safari 4 beta...

I like it a lot so far. I'm a big fan of open source software and all, and am thankful for Mozilla and Firefox... but Apple just plain out gets it. They make stuff that functions really well and is just a pleasure to use.


Thumbnails for your top sites.



Coverflow view of your history



Developer bar so you can view source code.


and there's a really nice RSS reader built in. You can download it here.

holy crap...

this is the most amazing video I've seen in a long, long time. I've always loved when I get a crappy avi file or mp4 file and get to see that trippy kind of digital noise, especially when it gets "caught" on someone's face. These guys killed it here and I have no idea how the hell they did it. I'm amazed.

I found this video on Moving Brands blog. They do fantastic physical computing installations, check out their demo reel.

photos by Haley...

Haley does a lot of amazing things, taking pretty photos is one of them. She posted her photos from Peru on her Flickr page. They're pretty wonderful. You should look at them and have a better day because of it.

arduino class...

first Arduino test from Jason Harmon on Vimeo.

so I went to the Hactory and took a 6 hour seminar on Arduino, microcontrollers and electronics. so fun. here's what we made in class... I modified the code that we wrote in class a little to make this light blink and a little speaker make clicky noises. not too fancy I know, but I guess a guy has to start somewhere. today Haley and I went to Circle Thrift and found old toys with electronics in them. we gutted an Elmo and a baby Mickey Mouse and got all kinds of buttons and servo motors. I don't know what Im going to do with them yet... but its going to be entertaining.

so good!

I wish I were that clever.

sweet metal...

so its been a pretty metal kind of week for me. First I find out that the pastor of my new church digs metal... that's awesome. Then my buddy Allen points me to the new Lamb of God album... awesome. Then me unbelievable girlfriend gives me the gift of metal for Valentines day... she got me a photo book of a bunch of Norwegian black metal bands. (she said since it had blood on it, it would be an appropriate Valentines day gift... she rules.) THEN... talking to Allen again asking about other bands he tells me about Rosetta. Who I quickly find out are from Philly... and are playing the same night that I found out about them in Fishtown. And here's where it gets better. Jeremy a guy I work with told me a while back about a friend of his that does the visuals for Neurosis, then played with Red Sparowes, then started his own band called, A Storm of Light... which happens to be the band that Rosetta was opening for. Needless to say, awesome show. Here are some pics. I also had a killer time right before the show helping Haley sew a pillow... and as good as the show was I think I would have enjoyed continuing to sew even more.

if you really know me...

then you'll understand why this rules so much.

When Haley showed at my place for our dinner date, this is what her hands looked like.



She's pretty much my dream girl.

Here's a list comprising what we did while we were out for dinner.
1. Listened to metal music. (though I seriously doubt she liked it very much.)
2. HomeDepot to buy spray paint... which is what her hands were covered in.
3. Also at HomeDepot we found a "Clear Can" which is a revolutionary storage container with which we are creating a time capsule. (you can see its documentation in the corner of the pic.) So far the receipt for the time capsule, a business card from a Mexican restaurant, Chiclets and a penny are in it.
4. A.C. Moore for fabric dye and an impulse purchase of the February Martha Stewart Living magazine.
5. Listened to A.A. Bondy (which she may have liked a little more than Children of Bodom)
6. A lovely Mexican dinner... with complimentary Chiclets.

making stuff move...

I've wanted to know more about using my computer, and video, to control physical objects via microcontrollers for a long time now. This morning I signed up for a 6 hour seminar that should give me the basics on doing just that. I'm pretty excited about it.



It's through the Hacktory, which is amazing.

the american dollar (the band)...

I saw this video (made by my heroes at Onesize) a few weeks ago. After watching their new demo reel several times I thought I'd take another look at the video... which is great... but the music caught me this time. At work this morning I bought "A Memory Stream." Actually bought it from iTunes via my phone... crazy times we're living in. I've listened to it at least 3 times today, possibly 4.

Great music, beautiful video (which deserves to be seen in higher quality than youTube so check out Onesize.nl and while you're there check out their reel... they seriously do some of the best work going.

do these things happen to anyone else?

Bored today... thus the multiple posts. I met my buddy Matt (he's the guy on the cover of that magazine) for some coffee in Center City today. It was fairly nice out so I walked up. After hanging out / running errands with him for a few hours we parted ways at 15th and Chestnut. I decided I'd walk down 15th to Federal or so then cross over to get to my place. This seemingly random parting point for Matt and I turned into two very odd occurrences for me on my walk home.

#1. In front of McGlinchey's (Philly's #1 dive bar) I walk right pass a guy in a tuxedo. Full on tails and white bow tie. As I pass I think, "look at that guy, who in the world would be here wearing that." Then I realize that its my friend Ben. I was too far past him to yell, but I know for sure it was him. When I got home I sent him a message on facebook and I saw a status update from earlier to day, "Ben is all tuxedoed up." So weird.

#2. A girl I work with had her car "stolen" over the weekend. She'd parked her car around 13th and Pine and went back to get it and it was gone. There was a no parking sign so she thought it might have gotten towed. She called around and no one had it in their lot. The police were no help, they told her it had probably been stolen and there was basically nothing they were going to do about it. They did tell her that on occasion if people are parked in places with temporary no parking signs posted their cars are towed away and left on a different street... usually within a 3 to 4 block radius. She bought a new car this past Thursday I think, after she'd given up hope of finding her old Corrolla with a Ron Paul sticker on it. On 15th Street between Carpenter and Washington I found her Corrolla with a Ron Paul sticker on it. (almost a mile from where she'd parked) I called her an told her where it was... she was astounded... as was I.

Bizzarro-ville. Do these things happen to anyone else?? What are the chances?

good news... bad news...

This came up on my facebook page, thing, today.
I can't win.

sweet subway poster...

Saw these here. Awesome.

oh-ba-ma!!!

I'm an Obama man, don't misunderstand me... but I've been pretty uncomfortable with all the hoopla the last week. Giant concerts... dramatic orations by celebrities with full symphony accompaniment... multiple gallery exhibitions with massive bodies of work. It's just been a little odd. He's got to be the most well marked man (or perhaps most well marketed idea) that I'll see in my lifetime. And I suppose that's ok... he seems to be a man worth marketing.

I saw these today. (from fffound.com originally here) I like the absurdity of them. I don't want to come across cynical, I love what Obama has said he stands for and I'm hopeful that he really means it.

a networking genius??

I just might be.

A guy I work with has been telling me about how nice it's been since getting an XBox 360 and Xbox live. He mostly uses it to watch streaming Netflix movies. I used to have XBox live, but since moving into the new apartment I cancelled my membership because of how inconvenient it was going to be to network my XBox. My router is all the way down the hall where my desktop computer (which I use as a media server) is so I can't move it. I didn't want to run a 150ft cable down the hall either. So I figured out how to use my laptop as a wireless receiver and boost a wired connection from it to the XBox. It's working splendidly so far and I've enjoyed watching two episodes of 30 Rock. When Haley gets back I'll enjoy "Man on a Wire" with subtitles. It was tough to understand the first time since half of it was in French and the rip I had of it didn't include subtitles. Soon I'll also enjoy getting my butt handed to me by some 12 year olds in Halo.

traveling to nyc?

Here are a couple legit things I learned on my latest trip to nyc.

1. Bolt-Bus on Tuesday night rules. I paid $10 and arrived in midtown in two hours.
I'm almost positive there is no possible way to get there cheaper. If I had driven, the tolls would have cost more. The train costs $35 more at best and is only about 40 minutes faster. (but because of how the schedule worked out I actually only got there 20 minutes later than the train would have gotten me there.)

2. iPhone & Google maps is the smartest public transit navigator that I'll ever be able to fit inside my pocket. We had no clue what we were going to do... and little clue how to get there and we did things and got there fairly easily. We also had no idea how to get to JFK from where ever we might end up that day... but we did that too. And with my iPhone I was able to make it from JFK back to Penn Station all by myself in time to catch my train back to Philly.

That's about it.

so far this morning...

this is what I've done. (A is hidden by D... same location)

and... I was still the first person in the office today.

south philly 6:30am...

Had to take my car to get a few things checked out last week. After I dropped off the Breeze, I had some time to kill before meeting Haley for breakfast so I walked around for about half an hour.

carnival cruise lines = purveyors of lies

Fact: this didn't happen. The crowd in this commercial was definitely not the crowd that the fine folks at Carnival made wait around for more than 3 hours before sending home without the satisfaction of seeing a pinata smashed with a wrecking ball.

The lama stood in an empty parking lot for a week after the "event" then they quietly took it down around 9:00 on a sunday. No wrecking balls, no candy, no fanfare, nothing but a bunch of lies.

a.a. bondy

So Casey posted this link a while back (because he's cooler than me). I've probably listened to these songs 20 times over the past few days. I have a tough time figuring out why I like the music I do.... Scandinavian metal... hymns... southern folk. But whatever it is that makes me like stuff, A. A. Bondy has an awful lot of it. I love it.

Check out some of his stuff.

fishtown...

Haley and I rocked out the last of 2008 (best year of my life) by taking some pictures of Fishtown. It was cold. It was awesome.