Paul Erdős playing ping pong with Fan Chung. Ronald Graham can be seen in the background jumping on a trampoline.
Video clip from George Csicsery’s film N is a Number
zalafilms.com/films/nisanumber.html
Audio clip from a remix of “Pop The Glock” by Uffie
“[Shoulder Lean Intro] Pop The Glock (Paul Devro remix)”
Paul Devro: myspace.com/pauldevro
Young Dro: young-dro.com/
Uffie: myspace.com/uffie
until then, old blog still available at 82times.blogspot.com.
Well, I’ve made the transition from buggy buggy WordPress 2.5 (hosted flawlessly by pioneercreative.com) to Google-hosted Blogger. The post-by-email function here works, but the problem is that all themes are ugly. I think I’ll just change it all the time.
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testing the blog by email function…with a picture
This script toggles your iChat status between (away, “totally walking around”) and (available, [whatever you had as your available status before]). It even works with Current iTunes Song(!).
If your status is available, then it writes your status message to a hidden file (.temp_iChat_status) in your preferences folder and changes your status to away and your status message to “totally walking around”. Conversely, if your status is away, it reads whatever’s in that temp file and sets it as your status message and makes you available.
Attach this to a keystroke trigger (via Quicksilver or the like) and life is grand.
Here’s the script. And there you go. Here’s a unicorn from Eeyore’s Birthday in Austin.
I really dislike viewing videos in iTunes. It’s clunky, there’s no support for multiple displays, I’m picky.
I wrote this little script to open and play the selected item in QuickTime, increase its played count by 1 (which marks podcasts as played in iTunes), and pause any music you might be listening to.
tell application "iTunes"
set theTrack to item 1 of selection
set theFile to (get location of theTrack)
set theCount to get (played count of theTrack)
set played count of theTrack to theCount + 1
end tell
tell application "iTunes"
if player state is playing then
playpause
end if
end tell
tell application "QuickTime Player"
open theFile
activate
play document 1
end tell
Ahh, that’s better. I set this up with a Quicksilver trigger and am no longer grouchy. Ever. Download the script. For some reason, the playpause (or play, or stop, or anything else I tried) wouldn’t work if I put all of the iTunes stuff in one tell block…so that’s why there’re two of them.
Three lines, real simple:
tell application "iTunes"
duplicate current track to playlist "srsly partytime"
end tell
And then you can create a Quicksilver trigger to run the script; so, anytime you hear something and think “yo, that’s my JAM” you don’t have to leave the keyboard to make sure it gets in the rotation for your upcoming birthday party. A couple of tracks that should be on there right now:
It will be canary yellow and I splurged for the Brooks leather bar tape to match the honey brown saddle. This could be the start of a product evangelism crusade for me as it is for many Bike Friday owners.
I’m also planning on heading up to the factory in Eugene, OR on the first of November to pick up my bike, meet the folks who built it, and do some day rides/light touring in the area (I’m thinking maybe a 3-day loop to the coast, over to Portland, and then back to Eugene and then ride Amtrak back home).
not my Bike Friday. imagine this one in yellow with leather accents…
If I haven’t already gushed to you about it, Bike Friday custom-builds high-end folding/travel bicycles. The coolest part may be the travel case they sell for it which checks as standard luggage on airlines and has some add-ons that turn the case into a trailer you can haul behind you. Basically, this means I can fly anywhere and ride away from the airport car-free. Not that airports are the most bike-friendly places, but you get the idea. And its not some junky folder, either. I’ve ridden a couple of these and you forget you’re on a folding bike until you look down. Feels like a legit road bike to be sure. This is something I’ve been getting excited about for months on end. I’ve never even owned a new new bike, let alone one custom-built for me.
Also, I treated myself to McSweeny’s Book Release Club and Bowl of Cherries is a very entertaining read. Imagine–a funny book about a man awaiting execution in an Iraqi prison! Sounds like a laugh-riot, no? Well, the plot also involves an eccentric Egyptologist who is researching how the pyramids were build using sound waves to move the stones (which makes me extrememly happy as I recall an episode of Coast to Coast AM years ago while driving a mail truck at 3 in the morning in Iowa during which an eccentric Egyptologist claimed they moved the stones with sound and that a low F# is the frequency of the wobble of the Earth on its axis). That’s right, I just gave a blog shoutout to late-night conspiracy theory AM radio.
About 8 people said they liked my sweater today, so that means I’m the freshest. This video is still the champion. It makes me wish I still had a copy of Lost Blues & Other Songs…which I can’t find digitally anywhere. I may actually have to buy a physical CD! Totally stone age!
Guaraná Antarctica, apparently the most psychedelic soda in the history of man–I mean, come on, look at the label:
It kinda tastes like apple and, um, Rock Star. And(!), guarana is apparently a berry that has three times the amount of caffeine as coffee. Some labels might call it “guaranine,” but that just means caffeine derived from this berry.
Seriously, it makes there be a guy kite surfing inside your stomach. And perhaps also a river of lava. Basically, your insides turn into paisley Katamari Damacy. And my favorite pizza place delivers it.