Adam's Blog

I recently went to Costco and bought a rather large tub of blueberries. I am a huge fan of blueberries - in fact, the engine of this blog was once named "blueberry," - and I am a huge fan of fresh fruit in general. While picking from said tub, I mentioned to a friend that as I munch away, I frequently scan the entire viewable area of berries and quickly select the "best" one in view for my next berry. I do this not just with blueberries, but with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries... in fact, I probably do it with many more foods. But in this case, we did an experiment, which goes thusly: Shake a tub of berries so it's a fresh "layout" and have a friend peruse it. Then, you each reveal the "best" berry - the one you'd go for if you were choosing. The first FIVE throws we matched 100%. The next few took us up to two or three picks to match. But the fact remains, we agreed that as we ate, we'd do a quick scan - all in an instant, of course, the deliberation is almost entirely subconscious - and choose the best remaining...

Dear Steve, It's really time for the 3G iPhone. It's getting to be ridiculous. Check out Engadget's news on the 3G iPhone. The news is everywhere, everyone already expects it to be announced on June 9 at your WWDC keynote. I suspect, with the shortages of iPhones everywhere, that the phone is not truly ready. If it was, you would be silly not to release it and take advantage of all the people (a) who are actually looking to buy new iPhones and (b) the people just waiting to snap up a 3G, like I am. But if it is actually ready and just sitting in a warehouse in China until some crafty worker snaps a spy photo and emails it to a site like ThinkSecret or EngadgetMobile, ship the dang things over here and let's have at 'em. We're champing at the bit for a friggin snapshot of the damned thing, imagine the mass orgas celebration when it actually arrives. It looks like AT&T is going to have their HSPA network complete next month, but we're ready now. So how about you just release it already so I can buy one and give my wife mine 1st gen? Ya...

After reading endless reports about the controversy over the non-resizable chat window in Pidgin, I decided to upgrade to see what all the hub-bub was about. Suffice it to say that the new builds of Pidgin are pretty much unusable for me. The typing portion is now only two rows high and cannot be resized unless you fill it with more text. The gist of the argument is that the code already exists, but the developers chose to remove it and then stuck by their decision, despite a lot of user feedback protesting. Click the image for a larger version The problem is, like some others, my text box is locked even smaller, at just TWO lines, like below. The two lines are so small on the application canvas that it's awkward - it feels wrong. Click the image for a larger version Nothing frustrates me more than when open source developer's forget that their users are important, and the few that take the time to communicate shouldn't be brushed off and treated like they are unimportant. The Mozilla Firefox developers did this to me before and as a result, I stopped using their software. The Pidgin devs are much...

For those who played along on the "Know Your Grunge" contest, here are your answers: "Sell the kids for food" is the first line in the Nirvana song "In Bloom." An easy one to start. "They're farming babies while the slaves are working" is from an extremely popular song, but few know the middle lines. It's from the pre-chorus of Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike." "Holding rare flowers in a tomb" is from Alice In Chains' fantastic 1993 acid ballad "Down in a Hole" "I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota" is from Soundgarden's "Outshined." I think this was actually a pretty popular song back in 1992, and if I recall, it was one of the lines of lyrics easiest to understand in the song. "And this is my kind of love, it's the kind that moves on" is from Mother Love Bone's "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns" and would turn out to be Andrew Wood's most well-known song ever. There's a good reason - it rules. "Drag me far enough to know - I'm blind every mile that you burn" I bet I stumped people with this line from Screaming Trees' "Nearly Lost You" which made it big after being...

The result of a conversation I had recently is this quiz I made up to test your knowledge of grunge music. These lyrics are all from popular "grunge" songs from the early 1990s - all were released as singles too. How many can you identify?

"Sell the kids for food"

"They're farming babies while the slaves are working"

"Holding rare flowers in a tomb"

"I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota"

"And this is my kind of love, it's the kind that moves on"

"Drag me far enough to know - I'm blind every mile that you burn"

"I'm gonna learn ya my philosophy, you wanna know about atrocity"

"Rests his head on a pillow made of concrete"

"They really want you but I do too"

And, if it doesn't go without saying -- NO GOOGLING! Update 5/16/2008 8:56 UTC: Answers have been posted.

My elementary school music teacher was a bun-wearing, grey-haired lady named "Mrs. Rollins." As much as many perceived her to be somewhat austere, I always kind of liked her because I dug music in general. She taught us a catalog of music, much of which sticks with me to this day. Here are a few snippets of the songs, posted for posterity, but also to see if anyone else recognizes any of these songs: While I don't recognize the verses of "The Keeper," I certainly recognize the chorus, which goes: Jackie boy! (Master!) Sing ye well! (Very well!) Hey down (Ho down) Derry derry down Among the leaves so green, O To my hey down down (To my ho down down ) Hey down (Ho down) Derry derry down Among the leaves so green, O Another ditty was a popular Austrailian song: Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, Merry, merry king of the bush is he, Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh, Kookaburra, Gay your life must be. I have fond memories of a stick-exchange game that went with "Tongo." I'm not sure the origin, but it was especially catchy. Tongo (Tongo) Jim-nee bye bye oh! Tongo (Tongo) Oom-bah, de kim bye...

It sucks to be a Yankees fan right now. As we read more and more headlines like "Gross singles in 11th, Rays beat Yankees", it becomes harder and harder to remain so committed. It's not like being a Cubs fan, or a Red Sox fan of days past. They were bad teams and they didn't win. But when you have a team that looks great on paper, and - oh, by the way - is the highest payroll in Major League Baseball, you can reasonably expect a competitive team. That's why the Yankees need to adopt the plan I've been yapping about for the last three or four years. Here goes: The Yankees are a high priced team consisting of many expensive veteran players. The problem is, it's a slippery slope, and to remain at that level or better, you must continue to acquire expensive, proven talent. Where does it get you? A team that doesn't gel, a team that costs more each year, and a team that can't produce. Why are there $50 million teams that can win in the post season and the Yankees can't? Enter my plan. It's radical. It starts like this: scuttle the ship. We've...

Currently, over on Slashdot, there is an article on forthcoming features in PHP version 6. And, like most PHP articles, the comments section is flooded with jackasses arguing that PHP sucks as a language. I get frustrated by the entire "PHP sucks" campaign, largely because it's like the HTML e-mail argument - mostly driven by the fact that it's stylish to hate them - but I'm going to go further. I argue than everyone posting about how PHP is a bad language as a whole is an idiot. Every single one. Each is a foolish, arrogant, nerd sheep who can't think for themselves. Update 5/14/08 20:39 UTC: Okay, this piece was linked by several sources, and the truth is, I had just read some George Carlin, so I was probably more aggressive than I intended to be. What I really mean is that people posting about how PHP is a bad language as a whole without citing any reasons are generally following a trend, trying to look cool, or too narrow-minded to be considered credible. And the responses I've seen across the net have, thus far, supported this argument. Why? Let's argue for a second that everything people say about...

Haven't thought this out too much, but here's the gist of it: Richard Alpert, Charles Widmore and "Jacob" were passengers on The Black Rock, and for some reason, are unable to die. John Locke and Michael were also passengers on the same ship, but again - for an unknown reason, they are in some sort of time loop or reincarnation cycle so that they don't realize who they are. We know Michael can't be killed. And it looks increasingly like Locke can't either - he survived as a premie, despite the odds, he fell 8 stories and survived, and was shot by Ben. Locke may even BE Jacob, but it's irrelevant, the point is, the survivors of The Black Rock are duking it out for control of the island. Not sure what to make of Christian Shepherd just yet - he may be another passenger on the Black Rock, but I think it's more likely he's just the form Jacob is currently taking, or possibly the form future- or past-Locke as Jacob is taking. Also, I don't think Ben is a passenger. If he was, he would not be so helpless now. No, he knows the backstory, and realizes "his...

Must the judges continue to lick David Archuleta's balls after every single song this "Aw shucks!" nerd delivers? His silky smooth voice hasn't found its niche, except perhaps as a second rate Michael Buble/Josh Groban. Archie never met a run he didn't like, I can't remember the last time I heard the dude sing a melody. Is he so "cute" and non-sexually threatening that no one dares critique his completely boring adult contemporary ballads lest he not become a marketing machine to pander to 14 year old girls? Yuck. The reason I think this season stinks is because through the entire season, I have only had one "gave me chills" performance: David Cook's take on Lionel Ritchie's "Hello." Everything else pales in comparison. Usually, there are songs that make me shut up and songs that can give me pause as I think "this is awesome." There were several great moments - I loved Carly's "Crazy On You," and I really dug Jason Castro's "Hallelujah." Many will rally for some of Chikeze's performance during Beatles week, but for me, I can count the "Wow, cool!" moments on one hand, and the "gave me chills" moments number just one. And while Syesha...