Jay McGavren’s Journal

I absolutely love, love, adore Stendeck’s “Frozen Sun” because of its eardrum-crushing, distorted drums and wailing sirens in the background, but I figured Lenny would hate it for the same reasons. I mean, he’s barely graduated from nursery rhyme CDs.

So I had Frozen Sun on in the car, but turned way, way lower than I’d like to because Lenny was in the back seat. Suddenly I hear him beatboxing to it (a habit he picked up from me). When it faded to synth pads at the bridge, he stopped, and I asked him:

“So, do you want this on CD?”

“Nah, no thanks.”

“Oh. OK.”

Disappointed, I drove on in silence, until the percussion kicked back in on the song, and Lenny exclaimed,

“OK, yeah, I do want this song.”

I gave a huge grin. “You just didn’t like the part without any drums, huh?”

“Yeah.”

I set up MTV Music Generator 3 on the old XBox for him the other day, and he gleefully set about randomly filling the score with nothing but bass loops, which when played simultaneously double their volume: “duhduhDUHduhDUHduhduhDUH”… Well, whatever, he’s having fun. Finally got him to add some percussion, and maybe we’ll do a more structured tutorial when he’s ready.

Should I be getting him violin lessons or something? Maybe, and I will if he asks for them, but I couldn’t do that with as much enthusiasm. Besides, exposing your kids to the things you love is the greatest reward of being a parent (and gods know I need some rewards).

D and I are both definitely liking Narrow Stairs (Death Cab for Cutie). “Cath…” is a whole season of a TV drama wrapped up in a single song. “Bixby Canyon Bridge” evokes the lyrical part of “Different Names for the Same Thing”, “I Will Posess Your Heart” the rambling jam session part. There’s a few songs that are mediocre by the band’s standards but that means you merely listen to them instead of include them on “soundtrack of my life” mixtapes.

Plans remains the album to get first, but if you’re hungry for more after that, Narrow Stairs may satiate you.

This isn’t a good first experience for a new major revision of the app you use most…

I saw what was going on immediately, of course (assumptions about my config), but if even a small percentage of those 8 million downloaders get confused by this, it’d be better to just leave that friendly little message off. (Personally, I’m sick of the welcome pages altogether, since I get one every time FF upgrades itself.)

Just had to point that out, because I’m used to better from the Firefox team. Aside from that my initial impressions are positive; the interface looks cleaner, and maybe more responsive (that could be the placebo effect though).

Whatever your expectations of The Happening may be, it’s probably not going to live up to them. Hell, it didn’t even piss me off like I was expecting, cause it actually has a couple moments. But that’s before they begin beating you over the head with the “mystery”.

(3:41:54 PM) Gary: sql file has been updated
(3:42:13 PM) jay: Rawk. Will that just be copy/pasted for production, then?
(3:42:26 PM) Gary: yes
(3:42:34 PM) jay: Double rawk. Thanks!
(3:42:47 PM) Gary: what the hell is “Rawk”
(3:43:02 PM) jay: Rock, only more l33t. :)
(3:43:12 PM) Gary: I am out it!
(3:43:17 PM) Gary: out of it
(3:43:32 PM) jay: No, I’m making this crap up as I go. :)

I asked Diana a couple nights ago if content access permissions for the media server (and by extension, as a general rule) should default to open or closed. Her answer was a resounding “closed”. I suspect most people, when the problem is explained to them, will answer the same. Hell, I think I might do so myself.

But unlike most people, I can envision the incredible possibilities for data mining projects (both selfish and altruistic) that would be possible with a system that defaults to open… In fact, I have to question whether it’s even worth the effort to make the interfaces to all this content uniform if the stuff that should be publicly accessible isn’t…

play x: Play something (music/game/movie/etc.) with a #playback_speed of 1. Take present users and their preferences into account if possible, but if not, play everything available.
show x: Show a still, silent representation of the current item (music/game/movie/text/etc.) without actually playing it.
next x: Move to the next item (track/game/movie/etc.) in the given collection.
previous x: Opposite of next.
fast forward x: Double #playback_speed of the current item (music/game/movie/etc.)
rewind x: Like fast forward x, but with a negative value.
pause x: Like fast forward x, but with a zero value.
delete x: Remove the current specified item (music/game/movie/etc.) from its collection.
list x: List the items in the given collection (music/games/movies/etc.)
create x: Create something (audio/game/movie/text/etc.) and add it to the appropriate collection. Not sure if it should be automatically opened in an editor or if an explicit edit x command should be issued.
edit x: Edit the current specified item (music/game/movie/etc.)

Was over at the used bookstore getting Putt-Putt PC games for Lenny (his current obsession). Some random lady, seeing the stack of boxes on my arm, stops me and hands me a 15% off coupon.

I’ve been spurned, ignored, or looked at funny enough times that I don’t stop and try to help people anymore, and I’m sure most others living in big cities are the same. It’s really too bad, because the desire to aid others is surely part of how we survived this long as a species.

Among today’s purchases: Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor. I had intended to do this homework myself, but it looks like I get to mooch off someone else’s crib sheet.

Listened to the Ben Curtis interview on the Rails podcast, and it just made the whole entrepeneur thing seem a lot less painful than I had imagined it. I am very tired of spending my time making other people famous and rich, so I paid close attention.

My favorite bit was the suggestion that you didn’t have to trade time to get money - develop a good enough product and you don’t have to spend tons of time supporting it. I’d kill for more time to spend on my own software projects (maybe even be paid for developing them).

I already have the ideas - not one but two software frameworks. Now I just have to come up with a business model to support them, but I can’t do that without a better understanding of the issues. I need to actually read that Micro ISV (Internet Software Vendor) book that’s been on my shelf the last 2 years. Then I need to talk to my dad and/or Brian about the administrative side - learn where they have to spend the most effort. From there, I’m hoping the lightbulb will come on by itself.