My nano is here!

I’ve wanted an iPod for a while, but I could never justify it to myself because of the size considerations. I am not a belt-mount geek; I prefer to have stuff actually in my pockets. [This comes from the day when I knocked my belt-mounted Motorola flip phone out of its cradle, where it then fell 15 feet down to the concrete floor in manufacturing. It worked just fine after that---for years after that---but it just confirmed that I hated belt mounting.] But the nano is way small [as you know if you've read anything about it], and as such, it can fit happily in my pockets next to my chunky Treo 600.

I am a happy geek right now. Photos soon …

My iPod nano will be arriving soon.

Yes, I finally broke down and bought an iPod.

Subscribers to my del.icio.us bookmarks [and I'd be shocked if anyone is subscribed to it but me] know that I’ve been looking at a Linksys NSLU2 for over three months. Last night, I finally broke down and got one, with an 80GB Maxtor USB 2.0 HD to go with it. Why now? Well, I want to re-format this machine in the near future, drop it back to Win98 [more in keeping with its RAM capabilities than is XP], and swap the HDs around in it [pulling a 6GB drive for use in my parents' old machine when I get that up and running, replacing it with a 40GB drive]. I want to use the NSLU2 as a ghetto NAS, and … it’ll do.

And again I say: “Suck it up!”

Gas Prices Graph, with adjustments for inflation.

Feel better now?

[HT to John. I :heart: jowilson.]

Y’know, I think I’m about tired of folks complaining about gas prices. Increased prices are simply an aftereffect of increased wages. We all like increased wages, but few of us like increased prices [unless we're selling something].

Do I like paying more for gas? No, not really. I’d like to spend my money on other things. But my demand for gasoline is pretty inelastic—I drive to get to work, and I drive to stay sane. It’s pretty inelastic for other folks, too, I’m sure. But, at the end of the day, the market generally finds a solution.

Now, do really poor folks have a beef here? Sure. Folks trying to hack it on minimum wage—don’t derail into a discussion of whether a minimum wage is a good idea; it’s the law of the land, so for now, let’s limit the scope of this discussion to the magnitude and not the existence—do get screwed out of this, because the artificial floor of the market hasn’t been indexed to inflation. [Mind you, there aren't a plethora of jobs around here right at that minimum wage, but they exist.] But Jesus was right … you’ll always have the poor with you.

But the next SUV driver I see in Madison complaining about gas prices on the local news … well, pardon me if I feel like punching ‘em in the face.

When I was giving Stephen a tour of the house, I was noting where I want to put up crown molding to dress the place up and make painting around here easier. I was thinking that a compound miter saw was going to run me in excess of $300, but apparently, I can get a good DeWalt for $200 these days. Good to know!

I’ve been chugging through Charles Petzold’s Code, as I said I would, and I’m really enjoying it. This should be required reading at MSMS.

If everything else on Joel Spolsky’s software reading list is this good … man.

On the advice of Jeffrey Overstreet, I picked up Sufjan Stevens’s Illinois. WOW.

It’s expansive, epic, cheeky, and just plain good.

Yes, please. I’m still speccing out my box … by the time I get around to finishing that, maybe someone will have already done a reasonably-priced home NAS unit.

I don’t have use for one—I can just close my door—but some of you in cube farms might [although $400 is steep]: Herman Miller has a new device out called the Babble, which is designed to mask your conversations by repeating random snippets of your conversation through its speakers so that passers-by and lurking cow-orkers can’t eavesdrop effectively.

I’m thinking Baron Carlos could use it…

[HT to Gizmodo, who pointed to IDFuel, who pointed to the actual article. Phew!]

I’ve spent the last couple of days ripping through Will Carroll’s two most influential books to date: Saving the Pitcher and The Juice.

StP was a good overview of how pitching injuries could be minimized—he argues eliminated—by implementing proper techniques. It’s a great starter book if you’ve got a kid who pitches or wants to pitch, if you’re a coach on the youth or high school levels, or if you’re a young pitcher yourself. If you’re a fan as I am, it can be a bit slow to slog through, because we’re not worried so much about the ideas to be applied as we are the things to look for in pitchers that we watch. Carroll notes that it’s difficult to undertake the task of writing about this topic, because it’s something that clearly lends itself to video. I would have strongly pushed for a CD-ROM to accompany this book; future work by Carroll on this subject fairly well demands it.

The Juice was interesting because it takes a relatively dispassionate view of performance-enhanced drugs (PEDs): their effects, side-effects, composition, production, use, and abuse. Before I say this, let me be clear that this is not Carroll’s position—but I came away with the feeling that it’s fruitless to attempt to ban performance enhancing drugs, and that it makes far more sense to legalize and stringently monitor them. That’s bound to be a damn unpopular conclusion to draw, but I’d ask that you read the book from cover to cover before you fly off the handle with a comment.

Dear palmOne:

Here’s a hint: merge the LifeDrive and a new version of the Treo, and I’ll be happy. I might even pay like, oh, $750 for it. Just don’t skimp on the HD or give us a crappy crippled version of the Treo like you did with the 650.

Also, I guess that it goes without saying that someone internally damn well better have thought of this already.

Love and kisses,
Geof

I tossed a couple Over The Rhine posters on my office walls today. I did so using setups from Posterhänger. They’re a little pricey, but it’s sleek, self-leveling, and very clean-looking. I will definitely be ordering more!

Also, I do believe that I am slowly sucking Stephen into the world of OTR. He emailed me about ten days ago with a link to some commentary and audio about Drunkard’s Prayer on Salon, and I asked him if he wanted to borrow my copy. “Gosh, yes. I’ve been really enjoying that CD.”

Somewhere in metro Atlanta, Jeff Holland is smiling.

Clothes valet integrated into a chair.

That’s a pretty spiffy concept. I’ve been thinking lately that I want a nice valet once I move into the townhouse; keep it in either the master bedroom or bath [probably the former, given the funky angles of the bathroom] and set my clothes out on it the night before to streamline the selection-and-dressing process in the morning.

Any of you ever used a clothes valet? Dad had one back when we lived in Ohio, and I always thought it was cool.

PVRBlog’s Matt Haughey reports that eBay has released a client for the new Home Media Engine that comes with OS 7.1. As Matt says, the screencaps look amazing.

Like the first commentor says, if Amazon develops an HME client, we’re all screwed.

I’m hopeful that HME will save TiVo. I’m thinking it might be too little, too late, though.