onfocus

The biggest question I have after moving to the Pacific Northwest: Should I carry an umbrella or not? Since the move, there have been more rainy days than clear here and I've noticed that there aren't too many people with umbrellas. Sure I spot one here and there, but why aren't they everywhere? Why don't businesses have umbrella bins near their entrances so I can stash my umbrella until I'm ready to leave? Why isn't every store selling designer umbrellas, and why aren't street vendors shouting "umbrella!" from every corner? When it rains in San Francisco, you see umbrellas lined up—bobbing up and down the street—one in each hand. Oregonians seem to have a different relationship with the rain, and I feel self-conscious when I pop open my umbrella. I imagine that every long-time Oregonian turns when they hear that umbrella woosh and whisper under their breath how gauche, heads held high in the rain.

skp and I went out to the Oregon coast today. We visited Newport and Waldport, and toured two lighthouses. The gray, rainy day gave the lighthouses an eerie feel—especially since the power was out at Yaquina Head. Walking up to the top of that lighthouse, I felt my legs shake a bit as I saw the stairs spiraling below me. Waves were thundering against the rocks outside, and it sounded (and felt) like a sharp slamming door. We had a nice chat with the interpretive guide at the top, though, and I was just fine on the way down.

To keep my camera dry, I made it "waterproof" with a plastic bag I found in the glove box and a stretchy-hair thing (wrapped around the lens) that skp had. I'd like to find something like it that I can reuse in the future, but I don't remember seeing waterproof cases for camera bodies in any shops.


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I just uploaded a new version of snapGallery. The interface hasn't really changed, but now the default design is XHTML/CSS compliant. I've also added some simple categorization and metadata to make gallery-aggregating possible.

BlogFodder is go! It's a daily email that contains a phrase, idea, or question that could lead to a weblog post. The emails are archived on the website, and show up on the front page the day after they've been sent. I've been sending out emails since the 1st, and I've already spotted a few posts that mention a BlogFodder. I'm hoping people will use the Trackback features of the site so others can see their take on the fodder. (And maybe we can all find some weblogs outside of our normal reading patterns in the process.)

I wrote a form that lets people add a Trackback manually if their weblog tool doesn't support it. (Movable Type's API and MySQL support make it fairly easy to add features like this.) I'm also hoping the project becomes less broadcast and more participatory—with people sending in ideas that have inspired them to post (in addition to the posts themselves).

If you signed up here a week ago, I've added you to the mail list. If you'd like to be removed, either let me know or go through the unsubscribe process. Thanks for taking a chance on this project!

Another non-sci-fi story that sounds like it is: The Predator. "[The United States] has produced a weapon like no other this country has ever used: the Predator, an unmanned reconnaissance drone." The Simpsons predicted this years ago:

The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you.

-- Military school Commandant, [4F21]

But the Predator isn't funny. Once they have computers completely controlling those things, machines will finally be able take over the world. I've seen it happen on Star Trek time and again. Have we learned nothing from TV?

It seems that almost every day I read something in the news that sounds like it's straight out of a dystopian science fiction novel. Today it's Special Ops gets OK to initiate own missions (courtesy MeFi). I can visualize the fictional plot now: special Ops OK's own mission to destroy the person who OK'd the order to let special Ops initiate own missions (along with anyone else who can take that power away). It just sounds like one of those decisions that starts a process that gets out of control. And then it can't be stopped by anyone. (Not even a gang of rag-tag post-apocalyptic teens on rollar skates. Or can they?)

Wow, the guy who coined the term cyberspace is now with blog. [via kottke] (oh yeah, he wrote some great books too. Especially Neuromancer.)

Fruit Stickers: "My home series is more vegetable-oriented than my work notebook..." Isn't that the way it always goes?

Matt's post about the audio quality of laptop speakers reminded me of a modern radio design that is very good: the Henry Kloss Model One. It's amazing what a good sound they get out of that small speaker. If they can do it with a small cabinet like this, someone should be able to design a laptop with great sound. Amazon sells them too.

Passenger window shot somewhere in Southern Oregon

My Dad has a collection of small table radios from the 30's through the 50's. The radios are great examples of early industrial design, and the new medium of plastic made far-out shapes possible. The designers of these things really had fun within the fairly simple constraints of: a speaker, a way to tune, and some tubes. It's fun studying his collection, and one night while I was visiting over the holidays I took a bunch of pictures of the dials. The dials don't show the wacky body designs, but they do show the varied display approaches to basically the same information. Once into the 50's (through today), design was pretty much standardized across brands, cutting-edge designers moved on to other objects, and you didn't get the variety that you had in radio's early days.


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I was playing around with the settings on my digital camera and took them in black and white.

Crashing wave on New Year's Day near Bodega Bay