My Annoyances

Okay, I know it's a little late to grip about this now... but I hate, and I mean absolutely hate, the whole "My Computer", "My Network" and "My Documents" thing with Windows. It's so condescending... I'm not a child, I'm very capable of organizing my files into the directory structure that I want.

So one of the first things I do is remove this functionality from Windows:

1. Go to the Start menu
2. Select Run
3. Enter regsvr32 /u mydocs.dll
4. Click OK

Now if you delete them, they won't come back! There's also another annoying one, if you install Adobe Acrobat, the application creates a "My eBooks" folder which the above trick won't fix. I wasted a good deal of time looking for a preference in Acrobat to disable this. Guess what? It doesn't exist.

Instead, to stop this "feature" you need to go to the Acrobat directory and delete a plug-in:

1. Go to your Acrobat Directory (usually C:\Program Files/Adobe/Acrobat x.x)
2. Go to the Plug-ins directory (Acrobat\plug_ins)
3. Delete or re-name the ebook.api file

That should do the trick. Microsoft, Adobe, and other vendors should be ashamed for treating their customers like idiots. You can also visit TweakXP.com for some more great hints on dealing with XP annoyances.

Beatallica

Okay, there is a Beatles cover band called American English which my wife (a total Beatles nut) likes to go see. I have to say, being Beatles fan myself these guys are quite good. They even do period costume changes. Hey, it's not the Beatles, but these days, real Beatles seem to be dwindling in number.

Anyway today, my friend Ken sent me a link to Beatallica. These guys are hillarious! You have to check out Got to Get You Trapped Under Ice.

Damn, it

The Hood

Okay, I'm getting pretty sick of my neighborhood. Really. It's getting quite irritating. It's an area that is in the process of "turning over" whatever that means. We moved there for the rents, when my wife and I moved in together, the rents were much cheaper there and we got a lot more space. It was a good deal all around.

Recently though, it's become more and more crowded. It's nearly impossible to find a parking space half the damn time... and on top of that, my car was just broken into for the *third* time last night. *Three times* and I've only lived there about 18 months. That's once every six months! This is ridiculous. If you combine the fact that recently we just got some new neighbors who are very loud and have shifty looking people over at all hours of the night... *sigh*

I'm moving.

This is What's Wrong with America

The New York Times has an article about Creekstone Farms. Creekstone had a very lucrative business selling premium beef to the Japanese market. Their business took a nose-dive after the case of U.S. mad cow.

Creekstone struck a deal with their Japanese clientèle: they agreed to test all of their cows for mad cow, and the Japanese agreed to start buying their beef again. Now, the USDA has prohibited Creekstone from performing the tests! The USDA is claiming that it will set a bad precedent and that as a result, other US producers will have to start testing all their beef too (god forbid).

So, here we have a government agency, bowing to pressure from the beef lobby to stop a private business from voluntarily increasing their safety standards.

Unbelievable.

New Apple Products

It's been a big week at NAB for Apple... some new products: Final Cut Pro HD, Motion, DVD Studio Pro 3, Shake 3.5 and Logic Pro 6. Some nice stuff...

The technology of the day is definitely HD, all of the packages support it. I haven't had a chance to look at the DVD Studio Pro update, but Motion looks very cool.

The $14 Steady-Cam

Here's a great site which details how to construct a "Steady-Cam" for $14. It has good instructions and looks like it should be pretty easy to construct for even a novice. I can also think of a coupe minor modifications which would make it a really nice low-budget solution.

Bring it on: America's War President

This photo montage is made from the faces of American military personnel who have died in Iraq.

Courtesy of the American Leftist

The "Duh" of Shrinkwrap Licenses

Ever wonder just how it is that you buy a piece of software, and then, after already having spent the money on it, you are forced to "agree" to a license you never had a chance to review beforehand? The 'Duh" of Shrinkwrap Licenses.

Movies

Tonight Kristyna and I went out to dinner and the movies with some friends. We ended up seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which was really excellent.

I won't go into too many details about the film here, because to talk about it in detail would sort of give away a lot about the story. However, I will say that both Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey both give excellent performances. It's the sort of inventive story that could only come from Charlie Kaufman (who I have now come to believe is a genius)... while at the same time being a very touching story about real human emotions and relationships without being cliché.

It's another "instant favorite" of mine, and if you liked Magnolia, I think you'll like this one too. But even if you didn't like Magnolia, see it anyway.