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MT – TypePad News

Mena Trott sent out info today (no URL) on how development of TypePad is going to affect existing Movable Type users. Roughly, they’re shooting for 100% API compatibility, which means existing posting tools will continue to work, plugins should work with either service, etc. I might have missed it in the past few weeks, but screenshots of the coming service are now up on the TypePad site, and looking dynamite. Integrated photo albums even. Wish I could have covered the service in the MacWorld blogging article I turned in a few weeks ago (look for it in the July issue).

Update: According to a post of Mena’s all TypePad entries will be rendered purely in buttons.

Speaking of MacWorld, recently learned that my article for them on setting up OS X as a PHP/MySQL rig won a regional ASPBE award for Best How-To article. Official announcement June 12.

Music: Brothers Johnson :: Strawberry Letter 23
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Inspection

Had our home inspection this morning. Four hours poring over every little detail with a fine-tooth comb. Like wearing X-ray Specs, seeing the place from an angle you never see at an open house — couldn’t believe how much there is to look for that you don’t know to look for if you never looked for it before. How are these gutters mounted? Where does this mystery pipe lead? How are the steps supported? Any sprinklers clogged? Does the hood over the stove actually blow smoke? And so on… Didn’t know toilet tank lids have dates stamped inside — usually the best way to date a house (one of ours stamped ’42, the other ’47 — probably the original owner had to wait for the war to end to install a 2nd bath).

Hands and knees and into the crawlspace to check the foundation, slither on belly, head full of spiderwebs to see foundation etc.

Short story: No showstoppers, but enough projects revealed themselves to last a year of weekend DIY.

Music: Marc Bolan and T.Rex :: One Inch Rock
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Phew

J-School conference over. These things are always so exhausting. A week of 14-hour days. We pack so much into such a short period of time — training mid-career journalists in Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut, Pro Tools, DreamWeaver, and putting it all together, on top of all the live events. Always a grueling process, but always satisfying. We’re rapidly becoming a well-oiled machine. I’ll never again take conferences for granted – SO much goes into them behind the scenes.

Music: Godley & Creme :: Cry
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Attack

Two hours ago we heard a lot of yelling and some glass breaking right outside our house (the one we rent). Ran outside and saw two 20-somethings running away. Our neighbor was running/limping into his house. Knocked on his door and found him bleeding profusely from the nose. He said it was broken. Called 911 and then took him to the ER. He said the two guys attacked without warning, just started wailing on him. He didn’t refuse their robbery, but was attacked anyway.

The last two weeks have seen a huge uptick in the number of drug deals going down half a block up; cars pulling up in the middle of the street and idling for five minutes, kettle drum speakers thudding our windows half a block away. We and several other neighbors have been finding hypodermic needles on the sidewalks. No question in my mind this was an attack for drug money. Told the OPD I’m now afraid to leave my house and afraid for my wife and baby and can we please have extra patrols on this stretch. The dispatcher said she would put the word out.

You’d never guess it during the day. We live on a lovely tree-lined street, most neighbors maintain their yards, people like each other. The neighborhood feels good. But always just under the surface this perpetual crap and ugliness.

As we were driving to the ER, my neighbor said through the bloody rags covering his face, “I try so hard not to have racist thoughts.”

Music: Holger Czukay :: Where’s The Money?
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In Debt for Life

richmond_mls.jpg

… and … soooo …. Amy and I won the bid (six offers) and bought a house! (the El Cerrito one). We’re homeowners. In debt for life. Legitimate grown-ups. Excited and nervous. Hell of a day. More later.

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Kite Day

In the middle of the conference, had the good fortune to be invited out with a video crew to interview professor Charles Benton and his giant kites (I posted about Kite Aeriel Photography a couple weeks ago). Unfortunately almost zero wind today. “The kite always goes up,” Charlie said. And it was true, the kites went up despite seemingly still air. 14′ wingspan on one of them — though it weighed only two pounds — carbon fiber and sheer dakron. But couldn’t get enough lift to get a camera more than 15′ off the ground… just wouldn’t happen, apparently a rarity. Didn’t matter though — he was fascinating to be around — observations on architecture intertwined with his kite love. A man with eyes on stalks. Someday I’m going to hang a camera from a kite with Miles…

We were flying from Memorial Grove, to the side of the Campanile. Charles pointed out this incredible fly-around QuickTime (38MBs) by Paul Debevec. You always see and hear about how the cinematic techniques used in The Matrix changed the face of action flicks; now you can see where those techniques originated. I ride by The Campanile on my to work each morning, will never see it quite the same way.

Music: Ray Anderson :: Cape Horn
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Little Shovels

OS X client doesn’t include useradd or groupadd utils, probably as small encouragement to spring for OS X Server. That means that if you do a colo with OS X client, you’re screwed if you need to add users. OSXUserUtils fixes that (use the -m flag to override a dir creation bug in this version).

You can run repair permissions from the command line, i.e. via cron job.

Show Desktop: The best thing about Windows, now available for the Mac (be sure to enable the menu bar option).

Lars Duening left a very detailed comment on the Drive Dock post, with his observations on the comparative user experience between Aqua and X11/KDE.

Music: Velvet Underground :: Run Run Run
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Too Many Variables (Another Exhausting Conference)

In the midst of the season’s 2nd big multimedia training conference for mid-career journalists at the J-School, and once again we’re webcasting the heck out of it. Lots of good stuff on charging for online content, putting multimedia into practice, etc. And another thrilling week of 12-14 hr days for me.

Off to a great start this morning — a fiber cut chopped our connectivity half the weekend and into late today, air conditioning failed (it’s hot!), Final Cut wouldn’t launch on some machines (video driver issues), a guest speaker cancelled at the last minute… but all the major crises now extinguished and we’re rolling. Forgive me if I don’t answer mail for a while….

Music: Palace Brothers :: (Thou Without) Partner
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We’ll Take Both

Back in the house hunt full swing, spending every Sunday traipsing up and down the East Bay, mostly getting dismayed but holding out hope. Today found two places that turned our cranks, though in very different ways.

House A is in Berkeley. We had mostly given up on being able to afford Berkeley, though we put a big premium on living “close in” to shops and good living. Fantastic neighborhood. 10 minutes hanging out with the neighbors and already feel like their friends. House is a little red farmhouse. Inside it’s a blank slate, ready to become whatever we make of it. Strangely configured, but all potential. The downside (there’s always a downside) is that it’s small. Smaller than what we’re renting. That’s a hard pill to swallow. We would have to simplify, get creative.

House B is in El Cerrito. 1950s ranch style. Turnkey, ready to move into. Has a good vibe and is open and spacious. Lots of room to spread out, grow into. Neighborhood feels safe. 5 minutes from Wildcat Canyon for great hiking. Downside: It’s out in June and Ward Cleaver land. The nearest shops are a Jack in the Box, a party supply store, auto row, and a strip mall. Nothing worth walking to. The street it’s on is busier. Biking to work would be harder.

Swallow the red pill, and see how deep the rabbit hole goes…

We love them both, but in very different ways. So we’re going to bid on both — a process that has to be undertaken carefully (there’s always the remote danger one could win both bids). Crossing fingers but not too tightly… but we’re SO ready for this endless process to move on to the next phaser… It’s been 18 months since we started looking, though we skipped the 6 months around Miles’ birth.

Music: Charles Mingus :: A Foggy Day
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Cell Quality

<curmudgeon mode>
If the past century has represented an ongoing exchange of quality for convenience (an admittedly pessimistic, but probably supportable view), I can think of no realm where we have exchanged more quality for more convenience than that of the phone call. It seems half the calls I get these days come from cell phone users, and a frustrating proportion of those calls are static-y, have random drop outs, are too quiet, get weird cross-talk, etc. Sometimes we get cut off in the middle and somebody has to call somebody back.

In almost every area of technology, things are immeasurably better than they were 30 years ago. But the worst phone problems we had in 1970 were the occasional “party line” x-over — hearing a bit of your neighbor’s conversation. Three decades later, with the actual phone hardware evolving at an incredible clip, every other phone call has become an exercise in frustration. Why can’t the carriers evolve their networks as quickly as their phones? Are they cutting corners, or are there unsolvable problems to solve?
</curmudgeon mode>

Music: Loudon Wainwright III :: Red Guitar