January 28, 1986

broderic on January 29, 2006

I was sitting in the Common Room with an early free period. I think it was day 2 and Religion wasn’t schedule for then. I had just settled down on the couch with some friends when someone came from the library.

“The shuttle has exploded.”
“Bullshit.”
“They’re showing it on tv in the library.”

We got up, went to the library and watched. What a catastrophe! I remember the iconic plumes of the solid rocket boosters, twisting free from the wreckage. I remember them doing their death spiral down until self-detonation. I remember the rain of debris as they seemingly floated gently down to splash into the ocean.

Twenty years ago. Yet it is still vivid in memory. I have had a morbid fascination with that event ever since and have read lots on the subject. Things an engineer has to know. Murphy’s Law. Blind luck. Pure fate. The gods have spoken.

NASA history of the Challenger tragedy.

CocoaRadio

broderic on January 27, 2006

For all you Mac programmers out there (Pretty soon there’ll be many), if you haven’t heard the CocoaRadio podcast, then what are you waiting for? Each is a good long interview, but the programmers he gets are the cream of the crop. Listen to them, one can easily imagine that one can attain the life.

Someday soon…

Please Hammer, don’t hurt him

broderic on January 27, 2006

Here, I got to admit that I have been watching some of that stupid reality show, Dancing with the Stars and found out how painful it is to be Master P. If you’ve seen it you know what I mean. He can’t (or most likely won’t) dance, and the stupid American public is keeping him on the show.

Stop. Please, stop.

His partner probably cries at night. Americans are so cruel.

Vote for the girl with legs to her neck, Stacy Keibler. Vote for short Drew Lachey. Vote for anyone, but Master P. It’s not funny anymore.

Sing it out loud.

broderic on January 24, 2006

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

What did Jimmy James say about this?

“What was the Constitution of the United States?… It is an advertisement… an advertisement for liberty…”

Damn straight Mr. James. The man so nice they named him twice.

On a serious note, we should not let this document, this great nation, our liberty, and our rights go down the tubes because some silly, little man is scared. Or is scaring us. Instilling fear. Frightening our neighbors. Pitting brother against brother. It has been 219 years since its authoring. Our nation has gone through lots in that time. One measly, petty man should not undo what history has done. Fuck Bush.

Vertigo

broderic on January 22, 2006

The second DVD that I had enqueued in my Netflix queue was Vertigo. I had previously seen it in fragments. The beginning here. The middle part I can’t recall when or when. The ending, the classic ending, there. My concept of it as a whole was somewhat disjointed. While many people see it as Hitchcock’s masterpiece, by only seeing it piecemeal, I was unable to make that call.

Tonight that was rectified.

It is his best. I have to rave about it. Previously, I had Rear Window as my favorite. Grace Kelly being the most prominent of reasons why it was my favorite.

Where Vertigo lacks the hottie blonde (I’m sorry Kim Novak). It more than makes up for it by the absolute performance of Jimmy Stewart as a man obsessed. When he to her to get some clothes, I knew that this character was unhinged. The man can want a woman with such obsessiveness that it was ridiculous. Then he changed her hair. And at that point it had me.

Damn. Grace Kelly is coming in second place.

And next on my Netflix queue is North by Northwest. Please, Eva Marie Saint, don’t knock out Grace Kelly.

Daring Fireball says it all

broderic on January 22, 2006

Once again John Gruber has done his latest roundup of the doings at MacWorld Expo 2006. He always says things that make sense. I particular like how he notes that iWork had no major improvements. Great. I just bought it. For the 3D graphs.

!Student Discounts

broderic on January 21, 2006

Stopped by the brick and mortar Apple Store at the local mall to get Tiger and the latest version of iWork. Since I am a grad student I decided to use my student discount. I was denied. It seems that Apple has a new policy to not offer student discounts at their brick and mortar store.

That’s plain stupid of them.

You are already in the store. Why make it harder for your customer to get the deal? It’s good that they already offer a student discount, but to go through the website to be able to receive it is a hassle.

Anyway, I got my software at their website. Now I have to wait until some time next week to get it. Apple. Fix this.