that have immediate and far-reaching impact should be adopted.

    Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away (simplicity). The easier the attack is, the more easily it will be adopted. Complexity prevents swarming that both amplifies and protects.

    Tools are often used in unexpected ways. An attack method can often find reuse in unexpected ways.

    really mind blowing ideas. it's got me thinking a lot about how these kinds of ideas can be applied activism [though, i do hate that word].

    pictures of me in btown

    back in like 1999 or 2000, i was hanging out in secret sailor books (R.I.P.). it was in the summer and there was some 'high school kids come to big college campus for a week' photo camp happening. they each had to a photo essay or something. so this kid needed a subject to follow around for a few minutes to do a slice of life series. so i volunteered. she later sent me these three photos as laser prints. i figured i should scan them before they get beat up too much more.

    me-in-secret-sailor-counting-on-my-fingers.jpg

    me-in-btown-on-kirkwood-hat-side-of-face.jpg

    me-on-bike-in-front-of-btown-library.jpg

    ps. the buttons on my hat are a no smoking button. and one that says "capitalism is organized crime."

    ThumbScrew for photo thumbnails

    ThumbScrew: "I'm about to head out the door to watch the election coverage with friends, but Zach was kind enough to send me the latest beta of his first Mac OS X app that normal users can use, ThumbScrew..."

    (Via DrunkenBlog.)

    a rad thumb nailer program called ThumbScrew. it's nice. i like it a lot. here's a test with some images i had already posted here. it's late. and i'm tired. more photo galleries in near future.

    ian-critical-mass-arrest superhero-dramatic-light desk-closeup critical-mass-arrest-paper superhero-belt

    i got arrested once

    well, actually, a hand full of times for miscellaneous activist stuff. the arrest in question, though, was at a critical mass that we had in bloomington, IN. it was the first event in our "week of resistance" to show our support for a fellow resistance figher, frank ambrose, who had been bogusly charged with tree-spiking (charges later dropped for lack of evidence) and to show the feds that we wouldn't back down in the face of repression COINTELPRO tactics.

    so everything was going fine. in a smallish college town of around 70,000 we had a critical mass of about 250-300 people. which is really really awesome. then tension between the swarm of cops and the hundreds of traffic blocking bicyclists hit a point of no return. cops starting pulling people off their bikes in the back of the ride. all hell breaks loose. and a bunch of us end of getting beat up and arrested. this picture was take of me being carried away by three cops. which i think is funny, because i weigh, like, 120. take note of the asshole on right of the picture. between the red and black flag and the cop. he's the undercover cop that tackled me leading to my arrest. there was at least one other undercover in the ride. fortunately, the cops didn't get there grubby paws on my bike. friends were able to smuggle it away.

    critical mass arrest

    this also happened that day. my long time friend and bandmate, ian phillips, was pulled off his bike, thrown to the ground, got a knee in the back and THEN got pepper sprayed. that pool of liquid coming from his face is pepper spray.

    ian's critical mass arrest

    anyhow, i found these two photos tonight while going through a box of old papers and arrest related stuff. thought i'd post them.