Recently I’ve started sticking together some of the “panorama” photos that I’ve taken over the years. These are taken with a regular point and shoot camera that I stick together in Pixelmator. I’m not doing any of the adjustments for distortions at the edge of the pictures (And I know there is software to “fix” that), so I totally realize that it doesn’t appear like a single large photo. But that’s because, it is a single large photograph and I’m not try to pretend it is a single photograph by distorting the originals. Remember the series of photos of the surface of the moon that looked just like a series of photos of the surface of the moon. That to me seems more authentic than altering the images to create the illusion that the image isn’t altered.

There appears to be a bug in iTunes 8.1 (50) that I haven’t seen reported anywhere on the net.

If you go to Podcast and have a column that shows the description field, there should be a little (i) button to show more info. Clicking on that button pops up the description in a window so large that it fills the screen. The OK and cancel button as well as the close window buttons are off the screen. Cmd-W does not close the window, and the window is set to be in front of the iTunes main window. 

Hopefully this will get fixed soon.

Here’s an image of the unclosable popup.

I don’t think I’ll ever understand why frozen pizza says that if you want a crispy crust you cook for a shorter time on a lower temperature- and for a soft crust you cook for a longer time on a higher temperature. Seems backwards to me.

I was asked recently whether the Popupper plugin for Wordpress works when mousing over an image. I tried it to see, if I had managed to write the code good enough for it to “just work” out of the box. Sadly no, the highlighted image disappeared when I tried it out. That’s a bug for another day…

However, I did manage to workaround that bug…

1. Type a line of text

some text  some text

some text  some text

…and that’s the workaround, hopefully I’ll have time to make it a fully supported feature. For now though, that gets the job done.

Do they give out any Grammy award for wierdest album cover. If so, MGMT could probably take that category. I have no idea what this cover is supposed to be a picture of. I am going to guess it is what you’d wear to if you were going to a rave at a beach. Some sort of feathery bird costume and a swimsuit complete with patterned cravatte.

Despite that the album is one of best I have heard this year. It doesn’t fit well into any category of music, riding somewhere between electronic, trance, rock, and the catchall “indie” category. ”Time to Pretend” and ”Kids” are the signature tracks, but the first 5 tracks are all good. I think the second half of the album falls off, but overall it is still a great album.

There is some new cool Maryland Terrapin gear here. Its got the “Shell Yeah” logo on it. Will I be celebrating a victory over Duke in one of these awesome shirts- Shell Yeah!

Official Shell Yeah T-Shirt
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by ShellYeah

My Powerbook G4 laptop is slowly dying. I bought it refurbished in 2005 and it is now really starting to show its age. The current list of ailments are:

• One of the two memory slots does not work. Might as well stick gum in the socket, it’s gone.
• Part of the keyboard backlight doesn’t light up. Good thing that I don’t type many numbers in the dark.
• Option Key on keyboard hanging on by a thread. That’s what you get when your 1 year old sticks his finger under the key.
• Battery Lifetime is down to about 10 minutes. It’s on its third battery, I can’t justify buying *another* one. Good thing Apple doesn’t build pacemakers.
• Trackpad sensitivity is gone wacky. The trackpad is much more sensitive now to left/right movement than it is to up/down.
• Clam Shell (that’s laptop-nerd-lingo, for the laptop’s lid, a.k.a the screen) always wants to close. This comes from years of closing the laptop almost all the way and sticking it under a couch, now it just wants to fall closed that last inch. I need a doorstop for my laptop lid.

Back in this article, from (Dec 1. 2008), I saw gas prices around Western PA dip under $2.00. Here are some more photos of tumbling gas prices…

Dec. 1, 2008

Dec. 26, 2008

Jan. 1, 2009

Is this the price bottom?

Do lame lyrics spoil an entire album? Good question.

Take for example, The Killers‘ new album Day & Age, in my opinion this album contains some of the goofiest lyrics that I have heard in a long while. The album contains the song Human, which contains the lyric: “Are we human, or are we dancer?”. Apparently, it is a Hunter S. Thompson reference. Um, I’m human, thanks for asking.

Personally, I can’t get past the lameness of that lyric. It has tainted the entire album for me.

I would like to think of myself as one of The Killers’ first true believers. Back in their Hot Fuss days, I was convincing anyone who would listen about the greatness of The Killers. Hot Fuss is arguably one of the best “half-albums” ever made (by that I mean, listen to tracks 1-5, but no need to listen to tracks 6-11). Sam’s Town was a flop. So Day & Age was an album I had hoped would put them back on track. So far, I’m not impressed.

Chris Johnson, the rookie RB from the Tennessee Titans is talented (you can’t deny that) but he is also a unprofessional, showboating ass (you can’t deny that either). This guy takes showboating to a new level. People get upset about Terrell Owens or Ocho Cinco showboating, those guys don’t bother me- they wait until they cross the goal line to start celebrating. Go ahead, cross the goal line, moon the crowd, do a little backflip, get out the cell phone, get your buddies together, dance the worm- congratulations, I am entertained. Offensive players that celebrate before they cross the goal line are just asses. I can give a pass to defensive players that celebrate a rare trip into the endzone, but if you play on offense and you are a back- then getting to the endzone is your job.

Here is a case study in Chris Johnson’s showboating and unprofessionalism, I’ve only gone back a few weeks, I’m there is high school footage of him being an ass too.

• Week 13 at Detroit, Chris Johnson slows down before the goal line to place the ball just over the line. Assometer Advisory Level: Orange, High Ass Alert.

• Week 14, playing Cleveland, Chris Johnson holds the ball out to the defender while still at the 8 yard line. Assometer Advisory Level: Red, Severe Ass Alert.

• Week 16 playing the Steelers, Chris Johnson holds the ball out in front of Troy Polamalu at the 4 yard line. Assometer Advisory Level: Red, Severe Ass Alert.

For Chris Johnson and his showboating ways, I can only join in with the millions of NFL fans who are secretly waiting for karma work back around. I am looking forward to the day that Johnson’s antics cost his team dearly. I can’t wait for the day that he coughs up the ball while doing one of his showboating stunts. Hopefully that day will be soon.