Dude, add me to the list of folks who just do not get MySpace.

Yes, I have a profile there, which basically says: I’m only here because people I know are here….

As someone who has worked in the field of design and usability, the site is a complete nightmare. The first time I logged in, I almost fell off my chair. It would give Jakob Nielsen a heart attack. Matt nails it in Myutterconfusionspace. I know the kids love it, and the reason must be because we old folks can’t stand it. But still, I know people my age (or, well, a few years younger) who seem to like it quite a bit.

There’s been talk of MySpace elsewhere as well. Some of the points made were that MySpace is the cool thing right now, and while people who are no longer in their 20’s may actually care about archiving their own stuff on the web permanently (via blog, videoblogs, etc. that they control) the kids only care about today, and never really think about the future.

That last bit is pretty important to some of us. Jay Dedman has this idea of using the web to archive his live, to save those moments for the future so he, and others that know him can look at it, and in the future, look back at it. It’s a great idea, in line with Ourmedia, Archive.org, and what many bloggers are doing. It’s the reason I have archives going back over 8 years here and try really hard not to break that.

Plenty of people believe that MySpace replaced Friendster, and some go as far as to say that Flickr fits into the same category (groups, friends, sharing, etc.) but in the end, I still prefer the independent network created by bloggers. We started this thing in 1997 without any assistance from big sites, just bootstrapping ourselves, and that’s the way I like it. Here’s to the future, in my very own space…

We went over some syncing stuff in Calendar Woes (Part 2), and needless to say, syncing is a major feature, and it’s one we want to work correctly, but sadly, it sometimes doesn’t…

I finally got around to reformatting my drive that had a 20 GB ‘Media’ partition and making it a 40 GB partition. In doing this I backed up my iTunes library, reformatted the drive, then restored my iTunes library. I used ditto to do this, and all files ended up back where they belonged. I lauched iTunes and it found everything just fine. (I won’t get into discussing inodes here, but they probably play some part in what comes next.)

Now that I had all this extra room, and all seemed well, I was happy. Until I decided to sync my iPod. Upon doing so, it seemed to think every single file was changed/updated/modified in some way. So the sync took hours and hours and hours. Hey, at least it worked!

As for the Nokia 7610, I solved one Bluetooth connection problem, and 99% of the time, iSync does the right thing when dealing with calendars and contacts, but every now and then, there is a slight freakout. Today it would not sync, so I ended up deleting the device in iSync and setting it up again (which I should not have done.) This was partly my fault, because for some reason Bluetooth was turned off on my phone. I say partly because I know I didn’t turn it off, so I assume it turned itself off. (?) Anyway, upon getting everything synced up again, iSync thought it was a new device (since I just set it up) and synced everything, which took some time. This time all of the 1-touch numbers (except for one) got unassigned. In the past I’ve managed to lose one or two of the assigned numbers, but this time almost all of them were lost. Sigh…

As much as I love technology and the gadgets that should make our lives easier, it’s sometimes a pain to deal with them…

Thanks for interest in the Mac OS X Virus! Please read the following to install.

Locate the “virus” file. (Your best bet in finding it is some untrusted source.)

Download the “virus” file.

gzunip the “virus” file.

untar the “virus” file.

su to root.

run the virus.

Look, I know it’s a lot of work. Honestly Windows is still light years ahead of Mac OS X as far as automatic installs of viruses.

TO DO: Write a nice GUI for the “virus” that has a cool Aqua look to it and asks for an administrator password before running.

Dear Charter… you still suck.

I guess it’s good that you upgraded your system but…

I try to log in, no good. I try to have you send me my password, no good. I try again, no good. I try the “live chat” support but it has been very busy and is currently unavailable, and it is a Saturday, and I should make a phone call. Right? I fill out a form complaining about your site and service, and after I submit it, I finally get the email that says I have a new password, good. I log in, good. I try to change my password, but you balk and say it must be at least 8 characters, even though the one you sent me is less that 8 characters. I then get another email, with another password, so I’m guessing you’ve given me a new one, I know most systems use some sort of URL with a hash value to actually change your password, but not you guys! I try to click on a link and it opens a new window, so I close it and attempt to open it in a new tab, but that fails because you are not using real links, but freaking’ Javascript pseudo-links, so much for accessiblity eh?

I’m guessing I may do the same thing next month when I want to pay my bill again. So if you get a chance, you know, you might want to make it easier for me to give you my money. Just a thought…

Boy let me tell you, that iPod with the Video really sucks up the battery!

Last week while sitting in the airport for hours (and hours) I was able to watch many videoblogs and a few of the appendixes of Lord of the Rings (thanks HandBrake!) but it could not have happened without the Griffin TuneJuice.

It takes a single 9 volt battery, but be warned, it chews through them pretty quickly. I used two within the span of a few hours. I was watching video though, I’m sure you’d get better performance froma purely audio experience.

There’s also a product from Belkin called the Battery Pack for iPod w/Dock Connector which is similar but uses AA batteries. If I thought it was something I’d use all the time I would have gotten the Belkin product, which is way more expensive, but I figure I’d make it up in batteries, since I have a bunch of rechargable AA’s.

I’ve also got a 9 volt adapter for the car, so for long car trips the TuneJuice should work quite well… Nothing keeps the kids quiet like watching The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

You know, years ago when the iPod first came out, I though “Damn, a decent MP3 player, that’s also an external hard drive… Nice!”

So I found it slightly amusing when I suggested to someone that they use their iPod as an external hard drive, and they indicated that it hadn’t really occured to them. Hmmm…

So in the spirit of a public service announcement, let me tell you that the iPod works fine as an external hard drive. Back up some files today!

Thank you and good night…

I’ve already mentioned that I love watching the Olympics, but the love is fading… I’m starting to miss a few of the NBC shows I actually enjoy. Nevertheless, out of everything I’ve seen so far (and I’ve had the Moxie running overtime) without a doubt, the greatest event has to be snowboard cross.

Man, I love the freakin’ snowboard cross. It’s somewhat similar to a game we used to play with skateboards in the empty parking lot of some closed down store, which involved more than 4 guys, definite contact, and many cuts, scrapes and bruises… Ahhh, good times…

I like Ricky Gervais, I really do… but I won’t be paying for his podcast. See Ricky Gervais takes podcasting paid-for.

I really hope things don’t go this way. I’d prefer to see sponsorships, underwriting, or even flat out advertising (if well done) rather than a straight pay-for scheme.

In the long run this could hurt podcasting, if it’s assumed people will gladly pay $7 per month per podcast. I don’t know how many podcasts you subscribe to, but that could add up quickly. We we started this whole podcasting thing, we made sure it was open, and that anyone can do it. Hopefully the majority of the podcasting world will remain open and free, and hopefully that’s where all of the interesting stuff will happen.

Josh Kinberg has a great post about YouTube and how they rode obvious copyright infringement to success. I’m not a fan of YouTube, in my opinion, they’re doing video on the web wrong, wrong, wrong…

My take on this: There is a part of the population that seems to live solely to republish that which they have no right to republish (it’s probably the same folks who steal your bandwidth by displaying images on your server in every forum they sign up for.) These are people who usually don’t think about it, they just figure “if it’s out there, it’s up for grabs.” Maybe they’ve never created something that they felt they had the rights to control. I don’t know…

There is also a part of the population that is creative, and actually makes their own media, using only that which they have the right to use. This is the future of the internet, creation of art and media by the people, not just theft and redistribution of content. Every time I see a videoblog post that uses music that I’m 95% sure the creator did not get the rights to use, I plan on leaving a comment asking about it. I think it’s sad that many in the videoblogging community still do this, and think that it may fall under fair use (when it clearly doesn’t) or brush it off saying they are not making any money from it, or that they are helping promote someone else…

If we are truly going to “be the media” we need to act responsibly in what we do.

I’ve been using Bluetooth with my Nokia phone seamlessly for the last 8 months when all of a sudden things sort of stopped working. I say “sort of” because some things worked, like sending files to the phone from the Mac using Bluetooth File Exchange, and the iSync stuff worked fine, but I could not send things from my phone to my Mac.

Some quick searching came across what sounded like the same problem Broken Bluetooth Mac OS X 10.4.4, and a small mention on a MacInTouch 10.4.4 page: “Since upgrading to 10.4.4 on my dual 2.0 G5, my Bluetooth no longer communicates with any of my devices.”

I tried re-establishing the connection between the phone and the Mac, and that didn’t work, I tried standing on my head while pressing “Send” and that didn’t work, and I then tried chaning a bunch of settings in my Bluetooth Preference Pane, and that sort of worked!

I’ll need to do more tests, but it seems like if I open the Bluetooth Preference Pane, and click around between the ‘Settings’, ‘Devices’, and ‘Sharing’ tabs while I hit “Send” on the phone, it will work, and files will transfer. I’ve done this a few times now, and I’m hoping it’s not just coincidence.

I’ve not yet installed the 10.4.5 update, (Apple, when you will stop requiring a reboot for these updates!?) but that might fix the problem. We’ll see…

Since I’ll be using the Java and the JSP, I’ll be needed Tomcat for the Mac OS X.

The simplest way to do so seems to be by getting Server Logistic’s Complete Tomcat 4.1.24 package. And yes, it’s okay that it’s Tomcat 4.x and not 5.x since that what I need to use…

Onward and upward to The World of Java!

I love watching the Olympics, and I know I’ll get in trouble for this… but I love watching people wreck.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but seeing people wipe out can be quite spectacular. The “Ooooh! That’s gotta hurt!” responses and all that. Pure Gold!

I blame television for this, more specifically, ABC’s Wide World of Sports. As a child I remember seeing Vinko Bogataj wipe out week after week to the phrase “…the agony of defeat…” While it’s amazing to see athletes do the things they’ve trained to do, and do them spectacularly, it can be even more amazing to see something happen that no one ever expected to happen. Um… spectacularly!

I’d be the first in line to order a DVD titled “Blooplympics: Wipe-outs, Crashes, and Wrecks from the 2006 Olympic Games” or something like that… Maybe they’ll show a blooper reel at the end…

Simon posted some great notes from the Future of Web Apps Summit, which are a must read for people interested in building web applications the right way.

The comments also mention more notes at Adactio and mp3 files (what, no enclosures?) at SteveC’s blog.

I am once again trying Eclipse, mainly for dealing with Java code. I’ve never been a big fan of IDE’s , choosing instead to live by the “unix way” of stitching together small specific tools into a chain that works how I want it to. jEdit has been my text editor of choice for years now. Yes, I’m one of those people who lives in their editor, and had customized it, and tweaked it, and made it mine to the point that I’m not about to give it up. Still, I’ll see what the Eclipse has to offer…

It has been brought to my attention that I snore. Loudly. Very loudly.

When I was a kid I did not believe it when my brother told me that I snored, so he set up the reel-to-reel tape recorder and proved it to me. The results were astounding.

I’ll be sure to follow Mr. Orchard’s advice: If you snore, get tested for sleep apnea. Now. but in the meantime (meaning I’ve not yet made an appointment) I decided to record my snoring to experience it in all it’s glory. What else would a geek do?

The cheap little iRiver I have only records 2 hours and 15 minutes, but that’s enough to get a good taste of it. It’s been interesting looking at the waveforms, it seems that the first 30 minutes or so are pretty calm, then it gets pretty damn lound for the next 30 minutes, then tapers off just a bit after that.

What, you want to hear it? I’ve put a sample file up on Ourmedia that is about 19 minutes long, right at the loudest point. See: Extreme Snoring 001. (I could do a whole podcast based on snoring!) It’s under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license so feel free to remix it, mash it up, or use it for whatever you’d like (annoy the neighbors?) as long as you abide by the license. (If you’d like to license it under different terms, just contact me.)