Author: shun

Applescripting and Blogging

I have been using Applescript to help me make my blogging easier. Everything from image resize and image format changes are done via my tiny scripts through Tiger’s Automator. And let me tell ya… it’s a godsend not having to keep memory-hogging Photoshop open all the time. Sure, I could have used third-party software that takes up smaller memory foot prints. But why bother when Applescript is so readily available?

Here is a good article to get started on Applescripting. But if you are on Tiger, don’t bother; Automator is all you need.

Vodcast?

At first there was an Internet, then came web pages. Then they evolve to blogs and eventually vlogs. Parallel to that, MP3 songs were blooming, then came iPod. Now the two equally important technologies can be merged to become one. Introducing vodcasting for the masses (by way of iTunes). In the near future, there won’t be much we can’t do with iTunes and our iPod. Unless, of course, Steve Jobs’ world domination plan is stopped before it bears any fruit.

vodcasting via iTunes

UFO Paranoia?

BBC News is running an audio interview with the infamous hacker, Gary McKinnon. He reportedly hacked 50 computers that belong to the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and various other supposedly heavily guarded Defense Department machines in search for UFOs.

Years ago, another fellow named Bob Lazar claimed to have worked at Area 51 and Los Alamos labs and witnessed much of the secrets McKinnon is now telling the world. I saw a T.V. special on this guy and his stories seemed very plausible. He was able to recite details about the labs that only people who have worked there would know. The U.S. government, on the other hand, says they don’t know any Bob Lazar and everything he says can not be substantiated.

Given how seriously the U.S. government is taking the case, one can only wonder if there’s really something to be suspicious of. And the weird thing is, how come most of the computers McKinnon hacked into had blank administrative passwords? If the Defense Department can’t even do what it takes to secure a few computers, it’s no wonder it’s such a mess with what they are doing in the Middle East these days.

Suckers.

Umbilical Cord Blood and Health

Michael told me he’d saved his baby boy’s umbilical cord blood with a company his doctor recommended. It’s insurance for the health of the baby in the future in case his own stem cell is needed, he explained. “Cord blood banking” is still an experimental science that harvests the stem cells from the umbilical cord blood from the mother’s placenta immediately after she gives birth. The stem cells are then stored for future use against stem-cell-treatable diseases (or god knows what’s possible in the future). Though some of those diseases can be treated with adult bone marrow transplants, the statistics of matching someone with the right bone marrow tissues are much less than matching stem cells harvested from umbilical cord blood since stem cells are capable of developing into almost any type of cells or tissues.
All Things Considered, February 8, 2006 · The Bush administration has canceled funding for the most ambitious study of children’s health ever designed — prompting outrage among scientists and public health officials. The study was to investigate the causes of widespread obesity and asthma, among other childrens health problems. For more on keeping a healthy lifestyle, we recommend to check the new products form this CBD Oil UK review.

At $1,500 a pop to get an account open, and an additional $100 a year to keep the account open, it’s a pretty hard pill to swallow. Some people argue that the potential of a disease is much greater than the cost of maintaining the umbilical cord stem cells in a bank. Well, true. But for a young family trying to scrape enough food to keep things going, it’s a big investment, especially payments are made indefinitely to keep the stem cells available.

Now that’s some business plan. Take a cutting edge science that may or may not work in the future; start marketing effectively on its “potential” benefits to your baby. And convince the parents it’s worth the investment throughout the lifetime of the baby. And receive payments forever.

I am not disputing the umbilical cord blood’s potential uses. In fact, researches have already shown its effective uses. I guess this is something we’ll have to discuss with our doctors. I suppose this is most useful for families that have a history of diseases passed down for generations.

More information can be found here.

Russian Spammer Murdered

A report from Russia confirms the killing of Russia’s biggest spammer.

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.

Yeah, that’s what should be done to spammers who are caught doing the deed. The public should be able to stone them to death or inject acid into an open hole in their skulls. Oh wait, according to an episode of Law & Order, that may kill them too fast… Brutally beaten to death is good then.

MSN Maps

MSN Maps image A while ago, I commented that Microsoft seemed to be MIA in the war of online maps. I spoke too soon. It appears that Microsoft had been hard at work with their own technologies to compete with its biggest rival in the game, Google.

Microsoft finally unveiled its online mapping software, MSN Virtual Earth (beta). It has some familiar features used in Google Maps and Yahoo Maps, but it’s also packed with features not available in other mapping software. Unfortunately for non-IE users, the map won’t work for any other browser types (Safari 2, FireFox 1.0.6, or even their own kin, IE 5.2.3 on Mac). I think that really blows. No Virtual Earth pour moi.

Lifehacker reported that the mapping software also doesn’t display Apple’s Cupertino campus. And it also shows the pre-911 picture of the Twin Towers. Now we know… Microsoft secretly wishes if Apple never existed. Hah, punks.

I can’t imagine how the company can keep restricting itself from new markets by stubbornly making certain sites available only to its bug-ridden Internet Explorer browsers. Its OS and other service departments should be run separately. I mean, if IE isn’t the best browser for the site, then don’t go out of the way to make a site IE-only. By breaking their backs to support a non-standards compliant browser, it’s just more trouble for them in the future. And what about the uses? Have they even considered maybe some users don’t use IE as their browser of choice?

Stupid Microsoft.

iPod v.s. Radio

It seems like more “types” businesses are affected by the popularity of iPod than we thought. I have been hearing a local FM radio station to urge listeners to give their iPods a break and listen to their station.

With the popularity of Podcasting, and on top of that, softwares that allow people to record radio shows as MP3s on their computers for enjoyment later, no wonder radio stations are sweating over their listener-ship. However, more innovative stations are turning this opportunity into gold. Take a popular show on NPR, This American Life; it offers downloadable paid Podcasts through iTunes and Audible.com. Some Most NPR shows, on the other hand, remain to be free for download. If iTunes is installed, those free shows can be subscribed to and be downloaded automatically as they become available.

As Corporate America continues to forge policies that are overwhelmingly corporate-friendly, local TV and radio stations are increasingly being consolidated by large corporations like Clear Channel, which very actively censors contents of almost every one of its local affiliates to make sure their broadcasts are in line with the parent company’s political stance (in case you are wondering, it’s a Republican-friendly company; what a surprise).

Since the mainstream media (a.k.a. mass media) in the United States are becoming more and more polarized (kinda like the political party lines), the only choice people had were underground radio shows, or more recently, web sites or blogs. Now that Podcasting is catching on, the biggest companies are only as big as the size of listener’s hard drive. A number of home-made Podcasts have already caught the attention of listeners. Technology continues to mature and is now more accessible to everyone than ever; we should expect far more varieties of ideas and imaginations mushroom over the next few years. –> (That is, before Clear Channel and other Republican, anti-innovation companies spend billions of dollars on lobbying lawmakers to make Podcasting illegal.)

Bye Bye Kitty

Kitten in cage We said good bye to the kittentoday. After our last unsuccessful attempt to get her to the humane society, I finally gave her enough reason food to get her inside the pet carrier this afternoon. For the past few days we’ve been getting anxious about her health as the weather officially marches into grilling summer heat. We saw her lying lifelessly in the yard a couple of times, gathered only enough strength to dash out of our sight to her hiding place when we approach. How does a kitten to survive like this without food? We rarely see her mother anymore. Even when we do, they act like two strangers meeting for the very first time.

Surprised I was able to catch her in the pet carrier, Grace immediately readied her self for a short trip to the humane society. The kitten begged for her release in the backseat as we took a short drive to humane society’s closest office. We believe in our heart that she’d eventually be adopted by a loving family.

When we arrived at the humane society, the strangest thing happened — the kitten was rejected because of where we found her. Apparently there’s been some politicking going on. The city of San Jose decided to setup its own animal shelter, and in doing so, it severed its contract with the Humane Society Silicon Valley, a non-profit organization that serves the Santa Clara County. Even though we live only less than two miles down the block from the Humane Society, the politics of the situation got in the way of doing what’s good for the society. I couldn’t help but think how this is such a microcosm of our society today.

Kitten in cage We turned around and drove 10 miles to San Jose Animal Care Center. As we filled out paperwork for dropping the poor thing off, the social worker was trying to get the kitten out of our pet carrier and into their own cage. For the first time, the kitten hissed and fought with a vengence. I guess I would have too if I didn’t know what the hell was going on.

So we have accomplished our goal. Now the kitten is in the hands of professionals. But we felt naked, almost an indescribable emptiness inside, feeling we had betrayed the little thing by handing her fate over to a stranger at an unfamiliar place, and we did so without her permission. Already, we have started to miss her, mourning the loss of a tiny orange tabby in our yard, greeting us everytime we went out or came home. Though we consciously knew we weren’t going to adopt her, our acquaintance for the past three weeks made us feel as if she’s been part of our life surrealistically longer.

Grace wants to go back and check on her in a couple of days just to make sure that she’s adapting to the new environment well. After the kitten’s initial exhibit of anger, the social worker commented that she’d have to see if the kitten passes her temperament test in a few days to make sure that she’s fit for adoption. We hope she passes. Other wise, we’d just subjected her to a dose of leathal injection. And THAT is going to sit well with our conscience for the rest of ourlives.

Google Maps Goes Hybrid

First the map updates in realtime allowing the user to drag, zoom in and out wihtout refreshing the page. Then the map gave the user the ability to see any location with satellite view, retaining its original attributes.

Now Google Maps has kicked it up a notch. It’s overlaying the satellite map over the 2D map (or maybe the other way around). The hybrid mode lives side by side to the other modes we have grown so accustomed to.

God I love Google.

Google Maps goes hybrid

Blog Find — dooce

dooce was in the blog-sphere a while ago when the blog got its owner fired from her job. And again, I didn’t really pay attention to it because I thought that was a stupid news.

Tonight after completing my take-home exam at 1AM, as I was going through my daily news-reading ritual, an article on BBC News (god, I love BBC; way better than CNN) ignited my interest in my latest blog find.

Heather’s witty and funny writing has won me over and earned dooce a permenant spot on my daily reading list (50 RSS feeds and growing). The article (“Original Sin”) on getting her first iBook was what did me in. Now I am hooked on her fabulous writing style and penmenship penwomanship — refreshing and resonating. Though her blog has evolved into that of a parent writing about her life raising a daughter, the stories are still facinating reads.

An excerpt:

But do I really need a high-end iBook complete with OS X? What does OS X stand for anyway? Am I ready to give up my right-click privileges? Why is everything, including the air I breathe, now strangely aqua and beveled? Is the church true and does God live?

I bear my testimony to you today that yes, God does live, and his name is Steve Jobs. I am a convert. Praise Jesus and partake of the fruit.

Highly recommended.

Kitten Rescue

Attempt to lure to cat into cageWe saw the kitten again two days ago. And this time we tried a few times using food to lure her into our pet carrier.

But the little rascal knew what was up. She didn’t fall for the trap in the both times that we tried. After the attempts, both us and the kitten were too stressed. So both sides gave up. We ended up just sitting there watching each other doing nothing.

And yesterday when we saw her again, she appeared a little weaker than the last time we saw her. At one point, I was able to get pretty close to grab her. The kitten’s reflexes handed her the advange of speed, and she quickly dashed away.

I wonder if that ruined her trust for me. Maybe the next time it’d be much harder to get her into the pet carrier.

Attempt to lure to cat into cage

RFID the Baby

An article at MedGadget reminded me of what the nurse told us during our hospital tour. She said all newborns in Santa Clara Valley Medical Center are tagged with RFID chips at their ankles to prevent theft.

Nuts.

Also, all parents and babies are being triple tagged with labels in case someone pulls a fast one on someone else’s baby. No exchanges at this hospital. Great.