Red Letter Day

I understand intellectually why economic unrest in the tiny, and thoroughly meaningless (unless you are a history buff) country of Greece has caused my 401k to decrease in value by a not-so-meaningless amount, but on a gut level, the fact that a sneeze in Greece caused the American stock market to crater is a real sign that the entire international economic system is a massive house of cards.

Well, I guess we kind of knew that already, but still, it is depressing. Or recessing.

Anyone up for a gyro platter for dinner?

Update: is user error to blame?

SSHing into the jailbroken iPad using Terminal on the Mac

I jailbroke our iPad last night. For those unfamiliar with what jailbreaking is, it is the process of opening up Apple’s iPad software to allow modifications to the operating system that Apple itself doesn’t allow – the primary one being multitasking. In other words, on a jailbroken iPad I can listen to music in Pandora while using other apps like Mail or Safari. This is impossible on a stock iPad.

I used Spirit, a new piece of software that works with iPads and iPhones. It was the easiest jailbreak I have ever done. In the past, when I have jailbroken my iPhone, it was an hour-long process and involved a full software install. With Spirit, it was literally plugging in the iPad, clicking a button, and rebooting the iPad.

Here’s how to do it, step by step:

1. Download Spirit here.

7. The iPad will reboot a second time. That’s it, you are done and can disconnect.

Cydia, the iPad “jailbreak app store” will be installed. From there you can install useful apps like “Backgrounder”

For a more detailed “how to” as well as more information on what apps have been made compatible with the iPad jailbreak, check out MacStories.

Lists are easy, lists are fun, I am hungry, so here’s one!

My ten most favorite restaurants in Lawrence. The rules…no chains, and the place has to primarily be a restaurant (i.e. no coffee houses for this list)

By the way, if you are a restaurant, there are two things you can do to make me come and throw money at you. First, either get rid of the Flash on your website, or make it so when I visit your site on a mobile device (such as the iPhone — have you heard of it?) I get served a page that actually has useful information on it, as opposed to a broken plug-in icon.

Secondly, join Twitter, or Facebook (or both) and post/tweet your daily specials. Hell, even a blog with RSS is better then forcing me to actually pick up the phone and call you. I can’t count the number of times I have spontaneously gone out to eat at a restaurant because I saw a special on Twitter which sounded good. This takes 5 minutes to set up, and 1 minute each day to use. Its free. It will get you business. Do it.

Free State Brewery
Can’t get enough of that wonderful…not Duff. Seriously, I could eat here 7 days a week (and weigh 100 pounds more if I did, but hey). The beer is as good as any in the world, and the food is gourmet bar comfort food.

Pachamamas/Star Bar
I really like the Star Bar, Pachamama’s elegant bar area, and the dining room is probably the “nicest” place to eat in Lawrence. Great local food.

Tellers
There are a lot of good Italian places in Lawrence, including the great new 715, but Tellers is still my favorite Italian place by a hair. Superb atmosphere and really great fresh pastas and salads.

Henry T’s
Awesome comfort food, and the best wing sauce in Larryville. They also have gourmet burgers.

Yellow Sub
I love the fresh sandwiches. My favorites are the homemade meatball sub and the “spicy cheese” (get it with buffalo sauce for a real treat!)

La Parilla
What a short order Latin American joint should be. All kinds of fresh grilled dishes, including the titular “Parillas” which are kind of unique fajitas, as well as salads, awesome enchiladas, and the best guac in the city. FWIW, La Familia (which is more pure Mexican as opposed to Latin American) gives La Parilla a run for their money with the best fresh salsa in town.

Thai-Siam
A little hole int he wall in a dinky strip mall, but seriously the best pad thai this side of Bangkok.

Papa Kenos
Rudy’s is awesome, but Papa Kenos wins by a hair for my favorite pizza in Lawrence. Love the Shredder with the blue cheese and the Santa Fe with real bacon.

The Burger Stand at Dempseys
Real gourmet hamburgers. A heart attack on every plate. They have a lot of unique, flavorful burgers, along with the saltiest, crispiest fries around.
I often just get the classic burger, which is “good enough” but they have a dozen other pretty unique burgers as well.

Wheatfields
Best bread on the planet, best cookies in Lawrence, and probably the best overall sandwiches around. Great breakfasts too, although I rarely eat out for breakfast.

OK, there you have it. Hungry?

It's me!

Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m just talking about a common command line utility!

Seriously though, if you’re reading this, it means my self-hosted WordPress blog is up and running and visible to the world. Actual content coming soon, I promise.

“Eaarth” by Bill McKibben

“Eaarth” is really two books in one.

The first book is a forceful, dispiriting survey of how completed screwed we are. Page after page, and chapter after chapter, the author covers the myriad ways that mankind has thoroughly upset the natural environment on our planet, in such a way that effectively threatens civilization. Even worse, he is quite clear that even if the 6 billion inhabitants of Earth (or Eaarth) all tomorrow turned into Al Gore clones, intent on doing everything they could to save things, it is too late. The die has been cast, and we are headed for ruin. There’s no magic new technology or alternative energy that will save us, and recycling and switching light bulb technology won’t do a thing. Honestly, the first half of this book had me ready to go out and buy a bunch of guns and a cabin in the wood (that is, if climate change doesn’t destroy the forests!)

Just when all hope is lost, McKibben pirouettes in the second half of “Eaarth” into hopey changey mode. His main thesis is that, in spite of what he just spent half the book telling us, that yes, some hope is possible – we just have the reorient our civilization to be more lightweight and local, to live gracefully. To be fair, the author is not polyanna, and he is aware of the limitations and downsides of his prescriptions. After a paean to the joys of local living, neighborliness and small towns, he acknowledges the downsides of looking inward (intrusiveness, lack of opportunity and bigotry). He is still hopeful, however, that we can do better, and after a while, I really started to believe him.

The book overall is well-written, smart and humane, and I did end the book with a tiny drop of hope. It’s to the author’s credit that this result was possibly given the catalog of doom that marked the first half. I would recommend this book – it is a good alternative to both techno-utopian optimism and complete pessimism, if only because both are touched on and wrapped up in one volume.

There will certainly be a future for humanity on “Eaarth” the question is only what kind of future it will be.

If you are fogging a mirror and are on the internet, you probably have heard the sordid tale of Gizmodo’s unveiling of an iPhone 4G prototype and outing of the Apple engineer who inadvertently revealed the new phone.

This issue seems to bring out vast quantities of stupid from all involved, on every side of the issue, reminding me of the old adage about opinions and everyone having one. Including me.

Anyway, some random thoughts…

1. The iPhone prototype wasn’t stolen. It was apparently lost.

2. Losing stuff happens to the best of us. But still, if you have the priceless prototype to your secretive employer’s crown jewel with you, is a modicum of responsibility too much to expect?

3. What Gizmodo did by reporting on the device itself and its technical specs is called journalism.

4. What Gizmodo did by paying for said device is called sleazy.

5. What Gizmodo did by gratuitously outing the name and photo of the Apple engineer who lost the phone is called despicable.

6. If there are any legal issues involved, I am confident Apple’s lawyers, Gizmodo’s lawyers, and the authorities (if needed) will get to the bottom of it.

I don’t feel bad for Apple. This won’t affect their bottom line a bit. I do feel sorry for the guy who left the phone, even though it is basically his fault. One mistake should result in a public pillory like this. I hope Apple continues to employ him and he can continue to work on the iPhone, albeit after a stern lecture to not take secret prototypes out in public before a night of drinking!

As for Gizmodo, they are what they are.

Tova welcomes you to the new blog

There’s gonna be more here soon. Right now I just need to get the lights turned on and some furniture moved in.

Follow my Twitter feed if you can’t wait. Or go visit the old blog and wallow in the nostalgia of a better, simpler time.