Gekkeikan Sake (USA) brewery tour

I usually only drink sake when I have sushi at a restaurant, but one of my friends in Vancouver, Washington has taken an enthusiast's interest in the fermented rice beverage that I have slowly been acquiring myself. My friend found a great sake store in San Francisco called True Sake that, as stated in its history statement on the web site, "is the first dedicated sake store outside of Japan, and is also the first sake store in America." The owner of that store, Beau Timken, is often present there and has such an enthusiasm for sake that it's difficult not to feel it yourself if you talk to him.

I'm not in San Francisco that often, so unless I'm having sushi at a restaurant, I'm left to the local supermarket to find any sake. Pickings are slim, but a few months ago in my local market I found a decent (by American and Sacramento standards) sake brewed by Gekkeikan Sake (USA). Gekkeikan Sake is one of the largest sake brewers in Japan. I didn't realize until I looked at the bottle a few days later that Gekkeikan Sake's one and only American brewery is located right here in Folsom, CA. Turns out they let visitors take self-guided tours, so I went.

The tour

My first impression was that this location was a nice mixture of traditional Japanese style and the modern efficiency necessary for large sake production. Right up front in the parking lot are two large rock gardens, neatly groomed, with a view to the beautiful pond behind and beside the main administrative and visitor center building and tasting room.

This was a Thursday afternoon and I was the only visitor. I walked through the administrative building back to the actual brewery production facility for the self-guided tour. The tour is a hallway down the middle of the production floor with windows on each side and signs at each window describing what process one is observing. I saw that the brewery's koji mold for fermentation is grown on-site by an automated process.

The door to the laboratory area was open and I spoke with a technician who brought out the Brewmaster /Production Manager to answer my questions himself! He said that their rice is bought right here in Sacramento and is grown in the nearby Sacramento Valley. Also, this kura (sake brewery) is situated on the American River and their water is taken from there and filtered on-site.

The lab:The brewmaster said the yeast they use initially came from their parent company in Japan. Interestingly, he said once the yeast was in the Sacramento area it changed character slightly, in a good way, and that now they make different sakes with both the original and changed yeasts. He said the change in character of the yeast happened to be an acceptable one as opposed to a bad one (the usual case with such changes), not that the yeast was necessarily better than what they originally received from the home office. So at most it gives them a little flavor or character variation with the sake produced here in the states. He said a sample was sent back to their parent company for naming and classification but that they do not use the changed yeast in Japan, preferring to keep to the traditional strains. I thanked the Brewmaster profusely for his time and exchanged several bows with him.

After the tour I walked around the pond surrounding the visitor center. It was quiet and peaceful with a waterfall and many Koi and other colorful fish clearly visible. The landscaping was impeccably maintained.

Finally I did visit the tasting room. They made three sakes available: 1) Gekkeikan's "Black and Gold" sake, which is made in the United States, 2) Horin, a very nice Junmai Dai Gingo (indicates a highly polished rice grain used for fermenting) imported from Japan, and 3) Zipang, a Junmai sparkling sake which is naturally carbonated, imported from Japan. All very nice, though the Horin was of course the best (in general, the more the rice grain is milled prior to fermentation, the higher the quality or grade of sake that results), very clean and crisp. The Zipang seemed almost like a sake wine cooler -- definitely a modern variation!

It takes a bit of work and research to become familiar with sake and how to choose one, but with the help of informational web sites and enthusiasts like Beau Timken, it can be a rewarding journey. For reference, True Sake's web site (subscribe to the newsletter for great monthly info and specials); and Sake World, an exhaustively thorough site by another American enthusiast and expert, John Gauntner.

Satellite radio -- without the antenna

So here is my current setup, necessitated by the fact that either my roof-mounted antenna is busted, the cable that connects that antenna to the antenna jack is cranked, or the jack itself is worn out. Whatever the reason, I have been using what is normally a "home" antenna for my tuner, in my truck:


This necessitates placing said antenna in my glove box when I am going to be parked for any appreciable amount of time, so sometimes if I have several minutes stored up in the tuner's memory I will unplug the antenna and keep listening to Howard Stern while I'm coiling the cable up to put it away. That's when I discovered this:


Don't see anything unusual? Let me show you more clearly:


I can receive the satellite radio signal without the antenna being plugged in. That top jack there, labeled "ANT," should have something plugged into it. At first I thought it was just that there was some signal still left, recorded in the tuner's memory, but even after that ran out I was able to rewind, skip forward again, and even change channels. I still thought it was a fluke, so after my appointment and dinner (having taken the tuner with me) I came back about an hour and a half later, tried it again, and it still worked.

These pictures were taken in midtown Sacramento, around 20th and Capitol. I first noticed this phenomenon at 19th and J Street. I was able to drive around midtown and receive a fairly good signal, with an occasional dropout, but serviceable. I checked the signal strength meter and this is a signal only from a terrestrial repeater, not the satellite directly. As soon as I start to leave the downtown/midtown area I completely lose the signal and have to plug in the antenna again.

So what's the deal? Is the terrestrial repeater signal in midtown Sacramento so strong that one doesn't need an external antenna to receive it? Are there special atmospheric conditions that bounce and focus the repeater signal? Has this always been the case but I've just not had occasion to try listening to my tuner without an antenna plugged in? I prefer to think it's just me and that I'm special, but that's less than 100% likely. A quick search of the SIRIUS Backstage Forums yielded no similar experiences.

Anyone have any ideas?

GPLv3 release - LIVE VIDEO FEED!

[UPDATE-2: failure watching *streaming* Theora content on Windows]
[UPDATE: success watching Theora content on Windows]

Hi nerds! Everyone going to log on for the release announcement by Richard Stallman?

Live video feed at 12p Eastern Standard Time on Friday, June 29 at fsf.org.

Video requirements here. They will be using the Theora open video codec (interestingly, released under a BSD license). Compatible media players are here. It is possible to use Theora on Windows, though I haven't tried to set it up yet.

[UPDATE]
As much as I have an aversion to RealPlayer because of its system-resources hogging nature and sometimes overbearing self-promotion while using its player, I did get it to play Theora-encoded files with no problem after downloading the appropriate plugins.

I first tried the Directshow filters which were supposed to work with Windows Media Player, but I could only hear audio and encountered an error when I pressed "stop." Maybe WMP wasn't appropriate for tomorrow's event anyway.

Some fun and short Theora-encoded videos to test your installation are here.

[UPDATE-2]
I can't explain it other than to say the obvious, which is that decoding and viewing streaming content is a different animal than decoding and viewing a fully complete movie from a hard drive. The short of it is, it didn't work. However, I don't think I missed anything earth-shattering. This should be fairly straightforward, however, and this type of failure is one reason open source, or as Stallman would prefer, "free" software is not quite ready for prime time mass consumption.

The Police reunion tour

(Edit: added link to concert review)
I received a text message from my brother in Phoenix this past Monday night with a picture attached, which is now my wallpaper:It didn't occur to me right away that this picture might have been taken _AT_THE_SHOW_. I didn't know the tour schedule and only knew that a reunion tour was *going* to happen. Once I found the tour schedule I thought it was a possibility, and indeed he called me a about an hour later and confirmed he had been at the show.

I've been a huge fan of The Police for years, so this was just amazing to see. I saw Sting as a solo artist once, but I really would've wanted to go to this show. Here is a review of that night's show from The Arizona Republic, including a set list. I leave you with a few more pics. Be sure to click on them for a nice 1024 x 768 version:

An incredible view...


Big video screens:


Mr. Stewart Copeland and Sting onscreen:


Mr. Andy Summers:


Sting again:


Except for this guy's head, a great stage shot:


Copeland and Sting:


Sting:

The functional Schroedinger equation as applied to the Schwarzschild metric of spacetime

It's all quite simple, really, when you think about it. Quantum physics and general relativity are two aspects of the science of physics that lead to a paradoxical result when applied to information "lost" in a black hole. This is known as "the black hole information paradox" and is such because general relativity theory says if information crosses a black hole's event horizon it is lost forever into nonexistence, but quantum mechanics says information cannot be destroyed.

A team of physicists at Case Western Reserve University have come up with a possible solution to this paradox. I don't pretend to understand the complexities involved, and the article linked to on ars technica above does a superb job at explaining this for non-math types, but basically the new proposal is that, from the point of view of an asymptotic (distant) observer, an object or information approaching the event horizon of a black hole will never pass over it and hence, not be lost.

Wow. Kinda like the thought experiment from high school physics that concluded nothing ever really touches anything else when you bring two objects closer and closer by dividing the distance between them in half over and over again.

I also learned a new term that I'm going to have to use more often: dumbhole. I only fear the full implication of the word will be lost on its recipient.

A dumbhole is the sonic equivalent of a black hole, and is mentioned in the article because the physicists who are proposing this theory need a way to actually prove it, and in the absence of being able to create a black hole on earth, they can attempt to create a dumbhole, which is apparently much easier. All they really need to do is "create the beginning stages of collapse towards a dumbhole" to make their observations. Who knew?

The ars article caught my eye because I remembered a small story from the Feb 2007 15.02 issue of Wired in the parent article called "What We Don't Know" by John Hodgman, called "What happens to information in a black hole?" Actually, several of those small stories relate to this topic.

Multiple geek layers

Even I was surprised at the multiple layers of geek embodied in this site: Wookieepedia.

Internet | Wiki | Wookie | Star Wars | 49,355 articles since March 2005

I heard Howard Stern mention it on today's show in connection with a funny interview one of the Stern show's correspondents, Gary Garver, did with a man at a recent Star Wars convention who was in costume as Darth Nihilus. In the "Wookieenews" section of the site, for June 19, 2007, there is already an entry that states:

• Howard Stern—an influencial radio shock jock mentioned Wookieepedia, and proceeded to read from the Wookieepedia entry on Darth Nihilus.[1]

Gary Garver took a pretty hostile, "how long have you been living with your mother" attitude toward the guy and several others he interviewed and the variety of reactions was quite entertaining.

A little recognition...

You may remember my comments about the layout of a recent article in Wired and the interesting contrast I noted between the print and online versions and the resulting irony. At the time I separately submitted a summary of my thoughts to Wired's "Rants" section, which is the equivalent to writing a letter to the editor.

To my surprise and glee they actually published my comments! They are both on the web and in the current print edition, 15.06, June 2007. My comment is titled "A Revelation," which is something the Wired editors came up with. I don't know if that title implies a revelation on my part or on theirs, but I suppose it fits in the context of realizing a print article represents the feel of an online experience better than the same article on a web site.

I was hoping for a link to my blog, and actually fantasized about them doing a graphical comparison with pictures and a link to my blog, but I'll take this.

I am now an internationally published author... or commenter.

Or ranter.

Thank you.

What do you see?

This is a picture of an area of sidewalk near where I live. I have walked past this for weeks and finally decided to capture it. What do you see?

I am reminded of Don Quixote's faithful nag Rocinante, wandering riderless near a tree, likely recovering from the overexertion required of his master's latest escapade of knight-errantry.

Impressive guitar simulator for Nintendo DS

In addition to providing a hilarious comic involving Patrick Swayze, yesterday's Penny Arcade revealed to me a very cool guitar simulator to be released in the U.S. this June. Apparently one can even play the DS's touch screen with a real guitar pick, though I imagine more control might be possible with the standard stylus.

Jam Sessions goes one step further than the likes of Guitar Hero in the sense that there is a "free play" option, the ability to add effects like reverb, chorus and others along with the ability to save the songs one creates. No word on whether the DS's wireless capabilities will be exploited. I would love to be able to create .mp3s of songs and email them around. Take a look at the video at the linked page above to see the mechanics -- the D-pad and shoulder button appear to determine the note or chord played and the touchscreen determines the rhythm and tempo of the song. The sounds are sampled from a real guitar and are quite impressive.

Colin Hay in Sacramento

If you're any fan of music from the 80's surely you remember the band Men at Work. Last Thursday the former lead singer of Men at Work, Colin Hay, had a tour stop here in Sacramento. What's so great about this tour is it is just him playing solo acoustic guitar. He played songs from his library of solo work in addition to acoustic versions of some Men at Work favorites. A tribute to the songwriting of Men at Work is the fact that the acoustic versions are just as good, and in some cases better, as acoustic guitar pieces. His use of a 12-string guitar on a few songs added a beautiful fullness.

Mr. Hay is, in addition to having one of the most iconic voices of 80's music, a terrific guitar player. One might not expect the lead singer of what was essentially an 80's pop band to be so accomplished a player. Also, his voice is still in prime form. He hit all the familiar high notes clearly and with confidence.

Mr. Hay is also quite funny. His show was part standup routine and storytelling. Several times during the set he would talk for up to 10 minutes, regaling the audience with stories of touring recently with Ringo Starr's band and his various experiences over the years touring the United States. Apparently he's been mistaken for the singer from Flock of Seagulls (by a policeman who pulled him over) and Sting (by a gas station attendant who, when Colin told her he wrote the song "Down Under," said he didn't remind her at all of Sting.)

Be sure to check out his web site and buy something from his record label, Compass Records.

Halo 3 til daylight

This past week, thanks to the generosity of my friend Eric, I have had the pleasure of playing in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta using his Xbox 360 and gamertag. Photographic proof of this on my "gaming tower of power" is below:

I've had a lot of fun with it, as the gameplay is familiar enough for Halo 2 players to be easily picked up, but it has enough new strategic items and weapons to make it a game with a distinctly different balance than Halo 2 was online. The weapons are balanced such that at any time any player can beat any other, relieving somewhat the unbalance in Halo 2 of the "power weapon monopoly" that a player or team could obtain and hold onto.

What I haven't done in a long time was what happened last night and this morning. I played for at least three hours straight, out of about six hours of gameplay, with a great, skilled, and complete team. That's the ideal for Halo online multiplayer -- a group of friends who cooperate, are skilled players, and just cool in general. Halo allows a party that wants to stay together to keep playing together as a team. As you run into other people or other friends become available, you just keep adding them to your party. The time literally disappeared. I remember someone asking the group what time it was where we each were and it was 2:30a for me, and then I didn't notice the time again until it was 5 in the morning and I could start to see daylight. Apparently, as of 12:15 this afternoon, my friend NaughtyDawg is still playing!

There are several benefits to playing so late into the night: 1) few 13-year-olds screaming that they want the sniper rifle; and 2) international players start to come online. We had one team member playing from Australia and I believe another was playing from France.

I'm looking forward to Halo 3 this September. The single player campaign also promises to be a great experience, plus this beta is only a few of the final maps for online multiplayer, so there is much to still be revealed.

Related post: Halo 3 warmup

Stat summary of visitors: the first 21 months

General curiosity and a desire to use Google Docs' chart feature have led me to this point. I created the Google Docs charts by downloading the raw data from StatCounter and then plotting from a spreadsheet. Google Docs saves these charts in .png format and they are less than 6kb apiece.

I signed up for a Blogger account in August 2005 in order to comment with an identity on my friend Eric's blog before he migrated to using TypePad. The first thing I felt a desire to blog about was my trip to Seattle, WA with some friends to attend Penny Arcade's Penny Arcade Expo 2005.

So, a brief summary of some numbers as of May 2007:

Total pageloads: 5,327
Average # of
pageloads per month: 242

Total unique visitors: 4,080
Average # of
unique visitors per month: 185

The first big spike is January 2006, which was Howard Stern's debut on SIRIUS satellite radio, garnering 326 unique visitors that month. The middle spike is July 2006 with 321 uniques. I'm not sure what happened then, but I posted about having not posted for almost a month and also about Carson Daly, so obviously something else was going on.

The last spike is December 2006 with 325 uniques. Howard Stern went on a Christmas TV media promotional blitz for SIRIUS and I posted his appearances. Other than huge events that I specifically wrote about and others specifically searched for, it is difficult to make many correlations with this data, but I still love seeing the numbers in vibrant color form. I can see the search terms that visitors used to reach my site, but only for the 100 most recent visitors. This is only because I use the free version of StatCounter and not due to any deficiency in the stat code or its featureset.

Just for fun, here is the data broken down by quarter. This chart and the one above are from Google Docs:
For comparison, here is a graph of the same data from StatCounter:


Related post: Using Google Docs

Warm-up for Halo 3 multiplayer beta

[UPDATE on Halo 3 release date in last paragraph]

In anticipation of the upcoming multiplayer beta and in the spirit of reuniting with my Xbox 360-owning brethren I purchased the redesigned Halo 2 maps this week ... for my original Xbox.

Thought I was going to say I bought a 360, didn't you?

Both Xbox and Xbox 360 owners can download and play these two new maps, so I thought I'd check out the new content and maybe play with some old friends. I was happy to see that my wireless connection worked well last night -- 56Mbps with "good" to "very good" signal strength. No lag here.

I'm going to be able to play the Halo 3 multiplayer beta thanks to the generosity of one of my gaming buddies, so I figured I should hammer the rust off of my skillz before then. Before last night, the last time I had played Halo 2 multiplayer over Xbox Live was 12/3/2005. At the end of that day I had played 704 total games and reached level 16 in the Big Team Battle game type. Adding last night's nine games, here is a summary of my stats:

Total games: 713
Total kills: 3,274
Total deaths: 5,837
Kill/Death ratio: 0.5609
Total assists: 1,928

If you add my assists to my total kills my kill/death ratio rises to a more respectable 0.8912. My mere presence in the game contributed or directly caused the virtual deaths of 5,202 players. That sure is a weird thing to say.

I am reinstituting a feature I used to have on my blog, namely a link to my recent Halo 2 stats via an RSS feed from bungie.net. The link is in the right margin underneath the link to my Technorati profile.

I found the link to this video montage of Halo 3 multiplayer beta gameplay in a post on Eric's blog. Read the little interview before watching the movie for some interesting tidbits about the guy who made the video. Pretty impressive gameplay from the internal beta at Bungie. The release of Halo 3 will certainly be a "drop dead" purchase event for me to buy an Xbox 360. No date is set for the release yet [NEW INFO: Sept. 25], but it will be 2007.

Why the record companies must accept and adopt digital distribution

It hit me tonight while switching between channels on satellite radio during my drive home. People have put forth ideas like this for awhile now, and I thought it was probably true, but now I know for sure: targeted (even omnidirectional) specific narrowcasting for small audiences is the future of music.

It just has to work this way, and here's why:

1. What people want

Very simply, people want what they like. Not necessarily what they already know, but almost certainly something similar to that. This isn't restricted to particular bands or artists. The way I listen to music on satellite radio is determined by my mood, which is affected by everything around me. After a stressful day at work I might like to listen to jazz standards. Late Friday or Saturday nights I often love driving to electronica/techno. Other times I might be feeling nostalgic and want to listen to 80's hits. Almost any artist within these particular genres will accommodate my mood.

What is so great about satellite radio for me is the variety of music I hear within the genre-channels. Every day I hear something I haven't heard before along with the familiar favorites that drew me to that particular channel. My music nerd friends who either have or have recently dumped satellite radio tell me they've heard everything that's in rotation and have higher quality audio on their iPods anyway, but it's still fresh to me.

2. How people want it

Easy, portable and cheap. Bulky, physical discs are not easy to obtain (it still requires a trip to brick-and-mortar retailers or delivery via postal mail) or cheap to buy. In an ideal distribution world I will hear something I like while driving or at home, flag it for immediate or delayed download and once the song is downloaded it will either be available for streaming or be pushed in its entirety to every one of my music/media devices, ready for immediate and infinite listening. The streaming or pushing can be done either peer-to-peer among my devices or from a central server.

99 cents a song is ok for now, but once this is the primary method of distribution we'd better be looking at 25 to 50 cents a song or better yet, unlimited downloads for a flat monthly fee. I'm also ok with the way satellite radio currently works, namely, a constant stream of genre-specific music with no local physical preservation for a low monthly flat fee. I don't particularly care whether I can hear any one specific song at exactly the time I want it as long as I know the music will keep coming. I know I'm going to hear something I like and my artist/song presets will notify me when one of my favorites is about to be played.

3. What artists want

I'm stretching here as I am no expert on this, but these are my thoughts and opinions. All of you pros, amateurs and hobbyists please let me hear yours. Ultimately, artists want people to hear their music. The Internet is the most efficient distribution mechanism yet known for digital music. We know it works, people use it every day for just this purpose. So, if artists want people to hear their music they should use the Internet to distribute it. Notice the absence of "record company" in that equation.

Artists also want some sort of recognition as authors of works, and hopefully some amount of compensation for the effort and creativity expended in order to create such works.

4. What record companies want

In a word, money. From what I've seen, heard and read it is rare for a record company to actually care about an artist beyond what the artist can contribute to the record company's bottom line. About the only thing record companies seem good for these days is "big media" promotion and in some cases, distribution. See Internet, supra.

So what's an outdated, desperate, old-guard, head-in-the-sand pre-Internet industry to do once the effectiveness of lawsuits fade and people are sick and tired of paying multiple times for the same song just so they can play it as a soundtrack on their game consoles and walk around with it on their digital music players?

Hopefully, come to its senses and rethink the business. Otherwise it will die.

What can happen

Apple has demonstrated with iTunes that people are willing to pay to download digital music if the price is right. Microsoft has demonstrated with Xbox Live that people are willing to pay to download digital movies and TV even though the prices may not be quite right yet. There are still issues with Digital Rights Management, but I am hopeful the market will help relax these unreasonable restrictions once it is realized that the sky will not fall if a song is transferred from PS3 to PSP to Xbox 360 to PC to Zune to iPod and back again.

Some ways record companies can adapt to this new permutation of the consumer-driven music industry are:

• provide the highest quality, "official" versions of songs for download;
• add value to "official" versions by including lyrics, album art, concert promotions, etc.;
• create song "extras" for particular media devices, e.g., an interactive rhythm game for the Nintendo DS touchscreen, Xbox Live achievements if a preset number of others download your original remix of a song, or a podcast interview with the artist for digital music players;
  
• at the artists' individual discretion, make raw tracks available for remixing by consumers or DJs;
• allow consumers to participate in new album or single song releases by designating particular (or randomly selecting from a list of unique identifiers given for "official" purchases) consumer authorities who will receive pre-releases and be allowed to review and promote them via their blogs, affinity groups, or otherwise. These authorities could track what they've helped to promote, thereby creating a sort of Xbox-less achievement system;

All of these form a sort of self-eating watermelon of promotion, sales, feedback, reputation and reinforcement that could allow record companies to remain relevant, albeit in a much different and less bloated form than they exist now.

Consumers

The recording industry is not the only one in the path of this runaway train. Consumers, too, must change their perception about what it means to "own" music. Possessing multiple sleeves in a binder containing slabs of plastic with dots stamped into aluminum foil is nice, I suppose, but consider whether it even matters that you don't "have" a particular song if your downloading plan allows unlimited song downloads for a small monthly fee. This way the whole "filesharing for free" cycle is short-circuited: it is simply easier and faster for me to obtain a reliably encoded high-bitrate song, exactly the version I want exactly when I want, than it is for me to coordinate with someone else to obtain a copy of the same song that may or may not be of an acceptable quality.

Next?

Whether distribution happens via satellite radio, Internet radio, municipal wi-fi or promotional USB thumb drives by postal mail really doesn't matter. The ideas are here and they are catching on. Consumers have made their preference known, so record companies had better decide if they're going to take a swing or let the ball zip by as it kisses the inside of the baseline.

Print innovation and editorial competence at Wired

[5/29/07 - updated with specific link to Clive Thompson's blog entry where he requested comments from readers regarding the Wired article prior to its publication.]

Print Innovation
Wired has always been a forward-thinking publication, both in subject matter and presentation and layout. An article in the April 2007 issue stands out as particularly innovative, though. The topic of corporate transparency is interesting, but it's the layout that I'm most impressed by.

The article is now online and is titled "The See-Through CEO," but interestingly, and this is a rare case where I feel the term ironically is appropriate, the online presentation doesn't translate the innovation. The print layout has nice wide margins of about 1 3/4 inches, where the margin notes are placed for this article. The irony comes in when you consider the article's author, Clive Thompson, blogged about the article as part of his creative process, reproduces some of his readers' input as footnotes in the margins, and the dead-tree pulp outdoes the pixelated electrons for readability and, dare I say, structural transparency.

The part I really like, and that makes the print version eminently easy to read, is that the portion of the main text the margin note refers to is highlighted and the corresponding margin note is right there on the same page, with credit given to the reader who contributed it. In addition to simple readability, how cool must it be for one of Mr. Thompson's readers to see an idea and comment credited in print like that?

Editorial Competence
On to the editorial competence, in the same article Mr. Thompson correctly uses the expression "take a different tack" (end of the third paragraph) to indicate one of the subjects of his article decided to change course and try something different. The presence of the word tack was what spurred me to make this entire post.

That's right. Tack.

I hear and see the expression misused so often I thought the fact that it was used correctly warranted mention. The worst misuse I hear is "take a different tact." Also spotted in the wild is "take a different track." No, no, no, no ...

No.

The expression originates from the sailing term "tack," which is used to describe the maneuver that occurs when a sailboat changes the direction of its bow relative to the wind. This maneuver allows a sailboat to move forward while heading into the wind. Wikipedia has a nice diagram.

Bravo Clive Thompson and bravo Wired for a job well done all around.

As you were, readers.

Kurt Vonnegut is dead at 84

He was truly a unique voice in American literature. He mixed satire, humor and sometimes science fiction to create scathing social commentary. The first book of his I read was Breakfast of Champions, as a high school student. The off-the-wall storytelling and ideas interspersed with the author's own line drawings made for sometimes hilarious passages.

Since that time I have read the classic Slaughterhouse-Five as well as his final novel, Timequake. Almost all of these novels involve somewhat flawed or quirky characters in usually improbable or absurd situations, dealing with life the best they can. Vonnegut's voice comes through, often with irony and humor, sometimes hitting you in the face with our own reality without you noticing because you're laughing so hard.

It's been years since I've read his work, and as one of my all-time favorite authors, I'm going to have to start a few more of his novels I haven't read yet. I'll never forget one of my favorite scenes in Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School, in which Vonnegut makes a cameo appearance as himself to deliver a paper which Thornton Melon (Dangerfield) hired him to write about himself for Melon's English class. Rent that movie sometime, it's a classic.

Today's New York Times has a good piece about Vonnegut and his life.

I voted for Sanjaya and it's Howard Stern's fault

I've been working an evening job to bring in some cash, and when I turned on Howard 100 tonight at 10:30 after my shift ended, I saw that on the second line of the display on my radio, underneath "Howard Stern Show," it said "Vote for Sanjaya 866-436-5708." Here on the west coast American Idol ends at nine, meaning viewers can vote until 11p, so I dialed the number and ended up voting five times in the parking lot before driving home.

Without even watching the show, knowing nothing about the other performers/contestants. Apparently Sanjaya actually did ok tonight.

I'm not sure when the Sanjaya movement began, but a few weeks ago Howard brought up the web site VoteForTheWorst.com on the air and interviewed the founder of the site on the show. Howard was digging what the guy was doing and has stated several times since then that he thinks it's great to destroy something, meaning the show American Idol -- to take part in such a disruption and distortion of what the show means as to make it worthless as a concept.

I have to agree the idea is hilarious. Sanjaya isn't the worst I've heard, but there is no way he is the best singer on that show right now. Just the fact that he made it into the top 10 and will be a part of the forthcoming American Idol live tour is sweet justice. Last week, even Simon gave up criticizing Sanjaya's performances because he knows it's useless, calling his performance "brilliant."

Of course all of this Sanjaya mania isn't due to Howard Stern alone, but Howard's name is being mentioned in connection with it. The publicity certainly can't hurt. Is this the first true test of the power of satellite radio? Is the fact that this is the first true test of such power a sad commentary on what millions of Americans are focused on? Am I actually typing this?

Results of a fitful sleep

I had a bizarre dream last night.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and I were making a disturbingly large ottoman, sometimes known as a footstool. Only this was no stool. We could've eaten dinner on this thing, it was huge. John and I were stuffing a fabric tube with cotton which we were then going to cut into four pieces for the legs. I don't think it would've held up.

But I wasn't worried about that. I was laughing hysterically at Jim while I was searching for a pen I could use to mark up the fabric tube. Lying on my side, much in the same position I usually sleep in, I couldn't get up or move I was laughing so hard. I don't remember what he said.

The only benefit I've seen to intermittent sleep is that I seem to dream more, or at least remember what I've dreamed. Jim Gaffigan has been making more frequent appearances on Comedy Central and you might also recognize him from recent Sierra Mist commercials.

PS3 and Resistance: Fall of Man

I went over to my friend Vic's house this weekend and played Resistance: Fall of Man on his PS3.

Before I go on, I have to say that even though I have been disappointed (and predicted as much) with the price of the PS3, the lack of games for the PS3, the lack of innovation in gameplay on the PS3 and the arrogance of Sony and its corporate representatives regarding the supposed superiority of the PS3, I was still excited to have some one-on-one gameplaying time with it. When someone says they actually have one of these things, that in itself is impressive. The mere possession of such an electronic beast signifies a weighty committment to gaming and to the belief in future potential.

I played Resistance for about an hour, making it through maybe four or five levels after struggling a bit to learn that the button that fires grenades is always the button that fires grenades, never becoming the melee button when next to a wooden box, and I have to say it is extremely well done. The graphics are superb (I played on a 720p CRT TV), the small details like foliage and surface textures were pristine, and the framerate was always solid and smooth. The story is interesting, the weapons are cool, and the gameplay is compelling enough to keep me interested. The quality of graphics and type of gameplay were about equivalent to Gears of War for the 360.

I did not try online play, but Vic said it's a lot of fun to play a deathmatch with 20+ people. He also said though, that there's no real "matching" system, that you pretty much are just thrown into a game with people you may or may not know. Maybe that's not a problem once you have a list of friends built up, but since Sony doesn't have a centralized "friend" management system that works across all games like Microsoft's Xbox Live service, your "Resistance" friends can't easily be your friends on any other games.

He showed me all of the media bar options and we surfed the web a bit. That sucked without a keyboard. Typing user names and passwords with a Sixaxis is not fun. Also, it appears that if you don't have a widescreen 1080p television you have to "pan and scan" to see entire web pages. We visited this very blog and couldn't even read the entire column of text across because it stretched beyond the width of the screen.

Last week's Game Developer's Conference (GameSpot's coverage here) revealed more about Sony's Home service and at least one promising new game, seemingly revitalizing interest in the PS3. Even Gabe and Tycho had to admit to being intrigued. Gabe lists some interesting observations he made upon experiencing the PS3 once he had it home.

I can see the potential, but I can almost guarantee it'll be 2008 before I have one. Late 2008. An Xbox 360 will be first, then a Wii. I have too many friends to catch up with on Live and there are too many great 360 and Wii games to play for me to buy some other console with mere potential.

On using Google Docs

Over the last few weeks I've been using Google Docs & Spreadsheets to great effect. Having documents-in-progress at a centralized network location is simply convenient, especially for those like me who haven't jumped on the USB thumb drive bandwagon. I still carry around 3.5" discs. It's nice not to have to worry about which version of a document I am carrying with me or which version I emailed yesterday. GDocs also appears to keep a complete archive of revisions which can be reverted to at any time.

The sharing is cool too. Right now I'm collaborating with two different people on separate documents that I want each of them to be able to see and/or modify at their convenience. GDocs tracks who you have shared with, what privileges they have with that document, and ties that collaborator's contributions or modifications to an identity so you can see who contributed what, where and when. Collaborators do not need to have a Google Account to have access, you just "invite" them to share your document using their email address. There's also a real-time chat window next to the document for instant discussion.

Also, current documents you're working on offline can be uploaded, modified and then exported (yes, you can export as a PDF) at any time, all major formats (including OpenOffice's ODF) accepted. As far as I can tell all formatting and formulas come through ok. There are publishing options I haven't explored yet, including adding documents to your blog. Maybe this calls for a chart.

SIRIUS - XM merger proposed

I received notice from SIRIUS via email about the same time I saw a post at Eric's blog about this. From the news release at the SIRIUS web site:

XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR - News) and SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI - News) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement, under which the companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately $1.6 billion.

My initial reaction is disappointment because I liked the fact that the younger, upstart SIRIUS was obviously outpacing the more corporate XM. Competition is usually good for fostering further innovation and spurring complacent competitors. I think it's good that Mel Karmazin, the current SIRIUS CEO, will remain the CEO of this newly proposed entity because he seems to really "get" the freedom and consequent potential of satellite radio.

From the email I, and probably all SIRIUS subscribers, received:

After shareholder and regulatory approvals, we anticipate that the combination will be finalized by the end of 2007. Until then, both companies will continue to operate independently.

Much needs to still occur before this becomes a reality, but the companies appear determined to make this happen. Key language from the news release identifies how SIRIUS and XM will be positioning their merger to garner federal regulatory approval:

More Competitive Audio Entertainment Provider -- The combination of an
enhanced programming lineup with improved technology, distribution and
financials will better position satellite radio to compete for
consumers' attention and entertainment dollars against a host of
products and services in the highly competitive and rapidly evolving
audio entertainment marketplace.  In addition to existing competition
from free "over-the-air" AM and FM radio as well as iPods and mobile
phone streaming, satellite radio will face new challenges from the rapid
growth of HD Radio, Internet radio and next generation wireless technologies.
[emphasis mine]

According to a recent article on Bloomberg, current FCC regulations do not allow such a merger as a condition of the two companies being given approval to operate. The language above indicates the two satellite companies are reframing what competition means in this industry, i.e., it's not anticompetitive for there to be a single satellite radio provider when there are so many other "radio" and music/talk choices available to listeners.

It will be interesting to see how things play out. I like that Mel will be at the helm, but there are just too many unknowns at this point to know for sure if this will be a good thing. There are over 100 comments on this story over at the unofficial Sirius Backstage forums.

It was time

Today I finally removed my "FREE HOWARD STERN" sticker from the rear window of my pickup:














I mean, come on, he's been free for over a year already.

I had expected to have to employ a heat gun in conjunction with a razor blade, but the razor alone did the job just fine. In the warmth of the sun the blade slipped easily beneath the lettering, separating each Latin symbol whole from its smooth, tinted substrate.

Related post: Chevy S10 install

Sony unaware of Metal Gear Solid 4?

Yes, it's true. I am a member of the "Playstation Underground." Pretty top secret, I know. I'm one of those types that likes to register things when I buy them, so I signed up for it when I bought my PS2. Every once in awhile they mail me stuff and today I received a nice, big (9 X 12) glossy pamphlet about the PS3 with all the reasons I shouldn't be able to resist buying one.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I can't add Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots to my Playstation Underground game "wish list" because the game doesn't seem to exist anywhere within the US Playstation web site. Strange considering MGS4 is one of the most anticipated titles for the PS3 later this year.

What's weird is the game also doesn't appear on Konami's (the game's publisher) US web site. Maybe things are just being kept quiet until there's real news. Even the game's developer, Kojima Productions, has little info on the title. When all else fails, there's Wikipedia.

Data provide a glimpse of my routine

A collateral benefit of my SIRIUS tuner's memory and the fact that it is powered via my cigarette lighter is that I can measure how long it takes for me to do certain regular recurring tasks as I drive around running errands. If I stop for gas or check my mailbox I press "pause" on the tuner before I turn the ignition off and then resume listening once I've started up again. Below are some things I've done over the past week and approximately how long each one took.

• Pick up shirts at drycleaners: 2m 16s
• Make three copies and fax three pages at copy shop: 16m 10s
• Park & run into post office to send letters: 1m 50s
• Pick up razor refills at grocery store: ~5 to 6m (approx. since I had to go to two stores to find them)
• Put $20 gas in my truck: ~3 to 4m (est. since I didn't actually do this this week but recall from past fill-ups this is about right.)
• Buy sandwich at a drive-thru fast food joint: 4m 7s

I thought it was interesting to see that some of the things I do don't take as long as I perceive them to take. Filling up with gas particularly. I used to think when I was cutting things close with time and my gas gauge was approaching "empty" I wouldn't have time to stop to fill up. The truth is, even 5 bucks will ensure I won't run out of gas going anywhere in town and I can be in and out in two minutes or less. Also, as my brother Brian has said to me, can you afford to not stop for gas? If you actually run dry there's no question you'll be late.

Laserdisc gaming -- Cliff Hanger

A recent article on Gamepolitics reminded me of this classic gem. The game's page on Wikipedia had some interesting info and a few additional links. I can still remember playing the car chase scene where you had to weave your car back and forth to dodge grenades tossed by the car you were chasing. Also fighting ninjas. Lots of ninjas. And scuba diving -- it's slowly coming back! Apparently the game was created using clips from several Japanese anime cartoons.

I had no idea the game was so rare -- apparently only 550 arcade cabinets were manufactured -- and we had one in rural Cave Creek, AZ back in the 1980s. Man, that was a great gameroom, attached to a pizza joint of course. I spent countless hours and quarters playing Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Joust, Congo Bongo, Dragon's Lair and many others. Those were the days.

Sac Natural Foods Co-op to close Elk Grove store

I was sad to learn that the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is closing its Elk Grove store at the end of January. I found out while shopping there in the first week of the new year that the Board of Directors had voted at its January 2 meeting to assign the store's lease to a new grocery store, Grocery Outlet. The Co-op has held several public meetings over the past week for shoppers and Co-op owners to attend and learn about this decision. The first two were on the evenings of Tuesday and Wednesday at the Elk Grove and Sacramento store locations, respectively. The last meeting was yesterday, Saturday afternoon at the Elk Grove store.

I went to the first meeting last Tuesday night not only because I'm an owner of the Co-op, but also because I was curious how such a beautiful store with great product and amazing staff could be closing after only 18 months of operation.

The meeting was much more than just a presentation by the Board of Directors. There were about 40 owners and a few shoppers there and we all sat in chairs in a large circle. It was actually quite personal and everyone had a chance to say what they were feeling and to ask any questions. In addition to the Board members there were several employees there who had invested quite a bit of their lives in the Co-op and the principles it stands for. Many of those present were quite emotional when they talked about what the store means to them. I'm sad to see it go because not only is the food they sell superb, but the entire staff is knowledgeable and clearly passionate about the ideals behind the Co-op. I always left the store with a positive feeling.

The Board went through a summary of the reasons they had thought a store in Elk Grove would work, the multiple marketing studies done to analyze possible locations, and the extensive community outreach and advertising that was done to promote the Co-op to Elk Grove. Employees even took wage and benefit reductions to reduce expenses. Everything that could have been done was done. The sad truth appears to be that there simply wasn't enough time to build a sufficient customer base who came in on a consistent basis to make the store profitable.

Even though it is sad and disappointing to see the store close, some good will still come out of having built and opened it. The building itself is the most environmentally "green" in Elk Grove and maybe in Sacramento, from having energy efficient cooling, heating, lighting and refrigeration to using recycled and natural materials throughout the structure. Hopefully that building along with some of the Co-op's principles of sustainable grocery practices and cooperative community support and involvement are new seeds that will germinate and spread new ideas about being mutually beneficial and responsible consumers and community participants.

P.S. -- mention was made of a final celebration, likely to occur near the end of January, so keep your ears open and I'll post any info I find out. Also, inventory is being cleared over the next several weeks, so there may be some good bargains to be had.

[UPDATE - THURSDAY, 1/18] I went to the Elk Grove store last night and apparently there has been a 20% off sale all this week. The store was mostly empty, and all of the fresh/perishable food areas (deli, dairy, meats & seafood, produce) were already cleaned and closed. I'd say there was about 20-30% of the store's product remaining. It was slim pickins, but if you're looking for some frozen goods (including a number of turkeys!?), beer/wine, dry goods or other non-perishable groceries it may be worth your while to browse what's left.

1-9-07 -- The Revolution Continues On

Today marks one year since Howard Stern officially began his satellite radio career. Despite what his detractors say, Howard's venture into this new medium has been an unqualified success. The growth of new SIRIUS subscribers has exceeded all expectations since Stern signed on, blowing through the projected number for the end of 2006 of 3.5 million subscribers by over 2 million for an estimated total of 6,024,000 subscribers as of December 31, 2006. SIRIUS had 600,000 subscribers in 2004 when it signed Stern.

SIRIUS announced today that Stern will receive yet another incentive payment as a result of this record growth. Anyone who thinks Stern would even consider leaving this sweet gig just isn't paying attention. No censorship and multi-million dollar incentive payments? Are you kidding?

My personal experience with SIRIUS has been nothing but positive. I had wanted to try satellite radio for several years before actually subscribing in December 2005. I listened on and off to Stern's terrestrial radio show for probably ten years and had become a regular listener again during his last few years on that medium, so my choice of a satellite radio provider was simple once Howard announced he was going to be on SIRIUS. I listen mainly in my truck, but I can take my tuner anywhere with a SIRIUS boombox (thanks to Eric) and can listen at any computer via Internet radio. In addition to Stern's two channels the music, talk, entertainment and sports content variety seem endless. A partial list is here.

One of the things I love about listening to Howard is that he puts all aspects of the show on the air. When his producer Gary screws up the timing of bringing a guest in the studio or forgets to tell Howard something related to running the show, or Scott the Engineer (yes, "engineer" should be capitalized) can't make a piece of equipment work, the issue isn't just passed over and dealt with off the air. Howard brings the offending person into the studio and hashes it out on the air, usually involving all members of the show in the discussion and ultimately goofing on the person until they can't stand it anymore.

A shining moment recently was when Stern was set to interview Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who and Pete Townshend backed out of the interview literally minutes before it was to begin. Not only was this during the much promoted two-day SIRIUS "free preview," but it was also supposed to announce the new Who channel (98) on SIRIUS. Stern ended up talking just to Roger Daltrey, talked about Townshend walking out, and turned it into an interesting interview.

In addition to giving listeners a glimpse of what goes on silently at every other radio program, which is in itself fascinating, Howard's tirades and criticisms often make for hilarious bits for the show and just great radio.

In the week before Stern's first official broadcast on 1-9-06 he did several test broadcasts to check sound levels and try out all of the equipment in the brand new studio. That probably could have been done by engineers or other staff, but Howard chose to bring in the whole regular show staff and they actually broadcast several mini shows to try everything out, even taking phone calls.

Today after the regular show SIRIUS replayed the 1-9-06 show and then ran the top 10 moments of the past year as voted on by listeners.

Related posts: Howard's first broadcast; Stern still has it; "satellite radio" posts

Migration to New Blogger complete

I've taken the final step of fully converting to The New Version of Blogger, namely selecting a new template. On the outside it doesn't look like a new template, but the inner workings and widgets are certainly shiny and new. There's a few new template designs that were tempting, but for now the added functionality for me and useability for my readers is enough.

The template upgrade process was fairly painless. Blogger keeps a copy of your old template, but I made a copy of the HTML myself before upgrading so I could cut-and-paste anything the conversion process dropped. One cool thing is that it allows you to preview new templates with your actual current blog content, not just generic placeholders, so you have a good feel for how it's going to look.

Pretty much everything transferred over, though I had to add back in any java scripts (remember your site statistics scripts!) from the old template and any other custom HTML I had that was outside of the basic page elements. My lists of links, friends' blogs and gaming blogs all came over. I had to futz around in the template HTML to adjust my margins again and it's not quite right yet, but it's pretty close. Each section, or page element, of the blog (i.e., header, outer, main, sidebar, footer, etc.) has its own "wrapper" parameters to be adjusted.

The best features of this new template are two new page elements that add extra useability for readers. The first is the labels index, allowing easy sorting for a particular subject. The second is a revamping of the archive which now allows readers to "drill down" to see a list of posts made in a particular month. I'll continue experimenting, so you might see slight changes here and there from time to time. Let me know if anything looks amiss and what is good, too.

Related link: Blogger Beta conversion

Sacha Baron Cohen interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air

You probably know him as Borat, the star of the recent movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, but he is also Ali G and Bruno.

I thought the interview would be boring since Cohen was interviewed out of character as himself, but it proved to be both funny and interesting as he explained some of his comedic process and some behind-the-scenes things from making the Borat movie.

You can listen to the whole interview on NPR's web site as well as see a picture of Cohen as he really looks.

Artie Lange's Beer League DVD released January 2, Lange on Letterman January 3

Widely available, but I picked up my copy yesterday at Circuit City. It's a "Collector's Edition 2-Disc Set" and they have a promotion that includes a free Beer League t-shirt. I'm not sure if the free t-shirt offer applies with an online order, but the offer is in their weekly ad. There was a box of the shirts at the cash register when I checked out in person. I haven't watched the movie yet, but I'll put up a few words once I do.

Circuit City has a separate promotion, also in the weekly ad, for Sirius tuners that gives the purchaser of any tuner a free copy of the Beer League DVD.

On a related note, Artie will appear on David Letterman's Late Show tonight, January 3.


Related posts: Boycott Beerfest, see Beer League; Artie on NPR

Microsoft set to lock down Office docs; enforced with encryption and DMCA

Ok, this is too much. Via Linux Journal I found an article in InformationWeek about MS's new Vista OS and how it will enable MS to criminalize open document readers and consequently kill open standards computing.

The gist of it is that Vista will enable Information Rights Management (IRM), a feature available since Office 2003, to control the hardware (yes, you read right -- see "trusted computing" below) and software required to open a document created with Office running on Vista while also allowing control over whether that document can be printed, edited, copied, forwarded or any number of other possibilities. These rights can even be "managed" remotely, though I imagine that would require being on a common MS network using Outlook or the network to obtain the document.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is invoked by the use of encryption to enforce the IRM. In short, bypass the encrypted formatting and break the law. The IRM features can be incorporated with "trusted computing" principles to completely lock down the documents at the hardware level of your PC.

The InformationWeek article talks of losing open document standards, but the Linux Journal article predicts much more dire consequences: the possible forced obsolescence of Linux and other open standards-based OSes. If most of the computing world is standardized on Microsoft platforms and products and it is illegal to even duplicate MS functionality for common document use, how useful will Linux be?

If Microsoft successfully implements these "features" then it has truly missed the boat of the Internet with a capital "I." The value of the Internet is that it does not matter what client you use as long as it supports the common and public standards the network (i.e., "Internet") uses to move data around. Once documents created with Microsoft products can only be opened or manipulated using Microsoft-approved systems, we've reverted to the earliest Apple/IBM incompatibility headaches and corresponding lack of sharing, communication and creativity among users.

Successful implementation may also create a pseudo net neutrality advantage to Microsoft users. Imagine corporations, who are by the way huge users of MS products, which will not accept documents unless they are submitted in a protected MS Office format or will only make press releases or other company information available in that same protected format. Who cares if your Linux box has as much bandwidth as some other guy's Windows machine -- your Linux-created document simply isn't getting through.

Such a corporate lockdown is not unrealistic given the fact that corporations' IT departments like the consistent, easy-to-manage, standardized (ironic, no?) infrastructure that a MS network provides, plus Microsoft sells IRM as a "company asset" in its description of the feature. What corporation or IT manager does not want "Information privacy, control, and integrity" incorporated into network management?

Please read both of the articles mentioned in the first paragraph and become informed about what software and computing companies are doing. Even if you are only a Microsoft user you should be concerned about your shrinking choices and limits on your free use of your own property.

The new Blogger beta

Seeing as how this new beta version was declared "feature complete" as of November 2, I figured I'd jump in and convert. The process was easy, I just clicked on "Update my blog" from the old dashboard, signed in with a google account and the rest was all on google's end. The conversion took 3 to 4 minutes and I was notified at my gmail address when it was done.

So far things on the admin side look mostly similar, just more polished and with more features more easily managed. As far as I can tell, the blog's appearance to the outside world is identical to how it looked before. I look forward to organizing my posts by labels.

[UPDATE] The only suggestion I will make to potential converts is to consider whether you want to associate your new Blogger beta blog with a google account that is different from your primary gmail account. This is because unfortunately, when you sign out of Blogger beta you are signing out of your google accounts entirely, also logging you out of any other google services you are currently using.

Actually I just tried and confirmed, and this really sucks, that you can't be logged into two different google logins at the same time at all on the same computer. Well technically you can use a browser to monitor one gmail account and monitor a different gmail account via Gmail Notifier in your taskbar, but that's not really what we're talking about here. If you're like me you have gmail open all the time, you use google's personalized homepage, gcal and google maps often all at the same time, so inadvertently logging in and out of all of that is a hassle. It's best to have a separate google account solely for your Blogger beta blog so you only have to worry about that one thing.

I suppose you could use your main google/gmail account with Blogger beta so that you can stay logged into everything all the time. I hestiated to do that because I'm uncomfortable with my personal gmail data being so closely stacked in the "Google identity silo" with my blog posts.


Related post: Blogger beta hesitation

Kathy Griffin at the Crest

I'm not sure why I didn't post this earlier, but my girlfriend and I went to see Kathy Griffin here in Sacramento on December first. Griffin did two shows that night, and the later 10:00 show we went to lasted an hour and forty minutes! Great stuff, she is a hilarious stream-of-consciousness comic, mainly focusing on her interactions with "A" list celebrities as a self-proclaimed "D-lister." Topics ranged from Britney to Lohan, Clay "Gayken" (allegedly) to Kathy's parents behavior on her reality show on Bravo.

Interestingly, the stage at the show was completely bare except for a stool with several water bottles on it and a microphone stand. This is a 36' X 24' stage in a 975 person theater and the place was sold out. It made me realize just how difficult it must be to build up a routine to the level of being able to keep a paying audience entertained for a full show.

She'll be on tour in California through January 12th before heading to the Northwest and then east again if you'd like to catch a show.

Howard Stern TV media blitz this week

Stern is hitting the "Big 3" networks this week for a Sirius holiday promotional push.

Last night Stern was on Letterman's show (CBS).

Thursday night he will be on Conan O'Brien (NBC, 12:30a Friday, technically).

Friday night he will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, 12:05a Saturday).

The Letterman appearance was cool. Howard was wearing a Santa robe with bare legs, and came bearing gifts. He gave Paul and Dave each a new Sirius Stiletto, the latest and greatest portable tuner/mp3 player from Sirius, and then gave everyone in the audience satellite radios with free three month subscriptions! No doubt a more basic model, but how cool is that?

Howard had stories about his and Beth's recent attendance at Bryant Gumbel's Christmas party, showed a video clip of Jeff the Drunk falling down, and talked about a few other things that have been going on since he moved to Sirius. Some more info is on Stern's site since they commented on it quite a bit today. Also, the Lateshow site has a transcript of the entire show. Apparently Regis Philbin heard that Dave actually shook Howard's hand backstage after the interview (a rare event as I believe both Howard and Dave are germophobic) and was so amazed by the occurrence that he may confront Dave about it when he is on Letterman tonight (Wed.).

Conan is great, though I think Howard is lukewarm about him. We'll have to see how the appearance goes. I'll be taping it for sure.

Let me just say that the official Conan O'Brien web site is woefully underutilized as far as upcoming guests go. I actually had to go to frickin' tvguide.com to confirm Howard's appearance tomorrow night. Further exploration on nbc.com revealed listings for the whole NBC network which included Conan's upcoming guests, but logic and good sense requires that such things be right there next to Conan's smiling face. Woe be upon those who underutilize... web things. We shall never speak of this again.

Kimmel and ABC have done it right. Upcoming guests for the whole week are right there on the front page. Actually the next two weeks. Kudos to you, Kimmel, and all those who make your web presence possible. Kimmel and Howard have a great chemistry which should ensure a great appearance.

Graphological Initiative

So the October 2006 issue of Wired had a full-page ad for TUL pens paired with an additional cardstock page with a postage-prepaid postcard that could be torn out. Both pages show a "Dr. Gerard Ackerman" looking at the camera with some sort of an "I'm smarter than you" smirk on his face, holding a metal clipboard, seemingly daring readers to mail in the attached postcard for a free graphological analysis. The part of the card stock page that one doesn't tear out has text on it that says "Share your handwriting with me and discover who you really are."

What one does is write a specific phrase on the card, I truly need a new pen., include an email address and mail in the card for analysis. I knew it was just a promotion for these pens, but TUL (really OfficeMax) had already paid for the postage, so I did it. I also thought they might send me a free pen. I received the email with a link to my "results" last week and would like to share.

UPDATE: email actually received the last week of October. I've had this saved as a draft for awhile.

The email was short and pretty much just contained a link to click on. "Results" is in quotes above because what I was given is not a personalized analysis of what I actually wrote on the postcard. This was disappointing, but what could I have expected, right? It's free. The general web site is here, where you can have your own handwriting "analyzed" without mailing in anything.

The web site gives its analysis of your handwriting by asking you a series of questions about the characteristics that appear as you write the phrase I wrote on the postcard. The characteristics are 1) Slant; 2) Size; 3) Spacing; 4) your capital "I"; 5) your lowercase "t"; and 6) your lowercase "y." I won't bore you with the respective options for these characteristics, but suffice it to say there are quite a few permutations that TUL had to make separate results videos for.

My results

My handwriting slants to the right (extroverted, emotionally responsive, trusting) and is medium-sized (average) with narrow spacing (conservative, inner strength, uptight, inhibited, aloof, emotionally remote, frugal).

For my capital "I," the tail of the "I" is dominant (dominant father and a lame who's your daddy with pimp graphic joke in the video). My lowercase "t" has a short crossbar (matter-of-fact, efficient, proficient) and my lowercase "y" has a full, almost voluptuous loop (physical, imaginative, flexible, uninhibited, direct).

Putting all that together for a coherent profile is pretty much impossible. You can see from my results that I am both emotionally responsive and emotionally remote, extroverted and uptight/aloof, inhibited and uninhibited, and trusting and frugal. I'm not sure how to add in the other characteristics, but I'm sure if I consult my astrological forecast I'll be pointed in a direction.

Any direction.

Of course the good doctor uses the results to make a particular pen recommendation using his apparently summarizing title of my characteristics, "Captain of the Boardroom."

No free pen.

My favorite pen right now (yes, it changes. Past honors have gone to the Uni-ball Vision Exact and Uni-ball Vision) is one I received as a promotion from my investment advisor at a brokerage firm. Of course the firm's logo is laser engraved on the cap, but the pen is solid brass, so it has a nice weight and balance to it. It's the BL8650S: Latitud Rollerball Pen of the Basics line offered by Logomark, Inc. It has nice, smooth rollerball ink and a consistent ink flow for easy writing. And it came with a certificate for 5 free refills. The site has a "refill wizard" and appears to have refills to fit lots of different pens, not just ones from Logomark. You pay shipping, but $4.95 isn't too bad for some quality ink.

Do I think too much about pens?