Monthly Archive for November, 2007

Apple’s Leopard = Microsoft’s Vista?

Published on November 30, 2007 in Apple, Microsoft, Software and Technology. 2 Comments

I came across an article (technically an opinion piece) this morning while reading through Slashdot.  The article basically says that Leopard is just as bad as Vista (calls it Leoptard, which I found amusing).  Now, I have no problem with Vista, so you might think I have no problem with Leopard either.  I disagree with most of what this guy was saying.  However, there were a few things that I did have in common with him.

First, the crashing.  Yes, Leopard crashed once a day on me… before I installed the Parallels update (released earlier this week), which seemed to fix it (though now Parallels crashes on it’s own, but at least it’s not taking the whole OS with it).  That’s probably what this guy is seeing.  I hadn’t seen Leopard crash without having Parallels running.

Second, the eye candy.  Yes, the new Dock is probably annoying to those used to the old Dock.  However, I like it.  I hadn’t used the old Dock regularly enough to get used to it.  I think it’s slick and shiny and nice.  I think the little blue dots that denote the open applications could be a bit darker or more visible, but I don’t have a problem seeing them.  I actually think, when comparing the 2 Docks that the old one is ugly.

Third, the stacks.  Ok, I’ll bite.  They suck.  They’re annoying and I don’t see why that works better than clicking on the Dock icon and just having that folder open in Finder.  I have also found the stacks to be a little less responsive than they should be, even with 4 GB of RAM.

Fourth, consider any .0 release as “beta”.  That’s annoying.  Sure, with Windows, wait until SP1 is released and things are better.  That shouldn’t be the case.  I heard the same thing about OS X.  Wait until the .1 release is available before upgrading.  Why can’t they just make it and have it just work?  I installed 10.5.1 and I didn’t notice a whole lot of changes.  In fact, I had a change that didn’t work at all.  I went to my brother’s house where he has an Airport network, using Apple’s hardware for his wireless network (as opposed to my home network which cost a whole lot less for a Linksys wireless router).  Anyway, I added his network to my preferred networks and saved it.  Big mistake.  I rebooted and the computer wouldn’t allow me to login.  I had to go in via “Safe Mode” (holding Shift while booting), remove the network, and reboot again.  Then it allowed me to boot (only after removing applications that start on startup, like a MS database thing that installed with Office and iTunes Helper, which isn’t an actual application so I couldn’t put it back).  For sake of truly figuring out what it was, I re-added the applications that start on startup and left the wireless network out of there and it worked.  Added the wireless network and it didn’t work.  Perhaps Leopard just doesn’t like Airport networks?  I have my wireless network saved and it starts up and logs in and connects to the network just fine.

Finally, I’m still waiting for better Active Directory integration.  The Apple people I’ve spoken with say “It just works”.  It doesn’t.  There are things that still just do not work properly (like giving me all my network drives without having to map them myself, I only get my personal drive, but not the department shared drive unless I map it myself, which I did permanently in the Dock).

I would have to say that most of his problems are stupid whining and the crashing is probably related to use of Parallels.  He should download the update and it should then work just fine.  However, since I also have few issues with Vista, I guess I’d say, sure it’s like Vista, but neither are overly problematic.

Verizon Wireless Opens Network, announces plans for 4G

Published on November 30, 2007 in Technology. Closed

Verizon Wireless, my wireless provider of choice, was all over the news this week with 2 major announcements.

On Tuesday, they announced (via Slashdot) that they will be opening up their wireless network.  Yes, this is the same company that cripples phones, punishes customers, and does all sorts of mean nasty things.  I would imagine this is in response to Google’s 700 MHz plans.  Some speculate it’s in response to Apple’s iPhone, which won’t even work on Verizon’s CDMA network as it’s a GSM phone and AT&T has an exclusive deal with Apple for quite some time.

What this opening of their network means is that any approved device will be allowed to use their network.  They’re building a facility to test devices.  Supposedly, they’re planning on making it easy for the small business and not just large companies like Motorola or LG.

Don’t get too excited just yet, though.  They won’t be doing this until late 2008.

Yesterday, they announced (via CrunchGear) that they selected LTE, Long Term Evolution, as their 4G wireless broadband direction.  They will begin testing this in late 2008 with possible rollout in 2009.

All in all, it was a good week for Verizon news.  As a customer, I am now more comfortable remaining with them, even though my LG Chocolate is still crippled and I can’t afford their data plan anyway.  Someday, maybe I’ll afford it.

Providence Grocery Store News

Published on November 30, 2007 in Providence and Urban Issues. Closed

There’s some new news on the grocery store front in Providence (ok, not entirely new, but I’ve been a bit busy to post much).  The old Valueland property on Smith Street in the Smith Hill neighborhood will become an ALDI Supermarket.  It’s a low cost chain, from Germany with very few stores in the United States.  This will be the first ALDI in Rhode Island and the 6th in New England.  The chain is building a distribution center in Connecticut to serve the needs of those stores and plan for future expansion in New England.  They also have plans for more locations in Rhode Island.  This is good news in a year when Shaws closed 2 stores in Providence.

Speaking of Shaws, the article in the Providence Journal that announced the new grocery store for Smith Hill also had a short blurb at the end saying that the Price Rite in Olneyville Square will be moving to the former Shaws location in Eagle Square.  I’m not sure how I feel about that as it still leaves an empty big box.  Also, the Shaws location is bigger than Price Rite.  So either they’re expanding or the location will be split into multiple units, something that was said would likely not happen.

In either case, this is good news for the people living around Eagle Square, bad news for the people that live near Olneyville Square, and great news for the people living in Smith Hill.  The Valueland property is going to be divided into 3 units.  A large one for ALDI, and 2 smaller ones.  The councilman for the area hopes to get a pharmacy and a bank in there, both things that the neighborhood lacks.

Smith Hill wants retail – UrbanPlanet

Grocery stores in Greater Providence – UrbanPlanet

Previously on RunawayJim.org:
The future of Eagle Square
Eagle Square grocery store meeting

Aventinus Eisbock

Published on November 28, 2007 in Ale, Beer, German and Review. Closed

As a follow-up to the Aventinus Weizenbock, I decided I needed to try the Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock, an Eisbock. The flavor was much the same, though there was a difference. The water or something was frozen to make the beer stronger and the beer had a colder feel to it (even after sitting out of the fridge for a while). The smell was of bananas and bready malt. The taste was complex. I got some fruit (again bananas) and some bready malts and a little bit of caramel and some mild spices. I also noticed a very faint hint of alcohol in the flavor (at 12% ABV, that’s not surprising), though it did not detract from the drinkability or flavor of the beer. It was very good and definitely worth a try (though I’d try the more traditional Aventinus first).  If there was such a thing as a German Quadrupel, this would be it.

Left Hand Milk Stout

Published on November 25, 2007 in Ale, Beer and Review. Closed

Back from a Thanksgiving hiatus (3 times over), I had Left Hand’s Milk Stout tonight.  A Milk/Sweet Stout, the beer poured a dark ruby brown/black with a 1 finger tan head.  The beer smelled of roasted malt and with some creamy coffee and caramel undertones.  After the first sip, I knew I’d love this beer.  The beer tastes of those roasted malts with a creamy flavor and feel to it.  There was a little bit of coffee and caramel undertones in the flavor as well as a touch of creamy milk chocolate.  The beer goes down with a slight hops bitterness, but nothing overwhelming.  It was just enough to give the beer a little balance.  This beer is very smooth and most definitely worth a try.  I give it 2 thumbs up and will definitely add it to my regular beer rotation.  The trick with this one, though, is to let it warm up for about 5 or 10 minutes after taking it from the fridge.  Once at the optimal temp, you get a nice head and lots of flavor.  It’s not a very thick stout, but it’s a very good one.  I suppose it could’ve been a bit heavier, but I still found it just right and exactly what I wanted tonight.

Young’s Oatmeal Stout

Published on November 21, 2007 in Ale, Beer and Review. Closed

Last night I had Young’s Oatmeal Stout.  I wasn’t overly impressed by it, but it was still good and worth trying.  Most oatmeal stouts I’ve had tend to be a bit creamy and smooth.  This one was a bit on the bitter side and not quite as smooth as I expected (I was hoping it’d be similar to Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout).  Anyway, the beer poured a dark black color with ample carbonation and a thick light brown head (about 3 fingers thick).   It smelled of roasted and chocolate malts.  The flavor starts out with that roasted malt flavor and moves to a bitter chocolate/coffee flavor and ends with a slight hops bitterness.  It was smooth, but not as smooth as I would have wanted.  There seemed to be a bit too much carbonation in it.  Regardless of that, though, the beer was still very drinkable.  I would try it again, but not while expecting something super smooth and creamy.

Five Flawed Reasons Illegally Downloading Music is Good

Published on November 19, 2007 in Music. 1 Comment

When going through my Google alerts today, I came across one for “Phish”, which had little to do with the band and more to do with the state of the record industry and why it’s still bad to be illegally acquiring music. David Steinberg, a huge Deadhead and Phishhead and mathematician/statistician, among other things, writes occasional columns for JamBands.com. In his most recent column, he writes about the demise of the downloading site oink and the lashing back the fans of oink gave. He is not a fan of illegally downloading and found 5 flawed points that are always tossed around when people are arguing in favor of illegal downloading.

Those 5 flawed points (with partial rebuttal):

  1. Record companies rip off the artists. It’s best to steal the albums and support them more directly.
    There is a grain of truth to this. Record companies do engage in creative accounting skills to minimize royalties and have a history of siphoning off as much money as possible. However, the case against the companies does tend to be overstated.
  2. Records should be used as free publicity.
    As a practical matter, this plan has limits. If a band started handing out free discs in 1995, they would have had a chance to ride that publicity. When people are downloading hundreds (if not thousands in this age of terabyte hard drives) of artists at a time, it’s less likely that they’re making sure to give everyone a few bucks. If they could afford to do that, they wouldn’t have started downloading in the first place.
  3. Bands should make money by touring.
    While concerts are going to have to become a more important part of the music industry, this answer is not the panacea that its proponents think it is. The skills involved in creating a live show are similar but not identical to those used in crafting an album. Phish and the Dead never could quite get the studio to work for them the way that they wanted after all, so it shouldn’t be shocking that some artists are better in the studio.
  4. Record companies are dinosaurs.
    There’s no argument about the factual nature of that statement. The major labels have been fighting downloading from the days of Napster. Rather than evolving and finding other models, they’ve been content to try to use the legal system to keep their profits. However, using an antiquated model is not always a bad thing. Baseball teams make plenty of money off of the additional advertisements they’ve smuggled throughout the stadium, but the obsolete 1980s model was a much more pleasant experience.

  5. Even if it’s wrong, it’s great for the consumer to have infinite free albums.
    At least that problem is not likely to be a permanent one. Right now we’re at the turning point. Money is flowing out of the system, but it isn’t actually affecting the budgets to create albums. That’s not sustainable. While there are people who can churn out amazing songs in their spare time after their day jobs, perfecting music takes time and energy. When you buy an album, part of what you’re paying for is the ability to albums to be created; the other models above force musicians to spend their time creating cool t-shirt logos instead of tweaking the lyrics of the second verse.

The case against illegal downloads only goes so far. I wish that people would stop or at least just use downloads as a trial, but it’s hard to compete with free. Who has time to worry about the long-term consequences of their actions when they’re busy finding Pitchfork’s top 100 Indie Albums?

I will say that I completely agree with David on this one. There is no valid excusing for illegally downloading and not giving any money to the artists regardless of how much they might get ripped off by their record companies. The fact remains that those record companies do keep them alive to a degree. I suggest anyone who thinks that illegal downloading is a good thing go and read this. It may not change your mind, but you never know. Buy music, do it for the artists.

David’s own website contains a great collection of Phish stats and he runs a blog with other thoughts on music and life at Live Journal.

Left Hand Warrior IPA

Published on November 18, 2007 in Ale, Beer and Review. Closed

After a night of drinking and fun (last night I was at a pre-Thanksgiving party with lots of Great Divide Titan IPA), I decided to have a beer tonight. I opened up my bottle of Left Hand‘s Warrior IPA. This is a fresh hops IPA, meaning the hops in it were added right after being harvested, still fresh, not dried, like most beers. The beer pours like a regular IPA except with a thicker head (about 2 fingers thick, white and creamy) and a bit cleaner look. The color is a darker amber than most IPA’s, which tend to be a more pale amber color. It left a nice sticky lacing on the side of the glass.

I could immediately smell the hops upon pouring the beer. The smell is more floral than most IPA’s, which tend to have a piney or citrusy smell to them. I knew I was in for a treat just from the smell.

The beer tastes mostly of those floral hops. It actually tastes floral, if you can believe it (and if you’re into beer, you probably can believe it). The hops flavor is balanced by the malt character, though not too much or else it wouldn’t be an IPA. The taste is very clean and easy going down. Towards the end of the bottle (I drank the whole 22 oz. bomber myself), the hops flavor moves to a more piney flavor. The hops are a bit more toned down than in most IPA’s, mainly because they’re fresh. There is ample carbonation and the beer is nice and smooth and not quite as harsh as most IPA’s. This is a very easy drinking IPA and feel very clean and refreshing going down.

If you like IPA’s, this is definitely something to check out. While most IPA’s tend to be summer beers, this one is a seasonal beer for the fall because that’s when the hops are harvested.

Updated: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Raising Sand (album review)

Published on November 18, 2007 in Music and Review. Closed

I picked up this album yesterday and have been listening to it in the car since buying it. This is one of the most beautiful albums I own. The melodies are perfect and the vocals are beautiful. I just love Alison Krauss’ voice, it’s so pretty and peaceful.

Most people are used to Robert Plant being from Led Zeppelin and having a screeching voice on rock/blues songs. And most people are used to Alison Krauss being bluegrass (and having a nice cameo on backup vocals for Phish‘s “If I could I would” from the album Hoist). This album is not rock, not blues, and not bluegrass. Produced by T Bone Burnett, the album is quite different. It seems to take some folk, throw in a little Celtic feel (on some of the songs), a little new age folk, with some primal beats and you end up with one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. I won’t go song by song (because being in the car, it’s difficult to do that and concentrate on driving), but as a whole this album is very cohesive, melodic, and just plain beautiful. It’s a great album to mellow out to in front of a fire. It was definitely worth the purchase price.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

Front the looks of their site, they might also be doing a tour to support the album. Their Tour page has Jan. 1, 2008 marked off with TBA. I’m curious to see what it ends up being.

Update: Upon listening to it a couple more times I noticed some traditional Greek and Italian sounds in there as well. The music on this album is absolutely beautiful. This is one well-made album. Perhaps we’ll see it win some awards.

Celebrate!

Published on November 16, 2007 in Beer, German and Lager. Closed

Tonight’s “beer of the night” was Ayinger’s Celebrator Doppelbock. This beer is considered the grand-daddy of Doppelbocks, a true German classic.

The beer pours a thick dark brown color with a creamy light tan head. The beer smelled of chocolate and roasted malts with a slight metallic scent. The beer tastes like roasted chocolate malts with a thinner, but creamy and smooth mouthfeel. There’s also a slight caramel undertone to the flavor with an every so slight hops bitterness. This is a good drinkable beer and something any beer lover should try, being such a classic for this style.

The only other Doppelbock I have ever tried was Thomas Hooker’s Liberator Doppelbock. That one was a whole lot thicker with almost a motor oil feel to it. I wasn’t as crazy about that one, though I will definitely revisit it.