I was trying to use DeDRMS to fix my purchases from iTunes, but was getting an Array OOB exception when trying to run it… I spent an hour or two looking at the source, trying to track down the problem.. Today, I realized that I had v1.1.4 of Mono installed when the latest version is v1.1.6. I noticed that the DeDRMS page said it required v1.1.6, but I guess I figured since I first installed mono a week and change ago I must have the latest version. Turns out this isn’t so much the case, I updated to the latest version, and everything fell into place.

Comcast’s DNS servers shit the bed last night, fortunately CSH’s DNS servers are permanently ingrained in my head so I was able to work around it.

stopped by today to help me get my car inspected, which was due at the end of March… The parking gods showed me mercy by not giving me any tickets in the week since March ended.. It was a pretty fast deal, we were in and out of there in less than 30 minutes, including the time we waited for them to do the car in front of us.. We had planned on hitting up Micro Center to kill time, but we didn’t have to. Matt also hooked me up with the Girl Scout cookies I ordered at work (1 box of Thin Mints, 1 Box of Peanut Butter Sandwiches, 4 boxes of Caramel DeLites) that he has been holding hostage for weeks now.

I’m like an old housebound lady with catalogs… The UPS and FedEx guys came by to deliver a bunch of shit I ordered… First, I got a PCI 802.11g card for my PC, in an attempt to get as wireless as possible. Second, I got some more Sharps shaving gel as I was running low.. They gave me a bunch of freebies in the box, which is cool even though I’ll probably never use it. Lastly, I got the new Fantômas CD, “Suspended Animation”, from Amazon… I have tickets to see the band next week, but I don’t think I’m up for going yet, which sucks ass…. Hopefully still wants to go and can sell the tickets for me…

I finally finished reading “Idoru” last night… I was spending too much of my copious free time recently dicking off on the computer, so I made a conscious effort to read more often.. It was a good book, I thought it was better than friends had made it out to be, but it wasn’t Gibson’s best. I’m looking forward to reading the final book in this trilogy, “All Tomorrow’s Parties”, as friends have spoken very highly of it.

Speaking of William Gibson, when I saw him read from “Pattern Recognition” in Harvard Square he mentioned when he began writing his next book he’d have to give up on the weblog as he found the two forms of writing mutually exclusive… He posted to it a few times in March, however, which makes me wonder if he has finished that book… I wouldn’t be upset if he continued the story of “Pattern Recognition”, as I found that to be his most engaging book in a long, long time.

Holy christ, I really, really, really could go for a Nick’s Plate right now.

Just in case some of you didn’t bother reading through my stupidly-long list of season passes, here’s a nugget you might have missed:

Henry Rollins has a new show on IFC (Independent Film Channel) called “Henry’s Film Corner”, and you can pretty much guess the contents of said show based on that information… :) I know some of you are, like me, big Rollins fans, so I figured I’d repeat this information for y’all.

Following jwz’s
lead, I thought some of you might find it interesting to see what have Season Passes for on our TiVo (in no particular order):

• American Idol – I love the audition episodes of this show but
  stop watching after that. Corinna, however, is a devotee.
• Good Eats – I think I’ve made it pretty clear in this journal how
  devoted I am to this show.
• Star Trek: Enterprise – This is all me. I know the show is bad,
  but I can’t stop watching. I think if it wasn’t Count Bakula as the captain
  I wouldn’t even watch.
• America’s Next Top Model – I take no responsiblity for this one,
  it is *ALL* Corinna. I can’t stand this show.
• Real Time With Bill Maher – The both of us watch this show pretty
  regularly… What can I say, we are Massachusetts Liberals.. :)
• The Sopranos – This show is great (although not as great as it
  once was. I got Corinna hooked on this show when we first started dating,
  and we watch it religiously when it is in season.
• Deadwood – I watch this show pretty much solo… It gets kinda
  soap opera-y sometimes, but it’s gritty and foul-mouthed, so I like it. :P
• The Secret Life of Machines – This is one of my favorite nerd
  shows of all time, and occasionally it turns up on television..
  Fortunately, though, I have all the episodes in Divx format, so I don’t
  really need this pass anymore.
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – Still one of my favorite network
  shows.. Sure, it’s formulaic, but I like the formula. Corinna also likes
  the show, but isn’t quite as devoted.
• The Simple Life: Interns – Corinna’s show, but Paris Hilton is
  hot.
• CSI: Miami – The red-headed stepchild of CSI (literally). This
  show pales in comparison to the original, but I still watch it. Corinna
  hates it.
• CSI: NY – About on par with it’s Miami bretheren… I pretty
  much just haven’t gotten around to removing this season pass yet….
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – We both like this show,
  although I think Corinna is taking a break from watching it right now.
• Battlestar Galactica – The Scifi that I don’t feel guilty
  about… It’s not great, but it’s leaps and bounds better than most (all)
  other Sci-fi television… It’s better than the past 3 Star Trek series
  combined. Corinna doesn’t really watch this, although I’m not sure if it’s
  time or disgust related.
• World Poker Tour – I’m a junkie, I can’t help it… Corinna
  doesn’t share my passion..
• Saturday Night Live – We both watch this knowing it’s going to
  suck each week. We are basically just waiting for a new, good cast to
  arrive. Tina Fey is hot.
• South Park – We are suckers for Matt & Trey… South Park is
  pure genius.
• Homicide: Life on the Street – I love this abandoned show…
  This season pass is just hopeful that at some point it will return in
  reruns…
• Gilmore Girls – Corinna thru-and-thru.. I get nauseous just
  HEARING the dialogue when I am on the computer and she is watching it.
• Innovation – A PBS series in line with Nova and Scientific
  American Frontiers…. All me.
• Queer Eye for the Straight Guy – Corinna got me hooked on these
  loveable little queers.
• Jeopardy! – We were total junkies but haven’t watched much since
  Ken Jennings busted out.
• MythBusters – Quoting , These guys have the best
  job. Corinna isn’t into this show.
• Cook’s Tour – Tony Bourdain’s books, “Kitchen Confidential” and
  “A Cook’s Tour” rock, and this show makes me hungry every time I watch
  it…
• Airline – Probably the trashiest television I watch. People
  freaking out in airports…
• Curb Your Enthusiasm – This show grates on me sometimes, but most
  of the time Larry David makes me laugh… Corinna isn’t so much into it.
• 60 Minutes – This barely ever gets recorded due to conflicts, and
  even when it doesn’t watch it in fast-forward unless I see something that
  looks good. Corinna hates this show.
• Chappelle’s Show – We watched Chappelle’s show for awhile, but it
  didn’t last long..
• American Chopper – When I just want to veg out in front of the TV
  I turn this on… It fits right into my “watching angry people” thing
• Reno 911! – “The State” was great, and so is this show. Corinna
  and I love it, although we don’t really watch the reruns at all.
• ER – Corinna always talks about how much she hates this show but
  watches it ever week… I never really got into it.
• Blind Date – 10% successful dates and 90% disasters. You can
  guess which percentage I watch the show for.
• Thirsty Traveler – I really hate the host of this show but find
  the subject matter interesting.
• Tenacious D – This show was hit-or-miss but Jack & Kyle are
  funny… Interestingly enough, JB fan Corinna never seemed to get into the
  show.
• Six Feet Under – I love this show, although the last season
  wasn’t quite up to par… Corinna is also hooked on it.
• Star Trek – She’s a trekkie, what can I say… I was never
  really into old Trek…
• Nova – ‘Nuff said… Corinna only watches this occasionally.
• Family Bonds – I’ve always been fascinated by bounty hunters/bail
  bondsmen… This show isn’t great, but it feeds my curiosity.
• Viva La Bam – I loved Jackass and I love this show, even though I
  can tell parts of it are forced and scripted…
• The People’s Court – I used to watch Wapner every day as a kid,
  and it parlayed into watching Marilyn… Corinna is just as into this show
  as me.
• The Surreal Life – We started watching this show but never really
  followed thru… It’s a straggler season pass..
• Project Runway – Another show I can’t stand.
• Iron Chef America – I was amazed at how the (second) American
  version of Iron Chef kept some homage-y cheekyness but threw out the rest,
  leaving a simply good show.
• It Takes a Thief – Another show I’m currently testing out… It
  was interesting at first, but my interest seems to be fading..
• Masterminds – An old favorite that
  recently reminded me of… Criminals are fascinating…
• Henry’s Film Corner – Who’da thunk it? Henry Rollins reviewing
  films… I’ve only seen one episode so far, but I love Henry, so I presume
  I’ll keep watching.
• SCTV – I watched this show more growing up than SNL… I just
  found out that TV Land is rerunning, so I am psyched.
• Ebert & Roeper – With the film club, it’s good to know what’s
  coming around… While I let their opinions barely register, I try not to
  let the reviewers influence me too much… Corinna likes this one too…

There you have it… In addition, I’ve been watching Lost and the new Doctor Who, but I don’t watch those on the TiVo, if you know what I mean… :)

I fought this for a long time, but much like I tell others to give up on the term “Hacker” (and how it is often improperly applied to illicit individuals, as opposed to it’s original, true, meaning), I think it’s time for me to suck it up and admit I’ve lost the battle against the word “blog”. The word still disgusts me, but I am fed up having to explain to people that this is a journal, not a blog, and correct them when they refer to it as such. Language evolves, and if the rest of the population seems to agree on the use of a word, fighting the flow is futile.

This shirt owns.

Darwinia was released for the Mac late last night, so I picked it up so I could actually play it… I got the PC version a few days before my accident and haven’t been able to play it since I can’t really sit at the PC for long stretches.

Today I got a UPS package from the fambly containing a buttload of candy for Easter in addition to my birthday booty. I opened the package right away because I smelled food through the wrapper and didn’t want it to go to waste if it was baked goods, etc. I was trying to be good and not open my gifts until my ACTUAL birthday, but I figured any presents would be wrapped. This was a faulty assumption, as the presents were “wrapped” in a bag from the Apple store. As I am the only person in my family who is a Mac user, I knew they didn’t reuse a bag lying around… :) But still trying to be a good boy, I didn’t open the bag, even though I could pretty much see through it. :) After talking to my parents on the phone, though, they said I should just go ahead and open it. So I did.

My parents got me an Airport Express, the audio cables for it, and a little USB remote control gizmo… I had asked for the Airport Express as my current access point is 802.11b, which isn’t a problem as far as getting to the outside world (since 11Mbps is much faster than my cable modem), but any internal transfers dragged pretty bad. While my current condition prevented me from setting things up as I really wanted, I set it up rube style just to play…

First off, my current router/access point sucks (Thanks, Belkin!), as there is no way to disable it’s wireless capabilities… So I am currently squandering a channel for no good reason… I think my dad still has my old SMC wired router, if so I’ll ask him to bring it up next time they visit so I can ditch the Belkin POS. Anyway, I couldn’t easily get to any Cat-5, so I just stole a connection from my Mac workstation, which is being phased out anyway.. Hooked it up to the Belkin, plugged it into AC, and fired up the Airport Setup gizmo on my Powerbook… It saw the device lickity-split, and the configuration was a breeze.. Within no time flat it was setup and ready to go… The software even detected the firmware was out of date and updated it for me (after asking me, of course).

So that was pretty painless… Then, after went to bed I decided to really risk life and limb and see if I could hook it up to my stereo to test the AirTunes feature. I opened up the box of cables, took the RCA cables (it will take some real reorganization behind my stereo to use the TOSLink cable, and I’m not up for that yet). Anyway, I hooked up the cable, fired up iTunes, and enabled AirTunes in the preferences (which was probably on by default at some point and I turned it off). The Airport Express showed up in the drop down at the bottom of iTunes and right away I was able to play music through it.. So this also replaces my old Slimp3 player, which I haven’t been using since I don’t leave any computer on 24/7 anymore. I’ll miss the display of the Slimp3 player, but it simply isn’t realistic in our current apartment.

I haven’t played around with the remote or anything yet… But all in all I had some nice geeky fun tonight, and it’s not even my birthday yet!

Greatest Picture Evar.