The Empirical Manifesto

I miss the iPod. I know this makes me sound like a Boomer, but hear me out. The awesome thing about the smartphone as has been oft repeated, is the entire suite of digital tools which used to be relegated to discrete devices. For example on my phone alone I generally limit my use to the camera, email client, notepad, ascii terminal, calendar, social media, telephone, and the occasional arcade game. And yet, while I'm working out, I do not require a camera. Nor an email client, a notepad, an ascii terminal, a calendar, nor an arcade game. What I require when I work out - is music. Nothing more. I have an iPod slightly larger than my thumbnail I used to discreetly attach to my person so I could listen to music while I walked, or lifted, or rode my bike (if I was on a closed path). I didn't have a significantly heavier device whose sole purpose is to incorporate a myriad of other devices into one. That significantly heavier device is awkward in my pocket, and no, I don't want to strap it to my arm, my waist, my head, or wherever else enthusiasts choose to place it. I miss my tiny, lightweight, almost invisible iPod.

Which brings me to AirPods - which I had to purchase because the iPhone no longer comes with a headphone jack. I am absolutely sure those AirPods are picture perfect in a quiet, dry environment. A library, for example. But they certainly don't do well precariously inserted into my ears as I jump up and down and sweat. I leaned down for a drink of water at the fountain which was enough for the left one to fall out of my ear into the basin.

So please Apple...bring back the motherfucking iPod. Please and thank you.

Some iPhone apps disallow use until you update them.
Apple disallows free updates if you owe them a balance.
You can owe Apple a balance if they don't charge your card at the time you download content.
And you have a special card for online use.
Which runs low on funds.

Here is a picture of my iPhone's basic functionality now:

So I turned 40. That's old. My dad called me Friday. "I'm depressed," He said. When I asked why, he replied, "Wouldn't you be depressed to if you had a 40-year-old son?" HA HA.

As it turns out, the anticipation was the worst of it. Many people I've spoken to about this had a hard time turning 30 - not me. I was a rising star at 30, but 40?

As my MIL is in town to spend time with her grandbabies, cattitude and I spent the day together where I realized that I've spent my entire life working for exactly what I now have - that being, everything I've ever wanted; perhaps I just don't know how to slow down to enjoy it? With that in mind, my soul calmed and we had a great afternoon.

As we were walking the Stonebriar Mall in Frisco, I was speechless when I saw that in the last three weeks, they'd opened an Apple store! Apparently my expression was quite amusing, and my lovely wife bought me an iPod Touch for my birthday - especially when she found out this meant she would no longer have to share her netbook with me!




The Stonebriar Apple Store

I discovered that the issues I'm having with the Nano's battery is the battery itself. It no longer holds a charge longer than 45 minutes. The average life is 18-months and it cannot be replaced. Mine lasted 12. Fortunately, everywhere I use the Nano I'm near power, so I've added the USB/power jack to my backpack's contents, which allows me to listen to it while its plugged in. CASE: CLOSED.

But I do so love the Touch, and I marvel at its design. I'm amazed at all it can do and the flexibility it affords me. It makes my wife's netbook look like a mainframe. Outside of the pricey iPhone's ability to connect without a wifi location, its perfect for my needs. My, but I'm spoiled aren't I?

Thanks babe.





Lastly, with all the talk about cake, I decided to make one. Now we usually make them from scratch, but I decided to build upon an existing box cake by adding a package of butterscotch pudding mix to the yellow cake mix, and an online recipe suggested four eggs and 3/4 cups more liquid. I did all of this without announcing it to anyone, and ended up undercooking it with the added ingredients - it failed to rise.

My wife and her mother gave me dubious looks as they served up this lumpy, flat cake - even the kids didn't like it. But they sure enjoyed the fanfare surrounding it and I enjoyed that.

In short, I got the whole cake to myself ;)

I'm considering an iPod Touch. Not for music mind you, I already have a Shuffle and a Nano. No, what I want is a mobile computing platform. Ever since my wife got her netbook, she contently checks her email and plays her games on the couch in front of the television. I've grown envious of her mobility. Sure she shares it with me, but if I had my own netbook I'd install the Ubuntu Netbook Remix on it because I shudder every time I see that "Start" Button (Where do you want to go today?)

No, what I need is something sleeker; more accessible. More awesome. I need the iPod Touch.



I initially wanted a full version of OSX in an iPhone form-factor. but after drax0r bought a Touch, he remembered that post and called me to tell me I was wrong, and explain what he could do with his new Touch:

• VPN


• SSH


• RDP

Flabbergasted doesn't quite fit my reaction. And as much as I'd love to get an iPhone, I'll wait until my employer picks up the voice & data plan, as I haven't paid a cell phone bill in 10-years and I don't plan to start now. But to be able to do all that from an iPod? (While snickering next to my wife and her suddenly bulky netbook?) YES PLEASE!

schpydurx informed me that the next Apple Keynote is coming up and, he said, their recent history dictates that a new generation of iPods will be announced. A little digging reveals that the iTablet - an AirBook/Touch hybrid for lack of a more descriptive term - won't be unveiled until 2010. But that's not what I'm waiting for. Usually, prices of current-gen hardware plummets after the announcement of updated tech. And seeing that my Nano is 16GB and I won't be using the Touch for music, I'll likely save my money and get the 8GB Touch at a reduced price. So yeah, I'm waiting for the Keynote. Go ahead. Touch me.


Squeegy intently anticipates catttitude's next move


http://ehowton.livejournal.com/tag/ipod

Thursday evening in the city forum a thread came across announcing ehowton and drax0r Appreciation Tribal - Fri Night - Victory Party. My wife was initially reluctant to attend due to the short notice, but once she discovered it was the Tribal Council throwing this shin-dig, she became enthusiastic. We were the first ones there. The founders of the Tribal Council appeared to me like royalty that night. They had set aside their two best chairs for Tony and I, with a ribbon-topped ice chest between us. One half was filled with drax0r's favorite beer, Texas' very own Shiner Bock and the other half was filled with my drink of choice, Kronenbourg 1664. Once everyone arrived, there was a 20-glass toast to us with champagne. What an honor! As always, they went above and beyond and it was sure a nice time, and a nice turnout. Thank you all!

Saturday afternoon was Cub Scouts. We arrived shortly after 1500 and my boy ran off to play with his friends while the wife and I set up our tent. There were no tent stakes in the tent bag. Nonetheless, we set up and loaded up the tent. My wife left us there (which turned out to be approximately one linear mile from our house) and the games began. There was tug-of-war, and capture the flag, the lighting of the fire, magic tricks, songs, hot dog dinner, stories of the Great Indian Chief Wannahockalugie, and yes, I was bored the entire time. I think my son was too. He kept wanting to retire to the tent so I could read his book too him and we could go to sleep. All the other kids (about 80 I guess, though en mass it sounded like a thousand) seemed to be having a good time. I set my chair apart from everyone, hidden in the shadow of a tree, put my iPod on, and lit a cigar (I didn't see any other parent there smoking). Suddenly, it was bliss. I was comfortable, enjoying myself, watching the world in front of me unfold without being a participant. There was a flag decommissioning ceremony about halfway through the evening. They asked all veterans to step forward to participate. I enjoyed that and Honest John who was there in a supervisory role. Without him, it would've been bust. I doubt my son will join again next year, but we have a full year ahead of us to find out.



Sunday I worked. 28GB memory upgrade on a Sun V490. That too, wasn't without its issues, but I was in and out within 5-hours. Due to waking up in a tent that morning, and breaking camp having just downed a Java Monster, I was exhausted by the time I got home from work. It was 1500. It felt like 1900. It really wasn't much like a weekend at all.

This morning was my son's 'Bring a Vet to School' day for Veteran's Day. I didn't know what to expect. The parking lot was ringed with flags, there were chaperone's at every entrance, guiding us to our places. Having arrived at exactly the appointed time, I found 50 other veterans there. Some old men and women, some young kids in uniform currently serving. A couple of other (what I assumed were) retired men in full Class A's. The Cub Scouts posted the colors, we said the Pledge of Allegiance, some lady sang the National Anthem, the 5th Graders did an above average job singing the Armed Forces Medley (did that bring back some memories, I hadn't heard the Air Force fight song in some time) and yes, I got all choked up. I never thought I'd be one of those old men who got all weepy-eyed when the flag passed by in the parade, but there I was. Embarrassing, really. I guess at the same time I was angry that all these young school children were extolling something in which so many people had died. Its a double-edged sword.

At any rate, they'd obviously dedicated a lot of time and energy to this and I couldn't believe how well they pulled it off.



I got to work and there was a very large banner draped on the outside of the fence announcing, "WE HONOR OUR VETERANS." I found out exactly how later that morning.

We each got a piece of cake.

Watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Friday. Bought the book at midnight and have been reading it, slowly. Three books ago, I read the entire thing in a day, and then became pissed off and morose since I didn't have any new Harry Potter to read, so I read it again. Two books ago, I read every chapter twice - to force myself to take my time. That lasted about a quarter of the book. I finished the last three-quarters in a day reading it straight through. Last book - well, I was moving (again) so it was pretty much split-up and took me a week. This time, however, I want to blow through it, but life, it seems, has gotten in the way. I'm lucky to read 4-chapters, every other day. To assist me with this, however, I've burned every album onto a single mp3 disc which I listen to in the car, followed by all the albums back-to-back which I listen to on my iPod at work. I'm finding some real gems in there!



In other news, I've recently acquired another Rave System and am pimping it out with half a gig more RAM & a DVD-ROM drive to put Solaris 10 on it, I'm upgrading the 300Mhz/1280MB U30 at work with a U10 I'm filling with Rave System parts (a 440Mhz chip, two 60GB drives, a DVD-ROM & 2GB of RAM and possibly more importantly, a Raptor framebuffer to get the graphics off the CPU), and am thinking of restarting the Ampache project on the ubuntu-server box to see if I can glean anything at all from it. 13-hours at work today which is fine since my wife and kids went to Wichita to spend some time with her mother prior to school starting. I'm knee-deep in work, but work is such a joy! I can hardly contain myself.