Author Archives: brahmwindeler

Building a Misunderstanding

Jennifer and I have begun the search for a house, so as I was skimming over the latest University of Michigan Alumni Association newsletter, this blurb about housing developments caught my eye:

Homebuyers prefer a view of the woods to a manicured lawn, according to U-M researchers. Researchers found that misuse and misunderstanding of the term “open space” fuel the myth that people prefer big lots. Developers and homebuyers use open space to mean acres of open space like lawns instead of preserved natural features. Researchers suggest planners use the term “conservation ordinance” rather than “open space ordinance” for areas marked for preservation from development.

If true, it’s a shame that so much natural woodland habitat has been torn down based on a misunderstanding. I wonder just how much this study will affect future developments around Michigan as well as the rest of the nation. With Michigan’s current governor Jennifer Granholm promoting Smart Growth within the state, hopefully it will have an impact sooner rather than later.

Transcending the Windows Experience

Arguments between Mac users and Windows users usually bore me. I’ve heard the claims hundreds of times before. PC user: PC’s are cheaper/Macs are too expensive. Mac user: Macs have lower Total Cost of Ownership. PC user: PC’s have more applications available. Mac user: Macs have many of the same worthwhile applications and much fewer of the junk applications. PC user: PC’s are used more in business. Mac user: Many executives actually have and prefer Macs and are much more prevalent in the “creative” industries. And so on and so on…I use both systems on a daily basis and I can easily say I prefer the Mac (which I started using back around 1985). While not completely free of headaches, the overall experience has always been orders of magnitude better than my Windows using experience.Despite this fact, I’ve never really been an advocate for the platform. It’s just not my style to try to influence others based on my own beliefs. Okay, maybe I did take a stab at getting my wife’s sister to consider one when she was in the market for a new computer… she bought a PC which, of course, she ended up having problems with later on. But other than that, I’ve pretty much just kept to myself.That said, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that many, if not most, of my techie friends have purchased Macs in the past year or two. In the past, my computer engineering friends were more PC centric, I think mainly because they were cheaper and thought to more more of a software developer’s platform of choice. So it came as a surpise when friend after friend started purchasing a Mac as his or her personal computer. I’m not sure how to explain it. Is it that the new(est) incarnation of the Mac operating system (Mac OS X) has Unix underpinnings (meeting the techie’s needs)? That the interface is just elegant and just works (i.e. the last thing I want to do after a day of fighting with my PC at work is come home and fight with my computer at home)? That Macs are, for all intents and purposes, devoid of the “joys” of spyware and virii (I don’t even bother to run anti-virii software on my Macs at home)?I don’t know, but I came across this editorial written by someone that switched from Windows to Mac and has reflected on the psychology of the change (rather than the technical differences).

Michigan Vacation and Wedding

In the week leading up to Jennifer’s sister Robin’s wedding, we spent some time with family and friends in Michigan. It was great to see everyone, most of whom we hadn’t seen since the holidays nearly 6 months previous. We also met up with my old college roommate Brian and his family. We had tried to get together when we were in town in January but didn’t manage to find a time that worked for both of us. He and his wife gave birth to a baby girl named Elizabeth soon after, so it was great to bring Kaija and Elizabeth together.On the final weekend that we were in Michigan, Jennifer’s sister Robin married Andy Lawrence on the beach in St. Joseph. The weather was beautiful for both the rehearsal and the ceremony. I had the honor of being an usher at the event and Jennifer was a bridesmaid. Kaija was passed to various eager family members over the course of the weekend. It was great to see everyone for a few short days. Best of luck to the newlyweds!

Cookin’ With Gas

What better way to spend a day off from work than cleaning up our back porch! I spent a few hours sweeping up dirt and tree debris, removing cob webs, and wiping down various pieces of furniture. My greatest joy came in “fixing” our gas grill. The left burner stopped working well about a year ago. When I noticed the problem, I found that one of the clips that holds the gas distributer to the gas line had gone missing. Looking around, it was no where to be found. I improvised with a short segment of piano wire, but still could not get it to work well. The flames were paltry and inconsistent at best. I tried on a number of occasions to use the grill for various meaty consumables with lousy results. Disheartened and figuring I’d need to mail order the missing clip part, the grill has gone virtually unused for many months due to procrastination.Well, during the cleaning spree, I wiped the thick layer of dirt and dust that had accumulated on it. While doing so, I decided to start disassembling the grill. I removed the gas distributor only to find a small but fairly dense spider web in the left gas duct. A quick sweep with the piano wire removed the sticky mess. I reassebled the grill and voila! Beautiful, constant flame on both sides!Let the summer BBQ’s commence!

A Declaration of Independence

Kaija stood up from the floor for the first time on Friday. Jennifer wanted to record her efforts so that we could share the excitement with family and friends. We had been trying to get her to stand for about 10 minutes on Saturday evening, but Kaija was more interested in checking out the camera than showing off for it. At the beginning of this clip, Jennifer is shown getting up to answer a knock on the door. It was our good friends Sandy and Leon… Kaija just needed a bigger audience!

Mt. Shasta

On Father’s Day weekend, I hiked up Mt. Shasta with my friends Rob, Brad, Matt M, and Matt G. Though it was the most strenuous physical activity I’ve done, I had a terrific weekend. I’m happy to say we all summited with no problems (though with a little sunburn here and there), thanks in part to the glorious weather. This allowed us to sleep beneath the stars sans tent Friday night, hike up firm snow Saturday and Sunday mornings, and glissade down softer snow Sunday afternoon. The views were amazing the whole way up.Matt M and Matt G also have photos posted from the trip, which tend to be more complete than mine as they took more photos during the actual hike.I plan to post a more thorough report of the trip soon. I’ll add it to the extended portion of this entry when it’s complete. In the meantime, enjoy the photos.

Kim Eagle

My cousin Kim was married to Joe Eagle in Pottstown, PA on May 22nd in my aunt and uncle’s backyard. The ceremony was in a beautiful wooded area next to a zen garden and coi pond that my aunt built. The weather was terrific, albeit a little warm and humid. Having grown up in Michigan but now living in California, the green that was everywhere was a welcome change of scenery. Though I was only there for approximately 24 hours, I’m glad I got the opportunity to visit with family I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Kaija had just started to walk with some assistance and she was happy to show off her new skills to others. She also enjoyed cooling off with a short dip in the pool at the end of the night.

Spam Me Not

I got hit with a major web log spamming Monday night. Occasionally I’ll get hit with 1-5 spam messages in the comments at a time. Monday night it was almost 140 spam comments. There are a few things that irked me about the situation.1) I received no e-mail messages regarding the comments. I’m assuming that a backdoor has been discovered in Movable Type to allow posting comments without notifying the entry author.2) I’m running MT 2.64. The last free version before 3.0 was 2.661. I didn’t upgrade before 3.0 was released and now it appears that 2.661 is no longer downloadable. I’m assuming that maybe the backdoor was fixed in this later release but I’ll never know.3) I’m not sure if I really want to upgrade to 3.0 yet. It costs money for web logs with more than 3 authors (which would affect the.windeler.net). I’m still exploring other options.4) There’s no easy way to bulk delete comments. I’ve had to throw together a template to manage this (it’s far from ready for prime time, so I won’t release it to the public yet).5) There’s no easy way to bulk close commenting for entries. I think there may be a plug-in for this, but I think it relies on an SQL backend and I’m not using that. Looks like I’ll have to write another template for this.