General Rambling

Last.fm Thinks I'm Gay

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Remember how there was this big thing about how Tivos were learning the viewing habits of their users, and the users were sure that their Tivos thought they were gay. Last.fm sure does have a strange idea of what I want. Listening to their “recommendation radio” is a great way to find new music, and I love the control where you can move the slider between “mainstream” and “obscure.” But dammit anyhow, I’d like a non-emo, non-Backstreet Boys recommendation from time to time. Geez. So I’ve just loaded a playlist in iTunes with a lot of my old favorites, hit play, and turned my speakers off. My plan will probably backfire, making the computers think I’ll like Enya and Yanni …

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last.fm

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So I started this blog with the idea that I’d write about system administration topics. My forays into last.fm are another example of how I’ve been failing to write about what I started to write about. Maybe that’s okay. 🙂 Introspection aside, I added a page pointing to the last few things I’ve listened to. I didn’t want to put it on the main page because it takes a while to load. Last.fm is pretty damn cool as a data collector and sorter, and I’ve found some new music that way. They are getting more commercial which dulls the experience a little but it’s okay for now. Update 7/7/07: I took that page down. While we’re at it Yo La …

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Blitz

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This weekend was busier than most. Beer drinking on Friday, with live music and friends. Beer drinking on Saturday, with live theater and friends. Fixing vehicles on Sunday with live friends. All in 90+ degree heat. Icky. The live music was down at the UW-Madison Memorial Union Terrace. If you’re ever in Madison on a Friday and you are wondering where everybody is, they’re all there. Hip hop isn’t usually my bag, but Dumate and Know Boundaries are damn good. Know Boundaries has a Rage Against the Machine/Linkin Park/rap thing going on, and it’s cool. Dumate is the collision of the venerable Natty Nation with the remains of Smoking With Superman. Mr. Parker definitely has some grammatical skillz. Saturday was …

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Awesome Names

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I’ve been trying to find some new music lately. I’ve managed to find a few things, and I’ve also been exploring the use of last.fm to discover new music. For some reason it insists that I like the Backstreet Boys. No, really, I don’t. Some of the song names I ran into are awesome: “I’ve Got A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth” by Fall Out Boy. It’s off their “From Under the Cork Tree” album, and upon investigation they apparently like “Shawshank Redemption,” too. The other name I found was the band “…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead.” OMFG, that’s totally the name I wanted.

AL Rules

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Dear National League, Holy crap. You played a good game. Nothing super spectacular, but some good defense. It was looking good for a win, a long overdue win, until that last damn out. But, then, wow. The last time I saw that was the Twins and the Yankees earlier this season. Sorry guys. …Bob P.S. I do think making the All Star game the determining factor in World Series home field advantage was a good idea. P.P.S. The AL 0//n3d j00! Heh, sorry, I’m a Twins fan. And I love l33t sp34k.

One of Those Evenings

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Honey: “Garth, would you like to have dinner one night?” Garth: “Oh, I like to have dinner every night.” Garth: “Yes, I have a question. When did you turn into a nutbar?” And the summary of my social life: Honey: “Take me, Garth!” Garth: “Where? I’m low on gas and you need a jacket.”

Tags Suck

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I’ve been thinking about tags & tagging a lot lately. In particular, I’m trying to figure out why I don’t like them. I think it’s because I can never remember how I tagged something. If I find a recipe for hard-boiled eggs on the web I’ll put it in del.icio.us, but when I go to find it again I can’t. What tags did I use? Did I use “food” or “recipe” or “eggs” or “hardboiledeggs” — I have things filed under all three categories. By the time I get done looking in all three places for it I could have just searched for and found it again in Google. Of course, then there’s the “tagging beta” that Slashdot did. They …

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Time Flies

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Ah, July. Sorry folks, I kinda took it easy during June. Lots of stuff was going on in my life, some bad stuff, some good stuff, a doctor figured out my knee, vacations, and a whole lot of baseball, at least for me. I can’t really compete with people who go to every Brewers home game, for instance, but three separate MLB parks in eight days is my record. And I only had one hot dog, and one beer. Weird month, that June. It was refreshing to step back from the technology for a little bit and recharge. It was also nice to have my left knee back, at least temporarily, from my patellar tendinitis. It’s funny to walk normally …

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Ah, Vacation

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I’ve been taking a much-needed break from work over the last five days. It’s really amazing how my attitude can improve with a little rest. Of course, tomorrow represents the last of the vacation, but that’s okay. Vacation must end, so that a new vacation can start later, and the between-time reminds us of why we take vacations. I sat today on the deck of a house, overlooking a few acres of pond, grass, and forest. I was actually doing work, but it was fine, because I had nature around me. Birds coming into the feeders, something causing all the red-winged blackbirds in the cattails to freak out, grass swaying, all of it intoxicating. All while I sorted out a …

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