Trackforward - outbound postings

Trackforward: my log of postings to other places - blogs, comments, reviews. Links should point back to the comment in-situ. Someday this might even serve as authentication (or at least deniability-reduction) of who I am on the net. RSS feed: stufflog.rss

2008-08-06

About: JJinuxLand: Python: sort | uniq -c via the subprocess module
When: Wed Aug 6 17:18:47 2008
Where: http://jjinux.blogspot.com/2008/08/python-sort-uniq-c-via-subprocess.html
What:: _Mark_ said... Confusion like this is why python needs a "pipeline" class on top of subprocess... as benjamin points out, if sort weren't special, neither of your approaches would work. Unix pipes get you a page (4k) of buffer. You instead want to use select (or poll) to write when you can, and to read when you can, and to notice EOFs (and then you want to look at *all* of the exit statuses.) 2:18 PM

2008-07-22

About: cjsmith: Names
When: Tue Jul 22 01:00:25 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/836440.html?view=8471640#t8471640
What:: [info]eichin 2008-07-22 05:00 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully Actually, MIT eventually figured out that the sane thing to do was to put arriving frosh with matching names in the same temporary rooms - the theory being something like "this is going to give you trouble for four years - get started figuring it out now" :-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

2008-07-08

About: cjsmith: Different color of sawdust bars
When: Mon Jul 7 23:49:43 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/829516.html?view=8358220#t8358220
What:: [info]eichin 2008-07-08 03:49 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully > darker so, oak sawdust, instead of pine? :-) I agree that the protein powder is probably a primary source of unfortunate results; likewise if you're using more cocoa powder, using more fats too (chocolate chips count) should help. I'd probably whip one or two of the egg whites (or even one whole egg) just to see what it does (do most of the mashing first, maybe, then mix it in right before baking?) If you're adding cinnamon, try some vietnamese cinnamon, it's distinctly different (a little more bite, maybe?) For that matter, through some pepper in... (Reply to this)

2008-07-06

About: Coding Horror: Investing in a Quality Programming Chair
When: Sat Jul 5 23:10:11 2008
Where: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001146.html?r=26484#endcomments
What:: I found the Aeron great for sitting at a desk for 8 or even 10 hours... *with good posture*. Slouch, and the Aeron will punish you for it. The Humanscale Freedom was the first chair that I found was good for sitting in with my feet on the desk, keyboard in my lap. (The headrest support didn't last, though, it keeps sliding down...) However, both of these are have been retired to home desk-work chairs. My professional seating is a low, poofy, leather armchair - large (not "merely" wide) screen thinkpad, no desk at all, just a nearby filing cabinet. Wonderful setup, the matching sofa works well for drop-in collaboration, and it's lasted several years. (As for RSI: stop using the mouse :-) _Mark_ on July 5, 2008 08:09 PM

2008-06-29

About: cjsmith: Almond bars
When: Sat Jun 28 22:05:57 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/823718.html?view=8253606#t8253606
What:: [info]eichin 2008-06-29 02:04 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully hmm, the mention of almonds reminds me that I should dig up the Alice Medrich brownie recipe - all I remember was that it used ground almonds instead of flour, but I don't now what other tricks it pulled to get away with that. (I don't remember them being enormously sweet, either...) (Reply to this)

2008-06-28

About: cjsmith: I know I'm not answering the question
When: Sat Jun 28 03:06:58 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/822849.html?view=8250433#t8250433
What:: Cane Sugar Soda [info]eichin 2008-06-28 07:05 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully And most (all?) of "Jones Soda" (which I think has only been on the market for a year or two) which is made with Cane Sugar or Cane Juice, no HFCS (and they have some *bizarre* flavors, which is why I've tried some of them - though I find HFCS icky, it's taste/texture, not survival - though more and more allergies/rashes/minor conditions have been getting diagnosed as corn allergy/sensitivity...) (Ah, the intertubes say they switched all flavors over to Cane Sugar last April.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

2008-06-27

About: cjsmith: Some days are like that
When: Fri Jun 27 00:45:04 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/822577.html?view=8232753#t8232753
What:: [info]eichin 2008-06-27 04:42 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully As we've gotten larger and actually keep a list of whose turn it is to get lunch for office lunch days, we've just asked people to add restrictions to the page - not that the whole thing needs to meet all of the restrictions, just that you include something reasonable for all of the options. Off the top of my head, the list has included: no shrimp, vegetarian, "vegan but don't even try, I'll bring my own", no beans, no raw fish... so when someone gets boloco wraps, there are veggie ones, and there are rice-and-meat-only ones (or even better, we're big enough to get the qdoba hot-bar, where they show up with build-it-yourself tacos for N); when there's sushi, there's katsu as well. Sometimes people screw up (well, not with the shrimp one, that's actually a fatal allergy, not a "mere" preference) but most of the time it works, and everyone makes an effort. Simply communicating about it does seem to have made a difference, socially (I'm sure it's partly because we're big enough that as long as *some* people are being receptive and encouraging, the others will take the hint.) Works for us, anyway, though we're starting to get big enough that it's getting more complicated (last time I needed several people to help me carry food the two blocks back from Mary's :-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

2008-06-25

About: eichin: Summertime
When: Wed Jun 25 15:03:47 2008
Where: http://eichin.livejournal.com/76248.html?view=105688#t105688
What:: [info]eichin 2008-06-25 07:03 pm UTC (from 208.80.143.4) (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select Comment Posted Successfully Current guess is that it hit somewhere near Tufts (which also happens to be one of the few things with any altitude in that direction) - I haven't scraped flash-to-boom times out of the video yet... but it's a bearing of 14 degrees west of north, from university park. (Reply to this)(Parent)

2008-06-17

About: General upload failure (3) - Desktop Flickr Organizer | Google Groups
When: Tue Jun 17 03:42:32 2008
Where: http://groups.google.com/group/dfo-users/browse_thread/thread/50e04abad374aca5/b96913003c8ff952#b96913003c8ff952
What:: Jun 17, 3:40 am From: "eic...@gmail.com" <eic...@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:40:59 -0700 (PDT) Local: Tues, Jun 17 2008 3:40 am Subject: Re: General upload failure (3) Reply | Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Remove | Report this message | Find messages by this author Good catch - I just started playing with dfo, and filed debian bug 486304 on what is basically the same thing in PersistentInformation.InsertPool; presumably all of those RunQuery's need to be sanitized (or replaced with something that does real SQL argument passing instead of String.Format? Some googling suggests constructing an SqliteParameter object for this case... (I'd pass on more detail but this is the first time I've even *read* c-sharp code, so I don't want to mangle anything in translation :-)

2008-06-16

About: Programming Limits - Plumbling Life's Depths
When: Mon Jun 16 02:29:54 2008
Where: http://blog.vrplumber.com/index.php?/archives/240-Programming-Limits.html#c1080
What:: You don't even need a large-but-generic subsystem to see this effect - optparse is enough. "Oh, I'll just grab things out of sys.argv" "Oh, we want a --help, ok fine I'll just filter that out first"... it's just a lot easier to slap that down and demand optparse. I think the examples are key - putting some simple "no really, just cut&paste this even if you're doing no argument parsing" templates on our (internal, corporate, developer) wiki made a huge difference. I also think "batteries included" makes a huge difference as far as treating existing modules as part of the toolset that you're obliged to understand and not get all NIH about... (ps. you can probably guess that I picked this up from PlanetPython, even though you've tried to be more generic in your arguments :-) #1 Mark Eichin (Homepage) on 2008-06-16 02:29 (Reply)

2008-06-10

About: Who owns your comments? (Scripting News)
When: Tue Jun 10 18:31:39 2008
Where: http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/06/09/whoOwnsYourComments.html#comment-633125
What:: * Parent * Permalink Mark Eichin 18 minutes ago 1 point Please login to rate. Same here, scripting.com is the *only* site I comment on that uses disqus (which is why I haven't bothered with verification - no leverage, for me, in doing so.) I've also always, mmm, "clarified" that my comments were mine by publishing them in parallel on what I call a "trackforward" page (punning on trackback, of course.) Unfortunately that involves some non-portable custom tools - google Notebook has most of the required mechanisms, though... reply

2008-06-02

About: cjsmith: Eggs
When: Mon Jun 2 01:22:32 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/812947.html?view=8067219#t8067219
What:: [info]eichin 2008-06-02 05:22 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully The web seems to think that if you're a "supertaster" you won't like stevia either, though it's more in the licorice direction than just bitterness... Don't forget that you can use chocolate in other things... a couple of ounces of very dark chocolate, plus cinnamon and chili powder went quite well in lasagne at the last chocolate party. Not sure what it would do with eggs, though :-) but if you're adding chili pepper anyway (just got back from NM so "of course" red chili is what you put on scrambled eggs...) it's something to consider... or if you're just bored enough with the eggs to try something :-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

About: Qualified Perceptions - Birdwatching: Red Tailed Hawk
When: Sat May 31 19:17:56 2008
Where: http://firstfrost.livejournal.com/138828.html?view=708428#t708428
What:: eichin From: [info]eichin Date: May 31st, 2008 11:17 pm (UTC) Delete Track This (Link) According to the MIT-hawk-cam page (a few years back), pigeons are "junkfood" for hawks, very fatty (and since pigeons scavenge, full of other nasty stuff too.) So maybe it's just as well that the pigeon escaped :-) (btw. just noticed the knitting-works-in-progress sidebar - how do you set that up? or is the knitting community powerful enough that it's a basic livejournal feature now? :-)

About: Amazon.com: Mark Eichin's review of Birds of New Mexico Field Guide
When: Sat May 31 18:37:34 2008
Where: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1CPYVVZU8ZJJ5/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
What:: 5.0 out of 5 stars Best tourist/casual bird book ever., May 31, 2008 By Mark Eichin I'm a "photographer who happens to think birds are neat", not a "real" birder; I picked this up on a vacation to Albuquerque, and it was great for figuring out what all of these unfamiliar-but-probably-common brightly colored birds are. I don't want to become an ecosystem-expert on the southwest -- but "hey, that's a cool looking red-and-orange bird *click* *click* ok, now what was it? *flip to `birds that have prominent yellow'* *flip through a handful of pictures* Oh look, Western Tanager, I'd never even heard of those before..." If that's you too, this is the book you want. (Of course, you can also show your snapshots on-camera to the nature center volunteers, they're nice that way... but other tourists won't know either :-) It's not Sibley's. It compares favorably with the Smithsonian Handbooks for good at-a-glance presentation of useful information, though, and it's small enough to actually bring with you. Permalink

2008-05-29

About: cjsmith: Ah Biaxin, how do I love thee
When: Thu May 29 13:50:57 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/812362.html?view=8050762#t8050762
What:: [info]eichin 2008-05-29 05:50 pm UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully re food tastes changing - I wonder if something like this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin would have useful compensating-for-treatment benefits (it's a berry that screws up the response to "sour" as far as I can tell from the description...) (Reply to this)

2008-05-07

About: GigaPan • View topic - Feature Request: Move to selected grid position during pause
When: Wed May 7 15:37:26 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=159&p=883#p883
What:: * * Report this post * Reply with quote Re: Feature Request: Move to selected grid position during pause Postby eichin on Wed May 07, 2008 2:37 pm Another possibility, if you have another camera handy, is to just take the desired overlay picture with that camera - then later feed the completed panorama and the new picture to autopano, I've seen it handle that kind of thing usefully (by accident - I took some wide-scale context shots and pasted them in with more detailed ones and it successfully merged them...) eichin

2008-04-22

About: Bug #144621 - Comment #83
When: Tue Apr 22 17:26:48 2008
Where: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22/+bug/144621/comments/83
What:: milestone gutsy-updates Bug #144621: iwl4965 drops out from time to time (Santa Rosa) Mark Eichin wrote 31 seconds ago: (permalink) FYI I'm running pre-hardy, updated as of 20080422, on a Lenovo Thinkpad T60p: 26d10014b09439dc5a8573c2a6f85b0a /lib/firmware/2.6.24-16-generic/iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode 26d10014b09439dc5a8573c2a6f85b0a /lib/firmware/2.6.24-16-generic/iwlwifi-3945.ucode which match iwlwifi-3945-ucode-2.14.1.5.tgz from http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/iwlwifi/downloads, and I'm still seeing [ 2218.395642] wlan0: No ProbeResp from current AP 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx - assume out of range [ 2219.196315] wlan0: No STA entry for own AP 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx [ 2222.988446] wlan0: No STA entry for own AP 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx which persist until I unload and reload the module. (I also have the problem that occasionally the reload entirely hangs the laptop, leaving just a blinking caps-lock light as an indication...) I do run across suspend and restore cycles, and move among a number of wireless domains (I always just force-reload the module after restoring from suspend; it sometimes doesn't need it, but the force reload is always faster :-) Only seems to happen with WPA; when I'm using WPA I'm also using 802.11a; lspci output: 03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1010 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 217 Region 0: Memory at edf00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

2008-04-12

About: From Hello World to Guestbook (Scripting News)
When: Sat Apr 12 14:59:20 2008
Where: http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/04/11/fromHelloWorldToGuestbook.html?disqus_reply=329071#comment-329071
What:: _Mark_ 15 minutes ago 1 point Please login to rate. Taking a quick look at xmlrpclib in python2.5, Transport.make_connection just uses httplib.HTTP - so worst case you could subclass Transport and replace make_connection with something that calls Fetch instead. (Or you could just try it, since you actually got in :-) and they might have already taken care of that...)

About: cjsmith: Yogurt
When: Mon Apr 7 15:39:40 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/796552.html?view=7744136#t7744136
What:: [info]eichin 2008-04-07 07:38 pm UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully A couple of the chains here started carrying Fage http://www.fageusa.com/ greek yogurt, and I like their "real" one (product name "Total") - at least in part because it's a very different texture - but it's also not pretending to be a diet food :-) Nothing added, it's sold with a "sidecar" of honey or strawberry jam. (Not that I think it's a *healthy* food per se, just that it isn't sweetened...) (Reply to this)(Parent)

2008-04-05

About: GigaPan • View topic - Canon Hacker's Development Kit
When: Sat Apr 5 17:47:18 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=135&p=770#p770
What:: * Edit post * Delete post * Report this post * Reply with quote Re: Canon Hacker's Development Kit Postby eichin on Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:47 pm A recent discussion of camera internals pointed out that PTP http://www.gphoto.org/doc/remote/ actually provided a lot of real control in standard ways (along with vendor extensions) and that it might be possible to use it to * record X,Y position in panorama in an EXIF comment * shoot and know reliably when the shot is complete * do bracketing shots, allowing giga-HDR, on cameras that don't have automatic exposure bracketing already * alternate between manual and auto focus (or exposure) to get alternate views of a given frame, for later manual selection This needs a reasonable USB stack, so it's the kind of thing you'd prototype with a gumstix or eeepc attached to the gigapan (but a gumstix would certainly fit inside the current case :-) ) eichin

2008-04-04

About: GigaPan • View topic - FIRMWARE WISHLIST
When: Fri Apr 4 19:38:15 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=56&p=763#p763
What:: * Edit post * Delete post * Report this post * Reply with quote Re: FIRMWARE WISHLIST Postby eichin on Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:38 pm Hah, yeah, a timeout would be the easy way to do that - my thought for that case was an IR remote or something like that, but that adds a lot of complexity (though it could let you remote-point the camera too... at which point you also want the laser pointer collinear with the lens :-) eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Annotation / Tour / Gallery
When: Wed Apr 2 00:15:09 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=129&p=735#p735
What:: * Edit post * Delete post * Report this post * Reply with quote Re: Annotation / Tour / Gallery Postby eichin on Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:14 pm Some thoughts: * portals - some way of tagging a location in a gigapan so you can fly through one into another * common locations - be able to browse one, then switch to the "same" location in another (for example, to show seasonal change) * (much simpler) sequences of snapshots - with adjustable timing and large (slide-presentation-like) captions to "talk" about each snapshot (or audio clips, but I'd never use that :-) ) I'm mostly thinking about the kind of things I sometimes do with normal photographs - we don't yet have a way to take large gigapans quickly enough to capture "action" on a personal scale, but http://gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=4087 is an example of one I expect to reproduce at least roughly-similarly (I can reproduce the camera position to within a couple of inches http://www.flickr.com/photos/eichin/2376482430/ , the left edge to less than a degree (there's a visible flagpole I used as a reference), and the top edge to within about five degrees, and can then just "count out" the same dimensions) at least once a month this year - maybe more often, but it took * half an hour to shoot (33m44s on the camera including one brief backtrack, not counting setup but that's ok) * several hours (some of "overnight") to cook, on a modbook * several hours (a good chunk of the "day" while I was at work) to upload from home DSL * some fairly lucky weather conditions to even be able to try :-) Being able to transition through the year would be pretty cool. eichin

2008-04-01

About: GigaPan • View topic - Mac stitcher wishlist
When: Tue Apr 1 15:24:29 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=128&p=733#p733
What:: * Edit post * Delete post * Report this post * Reply with quote Re: Mac stitcher wishlist Postby eichin on Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:24 pm randy wrote:- right button drag up and down for computers which have it I thought I'd tried this and it failed - turns out that right button isn't reliable on my wacom stylus if I press it too hard, so the interface wasn't working because the modbook wasn't seeing the right button at all. Not knowing it was *supposed* to do anything I didn't pursue it further - so consider this a request for some in-viewer documentation (maybe some text in the wasted space in the bottom margin of the viewer.) One big usability advantage the gigapan.org interface has is that it has affordances - you actually get a visible cue that there's an interface you can manipulate... Also, once I got this, it exposed an actual bug: if you open a gigapan, view it, open another smaller gigapan, view it (in the same window, which is just a basic "mac apps don't do that" bug) and zoom out... you see a black border, and then leftover frames from the previous gigapan. Harmless but a little strange :-) (It would be nice if Open Recent worked, too...) eichin

2008-03-31

About: GigaPan • View topic - website feature wish-list
When: Mon Mar 31 01:52:26 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=95&p=729#p729
What:: * Edit post * Delete post * Report this post * Reply with quote Re: website feature wish-list Postby eichin on Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:52 am Just a minor one, for the previewer flash app itself: an option to move the navigation controls over to the right? (I'm probably the only one having this problem, but I'm using a modbook - I'd expect TabletPC users to have the same issue - I'm right handed, so my hand basically blocks the entire image while I'm manipulating the controls :-) (of course, google maps etc. don't support this either - still, if noone knows about it it can't get fixed :-) eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Mac stitcher wishlist
When: Mon Mar 31 01:41:55 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=128
What:: Mac stitcher wishlist Postby eichin on Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:41 am Just some things to make it more mac-app-like that I've run across in the last couple of weeks of use.. I haven't checked these against the experimental version of the stitcher yet, though. * Use Keychain to store the login info, instead of having to retype it all the time (Yes, I'm one of the few to actually use a modbook, which ends up making me more sensitive than I'd otherwise be to having to type things once, let alone twice... but really, everything else uses keychain, so it's probably just a matter of grabbing some sample code) * Actually make the "now open gigapan.org/..." url at least selectable though actually clickable (or even just open it?) would be good too (Dropping a weblink with the same name as the gigapan itself would also make it obvious which gigapans had actually been uploaded...) * Export a TIFF alongside the other data automatically, or at least fill in the name by default so it matches (I realize that some are too big for tiff, "do the right thing" there :-) A button to directly open it would be nice too, since I need to look at it every time to decide about uploading it, and tiff->preview is the only choice * (not actually mac-specific) Have a native browser! Or at least a fake local web server to run the gigapan.org flash viewer locally, but there's a lot more potential for smoothness and speed in something that uses the modern mac APIs * Get an icon :-) if for no other reason than to distinguish the stitcher from the standalone uploader... or are you saving that for 1.0? :D * A pre-upload info page with size in gigapixels (I seem to recall a request to upload panoramas of primarily 0.5 gigapixel or larger, though I just checked my copy of the beta "promises" page and it doesn't actually ask for that, just 2 per week?) and other info - especially if there's merge-quality output from the stitcher that might be useful in deciding not to post a given image... (I'm sure there's a long list of things actually being worked on, too; this is just feedback on the *visible* issues - algorithmic work on the stitcher is probably more important than any of these...) eichin

2008-03-29

About: A digital camera designed for bloggers? (Scripting News)
When: Sat Mar 29 19:28:27 2008
Where: http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/03/29/aDigitalCameraDesignedForB.html
What:: * o ^ o v o Permalink _Mark_ 17 minutes ago 1 point Please login to rate. The eye.fi doesn't actually help, unless you take all your pictures near the same access point. (It's amazing that the little 16-bit RISC memory controller chip even has enough CPU to do that :-) Concord (a polaroid brand, I think?) made a bluetooth camera in their EyeQ line a few years back, but I don't know if they ever got past 3mp and no optical zoom (ie. "no better than a phonecam".) Doesn't look like they still make them, either. reply

2008-03-25

About: GigaPan • View topic - auto focus or multiple takes w/ 2 different focus distances
When: Tue Mar 25 02:22:11 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=119&p=685#p685
What:: Re: auto focus or multiple takes w/ 2 different focus distances Postby eichin on Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:21 am I'm using the Canon SX100IS and the autofocus is fast enough that I leave it on by default (also, manual exposure and manual aperture are a lot easier to set and adjust on that camera.) The Buckingham Fountain is probably the one picture of mine where it really *matters* (the closest point is a plaque "at my feet", and the farthest is some trees that are at least 200ft away) but all of the ones I've posted have been taken that way. eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Tue Mar 25 02:07:21 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=643#p643
What:: Re: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby eichin on Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:10 pm Another day of shooting; another set of servo failures. First try, no problems; 30-picture panorama on the back porch, straight out of the house (ie. unit warm, batteries idle.) Carried it outside for a while (in 45F-50F weather) then set it up for another run - and it ran backwards again. Did the power off/move the arm/power on/shoot again cycle 3 times, and then it was running forward again; took two 60-image panoramas with no misfires. At the end, battery status was "7.3V Good". The failures were consistently rotating the white bit into the frame, instead of into the lever arm. The "back up and re-try" feature is very useful for this; also the fact that I can power-cycle it mid-panorama and have it continue where it left off. eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Tue Mar 25 02:01:59 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=665#p665
What:: As I think I mentioned in another thread - the gigapan is solidly built, perhaps even overbuilt (but then, if it really was designed for children to use (it's succeeded there, I just don't know if that was a specific design point) then it really isn't *possible* to overbuild :-) ) and I certainly don't coddle mine. The first shot wasn't even on a tripod; the transport was in the PyCon2008 carrybag, entirely unpadded, just to provide it with handles; it sat on the seat of a car for most of the transport. The batch of failures came after mounting it on a tripod, where it sat while I power-cycled it until I was able to take this http://gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=3871 shot once it started working at all. I'm assuming that the primary value in reporting these problems is to say "back to the drawing board, guys" and come up with a better trigger design in a later revision. (Or recognize that the only cameras worth using on this version are Canons anyway and go with electronic triggering :-)

2008-03-21

About: GigaPan • View topic - Replacement button pusher?
When: Fri Mar 21 15:39:52 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=115
What:: Replacement button pusher? Postby eichin on Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:01 am After a fair amount of travel and showing off the gigapan, the button that pushes shutter release has come unscrewed and disappeared. l can rig something easily enough, but do people here have suggestions for things that work particularly well? eichin

2008-03-20

About: GigaPan • View topic - Photo batching using time hints?
When: Thu Mar 20 18:25:44 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=114
What:: Photo batching using time hints? Postby eichin on Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:25 pm The scenario: I go out with the gigapan, mounted camera, 4G of flash... and take a number of panoramas. Later, I dismantle the setup to get at the card and load it into a computer to run the stitcher. The problem: I need to manually select from a thousand or so pictures to break them up into batches. (Setting the column size in the viewer is very helpful for this... but it's still a fair bit of work...) The possible solution: (this could be a standalone tool, or part of the viewer stage) Machine-shot panorama pictures are by default 1.7 seconds apart. Even some of the unusually experimental ones are maybe 10 seconds per shot, and this is trying to help the normal case. Just look at the image timestamps, and "cluster" images that are taken with gaps of less than 15 seconds between them, and make them pickable; with that, I could pretty easily just "add images" the full card, delete the batches that aren't the one I'm trying to handle, leaving just the current set to pick and choose from individually. I may try to prototype this with some standalone code to put "apparent sets" of images into directories from the shell, but it seems like a visual sort of thing in the end... eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Stitcher input bug with Ink(inkwell)
When: Thu Mar 20 18:18:11 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=112&p=621#p621
What:: Re: Stitcher input bug with Ink(inkwell) Postby eichin on Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:17 pm I failed to find one last time I looked (under 10.3) but I'll ask around. http://developer.apple.com/documentatio ... ion_3.html suggests that it really does just send keyDown events when it falls back for apps that don't know about ink (which is presumably most of them :-) eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - "alignment aborted" and screen lock?
When: Thu Mar 20 17:14:59 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=113
What:: "alignment aborted" and screen lock? Postby eichin on Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:14 pm I was running a 200+ image stitch, 0.3.1541, locked the screen and let it run (the fan noise made it clear it was still running :-) I unlocked the screen and got an "alignment aborted" popup (with no further detail, just an OK.) Going back to select images, hitting Done, and letting it run a bit (10% maybe, enough to get the fan going again) and locking/unlocking worked fine, though. Any ideas what "alignment aborted" can actually be? (Say, a focus problem that led me to hitting return and having the cancel button trigger? if that's possible, consider this a request for an "are you sure" dialog (with the traditional default focus on "no, keep going") on the cancel button... eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Stitcher input bug with Ink(inkwell)
When: Thu Mar 20 17:07:02 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=112
What:: Stitcher input bug with Ink(inkwell) Postby 30eichin on Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:06 pm 10.5 (9A3115a, not 10.5.2 yet), stitcher 0.3.1541 - filling in the entry fields using Ink (ie. a wacom tablet, with osx native handwriting recognition turned on) all of the characters get turned into lower case "a". (This is not a recognition failure, it actually recognizes printing just fine in other apps, I'm assuming it's some sort of input bug...) 31eichin

2008-03-14

About: GigaPan • View topic - Handle!
When: Fri Mar 14 19:41:29 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=107
What:: Handle! Postby eichin on Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:41 pm I've seen the thread on (quite nice, actually) backpacks with foam linings to coddle the gigapan. I just spent an afternoon dragging it around the Chicago Lakeshore, and Museum Campus, and I think what it needs is a *handle* :-) Or at least some places to attach shoulder straps. It's not actually fragile, nor is the consumer camera attached to it (especially when both are turned off.) (Shorter term, maybe some grip foam on the corners where I find myself holding it, but really it needs a handle :-) eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Shooting without a tripod
When: Fri Mar 14 00:23:28 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106
What:: Shooting without a tripod Postby eichin on Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:22 pm I use a quickrelease head to mount the gigapan on my Cullman Magic 2 collapsible tripod. The quickrelease "foot" is a 1.25 inch square block of plastic. Turns out that this is plenty to keep the gigapan stable when set directly down onto a concrete bridge railing, without scratching up the markings on the servo base [though I guess those markings are just duplicates of the ones for aligning the camera, and don't actually matter?] Given the other locations I shot today, I wouldn't take the gigapan out without a tripod in general (and it weighs less than the gigapan does anyhow :-), but it saves a step some of the time. eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Fri Mar 14 00:09:49 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=563#p563
What:: Re: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby eichin on Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:09 pm (and just to make it completely clear, I was *really* happy with the performance once it got unwedged; even got to tell a couple of passersby about it, while it was shooting the 292-image one, it just kept ticking along, and as far as I can tell it didn't miss a shot. It'll be next week some time before I can actually try stitching it, I only brought the EEEpc with me :-) eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Thu Mar 13 20:06:02 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=560#p560
What:: Re: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby eichin on Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:05 pm I've had another button pusher servo failure; turning off the unit, prying the white bar away from the wall (which is *hard*) and powering back up let me go on and shoot a 292 picture panorama (chicago skyline) and a 200 picture one (close look at buckingham fountain, in millenium park on the lakeshore), plus a few little ones, all on NiMH batteries that said "7.9V GOOD". So that's more evidence that the servo can misbehave without batteries being the problem... eichin

2008-03-12

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Tue Mar 11 22:56:05 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=542#p542
What:: Re: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby eichin on Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:55 pm eichin wrote: however, I'll try swapping out the brand new fresh alkalines for brand new freshly charged NiMH batteries and see if they make a difference. I did *two* things at the same time (bad diagnostician!) namely I pushed the white arm until it started out actually touching the linkage, instead of the frame, and I swapped in the NiMH batteries (reading: "7.9V GOOD".) This time I ran through a 3x5 and it actually pressed the trigger for every one! Thanks all, for the suggestions and additional information. So when we have sunlight again, I'll give it a try; looks like I'll get to take it to Chicago after all :-) eichin

2008-03-11

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Tue Mar 11 15:32:27 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=536#p536
What:: Re: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby 105eichin on Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:31 pm illah wrote:So the issue you describe of the pusher servo appears to spin backward happens on our gigapans too, and happens specifically when the batteries are low (and only at that time). That's the only problem I've see with 50+ gigapan units. Why this is how it fails I don't know for sure (charmed labs would have to guess). but I can guess! I bet that when voltages are low,the voltage sensing that decides when it's pushing hard on the cameras button has threshold that misbehave- that a "floor" is being violated and that the servo is sent on a negative mission. That's just a guess, mind you. We haven't seen any cause for this other than batteries heading for death (i.e. low voltage). As such, I do not have a good workaround apart from the obvious one you nailed right on, which is, fresh batteries! That's an interesting theory, but doesn't really explain it never working to begin with... however, I'll try swapping out the brand new fresh alkalines for brand new freshly charged NiMH betteries and see if they make a difference. (Given that it only works with a range of fairly small cameras anyway, I'm sort of surprised at the choice of design, something that pulls down on a lever could have a spring tensioner (and even a winder) and get free leverage, plus allow the use of cheaper/simpler servos (or even solenoids). But it looks from the other thread like there's sufficient info about the signalling to allow experiments, so maybe I'll try that later :-) 106eichin

2008-03-10

About: cjsmith: Lasagna
When: Mon Mar 10 14:41:36 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/792112.html?view=7657776#t7657776
What:: [info]eichin 2008-03-10 06:41 pm UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully Note that in this case it was still savory - the chocolate served more like it does in a Mole' sauce. Also, "without meat or cheese ..." gives it away, linguistically: it's still a lasagne because it's defined in terms of those ingredients, if only by their absence - otherwise it's a "very wide fettucini alfredo" :-) I'm including, for example, ziti casserole in the same class of substitutions. (Had something last night called "Dessert Ravioli" - fried pastry pockets with molten chocolate and caramel inside. Served with ice cream because it would have been too sweet (!) without it. Mmmm.) Mostly what I'm getting at is that this really is a fundamental "element" of dinner-food-cooking, which is very amenable to changing any and all parameters - it's a "safe" space to explore :-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

About: cjsmith: Lasagna
When: Mon Mar 10 02:06:01 2008
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/792112.html?view=7651888#t7651888
What:: [info]eichin 2008-03-10 06:04 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully > It's going to look like pizza. You say that as if it were a *bad* thing :-) The thing with lasagne, is that it's a particular instance of a general class of "yummy things with pasta + sauce + cheese + meat". It's all refinements from there; sauces, different pastas, cheeses... for the last chocolate party, we made a fairly generic lasagne (a bunch of ground beef, ricotta, parmesan) with a normal red sauce... to which we added, mmm, 2 or 3 oz melted dark chocolate to 32 oz of red sauce, and a bunch of vietnamese cinnamon added to the chocolate. It was devoured :-) (and it was suggested that we add *more* spices next time.) (Reply to this)

2008-03-09

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Sun Mar 9 19:02:52 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=502#p502
What:: Re: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby 71eichin on Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:02 pm Yeah, saw those posts - fresh alkalines, battery status "good" 8.5V. (Also, to clarify, the arm does move, but in what appears to be the wrong direction (the long bit clunks up against the frame, instead of on the linkage) and does so 6 or 7 times (failing to trigger a shot each time) before giving the error. I suppose I should upload some video of it doing it :-) 72eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Sun Mar 9 18:29:16 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99&p=500#p500
What:: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby 30eichin on Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:47 pm Finally had some sunshine, went out to try to shoot a gigapan... it looks like the servo arm (the white bit directly connected to the motor) moves the wrong direction, it fails to move the trigger arm, and after a half dozen or so shots (panning and tilting quite successfully) I get "Button Pusher disconnected! Panorama paused"... Any obvious wire-swapping I should try? I'm hoping to take this with me on a trip this thursday, so I'd rather not round-trip it to Texas (I'm near Boston/MIT.) 31eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - button pusher servo running backwards?
When: Sun Mar 9 14:48:07 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=99
What:: button pusher servo running backwards? Postby eichin on Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:47 pm Finally had some sunshine, went out to try to shoot a gigapan... it looks like the servo arm (the white bit directly connected to the motor) moves the wrong direction, it fails to move the trigger arm, and after a half dozen or so shots (panning and tilting quite successfully) I get "Button Pusher disconnected! Panorama paused"... Any obvious wire-swapping I should try? I'm hoping to take this with me on a trip this thursday, so I'd rather not round-trip it to Texas (I'm near Boston/MIT.) eichin

2008-03-08

About: Flickr: Discussing How do you use getWithGeoData with dates? in Flickr API
When: Sat Mar 8 18:52:12 2008
Where: http://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157604068126762/#comment72157604076232781
What:: Mark Eichin Pro User says: I've also found the date filters to not work (working from my own Python api code.) I've also found the page-by-page support to not work, once you try to scale. However, I've yet to see any comments on these long-standing problems here from anyone actually working for flickr - the yahoo group gets more attention, you might try again there. Posted a moment ago. ( 106permalink | 107edit | 108delete )

2008-03-06

About: GigaPan • View topic - Linux Sticher?
When: Thu Mar 6 01:16:41 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=75&p=483#p483
What:: Re: Linux Sticher? Postby 91eichin on Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:16 am Amazon S3/EC2 is another possibility (both for hosted linux crunch and hosted big panorama data, and it would let you use bittorrent to distribute the panoramas themselves if I recall correctly.) What does the code look like now? (Have you figured out a particular license for it yet?) in particular, I haven't seen anything (in the user guide or here in the forums) that explains why it's different from hugin/autopano - does having mechanically well-aligned pictures let you avoid using SIFT, or something like that? 92eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Printing Gigapans
When: Thu Mar 6 01:06:24 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=88&p=482#p482
What:: Re: Printing Gigapans Postby 56eichin on Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:05 am A couple of online places used to do that - I did a panorama of my brother's wedding reception, by pivoting a Canon S200 on the top of a wine bottle at the head table (which was on a raised dais, and gave a nice view of the dance floor and surrounding tables) and then gave them a 6" x 60" print for the following Christmas. Only 0.009 gigapixel, this was 2001 after all, but it still printed quite nicely... 57eichin

2008-03-04

About: GigaPan • View topic - E clip for mounting screw needed
When: Tue Mar 4 18:31:07 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=30&p=463#p463
What:: Re: E clip for mounting screw needed Postby 84eichin on Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:30 pm piconut wrote: in general it's not good to have magnets around electronics Magnets almost never have any effect on electronics - drives, sure, and in this case the *motors* might be impacted by a strong enough magnet in the wrong place. But a magnet on the side of the case, or the battery door, is probably not near enough to the motors to be a problem. 85eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Alternative upload paths?
When: Tue Mar 4 16:38:28 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=91
What:: Alternative upload paths? Postby 30eichin on Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:37 pm While it makes sense to have uploading integrated into the stitcher - does the uploader actually do anything special? Or is there just an underlying http-post with ranges or something, for continuation? (The main reason I ask - I originally figured I'd have my modbook before I got my gigapan (ha ha yeah right) so the only proprietary-OS box I have is a PPC powerbook, and the stitcher/uploader apparently requires intel - not an unreasonable choice given mac support at all, of course, but that doesn't help me at all :-) but if the protocol is simple, I could just whip up a commandline tool...) 31eichin

About: GigaPan • View topic - Olympus SP550UZ (doesn't fit)
When: Tue Mar 4 16:11:59 2008
Where: http://forum.gigapan.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=90
What:: Olympus SP550UZ (doesn't fit) Postby 30eichin on Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:11 pm I tried hooking up my SP-550UZ (my daily-use camera, 18x zoom means "if I can see it, I can shoot it" :-) ) and I can't seem to make it fit. It wasn't on the latest survey, though it was on some of the earlier email - I assume that predated actually trying it? (I'll probably eventually try to come up with an adaptor, though the sane thing to do there is probably to replace the main brace and change the button-pusher to press the remote-shutter cable instead of trying to push the button on the camera, and I'll ask about alternate camera choices elsewhere - this is just to see if anyone else had tried the 550.) 31eichin

2008-01-30

About: Bluetooth not working AT ALL on Thinkpad T61 - Page 2 - Ubuntu Forums
When: Tue Jan 29 23:21:52 2008
Where: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4233829#post4233829
What:: eichin eichin is online now First Cup of Ubuntu Join Date: Jan 2008 Beans: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Re: Found something Quote: Originally Posted by MeanderingCode View Post run this with root privileges: Code: echo "enable"> /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth I couldn't do this simply by prefixing with sudo. I got a "permission denied" error. So i used su to become root on the command line, and it worked! I'm not sure why. If anyone knows, i'd be delighted to hear it. A common annoyance: when you run that with sudo, *your* shell tries to do the redirection, and then call sudo with that file open as standard output. This doesn't work (so it doesn't even try to run sudo, the "permission denied" is from your shell. An easy-to-remember workaround I picked up somewhere is to use "tee": Code: echo enable | sudo tee /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth (which worked for me just now - I came looking for this because I just noticed it not working, even though I don't think I needed it in Dapper - well, at least this default saves some battery life

2008-01-21

About: 530nm330hz: Now this is tempting
When: Sun Jan 20 23:54:18 2008
Where: http://530nm330hz.livejournal.com/169396.html?view=444596#t444596
What:: [info]eichin 2008-01-21 04:53 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This I adore mine - it fills the niche of "laptop for me, not for work" and I take it on photography road trips every weekend, among other use (I'm posting this from it, and most of my recent flickr uploads were captioned and posted from it.) Unlike the OLPC, the keyboard is *just* big enough for me to use comfortably... (Reply to this)

2008-01-12

About: recordersmith: Candlemaking
When: Fri Jan 11 23:21:47 2008
Where: http://recordersmith.livejournal.com/2067.html?view=16403#t16403
What:: [info]eichin 2008-01-12 04:21 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This At the CIA, I saw a demo of a simple-to-build innoculation-tempering device, which consisted of a big metal salad bowl, a big pot, a large incandescent bulb, and a dimmer. Calibration was done by doing runs and marking the set points with a sharpie. Handled 5+ pounds of chocolate at a time, IIRC... I think they didn't end up using water at all (since you really don't want to have water around chocolate) but it seems like a similar problem, so maybe a home depot run would help :-) (Reply to this)

2008-01-03

About: 530nm330hz: OK, so I'm a geek
When: Thu Jan 3 01:45:29 2008
Where: http://530nm330hz.livejournal.com/164014.html?thread=431278#t431278
What:: [info]eichin 2008-01-03 06:44 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Someone on zephyr was complaining the NBC was 8 seconds behind. I just ran watch -n 0.2 date in an xterm, after making sure the laptop had good ntp sync :-) [*] credit to nelhage for suggesting "watch"; I *had* been running while true; do date; sleep 0.1; done instead :-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

2007-12-30

About: Qualified Perceptions - Weird Feature
When: Sat Dec 29 20:57:15 2007
Where: http://firstfrost.livejournal.com/124688.html?view=620560#t620560
What:: From: [info]eichin Date: December 30th, 2007 01:52 am (UTC) Delete Track This (Link) As I understand it, it's a microsoft-driven "sidekick" screen; they convinced/coerced some vendors into adding them, then failed to deliver on any particular *reason* to have them. (There's supposed to be some PDA-like apps for them, so you could see your schedule from outlook directly - which noone seems to want as an alternative to an *actual PDA*...) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

2007-12-22

About: Macs are even more expensive than I thought (Scripting News)
When: Sat Dec 22 13:27:55 2007
Where: http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/12/22/macsAreEvenMoreExpensiveTh.html
What:: Mark Eichin —13 minutes ago with 1 point Please login to rate. Apple "care" and especially how they handle drives (namely, "any hint of other problems with the machine and it's your fault and the applecare doesn't apply") is why I didn't consider Apple when upgrading my 12" powerbook. Sad to see they haven't gotten better about it. _Mark_ reply

2007-12-18

About: 530nm330hz: And half our children are scoring below the median on the SAT!
When: Tue Dec 18 02:37:58 2007
Where: http://530nm330hz.livejournal.com/158096.html?view=415376#t415376
What:: [info]eichin 2007-12-18 07:36 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This The question itself only samples behaviour... I put my name in to *every* new search engine :-) for someone like me, it's a test of the search engine as much as anything. (Intriguingly, a recent check of amazon book search not only found the expected references - but one example where the book included a screen shot of a web page which happenned to mention my name, "proving" that they're doing OCR for at least some books, rather than getting underlying text from the publisher...) (Reply to this)

About: jered: I won a Chumby!
When: Sun Dec 16 03:41:10 2007
Where: http://jered.livejournal.com/45440.html?thread=235904#t235904
What:: [info]eichin 2007-12-16 08:00 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This It might be worth looking at gnash first, in order to find open source flash ecosystem bits - the version of gnash in debian etch actually runs as much flash as the chumby does (no relation, just that Flash Lite is only flash 6, and gnash didn't get past 6 until later.) So far my only chumby hacks have involved setting up cron jobs, though (unlike, for example, the FIC1973) I've found the out-of-the-box functionality quite useful. (Reply to this)

2007-12-11

About: Break That Warranty Sticker: ASUS Says It’s OK! < EeeUser.com
When: Tue Dec 11 02:31:23 2007
Where: http://www.eeeuser.com/2007/12/09/break-that-warranty-sticker-asus-says-its-ok/#comment-17380
What:: # _Mark_ wrote: So, anyone got a handy part number/description for the appropriate 1G upgrade? (preferably a newegg link :-) I can only run one of kphotoalbum, firefox, or akregator at a time with 512M, now that I have “real” data loaded up instead of just tests, so it’s time… Monday, December 10, 2007 at 2:47 am #

2007-12-02

About: cjsmith: Kindle
When: Sat Dec 1 19:29:18 2007
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/766317.html?view=7217773#t7217773
What:: [info]119eichin 2007-12-02 12:27 am UTC (120link) DeleteTrack This Comment Posted Successfully actually the reason the older sony eink readers had keyboards *was* for highlighting, or at least bookmark-notes. (They also had "print to eink" - the reader couldn't handle anything particularly advanced, but there was a print driver that would cook anything you could print down to ebook format. windows-only, which was funny because the box itself was a somewhat-hackable linux box...) (The kindle, on the other hand, has a keyboard so that you can shop for more books over the built-in amazon-funded EVDO connection... really, market-wise it's a direct port of the iPod model, to books, except for the "rip your existing collection" part :-) As for free stuff, as I understand it Amazon does have a free service to convert a document, send you back the converted form, and let you upload it via USB. They also have a for-pay service where you send them a document and they convert it and send it over-the-air to your kindle directly; similarly you can get some online sources that way (probably how the NYTimes got on there.) There are also people already selling converted Gutenberg books for $1 or so, because there's always a market... Early adopter type that I am, the kindle doesn't interest me, not so much because of the DRM, but because I can't sanely feed it my existing library :-) However, I'm likely to get one for my mom, simply because she reads a lot the sort of pop/mass market books that amazon will *have* for this... and because she doesn't have to buy (rarely available) "large print" editions, she can just crank up the font size. (It also looks like they don't have any cookbooks for it yet :-) (123Reply to this)(124Parent)

2007-11-30

About: rfrench: Okay, this is kind of...
When: Fri Nov 30 01:36:08 2007
Where: http://rfrench.livejournal.com/166519.html?view=986743#t986743
What:: [info]eichin 2007-11-30 06:08 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This My understanding is they do bulk not-so-good software recognition and then cheap-human cleanup (plus you can go in and tweak recognition yourself, but that requires having the "replay message from website" bit actually work, which I never managed.) ISTR it came up because people questioned the privacy issues and the response was that they used similar standards to those used for medical transcription... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

About: cjsmith: Spam finally killed me
When: Fri Nov 30 01:34:28 2007
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/765495.html
What:: [info]eichin 2007-11-30 04:38 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This I'll second that - mail at thok had gotten useless so I outsourced it to fastmail.fm, and it's useful again. (I also use gmail, but only for things like public mailing lists where the ads they come up with are actively interesting... but wow have they done a good job with spam, mostly by harnessing their own users :-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

About: rfrench: Okay, this is kind of...
When: Fri Nov 30 01:32:45 2007
Where: http://rfrench.livejournal.com/166519.html?view=985719#t985719
What:: [info]eichin 2007-11-30 04:21 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This I used it from my cellphone for a couple of weeks, and concluded that it "wasn't really there yet" as far as voice recognition goes, even with their apparently-human-assisted transcription. (I suppose without real-time readback from text, *nothing* is ever going to really cut it...) (Reply to this)(Thread)

About: Wifi at BDL
When: Fri Nov 30 01:25:24 2007
Where: http://norman.walsh.name/2004/11/08/bdlWifi
What:: I was at BDL picking up a friend last night... there was solid coverage in terminal A, little signs, and the web page mentions it. What they didn't have was *routing*. I found a couple of access points with login pages, but they didn't seem to have proxies set up or anything (and if I can't ssh out, "it's not net"...) I do like BDL and MHT, they're big enough to be real but small enough to not feel industrial, and they seem to have *much* more polite security people than Boston ever does. It just would have been nice if the wifi had actually worked. It was late enough that there wasn't really anyone around to complain to, though that also meant there weren't really any other potential users either... Posted by Mark Eichin on 24 Nov 2007 @ 11:57p UTC [link]

2007-11-22

About: james_nicoll: Please explain
When: Thu Nov 22 02:01:26 2007
Where: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/1071748.html?page=2#comments
What:: Not for Us, but... [info]eichin 2007-11-22 07:00 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Someone who buys a lot of pop fiction, and likes the idea of (1) saving shelf space (2) not having to buy "large print" editions, and buys most material from amazon anyway, would find it quite attractive. (I have at least one specific person in mind.) It's very much not a universal product, and also has some anti-appeal to the usual early-adopter types, but perhaps they will get away with skipping that audience... (A friend points out that there are no cookbooks available for it yet either.) (Reply to this)

About: Bug #21993 in gnome-cups-manager (Ubuntu): “When Print-server not found on network, cups-manager crashes”
When: Sun Nov 18 19:35:08 2007
Where: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-cups-manager/+bug/21993
What:: Mark Eichin wrote 4 seconds ago: (permalink) I see the problem in a new install of 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon as well - ServerName points to a printserver at work, I'm at home, I try to print, and it hangs (completely, no X updates at all) for a long time (more than 5 minutes) but then comes up with a print dialog that only lists postscript/default [which is fine, it's the delay that's the problem...] lsof shows the IPP connection in SYN_SENT (ie. it's not getting connection refused, it's getting nothing at all, as in a down machine or firewall. A misconfigured client.conf could probably do that too...) After printing to file it appears that it is trying to contact the server again, leading to a similar hang.

2007-11-16

About: james_nicoll: The very best of British security
When: Fri Nov 16 00:41:27 2007
Where: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/1066010.html
What:: [info]eichin 2007-11-16 05:40 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Or a bic pen. (the empty plastic cylinder, and something to bang with.) Granted, this only become *common* knowledge in the last couple of years - it's really just a reminder that mechanical security "falls" over time just like computer security does... (Reply to this)(Parent)

2007-11-12

About: Flickr: Discussing "Filesize was zero" problem in Flickr API
When: Mon Nov 12 02:25:41 2007
Where: http://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157603065250905/#comment72157603102868514
What:: view photos Mark Eichin Pro User says: When I did my python uploader, I noticed that flickr's mime parser was a lot pickier than the rfcs might lead you to expect. In particular, I needed to explicitly give a content-type in each section (and it needed to be correct for photo, ie. image/jpeg, though text/plain was fine for the others.) (A bigger problem was that it *had* to have a filename= entry, but you've *got* that...) Of course, this doesn't explain it having worked before and not now. Also, I POST to www.flickr.com, not api.flickr.com, don't know if that matters... www.flickr.com/services/api/upload.example.html has some raw output of an example that I found useful at the time. (Also: would love to get ahold of your elisp code; my python code is at www.thok.org/intranet/python/exif/index.html and the flickr_post.py there in particular.) Posted a moment ago. ( permalink | edit | delete )

2007-11-05

About: so glad to finally be failing - a new photo project
When: Sun Nov 4 22:50:30 2007
Where: http://crs.livejournal.com/429095.html?view=1135143#t1135143
What:: [info]eichin wrote: Nov. 2nd, 2007 02:05 am (UTC) instead of a bulky monopod that you're stuck with for the rest of the day, consider * one of those accordian-fold rulers * a chunk of string with a weight ("a rock to wind a string around" :-) to just hang from the camera, much easier to pocket... Link | Reply | Delete | Track This

About: studiofoglio: Yes, yes, as you may well have noticed,
When: Sun Nov 4 22:47:51 2007
Where: http://studiofoglio.livejournal.com/11016.html?view=83464#t83464
What:: Buck... in color?! [info]eichin 2007-11-03 06:32 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This I was excited when the Gallimaufry came out again, a few years ago, so I could finally get my own set (having merely read friends copies the first time around.) I was really excited when the story finished... I thought it was really cool when Buck Godot started running on the web site, so I could (1) add it to my daily online reading (2) point friends at it... And then the Gallimaufry started up. Color covers, sure... but I figured it would go back to black and white. And it *didn't*. As someone who once considered going as far as to get a second full set just to color them, even badly... wow! and yay! I take it this means that a color print edition is on the way? How soon? Or is the color web-only? (Reply to this)(Thread)

About: Flickr: Discussing Machine tags in Flickr API
When: Sun Nov 4 22:46:45 2007
Where: http://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157594497877875/#comment72157602889612704
What:: Mark Eichin Pro User says: (stale, but since it's still open) The key is disambiguation - humans are good at it, machines aren't. In your example, "dlh" by itself, is pretty likely to be an airport, but the one near me is BED - if I'm looking for pictures of hanscom field (BEDford, MA) I will *never* find them with a search for bed. aero:airport=bed, though, is pretty clear. Not everything is susceptible to that kind of clarification - but baby steps, going after the things that *are*, is still worthwhile :-) Posted 3 days ago. ( permalink | edit | delete )

2007-10-22

About: yakshaver: Day of stuff sucking
When: Sun Oct 21 22:59:19 2007
Where: http://yakshaver.livejournal.com/84333.html
What:: [info]eichin 2007-10-22 02:31 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This if the point&shoot is an olympus, I learned first-hand that they've got decent out-of-warrantee service via their facility in New Jersey; worth getting a quote, though there's bound to be a newer model of whatever it is by now :-) The old canon's are kind of fragile that way but there are a couple of repairable bits there too... (Reply to this)(Thread)

About: yakshaver: Blogging by candlelight
When: Sat Oct 13 22:32:42 2007
Where: http://yakshaver.livejournal.com/82352.html?view=177584#t177584
What:: [info]eichin 2007-10-14 02:24 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This It appeared (from watching the power outages and work during the construction of the condos in the old plastic-picture-frame-factory building near Davis) that Somerville had layers of power distribution, based on how different areas got denser over time and needed more power brought in. I suspect that explains the distribution of outage, at least somewhat. Also: I picked up "utility drawer in the kitchen" as concept, and a place for candles, from my mom too :-) Though mostly I have LED flashlights around, there's a big fat slow-burning candle in there (from a hardware store)... (Reply to this)(Parent)

2007-10-10

About: cjsmith: Human oddities
When: Wed Oct 10 00:16:47 2007
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/744088.html?view=6938008#t6938008
What:: [info]eichin 2007-10-10 03:46 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Oh god, aqua net was such amazingly wretched stuff. Just thinking about it is making my eyes water, and it's been at least twenty years... the web thinks it is still on the market, I'd assumed it went away with a lot of the other toxic aerosols in the early 90s. (It brings back childhood memories, too. But not *good* ones.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

2007-10-05

About: jered: OLPC
When: Fri Oct 5 16:48:00 2007
Where: http://jered.livejournal.com/43539.html?view=230419#t230419
What:: [info]eichin 2007-10-05 08:47 pm UTC (link) DeleteTrack This > So you've used it? What do you think of it, in general? I think the 2.0 will be interesting :-) I think the overall effort is a good inspiration to get people thinking about how little hardware you actually need to do something useful and not bloated. I also think it needs rather more software work to not feel underpowered - moore's law has made software, and most programmers, fat-and-lazy, and now there's a reason not to be - but that work is still underway. (Think of how much "waste" there is in something like google maps, on the client side - because making it easy is hugely valuable, and there's vast amounts of excess computing power available to the end user. Now think about how you'd do an app like that to actually perform on an XO...) It's a solid chunk of hardware; it brings to mind the eMate. The mesh networking is also interesting in a subversive (rather than practical) sort of way. As for charging, there are solar charging stations at some schools, but no builtin human powered chargers; they appear to not actually be aiming that low (any more) in terms of target environment... (Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread)

About: jered: OLPC
When: Fri Oct 5 16:26:23 2007
Where: http://jered.livejournal.com/43539.html?view=230163#t230163
What:: [info]eichin 2007-10-05 08:25 pm UTC (link) DeleteTrack This bitfrost is novel, sure - but I didn't think it actually worked yet :-) ALT-F3 gets me a login prompt and a root shell where I can wander around a completely normal linux box, in the last developer rev I saw, though I don't know how much of that gets locked down in what they're actually shipping. (Reply to this)(Parent)

About: Qualified Perceptions - Two Points of Betrayal
When: Fri Oct 5 01:26:00 2007
Where: http://firstfrost.livejournal.com/118064.html
What:: Thread started by _Mark_ eichin From: [info]eichin Date: October 5th, 2007 05:25 am (UTC) Delete Track This (Link) Also DD's iced tea "plain" seems to have meant "only sugar syrup and lemon" often enough that I have learned to be very clear about *unsweetened*, and watch them make it. (Worse, though, is discovering on a just-before-closing wendy's drivethrough run that through a remote microphone, "ice tea" and "Hi-C" are confusable...) (Reply to this) (Thread)

About: jered: OLPC
When: Fri Oct 5 00:59:48 2007
Where: http://jered.livejournal.com/43539.html?view=228371#t228371
What:: [info]eichin 2007-10-05 04:59 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This Except for the not actually having a handcrank part. squidlabs did a pullcord-charger but that hasn't made it past prototype stage yet. Also, if you have average sized adult hands, and can comfortably use a normal PC keyboard... this is probably not what you're looking for - see http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=olpc&w=35034350551%40N01 and especially http://www.flickr.com/photos/eichin/1157269845/ for an idea of just how *tiny* that keyboard is... yes, that's a normal US dollar bill... That said it is solid, and an interesting thing to have designed... (Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread)

2007-10-03

About: jered: Feedback on your candidate
When: Tue Oct 2 22:35:00 2007
Where: http://jered.livejournal.com/43280.html?view=226576#t226576
What:: [info]eichin 2007-10-03 02:30 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This It's sometimes useful to get a copy of the resume from the candidate themselves, if they get that far, just to see how it compares to what the recruiter sent you :-) That said, we get names up front, and we spend time with the recruiter up front making sure they "get" what we're looking for (but we only work with one to three engineering recruiters at a time...) (Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread)

2007-09-25

About: cjsmith: Driving
When: Tue Sep 25 00:23:16 2007
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/739384.html?view=6838840#t6838840
What:: [info]eichin 2007-09-25 04:22 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This My take on it is that Rules are mainly helpful for making traffic flow efficiently, but if you're in enough congestion for that to matter, you'd better be in Look mode. Maybe that's just from driving in Boston; the Rules seem to mostly be a staring point relative to which people cheat. But it goes the other way too; some pointlessly friendly driver yielded to me at the BU bridge rotary a few weeks back... from the inner orbit of a two lane rotary, when I was coming in from Mem Drive, and there wasn't anything I could do but hope the driver figured it out before being overtaken by other traffic :-} (Reply to this)(Thread)

2007-08-25

About: Qualified Perceptions - Moral, er, Aesthetic Dilemma
When: Sat Aug 25 00:38:09 2007
Where: http://firstfrost.livejournal.com/115520.html
What:: eichin From: [info]eichin Date: August 25th, 2007 04:37 am (UTC) Delete Track This (Link) Delicious Library is *very* pretty, though it wasn't until I stopped Mac'ing that I found out how to use it to keep track of *where* books were (I don't remember, I just have some notes somewhere, sorry...) but in the end it pleased me that it was easy to move everything into LibraryThing.com (where "everything" is still woefully incomplete, I should finish collecting...) (Reply to this)

2007-08-22

About: Ted Tso - Thoughts about the Palm Foleo
When: Wed Aug 22 01:19:49 2007
Where: http://tytso.livejournal.com/30229.html?view=107029#t107029
What:: _Mark_[info]eichin on August 22nd, 2007 05:19 am (UTC) There seems to be a niche for the Foleo among people who have an IT-managed Treo now, and want something more, but still have restricted enough use cases (and limited enough computer skills) that IT doesn't want them to have a windows laptop that they'll need deloused once a month, and can be replaced with no effort. That could easily be a successful niche, but it's inherently not a blogger/early-adopter space :-) I just don't see the market among people who actually find laptops useful in the first place... this could change if it actually pushed the envelope far enough in some direction; for example, if it had 9 hours battery life, it could open up the niche of "charge it overnight with my phone; don't carry anything else during the day" - this is of course very non-linear, and 5 hours is a lot less than half way there. (Likewise it's not really 2.5lbs vs. 2.7lbs; it's 2.5lbs + brick + cord vs. 2.7lbs + brick + cord :-) I do have one potential personal use for one of these, but would probably have to write all the software from scratch - "flickr console" :-) I've tried to implement this with an old Archos and a foldable keyboard and made *some* progress - the concept is simple: the only time I don't want a laptop around is when I *don't want to do actual work* and that's every weekend when I'm off somewhere with my camera. After half a day of shooting, I have a gig of pictures and want to back them up (classic image tank... *or* foleo with cheap ($100) 8G CF card or two) and upload the best 10 at the next coffeeshop (needs a "real" screen for preview [archos, pda, imagetank all fail at this] and a "real" keyboard for captioning [archos and foleo only real options for this].) (Does *not* need photoshop; my personal version of this hobby involves taking pictures, not manipulating bits.) 5hr battery *might* suffice for this but it doesn't *sound* convincing which is more important than it should be) but maybe electrovaya will have an aesthetically well-matched battery slab someday... and still, it's an application mostly of interested to portability-obsessed dilettante nature photographers; the "more serious" will stick with the laptop, the "less serious" will wait until they get home :-) (Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Link)

2007-08-16

About: Sibylla Bostoniensis - [tech, lj] Distributing LJ
When: Thu Aug 16 03:11:43 2007
Where: http://siderea.livejournal.com/504163.html?thread=3543907#t3543907
What:: Thu, Aug. 16th, 2007 07:09 am (UTC) [info]eichin (this is not as edited as it should be, and probably has more aggressive a tone than the material deserves, and I apologize for that, but only weakly because I'm posting it anyway :-) > There was no business reason to write a Unixoid OS and give it away for free Sure there was. BSD came from academic funding, linux came from scandinavian socialism, gcc came from religious fervor but really *launched* when there was money behind it; X11 came more from cleverly *subverting* the moneyed interests while still getting them to drive it... for a more modern example, django came out of a real (but enlightened) newspaper that freed it later... Just because it *looks* like there was no business reason, doesn't mean they weren't there - it's just that the "initial spark" story usually plays better than the growth-and-maintenance one. Also, note that the "business case" comments aren't predicting - we're observing. Social networking apps are easier to get off the ground as singleton efforts now simply because there's such a huge pile of free software and cheap infrastructure to build them on - but you rarely get *two* people to work on something like this without common incentive - and really, "hey, he's figured out how to make money off of this" is a surprisingly effective lure from the "I'll just do my own, that's more fun anyway" side of the fence to the "I'll pitch in on that one over there" side... and this is something that needs a broad enough range of skills to pull off that a single person version is likely to just fail. (After all, the basic technical parts have been available for what, two years now, including LJ actually supporting openid?) The fact that the conditions have been ripe, and that the idea has been much talked about, and it hasn't happened yet, makes the business case example at least something to look at seriously - or to propose an alternative to :-) "programmers wanting such things" hasn't worked *yet* for this particular one, right? Link Parent - Delete - Track This - Reply

About: brad's life - Python
When: Thu Aug 16 00:36:44 2007
Where: http://brad.livejournal.com/2337185.html?view=14002593#t14002593
What:: [User Picture] From: [info]eichin 2007-08-16 04:36 am (UTC) Text Processing in Python Delete Track This (Link) Back when I first ported myself from perl to python, Text Processing in Python seemed to help get my head out of regexp-space, in particular (I'd still start with diveintopython, and still use that on new employees, because it's aimed at people who are already programmers, just not of python.) A quick glance makes me think it's not particularly outdated, at least in that area. (Reply to this)

2007-08-15

About: xkcd » Blog Archive » Mirrorboard: A one-handed keyboard layout for the lazy
When: Wed Aug 15 01:37:02 2007
Where: http://blag.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-keyboard-layout-for-the-lazy/#comment-8152
What:: _Mark_ Says: August 15th, 2007 at 1:36 am A few people have questioned the problem of moving between keyboard and mouse. It turns out that not only is that motion a *major* efficiency hit, in one of the few large scale analyses of workplace injury among keyboard users, the one factor that related best to injury was mixed mouse-and-keyboard use (as opposed to just keyboard use by itself.) I don’t have the citation handy, but it’s in Raskin’s “The Humane Interface” and I did find it upstream at the time (it was done using an office worker’s union as a dataset, as I recall.) So yes, fixing the problem of *switching* from mouse to keyboard and back is worth a lot of hassle. (The Mattias keyboard had a great introductory manual, it got you started with some left-only words, then some right only ones, then alternating words, then alternating letters - it felt like a *very* efficient way to get your reflexes to kick in. The main problem I had is that while “my hands know where the letters are”, they’re not nearly so good about punctuation, and even though I’ve mostly gotten perl out of my life there’s still a lot of punctuation in code :-)

2007-08-11

About: Sibylla Bostoniensis - [tech, lj] Distributing LJ
When: Sat Aug 11 18:11:03 2007
Where: http://siderea.livejournal.com/504163.html?view=3527267#t3527267
What:: Sat, Aug. 11th, 2007 10:10 pm (UTC) [info]eichin As he points out at the end of the post - it's hard to monetize :-) It's user-interface heavy *and* pure-open-source which is a difficult corner to be in, unless there's enough motivation/pressure (LJ existing and being "good enough" has certainly kept my attention off the problem) it's going to be hard to get anywhere on it. Still, there's enough talk about it in enough places that actually doing something could get enough attention... Link Parent - Delete - Track This - Reply

2007-08-09

About: Sibylla Bostoniensis - [tech, lj] Distributing LJ
When: Thu Aug 9 00:31:26 2007
Where: http://siderea.livejournal.com/504163.html?view=3519587#t3519587
What:: Thu, Aug. 9th, 2007 04:15 am (UTC) [info]eichin There's a bunch of history for that kind of thing; most of it degenerated into fights about the power the ping-multiplexers got (especially when they got expensive to run and looked for funding and such...) It's been suggested that this is something Jabber/XMPP is suited for, but you still need servers for that (on the other hand, LJ includes a jabber server, so LJdist could too, and might actually be the right way to express that.) Thinking through the overhead involved... doing GET-based pings probably ends up cheaper :-) Also, it turns out that with proper use of ETAG/If-Modified-Since, rss-polling isn't *that* expensive (though it will be more expensive than what singleton-LJ does now which is purely internal.) Link Parent - Delete - Track This - Reply

2007-08-08

About: Sibylla Bostoniensis - [tech, lj] Distributing LJ
When: Wed Aug 8 01:56:43 2007
Where: http://siderea.livejournal.com/504163.html?view=3515747#t3515747
What:: Wed, Aug. 8th, 2007 05:56 am (UTC) [info]eichin I think the main reason LJ *has* a network effect (people come here because their friends already are) is the identity part, being able to get comments from "real people" instead of "the scum of the net". Being cheap-and-easy helps too - but I wouldn't be an LJ user at all if a friend of mine hadn't gone "friends-only" before the OpenID support existed. I've already got a half dozen other blogs, most of which had more features to start with. Once I was here, actually posting was as much laziness as anything :-) If that's not a unique point of view, it suggests that you can separate out "port my journal content elsewhere" from "identify myself to LJ to comment here", and from "having LJ people identify themselves to my site." The friends-page itself is just a featureless feed-aggregator from that perspective. If you can separate the concerns like that, you can more likely find resources to work on the piecewise - the overlap of people who "get" authentication with the people who actually like "users" has always been small and if you start out needing a volunteer who is comfortable in both camps you're in trouble :-) Link Thread - Delete - Track This - Reply

About: Sibylla Bostoniensis - [tech, lj] Distributing LJ
When: Wed Aug 8 01:39:38 2007
Where: http://siderea.livejournal.com/504163.html
What:: Wed, Aug. 8th, 2007 05:38 am (UTC) [info]eichin re openid and kerberos: not really. OpenID only *carries* authentication from one site to another; Kerberos actually performs it. (Given that IE and Firefox (and maybe safari?) can do kerberized (GSSAPI) HTTP against mod_auth_krb, now, you could use kerberos to authenticate to your OpenID "provider", if you had your own...) Link Parent - Delete - Track This - Reply

2007-07-30

About: cjsmith: Boise
When: Mon Jul 30 02:22:39 2007
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/731351.html?view=6678999#t6678999
What:: [info]eichin 2007-07-30 06:22 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This A couple of my MIT friends have ended up in ABQ via differing paths, you may at least find it interesting. Unexpected downside: no outdoor housecats, due to predators... Is Lawrence KS on your list? Apparently one of the larger pagan communities in the midwest, plus it's "locally high-tech" - they had cable internet about the same time *Cambridge* did - ljworld.com is one of the newspapers, if you want to poke around a bit... (Reply to this)(Thread)

About: cjsmith: Notes to Self
When: Sun Jul 29 20:25:24 2007
Where: http://cjsmith.livejournal.com/731099.html?view=6672347#t6672347
What:: [info]eichin 2007-07-30 12:25 am UTC (link) DeleteTrack This typically the drain from the washer goes out through the disposal - so if there's stuff in there, it's more likely to reduce the outflow and back up into the sink itself, and if any of the stuff floats, "ick". Running the disposal at least chops everything up so it'll go out the drain with the water... (Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread)

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