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And the best costume goes to...

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:40:00 +0000

Thus far, the best comment of the season I've heard is, "Mother Nature wore the best Halloween costume this year. She came as Winter!"

Things have been busy in my world so far through the end of the Summer and this Autumn. There has been plenty of photography, a lot of culinary exploration, home improvements (you should see the new window treatments in the living room!) and of course the iPhone 4S.

Readers and followers of mine will know that I had been limping along with my iPhone 3GS for quite some time, suffering numerous problems - not the least of which was a dead corner of the screen. Purchasing the iPhone 4S was an eye-opening experience and odds are I will not wait like this again. To be sure, the user experience has completely redefined my mobile computing and iOS 5 has all but eliminated my desire to jailbreak the phone (sorry, iPad 2 - you're still getting jailbroken).

A close second to the massive performance boost is the camera on the new iPhone.
The image linked in this post was shot with, edited on, and uploaded from my iPhone. The editing was done in a cocktail bar while out with friends and the shot still looks really nice. The new device and OS open up a lot of opportunities for shutter bugs everywhere. We can shoot with the phone and, via Photo Stream, edit on an iPad and then, again via Photo Stream, have the new image back on the iPhone for texting. Or, as seen here, we can just skip the iPad all together and edit right on the phone.

I've saved the best for last. Over the last several months I've lost a lot of weight, and I do mean a lot. I've been investing in a new wardrobe and I'm really excited to show off the new coat I picked up. It's the REI Torridon Jacket - a soft shell weight jacked with a micro fleece lining and a wool exterior. It's perfect for New England Fall and given my resistance to cold will push me well into December or farther. It's such a nice coat that when I was trying it on in the store a random guy approached me, asked where I found it, and proceeded to try one on himself. We both bought one. You're welcome, REI.

Lastly, this blog is stagnating a bit given my heavier use of Twitter. Follow me there for more frequent updates, but I'll do my best to update this site at least every season.

Black Rapid FastenR-T1 weight capacity

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:23:00 +0000

Since I had difficulty finding exactly what the weight capacity of the FastenR-T1 is, I emailed Black Rapid's customer support. Here's what I heard back:

The FR-T1 had a straight pull breaking point at just over 1000 lbs.

Pretty much speaks for itself, doesn't it? Anyhow, I'm posting this in the hopes that it helps someone else in their search.

Paste unformatted text with QuickSilver

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 01:56:00 +0000

One of my favorite power-uses of QuickSilver is the Clipboard History plugin. As described on 43 Folders (link), I use a trigger to pop the contents of the clipboard history up right within my normal QuickSilver window!

One feature my old standby, Launchbar, has that the Clipboard History plugin doesn't is the ability to paste something from the clipboard history in plain text. I've solved that challenge.

Fire up your favorite Applescript Editor (I prefer the one that comes out of the box) and insert this code:

using terms from application "Quicksilver"
 on process text _text
  try
   set the clipboard to _text
   do shell script "pbpaste |pbcopy"
  on error errMsg
   display dialog errMsg
  end try
  
  try
   tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "v" using command down
   end tell
  end try
 end process text
end using terms from

Save this file as a script in ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions. Name it whatever you like; I chose "Paste Unformatted". You may need to restart QuickSilver to see this action detected. You'll find it as a Text action (make sure it's enabled). And that's it - you can now use this action with text from your clipboard history!

Saugus Ironworks

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:41:00 +0000

On the day after the potential government shutdown, a friend and I took a trip to the Saugus Ironworks - a National Historic Site run by park rangers in Saugus, MA.

It was a beautiful day to be outside and a perfect site to take some pictures. The reconstruction was amazing and the tour guide was filled with knowledge. I was amazed to learn that a 508lb hammer head was found just a few feet under the road. This site and tour has really inspired me to visit more parks and support the National Park Service.

See the set of photos here.

T General Manager gives up his car

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:08:00 +0000

Universal Hub writes:

The Globe reports Richard Davey and his wife have ditched their car and now rely on their CharlieCards and Zipcar to get around. You may recall his predecessor was chauffeured around in an MBTA SUV.

Good for them! I wonder what lines they'll take regularly, and what change this will invite.

Firefox 4 extensions I love so far

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I'm loving Firefox 4 so far, but have needed a couple of new plugins to be fully happy.

Firefox 4 UI Fixer - Allows you to drag icons from the Add-On bar (formerly status bar) to your toolbar.

RSS Icon - Makes the RSS Icon appear in the location bar as it used to.

Google's universal library stopped

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:19:00 +0000

This is a big one, and one I'm not even quite sure how I feel about. As a technologist, I relish the freedom of information. There are plenty of arguments, good and bad, on both sides.

At the end of the day it's up to the people who ultimately own the content of a book to decide how it is distributed and what it costs. That's what copyrights are. It's not up to the library to sell that content, it's up to the publishers and the authors.

(via CNN)

gMail contacts on the iPhone via Exchange - why not?

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:51:00 +0000

I've been using Google Calendar for a while now and have been syncing it to my iPhone with CalDAV until recently. I recently switched to Google's Exchange implementation and have been loving it. For one thing, I can view and edit multiple calendars with just one account. For another, I don't have to subscribe to read-only calendars directly with my phone.

So I decided to give the Contact syncing a try. Why not, right? I already had the account set up!

Synchronization worked like a charm, but one issue presented itself immediately: contact image quality. On my iPhone, I keep high-quality images for most of my contacts so I have a full-screen identifying visual when they call. With a lower quality image, the contact's icon only shows up in the corner. That's a huge pet peeve for me and, so far as I can tell, insurmountable when syncing with Google's Exchange server. It seems to reduce the contact image size automatically.

What a bummer! I'm back to syncing via my computer and AddressBook, though AddressBook does keep itself synced with Google so there's a small silver lining.

Disappointing, but understandable.

iOS 4.2 to add new or custom SMS tones?

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:54:00 +0000

I don't normally get excited about things AppleInsiter posts. In fact, I usually glaze over them. That changed tonight with this post stating that the latest 4.2 beta adds a number of new SMS tones. My hope is that this means custom tones, or at least something loud enough to wake me while I'm on call. This rumor is enough to keep me from getting a pager until I learn the details for sure.

Back to Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:44:00 +0000

I was speaking with a friend about Safari vs Chrome today and he mentioned he'd been having problems with Safari for ages. That surprised me until he explained that his problems seemed to have to do with a memory leak. That definitely resonated with me; I've had similar problems. So it's back to Chrome for me. We'll see how long it lasts this time!

Airport Express

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 23:58:00 +0000

Image taken from the Apple store.

I've been fooling around with various solutions to play my music collection through my home theater system for some time now. The one thing I've been totally resistant to thus far is plugging in a computer because I've already got devices to cover all of my needs. Except this one - not fully, anyhow.

For a while, I used my TiVo HD and some open source media server solutions. The quality of the interface was just lacking for me, so I moved on. Since I have a couple of other systems connected to my receiver - a Wii and a Playstation 3, I decided to try my luck with one of these. I purchased an application called MediaLink for my mac to stream to the PS3.

This definitely went better than my TiVo, but I still wasn't happy. The stream would get mucked up when my time machine backups to my time capsule would kick off over the air, and my music would get choppy. The interface was clunky. And, by then, I'd rediscovered last.fm. I wanted a better interface and an ability to scrobble.

My good friend Skadz suggested a dongle from Audio Engine that sends all audio from the computer over to the receiver, but this didn't quite fit my needs. I wanted to be able to be selective, to only stream from iTunes. My answer came in the form of a product that has existed for years: Apple's Airport Express.

The Airport Express has done everything I wanted and more. It's improved my user experience by simply letting me play music through iTunes (and sometimes control it using Remote on my iPhone). It's receiving only my iTunes audio, ignoring everything else. It lets me scrobble (because I'm really playing music on my computer). And one more unexpected bonus - the music just sounds better. I had wondered why I wasn't hearing it the way I felt I should, and it turns out it's because the TiVo and the PS3 have their own little equalizers inside. The Airport Express seems to use the iTunes EQ, so I have more control over my experience and quality.

If it sounds like I'm a commercial, maybe I am in a way. When there's a product out there giving me an extremely positive experience, I like to tell people about it. It's in my own best interest - other people buying it will help keep it around and evolving.

Format change

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 01:47:00 +0000

I find that the more I think about what to write here, the less I write here. Then the blog just winds up dying. So, going forward, I'm going to post my raw thoughts as they come. Posts may be more frequent, may be shorter, may be a lot of things. Probably won't be profound, though. I'm good with that, I think.

Initial thoughts on iOS4

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:06:00 +0000

I've been meaning to write up some initial thoughts on the new iPhone OS since I upgraded. Now is as good a time as any, and I'm writing using my iPhone so I'll actually keep it short.

I like it.

I could really stop there, but I won't.

1. All of the cool new features were available to me when I was jail-broken but I had no interest. Now that they're built-in I'm all over them. I think that's fascinating.

2. The folder icons are ugly.

3. The phone feels snappier. And yes, I am still jail-broken.

4. Double-tapping the home button is clunky. Sometimes I wind up on the spotlight page instead of the backgrounded app pane.

5. Still can't add custom SMS tones. This is still my main reason for jail breaking.

Overall I think they did well with this one.

My (not so) triumphant return to the Coolidge Corner Trader Joe's

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:12:00 +0000

I knew it was a bad idea when I did it, but I just couldn't help myself. I went back to the Coolidge Corner Trader Joe's today. Why do I do these things to myself? Sure, it's convenient - I live right there, get off the T right there, and I only needed three items. But that store is void of any goodness.

This store, while large from the eye of a city dweller, is tight quarters and always packed. What's worse, the people who frequent this store are the inconsiderate and oblivious type. I was hit no less than eight times with shopping carts and baskets in my brief shopping trip. I counted. Three apologized. I smiled and thanked them.

Finally I arrived at the checkout counter where I was immediately crowded by a frustrating woman who sight animatedly every thirty seconds or so and checked her watch. She stood so close to me that I actually hit her with my basket when I turned stationary to my left. I apologized. She clicked her tongue and looked at her watch.

Normally I shop at what I like to call The Holy Trinity: the Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and CVS clustered around each other at the Fresh Pond Mall in Cambridge. Whole foods is an absolute mecca of all things edible. The Trader Joe's there is spacious and pleasant at all times, great for finding my bulk-packaged foods. And the CVS is large and in charge, having any housewares I might need.

Sure, I drive a bit to reach The Holy Trinity, but it's worth it - even for three items.

The aquapocalypse is over.

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sun, 09 May 2010 18:58:00 +0000

As anyone who doesn't live underneath a rock knows, recently Boston saw a failure of a water main, leaving the city proper and its surrounding communities (e.g. me) without drinkable water for a few days. Twitter dubbed this the aquapocalypse. Of course we later found out that the water was drinkable the whole time, but I'm perfectly fine with being safe rather than sorry.

Still, this does leave me reflecting on my days in Vermont, and how I could have been better prepared for this "disaster." It amazes me how complacent I have become now that I no longer live in a place where being snowed in means more than not feeling like going out in the snow. Here I am, unprepared. I had no bottled water or canned food in the basement - not that I wound up needing to consume either. But what if it had been worse? What if there was no running water to boil? Indeed, this was a reminder that these things can happen.

So I'll be stocking myself up for a couple of days worth of rations. Odds are that by the time something happens causing me to need them I won't even remember they're there, but I do know I'd have been a wee bit happier through this if I'd had something drink while my pot of boiled water was cooling.

Back to paper books?

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:29:00 +0000

This morning I stopped at the Brookline Booksmith on my way to the office to pick up a copy of The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten.

I spent a lot of time trying to track down an ebook edition for this book, and the closest I came was the lengthy preview on GoogleBooks. Finally I relented and went in for a paper copy.

I specifically stopped this morning because I wanted to get started on my commute in this morning, and that may have been my first mistake. I was immediately reminded why I love my Kindle so much. Although I was fortunate enough to score a seat on the green line, holding that book open and at eye level with my backpack on my lap and crammed between two other people was unwieldy at best. The pages dropped over, and the book was just awkward to hold. It was also heavier than the Kindle. I immediately began to miss my eBook reading experience. And this is why I spent so long hunting for an eBook edition, deferring this book from the top of my list time and again.

So what's the verdict? Well, it's nice to have paper in my hands again, but it's a return to a less than pleasant reading experience on my commute. I love to read on my commute, so this is a big deal for me. I think giving paper another shot was worthwhile now that I've had the perspective, but my immediate reaction has already told me what I need to know. So I'll finish this book, which I'm already enjoying a great deal, and go back to my beloved eBooks. Hopefully I won't have to switch yet again.

Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:20:00 +0000

Bob Delaney is a referee for the NBA, but that wasn't his first job. Before basketball, he was a New Jersey State Trooper who worked deep cover to infiltrate the mob on the Jersey waterfront. This autobiography outlines the events of his under cover life.

I enjoyed reading this book very much for the most part. Although it opened on the basketball court, something I had little to no interest in, it jumped quickly into the law enforcement side of things. Delaney did a great job describing his experiences and created quite a page turner - until about three quarters of the way through, where I found the one major disappointment.

After surviving his time undercover, Delaney glazes over his time in court. He describes how he became an instructor at the academy, revolutionizing training on the subject of organized crime, but once again glazed over any experiences. Instead, he quickly moved on to his basketball career, which he described in great detail. If you're interested in how he became a referee, this is great. For me, it was very frustrating. I wanted to know more about the court experience, more about the training experiences, more about the law enforcement side. This is, after all, why I was reading the book.

Still, all in all I enjoyed the read. Even if you stop when the basketball discussion starts, it's worth the time.

[See this book on goodreads.com]

Let's talk about umbrellas

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:14:00 +0000

Okay, Boston, let's talk about umbrellas for a moment. You know, they're the things you carry to keep you dry(ish) in the rain that we've been experiencing over the last few days.

Well let me tell you something, Boston. Those gigantic golf umbrellas that take up the entire sidewalk and have a large point at the top of them as if to beg lightning to strike them? They're far better used when held above your head to protect you than they are when held before you like a knight's lance.

Of course, that was the scene a couple of days ago as I walked to work. I emerged from South Station, popped open my own, one-person sized, umbrella, and started marching toward the office. Unfortunately, I found myself blocked by two rain knights of the round umbrella, galloping toward me with umbrellas forward. They blocked the entire sidewalk and could not even see what was in front of them. I was forced to retreat into the street, dodging cars and the puddles they splashed through. When they realized what they'd done, they offered me a mumbled, "Sorry," then dropped their umbrellas in front of them once more and plodded on.

People, don't block the sidewalks. It's a simple rule of being a pedestrian. Walk with the flow of traffic, and don't block the sidewalk. Perhaps they'd have been okay without those monstrosities that did nothing to keep them dry, but as it was they got in everyone's way and damn near skewered me.

Adventures on the MBTA: CSI

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:52:00 +0000

Perhaps it could be a new show - CSI: MBTA.

This morning's commute started like any other - caught my inbound green line train at Coolidge Corner, was able to snag a seat at Hynes Convention Center, and from there continued the slow ride into town.

Until we stopped at Copley. The trolley operator came on the speaker and said, "We will be standing by for a few minutes." About a minute later, the doors closed and we moved forward to Arlington. Things seemed normal. Then we stopped in the tunnel and were told we'd be standing by.

"Great," I thought, "signal problems or a disabled train. So much for being on time to work." A few minutes later, we were told we'd be standing by again. Shortly thereafter, "Signal problems in Boylston." Then we sat. And sat. And sat some more. Eventually, "We will be adversing to Arlington where you can get the bus." I have to assume she meant reversing, but instead we started creeping forward.

Eventually we hit Boylston, and I prepared for the train to be taken out of service and for my walk to South Station from there. But it never happened. We moved on to Park Street, and I disembarked to head for the red line and finish my commute. But what I saw stopped me in my tracks.

It wasn't the dead green line train marked, "No Service," across the way. That's nothing new. It wasn't that there was a green line train destined for Government Center that was three feet behind the out of service train. It's hard to describe the scene in a meaningful way.

To my right was a woman talking on her mobile phone, plugged into an outlet and acting a bit frantic. There were MBTA police, supervisors, and operators everywhere. There was a man trying to explain that he was heading for the orange line, but didn't seem to be allowed to get there. An MBTA supervisor was blocking the way to the left, not that there's much back there, and straight ahead of me was a man with a fancy looking camera and a coat that read, "MBTA Police Crime Scene Unit."

All of that together gave me a bizarre feeling. I've been told that crime scene units are usually only called for very violent crimes that include, say, death. I don't know how true that is, and I don't know what happened, but the whole thing gave me an uneasy feeling.

I decided I'd find out from the internet later what had happened, and made way to the red line to continue my henceforth uneventful commute.

How much would you pay for an eBook?

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:16:00 +0000

Lifehacker takes a survey.

Publishers should probably be doing this kind of research before they start battling to raise prices. I hope they're listening!

Macmillan books gets Amazon to raise prices, almost guarantees I'll never buy one.

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:50:00 +0000

From the Amazon Kindle team:

Macmillan E-books - kindle Discussion Forum: "We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative."

Now John Gruber over at Daring Fireball says that Apple has successfully disrupted Amazon's Kindle business, but I think a little bit differently.

I think that Apple has successfully laid the groundwork to raise the standard price of eBooks. And I think that is going to seriously damage the eBook format. Would I pay $15 for the privilege of reading something I could pay $10 or less for by picking it up at the local book store I walk by every day on my way home? I sincerely doubt it, and I think it's absurd that publishers should want to charge more for something that costs less to produce.

Publishers need to start waking up and reading the writing on the walls the way the music industry has been forced to do. Things are changing. Paying a premium to read a book early might work. Waiting to release an eBook until softcovers come out might work. But charging more for an eBook than a softcover? Good luck with that.

Why I think the iPad is a threat to the Amazon Kindle

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:35:00 +0000

I am not impressed by the iPad as a device, especially as an eBook reading device. The amount of eye strain it will cause just doesn't do it for me. But here's something it does do: it uses the ePub format.

Now let's remember that there's a small format war happening here between the Kindle and, well, everyone else. The Nook, the Sony Reader, the iRiver Story, and now the iPad all use the ePub format.

Like or not, the iPad is going to help jumpstart eBook reading, and when it does it's going to become a major player. In doing so, it's going to add a good bit of market share for the ePub format. And that, in my mind, is a threat to the Kindle.

Magic Mouse: Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:34:00 +0000

A friend at the office was kind enough to switch mice with me today - he has a new Magic Mouse where I rock the older bluetooth Mighty Mouse, so I could get a feel for it and see what I thought. He shared his thoughts with me, and now I want to put together my own.

From my reading, I knew that I would miss being able to squeeze the sides of the mouse to open exposé, but I know there are apps to add gestures with actions so I am not hugely concerned.

The hardware is very light and glides nicely on my desktop. I am not sure I'd like it on a mouse pad, but I don't have one and it tracked well for me so it was a non-issue. The first challenge I encountered was the question of how to make the device discoverable. I looked inside the battery case to see if there was a button, but there was not one. On a hunch, I switched the mouse on and tried to search for it immediately. This worked. It actually looks like the device stays discoverable at all times - something I'm not that big on. I would have preferred a way to put it into discovery mode, and otherwise have it undiscoverable.

Using the mouse was another story. Its low profile was a different experience for me because it meant holding my hand up instead of resting it on the body of the mouse. I could feel the corners of the mouse in my palm rather than the comfortable rounded feel of the mighty mouse. The scrolling gesture was great, I have to say, and scrolling with momentum is nice. One negative to the scrolling is the overall feel of the surface. It reminded me of my iPhone without a screen protector. My finger would stick a little bit, and the gestures wouldn't be as smooth. I enjoy the screen protector on my phone for this reason, and wonder if putting something like that on the magic mouse might make me happier. Should I buy the mouse, I may pick up another screen protector and try popping it on there just to see.

So to sum it up, I like it a lot. I prefer the form factor of the Mighty Mouse, and if I could have that form factor with the Magic Mouse's functionality I'd be sold and happy.

Penguins at the New England Aquarium

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:24:00 +0000

Penguins at the New England Aquarium
Originally uploaded by marq 2.0

Hello, Kobo

noreply@blogger.com (Marq 2.0) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Wired has a neat story about kobo, a new eBook store that sells books in the ePub format. The short version? Kobo is betting on an open eBook format that works on multiple platforms where Amazon is not. Books bought here work on a whole list of devices that the Kindle is missing from. But Stanza, an app I've mentioned here before, can read DRM-free ePub eBooks and can export into the Amazon format. Is it more work? Yup. Is it worth it? Depends on the book, your device, and the stance you take.