Friday, August 01, 2003

RenderMan - [4:58 PM]

Interesting tidbit on Pixar's site: A small list of movies that rely on RenderMan.

If you're a Mac head you may want to take a look at Pixar's current job listing, it's interesting. Darn, my User Interface Engineer job isn't open any longer!

Thanks Google, and Bill. - [4:48 PM]

Google search for Viking Ready Mix. Thanks for the link love Bill, it produced the desired effect.

I second that motion... - [3:30 PM]

Scripting News: "I'd love to get Google on board with support of this API, I know it's not likely (not sure why), but I don't give up easily." - I'd love to see Google (Blogger) implement the MetaWeblog API on top of Blogger. I use a client application today, PowerBlog, that knows how to talk to both the Blogger API and the MetaWeblog API. If Blogger would implement the MetaWeblog API I could get titles to show up in my posts without editing my entries from their web UI. Yes that would make me happy, yes indeed.

I don't think it would be that much work. The two API's are so close they're almost there today. Come on guys, you can do it! (Say that in a Waterboy kinda way.)

Darn, missed it again... - [12:29 PM]

Sorry all. I missed yesterday's movie line of the week entry. I had a funeral to attend and I just wasn't aware of what day it was until much too late to do anything about it.

I'll try to be a good boy and post something next week.

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Strange coincidence - [8:33 AM]

There are two articles that arrived in my mail box this morning about, you guessed it, Alex Rodriguez. Both from MSNBC Sports.

Article #1: "A-Rod willing to consider a trade"
Article #2: "A-Rod got what he asked for"

You can even compare your salary to A-Rod's. (Requires Flash)

Weird. They must have read my little rant from yesterday.

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Baseball and big names... - [10:41 AM]

Back when Alex Rodriguez joined the Texas Rangers and caused a big furor over baseball salaries he said he "...wanted to play for a winner" and that "it's not about the money". It looks as though both statements are directly opposite of what's happened. I don't believe Texas has been in contention since he arrived there and it must be about the money since he's stayed through all those abysmal seasons.

Money talks baby. Too bad it can't guarantee a winning team. Often times it produces dysfunctional teams because the players that get the big bucks also have big egos and can't work with other big name players much less the guys that are out there to get the job done.

As of today the Texas Rangers stand dead last in the AL West with a 43-63 record.

Maybe it's time for a revolution in baseball. Put the big egos and salaries aside and play to win championships.

Summer thunder and softball - [9:24 AM]

Last night was our kickoff to the Exeter Men's Softball season. We played in uncertain conditions as a summer thunder storm invaded the valley. I kept waiting for the ump to call the game due to the lightening and thunder erupting all around us. More than a couple of times lightening streaked across the sky just behind us. It was an impressive sight. Exeter sits between Fresno and Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Our little town abuts the foothills to the east just in front of the fabulous Sierra Nevada. Watching spring and summer thunder storms can be quite exciting because we have a wonderful view of the entire range. You can watch multiple different storms from our central location. Last night was quite a show at times.

We won BTW 15-3.

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Sometimes simple is better - [3:17 PM]

Kottke: "Will there continue to be a market for hardware that the buyer completely owns or -- because it makes more money for the companies producing the hardware -- will everything I "own" in the future (telephone, DVD player, DVR, music player, cell phone, PDA, PC, refrigerator, television, washing machine, &c.) be dependant on a service for its continued operation?" - He brings up some very good points. I don't want to rely on services for my devices to work; I know, I know, electricity and phone are services, but by and large EVERYTHING is turing into a service. Cells phones, ISP's, music is heading that direction. Good points Mr. Kottke. On occasion don't you want to ditch your all your gadgets and go hide in the mountains somewhere? I certainly do.

Longhorn and Yukon news - [11:00 AM]

CNet News: "Microsoft on Tuesday announced plans for new development tools, as the company continues to lay the groundwork for its next major database and operating system software releases." - It's going to be very interesting to see how all this eventually shakes out. Developing the next OS is always tough, always a compromise. Applications targeting Longhorn will have their share of major changes over the next two(three?) years. Something to note here however, existing Windows apps will work without change on Longhorn. If that changes I'll eat my hat. It would be completely irresponsible for us to ditch existing applications, then again that's MY OPINION.

Remember, applications make the platform. Without apps the platform withers and dies. Case in point, BeOS. Great OS + no apps == death.

Monday, July 28, 2003

HyperCard meets .Net? - [2:43 PM]

No, I don't know of anyone that's done a HyperCard replacement using the .Net runtime. But I do wonder if there's enough technical information laying about to actually go off and do a .Net based HyperCard replacement?

Any ideas?

Proven Database Technology - [1:28 PM]

Back in the stone age at my first coding job I worked with a database library called c-tree from a company called Faircom. I was hired to make AgData's existing accounting systems indexing scheme use c-tree's instead. It would have been better if we'd taken advantage of the entire database system, but that's another story. It took me a long time to figure it out but we eventually got there. Faircom's product even included full source code that we compiled to suit our needs, and it was robust beyond belief. They're still going strong after all these years.

No integrity - [10:20 AM]

Last week my wife was driving home on a local freeway and a truck, that hauls rock and sand, dropped something out of one of it's trailers. The debris struck the windshield of our car gouging it. My wife collected the trucks information. It was a Viking Ready Mix concrete truck out of Fresno California, trailer plate number 4CH2484. We contacted Glenda of Viking, phone # 559.225.3667 ext. 234, and let her know that one of her trucks dropped some debris and we'd like them to pay for the replacement of the window. My wife contacted them this morning and they say the truck had been hauling sand and it couldn't have been their truck that dropped the debris. Huh? This is a truck that hauls not only sand but gravel and rock. They confirm the truck was at that location. I'd say Viking Ready Mix lacks integrity. If it were my company and my truck caused damage to someone else's property I'd certainly offer to repair the damage.

I guess that's the world we live in.

How does he do it? - [8:31 AM]

Scoble: "Yesterday I attended Mark Eppley's famous S.P.A.M. Jam at his Snohomish home." - This dude is just amazing. Some people just have the gift, most of us don't. My next Seattle trip we must have dinner Scoble, somewhere downtown, or how about Jaks in Issaquah. Got steak?