http://brahm.windeler.net/ Light. Fluffy. In your head. en-us 2008-01-28T10:00:59-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000316.html Last week I was checking out Amazon's Mechanical Turk web site. For those of you not familiar with the site, it allows people to set up simple tasks called Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) for others to do that are easy for people to do but too difficult to automate by computer. The people who perform the tasks are then paid a modest amount for their effort. I came across one HIT that I thought would interest some friends so I right-clicked the link to a preview of the HIT, chose Copy URL, then shared the link with the friends. After... Stories Brahm 2008-01-28T10:00:59-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000315.html Two years ago I participated in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program to complete my first marathon. I had a terrific experience, made many new friends and raised over $5000 for the organization from the overwhelming generosity of my friends and family. I received a brochure for their Hike for Discovery program in the mail and knew it was time to do some fund raising again. So this year I'd like to repeat the experience doing something I have a passion for in a place that I love: hiking in Yosemite National Park. I will be training,... Brahm 2008-01-25T12:32:25-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000314.html It's been a few years since I've posted anything related to the current presidency. A friend past along a link to this Harper's Magazine article regarding a painting by W.H.D. Koerner titled “A Charge to Keep” (1916) that George W Bush admires. A blurb from the article: Bush has consistently exhibited what psychologists call the “Tolstoy syndrome.” That is, he is completely convinced he knows what things are, so he shuts down all avenues of inquiry about them and disregards the information that is offered to him. This is the hallmark of a tragically bad executive. But in this case,... Brahm 2008-01-25T08:51:40-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000313.html After nearly 4 years I finally upgraded this blog from Movable Type 2.64 to 4.01a. I had been holding out on the upgrade because: The contents of the blog were stored in the original Berkeley DB format Version 4.x no longer supports the Berkeley DB format and instead uses MySQL by default Many changes to the preferences, templates, and plug-ins were made in that time I finally upgraded because I was getting a lot of comment spam on any entries that I left open for commenting (especially Justin's entry... spam scripts have no shame!) and I was getting sick of... Administravia Brahm 2008-01-21T00:15:30-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000312.html I realize I haven't been very good about blogging recently. As a stop gap measure, I've been using Twitter to capture fleeting notions over the past week or so. I had been holding off, as I felt the last thing I needed right now was another Internet distraction. But I have to admit, it's kinda fun. And I find I post to it fairly frequently because 1) the entries have to be short because they are limited to 160 characters and 2) there is little to prevent me from posting since I leave the site open in a browser tab... Thoughts Brahm 2008-01-19T00:38:39-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000311.html A few friends asked me what I've been listening to recently, so I thought I'd share my response in case you're looking for some new tunes. Wilco. Chicago band that makes music that's kinda like Southern rock meets Radiohead. I haven't heard their latest album but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is one of my all time favorites. Calexico. Like their name sounds, the music is a mix of southern Cal/Mexican style folk rock. I like pretty much everything they've made. Beck - "Guero". This came out a few years ago but it's still high on my list. I haven't heard much... Stories Brahm 2008-01-18T23:27:06-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000310.html I ran the Big House Big Heart 5K this morning in Ann Arbor. Jennifer and the girls were gracious enough to join me by waking up before dawn and driving over an hour so I could run in an event that lasted less than 23 minutes (22:56 to be exact... a 7:21 minute/mile pace). The event itself was pretty fun. I met up with a friend and a few of her relatives before the race. As it turns out, the brother who was running with her was in a work group with me in one of my advanced math classes... Stories Brahm 2007-09-30T22:26:06-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000309.html I freaked out yesterday afternoon when Symantec Client Firewall started blasting me with messages indicating it was blocking outbound traffic coming from vmnat.exe and matching the destination ports associated with various Trojan horses. I run a number of VMware virtual machines and vmnat.exe is the program that manages a virtual network with NAT translation on the host environment. The situation is nice because I can have isolated environments for various activities, take snapshots of system state and roll back if necessary, clone a system, etc. At the time I was doing some stuff on the web in the virtual machine... Stories Brahm 2007-09-27T12:45:17-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000308.html A few weeks ago I scared a skunk out of the drainpipe that runs under the end of our driveway while mowing the lawn. A day or two later I came across the same skunk (allegedly) flattened on the road outside our subdivision. That seems to have been a precursor the events this week; I've come across myriad roadkill during my bike rides: 4 squirrels, 2 deer (!), 1 cat and 1 mouse (different locations). If ever I were to have the desire to have a pet, this probably would not be the best time to act on it.... Stories Brahm 2007-09-19T00:20:25-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000307.html Stories Brahm 2007-07-16T22:05:38-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000306.html Just wanted to share a few quick tidbits since I haven't had much time to do so recently. 1. Amelia started walking about a month ago. We've got some video, but due to the silliness of modern digital cameras and digital video editors, it's been a pain coming up with a good way to rotate some of the clips we made in portrait rather than landscape orientation. Oops. I've finally discovered exactly what I've been looking for to resolve this issue: a plug-in for iMovie HD that can rotate and resize video... and it's only $4.50! I'm just waiting for... Administravia Brahm 2007-07-13T00:14:41-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000305.html I've been tagged. Usually I don't participate in these chain-letter type things, but it's been a while since I've posted anything so I figure this is as good an excuse as any to get my butt in gear. So I'm supposed to post 8 facts/habits, eh? Well, here goes. 1. I spend much too much time on the computer these days. Not only do I do it for my job, but I'm hooked on anything with an RSS/Atom feed. I initially thought Bloglines was the best thing to come along since sliced bread... I no longer had to keep going... Internet Brahm 2007-06-18T22:41:36-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000304.html As part of my current running training schedule, I was slated to run 10 miles on Saturday. Well... due to the cold weather, strong winds and icy roads up north this weekend, I chose to postpone the run until tonight when I could do it after the girls went to sleep from the comfort of my own home on the treadmill. I run on the treadmill fairly frequently, but never for such a long distance (or time) due to the mind-numbing boredom that insues. But for lack of a better opportunity and a dedication to the schedule, I put the... Stories Brahm 2007-04-09T00:43:22-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000301.html After 3-4 months off from running due to some knee issues, in January I started ramping up my miles on the treadmill. I still experience a creaky knee when climbing stairs, but at least there is no pain. And during my runs I need to warm up gradually... starting with a quick walk for a few minutes, then a slow jog, and then eventually I can push myself fairly hard. If I start running hard too quickly, my knees definitely let me know. The majority of my runs so far have been on the treadmill but I plan to... Stories Brahm 2007-03-27T11:14:06-05:00 http://brahm.windeler.net/archives/000300.html I slept 11 hours last night. It was excellent. That is all. Carry on.... Stories Brahm 2006-12-18T23:09:42-05:00