Those who only know the Steve Miller Band from Take the Money and Run forward missed their best work and the enduring reason why (some of) their music remains on the Rancho DeNada playlist.
In 1968 the band played live at KPFA in Berkeley, California. Included in the setlist was what I believe to be their best song. The rocking Steppin’ Stone, from their 1968 record Children of the Future. You might recognize the lead singer on this track. Another guy whose far superior early work is overshadowed by his later commercial success.
Delaney saw some deer tracks, and decided she needed to carve a spear. Maybe persistence hunting will be her next sport.
I think Y2K was the last time I was as militantly uninterested in something as I am in 3D printing. In fact, reading things like this convinces me that someone has too much time on his hands. Call me when you can print backwards or forwards in time.
I used to love to eat at Roy Rogers in college. Tab, not so much.
So we have known for a while that the Surface RT sucks. I still think the Surface Pro will be a nice device. Would anyone with two brain cells to rub together prefer it to a MacBook Air? Nope. These things are going to be way too expensive. TechCrunch is wrong about them being priced right, but right about the prior release of the Surface RT being wrong.
Google Apps are getting closer and closer to becoming a viable Microsoft Office alternative. Here’s the thing, though. No one needs an office suite at home any more. Everything is done via email, Evernote and social networks. And few big companies are going to abandon Office any time soon. So it doesn’t really matter. Office suites are the fax machines of this decade.
I still love my Fitbit. My only complaint is that the device continues to fall out of the holder on a semi-regular basis. I had another near-loss at a gas station the other day. I’ve started clipping it on my pants pocket, with the device on the inside. Not the end of the world, but it makes it hard to check on stats during the day.
I thought about getting the new Fitbit wristband, but I don’t like wearing things on my wrists or fingers. I don’t wear any rings and take my watch off as soon as I get home. I’m also suspicious of its ability to accurately measure steps on a treadmill, where your arms don’t move as much (e.g., when you’re holding on to something trying not to have a heart attack, and so forth).
Fillmore West was a historic music venue in San Francisco, California made famous by concert promoter Bill Graham. Named after Graham’s original “Fillmore” location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it stood at Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue and was formerly known as both The Carousel Ballroom and El Patio.
Who cares about guns, the debt ceiling or imaginary girlfriends- there is a greater threat to deal with. One the affects us all. We must act now, before it’s too late.
Of the many, many tech gadgets I have bought, my Chumby takes its place among the most used and useful. It soldiers away on a shelf in my closet, and has shown me weather, news, the Onion and some awesome webcams for years. I use it literally every day, if only for a minute or so as I am getting dressed.
But that’s about to end.
The company that made Chumbys and operated the servers that run them went out of business last year. Since then, an awesome group of volunteers have kept the platform operational. But according to a blog post in the Chumby community forum:
As most of you know, Chumby Industries went out of business just about a year ago. The current service has been maintained by a handful of volunteers, including myself, and the service itself has been paid for by various entities – the Chumby estate, then the assignee for the assets, and finally a company that does not wish to be identified.
Unfortunately, that will be coming to a halt soon. As of the end of this coming February, the current service will no longer be paid for.
So – what does this mean? Well, if nothing happens, all of the devices go dark, and all of the various services, including this forum the wiki, the widgets, the Control Panel, source code, development tools, etc., all disappears
Adios amigo
There is a plan to keep at least some functionality operational, as outlined later in that same post. People are working hard to keep Chumbys operational, but it will depend on a lot of volunteer work and, likely, some donations. It costs around $4500 a month to keep the platform operational.
There is also offline firmware that will allow Chumbys to retain some functionality, independent of the platform. Unless this last gasp effort succeeds, I will go that route. It’s not as feature-rich as the original Chumby platform, but any functionality is better than a brick.
It seems to me that saving Chumby would be a good Kickstarter project. Maybe if the people involved can get the intellectual property rights from the original Chumby developers, someone will look into this. Update: between my first draft of this post and now, people seem to have started looking into this.
I hope someone saves Chumby. Because Chumbys are still very useful. Unlike a lot of things I have bought.
If you’re like my wife, all technology dies at your fingertips. If you’re like my wife, before your iOS technology dies, you load it to death with all kinds of random photographs and whatnot. Here’s how to tell when you’ve done that.
The only thing Samsung is going to take on with a new Galaxy tablet is water. Once more, with feeling: I will not buy another Android anything unless and until Google addresses the fractured nature of the various versions and the complete uncertainty of the upgrade process. Actually, I won’t buy one then either, but I wouldn’t be philosophically precluded.
I can’t believe Rhapsody is still around. Here’s why I would not use their service again. On the other hand, I am about the dump Sirius XM in favor of all-Spotify all the time.
Two of the best things ever are John Carpenter’s The Thing (one of my top-10 movies, all time) and Battlestar Galactica. Anything with DNA from both of those would have to be great.
When I read stuff like this, it makes me even more concerned about eating at restaurants. It also explains why we are an overweight nation. Here’s a better plan.
Just as soon as some idiot on the left thinks we can solve the world’s problems by magically making all the guns disappear, some idiot on the right says we can solve all the world’s problems by praying. It’s not that simple, dudes.
The Onion nailed what I want from the internet. “I don’t want to take a moment to provide my feedback, open a free account, become part of a growing online community, or see what related links are available at various content partners.”
On a related note, I really don’t want Facebook to be my telephone. I just want to see funny cat pictures and whatnot.
This young man is giving some idiots hell. Anyone who wants to teach creationism or deny climate change in a classroom should be tossed in Guantanamo Bay, water-boarded for a few months and then tried for crimes against children. Once again, so-called religious leaders: if you want your congregation to stay above zero, stop trying to tell people things that are clearly untrue. God and science are not mutually exclusive.
Poster 2.0 seems to be a promising mobile blogging app. I use the WordPress app, which gets better and better. But let’s be honest- blogging on a mobile device is about as much fun as bailing hay.
I am Geritol man. I was never all that into Black Sabbath, though I do consider Paranoid to be a great record.
Great article on Southern Discomfort. It’s amazing to me how closely I identify with the south on so many things and how little I do on others. Here’s my take on the items mentioned in the article.
Country music: yes, as to real country music. Lynyrd Skynyrd: yes, for sure; but I also like Neil. BBQ: yes, though probably half my meals are meat-free. NASCAR: nope, boring, sorry. Political conservatism: not the way most Republicans describe it; southern Republicans have murdered rational conservatism. God: yes, but not the one most conservative right-wingers talk about; those cats use religion to launder hate and self-interest. Guns: yep, but I think the NRA is a colony of dunces. Code of masculinity: I’d like to say no, but there’s some residual traces in my DNA; my head and my heart probably aren’t together on this one. Militarization: I’m not sure, but I think people and countries should negotiate from a position of strength; on the other hand, I detest bullies of all kinds. Hostility to Unions: sort of, but my position has softened a little over the years. Suspicion of Government: not suspicion really, just a desire to protect the environment, seek social justice, not let rich guys plunder wildly, take care of those who genuinely need it, and otherwise be left alone (how’s that for all over the board?); the desire to be generally left alone is a second cousin to suspicion.
Speaking of politics, Arnold Schwarzenegger did an IAMA at Reddit today. Someone asked him about the Republican Party:
The most important thing is that we need to be a party that is inclusive and tolerant. We can be those things and be the party we always have been. We need to think about the environment – Teddy Roosevelt was a great environmentalist and people forget Reagan was the one who dealt with the ozone layer with the Montreal protocol. We also need to talk about healthcare honestly – Nixon almost passed universal healthcare. We need to have a talk about immigration and realize you can’t just deport people. We need a comprehensive answer. We also need to stay out of people’s bedrooms. The party that is for small government shouldn’t be over-reaching into people’s private lives.
Mainly, we need to be a party where people know what we are for, not just what we are against.
Amen, Guv. On a related, note, it was one of the best IAMAs I’ve ever read, even if on the short side. I dig the personal notes to people.
I mentioned bobcats the other day, and embedded a video showing their angry side. Here’s a pretty awesome bobcat video showing their maternal side.
Here’s the story per the email I received.
A mother bobcat found a secluded intersecting roof line area on the top of a house in Cave Creek, AZ where she gave birth to two kits. The house had a skylight, so the owners could watch the cats on the roof. When the owners noticed that one kit was missing, they originally assumed that it had been taken by a hawk or owl – until the owner remembered there was an open column off of the roof. He drilled an opening in the column open so the kit could crawl out. The kit came out and promptly fell im the swimming pool.
Just as soon as some idiot on the left thinks we can solve the world’s problems by magically making all the guns disappear, some idiot on the right says we can 
Great article on 
Newsome.Org 