Are You Buds With Bin Laden?

There’s a new series of commercials now on the air and produced as part of the Detroit Project proposing that SUV drivers (or more specifically people who drive gas guzzlers) help fund terrorist activities. It’s an interesting take on the effects of the terrible gas milage that these vehicles get. In spite of the fact that the technology exists to produce ultra fuel efficient vehicles, the auto industry has been loath to drop or reduce the production of their cash cow because there is such a demand. SUVs have stopped being Sport Utility Vehicles for a large majority of the population and have become Social Utility Vehicles instead. Their drivers view the vehicles as sexy and/or studly, perhaps because of the attitude they presumably portray – perhaps due to the blatant disregard for the problems they cause? They also tend to be more expensive than smaller cars, thus becoming a status symbol. Others view them as being safer… even though they are more apt to roll-overs and increase the risk of a casualty when a smaller car is involved in an accident (in reality, the quality of the car is more of a factor). And then of course, there is the environmental impact. Some environmentalists have gotten so fed up with SUVs that they have made it their mission raise awareness as well as make owning an SUV a social shame. Which brings us back to the commercials. If the automotive industry will not choose to be more responsible, then the perceptions of the population will need to be altered. If the demand for SUVs decreases, that’ll mean less income for the auto industry. And as we all know, money talks.Personally, I don’t think there’s a problem with owning an SUV if you really need it, i.e. if it is for a legitimate commercial purpose or recreational purpose. You’ll have a tough time towing that boat around with a Yugo. But if it’s purely “just because”, well, all I can say is you’re fair game.

Mac Updates

Updates for two cool Mac software packages have come to my attention. First of all, that Collapse! game that I mentioned in an earlier post is now available for Mac OS X, as is its successor Collapse! II.Also, a new version of the free, extensible web export plug-in for iPhoto called BetterHTMLExport has been released. A few of the new features to 1.6.4 were ones that I asked the author to add (after making a small donation of course): album name and comment now exported; added ability to add custom information to be exported; and several new variables available to templates (nextThumbFileName, previousThumbFileName – based on advice from Ian). I haven’t tried the new update yet, but I will inevitably test it out on one of the new rounds of photos to be uploaded.

Digital Freebees

Apple and Kodak recently had a promotion for 100 free 4×6 prints when submitted via iPhoto. The offer originally expired on December 31, 2002, but it looks like it may have been extended until February 28, 2003. Below is an account of my ordering experience, as posted on the Apple discussion board (may be deleted eventually). One thing that I did not note in the posting was that I went to Mike‘s place to celebrate New Years Eve, so in order to monitor the image uploading process I set up VNC on my G4 before I left and remotely checked up on the process periodically from time to time. Isn’t technology grand? Continue reading →

Counting Toads

After a yummy meal at the Chieftain Monday night, Jennifer and I went to the Toad the Wet Sprocket and Counting Crows concert at the Warfield. We arrived just as Toad was finishing their first song. Apparently the doors opened at 7pm, not 8. It was so good to see them back together again playing up on stage. Though I didn’t get a chance to hear the first song, they then played: Woodburning, Crowing, Brother, some track off of Coil (not my favorite album), Walk On The Ocean, All I Want, Know Me (complete with Unsatisfied ending), and Fall Down. It was great to hear them pull out Know Me… the last time I hear them perform it was around ’92 or ’94. They sounded really tight and looked like they were having a good time up on stage. Dean looked so different without his glasses. Continue reading →

Wind Dwellers

This past weekend was supposed to rock. A number of friends and I took off early from work on Friday to brave the trip from the South Bay to Tahoe with a Winter Storm Watch in effect for the northern Sierras. Eight feet of snow was predicted by Tuesday. It was raining pretty heavily in the Bay Area on Friday, a sure sign of new snow headed for the mountains. Unfortunately, we didn’t count on the wind. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Malaise

Mmmfff… too… much… food… in… tummy.Robert and Mike came over today to share in some Thanksgiving goodness. I think Jennifer and I overdid it as far as our first Thanksgiving meal. We made: golden cheddar soup, green beans, Waldorf salad, stuffed pork roast, stuffed cornish hens, stuffing, mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and pumpkin cheesecake. Mike contributed some garlic bread with homemade garlic spread and some homemade vanilla ice cream. Never having prepared such a large meal before, we had some timing problems getting everything ready at the same time. Having one only one oven with so many things requiring an oven was a pain. Also, not having any experience preparing cornish hens or port roast led to a bit of guessing. The pork roast turned out to be way too dry and overcooked. The cornish hen turned out well, though. Oh, and the extra stuffing was too dry, too. And much of the other stuff was cold by the time we got to it. Ugh. We’ll get it right eventually.As a side note, I had Kruder & Dorfmeister‘s The K&D Sessionsô in the hi-fi while cleaning up after dinner. The second track of the second disk has a remix of a Sofa Surfers song called Sofa Rockers. When it came on, I realized it’s the same music that plays when you first install a copy of Mac OS X on your computer and are asked to register with Apple. I’m not sure if the track that is played during registration is the original or the remix since it only playes for about 20 seconds or so and then fades out. I guess I’ll have to track down the original to find out.

Little Gamer

Okay, with nothing better to report right now, I’d figure I’d just make a post about this game that I’ve become addicted to called Collapse. Though there is a sample applet that you can play on their web site, there are a few extra features in the full version that make it a bit more fun. Unfortunately it’s only for Windows. Maybe with a little prodding they may make a Mac version. One can wish.

From Mickey to Magnums

I’ve added a few more albums to the photo gallery from our recent trips to Florida and Napa.We went down to Florida last weekend to visit our friends Jeff and Sara since we hadn’t done so in over three years (though we did see them at our wedding). We had a very nice, relaxing vacation filled with canoing, home improvement projects, amusements, and naps.This past weekend, my brother and his girlfriend Rachel were in town. We headed up to Napa Valley for the obligatory winery tours. This time, however, we threw a hot air balloon trip from Napa Valley Balloons into the mix. It was an experience not to miss!