2arrs, 2ells

Things I learned while breaking my car

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:15:25 -0600

My attempts to replace the factory radio in my beloved Subaru Forester have failed, miserably. The beautiful new stereo I purchased lies dead on my dash, no matter how hard I hope when I turn the ignition.

Despite the NPR withdrawal I’m going through, I think I’m okay with the situation, because in the process of destroying my car, I’ve learned a few things:

How to disconnect/reconnect a car battery
How to solder two wires together
How to put my car into neutral, without putting in a key
How to remove (and reattach) the vent control connectors on my car
How to remove and inspect a fuse

More than this, I’ve gained enough of an understanding for how my car works, that my Forester is no longer an intimidating black box. When I was 16 and inherited my first car, I vividly remember my dad’s instructions: “Take it to the dealership when you’re supposed to. Don’t try to fix it yourself; you’ll just end up breaking it.”

As it turns out, my dad was right, I “shot my eye out”, if you will. But this weekend I’m going to break out the soldering iron again and get my stereo working. And the next time my Forester breaks and I fix it myself, I think I’ll give him a call. Maybe he needs someone to fix his car.

Photo

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:42:11 -0600

Thoughts on Spotify

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:36:00 -0600

After holding out for an Internet-eternity, Rob and Tyler have convinced me to give Spotify a try.

I’d used a free account occasionally over the past few weeks, but I signed up for Spotify Premium ($10/mo) last night and decided to go 100% Spotify (no iTunes/Pandora) for at least the first month of my subscription.

Things I like

I made a “stuff to listen to” playlist of all of the bands people have recommended in the past few weeks (and I never got around to listening to) and it was super fast and easy. The catalog had everything I needed, and playlist creation was a snap. The friction that keeps me from trying new music is gone entirely.
Being able to send songs to people / having an inbox of songs from others. If network effects get going this (and collaborative playlists) could be what make me stay on Spotify despite the complaints below.

Things I loathe

Syncing music to the iPhone (for offline/bandwidthless play) can only be done from a desktop/laptop - it can’t happen over the Internet. This seems like a silly place for Spotify to cut corners on bandwidth costs (once I sync a song to my phone, I won’t have to stream it), and is a giant pain in the ass - my laptop is asleep 90% of the time. EDIT: The wifi network restriction only applies to local sync - you can cache files using any old wifi connection.
The iPhone app is rough around the edges. It’s not hooked into the iOS music API properly (i.e. artist name/title of song don’t show on the Lock screen). It’s forgotten where I am in a playlist on multiple occasions. It wants to gobble up a ton of space (6 GB for ~300 songs?) and doesn’t have decent space management options. EDIT: The lock screen issue seems to be a restriction of Apple’s API’s - not a Spotify problem (Pandora has the same issue).
Licensing issues for tracks are handled poorly (error message that essentially suggests pirating the song and transferring it locally). This is especially embarrassing for the 30+ unavailable tracks on the “Spotify Top 100”.
The catalog is a mess for something licensed from labels - slightly more organized that a BitTorrent tracker, but significantly less organized than iTunes/Amazon (tons of duplicate albums, “local” music confusing things, shoving multiple artists with the same name into the same artist page).

Things I’m not sure about

I’ve decided to throw privacy to the wind and embrace the Facebook integration. The sharing has been mostly cool (a FB friend writing on my wall re: the song I was listening to), and a little scary (will I listen to Britney in “public” mode once and suffer massive loss of man points?).
The social playlist sharing is even more promising, but not there yet. I have a gajillion Facebook friends, but only ~30 have musical taste I’d like to mooch off of. Spotify’s “shove your entire friend list on the app” approach results in a useless jumble for me. Additionally, there’s no easy way (that I could find) to find playlists created by tastemakers. I stumbled onto Bob Boylan’s profile (of NPR fame) - but only because I had a friend who subscribed to one of his playlists. I would kill for the ability to subscribe to a Pitchfork “Best New Music” playlist and have it sync automatically to my phone.
UI is frustratingly un-mac-like (i.e. window close buttons on the right, instead of the left of the title bar), but it’s not terrible.
Am I supporting the bands I like with my $10/mo to Spotify (vs. buying 1-2 albums for ~$10/month beforehand)?

victorwong: Dilbert’s take on “acquihiring” and the problem...

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 19:08:52 -0600

victorwong:

Dilbert’s take on “acquihiring” and the problem with at will employment.

"When they ask me who’s the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I’m going to say you know, I..."

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 19:04:34 -0600

“When they ask me who’s the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I’m going to say you know, I don’t know. Do you know? And then I’m going to say how’s that going to create one job?”

- Herman Cain, in an interview with David Brody, saying he’s ready for “gotcha questions” from the media. (via beatyourwings)

The Real Zack Morris: The State of the Art is Terrible

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:45:36 -0600

The Real Zack Morris: The State of the Art is Terrible:

zackarymorris:

I stumbled onto this post the other day through Hacker News. Basically Ryan Dahl (the guy who wrote node.js, a web framework that makes running web servers easy with javascript) called out the deplorable state of software today.

I fully agree with him.

And here’s why - I’ve seen…

beeriety: 5 Beers Inspired by Internet Memes

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:12:53 -0600

beeriety:

5 Beers Inspired by Internet Memes

Fleet foxes (Taken with Instagram at Fillmore Auditorium)

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:04:46 -0600

Fleet foxes (Taken with Instagram at Fillmore Auditorium)

americandrink: Dean Martin’s Martin Burger

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:35:48 -0600

americandrink:

Dean Martin’s Martin Burger

Fireworks (Taken with Instagram at Old Curtis Street Bar)

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:54:35 -0600

Fireworks (Taken with Instagram at Old Curtis Street Bar)

"US Airways’ call center is so bad that it’s good. Literally. US Airways’ award system doesn’t..."

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:47:10 -0600

“US Airways’ call center is so bad that it’s good. Literally. US Airways’ award system doesn’t auto-price anything, which can really work in your advantage, since geography isn’t a strong point for most US Airways agents. For example, most US Airways agents believe Madrid is in South America and Amman is in Vietnam. They also believe Europe is a country. Use that to your advantage accordingly. Along the same lines, US Airways agents are very religious, so if you have the same first name as a book in the Bible, be prepared for the agent to belch out a quick “hallelujah” (I’m actually not saying that to be funny, it has happened on more than one occasion).”

- Biggest laugh of the day courtesy of Lucky’s Airline Call Center Reviews

K-12 entrepreneurship: slow entry, distant exit (PDF)

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:45:00 -0600

K-12 entrepreneurship: slow entry, distant exit (PDF):

I’m a little late to the party (this is a 2007 paper) - but this writeup of barriers to entry/exit in the education tools space by the founders of Wireless Generation is incredible.

(via dy/dan)

assortedgoodness: Hunger Games fan-created memorabilia on etsy...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:31:06 -0600

assortedgoodness:

Hunger Games fan-created memorabilia on etsy = awesome. (via The Hunger Games Painted Shoes by Nickinverted on Etsy)

Byting the Apple: Getting settled

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:46:47 -0600

Byting the Apple: Getting settled:

bytingtheapple:

Now that the Bali/Hong Kong Adventure is over, and the bulk of the grunt work (teacher laptop imaging, equipment purchasing, Google Apps Migration, new user setup) has finished, I’ve started to have a bit of fun.

Today’s accomplishments:
…

Getting the workblog going again!

assortedgoodness: “Woody” (via Woody | The High Definite) Just...

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:47:57 -0600

assortedgoodness:

“Woody” (via Woody | The High Definite)

Just watched Toy Story 3 — amazing.

Sunday

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:14:05 -0600

Sunday

greatdividebrew: Oh, dreary, blustery day, Please feel free to...

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:24:07 -0600

greatdividebrew:

Oh, dreary, blustery day,

Please feel free to go away,

But while you’re here,

We’ll crack open a beer.

Lately, Colette has been getting all the attention,

But, dear friends, it’s not our only seasonal invention!

With clouds and wind and rain on the way,

Time for Yeti and 17th Anniversary today.

With smooth cocoa nibs and a kick of cayenne,

This Yeti aint just a flash in the pan.

And Anniv, our love, with oak-y great flavor,

For this cold day, it’s perfect to savor!

Williams graduation (Taken with Instagram at Williamstown, MA)

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:56:25 -0600

Williams graduation (Taken with Instagram at Williamstown, MA)

mollybierman: big things going on at mckinsey today oh, and...

Wed, 25 May 2011 12:50:41 -0600

mollybierman:

big things going on at mckinsey today

oh, and BRB, busy editing google map

"Now for our expert review. Text expert, Grandma, is happy to report that contrary to her disgust..."

Wed, 25 May 2011 12:40:47 -0600

“Now for our expert review. Text expert, Grandma, is happy to report that contrary to her disgust with the constant forced rhymed couplet texts of too many new picturebooks, she finds these rhymes well-imaged, refreshing and fun. Grandpa thinks the illustrations are very well done & designed across the pages. We both thoroughly enjoyed the book and think it is an essential reinforcement for new parents. The problem, of course, is the language, realistic as it is, which makes it unfortunately impossible for any children’s librarian to have or support in the children’s collection. And what a shame & loss for the potential readers!”

- My (professional book reviewer) grandparents’ take on Go the F**k to Sleep