spasticrobot

BoC Dayvan Cowboy Video

Boards of Canada have released their first music video. It's for "Dayvan Cowboy". It is beautiful and psychedelic. Watch this and put a smile on your face. WMV Mp4 MOV

Notes from a Streetcar

This city is not OK. Riding through Midcity and into downtown on a slow moving, displaced St. Charles streetcar today provided me with a stunning panorama of just how down and out this place really is. First off, the ride was free. Fares are being paid for with FEMA and state support. That's just weird.

Secondly, there were only about 15 passengers the ENTIRE ROUTE. This is a route I have ridden hundreds, perhaps thousands of times in my life and a pre-K rush hour ride on the Canal bus or streetcar was always a packed and uncomfortable thing. It was very disconcerting to be able to sit anywhere on the car and only have to stop a few times the whole run.

The ride also allowed me to really take in the destruction and lack of progress, not to mention people, along the route. It's downright heartbreaking. From the piles of deconstructed homes and businesses still lining the streets to the broken windows and burned out carcasses of downtown, things have hardly changed at all since September.

The only bright spot was that the streetcar now runs all the way down the riverfront to the French Market so I only had to walk a few blocks from the end of the line to my house.

None the less I heartliy recommend talking the ride. The weather is really pleasant right now, the ride is free and it provides a unique perspective of our current situation.

First Wednesday Ride

Yesterday Chris, John, and I went out for our first Wednesday ride of the DST season. We rode about 30 miles, most of which were spent on the Lakefront moving at a pretty high pace. Riding for a few hours on a work day is an amazing thing.

Again, I encourage anyone who wants to join us to meet-up in front of NOMA, in City Park, on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. It's a great ride and if non-roadies show up we will keep the pace nice and easy for most of the ride.

Dos Boot

Apple announced today that they are releasing an application called Boot Camp that will allow users to install Windows on their Intel Macs. Lots of people have been predicting that this would happen since the Mactels were released, but it was just something that I couldn't wrap my mind around. Macs running Windows is something I never thought I'd live to see, much less with the aid of Apple developed hardware and software. The decision looks to be a smart one as Apple's stock has already risen 7% in early trading.

Edit: I just realized that this means I can run my work VPN and Outlook on a Mac. That changes everything. I am totally buying a new Mac mini this year.

Hurricane Odds

Dr. Gray's Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Forecast was released today and it brings good news and bad news with it. The good news is that by his team's estimation the probability for at least one Major (Category 3-4-5) Hurricane landfall on the Gulf  Coast from the Florida Panhandle westward to Brownsville, TX is 47%. The bad news is that they are also predicting a total of 17 named storms, 9 of which will be Hurricanes and of those 9, 5 are predicted to be Major Hurricanes.

Those are pretty scary numbers but it is important to note that last year at the same time the stated Gulf Coast landfall probability was 53%. We're a little bit less likely to be impacted by a major storm and the probability is less than 50%. Those aren't great odds but at this point I'll take what I can get.

NYTimes.com Redesign

NYTimes.com got a facelift yesterday. I'm loving both the subtle and non-subtle changes that have been made. It reminds me very much of the New York Magazine site, another site that I'm fond of.

Even though he claims otherwise it seems that Khoi Vinh has made his first mark there a pleasant one.

Three Important Things

1. This weekend I took a big proactive step toward launching a new enterprise. Starting a business is something I've often thought about with some trepidation but I've finally decided to just go ahead and do it. Damn the torpedoes! More to come.

2. I had a really nice ride on Satuday to kickoff the DST season. I'm ready to start riding 5-6 days a week. Today will be my first post-work ride of the season and I'm totally amped up about it.

3. Yesterday I watched Tom Boonen win the Tour of Flanders with most of my bike geek homeboys. Drinking beer and watching the Spring Classics with close friends is one of the best things ever. I'm so glad the season has started again.

Choke

Damn LSU, why did you keep trying to hit outside shots all night when you know you have no perimeter game? Also, not converting turnovers will cost you the game, every time. So sad, heartbreaking even.