The Cutting Edge

Warning: religious discussion ahead.

I’ve become a full-fledged member of the Cult of Mac. These machines are great for a number of reasons:

  • They come with everything you need built-in, both via hardware and software.
  • They really are easy to use.
  • They just work. You don’t have to futz with things. They just work.

I don’t begrudge people their Windows-based PCs. Many people have to use them. Others believe they’re the only real option. Some genuinely prefer them to Macs. That’s great. I’m not any of those people. I’m one of those geeks who could live in Windows or Linux, but who has decided he has better things to do. I’d rather live on a Mac, not have as many options (though really, I’ve never noticed a limitation), and be able to constantly productive.

That’s not to say that Macs are perfect. They’re not. They crash, though not often. (Mostly they just freeze up when they crash.) Certain individual programs have a tendency to crash, especially web browsers. Safari (the default browser) can be damn sluggish. I have problems with Mail several times a year. iTunes is a bloated resource-hog. iPhoto isn’t particularly useful.

Or is it?

Here’s the thing: I’m constantly amazed at how different Mac users know how to do different things. I think that iPhoto is a piece of crap, but Jenn thinks it’s fantastic. She thinks it’s versatile, easy-to-use, and totally worthwhile. And you know what? She amazes me with the things she does in iPhoto and iMovie. She does things that I didn’t know were possible.

I like getting together with Paul Carlile because he, too, shows me ways to use my Mac that I never would have imagined. He seems to know iTunes inside and out. It’s amazing to watch him work with it.

Paul has also taught me a lot about chat. I’m old. To me, e-mail is cutting-edge technology. In reality, it’s trailing edge stuff. Kids today are on to bigger and better things. One of the things they were into a few years ago (and still use today, though it’s certainly not cutting edge) is instant messaging — internet chat. I don’t do instant messaging. I find it overwhelming. I used to do IRC, and I do in-game chat all the time, but for some reason I find one-on-one instant messaging intimidating.

But Paul prompts me to try new things. He often e-mails asking if I’m available to chat. And so I chat. But he goes beyond that. For example, because I knew he and I had been e-mailing back-and-forth this morning, I set my iChat status to “available”, which is something I’ve never done before. Paul pinged me and then requested an audio chat. An audio chat! And so we chatted over our computers, just as if we were on speaker phones. Very cool. He sent me an mp3 via chat. I sent him a photograph. I realized that when my new computer comes in a week or so, I’ll have video-chat capabilities. (Remember when I did product-testing on the videophone?)

Yesterday I experienced my first unbridled splurge in many months. I went out and bought a video iPod to send with Kris on her Colorado trip. I brought it home and spent the afternoon loading it with music, games, and television shows. Last night I took it to bed, and while Kris fell asleep, I watched an episode of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?

I feel so cutting edge.

Site Tweaks

I’m taking ten days off to work on web sites. I’ve started with this one. You’ll be happy to hear that there are no major changes planned. Instead, I’m making small improvements that have been requested for a long time.

For example, I updated the ‘elsewhere’ links in the sidebar. More importantly, I doubled the number of images that rotate in the upper right corner. Lots more cats and kids, of course, but other shots as well. If your favorite isn’t there, please drop me a line.

Later (tonight? next week?) I’ll finally do something with the archives. They’re still the old archives from before the crash last year. None of the entries since then are accessible except through tedious manual slogging, paging back post-by-post.

If there are any enhancements you’d like to the site, now’s the time to speak up!

Complaints of a Boxmaker

I enjoyed the recent AskMetafilter discussion about common pet peeves for different professions. I was reminded of it again this morning when I received YET ANOTHER REQUEST from our webmail form looking for us to make one box for somebody in New York.

sigh

Why does this bug me? Because there’s no way in hell that having us manufacture one box for somebody across the country is worthwhile for anyone involved. The customer pays more. We make less. It’s lose-lose. Why do we make less? Because it takes more time to deal with the person, we have to go out of our way to ship the box, and the likelihood for error and misunderstanding is higher. I hate shipping cross country so much that I’ve posted the following at the Custom Box Service website, right above the quote request form:

We will not respond to out-of-area quote requests. If you are not located in Oregon or Southwest Washington, you should find a box manufacturer closer to you. Google is your friend.

But still I get several requests a week to make 20 boxes for somebody in Georgia or Vermont or South Carolina. We get more of these requests than real leads. (We get maybe one new local customer a month off the form.)

In the AskMetafilter thread, I shared other pet peeves:

  • People who call and ask for a box using only one or two dimensions. "I need a 27-inch box." or "I need a box that’s a 12 by 12 square." I’m sorry. Boxes, exist in a three-dimensional universe, actually have three dimensions. I’m shocked at how many times I have to ask, "What’s the third dimension?" only to be met by baffled silence or by an "I don’t know".
  • People who call wanting a price quote, but who do not have a pen to write the numbers down. These are the very same people who call two weeks later swearing that I’ve quoted them a much lower price. I have a hardcopy of every price quote I’ve generated. Write the prices/specs down!
  • People who need their boxes in a rush (which is everyone), but who then say, "Oh, can I pick those up next Wednesday?" Or worse yet, people who make me rush to make boxes but then are slow to pay.
  • People who want me to be able to manufacture a box to tolerances less than +/- 1/8 inch. I just had somebody request something in 64ths of an inch yesterday. Dream on.
  • People who complain about price increases. Paper is a commodity. Its price fluctuates all the time. I have no control over that. I’m not jacking up prices to rip you off. My prices go up when my costs go up.
  • People who call up the day they need to ship their Whatzit to Aunt Madge. "It has to be to the post office by three." Well you should have called earlier, then. I can’t violate the laws of physics.
  • People who have to tell me their life story in order to convey what sort of box they need. I don’t care about your cousin Billy. Just tell me what size of box you need and how many.

Basically, my list of complaints can be boiled down to one central problem: stupid people. (Don’t I sound like a jerk?)

The real trouble is, when I have to call business for help (a locksmith, for example), I’m the one who sounds like an idiot…

A Letter to a Friend (from Simon)

Dear Nine,

How are you. I am fine. It is cold here now, and even though Dad let me outside yesterday afternoon, I did not like it. I sat on the steps, and when he came out later to get the mail, I went inside. Brother was on the heating pad, or I might have taken it myself. (The heating pad is actually for Sister, because she is old and grouchy. But Sister does not use it because Brother has contaminated it by his presence.)

Mom and Dad tell me that you have a new Sister, too, but that she is pink and fleshy. I am sorry. Is she evil? Your parents are cruel and thoughtless not to have asked your permission. Don’t they understand that cats do not like change? I hope that at the very least they still feed you regularly.

What do you do in South Dakota? Are there squirrels? Are there birds? Are there leaves? There are leaves here, now, and while they are not as tasty as birds, they do have their virtues. (They’re plentiful, for example.) This weekend, Mom and Dad work in the yard. They raked leaves. I helped.

Auntie Tiff came over, too. I like Auntie Tiff. She knows just how to wiggle a stick.

Later in the day, I rescued Brother. He was sitting by the birdbath when he was set upon by Flash. Brother is rather stupid, and cannot cope with Flash alone, so I charged to his aid. It used to be that Flash and I engaged in mind games, and that the outcome was always in doubt. No longer. I have been practicing, and my mind is now so vastly superior that Flash slinks away in fear.

When the yardwork was finished, I summoned Mom to my side and commanded her to carry me inside. She is a good Mom.

It is sad that you are now so far away, friend Nine. I hope that you are not lonely. I hope that your parents feed you well. I hope that you have birds and squirrels to chase. I hope one day to see you again.

Stay warm.

— your friend, Simon Gates

The One-Hundred Mittens Project

Amy Jo has a knitting sewing project, and she’s recruiting help.

Hello everyone! I have a favor to ask. Would you mind digging through your closet(s) to see if you have any 100-percent wool sweaters that you are willing to donate to a good cause? I hope to make 100 pairs of felted wool mittens by Christmas to donate to local senior, women’s, and homeless organizations.

One medium-sized woman’s sweater will make one pair of adult mittens and at least one pair of child-size mittens. It doesn’t matter if the sweater is tatty or has holes in it, or if you’ve washed and shrunk it somewhere along the line (that would actually help me save the step of “felting” the sweaters before making the mittens). And, if you are feeling ambitious and would like to join me in the sewing of mittens, I’ll gladly send you the template and instructions. They are very easy to make — only one seam!

If you’d like to contribute to Amy Jo’s mitten extravaganza, leave a comment here or drop me a line. Also: I’ll happily ferry old sweaters, if needed.

Found on Road, Dead

Ah, my lovely Ford Focus. For years I drove it begrudgingly. Then I performed a little revitalization on it, and found it to be acceptable. I also discovered the overdrive switch, which would bump its power from gutless to “a little more than gutless”. I could live with a little more than gutless.

I’ve driven it for the past year with only a few complaints.

But this morning I walked out to the car, put my bag in the back seat, and tried to start the ignition. It wouldn’t start. The key wouldn’t even turn. I jiggled the wheel. Nothing. I pumped the brake. Nothing. I shifted through all the gears. Nothing. I got out the manual — no sign of any such problem.

After fifteen minutes, I came inside and google the problem. Lo and behold! People all over the place have experienced the same thing, but Ford insists it’s not an issue. Shocking.

Here are just a handful of sits where people have discussed this “non-issue”:

Once my insurance agent and car dealership opened, I began to call around to determine the best course of action. The dealership actually didn’t want to have anything to do with it, if at all possible, so I called a locksmith.

“I checked on the internet,” I told the young man who came to work on the vehicle. “This seems to be a common problem with Focuses.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s a common problem with all newer Fords. It happens all the time.”

The fellow spent twenty minutes working on the ignition. I brewed myself some hot chocolate and ate some toast. When he was finished, he had me try inserting the key. It was still fairly stiff. He told me to be sure I was inserting the key straight. He also recommended I get a new set of keys.

“You’ve got 90,000 miles on this, which is pretty good,” he said. “Usually I see these fail before 60,000 miles. I do about ten of these a week.”

Ten a week. And yet Ford doesn’t seem to think this is worthy of a recall.

How I Spent My Weekend

I had a great weekend, despite being sick as a dog.

On Friday night, Tiff and I went to hear The Revenge Business play at the Dublin Pub. The Revenge Business is Josh and Paul’s new band. They’ve merged with three other musicians, and the results are impressive. Carli, the lead singer, has a fine set of pipes. The group plays a lot of covers, but plays them well. Even their original songs are catchy. (Josh’s performance of “Anarchy in the U.K.” was AWESOME. Seriously, Josh — this is the stuff you’re voice is suited for — you rocked!)

I had a little trouble with the whole “pub experience”. I’m not a bar and pub kind of guy. I don’t understand the etiquette. For example, apparently most drinks are actually ordered by walking up to the bar. I’m used to table service. I ordered hot wings — my standard pub food — and waited 45 minutes for them to arrive. Despite the slow service, I left a hefty tip, but when I checked my bank statement, I was charged for only the food and drinks, not the tip. I don’t get it.

At the end of the evening, I felt like crap. I was sick as a dog.

On Saturday, Kris and I worked in the yard. We raked leaves and tore out tomato plants. I even got to prune the mimosa.

In the afternoon, I zipped up to the convention center to briefly attend the Stumptown Comics Fest. My main goal was to find the Fantagraphics booth, which I did. I picked up the latest volume of Complete Peanuts, the first of their marvelous Popeye compilation, and, on Michael’s recommendation, the lovely bound volume of Castle Waiting.

Afterward, I swung down to the Rose and Raindrop — another pub — to attend a Metafilter meetup. Every so often, denizens of Metafilter, the group weblog I frequent, gather to meet each other: to chat, and drink, and laugh. I’ve never been able to make a meetup before. I was pleased to meet croutonsupafreak, j, matlidaben, jessamyn, and turbodog, among others. It was also good to chat with Matt for a few minutes. (Matt has been very supportive of Get Rich Slowly, which I appreciate.)

At the end of the meetup, I felt like crap. I was sick as a dog.

I had intended to head down to Denise and Lynn’s Halloween party, but I opted out. I tried to watch some Sex and the City with Kris, but instead went to bed early.

On Sunday, we took Tiffany to Ken’s Artisan Bakery for a tasty breakfast. Afterward, I played with my camera for the first time in months. I took photos of Kris, Tiff, and the cats. I felt crummy in the afternoon, so I crawled into bed. Meanwhile, Kris fixed Jenn’s famous BBQ Beef Brisket, and invited Paul and Amy Jo to join us for dinner. The meal was great, as always. That brisket recipe is one of my favorites.

At the end of the evening, I felt like crap. I was sick as a dog.

In all, it was an excellent weekend, despite this lingering crud.

More on the Milwaukie-Gladstone Trolley Trail

I’ve written before about the planned trolley trail in our neighborhood. Kris and I attended a community meeting last week to learn more about the project.

A standing-room only crowd gathered in the Oak Grove Elementary gymnasium to hear discussion. The organizers erected a number of exhibits detailing the history of the trolley (which began operation in 1893 and ran until 1958), the status of the project, and the proposed route of the trail from Milwaukie to Gladstone. The highlight was an enormous 30-foot long aerial view of the trail. It was simply amazing to see the six-mile route in so much detail.

Project Status
The plans are done. The design and engineering phase has begun. The design process will go through the winter. Thirty percent of the design should be completed by spring, at which time there will be another community meeting.

“We do have funding for about half of the project,” said one of the organizers. “There’s a grant process going on now with Metro. We’ve applied for a grant to fund the balance of the project.”

The Friends of the Trolley Trail sent seven people to METRO meetings once a week for six months in 2000, asking them to use the money they’d already collected from a 1995 bond measure in order to use it for its intended purpose: to purchase the right-of-way. The trail is now a public right-of-way, whether it’s actually open and passable or not. But it should all now be passable. Said one spokesman, “Six miles between the Gladstone city limits and Park Avenue were opened up four weeks ago…You can now walk six miles.”

The selling point to Metro was that the trail would create a twenty mile loop. The I-205 Trail connects to the Springwater Trail connects to the Trolley Trail, which winds back to Oregon City where you can return to the I-205 trail.

Neighborhood Reaction
I was surprised to learn that not everyone is in favor of the trail. An informal poll of those in the gym showed about 75-80% support. Those who are opposed don’t seem strongly opposed — they simply have some concerns that they want addressed.

Some questions and answers from the meeting:

What about trespassing? Loose dogs? Motorcycles? The designers will do their best to create buffers, including fencing and vegetation. This is something that will be worked on as the project develops.

What about bathrooms? There’s a restroom at the Jefferson street boatramp. There’s a portable restroom at Risley Park. There’s a planned restroom at Naef road, at the family park. It will be easily accessible.

What about garbage? There will be some trash cans. The planners are hoping for people to adopt portions of the trail. There are already volunteers willing to do this.

People are already dumping couches, washing machines, etc. on the trail. Metro is picking the stuff up. What happens later? This problem will go away as the trail takes shape. People dump now because it’s not developed and used. Self-policing will go a long way to solve this, too.

How soon will there be signage? There is no signage planned until the design process is finished.

Who picks up the garbage in the wetlands down by Boardman? What’s being done to protect the wetlands? It’s part of the process. The garbage will go away, like the dumping will go away. “When you get more bikers, runners, etc. on the trail all the time, there’s actually less garbage because the users force out the indigents. The users also have greater ownership.” The wetlands are being considered. There will be a bridge over them, which should help some.

What about the motorcycles that are going up and down the trail between Naef and Vineyard? There will need to be barriers erected to keep motorized vehicles out. In the beginning, there was a real problem with motorcycles on the Springwater Trail. But the volunteers formed a network who would call each other, and any rider would find himself faced with five angry residents.

Will there be any sort of security? “Patrol is definitely an issue we have to address.”

What about lighting? There are pros and cons to lighting. Lighting can provide some degree of safety, but it also is a nuisance to neighbors, and can be an advertisement that “hey, there’s a trail here!” when you really don’t want people on it.

Where’s the money for annual upkeep going to come from? A combination of volunteers and North Clackamas Park District.

Will the trail ever connect to Springwater? There are discussions to extend the Springwater Trail down 17th, which would bring it to the north end of Milwaukie. (The Trolley Trail starts at the south end of Milwaukie.)

Conclusion
I was amazed to see so many people at the meeting. It’s clear that the trail has wide support, but there are still some concerns that need to be addressed. Personally, I can’t wait to be able to zip up and down the thing on my bike!

By Your Request…

A friend once complained to me, “I don’t understand it. My boss is a jerk. How come every single boss I’ve ever had has been a jerk. What have I done to work at so many jobs where the boss is a jerk?” He’d worked at a lot of jobs.

I’d met some of his bosses. They weren’t jerks. The trouble wasn’t with my friend’s bosses — the trouble was with my friend.

You see, I have this theory: if you find that people are saying the same thing about you over and over again, there’s probably a grain of truth to it. If your friends all think you’re bossy, maybe you’re bossy. If your family thinks you’re too competitive, maybe you’re too competitive. Or — to take an example from my own life — if people complain that you only see things in black-and-white, maybe you’re not doing a good job of conveying your ability to see shades of grey.

All this is just a long and drawn-out way to say: I hear you. When all of my readers are saying the same thing, how can I not?

The truth is, I like this layout, too. It feels like home. I’m not fond of the architecture behind the scenes, but I just spent the past eight hours performing renovations. I upgraded Moveable Type to the latest version. I installed new spam protection. (I haven’t received a single piece of spam since doing so. More precisely, I’ve received 55 pieces of spam in the past 9 hours and 21 minutes, but the spamfilter has caught them all, even the goddamn Tramadol ads!) I took the time to funnel every single feed through Feedburner. (I think. If you read via feed and you’re not being routed to Feedburner, please let me know. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just ignore this.)

I even spent a couple hours creating a new front page. I think it’s pretty nifty. (I haven’t tested it on Windows yet. If you see anything obviously broken, please let me know ASAP.)

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it. It helped me see the clear direction I needed to take.

Now I’ll see what I can do about adding more content to the site! (Starting with the flotch. It’s back!) One thing you’re going to see, though, are parallel postings. That is, I may post something at both Get Rich Slowly and foldedspace. Or at both Animal Intelligence and foldedspace. The stuff I parallel post will be “best of entries” of which I am particularly proud. It’ll save me a little effort and give you more to read!

Peking Duck

Important reader poll at the end of this entry. Seriously.

Kris and Tiffany’s Aunt Jenefer and Uncle Bob were in Portland last night (with Bob’s mother Irene), so the six of us gathered at Sungari for a Chinese feast. Dinner was awesome.

Tiffany and I had pre-ordered the Peking Duck. I had never eaten Peking Duck before. The preparation process is so elaborate that the dish must be ordered 48 hours in advance. According to the wikipedia:

Peking Duck requires a duck with its head still attached. First, it is inflated with a pump or other object, separating the skin from the body (this was done by blowing through a straw by someone with a strong lung in ancient times). Then the skin is scalded with boiling water to make it drier and tauter and brushed with molasses so that it acquires a dark, rich color with the slight aroma of caramel during the subsequent cooking process. After drying for half a day, the duck is hung by its neck in a hot oven where it is roasted for an hour or more, during which time the copious fat of the duck melts off and the skin becomes crispy. Because a large oven is required, as well as other complicated preparation techniques, Peking Duck is not usually prepared at home.

Serving is a production, too. At Sungari, the duck is served table-side. The waiter brings two dishes of flaming hoisin sauce (as in, the sauce is on fire), the duck, some scallions, and some mu-shi (flour pancakes) which look like nothing more than homemade Mexican tortillas. The waiter then spreads hoisin sauce on a pancake, fills it with duck and shallots, and then puts them on a platter. A single duck makes about a dozen wraps.

Because I had ordered the most expensive dish on the menu, I decided to order the most expensive drink too: the monkey-picked tea.

“I don’t like it,” Tiffany said, after taking a sip.

“It tastes like grass,” I agreed. But after a few more sips, and after a few bites of Peking Duck and Sesame Beef, I was hooked. I drank a pot-and-a-half. (I’m not ever going to get to sleep.)

It was fun to see Bob, Jenefer, and Irene. Special thanks to Bob for picking up the check. It was a generous gesture, especially after I’d ordered the most expensive stuff in the restaurant!

Dinner was especially fine because:

  • It had been a Day From Hell at work, and
  • I was just beginning to get sick. (I’m very sick now.)

As we were saying our good-byes, Bob and Jenefer voiced their distaste for the new weblog front page. “I hate it,” Jenefer said.

“Well, it’s only temporary,” I said. “I’m moving to new blogging software. In a couple weeks, the new site will look mostly like the old site.”

“What do you mean mostly?” she said. “It had better have the calendar, and it had better have the comments on the main page. I hate all the clicking around I have to do now. It’s terrible.

“And you should write more. I don’t care about comic books or personal finance. I hate all those links you put up. I want more stories.”

Kris smiled. She’s been telling me for weeks that I shouldn’t make my proposed changes. She’s been telling me for weeks that people like foldedspace just the way it is. She’s been telling me for weeks that I spend too much time writing for Get Rich Slowly, and not enough time writing here.

So, dear readers, I put it to you: what are your feelings? What do you like about this site? What do you think needs to change? Should I simply go back to the way things were? I can ratchet up the spam protection to see if it does anything. If I can make the new front page look and operate the same way as the old page, will that keep you happy?

The ball is in your court. Let me know how you feel.