Scootch
[ed: It thrills me that this absolute nonsense was the very last post to my Posterous blog before the site shut down. On 12/12/12 no less.]
Scootch, verb.
Read more…
Posterous Archive
Posterous was a blogging platform that made it easy to blog from a mobile device. I really liked the simplicity of this site. It was much less fussy to edit and post than tools like WordPress and Blogger, and it supported custom domains. I used this for my personal blog for a few years before it was acquired by Twitter and shut down.
Before it shut down I archived all my posts because I’m a digital hoarder.
My Posts
Sister Diving Into a Nostril
[ed: Sophie was asking me about how Google works and when I explained it to her she asked if we could make it so you could search for “sister diving into a nostril” and find something. I said yes and this post was born.]
Here’s a picture of a sister diving into a nostril.
Read more…
An Actual Conversation with Siri
I use Siri to text my wife when I leave work to let her know I’m on my way. It is super handy and saves me about 15 seconds every day, which appeals to my inner lazy. Unfortunately, although Siri is very good, she’s by no means human. I occasionally throw her off by being too informal. The other day this conversation took place:
ME: Siri, text my wife and tell her I’m on my way home now.
Read more…
Helping Isabel With Some Geometry
Finally they’re back to some math I can still do without struggling.
It’s a Euclid system! I know this!
Read more…
Serial Apostrophe Abuser
I think we can add “serial apostrophe abusers” to the list. (I make the list 5–8 times depending on how you judge me.)
Hater’s hold a sign.
Read more…
Humane Society Youth Ambassadors
Sophie and her friend Allison ran a fund raiser for the humane society this summer. They put on a “dog show” with the neighborhood dogs, complete with games, prizes, and homemade treats. Their goal was “101 donations” (aka, $101), which they handily beat.
They were then invited to participate in the Arizona Humane Society Telethon as “Youth Ambassadors.” They had a blast!
Sophie (short hair) and Alison just about to go on the air to be interviewed.
Read more…
Understanding the tar Command Line
You almost can’t install a piece of open source software without invoking the
tar command. Inevitably, the installation instructions include a command line like the one below. Use this handy guide to fully understand what each part of this powerful command really means.
Read more…
For My Fellow Computer Programmers
I bought a Makey Makey for my girls and I to play with. At one point, the girls wired up a series of aluminum-foil-based touch pads taped to the floor. Each pad was connected to a different input (with a different colored wire). I wrote a little HTML page that responded to the input by showing/hiding matching colored bars.
When we first set it up we had the blue-wired touchpad mixed up with the green one.
Read more…
This is What I Think Every Time I See Time Travel in Movies
Same place, different time.
A lot happens in one minute. The Earth moves about 11,000 km in its path around the sun. Meanwhile, the sun (and all the rest of the solar system) moves about 13,000 km in its path around the center of the galaxy. Note that the Earth itself is about 13,000 km in diameter.
The whole Milky Way galaxy also “moves” in the direction of the constellation Leo, but this is due to the expansion of the universe itself, so it would be fair to say that any “same place” in the universe also moves with it, making this movement irrelevant.
Read more…
Anton Ego’s Piece at the End of Ratatouille
In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.
HTTP Parse Error / Bad Request Line
Yeah I know. You’re getting this:
21-Jun-2012 5:40 PM: HTTP parse error, malformed request (127.0.0.1): #<Mongrel::HttpParserError: Invalid HTTP format, parsing fails.>
21-Jun-2012 5:40 PM: REQUEST DATA: "\026\003\000\000A\001\000\000=\003\000Oã¿\000\001hìÍëÂZd^h9\216\247áKP
\224\000\nZQ\264ZæJü���/\000\005\000\004\0005\000\n\0002\0003\0008\0009
\000\026\000\023\001\000"
Or maybe this:
[2012-06-21 17:40:18] ERROR bad Request-Line `\026\003\001\000\001\000\000\003\001Oã¾òîË~w"T9ÙëänÓXÊ¡Ë;±©\037Ì"ç¦ \003\031Q\000\0006À'.
[2012-06-21 17:40:18] ERROR bad Request-Line `\026\003\000\000A\001\000\000=\003\000Oã¾òI~1Wj
Z@Õ¸+\006´\017mhøÍ¥'ú]��\026\000/\000\005\000\004\0005\000'.
And you have no idea why. And it is driving you crazy. I got you…
You meant HTTP not HTTPS.
This Took a Really Long Time
But I’m very glad it’s done.
Three Windows virtual machines pre-configured with IE6, 7 and 8.
Read more…
Confederacy of Dunces Big Chief
Mamie made these “Big Chief” notebooks for her book club meeting tonight. They read A Confederacy of Dunces.
Big Chief notebook party favors based on the notebooks references in the book.
Read more…
Sophie's First "Top Pie"
Sophie made this strawberry-rhubarb pie with a little help from dad.
Sophie’s first pie with a top crust.
Read more…
Sophia Hamster Balling
At the Arizona Centennial Celebration. (Happy birthday Arizona!)
Sophie getting ready to roll in this hamster ball contraption.
Read more…
This Actually Happened Last Week
Jesse was across the room with his bluetooth headset on:
JESSE: “Remind me to call Dog Ear on Friday”
ME: “I’m not your secretary. Put it in your calendar.”
JESSE: “Actually, make it for two o’clock.”
ME: “Ok, if you say so. I put it in my calendar so I can remind you, you disorganized hack.”
JESSE: “Confirm.”
ME: (confused) “Wait, are you talking to Siri?!”
JESSE: (to me this time) “What are you talking about?
Read more…
Getting the Kids Haircuts
The stylist has this sign up in her lobby. #like
The sign in the lobby.
Read more…
Recovering Partial Files from a Damaged ZIP on Mac OS X
Well, call me stupid, but I set up some periodic database backups using ZIP. Unfortunately, the normal (non-64-bit) ZIP file format can’t handle input files over 4GB (even if the output ZIP file is much smaller).
The Problem My cron jobs began failing when one of my databases grew over 4GB, but I didn’t notice because ZIP files were still being created on schedule. Alas they were truncated files that couldn’t actually be unzipped.
Read more…
Isabel is Super Excited to See Christopher Paolini
I took Isabel to the Burton Barr library in Phoenix for a Christopher Paolini talk and book signing.
Isabel waiting for the talk to start.
Read more…
iTunes Match is Live
YAY! I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time.
iTunes Match processing.
Read more…
Hoodwinked
SOPHIA: Will you read to me after dinner?
ME: Maybe.
SOPHIA: What?! Why maybe?
ME: Let me rest a bit and then get some stuff done and we’ll see.
[…5 minutes pass…]
SOPHIA: Can we play 20 Questions while we eat?
ME: Sure.
SOPHIA: OK, you think of something first.
ME: OK, I’m thinking of something.
SOPHIA: Remember you have to answer “Yes” or “No”.
ME: I’m well aware of the rules.
Read more…
The New Oxford American Dictionary Defines Punk
- Punk (n)
- A loud fast-moving, and aggressive form of rock music, popular in the 1970s and early 1980s.
- An admirer or player of such music, typically characterized by colored spiked hair and clothing decorated with safety pins or zippers.
Jony Ive's Steve Jobs Eulogy
Steve used to say to me (and he used to say this a lot), “Hey Jony, here’s a dopey idea.” And sometimes they were — really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful. But sometimes they took the air from the room, and they left us both completely silent.
This is Not a Parable
I’m not sure why I love this lyric so much, but I sure do.
This is not a parable
This is a terrible…
This is a terrible thing
Yes I will rhyme that after…
After all I've done today
I have earned my wings
It Happened Today, by R.E.M, released 2010
Ways Coda Could Improve Rails Support
You asked for it. This is my off-the-cuff list. I’m sure I’ll think of other things.
Read more…
This Boggles my Mind
They’re called “essential” for a reason, Bill.
I’m not sure making the world a worse place for everyone just because some loser didn’t pay for Windows is a good idea… This is like a law that if someone steals they are no longer allowed to get vaccinations. Only in this alternate world, 80% of people steal, and so disease runs rampant.
I mean I feel Microsoft’s pain here. They experience more software theft than anyone else by a long shot.
Read more…
Trailer: Alien vs. Predator 2: Surrogate
[ed: I wrote this utter nonsense as a very extended joke with a friend of mine. Enjoy.]
EXT. JUNGLE — DAY
A dark shape rocks gently among the foliage. The camera approaches and the shape resolves into the unmistakable outline of an Alien from behind.
Read more…
Peach Crème Brûlée
Put a peachy twist on one of my favorite recipes.
Peach Crème Brûlée, a little treat for my family.
Read more…
Somebody Out There Thinks I'm a Skeeze
I have the unfortunate habit, when I’m distracted by work, of engaging in conversations without being aware of what’s being said. A few years ago I was working on site with a client in Tempe. I had use of a private office and a keyboard, mouse, and screen to which I could attach my laptop. But I prefer the laptop mouse and keyboard in most cases, so I would connect only the screen, as a secondary display, to make use of on occasion.
Read more…
There's a Lot Going On On This Sign
It takes a depth of understanding of human language to know this says “2 2 20.” Even more to know it means a beer costs two dollars.
Dollar two two twenty.
Read more…
Teenagers: A Poem for Isabel
I wrote this for Isabel on their 13th birthday.
Read more…
Isabel's Off to the Santa Fe Opera
A birthday surprise from Grandpa Coffey. My pretty little person.
Isabel and their Grandpa Coffey.
Read more…
Is There a Way to Accept This Thing With the Keyboard
Mac OS X Lion does iPhone-style autocorrect as you type. I’m leaving it on for now to see if I like it. If it autocorrects something, you can press Escape to ignore the correction, but sometimes I’m typing and not paying attention, and a correction I don’t want is applied. Like on the iPhone, you can back up to the word that was corrected and it will show a popup like the one below so you can quickly restore what you originally entered:
Read more…
Deception Inflection
Sometimes I’m accused of being a good person, and I have to remind people that it being evil and appearing evil are only positively correlated for sufficiently small values of evil.
The deceoption inflection.
Here it is with some data points:
Evil corporations.
Note, for instance, that Exxon is doing it wrong. They only need to be a little more evil to appear completely good. Google, on the other hand, totally has it figured out.
Read more…
At the End of this Road is Mexico
Looking forward to an extended week of focus and beautiful sunsets.
On the road to Puerto Peñasco.
Read more…
This is My Office for the Next Few Days
I’m not really a beach person but I genuinely love the solitude of this beautiful place.
The view from the balcony of Jesse’s condo in Puerto Peñasco.
Read more…
OAuth is Right for Twitter
There’s been some grumbling recently about OAuth and the Twitter API. Gruber posits that this is a bad thing dressed up to look like a good thing. But really, it is a good thing.
The whole point of OAuth is to allow me to authorize one service (like Flickr, Posterous, FourSquare, Instagram, or, yes, even a full Twitter client) to interact with another service (like Twitter) on my behalf without giving them my password.
Read more…
Guinea Pig: A Poem
I wrote this poem for Isabel’s friend, who was collecting poems about Guinea Pigs for a project:
Read more…
Stay Daddy
I had to put this in some documentation I wrote for a client.
Go Daddy will try very hard from now on to “up sell” you with additional names and services. You do not need to purchase other related names (and there is no benefit to you to do so unless you’re trying to protect a recognized brand) so avoid the extra check boxes. As you proceed, look for the “No Thanks” buttons, which will bypass all the unnecessary add-ons.
Read more…
The Dead Forest Celebration
I grew up on the cul-de-sac end of a long suburban street. The neighborhood this street was part of backed up to a small strip of young but wild wood about a quarter mile wide, and this, beginning with a long downward slope, formed the barrier between our back yard and the farm fields and county roads beyond. My brother and I spent long afternoons in what we called “the ravine,” climbing trees, chasing squirrels, and generally reveling in a place protected from parental view.
Read more…
Quirrell
Sophia can do wonders with a blanket…
Sophia “dressed up” as Quirrell from Harry Potter.
Read more…
